Google lies when it comes to salaries

[AvrgPreMedKid]

We've all done it, right? You hear about a specialty, then type it in on Google, followed by the word, "salary." You probably click the link that is "www1.salary..." or something like that (it has a "1" in it). I'm a pre-med student, first of all, and I've checked just about every physician specialty's salary, with a grain of salt. I always expected to give or take $50k from the numbers they say; however, I was shocked when I looked up "Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon salary" today. I should have done it sooner.

My uncle is a maxillofacial surgeon (M.D., D.D.S.) with his own practice. We are very close, so he is open about everything, including his salary. Since he has been in private practice, he has taken home no less than $50k per month - OVER $600,000 A YEAR !! Also, he will start doing some plastic procedures pretty soon, and says he'll be taking home around 1 mill once he does. According to the sources I have been using, Oral Maxillofacial surgeons make around 200-250k per year. I'm wondering what other specialties I have been misled about now. Who wants to be a Maxillofacial Surgeon now??? It's just another 6 years after dental school!

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[sjv]

Easier said than done.

 

[B0wMNj]

ask your uncle what he actually puts on his tax returns, because I am guessing he doesn't pay tax on all of his income. Welcome to the corrupt world of the business side of dentistry. This is why you see 200-250k. Just my guess

 

[WastedTime]

ask your uncle what he actually puts on his tax returns, because I am guessing he doesn't pay tax on all of his income. Welcome to the corrupt world of the business side of dentistry. This is why you see 200-250k. Just my guess

corrupt or financially smart?

 

[B0wMNj]

corrupt or financially smart?

I like to say corrupt, but only because its the "accepted" term. Personally its financially smart seeing how much of our tax money is being wasted and going to people who may not deserve it would make me very reluctant to pay taxes on my full income if I was self-employed.

 

[ktran17]

It's not like all the profits of the LLC is your uncle's salary. Part of the profits goes to reinvesting in the corporation and that is why owning is always better than being an employee.

 

[DentalDoge]

That's why you shadow, shadow, shadow and hear the information first hand from surgeons if theyre willing to spill the beans on their method of practice. Sounds like your uncle does alot more than what normal ORMF surgeons do. Offering a variety of services to your clients will obviously increase your income.

 

[Bottle]

Sure .. lets drop by D.MD/MD program and be like yo dawg, where is da green

 

[DentalDoge]

Sure .. lets drop by D.MD/MD program and be like yo dawg, where is da green

Yo man, my OMFS is my homie yo. We tight. He literally told me "we are makin' money today"

 

[Papasmurf1234]

Usually those reported salaries aren't verified, and usually they are inflated. Also, "google" does not lie. Google is a search engine.

 

[DentalDoge]

"google" does not lie. Google is a search engine.

My life is a lie. Nothing is real.

 

[dentalWorks]

We've all done it, right? You hear about a specialty, then type it in on Google, followed by the word, "salary." You probably click the link that is "www1.salary..." or something like that (it has a "1" in it). I'm a pre-med student, first of all, and I've checked just about every physician specialty's salary, with a grain of salt. I always expected to give or take $50k from the numbers they say; however, I was shocked when I looked up "Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon salary" today. I should have done it sooner.

My uncle is a maxillofacial surgeon (M.D., D.D.S.) with his own practice. We are very close, so he is open about everything, including his salary. Since he has been in private practice, he has taken home no less than $50k per month - OVER $600,000 A YEAR !! Also, he will start doing some plastic procedures pretty soon, and says he'll be taking home around 1 mill once he does. According to the sources I have been using, Oral Maxillofacial surgeons make around 200-250k per year. I'm wondering what other specialties I have been misled about now. Who wants to be a Maxillofacial Surgeon now??? It's just another 6 years after dental school!

it doesn't work that way.

the averages posted on google (or whatever national survey you are seeing) are just that.... averages.

A general dentist in the USA averages about 150-170k per yet. Yet, I have not spoken to a single fulltime dentist with 10+ years of experience who doesn't net a minimum of 180k (fyi, that means his gross is about 250-300k).

with dentistry, sure the specialty will "almost" guaratnee a higher-than-GP salary average, but at the end of the day, the amount of money you make (in any specialty) is predominately dictated by how many hours you are willing to work, the more days+hours you put into your job, the more money you make.

