By Dr. Tyler Scott, WCI Columnist
Writing my first article as a White Coat Investor columnist was scary.
The imposter syndrome of thinking I had anything meaningful to offer the WCI community was paralyzing as I attempted to type out those first few sentences. Instead of facing the discomfort of telling my dental career story, I sat on my bed watching my beloved Utah Utes lose another Rose Bowl while the Microsoft Word cursor blinked to the rhythm of the fourth-quarter clock in Pasadena and the journalistic insecurity in my mind.
Writing this second post is even scarier.
My first column went live the day before my wife, Megan, and I met up with the rest of the WCI team in Phoenix to set up for WCICON23 and three days before Josh Katzowitz put me on stage with Dr. Jim Dahle and a few other columnists to talk about our experiences in front of hundreds of conference attendees. I’ve never been afraid to speak in public or interact with people I don’t know, probably in large part because of my religious upbringing which gave me ample opportunity to speak in front of large groups regularly for 20-plus years.
While I wasn’t afraid to go on stage with one of my heroes and talk to hundreds of people, I was decidedly nervous about what you would think about what I said and the story I told on the blog just a few days earlier.
The comments sections of the internet are a dark and tangled briar full of noxious opinionated thorns and cutting literary barbs. Linguistically skilled, albeit myopic, trolls lurk there, waiting to overstate an author’s tertiary point or gaslight fellow commenters in the stench of their own poorly digested rhetoric and politically infused flatulence. I knew not whether my skin was tough enough or if my stomach was strong enough to withstand the inevitable lacerations and foul exchanges awaiting those foolish enough to lay out their vulnerabilities for the world to read. As I walked on stage that day to face a jury of my peers, I knew it was quite possible a few onlookers may be armed with these pernicious brambles my tender blogging flesh had yet to encounter.
My opening salvo on stage was a brief synopsis of my newly born post, and as I concluded, the room filled with applause. I was astonished, relieved, and deeply humbled by their generosity.
This is one reason why writing a second post feels scarier than the first. It is one thing to sit at home and feel insecure about a faceless reader’s possible response. It is something else to have real people from my peer group offer warm feedback. While the affirmation is soothing, the stakes also feel higher.
The other reason this post is more frightening to write is because I will tell you the story of why I left dentistry at age 38 after only 10 years of practice.
I know there are strong opinions about those who choose to leave medicine prematurely and especially those who received taxpayer money to pay for a portion of their training, as I did. I just witnessed Dr. Leif Dahleen get chided by the very first commenter in his recent post in which he describes what he does with his time now that he’s not a practicing anesthesiologist anymore in his 40s. The sentiment was, in essence, “You are selfish.”
I’ll own that piece right out of the gate. I left dentistry because it was in my best interest to leave. I left because I believed doing so would improve my physical and mental health. I acted selfishly. Let me tell you how and, more importantly, why.
More information here:
Are Physicians Who Retire Early Abusing the System That Made Them Rich?
How I Left Dentistry
First, a bit of a spoiler and an answer to a question that I would be asking at this juncture: “If you aren’t doing dentistry, what are you doing?”
The answer is I now work full-time as a flat-fee financial planner providing comprehensive financial plans to my (former) peer group, healthcare professionals, and other high earners.
The series of serendipitous events which led to my exit from dentistry and my entry into financial planning feels fateful to me.
It began immediately after dental school when I was trying to find a blog I heard my coworkers talking about that supposedly provided unbiased financial advice for doctors written by some ER doc in Utah. I couldn’t find that blog, but I did find Mr. Money Mustache. Pete Adeney’s unapologetic insistence that anyone can retire in their 40s, if not before, was utterly captivating. He opened my eyes to the reality and the dangers of the Hedonic Treadmill and sparked a fire that still burns within me to be radically accountable for every dollar I spend. He taught me to be a fierce steward of our money and how powerful pairing frugality and savings can be.
I eventually found that other blog my buddies were talking about, and, at first, I didn’t know if it was for me. The concepts and language seemed way over my head, and so, I returned to the cultish following of MMM where I could tell myself every bicycle ride to the farmers market was turning the ATP in my quads into thousands of dollars of compounding interest by saving $3.78 on gas.
It turns out I hate riding my bike, especially to the grocery store. Especially in the rain! God bless you, Pete, but that sucks.
So, with a rooster tail stain on my shirt and a bag of slightly soggy Dave’s Killer Bread, I sat back down to read that obtuse White Coat Investor blog in hopes of finding a better, drier way forward.
At the risk of being cheesy and inflating Jim’s ego, this blog completely changed my life. The wild, undirected brushfire Pete lit within me became a blacksmith’s furnace under Jim’s guidance. I learned to fabricate the long swords and chainmail of personal finance that uniquely fit my situation. I was now empowered—armed and armored—to be the ferocious steward of my money Pete had inspired me to be.
I absorbed everything on the blog, quenching my thirst for learning something relevant, actionable, and new that dentistry couldn’t—or at least didn’t—do for me.
I proselytized Backdoor Roth IRAs, HSAs, and index investing with a fervor. I helped my anesthesiologist, radiologist, and dental school friends refinance their student loans, lobby for lower-fee investment options in their 401(k)s, and understand the value of tax-protected growth offered by a 529. I became a de facto financial planner for an increasing number of healthcare friends within my sphere of influence.
