Do dentists have time to travel the world?

[john7991]

Do you, as a dentist, have time to travel the world? Did you ever visit China? Africa? Countries in Europe? Etc?

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[Ivy.ch]

Do you, as a dentist, have time to travel the world? Did you ever visit China? Africa? Countries in Europe? Etc?

As long as you don’t mind losing money, you can travel anywhere.

 

[Saddleshoes]

Do you, as a dentist, have time to travel the world? Did you ever visit China? Africa? Countries in Europe? Etc?

Sure!
If you can get outside of the private practice model you might even get paid...
----Some cruse ships provide a free cabin in exchange for providing dental care to the ship bound staff.
----The military sends dentists all over the world. (Germany, Honduras, Paraguay, for me.)
----There are tons of philanthropic medical missions a dentist can volunteer for a trip.
----At one time, one could make big bucks providing contractual dental care in some Middle East countries.
----There have been contracts available to civilian dentists to provide dental care to US military personnel over seas.
----I know of a few US dentists teaching in foreign dental schools.
----My favorite was the US dentist that had a sail boat with a dental operatory built onboard and sailed around small islands in the Caribbean providing dental care.

 

[charlestweed]

No if you have high student loan debt and need a good stable job to pay it back. No employer would offer a good paying job to an associate dentist who frequently takes time off to travel.

No if you start an office from scratch and have to work hard to build up the patient base. No patient would choose a dental office that is closed all the time. Being available to treat walk-in and emergency patients is a very important way to build your reputation, especially when your office is new to the community. Your new office needs patients in order for you to pay back the business loan.

No if you have kids to support and have a spouse who doesn't have a good paying job....or has a job that doesn't allow him/her to take a lot of time off for vacations.

You will definitely have more time to travel later in your life when you pay off some of your debts and no longer need to have a good paying job. When you graduate with 4-500k debt, you are basically a broke dentist....you are no better than your assistant who only makes $18-20/hr.

When I was a recent grad, I took short 3-5 day vacations only once or twice a year. With so much debt, I couldn't afford to take vacation that was longer than 2 wks.

 

[luisfigo]

yes absolutely, my senior doc takes off about a month every year and goes hunting, he worked 2 days in september, produced 14k and got a pre-tax check at the end of the month for 29k, he has a partner and an associate under him running the practice while he's away

 

[Lemillion]

Depends on your financial situation but typically yes. If you're a solo owner then if you leave to travel, the office will be closed and no production will be happening plus the staff will have to be off too. If you're an owner that have associates working for you then great, you're ability to take off will be much easier.

If you're an associate, you can travel more freely without having to worry about overhead, production, etc. You just won't be paid for taking time off unless the office offers PTO as a benefit. Every time I take off of work...the following paycheck is a lot lighter haha.

**Also travel plans need to be made in advance a lot of times to account for the schedule and the staff have a heads up too.

 

[PerioDont]

Basically this is not a profession where one can travel a lot.

Definitely cannot work from remote areas etc.

One thing that is possible is live extremely lean, do locums positions. much more difficult to travel early in your career as a practice owner.

I know an US trained endodontist who lives in Turkey, he comes back to the states every 2 months for about 10 days, does a bunch of RCTs and flies back.

 

[rishi3]

Every dentist I have worked for takes 2 to 3 nice vacations per year. Given, they all are 35+ with successful practices. Dentistry puts you in the drivers seat. You can make 130k a year and barely afford to live with loans or you can make 400k+ with a successful practice or two, the choice is yours.

 

[2TH MVR]

Do you, as a dentist, have time to travel the world? Did you ever visit China? Africa? Countries in Europe? Etc?

Yes. And sometimes you can write off a portion of this. Private practice ... yes. Not sure about associate/employee. I've done many CE trips where I coordinated the CE class with an actual vacation with the family. Numerous Hawaii trips during the AAO conferences. Once a Mediterranean cruise with a CE course.

During my private practice days .... I viewed EVERY expense as an opportunity for a business write off.

