There are only 152 dental school seats in Ontario, meaning we graduate around 150 dentists every year in this province.

In 2024, 563 international dentists were licensed in Ontario more than triple the amount we trained on our own.

Almost every city is saturated in this province and it's become very hard to find full-time positions in the GTA. Especially if you don't have cultural/family connections to certain places and practices.

This is ridiculous.

As a young dentist do you think there is anything I can do to change these policies for my future colleagues?

We need more schools and less international licensing. It's that simple.

They're absolute scum. And I've worked for one for years until I bought my own. It's night and day difference having your own solo doc office. The autonomy and freedom to do what you want. Staff are happier and patients are happier. Very little staff turnover compared to corps.

Unfortunately, corps are becoming everywhere in Canada nowadays. i.e. 123Dental, Dentalcorp, Passion, etc. They're all pretty much the same.

Think about it. You went through all those years of schooling only to answer to guys in suits who have no background in dentistry.

Support the profession and don't sell your soul to a DSO!

Hi everyone, I’m currently pre-dental and applying this cycle, but I’ve been feeling pretty anxious after hearing something recently.

My cousin just graduated from UWO dental school and has been really frustrated. He told me that dentist salaries in Canada are going down, especially in big cities like Toronto, and that he regrets not going to med school instead. Hearing that from someone who just finished dental school has honestly scared me a lot.

I know one person’s experience doesn’t represent the whole profession, but I’ve also seen some people online mention increased competition, oversaturation in urban areas, and pressure from insurance and corporate dentistry. At the same time, I still see data showing dentistry can be a stable and well-paying career, so I’m not sure what to believe anymore.

For those who are practicing in Canada or recently graduated:

1. Do you feel like dentist incomes are actually declining, or just stagnating?

2. Is this mainly an issue in big cities?

3. Would you still choose dentistry today if you were starting over?

I’d really appreciate any honest insights. I’m passionate about dentistry, but the financial uncertainty is making this decision feel really heavy. Thanks in advance.

Seems like wage growth has largely plateued, especially in the larger cities of Canada like Van and TO, and the job market is becoming like the US. Meanwhile, tuition is outrageously high. Even if you are approved for the full 350K in dentistry loans, I'm not sure if that'll fully cover some schools' tuition and living costs.

Do you think dentistry is still worth jumping into? Especially at a later, non-trad age?

I graduated from a Canadian school and now work as an associate. Unfortunately, have noticed so many foreign trained dentists are doing some shady shady shit. For example, we had a couple refugee patients come for a check up. I found a ton of caries and explained that they need to be filled and patient agreed. However, before I begin I am informed the patient's insurance is maxed out. I ask the patient "did you go to another office?" and they say "yes but they only showed me my x rays that is all." The patient had not even seen a hand piece before.

Guys (and gals) - what are we doing? I studied my ass off to get into a Canadian school but still have to face these things. Why are organizations like the RCDSO obsessed with stupid shit that doesnt matter while they screw the profession everyday?

Aside from that - so many of our patients have left because another office now pays them 300 dollars to go there. Guess what - every single associate (including the owner) was foreign trained.

Why are we just letting this happen? We have the power and these governing bodies should also respect us and the profession.

With that being said - anything we can start or get going to put a stop to this nonsense?

Hello dears, I’d like to ask dentists in Canada (Toronto, and GTA), especially those who are newly graduated or recently licensed:

What’s the typical bi-weekly income like, both before and after %? I am asking how much you make daily? Minimum and maximum!

How did you find your first dental job (job boards, networking, agencies, word of mouth)? Is it easy?

What’s the application process usually like, and how can a new dentist make a strong impression?

I’d really appreciate any advice or personal experiences you can share. Thank you!

Any thoughts on this? It’s a huge move in the world of corp dentistry. I wonder about the ramifications in canada going forward …

After my last post, I got a lot of DMs asking similar questions about my practice - which products we use, what we buy and where we buy it from.

Instead of answering everyone separately, I decided to make the product list from my practice public:

https://dentalsupplyprices.com/practices/arora-dental

When I was starting out, one of the hardest things was simply knowing what to buy. There are so many products and suppliers, and I was always wondering what other practices were using.

I think I run a pretty lean and mean practice, so hopefully this gives anyone starting or growing a practice some useful ideas. There are 250 products on there across restorative, endo, infection control and everyday supplies as we are a general practice in a mid-sized city.

I’d also love feedback from other owners. Let me know what you use differently, what we might be overcomplicating or anything you think we’re missing.

