Dentistry Qs

[Lifehouse]

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I'm an incoming college freshman and am interested in pursuing a career in healthcare. Although I'm leaning towards becoming a physician, I've been curious about a career in dentistry. Other than volunteering, what can I do to decide between these two healthcare professions? From my understanding, getting a residency after graduating from a U.S. medical school is almost guaranteed if the student's passed the USMLE. However, it seems that getting any type of residency after dental school is very challenging and is dependent on the student's rank in dental school, along with test scores -- is this true? Also, how do dentists go about setting up a practice and establishing a client base?

 

[PrinceOfPersiA]

I don't know if you know this, but residency is not required to practice general dentistry. It is only required if you want to practice a specialty field, such as ortho or periodontics etc. Furthermore, you can do specialty procedures as a GP but you will simply get paid less by insurance companies and you wont obviously have the extensive training required. CE courses are offered to improve your skills as well so have fun deciding what you want to do.
In regards to your second question... most people work for an established dentist (making aroun $400-500 per day). When they feel they are ready they buy an existing practice (from a soon to be retired practioner), or they get a huge loan and start from scratch. Insurance companies + your own personal PR, public realtions, and advertisements will get you the clientel. Good luck.

 

[dentaldentist]

I'm an incoming college freshman and am interested in pursuing a career in healthcare. Although I'm leaning towards becoming a physician, I've been curious about a career in dentistry. Other than volunteering, what can I do to decide between these two healthcare professions? From my understanding, getting a residency after graduating from a U.S. medical school is almost guaranteed if the student's passed the USMLE. However, it seems that getting any type of residency after dental school is very challenging and is dependent on the student's rank in dental school, along with test scores -- is this true? Also, how do dentists go about setting up a practice and establishing a client base?

Dentistry is a fantastic profession that is often overlooked by most pre-med students who are intent on becoming doctors. The best thing you can do is shadow some dentsits. Do not shadow at just one practice though, see if you can get in with a couple of dentists and a specialist or two as well. Because most dentists run private practices, they can vary greatly in style and feel of the operation. There are many pluses to dentistry over medicine. One is that there is not a required residency as already mentioned. You will get at least 2 full years of clinical training and treating patients while in school and many dental schools are letting their student into the clinics sooner - some even in the first year in a limited fashion. Residency is only required if you choose to go onto a specialty like oral surgery, orthodonitcs, periodontics or others which can be an additional 2 to 4 years. You also get to use your hands a lot more than your typical doctor, unless you become a surgeon. Just name a few other positives of dentistry over medicine include the influence of insurance companies is less in dentistry, dentists make more or about the same as your average physician, most dentists own their practice and most work fewer hours than physicians (many even work only 4 days a week). Of course dentistry is not for everyone, but the best thing you can do right now is just explore your career options by shadowing, asking questions and researching the different aspects of each. Good luck

 

[Lifehouse]

Thank you to both of you for your responses.

dentaldentist: You mentioned that dentists have high salaries. I've visited many dentists and I've noticed they usually employ 2-3 assistants and a receptionist. Am I correct in assuming the salaries for these 2-3 employees come out of the dentist's pocket? I read on one site that an average dentist earns around $100K. Is the $100K before or after paying these 2-3 employees? Thanks again for your help.

 

[Cold Front]

I read on one site that an average dentist earns around $100K. Is the $100K before or after paying these 2-3 employees?

Let me quote you an article I recently came across on the net...

" For all aspiring dentist’s out there, we have good news on the dentist salary front. It is no secret that dentist’s are among the better-paid members of the American Society. One look at the figures provided below give us a fair idea about how much this well respected and often a much-required medical service is valued at (and rightly so, as anyone whoever experienced the tooth pain would aver.) The average income of a dental general practitioner has been pegged at a staggering USD $174,950 per annum while a specialist’s average income was found to be USD $291,250 per annum. This is a pretty decent income, as any of us would agree. If you wish to understand how the average dentists business practice works how to find out dentist salary, here are some more statistics. The average billing of a general practitioner has been found to be USD $550,920 per annum while a specialist’s billing averages USD $778,630 per annum. All you aspiring dentists can get a general idea by taking out your calculators and deducting an average of 61.6 % as practice expenses for a GP and 54.3 % for a specialist. Surely then, a lot of people would find the money a huge draw towards this profession."

Source

 

[Lifehouse]

Thanks for the post and link, Cold Front.

 

[dentaldentist]

Thank you to both of you for your responses.

dentaldentist: You mentioned that dentists have high salaries. I've visited many dentists and I've noticed they usually employ 2-3 assistants and a receptionist. Am I correct in assuming the salaries for these 2-3 employees come out of the dentist's pocket? I read on one site that an average dentist earns around $100K. Is the $100K before or after paying these 2-3 employees? Thanks again for your help.

The pay for hygentists, assistants and receptionists are part of the overhead of a practice. When you see or hear numbers for the amount a dentist earns, that is usually after business related costs including equipment, rent, materials, and employees. If you're making $100k before paying your three employees then things aren't going too well. 😉 And for your average earnings number, $100k is probaby what your average dentist makes right out of school. Dentists who own their own practice and have been established for a while usually make between $150k - $250k (after overhead, but pre-tax).

 

[Sweeti8286]

About residencies--there are one or two year residencies called either GPR (general practice residency) or AEGD (advanced education general dentistry) for people who are fresh out of dental school. These programs are aimed to help the general practicioner gain more experience in certain areas (depends on what the program emphasizes, so when you apply, you need to do a lot of research). They are not required, but many who have done such residency said they enjoyed it and found it helpful...others thought it was unnecessary. It's really what you make out of the experience. Also, the word on the street is there are usually more vacancies than occupants when it comes to GPR or AEGD- of course that depends on how competitive to get into one at a certain location.