Dental Zodiaci Personas – Know Your Dental Zodiac!

– Dr Ketki Kalele

Yes, you heard it right! Just like there are 12 zodiacs into which every person fits and the zodiac signs just doesn’t tell regarding personality of a person, but also provide the way ahead for a person…. Similarly, dentists are people with amalgamation of many traits encompassing of knowledge, wisdom, creativity, soft skills and patience, the various values of which may tilt towards a specific specialty!

The percentage of the above-mentioned attributes differ in every individual which make them fit for different dental streams. Their personalities may point towards a high interest to excel in a specific branch. “Beauty + Brain+ Art” describes a dental surgeon. So, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that dentists have multiple personalities under cover of a single person!!!

Which personality you feed dictates your speciality or your special interest as a general practitioner – your “Stream zodiac!!!”

Let us see how-

1} Zodiac Oral Medicine and Radiology (OMR)

So, the number 1 department or may I say 1st department of every dental college….

These are the 1st people to come into picture and interact with the patient, hence getting acquainted to a patient/person is their genre…

OMRs surprise you by asking the patient questions such as “Have you brought money with you” which although sounds “crude” to us will be a million-dollar question as there are a set of “window shopping” patients who come to the dental doors. Trust the OMRs to spot the person’s mentality along with his pathology. These guys, like their branch, are glamorous guys & unlike their black & white radiographs, have various colour shades to their persona….

2} Zodiac Prosthodontia

Well! Well! Well! These are really hardworking stocks who are ready to slog for getting the smallest error perfect; such as shaping up undercuts in a crown or recording an accurate JRs, getting accuracy is their necessity & not an option!!!

Artistic hands & minds full of patience will pump those green bills (notes) in their accounts…

3} Zodiac Periodontia

Well, most of the passionate periodontists I know have discipline! Some how the “micro structures” which they deal with give them “precision.” They just cannot place a bit longer incision or miss an inch of an angle during an implant placement. Usually, these are soft hearted people as they treat every little loss of tissue as their personal loss & hence their clinics are equipped with tubes filled with plasmas & meshes of bone grafts…

I like these folks personally!

4} Zodiac Pedodontia

Phew! What to say about these guys, tackling kids is “no kidding” business… Dealing with tantrums, fear, anxieties, tears and mind you, not just of the kids but of their parents too; make our pedodontists either very composed & neutral or very rude and strict!!!

Remember, pedo department of our colleges, we always had mixed staff there, some neutral and others strict!!!

All in all, these strains of people are very responsible as ultimately, they deal with small “pieces of heart” i.e., “cute children”!!!!

5} Zodiac Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

These folks are single floaters & fliers!!!

They cannot exactly be shaped from the mould of dentistry. This tribe encompasses mostly those who were always inclined towards pursuing MBBS but landed up doing dentistry.

Oral surgeons are passionate people with a courageous heart and an articulate hand. Pretty straightforward in nature they have no scope for looking back; because ultimately “a cut is a cut!” May it be a tooth or a complete jaw, once taken out is permanent damage! Hence, for surgeons’ decisions are more important than incisions!!!

Hence, I would say, although sprinkled with ego & pride these folks widen the zones of dentistry from oral cavity to head & neck regions….

6} Zodiac Conservative & Endodontia

Again, a very glamorous stream with glamorous personalities!

Well, according to me conservative dentists & endodontists are “wholesome” people fulfilling almost all the requirements on the checklists, be it for dentistry like esthetics, relieving pain (root canal treatment), restoring cavities to surgically remove pathologies (apicocectomy) & restoring tooth functions (inlays, onlays & crowns) or may it be as a person; most of the ladies of this stream are great homemakers & mothers too…

These people know the right balance & manage all the basic life skills very well!

7} Zodiac Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology (OMFP)

Goshhh!!! I am excited & nervous to write this being my own zodiac! Anyways, let’s try!

Well, there are two categories of these folks…

1) Oral pathologists by chance who pursue the course for reasons other than love for O Path…

2) Oral Pathologists those who just love the field.

So, we would be talking about the 2nd group, who has the strong genetic make up for searching out great breakthroughs & have a great attention to minute details…

They make cells & structures talk & that is how they diagnose rarest of the rare tumours & pathologies mostly in just two shades of “pink & blue.” A perfect blend of knowledge & critical analytical skills, these people are mostly humble and grounded despite of providing “gold standard” diagnosis which makes them “dental doctors” more than “dental surgeons”….

8} Zodiac Orthodontia

One-word fits for this zodiac that is “calculative”! Dealing with the tooth and force and space makes them strong in their calculations…. They are mostly left-brain oriented people with facts and logics which also make them capable of straightening the “crooked” beings!!! That of course is applicable to teeth, wires and people in general….

Having said that orthodontists are artistic too as they not only design and align the smiles but also, I have seen many of them preparing ornamental stuff from those lifeless steel and titanium wires!!!

9} Zodiac Community dentistry

Any noble profession is incomplete without public service and hence people with this zodiac have a wired configuration of serving mankind, if somebody does not have that kind of core, he will not be able to thrive into the stream for long because the continuous camps that are undertaken or hundreds of dental check-ups and first-hand treatment that they provide to remote places and population requires a benevolent make up!

Hence people from community or public health dentistry department I feel have a strong sense of giving back to the society and with all the statistical tests and analysis they do, I find they have a lot more patience than any other zodiac people!

So which zodiac Are you???

Let us know in comments!!!