Dental School vs. Medical School

[supraeli]

I've met miserable GPs and specialists. I don't think there's a difference. If you don't think even $100,000 a year provides a good lifestyle, you are crazy. Anyway, this is an AVERAGE of dentists who own their practice, so that includes the 26 year old with a brand new practice waiting for the phone to ring, and the older dentist with a ton of patients.

Besides, everyone complains about their revenue going down.

Then again, the cost of living is very low where I live.

that sounds sad: that there are miserable GPs and specialists... if you dislike dentistry, imagine having to practice it everyday! ouch.

i think 100K is definitely a good income... if it is net, post tax, and without deductions for malpractice insurance or student loan or health insurance or business loan for private practice startup payments.

thats the problem with predents talking salaries - they dont factor in the costs that come with working... too many dental students that have never experienced real life cuz they are too busy studying hehe.

i wonder why the ADA has such high numbers, when i just talked to a dentist who started up their own private practice 5 years ago, and hasn't even hit 100K net yet? maybe he was just a bad dentist haha

i think dentists are in two major classes - people who took 200K+ loans to finance thier education, and those who had parental/spouse/military help to graduate debt free. the people who have loans cannot afford to live very well, while the debt free ones live VERY well. thus, you end up with a bimodal distribution with the debt free dentists free to expand thier practices more readily (and increase salary) than those tied to making payments...

just a hypothesis, though.

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[FutureDent020]

i wonder why the ADA has such high numbers, when i just talked to a dentist who started up their own private practice 5 years ago, and hasn't even hit 100K net yet? maybe he was just a bad dentist haha

He's probably factoring in his student loans, insurance, mortgages, equipment loans, etc. He would have to be a pretty non-productive dentist to not make $100,000 in 5 years on procedures alone. I've seen spreadsheets where dentists (GP) net 30K in a month. And this was in a decent economic area. This was also December though, when students are home and people rush to the dentist to use up left over insurance money before the new year.

 

[supraeli]

He's probably factoring in his student loans, insurance, mortgages, equipment loans, etc. He would have to be a pretty non-productive dentist to not make $100,000 in 5 years on procedures alone. I've seen spreadsheets where dentists (GP) net 30K in a month. And this was in a decent economic area. This was also December though, when students are home and people rush to the dentist to use up left over insurance money before the new year.

no, with all the aforementioned deductions, his net take home salary/yr was 35K. maybe you misunderstood me, i didnt mean that he has only made 100K total after working 5 years, just that his practice is not bringing in 100K/yr net after being established for 5 years.

just curious, what area did you see 30K/mo for a GP?

the thing i hate about salary talk is that there is so many false stats out there, its hard to sort BS from real talk. online salary data says GPs are usually 150K avg, ADA says 200K avg, some guys sisters dad's uncle said he makes 300K avg, etc... so i guess just from my personal experience talking to dentists in my area, i can just say that 150K net seems about right for a thriving GP private practice at 1/2-1 decade old.

also, alot of people think associates pull 100K easily - i think avg is definately under 100K, usually 80-90, with quite a few jobs at 70-80.

anyways, back on topic, i think the bottom line is that you will probably not get rich off dentistry if you have large loans, unlike most medical specialties where you can afford to pay off 300K in 5 years. remember, after paying off loans for 10 (or 30) years, you still need to contribute to a retirement fund... most say you will need ~1.5-2 million to retire comfortably.

 

[ozzie33]

no, with all the aforementioned deductions, his net take home salary/yr was 35K. maybe you misunderstood me, i didnt mean that he has only made 100K total after working 5 years, just that his practice is not bringing in 100K/yr net after being established for 5 years.

just curious, what area did you see 30K/mo for a GP?

the thing i hate about salary talk is that there is so many false stats out there, its hard to sort BS from real talk. online salary data says GPs are usually 150K avg, ADA says 200K avg, some guys sisters dad's uncle said he makes 300K avg, etc... so i guess just from my personal experience talking to dentists in my area, i can just say that 150K net seems about right for a thriving GP private practice at 1/2-1 decade old.

also, alot of people think associates pull 100K easily - i think avg is definately under 100K, usually 80-90, with quite a few jobs at 70-80.

anyways, back on topic, i think the bottom line is that you will probably not get rich off dentistry if you have large loans, unlike most medical specialties where you can afford to pay off 300K in 5 years. remember, after paying off loans for 10 (or 30) years, you still need to contribute to a retirement fund... most say you will need ~1.5-2 million to retire comfortably.

The people you have been talking too may not be doing everything correctly. Every dentist I have talked to said it is very easy to make a comfortable living off of the profession, and most of them refer most if not all endo and extraction cases. You also assume that people are taking out 300k of loans. Also, it depends on where you go. If I were to set up a practice right now in my hometown, I would have a massive patient base just from friends and family, all of whom hope that I decide to practice in the area. That isn't even including the word of mouth from them, and my own attempts to gather patients.

Graduating from dental school alone doesn't guarantee a comfortable living though, you need to have networking and business skills, because you are essentially starting a business. This is good, because your income ceiling is very high, but it requires more work that being a MD and getting hired by a hospital or group. (not implying dentists do more work, just that they deal with more business and promotional work)

 

[anonymousername]

instead of typing out all the reasons why I'm starting to seriously think about switching from premed to predent, go here http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=686097

 

[FutureDent020]

no, with all the aforementioned deductions, his net take home salary/yr was 35K. maybe you misunderstood me, i didnt mean that he has only made 100K total after working 5 years, just that his practice is not bringing in 100K/yr net after being established for 5 years.

just curious, what area did you see 30K/mo for a GP?

Oh my bad, I see what you are saying. This was in mid-town Memphis, TN. The area is economically stable, but the suburbs are wealthier. He is a General Dentist and practiced alone. He and his hygienist brought in around 10-15 K/ month, but the December statistics he showed me grossed close to 30K. He works 5 days a week from 8-6:30 and sees about 8-10 patients per day (not including the hygienist's patients). He was a busy man from what I saw. He had an older partner who recently retired so he received all of his old patients.

 

[supraeli]

Oh my bad, I see what you are saying. This was in mid-town Memphis, TN. The area is economically stable, but the suburbs are wealthier. He is a General Dentist and practiced alone. He and his hygienist brought in around 10-15 K/ month, but the December statistics he showed me grossed close to 30K. He works 5 days a week from 8-6:30 and sees about 8-10 patients per day (not including the hygienist's patients). He was a busy man from what I saw. He had an older partner who recently retired so he received all of his old patients.

awesome, thanks for the stats...

from what i can calculate, this is roughly at 150-200K net/yr, minus 65K avg pay for a hygienist and you have a net salary of 85K-135K, with ~30% tax, this means 59-94K take home... not bad, but if you include loan payments on either student loan or private practice loan or mortgage, then you are getting down there...

too bad im from california, where the dental market is ridiculously saturated and every single school in our goshdarned state costs 250K. we'll probably be lucky to ever get to 150K/yr net because our living costs will eat up everything!

nonetheless... we all know dentistry offers a comfortable life... not an exorbitant one. you will not be poor, but you will prob not be ballin with a lambo like a plastic surgeon/cardiologist/neurologist would be.