Calling all Dentists... need your opinion

[trut24]

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This is to all current and long time dentists. I am just curious how you feel about the new dental students who are going into debt $200,000-$400,000+ to follow thier dream to becoming a dentist. ? Not everyone has the luxury of going to a state school and/or in my state (California) all schools are very expensive. Do you think that taking on so much debt is a poor business decision? To me it seems like a huge burden to take on and i know there are schlorships like the Navy/Air force/ Army, but again not everyone will be suitable or accepted into such programs.


Also, since students are taking on so much debt do you feel that the cost of dental health care will have to increase in years to come for future dentist to be sucessful?

Thank you for any insight or opinions

 

[John Durian]

Bump

 

[charlestweed]

If you can keep the loan under $250k and you plan to practice in CA after graduation, you should be fine. Try to find as many people to share the apartment with. Don’t buy textbooks that you think you will never read them. Don’t ever assume that $50-100k is a small amount and that you can easily pay it back. I see that you will attend Western University next year. If your parents live in OC or LA areas, you should live with them. My office is near your school and it only takes me about 25-30 minutes to get there…and there is no traffic problem.

You don’t have to increase your fees in order to make up for the huge amount of student loan debt. Instead, you should set up a low overhead office (eg 1100 sf 2-3 operatories). There are a few abandoned dental offices in SoCal… you can just jump in and start your business without having to spend too much money. You actually have to reduce the fees in order to survive in this competitive market.

 

[Daurang]

charles...have the price of ortho gone down in SoCal?

 

[charlestweed]

charles...have the price of ortho gone down in SoCal?

No, it’s been pretty much the same for the past 10 years. It’s different in ortho. The net income does not decrease when the orthodontist lowers his/her fees because he/she can just make up for that by seeing higher volume of patients. To handle higher volume of patient, the ortho just hires more ortho RDAs. The amount of work for seeing 40 patients/day with 2 RDAs is the same as the amount work for seeing 80 patients/day with 5 RDAs.

 

[promolion]

Holy crap. Ortho sound really good right now. kind of better than cosmetics in term of the easy labor.

 

[bsmcga0]

No, it’s been pretty much the same for the past 10 years. It’s different in ortho. The net income does not decrease when the orthodontist lowers his/her fees because he/she can just make up for that by seeing higher volume of patients. To handle higher volume of patient, the ortho just hires more ortho RDAs. The amount of work for seeing 40 patients/day with 2 RDAs is the same as the amount work for seeing 80 patients/day with 5 RDAs.

you have to see most of them after school and after work nowadays, with both parents workings and schools cracking down on absence, I get tired hearing little jose can't miss school, but when they do come in they take off the entire day

 

[charlestweed]

you have to see most of them after school and after work nowadays, with both parents workings and schools cracking down on absence, I get tired hearing little jose can't miss school, but when they do come in they take off the entire day

When I first started my business, my office hour was from 10am-6pm. And I realized that it was a waste of my time to show up for work in the morning because most parents didn’t want to bring their kids during school hours. Now, I only work from 2pm-6pm on the weekdays and 8am-12pm on the weekends.

 

[ortho lurker]

Also, since students are taking on so much debt do you feel that the cost of dental health care will have to increase in years to come for future dentist to be sucessful?

Ideally you could just raise your fees, but it's the market that dictates the going rates for your area. It seems like a lot of luck goes into how successful you will become. Connections help, but a lot of luck goes into getting that job, or setting up that successful business (because most people will work hard regardless). You could have 2 restaurants next door to each other, for example, and 1 will bring in all the customers and the other will not make it. You might need that "it" factor for your office. It also appears that the rich keep getting richer because if you do make it, then you can hire more associates and keep moving up.

 

[BombayBDS]

fiscal prudance is the way to go. A penny saved is a penny earned.

 

[trut24]

Thank you to everyone's comments and opinions, it is greatly appreciated. Due to the fact that i will be attending an expenisve private school i will live as modest as possible to keep the loan costs down as much as possible.