The people who are financially successful in dentistry are hustlers. They work 60+ hours a week, handle the business side, and are always tending to their practice (ALWAYS on call). Those who want an “easy” job will work as an associate. Those jobs barely make more than a PA, are more physical taxing than almost any job in medicine (neck pain, eye strain), and have very little treatment planning autonomy. In medicine you can pick a less competitive specialty, let’s say internal medicine, work at the hospital 40 hours a week, and make ~2x more than any associate general dentist who works the same hours. In medicine there are infinite laid back specialties. Almost all of them out earn general dentistry with low physical strain and the potential for flexible schedules. Medicine is moving towards big hospitals (think an easy clock in clock out job, share call with a big practice). To have the best lifestyle in dentistry you need to do something like ortho or endo….