$1 MILLION in Student Loan Debt - DOCTOR REACTS

If you watch Dave Ramsey all the time like I do, you may have seen this episode involving an orthodontist with $1,000,000 in student loan debt!! I decided to do another Dave Ramsey reaction video since I've been talking about finance a lot. In this video, I talk about all things related to student debt and what a burden student debt is to so many people. Hope you all enjoy

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#studentloans #studentdebt #daveramsey

[WiiKitty]

My understanding is that dental school is more expensive than med school. They have a residency but is unpaid so it is pretty “common” for someone to be a dentist and have 500k in debt due to taking debt for living expenses.

[CAB]

As a dental student I can attest that $1mill is not that far of a stretch. To be fully candid, my tuition alone is $92k a year, not including living expenses. If you were to take the full amount on loans, which obviously you need something to pay rent, etc. I know that my school approves up to a total loan amount of about $127k a year. Taking all of that into consideration, you would be well over $500k, likely nearing 600k with interest accrued during school. As far as I'm aware there are very few orthodontic residencies that don't require you to pay for them, and maybe none. At my program the Ortho residency is $47k a year, again, not including living expenses (~82k with living). So during the three year ortho residency you would be accruing about $40k in interest from your dental school loans while also taking another 80k. Now if you're following my math here you can see were already at ~$960k, and I hate to inform you, but this is not even the most expensive program out there. Realistically though an Orthodontist should make $400-500k+ a year though if that helps.

[StudentDoctorEli]

Loving the finance talk Dr. Cellini there aren't enough people that touch on it and a lot of us don't have a plan on how we're going to pay back all this debt!

[BoltCRNA]

I was $200, 000 in student loan debt from CRNA school. Paid it off in 2 years this month! Now real life can begin.

[pamelag]

So I am a Pre-Dental student and am quite familiar with dental incomes bc I’ve asked around. As for an orthodontist, 250k is low but he is a new grad so it usually starts at 250k-350k in the beginning and then linear growth begins.

[Nameisabe]

Dental student in CA here.
Dental school tuition is close to 100k a year for 4 years. This doesn’t include living expenses. Living expenses in CA is 20k a year with room mates.
So we’re at 480k for dental school.
Residency is another 120k a year for 3 years. With living we’re looking at 420k.
That brings us to around 900k. Now add in interest throughout the life of the loan from your first year in school and add in undergrad loans.
I wish I could say that this guy was being irresponsible with how much money he was taking out for his education but this is “normal” for many dental residents.

Also, dental residencies often don’t pay their residents.
Dental education costs in the US are insane.

[GeoffreyHiggs]

I'll tell you how it happened...He went to undergrad, probably around 30k in debt, he went to a private dental school, NYU, USC, or one of the other schools, 400k in debt..he went to Ortho (non-paid) residency another 400-500k in debt, you have to pay tuition for ortho residency and its non-paid. All the while, interest is accruing on the undergrad and DDS degree. that's close to 900k, spend another year after graduation getting set up before making any money, and it's easily at a million, in debt. (Oral surgery, maybe dental anesthesia, are the only paid residency programs in Dentistry). The real problem, is that the government backed student loans, so the education institutions, where able to raise tuition astronomically high, without loosing out on enrollment due affordability.

[DemetriPanici]

This is a common problem many doctors and dentists end up finding themselves in. Crazy that we're in a world where this happens

[ritafava]

I can confirm. My boyfriend is a dentist and said most residency programs are unpaid.

[saramorcos]

Hey Dr. Cellini - pharmacy student here (crying in debt). Can you do a video on how to manage your loans during graduate school and tips n trick to look out for? How to prepare for loans when you graduate? Would be super helpful!!!

[KillerAJ]

I took out too much during pharmacy school. Instead of taking out the tuition money only, I also took out the full “cost of admission “ which included books cost, equipment cost, laptop cost, transport and housing cost.

