curious about life style

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

hello i was thinking about dentistry
im interested in the fact that it seems to have betters hours then medicine usually
but im curious about a few things

1. job security, since most dentists work in solo clinics and there are rumors saying that there are so many dentists that its hard/impossible to open up your own clinic, is the job security good?
2. debt.. how much is dental school and.. how much does it take to make a good clinic, i.e chairs and and devices etc.
3. the cash.. will working as a dentist mean that you'll be in debt for a long time? my original dentist used to work under another doctor before moving to a diff location and starting her own clinic. she says she made 90k working under him.. is that a good estimate out of dental school?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[jmt1984]

hello i was thinking about dentistry
im interested in the fact that it seems to have betters hours then medicine usually
but im curious about a few things

1. job security, since most dentists work in solo clinics and there are rumors saying that there are so many dentists that its hard/impossible to open up your own clinic, is the job security good?
2. debt.. how much is dental school and.. how much does it take to make a good clinic, i.e chairs and and devices etc.
3. the cash.. will working as a dentist mean that you'll be in debt for a long time? my original dentist used to work under another doctor before moving to a diff location and starting her own clinic. she says she made 90k working under him.. is that a good estimate out of dental school?

I would bet that most of these topics have been discussed already in previous threads, so I would suggest searching the forum.

 

[SuperTank]

hello i was thinking about dentistry
im interested in the fact that it seems to have betters hours then medicine usually
but im curious about a few things

1. job security, since most dentists work in solo clinics and there are rumors saying that there are so many dentists that its hard/impossible to open up your own clinic, is the job security good?
2. debt.. how much is dental school and.. how much does it take to make a good clinic, i.e chairs and and devices etc.
3. the cash.. will working as a dentist mean that you'll be in debt for a long time? my original dentist used to work under another doctor before moving to a diff location and starting her own clinic. she says she made 90k working under him.. is that a good estimate out of dental school?

1) For every 5 dentists that retire, only 4 students are entering dental school. Job security is not an issue.
2) Depends entirely on where you go to school. If you go to a state school, you can expect much smaller debt (assuming you are in-state). This is especially true for residents of Texas. Some private schools will leave you with about $300K in debt.
3) Depends on your debt... there is a thread on here that talks about it called "Is it feasable to pay off your debt in a timely manner" or something like that. Also the amount you earn is dependent upon where you practice. I used to work at a dental insurance company, and the amount that we paid out for identical procedures varied greatly from one claim to the next, entirely due to location.

 

[The Hammer]

hello i was thinking about dentistry
im interested in the fact that it seems to have betters hours then medicine usually
but im curious about a few things

1. job security, since most dentists work in solo clinics and there are rumors saying that there are so many dentists that its hard/impossible to open up your own clinic, is the job security good?

This is total BS especially now. There are not even enough new graduates coming out of dental school to replace the dentists who retire and/or die and the dentists to population ratio has steadily decreased since the 80's. What you will find however is a saturation of dentists in metropolitan areas and a total lack of dentists in more rural areas. The fallacious thinking is that a dentist cannot make a living in a more rural location. This is totally false given the larger number of retirees with good insurance and the higher density of dentists in the cities.

2. debt.. how much is dental school and.. how much does it take to make a good clinic, i.e chairs and and devices etc.

Dental school is not cheap but the income that you will make as a dentist makes this debt serviceable if you don't go crazy and have a lifestyle that you can't afford. Rather than open a totally new practice I would give much consideration to buying a practice that is being sold by a retiring dentist. For 300K to 500K you can get an already established practice that will generate income for you from day one and it is a buyers market right now. Either way that you go for the first 10 years out of dental school you will be servicing your school/practice debt but you should still have enough left over to live pretty well.

3. the cash.. will working as a dentist mean that you'll be in debt for a long time? my original dentist used to work under another doctor before moving to a diff location and starting her own clinic. she says she made 90k working under him.. is that a good estimate out of dental school?

Right out of school 90k is ok depending on how many hours you are working. I would think that 120K gross is more realistic for a busy practice. When you own your own practice you are only limited by how much you want to work and how many patients you can get in the door.