Dentist Salary Compilation

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RyuTatum

RyuTatum

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Guys how much do you make as a dentist?
Edit: I edited the form below to gather more data. Curious to see what we find. 🙂

Years of Experience:
Specialty or General:
City or Rural:
Company (Corp or Private or Ownership):
Insurances:
Days/weeks per year:
Salary:
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Just to chime in, if you're going to collect numbers like this, definitely consider state and some qualitative index like "big city" vs "rural"
 
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While I think this would provide some interesting data, it will likely be very misleading. I would imagine that you will get a strong self-reporting bias. Could be fun to see what gets posted though.
 
pubhealthdent said:
Years of Experience: 2.5
Specialty or General: general
Company (Corp or Private): public health (very rural)
Salary: $286k
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daaaayummmm. Mostly medicaid/medical pts? Mind sharing some more details regarding the practice? NHSC scholarship?
 
Guys how much do you make as a dentist?

Years of Experience: a little over 2 years
Specialty or General: Gen
Company (Corp or Private) P assoc
Salary: low 200s.
Location: rural New England.

Previous year I used to make low 100s at metropolitan area working 6 days a week.
 
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LaughingGas said:
daaaayummmm. Mostly medicaid/medical pts? Mind sharing some more details regarding the practice? NHSC scholarship?
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70% medicaid or sliding fee. 30% private pay or commercial insurance. Mostly extractions, operative, and removable. Moderate amount of endo. Work 40hr/wk. Daily production average $4400, pay is salary based on 31٪ previous year's production. Have S2S loan repayment (not factored into above mentioned salary)
 
pubhealthdent said:
Years of Experience: 2.5
Specialty or General: general
Company (Corp or Private): public health (very rural)
Salary: $286k
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Alaska, Hawaii, Guam? For people reading this, the VAST majority of FQHC salaries (40 hr per week) will be ~$120-130k starting out, even with a GPR. The dental director at my FQHC, the largest in the state, only makes $200k after almost 15 years in the role. The dental director at my previous FQHC made less than that. $286k is in the top 0.001% if that's salary/income not including benefits. Most FQHC CEOs and medical directors don't even earn much more than $200-250.
 
Years of Experience: 23
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Corp, ~90% Medicaid
Salary: $185k, Corp is considering adding GP referral endo compensation
Location: Very saturated market in the Pacific NW, very difficult market for dentists
Student Loans: none
Hope to semi-retire in 8-9 yrs
 
Years of Experience: 1
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Owner
Salary: $1MIL ish
Location: Manahattan, I only treat the elite
Student Loans: none, paid them back first month of practice
peacock GIF

This is all i can think or maybe this...

hairy beauty and the beast GIF

except you @drcrobad, but I know you have done your time and are just crusin'. This thread will attract unusually high salaries and those with lower will probably abstain from responding. Being in the military I earn less than all of you, but my worth is in other benefits that could make it considered higher if you factored them in.
 
UncleJoesVeneers said:
Alaska, Hawaii, Guam? For people reading this, the VAST majority of FQHC salaries (40 hr per week) will be ~$120-130k starting out, even with a GPR. The dental director at my FQHC, the largest in the state, only makes $200k after almost 15 years in the role. The dental director at my previous FQHC made less than that. $286k is in the top 0.001% if that's salary/income not including benefits. Most FQHC CEOs and medical directors don't even earn much more than $200-250.
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Wisconsin and that number does not include benefits or loan repayment. Agreed it is definitely not the average, especially for FQHCs. In 2018, average salaries I was offered were closed to $150k but they were all in rural areas.
 
