I'm 35 With $130K Debt. Is Dental School Even An Option?

[Southpaw9519]

Hey Folks,

First post, so apologies if you've answered this several times. I couldn't find too much with my specific scenario, so thought I'd bother y'all. I turn 35 in 3 days and have been kicking around the thought of dental school since I was 25. Each year I think the feeling will go away, but instead I feel a massive hole of regret for not doing it sooner. My question to y'all is simple. It comes down to numbers to me, as I've been in Accounting for 10 years, and a few facts.

Current Standing:

- I make $120k now, but very tired of the late night grind and would love to switch to a dentist's schedule. Not to mention, to break the ceiling and make $150k+, I'll need to sell my soul and never see my 5 yo son. Not want I want.
- With my wife included, I have $130k in student loan debt
- Will need a post-bacc and shadowing to be considered
- Doubt I would be able to start practicing until I turn 41/42

Questions:

- If I start practicing at 42 and work until I'm 72 (oof), does a dentist make enough to cover all the debt and still lead a financially stable life?
- Are there certain options/plans to work harder in the beginning to offset some of the debt, then slow down post 50/55?
- Would love to eventually own my own practice/join a partnership. Does coming in with massive debt make this thought ridiculous?
- I'm passionate about leaving something behind for my son, but also want to be able to support him through his teens and early 20's. Will we be eating beans and rice until he's out of highschool?

Overall, I am just looking for a few of you that have seen or heard from others where dentists land financially, provided they do x,y, and z. Google searches have proved unreliable. I now feel like I have smallpox and 8 different types of cancer, but still no clue on if I'm too old or too encumbered by debt to consider applying.

Phew. I know that was a lot. But thanks for reading! Please let me know anything that would help me feel more confident in making a decision, whether that be a yes or no.

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[Mr.Smile12]

You have a family with a 5 year old son. Any other children?

What does your financial planner say about adding another 600K in debt to debts you have (house, car) plus other debts anticipated (private school, sports or hobbies/camps, family vacations, college, new children, etc.)? Loan interest rates?

Could you become a dental hygienist or other dental assistant (ultimately expanded function DA)? That shortens your training time.

 

[HKSZYU]

- If I start practicing at 42 and work until I'm 72 (oof), does a dentist make enough to cover all the debt and still lead a financially stable life?
Let's say between a post-bacc and an averagely expensive dental school, you take out an additional [conservative] $320k in loans. That's now $450k in loans. Can you pay back $450k in loans starting at 42 on a dentist earnings? Yes. Would you want to? Ehh. $450k loan at 6-8% interest on 30 year repayment would mean you're repaying $2.5-3.5k a month for 30 years. Let's say your average dentist salary over that time period is $250k, ~$175k after taxes, and ~$140k after loan repayment. At 42, you have a lot of things to service with that $140k. You've gotta save relatively aggressively for retirement, save for your kids college, save for a house (if you don't already have one), and purchase or buy into a practice, all while dealing with the expenses of raising a child and supporting a family. I don't know what your current take home pay is, but will the bump in take-home pay from dentistry off-set the increased expenses that come from the loans, lost retirement interest, and practice costs? Not to mention you'll have lost ~$600k of potential earnings due to the fact that you won't be receiving your $120k salary for the ~4-5 years of postbacc and dental school.

- Are there certain options/plans to work harder in the beginning to offset some of the debt, then slow down post 50/55?
Sure. You can absolutely work more hours straight out of dental school at corporate office or as an associate. I know new grads that work 6 days a week with a patchwork of corporate and associate gigs, bring in good money, then aggressively pay down their loans. But your intention for moving into dentistry largely seemed lifestyle related, so that seems to kinda defeat the purpose of this switch? Especially because a lot of those heavy hour schedules would be when your son is still young, so you'd still be missing out on being with him. Dental earnings tend to increase with time because A) you get faster and more productive and B) you eventually transition to ownership, where you'll have a lot more control over your earnings.

- Would love to eventually own my own practice/join a partnership. Does coming in with massive debt make this thought ridiculous?
No. Many (most?) young dentists that are getting into ownership these days still have student debt. In fact, if the goal is to maximize your income and autonomy, ownership earlier rather than later makes sense. Getting business loans may be more challenging with a high student debt load, but not impossible.

- I'm passionate about leaving something behind for my son, but also want to be able to support him through his teens and early 20's. Will we be eating beans and rice until he's out of highschool?
It depends. Using the rough numbers from above, you'll likely have about $140k take home. You could put a lot of that towards investments, retirement, college fund, etc. and set yourself and your son up nicely for the future, but lifestyle would take a hit in that scenario. On the far opposite, you could spend a lot now, have a lot of fun with your son while he's young but not be in as great of a position later on. Realistically, you'd need to find a balance between those two extremes. If you live in a relatively low cost of living area and your idea of a pleasant life doesn't require super expensive things, then I think this balance will be easier to achieve.

