A career in dentistry can be both rewarding and challenging.
Here, seven dentists share their advice for emerging dental professionals:
Rajdeep Randhawa, DDS. Innovative Dentistry (Rahway, N.J.): Emerging dental professionals, including those in dental schools, should know that the dental industry landscape has been changing vigorously for a long time, more vigorously in the last five to 10 years, since the older generation of dentists started thinking about retirement. Their retirement plans were put on hold by the 2008 economic crisis and its effects on the dental profession. The insurance industry took full advantage of this crisis by not increasing compensation rates, effectively decreasing compensation for dentists at a time when their patients were losing jobs. Patients' behavior changed to going to the dentist only when in pain or to only do procedures covered by insurance with less or no copays. Many patients and their employers gave these insurance companies a guaranteed monthly income while millions were not able to use their benefits due to deductibles and copays.
During the same time, DSOs and their investors targeted new and recent dental school graduates with high debt load to join DSOs as employees, or increased their debt load even more if they wanted to own one of the DSO dental offices, effectively trapping them and exploiting them in the prime working years of their life, when they could have started their own independent offices.
Emerging dental professionals have to understand they are not independent professionals like they aspired to be when they joined dental schools, as the combination of high student debt, cost of opening and running a dental office with high overhead, low and reducing insurance compensation, increased cost and risk of doing dentistry due to the pandemic, increased competition from DSOs is going to take a toll, when dental schools are not teaching you anything about the business of dentistry that is changing rapidly and becoming more complicated with every passing year.
David Keller, DDS. Granite Dental (Vancouver, Wash.): Freshly minted dental professionals should understand the environment into which they are entering. Dentists should have realistic three, six and 12 month goals, as well as three- and five-year plans. If you don't have mentors, begin to surround yourself with people who have walked the path you're starting. It's especially important to understand at the start of your career how you plan to repay any student loans and how to adjust your lifestyle to allow you to reach those goals.
For dental hygienists, again, it's critical to understand your role on your team and to have personal short, moderate and long-term goals. Too often "getting faster" stymies hygienists from really contributing to the potential of their entire team.
Dental assistants right out of training benefit most from learning how and whom to ask for help. "Fake it 'til you make it" destroys more assisting careers than perhaps anything else. Those who can identify their weakness, own it and transform it into strength find they are thriving far faster than those who pretend to know what they're doing.
Rick Mars, DDS. President at Dental Care Group (Aventura and Pembroke Pines, Fla.): Sounds easy, but do the right thing. Of course, we all try to do the right thing, but at times our perspective can be clouded by pressure to pay bills or plain old laziness. I know this sounds easy, but you have to be 100 percent. Set your standards as high as possible and never lower your standards. Keep raising them.
Robert Trager, DDS. Dentist at JFK International and LaGuardia airports (New York City): Emerging dental professionals should know and have a plan as to how to pay off their loans and find a position that will help them do so. Seeking a position in a DSO will provide immediate income. Finding an associate position and or buying a practice will also be another avenue for success. Finding a position as an associate where you can buy in is preferable, or if a parent has ample income one can buy a practice of your own. The banks aren't so forgiving, especially when you have a lot of debt. Have a 10-year plan in place as to what you would like to accomplish, especially if you are planning to have a family.
If you have the funds to buy or open your own practice, then there are a number of parameters that you should investigate. If you buy a practice, you will need to have some projections as to whether the practice will grow or decline based on the environment. If you are able to open your own practice, then I would advise to seek an area where there is an industrial complex where you will be conveniently located. If you are able to open an office in the complex itself, then you will always have a lot of traffic. Patients will be able to come in before, during and after work since you are conveniently located at their worksite. Make sure there is ample parking and public transportation in or nearby. Your lease should be long term with the ability to renew and should be reviewed by your lawyer.
It has been reported that many dentists are now opening in malls because of the inexpensive rental availability, but if there is no traffic because people are buying online (e.g., Amazon) then there is no future growth.
I opened an office physically in JFK and LGA airports, where the employees and administration have easy access to my facility. Airports never go out of business and there will always be a flow of new patients. When seeking an area to open your office, you want to be able to have traffic flow, be convenient and have an environment that is stable and is essential to the surrounding area.
Most of the employees have excellent dental insurance and I've found out over the years that they don't mind bringing their families to the office. If you have no competition in your area (like I do) then you can tell the patients that you will accept their dental plan and you don't have to join the insurance panel, and you will receive a reimbursement, which is often about one-third more than that of a panel dentist. Remember, dentistry is a business and make sure you have the right staff to run it.
Oksana Boyechko, DMD. Boyechko Dental (Cameron Park, Calif.): The newly graduated dentists need to have a realistic approach to their life. In school, they had a very narrow focus on what's going on in their professional life. They were protected from the outside world. After they graduate, they don't have the safe routine anymore. They are the ones making decisions, not their teachers/instructors. To ease that burden of so many choices and fear of failing, I suggest looking very closely at their situation, set specific and realistic goals and take small "baby steps" toward their goals. It is not only a lack of finances but an abundance of choices for dental materials and techniques, available technology and social interactions that can easily overwhelm even the experienced dentist. Stay put, gather information, sort through it, get as much counseling as possible and narrow down the options. Meditate on it, feel the comfort after making the decision, and then go forward. Act despite fear.
Michael Davis, DDS. Smiles of Santa Fe (N.M.): Unfortunately, your student debt load has severely handicapped you. This must be paid off ASAP. Numbers of potential employers will attempt to exploit you because of your compromised position. Believe the written contract, not verbal promises.
Barry Lyon, DDS. Dental Director for Dental Care Alliance (Sarasota, Fla.): Today's new dentist is in store for remarkable changes in the profession by advances in technology, changes in demographics and the continued growth of DSOs.
By 2027, the current advancements in the dental industry will experience even greater change and progress. The development and acceptance of technology in dental practices will grow exponentially with increasing use of artificial intelligence, more sophisticated methods of diagnosing dental disease, and a reliance upon scanning and 3D modeling. Women will represent the majority of individuals entering dentistry as gender diversity continues. In five years I believe we will see more consolidation of DSOs. Entrepreneurial dentists who own small groups of practices will affiliate with larger DSOs. Smaller existing DSOs will be acquired by larger ones.