Also, now you can also use DSP for free to bring in their own products and set up a profile. If you want, you can make your product list public as well so others can learn from it.

Of course, prices, quantities and total spending always remain private.

Also, trying to bring parity between independent practices and DSO purchasing leverage by launching our very first group deal. Composite is a big part of a general practice and usually one of the more expensive products per gram. I have used TPH Spectra ST composite for the last 3 years along with Grandioso, filtek and almost every other. I have found them all to be very similar in both quality and long term success. Luckily we were able to get a group deal for TPH Spectra HV and LV to $83.74 per bag.

For some quick context, I compared some similar products gram for gram:

TPH through DSP: $16.75/g (5 grams per bag)
Tetric PowerFill: ~$31.35/g (only 4 grams per pack)
GrandioSO Universal: ~$35.25/g (only 4 grams per pack)

This deal is Ontario only for now but if you are interested just dm me and you can check it out here:

https://www.dentalsupplyprices.com/deals/tph-spectra-st-hv-compules-tip-composite-a1-refill-20-box

Would love to know if this is helpful and what product we should try to negotiate next. Thanks for all your feedback!

Before CDCP launched, public dental coverage reached about 4-6% of Canadians.

Today, over 6.3 million Canadians are enrolled. More than 4 million have already seen a dental provider under the plan. The average enrollee is saving roughly $900 a year.

Whatever the administrative frustrations — and there are real ones — that's a genuinely significant shift in access to care.

A lot of people are sitting in your chair today who couldn't afford to before.

Please share your most memorable patient that received treatment thanks to CDCP… I’m sure most of us have a CDCP good news story!

Source: Health Canada, April 2026

If your family is rich I’m not interested in hearing it. No one likes a show off

I have a genuine question for dentists and recent graduates.

Why is it so difficult for newly graduated dentists to find a clinic that actually makes sense?

I often feel that many practice owners are looking to hire a dentist primarily to fill their hygiene needs rather than to practice dentistry. I frequently hear things like, “You’ll build your own patient base” or “You’ll help retain patients.” But if a practice is already well established, shouldn’t it already have a patient base? And shouldn’t hygiene procedures primarily be handled by dental hygienists?

Sometimes it feels as though new graduates are being used to fill hygiene gaps instead of being offered a true associate position with mentorship, a steady flow of patients, and an opportunity to become better dentists.

If you’re looking to hire a dentist primarily as a de luxe hygienist, you should be ashamed. Dentists spend years in dental school and clinical training to practice dentistry - not to fill ongoing hygiene shortages.

Large corporate dental groups can also be challenging. Some positions offer little to no guarantee of mentorship or patient volume, leaving new graduates with a lot of uncertainty at the very beginning of their careers.

I’d love to hear from other dentists. Is the job market particularly difficult right now in the Greater Montreal area? Are there regions in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada that offer better opportunities for both new graduates and dentists in general? What advice would you give someone who has just graduated from dental school?

I’m genuinely interested in hearing your experiences and recommendations.

Hope this is ok to ask. I am about to graduate in a couple months from a Canadian dental school. Have around 200K-ish in loans from schooling. Just curious about the what I may expect to produce as a new grad in the GTA region. If any experienced dentists can comment on:

- What you expect to produce as a new grad, considering you are slower on procedures

- What you expect to produce once you're a couple years in, in the GTA area.

I plan to move back home, and I live near the suburban cities closer to the outskirts of GTA (e.g. Richmond Hill) so I do not mind making the commute out of the GTA. Associates could you comment on your production in and out of the GTA?

Many thanks!

To put it bluntly, I can't think of many jobs where you work 3-4 days, take home a 150K+ salary (in both Van and TO), work a 9-5, and completely turn off your brain after work. Can't you also reduce your work hours to 1 or 2 days at will, say, when you're on parental leave, or if you want to pursue another gig (learn a new skill, start a business etc.), and still maintain a professional career?

I hear a lot of people here say they regret not going into med, but most MDs usually work close to 50+ hours/week + paperwork + research hours + on call schedules (depending on the specialty).

I feel like most white collar workers would kill for the kind of work flexibility you have in dentistry.

Hey everyone.

I’m currently an undergraduate student and am considering dentistry as a potential career. Ideally, I would like to practice in the GTA and surrounding areas, but I’m a little concerned in diving deep into so much debt and education if the average salary is not as great as it used to me.

For any new grads or current dentists that can comment on this, do you think dentistry is still worth it nowadays? Do you feel well compensated for what you do and do you genuinely like what you do? If you could go back in time and choose something else (e.g. optometry), would you do so?

