lol!! all these sites giving average pay scales and mentioning stories of dentist earnings are crap. I am a dentist and quite a junior one, I can tell u that my boss easily make in excess of AUD 1.2 million net. his gross is beyond imagination. And he is neither the best nor the richest dentist, there are guys we meet in conferences who fly in in their private planes to be at the conference, this how rich a dentist can get. But only if you have your own practice, if u don't have your own but work on a job you can make upto half a million depending on where u get a job but 5 years after graduation AUD 300,000 pa is quite common. We make more money than cardiosurgeons.but don't tell anyone shhhhhh!!
If u are a specialist like an oral surgeon u can charge anything at all, virtually I know a guy who charges AUD 600 per hour nd he tells of people in his association who work all over the world and charge in excess of USD 1500 per hour. Dentistry is a rapidly growing industry, theres more research into it than medicine. 54 % of dentist work 4 days a week only, almost all dentists work at their chosen hours, there are so many exclusive dentist flying clubs, they re so filthy rich.

But you have to be a businessman more than a dentist, extremely good people skills cos if u make a mistake u have to have the patient's confidence or ull end up in jail or at least lose ur licence. U also need people skill to keep ur practice growing, theres a lot of competition. U have to keep studying hard all your life, the more the letters behind ur name the more patients you will get. And these letters like FRACDS, FRACS, FRCS, MDS, DDS etc etc are the only way people can know about ur capabilities , u have to be good at school since kindergarten not one bad year, u have to keep reading ur basic books again and again cos every year there are so many changes just like the microchip doubles in power every 18 months. If u do not keep up ur out.
Suicide rate is the highest among dentists, family life can suffer if u get too carried away with money, cos it comes calling to ur doorstep, its upto you to send it away, most dentists hear so many complaints and unhappiness expressed by their patients that they are fed up. Usually people are unhappy because they feel the cost is too high compared to the job, so they keep whining. They don understand that to be a dentist requires lots of skill, hard work, leadership, management, right attitude, discipline, study, investment, personal sacrifices. A dentist is essentially a surgeon, no dental disease can be treated by meds alone, u have to perform a procedure and you have to have precision of millimeters in each of those multiple procedures,you have to use expensive equipment which wears rapidly, unlike a phsysician'c clinic a dentist has to maintain hospital-like stringent infection control using expensive equipment and disposable barriers, sterilisse the equipment, keep stock, maintain calender of events, oversee each sterilisation cycle, use tracking systems, keep upgrading as and when law changes (which is every year) It is a tough, stressful job but those who love it like me and are ready to deal with its stresses can have a nice life, earn a lot of money and be happy.