Debt and Income

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aggie-master said:
I have to agree with FamilyMD on this one. I know too many people that didn't think about the future when they were maxing out student loans and regret it now. This applies to anyone whether they are dentists or not.

If you go to an expensive school and max out your loans and wind up in 250K of debt instead of going to a cheaper school and living like a poor man to end up with 100K in debt, you're going to regret it down the road. I don't care if you end up making 200K per year. You're still going to be pissed when you write that large check every month.

Even with my last post, I agree with Aggie. You should be able to make good money when you get out of dental school. If you live poor now, you will just be able to enjoy that money even sooner. So, even though will have a good income, live poor now so you can buy that car, nice house, vacation home, plain (as the dentist I work for owns), and/or retire that much sooner. Be smart about these things. Every dollar you save now is an extra $1.25 you have in your pocket later.

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johntara04 said:
If you work 240 days a year (48 weeks, 5 days a week. That gives you one month off a year), you should be making well over $100,000 a year as a dentist. Let's pretend that all you do is drill and fill. Just cavaties all day long. The only supplies you buy are for filling cavaties. That is all you do, you refer everything else out. You have one assistant, one front desk person, and one hygienist. That's all the employees you have. You are a small, small office. Your hygienist sees 5 patients a day. Let's say she sees 1 SRP and 4 Prophies and x-rays on 2 of the 4 patients. You see 10 patients a day, all with 1 filling. So you produce each day:

1 SRP: $150 a quad = $600
4 Prophies: $100 x 4 = $400
2 sets of x-rays: $50 x 2 = $100
8 fillings = $100 x 10 = $1000
Your office production = $2,100 a day, (240 x $2,100) $504,000 a year

Your overhead will be very, very small with three employees and two chairs. They say the average dental office is around 65% so we will go with that number, even though with only three employees (let's say you give them no benefits, a lot of practices don't) your overhead would only be about 45-50%. So, after you drill and fill all day long, you take home around 35% of what you produced. Let's say for arguments sake you only take home 25%. So, you take home at the end of the year around $126,000.

Also, if this was your practice, I would suggest you just fire your hygienist, train your assistant and fd person in both jobs and only have 2 employees and put the $50,000 you would have paid the hygienist back into your pocket and see their patients.

Moral of the story: If you can't make $100,000 a year in dentistry then you are a mouth-breathing knuckle dragger. That is reality.

I know a dentist in our area who has only one employee. A front desk/assistant person. He refuses to hire a hygienist, other dentists have tried to convince him otherwise. He is doing well and supports a stay at home wife and three kids, the oldest who is starting a private university in the fall.

Sometimes, keeping things simple and small is not such a bad thing. At our office we have only one doctor in at a time, a full time assistant, a front desk person and a part time hygienist. It has not hurt our collections and is a very comfortable office to run.
 
Lesley said:
I know a dentist in our area who has only one employee. A front desk/assistant person. He refuses to hire a hygienist, other dentists have tried to convince him otherwise. He is doing well and supports a stay at home wife and three kids, the oldest who is starting a private university in the fall.

Sometimes, keeping things simple and small is not such a bad thing. At our office we have only one doctor in at a time, a full time assistant, a front desk person and a part time hygienist. It has not hurt our collections and is a very comfortable office to run.

This is what people need to realize. Do what makes you happy. If you are doing bone grafts, implants, orthodontics and hate it, then quit doing it. If you collect 1 million a year and have 75% overhead then you are taking home $250,00 a year. The same amount of money a dentist who is mainly doing fillings, works three days a week, collects $500,000 and only has a 50% overhead. No matter what you want to do, the money is there, so do what you like. You can be successful at whatever you want to do.
 
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Lesley said:
I know a dentist in our area who has only one employee. A front desk/assistant person. He refuses to hire a hygienist, other dentists have tried to convince him otherwise. He is doing well and supports a stay at home wife and three kids, the oldest who is starting a private university in the fall.

Sometimes, keeping things simple and small is not such a bad thing. At our office we have only one doctor in at a time, a full time assistant, a front desk person and a part time hygienist. It has not hurt our collections and is a very comfortable office to run.

Hello Lesly,

May I ask where you and your husband went to dental school and where you guys decided to practice for the 30 years?
 
DMD2010 said:
Hello Lesly,

May I ask where you and your husband went to dental school and where you guys decided to practice for the 30 years?


