The debt of dentists

[trickybenny]

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So, I'm sure many of us on SDN will get accepted to dental school. It seems to me that the cost of dental school is very high, probably 175K - 275K depending on what school you go to. Now, most people say, well dentists make a crapload of $, you should be able to pay that off. True, however, my conversations w/ recently graduated dentists (within the past ten years) seem to indicate that paying off that debt will not be as easy as I initially thought. I talked w/ about 3 or 4 dentists, and all of them seemed to be pretty stressed w/ paying off their school debt. After looking at an estimated debt of 200-250K for myself, w/ an aggressive debt repayment plan, to pay off all the debt w/ interest would be approx 15-20 yrs, b/c of all of the living expenses + 33% lost in taxes. That's a lot of cash + stress for a pretty long time.

Above and beyond the significant debt for school, most dentists eventually would like to have their own clinic which is at the minimum hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on where and how busy and what the gross incomes are for the office. So, I'm no mathematician, but that's alot of moola.

So, do most of yall have practices set up to join after dental school, or parents w/ practices? Are you doing military or public service to pay off debt? Or are you just doing the route where you get a job coming out of school and plan on eventually opening a clinic after some experience and paying off debt for like 15 yrs?

 

[djeffreyt]

It's definitely a concern, but people having dealt with it and that will continue. We actually will have it worse off since interest rates keep increasing. All anyone really has to do is be smart about their money. Generally speaking, almost anyone who is successful lives with a certain degree of debt because as the old saying goes, you have to spend money to make money, and so long as you can manage yourself decently, dentists will always make enough net income to live comfortably while paying off their debts. It all about having realistic financial expectations for yourself. If you want to live in a dream world, then maybe the harsh reality of dental finances will be too much to face.

I don't have any family business to take over. I plan to take out about $180,000 in loans for dental school through the pretty normal federal channels. I'll probably need another $125,000, some of which i have already saved, and the rest in various private lender loans.

I plan to live fairly frugally my first 5 years out and pay off as much of my school debt as I can. Somewhere around that point I hope to then take out the necessary loans for a dental practice buyout. All in all, I figure I'll be paying off loans to some degree until I'm almost ready to retire, since I'll also have car loans, house loans, and my kids savings to worry about. But then, if I didn't want to worry about financial planning...I wouldn't have chosen to be a dentist.

 

[dddsmack]

I will sign a contract with a group who are stationed in colorado when I get an acceptance in december. The deal will be a 5 year contract with salary between $200-250,000. They will also pay $10,000/ yr in tuition.

I am stoked. I will have my loans paid off by the time the contract is up (hopefully). 😀

This came from a contact I made through an acquintance. No family relation.

 

[GoDucks69]

I will sign a contract with a group who are stationed in colorado when I get an acceptance in december. The deal will be a 5 year contract with salary between $200-250,000. They will also pay $10,000/ yr in tuition.

I am stoked. I will have my loans paid off by the time the contract is up (hopefully). 😀

This came from a contact I made through an acquintance. No family relation.

Dentistry work from the mob? Not a bad gig.