Can private dentists have good work-life balance?

[The Queen Of Swords]

Can private dentists have good work-life balance? As in can they work 9-5 5 days a week?

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[Bigjt1420]

I'm a private dentist and work 3.5 days a week and it's not like I've been working 40 years -- I'm only a few years out. I love my work-life balance, I couldn't imagine working more than 4 days a week, honestly hahaha. That said, I do work 7 am - 4 pm pretty frequently so there can be longer days

 

[charlestweed]

Yes, it’s possible to have good work-life balance but it’s very hard (and will take a long time) for today grads to become a practice owner and to reach this comfortable level. It’s because of the huge student loan debt burden, which will delay young dentists from setting up (or buying) their own office. It costs much more to build an office today than it did in the past because of the much higher construction cost (per square foot) and because most today grads don’t want to work with cheaper low tech equipment that older generation dentists like us used. With higher student loan debt, higher business loan debt, and higher home mortgage payments (home prices are 2-3 times higher than they were 20 years ago), today grad dentists will have to work much harder. Keep in mind that the longer you can resist the temptation for immediate reward now (aka delayed gratification), the greater the reward you will have later on in life.

I like what I do. I like how much money I make and how that allows my family to do what we want….be financially comfortable, vacation, save for retirement/kids’ college, helping our retired parents etc. So for me, work life balance means flexibility. If my house suddenly has a huge roof leak and needs a $30k roof replacement, I can get it done tomorrow. If my wife says let’s take a 1 wk long vacation in Hawaii in 3 months, I should have plenty of time to plan for it financially and to book my patients accordingly. Being flexible doesn’t mean I can be home by 5 every day. I still have to work on the weekends to keep my patients happy….happy patients = more word-of-mouth referrals = survival of a business. I didn’t stop working 6 days/wk until I turned 49, which was when I paid off my last debt (my home mortgage). I graduated at 29. So that’s 20 years of hard work. Now at 52, I work 4 days/wk (15 days a month to be exact). Do I have any regret? Nope. I love dentistry. Without a DDS degree, I wouldn’t be able to have such wonderful lifestyle. I love waking up every day to see my happy wife and happy kids.

 

[Boat on the Chesapeake]

Yes. 9-5 5 days a week is possible. I would say most I know work fewer hours than

Your amount of debt and desired lifestyle increase the amount you need to work though. That’s why when everyone asks which dental school to pick we say “cheapest”.

 

[Ivy.ch]

Depends on how much school debt you have.

 

[Pablo Sanchez]

Yes, dentistry is a field that can have a great work-life balance.

Something that always amazes me is to think that I could work one day a week and make more money than most people I went to high school and arguably even college with make on five.

Or to think I could literally work 6 months per year and still make multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Now, logistically that would be difficult just because you can’t leave your patients hanging for six months, but it’s still nice to think about.

 

[charlestweed]

Yes, dentistry is a field that can have a great work-life balance.

Something that always amazes me is to think that I could work one day a week and make more money than most people I went to high school and arguably even college with make on five.

Or to think I could literally work 6 months per year and still make multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Now, logistically that would be difficult just because you can’t leave your patients hanging for six months, but it’s still nice to think about.

It's hard to take a long vacation, especially if you are a solo practice owner. When patients cannot see you to help them get out of pain, they will go see another dentist down the street. And while you are on vacation, you still have to continue to pay your staff since most of them are living paycheck to paycheck.....you can't just make them stay home. And for you to pay your staff, your office needs to stay opened and you need to produce. 1-2 wks off should be fine.

 

[Pablo Sanchez]

It's hard to take a long vacation, especially if you are a solo practice owner. When patients cannot see you to help them get out of pain, they will go see another dentist down the street. And while you are on vacation, you still have to continue to pay your staff since most of them are living paycheck to paycheck.....you can't just make them stay home. And for you to pay your staff, your office needs to stay opened and you need to produce. 1-2 wks off should be fine.

Definitely! And that’s why I said that it would be difficult/near impossible logistically. It just provides me comfort to think about how I am an associate and if I worked half the time I do now (6 months out of the year or 2.5 days/week) I would still make a very nice income.