SirBrotherJam said:
Years of Experience: 1
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Owner
Salary: $1MIL ish
Location: Manahattan, I only treat the elite
Student Loans: none, paid them back first month of practice
peacock GIF

This is all i can think or maybe this...

hairy beauty and the beast GIF

except you @drcrobad, but I know you have done your time and are just crusin'. This thread will attract unusually high salaries and those with lower will probably abstain from responding. Being in the military I earn less than all of you, but my worth is in other benefits that could make it considered higher if you factored them in.
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Being a military dentist is way better than struggling in a DSO/DMO for not much more pay. Military does not force you to do malpractice, produce, and meet unrealistic goals. I would believe in the Military, there will be no Meth addict losers trying to sue you. After 20 yrs in, you will still be younger than me (49) and double dip and do comprehensive dentistry. My endodontic mentor triple dipped with SS.
 
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SirBrotherJam said:
Years of Experience: 1
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Owner
Salary: $1MIL ish
Location: Manahattan, I only treat the elite
Student Loans: none, paid them back first month of practice
peacock GIF

This is all i can think or maybe this...

hairy beauty and the beast GIF

except you @drcrobad, but I know you have done your time and are just crusin'. This thread will attract unusually high salaries and those with lower will probably abstain from responding. Being in the military I earn less than all of you, but my worth is in other benefits that could make it considered higher if you factored them in.
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Military benefits imo is best if it’s right fit
 
Might be helpful to add days/weeks per year!

Years of Experience:
Specialty or General:
Company (Corp or Private):
Salary:
Days/weeks per year:
 
Years of Experience: 42
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Non-Profit Community Clinic & Teaching
Salary: 140 K (Semi-Retired)
Location: Mid-sized Midwest city
Days/weeks per year: 3.5 days/week (When I feel like it.)
Student Loan: Never had!
 
Years of Experience: 4.5
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Smallish Corp
Salary: 355k (Average for last 3 years)
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Days/weeks per year: 3 days a week (11 hour days, with no lunch break)

The work days are long and brutal, but having 4 days off a week helps the recovery a bit. It's been a good run so far, but I'm leaving it behind and starting endo residency in 6 months.
 
cmsmith85 said:
Years of Experience: 4.5
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Smallish Corp
Salary: 355k (Average for last 3 years)
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Days/weeks per year: 3 days a week (11 hour days, with no lunch break)

The work days are long and brutal, but having 4 days off a week helps the recovery a bit. It's been a good run so far, but I'm leaving it behind and starting endo residency in 6 months.
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Can you talk a little bit about why you are leaving to do endo? I know endo associates making about that much, though owners can do more. Are you an owner in the corp, or do you not like GP practice, or just really love endo? just wondering why you would leave a gig making that much
 
PerioDont said:
Can you talk a little bit about why you are leaving to do endo? I know endo associates making about that much, though owners can do more. Are you an owner in the corp, or do you not like GP practice, or just really love endo? just wondering why you would leave a gig making that much
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My wife keeps asking me that same question haha. I'm not technically an owner where I work, but I have equity there so I'm considered a partner. It wasn't an easy decision to leave for endo though. I've thought about endo for the last 3 years almost and decided at the beginning of the year to finally take the plunge and apply. It was tough because I enjoy GP for the most part. I really like restorative and most aspects of GP, excluding dentures -those are the absolute worst haha. But I'm definitely at my happiest and most relaxed when I'm doing endo. Where I'm working now, we bounce back and forth between ops so much during the day that it can get exhausting, so the thought of seeing far less patients during the day and being able to focus on one thing and getting really really good at it sounds amazing. That and no hygiene checks all day long haha. When I was in dental school, I liked endo, but thought that doing only that would be so boring. But I've learned over the last few years that I like the idea of doing the same thing all day and having the day be routine and predictable.
Financially it's going to be a big opportunity cost to go back and specialize, but it'll be worth it to me to be able to do something I enjoy and hopefully work longer as endo should take less of a toll on my body than GP.
 