[StudentDoctorEli]

Dental School is super expensive. My schools tuition is $85k per year, not to include how high the cost of living is in Boston. A lot of Dental Residencies also charge tuition rather than paying their residents. Some residencies YOU pay. For example, UNLV Orthodontic residency is $79, 000 for years 1 and 2 (each) and $42, 000 for the third year. More loans/scholarships needed! This deters people from school and specializing.

[ErikaCorrea]

Hi! I’m a YouTuber and a dentist pursuing orthodontics. Yes you are right about most dental residences being unpaid. There are a couple paid orthodontic programs but they are very hard to get into and accept very few students. Most ortho programs I’ve seen can cost up to 100K a year and you have to pay this for 2-3 years.

[larryhon]

Pediatric dentist here. Graduated residency in 2018, 630k debt. I expect to be debt free in 2025, but not everyone in my shoes will see the light at the end of the tunnel. For anyone reading- I joined the army reserves for loan repayment, work in my office Mon-Thurs, and help attend at the dental school on Fridays. Many dentist I know will not be able do pay off their student loans, because of loan-interest. Here is the breakdown for my life- tuition was about 300k for 4 years, but I lived off 30k per year for 6 years <rent, school supplies, food> (180k), residency was 2 years at 30k per year (60k). 540k total, but interest was ticking for 6 years at about 7%. Ortho residency is worse, because it can be 100k per year for 3 years (300k).

If you join army reserves, you have to keep attacking your loans because you can finish your contract and still owe the same amount due to interest.

[Guccimanegut]

He is probably starting out so the 250 will go up but the reason he is in so much debt I’d because in dental specialties (other than oral surgery) you have to pay to be in the program rather than being paid so he probably had anywhere from 400-600k in debt just from dental school then the rest has been paying his residency program and interest accumulating all those years

[armandocortez]

I work in the field, the very well off orthodontist are the business owners. Most associate dentist will have a salary and bonus for production.

[p]

Salaries depend on the city you work. Also the military can help you cancel some of the debt. If you are a salary person that it’s frugal with his/her salary it would take 30+ years to save up 7 times your annual salary.

[he]

4th year dental student here. The reason he is in 1 mil debt is because dental schools charge crazy high tuition. He went to a school that charges one of the highest tuitions in the nation, as well as its residency program. For orthodontics residency, you have to pay, they don't pay you. So he had to pay for those extra years of schooling as well. Orthodontics is getting saturated now because programs are realizing dental students would love to be a part of this field and will pay any cost to become a certified orthodontist -thus more programs are opening up. However, the salary start up is a little lower and general dentists are starting to do more invisalign cases. Orthodontics is a big risk to pursue nowadays. Which is why I am pursuing oral surgery. It is the ENT/Plastics of dentistry and more competitive than orthodontics.

[-kj]

median salary of $208, 000 in 2020. The best-paid 25 percent made $208, 000 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $150, 250.

[zzzzzzzzzz]

In dentistry right now, so I can explain a bit. Unfortunately, it's easy to come up with a few ways to hit a million dollars debt as an orthodontist. First, US dental schools charge the most for training in the world. If a student has no financial help, they usually graduate from a public school to owe 300k-400k, and private schools owe 550-650k (this includes interest and cost of living) just to obtain their DDS.

If he went to an expensive private dental school, then 600k of debt by graduation is not only possible, but probable. You can owe a little less if you happen to live in that city though, so 600k could potentially roll back to 500k, even if it's an expensive private school.

Afterwards, ortho residencies are 3 years and are unpaid. Dental residencies may give salary or charge tuition depending on which specialty you choose. In this case, ortho happens to be a specialty that charges you but don't pay you for 3 years. Most residencies will charge around 80k, but you still have to think about cost of living and interest, so you could pay potentially over 100k a year again for your ortho residency. With interest, 600k + 300k + interest for another 3 years, this could easily go to a million dollars and over.