Pros and Cons of being A Doctor

[deleted421268]

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What are the pros and cons of being an Doctor??? I made similar thread in pre dental forum, so just really having a debate between Pharm, Dental, or Medicine Route at this moment. RIght now I'm a high school Sophomore and will do major volunteering with Dad at his hospital this summer. Also is a doctor as well. Plan on volunteering at Dental Clinic as well possibly this summer.

 

[FIREitUP]

What are the pros and cons of being an Doctor??? I made similar thread in pre dental forum, so just really having a debate between Pharm, Dental, or Medicine Route at this moment. RIght now I'm a high school Sophomore and will do major shadowing and volunteering with Dad who at his hospital. Also is a doctor as well.

If you want to sell tampons become a pharmacist
If you want to clean teeth become a dentist
If you want to keep old people alive forever become a physician

 

[Bro Dude]

Pros: Money, Women, Prestige
Cons: Long Hours

Ta-daa.

 

[Praefectus]

Legal drug dealer, teeth cleaner, detective.

 

[deleted421268]

Pros: Money, Women, Prestige
Cons: Long Hours

Ta-daa.

But not every Doc has bad hours right??? PM&R and Allergist for example.

 

[couldabeenadoc]

Pros: Money, Women, Prestige
Cons: Long Hours

Ta-daa.

Sound good, I never pictured it quite that way. 😎

 

[mmmcdowe]

If you want to sell tampons become a pharmacist
If you want to clean teeth become a dentist
If you want to keep old people alive forever become a physician

A humorous, but reasonable approximation of the truth.

 

[Bro Dude]

But not every Doc has bad hours right??? PM&R and Allergist for example.

That's certainly true. But the average amount of work hours per week is in the ~60 ballpark (source: random thought). There are always exceptions, but for the most part (include being on call), the hours are many.

By the way, I wanted to add long and grueling training to the Con's. Pro's still outweigh them.

 

[Bacchus]

Pros: Patients are grateful.
Cons: Patients aren't grateful.

 

[deleted421268]

bump

 

[NickNaylor]

bump

Why in God's name are you bumping this? Do you actually expect to have some sort of epiphany as a result of this thread? Go shadow some doctors and see if you would enjoy what they do. Do some research on what it takes to become a physician and see if you're willing to make those sacrifices. That'll give you orders of magnitude more insight into the profession than a ridiculous "pros and cons of medicine" thread on the internet.

 

[Kadava Reviva]

But not every Doc has bad hours right??? PM&R and Allergist for example.

Or derm.
Military medicine in Canada has fewer hours and patients. However, if you want to make more than only $200K/y, you can moonlight and work up to as many hours as a civy, paid by the province.

 

[coyotelime]

What are the pros and cons of being an Doctor??? I made similar thread in pre dental forum, so just really having a debate between Pharm, Dental, or Medicine Route at this moment. RIght now I'm a high school SOPHOMORE

Come back when you get into a college.

 

[FlowRate]

Pharm: Done quick. 100k-140k, easy to find a job. 2?-4 yrs training.

Dent: High variability. 100k-600k+, need business skills. 3?-4 (+dental residencies 2-7) years training.

Doc: 140k-500k, easy to find a job (but not necessarily where you want it). Long wait for the payout (minimum 7 years, max 12 of training).

 

[infinityavenue]

Pros: Money, Women, Prestige
Cons: Long Hours

Ta-daa.

I didn't realize being a physician was the equivalent of being Don Draper.

But seriously, the main con is major debt and I believe everything else is entirely contingent on speciality.

 

[CeeEstee0]

Pharm: Done quick. 100k-140k, easy to find a job. 2?-4 yrs training.

Dent: High variability. 100k-600k+, need business skills. 3?-4 (+dental residencies 2-7) years training.

Doc: 140k-500k, easy to find a job (but not necessarily where you want it). Long wait for the payout (minimum 7 years, max 12 of training).