K
cmsmith85 said:
My wife keeps asking me that same question haha. I'm not technically an owner where I work, but I have equity there so I'm considered a partner. It wasn't an easy decision to leave for endo though. I've thought about endo for the last 3 years almost and decided at the beginning of the year to finally take the plunge and apply. It was tough because I enjoy GP for the most part. I really like restorative and most aspects of GP, excluding dentures -those are the absolute worst haha. But I'm definitely at my happiest and most relaxed when I'm doing endo. Where I'm working now, we bounce back and forth between ops so much during the day that it can get exhausting, so the thought of seeing far less patients during the day and being able to focus on one thing and getting really really good at it sounds amazing. That and no hygiene checks all day long haha. When I was in dental school, I liked endo, but thought that doing only that would be so boring. But I've learned over the last few years that I like the idea of doing the same thing all day and having the day be routine and predictable.
Financially it's going to be a big opportunity cost to go back and specialize, but it'll be worth it to me to be able to do something I enjoy and hopefully work longer as endo should take less of a toll on my body than GP.
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May I ask what your starting salary was out of school?
 
Startingover123 said:
K

May I ask what your starting salary was out of school?
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I'm paid a percentage of collections and so right out of school it was slow starting up. I think I made around 70k from July to December of the year I graduated, and then things picked up and I made 305k my first full year in 2017. And this is all pre-tax.
 
cmsmith85 said:
I'm paid a percentage of collections and so right out of school it was slow starting up. I think I made around 70k from July to December of the year I graduated, and then things picked up and I made 305k my first full year in 2017. And this is all pre-tax.
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Would you recommend working for a Corp other than $$?
 
Startingover123 said:
Would you recommend working for a Corp other than $$?
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My experience with corp has been great, but that's more because of the company I've been working for. We've been able to run our office the way we want without any interfere, so it has a private practice feel. Whichever way you go, whether that's corp, an associate at a private office, or owning, it's important to find what works for you and what allows you to practice the way you want. There's good and bad corp places just like their is with private practice. I lucked out with a great corporate job, but I know a lot of other people that have had terrible experiences with it.
 
cmsmith85 said:
My experience with corp has been great, but that's more because of the company I've been working for. We've been able to run our office the way we want without any interfere, so it has a private practice feel. Whichever way you go, whether that's corp, an associate at a private office, or owning, it's important to find what works for you and what allows you to practice the way you want. There's good and bad corp places just like their is with private practice. I lucked out with a great corporate job, but I know a lot of other people that have had terrible experiences with it.
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PMd you
 
Years of Experience: 2.5
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Private
Salary: 250K
Location: Metro detroit area
Days/weeks per year: 4 days a week (8 hour days)

I worked at corporate. My experience at Corporate was horrible so I took a smaller paycheck at Private.
But it was the best choice. I have good mentors, and make good money. This is just from bread and butter dentistry.
of course I can make more but I know it will come as my skillset goes up.
 
cmsmith85 said:
Years of Experience: 4.5
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Smallish Corp
Salary: 355k (Average for last 3 years)
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Days/weeks per year: 3 days a week (11 hour days, with no lunch break)

The work days are long and brutal, but having 4 days off a week helps the recovery a bit. It's been a good run so far, but I'm leaving it behind and starting endo residency in 6 months.
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Killer. What kind of Corp was this that left you get equity. Seems like a lot of those corps are having but in options.
 
cmsmith85 said:
My wife keeps asking me that same question haha. I'm not technically an owner where I work, but I have equity there so I'm considered a partner. It wasn't an easy decision to leave for endo though. I've thought about endo for the last 3 years almost and decided at the beginning of the year to finally take the plunge and apply. It was tough because I enjoy GP for the most part. I really like restorative and most aspects of GP, excluding dentures -those are the absolute worst haha. But I'm definitely at my happiest and most relaxed when I'm doing endo. Where I'm working now, we bounce back and forth between ops so much during the day that it can get exhausting, so the thought of seeing far less patients during the day and being able to focus on one thing and getting really really good at it sounds amazing. That and no hygiene checks all day long haha. When I was in dental school, I liked endo, but thought that doing only that would be so boring. But I've learned over the last few years that I like the idea of doing the same thing all day and having the day be routine and predictable.
Financially it's going to be a big opportunity cost to go back and specialize, but it'll be worth it to me to be able to do something I enjoy and hopefully work longer as endo should take less of a toll on my body than GP.
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No removeables. No lab cases. No hygiene checks = good life 😆

A buddy of mine graduated from endo this year and he's working 3.5 days a week, sees around 8-10 patients/day and is projected to make around $400k in his first year out.
 
