- Joined
- Apr 22, 2009
- Messages
- 94
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Pre-Dental
-
Scholarship Access: Becoming a Student Doctor course
Free access to comprehensive medical school prep. Eligible students include AAMC FAP recipients and HS graduates from underserved areas. Apply today. -
where will you set up shop?
- Thread starter 30isthenew20
- Start date
- Joined
- May 19, 2005
- Messages
- 457
- Reaction score
- 4
- Points
- 4,591
Hi!!!! Good question!
I'm planning to work for 3-4 years for another dentist. Hopefully a low income clinic. Then I'll open my own clinic where I can mainly serve the community in a low income area. I'll take state insurance, and will donate free labor days to community events. I'll also have low/reasonable fees.....how will I do it? Well, I first need to find an affordable rent! And be good at managing expenses.
Where I did my internship, the dentist has been there for 30+ years, and his fees are very low compared to the rest of town. He doesn't have a fancy place with granite counter tops (hey I wouldn't mind) and marble floors, but is a decent place, very simple and he has thousands of active patients. Man, that phone never stops ringing!
Eventually, my husband says I should open a car wash because I have a "thing" for clean cars & car wash places
I'm planning to work for 3-4 years for another dentist. Hopefully a low income clinic. Then I'll open my own clinic where I can mainly serve the community in a low income area. I'll take state insurance, and will donate free labor days to community events. I'll also have low/reasonable fees.....how will I do it? Well, I first need to find an affordable rent! And be good at managing expenses.
Where I did my internship, the dentist has been there for 30+ years, and his fees are very low compared to the rest of town. He doesn't have a fancy place with granite counter tops (hey I wouldn't mind) and marble floors, but is a decent place, very simple and he has thousands of active patients. Man, that phone never stops ringing!
Eventually, my husband says I should open a car wash because I have a "thing" for clean cars & car wash places
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2008
- Messages
- 206
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Dental Student
Well I'm a small town Southern girl. There's a certain charm that comes with it...haha! I like my hometown but it's crawling with dentists, so I'll probably start anew working for another dentist at first somewhere in Tennessee....preferably close to Nashville! 😛
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2009
- Messages
- 94
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Pre-Dental
i'm very undecided. the town that i grew up in is in need of dentists, but we don't particularly like it here. my hubby's family is from a rural town in texas and the whole county is an underserved area (no dentists for 45 min - 1.5 hr in any direction) but i think i would lose my mind living there
(i like to be around people and hustle and/or bustle). most of the cities i look at, the ones we really enjoy, have dentist/patient ratios of 1:900-1:1,500 and i think that's just too low. how can you survive with that? could you even pay your staff? i do have a desire to help the underserved/low income, but i'm also practical and i know thta you need a certain amount of paying patients to make your office run.
the thing is: if i were to set up shop in the town i grew up, things would be easy (not the dentistry part, but the marketing, mundane parts). i grew up here and known tons of people. the ratio now is around 1:3,000 and there will be dentists retiring before i'm done with school. my dad's a doc so there's some name recognition (i kept my last name). etc. etc. it would be tons easier than trying to make it in a new town where neither of us know anyone. but we really don't like living here... there is little in the way of culture or diversity or 'experience'. not a lot to raise a family on.
so what do you do? pick the place with a good career path, knowing you'll be able to provide culture/diversity to your family by way of travel? or move to the city that offers all of that, and potentially not do as well professionally?
these are my dilemmas. 😕
(i like to be around people and hustle and/or bustle). most of the cities i look at, the ones we really enjoy, have dentist/patient ratios of 1:900-1:1,500 and i think that's just too low. how can you survive with that? could you even pay your staff? i do have a desire to help the underserved/low income, but i'm also practical and i know thta you need a certain amount of paying patients to make your office run. the thing is: if i were to set up shop in the town i grew up, things would be easy (not the dentistry part, but the marketing, mundane parts). i grew up here and known tons of people. the ratio now is around 1:3,000 and there will be dentists retiring before i'm done with school. my dad's a doc so there's some name recognition (i kept my last name). etc. etc. it would be tons easier than trying to make it in a new town where neither of us know anyone. but we really don't like living here... there is little in the way of culture or diversity or 'experience'. not a lot to raise a family on.
so what do you do? pick the place with a good career path, knowing you'll be able to provide culture/diversity to your family by way of travel? or move to the city that offers all of that, and potentially not do as well professionally?
these are my dilemmas. 😕
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2006
- Messages
- 416
- Reaction score
- 2
- Points
- 4,571
- Resident [Any Field]
Back to my hometown for a few years (hopefully because of WICHE) and then southern california 🙂