I call Bull on the PharmD evaluation. You need a BS to apply to Pharm schools, and the job market is currently pretty saturated. Unless you do an accelerated program, it will be eight years total of schooling.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Why in God's name are you bumping this? Do you actually expect to have some sort of epiphany as a result of this thread? Go shadow some doctors and see if you would enjoy what they do. Do some research on what it takes to become a physician and see if you're willing to make those sacrifices. That'll give you orders of magnitude more insight into the profession than a ridiculous "pros and cons of medicine" thread on the internet.

maybe it is the long day and the caffeine... but I am giggling quite a bit reading this.

 

[Kadava Reviva]

I call Bull on the PharmD evaluation. You need a BS to apply to Pharm schools, and the job market is currently pretty saturated. Unless you do an accelerated program, it will be eight years total of schooling.

In Soviet Russia... uh, I mean Canada, there are lots of positions available for pharmacist, with a simple B.Pharm. at $95K+.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Pharm: Done quick. 100k-140k, easy to find a job. 2?-4 yrs training.

Dent: High variability. 100k-600k+, need business skills. 3?-4 (+dental residencies 2-7) years training.

Doc: 140k-500k, easy to find a job (but not necessarily where you want it). Long wait for the payout (minimum 7 years, max 12 of training).

There are just problems with this post....

so for pharm - not so easy to find a job. The market is quite saturated at the moment. The massive economy-spurred influx of med school admissions must have sent some kickback here.... I also think your salary figures are a tad high... 80k-120k, but with the job market I suspect people are taking jobs quite a bit below this for a few years out of school.

dentistry - you are applying things here that could also easily apply to medicine... do you think medicine caps at 500k? why is dent 600k+ included as a usable figure? I'm sure some beverly hills dentist is making bank... should we include this?

Medicine - residency can screw you a little on location... but after that you can find a job where ever you want with no greater difficulty as compared to the other two. In fact... a population can typically handle more doctors than it can dentists per capita.

not a terrible idea.... but your rationale is all over the map with this post.

 

[druggeek]

Pharm: Done quick. 100k-140k, easy to find a job. 2?-4 yrs training.

Dent: High variability. 100k-600k+, need business skills. 3?-4 (+dental residencies 2-7) years training.

Doc: 140k-500k, easy to find a job (but not necessarily where you want it). Long wait for the payout (minimum 7 years, max 12 of training).

more like...

pharm: done in 8 years, good job finding a job anywhere

dent: most likely to make like 150k, and headed into a saturated market

doc: what you said, except the ceiling for medicine (salary wise) is much much higher than dent.

 

[Kadava Reviva]

more like...

pharm: done in 8 years, good job finding a job anywhere

dent: most likely to make like 150k, and headed into a saturated market

doc: what you said, except the ceiling for medicine (salary wise) is much much higher than dent.

Yup. You have to become an oral/maxillofacial surgeon or a orthodontist to make big bux in dentistry.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Yup. You have to become an oral/maxillofacial surgeon or a orthodontist to make big bux in dentistry.

which is not a short process and contains 2 additional years of "medical school" from my understanding...

 

[Freakfarm0]

Pros: gettin' money
Cons: ---

 

[Thoracotomy]

Pro's = not going into surgery
Con's = becoming a surgeon

 

[Kadava Reviva]

which is not a short process and contains 2 additional years of "medical school" from my understanding...

It all depends on how much work you're willing to put in vs how much money you want to make, which, in this case, is usually worth it.

 

[SpecterGT260]

i wasnt saying it is or is not worth it... just saying the other numbers from the post that has been quoted so many times would need to be adjusted to reflect this. Since many of them are walking around with MDs as well it isnt even necessarily appropriate to list this with dental

 

[CeeEstee0]

In Soviet Russia... uh, I mean Canada, there are lots of positions available for pharmacist, with a simple B.Pharm. at $95K+.

Fuarky has posted in hSDN before, (several times), and he lives in the US. That is good to know though, how easy is it to transfer from U.S. to Canada?

