PLEASE HELP WITH SOME QUESTIONS!!

[deleted371318]

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Hi,
I will be a D1 student from this Fall and am still debating which one to apply for (Army vs. navy vs AF). Meanwhile I need your assistance for my questions.

1. Is the rate of stipend you get during the dental school (approx. $2000/month) before tax? If it is, how much will it be after tax?

2. Let's say you got into 3 yr scholarship program. At the end of the dental school, you could request to admin of whatever branch it is for 1 yr expansion. If qualified, you would be able to serve 4 year in a branch and they pay off for your all those 4 year school loans. Is it a possible scenario? Im asking this bc I already missed the 4 yr scholarship cycle and one recruiter actually told me he has seen such case before.

3. Is it an OK idea to apply for two of those? Like Army & Navy? If no, please tell me the reasons.

4. When I apply for 3 yr scholarship, do I also have to provide the grade I received from my D1?

5. I heard that many people choose to get into HPSP who want to specialize (except for some specialties though). Can anyone tell me the reasons for this? At this moment, I want to specialize pediatric dentistry but also wonder if it is good to go through HPSP.

6. If I will specialize, do you typically go to the specialty program after done with the required military service corresponding to the dental school years OR right after done with the dental school? Does it make any differences? Also, can anyone tell the major difference between the specialty program offered at one of the dental schools out there and the military one?

7. Is it optional whether to get loan repayment for my specialty program? Can I choose just not to serve for my branch to pay off my loan from the specialty program if I want to go start working as a civil dentist after the program?

8. Is it true that you still need to work as a paid doctor to get "more" ready, in order to have your own practice, even after the military service? Is its primary reason to get actual business know-how's while working as a paid doctor?

9. Please give some opinions on my major concern; Im 31 yrs old with my wife & one child. I will prob graduate at age of 35. 2 possible scenarios here;
1) I will be at 38 when Im done with the military service. After the specialty program (pedo), I will be at 40. From 40, I will be working prob as a paid doctor with relatively small debt. I will have my own practice relatively late though.
2) I will be at 37 after the specialty program (if I can get into the program right after graduate). I will still have 3 more years to become 40 but have a lot more debt (younger with more energy but poorer). However, I will have my own practice prob. before 40.
-> what do you guys think?

Any opinions/advice would be much appreciated and thanks guys in advance.

 

[tbond5]

Hi,
I will be a D1 student from this Fall and am still debating which one to apply for (Army vs. navy vs AF). Meanwhile I need your assistance for my questions.

1. Is the rate of stipend you get during the dental school (approx. $2000/month) before tax? If it is, how much will it be after tax?

2. Let's say you got into 3 yr scholarship program. At the end of the dental school, you could request to admin of whatever branch it is for 1 yr expansion. If qualified, you would be able to serve 4 year in a branch and they pay off for your all those 4 year school loans. Is it a possible scenario? Im asking this bc I already missed the 4 yr scholarship cycle and one recruiter actually told me he has seen such case before.

3. Is it an OK idea to apply for two of those? Like Army & Navy? If no, please tell me the reasons.

4. When I apply for 3 yr scholarship, do I also have to provide the grade I received from my D1?

5. I heard that many people choose to get into HPSP who want to specialize (except for some specialties though). Can anyone tell me the reasons for this? At this moment, I want to specialize pediatric dentistry but also wonder if it is good to go through HPSP.

6. If I will specialize, do you typically go to the specialty program after done with the required military service corresponding to the dental school years OR right after done with the dental school? Does it make any differences? Also, can anyone tell the major difference between the specialty program offered at one of the dental schools out there and the military one?

7. Is it optional whether to get loan repayment for my specialty program? Can I choose just not to serve for my branch to pay off my loan from the specialty program if I want to go start working as a civil dentist after the program?

8. Is it true that you still need to work as a paid doctor to get "more" ready, in order to have your own practice, even after the military service? Is its primary reason to get actual business know-how's while working as a paid doctor?

