Job Outlook for General Practitioners

[PerseveranceJoe]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello,

I am a graduating senior in biomedical engineering looking into the dental field. I have a general question about the job outlook of new dentists graduating in a couple years and how tough the market is. Can any current dentists tell me how the job market is right now?

I know there is an oversaturation issues in big cities, but is it possible to not be able to open up a clinic and/or find a job that can pay off the loans?

I know what I want in a career and dentistry seems to provide that. I have also done some research online about this issue, but all I see is the issue of oversaturation.

 

[rev_rend]

The BLS projects growth out to at least 2022, so the outlook nationwide isn't terrible.

Take the opinions you find with a grain of salt. It seems like you can easily find dentists in any age group who heard it declared in dental school that the golden age had passed or who have decided based on their own experiences that it is now over. I know at least a handful of dentists personally, including my father, who are really happy with how their careers have progressed and think the outlook is good. They're mostly busier spending their free time enjoying their lives than they are warning others away from dentistry.

What you should probably take from all that is that there is a lot of variability. Generally, cities will probably be a bit more saturated. Less populated areas generally aren't, and according to some, offer higher incomes and lower cost of living.

If you really want to get a handle on the outlook, you might want to think about where you want to work and the type of setting in which you want to work.

 

[johnho771]

The Levin Dental Group does some nice surveys that generally show how things are moving in dentistry. They also do a nice breakdown of practicing in an urban environment vs. small town, and show that the "you make more in rural small towns" argument does not necessarily hold.

http://levingroup.com/pdf/desurvey/2013/Nov_DE_LGsurvey2.pdf