 

[Kadava Reviva]

Fuarky has posted in hSDN before, (several times), and he lives in the US. That is good to know though, how easy is it to transfer from U.S. to Canada?

The American degrees are considered equivalent. You have to write the exam, which is very similar to the one in the US, then you can register with the college. Training is practically the same. Just a few different laws and Health Canada is different from the FDA, but, appart for over the counter codeine, it's all the same.

 

[CeeEstee0]

Interesting. So PharmD's here could flee until our market improves? Wow...

 

[Neurosis]

why is the OP's account on hold? I mean he's in HS, but don't HSers post in hSDN?

 

[FlowRate]

I call Bull on the PharmD evaluation. You need a BS to apply to Pharm schools, and the job market is currently pretty saturated. Unless you do an accelerated program, it will be eight years total of schooling.

Post-bachelors training.

There are just problems with this post....

so for pharm - not so easy to find a job. The market is quite saturated at the moment. The massive economy-spurred influx of med school admissions must have sent some kickback here.... I also think your salary figures are a tad high... 80k-120k, but with the job market I suspect people are taking jobs quite a bit below this for a few years out of school.

dentistry - you are applying things here that could also easily apply to medicine... do you think medicine caps at 500k? why is dent 600k+ included as a usable figure? I'm sure some beverly hills dentist is making bank... should we include this?

Medicine - residency can screw you a little on location... but after that you can find a job where ever you want with no greater difficulty as compared to the other two. In fact... a population can typically handle more doctors than it can dentists per capita.

not a terrible idea.... but your rationale is all over the map with this post.

Things might have changed in pharm since I was considering it 5 years ago.

My view on dent is a little skewed because all of our dental students go on to high-paying dental specialties (mainly OMFS). I didn't comment on the distribution of the salary figure, however. I should have put a plus at the end of 500k for med. Dentists work fewer hours. They typically pay more in tuition. The dental pay/hr is higher than medical (or equivalent to derm), last I checked.

more like...

pharm: done in 8 years, good job finding a job anywhere

dent: most likely to make like 150k, and headed into a saturated market

doc: what you said, except the ceiling for medicine (salary wise) is much much higher than dent.

8? after bachelor's?

which is not a short process and contains 2 additional years of "medical school" from my understanding...

True.

 

[SpecterGT260]

I think you will need to check again... a good many doctors run 9-5 clinics. Many EM docs work 3-4 days a week and pull 200k+. <40 hrs. Earning POTENTIAL should not be understood as a "sky is the limit" phrase

 

[SpecterGT260]

Dentist. http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Dentist/Salary

Medical. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=16721&d=1304153086

I will agree that the average doctor works more hours..... But I will not agree that the average derm either works 80 hours or the avg dentist 20.... Whichever way you meant when you made that comparison.


Try to remember that dentistry has a heavy business component. You are very unlikely to step out of school and start making the big bucks right away. You either build a practice up or you work in another and make someone else the big bucks. Not dumping on it, but please don't promote with false hopes of wealth. And pay/hr isn't a very good argument. Some Hookers make more per hour than most docs and dentists combined. But that isn't a selling point there either nor does it reflect net earnings. I know a couple dentists that are money crazy. Not saying dentists are, but of those that are, they are not able to achieve this ideal standard of living.... You'd think if it was so easy they would be

 

[ppfizenm]

Why in God's name are you bumping this? Do you actually expect to have some sort of epiphany as a result of this thread? Go shadow some doctors and see if you would enjoy what they do. Do some research on what it takes to become a physician and see if you're willing to make those sacrifices. That'll give you orders of magnitude more insight into the profession than a ridiculous "pros and cons of medicine" thread on the internet.

 

[SpecterGT260]

Epiphany toilet > research

 

[FlowRate]

Dentist. http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Dentist/Salary

Medical. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=16721&d=1304153086

I will agree that the average doctor works more hours..... But I will not agree that the average derm either works 80 hours or the avg dentist 20.... Whichever way you meant when you made that comparison.


