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Hi SDN, I am a long time member that benefited from this site when I was a pre-dental student; now I am a two year out practicing dentist. I am going to share my brief pre-dental journey and what I think now as a young dentist. I made a lot of mistakes, especially financial mistakes, and I want this post to help people like the past me who had no idea about $$. Feel free to ask me anything.
Predental (vaguely remember)
I graduated undergrad back in 2009. I had finished my prereqs with a low 2.4 science GPA and a 2.7 overall GPA. I was young, immature, and didn’t know what I wanted to do for my career or future per se. I just took these prereqs because my friends were taking them. I had one class that I repeated three times, mainly because I never went to class and pretty much went to bomb the exams. So you can imagine how difficult it was to recover from the damage. It practically took me additional four years of science courses to even be considered as an applicant ( 3.2 sgpa, 3.2 ogpa, postbac gpa 3.9?). My DAT was 22aa 23 ts from what I can remember when I took it back in 2012. I practically stopped watching tv shows, didn’t go out on weekends and spent every minute studying and exercising regularly. First time I applied, one interview, rejection. Reason: poorly written personal statement and poorly organized application. Second time I applied to about 20 + schools, got about 9 interviews, and got accepted to one. I realized I didn’t have great interpersonal skills. I did many mock interviews, but now that I am a dentist and interact with patients, I can understand why they had rejected the past me. By my 9th interview, I was prepared and got accepted. I was so focused in just excelling academically that I stopped socializing. I was shy, introverted and had lack of self-esteem. My wife actually had to leave me at parties so I can talk to people lol.
SDN is good resource to look the trends, postbac programs ( I used to collect information in the postbac forum).
- Save money for applications + interviews. It costs a lot of money per site you go, especially if many of the schools you apply is on the other side of the country.
- Jet lag. Specially if you go from west coast to east coast (or vice versa), I highly recommend spending a night before to get a good night rest. Your daily condition will affect your interview skills. Never fly red-eyes... Highly not recommended.
Dental.
- You are in, which is the hardest part. We had class size of roughly 200 students before adding international students. I think we lost total of 5-6 students in the program. Four years flew by. Main advice, please choose the cheapest school. Eventually with good CEs ( if you are GP), good GPR/AEGD will make everyone even out or stand out rather than benefiting from the the name of the school (unless you specialize, different story). I read some schools are great for their clinical experience but I am not sure if it’s worth paying 5-600 k to become a GP. I see my old fillings done on typodont (which I did receive high scores) and I get disappointed how bad it is. I highly doubt two years of “great exposure” will make anyone (except for the superstar people) be proficient and good in all aspects of dentistry.
A lot of people ask about which school is good clinically. I personally feel it really depends on the student. You can go to crappiest school and become a good clinician or go to well known school and become the worst clinician. Dental school will prepare you to know what is right and wrong and literally how not to be a major f*** up of a dentist.
- Lot of politics ( administration, instructors, professors) , fly under the radar, stay out of trouble and graduate.
- If possible, have some money saved. I had to pull the full amount of loans. The loan system is stupid in a way that if your academic calendar for one year is nine months, you are given money only for nine months. So what happens to three months of rent? Well, you have to figure it out. And they lend you money for “school expenses”? I am not sure how they can calculate 1,300 per month the rent, when the housing near school or even 30 min commute is at least 2k per month
. So all that “extra money” is not really extra. Hell, you have to spend money on supplies such as typodont teeth if you want to practice more, etc. So you start sinking more debt already if you have to use your credit cards. Of course some schools will provide full loans or you’ll be able to find affordable housing. In some cities, affordable is not really an option.
Dentist.Please be aware, I myself am still learning about the numbers, but wanted to give a general idea how money as a dentist flows.
- In everyday practice, you realize that you don’t know anything. The physical, mental, and emotional toll is quite large. I love what I do as my career but it is definitely draining and it is very hard on your body. It is definitely not for everyone. I want every single one of you to absolutely make sure this is what you want to do. I shadowed for few months and worked as sterilizing technician/ DA for a year and it is completely different experience/prospective. So being dental assistant might be a plus, but not a necessity.
- This really applies to low/mid class people like I am, who had to take full amount of loans (with interest 500k, I am past the point losing sleep over this amount):
- Debt sucks, either credit card, auto loans, dental school loans.
.Below is just an example:
- State California. Why live in the most tax heavy state in US.
- Base pay is usually 500 but let’s a bit more optimistic and give 600 per day. 5 days a week, 46 weeks total without 2 week paid vacation. That’s annual gross income of 138k with no benefits.
- Single
- Using the calculator in smartasset.com ( please do not fight me on this, I am just giving an example), tax rate for single with that income is roughly 35%, your take home is 65% after taxes, which is roughly 91k. 91k divide by 12 months: $7,583 per month
So, you are left with roughly about 3k. Depending your financial situation, this might be a lot of money left, or not. Please don’t give me the “I can eat ramen everyday”. I am simply giving a general example. If you had credit card debts because student loan wasn’t enough, you have less money. If you add CE courses, which can be upwards of 10ks per course. I haven’t added malpractice or dental association fees, licensing fees, or even putting in retirement funds. Also remember, your loans are getting interest at 5-7% if it’s federal. I hear so many horror stories of new grads (even my classmates) getting literally ****ed over by owners, you might not even make that 120k. And now if you live in major cities, your rent is more. I moved to middle of nowhere and I am estimating my gross income to be higher, with rent being cheaper which makes it more sustainable, but that also means more tax. So bottom line, physically, mentally and financially draining, unless you have the school paid off (rich parents or HPSP; highly recommend for HPSP if you want, definitely not for everyone), dentistry is hard. Feel free to ask anything but please make sure this is the career for you.