9. Please give some opinions on my major concern; Im 31 yrs old with my wife & one child. I will prob graduate at age of 35. 2 possible scenarios here;
1) I will be at 38 when Im done with the military service. After the specialty program (pedo), I will be at 40. From 40, I will be working prob as a paid doctor with relatively small debt. I will have my own practice relatively late though.
2) I will be at 37 after the specialty program (if I can get into the program right after graduate). I will still have 3 more years to become 40 but have a lot more debt (younger with more energy but poorer). However, I will have my own practice prob. before 40.
-> what do you guys think?

Any opinions/advice would be much appreciated and thanks guys in advance.

3. It is absolutely ok. anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
4. I believe you need to provide those grades?
5. Doing the military route does give you more opportunity to specialize. Dunno about pediatric though.
9. It really depends on the school you are going to. In my case where my debt would be over 400k the military was a no brainer but if I had gone to my state school for 200k I probably wouldn't have done the military route.

 

[Hedgy]

If you are really thinking of going Pedo, I think you would best go into residency, then decide later whether you want to go into the military. Pediatric dentists are making a killing out here (MT). The newest pediatric dentist is making over $1M here and he's only been in practice 2 years and that's taking 30% Medicaid/CHIP. The military isn't really the best place for Pedo IMO. You will get to serve exclusively overseas or at large clinics and will not deploy. I guess that's the bright side.

 

[hellopeople]

In regards to #3, I wouldn't personally tell your recruiter that you're thinking about applying to another service until you actually are.
After I told them they treated me.... differently.

 

[hellopeople]

If you are really thinking of going Pedo, I think you would best go into residency, then decide later whether you want to go into the military. Pediatric dentists are making a killing out here (MT). The newest pediatric dentist is making over $1M here and he's only been in practice 2 years and that's taking 30% Medicaid/CHIP. The military isn't really the best place for Pedo IMO. You will get to serve exclusively overseas or at large clinics and will not deploy. I guess that's the bright side.

Um, what? lol He's running a practice with $1 mil in revenue? I can't imagine he's making a million.

 

[deleted371318]

If you are really thinking of going Pedo, I think you would best go into residency, then decide later whether you want to go into the military. Pediatric dentists are making a killing out here (MT). The newest pediatric dentist is making over $1M here and he's only been in practice 2 years and that's taking 30% Medicaid/CHIP. The military isn't really the best place for Pedo IMO. You will get to serve exclusively overseas or at large clinics and will not deploy. I guess that's the bright side.

Thanks for your response! I cant easily imagine the possibility of over 1M income within 2 yrs after the residency program. If the scenario for most of the pedo's would be the same, I would not need to worry about the debt I would get 🙂 Do you think it was possible for that dentist to make over 1M in 2 yrs because 1) the dentist bought a GOOD practice, 2) he already had good amount of own assets to invest for the practice, 3) the city of the practice had no other pedo, or 4) anything else? Thanks in advance.

 

[Hedgy]

This guy is busy every day, as are all the pedos here. I know he's making over $1M because he is taking all of his staff to Hawaii for reaching the $1M production goal. Pediatric dentists, IMO are in very high demand and parents are willing to pay to have their kids to see them. Almost all seem to have at least 1 day/week with sedation cases. I think he bought the practice outright with a loan. When he took over we had 3 Pedos for a city of 130,000 and none in Eastern MT. He is #4, #5 is coming to another office and this guy is looking for a partner #6, but I have no doubt they will still be busy. I think any Pedo practice will have to balance Medicaid with FFS. Most seem to cap Medicaid at 30% max. Its tough to take Medicaid, but it can be rewarding. I do a fair share of Pedo, but I refer behavior cases as fast as they show (can usually pick them out at the initial exam visit). I take my hat off to Pedos, I couldn't work with screamers all day like that. A busy 4-6 chair practice will easily make $1M. Anyway, if you do Pedo, I'd look for a moderate size city/suburb with only a few Pedos and jump right in. Pedo is one of the areas, where if there aren't many in the area, you could probably do a scratch start-up.

 

[teeth63a]

Pediatric dentists make a lot of money running multiple chairs and sedating the heck out of everyone.