Try to remember that dentistry has a heavy business component. You are very unlikely to step out of school and start making the big bucks right away. You either build a practice up or you work in another and make someone else the big bucks. Not dumping on it, but please don't promote with false hopes of wealth. And pay/hr isn't a very good argument. Some Hookers make more per hour than most docs and dentists combined. But that isn't a selling point there either nor does it reflect net earnings. I know a couple dentists that are money crazy. Not saying dentists are, but of those that are, they are not able to achieve this ideal standard of living.... You'd think if it was so easy they would be

You're going to use payscale--completely inaccurate, self-reported information--and the mgma survery, which is known for inflating salaries by ~25-50% (see the recent thread in allo about that) to compare salaries?

I don't really care to continue discussing this with you. I know it to be true that general dentists make more than Peds/IM/FP per hour. It's one of many considerations related to the OP.

I already mentioned the business acumen necessary.

 

[SpecterGT260]

You're going to use payscale--completely inaccurate, self-reported information--and the mgma survery, which is known for inflating salaries by ~25-50% (see the recent thread in allo about that) to compare salaries?

I don't really care to continue discussing this with you. I know it to be true that general dentists make more than Peds/IM/FP per hour. It's one of many considerations related to the OP.

I already mentioned the business acumen necessary.

I used the first two readily available sources. That is not so egregiously inappropriate 🙄
but riiiiiiiiight, what you "know" is obviously more accurate than a cited source.....

medschool protip: A cited source is always more reliable than and undefended opinion you can't even link the thread about the MGMA link? fail, dude.....

 

[SpecterGT260]

You're going to use payscale--completely inaccurate, self-reported information--and the mgma survery, which is known for inflating salaries by ~25-50% (see the recent thread in allo about that) to compare salaries?

I don't really care to continue discussing this with you. I know it to be true that general dentists make more than Peds/IM/FP per hour. It's one of many considerations related to the OP.

I already mentioned the business acumen necessary.

Found the thread. Read the thread.
Looks like the major points of contention are that they do not poll only new grads and.... well otherwise the conflict resolved and plenty of people still seemed pumped about it.

I also appreciate the implication that a self reported system such as payscale would automatically NOT inflate the numbers 🙄. It looks like any technicalities you are using to arrive at your conclusion can swing both ways. I am going to stand by this until I see ANYTHING that suggests the average dentist makes as much per hour as the average dermatologist as was claimed earlier.

oh btw, post residency the average dermatologist works nearly the same hours as the average dentist... why do you think it is so sought after? Lifestyle is highly cited


what exactly are your credentials here? from the outside looking in it looks like you are irrationally inflating dental earnings based on the fact that in your experience all dentists = OMF surgeons, and that only dentists earning in the lower tier would report their earnings and that doctors unilaterally inflate their reported earnings.... yeah... that sounds reasonable.

 

[druggeek]

Post-bachelors training.



Things might have changed in pharm since I was considering it 5 years ago.

My view on dent is a little skewed because all of our dental students go on to high-paying dental specialties (mainly OMFS). I didn't comment on the distribution of the salary figure, however. I should have put a plus at the end of 500k for med. Dentists work fewer hours. They typically pay more in tuition. The dental pay/hr is higher than medical (or equivalent to derm), last I checked.



8? after bachelor's?



True.

No 8 years in total (bs + pharm degree).
For every dental guy making 400-500, there's a med guy making 1 million or more.
Typical dentist in this market will make 150k ish, working 40 hrs.

and saying all of our students go into omfs is like saying all med students go onto derms. *facepalm*

 

[FlowRate]

Found the thread. Read the thread.
Looks like the major points of contention are that they do not poll only new grads and.... well otherwise the conflict resolved and plenty of people still seemed pumped about it.

