If there's one thing I absolutely cannot stand, it's people who speak with authority on topics about which they have virtually no fact-based knowledge.
First off, general dentists make more than all the primary care physicians, more than ER physicians, and even more than many OB's. Don't look at the statistics quoted on many websites, because they are plain wrong. Dentists tend to underreport their incomes, and non-self employed dentists (whose incomes are included in the average) are generally underpaid. A dentist owning his own practice will make more money than a primary care physician owning his own practice--and for a number of reasons.
Dental specialists are notorious for their high income. Let me put it to you this way:
As a general dentist, I perform a lot of surgery, including surgical removal of wisdom teeth. Four full-bony-impacted surgical wisdom teeth extractions take me about 30 minutes to perform. Our office fee for them is $350 per tooth. That's $1400 for 30 minutes worth of work. There may be some insurance write-offs, and of course, the patient does actually occupy the chair for 45 minutes to an hour, so let us say that we make $1200 for an hour's worth of work. That's a lot of money to rake in from an hour's work. An oral and maxillofacial surgeon can perform this procedure in about 15 minutes, plus an additional 30 minutes for sedation (which adds another $300 to the procedure) and recovery. Moreover, their fees are higher. Hence, and oral surgeon extracting four full-bony wisdom teeth will hit the patient with a fee of $1800 or $1900 for an hour's worth of work. And, that's mostly what they do. Extract teeth, especially wisdom teeth. At minimum three to four cases per day, plus all the implants, bone grafts, etc. etc. You do the math.
Look at orthodontists. Orthodontists charge $3000 give or take for braces. Few take any insurance, so they get paid every penny. And, they have hundreds of cases running simultaneously. Their assistants carry out all the scut-work, and all the orthodontist does is plan the treatment. Hence, he can see many, many patients during the work day. You do the math.
Look at endodontists. Ball-washing SOBs do nothing but root canals at 150% to 200% the fee of a general dentist. An endodontist spends 30 minutes to one hour performing a root canal for which he charges the patient at bare minimum $700 for a single-canal'ed tooth to $2000 for a molar. And they do this nonstop during the day. You do the math.
Look at pediatric dentists They take the undesirable patients. The patients who must have dental work but cannot be seen by a general dentist. They can charge whatever they want for any procedure! You do the math.
And (drum roll please)......unlike medical specialists who work well over 40 hours per week and take call, most dental professionals work about 32 hours a week and don't take call. Oral surgeons take some call, but it's much easier than it is for their medicine counterparts. If dentists worked the number of hours physicians work, we'd blow the medical profession clear out of the water with regard to income.
I'm two years into practice, I work 32 hours a week, and I make over $170k working for someone else. If I owned the practice, I'd be well over $250k.
I want to be able to help sick people recover and heal...and be there for them when they die.
and assume the position.