Not 30 years yet. Temple, both of us. My husband 25 years, me 24. We practice in the Philadelphia area. Immediately after graduating Temple, I went from North Broad Street straight to South Broad Street, the Philadelphia Naval Yard for three years. We bought our private practice two years after I graduated, so I led a, slightly, double life for about a year!

Our practice. It has taken a significant amount of time and energy to turn our practice around. Not only the patient mentality, the staff but ours as well. When you buy a practice and it's up and running, turning things around is not as easy as it sounds. First, we had to realize what we needed to change and then determine how we were going to accomplish it. Ingrained ways of doing things, effects how quickly and smoothly change can be affected, ie when the staff is not used use to collecting the fee from the patients and patients are use to settling bills at their own discretion.

When we first started practice, we had our eye on our dental work, doing good quality work within a reasonable amount of time. We were still young dentists, 28 and 29. We depended on our experience staff that we inherited from the previous owner. You assume they are doing a good job for you. It wasn't until we were in practice for a good amount of time, and well after our kids were past the baby, toddler stage that we had a significant amount of time to pay attention to our front desk procedures, reevaluate things and start instituting changes. It took us a while to realize it wasn't only the types and numbers of procedures we were doing but also how much the front desk was collecting that effected our deposits.

Even after we began affecting change, it was difficult to have the front desk adhere to new standards. Change was difficult to instill. Even when we had staffing changes, due to pregnancy, marriage or moving, we have had very little staff turnover for other than these reasons, often the new staff member was coming to us from another office with poor front desk habits as well. With consistancy and accountability, change has come, albeit, slowly, and we have lost very few patients in total. So, while it would have been better if we could have changed things sooner, in the long run, because the change occured at a slower pace, it wasn't as disruptive to the practice. During the past couple of years when we made some major changes, should there have been disruption, ie patients leaving because of changes in policy, we were willing to take that risk because we were in the financial position to do so. The result is that I am very content with our practice and I enjoy my patients.

For a long time now I have been reading dental journals, dental material on line, and talking to young dentists whenever I get the opportunity. I think this forum is great to discuss topics that students and young dentists have. I have no interest in teaching and enjoy doing dentistry so I intend to be in private practice for the rest of my, hopefully long, career. After reading the board for some time now, I felt I had something to share with many of you.

For me it was sharing our experience after dental school. The other side of the mountain. Not to say that ours will be your experience. We all come from different financial backgrounds, our financial needs will be different and the economy will not be the same for you, as it was different for us as compared to our parents. Real stories are good to share. I have learned a lot listening to other people's stories.

Guess you are starting dental school soon. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask. I went to dental school a long time ago, but it seems like yesterday! Good luck.
 
Why doesn't anyone invest thier money? I am actually still a pre-dent but i read this thread because it is a very good and realistic topic. I am not worried about loans, taxes, and stuff like that after dental school because i have already invested my money. i already own 5 houses in the UCF area in orlando and I am 21 years old. I read a couple of real estate books and got my credit to a beacon score near 700 and it had been downhill from there. These houses are going to pay for my dental school. I am not bragging it is just people need to build thier asset column at a young age. Read the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad."
 
PlanB21 said:
Why doesn't anyone invest thier money? I am actually still a pre-dent but i read this thread because it is a very good and realistic topic. I am not worried about loans, taxes, and stuff like that after dental school because i have already invested my money. i already own 5 houses in the UCF area in orlando and I am 21 years old. I read a couple of real estate books and got my credit to a beacon score near 700 and it had been downhill from there. These houses are going to pay for my dental school. I am not bragging it is just people need to build thier asset column at a young age. Read the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad."


Hi, I think that's great. I did buy the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," and I read it too. I think what he says is great, but I don't have the comfort level, neither does my husband, to be involved in any other business. If you are a Florida resident, UF offers a very affordable dental school education. Not everybody has that option. I hope your businesses continue to to do well for you, and good luck in school.
 
Moral of this entire thread?


Put in an extra 2-4 years and specialize. Best thing you can do in terms of financials.
 
gould409 said:
Moral of this entire thread?


Put in an extra 2-4 years and specialize. Best thing you can do in terms of financials.
...and if you're not a good personality match, one of the worst you can do in terms of personal satisfaction.

Whoops, wait a minute, sorry. I always forget the whole point of having a career is to compete with everyone else to see who can make the most money. :rolleyes:
 
gould409 said:
Moral of this entire thread?


Put in an extra 2-4 years and specialize. Best thing you can do in terms of financials.