P7898 said:
Killer. What kind of Corp was this that left you get equity. Seems like a lot of those corps are having but in options.
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They're somewhat newer. They opened their first office in Phoenix in 2011 and are up to around 25 offices now. I can PM you more detail if you'd like. And yeah I know Heartland does the equity/stock options and it seems like others are following suit.
 
gentlerwave said:
No removeables. No lab cases. No hygiene checks = good life 😆

A buddy of mine graduated from endo this year and he's working 3.5 days a week, sees around 8-10 patients/day and is projected to make around $400k in his first year out.
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Oh man, I can't wait for the end of my dentures days! Haha. And that's awesome to hear about your buddy. Gives me good hope!
 
gentlerwave said:
No removeables. No lab cases. No hygiene checks = good life 😆

A buddy of mine graduated from endo this year and he's working 3.5 days a week, sees around 8-10 patients/day and is projected to make around $400k in his first year out.
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I'm doing perio for similar reasons. I've also seen 1st year perio grads doing around 400 as associates.

My conclusion is that you have a chiller day to day clinical life as a specialist, can possibly make more $$ even with less business skills. Hard part is getting through residency for sure.

On the flip side, you can do real well as a GP for sure, I just feel like its more of a grind on a day to day, esp with PPO practices and high volume. sky's the limit for owners whether specialist or GP, but you need a little more skills business wise if you are in a competitive area as compared to specialty work.
 
PerioDont said:
I'm doing perio for similar reasons. I've also seen 1st year perio grads doing around 400 as associates.

My conclusion is that you have a chiller day to day clinical life as a specialist, can possibly make more $$ even with less business skills. Hard part is getting through residency for sure.

On the flip side, you can do real well as a GP for sure, I just feel like its more of a grind on a day to day, esp with PPO practices and high volume. sky's the limit for owners whether specialist or GP, but you need a little more skills business wise if you are in a competitive area as compared to specialty work.
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There's always one thing that differentiates the GP vs Specialist practices. In the end and in most circumstances ..... a specialist practice NEEDS GPs more than the GPs need them. Especially in saturated areas .... a GP practice will have their pick of MANY hungry specialists. Just because you become a specialist doesn't mean that it will be cakewalk for you or easier. Your success depends on your networking abilities. If you are a young associate for a PP ... you will be tasked with building referral relationships with all the younger GPs. If you work for a Corp ... you won't have to network (rd: beg) for referrals which is an advantage. If you are a private practice specialist ... then you will need to network like crazy. Trust me. Regardless of the relationship you have with a referring GP practice .... your relationship with them is tenuous. One bad patient situation can spell the end to your referrals. Every year ...younger and more aggressive young specialists (like you @PerioDont 😉 ) will test the referral relationships of GPs and "their" current specialists.

So yes. Specialists typically earn more in Corp vs the GPs.

The other issue is some specialties (Pedo) do not need referrals from the GPs. They can market directly to the general public. Ortho is 50:50. But a specialty like PERIO/ENDO/OMS needs GP referrals.

As for the "sky is the limit" phrase I hear so much here. Sure. It could happen in the right situation (rural, semi-rural). but "mediocrity" in salary is probably more realistic. In PP ... you are running a business. In business .... with time .... there will inevitably be a business (another PP, Corp, etc) that will be better at business than you. That's just the way it is.
 
