Is dentist a good profession?
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Anonymous
| Plus the rates of dentists with debilitating neck/shoulder/back/wrist pain is extremely high. |
Anonymous
OMG. What the hell? Private equity is going to destroy all of medicine. Every last bit of it. None of us will ever get good care again. |
Anonymous
| I think my dentist does pretty well. He owns the business and I just paid close to $600 for a treatment that took 45 minutes. He doesn’t accept insurance so he gets his full rates. I believe my last cleaning was over $200. He does have to pay the hygienist out of that but he is only spending about 5 minutes on my exam so it’s like passive income for him since he has multiple hygienists working at a time. I think the reason the average salary is lower is because many are employees of a large practice or accept insurance. My dentist is really good and personable so even though he doesn’t accept insurance he is 100% booked. |
Anonymous
Thank you for your insight. Can you let us know your income? |
Anonymous
Can you explain the deal with the dental hygienists? My dentist basically fired all his hygienists and told me they are spoilt brats and he can do their work himself lol. OP, I still think it’s a good career compared to other jobs. All jobs suck now but at least dentists can work less than 5 days a week if they so choose or at least set their hours. Also you interact with patients on a daily basis so it’s nice that not to sit in front of a laptop all day. My friend who is an orthodontist tells us lovely stories about her patients  Most of her patients are teens and tell her the most interesting stuff!
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Anonymous
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If you are asking this question, the answer is most definitely no.
My dad was a practicing general dentist all the way up until the day he died. He loved what he did for a living, but worked extremely hard to establish his own practice starting in the 1970s. That is impossible now. And it wasn't easy then. He took on work from other dentists in our state and hacked and scraped for a long time crashing at friends' houses to get the money together to start his own shop. And took a lot of chances with a ton of loan leverage, numerous times. My brother started working with him and has since taken over the practice. We are lucky in that its all paid for, including the real estate. All of his friends work for somebody else, except for a small handful of rural practitioners. Its physical work. My dad was not trained to work standing up for a lot of procedures. That took its toll. People in here talking about how few days dentists work have no real understanding of the physical nature of the job. Then imagine what it was like during COVID. As for specialized practice - good luck landing that residency. And the GP education is already extremely expensive. And, even when you are honest and trying to help people, they act like you are trying to upsell them. Even though poor dental health has been repeatedly proven to have significant downstream consequences. by the same token, with PE now involved, its virtually impossible to find a family run dental business anymore that doesn't upsell. Enshitification indeed |
Anonymous
No the exact opposite. |
Anonymous
You know damn well how much dentists earn. About job satisfaction, do you really think dentists enjoy bad breath in their face 20x daily? Would they do this if not for the $$? C’mon |
Anonymous
Not PP. But this caught my eye because my dentist did my last cleaning, and that had never happened before in my entire life. I didn't ask her why, and didn't ask her where the hygeinists were. |
Anonymous
Op would your daughter pursue dentistry if they earned teachers wages? I can’t think of anyone who would stick their hands and face into dirty mouth unless they were handsomely compensated. |
Anonymous
| No, not unless you are handed an established practice and then you still have to do the work - neither fun nor easy. From your post, it appears that comp is the primary motivation but the $$ is just there anymore unless you get into oral surgery (med school) |
Anonymous
Why do you think OP knows how much dentists earn? People may guess dentists earn a relatively high salary, but they don’t the actual number/range. There is a difference between 200k vs 400k. I wouldn’t go through dental school if I can earn only $200k considering the cost of 4 year dental school and the delay in income. But I would go if I can earn $400k. |
Anonymous
Don’t you need to go to med school to be an oral surgeon? We only know one oral surgeon personally and he went to dental school and then med school and oral surgery residency. An oral surgeon is a surgeon. |
Anonymous
| My longtime friend and dentist who also owns a practice reveals to me that it’s an ongoing struggle. There is also a glut of dentist in the area. Ever wonder why you keep receiving calls from your dentist for appt reminders? My dentist also pays existing patients for new patient referrals. Not for me. |
Anonymous
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Hmm...interesting. I would say to specialize in something like pediatric dentistry or even more so be an orthodontist...
The pediatric dentist my kids went to made a career change in his late 20s as a mechanical engineer into pediatric dentistry and was doing really well. My daughter's soccer teammate's mom is an orthodontist, owned her own practice and is winding things down (practice sold, working only part-time) and will retired in her mid-50s. IDK, there are pros and cons with just about every career. One thing that does seem consistent though is how PE is ruining many different areas - like the trades, veterinarians, etc, |