How much can a general dentist potentially make?

[btpayne13]

How much can a general dentist who owns his or her own practice make a year?

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[Simiam]

More than 0. Less than 1 Billion. Thanks.

 

[briansle]

How much can a general dentist who owns his or her own practice make a year?

"Median annual wages of salaried general dentists were $142,870 in May 2008. Earnings vary according to number of years in practice, location, hours worked, and specialty. Self-employed dentists in private practice tend to earn more than salaried dentists."

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos072.htm#earnings

This is the one good thing about PBL. They make a habit of doing "learning needs" on anything you want to know.

The above poster is a prick. Some young kid just wants to know how much dentists make, and you get worthless sarcasm right off the bat. Do everyone a favor and kill yourself.

 

[dl9006]

"Median annual wages of salaried general dentists were $142,870 in May 2008. Earnings vary according to number of years in practice, location, hours worked, and specialty. Self-employed dentists in private practice tend to earn more than salaried dentists."

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos072.htm#earnings

This is the one good thing about PBL. They make a habit of doing "learning needs" on anything you want to know.

The above poster is a prick. Some young kid just wants to know how much dentists make, and you get worthless sarcasm right off the bat. Do everyone a favor and kill yourself.

telling someone to go kill himself is a bit harsh, no?

besides the OP could have searched it himself. google it or search one of the numerous threads about salary

 

[briansle]

telling someone to go kill himself is a bit harsh, no?

besides the OP could have searched it himself. google it or search one of the numerous threads about salary

Last time I checked, this a public forum meant to help students who are interested in health professions. Not some kind of exclusive club where you and all your dental school buddies can act like your smarter and better than a pre-dent. People like Simian totally take away from this site. Its meant to be a constructive tool to kids who are interested in our profession. If everytime someone posts a dumb question only to get a smart-ass reply- then what's the point?

If someone has a dumb question - be patient, and just answer it - or don't post anything at all.

 

[dmd87]

do a clist search, starting ranges from 120-170K. avg owner makes 200K according to ADEA.

 

[Simiam]

telling someone to go kill himself is a bit harsh, no?

besides the OP could have searched it himself. google it or search one of the numerous threads about salary

Bingo. This same question is talked about 3 to 4 times on the first 2 pages of "dentistry." Searching wasn't even needed, just scrolling.


Briansle,

1) Good Answer.

2) Done and Done. I'm guessing sarcasm is completely wasted on you, huh?

3) I usually post good answers, but salary questions are the #1 topic that have been beaten, no, obliterated to death. Plus, the statistics on this topic tend to be very skewed. It is difficult to average the salary of an associate working in PP, the salary of someone working for Western Dental, and the salary of a Dentist/owner in Private Practice. The numbers that are released, in my opinion, can be looked at as low ball. This is because many owner operators make more, but claim less. Most likely because a lot of profit gets spent through the business and written off as an "expense."

Good luck to the OP

 

[Daurang]

My CPA said a vast majority net $200k-$250K. In the dentaltown thread, there's one guy near Houston who is netting $1.5M per year only six years out of school; he's complaining of backache and wants to retire early.

 

[DrReo]

My CPA said a vast majority net $200k-$250K. In the dentaltown thread, there's one guy near Houston who is netting $1.5M per year only six years out of school; he's complaining of backache and wants to retire early.

Does he work 7 days a week or what? Burn out seems ever so close.

 

[Blue Panther]

http://www.ada.org/1444.aspx

The average net income for an independent private practitioner who owned all or part of his or her practice in 2007 was $205,960 for a general practitioner and $353,280 for a specialist.

 

[DrJeff]

Bottomline, will you be able to buy a new Ferrari, have your own private jet and live in a 20,000 sq. ft. mega mansion overlooking some glorious body of water or mountain range with what you'll earn as a dentist????? For 99.99% of us in this profession, that answer is "no"

Will you be able to make enough to live a comfortable lifestyle, with a residence in one of the "nicer" areas of where you choose to live, save for the future, and be able to take your kids to Disney once a year without having the bill be a major hit to your lifestyle??? For the majority of dentists, that answer is "yes"

The bottomline is, as a dentist, for the most part, you will be making more $$ than the vast majority of american workers, but without some fiscal restraint, you can also quite easily end up in financial problems

 

[sonofapizzaman]

Bottomline, will you be able to buy a new Ferrari, have your own private jet and live in a 20,000 sq. ft. mega mansion overlooking some glorious body of water or mountain range with what you'll earn as a dentist????? For 99.99% of us in this profession, that answer is "no"

Will you be able to make enough to live a comfortable lifestyle, with a residence in one of the "nicer" areas of where you choose to live, save for the future, and be able to take your kids to Disney once a year without having the bill be a major hit to your lifestyle??? For the majority of dentists, that answer is "yes"

The bottomline is, as a dentist, for the most part, you will be making more $$ than the vast majority of american workers, but without some fiscal restraint, you can also quite easily end up in financial problems

Dr. Jeff, I've seen your posts here and there and they always seem to add a lot to the forum, so thanks. If it's not too personal, can you tell us how much you were in the hole after D school and if you are on a good pace to pay it off (if you haven't already). I ask because I will be 37 (oh God!) before I can practice in NY. I guess I just want some insight.

 

[dentalWorks]

...will you be able to buy a new Ferrari...that answer is "no"

DAMN IT
Time to switch back to pre-med

 

[DrJeff]

Dr. Jeff, I've seen your posts here and there and they always seem to add a lot to the forum, so thanks. If it's not too personal, can you tell us how much you were in the hole after D school and if you are on a good pace to pay it off (if you haven't already). I ask because I will be 37 (oh God!) before I can practice in NY. I guess I just want some insight.

Here you go. My wife (an orthodontist who was my classmate in d-school) and I graduated 13 years ago in '97 with at that time just over 120K in loans. By the time she was done with her residency in 2000, our combined student loan debt was about 160k. We consolidated our loans to a 30 year repayment schedule so as to free up some cash flow initially for things like our 1st home purchase, my down payment on my practice, etc. We made our LAST payment on our loans 2 years ago this July

It's all about doing some planning and getting some advice from a financial planner about handling your debt, since some debt is better than others (i.e. even though it was at a lower interest rate, our financial advisor recommended that my wife and I pay off our student loans before paying additional down extra on our home mortgage since we can deduct the interest from our mortgage, but we can't from out student loans). Once you get that advice and feel comfortable with it, then it comes down to sticking to the plan, remembering the big picture at the end (financial security long term) is very often better than short term gratification (i.e. that new 70" TV )

 

[DrReo]

DAMN IT
Time to switch back to pre-med

You can insert BMW instead for Ferrari then (post-Obama)

 

[Simiam]

Bottomline, will you be able to buy a new Ferrari, have your own private jet and live in a 20,000 sq. ft. mega mansion overlooking some glorious body of water or mountain range with what you'll earn as a dentist????? For 99.99% of us in this profession, that answer is "no"

Will you be able to make enough to live a comfortable lifestyle, with a residence in one of the "nicer" areas of where you choose to live, save for the future, and be able to take your kids to Disney once a year without having the bill be a major hit to your lifestyle??? For the majority of dentists, that answer is "yes"

The bottomline is, as a dentist, for the most part, you will be making more $$ than the vast majority of american workers, but without some fiscal restraint, you can also quite easily end up in financial problems

I think in order to get this you have to make up a fictitious and fanciful science dealing with the death of our planet. Teaching Global warming, wait climate change, wait what are they calling it now? This is how you get all those goodies

 

[dmd87]

DAMN IT
Time to switch back to pre-med

lol, if you want a ferrari better go into banking buddy.