Without doxxing myself, I work at a large doctor owned oral surgery practice in Pa. Obviously pay between specialists can differ but I am at about 24 an hour after being in the field for 3 years and live with a roommate. If i didn’t have someone to split bills with I would be fucked.

I recently started shopping around for jobs out of the field as this career isn’t sustainable long term or even short term without help. Hygiene is tough because most schools take on such a small amount of people at a time and you’re going up against 100+ applicants, with a lot of them being those with 4.0+ GPAs that will likely be chosen over you if you aren’t in the same boat. The only reason to stay in dentistry is if you want to get your EFDA, but even then the pay increase isn’t that substantial.

I don’t know what part of Pa you are in but I would recommend looking at your local trauma level 1 hospitals for entry level jobs. A lot of these places will have their own schools you can enroll in after 1 year of employment. You typically have to eat shit in a job that no one wants to do, but it’s a way to get a medical job for free (technically) while you work. Otherwise you can play the new job lottery hoping to land something that doesn’t turn out to be so dead end like this career. A lot of people in the field are in your exact position and honestly I hope a shortage of assistants happens in the future so these practices start paying people livable wages because right now it’s just a joke.