Dentists complain about economic pressure and warn of practice closures. Self-employed dentists in particular can still earn good money. However, fewer and fewer of them are willing to take the economic risk.
Anyone suffering from toothache on Tuesday may have to resort to emergency services. Dentists in several federal states are keeping their practices closed to protest against what they see as “sick” health policy. Participants are complaining about too much bureaucracy and economic pressure and are warning of increasing practice closures. The number of dentists in private practice is indeed falling continuously, according to data from the German Dental Association and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists (KZBV). But dentists are not starving. However, they are no longer among the top earners among doctors. And the incomes of dentists vary greatly.
Doctors are the professional group with the highest average salary in Germany, with a median gross salary of just under 95,000 euros per year, according to the job portal Stepstone. This means they earn more than twice as much as the average German. However, according to the calculations, dentists earn a third less: a median salary of 63,100 euros – half earn more, half less. The Federal Employment Agency gives a similar figure with a median salary of just under 5,340 euros per month for full-time workers. A quarter earn just under 3,650 euros, a quarter earn more than 6,750 euros.
This is not only due to regional differences. Different activities are included in the calculations, from assistants as entry-level professionals to specialists, for example in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Salary is also strongly influenced by whether someone is employed or self-employed. For employed dentists, a decisive factor is whether they receive a share of the turnover.
More and more employed dentists
Self-employed dentists can earn significantly more; according to the latest KZBV data, the average surplus income was a good 203,000 euros in 2021. In addition to taxes and social security contributions, investments in the practice must also be financed from this. Opening or taking over a dental practice alone usually costs several hundred thousand euros, as the job portal Medi-Karriere explains. The practice owners also work an average of just under 44 hours a week for their income.
The average income surplus also covers a wide range, with 61 percent of dentists having a pre-tax income below this value. The median income surplus was 169,000 euros. Converted to twelve months, this equates to a good 14,000 euros. In the old federal states, the median was higher at a good 175,000 euros per year, while in the new federal states it was significantly lower at just under 139,000 euros.
According to professional organizations, there were recently around 45,000 dentists in private practice, which means that almost twice as many were self-employed as employed. However, the number of dentists employed in practices is growing continuously and was recently at just under 24,000. According to the job portal and recruitment agency Deutscher Zahnarzt Service, they start out as assistants with an average salary of 2,500 to 3,500 euros.
Majority of employees share in sales
According to the study, 82 percent of employed dentists work according to a revenue-sharing model, which significantly increases salaries. Without revenue-sharing, after two years of assisting and a further year of work, employed dentists can earn between 3,500 and 5,600 euros. With revenue-sharing, employed dentists earn between just under 4,600 and almost 12,400 euros, an average of just over 7,400 euros, as the portal calculates. Employed specialists, for example in oral and maxillofacial surgery, earn an average of just over 11,800 euros under this model.
Employed dentists in clinics earn higher salaries than those in practices. Earning opportunities are also better on average in rural areas, as a survey by Apobank in 2019/20 showed. Employed dentists there earned an annual salary of 82,000 euros, while in the big city it was 68,000 euros.
Compared to other doctors, dentists’ salaries have fallen significantly in recent decades. While they were among the top earners in 1980 according to the KZBV, their income has now fallen below the average for all doctors. Dentists are now behind dermatologists, internists and urologists – but still just ahead of orthopedists and surgeons and well ahead of pediatricians and neurologists.