Stay away from orthodontics

[charlestweed]

I was actually shocked when they hired the 71 yr old ortho. He literally did not know how to enter digital patient information into the chart program. His staff had to do this. He did not delegate many of the procedures which goes against the reality of managing large numbers of patients .... both in Corp and Private.

I am 47 and I don't know how to do this either. At one of my corp offices, we still use paper charts. Inform consent, med hx, financial contract, tx notes are on papers but the pan/ceph images and patients' photos are digital. Because the computer software (Dexis) is stupidly slow, like this 71 yo ortho, I just let my staff spend their time waiting in front of the computer to load the digital x ray images while I do more productive things such as examining/treating the patients and doing consults. Sometimes, it takes up to 5 minutes for the computer to display the patients' digital x rays. With the film based x rays and paper photos, I can view them instantly. At my other corp office and at my own offices, everything we use is non-digital. We are much more efficient. No waiting for the computer software to load... no need to worry about computer system crashing and have to wait for the IT guy to come...no need to cancel the patients when the computer system crashes.....70+ patients/day....no problem.

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[2TH MVR]

Rumor is that the Corp I work for is jumping on the aligner bandwagen. Not happy about it. At least with braces I have complete control. Never felt like I had any control with aligners. Great treatment .... not. Just hand the aligners out. Do some IPR and hope for the best. Exactly what does the orthodontist do? Not much with aligners. I foresee some crappy results.

What will be interesting is if Corp decides to get a massive discount from Align Tech to use their aligners ..... or will they manufacturer their own. Not a fan of Align Tech. They are indeed a monopoly and it woud be best for everyone if they had a true competitor.

 

[deleted659902]

Rumor is that the Corp I work for is jumping on the aligner bandwagen. Not happy about it. At least with braces I have complete control. Never felt like I had any control with aligners. Great treatment .... not. Just hand the aligners out. Do some IPR and hope for the best. Exactly what does the orthodontist do? Not much with aligners. I foresee some crappy results.

What will be interesting is if Corp decides to get a massive discount from Align Tech to use their aligners ..... or will they manufacturer their own. Not a fan of Align Tech. They are indeed a monopoly and it woud be best for everyone if they had a true competitor.

time to go rural... just charter a private jet or heli or something a couple of days a month

 

[mmc12]

With all this doom and gloom with orthodontics in the US, is it better to practice orthodontics in another country where US dentists can obtain dental licenses without much hassle? eg Dubai, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc....

 

[CaliDDS1986]

With all this doom and gloom with orthodontics in the US, is it better to practice orthodontics in another country where US dentists can obtain dental licenses without much hassle? eg Dubai, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc....

You should still be able to find full time work as an ortho at a minimum of $1000 per day. That’s about $250,000 per year minimum as an associate. Obviously as an owner you have the potential to make more, but the risk to make less. Bottom line, if you limit your student loans or come out with none orthodontics in the US is still a gratifying career. You may not be making $500,000 like previous guys, but you should still be able to make $250,000-$300,000 doing something you love. Now if you rack up $500,000 in student debt to get there you may have financial issues in dealing with that.