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I am a 4th year dental student with a simple question for practicing dentists: What is your greatest source of stress as a dentist?
What is your greatest source of stress as a dentist?
- Thread starter OKSOONERBUB
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As a new dentist, my greatest source of stress was finding a full-time job.
From the people that I have talked to in my class since graduation-- one is working "full-time" but there are days he is not busy enough and is told to stay at home because there are no patients scheduled. But technically, he is working "part-time" and being paid a monthly draw. I know of a handful of people who are doing temporary jobs-- filling in for vacation or maternity leave, and when they are done with that job, they aren't even sure they have something else to go to. I know of someone who just found a job a little over a month ago. I also know of another person who was working part-time. The job was supposed to be working it's way up to full-time over the course of a couple months. The dentist this person was working with/for terminated the contract after only a month because the practice wasn't busy enough. Anyways, my point is, depending on where you live and where you look and how busy the practice is, it may be very difficult, and stressful trying to find a full-time job that can make ends meet right out of school.
As far as the greatest source of stress on a day-to-day basis... right now it has been making sure the hygiene chairs are full. That is production for me and the other dentists on exams, and production for the practice. There are some days where every chair is full. There are days where we can't get every chair filled. And then there are days where people confirmed the day before and decide not to show up or they cancel the day of. I think the economy has really deterred people from coming in for their 6 month recall visits, when they have done so for many years. And then I think the Sept. to Dec. are just slow months... holidays coming up and people wanting to spend money on gifts and traveling to see family, and then I think a lot of insurance benefits have been used up by this time of the year, that people wait until January to come in again.
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For most established dentists, the clear winner for stress is staff management. Any time you put >1 female in a practice, there become gossip, caddyness, and whining.
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I've been practicing for 5 months now, so far so good, personally but the greatest stress I face are speed, production, and things that go wrong.
On daily basis, my speed is compared to doctors whom I work with. Those 2 doctors have been practicing for 20 and 25 yrs!
I think of myself having average speed, I complete a straight forward molar RCT in about 1.5 hrs, crown prep + impression in about 1hr. But sometimes it gets crazy and have to see 4 or 5 pts at the same time....
Regarding things that go wrong, Im a careful person, I dont jump into procedures that I dont feel comfortable doing. And I believe Ill stay this way for the 1st yr of practicing. If I feel this endo or 3rd molar would be challenging, I refer the case to one of the doctors I work with.
I have done more advanced cases during my residency, but we had faculty support if things go south, in private practice you need to be careful because you're on your own 🙂
I make sure that I write everything in my notes, specially the tx options given to pt and what the tx the pt requested and not just composite #2,3,4 and 30
I agree with Peg Lateral and Mike. And dont want to sound as anti female, but alot of gossip and drama and jealousy between staff members and doctors would not form a good working environment.
On daily basis, my speed is compared to doctors whom I work with. Those 2 doctors have been practicing for 20 and 25 yrs!
I think of myself having average speed, I complete a straight forward molar RCT in about 1.5 hrs, crown prep + impression in about 1hr. But sometimes it gets crazy and have to see 4 or 5 pts at the same time....
Regarding things that go wrong, Im a careful person, I dont jump into procedures that I dont feel comfortable doing. And I believe Ill stay this way for the 1st yr of practicing. If I feel this endo or 3rd molar would be challenging, I refer the case to one of the doctors I work with.
I have done more advanced cases during my residency, but we had faculty support if things go south, in private practice you need to be careful because you're on your own 🙂
I make sure that I write everything in my notes, specially the tx options given to pt and what the tx the pt requested and not just composite #2,3,4 and 30
I agree with Peg Lateral and Mike. And dont want to sound as anti female, but alot of gossip and drama and jealousy between staff members and doctors would not form a good working environment.
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My greatest source of stress is working at the clinic without patients.. Even though I advertise myself pretty well, offer promotions.. Egypt is a dry well at this point..
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Staff. Male and female.
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As a female dentist, my biggest stress (especially following graduation) has been dealing with female staff members (secretary,manager, D.A.,R.D.H) There is a lot of jealousy and gossip. You have to draw the boundary between friend and co-worker. You have to be affirmative, authoritative yet gentle so you don't break their egos...