Overall, I usually fall into the the "it's never too late" camp, but in this scenario, I'm on the fence. You'd be carrying a lot of debt into your 40s and 50s. The big difference between working as a dentist for 30 years starting at 26 versus 42 is youth and time. Dentistry is quite physical, and while I'm fine doing this in my 30s, I don't know if I'd still want to be bent over a chair cranking out high production in my 60s. When you start so late though, you don't have a choice. You either will have to really grind early in your career, pay down the loans early, and likely miss a lot of time with your son in the process, or be chained to dentistry for a long time. And because you started making income later, your investments won't have as much time to work for you.

Over 30 years, will your net worth from dentistry be higher than if you'd stayed in accounting. Probably yes. Will you have many years of stress, debt, reduced lifestyle, delayed retirement, golden handcuffs to dentistry, and decreased time with your son when he's young to acquire this increase in said net worth? Also probably yes.

I know nothing about the accounting industry so I don't know how realistic this is, but I'd probably start by looking into if there are other accounting jobs that have better work life balance that you might enjoy more. You already have a $120k/year salary. Just based on your post, I feel like you could get the fulfillment that you're looking for from a lateral career move in your current industry and taking up some hobbies.

 

[D1Bound]

You would not get to work a chill dentist's schedule. That is a fantasy that you see. The dentists that enjoy that lifestyle are older that went to school when it cost $50 a semester, or, are a really high paying specialist. A graduate right now in 2024 can expect to work extremely hard when they get out. They have to take CE and learn the skills to be able to make big money. I won't repeat the whole discussion about the insane upstart cost to become a dentist. Opportunity cost is just huge. Dentistry is also physically pretty difficult. You can do it. You can become a dentist. Make sure that it's worth it

 

[charlestweed]

OP, why haven’t you been able to pay off your $130k student debt with your current income? How long have you had this good paying $120k/year job? If you have a hard time to pay off the $130k student loan debt amount with this $120k/year salary, I think it will be much more difficult for you to pay off a $450-500k debt (the current price tag for attending most dental schools) even if you’ll make twice as much (working as a dentist) as you make now.

Dentistry is a hard job. Many of my dental dental colleagues have had hand and back pain from practicing dentistry. And they are only in their 40s, 50s. They have to continue to work to save for their retirements…to keep up with the more expensive lifestyle (due to inflation). You can easily earn $120k/year working 3-4 days/wk as a dentist but this is not enough. You will need to make at least $300k if you have $4-500k debt. And to make that much as a dentist, you will have to work 6-7 days/wk. I didn’t stop working 6 days/wk until I turned 49…..that’s more than 20 years.

I would just keep the current job and pay off the debt ASAP if I were you. Once all your debts are paid off, you can afford to work less and spend time with your son. Kids grow up fast….enjoy them while you can. My youngest one has just turned 19 and I rarely see him because he’s attending college away from home. You are 35. You don't understand the impact of aging. Trust me! Your body and health will not be the same 10-20 years from now. There will be ache and pain that won’t go away. It’ll be hard to work as a dentist in your late 50s. It's not just the physical stress but also the mental stress as well......patients threaten to sue you, report you the dental board, debt repayments, the assistants no show or quit on you, the landlord keeps raising the rents etc.

I recently met a dentist who graduated from dental school at 47. He has 3 kids. The reason he could afford to do that is his wife also earns good income….she’s a physician. Prior to attending dental school, he had worked and saved money to pay for dental school. He bought a cheap run down dental practice right after graduation. He also works for the corp to supplement his income. He’s a very quick learner. He can do complex procedures like placing/restoring implants and molar endos.

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

and work until I'm 72 (oof)

What happens when the chronic musculoskeletal pain kicks in long before that?

Big Hoss

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What happens when the chronic musculoskeletal pain kicks in long before that?

Big Hoss

We all wish we could move like Dick van **** [Mary Poppins] (98 y.y.)...

 

[btou113]

I am 36, located nyc with two kids. just finished dat in oct AA24 TS25, mortgage debt 130k. I still apply this cycle, I do not think it is an issue with debt.

 

[LFA20]

No

 

[Ivy.ch]

I am 36, located nyc with two kids. just finished dat in oct AA24 TS25, mortgage debt 130k. I still apply this cycle, I do not think it is an issue with debt.

Hope you’re not attending the NYC school of dental misery.

OP, I wouldn’t if I were you. The debt would be insane, and your salary won’t be drastically higher.

 

[btou113]

Hope you’re not attending the NYC school of dental misery.

OP, I wouldn’t if I were you. The debt would be insane, and your salary won’t be drastically higher.

The funny thing that I attended nyu for postbacc and nyu never send me invitation lol. So far I have one interview only, with Rutgers last Friday, most of school completion in Nov. I am not sure that if I need to reapply for next cycle.

 

[macsak]

The funny thing that I attended nyu for postbacc and nyu never send me invitation lol. So far I have one interview only, with Rutgers last Friday, most of school completion in Nov. I am not sure that if I need to reapply for next cycle.

how did the rutgers interview go?

 

[btou113]

how did the rutgers interview go?

To be honest, I like Rutgers. People are nice. I was interviewed with a director. We had lot of interaction, like kids, business, school and some personal. Very laidback.

 

[macsak]

To be honest, I like Rutgers. People are nice. I was interviewed with a director. We had lot of interaction, like kids, business, school and some personal. Very laidback.

ok cool
good luck with an acceptance
let's not derail this thread
sorry OP