Moral of this thread:

Live like you are borrowing $50,000 a year in school and five years out of school, and you will live very, very well for the rest of your life.
 
aphistis said:
...and if you're not a good personality match, one of the worst you can do in terms of personal satisfaction.

Whoops, wait a minute, sorry. I always forget the whole point of having a career is to compete with everyone else to see who can make the most money. :rolleyes:


I'm not saying that its the whole point in life. Only because all these GD's on this thread complaining and warning others that dentistry is not the career that everyone makes it out to be (in terms of financials). Well, if they would specialize, then they woulnd't have as many financial problems! : )
 
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Bachelor's degree graduates in 2004-2005 from the University of Michigan College of Engineering received average annual starting salary offers in the following engineering disciplines:

Aerospace: $53,471
Chemical: $52,014
Computer: $57,875
Electrical: $54,922
Industrial and operations: $49,874
Mechanical: $52,165

http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/15/pf/college/starting_salaries/index.htm

plenty of engineering jobs in 50K+ starting on average.

To generalize all Bachelors of Science doesn't make sense. Obviously if you got a B.S. with a major in Posting BS on SDN, you won't make 50K (well, maybe you would) have a goodnight.


are these salaries before taxes?
 
i feel for you guys..

where im from tuition fees are just over 6k a year for the 4 year dental program. the govt pays the rest. and that only needs to be paid back after you start earning above a certain amount of money.

dont mean to rub it in or anything.... the benefits of being an aussie i guess
 
does anyone think it's worth turning down a private school acceptance and then wait another year til your state school lets you in? having $300k in loans compared to just over $100k will translate into a loss of roughly nearly $1 million (i think that's accurate if you count interest on the loans and loss of investment appreciation) over the course of your career. but, we can expect salaries to increase by probably 300% by the end of our careers.

also, the dentist that i shadow graduated w/ $180k in debt and has his own practice 5 years out of school. he brings home $250k before taxes and pays about $1200 a month towards his student loans. he says he is doing very well and if you can't make good money in dentistry then it's b/c you don't want to. he also says that if you really want to make big money, then go into investment banking. but if you're like me and him and grew up in a low income family, then being a dentist is a very comfortable life style.
 
does anyone think it's worth turning down a private school acceptance and then wait another year til your state school lets you in? having $300k in loans compared to just over $100k will translate into a loss of roughly nearly $1 million (i think that's accurate if you count interest on the loans and loss of investment appreciation) over the course of your career. but, we can expect salaries to increase by probably 300% by the end of our careers.

also, the dentist that i shadow graduated w/ $180k in debt and has his own practice 5 years out of school. he brings home $250k before taxes and pays about $1200 a month towards his student loans. he says he is doing very well and if you can't make good money in dentistry then it's b/c you don't want to. he also says that if you really want to make big money, then go into investment banking. but if you're like me and him and grew up in a low income family, then being a dentist is a very comfortable life style.

Waiting a year will not guarantee anything. It will not change your college GPA, it will not change your DAT's, unless you take them over again. It's only December, is there any possiblity that you may yet hear from your state school? If not, by waiting a year to reapply, you may not only lose a year, but, you still may not gain a seat at a state dental school either. Plus, you would have to reapply to private dental schools, as well. If you want to be a dentist and you have been accepted to dental school, it may not be ideal, but it's not bad either. Congratulations. Most students are now paying back their debt over 30 years. A 30 year payment is a long time, but lowers the monthly payment substantially. Dentistry affords a nice lifestyle, with or with out the debt. For your comfort, run some numbers on the http://www.finaid.com loan repayment calculator. Put in a realistic number for debt you expect to have at graduation, the average interest rate, the number of years of repayment. Once you have that figure, go over the numbers with the dentist you shadow, and get his opinion. In the end, it will be your decision. Good news, the most recent Dental Practice magazine states that dentists raised their fees on average over 8% last year. A good thing for dentistry as it means we can successfully pass on costs. Things usually have a way of working out, especially for those that are willing to work. Good luck on your decision. Congratulations.
 
No matter what your debt load is or what your salary/take home $$ is, it is IMPERATIVE that once your out of school, and in practice, that you get a financial plan in place. Yes, in all likelyhood as a dentist that wants to work some hours in many most practices/locations, you'll be bringing home a six figure income relatively soon after you graduate. What you need to be carefull of though is living within your means as your "financial well being" gets going. For example, back with what this thread originated on, paying back your loans ASAP. If you have your money working for you, then debt might not be a bad thing. Lets say that you pay an extra $1000 a month on your low interst, consolidated d-school loan instead of putting that $$ towards retirement savings/college accounts, etc. 20 years from now, that extra $12,000 a year that you put in to your loan repayment now may very well cause a reduction in your retirement savings nest egg of over 10 times that amount.

