Periodontist Career Path in Private Practice?

[PreDentGator2021]

Hi everyone,

I am an undergraduate student currently applying to dental school and in my free time I've been doing some research into the different specialties. Periodontics looks pretty interesting, but a lot of the threads I've found on here are sort of unclear about what the future of the specialty looks like. How do periodontists practice today and what will it look like in the future? Is it better to just learn implant placement and other skills through CE as a general dentist? Can periodontists operate as a "super GP", doing periodontal and general work while advertising themselves as a general practitioner? Obviously I'm still several years away from making these decisions, but hearing what others have to say about it would be nice.

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[schmoob]

A periodontist is not simply an “implantologist.” You get trained in lots of surgical procedures so I doubt you would want to go back doing basic restorative work with lower reimbursements.

 

[yappy]

I think if you love the field and you're willing to go where the work is you'll be okay. In my experience periodontists are not needed everywhere in the country. The ones that try to make it work in areas where patients, or referring doctors, don't value their services have it much harder than others. It's a lot to think about because most residencies are not paid and cost money.

 

[PreDentGator2021]

A periodontist is not simply an “implantologist.” You get trained in lots of surgical procedures so I doubt you would want to go back doing basic restorative work with lower reimbursements.

Yeah this makes sense, I specifically mentioned implants because it seems like they are talked about all the time on the Periodontology-related threads

 

[charlestweed]

Hi everyone,

I am an undergraduate student currently applying to dental school and in my free time I've been doing some research into the different specialties. Periodontics looks pretty interesting, but a lot of the threads I've found on here are sort of unclear about what the future of the specialty looks like. How do periodontists practice today and what will it look like in the future? Is it better to just learn implant placement and other skills through CE as a general dentist? Can periodontists operate as a "super GP", doing periodontal and general work while advertising themselves as a general practitioner? Obviously I'm still several years away from making these decisions, but hearing what others have to say about it would be nice.

For a specialty to be an interesting one, you have to have the patients to work on. In order to get patients, you have to do things that you hate like going around to beg the GPs to refer patients to you, dealing with unreasonable referring GPs, traveling to multiple offices, working on Saturdays, accepting all kinds of insurance plans etc. The reason I love my job (ortho) is I have a lot patients (from my own office and from working for the corp offices) to me busy. If I couldn't get a lot ortho patients, I would quit and go back to practicing general dentistry...so I could pay the bills. Can't really enjoy what you do when your job can't help you pay the bills/student loans.

It's good to know how do a lot of procedures. I know some perios who extract 3rd molars under IV sedation. I know many perios who place and restore implants. With the knowledge in implant restorations, you can help the GPs with implant treatment planning and teach them how to restore implants....especially for full mouth rehab cases. If the patients are your friends (or friend of a friend) and don't have a GP, you can place and restore the implants in your office....why not? make more money.

 

[PreDentGator2021]

For a specialty to be an interesting one, you have to have the patients to work on. In order to get patients, you have to do things that you hate like going around to beg the GPs to refer patients to you, dealing with unreasonable referring GPs, traveling to multiple offices, working on Saturdays, accepting all kinds of insurance plans etc. The reason I love my job (ortho) is I have a lot patients (from my own office and from working for the corp offices) to me busy. If I couldn't get a lot ortho patients, I would quit and go back to practicing general dentistry...so I could pay the bills. Can't really enjoy what you do when your job can't help you pay the bills/student loans.

It's good to know how do a lot of procedures. I know some perios who extract 3rd molars under IV sedation. I know many perios who place and restore implants. With the knowledge in implant restorations, you can help the GPs with implant treatment planning and teach them how to restore implants....especially for full mouth rehab cases. If the patients are your friends (or friend of a friend) and don't have a GP, you can place and restore the implants in your office....why not? make more money.

Thank you so much for the advice! Do your colleagues seem generally happy with their choice to pursue periodontics? Do any of them own their practice? And yeah that’s the main thing I’m worried about, I chose dentistry out of passion and would ideally pursue whatever specialty I wanted to, but after seeing what dental school tuition + potential residency tuition can do to someone my first priority is getting debt under control before anything else.

 

[PreDentGator2021]

I think if you love the field and you're willing to go where the work is you'll be okay. In my experience periodontists are not needed everywhere in the country. The ones that try to make it work in areas where patients, or referring doctors, don't value their services have it much harder than others. It's a lot to think about because most residencies are not paid and cost money.

Is it a situation where you have to avoid the saturated areas (NY, Cali, SoFlo) or is it more specific from region to region?