I also appreciate the implication that a self reported system such as payscale would automatically NOT inflate the numbers 🙄. It looks like any technicalities you are using to arrive at your conclusion can swing both ways. I am going to stand by this until I see ANYTHING that suggests the average dentist makes as much per hour as the average dermatologist as was claimed earlier.

oh btw, post residency the average dermatologist works nearly the same hours as the average dentist... why do you think it is so sought after? Lifestyle is highly cited


what exactly are your credentials here? from the outside looking in it looks like you are irrationally inflating dental earnings based on the fact that in your experience all dentists = OMF surgeons, and that only dentists earning in the lower tier would report their earnings and that doctors unilaterally inflate their reported earnings.... yeah... that sounds reasonable.

American Dental Association: http://www.ada.org/1444.aspx
ASDA: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...sg=AFQjCNHux7wHyimiiKS4P3FyRS84hjA2Qw&cad=rja

Physician Data (slightly older but reimbursements haven't kept pace with inflation for the past decade, so it's not super important that it's old). http://www.medfriends.org/specialty_salaries.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/u...d-calls-no-beepers.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Related: http://benbrownmd.wordpress.com/category/dentist/

BLS: Note that they way they calculate hourly wage does not take into account actual average hours worked. (They assume "full time" or 40 hrs/wk)
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Dentists.htm
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physicians-and-surgeons.htm

Work hours for physicians decreasing, with same magnitude as pay. http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/303/8/747.full

Other physician work hour source: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/education-careers/becoming-physician/frequently-asked-questions.page

If you average out all of those studies, you pretty much get the numbers I presented you with. Because we had presentations on this in health policy class not too long ago.

This is why I stopped posting on pre-allo. It doesn't matter whether someone has actual experience and has done tons of research, you're expected to find a boatload of sources to cite, as if that's a good use of my time. Nobody considers the mgma to be anywhere close to accurate in terms of pay as defined by all the other surveys, but people pass it around because everyone wants to imagine they'll make 350k no problem.

 

[SpecterGT260]

I'll read those in a second but to your last comment: stop being butthurt you were asked to defend your statements. If that is so outrageous I would suggest staying away from having opinions on healthcare matters in general kthxbai

 

[FlowRate]

No 8 years in total (bs + pharm degree).
For every dental guy making 400-500, there's a med guy making 1 million or more.
Typical dentist in this market will make 150k ish, working 40 hrs.

Then yeah, that's what I said.

While true, there are 180,000 dentists and about 850,000 physicians in the US. I think that you are comparing the mean top 10% to the mean top 2%.

To satisfy spectre 😛

http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/data/topic/map.aspx?ind=74

(311,591,917/10000*27=850k)

http://www.dentistryinworld.com/medical-news/dentistry/us-dentist-population.html

 

[SpecterGT260]

American Dental Association: http://www.ada.org/1444.aspx
ASDA: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...sg=AFQjCNHux7wHyimiiKS4P3FyRS84hjA2Qw&cad=rja

Physician Data (slightly older but reimbursements haven't kept pace with inflation for the past decade, so it's not super important that it's old). http://www.medfriends.org/specialty_salaries.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/u...d-calls-no-beepers.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Related: http://benbrownmd.wordpress.com/category/dentist/

BLS: Note that they way they calculate hourly wage does not take into account actual average hours worked. (They assume "full time" or 40 hrs/wk)
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Dentists.htm
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physicians-and-surgeons.htm

Work hours for physicians decreasing, with same magnitude as pay. http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/303/8/747.full

Other physician work hour source: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/education-careers/becoming-physician/frequently-asked-questions.page

If you average out all of those studies, you pretty much get the numbers I presented you with. Because we had presentations on this in health policy class not too long ago.

This is why I stopped posting on pre-allo. It doesn't matter whether someone has actual experience and has done tons of research, you're expected to find a boatload of sources to cite, as if that's a good use of my time. Nobody considers the mgma to be anywhere close to accurate in terms of pay as defined by all the other surveys, but people pass it around because everyone wants to imagine they'll make 350k no problem.

Did you see the bsl "pay" breakdown? They cite the mgma too lol
Pay
Wages of physicians and surgeons are among the highest of all occupations. According to the Medical Group Management Association, physicians practicing primary care received total median annual compensation of $202,392, and physicians practicing in medical specialties received total median annual compensation of $356,885 in 2010.

