I am a 3rd year, interested in applying to ortho soon. I just want to pose a general question to everyone, see the opinions. Some of the programs would put my total educational debt to about 500k. After reading other posts on here about ortho work by GPs, oversaturation of orthodontists because of increasing graduates, and the economic climate has the breaking point really hit for us predocs? Not to mention the trouble of graduating orthos finding a job and the stories of bankruptcy. At the end of the day, I just keep asking myself 'is it really worth it to be an orthodontist anymore?'
There are some very thoughtful and wise answers here, not all advocating the same path. I am tax attorney/financial consultant married to a doctor, so I see a lot of dental/medical practices, some run very well, some not so well. The early days are going to matter a lot to you since the earliest money you save is the most valuable, from a purely financial standpoint. You should not be overpaying taxes, but you probably will, since so few dentists are focused on this (LARGE) detail. Personally, in my practice, I see this all the time. Docs making really good money and paying far to much of what they earn to the government for the lack of knowledge that the corporations have.
You could, with diligence, beat the system to some extent, by practicing smart. Leverage yourself to the max--not by going in debt, but by maximizing the time you do what ONLY you can do. Hygenists and ortho techs (if that is what you call them???) make good money for their dentists, as do associates, and a great bookkeeper is a prize. The more of your time you can free to practice, the better. Your assistants, advisors, etc. have to be totally focused on your bottom line.
If you have the stomach for starting your own practice, or even buying into a practice, this can be done without more borrowing, perhaps by funding the retirement of the exiting dr. using a defined benefit plan. More patients stay, the buy-in is deductible, the exiting dr. can work part-time and transisiton patients to you.
My (patient/payor) experience with ortho is that all my younger sisters got some, so did all my kids (4), whether they needed it or not (!) and that all the teeth have moved again among my entire yuppie generation who are often going back and starting over, or those who didn't get the perfect smile now want one even at what you would consider an advanced age. However, there is a lot of advertising on billboards--still my dentist clients don't advertise and are doing very well.
I would side with the advice about passion. Love to go to work? Good life. Hate to go to work, not so good, will affect every other thing you do. Yes, 500K is huge for startup. Obscene, really. But that is also why it is licensed. Also, choose reasonably when you choose a practice location--there is a reason Walmart made it big from Bentonville, Arkansas! Some of my most financially successful dmds, dds, mds, dos, are in really rural areas, and I mean VERY successful, well over $1M year and could do more if they chose to work more. So, you have two reasonable choices: find the best job you can ($) now and work like crazy to pay down the debt, then do ortho, or go ahead, take the leap of faith and if you are sure you are going to love it, they really will come. My kids really really disliked the personality of our ortho, but all the dentists said his work was the best, so I forced them there. Interestingly I was given two names repeatedly by friends and I picked the one with the training credentials.
Bankruptcy does not discharge student debt. I have a daughter starting law school, in spite of the "job market"--she has a different plan than "get a job". She is also choosing schools by which one is giving her the best deal, between scholarships, living expenses, and where she wants to live. You mentioned "some of the programs". I am sorry to say that most people don't care where you went to prof school, so long as you passed the tests, so pick a cheap one and get the same degree. One last item of advice. In the south we always say you can marry more in a minute than you can make in a lifetime, so...do that, or buy a tiny house (small is the new big), live frugally, and happily, and you can do this, if you want to.
In retrospect, what would you have done if you could now do over? That answer will tell you a lot. As I told my daughter about law school when she complained that it will take another 3 years and she will be 28 when she finishes, you will be 28 in three years anyway...going to school is rather a nice way to spend a lot of your life for some of us. My husband got his first post-training job at age 39, and honestly some of the best times we had were when we were "poor". I think there may be, after a threshold, an inverse relationship between $ & happiness, and I DO money for others, every day, all day...it complicates your life a lot, because the more you have, you know, the more you have to lose, and that has made many a doctor miserable. Especially because so many foolishly hate insurance!
Good luck in your decision. "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind." R.W. Emerson Doing beats having. So would you do it again?
option is for dummies.
