Your instructors were not wrong in stating two very real problems: 1. dentistry is on the decline (due to oversaturation of dentists, openings of new dental schools, medicaid cuts, lower insurance reimbursements, rising overhead costs of running a practice etc) and 2. High student loans debt.
I don't think I could duplicate the same kind of financial success that I currently enjoy right now, if I graduated today with 500k student loan. It was also much easier for me to find jobs 10-15 years ago than it is now. With that much debt and lack of good paying jobs, it would take me a lot longer to reach the same level where I am at right now....maybe in 30+ years when I become 60-65 years old. I graduated when I was 29 and I am 45 right now.
So if you ask me if it is worth borrowing $500k to become a dentist, I don't think I can give you a straight yes answer. It depends on the individual's business skills and clinical skills. A dentist, who has good business skills, is willing to take the risk to start his/her own practice and does whatever it takes (ie taking CE classes, working on weekends and late hours etc) to make it successful. Good clinical skills allow him/her to treat higher volume of patients in a day, manage more difficult cases, make more $$$, make fewer clinical mistakes, get fewer complaints from patients, and earn more trust from the patients etc. If you don't have any of these skills and plan to work for someone else for the rest of your life, then all the things that the instructors at your school told you are correct....pursue another profession with fewer debt and less strain on your hands and back.
If you are not willing to take the risk of practice ownership, then you will have a ceiling on income earning potential like the pharmacists, who work at Wallgreen, CVS or the MD's, who work at hospitals.
