Seeking advice about a Career in Dentistry?

I am a recent college graduate now working in the medical research field, and am interested in pursuing a career in dentistry. My main reasons for wanting to become a dentists are because I enjoy working in the healthcare field, especially the clinical setting, love the idea of making pretty smiles and want to be able to open up my own practice someday thus being my own boss. The hours, lifestyle, and salary of a dentists are very attractive as well, but i have heard very different answers to such. So my question is, how difficult is it to succeed in dentistry? I did some calculating, and the cost of dental school for me would be around 250,000..plus interest! I fear that with that much debt, I will be in debt for a very long time and struggling to pay the bills til i'm old. I enjoy the dental field, but if my hard work and long training only leaves me in a worse situation financially, then perhaps it would not be worth going back to school.

Aside from doing the actual dental work and making the world a better place one smile at a time, you have to get a paycheck. One of the hardest things to do is set fees and stick with that. One of the last people to get paid on the list of bills people pay are doctors and dentist and dentists fall below doctors. We are pretty equivalent to veterinarians as far as viewed by the public. My husband and I do what we do because we love what we do. We give price breaks to A LOT of people and some times people take advantage of that generosity. My husband was never taught the basics of running a dental office when he first opened a private practice and got stung many,many times. There are so many non-dentistry things you have to think about. Staff, do you hire young inexperienced staff until you get a footing? How do you handle staff disputes? Most offices have women staff members and women can be quite tough to work with. Do you join a thriving group practice, if so what percentage will you bring home? When you do cases requiring a lab fee how is that taken out of your pay?
Disputes with patients, if a patient won't pay do you send them to Collection, do you service charge them? Will you bill insurance, will you work with public assistance? Public assistance programs can be a ton of work and very little reward. There are a multitude of questions and don't forget the overhead with all the insurances you need to have in place are very costly?
Talk with, work with a dental office staff that you trust that will be honest with you BEFORE you make a decision on getting into the dental field.

Private schools may cost that much, but I guarantee if you look into state-funded schools where you live, you will find the cost much more affordable. That being said, getting loans to professional schools is not difficult, and you can have repayment deferred until after you complete school and residency. With a dental salary and a reasonable repayment program, you will be able to handle even $200,000+ debt.

Look into a public health service. You work in an underserved area for a few years after graduation as a payback. The military may also be a good option. A friend of mine did that. He got stationed in Kuwait for a year but not Iraq.
Dental schools have more applicants than seats to fill so apparently the large debt may not be a factor.
You wouldn't want to know the cost when I was in school. I graduated in 1983.
Good luck!!!

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