Wow, some dentists need a clue

[ichy]

Defeat? How about working on preventing it?

And how exactly would you suggest preventing all cancer cases? People are already encouraged not to smoke, not to drink too much, not to be obese, women should get regular pap smears, etc. Not all cancer can be prevented.

 

[steppinthrax]

The way Dentist industry looking right now......she will be lucky to get paid PERIOD

I just did a "salary.com" search on dentist within my zip (DC area). It's coming up at 150K mean. So you go to school and spend 400K to make 150K????? I imagine a dentist is going to have other fees etc to pay. I have both a B.S. and M.S. in comp sci (didn't cost 400K) and make around 134K, I'm not even at my peak yet...... Also this is D.C., good luck trying to buy a 800K house with a 150K income......

 

[Corporate Thug]

I just did a "salary.com" search on dentist within my zip (DC area). It's coming up at 150K mean. So you go to school and spend 400K to make 150K????? I imagine a dentist is going to have other fees etc to pay. I have both a B.S. and M.S. in comp sci (didn't cost 400K) and make around 134K, I'm not even at my peak yet...... Also this is D.C., good luck trying to buy a 800K house with a 150K income......

How many years of experience do you have?

The friend I referred to went to U of Pacific in SF/Sacramento...she came out $250k debt from undergrad + dental and is making 125k 1 year out of school.

So the average income out of college now is 41k w/ 27k in debt

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/12/pf/college/salaries/index.htm

So the extra schooling cost another 225k or so, but you are getting 85k a year more than what you would have go straight out of college. I bet you can make up the income gap really quick, esp. in light of the fact that the real money comes when you open your own practice as a dentist. There are a few family friends that are dentists...trust me, none of them are starving.

 

[steppinthrax]

How many years of experience do you have?

The friend I referred to went to U of Pacific in SF/Sacramento...she came out $250k debt from undergrad + dental and is making 125k 1 year out of school.

So the average income out of college now is 41k w/ 27k in debt

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/12/pf/college/salaries/index.htm

So the extra schooling cost another 225k or so, but you are getting 85k a year more than what you would have go straight out of college. I bet you can make up the income gap really quick, esp. in light of the fact that the real money comes when you open your own practice as a dentist. There are a few family friends that are dentists...trust me, none of them are starving.

I'm not necessarily sure that I agree. Physicians generally have the highest overhead cost of most other professions. They pay malpractice insurance, licensing fees and other services to maintain their profession. If they have a private practice then they are going to pay everything associated with that office (rent, electricity etc...) and the salaries of other employees.

Their net may end up becoming similar to other professions with less than half the educational cost. Even if they can make more going private practice, then they are operating a business and that just increases the amount of variables associated with the operating of a business which influence the overall profit (i.e. a 7-11 in downtown NY v.s. a 7-11 in some rural area of Alaska).

There is also that work/life balance thing going on. Generally once your salary is in the top 15 to 20% in your area, there is less "return" on an extra 20 or 50K more. Most likely you are probably living pretty comfortably and can afford to pay all your bills and have a little extra on the side. I can only see it being worth it if we were talking an extra 300K or so.

 

[JoeyP]

And how exactly would you suggest preventing all cancer cases? People are already encouraged not to smoke, not to drink too much, not to be obese, women should get regular pap smears, etc. Not all cancer can be prevented.

Through research. You know all that money that's been collected over the past 30+ years to Find The Cure? We'll let's start diverting half of it to Find The Cause.

Maybe gene therapy is part of the solution. Maybe a vaccine that attacks cancer cells in their infancy can be invented. Maybe certain environmental/food risk factors can be linked to your genetic makeup. Maybe we can find the building blocks for cancer and prevent them from forming.

 

[ichy]

You think they aren't already looking for cancer vaccines?

 

[CottonRabbit]

Through research. You know all that money that's been collected over the past 30+ years to Find The Cure? We'll let's start diverting half of it to Find The Cause.

Maybe gene therapy is part of the solution. Maybe a vaccine that attacks cancer cells in their infancy can be invented. Maybe certain environmental/food risk factors can be linked to your genetic makeup. Maybe we can find the building blocks for cancer and prevent them from forming.

Wow, what brilliant suggestions. Please apply for some cancer research grants. I'm sure they'll throw money at you for coming up with such novel, never before thought of ideas. I'm sure no one has ever studied gene therapy, cancer stem cells, linkage analysis, or cancer biochemistry before!

 

[JoeyP]

You think they aren't already looking for cancer vaccines?

I don't know, I hope so, but the message that gets air is Find The Cure, not Prevent The Cancer. So the message people internalize is, "Help us find the cure so that if someone gets cancer..."

I'd be interested to see how much money goes toward each effort: prevent and treat.

 

[mrCide]

I had a dentist tell me I had 2 cavities then on my next visit no cavities. Really? They also wanted to charge me $250 out of pocket for xray, I said no, so they said okay how bout $29?.. Dentists are scam artists.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I don't know, I hope so, but the message that gets air is Find The Cure, not Prevent The Cancer. So the message people internalize is, "Help us find the cure so that if someone gets cancer..."

I'd be interested to see how much money goes toward each effort: prevent and treat.

You can't sell prevention......but yes that's how I like to approach things too.

 

[slag]

I went to the dentist yesterday. I had sheared off part of my crown and had to get a new crown. They charge $920 just for a new crown. My insurance allows less and I get to pay half of that which comes to $392.00 just for a crown.

It's robbery but I need the crown unfortunately. This temporary one they gave me is rough and isn't cut right and sucks but only for a few more weeks.