 

[AvrgPreMedKid]

it doesn't work that way.

the averages posted on google (or whatever national survey you are seeing) are just that.... averages.

A general dentist in the USA averages about 150-170k per yet. Yet, I have not spoken to a single fulltime dentist with 10+ years of experience who doesn't net a minimum of 180k (fyi, that means his gross is about 250-300k).

with dentistry, sure the specialty will "almost" guaratnee a higher-than-GP salary average, but at the end of the day, the amount of money you make (in any specialty) is predominately dictated by how many hours you are willing to work, the more days+hours you put into your job, the more money you make.

Well, I wasn't just looking at their averages, I was looking at their upper and lower 10%, as well. Still nowhere close.

 

[anbuitachi]

it doesn't work that way.

the averages posted on google (or whatever national survey you are seeing) are just that.... averages.

A general dentist in the USA averages about 150-170k per yet. Yet, I have not spoken to a single fulltime dentist with 10+ years of experience who doesn't net a minimum of 180k (fyi, that means his gross is about 250-300k).

with dentistry, sure the specialty will "almost" guaratnee a higher-than-GP salary average, but at the end of the day, the amount of money you make (in any specialty) is predominately dictated by how many hours you are willing to work, the more days+hours you put into your job, the more money you make.

so how can the average be 150-170k if no one/few makes under that. you'd have to get a lot under that # to balance out those making 300k++. where do these #s come from...

 

[ktran17]

so how can the average be 150-170k if no one/few makes under that. you'd have to get a lot under that # to balance out those making 300k++. where do these #s come from...

Community health clinics, faculty positions, depending on certain surveys (residency salary) etc..

 

[AvrgPreMedKid]

ask your uncle what he actually puts on his tax returns, because I am guessing he doesn't pay tax on all of his income. Welcome to the corrupt world of the business side of dentistry. This is why you see 200-250k. Just my guess

Notice I said "take home." That's what he gets after taxes.

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

ITT: People think average means top 5%.

 

[Silent Cool]

We've all done it, right? You hear about a specialty, then type it in on Google, followed by the word, "salary." You probably click the link that is "www1.salary..." or something like that (it has a "1" in it). I'm a pre-med student, first of all, and I've checked just about every physician specialty's salary, with a grain of salt. I always expected to give or take $50k from the numbers they say; however, I was shocked when I looked up "Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon salary" today. I should have done it sooner.

My uncle is a maxillofacial surgeon (M.D., D.D.S.) with his own practice. We are very close, so he is open about everything, including his salary. Since he has been in private practice, he has taken home no less than $50k per month - OVER $600,000 A YEAR !! Also, he will start doing some plastic procedures pretty soon, and says he'll be taking home around 1 mill once he does. According to the sources I have been using, Oral Maxillofacial surgeons make around 200-250k per year. I'm wondering what other specialties I have been misled about now. Who wants to be a Maxillofacial Surgeon now??? It's just another 6 years after dental school!

Just curious:

Where does your uncle practice?
How many years has he been in practice?
OMFS can definitely make bank, but 1 mil sounds like a lot.

 

[dentalWorks]

so how can the average be 150-170k if no one/few makes under that. you'd have to get a lot under that # to balance out those making 300k++. where do these #s come from...

not all dentists work as clinicians. A good number of our school's fulltime faculty are dentist in their late 40s and early 50s (thats not old at all). My understanding is, the faculty salary is NO WHERE near private practice, I think schools pay them 90k or 100k (forgot exactly). And thats not all, many dentists work in insurance companies and MAKE GREAT MONEY (like $200+ an hour) but its parttime (so overall pay isn't as high as you expect). On top of all that, dentists tend to lower their working hours as they age (back issues, carpel tunnel, reduced vision, etc etc), this also contributes to lower salaries.

I engage in private conversations with some of our faculty, most of them share the same ole story "I did dentistry for 25+ years, I no longer need/want the money so now I am teaching".

This is probably why the averages are off.

 

[Cello]

In my state you can easily look up the salaries of medical doctors and dentists employed by the state. The salaries shown are mostly a lot higher than the averages shown on Google. The only exceptions would be some of the medical fellows. Several of our neurosurgeons take home over $1 mil, and our orthopods earn no less than $400k it seems (with many earning into the $650k range). The few dentists who work for the university earn around $250k but work very few hours.

