As far as OMFR I’ve never referred to one. From my understanding they go either into academia or GP and do something like beamreaders on the side. But you really need to know path to get into rads. I know you said you wanted something cerebral, but where do you think these specialists complex cases come from? The GP. You have plenty of opportunity to handle and control the complexity of your cases, and you can refer out what you’re not comfortable with to your specialist colleagues.
Remember that specializing is not necessarily the only path to wealth. Yes, many of them do very well financially, but remember the GP is usually the gatekeeper (except peds), you are the first stop. You can open a large office and employ the specialists to work for you. I worked at an office where they had a traveling OS come in every week and generate a ton of money because he would have the patients lined up for him. He would run his own iv sedation and take out thirds and place implants all day that I would later restore. On Fridays the endodontist would come and we had a microscope and a CBCT so she was all set to do her RCTs which I also would then restore.
This model benefited everyone because the specialists not only made bank, but they didn’t have the overhead of their own office and staff or worry about not having patients. The office benefited because those were high production days and we kept those specialty procedures in house. It benefited the patient because that office was a one stop shop for them. I’ve even had times when a patient would see me, need a specialty procedure, and get it done the same day because the specialist had a gap in their schedule. Then pt loves you.
You mentioned endo. Endo is very profitable in a GP office because the pt wants out of pain. They will pay. And if they can’t afford RCT they will beg you to take the tooth out, and that’s a procedure with zero overhead. If you can keep your schedule booked with RCT/BU/CRN, ext+bg, or implant placement and restoration you’re golden. The key is to have your schedule booked with these procedures consistently and not being used as a hygienist doing prophies and exams all day with an occasional Class II. If you can do this you will likely outearn all the OFP, path, and rads folks.
Sorry for the long post. My pt no-showed 🤦♂️
