Dentistry vs CRNA

[periopocket]

I debated between these two career paths, heck I even got into nursing school to pursue crna, luckily my parents didn’t let me attend nursing and instead I ended up 4.0 an Ms in bio and getting into dental school.

Best decision of my life hands down. I would always have been embarrassed to be called a nurse.

There’s a prestige component. In additions to this, I would of never wanted to be in a smelly hospital over night.

I make 2-3x as much as a CRNA to boot and never work weekends.

Get into a reasonably priced dental school.

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[drornot]

I debated between these two career paths, heck I even got into nursing school to pursue crna, luckily my parents didn’t let me attend nursing and instead I ended up 4.0 an Ms in bio and getting into dental school.

Best decision of my life hands down. I would always have been embarrassed to be called a nurse.

There’s a prestige component. In additions to this, I would of never wanted to be in a smelly hospital over night.

I make 2-3x as much as a CRNA to boot and never work weekends.

Get into a reasonably priced dental school.

I plan on taking our around $220K-$250K in loans. Would you say this is reasonable? And working as an associate indefinitely (maybe if the circumstances are right, then I’d open a practice)

 

[periopocket]

I plan on taking our around $220K-$250K in loans. Would you say this is reasonable? And working as an associate indefinitely (maybe if the circumstances are right, then I’d open a practice)

Absolutely my man! Your in a perfect scenario.

One other thing, practice where you are needed. NYC and La are not great choices for gp associates.

 

[drornot]

Absolutely my man! Your in a perfect scenario.

One other thing, practice where you are needed. NYC and La are not great choices for gp associates.

I plan to practice in central Florida and am flexible to moving to other areas of Florida. Any idea of the need there?

 

[periopocket]

I plan to practice in central Florida and am flexible to moving to other areas of Florida. Any idea of the need there?

That’s actually a pretty sweeet location.

I have a gp buddy who works for a DSO pulling down 250-300 on a 5 day work week.

He just bought in like 10% as well.

 

[DDS9994]

I plan on taking our around $220K-$250K in loans. Would you say this is reasonable? And working as an associate indefinitely (maybe if the circumstances are right, then I’d open a practice)

I think the most important question you need to ask yourself is are you the type that has a strong entrepreneurial spriti and has to be your own boss? Also do you have good business skills and understand that dentistry requires alot of marketing these days and hands on involvment or are your an introvert and just want to go to work get paid and go home? My cousin is a CRNA went to a hospital based program in the 90s, so her tuition was not much, she says she makes close to 200 to 240K a year tops, but she loves it and she gets full benefits from the hospital she works at close to 6 weeks paid off time when its all said and done, not including the retirement plan that includes a full pension while she also does her own investing in the hospital retirement plan. She can retire after 25 years with practically her full salary for life. I own my own practice make more than her, I am my own boss, I have a business that offers amazing tax benefits and pass thru further reducing taxes, but I have to buy my own medical insurance, I am 100% responsible for my own retirement without anyone contributing to it, time off means less income coming in while the fixed bills still have to be paid, you will be dealing with staff issues till the day you retire. So you have to decide where your personality is.

 

[drornot]

I think the most important question you need to ask yourself is are you the type that has a strong entrepreneurial spriti and has to be your own boss? Also do you have good business skills and understand that dentistry requires alot of marketing these days and hands on involvment or are your an introvert and just want to go to work get paid and go home? My cousin is a CRNA went to a hospital based program in the 90s, so her tuition was not much, she says she makes close to 200 to 240K a year tops, but she loves it and she gets full benefits from the hospital she works at close to 6 weeks paid off time when its all said and done, not including the retirement plan that includes a full pension while she also does her own investing in the hospital retirement plan. She can retire after 25 years with practically her full salary for life. I own my own practice make more than her, I am my own boss, I have a business that offers amazing tax benefits and pass thru further reducing taxes, but I have to buy my own medical insurance, I am 100% responsible for my own retirement without anyone contributing to it, time off means less income coming in while the fixed bills still have to be paid, you will be dealing with staff issues till the day you retire. So you have to decide where your personality is.