 

[Triflate]

We've all done it, right? You hear about a specialty, then type it in on Google, followed by the word, "salary." You probably click the link that is "www1.salary..." or something like that (it has a "1" in it). I'm a pre-med student, first of all, and I've checked just about every physician specialty's salary, with a grain of salt. I always expected to give or take $50k from the numbers they say; however, I was shocked when I looked up "Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon salary" today. I should have done it sooner.

My uncle is a maxillofacial surgeon (M.D., D.D.S.) with his own practice. We are very close, so he is open about everything, including his salary. Since he has been in private practice, he has taken home no less than $50k per month - OVER $600,000 A YEAR !! Also, he will start doing some plastic procedures pretty soon, and says he'll be taking home around 1 mill once he does. According to the sources I have been using, Oral Maxillofacial surgeons make around 200-250k per year. I'm wondering what other specialties I have been misled about now. Who wants to be a Maxillofacial Surgeon now??? It's just another 6 years after dental school!

Vision, without execution, is hallucination.

 

[AvrgPreMedKid]

Just curious:

Where does your uncle practice?
How many years has he been in practice?
OMFS can definitely make bank, but 1 mil sounds like a lot.

He practices in a small town in Virginia. He has been in private practice now for 4 years. Remember, he's a DDS and an MD. He has a lot of surgical training. The 1 mill is what he estimated once he starts adding the plastic procedures into his practice (blephs, botox, etc).

 

[DentalDoge]

All OMFS surgeon are, for all intends and purposes, surgeons and go through all the training any surgeon requires. So yeah if he feels like doing plastic surgery he can.

The OMFS surgeons in the navy normally dont pull wisdom teeth. They do reconstructive surgery from IED blasts and bullet wounds.

 

[tooth knockn]

WAIT, GOOGLE LIES......... I AM SO NOT GOING TO BE GOOGLES BFF..... UGH, LIARS

 

[#kalel]

I know an orthodontist that makes more than that (pretty well known here in SF, easy to google him too). Anecdotal but still, that's all it is "anecdotal", hence N=1.
I.e. not the norm.
I.e. not the average.
I.e. 2-3 standard deviations from the mean.

Google posts the means. Capiche?

 

[DentalDoge]

I know an orthodontist that makes more than that. Anecdotal but still, that's all it is "anecdotal", hence N=1.
I.e. not the norm.
I.e. not the average.
I.e. 2-3 standard deviations from the mean.

Google posts the means. Capiche?

Exactly. Also SALARY.COM/FORBES.COM post the means. ftfy

Salary.com also posts standard devs.

 

[pilotdentist]

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291021.htm
This has all the info you need on general dentist income. You can look up the same stats for OMFS and other specialties. The AVG salaries are higher for specialists but not by that much.

 

[Datooth]

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291021.htm
This has all the info you need on general dentist income. You can look up the same stats for OMFS and other specialties. The AVG salaries are higher for specialists but not by that much.

IIRC, this is for employed dentists not practice owners (which is what really matters).

 

[Silent Cool]

IIRC, this is for employed dentists not practice owners (which is what really matters).

I believe that link includes all tax paying dentists, which means employed, self-employed, etc....

 

[yappy]

ask your uncle what he actually puts on his tax returns, because I am guessing he doesn't pay tax on all of his income. Welcome to the corrupt world of the business side of dentistry. This is why you see 200-250k. Just my guess

Why is taking advantage of tax laws & running a business "corrupt"?

 

[DentalDoge]

Why is taking advantage of tax laws & running a business "corrupt"?

Im pretty sure what he's describing is fraud.

 

[wb1]

I R S could be reading this.

 

[FancyFloss]

My life is a lie. Nothing is real.

Cake is a lie.

 

[hitmans45]

Cake is a lie.

The companion cube is love.

 

[IsaacYankem]

 

[elhammy]

you can be an OMFS, go to school for 6 more years than a regular dentist, and have a gross income similar to a dentist who has opened 2 offices WHILE you have studied for 6 extra years. All in all, it comes down to what you want to do rather than the money. The dentists I know are general dentists and make 1mil+.