Location to Practice Dentistry

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iamlonely

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Please give the cons/pros for various locations to practice dentistry:
i.e.
Santa Monica
Santa Barbara
NYC
Boston
Suburbs of California
Suburbs of Northeast
Miami Beach,Florida
Colorado
South Carolina
 
South Carolina pro's: The state's population and economy is surging due to the constant opening's of plant's and companies (BMW, Honda, pharmeceutical plants, etc...). This is due to tax breaks, in general cheaper taxes, and in overall cheaper living costs. Therefore, you can move to a newly sprouting city and become the main man and take over. 👍

Cons: can't really think of any.....except during the summer the heat is very humid. But that's why you'll be in the office during the hottest hours. :laugh: 👍
 
Boston Pro's - Great nightlife, lot's of places to go see such as museum's, theather's, bands, baseball. Great for shopping like on Newbury st. Huge park in the middle of the city. Architecture is a mix of old and new. Lot of history there. Just lots of pro's in general.
Con's- Expensive. If you want to be in the city, I mean like on Newbury then pay up. Or you could open up on the outskirts of the city like in quincy or a little farther if you just want to be "around" Boston, but only be a stone's throw away to hang out.
 
Santa Barbara:
I don't know a ton about the dental community here, but there already seem to be quite a few dentists. The population is divided into the very rich and the moderately rich and everyone is pretty image concious, so you could probably do very well with cosmetic procedures. Although, like much of California there is an underserved hispanic population. So if you want to be more community focused you should brush up on your Spanish.

The lifestyle here is amazing! If you've been to the area then you now how beautiful it is - the mountains, the beach, State Street, etc. But it is definitely not a cheap place. The median home price in southern Santa Barbara County was $2.2 million last year!!! You would be hard pressed to find a decent house under a million. We also consistently have the highest gas prices in the country - lucky us!

In the back of my head I think about coming back here to practice, but the cost of living will most likely prevent that. It will probably just be a long weekend destination for me.
 
NYC has tons to offer as far as cities go. You have a great nightlife, lots of culture and theater. Great public transportation and shopping.

It is very expensive of course. Most people rent instead of buying and you usually have to make do with a much smaller place than in other areas. A one bedroom in a trendy area might be about $2500 a month or so. The city is less dangerous than what people think.

Dentists do well due to the amount of business here. There are lots of underprivileged areas, and there are lots of rich people who want cosmetic stuff done. However it is a little oversaturated and on average associates may not make as much as others in other cities, plus it is so expensive to live here. Taxes and rent for your office will be very high too.

However, in the outer city or in long island, northern new jersey, etc., you can do even more business and have even more take home pay/lower rents etc.

To practice anywhere in NY state you need to complete a one year madatory residency.
 
Santa Monica- $$$$$, and it's Southern California 🙁

Santa Barbara- $$$$$ and it's Southern California. 🙁

NYC- It's New York- crowded, noisy, and the people are New Yorkers! (Sorry OneToothLeft, I had to say it..... 😉 ); on the plus side, you'll never find food as good as you will there. You could eat out every night for the rest of your life

Boston- Home of the world's most annoying accent (short of Fran Drescher) and an expensive place to live.

Suburbs of California- Can't answer this...I'm not sure which suburbs you are talking about.

Suburbs of Northeast-See as above

Miami Beach,Florida- Astronomical cost of living; hurricanes; tourists; very crowded, but good food (Cuban food.....*drool*)

Colorado- Beautiful scenery, but you will pay through the nose for it.

South Carolina- humid, decent cost of living, insects like you wouldn't believe (at least in Columbia, SC where I was at); but also home to some of the nicest people I've ever met. I think if I had to pick one from this list, I'd take this one.
 
ISU_Steve said:
Santa Barbara- $$$$$ and it's Southern California. 🙁

Nope, it's Central California, there is a big difference. 😀 You seem to have strong opinions about California, have you have been to Santa Barbara? There is a reason that people are willing to pay so much to live here.

In my opinion SB is very far removed from LA mentally. I mean the city is only 90,000 people and there is no traffic to speak of. Simply put it's a beautiful, upscale beach town.
 
Yes, I have been....it's gorgeous. One of my friends goes to school there. It's still southern California in my mind though (although everything south of SF is southern California in my mind).

