By Jayme Amos. Get free updates of posts here
I have some good news for you
about your Dental Debt!
In our last article, “Dental Graduates: NEGATIVE $1million Net-Worth – On Your First Day” we covered the shocking and rising costs of getting started in dentistry. It’s now officially possible to owe $1 million from education and your practice before you see your first patient.
How can this be good news?
How can I say this is Optimism?
I have 2 pieces of news that make this 7-figure dental debt load a reason for optimism.
#1 – 6-Figures Instead of 7-Figures
#2 – The Good and Profitable Dental Debt
#1 Reason for Optimism – 6 figures instead of 7-figures
The most recent statistics show the actual average dental debt load to be less than $1M. The actual number would add up to approximately $620,000 of dental debt instead of $1M. While the cost of your dental education will now add up to 7-figures, it turns out the average amount of dental debt is only 6-figures. That’s good news, right?
You may be one of the wise, the lucky or the fortunate who got a lump of grants, scholarships or gifts to help pay for your education. You might be a hard worker who took jobs to pay off school debt. It’s possible to graduate with less dental debt but it’s less and less likely that you’ll come out with NO dental debt.
You may be fortunate and avoid having debt equaling the entire cost of your education but the statistics are showing that most will graduate with large 6-figure debt loads.
According to a recent study, the outstanding dental debt from education for new graduate dentists is around $220,000 – but that doesn’t include the cost of starting or buying a practice.
You’ll frequently find posts on Dentaltown of recent grads who can’t sleep because of hundreds of thousands of dollars of dental debt hanging over their heads. And it’s no wonder!
Check out what the new students face.
The last 4 years have shown a debt load increase from $190k of debt to $221k of debt. That’s a 16.3% increase in dental DEBT!! We may very well see an even higher number for graduates in the coming years. If that rate of increase continues for the next 4 years, the average will be over $253k of school debt.
If you combine the price of a practice ($400,000) with the average education debt, the total is near $620,000.
$620,000
Perhaps we can call that optimism, when compared to a potential $1M of dental debt.
But regardless of the level of debt, every dentist needs to determine the answer to the all-important financial question…
Is your dental debt going to create a profit for your future and your family?
If the answer is “no”, you have a problem built on 8 years of schooling.
If the answer is “yes”, perhaps we should be very optimistic!
That is the question we’ll answer in the next article in this series.
Check back in next week and discover all the nitty-gritty, truth-facing realities about your Dental Debt. We’ll uncover the possible benefits of your Dental Debt and we’ll look at some tough math proving whether or not you’ll create profits while paying it off.
See you next week,
