Glad to give some insight here. Lets start with what you can expect the 1st year out. I'm sorry, but there will be a huge variance here depending on area, type of practice (inner city clinic vs. very affluent sububia, fee for service vs. managed care, etc) The range for my friends and myself that I've seen has been anywhere from 40,000 to 125,000 first year out. That doesn't even get into whether your paid based on a salary or a percentage of your productions or collections. The average that I've come across for a 1st year out general dentist is in the 60,000 to 80,000 range. Most of those numbers were based on a 4 1/2 day work week(roughly 35 hours).
Based on the latest published figures that just appeared in Dental Economicsthe "average" earnings of a general dentist in the US is slightly under 130,000 a year with earnings higher in the Northeast, South, and Pacific regions and less in the central regions. This number can vary ALOT based on number of days worked a week, type of practice(i.e. managed care patch 'em up vs. a straight fee for service(read as non insurance participating)crown and bridge/ cosmetic practice) and hygiene volume(I can tell you that the 2 and 1/2 hygenists in my practice add over 350,000 in production yearly to my office with very reasonable fees and 1 adult patient per hour scheduling, so hygiene volume is something to consider in the equation also. Overall the range I've heard of for a general practitioner is from 50,000 to 500,000+ per year.
As for specialties, in general you can place endodontists and orthodontists at the top of the list where yearly earnings of over 250,000 quite common on a 3 and 1/2 to 4 day work week. Starting salaries for a 1st year orthodontist or endodontist will begin roughly at 80,000 to 100,000 and head on upto roughly 150,000 depending on the geographic location and practice volume. Oral surgeons and pedodontists will be slightly less than those figures on average. Hope that helps on the $$ info.
As for my would I do the dental thing over again and did I ever think about medicine questions. Some background, my grandfather was an OB/GYN and my grandmother was a pediatric neurologist, and I can honestly say that I never really considered becoming an M.D. I had a great general dentist growing up as a kid, whose kids I was good friends with. It dawned on me in my early teens that I wanted to become a dentist, and that was all she wrote. Did my undergrad at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dental School at UCONN, a 2 year GPR at St Francis Hospital in Hartford, and then private practice since then. I love being a general dentist, doing what I want, interacting with all age ranges of patients. From what I also hear from my friends who are M.D.'s and all the managed care headaches that they deal with, I couldn't even imagine doing anything else. I can also add that my wife thoroughly enjoys her life as an Orthodontist and even though she had a grandfather who was a radiologist, she also never thought about getting an M.D. and wouldn't change a thing about her career path either. Hope that helps a bit 😀