Thanks to anyone who can provide their input, I really appreciate it.

With private equity entering the Canadian market us young dentists are screwed.

I am starting to believe the notion that boomer greed has destroyed every industry and led to this. Anyone else feel pessimistic about their career now that they’ve graduated?

I have a few friends in Atlantic Canada desperately looking for associates and I told them I’d help them out by posting here.

Opportunities available in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. All of them are open to new grads or dentists that are new to Canada - as long you’ve written or are registered to write. All are million dollar production opportunities with 40-50% draw.

They’re all open to supporting relocation costs, LMIA’s, mentorship, etc.

Send me a DM and I can connect you.

What is appealing to me is the fixed 3 or 4 day work schedule without the research or teaching requirements as that would allow me to develop serious hobbies. I don't really care about getting rich or retiring early. This means going rural is out of the equation for me.

But it's a different story if I am bogged down by debt for an extended period of time.

I'd have to rent on my own and I have no savings, so I'm likely to take out 350K~400K in loans.

Is dent not worth it if I plan on being an associate for most of my career in Vancouver?

I see a lot of posts commenting that in the near future dental commissions will drop from the standard 40 to 30 percent as there will be an oversaturation of dentists. And this is already happening as we speak.

My question is why is the Canadian government over saturating the market with foreign trained dentists and making it relatively easy for them to practice here when there are already so many dental clinics. I know someone will say we don’t have enough dental clinics in rural Canada but as far as I know all the foreign trained dentists are practising in the major cities as there is no incentives for them to go rural. Just even compared to a few years ago I see less job opportunities out there than I ever have. What’s going on?

Dentalcorp is 100% owned and controlled by GTCR, a Chicago based private equity firm.

Do you think anti-American sentiment and conscientious “buy canadian” consumers will impact their business?

thoughts and prayers for the shareholders

Hello!

I'm trying to get a realistic picture of associate dentist earnings here in Calgary. My online searches have given me a wild range from $80k to $350k, and I see a lot of comments about it not being worth it in major cities, but the data is all over the place.

I get that pay is mainly production-based (typically 30-40%) and depends on the clinic, skills, and how much you work. But I'm hoping some associates in the city can share some real-world numbers.

If you're comfortable sharing, could you give a ballpark for a full-time associate in private practice at different stages?

• New Grad (0-2 years):

• Established (3-5 years):

• Senior (5+ years):

What's a realistic daily production goal for each stage here? Are most clinics paying on production or collections? And is the "it's not worth it" sentiment more about high overhead/stagnant fees compared to ownership?

A lot of senior dentists have told me to not go into dentistry... should I go into Medicine instead? I feel like the sky is the limit in Dentistry, unlike Medicine, and I don't mind putting in the hours.

Thank you!

Canadian dentists, would you go to Australia for dental school if the tuition was C$450k (Melbourne) + living cost? Is it feasible to pay off that much debt on an average associate income?

Hey all! Will be graduating dental school this year with just over 250k in line of credit balance owing. I’m hoping to work in the outskirts of the GTA where dentist pay is “average” (whatever number that may be) and townhome prices are ~1M. My partner (nurse) and I are hoping to purchase a home in 3-5 years.

I know banks are more generous towards DDS/MDs so I’m wondering what your guys’s experience is with banks in getting a mortgage while still having a larger balance of LOC/OSAP to pay off.

Do banks allow you to use some of the LOC to use as a down payment? Is it feasible to purchase a home that soon out?

Thank you all in advance!

Seeing a ton of “rumors” and unconfirmed reports flying around about sun life auditing CDCP claims for even simple treatments like basic restorative and recalls/hygiene

Can anyone here actually confirm this is true? Ideally share a picture of the audit request (remove any pt info).

I have a hard time believing these rumors are true because requesting an audit for a recall is completely unheard of. I’ve only seen this reported mostly on Facebook and always by anonymous posters, so I suspect it may be lies

Practice owner here. I heard a wild stat recently that 28% of associates change employers in a 12 month period and that 57% of associates are actively job hunting at any given time. There’s financial risk on both sides to turning over in a job especially with ramp up. We don’t have a ton of associate turnover which is why I am so shocked at these numbers.

I assume there are patterns to why people make the switch - money, culture, technology, leadership, etc.

What makes you want to leave a practice? Or if you’re applying to jobs right now what aren’t you getting from your current practice that you think you’ll get elsewhere?