Dental School Finances. Debt, income, and the future of dentistry

[Molar Whisperer]

I experienced similar attitudes with my classmates when I was a d1-d2. They would often joke around saying “oh what are you gonna be doing once you graduate? I mean I’d be doing dentistry ofc and they gave me a strange look. Another said “Hope you don’t get shot”. ”You could be making so much more or outside”. “You gonna be on a ship in the Middle East” (you don’t always get assigned to a ship btw since you could be on the shore with the marines). I think a lot of students are not aware or have not done many research about military dentistry. They’re so brainwashed about the military being a “bad” thing that they don’t even bother looking into it.

I’m about halfway done with my commitment and boy am I really glad I did it. My experience so far has been great and having no debt while making decent money(six figures) is fantastic. I was able to save a lot to buy a nice car and right now saving for a DP for a house. And let’s not forget I’ll have the GI bill later on.

The military is not perfect but I am glad I did it.

I think the benefits of military other than having your school paid for is the dental experience you will gain through school-like training and mentorship with other dentists. An intangible benefit is military dentistry provides a good platform for networking with various dental sources. Another benefit though less popular is to serve out your remaining 12 to 16 yrs and have guaranteed retirement military income for life. My endodontist mentor was triple dipping with Army retirement pay, DMO pay, and SS along with his passive income.

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[ToothJockey]

Do you agree with people who say you shouldn't take the HPSP for the money?

Realistically if you're taking out the full 400k+ loans you're probably better off with military financially. To pay back those loans in 4 years in private practice you're gonna have to earn 300k+ as a GP (most starting offers are less than half that according to SDN).

Unless there's a catch, it seems people who do military will come out ahead financially than many people who take out large loans. Maybe that wasn't the case a few decades back when loans were low.

 

[LFA20]

Realistically if you're taking out the full 400k+ loans you're probably better off with military financially. To pay back those loans in 4 years in private practice you're gonna have to earn 300k+ as a GP (most starting offers are less than half that according to SDN).

Unless there's a catch, it seems people who do military will come out ahead financially than many people who take out large loans. Maybe that wasn't the case a few decades back when loans were low.

I agree. Financially speaking military folks will come out ahead by far. You will also have the GI bill that you can specialize in the civilian schools after. However, all of these come in the expense of your general dentistry skills deteriorating. The types of procedures you do in the military will vary according to your command and higher up but in general the bulk of them will be simple operative, buildups and emergency pulpectomies with some single unit crowns sprinkled here and there.

You will rarely(almost never) do any “fancy” procedures like 6-unit anterior crowns or horizontally impacted third molar extractions. But I know some commands that are heavy on surgical procedures like the recruit training centers. So it’s all luck of the draw.

 

[Molar Whisperer]

I agree. Financially speaking military folks will come out ahead by far. You will also have the GI bill that you can specialize in the civilian schools after. However, all of these come in the expense of your general dentistry skills deteriorating. The types of procedures you do in the military will vary according to your command and higher up but in general the bulk of them will be simple operative, buildups and emergency pulpectomies with some single unit crowns sprinkled here and there.

You will rarely(almost never) do any “fancy” procedures like 6-unit anterior crowns or horizontally impacted third molar extractions. But I know some commands that are heavy on surgical procedures like the recruit training centers. So it’s all luck of the draw.

At my smaller USAF base of 19 dentists, we did every procedure. We informally designate a colleague as the TMJ guy, RCT guy, while I was the esthetics guy doing veneers. We had a 2 yr AEGD guy that likes to do apicos, hospital oral tumor removals with back up blood transfusion ready, etc. I got to see the TMJ guy (who was a civilian Gov't Service and USAF reserve) unlock this pt's jaw...and 10 yrs later I had to do it on one of my molar RCT cases which really impressed my DA. I knew I wanted to go to private practice so I did every possible procedure, learned and picked everybody's brains. The worst place would be Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio where there were about 80 dentists (or more) and every big dental residency you can think of. That means all the simple extractions go to OS, anterior RCTs go to endo, single units go to Prosth, etc. All GPs did there were amalgam cuspal coverages (amalgam crowns).

 

[distressstudent]

At my smaller USAF base of 19 dentists, we did every procedure. We informally designate a colleague as the TMJ guy, RCT guy, while I was the esthetics guy doing veneers. We had a 2 yr AEGD guy that likes to do apicos, hospital oral tumor removals with back up blood transfusion ready, etc. I got to see the TMJ guy (who was a civilian Gov't Service and USAF reserve) unlock this pt's jaw...and 10 yrs later I had to do it on one of my molar RCT cases which really impressed my DA. I knew I wanted to go to private practice so I did every possible procedure, learned and picked everybody's brains. The worst place would be Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio where there were about 80 dentists (or more) and every big dental residency you can think of. That means all the simple extractions go to OS, anterior RCTs go to endo, single units go to Prosth, etc. All GPs did there were amalgam cuspal coverages (amalgam crowns).

19 dentist small?

 

[Molar Whisperer]

19 dentist small?

You're right that a clinic of 19 dentists does not appear small. During my time, it is very rare that all 19 dentists are working together. Usually about half are in the clinic at the same time. The head guy usually does admin, In the military, we have other duties and various readiness training. There are some clinics that have over 50 dentists (usually half of them are working together as mentioned).