Question for practicing dentists

[Utdarsenal]

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I know this is a very random question, but, i’m trying to gain some perspective here for a big decision I have to make.

Lets say you just graduated dental school (you’re 26-30 years old) and were given the opportunity to continue studying for three additional years (say an implant program with intense training. You don’t get a specialty title though. Just a pat on the back and advanced clinical skills as a general dentist). Lets say after having taken this program you are declared debt free and do not have to pay off student loans anymore. You are now three years older than when you graduated (31) have no debt, and have advanced training in implantology.

Would you do this? What would you try to make of this opportunity?

Thanks

 

[Svart Aske]

Depends entirely on the amount of debt being "forgiven". In what fantasy world is this a realistic proposition though?

 

[Debt Free DDS]

At first I thought "no way" before I read the debt forgiveness part. Losing three years of income for a pat on the back is not worth it. You can learn implants in other ways. However, if you will get your debt forgiven at the end of three years? Sure. Especially because I had over $400,000 in debt. It depends on how much debt you have to be forgiven.

 

[Muller21QQQ]

my friend is a dentist
and he had got sick and tired of learning at the 3rd year of education...
I don't think he would like to study 3 more years...

 

[TanMan]

I know this is a very random question, but, i’m trying to gain some perspective here for a big decision I have to make.

Lets say you just graduated dental school (you’re 26-30 years old) and were given the opportunity to continue studying for three additional years (say an implant program with intense training. You don’t get a specialty title though. Just a pat on the back and advanced clinical skills as a general dentist). Lets say after having taken this program you are declared debt free and do not have to pay off student loans anymore. You are now three years older than when you graduated (31) have no debt, and have advanced training in implantology.

Would you do this? What would you try to make of this opportunity?

Thanks

How advanced? Are you going to learn the surgical and/or restorative side? Do you get paid anything at all during your 3 years? No specialty title puts you at a disadvantage since you won't be able to bill insurance as much as a specialist. You also cannot advertise yourself as an ADA-recognized specialty.

I wouldn't do it, if I were to look back. I paid my debts off without any loan repayment options and my most valuable skill is endo. Starting at 0 net worth (assuming no other liabilities) with no assets or income generating assets seems like a losing proposition for me. Although I don't recall how long it took me to pay it off, it was definitely less than 2-3 years.

If you want to play it safe, take the offer. For me, 3 years is a long time in peak production. If you can monetize your implant training and have discrete plans to do so, that would be the best option. Otherwise, it's just like doing prosth but advertising yourself as a GP. More training, but monetization is iffy. Worst case scenario, you learn all about implants, but your practice doesn't do any implants, you forget all your training, and wasted 3 years of your life. Best case, all you do are implants for the rest of your life and make tons of money. (Edit: or start your own CE program touting how profitable implants are without really placing many implants yourself and deriving most of your income from CE).

 

[Seb345]

I feel like I might if I were a dentist. It's sometimes more about the aspect of you having not pay out your loans. I feel like a lot of dentists I know would have agreed to something like this. I mean a lot of them worry that they need to find a good location (like Miami or LA or New York) to open their general practice since they want a big influx of clients. (My vote is Miami. I mean it's warm and there's a lot of tourists there all the time and there are a lot of really good dentist clinics over there). So to have an option to not have to worry about debt would have been amazing. I probably would have done that if it was an option for me.

 

[Faux]

Just do perio instead. Thats what I'm considering now

 

[yappy]

IMO you should do a specialty that places implants. There are serious limitations to GPs placing implants. The biggest limitation is that you only have your own practice to supply you with patients. If you are a specialist ideally you would have multiple large GP offices to draw from. As specialist you will be an expert in a narrow field. That is superior to slowly gaining experience via costly CE to become a novice and place implants ever-so-often. Therefore, if you're serious about placing implants then I recommend going into OMS or perio.