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Why is it that hearing the "r" word in your twenties and thirties goes in one ear and out the other? Then when you hit your mid-forties, the "r" word goes right to your heart!
Recently, I talked with a doctor who had just turned 50 about selling his practice and retiring this year. Later, I chatted with a much older dentist who said that he "can't afford to retire!" Last year, when I was playing in a men's baseball league, I got to talking with the other team's first baseman - a police officer - who told me that he was three years away from being 55, which is when he planned to retire. Between pitches, he told me that his retirement income is going to be $110,000 a year. I was so shocked that I almost got picked off first base! The overwhelming majority of dentists won't retire with that annual income. Heck, far too many dentists don't make that much during their working years, let alone during retirement.
While lecturing at the same place, I had a conversation with Cathy Jameson, PhD, about the drop in dental school graduates due to dental school closings. We were discussing how dentists view the closings as good, but that in reality they are clearly missing the bigger picture. Dentists, you see, were quietly celebrating when dental school after dental school closed in the 1980s and '90s. Fewer grads, less competition, right? Well, read on ...
According to the American Dental Association, the number of dental graduates has risen over the past few years from 3,810 in 1996 to 4,367 in 2001. But the number of new graduates in the 15-year period from 1974 to 1988 is higher than the number of new graduates from 1989 to the present. In other words, our nation's dental schools graduated more dentists year after year from 1974 to 1988 than they are graduating today. While a couple of new dental schools have been formed, they do not compensate for the number of dental seats that were lost when these dental schools closed in the past 17 years:
1 Oral Roberts University School of Dentistry - 1985/86
2 Emory University School of Dentistry - 1987/88
3 Georgetown University School...