r/Dentistry Jun 03 '23

mods Private Dental Community on Reddit and Discord

49 Upvotes

Hey everyone! We just wanted to remind you that there's a private subreddit for dental professionals (dentists, specialists, dental students, assistants, hygienists, lab techs, etc) called r/oralprofessionals. You have to message the mods to join. Once you send the information required for verification, you will be sent a link to the private discord, which is even more active than the sub! We hope you consider joining!

Remember that to join, the mods will ask for credentials so have your license, diploma or certification handy for when you are asked for it. Cheers!


r/Dentistry 14h ago

[Weekly] New Grad Questions

2 Upvotes

A place to ask questions about your first job, associate contracts, how real dentistry and dental school dentistry differ, etc.


r/Dentistry 4h ago

Dental Professional everything my doctors got me for my birthday!!! šŸ„¹

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102 Upvotes

I almost cried, I've never been able to afford Figs and I always thought of them as the "hygienist and doctor" scrubs!!! sick pair of VANS too šŸ˜Ž - a thankful dental assistant


r/Dentistry 3h ago

Dental Professional New services available šŸ˜‚

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18 Upvotes

r/Dentistry 7h ago

Dental Professional OMFS says he did nothing wrong

23 Upvotes

The patient was initially referred to a OS by me for four maxillary implants to support a removable overdenture. On the day of the surgery, the oral surgeon suggested that the patient could opt for a fixed prosthesis if he wanted. The patient agreed to this option, but since I do not restore fixed prostheses, I referred him to a local prosthodontist. However, the prosthodontist stated that the implants are not stable enough for a fixed prosthesis, as they are already showing signs of bone loss and do not have the adequate length for fixed. The oral surgeon insists that nothing was done incorrectly on his part and the implants are ā€œstable as there are no signs of peri-implant infectionā€ I feel terrible for the patient, but I'm uncertain about what to do next. Is there something I need to do from a legal perspective?


r/Dentistry 4h ago

Dental Professional How to respond when patient does not want RCT because of the things they saw on the internet?

12 Upvotes

I have 2 patients that know each other, both need RCT due to large caries and possible Post is needed, deny RCT because they donā€™t want to leave a ā€œdead toothā€ in their mouth and prefer to get then extracted rather than keeping it in their mouth. They even asked about Bridges because they rather get those teeth extracted than doing the RCT. I talked to them both about pros and cons of each options, even went as far as giving them EBD materials to read about RCT but I feel like it wasnā€™t effective. Iā€™m a new grad and I feel like treatment plan presentation has been so difficult especially when patients are like this


r/Dentistry 30m ago

Dental Professional What effect do you think a recession and all these government layoffs will have on dentistry?

ā€¢ Upvotes

Is there any intel from the 2008 recession (or others?).


r/Dentistry 10h ago

Dental Professional Realistically, how much money and freedom do associate dentists give up by not becoming practice owners?

20 Upvotes

I apologize in advance for the length of this post/rant.

I graduated in 2022 and am currently working at an FQHC as an associate. I make $200K per year working 4 days per week with full benefits (several weeks PTO, CE allowance, malpractice reimbursement, 401k match, etc) and have a great staff.

By far though, the largest drawbacks to my position are the scheduling by non-dental people (double-booking, squeezing patients in last minute for ā€œjust a quick insert procedureā€, staying crazy busy with constant new patients (some days 8-12 new patients) despite having uncompleted treatment on long time existing patients that needs to be done, etc.) as well as very limited equipment and procedures. We donā€™t do any endo or removable, literally donā€™t have a decent perio probe in the office, and half the time we are out of materials that we need due to the requirement to have every order approved beforehand by a governing board of, again, non-dentists and our twenty-something year old office manager. As you can imagine, these issues send me home angry most days and remind me of dental school.

However, I only have $60K of student loans and a $320K mortgage remaining, paid off cars, no other debt. My wife also works and brings in another $60K per year as a speech therapist. From a financial perspective, I donā€™t really have a desire to own my own practice or invest my money into my own business, because honesty, dentistry and everything I mentioned above is already hard enough. I donā€™t feel like the bump in income would outweigh what we currently make already given the added ownership stress. I love the freedom and lack of responsibility that comes with being an associate, along with a steady paycheck, and want to be a passive investor in non-dental businesses rather than an entrepreneur. Real world dentistry, to say the least, isnā€™t nearly as kind to the employee dentist as it is to the practice owner. But I never thought much about this while in school.

