Yes or no to dental school?

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I have been reading a few posts now about dentists being "things of the past". My goal was dental school, but without job security I am not sure if this is the right choice anymore. Second, how does everyone think Obamacare is going to affect dentists?

The search function is your friend. These topics have been beaten to death recently.

Someone even outlined the parts of the PPACA that relate to dentistry.

Originally Posted by hellopeople

The search function is your friend. These topics have been beaten to death recently.

Someone even outlined the parts of the PPACA that relate to dentistry.

Thanks, but what about the "things of the past?"

Originally Posted by molarseeker

Thanks, but what about the "things of the past?"

I'm not sure where you read that. I think most people that are worried about the future are just concerned that demand will drop enough so that they cannot clear a "doctor's salary" after servicing their loans. They usually talk about dental therapists, advances in anti-cavity treatments, poor medicaid and insurance reimbursements, corporate dental chains, blah blah blah. These things could reduce demand I suppose, but if someone is telling you that there will be no need for dentists in the future, they are probably either alarmists, or trying to scare off potential competition (one of the things scaring people is the number of new schools opening - which is "fixable" if demand for dental school decreases).

For what it's worth, when I talked to practicing dentists in person and online, they were also concerned but essentially all suggested that so long I kept debt under control in school I would be OK. The first school I was accepted to was Midwestern-IL and they flipped out over the 400K price-tag, but they thought 250K was very do-able.

I'm just nervous that I am gonna be 45 before I can live.

Originally Posted by molarseeker

I'm just nervous that I am gonna be 45 before I can live.

I get what you mean. I noticed that you are located in California, so I think I'm starting to see why you're stressing. You've got a rough market, and pricey schools to contend with.

I don't know your situation, but for my two cents I'll just suggest you stay away from USC (purely because of cost, I'm not knocking the school). If you can swing it, try to get in somewhere relatively inexpensive. I know it's not necessarily going to be your dream school, but that's the only consistent advice I've gotten from the established guys.

If you still feel stressed about the cost you might look into loan repayment options, but many of them aren't guaranteed when you get out. You could also look at the military's HPSP scholarship, but it involves a serious commitment, so it can't be taken lightly.

Good luck (for both of us I guess aha)

I hate USC ( I go to UCLA) haha

OP:

People bring up their concerns here and some say the success in dentistry is a thing of the past. But if you look around - you'll realize almost every professions glory days are "over". I think this perspective has more to do with the economy than dentistry itself.

Pre-dental's are not unique in this. I know engineers who hate engineering b/c of outsourcing. I know IT people who have it tough. Business is impossible to break into now because no one is retiring and almost every area of the economy in the US is an oligopoly so good luck starting something. As I said - I think the biggest factor is the economy. I plan to keep my debt low, do dentistry, and hope for better times in the future. At least you will have the option to be self-employed and not hang your hat on an HR department keeping you around. That counts for a lot.

Yeah, it's all a gamble. I'm just super nervous to dedicate so much time and money towards something that won't pay off.

All we have is the information available to us today. I can tell you from experience though that life is a funny thing - things that I thought would workout didn't and things I thought would never work out did. I wouldn't pay too much attention to people with crystal balls.

In the end ask what your alternatives are and weigh dentistry against them. Sometimes people bring up *amazing*[read: highly improbable] career alternatives but I think the truth is that for many people the world has not extended as wide of red carpet.

Originally Posted by yappy

OP:

People bring up their concerns here and some say the success in dentistry is a thing of the past. But if you look around - you'll realize almost every professions glory days are "over". I think this perspective has more to do with the economy than dentistry itself.

Pre-dental's are not unique in this. I know engineers who hate engineering b/c of outsourcing. I know IT people who have it tough. Business is impossible to break into now because no one is retiring and almost every area of the economy in the US is an oligopoly so good luck starting something. As I said - I think the biggest factor is the economy. I plan to keep my debt low, do dentistry, and hope for better times in the future. At least you will have the option to be self-employed and not hang your hat on an HR department keeping you around. That counts for a lot.

What about the specialties like pediatrics or oral surgery? Do you think that there is more options if you go into oral surgery since there are less of them?

FYI: I'm just a predental student like you.

I imagine doing a specialty like Oral Surgery would open doors up to you as you can work for a hospital, private practice, and the fact there are less; however, who's to say that general dentistry is in such bad shape? Around where I live (non-cali) I know some people who are less than 5 years out loving their jobs. 2 have opened their own practices and seem quite busy. Is CA dentistry that bad? Personally, I think the state in general is in rough shape and would never want to live their. I would seriously consider moving - many professionals end up moving for better career opportunities.

But as I said I'm just a predent. Maybe a dentist can chime in who is in CA.

EDIT: I saw you referenced the anti-caries treatment and their claims of dentistry being dead. I would not be too concerned about that with respect to your future employment. Consider that we are seeing epidemic levels of childhood caries yet dental materials for home care have never been better.

Originally Posted by molarseeker

What about the specialties like pediatrics or oral surgery? Do you think that there is more options if you go into oral surgery since there are less of them?

Originally Posted by molarseeker

What about the specialties like pediatrics or oral surgery? Do you think that there is more options if you go into oral surgery since there are less of them?

You can't assume that you will get the competitive specialties though. Specializing in dentistry is harder than in medicine and percentage wise far fewer do it. You have to want to do general dentistry in case you can't get into your desired specialty.

While that's true I think their desire for specialization is rooted in the fear that general dentistry will not offer any job prospects.

EDIT: Specialization in dentistry IS harder because fewer people do it. That is to say there are less seats in dental residencies than in medicine. Not because there are more hoops or the material is some how harder than what medical students wanting competitive residencies need to complete.

Originally Posted by HopeforDMD

You can't assume that you will get the competitive specialties though. Specializing in dentistry is harder than in medicine and percentage wise far fewer do it. You have to want to do general dentistry in case you can't get into your desired specialty.

Originally Posted by HopeforDMD

You can't assume that you will get the competitive specialties though. Specializing in dentistry is harder than in medicine and percentage wise far fewer do it. You have to want to do general dentistry in case you can't get into your desired specialty.

True, but you gotta dream big!

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