Fortunately, where I currently work as an associate, my assistants are sweethearts. The other morning, my D.A bought a coffee for me without me ever requesting to do so and she also gave me some sweets made by her M.I.L. My D.As open up to me about their private lives while I just listen...and rarely share my own. You have to be sociable without being too personal. With staff, I restrict my topics of conversation (other than work) to the weather, news, entertainment and hobbies.
Maybe less than 5% of patients are P.I.T.As but that's the reality in dealing with people in any occupation or job related to public service. On some days, it just takes that one P.I.T.A to use up all your energy reserves. However, the real stress comes from management and staff conflicts. Some individuals simply show up for the pay cheque and try to get away with doing as little as possible.
In my utopia, I would only work with men. 🙄
I've always had an easier time working with men.
Fortunately, where I currently work as an associate, my assistants are sweethearts. The other morning, my D.A bought a coffee for me without me ever requesting to do so and she also gave me some sweets made by her M.I.L. My D.As open up to me about their private lives while I just listen...and rarely share my own. You have to be sociable without being too personal. With staff, I restrict my topics of conversation (other than work) to the weather, news, entertainment and hobbies.
Maybe less than 5% of patients are P.I.T.As but that's the reality in dealing with people in any occupation or job related to public service. On some days, it just takes that one P.I.T.A to use up all your energy reserves. However, the real stress comes from management and staff conflicts. Some individuals simply show up for the pay cheque and try to get away with doing as little as possible.
In my utopia, I would only work with men. 🙄
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LIke everyone has mentioned on this board, it's definitely management. And not just staff management but just practice management in general--I think this is why I've been seeing more practice management CE courses advertised over the last couple of years. I'm beginning to see that its almost as important to be attending these type of courses as your clinical CE courses as well. I personally sometimes have trouble with case acceptance, and a lot of it is usually due to the patient not having enough $$$. But yes....I do agree.....from the perspective of a female dentist myself, having at least one employee around helps with the "atmosphere" of the office 🙂
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difficult patients
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Your stress builds from unhappy patients, loans and finally when your employer steals money from your pay check ( for eg: lab fees, shipping costs to lab, x-rays, etc etc) .
As a new graduate you will not have any idea what your are getting into. My advice would be-
talking to helpful senior dentists and shadowing them to see how there office works before signing any contract.
make sure your contract has a exit clause for you( 30/60/90 day notice) no matter how much employer pays you.
best to have BASE pay(450-600/day) as long as you are working for ur employer and not just for 1 or 3 months which they generally do.
no lab fee or max. pay 30%.
As a new graduate you will not have any idea what your are getting into. My advice would be-
talking to helpful senior dentists and shadowing them to see how there office works before signing any contract.
make sure your contract has a exit clause for you( 30/60/90 day notice) no matter how much employer pays you.
best to have BASE pay(450-600/day) as long as you are working for ur employer and not just for 1 or 3 months which they generally do.
no lab fee or max. pay 30%.
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I agree with spshyam on many points that were mentioned. Read the contract very well, and ask for adjustments if you read something you dont feel comfortable with. Check dental town for contract advice, lots of doctors and lawyers that will help on their forum.
As a fresh graduate in my opinion your number 1 goal should NOT be strictly money, let it be your #3 priority. At this point you need experience and speed. Also getting the habit of seeing 2 or 3 pts at the same time.
When I was signing the contract with my employer I wasnt picky at all with the money, I agreed on whatever he said about money, although there were things that I didnt like.
Some employers cherry pick the cases and thats extremely annoying, it puts alot of stress on you because you dont see big cases and you end up not having a good production. My advice just let it slip sometimes and dont let it slip other times.
For example the dr i work with LOVES endo, alot of times I refer some of the endo's to him, not because they're tough for me but just to make him happy. 😀
As a fairly new grad 2 and 1/2 years out, student loan debt is the greatest stressor for me. With a debt obligation like this, you really will feel like a debt slave. Add this on top of a bad economy and bad associate jobs (which there are a lot of), and you begin to wonder whether the investment was really worth it. You will see friends your age with no debt and retirement accounts with 100K+ in them at age 30, when you have a negative net worth of about 100K+ and no or minimal retirement plan contributions, because you have no money left over after expenses. If I could do it over again, surely I would have chosen something less stressful (meaning dentistry procedures and loans) and more lucrative and began saving money early and putting my money in retirement at age 20.
