I don’t buy in much into this whole “career” is saturated stuff.
I practice in Southern California (where everyone says is too saturated). There is literally another dental office two minutes walking from the entrance of my clinic (who are also doing very well). We actually let each other borrow materials and all/send patients to each other. I don’t even consider them competition because we know there’s enough fish for both of us. That being said, we are a two-doctor (everyday+saturday) practice and are consistently booked 3 weeks out. There is higher “saturation” because there is also a much higher population, but you can still do perfectly fine.
You could probably make more going rural due to more demand but i’m 100% comfortable where I am and by no means do I feel like my production has gone down due to competition.
It does help a lot to find your specific niche, though. Be known for something. Just like every company finds their niche. In our case, we are all bi-lingual and target a specific population. It doesn’t have to be that, though. You can be the implant guy in town, or the root canal guy, etc...
Good luck
Saturation does exist.
Not every office is getting new patients without trying something special; marketing, a great expensive signage, great retail space with a visibility, etc. You may not know this, but dental offices use to be a “destination” business for patients. Doctors didn’t care where their office was set up in 20+ years ago. Today, most dentists, specially DSO’s, are in retail settings - because that’s where people shop and the foot traffic is, and mind you - those spaces are very expensive to rent. So 20+ years ago, all a dentist needed was an ad in the yellow pages. It’s the opposite today; google ads, social media, websites, mailers, groupons, you name it - it clearly shows the competition got tougher, just looking at how much money goes into marketing. It’s almost impossible to have a successful practice without a good strong marketing campaign, or being in a super expensive retail space - to stand out.
Saturation is there, maybe you are not sensitive to it because all the businesses around you are doing what you do to get patients, or you just don’t have a reference point by going beyond your niche. But ask any older dentist, they will tell you they lived through the “golden years” of dentistry, when patients chose between 1 or 2 dentists. Today, patients can choose between 20+ dentists within a 10 mins drive from their homes in urban communities. That’s just the fact. How many patients call your office and ask how much it costs to get whitening or a new patient fee? Patients are shopping around for dental deals more than ever before - because there are more dentists around them.
And the point you made about growing population; well - the population growth pace has slowed down, but the new dentist growth have spiked over the past decade or 2. The fastest growing segment of the population are old people - and majority are retired and don’t have insurance that comes with dental benefits (thanks to Medicare), but they still pay out of pocket or do CareCredit. Big cities have a lot of educated people that have grown up seeing a dentist from young age to adulthood, they are less likely to need major procedure dentistry (removables, crown and bridge, etc) - the opposite is very true for rural areas, hence why it’s a great place to practice for dentists. Less saturation, but also more major procedures needed.
You have a strong optimistic mindset, that helps you do well in any setting. I give you that.
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