Dental School Loan Repayment Calculator

The average dentist carries $297,800 in total education debt at a Grad PLUS rate of 8.94% — generating roughly $26,500 in annual interest before any principal is paid.¹ Getting repayment strategy wrong by a decade costs six figures. And the landscape just changed: SAVE was eliminated, the new RAP plan launched July 1, 2026, and Grad PLUS loans are being discontinued for incoming students.

This calculator compares every strategy available to you — IBR, RAP, standard 10-year, and private refinancing — on total lifetime out-of-pocket cost, including the tax you'd owe on any forgiven balance.

Understanding each strategy

Standard 10-year federal

A fixed monthly payment that retires your balance in exactly 10 years at your current federal interest rate. The most expensive monthly payment but the cheapest in total interest — and the only one with zero forgiveness risk. For dentists who can afford the payment, this is usually the default before you've modeled the alternatives.

Private refinancing

You replace your federal loans with a new private loan at a lower interest rate. SoFi and Earnest currently offer fixed rates starting around 4.5–6% for dentists with strong income — compared to your 8.94% Grad PLUS rate, that difference compounds significantly over 10–15 years.⁴

Critical tradeoff: Once you refinance into a private loan, you permanently lose access to IBR, RAP, and PSLF. For dentists headed to private practice (the vast majority), this rarely matters. But if there's any chance you'll work at a qualifying non-profit or government employer for 10 years, get PSLF before refinancing.

IBR (Income-Based Repayment)

Monthly payment = 10% of discretionary income (your AGI minus 150% of the federal poverty line), recalculated each year.² Any remaining balance is forgiven after 20 years — but the forgiven amount is taxable as ordinary income in the year of forgiveness.

Who this applies to: Borrowers who took out federal loans before July 1, 2026. New borrowers starting after July 1, 2026 use RAP instead.

RAP (Repayment Assistance Plan) — new July 2026

The RAP plan replaced SAVE on July 1, 2026 and applies to new borrowers who first took out federal loans after that date.³ The payment formula is different from IBR:

• Rate = minimum of 10% and (floor(income ÷ $10,000) + 1)%
  Examples: $45K income → 5%; $90K income → 10%; above $90K → capped at 10%
• Monthly payment = income × rate ÷ 12 − $50 × number of dependents (min $10/mo)
• Forgiveness at 30 years (vs 20 years under IBR)

For most dentist income levels, RAP payments are slightly higher than IBR — but still significantly less than the standard 10-year payment. RAP also results in a longer repayment horizon (30 vs 20 years), meaning the forgiven balance may be even larger.

PSLF for dentists: usually a non-starter

Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels your remaining balance after 10 years of payments while working full-time at a qualifying government or 501(c)(3) non-profit employer.² Unlike IBR/RAP forgiveness, PSLF forgiveness is tax-free.

The problem: almost no dental practices qualify. Private practices — sole proprietorships, PLLCs, S-corps, group practices, DSOs — are ineligible. The rare exceptions are dentists employed by federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), VA hospitals, Indian Health Service, or municipal public health departments. If you're in one of those roles, run the PSLF math before doing anything else.

The refinancing vs. income-driven decision for dentists

For most dentists in private practice, the decision comes down to two variables:

1. Can you afford the refinanced payment? On $300K at 6%, that's ~$3,330/mo. If you're a new associate earning $90K, that's 44% of gross income — probably not workable. Give yourself 2–3 years of income growth first.
2. How large is the forgiveness scenario? If your income starts low, your balance grows substantially under IBR/RAP due to negative amortization. The forgiven amount and its tax cost can easily exceed what you'd have saved vs. refinancing.

A common pattern for dentists: use IBR or RAP for the first 3–5 years while income is low and loan payments are unaffordable, then refinance once practice ownership income makes the full payment manageable. This hybrid approach avoids the most expensive years of high payments while cutting off the forgiveness-tax exposure before it compounds.