Am I ready for my own practice?

[DrRoot]

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I'm a new grad/ new associate who is currently in a 2 dentist 3 hygenist practice. I see some 7-10 patients a day, and have hourly checks from 1.5 hygienists' patients. I'm told my speed is pretty good, I can usually get 1-2 fillings done in 20-40 minutes, crown prep/temp in 1.5 hrs, simple molar endo in 4 hours. My colleague and the owner of the practice is 20 years older than me and although beloved by patients, he is really slow and due to anxieties stays away from esthetics and any surgery. He refers heavily. My monthly production has ranged from 37-52k (usually the same and sometimes more than my boss). I am considered fairly "sweet" and non-threatening, but am often impatient in prolonged conversation with patients. My debt is 135k and my annual pay before taxes is 125,000. My contract ends next summer, and I am wondering if I should stick in a few more years as an associate or jump into buying my own practice. Although this practice is very busy I do not have much experience in esthetics and endo due to financial profile of the patient body. I'm not sure if that's something I should really master before setting up shop. I feel ready most days but I also have a tendency towards being overconfident and simplistic so I need some outside opinion on whether this a good idea or not. Thank you.

 

[Steins;Gate]

I'm a new grad/ new associate who is currently in a 2 dentist 3 hygenist practice. I see some 7-10 patients a day, and have hourly checks from 1.5 hygienists' patients. I'm told my speed is pretty good, I can usually get 1-2 fillings done in 20-40 minutes, crown prep/temp in 1.5 hrs, simple molar endo in 4 hours. My colleague and the owner of the practice is 20 years older than me and although beloved by patients, he is really slow and due to anxieties stays away from esthetics and any surgery. He refers heavily. My monthly production has ranged from 37-52k (usually the same and sometimes more than my boss). I am considered fairly "sweet" and non-threatening, but am often impatient in prolonged conversation with patients. My debt is 135k and my annual pay before taxes is 125,000. My contract ends next summer, and I am wondering if I should stick in a few more years as an associate or jump into buying my own practice. Although this practice is very busy I do not have much experience in esthetics and endo due to financial profile of the patient body. I'm not sure if that's something I should really master before setting up shop. I feel ready most days but I also have a tendency towards being overconfident and simplistic so I need some outside opinion on whether this a good idea or not. Thank you.

Your take home pre-tax is 125,000? If you're doing 40K a month for example, that's 480K/year. That would be 26% of production. What is your contract based on % production and lab fees?

If you were owner, your take home would be conservatively 33% of production and you would collect hygiene income. It also seems like you're not doing the higher producing procedures and you would be able to bump up your production considerably if you did. Let's say you did conservatively 650K with hygiene. 33% of that would be 210K+. This is just the financial standpoint.

 

[DrRoot]

Your take home pre-tax is 125,000? If you're doing 40K a month for example, that's 480K/year. That would be 26% of production. What is your contract based on % production and lab fees?

If you were owner, your take home would be conservatively 33% of production and you would collect hygiene income. It also seems like you're not doing the higher producing procedures and you would be able to bump up your production considerably if you did. Let's say you did conservatively 650K with hygiene. 33% of that would be 210K+. This is just the financial standpoint.

Very interesting, thanks for the perspective. I was promised a menial production bonus which is about 3% of collections. This was fine by me at the time of contract signing since I wasn't sure how I would do. I now feel that I am fairly confident in my production as a dentist and have been outproducing my boss for the past few months. It has crossed my mind to ask for partnership somewhere along the line but I've also felt that since my employer doesn't make as much as I do I would be at a loss, and also the patient body in this practice is mainly lower middle class.

I'm now really strongly gravitating towards looking into owning my own practice. Any suggestion on where I should get started or learn more?
Thank you.

 

[Steins;Gate]

Think about what type of income you need to sustain the lifestyle and save uo enough for retirement. And then plan accordingly.

Ownership is stressful for many reasons so do it for financial reasons and if you want more autonomy. Partnership is solid as your partner can cover when you are away but what if things don't go well.

Depends on if you have a family or any other requirements for urban vs rural. If you go where you are needed with a ratio of docs to population over 1:2500 and you keep a good chunk of stuff in house, you will do just fine. Work hard and the sky may be the limit.

 

[arrowhead76]

There are plenty of resources to offer more trainings if you want to specialize in higher producing, more complicated procedures once you own a practice. You can also take CE classes on marketing your own practice.

I'd recommend figuring out why you want to own your own practice. I agree with Steins;Gate that if you want more autonomy, great reason. If you just want more money, realize it'd take a few years of not making much and spending a lot of time, money, and effort into building a practice from nothing.