Practicing in Ontario as a new grad

[jordandental]

Hi All,

Been a long time since I visited this site but here we go. I graduated in May 2021 and have been practicing in the US since about September, but recently decided I'd like to move home to be closer to family. However the more I start going over the numbers and go to interviews the less sense everything is making.

For instance almost every place I speak with offers the same deal, 40% collections (Not like I control how much the office collects as associate?). Compare this with the US where it's typically 30-33% production along with daily guaranteed minimum of around $600-700 USD/day. Most places I speak, corporate or private offer a signing/relocation bonus along with a CE allowance. The licensing fees are even more shocking at $2510/year compared to the $500 I paid in FL for 2 years. I also recently found out that I'll need 35 hours of CE for implants just to restore them, even though I've done this as part of my dental school curriculum and in actual patients. There are other smaller issues such as assistants not being allowed to do much here and hygienists being allowed to practice on their own but I feel that's more nitpicky stuff. 

Are there any recent grads that can comment on how they are doing and aspects I'm not considering? Am I overreacting here and just being pessimistic about practicing in Ontario/Canada?

[dentistrydmd]

Not you're not overreacting. The amount of regulation is crazy here. Ontario is one of the most limiting regions. The only other place that I can think of that is even more limiting is Quebec. One tell tale sign is look at the regulations of RCDSO during Covid. They were a significant outlier. I don't think the issue with collections ends up being significant, but definitely the guarantee is nice to have since it forces your employer to book patients. If you work at a corporate dentistry office in Canada you might get better benefits comparable to what you might see in the US. But I can definitely see how Florida or Texas would be some of the best places to work in as a dentist in North America.