What does an HPSP Air Force Dentist make annually?

[isittoolate]

I have been accepted to the 3 year AF HPSP program and am currently trying to do anything other than study for my boards, so I decided to try to make some financial plans for paying off my loans from my first year of dental school. The problem I am having is that I have been told so many different things regarding salary that I am not sure how to estimate how much I can pay back on my loans to maintain a reasonable level of comfort. So what is the salary of an HPSP dentist first year out of school? Or what resource can I used to estimate this? I have heard numbers from around 50k to 80k, but that seems to be a very large range, I want to nail down a more accurate figure.

I am hoping to do a 1-year AEGD when I graduate, I understand that the salary will be the same as if I was not in the program, but doe this extra certification increase my salary?

Also, do your years of service that you give back for your HPSP count towards active duty years towards pensions and benefits?

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[LFA20]

Upon graduation from dental school you will be promoted to an O-3(captain) in the AF. As of now your pay will be:

Base pay (O-3 with less than 2 years of service)
$3873.90/month (before tax)

BAH: ranges from ~$1500-~$3000(non-taxable) depending on location
BAS: $246(non-taxable)

Also, your BAH will be higher if you have dependents.

I believe board certification gives some extra pay (not sure)

Yes your years of service AFTER dental school will count toward retirement/benefits.

 

[jmh018]

There is also Incentive Special Pay which is $20,000 per year for being a dentist.


Air Force HPSP Recipient
Dental Student Class of 2017

http://dentalstudentdds.wordpress.com

 

[Bis-GMA111]

i'm going off on a tangent here, but the pay is certainly less than you would receive out in the private practice world, since you don't have bonuses and what not...but the advantages of being a dentist in the military, from what i've gathered, include: no insurance necessary, no malpractice, all of your patients are covered---so you can do whatever you need to do without having to worry about payment. potential drawback though (depending on how you look at it): you can see 5 patients, you can see 1 patient---you still get paid the same. one last thing regarding pay that i've heard from many officers, (this goes for the army, and probably goes for the other branches as well), is that once your initial contract is over, that is when they start to offer you more money so that the pay is pretty competitive to a civilian job. again, this is only what i've heard.

for me, the pros heavily outweigh the cons: you can literally practice dentistry the way it is supposed to be practiced---for the patient's benefit, 100% of the time.

 

[jmh018]

Kind of going off what was just posted above, if you think about it, you can add upwards of $15,000 or 20,000 per year if you consider that you don't have to pay for health insurance (that number could be higher or lower depending on your family size) and another $35,000 that you may otherwise be paying in loan payments every year. And those loan payments would continue for more than four years. If you factor in those, it is a well paid job.


Air Force HPSP Recipient
Dental Student Class of 2017

http://dentalstudentdds.wordpress.com

 

[Troyvdg]

In addition, there is also a Loan Repayment Program that you will be eligible for after serving your hpsp commitment-to alleviate the loan burden from your first year (idk how much in loans you have taken out, but it's worth looking into incase you end up loving military life & have a high loan amount).

 

[Hedgy]

I'm in private practice. You WILL make more in private practice. If you made more in the military, everyone would be joining. Health insurance is overhead and is written off (about $850/mo for family of 4, can be less if you do a HSA-around $650). I pay my malpractice and business insurance through one company and it comes to about $2000/yr (again OH and a write-off). I've netted $175-235k on a 4-day week every year that I've had my practice (7 years), including $47k/yr that I put into retirement. If I entered the Navy with the $150k bonus (over 4 years), I would make about $137,500/yr for those 4 years. So, pay is decent, but should not be the deciding factor to stay in IMO.

What you DO get is a significant reduction in loans owed, valuable experience, speed, confidence, and a chance to work in a group setting, including specialists where you can learn as much as you desire. Yes, if you see 1 or 20 patients you get payed the same. You don't deal with insurance or with whether a patient can afford the treatment you recommend. You don't have to make all of the practice decisions, including staff/supplies/taxes/reps/etc. You are not on call all the time while I am on call 24/7 in my practice, but I am yet to take a call after midnight, and I see maybe 4-5 emergencies after hours/yr. Retirement is great and guaranteed in the military. Nothing like being in your 40s and having a guaranteed income. You also get the opportunity to experience and appreciate the good and bad of the military which I won't go into here.