Pay
The median annual wage of dentists was $146,920 in May 2010.

Are also ignoring the fact that the figures are explicitly stated for dentists and "equal to or greater" for docs in the graphic? Go ahead, click on pay down below for both professions. 166000 is where they stopped counting lol. Same number given for orthodontists and omfs.

The jama article is out.... You already said self reported values were no good.

I didn't see salary in the AMA link.... But it's hours figure contradicts the self reported jama paper. Good thing we have your experience to fall back on 🙂

Also your first link Stipulates dentists who own all or part of their practice. Go compare to private practice docs in any specialty and come back 👍 I understand there aren't a ton of dentists who stand as proper parallels to academic docs but come on, at least try to be aware when you are comparing bananas to plantains. One is clearly significantly smaller 😉

 

[FlowRate]

Did you see the bsl "pay" breakdown? They cite the mgma too lol
Pay
Wages of physicians and surgeons are among the highest of all occupations. According to the Medical Group Management Association, physicians practicing primary care received total median annual compensation of $202,392, and physicians practicing in medical specialties received total median annual compensation of $356,885 in 2010.

Pay
The median annual wage of dentists was $146,920 in May 2010.

Are also ignoring the fact that the figures are explicitly stated for dentists and "equal to or greater" for docs in the graphic? Go ahead, click on pay down below for both professions. 166000 is where they stopped counting lol. Same number given for orthodontists and omfs.

The jama article is out.... You already said self reported values were no good.

Also your first link Stipulates dentists who own all or part of their practice. Go compare to private practice docs in any specialty and come back 👍 I understand there aren't a ton of dentists who stand as proper parallels to academic docs but come on, at least try to be aware when you are comparing bananas to plantains. One is clearly significantly smaller 😉

My goal with large amounts of studies was to provide diversity of data to arrive at a relatively strong mean, not to compare individual studies. You can't compare mgma alone to payscale alone, for example; they have very different methodologies and included aspects of what salary means. Most people think that mgma salaries include benefits, insurance, etc. which is typically not included in the reported value for "net salary" in other studies. My estimates all along have been based on the fact that I've read all the provided articles and more in the past. I'm not trying to give specific examples of what someone WILL MAKE in the future because I can't predict that. What I can do is give a good approximation of typical outcomes based on previous studies. Call it a literature review, if you will.

Almost all dentists operate under that stipulation. There are also academic dentists. I don't know how many of the physician population are purely academic, but I would guess it's not a majority. Whether someone is academic or private is a career decision and sheds light on typical career outcomes.

Regardless, the entire time we've been looking at mean values (typical outcomes) for the two different major career paths. The data provided supports my numbers of around 150k (+40 -40) per 35 hours (+10 -5) for dentists and 180k (+40 -30) per 52 (+10 -7) for physicians. Stuff in parenthesis is what I would consider a reasonable departure for calculating the loosely defined "confidence interval" for each career's mean, excluding outliers (people who work part time and ballers who make $1M+)

 

[SpecterGT260]

My goal with large amounts of studies was to provide diversity of data to arrive at a relatively strong mean, not to compare individual studies. You can't compare mgma alone to payscale alone, for example; they have very different methodologies and included aspects of what salary means. Most people think that mgma salaries include benefits, insurance, etc. which is typically not included in the reported value for "net salary" in other studies. My estimates all along have been based on the fact that I've read all the provided articles and more in the past. I'm not trying to give specific examples of what someone WILL MAKE in the future because I can't predict that. What I can do is give a good approximation of typical outcomes based on previous studies. Call it a literature review, if you will.

Almost all dentists operate under that stipulation. There are also academic dentists. I don't know how many of the physician population are purely academic, but I would guess it's not a majority. Whether someone is academic or private is a career decision and sheds light on typical career outcomes.