My wife and I have a set plan, that through many, many meetings/phone calls/e-mails over the last 7 years with our financial planner we've gotten an evolving plan in place that adapts to our changing finacial needs (i.e. college savings plans, inheritances, changes in real estate values, different tax laws, etc, etc, etc). My wife and I have are "target number" that with the current plan we're on will allow us to have our kids college educations paid for, have our loans (student, practice, real estate, etc) paid off) and provide us with a very comfortable retirement income by the time we hit age 62. It's just maintaining the financial discipline and early one having the important finacial planning discussions with yourself/ ?spouse and a financial advisor to get there.

Recless financial abandon at an early age could potentially get you into a situation where you might be a person making a 6 figure income, but end up in bankruptcy:eek: I'm not saying don't splurge every once and a whileon yourself, believe me, I do, but do the splurging after you've done the saving!
 
hey everyone, i just found out i got into my state school. this thread has raised some good issues and i think i'll go with my state school cuz the 4 year tuition is $80k vs $150k for private school. hopefully i won't spend myself into a hole and keep the total cost realtively low. thanks everyone.
 
hey everyone, i just found out i got into my state school. this thread has raised some good issues and i think i'll go with my state school cuz the 4 year tuition is $80k vs $150k for private school. hopefully i won't spend myself into a hole and keep the total cost realtively low. thanks everyone.

With a price difference that large, the state school is the way to go.

I don't personally know anyone that chooses their dentist based on where he or she went to dental school.
 
hey everyone, i just found out i got into my state school. this thread has raised some good issues and i think i'll go with my state school cuz the 4 year tuition is $80k vs $150k for private school. hopefully i won't spend myself into a hole and keep the total cost realtively low. thanks everyone.

Congratulations! Good luck in school!
 
People with loans and debts, dont worry that much. Federal Reserve Bank, which by the way no more federal than Federal Express, is working on it right now. The inflation of 2004, 2005, 2006 was higher than any interest rates you possibly could have ( except for credit cards of cource ).
So grab it all and don't hurry with repaying it. You might end up paying your loans with a busticket or something like that.:laugh:
 
leslie, this is a great thread. especially the part where you said when you are 22, you don't think of payments you have to make in 30 years. I've been debating between choosing my state school vs. private schools and this thread assures me that going to my state school is a right choice to make. you are a good parent and you are well experienced in dental world, and thanks for sharing with us.
 
leslie, this is a great thread. especially the part where you said when you are 22, you don't think of payments you have to make in 30 years. I've been debating between choosing my state school vs. private schools and this thread assures me that going to my state school is a right choice to make. you are a good parent and you are well experienced in dental world, and thanks for sharing with us.


dent_girl,Very nice words. Thank you.

In most other professions there is an better stage for camaraderie, mentoring and nuturing it's young. Police and teachers have unions, doctors often have large practices and hospitals and lawyers have contact with other attorneys at their firms, in court or in mediation. My participation in this forum is my way of nuturing and giving back.

Participation in this forum is a great tool for students to ask questions and get answers. It is a way for you to help each other and for others to help you. This camaraderie is something that has been missing especially when it comes to pre-dental and dental student concerns.

Dental students start school bright eyed and bushy tailed. Dental schools need to support and honor their students by providing them all the information and tools they need to make informed choices. This includes full disclosure of their program, all the costs involved and should include detailed information regarding the financial obligations students face upon graduation. In short, dentistry needs to do a better job of taking care of their young.

My hope is that everyone is happy, healthy, well informed and not only feels good about their choice to become a dentist when they are handed that diploma but even more so when they are 10, 20 or 30 years out.

Participating in this thread has been a privilege. Thanks again for the very kind words. Good luck in school! Sincerely, Lesley
 
Hey Lesley if you wouldn't mind I have a question for you regarding back pain/carpal tunnel syndrome and dentistry. As a dentist who has practiced for numerous years do you believe that occupational stress/pain is something that should influence a person's career decision when considering dentistry. Oh and one other quick question, is the the possiblility of harming your patients (i.e. nerve damage) also something to consider. Thanks for your posts, as they are very honest and polite.
 
