SELF-DESCRIPTION: I am an orthodontist, 35 years old. I've been out practicing for 5 years. My practice grossed $1.35 million last year. My overhead is 50%, so that means I made around $650K. When I bought my practice, it grossed $450K. It takes a lot of effort to grow your practice (with God's blessing, too!). My goal for the next 5 years is to produce $2.5 million.
LOVE WHAT YOU DO: Who made the comment you need to love what you do? GOOD POST! I have some friends that are dentists that make more than me. Most make less. I have friends that are plastic surgeons, but I don't know what they make... probably a little more. We enjoy the same luxuries: private schools for our kids, country club memberships, lake houses, boats, houses on the country club, traveling, etc. THE BIG DIFFERENCE: the plastic surgeons work a 'heckuva' lot more than me. I work 32 hours per week, M-Th only. I have virtually no "emergency call" to take. I employ 10 women in my office. What a super crew I have! They take turns taking home the "emergency cell phone" and will get after hours calls on it occaisionally that they usually coach the patient thru the "emergency." Ninety-nine times out of 100 the patient can fix it themselves and come in during regular business hours.
PLEASE: don't let money decide which field you want to get into. It's not the field or specialty that dictates how much you make, but your personality, drive, and PRACTICE MODEL. I know pedodontists, oral surgeons, and endodontist that seem they have a "money-printing machine." BUT, I also know general dentists that have 12 operatories, 3-4 hygienists and produce as much as any specialist.
As a dentist or dental specialist, if you own your own practice, you can write off a lot a personal expenses through your practice. I would estimate I write off another 20-30% of my income as a "practice expense." I honestly don't know how much I make each year.
GETTING INTO A RESIDENCY: You need to know before the 1st day of dental school that you want to specialize. I was ranked 1st, 2nd, or 3rd at all times during my dental school years. If you want to be guaranteed to get into ortho or oral surgery, be in the top 5. You could probably be in the top 20 and get in pedodontics, periodontics, and endodontics. Just like the medical school match for residency programs, there are many factors that determine who gets in where. I have great friends who started out thinking they wanted to specialize, only to find out they loved general dentistry. But because they had a good class rank and board scores, they had the option to apply to a residency. I have great friends who thought they wanted to do general dentistry, but ended up wanting to get into a specialty, but they couldn't because their class rank was not good enough...SAD. Be one of the former, not the latter. Be GUNG HO when you start, striving for excellence, so you can keep your options open.
EGO: As an orthodontist, I feel you have to be humble. If you want to be a "big doctor," you may want to be a physician. As a general stereotype (I know this is wrong, but...) my physician friends have bigger egos. I feel that acting like a "big doctor" turns people off. Why would you want to do that? I ALWAYS downplay my status. But my trial laywer friends, my plastic surgeon friends, my anesthesiologist friends, etc., HAVE noticed that I'm off on Fridays, spending time with my wife and 3 year old, spending time with my 5,8,9 year olds at school. I can end my work day at 4pm so I can go be the coach of my sons' baseball teams and my daughter's soccer team. I think God wants us to be humble and treat others as equals.
SATISFACTION: I get to know my patients very well over a 2 year treatment of orthodontics, 2 years of retainer visits. I get to know the parents very well because I usually treat all three of their kids, and then the parents decide they want treatment too.
MULTIPLE OFFICES: I started out with only one office. I started a satellite office in another town about a year ago. I go to that other office every other Wednesday (or 2 days per month). A practitioner has satellite offices generally to produce more income. A satellite office can allow you to go into another (usu smaller) town and increase your production. Generally, in the smaller town, there is no other competition. A satellite office also makes your main office more efficient. It decreases the number of days you practice in the main city, making people take the appointments that are available. It squeezes out the wasted hours in your appointment schedule. I noticed that last month, my satellite office produced as much as my main office did. I worked 2 days last month in my satellite, and 14 days in my main office. A pretty productive two days, HUH? I'm thinking about opening another satellite office in another town as well in about a year.
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU'RE A GENERAL DENTIST OR A SPECIALIST. You can make as much money as you want to doing any of the above. It just depends on the PRACTICE MODEL. Go do what your heart desires! And find ways to make money doing it! You may find (as I definately did) that the marketing/business side of my practice is as enjoyable as the dentistry side. Makes me wonder: Hmmm, would I like marketing/business? An MBA? A Law degree? A building contractor? Hmmm... Maybe when I grow up I want to be in business?!
Also, in all things, thank GOD for giving you the ability and health to pursue what you want to do.
Sincerely,
wirebender22
I am growing weary of posts like these.