However, I never once considered it a possible side hustle, let alone a new career, because I couldn’t imagine turning my back on a $280,000 dental school education and mostly because (despite Jim’s consistent messaging to the contrary) I believed financial planners are an insidious evil preying on the trust, naiveté, and exhaustion of doctors.
That changed one day when my dear friend and co-worker (and a recent Milestones to Millionaire podcast guest) prompted me to listen to episode No. 58 of the WCI podcast. In that episode, Jim interviewed a financial planner who had started and successfully grown a flat-fee financial planning firm assisting mostly healthcare professionals. Jim and the guest thoughtfully went through the various compensation models common to financial advisors and the conflicts that can exist in each of those models. The end result of the interview was a paradigm change in my mind and in my heart about how financial planning may have a role in my distant future as a plausible and ethical income-producing hobby.
A year later in the winter of 2019, after over seven years of 40-hour weeks seeing 20-25 public health dental patients a day, the saplings of burnout had begun to sprout. I confided in a few close friends who also worked in healthcare, admitting for the first time out loud that I didn’t think I could do this for 30 more years. Each of them independently told me they could see me being a successful financial professional, particularly working with healthcare professionals because of my lived experience of walking that unique path.
Buoyed up by their encouragement, I thought, “Maybe this is possible, maybe I can offset my dental burnout by transitioning to part-time financial planning. But where will I ever find the time to get credentialed?”
A few months later on March 11, 2020, I turned on the TV to watch my Utah Jazz play the Oklahoma City Thunder. The game wasn’t starting on time. I’ll never forget the bewildered and then frightened faces of the players, coaches, and referees as it was announced that Utah center Rudy Gobert had tested positive for COVID earlier that day.
The next day, the world stopped.
Within a week, our dental clinic was closed—except for the most severe emergencies—and I found myself at home with nothing but an indefinite amount of time on my hands. This was my chance. I enrolled in California-Berkeley’s online CFP program to begin the process of becoming a certified financial planner.
It was a yearlong self-paced course that, thanks to my years of reading the blog, I finished in just under three months. Once the coursework was completed, I passed the Series 65 exam, meaning I could legally provide financial advice in exchange for money. But who would ever hire a dentist with zero legitimate finance experience? I felt equal parts excited and helpless to enact my new credential. The finance dream fell dormant.
I sat with that dormancy and found other ways to scratch my burnout itch. I went to the gym more. I traveled. In the summer of 2021, I even decided to make a big career move within dentistry and leave public health for an academic position at the dental school back in our hometown of Salt Lake City. It was a nice change, but it didn’t turn out the way I hoped it would, and that disappointment gave renewed energy to my financial planning dreams. Turns out, the path to my dream job would actually start with Megan.
During our move from Oregon to Salt Lake, I opened the weekly WCI newsletter at the Stockmen's Casino in Elko, Nevada. (This is how you know I was a full-throated WCI fan!) I read that WCI was looking to hire someone with preference given to those who live in the Salt Lake area. The timing was perfect. Megan had expressed her intention to return to the workforce after about 10 years at home with our young children, but she didn’t know where she would look for a job.
This was it!
In that cheap casino hotel room that, according to the front desk clerk, had recently been renovated after a murder, Megan applied for the job. A few weeks later, she was the newest member of the WCI team.
I was STOKED! Jim, my digital mentor of nearly 10 years, was suddenly my wife’s boss, and a few months later, we were off to WCICON22 as part of the WCI team (spouses of staff often help out at the conference).
It was there on day 2 of the conference that I went to a talk by the very same guest from episode No. 58 who had inspired me years ago. After her talk, I approached her in the hallway to simply say, “I am a dentist but am an aspiring flat-fee planner, and I just want to thank you for helping me believe my dreams of doing that one day are possible.”
She was very kind and slightly perplexed, saying, “Did you say you are a dentist but want to be a flat-fee financial planner?!? I appreciate the kind words and everything, but I’m desperate for more planners who understand this model, especially those with a healthcare background. Would you like to talk about working for me?”
A few months later I had a job. Not just a job, a dream job.
More information here:
What’s Keeping You from Your Dream Life?
My Spouse Is Quitting Medicine
Why I Left Dentistry
My Marriage
As trite or cliché as it sounds, I’m outrageously and insanely in love with my wife. I want to be around her all the time. I hated spending the majority of our day apart and then coming home from the office completely wiped out with no energy to engage with her.
I hated that I wasn’t helping around the house as much as either of us expected I would. I wanted to do more laundry, cook more meals, and clean more toilets, and that had proven to be disappointingly inconsistent. The emotional and physical demands of 8-10 hour days in the dental chair were sapping my resolve to be the kind of domestic partner I committed to be.
I wanted to be a different caliber of spouse for the next 16 years than I had been for the previous 16 years. Mostly, I just wanted to be with her more.
I’m happy to report it’s going great so far. We go to brunch, go on walks, go to the grocery store, go to the gym . . . just sit together as we both work from home. It’s absolutely sublime and even better than I dreamed it could be (I still need to learn to cook much better).
