Dentistry or Academia

[oscar11]

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Hello all,

To the practicing dentists out there, I'm just curious if you would do it all again? I was recently admitted to a business Ph.D. program in order to start the road to academia. Lately though, I've been thinking more and more about dentistry, and wondering if this is the field that would be the better fit. I'm interested in dentistry because of the service to others, autonomy, and potential to put my business background to use as a practice owner one day. I've read quite a bit about the student debt, but to honest that will exist in either profession. Mainly I'm curious about the following:

1. How much flexibility in scheduling does dentistry provide? Do some work longer hours and condense into fewer days per week? Do many dentists practice part time once loans are paid off?

2. Do you continue to find the field interesting after 10-20 years?

3. Is there ample opportunity to teach periodically in dental schools (and would your schedule allow for it)?

4. Would it be too late to go to dental school at 31 or 32 years old?

Just thought I would get the input from current dentists/dental students. Thanks!

 

[UCSFx2017]

Quite a few people here started dental school at a decently old age. Every profession becomes monotonous with time. With expertise and experience comes boredom. Wouldn't it be worrisome if a dentist with 35-years of experience was surprised and intrigued by some problem in your mouth? You would expect this dentist to have seen everything with 35-years in the field.

If you want a good consensus on whether you should go into dentistry at an old age, you should check out the DentalTown forums. From my frequent visits there, there are a lot of tried, frustrated, cynical dentists. But you kind of expect that in a forum. The happy dentists are out there enjoying their lives, not frequenting forums. There are a few happy ones there as well but they're just there to help.

If you look at the clinical faculty at a given dental school, you'll find a bunch of old retired folk who volunteer their precious time. I think you're required to have like five years of working experience if you're going to be a full-time/part-time clinical faculty.

Your flexibility is entirely dependent on how much debt you have, your overhead, and how much output you want to produce. If you went to one of many dental schools that cost $300-400K coming out, your monthly loan repayment is >$6,300 for ten years. Most people with this unfortunate position opt for the ridiculous 30-year plan. That $300-400K principal ends up being >$900K under the 30-year plan. IBR is a good option (10% of salary for 20 years with the remaining debt after the 20-years being covered by the tax payers).

I'm going to assume you haven't completed the prerequisites so you'll have to add another 2-years doing a post-bacc.

 

[charlestweed]

Since I am an orthodontist, my responses may be significantly different from those of the general dentists.

1. Not very flexible if you work for someone else. Initially, I chose to work on weekends to attract more patients for my new business. Now that most of my patients are spoiled with the weekend appointments; it's very hard to convince them to come on weekdays. I paid off my $450k student loans 6 years ago and I am still working 5 days/week. It's never enough. There are a lot of things to spend on.....such as 401k saving, college savings, business loan payments, home mortgage payments, other real estate investments, satellite offices etc. You have to invest in other things because the income from dentistry alone will not allow you to retire comfortably. Someone mentioned on the other post that one cannot get rich doing dentistry and I agree with that person.

2. As the above poster pointed out, every profession becomes monotonous with time. I actually like the monotony in my job. I am lazy. I like to do the same uncomplicated procedures every day. As long as I don't hate my job, that's good enough for me.

3. Don't have the answer for this since I never like teaching.

4. No, it's not too late. My classmate (a former engineer) started dental school when he was 40 years old. By the time he finished his ortho residency, he turned 46. He currently owns 2 very successful ortho practices in SoCal. He is much more successful than I am because he didn't have any student loan. He started his own practice many years before I started mine.

 

[oscar11]

1. Not very flexible if you work for someone else. Initially, I chose to work on weekends to attract more patients for my new business. Now that most of my patients are spoiled with the weekend appointments; it's very hard to convince them to come on weekdays. I paid off my $450k student loans 6 years ago and I am still working 5 days/week. It's never enough. There are a lot of things to spend on.....such as 401k saving, college savings, business loan payments, home mortgage payments, other real estate investments, satellite offices etc. You have to invest in other things because the income from dentistry alone will not allow you to retire comfortably. Someone mentioned on the other post that one cannot get rich doing dentistry and I agree with that person.

I've read that student debt loads have quite an impact on dental careers and if/when dentists can open their own practice. Out of curiosity, how much of your debt came from tuition and fees vs. cost of living? If my wife were working during my schooling and covering living expenses, would that help keep my debt down at all?

 

[UCSFx2017]

I've read that student debt loads have quite an impact on dental careers and if/when dentists can open their own practice. Out of curiosity, how much of your debt came from tuition and fees vs. cost of living? If my wife were working during my schooling and covering living expenses, would that help keep my debt down at all?

You didn't ask me but you can figure this out pretty easily (add/multiply), especially since you already have a business background. All the schools post the cost-of-attendance online. Fixed-costs = tuition + fees + instruments

 

[145bluz]

I have been practicing dental medicine (GP) for 25+ yrs.

!. Hours can be flexible but need to put in some time before you are at that point-especially with own practice. You can work more or less but your income will vary accordingly. Dont forget your patients work as well. You need to be somewhat available for them.

2. Field is still interesting. It is what you make of it. Like any profession they is the possibility of burnout. If you are aware of this and are self motivated that should not be a problem.

3. There is ample opportunity to teach but you will not get paid for only one day/week. That is considered volunteer. Teaching is very poor pay compared to private practice.

4. No. 30ish is not late. It could limit your choices from an economic point of view. I would recommend a state school if possible to save some money.

2.