When I was very young, 1950s, I was always very clear on being a dental hygienist, which was a 5 year allied health sciences BS degree.
I did not receive proper guidance counseling in high school.
Thus by the time I got to university, I was unprepared for the hard sciences, calculus, trig, etc.
I sought out on my own to work as a dental assistant in a private practice.
This was great and led to my being hired at the university dental school, in a parallel
program to dental hygiene, but new and cutting edge.

All of that opened up the rest of my life for me.

No, I did not stay with dentistry longer than 5-6 years.
That old restless BP perhaps? Story of my life, over and over.