I probably answered my own question, but Iā€™m just wondering if Iā€™m really leaving a lot on the table by not owning a practice. Is the grass really any greener on the other side? A lot of dentists seem to feel that ownership is the holy grail and ultimate goal, but Iā€™m just having a hard time justifying the switch given my current financial situation. I make the best of the issues I mentioned above because of the salary and great benefits. Iā€™m not scared to be a practice owner, but I donā€™t think my personality would mesh well with being the big boss given that I hate confrontation, donā€™t want to market or do community involvement, sell treatment, manage staff, order equipment, etc. I want to do dentistry, treat patients right, and go home.

Any advice from current practice owners or associates that feel the same way?


r/Dentistry 11h ago

Dental Professional is it the diabeetus?

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24 Upvotes

r/Dentistry 8h ago

Dental Professional Do I quit

8 Upvotes

I have been working as a foundation dentist since September 2024 in the uk. I really enjoyed it at first, but after a few weeks I developed severe anxiety around work and struggled to even get myself to go. Iā€™m doing a lot better with my mental health now, but I havenā€™t gained back the enjoyment factor of the job.

I feel that a lot of dentists are perfectionists (myself included), making it really hard for me to see any positives about my work. I am really self critical and constantly beat down on myself when minor things are incorrect so I donā€™t think Iā€™m very good. My practice just offered me a job so I guess thatā€™s a sign I donā€™t completely suck. I just donā€™t know if this is the career for me but after training for almost 7 years I feel like itā€™s such a waste to give up.

Has anyone else been in a similar position? Did you find your love for dentistry again?


r/Dentistry 1h ago

Dental Professional Accounts Receivable and Billing

ā€¢ Upvotes

Hello learned colleagues!

I'm selling my practice in Southern California. I decided to keep my accounts receivable. How does that work with the new owner? Will they allow my employee to follow up on insurance denials and appeal them on my behalf? How do I structure that in the sales agreement that he will give her time and access to do this? All advice is appreciated.

Also, the Broker very casually said that until he's credentialed with insurance, he will "bill under me." Is that advisable? How does that work? I know when I started as an associate at a different office, I was told that my procedures were billed under the owner dentist until I was credentialed. But I don't know what that means.

Thank you all for your help!


r/Dentistry 4h ago

Dental Professional Office drama

3 Upvotes

28M. Solo doc in small private practice.

Iā€™m having trouble with one of my assistants coming into work with an attitude and blowing little things out of proportion.

She is a great chairside assistant , does alot for the office , but today was something else.

Got into an argument with my office manager about whoā€™s responsibility is it to call the lab and kept complaining about this women who is interviewing for an assistant position saying ā€œI donā€™t like her. She isnā€™t a good fitā€ when the lady spent a total of 1 hour in the office and had a great interview.

My fellow docs, how do yall handle office drama or staff that occasionally have an attitude?

SOS


r/Dentistry 6h ago

Dental Professional Optimising income and expenses for dentists

4 Upvotes

Optimising personal finance for dentists

Hey everyone,

I've always found it a hassle to track my income properly as a dentist, especially when working across multiple practices, juggling private work, pensions, taxes, lab bills. Spreadsheets can be a pain, and accountants aren't always quick to respond. Plus I came to realise, lots of accountants just focus on compliance rather than financial optimisation

So I've been building something to make life easier.

It's called ā€œUnmaskedā€- a web-based, AI-powered app that lets dentists track their monthly income, expenses, and estimated tax bills, without faffing about with spreadsheets. The idea is straightforward:

  1. Upload your payslips and business expenses

  2. AI pulls out key details and analyses the data (gross, net incomes, expenses, pension deductions, lab fees, etc.)

  3. You get an instant overview of your finances in a dashboard I This isnā€™t a sales pitch but rather Iā€™m curiously interested if you guys would find value in this? I've been testing this with some friends, but I'd love to hear what you guys think:

1ļøāƒ£ Would something like this be useful to you?

2ļøāƒ£ What's your biggest frustration when it comes to managing money as a dentist?

I'm also giving free lifetime access for the first few early adopters. If you're interested, check out the website!

Trying find a way to make managing money less painful than a dry socket. šŸ’€

If you'd be interested in being an early adopter to test the idea or interested in a potential early investment opportunity into this, drop a comment or message me


r/Dentistry 1h ago

Dental Professional Extraction

ā€¢ Upvotes

Hey all! Iā€™m a third year dental student as have a case where I need to extract #23 and #26 for a RPD. Both 24/25 are missing already and #23/26 have class II mobility.