I'd love to live in extreme northern CA, I just can't see myself in the southern part (or central part) 😉
 
i like nashville and knoxville!

tennessee suburbs are gr8 for living also! some people there are hooked on chew and have mouth's looking like this:

chewlip.jpg
 
Here's some advice for making millions:

Be the Wal-mart, not the Nordstroms.

Take that to heart and you'll do fine in practice, no matter the location.

(Translation: the "long tail" effect is HUGE in dentistry).
 
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ItsGavinC said:
(Translation: the "long tail" effect is HUGE in dentistry).
Once again, slower, and in English for those who didn't take business or philosophy (at least yet).
 
I think this thread can have a great potential in the DENTAL forum or in dentaltown, what do we know about the practice of detistry? (unless parents are dentists) Good thread though. 👍
 
iamlonely said:
Please give the cons/pros for various locations to practice dentistry:
i.e.
Santa Monica
Santa Barbara
NYC
Boston
Suburbs of California
Suburbs of Northeast
Miami Beach,Florida
Colorado
South Carolina

Once again lonely your question is much to broad and directed to the wrong group of people. Its like asking a Brazilian what the weather is like in all of Europe. I just don't think you will get a very good or accurate response.
 
iamlonely said:
Please give the cons/pros for various locations to practice dentistry:
i.e.
Santa Monica
Santa Barbara
NYC
Boston
Suburbs of California
Suburbs of Northeast
Miami Beach,Florida
Colorado
South Carolina
Miami Beach, FL is not a dental office area. It's more like expensive stores, restaurants, and nightclubs. If you are looking into Miami, I would look into trying to get your practice open in one of the hospitals.
 
California suburbs have a lot of potential. First of all there are a lot of places you can go. Second the cost of living is a little high which means a practice could easily flourish but its nothing like the cost of living in Santa Barbara (jess sb are you sure the median is 2.2 mill, that sounds pretty high? 😱 ). In california there seems to be something for everyone, I'm sure you could find a place you like if you research. And I consider Santa Barbara to be southern calif, anything above that is central.
 
budge311 said:
(jess sb are you sure the median is 2.2 mill, that sounds pretty high? 😱 )

Mark Twain said, "There are three types of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics."
The mean cost of homes would be a better measure of average cost of homes because it is less effected by outliers. I would assume that there are several homes in SB that are very expensive and skew the average.
 
budge311 said:
jess sb are you sure the median is 2.2 mill, that sounds pretty high? 😱

Sorry guys, the $2.2 million median was for Monticeto, one of the Cities in South Santa Barbara. Tha actual median home price is $1.285 million for South Santa Barbara County. If anyone actually cares...Link to California Stats

By the way, I thought that median was the better way to measure info like this, and that means or averages are the ones that get screwed up by outliers. I guess I need to brush up on my statistics.

And the Central California thing is more of a state of mind than a geographic thing. Anyways, sorry for the confusion.
 
Jess_SB said:
Sorry guys, the $2.2 million median was for Monticeto, one of the Cities in South Santa Barbara. Tha actual median home price is $1.285 million for South Santa Barbara County. If anyone actually cares...Link to California Stats

By the way, I thought that median was the better way to measure info like this, and that means or averages are the ones that get screwed up by outliers. I guess I need to brush up on my statistics.

And the Central California thing is more of a state of mind than a geographic thing. Anyways, sorry for the confusion.


jess is right. the median is less affected by outliers like $30,000 mobile homes and $30 million dollar estates. the mean on the other hand is greatly affected by outliers.
 
Chicago - Lots of dentists. Don't come here.
 
asalazar said:
Miami Beach, FL is not a dental office area. It's more like expensive stores, restaurants, and nightclubs. If you are looking into Miami, I would look into trying to get your practice open in one of the hospitals.

Well said. I live 45 minutes from Miami Beach too.

Hurricanes? Who cares! There's a reason why wealthy and not so wealthy people are investing in South Florida :laugh:

Good luck passing the Florida board. It's very hard to passs. Not impossible, but hard. I have a friend sitting at home most of the yr becuase she hasn't pass that board in 8 years! She flys to Virginia to work! 🙁

But if you are planning on South Florida, well my friend good luck if don't speak Spanish. EVERYTHING here is Spanish! Even my mom writes ALL her checks from Bank of America in Spanish! :laugh:

Adios amigo!
 
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