Rural Dentistry?

[mrdocta]

Lately there has been a lot of talk about how much a dental school education costs, best way to pay off debt, and where to live to make the most $$ out of school. Obviously there are ways to minimize costs such as serving the country, attending a state school, scholarships, etc... but also practicing in a rural area is mentioned quite a bit.

It's not uncommon to see people say, "You can make $90K in an urban area out of school or $200K in a rural area." (I just made up these numbers, but there's generally a pretty large gap between.) Anyways, what actually contributes to such a large increase in profit? I see that an urban setting can be over saturated and have too much competition + higher living expenses. But is there really that big of a difference in earnings?

Some issues I see with rural areas:
-Not as populated as a city, so less patients possibly
-Rural residents may be unable to pay if the location is underserved (profit loss)
-Patient's may not seek dental treatment if they never have while living in that area before, so it's not a priority of theirs. Mentality of theirs may be "Why start now?"

Maybe I'm just thinking of rural meaning middle of nowhere and no other city within 3 hours away rather than a smaller rural/suburb town 30 miles outside of the city which would make more sense to me in terms of profit gain. Unless there are state/federal loan repayment programs for these rural dentists, I don't see how it can be that great of an advantage compared to living close or in the city.. thoughts?

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[ajj70]

Rural doesn't always mean poor and in many parts of the country, rural is farm country and in most areas, the farmers are probably better off financially then most CEO's . Why can you make more, easy, you will have more patients. If you can set up a practice in an underserved area, where they are driving 2 hours to see a dentist, you will fill your practice practically overnight. Add in lower costs for your building, probably lower staff costs, etc. and there is your difference.

 

[SCDP]

Rural doesn't always mean poor and in many parts of the country, rural is farm country and in most areas, the farmers are probably better off financially then most CEO's . Why can you make more, easy, you will have more patients. If you can set up a practice in an underserved area, where they are driving 2 hours to see a dentist, you will fill your practice practically overnight. Add in lower costs for your building, probably lower staff costs, etc. and there is your difference.

Plus the fact that you could probably have a FFS(fee for service) practice since people would be willing to pay and you could charge more than the average as well. Essentially you would have a monopoly. And if you're busy enough hire a new grad or an associate to take on the extra load and bring in more for the practice and your wallet.

 

[irishmom]

I am from a town of 1600 people. There is one dentist in the entire county and the closest "big" town is 45 minutes away (by big I mean 10,000 people). Major employers are farmers, ranchers, an ethanol plant and a bean company. This is rural. Most farmers are very well off and ranchers are even better off. The 2 factories have good benefits. This is how you make money in dentistry. I plan on taking over the practice when I graduate, as the DDS wants to retire. The only downside to rural is that because many new grads want the big lights, big city, it is hard to sell when you want to retire.

 

[spazway]

-Patients may not seek dental treatment if they never have while living in that area before, so it's not a priority of theirs. Mentality of theirs may be "Why start now?"

If you establish yourself as someone who does good quality, compassionate, and honest work, you will build a name for yourself. Patients will tell their friends. Word of mouth is much more powerful in small towns than it is in the city.