So this is a question to current and former dental students: I know all dental schools will adequately train to to be a good practitioner, but do schools offer any sort of formal education on how to be a successful dentist? I'm talking about starting/managing/building/buying out practices and things along those lines.
D-Schools, do have *some* didactic training on the business, but in most circumstances it's not very much (there just isn't alot of extra available didactic time in the curriculum to teach what I argue should almost be an M.B.A. in addition to all the dental training you receive in 4 years).
Some folks in d-school because of either previous degrees they've achieved, or possible past work experiences, or sometimes even natural tendencies may have the business savy to handle the buy-ins/start ups/everyday business stuff that happens, most don't.
As a result, there is ALOT of business related continuing education courses that dentists take, and pay a bunch of $$ to take. Also, many dentists both early on, and often throughout their careers will tend to rely heavy on either outside consultants(accountants, lawyers, retirement planners, insurance agents, etc, etc, etc) or an office manager(and very often both) to help them oversee and run their business.
There are just too many business variables for most dentists to be able to keep up with in addition to all the dental things they need to keep up with to effectively make many of the business descisions with expert advice IMHO. And considering that nowadays, if you have a moderately successful general practice with a hygienist or two, it's not at all uncommon to see a yearly gross income of 7 figures for the practice, business errors of a couple percent here and there can quickly become 5 figure losses to your bottomline
😱
As the accountant that handles my practice puts it, "look, I know basically what a root canal is, but in no way do I know all the little details to get the best results. Likewise, you know what taxes are, but don't know all the little details to get the best results. You do what you do best and I'll do what I do best"
