I considered one for a bit but realized that everyone who does those brag about all the skills they learned as they never use them again. How many people who did an aegd or GPR are doing sedation or complicated prosth or placing implants or doing tons of molar Endo, some but I think its far less than you might think. Those things (imo) are better learned through CE. I spent a lot of time in dental school practicing molar Endo on extracted teeth because I love Endo which is now paying huge dividends as I have already started doing molar Endo in my first month as a dentist. I want to do more surgery CE and implant CE maybe down the line. The type of practice you are in will dictate what you should take. I for one would probably never take an aesthetics or veneer course personally unless I moved to a different type of practice. Practice Endo as much as you can in dental school on extracted teeth, it will take you from normal dentist income to a new tier quickly.
My plan is to pay it down aggressively over ten years while also investing in retirement and assets. My income is considerably higher than my classmates and my fiancé (soon to be wife) also makes a good income as a health care worker so I will be able to do this much quicker than most (again while also working way harder than most). DSOs will give you somewhere around 120-140 but remember Uncle Sam takes 25% and if you're graduating with 350k+ in loans youre going to be paying a minimum payment of 3-4k per month in student loans a lot of people dont realize this until they graduate and their dreams are crushed because they thought they were going to buy a mansion and a supercar because they are "supposed to be" rich.
Comfort dental is the overseeing "DSO" but each location is bought and franchised by the owner doctors, similar to buying a fast food franchise. Comfort dental takes a small portion of collections and in return provides marketing and low cost labs and supplies. I own 1/3rd of the location I work at and run it like a group private practice. I dont work at any other office and no one works at my office except me and my two partners. My partners and I make all the calls as far as staff, supplies, scheduling, etc. Normally its next to impossible to get money from a bank for a practice right out of school but comfort has relationships with banks that can get you funded, albeit at a higher interest rate but you can refinance after a few years and the upside is really high compared to working as an employee somewhere else even though your interest rate is higher than a traditional practice loan. I had no cash or assets whatsoever when applying. You can almost think of it like buying, owning, and selling a house. You purchase but can sell at any time similar to a house even though you aren't done paying off the loan.
I work M-F and two Saturdays a month. If we ever opted to add a fourth partner we would be working less hours maybe one Saturday a month. Our clinic (as with all comfort dental locations) is open 7:30am-7:30pm M-F and 7:30am-1:30pm Saturday. Doctors work 6 hours shifts so in a typical day ill either be working morning or afternoon either by myself or with one other partner. Our exam and X-rays fee is only $19 and our prices are typically lower than any other clinic so our schedules are always filled with new and existing patients. You work harder because your prices are lower but you also earn a lot more than most offices because of this. I get patients all the time that come in because every other dentist office is closed when they get out of work or because it was only $19 for me to see them. Often times that $19 initial visit turns into a few thousand dollars in treatment. Of course youll have some patients that come in for the low price just because they need an extraction and dont want anything else but im not gonna be one of those dentists that is too proud to accept low fees for certain procedures if it keep my schedule full and produces a higher overall income at the end of the month. I can't imagine myself working this hard forever but while im young its a good way to pay off loans and bills and gain a ton of experience before moving on to something more stable after 8-10 years. There are doctors that stay in this system their whole career as well because it is so lucrative.
typically its just a straight sale
We have a hygienist although most comfort dentals dont, our particular location is quite busy and can afford one. We dont take HMO's and we take medicaid if we want to, its up to the individual doctor. I personally take it because even though the reimbursement sucks it keeps me busy on days when my production isn't super high, ill do a few fillings here or there, which is nice. If it ever got to the point where it was causing me to burn out then I would just refer it all to peds. It is not like being an associate at another DSO because the ownership you get at other DSO's is completely fake and they can kick you out at any moment. They'll never give you complete ownership of the practice you "own." At comfort dental my partners and I own 33.3% each and comfort dental owns 0%. Yes they have rules but they can never force you to sell or take it from you like other DSOs can. At other DSO's youll own 49% and they'll always own the majority and will still take a bigger cut of your collections. There are definitely some cons that I won't go into fully here such as having to use the comfort dental lab only and not being able to use your practice as collateral for a mortgage. Our overhead is typically in the mid to upper 40's because we share all the expenses and run high volume. Typical private offices are running mid to upper 50's which when youre talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue is a LOT of extra income going to overhead which is coming directly out of your pocket as an owner. The average comfort dental doctor in 2021 made $399,000 (this is public information thats why Im sharing it). I won't go into any more specifics about my particular practice just to keep things confidential on behalf of my partners.
max recommended? $0
Im not going to give too many specifics about my personal situation but id say the floor on my daily production is 1.5k
Just curious how you're making 2x your counterparts on 1500/day? That math doesn't seem to add up
Yeah 1500 per day and production is really low. Maybe by floor they mean that’s the least they produced?
So what is "extremely high" production numbers? Just trying to figure out what kind of production can be accomplished when you're wasting time on $19 NP exams.
you'd be surprised my friend. Not all of those patients convert into reliable patients that are ready to spend thousands but because we have sheer volume of people coming through our doors from the low exam fee, enough of them do convert to keep us extremely busy. I practice in a very middle class area so I have a mix of lower middle class that want extractions only and upper middle class that has enough disposable income to spend a few thousand over the course of a few months. I dont need 30 new patients to accept a huge treatment plan, I only need a few each month and because our costs are significantly lower, people are more likely to shop around and then come back. I work harder than most (my crowns are only ~850 so I have to do 2 for every other dentists' 1), but the payoff is worth it because of the volume. Its not sustainable for a whole career and as I mentioned I dont see myself doing this forever but for now its a really great gig as a young motivated dentist. In summary, volume +low prices+ low overhead)
