Yes and No. If I could get into a time machine and change, I almost always would. Only you can weigh the pros and cons.

Pros: Stability, money, it can be engaging / interesting, you get to help people, you’ll have a good understanding of health.

Cons: if you want anything above, you’ll have to put in a lot of work! The loans situation is shitty before the money is good, it’s hard to truly help people towards a stable healthy mouth/smile/bite because insurance doesn’t cover many procedures – drill and fill doesn’t provide the feeling of success or good long term outcomes. You also have to be at work to make money, unless you’ve put in a ton of work to create a large growing practice. You’re going to be competing against larger and larger corporations as time goes on, so having your own practice will become increasingly difficult. If most dentists are honest, they don’t feel appreciated until they practice differently than everyone else. I also like to travel, so I never get to do that through my job.

I like where I’m at, my potential, and the job itself is fun mostly. For me, having employees is not fun, stress can build up easily, and the job is physically demanding. There’s a strange phenomenon that when things go wrong, they go very wrong (all day/week)… and some days/weeks/months are incredibly easy and just flow.

If you want dentistry to be great, be prepared to put in the time, energy, investments, otherwise it can wear you out.

I should also say, every office is completely different! No office works the way you learned in school, like restaurants – all similar in a way, but vastly different.