Predental (vaguely remember)
I graduated undergrad back in 2009. I had finished my prereqs with a low 2.4 science GPA and a 2.7 overall GPA. I was young, immature, and didn’t know what I wanted to do for my career or future per se. I just took these prereqs because my friends were taking them. I had one class that I repeated three times, mainly because I never went to class and pretty much went to bomb the exams. So you can imagine how difficult it was to recover from the damage. It practically took me additional four years of science courses to even be considered as an applicant ( 3.2 sgpa, 3.2 ogpa, postbac gpa 3.9?). My DAT was 22aa 23 ts from what I can remember when I took it back in 2012. I practically stopped watching tv shows, didn’t go out on weekends and spent every minute studying and exercising regularly. First time I applied, one interview, rejection. Reason: poorly written personal statement and poorly organized application. Second time I applied to about 20 + schools, got about 9 interviews, and got accepted to one. I realized I didn’t have great interpersonal skills. I did many mock interviews, but now that I am a dentist and interact with patients, I can understand why they had rejected the past me. By my 9th interview, I was prepared and got accepted. I was so focused in just excelling academically that I stopped socializing. I was shy, introverted and had lack of self-esteem. My wife actually had to leave me at parties so I can talk to people lol.
SDN is good resource to look the trends, postbac programs ( I used to collect information in the postbac forum).
- Save money for applications + interviews. It costs a lot of money per site you go, especially if many of the schools you apply is on the other side of the country.
- Jet lag. Specially if you go from west coast to east coast (or vice versa), I highly recommend spending a night before to get a good night rest. Your daily condition will affect your interview skills. Never fly red-eyes... Highly not recommended.
Dental.
- You are in, which is the hardest part. We had class size of roughly 200 students before adding international students. I think we lost total of 5-6 students in the program. Four years flew by. Main advice, please choose the cheapest school. Eventually with good CEs ( if you are GP), good GPR/AEGD will make everyone even out or stand out rather than benefiting from the the name of the school (unless you specialize, different story). I read some schools are great for their clinical experience but I am not sure if it’s worth paying 5-600 k to become a GP. I see my old fillings done on typodont (which I did receive high scores) and I get disappointed how bad it is. I highly doubt two years of “great exposure” will make anyone (except for the superstar people) be proficient and good in all aspects of dentistry.
A lot of people ask about which school is good clinically. I personally feel it really depends on the student. You can go to crappiest school and become a good clinician or go to well known school and become the worst clinician. Dental school will prepare you to know what is right and wrong and literally how not to be a major f*** up of a dentist.
- Lot of politics ( administration, instructors, professors) , fly under the radar, stay out of trouble and graduate.
- If possible, have some money saved. I had to pull the full amount of loans. The loan system is stupid in a way that if your academic calendar for one year is nine months, you are given money only for nine months. So what happens to three months of rent? Well, you have to figure it out. And they lend you money for “school expenses”? I am not sure how they can calculate 1,300 per month the rent, when the housing near school or even 30 min commute is at least 2k per month
. So all that “extra money” is not really extra. Hell, you have to spend money on supplies such as typodont teeth if you want to practice more, etc. So you start sinking more debt already if you have to use your credit cards. Of course some schools will provide full loans or you’ll be able to find affordable housing. In some cities, affordable is not really an option.Dentist.Please be aware, I myself am still learning about the numbers, but wanted to give a general idea how money as a dentist flows.
- In everyday practice, you realize that you don’t know anything. The physical, mental, and emotional toll is quite large. I love what I do as my career but it is definitely draining and it is very hard on your body. It is definitely not for everyone. I want every single one of you to absolutely make sure this is what you want to do. I shadowed for few months and worked as sterilizing technician/ DA for a year and it is completely different experience/prospective. So being dental assistant might be a plus, but not a necessity.
- This really applies to low/mid class people like I am, who had to take full amount of loans (with interest 500k, I am past the point losing sleep over this amount):
- Debt sucks, either credit card, auto loans, dental school loans.
.Below is just an example:
- State California. Why live in the most tax heavy state in US.
- Base pay is usually 500 but let’s a bit more optimistic and give 600 per day. 5 days a week, 46 weeks total without 2 week paid vacation. That’s annual gross income of 138k with no benefits.
- Single
- Using the calculator in smartasset.com ( please do not fight me on this, I am just giving an example), tax rate for single with that income is roughly 35%, your take home is 65% after taxes, which is roughly 91k. 91k divide by 12 months: $7,583 per month
| Starting after tax | 7583 | |
| Repaye | 1100 | 6483 |
| Housing+ Basic bills | 2,000 | 4483 |
| Food | 400 | 4083 |
| Car+ Car insurance | 350 | 3733 |
| Gas | 100 | 3633 |
| Disability | 200 | 3433 |
| Health Insurance | 300 | 3133 |
