do not send your kids to dental school, its probably one of the worst financial decisions unless you have $500k+ for dental school loans and another $500-800k+ to open a dental office! we also have not seen any material increase in wages since the early 2000s!! |
DS is still in high school, but interested in dentistry. He is a good student, but we could not afford this. |
I always figured that for dental and vet school you need a rich parent that can buy everything up front. |
You don’t need to spend the money to open your own office right after graduation. It isn’t even advisable. You join/support an established practice. |
Fixed that for you. It's a nepo world, the rest of us just live in it. |
Is there more money in orthodontia or oral surgery? I'm just curious. My dad was dentist. But he was able to go to college for little to no money because he was very smart and because he went to city schools. He also worked for the state so he never made a huge amount of money but had a good old school pension. |
I’m sure not all, but there are many dentists in this area making $$$ |
How much does a general dentist make in this area? Have no clue. |
I dunno. I'm not anti-dentite but I had a dentist who's not my regular dental provider tell me he wanted to charge me $10k to treat some minor perio. Then I went to a different dentist who told me to start using my waterpik again to firm up my gums and my teeth and gums have been amazing ever since. |
Oral surgery. |
There is a lot of money in it, specially for orthodontists and Endodontists. Yes, being a sole owner is where real money is but you can start with few tears of practice in an academic setting and then many practices would want you as partners. |
*years |
I'm an endodontist and make almost 7 figures working 3 days a week. I graduated in 2014, so student loans were only $315K, but still...I think it was worth it. |
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You can not argue against the fact that there has been to significant increase in reimbursement from insurance companies.
If cost of everything including education has gone up but you're still getting paid the almost the same as 20 years ago, then your personal income is going down. Delta dental pays $36 for a dental cleaning code, same as 20 years ago. The person cleaning your teeth has gone from $36 to $70/ hour now so the dentist is eating the extra cost. TRUST ME on this, its our reality. I would not send my kids to dental school. For those who are wondering, average dentist salary is still at 150k, same as it was 2010. Yes there are some that make more but the AVERAGE is 150K, no way around it. |