 

[8_man]

Yes. And sometimes you can write off a portion of this. Private practice ... yes. Not sure about associate/employee. I've done many CE trips where I coordinated the CE class with an actual vacation with the family. Numerous Hawaii trips during the AAO conferences. Once a Mediterranean cruise with a CE course.

During my private practice days .... I viewed EVERY expense as an opportunity for a business write off.

Sad that the AAO won't be in Hawaii next year... Florida isn't a bad trade-off though.

 

[charlestweed]

Sad that the AAO won't be in Hawaii next year... Florida isn't a bad trade-off though.

I haven’t attended any of the AAO meetings since I completed my ortho residency 20 years ago. I only attended the AAO meetings once and that was when I took the written ABO exam at end of my ortho residency. I’ve never paid for the AAO membership. I still practice ortho the same way I was taught 20 years ago…..cheap and easy. The meetings were usually held in May and both of my kids had schools. I didn’t want to travel without them nor want them to miss schools. I usually travel during Spring breaks, summer breaks (usually during the 4th of July week) and Christmas breaks. It’s fun to travel to different places but the food in my home town in California is still the best.

 

[2TH MVR]

I haven’t attended any of the AAO meetings since I completed my ortho residency 20 years ago.

You and I lived in 2 different worlds. At the peak of my private practice days .... I took my staff to 2-3 Hawaii AAO meetings and any local PCSO meetings. I enjoyed the CE courses. Seeing some alumni. Seeing my old professors. Seeing all the new tech in the vendor's section. But it was mostly for fun and enjoyment. I would always find time to play a round of golf. One year I played a round of golf with a former professor (now a program director for ortho) and two fellow classmates at Turtle Bay golf resort.

One year at the San Francisco AAO meeting .... my wife and I rented a convertible. We drove to the Pebble Beach golf resort and I played a round of golf there. Memory of a life time.

Currently, and of course since Covid ..... I haven't been to many AAO meetings.

To get back on topic. Yes. Dentists can travel. All work and no play can lead to burnout. Work hard. Play hard.

 

[charlestweed]

You and I lived in 2 different worlds. At the peak of my private practice days .... I took my staff to 2-3 Hawaii AAO meetings and any local PCSO meetings. I enjoyed the CE courses. Seeing some alumni. Seeing my old professors. Seeing all the new tech in the vendor's section. But it was mostly for fun and enjoyment. I would always find time to play a round of golf. One year I played a round of golf with a former professor (now a program director for ortho) and two fellow classmates at Turtle Bay golf resort.

One year at the San Francisco AAO meeting .... my wife and I rented a convertible. We drove to the Pebble Beach golf resort and I played a round of golf there. Memory of a life time.

Currently, and of course since Covid ..... I haven't been to many AAO meetings.

To get back on topic. Yes. Dentists can travel. All work and no play can lead to burnout. Work hard. Play hard.

Yeah, we are very different. It’s good that you enjoy attending CE classes. To me, they are a torture. I had been in school for nearly half of my life (I didn’t earn my ortho certificate and didn't start making real money until I was 29). I don’t want to go to back to sit in a classroom anymore. I find most of the CE classes very boring and not helpful at all. I gain more clinical experience and learn to work more efficiently from treating high patient volume at my job….from accepting to treat challenging cases that other orthos don’t want to touch….from my own mistakes etc. When I am on vacations, I want to have complete freedom of doing whatever I like….such as being lazy, waking up late, eating good food, hiring a driver to drive me around town etc. Having to wake up early to attend CE classes during my vacation is a big NO for me.

Yes, if you make a lot of money and don’t have a lot of debts to pay back, you can travel anywhere and take as much time off as you want. It sucks to travel when you are poor and are on a limited budget.

For many people, traveling to different parts of the worlds is fun. For me, driving a nice luxury car….leasing new cars every 2-3 years…eating good food at nice restaurants whenever I like….having a job that doesn’t make me feel like I am working….and not having to worry about paying bills are like being on a vacation every day. I don’t mind living this kind of lifestyle for the rest of my life. America is the best country in the world. It’s also a very large country. There are plenty of things to do here. I don’t want to downgrade by traveling to poorer countries and eating less delicious food.