Do you think dentists who work at DSOs are "looked down" upon by other dentists?

[I_Love_Huskies]

There seems to be a stigma that dentists who work at DSOs are seen as "low-quality" dentists who do "poor work" and are "sellouts". Yet, most private office associateships cannot offer enough work for associate, so they either leave to buy their own office or join DSO.

It's a dog eat dog world out there.

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[omfsing]

They for sure look down on them...as they drive away in their ‘Rari

 

[xoltarin]

I'll admit I used to in dental school because of all the negativity by faculty. In the real world though I see every dentist the same. There are great dentists in DSO and **** dentists in private and vice versa.

 

[setdoc7]

Do your own thing and don't worry about what others think. The truth is often an extremely gray area, so what you are told by others is often not always based in fact. You are your only limitation.

 

[yappy]

There seems to be a stigma that dentists who work at DSOs are seen as "low-quality" dentists who do "poor work" and are "sellouts". Yet, most private office associateships cannot offer enough work for associate, so they either leave to buy their own office or join DSO.

It's a dog eat dog world out there.

I think you can be a good dentist at a DSO despite the pressure to be a bad one. It is the circumstances that should be criticized. I think it’s hard to be good at a DSO because of the busy schedule and questionable treatment plans that often optimize revenue instead of health. Having said this, some dentists that work in private are set up similar to a DSO and the pressures are the same.

If you got into dentistry to improve people’s health you’ll do the best job you can wherever you work.

 

[Screwtape]

I would say generally yes. It does depend on the region though. I was able to jump from pp associateship to pp associateship before now owning. I had no interest in working for a DSO, and was able to completely avoid them. This is not the case for some of my classmates that went into DSO saturated markets. I don’t blame them, you gotta do what you gotta do. There will always be elitists in every profession. I sorta understand where they are coming from (to a degree) when I see these ridiculous treatment plans out of the DSO’s and very rarely from PP (I can only speak for my area). It’s quite obvious the “business pressures” can affect dentists. It probably would affect me too if I were in that environment, I just chose to avoid it and was able to do so. Also the DSO’s tend to take the crappiest of insurances, so a lot of cost cutting to make that work. All in all, if you can find a good PP associateship then take that over almost any DSO, but I understand that may be very difficult to impossible for some people. YMMV

 

[schmoob]

This is not cut and dry. I have had some seriously bad PP associteships. Greedy owners who are cheap because of out of control overhead. Expired materials, endo files and rotary files being autoclaved and reused over and over again. Then he gives me a hard time over separates instrumentsd

 

[Mauricio45]

I've only been out of school for 5 years but something I've really noticed in this profession is this culture of disrespect amongst dental colleages. I.e. quick to bad-mouth other dentists' work despite not knowing full story; older dentists "cherry-picking" high prodn cases from their associates; I can go on. I can understand the saying "Dentists eat their young" or "Dentists eat their own" that is often repeated on DentalTown.

I bet this is worse in saturated areas where there is fierce competition.

 

[GoDental101]

Yes

 

[Deep Impact]

Definitely agree that corporate work is looked down upon. I work both. I know it’s not a very typical scenario. But my coworkers always make fun of my corporate moonlighting. But I love it. I actually make more per day on average and they treat me like a king most of the time. Lol. But the clientele is mostly Medicaid and heavy insurance based. Perhaps it’s not your rich lady from the burbs with cash to burn on cosmetic stuff or implants but all that $$$ talks to me. I couldn’t give a **** what my snotty colleagues think. It allows me to pay off my mortgage and be completely debt free.

 

[GoDental101]

Definitely agree that corporate work is looked down upon. I work both. I know it’s not a very typical scenario. But my coworkers always make fun of my corporate moonlighting. But I love it. I actually make more per day on average and they treat me like a king most of the time. Lol. But the clientele is mostly Medicaid and heavy insurance based. Perhaps it’s not your rich lady from the burbs with cash to burn on cosmetic stuff or implants but all that $$$ talks to me. I couldn’t give a **** what my snotty colleagues think. It allows me to pay off my mortgage and be completely debt free.

This is some good stuff. Way to go!

 

[2TH MVR]

When I was in PP .... I DEFINITELY looked down at any dentist that worked at a DSO lol . My feeling was that they were not good enough or ambitious enough to operate a PP practice.

Now .... I work for a DSO. Quite frankly I could care less what others think. You get all types working there. New grads just looking for employment as they decide what they are going to do. Older docs like myself just looking for PT work and no ownership hassles.
As for quality of tx. I do agree that the DSO formula does bring in some questionable tx. But the same could be said for any PP. At the end of the day ... it is the ethics and talent of the individual dentist that makes the most difference on quality. Unfortunately ... I've seen some really terrible ortho results where I work. I know who treated these patients and quite frankly .... it disgusts me.

 

[Mauricio45]

When it comes to applying for associateships, I like to conduct the "beer test". If the owner and staff are the kinds of people I would hang out with over a beer and engage in friendly banter then most likely the associateship will work out.

 

[Cold Front]

There seems to be a stigma that dentists who work at DSOs are seen as "low-quality" dentists who do "poor work" and are "sellouts". Yet, most private office associateships cannot offer enough work for associate, so they either leave to buy their own office or join DSO.

It's a dog eat dog world out there.

It depends.

10-25 yrs ago, absolutely. Because less than 2/10 dentists worked for a DSO straight out of school.

Last 10 years, I think close to majority of new grads are hired by a DSO. So no one cares as much today.

In fact, the stigma won’t matter moving forward. DSO is slowly becoming the only game in town for most future doctors.