Thank you for the reply. But does someone who has an interest in dentistry HAVE to be entrepreneurial. Couldn’t I just be a life-long associate? Wouldn’t that come with the same retirement contributions and the same benefits of being an employee as a CRNA would have? From what I heard, working 4 days a week making $200K is possible as an associate with a few years of experience.

 

[DDS9994]

Thank you for the reply. But does someone who has an interest in dentistry HAVE to be entrepreneurial. Couldn’t I just be a life-long associate? Wouldn’t that come with the same retirement contributions and the same benefits of being an employee as a CRNA would have? From what I heard, working 4 days a week making $200K is possible as an associate with a few years of experience.

You absolutely could be a life long associate, but as long as you are ok with the fact that many of the offices and DSO you work for will be bought and sold over several times, and each time you will have to deal with the new rules etc, if you are ok dealing with corporate and regional managers and OMs who will seem at times to have more power than you do and can get fired at any time, then you can.

 

[DDS9994]

Thank you for the reply. But does someone who has an interest in dentistry HAVE to be entrepreneurial. Couldn’t I just be a life-long associate? Wouldn’t that come with the same retirement contributions and the same benefits of being an employee as a CRNA would have? From what I heard, working 4 days a week making $200K is possible as an associate with a few years of experience.

The benefits you get as an associate will never be competitive or anywhere near what you get in a large Hospital corporation or Municpal hospital.

 

[deleted1047421]

AA makes more sense financially. I have worked with both, supervised both and trained both. I prefer the AA model practice at present. They have the backing of the ASA and there is no independent practice talk.

Yes I agree with you.

I have met many CRNAs and AAs in hospital settings and both do the exact same job as mid level anesthetists.

There was one AA who had roughly 5 years of work experience who told me he was making over 300k working 6 days a week. He loved his job. All AAs I’ve met have told me they really like their career choice.

I’ve heard from CRNAs that the benefit of being a crna vs AA allows one to be recertifed less often and you can practice independently.

I would say that both being recertifed more often and being under the supervision of an anesthesiologist is a great thing. That shouldn’t be seen as a disadvantage.

For just two years of education an AA gives a incredible return on an investment.

 

[yappy]

Thank you for the reply. But does someone who has an interest in dentistry HAVE to be entrepreneurial. Couldn’t I just be a life-long associate? Wouldn’t that come with the same retirement contributions and the same benefits of being an employee as a CRNA would have? From what I heard, working 4 days a week making $200K is possible as an associate with a few years of experience.

Posts like this make me think you're not alpha enough to be a dentist. Therefore, I think nursing is a better fit for you. The dental profession does not need more lay-abouts in it for the *perceived ease or money. Go work at a hospital as a cog, collecting your medicaid/care funded salary, being relieved by anesthesiologists in times of emergency or when your "shift" is up.

 

[GoDental101]

Posts like this make me think you're not alpha enough to be a dentist. Therefore, I think nursing is a better fit for you. The dental profession does not need more lay-abouts in it for the ease or money. Go work at a hospital as a cog, collecting your medicaid/care funded salary, being relieved by anesthesiologists in times of emergency or when your "shift" is up.

"ask not what dentistry can do for you, ask what you can do for your dentistry." -some wise man

If you decide to go into dentistry you gotta know it's hard work and you gotta practice where you are needed. Good luck, but from the sounds of it dentistry doesnt seem like the right fit for you just IMO.

 

[ccp005]

You can have a good life w solid pay either way. He is probably saying that bc dentistry is harder work than he thought it would be and insurance reimbursement is getting worse. A lot of your pay in dentistry will depend on where you want to live so that's something huge to consider. I also would suspect you to come out financially ahead in CRNA if you are only considering associateship in dentistry... but who knows bc there are high paying associateships out there

Just know that with dental you generally have to be more willing to "move where the jobs are" considering you're taking on more debt. In CRNA there are more jobs becoming available, but also some people claim the competition is getting worse bc everyone knows they get paid so well

Either way you should be alright. Especially since you're only paying 250k for school... which is a big amount but not crippling like the people doing 400k loans. That's a death sentence imo

Also consider what stressors you have. CRNA is prolly a little more "lax" in the sense you don't always have to be doing something, but you have to be chill with dealing with death. In dentistry you have to keep pretty busy, but don't have to deal w the death thing