Hey Lesley if you wouldn't mind I have a question for you regarding back pain/carpal tunnel syndrome and dentistry. As a dentist who has practiced for numerous years do you believe that occupational stress/pain is something that should influence a person's career decision when considering dentistry. Oh and one other quick question, is the the possiblility of harming your patients (i.e. nerve damage) also something to consider. Thanks for your posts, as they are very honest and polite.


Hi ZSclark, Thanks!

Neither my husband nor I have carpal tunnel syndrome, so I can't speak directly on that subject. Although, I know of a female dentist who did have it, had surgery and still had to give up practicing. I don't think she even practiced 10 years. I also know of other practicing dentists who have had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and continue to practice.

My husband and I both have herniated discs, but at age 50+ who doesn't? By 50, many people have a touch of arthritis as well. I don't usually feel discomfort when I practice, mostly in the hours after work. I'm petite, 5 feet about 97 lbs, so I'm sort of "vertically challenged." Part of my problem is dental chairs don't accomodate short dentists. Even with the hydraulics, it's difficult to get the chair down enough and my chair up enough, keeping my feet on the ground, to not stress my neck and shoulder muscles. I don't think I even realized this until recently. I use loopes, but I think even those frames are made for heads and noses bigger than mine! They slide, I've tried the elastic and cloth bands, still large and the cloth type gets caught up in my hair too. I have to keep my head really still to use them effectively. I use orascopic. The focal length is critical, so not much leeway regardless. A lot of hot baths, ice packs and an occasional otc pain med help. My husband's back pain is constant and can also be severe. He keeps several ice packs at our office that he keeps wrapped around his lower back during the day to alleviate some of the pain.

Muscle tension is unavoidable in dentistry, and maybe in any job with any level of stress. Our solution, reduce our hours. As I have said in previous posts, we live within our means, so it was doable. I am very concerned about patient care and safety. If I didn't think I was doing very good work, I wouldn't do it, neither would my husband. When specialists tell you they like the work they see, that they want to work with you, it feels very good. Looking at my work and being pleased with what I see is priceless. I know of dentists in their 60's and 70's still practicing and their patients are happy. You can have a long career in dentistry, it can be what you want it to be. I have never been the kind of individual who has defined my week as being successful because I met my $$$ goal. I would think that orientation would be a lot more stressful than a little pain in the neck!

I would think it impossible to find a career where you do not find stress, where repetitive motion might not cause injury of some sort and where age would not be a predisposing factor to injury. There are risks to everything. That is why people buy malpractice, disability, office interuption, life and auto insurance. All of the injuries you discuss are concerns, but if I were young and healthy, I would not and did not let it dissuade me from the profession of dentistry.

Best wishes, Lesley
 
Before anyone on this thread gives their two cents on dentists income state whether your a practicing dentist or a dental student. Help us to weigh your real world knowledge. I'm predental which means I have no idea what I'm talking about but at least I'm willing to admit it!
 
Lesley, you mentioned that you wouldnt buy a practice if you had to do it again. Would you go to dentistry, if you had to do it again?
 
Lesley, you mentioned that you wouldnt buy a practice if you had to do it again. Would you go to dentistry, if you had to do it again?

Well never say never, I guess. I'm pretty certain we would never buy a practice again, but we always weigh information, opportunities and options before making decisions.

I recently re-read my posts. The moral I was trying to convey was that dentistry isn't necessary an easy road.

When we went to dental school, the majority of dental students were getting a lot of financial help from their families. Now due to the high cost of education, my husband and I feel we had a situation similar to many students today who are paying their own way. The amount of debt we had as a dollar figure may have been lower, but we had higher interest rates and the cost of living relative to our debt was similar. For example, the cost of our home back then was close to the cost of a dental school education, and I would say that fact would also hold true today.

One poster said that I should seek therapy. Quite the contrary, we knew what a pickle we were in. We had a plan, and we executed it. It just wasn't a fun plan, but it was effective. At 50 and 51, we have a nice work schedule, we have no debt of any sort, one son's college is paid for and our other son has one year paid too. Three years left!!! Unbelievable! Ours is not an extravagant life, but an enviable one.

It was well worth living our story, but again it wasn't always fun and at times the story is depressing, but we're not! Me especially. I feel very blessed to get to this point. It's what we worked for, and I relish it! Going to dental school isn't fun either, you complain, but in the end it's worth it. People go to therapy because they can't handle things constructively, not because they do! I think that poster just didn't like what he was reading, but that is his problem.