My Kids
As trite or cliché as it sounds, I wanted to spend more time with my kids. The same physical and emotional demands that drained my capacity to be the type of husband I wanted to be were sapping my capacity to be the kind of father I wanted to be.
I hated that I had such limited bandwidth for my kids when I got home, and I found myself often saying, “Girls, just give daddy a few minutes alone, and I’ll be down in a little while,” as I escaped to my bedroom to watch Pardon the Interruption alone in the dark while trying to release the built-up tension of the work day from my overtaxed cerebral cortex and posterior scalenes.
The change now is profound. I greet them at the door when they come home from school, I volunteer in their classroom, I show up for field trips, and I drive them to dance and gymnastics. Most importantly, I am emotionally available to say “yes” to the vast majority of what they ask of me.
- “Dad, can you help me with my homework?” Yes
- “Dad, will you go on a bike ride with me around the block?” Yes
- “Dad, can you come to our Halloween parade at school?” Yes
It is glorious. I feel strongly I will never regret making the choice to be far more present and available to them during these formative years. Whether it ends up mattering to them remains to be seen, but I know for certain it matters to me.
My Physical Health
Dentistry was killing me. My back hurt so badly all the time, and it was rapidly getting worse. In fact, I learned later how extensive the damage was when I got an MRI in the summer of 2022, which subsequently led to me making a successful claim on my personal own occupation long-term disability policy (a story for a future blog column).
The job was leaving me physically diminished in my late 30s to the point where I couldn’t do basic tasks around the house or sleep through the night. I made every effort to employ optimal ergonomics, exercise regularly, stretch, and get massages. But the daily grind was literally grinding me down.
I didn’t want to live like this.
My Mental Health
I was totally unprepared for the daily emotional gauntlet of being a dentist. Granted, I was never a private practice dentist seeing suburban soccer moms that brushed most days of the week. I was a public health dentist seeing patients with a range of mostly untreated mental health conditions, which is to say nothing of the tooth-specific challenges those on the margins of our society present in the office.
While the public health piece is relevant, my private practice friends also report an increasingly heavy emotional drain emanating from their professional lives.
Very few people in our society enjoy going to the dentist. A bigger slice is pragmatically neutral about it, and an ever-growing portion really, REALLY doesn’t like it. They were more than happy to tell me about it. The first 3,000 times I heard, “I hate the dentist. I hate being here. This is my personal hell. No offense, you are great and everything, but I just abhor this place,” I thought, “Yeah, I get it, it’s not my favorite thing either.” But the next 10,000 times I heard it, it started to build up.
There is an immeasurably insidious impact of being told over and over again that my presence in a room, my intention to show up as a helper and healer, my willingness to make less money than my peers in a profession that is breaking me down, is loathsome to those I am there to help. I never resented my patients for feeling this way. In fact, quite the opposite. My clinic provided me with a great deal of training that vastly improved my capacity to feel genuine empathy for the myriad challenges my patients faced.
That ability to look in my patients’ eyes and feel with them was a lovely skill that aided greatly in my passion for my work, and I’m proud to say it led to me having near-perfect patient satisfaction scores for the entirety of my dental career. I sincerely loved my patients, but ironically, loving them made their pain, fear, and anxiety land with me even heavier. I struggled to summon, day after day, the heartfelt compassion for them necessary to hold back the resentment as they debated with me about the safety of amalgam or vaccines, their demands for antibiotics for non-bacterial origins of inflammation, their requests for opiates, their unwillingness to follow post-op instructions, or their reluctance to put down the soda and pick up the dental floss to improve their own dental health without holding me unilaterally accountable for all their dental outcomes.
I’m deeply embarrassed to admit this out loud. I feel guilty that I couldn’t hold up better or longer. I am ashamed that I wasn’t strong enough to separate their experiences from my own.
Dentistry was hard on my back and harder on my soul.
My Personality
As I have come to know myself better at nearly 40 years old, I now realize there are two things about dentistry that don’t suit my intrinsic nature very well. (I’m interested to hear if these two things resonate with anyone else in medicine or any other profession.)
The first is that I am insanely hard on myself. Dentistry is a game of millimeters, and the margin of error is often measured in tenths of millimeters. The difference between a good dentist and a bad dentist in the public’s eyes is whether the shot hurts, if you are seen on time, and if the waiting room is nice. However, as a peer group and within our own minds (at least in mine), I measured myself against these fractions of millimeters, and I was presented with hundreds of opportunities a month to feel like a failure. Rationally, I know that I was not. I operated at a high level well within the standard of care, but still, that voice inside my head telling me my disto-lingual chamfer margin on #15 was a quarter millimeter too thin could never fully be quieted.
The second is that I think I have professional ADHD. In hindsight, a big part of what was keeping me engaged in my dental journey was the academic and achievement escalator. I had to get good grades to get into a good college, then good grades to get into dental school, then write compelling essays and interview well to get into the dental school I wanted, then the rush and excitement of learning a new vocational skillset, then graduating at the top of my class to preserve my opportunity for the residency of my choice, then finding the job I wanted, then moving to a new place, then paying off my student loans, then . . . 30 years of the same thing with some, but much slower, levels of learning, developing, changing, and progressing.
