r/Dentistry

How did the transition go? I heard it’s the hardest transition for a male dentist when they buy a female dentists practice.

i ran into an old colleague across town. nice guy very naive he inherited his dads office. total cash cow. your typical 2nd generation non founder mentality. isn't too arrogant pretty damn close though. he wife and mom run a lot of the admin. he drives a red sports car and parks it in front of his office. no joke. he's bragging about his new consultant which i used btw 16 years ago. decent consultant. but knows how to extract money from a client - there are better consultants around. i tried to warn him but didn't go well he in the coolaid deep. it's all good. his first comment though was

" he doubled my production bro "...

1. my first thought was how bad was the inital production? - i've heard and seen reviews - he's run into some rough spots. 2. don't give too much credit to the consultant because he's already great at taking more credit than he deserves - dentists and teams do the real work. 3. last thought was don't over extend his invite. boot him after 12months.

whats the point of my post? dentists today need to self examine a little better. don't idolize consultants. use them but don't give them too much credit - they are already great at that.

if your production doubles thats great. rem you did most of the heavy lifting. the consultant comes in and gives new energy and direction. but "he" didn't "double" it for you . why does that trigger me? because these guys are great at pricing their fees against the "double".... instead of pricing them against what they really do- offer tips and suggestons.

I graduated May 2025 and have been working as a solo doc at a “decent” DSO for the last year. I say “decent” because there truly is no pressure to produce, I have full control of the office and what is/isn’t done. The payment structure is fine but my office is somewhat new so the production can be inconsistent as patients are still warming up to new name/face. I’ve enjoyed working alone and I’ve gotten plenty of CE and mentorship. I’d say I’m pretty confident but obviously still young and learning.

This company only really operates in my state and is a well oiled, trusted, respected place to be in other cities. But I am in a very saturated area where they are just starting to enter the market.

To say the company in my area has growing pains is an understatement. Staff is underpaid, staffing issues across the board, I’m starting to get taken advantage of by being nice and accommodating to requests (I covered an office temporarily when the old doc quit and that has turned into a semi-permanent coverage no matter how vocal I am about insisting I go back to full time at one office).

What initially felt like a supportive, productive, happy place to be has quickly turned into the DSO I tried to avoid when finding jobs. But I speak with other dentists in the group and it seems like I’m one of the only ones feeling this way

Long story short, I am in a very saturated area. But I want out and I want to join a PRIVATE private office. The issue is I can’t find that to save my life. Everything is corporate. I’ve gone to my local dental association meetings. I’ve looked at their classified ads. I’ve tried talking to other dentists. Everything listed online is corporate. I know I could leave this area, but it’s where I grew up and it’s where I’d like to raise a family hopefully sooner than later.

I just don’t know what to do

I saw a limited exam early this year with complaints of multiple teeth hurting. No clinical findings outside of pain when I retracted the cheek and I was able to elicit pain with the classic cotton swab across the cheek and forehead.

I told her there was nothing I could see wrong with her teeth but she should talk to her doctor about potential trigeminal neuralgia. She did and called back saying her doctor said there was nothing wrong with her and to go see a dentist, and she proceeded to cuss me out for wasting her time and money.

And now today, we have a diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia and a nice apology letter. I still don't want to see you again though, lady. You're mean when you're angry.

I’m curious what the culture is like at other clinics regarding how staff address the principal/other dentists.

At my clinic, everyone, including the DAs/reception , calls the owner “Dr + surname” and other colleagues too, all the time, and I also have to do the same. Meanwhile a lot of clinics I’ve seen seem way more casual and everyone uses first names amongst the staff.

Not gonna lie, it feels a bit formal/stiff sometimes 😭 especially since we’re all working closely together all day.

What’s it like at your clinic?
Do you call colleagues by first name or “Dr ___”?

Ok this may be the biggest question of the decade.
Microscopes are great for calcified canals, MB2, curves, and helps your neck BUT with ergo loups 4x magnification does that match the same quality of work?
In my experience ergo loups is basically the same and wayyyy cheaper
What do you guys think?

I am 42. Have a spouse and 2 kids.

Feel my coast fire number (don’t need to add to savings, let compounding do its job) is $4m and retirement number is $6m. I am far from either.

When I was single, thought $3m would be plenty. Got married, and it bumped to $4m. 2 kids. It’s at $6m.

4% rule gets spending at $240k. Feel $5m would be fine as well but $6m gives some cushion to weather a downturn.

Curious to know what’s your number given inflation and general cost of living.

We’ve had 2 very expensive hand pieces go missing in the last few months.

I suspect they were accidentally thrown away. Anything tips to prevent things like this from happening again?

Understand mistakes happen. But not sure what system would help mitigate that risk…

Thanks!

Newbie here. If a pt with insurance plan that only covers preventative services, but now needs a crown. His plan has no fixed or removable prosth coverage, but he is telling my office that we have to honor the insurance rate for the crown and we cannot charge him the UCR.

My understanding is that is not correct because the crown D2740 is not a covered item in this case, and we are allowed to charge UCR, but pt is claiming that his insurance (everyone's favorite that starts with a D) told him that we have to discount it. Who is right? and how do you handle this in your office?

Let’s say we’re prepping a lower molar crown and it has a deep proximal filling, one mm from the marginal bone. You have also done endo and build up the tooth.

When you prepp, how deep do you go on the wall with the deep proximal filling?

I’m talking about NY/NJ/CT areas. I want to leave my current job, but I can’t find anything better! This is really frustrating. I’ve been looking for a month already. I get interviews but nothing seems decent… low base pay, crummy lab fees, no hygienists, outdated offices and equipment. I had better luck as a new grad 7 yrs ago. I feel so demoralized, didn’t think I’d be struggling to find something decent with 7yrs of experience under my belt. Like what is life right now? Should I just go specialize or something.

Currently have Q optic loupes but I’ve always heard Andau are the way to go. There’s not a local rep near me and the only way to get fitted is from a video call..has anyone done this? I’ve never even tried them on, having a tough time spending thousands on something I’ve never tried on or touched before.

If you have them and like them, what mag & style ?