By TJ Porter, WCI Contributor

Many people go into the medical field because they like helping people. Doctors and dentists both play an important role in keeping people healthy, caring for their bodies and teeth. Unfortunately, even for the most altruistic, the good feelings that come from helping people don’t pay the bills. Both doctors and dentists, though, tend to earn high salaries so if you want a career with high earning potential, both can be a good choice.

If money is your primary goal, however, you must consider the cost of getting through training in addition to the typical earnings of both doctors and dentists.

 

Average Doctor Salaries

Doctors are among the best-paid professionals in the United States. Though pay can vary widely depending on specialty, almost every doctor will find themselves in the top 5% of earners.

In 2023, the average physician earned $363,000, with primary care physicians earning $277,000 and specialists taking home an average of $394,000. Those specializing in orthopedics topped the charts at average earnings of $558,000 while those focused on diabetes and endocrinology found themselves at the bottom among doctors, earning $256,000.

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DO vs. MD Salary

How Much Does It Cost to Become a Dentist?

 

Average Dentist Salaries

Like doctors, dentists are high earners, easily landing in the top percentile of Americans. However, their pay tends to be slightly lower than that of doctors.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean pay for a general dentist in 2023 was $191,750. Specialists tended to earn more, with orthodontists and prosthodontists earning an average of $243,620 and $214,870, respectively. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons had the highest typical earnings at $334,310. That increase in pay helps compensate for the longer educational path to becoming an oral surgeon.

 

Education Requirements and Cost

Both doctors and dentists have significant educational training before they can begin their careers and reach their earning potential.

Training to become a doctor begins with a four-year undergraduate degree followed by four years of medical school. Residency lasts from 3-7 years depending on your choice of specialty, and you may need to add another few years of fellowship if you’re getting into a subspecialty. That means that, at a minimum, you’re spending 11 years in school and residency before you are a doctor and start earning a high salary.

The cost of that education can be immense. The average physician will pay $364,536 in tuition, fees, and other costs for their undergraduate degree and medical school, though that could be much higher if you go to expensive private schools.

Dentists have a similar path, beginning with a four-year undergraduate degree followed by four years of dental school. A dental residency typically ranges from 1-3 years, which is shorter than most medical residencies. Some dental schools also offer combined degree programs that let you earn an undergraduate and dental degree in six years.

That means that under ideal circumstances, becoming a dentist requires just seven years of education and residency, but it's typically more like nine, compared to a minimum of 11 years for doctors.

The average total cost for four years at a public dental school was $213,783 in 2022-23, with private schools averaging $366,469. Add the average cost of an undergraduate degree ($145,744), and you get a total cost of $359,527 if you attend a public school and $512,213 if you go to a private school.

More information here:

The Moderate-Income Physician

 

Crunching the Numbers

Now that we have the data, we can figure out what it all means. If your primary reason for going into medicine or dentistry is the earning potential, which is a better use of your time?

Let’s assume you start your undergraduate degree at 18 years of age and plan to work until you’re 65. That gives you 47 years to get educated and work. At a minimum, doctors spend 11 years in school and residency, leaving them 36 years for work. Dentists only spend an average of nine years in training, giving them 38 years to work.

Despite that difference, the cost of education is similar for both, with doctors paying an average of $364,536 to dentists $359,527. That means the real question is whether the slightly longer careers that dentists have can make up for their lower average pay. We can figure that out by calculating the present value of an annuity equal to a doctor’s career earnings compared to a dentist’s.

Value = annual payment * ((1/(1+discount rate)number of payments)/discount rate

As of November 2024, the discount rate is 4.75%, so we’ll use that for this calculation.

The present value of a doctor’s career earnings is:

$363,000 * (1- ((1/(1+.0475)36)))/.0475 = $6,204,410

The present value of a dentist’s career earnings is:

$191,750 * (1- ((1/(1+.0475)38)))/.0475 = $3,344,710

As you can see, the value of a dentist’s career earnings is well below that of a physician. Even though dentists get to work for a few extra years, the typical earnings being roughly half that of a doctor means that they’ll earn roughly half as much during their career. Even the extra time to save and invest their earnings does not help dentists overcome their lower earnings.

Of course, these are simply averages. Dentists in highly paid specialties will see higher earnings while doctors in lower-paid specialties will earn less, so if you’re debating between becoming an orthodontist or a pediatrician, the difference will be smaller.

 

The Bottom Line

Both dentists and doctors will spend a lot of time and money on their education, so it makes sense that both professions offer high levels of compensation. If your goal is to maximize your career earnings, becoming a doctor is the better choice despite the slightly higher cost and time to earn your degree.

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