I have absolutely loved diving deep into a new profession and working toward mastering it as best I can. I bet in 10-15 years I am doing something different again. That thought used to give me anxiety. Now, it makes me feel alive.
My Life
An obvious part of being a dentist that I didn’t contemplate or understand when I was 21 years old is that you have to be in the office to make money (those who have built up practices with associates notwithstanding). I became more aware of this disparity between healthcare and many other professional jobs as I aged. I would often be invited by my lawyer, engineer, and entrepreneur friends to “come join us on Thursday at noon for a round of golf.”
“What in the world were these guys talking about? I’ll be at work, man! Every Thursday at noon from now until 2050, I’ll be at work!!!”
But during COVID, it felt like the entire world decided to work perpetually in pajama pants from their bedroom and to make sourdough bread between calls while I put on a fortress of face fabric and commuted into the office like a chump. I wanted in on the pajama pants and sourdough-centric workday.
There is no way I can adequately describe how sensational it is to do any of the following:
- Wake up naturally without an alarm.
- Open my computer in bed to start my day instead of having a rushed shower, force-feeding myself a breakfast shake, and driving through the morning slush in traffic on the freeway.
- Go on any vacation, any time, anywhere (that has Wi-Fi), and be able to continue working without getting a supervisor to approve the use of my preciously limited PTO.
- Go to the gym from 10-11am with the 56-year-old ladies instead of from 7-8pm with the 28-year-old steroid bros.
- Work with clients instead of patients. Working with early- and mid-career medical professionals that value flat-fee financial advice makes for a very different workday than working with disgruntled and demoralized patients who are chronically ill, understandably anxious, financially strained, and increasingly jaded. My work days are now notably . . . pleasant.
My Pay
Perhaps the good news about being a public health dentist making $110,000-$200,000 is that, from an economic perspective, it is a much shorter climb to reach the same income plateau than if I had been a private practice dentist. When presented with a credible alternative to make a similar amount of money doing a job that is more pajama pants and sourdough than it is back pain and emotional gangrene, it's much easier to make the change.
FYI, in a future blog post, I intend to provide a full disclosure of what our personal budget and cash flow looks like for a family of five living on ~$150,000. We know not every white coat investor makes $650,000, and Josh, Jim, and I are committed to speaking to my fellow “modest earners” more often and more openly.
My Values
The truth is that I didn't choose dentistry at 21 years old because I was convinced it was my unshakeable and eternal passion. I chose it because it was part of a societal script I was handed by my culture, geography, and intellect.
Nearly every academically successful man in my community was a doctor. As an only child of a single elementary teacher, I didn’t have many familial reference points to frame my professional work options, and so, I looked to my community to show me what was possible. I am incredibly fortunate that the demographics of my immediate environment showed me that essentially anything was possible, but it was clear to me that if I was going to woo the girl, buy the mansion, have the boat, serve the church, and golf the resort . . . I needed to do the medicine thing.
I did it, and it was aggressively OK. But I don’t want to do it anymore.
Turns out that once I took time to actually get to know myself, to slow down and quiet the noise enough to hear my own heart, I realized I didn’t want to be a dentist.
I never really chose it. It was assigned to me by the unique micro-culture of the place I grew up, and let me acknowledge that is a pretty dang good assignment compared to what is assigned to almost everyone else that has lived in this world; but it was assigned nonetheless.
It’s impossible to describe how much my culture influenced my decision to pursue dentistry. I don’t resent that influence; I just think it’s worthwhile to name it.
After I chose to untangle myself from the culture I grew up in to better align my beliefs with my values, it became even more clear that I had never wanted this dental life. Without the specter of culturally infused expectations and silent but persistent messages about what was expected of me professionally within that culture, I never would have chosen dentistry.
I chose to leave dentistry so I could create my own life. I left because, at 38 years old, it wasn’t too late to take the reins of my own professional happiness.
Only time will tell if these were the right choices, but at least they were mine. So far, that has made all the difference.
More information here:
The Happiness Index: Mine Required My Own Version of Retirement
Possible Lessons from This Transitional Tale
- Beware the greener grass: I thought academia was a greener pasture as I stood on the public health grass. If you are fundamentally unhappy, don’t change pastures, quit farming.
- Walk through one door and see which one opens next: I never could have envisioned where my financial planning path would lead when I decided to enroll at Berkeley to get my CFP certificate. I walked through that door, and I have been continually surprised to see which doors opened next.
- YOLO: Life is too short to stay in a job, a home, a city, a relationship, or any institution that leaves you feeling less than whole. Rather than fixate on all the reasons change won’t work, focus on the way it can work. We are smart, resourceful, and hardworking people. We have already proven we can excel at things that are difficult. It’s never too late to make the life you want even if it appears challenging to do.
- Sign up for the newsletter: You never know what pearls of learning or seeds of opportunity may show up in there.
- Go to the conference: I don’t just mean WCICON. Just go to the places where people you want to be like gather. You never know who you will meet there and how those serendipitous meetings may change your life.