 

[AirborneDentist]

I have been accepted to the 3 year AF HPSP program and am currently trying to do anything other than study for my boards, so I decided to try to make some financial plans for paying off my loans from my first year of dental school. The problem I am having is that I have been told so many different things regarding salary that I am not sure how to estimate how much I can pay back on my loans to maintain a reasonable level of comfort. So what is the salary of an HPSP dentist first year out of school? Or what resource can I used to estimate this? I have heard numbers from around 50k to 80k, but that seems to be a very large range, I want to nail down a more accurate figure.

I am hoping to do a 1-year AEGD when I graduate, I understand that the salary will be the same as if I was not in the program, but doe this extra certification increase my salary?

Also, do your years of service that you give back for your HPSP count towards active duty years towards pensions and benefits?

If you have a BAH on the avg amount of 19k/year...your annual salary will be $89,206. Hidden income of 22k/year and with retirement of around 40k/year...your "total" income would come out to 151k/year.

Army put together numbers on all this, based on years in service, etc. and all the services have the same pay scale.

Hope that helps!

 

[flurocore]

i'm going off on a tangent here, but the pay is certainly less than you would receive out in the private practice world, since you don't have bonuses and what not...but the advantages of being a dentist in the military, from what i've gathered, include: no insurance necessary, no malpractice, all of your patients are covered---so you can do whatever you need to do without having to worry about payment. potential drawback though (depending on how you look at it): you can see 5 patients, you can see 1 patient---you still get paid the same. one last thing regarding pay that i've heard from many officers, (this goes for the army, and probably goes for the other branches as well), is that once your initial contract is over, that is when they start to offer you more money so that the pay is pretty competitive to a civilian job. again, this is only what i've heard.

for me, the pros heavily outweigh the cons: you can literally practice dentistry the way it is supposed to be practiced---for the patient's benefit, 100% of the time.

Not necessarily true. You may not be able to offer the optimal treatment in some cases to patients who desire it. You also work with the materials and equipment given to you - little room or bargaining power to order supplies - on a tight budget these days. So not really practicing 100% of the time for the patient's benefit - its 100% of the time practicing to accomplish the mission - in some cases...keeping dental readiness in check.

I do agree the pay is much better on the outside after your loans/4 yr contract is up on HPSP. Take that into account and the feeling of ownership (great feeling) and control...

 

[Hedgy]

If you have a BAH on the avg amount of 19k/year...your annual salary will be $89,206. Hidden income of 22k/year and with retirement of around 40k/year...your "total" income would come out to 151k/year.

Army put together numbers on all this, based on years in service, etc. and all the services have the same pay scale.

Hope that helps!

Can you clarify the hidden income Airborne? Thanks.

I guess you can consider not paying for your own healthcare and not contributing to retirement as income, but the retirement only helps if you stay in for 20 years. If they are getting out, then it is no benefit. How much do you pay for dependents for out-service Tricare and dental?

 

[AirborneDentist]

Can you clarify the hidden income Airborne? Thanks.

I guess you can consider not paying for your own healthcare and not contributing to retirement as income, but the retirement only helps if you stay in for 20 years. If they are getting out, then it is no benefit. How much do you pay for dependents for out-service Tricare and dental?

Hello,

These were the hidden income numbers used:

Tax savings $ 5.5 - 15K
Malpractice Insurance $ 1K+
Disability Insurance $ 5.5K+
Medical Insurance $ 5 - 15K+
30-day Paid Vacation $ 5K +

This doesn't address the additional days off for 4 day weekends, etc.

 

[LFA20]

Hello,

These were the hidden income numbers used:

Tax savings $ 5.5 - 15K
Malpractice Insurance $ 1K+
Disability Insurance $ 5.5K+
Medical Insurance $ 5 - 15K+
30-day Paid Vacation $ 5K +

This doesn't address the additional days off for 4 day weekends, etc.

I am not quite sure about this 🙂 and I am sorry if I sound stupid but don't civilian jobs also give paid vacation, medical and disability insurance??

 

[power5643]

I am not quite sure about this 🙂 and I am sorry if I sound stupid but don't civilian jobs also give paid vacation, medical and disability insurance??

I guess yes and no. Yes if you work in corporate dental office or under somebody and no if you open up your own practice?

 

[Hedgy]

Hello,

These were the hidden income numbers used:

Tax savings $ 5.5 - 15K
Malpractice Insurance $ 1K+
Disability Insurance $ 5.5K+
Medical Insurance $ 5 - 15K+
30-day Paid Vacation $ 5K +

This doesn't address the additional days off for 4 day weekends, etc.

Thanks for clarifying Airborne. So much of this is part of overhead that I'm not used to counting it as income, but I can see where you are coming from.

