Dentistry Career Switch?

[Nocturnal Doc]

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Hello,

I graduated from undergrad at a T-20 a few years ago with honors, earning a Computer Science degree and a 3.8 GPA. During my first year, I was focused on pre-dental coursework, including Bio I & II, Chem I & II, and Orgo I. I received an A in all of these courses except Orgo I, where I earned a B. I actually found organic chemistry very interesting, but I wasn’t fully focused at the time due to some external circumstances. I never ended up taking Orgo II.

My understanding is that I would need to complete Orgo II as well as Physics I and II at a local college in order to fulfill the prerequisites for most dental schools. I currently work full time at a very well respected tech company and have been fortunate with a quick promotion and stock compensation, accumulating around $600k so far -- which would help w/ the debt of school.

Both of my parents are dentists and own their own clinic. Initially, I was pursuing the dental route because I found hands on work appealing and liked the idea of eventually taking over their practice and becoming a business owner. With the rise of AI, I’ve been feeling some regret about my decision to pursue CS, because every time I visit my parents’ clinic I’m reminded of how much I’d enjoy owning and running a practice. Some of this may be influenced by the general sense of “doom” around the tech industry that my peers talk about, but it does feel fairly widespread.

Also, I often hear that dental insurance companies tend to screw over small businesses to maximize profits for themselves, so the number of small businesses is shrinking due to the profit margin straddle -- is this widely felt across the industry?

I’m hoping to get some advice from people in the field to help me better understand whether my thinking makes sense and where my head is at overall.

Thanks!

 

[OncePreDent]

This is something you should discuss with your parents because you are in such a unique opportunity to potentially practice with them. You should see if that is a possibility, what there incomes are and what your expected income would be if you joined the practices and eventually took it over.

What is your current income at your tech job? It sounds a lot higher/better than the average dentist.

Also dental school is incredibly expensive. A lot of dental student are accumulating over $400k-$500k in loan debt. You would be able to pay for it with cash, but would deplete your savings (not sure if it's worth it for you, unless you went to a very inexpensive program [look at texas schools, difficult to get into unless your from the area]). Talk to your parents about it, they will be the best guide for you.

 

[Pablo Sanchez]

Hello,

I graduated from undergrad at a T-20 a few years ago with honors, earning a Computer Science degree and a 3.8 GPA. During my first year, I was focused on pre-dental coursework, including Bio I & II, Chem I & II, and Orgo I. I received an A in all of these courses except Orgo I, where I earned a B. I actually found organic chemistry very interesting, but I wasn’t fully focused at the time due to some external circumstances. I never ended up taking Orgo II.

My understanding is that I would need to complete Orgo II as well as Physics I and II at a local college in order to fulfill the prerequisites for most dental schools. I currently work full time at a very well respected tech company and have been fortunate with a quick promotion and stock compensation, accumulating around $600k so far -- which would help w/ the debt of school.

Both of my parents are dentists and own their own clinic. Initially, I was pursuing the dental route because I found hands on work appealing and liked the idea of eventually taking over their practice and becoming a business owner. With the rise of AI, I’ve been feeling some regret about my decision to pursue CS, because every time I visit my parents’ clinic I’m reminded of how much I’d enjoy owning and running a practice. Some of this may be influenced by the general sense of “doom” around the tech industry that my peers talk about, but it does feel fairly widespread.

Also, I often hear that dental insurance companies tend to screw over small businesses to maximize profits for themselves, so the number of small businesses is shrinking due to the profit margin straddle -- is this widely felt across the industry?

I’m hoping to get some advice from people in the field to help me better understand whether my thinking makes sense and where my head is at overall.

Thanks!

I think people tend to have a bit of the grass is greener mindset. All over this forum you have dentists encouraging pre-dents to go into tech. Here, you have someone in tech longing to go into dentistry.

I really enjoy it. I make a good income and feel like my work provides a lot of value to patients. I love helping patients and working with my hands. It doesn’t feel like work in the traditional sense. You having a practice to get handed down to you is very attractive. If your goal is to work and build/grow a business, seems like going the dentistry route could be good for you.

People complain about the decreasing insurance reimbursements, the difficult physical nature of the job, and the aspect about dealing with patients. I don’t find it bad. I’m sure you have your own complaints about tech. No job is perfect.

But if your goal is to live a more well balanced life and not have to work so much probably staying in tech is your best bet. If you’re about 25 now and have $600k saved up and you just invest that in VUG or VOO getting say 11%, by the time you’re at social security age of 67 you have $60 million and that’s without ever investing another penny. Whether you realize it or not, you’re probably in a position where you could work a few more years at your salary and not really have to work much more again if you don’t want to.