- Shoot your shot: Megan shot hers with WCI. I shot mine with my current boss at WCICON. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, but even the misses aren’t necessarily a bad thing. I took a shot and missed with the dental school job, but even that led to something wonderful (if we hadn’t moved to Utah for that, Megan would not have gotten the WCI job, I wouldn’t have been at WCICON22, and I wouldn’t have my dream job now).
- Don’t place any trust or hope in Utah sports teams. (It's too late for me, but you don’t have to make the same mistake.)
- Learning for me . . . wow, that was interminable. Maybe I should write books, not blogs.
Were you burned out by medicine and decided to make a career change? Could you see yourself following a different path? Would that make you happier? Why or why not? Comment below!
Great post Tyler! Curious if there’s more opportunity with your company on a more remote basis – either as a side gig or full time. Found myself in a similar situation before I switched to academia. 33 y/o dentist with similar passion for personal finance and admiration for WCI/MMM teachings. Thanks!
Ditto? I burned out on the best available medicine job appropriate for not moving and not risking our financial security on unexpected expenses of a different practice setup. Part time options were denied. FIRE became the best option (and had been an option for some years).
Still trying at 60 to form my next chapter which at present includes not enough time being a hands on grandma and creating a new garden as well as all the hobbies I didn’t choose to give up moving closer to the grandkids.
Anyway might investigate CFP courses soon. Thanks for the article!
It’s validating to hear of someone else that has had a similar experience, thanks for sharing.
There is definitely more opportunity with the company I work for. If you want to connect and talk more about it, email the editor inbox at the link below and the WCI team will pass your information along to me.
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/contact/
Thank you for this terrific post Tyler! I really enjoyed reading both this and your first, and I appreciate your honesty. Also, “don’t play cricket near terrorist cells” is still the most cogent advice I have read here. Keep up the great work you are doing!
Thanks Margaret. Maybe we should start a cricket wellness group at the next WCICON and see if we lure some of the pickle ballers away. Or maybe we should lobby Jim to hold WCICON in Whistler and go skiing!
I’m all in.
I just can’t wrap my head around the idea of leaving dentistry! Like, I get it – you want more time with your family, better physical and mental health, and a more flexible schedule. But for me, dentistry is life. Teeth are my thing! I’m on a mission in life to make people smile, and I feel like dentistry is the perfect way to do that. I mean, there’s just something magical about helping someone feel confident in their smile again.
I totally get that everyone’s different and what makes one person tick might not be the same for someone else. I just find it fascinating to see the other side of things, ’cause dentistry has been such a huge part of my life and identity. It’s amazing to me that we’re all in the same profession but can have such different experiences and feelings about it.
It’s awesome that you’ve found your path to happiness, though, and I’m genuinely happy for you. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll have a change of heart too. But for now, I’ll just keep on loving teeth and making people smile!
I admire you, and in many ways, envy you Tom. I envy the passion you still clearly have for the field you chose in your youth (I think early 20s is youth). I admire that you knew yourself well enough at that pivotal stage of life to align your educational pursuits and professional endeavors with your values so well.
Most dentists I know feel similarly to you and that speaks well of our profession. I was reticent to admit I don’t feel that way and did so in hopes that it helps other dentists evaluate their career arc and either validate their choice as you are articulating, or give others permission to reconsider possible alternatives.
Thanks for reading.
There’s definitely a wide range on the continuum between calling and job in both dentistry and medicine.
Tyler – An amazing story and a great transitional tale! Thank you because you are a true financial advisor who knows the value of financial planning is the advice! You lead with honesty and promote peace of mind for your clients and, meanwhile, enjoy a good life with people you love. I’d much rather have that than clean teeth.
Oh, and maybe the lesson from this transitional tale is that you should have made this two or three blogs rather than one! Don’t write a book. Blogging is much better.
Thanks David! I’ll stay away from book authorship for now and enjoy the abundance of the good life with my loved ones as well as my optimal periodontal health.
It was great meeting you at the conference, thank you for your generous support of my new path.
You should write a book someday, Ty. But be warned: it’ll suck out your soul while you’re doing it.
To be fair, dentists don’t CLEAN teeth.
I just retired after 37 yrs in dentistry and agree with everything you wrote. It is a tough gig physically, emotionally and spiritually. Being in public health was likely what burned you out sooner though. Private practice is so much easier imho, but the first decade is difficult, and it is not until you see the financial rewards build as your debt load decreases, that you start to sleep well at night.
I like what you have chosen as your new career path because young dentists need their hand held to get motivated to establish retirement plans and get them funded to the max. I’m not a big fan of the push for crypto and RE with younger docs until all other traditional retirement vehicles are fully funded. Too many of my peers think that they have it made when they have so little invested. They don’t have a plan based in reality, and reality does smack you across the face once you put down the handpiece.
Every time I get a locums offer or feel bad about retiring, I need to reread your article to remind myself why I retired. As a I tell others, I do miss the people, but not the rest of the BS.
Congratulations on your recent retirement. 37 years is a long time to pushing the rheostat, I’m happy and excited for your next chapter.
I agree that public health was a significant factor in my burnout story. I often wonder how my life would have looked different in private practice and yet, my heart was truly with those uninsured kids and migrant workers. Once I knew I could help them, I didn’t want anything else. Perhaps that was shortsighted.
