Future of dentistry

[sheen]

I was wondering if anyone here has any info. on the future of dental practice. I have been looking into dentistry and few of the things that really interest me are the autonomy, hours, a great solid, secure career and salary. I have been told by some people who are in the business field and have done some research on the future of dentistry that the "cushion" of the field is soon going to change in the next 5-10 years or so. They were specifically talking about the overall managed care situation. Since more companies are offering dental insurance to patients, etc. it might soon become similar to medicine. Just wondering what you all think about that and if you have heard similar future predictions.

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[fightingspirit]

Well, sheen you are raising an important issue here. The specter of HMOs is looming ominously over our horizon. This is exactly why we SHOULD ALLLLLL be members of the ADA so that we could fight the HMOs as one big lobby. Everybody should be concerned. It is a shame that 20% of dentists are not members of the ADA. If HMOs take over, expect us to be hated by people, expect us to earn less money, expect us to become like pharmacists with our clinics opening up in Duane Reade and Kmart. Also, expect us to be forced to treat x number of patients in y amount of time!!!!!! It’s an impending doom. We should really be concerned and fight it to the end!

 

[geckel]

Well, sheen you are raising an important issue here. The specter of HMOs is looming ominously over our horizon. This is exactly why we SHOULD ALLLLLL be members of the ADA so that we could fight the HMOs as one big lobby. Everybody should be concerned. It is a shame that 20% of dentists are not members of the ADA. If HMOs take over, expect us to be hated by people, expect us to earn less money, expect us to become like pharmacists with our clinics opening up in Duane Reade and Kmart. Also, expect us to be forced to treat x number of patients in y amount of time!!!!!! It’s an impending doom. We should really be concerned and fight it to the end!

110% agreed!!!!! But It's a little early for me to worry about this.......gotta get into school first.