2TH MVR said:
There's always one thing that differentiates the GP vs Specialist practices. In the end and in most circumstances ..... a specialist practice NEEDS GPs more than the GPs need them. Especially in saturated areas .... a GP practice will have their pick of MANY hungry specialists. Just because you become a specialist doesn't mean that it will be cakewalk for you or easier. Your success depends on your networking abilities. If you are a young associate for a PP ... you will be tasked with building referral relationships with all the younger GPs. If you work for a Corp ... you won't have to network (rd: beg) for referrals which is an advantage. If you are a private practice specialist ... then you will need to network like crazy. Trust me. Regardless of the relationship you have with a referring GP practice .... your relationship with them is tenuous. One bad patient situation can spell the end to your referrals. Every year ...younger and more aggressive young specialists (like you @PerioDont 😉 ) will test the referral relationships of GPs and "their" current specialists.

So yes. Specialists typically earn more in Corp vs the GPs.

The other issue is some specialties (Pedo) do not need referrals from the GPs. They can market directly to the general public. Ortho is 50:50. But a specialty like PERIO/ENDO/OMS needs GP referrals.

As for the "sky is the limit" phrase I hear so much here. Sure. It could happen in the right situation (rural, semi-rural). but "mediocrity" in salary is probably more realistic. In PP ... you are running a business. In business .... with time .... there will inevitably be a business (another PP, Corp, etc) that will be better at business than you. That's just the way it is.
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excellent point.

I think one should make future plans as a student when deciding careers assuming you will definitely have an average or mediocre salary.

But your ambition when you are actually out there building the business should be on the sky is the limit part 😎
 
2TH MVR said:
There's always one thing that differentiates the GP vs Specialist practices. In the end and in most circumstances ..... a specialist practice NEEDS GPs more than the GPs need them. Especially in saturated areas .... a GP practice will have their pick of MANY hungry specialists. Just because you become a specialist doesn't mean that it will be cakewalk for you or easier. Your success depends on your networking abilities. If you are a young associate for a PP ... you will be tasked with building referral relationships with all the younger GPs. If you work for a Corp ... you won't have to network (rd: beg) for referrals which is an advantage. If you are a private practice specialist ... then you will need to network like crazy. Trust me. Regardless of the relationship you have with a referring GP practice .... your relationship with them is tenuous. One bad patient situation can spell the end to your referrals. Every year ...younger and more aggressive young specialists (like you @PerioDont 😉 ) will test the referral relationships of GPs and "their" current specialists.

So yes. Specialists typically earn more in Corp vs the GPs.

The other issue is some specialties (Pedo) do not need referrals from the GPs. They can market directly to the general public. Ortho is 50:50. But a specialty like PERIO/ENDO/OMS needs GP referrals.

As for the "sky is the limit" phrase I hear so much here. Sure. It could happen in the right situation (rural, semi-rural). but "mediocrity" in salary is probably more realistic. In PP ... you are running a business. In business .... with time .... there will inevitably be a business (another PP, Corp, etc) that will be better at business than you. That's just the way it is.
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To be honest, corporate route is seems preferable, especially for OMFS. They actually pay well, and pack your schedule. Best of all, no BS with sucking up to GPs.
I say this as an OMFS resident and seeing graduates make more at DSOs than with the traditional associateship contracts in OMFS private practices, which often are more predatory than DSO contracts, surprisingly enough. I think, moving forward, future is bright for specialties, especially OMFS, because even if a GP employed by a DSO wants to do the specialty procedures, the DSO will stop them and keep those for the specialist so they can bill the patient for more. I already see GPs referring less and less to traditional group OS practices in my area. This is prevented inside DSOs. Of course, if the DSO cannot manage to get a specialist to come in and do the specialized procedure (maybe its in an undesirable area), then typically they let the GP do it.
This overextending of scope by GPs especially happens when a new dental school grad buys out a GP office and is under immense pressure to produce due to the crazy loans grads are coming out with nowadays. Plus, this is better for the patient anyways, as the specialist is likely to have better outcomes for that specialized procedure.
So, the future is bright for most specialties, because the ratio of corporate dental practices to solo offices is only going to increase, and this favors specialists. DSOs are surprisingly fair in their compensation, at least from what I have seen with OMFS graduates I talk to.
 