 

[schmoob]

For a specialty to be an interesting one, you have to have the patients to work on. In order to get patients, you have to do things that you hate like going around to beg the GPs to refer patients to you, dealing with unreasonable referring GPs, traveling to multiple offices, working on Saturdays, accepting all kinds of insurance plans etc. The reason I love my job (ortho) is I have a lot patients (from my own office and from working for the corp offices) to me busy. If I couldn't get a lot ortho patients, I would quit and go back to practicing general dentistry...so I could pay the bills. Can't really enjoy what you do when your job can't help you pay the bills/student loans.

It's good to know how do a lot of procedures. I know some perios who extract 3rd molars under IV sedation. I know many perios who place and restore implants. With the knowledge in implant restorations, you can help the GPs with implant treatment planning and teach them how to restore implants....especially for full mouth rehab cases. If the patients are your friends (or friend of a friend) and don't have a GP, you can place and restore the implants in your office....why not? make more money.

The Perios are restoring? Are they working as GPs it as specialists? I can see a lot of issues with that...

 

[Cold Front]

Hi everyone,

I am an undergraduate student currently applying to dental school and in my free time I've been doing some research into the different specialties. Periodontics looks pretty interesting, but a lot of the threads I've found on here are sort of unclear about what the future of the specialty looks like. How do periodontists practice today and what will it look like in the future? Is it better to just learn implant placement and other skills through CE as a general dentist? Can periodontists operate as a "super GP", doing periodontal and general work while advertising themselves as a general practitioner? Obviously I'm still several years away from making these decisions, but hearing what others have to say about it would be nice.

I understand you’re exploring this from 5 yrs out, but until you actually work in patient’s mouth and get a feel for perio, it’s a 50/50 goal.

My advise, get acquainted with a local periodontist(s) - and take any skimmed advise and tips from general dentists like me and orthodontists on these boards with a grain of salt. Get straight to the source and network with a periodontist - they usually would be happy to make time to explain their field more to you. I once looked into dental anesthesiology field as a third year dental student, and I just asked a local anesthesiologist near my dental school to come out to lunch for few times... I learnt a lot from those meetings than anywhere else on that field.

 

[charlestweed]

Thank you so much for the advice! Do your colleagues seem generally happy with their choice to pursue periodontics? Do any of them own their practice? And yeah that’s the main thing I’m worried about, I chose dentistry out of passion and would ideally pursue whatever specialty I wanted to, but after seeing what dental school tuition + potential residency tuition can do to someone my first priority is getting debt under control before anything else.

Yes, all of them are very happy with their choice.....much better than practicing as a GP...less work and better pay (per procedure). Like me, all of them have their own practice and they travel work part time at other GP offices as in-house specialists to supplement their incomes.

 

[charlestweed]

The Perios are restoring? Are they working as GPs it as specialists? I can see a lot of issues with that...

Yup, many perios I know restore the implants in their offices. Many prosthodontists also place and restore implants. If the patients doesn't have a family dentist to go to, then why not? It's better for the patients. After extractions and immediate implant placement, the patient will get provisional restoration right at your office instead of having to drive back to see a restorative dentist for that. You have all the necessary implant parts for restoring the implants. As long as you don't restore the cases that your referring GPs send to you, you will be fine.

 

[schmoob]

Yup, many perios I know restore the implants in their offices. Many prosthodontists also place and restore implants. If the patients doesn't have a family dentist to go to, then why not? It's better for the patients. After extractions and immediate implant placement, the patient will get provisional restoration right at your office instead of having to drive back to see a restorative dentist for that. You have all the necessary implant parts for restoring the implants. As long as you don't restore the cases that your referring GPs send to you, you will be fine.

Prosth I understand, but wouldn’t that be outside the scope of Perio?

 

[charlestweed]

Prosth I understand, but wouldn’t that be outside the scope of Perio?

I guess it would be. But in the real world, everybody is practicing outside the scope. Endos start placing implants now. Orthos do minor surgical procedures such as placing temporary implant anchorage devices (TAD) and laser gum surgeris in their offices. Some OS's do apicoectomies and gingival grafts etc.

To work at a GP office, it's important for a perio to know how to restore complex implant cases so everything can be done in the office and none of the cases has to be referred out. I've seen some inexperienced GPs who accidentally broke the implant screw and left part of it inside the implant during the restorative process. And then when these GPs called the surgeons, who originally placed the implants, for help, the surgeons didn't know what to do. Wouldn't it be nice if you are the only perio in town who knows how to help bail these GPs out?

 

[P7898]

Do what interests you man. If you don't, you won't be happy. If something interests you then do it. Chances are you will be above average in something that you like versus trying to work at something that you're not all interested in. But I would go into dental school being content that if you did everything you could and couldn't be a specialists, then you are happy being a GP.

 

[WolftheDentistStanson]

from what i've seen..in cities you'll have group practices with just perio or perio+prosth. and from what i've been told/have read up on, these practices aren't as common now because of saturation. aside from that i've seen part time periodontists in private offices owned by GP.