Here's the caveat, dental school more or less takes the same length of time to complete and is about as much fun as it's always been, but paying it off is taking a lot longer and it may be more of a hardship. Possibly, significantly. I find this very concerning.

So, going back to your question. Would I go to dental school knowing what I know today? Essentially, is it worth going to dental school today? I would say that relative to the other options out there, yes.

The world and economics have changed, there are no longer pensions or free health care for retirees, education is expensive regardless of the major. The world has become a more expensive place in general, and, for the most part, everyone will be working for a more extended period of time. Job security is an issue for many, but dentistry will not be sent overseas.

As early as 2007, two dentists will be retiring for every one dentist graduating. Remember, that the two dentists retiring will more than likely be men, and the one graduating has a 50-50 chance of being a man or a woman. There looks to be a very large decrease in the number of work hours of dentists overall. I think this is very favorable. There should be opportunity for those that are willing to work.

With any large purchase or commitment, I think it is very important to know if it's really what you want and what it involves on every level. Weigh your options. It will help you make wise choices. Dentistry may not be the road to riches, but you will have a job and it can provide a very comfortable way of life. Best wishes, Lesley
 
3rdMolarRoller is a second Peter Lynch in the making!:) Please give us the fund name?
 
reviving and old thread since it is similar to the one circulating on the Pre-Dents forum
 
Interesting thread... it looks like not much has changed (except that tuition has gone up :laugh:).

I wonder what new grad dentists have to say? Is it as bleak as it sounds. Is this ADA 200k avg true? If so how is it somone cannot afford to borrow 200k for detal school.
 
reviving and old thread since it is similar to the one circulating on the Pre-Dents forum

I agree, great thread... do any of the practicing dentists have any insight into how things may or may not have changed since 2006? Obviously the education cost is still outrageous.
 
Cost of school is high and many areas where people desire to live are saturated with dentists. That, coupled with a weak economy, leaves many new graduates in positions they would rather not be in.

Many are working for chain dental practices, perhaps doing procedures they don't feel comfortable with and doing poor dentistry due to time constraints, in order to get a paycheck.

Others are not referring when they should and performing procedures that are out of their skill levels, especially as new grads.

I don't think the average new dental graduate is making $200k/year. Not in 2010 (but maybe 3-4 years ago). I'd say $120k is probably a more realistic general number. That's $500/day. That is NOT much money if you are burdened with debts from school and spending.
 
Tons of good info in here. I remember reading this a few years ago. A big difference is the skyrocketed interest rate on student loans. Forget about sitting on your loan and feeding your nest egg instead. Highly unlikely that will pay off the way it did 10 years ago with 2-3% consolidated interest.
 
This stuff is concerning. I really hope I can get into my state school. What do you guys think of this plan for somone who doesnt want to join the military (already served and ready to move on) - I've read about scholorships from the government that pay dentists 20k/yr (commitment) if they find a job in an area the gov has deemed "underserved". I've looked into some of these places and they seem to be rural areas just outside of where I live. Has anyone heard about these options and if others have had good experiences with it?
 
This stuff is concerning. I really hope I can get into my state school. What do you guys think of this plan for somone who doesnt want to join the military (already served and ready to move on) - I've read about scholorships from the government that pay dentists 20k/yr (commitment) if they find a job in an area the gov has deemed "underserved". I've looked into some of these places and they seem to be rural areas just outside of where I live. Has anyone heard about these options and if others have had good experiences with it?

It is an option, but not the best option for most imo. If you come out of dental school very well prepared with the ability to perform fast dentistry, I think you could pay back slightly faster if you started working privately (just shunt more of your pay towards the loan).

The best program I heard of is one where the government PAYS your tuition in exchange for a certain number of years working in an underserved area... Basically the same deal as the military, except you are working in a civilian area that you have full choice over. I forgot what it is called, but from what I know, it is very competitive now because of the elevated tuition these days.
 
Tons of good info in here. I remember reading this a few years ago. A big difference is the skyrocketed interest rate on student loans. Forget about sitting on your loan and feeding your nest egg instead. Highly unlikely that will pay off the way it did 10 years ago with 2-3% consolidated interest.

Excellent points. But, it wasn't 10 years ago. I graduated from dental school in 2007 (that's 3.5 years ago!) and my loans are at 2.2-2.8%.

I do have some private that I took out in residency that are adjustable and currently at 5%.
 
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