1. What is the starting salary for Periodontist?
2. Which circumstance is financially better? traveling periodontist vs DSO perio
 
ssdang said:
1. What is the starting salary for Periodontist?
2. Which circumstance is financially better? traveling periodontist vs DSO perio
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1. Periodontists usually get paid by the % of production instead of the guaranteed daily rate like what many GPs get. Therefore, the salary depends on the number cases he/she performs. It's simple math. The more offices you are willing to travel to work at, the more cases you will get, and the more $$$ you will bring home. If you want to take it easy and choose to work 3 days/wk, then your salary will be half as much as a colleague who works 5-6 days/wk....then it will take you longer to pay off your loan and and to save for your retirement....and you'll have work longer to attain the goal of becoming financially independent.

Each office only has enough surgical cases to keep you busy a few days a month. So in order to get more surgical cases and more work days, you have to talk to/negotiate with more GP owners who want to hire in-house perio. The less picky you are about the job offers, the more jobs you will have and the more money you will make.

2. I don't know about rural areas. Being a specialist in the area where I live (southern california), you have to travel. The perio who works at my corp office only comes here once a month. She travels to 5 offices that are owned by the same corp.....and still is only able to get 6-7 days/month. She also has her own private perio practice. Private GP offices that hire perio to do in-house work for them usually pay better because they save good productive cases for the in-house perio.....there are a lot of flaky patients and no-shows at the DSOs.
 
bergus95 said:
The only downside to this is the day you can’t produce as much as the young gun strapped with debt takes your job. That or the day your back starts hurting. You can be left to dry pretty quick.
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The harder you work and the more you save + invest now (when you are still young, healthy, and zero back problem), the sooner you won't have to worry about things like your job being taken away by a younger doc, Covid pandemic that forces you to close your office, a new competitor who sets up shop right next to yours, economic recessions, loss of gp referrals etc.
 
cmsmith85 said:
Oh man, I can't wait for the end of my dentures days! Haha. And that's awesome to hear about your buddy. Gives me good hope!
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It is good about ur buddy until they all start getting callous on their fingers from hand filing through canals... the calcified ones that is 😉
 
bergus95 said:
How much do oral surgeon you know make in SoCal Charles? Fresh grads?
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At the social gatherings, we don't usually talk about salaries....it's a sensitive subject. We usually talk more about our jobs, our patients, referring GPs, the economy, oversaturation problems etc.

According to an OS friend of mine, Kaiser hospital paid the F/T OS (for doing mostly orthognathic surgeries) around $350k/year. That was about 10+ years ago. It's probably a lot more now. This OS friend later gave up his private OS practice (sold his partnership portion to his OS partner) to work F/T for Kaiser. He loves doing orthognathic surgeries and hates going around begging the GPs for referrals.

According to the manager at my corp office, the OS dept produces, on the average, $8-10k per day. But I don't know what % that this OS gets. He comes to this office twice a month. I do know that this corp pays the in-house perio a flat daily rate of $800/day or 40% of the production.
 
bergus95 said:
Hard to come by these jobs?
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There are plenty of jobs for OS's (and for other specialists as well), if you are not picky. To get F/T work, you have to travel to multiple offices. Most OS's I know have their own private office and they travel to work part time for corp or for GP offices to supplement their incomes.
 
charlestweed said:
At the social gatherings, we don't usually talk about salaries....it's a sensitive subject. We usually talk more about our jobs, our patients, referring GPs, the economy, oversaturation problems etc.

According to an OS friend of mine, Kaiser hospital paid the F/T OS (for doing mostly orthognathic surgeries) around $350k/year. That was about 10+ years ago. It's probably a lot more now. This OS friend later gave up his private OS practice (sold his partnership portion to his OS partner) to work F/T for Kaiser. He loves doing orthognathic surgeries and hates going around begging the GPs for referrals.

