I started to realize all of this during dental school, but my dumb pride was too big and wild to let me quit then.
I don't dislike dentistry; but, as you say, I dislike, the state of things very much--which really, it's the state of all of America. The goal is to monopolize every industry; make all the citizens their slaves without calling it such. Long gone are days when dentists payed off their debt in as little as 5 years and owned a practice of their own and live more than comfortably. A couple of wall-streets heads decided to capitalize on that....and now, here we are...corporate take-over...backed by banks and Congress.
I do sometimes greatly wish I had pursued my dream of being an artist and writer and have been content--at least I wouldn't feel so burden with so much debt.
I still wonder what is the best path to take in the modern day education system. The education bubble that we are in makes all fields saturated, high debt, and high interest rate.
I don't think dentistry is quite worth it anymore unless you can go for cheap.
Dental school takes 4 years and 300k+ debt (interest accrues in school and tuition rises every year too)
Here is a thread that goes into the calculations of graduating with 400k debt:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/read-before-applying-to-private-schools.1107045/
That is 10 years of poverty before you pay off your debt. Then you gotta buy a practice in which you gotta go through it all again.
If you buy your practice half way, then you will probably be 600k+ in debt.
The financial stress of becoming a dentist in these modern times is a killer.
Don't forget you probably have to go rural to have a successful practice too.
I wonder what is a better path to take as a young individual.
Go to the best state school you can go to and major in computer science/nursing/accounting debt free vs. 4 years undergrad + 4 years of dental school + 400k debt
Computer science/nursing/accounting majors can make good money in their 20s and 30s without any financial stress. They are also free to move and work anywhere they want (don't have to go rural or geographically restricted). Since they are debt-free, they are not really tied to their jobs. If they hate where they work, they are free to just quit and work somewhere else until they find a place where they love to work.
These fields also caters to people with ambition too.
Computer science majors can go do their own start up.
Accounting majors can get their CPA and open their own firm, get their mba and go into high finance/consulting, or climb the corporate ladder to CFO level.
Nursing majors can get their NP (while working full-time too, no opportunity cost like dental school) and specialize in specialties like psychiatry.
Since they don't have to go through 4 years of dental school and incur 400k debt, they start making money faster and start saving for retirement faster.
They can also invest in real estate and start their own side business if they want to too. If they fail, they will be okay because they can just declare bankruptcy and walk away. You can't say the same with dentist locked down by 400k+ student loans.
They only con is that you have to give up the doctor title and the prestige that comes with it.
I think dentistry might be the better path in your 40's but do you really want to go through that stress in your 20's and 30's to get there? I think it is much better to live stress free and enjoy life in your 20's and 30's.
If we are debating medicine vs. dentistry, I would say medicine. The supply of doctor is controlled by the number of residencies which is tied to government funding. That means medicine can never really get saturated unless they increase suddenly the number of residencies available. Medicine is unlike other college majors and professional schools because they are totally unaffected by the education bubble. Sure the school prices has risen a lot, but as long as the number of graduates is less than the number of residencies, they will be okay.
PSLF is also another reason to choose medicine over dentistry. You don't really have to look at the finances with PSLF. You can just focus on being a good clinician and not worry so much about student loans or whether your practices fails or not.
The final reason to choose medicine over dentistry is that in America, everyone is required to have health insurance (unless you want to be penalized by the government). This means you have just about an unlimited supply of patients. You can't say the same about dentistry. In dentistry, you will have to fighting other dentists and corporations for patients.
