Practicing OMFS

[LBJ 2 MIA]

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Hi, I have a few questions about oral maxillofacial surgery.

1) What is a typical patient volume for a practicing surgeon in a fairly large city five years out. I know location and competition will play a large role, but if an OMFS has say two offices and works 6 days a week alternating locations would it be possible to do upwards of 20 to 30 extractions/sedations every week?

Also, what type of volume do you think OMFS can expect in the future for other bread and butter procedures such as implants in a fairly large city.

2) How does malpractice insurance pair up with similar specialties in dental?

3) Do you see any turf wars or varying factors that would put a strain on any of the typical B&B procedures done by OMFS in the future?

I am leaning toward OMFS, and I am having a hard time finding faculty to guide me on some of the specifics. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[adizzle87]

I hear malpractice is highest for OMFS compared with GP and all the other specialties. Unless a GP has a lot of experience doing exodontia at a free clinic or abroad, CE classes can only do so much to improve a GPs comfort level with complex cases. I don't forsee any turf war in the near future. GPs typically don't do too many extractions in private practice, restorative is their b&b. If your question is whether or not GPs regularly do simple extractions (whenever its neccesarry) the answer is yes. But they have always and probably will continue to refer out complex cases to the surgeons.

 

[preOMFS]

Hi, I have a few questions about oral maxillofacial surgery.

1) What is a typical patient volume for a practicing surgeon in a fairly large city five years out. I know location and competition will play a large role, but if an OMFS has say two offices and works 6 days a week alternating locations would it be possible to do upwards of 20 to 30 extractions/sedations every week?

Also, what type of volume do you think OMFS can expect in the future for other bread and butter procedures such as implants in a fairly large city.

2) How does malpractice insurance pair up with similar specialties in dental?

3) Do you see any turf wars or varying factors that would put a strain on any of the typical B&B procedures done by OMFS in the future?

I am leaning toward OMFS, and I am having a hard time finding faculty to guide me on some of the specifics. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I worked for a guy who would do 4 sets of 3rds under GA Monday thru Thursday and then do 8-10 GA's on Friday. And this is with just one practice, so yeah, its possible.

 

[flapaTron]

I worked for a guy who would do 4 sets of 3rds under GA Monday thru Thursday and then do 8-10 GA's on Friday. And this is with just one practice, so yeah, its possible.

this is definitely a normal and feasible volume for a practicing OMFS. some days they get lucky and get mostly erupted unimpacted simple 3rds and blow through those in no time.

 

[preOMFS]

this is definitely a normal and feasible volume for a practicing OMFS. some days they get lucky and get mostly erupted unimpacted simple 3rds and blow through those in no time.

Pretty rare in this economy (from what I saw in two years as an assistant). Most of the dentists try to snatch those up. Oh, Arizona...

 

[Count Orlok]

Anybody know the average population an OMFS would need to draw from to be able to support a new practice? I know for GP, most dentist look for 5,000 or so people to make sure their patient flow will be high enough. Any ideas for surgeons?

 

[charlestweed]

Anybody know the average population an OMFS would need to draw from to be able to support a new practice? I know for GP, most dentist look for 5,000 or so people to make sure their patient flow will be high enough. Any ideas for surgeons?

I don’t think you should look at the average population when you try set up an OMFS practice. Instead, you should look at the number of practicing dentists (GP, prosth, ortho) in the area. People don’t just go straight to your office for 3rd molar extraction or cyst removal.

 

[shamrock2006]

Anybody know the average population an OMFS would need to draw from to be able to support a new practice? I know for GP, most dentist look for 5,000 or so people to make sure their patient flow will be high enough. Any ideas for surgeons?

A private practice GP does not need 5k patients to be busy....somewhere around 2k is actually more apprpriate...if you have 5k patients, you better have associates and a ton of hygienists

 

[Count Orlok]

A private practice GP does not need 5k patients to be busy....somewhere around 2k is actually more apprpriate...if you have 5k patients, you better have associates and a ton of hygienists

Right, it is common to think that if you move to an area of 5000 then you could probably expect 1500-2000 of those people to be regular patients. I did not mean that all 5000 people would be patients of record, but that 5000 people is just a large enough population group to draw a decent number of patients from. Sorry for the confusion.