Wasn't sure what tax saving were, but assume it was on allowances and income not needed to pay for extras.
Agree with Malpractice Cost, mine is around $2000, but also includes my business insurance (Fire, Hazard, etc)
My Disability and Disability Overhead run me about $4300 and $1300, so you are pretty close there-$5600. God forbid any of us is disabled. It's probably worse than death as far as making due with income. Mine is tax-free at 65% last 2 years income to age 70. Disability is taken from net income BTW, otherwise it will be taxable when taken. I can't vouch for the military reimbursement for service connected disability.
Medical is all over the place ($600-1400/mo)-What is your cost if your family is seen off base?
I also see all of my family at not cost for dentistry. Seeing family was highly frowned upon by our command when I was in and getting a family member in to an overseas clinic was a nightmare. I did all work after hours and felt like I was cheating the system by doing so. In private practice, my wife had a RPE/BSSO/Ortho and major reconstructive work ($34,000) basically at no cost other than a lab bill.
Don't necessarily agree with paid vacation as you basically are on salary and it's not bonus income. I get paid on vacation as I still have deposits coming in daily. Even if you don't agree with those statements, I work 4 days/week. Thus I have 3-day weekends every week (51/52 vacation days). This also does not include holidays which, depending on the part of the week, can end in 4-5 day weekends as well. I also take at least 2 weeks/yr for vacation whether in conjunction with CE or not.


Although there is nothing like getting promoted in the service, you still have to get promoted. Promotion = more pay, but still depends on the promotion boards. Anyone up for O5 or O6 will know that it's a nerve racking time as to whether you get promoted or not. What's the promotion rate for O4-O5 and O5-O6? It was supposed to be 80% and 65% in the Navy, but the Navy was top heavy and had a lot of retired-retained, so it was more like 65% to O5 and 35% to O6 not long ago.

 

[2th Doc]

If you have a BAH on the avg amount of 19k/year...your annual salary will be $89,206. Hidden income of 22k/year and with retirement of around 40k/year...your "total" income would come out to 151k/year.

Army put together numbers on all this, based on years in service, etc. and all the services have the same pay scale.

Hope that helps!

Airborne, thanks for the valuable info. What are the special pays included in that $89k? I've not been able to make heads or tails of the newest special pay format. The jist I got was that it would be consolidated into a single special pay for dental officers, but the latest official info I've been able to dig up was from Jan 2014 from MyArmyBenefits that still lists out VSP, BCP, IP, and ASP.

 

[AirborneDentist]

Airborne, thanks for the valuable info. What are the special pays included in that $89k? I've not been able to make heads or tails of the newest special pay format. The jist I got was that it would be consolidated into a single special pay for dental officers, but the latest official info I've been able to dig up was from Jan 2014 from MyArmyBenefits that still lists out VSP, BCP, IP, and ASP.

The new pay is the 20k/year. However, if you are not taking that, you can still do the VSP and ASP. They were combined for the new pay scale with a larger amount. The BCP is board certification pay, and you would not get that until you do a residency and pass boards. the IP is for Oral Surgeons.

 

[FavColorBlue]

The new pay is the 20k/year. However, if you are not taking that, you can still do the VSP and ASP. They were combined for the new pay scale with a larger amount. The BCP is board certification pay, and you would not get that until you do a residency and pass boards. the IP is for Oral Surgeons.

is the 20k/year taxed (i assume so since the 10k a year was). also does the BCP apply if you only do a 1 year AEGD after d school? Im on the air force hasp btw. Thank you

 

[Toronto77]

is the 20k/year taxed (i assume so since the 10k a year was). also does the BCP apply if you only do a 1 year AEGD after d school? Im on the air force hasp btw. Thank you

No, you will not be board certified in anything

 

[FavColorBlue]

WARNING: HPSP TANGENT

The way I see it the HPSP scholarship can be VERY WORTH IT indeed. I may be biased because I accepted it but the decision was VERY hard. Here is my breakdown even though a million other people have done and talked about this it is always good to see it again from another person. And btw, I accepted the scholarship because the Air Force AEGD's are world class from what I hear and I wanted to serve in a minimal way and being a dentist in the AF is not a bad gig and the numbers are also there. Here are mine... I took the 3 yr hpsp because my parents (bless them) promised to pay for my 1st yr tuition. The following breakdown is based on the fact that the repayment obligation is 1 year of service (in which you are paid) for 1 year of paid school and stipend so I am taking the liberty of combining the two into 1 year of total pay (3 yrs of stipend and tuition paid added with 3 years of military pay).