I’m interested to see how this current generation of new dentists fairs against the rising tide of burnout as they graduate into a world of $400,000+ debt, DCO and corporate takeover, increasing overhead as the public expects incorporation of new technology, decreasing reimbursements, and the unchanging physical and emotional demands you and I both know so well.
I agree 100% I was in private practise
Great post Tyler!
I’m a dentist and had to stop practicing after just 6 years because of a disability. Dentistry is so demanding. I would love to hear more about your disability insurance journey that you alluded to.
Thanks for taking the time to write our thoughts so eloquently and glad the second career is so rewarding!
Thanks for reading and the kind comment.
I believe my next post will be about my disability story which should run sometime in the 3rd quarter of this year. I certainly learned a lot from that experience, I’m sure you did too.
I hope you had a great own-occupation disability policy, and more importantly, I hope you are feeling better being out of the operatory.
Great Post Tyler!
It’s a captivating and courageous story. I loved “politically infused flatulence”
and “Walk through one door and see which one opens next.” Great job showing
what life was like before, how you made the change, and what life is like now.
Fantastic job editing a long timeframe piece!
Thanks Mike. I also enjoyed that line about internet commenters, I was pleasantly surprised when that rolled off my finger tips.
I’ve enjoyed reading about your medical transition story and look forward to reading your (future) book one day!
I also liked “poorly digested rhetoric.”
Yeah I like your story better so far but thanks, that helps!
dude this was awesome. congrats on starting a new chapter in your life and god bless you for helping patients out for a decade. sounds like you will continue to do great work helping docs out with finances now! Wonderful how not only did financial literacy help you to pivot from dentistry, but also headed into the direction of financial advising! great to you will be more present for your kids, your wife, and yourself.
And don’t give up on Utah sports! You never know, you might have another Karl Malone/John Stockton duo in the future!
I appreciate that Rikki. I particular appreciate the way you framed a decade of care for my patients. I need to remind myself that was a meaningful period of service and stay away from the thought that creeps into my mind that I quit on them too soon.
John and Karl are immortal figures in my life. I don’t know that I’ll see another pair of Hall of Famers stay in Salt Lake for 15+ years but we are feeling optimistic that Danny Ainge and his treasure trove of draft picks can lead us somewhere fun in the coming years.
Didn’t realize WCI columnists were compensated by the number of words published! JK
Dan – I wish! My first version of this was 5200 words!! Josh told me to cut it to 4000 and we settled on ~4200. Brevity is not my gift.
Great post! I remember having lunch with you and your wife at WCICON 22 and I’m so happy things have worked out well for you!
Hi Tyler,
Thank you for your story. I genuinely laughed out loud when I read… “Yeah, I get it, it’s not my favorite thing either.” But the next 10,000 times I heard it, it started to build up.
I’ve been a dentist for 25 yrs, recently decided it was time for break from the “build up.” I convinced myself that life was short, and dentistry was sucking out the life in my soul. Tired of insurance companies, tired of unreliable staff, tired of negativity. So, after a series of events, selling my private practice, and trying an associate gig that was not favorable or tolerable, I moved to Maui and am currently enjoying some time out of the spit-life. I took a non-dental related job here, and now feeling out of my lane, wondering if I’ve lost my mind to give up the earnings I was previously enjoying, now trying to decide what my next move will be, eventual re-entry or tap out for good?
Hello Tyler, I enjoyed reading your website and the reasons why you left Dentistry.
I am an Anesthesiologist, more specifically, an Interventional PainMedicine physician. I have been in practice since 1997……a long time. I understand the fatigue that is associated with practicing Medicine—-I spent many, many nights taking call and safely anesthetizing very sick patients for emergency surgery. It was not easy! Dentistry has its own issues……dental school tuition is outrageous in terms of what salary a dentist has the potential to make, working in a patient’s mouth to within millimeters for perfect fit, leaning over to work on patients, and lack of public’s dental insurance for payment are all valid stressors. I have found that whatever field one is in, it can be stressful……the key is that working with the public is not easy! Especially in today’s highly litigenous society and some having some very toxic ideas about healthcare providers, in general. I am currently working a reduced amount of hours in a VA because I feel that I have “paid my dues” working in private practice for 22 years before moving to the VA. The workload is much more tolerable BUT the pay is substantially less. I have no regrets…..I have saved enough to cover my children’s tuition at private universities and grad schools if they desire it, paid off my mortgage and car loans years ago and am comfortable financially. Notice I did NOT say “extravagant”……there is no “doctor’s house”, no “doctor’s cars”, and no second or third homes. Luckily, I still have my first wife of almost 23 years…..this helps a lot. I come from an immigrant family. My parents taught me the value of hard work and being responsible financially as well as being a committed family man. Medicine has been very good to me……I feel very fortunate to have been able to take care of other human beings—-whether giving anesthesia to help save their life or performing interventional complex pain medicine proceeds for lessening their pain and improving their quality of life. I feel that I have been doing “God’s work” for these people and am proud of my dedication and tenacity. I continue to study and learn new procedures and techniques now that I am doing 100% pain medicine. I can truly say that I have dedicated my life to the service of others and their betterment. In summary, good luck to you and your new calling. I wish you peace and happiness. Just keep in mind……every profession has its problems and negatives. It is by looking for the light and the positives in any profession that can one move forward, keep one’s head high and eyes focused on a happy and fulfilling career and life.
