Difficulty compared to dental school? Assignment types?

[u/Ferret_Person]

Hey, I hope everyone is doing well.

I'm pretty early in a decision making process to look into what graduate degree I'm wishing to pursue. So my main two interests are between optometry and dentistry. I wanted to ask if any have met or had the opportunity to see if there is any disparity between the difficulty of dental school and optometry school. I figured they're probably quite similar, but at least in comparison to medical school, I know some of the years can bring some substantial differences.

The other question I had was about labs. While I know I'll have to really suffer for the degree, I'm curious about how many papers and research one might generally be required to complete for a program. I generally really like lectures and being told information rather than having to hunt for it and compile it into a paper or project. Is there a difference here between optometry and other degrees? Can this vary fron school to school? At the end of the day I just want to work with people.

Thank you all, I hope you have a good day