Employed Dentists: How Much Paid Time Off?

[monkeykey]

Hi I am very curious as to what is the industry standard for a dentist who is not a practice owner and is simply employed for time off both paid and unpaid? Do corporations offer this at all? Any new grads care to chime in? How many days do most dentists work a year?

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[FanOfCostco]

Zero. Paid on collections. No crowns no money.

Only PTO I heard about is public service gigs.

 

[2TH MVR]

Same. No PTO. One floating paid day. That's it. No vacation pay. No raises. We have a 401K, but it is not matched by the Corp.
On the positive side. Paid malpractice. Paid sick days (I've accrued quite a few days since I never call in sick lol). Health benefits are cheap. Free CE.
If I want a raise .... I just need to work harder. Start more patients. The bonuses are quite good.

Can't speak for other dental corps.

Private practice. You PAY for everything as the practice owner.

 

[monkeykey]

Same. No PTO. One floating paid day. That's it. No vacation pay. No raises. We have a 401K, but it is not matched by the Corp.
On the positive side. Paid malpractice. Paid sick days (I've accrued quite a few days since I never call in sick lol). Health benefits are cheap. Free CE.
If I want a raise .... I just need to work harder. Start more patients. The bonuses are quite good.

Can't speak for other dental corps.

Private practice. You PAY for everything as the practice owner.

Do corporations offer bonuses as part of your salary? How much of an average dentists salary is paid out through bonuses? Like 5-10 %?

 

[2TH MVR]

Do corporations offer bonuses as part of your salary? How much of an average dentists salary is paid out through bonuses? Like 5-10 %?

Every Corp situation is a little different. My posts are representative of a single Corp I work for. We are employees of the Corp. We have no ownership in the Corp entity. I've spoken to other dentists who have worked at a few different Corps. Dentists and specialists at my Corp get a daily minimum and bonuses. I personally like this arrangement since regardless if the day is slow ... I still get paid. I have no interest in partial ownership in the Corp. As for the %. For my situation ... it's simple. I get bonuses on ortho starts. I also get a little $ for upcharges: gold, clear braces. As for the GPs. It's more complicated. Their bonuses depends on the reimbursements of the procedures. Depends on if the procedure is access, HMO, PPO, FFS, Cash, etc. etc. I hear the GPs griping alot if their schedule is full of low paying Access (medicaid) patients.
As I've stated in every post re: Dent Corp. As a young dentist .... I would not make Corp Dentistry a career choice. It's fine as an adjunct to a private practice, a temp situation for a new grad, or an older dentist wishing for a simpler life (Me).

 

[allDAT]

Do corporations offer bonuses as part of your salary? How much of an average dentists salary is paid out through bonuses? Like 5-10 %?

Most places that have a daily base drop the base after 3-9 months, so 100% of a dentist's compensation is based on adjusted production or collections.

For those jobs that don't drop the base, the associate is usually not depending on it to make their living - or at least you shouldn't be. If you're dependent on the base, the practice probably doesn't need an associate or the associate needs help closing cases (there's nothing wrong with that).

 

[allDAT]

Hi I am very curious as to what is the industry standard for a dentist who is not a practice owner and is simply employed for time off both paid and unpaid? Do corporations offer this at all? Any new grads care to chime in? How many days do most dentists work a year?

To answer to OPs question, most private practices and small DSOs offer no PTO for associate dentists. Some larger corps may offer some PTO, but when I worked for one of the larger ones, I was offered zero days of PTO.

In a community clinic/public health job, you may find as much as 2-6 weeks of PTO, where the amount of PTO you have access to increases as you stay longer.

 

[beannaithe]

Private practice. None here. Though I can take as much unpaid time as I'd like.

 

[Frychicken]

Community clinic. I get 22 PTO days a year plus 8 paid holidays. Life is good.

 

[FanOfCostco]

Community clinic. I get 22 PTO days a year plus 8 paid holidays. Life is good.

Show off

 

[TanMan]

Show off

Yea, but community clinics usually don't pay much.

 

[FanOfCostco]

Yea, but community clinics usually don't pay much.

But you get loan forgiveness

 

[TanMan]

But you get loan forgiveness

To a certain extent and it's still considered taxable in most circumstances. I'd rather take a much higher income/No PTO v. lower income, lots of PTO, and loan forgiveness. Seems to be a slow approach to making money.

 

[2TH MVR]

I think it goes without saying that most people would take more money. Based on the assumptions that said job is available and the work environment is healthy. Also depends on what stage you are in your life. When you're young ... you have to make bank and pay off your loans. As you get older .... more time off becomes valuable whether paid for or not.

 

[Frychicken]

Yea, but community clinics usually don't pay much.

I think it’s all about work-life balance and finding the best situation for yourself and your family. At the end of the day, money isn’t everything and it’s not a competition to see who makes the most money.

 

[TanMan]

I think it’s all about work-life balance and finding the best situation for yourself and your family. At the end of the day, money isn’t everything and it’s not a competition to see who makes the most money.

It's not about who makes the most money but about who can exit the industry when they have enough money to do so. Vacations make me realize that life's too short to work until you die and as much as I like dentistry, I'd rather be on a lifelong vacation than have a lifetime of working. Unfortunately, being on a lifelong vacation requires me to have a lot of money.

 

[Frychicken]

It's not about who makes the most money but about who can exit the industry when they have enough money to do so. Vacations make me realize that life's too short to work until you die and as much as I like dentistry, I'd rather be on a lifelong vacation than have a lifetime of working. Unfortunately, being on a lifelong vacation requires me to have a lot of money.

We all had different reasons of pursuing dentistry. Sorry to hear that yours was to make enough money to “exit the industry”.

No judgment here, wish you the best on that goal.

 

[2TH MVR]

I think it’s all about work-life balance and finding the best situation for yourself and your family. At the end of the day, money isn’t everything and it’s not a competition to see who makes the most money.

It's not about who makes the most money but about who can exit the industry when they have enough money to do so. Vacations make me realize that life's too short to work until you die and as much as I like dentistry, I'd rather be on a lifelong vacation than have a lifetime of working. Unfortunately, being on a lifelong vacation requires me to have a lot of money.

As we all know ... there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to how much money do we really need. Everyone's financial situations are uniquely different. I do believe that working hard early on will provide more options later in life. The opposite of that is losing out on some of life's most precious moments with our young kids. It's not an easy work-life balance. If I recall ... @TanMan is not married and has plenty of girlfriends and guns 😀 so his needs and goals are going to be quite different to that of a dentist raising a young family.

 

[TanMan]

We all had different reasons of pursuing dentistry. Sorry to hear that yours was to make enough money to “exit the industry”.

No judgment here, wish you the best on that goal.

Lol, the first sentence sounded judgemental, but I assume everyone judges, so it doesn't matter. Everyone is always looking to exit their respective fields - it's called retirement. I was once young and idealistic and thought I always wanted to work. Not anymore. I work to live, not live to work.