PER YEAR $ (these are all conservative numbers)
55,000- All tuition and fees in school
25,000- Monthly stipend in school after tax
70,000- All active duty military pay after taxes and combined (assuming BAH 1800 based on where i live in oregon)
15,000- Health insurance per year on active duty (very good HI in military)
5,000- Other hidden fees the military may cover

If you add these up then you get 170K per year of active duty. Throw on a VERY conservative 30K that you would pay in taxes as a civilian and you are at 200K per year through HPSP. Now for anyone out there saying "ya well a civilian dentist can make that pretty comfortably" then I would say.... can they? as a new dentist your first 3-4 years of practice are not your high production years and can expect anywhere from 125k-180k those first 3-4 years out on a good day. Then if you still aren't convinced consider that if I took out loans on those years the military payed then I would be paying 7% on about 250K... thats 18K in interest PER YEAR the first few years and then gradually goes down! By the time you pay off your loans even on a very aggressive 10 year repayment you are paying back easily 100K in interest or more... so take that 100k and divide by 3 and throw that onto the 200K the military is "paying" and your at a whopping

$230,000 per year!

(with MY situation, mind you I am an in state student as well... can you imagine the benefit at a more expensive school) ! I don't know many dentist making that (or totaling that in benefits combined with income) their first 3-4 yrs out. And if you do know someone that is then they are an outlier. I will say what everyone else says about the military... don't join for the money.... I would even go further and say don't do dentistry for the money! Dentistry itself is a meager investment (albeit a very conservative and hopefully safe one if laws don't change too much). But dentistry does bring MUCH satisfaction and gets you into a position where you are making enough money to make more money in other pursuits. And then to address the military lifestyle... yes you are in the military and they own you (but aren't you owned by your student loans for longer possibly?).... you cannot purchase a practice (although you are building skills and confidence to do so as soon as you get out with little if any loans).... and cannot choose where you live (but hey it'll be an adventure)... for me these were all tradeoffs but like I said, I liked the idea of "serving" my country although I feel like the one being served. There are tradeoffs to everything. Search deep down and find what makes you happy and go for it! Life is about experiences not money.

sorry for the tangent but it does help answer the OPs question of how much an AF dentist (on HPSP) makes annually....

 

[FavColorBlue]

btw... I didn't factor in the AEGD year (if you so choose) because you get paid much better doing an AEGD in the military than a civilian AEGD anyway so it is just an added plus (not to mention the military ones are better in most cases).

Now if you want to specialize the military may or may not be the way to go (financially speaking). It WILL be easier to specialize in the military but consider if you become an oral surgeon. Your 3-4 years of payback will be after your residency where you could be making north of 300K easily (250K-600K depending) in the civilian world. But, it is easier. My advice would be to specialize in a civilian residency after your commitment is up if you decide specialize but then again military specialty programs are really good and easier to get into. But again, don't specialize for money you may end up dissatisfied and there are easier ways to make money.

 

[matty675]

For anyone who wants some current salary information. I have done some research and come up with the following:

O3 Base Pay $3912.60/mo
BAH ~$1800/mo (depends on where you live; non-taxable)
Officer BAS $253.38/mo (non- taxable)
IP: $1666.66/mo

Annual Salary: ~ $91,591.76

Special Pay (IP) explanation:
There is special pay available for being a military dentist as well. The old system was that new dentists would receive an annual ASP of $10,000/yr and a VSP of $208.33/mo. There now appears to be a new system in which they have combined both special pays into one pay called Incentive Pay. The IP is $1666.66/mo ($20,000/yr) and is beneficial to new dentists, but would actually cause dentists who have been in >8 years to lose some money.

Oh, and this salary information should be the same across all 3 branches.

 

[Lock_Jaw]

Also, I made a spreadsheet showing the annual pay based on these numbers, as well as previously mentioned numbers such as the insurance benefits, tax benefits, malpractice benefits and it comes to about 116,000 worth yearly, adding in HPSP it ranges (due to IS schools and OOS/private) but for me comes to about 211,000 worth of incentives, not to mention the savings in interest in debt.

 

[xsynaesthesianx]

What is the approximate annual salary when a 4 yr navy hpsp'er with no prior military experience does a PGY1 aegd?

thanks

 

[Jalcalde]

There is pretty much no increase in income unless you go up in rank or accomplish your payback and are able to get the multi-year retention bonus by staying in. Slight increase with years in service. You can google Military pay charts 2015 and look at the pay.