Regardless, the entire time we've been looking at mean values (typical outcomes) for the two different major career paths. The data provided supports my numbers of around 150k (+40 -40) per 35 hours (+10 -5) for dentists and 180k (+40 -30) per 52 (+10 -7) for physicians. Stuff in parenthesis is what I would consider a reasonable departure for calculating the loosely defined "confidence interval" for each career's mean, excluding outliers (people who work part time and ballers who make $1M+)

None of the links you supplied support that..... You are closest on the dental side here, but nothing suggests 180 as a proper physician mean. Even primary care by any reported value you gave is higher than that.

Here look, these studies completely support what I have been saying all along
http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/argumentation.htm
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3651

 

[FlowRate]

None of the links you supplied support that..... You are closest on the dental side here, but nothing suggests 180 as a proper physician mean. Even primary care by any reported value you gave is higher than that.

Here look, these studies completely support what I have been saying all along
http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/argumentation.htm
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3651

Sorry, I know I said dental and physician mean in the immediately previous post, but I've been comparing dental and physician generalists. Dental specialties and med specialties both make more, clearly.

We also established why MGMA isn't a good source of information (by itself). It's the only link that implies that primary care pays anywhere over 200 (and it says 202k.)

http://www.medfriends.org/specialty_salaries.htm

The JAMA table is considered one of the more accurate studies done.

I don't know if you're really a med student, but I would hope you realize that primary care isn't going to pay 200k+.

And I'm done with this thread.

 

[SpecterGT260]

No. Middle school student. You?

We didn't establish anything about mgma.... You made a claim. And nearly every source you gave thereafter ALSO used mgma numbers. I literally don't think I saw a source that used anything else. What jama table? The link you gave there has mgma (again) and a broken allied link. I don't think they are too credible because godaddy now owns the URL.


Edit: agma... Too may acronyms.... But here family proactice is > 200k again.... Straight from your last link....

What numbers are you looking at? FM is one of the lower compensated specialties

Saw the 10 year old data at the bottom from jama. Do we have current figures? Now we are comparing plantains to banana bread.... Aside from your own opinion about mgma I don't see why we accept 10 year old jama data over it

 

[druggeek]

dude... you're gonna have trouble finding a job as a dentist, let alone making good $$$. Rule of thumb: saturated market = lower than expected income (relatively).

In all likelihood, a majority of current dentists graduating will make no more than 150k for a long long time ... and that is IF you can get a solid practice going. If not, probably more like 80-90k.

 

[deleted103644]

dude... you're gonna have trouble finding a job as a dentist, let alone making good $$$. Rule of thumb: saturated market = lower than expected income (relatively).

In all likelihood, a majority of current dentists graduating will make no more than 150k for a long long time ... and that is IF you can get a solid practice going. If not, probably more like 80-90k.

I have no love of dentistry, but that's pretty laughable.

The private practice model of medicine is dying except in a few specialties that can easily get people to pay out of pocket (derm, plastics, some ortho, etc). Physician private practices are closing around the country. Maybe this is happening in dentistry too, but I haven't heard about it.

If you don't really care about what you do but want to earn some money, dentistry is actually a better bet than medical school. Sadly enough, orthodontists can easily earn more than neurosurgeons.

If you're talented and just want to make money, medical school isn't the right move. If it interests you though, go right ahead, just don't form unrealistic salary expectations.

 

[SpecterGT260]

I have no love of dentistry, but that's pretty laughable.

The private practice model of medicine is dying except in a few specialties that can easily get people to pay out of pocket (derm, plastics, some ortho, etc). Physician private practices are closing around the country. Maybe this is happening in dentistry too, but I haven't heard about it.

If you don't really care about what you do but want to earn some money, dentistry is actually a better bet than medical school. Sadly enough, orthodontists can easily earn more than neurosurgeons.

If you're talented and just want to make money, medical school isn't the right move. If it interests you though, go right ahead, just don't form unrealistic salary expectations.

Can =\= will. It is silly to pull an extreme from one group and an average from another and compare them