Being a doctor comes with an abundance of responsibilities that a lot of people would be unable to juggle. Hence why only a small portion of the population is able to rise to the challenge of this job.
Nevertheless, the general public tends to fall victim to some popular misunderstandings when it comes to doctors’ daily lives. This is why it is important to get educated on what exactly an average day for a doctor looks like.
Doing so will help the new generations decide if this may be a career path that they are truly interested in. Since every doctor will have a different routine, it is important to pinpoint the exact specialty type that is going to be analyzed. That way, the risk of making broad generalizations and non-qualified statements is noticeably reduced.
For the purposes of this particular depiction of an average doctor’s life, consider an oral surgeon like Dr. Thomas Ocheltree who might have a few years of experience and a long list of active patients. So, what exactly does this professional do as a part of his or her full-time job?
Typical Duties
As the name indicates, an oral surgeon is someone who is going to spend their career in an operating room instead of a cubicle or corner office. This is because the demand for their services in the market exceeds the supply. So, there is always work to be done, and an oral surgeons’ days could easily turn into a 12-hour shift.
As far as their specific duties, it is hard to give out a clear-cut list of everything they handle. For instance, a lot of patients present with damaged teeth that cannot be helped. This is where an oral surgeon will go in and remove the teeth. They also prepare the patient for implants that will replace any teeth that had to be removed urgently. Although these are some of the most common treatment methods, there are dozens of other approaches that oral surgeons could take depending on the situation.
Administrative Work
Just like every other medical expert, oral surgeons have to spend a lot of time figuring out the administrative side of things. For instance, they could face situations in which they have to work for hours just to make plans for short maneuvers on their patients. So, a lot of dental surgeons do not spend the majority of their time operating on people. Instead, they have to allocate a certain number of hours every week so that they can complete all of their paperwork and guide their patients through the complex process of insurance claims.
Consultations
In order to determine that one must undergo an oral surgery in the first place, Dr. Thomas Ocheltree reminds that they have to be given a diagnosis from a certified professional. Well, those professionals are either going to be experienced dentists who have the ability to diagnose patients or oral surgeons themselves. This translates to a lot of face-to-face interaction that oral surgeons are exposed to on a daily basis.
Additionally, every surgery that takes place must be accompanied by a well-planned recovery stage where the surgeon will touch base with the patient frequently. Thus, they will be interacting with the patients before, during, and after the surgery to ensure that their wounds heal properly.
Continued Education
Working as a doctor means that one is ready to take on a never-ending number of courses for continued education.
These courses aim to keep the specialist up to date with the knowledge and understanding of the most recent treatment methods, drugs, advancements made in research, technological upgrades, and similar. So, Dr. Thomas Ocheltree says that oral surgeons are going to spend a lot of time completing their educational requirements in order to remain certified.
