outlook of dentistry

[twitchyzero]

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hello SDN community,

non-traditional applicant early 30s and going to DS has always been a goal of mine.

have my BSc in hygiene and coming up on a decade in the field; hitting the glass ceiling short of starting a practice (my jurisdiction allows for it)

i've been conflicted with this back-to-school plan-- if it's still worthwhile from an investment point of view (going into substantial debt and, 6+ years including prep/prereq of prime family-starting & earning years) now with even higher overhead and reduced patients per day

quite a few dentists/cda/hygienists have retired early for the post COVID world

i'm wondering if it's smarter to just use the debt to buy into a practice/start one

or if the other side of the coin: a few years of pandemic setback does not have much impact on a long 3 decades of career left

no one has a crystal ball but i'm open to some feedback

Thank you

 

[dentistrydmd]

If you can get into a cheap in-state school and can graduate with around 200-250k in debt it would not be a bad idea. If it is significantly higher than that I wouldn't recommend doing so. Health-care will always have a need and people want to keep their teeth, however increasingly unaffordable tuition with high interests don't make financial sense to me (and many other people on this forum). Dental salaries continue to decline, so the benefits of graduating as a dentist are not nearly as good as they once were.

 

[endodonia]

why do you want to be a dentist?

since you have worked in the field, what type of dentist do you want to be? public health? pediatric? restorative dentist? surgeon? etc...

how much debt do you have?

How much in savings/ retirement/ etc do you have?

from your post it sounds like you are concerned with the financial ROI from going to dental school. this is fine, and in fact good, that you are thinking of it from this point of view.

your question can't be answered in a vacuum. I know plenty of people who return to the field for the "prestige" (of which I think there is little BTW, so a bad reason to do it) and they simply are not satisfied with being an "xyz" in their life (engineer, science teacher, whatever). don't limit yourself to entering dentistry unless that is what you want. if it's healthcare you seek there are many other great professions to pursue with a potentially better ROI and similar prestige (physician assistant, nurse anesthetist, MD/DO)

dental tuition is increasing, insurances are paying less, staff are demanding more and are harder to manage/ don't want to work any harder than they have to, patients respect for dentists is arguably eroding, many patients will seek out inexpensive care and, in my opinion, are becoming more difficult to treat (and please). Patients don't want to pay $$ for dentistry. they want insurance to cover everything, and insurance is covering less and paying less. plus there are more dentists graduating and the "access to care" buzz word you hear of is not a thing in my opinion (I believe we have enough dentists in this country already= more competition)

get someone who is good with #'s to plug in your current financial situation and assume scenario (A): you contribute xyz dollars to retirement on top of your current income and retirement and return 9% in the market year over year or whatever % return you want to use (id recommend being conservative with this %) vs scenario (B): you depreciate your net worth (investing money in school, loans, interest, paying it back) and then take an assumed salary of say $150K after 6 years with some room for growth in income and then insert investment #'s, as well as debt pay back #'s, like in scenario (A) above. you might want to plug in a scenario (C) in there too as a potential practice owner (harder to control for many reasons, do this both as a hygiene practice owner and a dentist starting 6 years later with student loan debt and lost income) and see how the numbers work out.

that's what I'd do. I'm not going to tell you to go or not to go. that's a decision for you to make.

best.

 

[Noname96]

If you can get into a cheap in-state school and can graduate with around 200-250k in debt it would not be a bad idea. If it is significantly higher than that I wouldn't recommend doing so. Health-care will always have a need and people want to keep their teeth, however increasingly unaffordable tuition with high interests don't make financial sense to me (and many other people on this forum). Dental salaries continue to decline, so the benefits of graduating as a dentist are not nearly as good as they once were.

pre or post interest?

 

[oralcare123]

I wouldn't do it. You are already a hygienist with a good income and a potential to have a pretty good life without a headache of turning your life upside down
Dentistry is definitely not an easy money and you really need to love what you do in order to survive everything that dentists have to put up with