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Would You Recommend Dentistry to Your Kids in 2026?

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Would You Recommend Dentistry to Your Kids in 2026?

Real costs, real tradeoffs, real strategy

On the Dentaltown message boards, a dentist with kids starting college asks a question many parents in this profession eventually face, would you recommend dentistry to your child? Townies don’t land on a simple yes or no. They usually land on a conditional answer that depends on debt, temperament, and whether the student is building a plan or buying a fantasy.

Debt dominates the discussion. Commenters talk about graduates staring at loan balances that can reach $500,000 once tuition and living costs stack up. The frustration is not just the number. It is the mismatch between that number and the income reality of an average early-career dentist, especially one tied to low-fee PPO schedules. Many describe it as a return on investment problem. If the likely outcome is an average salary but the entry ticket is luxury pricing, the curve can take decades to flatten, and that is before you add the opportunity cost of eight years of training.

The structure of the debt matters as much as the size. When federal borrowing does not cover the full costs, private loans serve as a bridge. Townies warn that private loans are not guaranteed year after year. Underwriting can change, cosigners can disappear, and a student can end up partway through school with debt but no funded path to finish. That risk turns dental school from expensive to potentially catastrophic.

Even with all that, many still describe dentistry as meaningful and rewarding. You fix problems people feel every day. You restore comfort, function, and confidence. You can build a practice that offers the autonomy many other health professionals never get. But almost everyone agrees the old autopilot model is gone. The era of graduating, signing every insurance contract, opening the doors, and waiting for patients to flood in is not a sure thing. Reimbursements have not kept pace with inflation, while overhead continues to climb. Add staffing headaches and corporate pressure, and the job can feel less like a profession you shape and more like a treadmill you try to survive.

From that reality comes the most practical advice in the thread—control the entry price. Townies differ on the exact cutoff, but the logic is consistent. Dentistry works far better when total debt stays within a reasonable range. That usually means in-state public schools, scholarships, and service programs. Military and NHSC commitments are framed as trading a few years of location control for a cleaner financial slate. It is not glamorous, but it can preserve choice later.

Ownership is the next lever. When contributors sound hopeful, it is often because they believe practice ownership still offers the best route to wealth and autonomy. Dentistry remains one of the few health careers where you can own the platform, shape the patient experience, and build equity. The counterpoint is blunt. Heavy student debt delays ownership and combining student loans with a practice loan can feel like starting adult life in a hole measured in seven figures. The advice from Townies is not that ownership is dead. It is that ownership requires coaching, speed, and business competence earlier than it used to, and it is harder to pull off if you graduate already financially maxed out.

Specialization is the other recurring path. Townies describe general dentistry as the most squeezed segment because it carries the broadest scope while sitting closest to insurance fee pressure. Specialties are portrayed as more resilient financially, though everyone admits residency spots are not guaranteed, and some programs now come with their own tuition. Still, the theme is clear. If a student is academically strong and genuinely drawn to the work, aiming for specialization can improve the odds that the math works out.

Geography matters more than people want to admit. National averages hide local reality. Some cities feel saturated. Some rural and smaller communities still need care. Several dentists talk like location scouts. Pick a market with demand, design your payer mix intentionally, and the same degree can produce very different outcomes. A smart location choice can do more for a career than a fancy office buildout.

The thread is not all doom. Humor shows up as a pressure valve. Someone suggests buying the kid one bitcoin and letting them decide later, which is funny until you realize the point is optionality. Someone else jokes that if there were an EngineerTown, engineers would be having the same debate about their own golden age. The myth is always that success used to be easier in some other decade, usually the one before you started paying your own bills.

Lifestyle is where the argument gets entertaining, because both sides are right. Dentistry can offer no-call, schedule flexibility, and a four-day week once a dentist is established. At the same time, other industries start earning earlier, sometimes with remote work and stock-based upside. Townies argue about cherry picking. Tech has winners who hit an options jackpot and also has many people climbing a steep ladder through layoffs and long hours. The takeaway is not that one side is right. The takeaway is that dentistry can still deliver a great life, but the road to that life is longer and more expensive than many applicants realize, and the early years can feel like a self-funded residency while you try to get enough reps to feel confident.

A quieter but consistent theme is physical and emotional load. Dentistry is precision work in a wet, moving environment, connected to a person who often is anxious, skeptical, or annoyed to be there. Add posture strain, repetitive motion, aerosols, noise, and nonstop decision-making. Townies emphasize that the body cost is real and underestimated. They also emphasize the niche risk. A dental degree is narrower than many medical, legal, or engineering paths. If you decide you hate the work, you do not have as many off-ramps.

That leads to one of the best pieces of parent advice in the whole discussion: Replace career romance with reality exposure. If your child is curious, give them real shadow time, not a highlight reel. Let them watch the emergency that blows up the schedule, the remake that eats up production, the assistant call-out, and the conversation where you explain that insurance is a coupon plan, not a promise. Modern dentistry is as much about patient communication as hand skills. If your kid cannot stand the people part, no income story will make the job feel worth it.

So would Townies recommend dentistry to their own kids? Many say yes, but only with guardrails. The guardrails are low debt, mentorship, a plan for ownership or specialization, and eyes wide open about insurance and corporate pressure. Others say no unless the student has a low-cost path or family support, because the downside risk has grown too large. Underneath the disagreement is a shared message: dentistry still works, but it no longer forgives expensive mistakes made early.


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