I'm definitely in a better position financially than I would have been had I stuck with music or teaching English in Japan, but with all the debt and time involved to get my DDS I MIGHT have opted for a programming bootcamp or something. I live in Seattle metro, and there are not even close to enough coders/programmers to fill all the jobs available, but there are plenty of dentist! Student debt was near $450k out of school, but my $200-300k/year before tax/deductions/loan repayment still leaves me in the income-based repayment category! Ha! I did buy into a practice straight out of dental school, though, and I think that was generally a good move.
I guess going by the popular metrics for success, cars, houses, fancy office, vacations and such, I'm doing OK: office is simple but clean and bright, drive newer Mazda's, have a house we love (nothing fancy, but very lucky find for the area), kids in public schools, take one big trip overseas every year to visit family and several smaller trips in the US or Canada. After tax/loans/practice loan I'm probably keeping less $10k/month, though, which is probably what you could make in this area with only a coding certificate and a few years of good experience.
I only work 3 days a week, though, and have plenty of time to spend with my wife and kids. Very important. Work can be stressful sometimes, but that probably comes from having to deal with the corporate aspect of the practice my partner and I paid an arm and a leg for (PM me if you want details on that). Not sure if I'll ever pay off the student loans, though. Had a friend refinance into a private loan, but then some things changed in his life and he was making a lot less but couldn't have his loan payments reduced. Guess he could file bankruptcy now, though, if he wanted. People always advise on SDN to "keep living like a student, pay off your loans as quickly as possible," which is ideal but not always practical. The student loan debacle in the United States is another subject, though, deserving of its own thread.
Anyway, students considering dental school should definitely do the math with a realistic salary in mind before taking the plunge!