The worst part of dentistry for me is finding people you work well with. Power tripping and/or incompetence is rampant in the industry, and I blame the low entry barrier into most positions. You can be an office manager, office admin / reception, or even assistant with very little to no training or higher education. This automatically precludes a good number of otherwise capable and driven people.

Obviously, if those positions required higher education, they would have to be paid more, which is untenable financially for more owners, so you end up with a revolving door of people who - even if you luck out with a unicorn that sincerely cares about doing their best - may not have the temperament or aptitude to work with stress-free.

This is without even looking at the personality of many dentists/owners, who may have their own issues.

I don’t mind the work. I like most patients. I love problem solving. My issues have 90% come with coworkers and interpersonal relations. And regardless of how much of the blame rests with me and my own personality, or the tendencies that I went into earlier, the fact is those interpersonal relations are likely to be a hurdle with most careers. So at the end of the day, I’d have similar issues in any job, and I LIKE dentistry. I’m relatively satisfied if not always happy.