Nicco,
Thank you for your excellent comments!
This is so well-written, Tyler. I love your breakdown of what led to your decision to leave dentistry, and those moral/ethical/social hangups you encountered on the way. Thanks for sharing & congratulations on making a move that was right for you! Having recently changed jobs (academic medicine to full spectrum family medicine in a critical access hospital), your comment about changing pastures vs quitting farming resonated particularly with me–I personally just needed a different pasture, but farming isn’t the only way to contribute to the world and it sounds like you’ve found a good (and needed!) alternative. (Your comment about long posts also made me laugh- I’m notorious for long emails & my sign-offs are usually similar).
Hi Tyler,
Thank you for sharing your story! As an incoming D1 student starting dental school this year, I thought to myself that reading this post might not have been a good idea haha. Nevertheless, I definitely had an open mind reading this blog. During my time shadowing and applying to school, I spoke with dentists and specialists to learn about their thoughts on dentistry, their work-life balance, and life after dental school. Many expressed the same stressors and issues you articulated in this blog, but some also expressed enjoyment in what they did/don’t mind the grind in dentistry. Do I see myself doing dentistry for the next 40+ years? Honestly, I do not know, but so far being a naive 22-year-old, I don’t regret my choice in picking this path. When you talked about how the unique micro-culture of the place you grew up in influenced your “assignment” to dentistry, it made me ponder my path to dentistry and why I chose to go into this career. I was raised in a large cohesive family so compassion and connection are big virtues for me. As I got to explore more about dentistry (Receiving orthodontic treatment, interacting with my dentist/orthodontist, teeth cleaning, etc.), I saw some parallels in certain aspects of dentistry that aligned with my virtues and values. I enjoy the Dr-patient relationships fostered, the ability to help others, the artistic/aesthetic side to dentistry, and the intellectual challenge that comes with patient care and treatments. To quote you, Dentistry is also not an “unshakeable and eternal passion” for me either, but it’s something that I chose with my own autonomy and wouldn’t mind putting time into it (for now at least haha). I assume time will tell, but so far, I’m excited and looking forward to the next stage of my professional life. Meeting new people, making new friends, establishing a new community, studying what I want to learn, applying those skills after graduation, and giving back to my family are all things that I envision will happen to me as I start school in the Summer-Fall.
I wrote this reply in hopes of asking you as someone who has gone through the wringer, for some advice:
What are the important things I should take away during my time in dental school?
What are things I should be ready for/keep in mind for when I come out of school?
Financial literacy is something that I’m lacking, but currently, I’m reading these white-coat investor blogs and other finance books to educate myself.
What things can I do to continue building my financial literacy during my time in school?
Are there any financial things I should be doing during my time in school?
If you ever get to this comment or reply, thank you for taking the time to read it and I’m glad that you are in a better physical and mental space. Stay Chill 😎 and I look forward to reading your future blogs and wisdom about finance.
Justin
Justin,
Thanks for reading and for the thoughtful comment. Your motivations and rationale for attending dental school are intentional and sound, and I’m sure you are going to have a fruitful career in dentistry. Since this post went up a couple weeks ago I have heard from scores of dentists and physicians who resonate with the sentiments I expressed but the broader truth is that the vast majority of dentists are very happy in their careers. The fact that you are on this site growing your financial knowledge base at this early stage certainly increases the chances your dental life is a joyful one.
To answer your questions:
1. What are the important things I should take away during my time in dental school?
Maximize the experience. Don’t just do the minimum to get out of there, rather absorb absolutely everything you can. Talk to as many instructors as you can about their approach to procedures, about their private practice, about how they handled staffing, where they take CE, how they paid off their loans, etc. Go hang out with the GPR, AEGD, and/or residents at your dental school. Ask the OMFS, Endo, Perio, Ortho people if you can assist them, help them, shadow them, etc. Go on the externships, volunteer trips, public health rotations, etc as often as you can so you get as much exposure to as many people and parts of dentistry as possible.
2. What are things I should be ready for/keep in mind for when I come out of school?
Beware the corporate dental takeover. You are likely going to have monstrous debt and be eager to make as much money as possible. Resist the urge to chase dollars immediately out of school and instead pick a job where you will get quality mentorship for the first couple of years. If you graduate with debt greater than 2x your projected salary, consider a job that qualifies for PSLF. Public health can be a great place for mentorship and tax free forgiveness of your loans. Combine NHSC and other loan repayment programs with making minimum PSLF payments to keep your total out of pocket loan costs near zero. Also, take LOTS of CE courses.
3. What things can I do to continue building my financial literacy during my time in school?
Read at least one good personal finance book every year. Read this sight and listen to the podcast. When Jim and Andrew have their webinars for medical and dental students, listen. Read Mr. Money Mustache and learn the value of frugality. Ask your instructors that do/did work in private practice about how they ran their business; what worked and what didn’t, what they wished they would have known or done differently.
