Hardest thing about dentistry?

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mupreopt

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I am going into another medical field but have recently considered dentistry but most likely not choose dentistry for certain reasons. But just incase it change my mind I have questions.

What is the hardest procedure?
Do you ever get patients who suddenly reacts and bites down onto your fingers?

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Now that I'm out of d-school for 10+ years, I can honestly say that the hardest thing for me ISN'T the dental stuff, it's the business side of things. I'm at my happiest and most relaxed when I have my gloves on, the handpiece is spinning and my fingers are in someone's mouth.

The toughest stuff for me, and even with the help of a good support staff (office manager, accountant, and the occasional attorney) is when I had spreadsheets of numbers infront of me, or new retirement/medical insurance plans/proposals infront me, or my most dreaded event, having to fire a staff member.:eek:

As for the finger biting issue, maybe once a year, I'll let my guard down for a second around a kid usually and I'll get the chomp!:eek::eek::eek:
 
As a first year, I would think the hardest part of dental school would be studying for the board and licensing exams. Thereafter, finding employment as an associate could also pose a challenge (that is, finding the right associateship and not necessarily any associateship (from what i've been told here on SDN)).

For me the business side of dentistry would not be such a problem; i would just look at it as another dynamic to the profession.
 
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Now that I'm out of d-school for 10+ years, I can honestly say that the hardest thing for me ISN'T the dental stuff, it's the business side of things. I'm at my happiest and most relaxed when I have my gloves on, the handpiece is spinning and my fingers are in someone's mouth.

The toughest stuff for me, and even with the help of a good support staff (office manager, accountant, and the occasional attorney) is when I had spreadsheets of numbers infront of me, or new retirement/medical insurance plans/proposals infront me, or my most dreaded event, having to fire a staff member.:eek:

As for the finger biting issue, maybe once a year, I'll let my guard down for a second around a kid usually and I'll get the chomp!:eek::eek::eek:

DrJeff,

You are absolutely right. I didn't think this aspect of dentistry would be too difficult and it is by far the most challenging. Forget about getting disto-lingual margins on #2... I'd take anything with a handpiece over thinking about overhead.

Anybody who thinks getting their fingers bit is the major decider for not choosing dentistry as a profession isn't looking at the most compelling reasons to go or not to go into the field, rather they are making excuses for something else.

-Mike
 
Now that I'm out of d-school for 10+ years, I can honestly say that the hardest thing for me ISN'T the dental stuff, it's the business side of things. I'm at my happiest and most relaxed when I have my gloves on, the handpiece is spinning and my fingers are in someone's mouth.

The toughest stuff for me, and even with the help of a good support staff (office manager, accountant, and the occasional attorney) is when I had spreadsheets of numbers infront of me, or new retirement/medical insurance plans/proposals infront me, or my most dreaded event, having to fire a staff member.:eek:

As for the finger biting issue, maybe once a year, I'll let my guard down for a second around a kid usually and I'll get the chomp!:eek::eek::eek:

Dr. Jeff,

Thank you for your post. I have worked in several dental offices (as a front office assistant) where the dentist preferred not to be involved in the business side. These dentists hired a business manager to take care of managing a support staff, paperwork, treatment planning.... everything. The dentist arrived in the morning, did his/her procedures, and then went home before anyone else did.
What do you think of this approach to a dental business?

The dentists said they preferred this approach because it relieved a lot of stress from their day. However, I had heard of past managers embezzling money from the dentists. One dentist hired a family member to be the business manager, but the family member had no experience in running a business and so it was chaos (the dentist hired the family member because of trust).

And ouch on the chomp!! I will have to watch out for that one ;) Thanks.
 
Dr. Jeff, how many staff members have you fired...just curious...care to share why?

4 to date. The exact reasons have varied each time, but the common underlying theme was actions outside the job descriptions that had a negative impact on patients and/or other staff.

I even had one "glorious" day last spring where my partner and I had the fun of firing 2 staff members on the same day. Good thing it was a Friday and my partner and I didn't have patients after lunch as we NEEDED a beer with lunch after that!

Some people can fire folks without even blinking, me, not so.
 
Dr. Jeff,

Thank you for your post. I have worked in several dental offices (as a front office assistant) where the dentist preferred not to be involved in the business side. These dentists hired a business manager to take care of managing a support staff, paperwork, treatment planning.... everything. The dentist arrived in the morning, did his/her procedures, and then went home before anyone else did.
What do you think of this approach to a dental business?

The dentists said they preferred this approach because it relieved a lot of stress from their day. However, I had heard of past managers embezzling money from the dentists. One dentist hired a family member to be the business manager, but the family member had no experience in running a business and so it was chaos (the dentist hired the family member because of trust).

And ouch on the chomp!! I will have to watch out for that one ;) Thanks.

In my practice, my partner and I use a business manager to handle the day to day "front office" operations. You really do have to trust this person, and the rest of your front desk who deals with the cash transactions ALOT, as there are countless stories of embezzelment. My partner and will interact multiple times per day with our office manager about the business health/business descisions of the practice. My partner and I also very regularly are scanning the books, and have atleast a weekly "financial health" meeting with our office manager. Finding someone you trust for the office manager job is tough. In my situation though with 2 docs and 4 hygenists in the practice, the volume of business work my partner and I would have to do to stay on top of things makes it a necessity on our minds.
 
One dentist hired a family member to be the business manager, but the family member had no experience in running a business and so it was chaos (the dentist hired the family member because of trust).

Sometimes this isn't even the case. At one of the local state board reprimand meetings (senior class in my dental school had to go), a dentist came because he was being scantioned for chart irregularities. The dentist came to the podium and pleaded his case and at the end asked the board if he could say something to the dental students.

He told us that the biggest mistake he ever made in his entire life was to hire his wife as his office manager. He said don't do it, turns out that she was planning a divorce for months, stole mucho $$, screwed his charts and turned him into the board at the end. All without him knowing.

Sometimes you have to be careful either way. Delegate tasks to office staff but do periodic reviews!!

-Mike
 
The hardest thing about dentistry is enamel. You could also argue that it is diamonds, which we all know are the hardest metal known to man.

I don't know, those all ceramic crown copings tend to chew up ALOT of grit off the burs too!;) Then again have you ever had to cut off a bridge that was made in a former Soviet Block country, what ever metal it's made out(I secretly think it my be depleted uranium;):D) of just laughs at most any bur!

Still, I'll take that over the front office stuff anyday!
 
I don't know, those all ceramic crown copings tend to chew up ALOT of grit off the burs too!;) Then again have you ever had to cut off a bridge that was made in a former Soviet Block country, what ever metal it's made out(I secretly think it my be depleted uranium;):D) of just laughs at most any bur!

Still, I'll take that over the front office stuff anyday!

Do mean like a P2Z or Lava coping? That would make sense, considering they're milled from what are, in essence, synthetic diamonds.
 
Do mean like a P2Z or Lava coping? That would make sense, considering they're milled from what are, in essence, synthetic diamonds.


Yup! First time you get to do an endo access through one of those is quite the learning experience with respect to "how to wear down a diamond bur in a hurry 101"
 
Yup! First time you get to do an endo access through one of those is quite the learning experience with respect to "how to wear down a diamond bur in a hurry 101"

Well, the only metal known to man that's harder than diamonds, in my knowledge, is Dragonforce. Maybe we can make a bur out of that.

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With the exception of the occasional gem from Gary Ruska, that last post was probably the best post I've read on SDN. Keep up the good work :thumbup:
 
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