FUTURE of Dentists

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mckcrisd

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Hi Pre-dental students, I am writing to raise my concern about our future as a dentist. I currently work in a dental office as a dental assistant but I also work up front doing books, scheduling patients etc.

I am planning on applying to dental schools this coming June but when we received a letter from WDS (Washington Dental Service - Insurance) saying that they will lower their fees effective June 2011, we thought that they were talking about below 5% decrease in the rates we are charging to our patients who are holders of WDS but we were wrong, the fee decrease is 15-25%. I thought I was not affected by this but over the weekend, I can't stop thinking about how this change will affect my future. I want to become a dentist for a lot of reasons, not just to help educate and provide oral care to patients but also for financial stability.

In my experience, most patients base their dental care decisions based on what's covered by their insurance. p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }If WDS will succeed in implementing their new, lower fees, businesses and individuals will switch to WDS affecting other insurance companies. Other insurance companies can either drop their dental coverage limiting the service that they provide which is not a good business decision or they will lower their fees to match WDS fees. Insurances is a big market in the US and if we allow these changes to happen, we are basically allowing insurance companies to control the future of dentistry.

Here's an example, WDS offers PPO and Premier plans, in their PPO plan, they want WDS providers (dentists) to charge $86.00, we are currently charging $135 for this service. Hygienist get paid between $45-60/ hr, materials, rent, utilities (u can base it on hourly basis). Crowns, porcelain fused to high noble metal, we charge $1285 for posterior teeth, and they want us to charge $851. The preparation of the tooth and delivery of the crown will take about 3 hours sometimes even more if you need to do adjustments etc. So our 3 hour expense including lab fees, salary, materials, rent, utilities (I know it changes all the time) is $816.16. Dr.s can try to speed up their work, purchase cheaper materials, ask the hygienist to do cleaning in $45 but is this what we want to do? I salute my boss because she spends quality time with our patients, buy high quality materials and provide high quality service --- The way she provide quality dentistry really convinced me to become a dentist but now, I don't know what I want to do especially with the high cost of dental education. Washington Dental Association cannot meddle with this issue so I don't know what will happen next.

What are your thoughts about this?

FYI: English is my second language and I just moved here in the US 4 yrs ago so I apologize for any grammatical errors.

Thanks for reading and I hope that the admin will allow this post.

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