Does dentistry revolve around establishing your own practice?

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demh23

demh23

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Hi all,

Often you hear of how dentists have a stable lifestyle with enjoyable quality of life. It would seem to me that this really depends on having good business sense and establishing your own practice rather than saying "Here's my D.D.S. now where is my stable lifestyle?" Is there more of an opportunity in medicine if you simply want to be a physician and not have to deal with the complexities of running a practice? As a physician it seems I can go into residency and come out of it with a reasonable expectation of the demand for my specialty and what my salary will be whereas in dentistry it depends on many factors such as the location of your office, your knack at building a patient base, saturation, and other factors that I don't know about. I guess what I'm asking is what paths are there in dentistry besides opening your own practice / being an associate at someone else's practice for 100k a year?

🙂 Thanks 🙂
 
demh23 said:
Hi all,

Often you hear of how dentists have a stable lifestyle with enjoyable quality of life. It would seem to me that this really depends on having good business sense and establishing your own practice rather than saying "Here's my D.D.S. now where is my stable lifestyle?" Is there more of an opportunity in medicine if you simply want to be a physician and not have to deal with the complexities of running a practice? As a physician it seems I can go into residency and come out of it with a reasonable expectation of the demand for my specialty and what my salary will be whereas in dentistry it depends on many factors such as the location of your office, your knack at building a patient base, saturation, and other factors that I don't know about. I guess what I'm asking is what paths are there in dentistry besides opening your own practice / being an associate at someone else's practice for 100k a year?

🙂 Thanks 🙂
Click to expand...

You would get more meaningful responses if you woulda posted this in the dental / practicing dentist forum...

If your gonna compare medicine to dentistry, do it in a fair fashion. Compare primary care docs (Internal med, family physician, OBGY, and Peds) to general dentistry. Then you'll get a pretty fair estimate who works and makes more per hour. And by the way, primary care docs have the same "issue" as dentists ~ where they also tend to establish their own private practices, so strong business sense = a must.

If you wanna compare the "medical bigs" (plastics, ENT, ophthalmology, radiology, dermatology, etc), again, do it while comparing them to the competitively equivalent dental specialists (OMFS, ortho, and peds)
 
1) Mods move any question by HS or predent into predent forum

2) Ok, but a specialist in dentistry faces establishing a practice vs. a specialist in medicine who can just work for a group in a hospital right

3) you shouldn't be putting " 'issue' " in quotes because I never called it an issue
 
demh23 said:
1) Mods move any question by HS or predent into predent forum

2) Ok, but a specialist in dentistry faces establishing a practice vs. a specialist in medicine who can just work for a group in a hospital right
Click to expand...

oral surgeons can & do work in hospitals... I dunno what the ratio of private practice oral surgeons is vs hospitals. But I know they can obtain jobs in either position.

any other dental specialty, is mostly centered around private practices. Whether you own the practice or you simply get hired to work there is up to you.

But this should not be a determining factor for dentistry vs medicine. You either own your business or you work for others (hospital or some private practice office).... A 3rd option is to go into academic/research, but you aren't asking about this.
 
Its just weird because like when I read the dentistry forum people are telling others to check the classifieds for dentist jobs, like what is up with that, shouldn't there be a more professional medium to it?

OH and btw I don't want to sound like someone bashing on dentistry, I think its really interesting but I am just scared because my dentist was telling me of how he hasn't broken even yet from his practice

ALSO what does the name of your dental school have to do with your career afterwards? For ex obviously when you see a guy going to Johns Hopkins medical school they have an easier time getting into like neurosurgery and stuff but what about like if you go to Yale dental school, what does that open up for you? Easier time getting hired at a practice / getting training in specialty?
 
demh23 said:
Its just weird because like when I read the dentistry forum people are telling others to check the classifieds for dentist jobs, like what is up with that, shouldn't there be a more professional medium to it?

OH and btw I don't want to sound like someone bashing on dentistry, I think its really interesting but I am just scared because my dentist was telling me of how he hasn't broken even yet from his practice
Click to expand...

Like what, Linkedin?


I assume dentistry is like most other business...when it comes to getting a job, it is a lot about who you know.

For example, the main dentist I shadow is hiring his best friend from dental school in a really nice associate position.
 
My dad was a neurosurgeon. When he had his own practice he faced many the same issues dental practices deal with, but his biggest annoyance was one that dentists don't face as severely - the chokehold insurance companies put on payments for surgeries. Towards the end of his career he worked instead for a hospital, but the salary isn't the same as when you have your practice. If he was starting over again today from scratch, he would go into dentistry.

demh23 said:
Its just weird because like when I read the dentistry forum people are telling others to check the classifieds for dentist jobs, like what is up with that, shouldn't there be a more professional medium to it?

OH and btw I don't want to sound like someone bashing on dentistry, I think its really interesting but I am just scared because my dentist was telling me of how he hasn't broken even yet from his practice

ALSO what does the name of your dental school have to do with your career afterwards? For ex obviously when you see a guy going to Johns Hopkins medical school they have an easier time getting into like neurosurgery and stuff but what about like if you go to Yale dental school, what does that open up for you? Easier time getting hired at a practice / getting training in specialty?
Click to expand...

This is a favorite debate on SDN - how much the name behind the school matters. Just as an fyi though, Yale doesn't have a dental school 🙂
 
The oral surgeon i shadowed works for UCSF as a clinical instructor and has a contract to do work once a month with that hospital. I think it really depends on what you want to do with dentistry. He has his own practice as well and works every other day to handle both commitments.
 
! .. I don't even kneo what's going on .. ! So I'm outta here. I am the pilot and the plane is this thread

bailbailbail-1.jpg
 
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