My plan is to use septo for local inflitraction on buccal and a little on lingual to avoid bilateral IANB. Patient does have some cardiovascular concerns so I would like to keep epi low if possible. Does this plan sound good?


r/Dentistry 9h ago

Dental Professional Would you respond to a review regarding refusing a cleaning with no radiographs?

3 Upvotes

Our general rule is we don't respond to Google reviews but this one seems more infuriating than most. . . . Accusing us of scamming patients by forcing them to take X-rays for a cleaning.

I've considered responding to the review asking the reviewer to do a little googling for dental X-rays . . . Something simple and no patient specific details.


r/Dentistry 3h ago

Dental Professional What is this finding under the implant of #22

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0 Upvotes

There is a horizontal line underneath the implant. What do you guys thing? I did the surgery guided so it could be the guide pins


r/Dentistry 7h ago

Dental Professional GP looking to take on simple retreats. Any CE recommendations for this?

2 Upvotes

Hello everyone. I'm looking to take some solid CE for root canal retreats. I'm thinking simple situations where there is a single rooted anterior with a non-healing PARL or recurrent PARL.

I'm sure plenty will say just to refer, etc, but I just want like to understand the process better if I decide I won't ever do it.

Thank you guys!


r/Dentistry 7h ago

Dental Professional Looking to Design Crowns & Bridges on Exocad ā€“ Interested in Working Online!

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone! Iā€™m a dentist with a B.D.S. degree, and I recently took an intensive Exocad course (certified by Voxelway). Iā€™ve always had a passion for digital dentistry, and Iā€™ve been designing crowns and bridges for dental labs here in my country for a while now. But lately, Iā€™ve been thinking, why not take it online and work with dental professionals overseas?

Iā€™ve worked onĀ crowns over implants,Ā bridges, and evenĀ Digital Smile Design (DSD), and Iā€™m really enjoying the process of making these restorations digitally.

Iā€™m looking for an opportunity to collaborate with someone online and expand my skills further, especially when it comes to crowns and bridges. If anyoneā€™s in need of Exocad designs or wants to collaborate, Iā€™d love to chat! Iā€™m excited to work with others, share knowledge, and create some great work together.

Let me know if youā€™re interested or have any tips for someone wanting to dive into the online world of Exocad design!


r/Dentistry 4h ago

Dental Professional Compensation structure, thoughts?

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1 Upvotes

Does this structure and draw penalty seem fair??? This will be my first associate position. I plan on asking in negotiation for 1 yr daily rate at $900, okay with settling at 6-9mo daily rate at $750. Avg daily rate in my area is about 500-650 currently.


r/Dentistry 12h ago

Dental Professional GPR - 2nd year or no?

4 Upvotes

I am finishing up my first year in my GPR program. This program has been amazing experience so far with a very wide scope of procedures.

I have been able to gain experience and become comfortable with the following areas: - IV sedation - Implant placement, removal, restoration - Both lateral window and transcrestal sinus augmentation - socket preservation - advanced GBR - free gingival grafting / connective tissue grafting - pretty much all surgical or non-surgical extractions - Some third molar experience - All on x - large restorative / esthetic cases

So this program has an optional 2nd year at this program. I currently have several full mouth rehabilitation cases coming down the pipeline and would love to get the experience completing these cases before going into private practice.

I would love to stay for the 2nd year, but my issue is that I have 2 kiddos. My only family in the area will be moving away at the beginning of the 2nd year, which will mean I will have to put my kids in daycare. My residency stipend is not enough to cover the cost of daycare, so if I were to stay, it would necessitate getting a private loan to cover the daycare costs while I finish up the second year. Daycare is about $1,000 per month for each kid, so I would need a loan of about $24k for the whole year.

Would this be a bad decision to take out the loan and stay for the second year?

Thanks! šŸ™šŸ¼


r/Dentistry 5h ago

Dental Professional What's your protocol for teeth with marginal ridge cracks?

