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I don’t disagree with what you said here. But at least the 20 yo students have 10+ more years (in comparison to the wiser older 30 yo students) to make money to correct their mistakes. It’s better to make mistakes when you are still young and healthy. IMO, dentistry and orthodontics are still worth pursuing with the following conditions:In 2018, the ADA researched “the timing of decision to pursue career in dentistry” from applicants. About half of respondents said “before or during high school”. Think about that for a second. If you include by junior year of college (before age 20), that number jumps to over 70%. This motivates schools to increase their fees every year because they can project and see into the future (and know) that this is a very a difficult trend to change. If you had 70% of the applicants over the age of 30 - you would have the opposite effect, and schools would know they will have difficulty filling seats. Because someone over 30 is wise enough to know what “debt to income ratio” means.
1. You gotta hustle at the beginning to make money and to gain both clinical and business skills. This means working 5-6 days/week. Hopefully after a few years of hard work, you gain enough capital to hire people (assistants, associate dentists, in-house specialists) to increase productivity....and you no longer have to work 5-6 days/week. Most successful people had to through a lot of hardships and put in a lot of their own efforts before they started making a lot of money. Having rich parents who help pay for everything doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. It's hard for a person to become motivated when everything is handed to him/her.
2. Having a happy marriage. The spouse also needs to work full time. Having double income is always better. Working at the spouse’s brand new office that doesn’t have a lot of patients doesn’t count.
3. Must have your own office and keep the overhead as low as possible.
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