According to the manager at my corp office, the OS dept produces, on the average, $8-10k per day. But I don't know what % that this OS gets. He comes to this office twice a month. I do know that this corp pays the in-house perio a flat daily rate of $800/day or 40% of the production.
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Is it 800$/day minimum and then 40% of production? if its just 800/day that seems on the lower end. though I guess its california
 
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PerioDont said:
Is it 800$/day minimum and then 40% of production? if its just 800/day that seems on the lower end. though I guess its california
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If it's a slow days with a bunch of consults and no surgery case scheduled (or surgery patients don't show up), you get your guaranteed $800 daily pay. But if there are surgical cases and you produce a lot, you will get 40% of what you produce. It depends on how good you are at presenting the your recommended tx to patients. If patients like and trust you, they will accept tx and you will get paid. 40% is not bad.
 
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cmsmith85 said:
Years of Experience: 4.5
Specialty or General: General
Company (Corp or Private): Smallish Corp
Salary: 355k (Average for last 3 years)
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Days/weeks per year: 3 days a week (11 hour days, with no lunch break)

The work days are long and brutal, but having 4 days off a week helps the recovery a bit. It's been a good run so far, but I'm leaving it behind and starting endo residency in 6 months.
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dang i thought dentist in saturated places like phx get paid less?! is this salary common for DSO?
 
cluelessdr said:
dang i thought dentist in saturated places like phx get paid less?! is this salary common for DSO?
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the dentist I shadowed in Ahwatukee (suburb of PHX) made significantly less than this - closer to 150ish. I would say there is a huge range, obviously he is a partner so that adds in.

there are just a ton of variables in dental income, so it is really hard to classify.

eg owner vs associate, case presentation skills, location and need, your procedure skillset, personal motivation and drive, team members around you and many others factors.
 
PerioDont said:
the dentist I shadowed in Ahwatukee (suburb of PHX) made significantly less than this - closer to 150ish. I would say there is a huge range, obviously he is a partner so that adds in.

there are just a ton of variables in dental income, so it is really hard to classify.

eg owner vs associate, case presentation skills, location and need, your procedure skillset, personal motivation and drive, team members around you and many others factors.
Click to expand...

PerioDont is right on the money. For example, on average you have bread and butter dentistry which is great and highly profitable. However, if you are an associate on production and have access to CBCT, endo kits, and itero or ability to do Invisalign then you have what Dr. Ben Williams calls (more oil wells). You start out with your basic wells (C&B, fillings, simple exos, removable, anterior endo). However, there are other wells that you can "strike oil" per say. Endo (requires no overhead costs), surgical exos/impacted wisdom teeth (require no overhead costs), and even Invisalign certification (you can use an alginate impression but lab bills are expensive). Then you get to the expensive parts that have high returns like Implants or Sleep Apnea Appliances. So the more skills you have at an ASSOCIATE LEVEL ON PRODUCTION, the better you will be off on average.

However, if you want to be an owner, honestly you want to be able to do things at a predictable level. My fiancé and many friends are practicing dentists so I get my experience from them. I worked in dental field for a bit before I started dental school. But from my experience predictability and things with low overhead like endo and exos is what you want to compliment your bread and butter procedures with first. However... there are always things that you are interested in doing like implants or more ortho with brackets - but from what I have seen, these cases have a higher level degree of uncertainty.

Just my 2 cents. I have friends making $160k a year as GPs to $800k a year doing complex cases to $500k a year doing bread and butter but are owners. All depends on what you like and are interested in. You have to start with what you are interested in and what you enjoy because if you enjoy something, naturally you will start to excel in it over time. If you are doing something for just the money, then over time you will just do the bare minimum to get by (experience with a previous career path). I believe dentistry is a great way to individualize yourself with what you love. If you love doing bread and butter than great - do that very well and you will do very well. If you like doing just endo great - same thing. But start off with what you enjoy and try to be true to yourself because at the end of the day money is a great tool to live life but we cannot bring it with us and we have to understand that enjoyment in something and doing good for someone is the ultimate currency.
 
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