In reading the thread about practices that make 1.5 million, the issue was raised that Dentistry has better salary/lifestyle vs Medicine because they Dentists have successfully kept control over autonomy, economic independence. MDs and organizations AMA(?), though, have given these up/lost hold and fallen under the control of managed care, etc.

What is the future for dentistry? Will the same political pressures for cost control not affect dentists in the future? Will projected surplus/deficiency be the crucial factor?

Greetings all. I have been reading your forum on a regular basis, and find to be quite interesting, but if I may give my opnion since I have been a dentist now for 2 years and although I am still new and learning about the real world dentistry, here is what I came to notice in the 2 years I have worked in private practice. To go back to the question if it is possible to make a million dollars a year in private practice, I would say yes that's quite possible, BUT it doesn't happen over night and it take a lot of dedication and mainly dentist who make that number, fiqured out a way at which they can concentrate on doing certain service which is profitable, and has low overhead. For example, some practices have a very strong recall programme, and that represents their majority of money making, other practices work on Medical Assistance programme where they provide alot of preventive service at which the medical assistance has good fee schedule. My point is as a General dentist, you have the power of Patient pool. Then it's up to you to refer or not based on your level of expertise. For instance in our office we have alot of Root Canal, crown and restorative patient, and that office makes about 750,000/year, to us that's good, we don't need to be heroic and do 3rd molars or implant surgery, because it's not worth it time wise. You see time is money, you have to ask yourself how many dollars do I wanna make an hour, and then find something that you like, that you are good at, and that you will do quickly. If there is one advice I can give my fellow future dentist, dental residents and even Medical doctor, is that you guys are smart, you guys are good at what you do, but they don't teach you practice managment well in dental or medical, at least not when I was a student.
For those dental student who want to go to private practice, please take practice managment classes and know about insurance code, cause they can be quite confusing. For those who are persuing specialty, good luck, and we look at you guys as extention of our practice, I have 3 specialist in my office and they are wonderful people, and remeber before your touch the patient think for yourself, would I want this to be on my own teeth, if your answer is No, refer the patinet out, SHARE THE WEALTH=SHARE THE RESPONSIBILTY

Sincerly

DoctorH

One more thing about the political pressure and managed care that can apply to dentistry VS Medicine. I think Dental organization so far have been so protective and supportive to dentists. Sometimes they are so protective that it causes inconvinance to the dentist. For Example I have taking The North East regional Board, but for me to work in the state of Virginia, I need to take the Southern Regional, even though I am licensed in 3 states. I think all of these are protective measure. Also remember in Medicine, if you are sick it's a must that you have treatment or you will get more sick. In Dentistry the only thing that can be serious is dental infection or infection in the oral cavity, but you are not going to DIE if you get gold crown instead of ceramic one, you can live if you are missing teeth, maybe your diet will be limited but a lot of time dental patient they want something that's elective, their insurance pays for Partial but they want a bridge, or an implant. A lot of young people want bleaching, or cosmetics. I think there is a huge difference, but again it's very difficult you predict the future, all I can tell you that now is the golden time for dentist, especially general practice.
Good Luck

Tangential Help...

In threads like this, concerns about after-tax income routinely arise. I recommend http://www.paycheckcity.com/netpaycalc/netpaycalculator.asp

If you use that, there's a lot less guessing.

Greetings all. I have been reading your forum on a regular basis, and find to be quite interesting, but if I may give my opnion since I have been a dentist now for 2 years and although I am still new and learning about the real world dentistry, here is what I came to notice in the 2 years I have worked in private practice. To go back to the question if it is possible to make a million dollars a year in private practice, I would say yes that's quite possible, BUT it doesn't happen over night and it take a lot of dedication and mainly dentist who make that number, fiqured out a way at which they can concentrate on doing certain service which is profitable, and has low overhead. For example, some practices have a very strong recall programme, and that represents their majority of money making, other practices work on Medical Assistance programme where they provide alot of preventive service at which the medical assistance has good fee schedule. My point is as a General dentist, you have the power of Patient pool. Then it's up to you to refer or not based on your level of expertise. For instance in our office we have alot of Root Canal, crown and restorative patient, and that office makes about 750,000/year, to us that's good, we don't need to be heroic and do 3rd molars or implant surgery, because it's not worth it time wise. You see time is money, you have to ask yourself how many dollars do I wanna make an hour, and then find something that you like, that you are good at, and that you will do quickly. If there is one advice I can give my fellow future dentist, dental residents and even Medical doctor, is that you guys are smart, you guys are good at what you do, but they don't teach you practice managment well in dental or medical, at least not when I was a student.
For those dental student who want to go to private practice, please take practice managment classes and know about insurance code, cause they can be quite confusing. For those who are persuing specialty, good luck, and we look at you guys as extention of our practice, I have 3 specialist in my office and they are wonderful people, and remeber before your touch the patient think for yourself, would I want this to be on my own teeth, if your answer is No, refer the patinet out, SHARE THE WEALTH=SHARE THE RESPONSIBILTY

Sincerly

DoctorH

good post :thumbup:

Thanks for the tax link. Just wanted to remind every one, that GP dentist usually when they work as associate their net income varied from 100,000-120,000, the first couple of years, then if they continue working working as associate and get percentage of the work that number booms to 200K. BUT here is the tricky and the diffecult part, when you open your own office, and suppose you start it from scratch, it will be very diffecult in the begining. I would say alot of new practice are shooting for evening out between their overhead and production. Not every one can handle that, some dentist perfer working as associate cause they just want to do dentistry and not worry about running an office , some others love the feeling of being in charge. But one close freind of mine , who has 5 offices in Jersy once told me the earlier you start your practice the better, cause you have less things to worry and you can take a shook. He also stated that if your office after 5 years been making 200K then there is something wrong there, you might as well work as an associate.
Take care

good thread!

Thanks for the tax link!