GO WHERE YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO LIVE!!!!!! That will ultimately lead to you making more money, because you'll actually want to goto work and enjoy going to work. Remeber, for most dentists where you set up shop is where you'll live 'til you retire, its not like coorporate america where you'll likely get transferred a few times throughout your working years. Plus, one of the keys to getting a successful practice is getting involved and noticed in your community(the based referrals are word of mouth, not looked in the phone book), so you'll want to like living in that area.
In an informal survey I took while at the American Association of Orthodontist national meeting in Hawaii 2 weeks ago(As my wife (the ortho in the family) put it "why haven't you been to one of my national meetings before?" my answer "because it hasn't been in Hawaii since I've been married to you!"😀 ), everyone was doing very well and have seen gains in their practices in this weakend economy, and this survery was not just of orthos, but also GP's, Oral surgeons, a Pedo and an Endo(you'll find that there is a decent amount of dental to dental marriages out there). These folks practiced from coast to coast, North to South and from big city to "my town is so small that the nearest Walmart is 50 miles away". So, as a dentist, where ever you are you'll be making some cash.
The funniest thing I saw about dental compensation this week was actually in TIME Magazine this week. In their cover story about decreasing salaries, the dental reference they had listed the "dental" salary as having decreased from roughly 85k to 74K. As my partner and I discussed this over lunch today, the only rational explanation we could come up with for that stat is that they surveyed 1 dentist who was about 75 to 80 and works 1 day a week😀
Bottom line, take care of your happiness at home(where you'll spend WAY more hours per week), and you'll find that your professional career will prosper too.