4. Are there any financial things I should be doing during my time in school?
Live as frugally as possible and minimize your loans at all costs. The best way to do that is have someone else pay for dental school i.e. seek NHSC and HPSP scholarships. If you have a partner, maximize their income and use it as efficiently as possible. Payoff any interest on your loans before it capitalizes to principal. Make contributions to your Roth IRA if you and/or your partner have earned income. Get comfortable living like a dental student, you likely will need to live that way for the next ~10 years.
Wishing you all the best on your odontogenic journey.
Hi Tyler,
Thanks for the advice. Really. I’ll keep these points in mind! 🙂
Great post Tyler! Nearly everything you said here resonates with me, and you have an amazing way with words. It gives me a lot of hope to see someone who has come through the other side happy. I look forward to reading more about your journey in the coming months.
superb metaphors!
Tyler,
Really enjoyed reading your articles and thank you for sharing your journey! Congratulations to your next big step! I am a specialty dentist and I agree with all your points. I have been in private practice for about 15 years and I hope to finish in the next 3-4 years. We live relatively frugally and have paid off all debts (including ~550k of student loans).
I will miss the nice income but rather live a simple life and retain my sanity. I wish I can love the field and practice another 20 years though. Especially when I see the potential loss to our future net worth if I worked until 65. Oh well – each to their own 🙂
Wow, as always, your many skills shine through in this writing!
You made a tremendous difference in dentistry and will make an even larger one in your new adventure!
It is fantastic to see you and your family thriving and loving life.
Excited to see what you, Megan, and the girls create.
Hi Amy!! Great to hear from you! Thanks for all your years of support on my dental journey. I hope all is well at the clinic and in your life. All the best!
Tyler,
I enjoyed your post, and it is striking how much we have in common including the oft painful decision to be a fan of Utah sports (yes, I, too, am a University of Utah graduate.) Like you, also, I am transitioning into a career in finance after a long-career in health-care. Like Jim, I am an emergency medicine physician. I was burning out before but the pandemic helped pushed me to change my priorities. I decided to go back to school and get a Masters degree in Finance (which I will finish in December) and a CFP certification (will take the test in September) and have joined a great financial advisory group that is linked here on WCI called Targeted Wealth Solutions. It is like stepping out into the dark, but I appreciate reading of others like me who have decided to take the leap and are making it work. Congratulations!
Bryan Jepson MD
Targeted Wealth Solutions
http://www.targetedwealthsolutions.com
I’m not a dentist (anesthesiologist/intensivist) but a lot of what you said resonates with me. The achievement ladder was enough to sustain me throughout training, but now that I’m staring at a lifetime of practice, oftentimes when the outcomes desired by others is different than the outcomes I feel are important, and where simply by the nature of the practice I have to sacrifice portions of my physical well-being (night shifts, call, several consecutive long ICU days) its hard to imagine doing this into my 50s. The money and existential value I place on being in medicine will probably be enough to get to FI world in mid 40s which isn’t bad, but I do wonder whether doing something that stresses me out all the time is the best way to live my life in my 30s and early 40s. I don’t think there are many other ways I could spend my time where I make more money for the time I put in, but at what cost?
Dr. Scott !! So glad to see you’re happy on the other side. You always had such an optimistic, wholistic approach on treating people that was different from most other faculty at the dental school. Glad to see you serving the world in the capacity that you love & enjoy. Much love !
Hi Banseh! So great to hear from you! Thanks for reading and for the kind words. The thing I miss the most about dentistry are the unexpected and meaningful relationships like the ones I found with you and that original group of your classmates in the 3rd floor clinic.
I hope your dental journey is off to an exciting start. I have no doubt you will lead a full and joyful dental life.
All the best!
I’m just thinking aloud on paper, but fear of having back pain is one of the biggest reason I chose not to pursue dentistry. I do believe I have great hand eye coordination, and would have enjoyed working a 9-5 taking care of people’s teeth. However, I wasn’t about to risk back pain and have my life be ruined. thanks for your article
Hi, Tyler, I just wanted to say that your post really spoke to me. It’s incredible how much I could relate to everything you shared, and your words truly touched my heart. Your journey and the positivity you exude give me so much hope for my own path. I eagerly anticipate reading more about your experiences and growth in the upcoming months. Keep shining your light!
Isabella – Wow, thank you for those deeply affirming and incredibly kind words. Making a positive contribution to our peer group is my primary intention in writing for WCI so your comment is tremendously impactful and motivates me to keep doing it. Thanks again!
Seeing that WCI is actively working on expanding their content related to “moderate earners” is quite appealing to me, as a physician assistant married to an engineer! One of my husband’s colleagues turned him onto the FIRE movement; although I initially criticized his grocery budget that included predominantly rice and beans (no joke!), I quickly realized we could live our own version of this, with our own priorities. And limited rice and beans.
I have been particularly grateful to this movement through covid, as it allowed me freedom to speak up at my workplace when things were taking place that I did not agree with, for the sake of the patients. It’s very relieving to know that you will be just fine should you need to part ways with an employer. I wonder– if more of us in healthcare had this freedom– would there be more meaningful change in the system that leads to this burnout?
Thank you. I look forward to continued emphasis on those “moderate earners” amongst us!