Has anyone worked for Dental Dreams before and can rate the experience? 😀
Dental Dreams Anyone?
- Thread starter doctornn
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I personally have not worked there, however my friends have. To be brieft, if youre looking for money it is there, however the administration is unforgiving. The owners are typically business men thus know very little or close to nothing about dentistry. Yet, they expect and push you to produce, produce, produce. If you feel like you would excel in this type of environment then kudos to you. Personally I was very excited about starting out in a six figure salary right after dental school and applied. After hearing accounts from friends about their business models I promptly changed my decision. If you commit then you will have to sign a contract (like everywhere else) that forces you to work 3 more months if you decide this gig isnt for you. Something to think about. This just wasnt the type of working environment that was suitable for me, however it could be something you would enjoy and excell at. It is easy to knock something down, so go ahead and shadow for a day and make your own conclusions. I didnt want to jump into a fast pace environment like that where I felt my quality of dentistry would suffer due to demand for high quantity. Just some of my thoughts. I was lucky enough to find a private practice gig where I am happy, and though only part time for now, I know my days will increase in the future. Let me know what you think.
The Power is Yours!
The Power is Yours!
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You should try to work there and decide for yourself if that type of busy working environment is ok with you. I dont think you should listen to the negative comments from the people who previously worked for Dental Dreams. Maybe they were just too slow to handle the high volume of patients. You may have better clinical skills than them and you may be able handle the busy schedule better than them. You can always quit your job if you feel you are forced to do things that are unethical. Dont worry about the contract. You can easily back out of the contract by intentionally letting Dental Dreams fire you. I am sure Dental Dreams have no interest of keeping you on their payroll if you consistently fail to meet the production goal (because you take your time to do the right thing for your patients, because you refuse to do what they want you to do).
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I might try a different tact. Try talking to the company and negotiate a trial contract in which you ask to work for 1 month or 2 months, possibly at a slightly lower pay rate, to see if the company is for you. If the company is unwilling to do something that minor for you, then chances are, they are not as doctor friendly as you might want them to be.
Read through any contract you sign carefully. You may find all sorts of clauses in there. Sure they might fire you, but if you think you are the first dentist to think I can get out of a long contract by being a dick or by being lazy, you aren't, and it's likely that at some point Dental Dreams may have had someone revise the contract to make you suffer for it. Some people can be pretty vindictive.
Another chain dental was once run by a pretty vindictive dentist. When a dentist who worked for him decided to quit the way you are talking about the owner decided to mess with him. He started changing the dentists schedule to have him work at several different offices each week all around town. Then when he eventually let the guy go, he kept tracking him and anytime he tried to get hired within X miles of one of the companies offices he would go after him with the clause about having to not work within a certain distance of one of the company offices within so many years.
The owner never expected to win any of these, but the owner had so much money he just wanted to continually annoy and mess with the dentist and also make it harder for him to work and to have to deal with the lawsuits. Eventually he dropped all of it, but that's how some people are...
Personally, there are other ways to learn if a type of work situation is for you other than signing a 2 year contract and then figuring it out.
I have another friend who worked for a different smaller chain and quit some 2 years ago. He's still going back and forth in a lawsuit with that company over all sorts of stupid things in the contract. He has a lawyer deal with all of it and he doesn't have to worry about it most of the time, but every now and then we talk and he is still bothered by it. I just think if you minimize your headaches, you are better off in life.
Read through any contract you sign carefully. You may find all sorts of clauses in there. Sure they might fire you, but if you think you are the first dentist to think I can get out of a long contract by being a dick or by being lazy, you aren't, and it's likely that at some point Dental Dreams may have had someone revise the contract to make you suffer for it. Some people can be pretty vindictive.
Another chain dental was once run by a pretty vindictive dentist. When a dentist who worked for him decided to quit the way you are talking about the owner decided to mess with him. He started changing the dentists schedule to have him work at several different offices each week all around town. Then when he eventually let the guy go, he kept tracking him and anytime he tried to get hired within X miles of one of the companies offices he would go after him with the clause about having to not work within a certain distance of one of the company offices within so many years.
The owner never expected to win any of these, but the owner had so much money he just wanted to continually annoy and mess with the dentist and also make it harder for him to work and to have to deal with the lawsuits. Eventually he dropped all of it, but that's how some people are...
Personally, there are other ways to learn if a type of work situation is for you other than signing a 2 year contract and then figuring it out.
I have another friend who worked for a different smaller chain and quit some 2 years ago. He's still going back and forth in a lawsuit with that company over all sorts of stupid things in the contract. He has a lawyer deal with all of it and he doesn't have to worry about it most of the time, but every now and then we talk and he is still bothered by it. I just think if you minimize your headaches, you are better off in life.
Dental corporations hire lawyers to write contracts that will most benefit themselves, not you. Always remember, contracts are negotiable! While it is true the standard contract they have requires a 90 (!) day notice of leaving, this also applies to if you decide to go from full-time to part-time. One dentist there was able to negotiate his notice to 75 days and if they are able to find a replacement sooner, they will let you go sooner. Also they will withhold half of the last two full paychecks to cover any work of yours that other dentists have to redo as the Medicaid checks usually are not dispersed until 2-3 months afterwards. They used to just take the whole last full check until dentists realized this and just stopped producing the last few weeks.
It seems the trend is going more towards dental corporations now. For new graduates it is such a tough market as private practice owners prefer those with more experience, who are faster/more efficient. Having to do it all over again, I would have signed up for the military--tuition paid for, extra training, never ending line of patients to be treated. But with student loans the way they are, it is unfortunate many of us become pawns in the Medicaid mills.
It seems the trend is going more towards dental corporations now. For new graduates it is such a tough market as private practice owners prefer those with more experience, who are faster/more efficient. Having to do it all over again, I would have signed up for the military--tuition paid for, extra training, never ending line of patients to be treated. But with student loans the way they are, it is unfortunate many of us become pawns in the Medicaid mills.
