My next ortho day at the corp office will be on this coming Friday and it will be cancelled. My wife is scheduled to work at this same corp this Thursday but her day will not be cancelled. I guess this is because ortho has much higher patient volume in a day.
A lot of dentists (myself included) work for corp offices as independent contractors. We won't get paid when the corp offices are closed. For owner dentists, they'll lose $$$ when they close their offices because they don't produce and still have to pay rent, staff salaries and other fixed expenses. Orthodontists continue to get monthly payment checks from patients' insurances but not much.....only about 20-25% of the total production...it's better than nothing.
What if a dentist is an employee for that Corp. and is temporarily laid off. Will that dentist receive any wage compensation?
Companies may choose to reimburse their employees for a week or 2 depending on how generous they are or if it is in their company protocol, but ultimately I believe this is where you file for unemployment, and collect unemployment checks until you start working again.
My only issue is both the ADA as well as the my state dental society have strongly urged dental offices to **** down for the next 2 weeks and only open up for emergencies. I am closed and will reopen April 6. The risk with the amount of aerosols that we work with was to great for my staff as well as my patients. I can easily survive closing my office for 2 to 3 weeks, but I cant survive the bad publicity if a case was traced back to my office and I ignored both the ADA and the ISDA.
“Not going to affect them” and spreading the virus are two different things. Which is why multiple organizations are urging us to reduce care to emergencies. But people will always do what’s in their best interest.
Yea, if this continues to go on for several weeks I think a majority will start to feel that way. At what point to do we say, hey, if you are vulnerable to this it’s up to you quarantine yourself? Our economy can only handle so much. People who aren’t vulnerable or affected are making a lot of sacrifices to protect those who are. I may sound insensitive, but it’s true.
As long as people continue to have kids, the demand for ortho tx continue to be high. Most parents want their kids to look good. They are willing to make sacrifices so their kids can get braces. I see these low income parents every day in my practice. This is not the only tough economic time I face. A couple of months after graduation, 2 airplanes hit the Twin Towers on Sept 11th. A year after I started my first office, the housing market crashed….and now the corronaviruses that force businesses to close. And just like before, the American economy will bounce back again. We are living in the best country in the world.
They won’t. Fewer kids are born every day. I would wager that the current coronavirus recession will lead to fewer kids - fewer adolescent braces in the future.
That's not the trend I see at where I practice. Hispanic and Asian people love to have large families.
Yup. That's good for my practice. For the majority of the orthodontists who refuse to treat the low income Hispanic and Asian patients……well, that’s their loss….not mine. Less competition for me.....no need to spend money on advertisement.
When the population is shrinking due to low birthrate everybody suffers. General dentists, pedos, orthos, endos, OS’s all suffer. I can’t practice in rural and less culturally diversed areas because the health of my practices depends on the rapidly growing Hispanic and Asian populations. These patients prefer to see an orthodontist, who is also an immigrant like them.
Practicing ortho this way is still 100x better than working as a GP. I am a workaholic person but I don’t think I would be able to bend my fragile back 8 hours a day, 5-6 days/week for 20-30 years working as a general dentist. So to me, spending 2 extra years + more loan money for ortho residency is totally worth it. The way I practice ortho now is pretty much similar to what many associate orthodontists are doing at busy corp offices (high patient volume, low income patients, 60-80 patients a day etc), except that I get paid 2-3x more at my own offices. That’s because I have much lower overhead and have much more efficiently run office than the corp offices. Would you agree with me that working for a corp office as an orthodontist (like what you are doing right now) is way easier and better than working as a GP?
Sorry ... Off topic, but .......
So funny to read @Cold Front and @charlestweed posts. Cold Front basically through most of his well thought out posts with plenty of references that going into ortho is not financially wise. He definitely has some good points. He brings up the low birth rate, but does he ever pick on the pedos? Last time I checked .... pedos treat kids. Low birth rate means less kids for the pedos. So ... which population is growing in numbers? The old patients. Right? Again ... funny that I never hear about geriatric dentistry. All I ever hear about is no one wanting to do dentures.
And @charlestweed. The ever lasting shining sword for orthodontists. He practices in such a way (low, low,low overhead, etc. etc.) that most orthodontists will question why they wanted to become orthos in the 1st place if they practiced that way.
Just having some much needed humor here. We are all fortunate to have the yin and yang of posters offering their opinions.
Lol Ortho loyalty.BTW. I will always choose your side over @Cold Front . HeHeHe.
I hope not. If a lot of orthodontists can run their offices the way I do now, then I am no longer unique….and I will lose of a lot of patients to the competitors in my area.I completely agree with you. I'm especially happy practicing ortho in the Corp setting. No way I would be a gp in that Corp setting. But what @Cold Front et al are saying is that you are successful due to specific variables (ethnic background, ethnic patients, low income patients, work-a-holic, extremely low overhead, etc. etc.) that most other orthodontists are not capable of or will not consider.
I do not always agree with your opinion regarding low fee ortho treatment. Personally I feel this cheapens the orthodontic profession and further demotes ortho tx to the level of a commodity rather than a health service. But ..... I do admire your tenacity to work hard and do what it takes to be successful in a difficult market.
BTW. I will always choose your side over @Cold Front . HeHeHe.
Well ... if I get laid off permanently .... I'm hoping you can hire me to be your inhouse ortho guy
. Pretty sure you will pay me more than @charlestweed . I'm scheduled to go back to work middle of next month. The DSO I work for treats mostly low income patients. They have tons of new patients. Over the last 3 years I have positioned myself to be one of their top producers in my region. A model employee. They will always need an orthodontist to see their patients even if they had to downsize. I am confident that I would be that person.Well ... if I get laid off permanently .... I'm hoping you can hire me to be your inhouse ortho guy
I could be wrong and I'm sure YOU would point it out if so .... but my feeling is that low income patients are less affected by these downturns as compared to middle class patients. I had posted earlier that I had one of my BEST production weeks just before I was furloughed.
I also see larger DSOs eatting the smaller ones if things do not return to normal and I work for a large DSO.
My best guess is ..... with time .... things will return to normal. After every downturn brings an upturn.
I have grown to love your juxtaposed viewpoints. at first, charles was irking me slightly, but I attribute to boomer bias. I disagree with him on most things, but always love the civility from you two guys.
@TanMan is dope, too.
. Mother is S. Korean and father is English/Irish. It's a unique combination. I inherited my mother's strong work ethic and my dad's smart aleck, humorous demeanor.
