Anyone entering dental school right now with the prospect of 500-600-700K school debt have no idea what they're in for with federal cap borrowing. Private lenders are going to rake you through the coals on 10-20% APY on Day 1 for that extra 300-400K you take out after the standard 200K federally unsubsidized 6-8%. For the 99%, I promise you - you'll never, ever pay back that extra 300-400K on 10-20% interest over your lifetime, in addition to your federal principal:
1. On a 25 year SAVE: you're at a guaranteed 800K-1M for a standard DMD/DDS with those interest rates. You're praying that you don't have to pay more on this plan. Forgiveness is not guaranteed based on Congress or who's President at the time. The government can strip your SAVE contributions at any time. You can be on Year 15 out of 25, and if the government says SAVE is gone, you're now forced to pay more money on a ballooned principal that was never touched.
2. On a 10 year IBR: realistically, $6000-8000/month in loans for 10 years. Do you guys know how big of a payment that is? Imagine yourself making enough money to even try and attempt to pay $6000/month in ancillary income, before any other life expense. That's $6000 every month down the pipe to pay back for your dental school debt, of which your skillset out of there probably wasn't good enough to do more of the higher procedures of dentistry reliably anyway. So now you have to pay 50-100K+ in additional CE to do FMR, AOX, cosmetic cases, molar Endo, surgical rehab as a generalist. Still worth it?
3. On a 20 year IBR: realistically, $4000-5000/month in loans for 20 years. Do you guys know how long 20 years is? Imagine just throwing away $4000 of your hard earned money that you broke your back for, for 20 years. Definitely more manageable to stomach than a double payment for 10 years, but a significant dent and inconvenience to have working against you. If you're married and (god forbid) wanted children, you're now removing thousands of dollars of month on average of working capital for you, your spouse, your children, or your retirement.
4. On a path to specialty: about 100K-200K extra in debt for Endo/Ortho/Prosth. Look up the programs and see for yourself what tuition costs. Tallied together in 2026 that's almost *1M* in debt for some of you to specialize, in addition to your dental school loans. 1 million. Say it again, 1 million in school debt (give or take) to be a dentist or a dental specialist, with interest rates alongside BBB cap borrowing. OMFS and Peds get GME funding for their services, congrats. You should do those instead, at least you'll make PG1-PGY6 salaries in those.
This is before any obvious debts to (1) run a dental practice, (2) own a home, or (3) own any asset expense outside of dentistry.
Unless you're a super 1%er GP owner or high-end specialist, you'll never make enough money to pay through those interest payments to hit the principal.
We're in a scary moment for dental students going forward. If you don't have a wealthy family outright to pay your principal, or you don't join the military or force yourself into a 10 year PSLF (FQHC/VA), you are 100% cooked on this education and will never pay it back.
My friends say: "why would private loan companies exploit private lenders for a professional education?" I say: "because they can." You have 0 leverage on the loan marketplace. No private lender competitor is going to magically give you a 30% discount on interest rates just because they're nice, knowing you're forced to agree to their payment terms to continue going to school and graduating on time. Why would they charge the standard 5-8% rate that the federal loans offer? BBB borrowers are delusional.
^This should be plastered all over SDN and Reddit.