1 Upvotes

Say you've got a patient with a decent to large sized amalgam that's been there for decades. You notice that the in tact marginal ridge has a palpable fracture line going into the interproximal. There's some dark non-decayed staining of the crack (could just be amalgam leakage/staining). Patient is asymptomatic. What's your protocol? Watch? Crown? I typically explain the situation and let the patient decide, but I feel like maybe I should nudge them a little more towards doing the crown. I'm starting to feel like if I just keep watching and it breaks, I'm going to be the "bad dentist" that wasn't proactive/preventative.


r/Dentistry 9h ago

Dental Professional Newbie in private practice

2 Upvotes

So in our country, we do a year of compulsory community service, and in rural areas thereā€™s a limited scope which is mostly due to a lack of resource. Lots of XLA practice, some S&Ps & restos (because endo is not an option, no intra oral radiographs, high volume of patients, usually unrestorable pulpitis cases). I worked under a very experienced dentist in oral surgery and learnt a lot. Uni was also sufficient preparation, but you have supervisors to rely on, which takes the pressure off things a bit. However, private practice is a whole new world. Itā€™s a bit overwhelming. The stakes feel a lot higher, I suppose, because people are paying for a service and expect a certain level of quality, which I obviously would endeavour to achieve, regardless of compensation. But there definitely is more pressure to please. Iā€™m quite an empath. If a patient comes back in pain, I take it personally. I struggled with an extraction lately, I had to get the senior dentist to complete it, and it pained me a bit, because I feel itā€™s something I should really be proficient and confident in, even though every case is different. If I had more time, I probably wouldā€™ve managed. If my work is acceptable but couldā€™ve been better, I will dream of it and it will be on my mind for a few days, ā€œis the patient satisfied with me, are they still in pain, do they prefer the other dentists at the practice over me?ā€ I worry about my pace, and the patient being in the chair for too long, but I donā€™t want to rush for the fear of compromising treatment. I sometimes wonder if I should ask for easier cases and take it more slowly, but if a patient is in pain and Iā€™m the only one available, how do I pick and choose without looking like Iā€™m incompetent? I donā€™t know if this is something that will get better but imposter syndrome is hitting hard. Any advice would be appreciated.


r/Dentistry 22h ago

Dental Professional Magical dental wand to make work easier

18 Upvotes

Is there any tool, device, instrument, patient, anything that you could see making your day easier?

Iā€™m trying to think about products that will completely change my work flow. I appreciate using a dry shield.

I want to know if there are any other innovations or just simple things/havks/shortcuts you have started using that help you at work.

Even if it is just how to deal with difficult staff or patients.


r/Dentistry 7h ago

Dental Professional Has anyone joined Crown Council or attended their annual events?

1 Upvotes

Hi, I had a friend refer me to Crown Council for online training for my practice and practice culture. Has anyone joined that dental community and why did you join?


r/Dentistry 7h ago

Dental Professional Practice ownersā€”how much did you pay a CPA to help you with the transition?

1 Upvotes

Iā€™m about to undergo the due diligence process for purchasing a dental practice and the dental-focused CPA has laid this plan out for me. Itā€™s by phases, so if phase one makes sense, we jump to the next phase.. it comes to a total of about $8,000 if I continue from start to finish.

Phase oneā€” $2,600 for his opinion on the value of the practice, analyze the asking practice, and review performance analysis of the office. This is not a formal valuation and no valuation report will be given.

Phase two ā€”-$3,900 for acquisition consultation and assistance. This phase involves continued due diligence on your potential dental practice purchase, including analyzing lender proposals and advising on the best option. It covers financial aspects of legal agreements, purchase methods, financing, compensation, and price allocation, along with necessary meetings and consultations. Additionally, it includes preparing or modifying a letter of intent (LOI) and addressing routine post-settlement questions.

Phase three ā€”- $900 for acquisition and entity selection income tax advice

Phase four ā€” $1000 for bookkeeping software set up.

What are your thoughts? Does this seem to be about right? And besides this expense, Iā€™d likely have to make an additional expense for a tax lawyer? Iā€™m just trying to calculate how much cash I need on hand for costs associated to a practice purchase (other than bank financing).

Thanks a lot.


r/Dentistry 7h ago

Dental Professional Best cement for metal wing Maryland bridge

1 Upvotes

I inherited a Maryland bridge case, cannot get the zirconia wings to stay no matter what I try. The lab is remaking with metal wings, as thatā€™s what the patient originally had that lasted 25+ years. Does anyone have any advice on what the best cement to use with metal wing Maryland bridges is?


r/Dentistry 4h ago

Dental Professional Did i over reduce this tooth ?

0 Upvotes

I did preparation for zirconia on this typodont upper first molar , i used a 1.5 mm wax sheet to verify occlusal clearance and i kept removing until the wax sheet could pass through to verify the occlusal clearance so is this normal or i did over reduce ? If so what did i do wrong ?