How long will it take to open your own practice?

[PredentUndergrad]

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Greetings dentists..!

I am a pre-dental undergrad and I am doing research about life after dental school. I would like to learn from your experiences and gain more information about this topic. I am not planning on doing residency, I am looking forward to becoming a general dentist. I have few questions to ask and I would appreciate it if you answer them.

1) What are the options after gradating from dental school?

2) Would you recommend to work at a non-profit dental clinic to get more experience? or work in a dental clinic and get an experience from there?

3) For how many years would you think a dental graduate need to feel confident to open his/her own practice?

4) what are some of the fears/ challenges that dental graduates face after finishing dental school?

5) How many years do you think a dental graduate/ dentist need to open his own clinic?

6) How many years (approximately) does it take a dentist to pay off his loans from dental school?

Thank you in advance!

 

[CleverThought]

I would recommend you ask this question on Dental Town! It's a forum, similar to this, but with practicing dentists. They know a heck of a lot more than us dental students!

 

[PredentUndergrad]

I would recommend you ask this question on Dental Town! It's a forum, similar to this, but with practicing dentists. They know a heck of a lot more than us dental students!

I appreciate your answer. I actually tried to post my questions on Dental Town but they required additional information for me to sign up. Therefore, I couldn't post my questions. Do you know if there is any other resources that can enhance my knowledge of these topics? Thank you.

 

[THS]

1) What are the options after gradating from dental school?

6) How many years (approximately) does it take a dentist to pay off his loans from dental school?

I'll answer these two:

1.) -Specializing into one of the following fields: periodontics (soft tissue/gum health), prosthodontics (dentures), endodontics (root canals), pedodontics (pediatric dentistry), oral surgery (implants, extractions, facial reconstructions, cool stuff), radiology, oral pathology (moth are mostly academic/diagnostic, not much patient contact), orthodontics (braces), or public health. Most of these programs will take anywhere from 2 years to 6 years (for surgery). Most will lead to higher salary than general dentistry.
-GPR/AEGD: 1 or 2 year post-graduate programs that pay a stipend to get additional experience in a hospital setting, working with medically compromised patients, and overall improving clinical skills.
-Associateship: This can be in a private practice or with a corporation. PP may offer better hours, but with less pay right out of school. Corporate may pay better after school, but do not benefit the dentist with time for CE, and often overwork the dentists and over treat the patients. There is a lot of hate on corporate clinics on here, I'm sure you won't have to go far to find it.
-Ownership: Starting your own practice (or buying an existing practice) right after school means you are your own boss from the start. However, this is extremely expensive to a student with debt (unless you have family money, you lucky bastard). Another downside is the lack of experience. Associateships provide the dentist with experience in dealing with patients, honing skills, and learning the business aspect of running a practice.


6.) This all depends on how far in debt you are, and how long you are willing to live frugally. If you go to a public school and end up with less than $300K in debt, you could pay it off within 10 years if you don't need a lavish lifestyle. It is very hard for a lot of young dentists to not buy themselves a new car the year they get out, a house in the next year, expensive meals, etc. Many of the dentists that live in the "wealthy" part of my town are living WELL beyond their means, simply because they are making minimal payments on their loans. They'll end up paying close to a million dollars (due to interest) in 20 years. Your choice.

 

[PredentUndergrad]

I'll answer these two:

1.) -Specializing into one of the following fields: periodontics (soft tissue/gum health), prosthodontics (dentures), endodontics (root canals), pedodontics (pediatric dentistry), oral surgery (implants, extractions, facial reconstructions, cool stuff), radiology, oral pathology (moth are mostly academic/diagnostic, not much patient contact), orthodontics (braces), or public health. Most of these programs will take anywhere from 2 years to 6 years (for surgery). Most will lead to higher salary than general dentistry.
-GPR/AEGD: 1 or 2 year post-graduate programs that pay a stipend to get additional experience in a hospital setting, working with medically compromised patients, and overall improving clinical skills.
-Associateship: This can be in a private practice or with a corporation. PP may offer better hours, but with less pay right out of school. Corporate may pay better after school, but do not benefit the dentist with time for CE, and often overwork the dentists and over treat the patients. There is a lot of hate on corporate clinics on here, I'm sure you won't have to go far to find it.
-Ownership: Starting your own practice (or buying an existing practice) right after school means you are your own boss from the start. However, this is extremely expensive to a student with debt (unless you have family money, you lucky bastard). Another downside is the lack of experience. Associateships provide the dentist with experience in dealing with patients, honing skills, and learning the business aspect of running a practice.


6.) This all depends on how far in debt you are, and how long you are willing to live frugally. If you go to a public school and end up with less than $300K in debt, you could pay it off within 10 years if you don't need a lavish lifestyle. It is very hard for a lot of young dentists to not buy themselves a new car the year they get out, a house in the next year, expensive meals, etc. Many of the dentists that live in the "wealthy" part of my town are living WELL beyond their means, simply because they are making minimal payments on their loans. They'll end up paying close to a million dollars (due to interest) in 20 years. Your choice.

Thank you so much for your answer. I'm amazed it takes them that long to pay their loans... Do you recommend working as an associate dentist first?

 

[THS]

Thank you so much for your answer. I'm amazed it takes them that long to pay their loans... Do you recommend working as an associate dentist first?

100% absolutely, without a doubt. You get hands-on experience to hone your "bread and butter" procedures like drilling and filling, crowns, etc. And you get paid for it. You also get to learn how an office runs, which you will be able to use when you run your own practice. I have no idea how to run a business, nor do many dentists upon graduation. But by becoming an associate, they learn enough to do it in just a few years.

 

[PredentUndergrad]

100% absolutely, without a doubt. You get hands-on experience to hone your "bread and butter" procedures like drilling and filling, crowns, etc. And you get paid for it. You also get to learn how an office runs, which you will be able to use when you run your own practice. I have no idea how to run a business, nor do many dentists upon graduation. But by becoming an associate, they learn enough to do it in just a few years.

And is it easy to find an associate dentist position nowadays or do you need to look in rural areas? I know my question is a bit broad but I recently heard that it's a bit difficult to find an associate position and I'm not sure if that's true.

 

[THS]

And is it easy to find an associate dentist position nowadays or do you need to look in rural areas? I know my question is a bit broad but I recently heard that it's a bit difficult to find an associate position and I'm not sure if that's true.

This is a little harder to answer. If you look around on SDN, you'd be led to believe that finding a job is impossible and you can only expect $60K a year. Obviously NYC and LA are very competitive and there may be some truth to that salary in those places. By "City", most people think of a place with more than 1 million people. I'm from a city of 120k people and I think the size is ideal. There are about 70-80 dentists there, yet there seems to be no problem finding a job there. You don't necessarily have to find a a rural town of 5K, but there are plenty of great medium sized cities that are in need of dentists. I haven't heard of anyone that graduated from my school having trouble finding a job. I think only a few went to work for corporate, but that is because they wanted to.
Once you're a dental student, you'll get a better idea of saturation in that state.