Jobless Dentists In Major Cities (especially B.C.)?!

[Guest kellyl20]

DDSad: been answered in post of march 19th. Location is 20 minutes out of greater Vancouver, in a little suburb.

BTW, the patient file for that is 5000 patients total with 2000 active

[Guest DDSad]

Thanks Kelly, Sorry, I didn't know that those figures quoted earlier were for your parents office

 

 

BTW Are you in dental school? What year are you in? Planning on going to dental school/med school etc?

 

I was also curious as to how long it took your dad to establish his practice to acheive that kind of dollar billing range. The reason I ask is several dentists have told me it takes a good 12-15 years to build up a solid patient base and get the income into the 6 figures (speaking for the Toronto area).

 

Thanks again for the info. Have a great week

[Guest LestatZinnie]

ddsad:

 

hi...i'm about to go to UBC dent next year. however as mentioned in my previous posts i'm worried about making my ends meet after graduation. how are you and you classmates making out? with a part time position can you still live comfortably? i was told that with part time position one can make 40-80k depending on hours and type of work, how realistic is that figure? if you had a choice, would you do it again, or would you choose some other profession?

 

thanks

[Guest LestatZinnie]

ddsad:

 

hi...i'm about to go to UBC dent next year. however as mentioned in my previous posts i'm worried about making my ends meet after graduation. how are you and you classmates making out? with a part time position can you still live comfortably? i was told that with part time position one can make 40-80k depending on hours and type of work, how realistic is that figure? if you had a choice, would you do it again, or would you choose some other profession?

 

thanks

[Guest vic chick]

Ok... after reading all this contradictory info, I feel i should share a little positive news. One of my best friends is graduating from dent this year and has 2 full time job offers for excellent general practices on the west coast. He is very talented and knows a few people in the profession (not that he didn't get the offers on his own merit). He is now faced with a choice between 2 equally great offers... no hand-me-down patients, only 1-2 days of pedo, busy practices and estimated earnings of around 100K with options to buy in. The only thing that I find quite surprising is that they are offering him 40-50% of his billings. :eek (he was even pleasantly surprised by this)!

I just thought that I should share some good news with all you worriers out there. He is a very skilled dentist and I don't think that his situation is typical, BUT I don't think that it is completely unique either. And just remember that in 5-7 years the market is expected to open up even more. If you're sure you've picked the right profession, then I think that we have chosen the right time.

 

Sorry... I can only apply this situation to western Canada however... I have no idea what competition is like out east aside from what I read on this site.

good luck and take a load off (those worry lines will only get worse with age:( )

[Guest LestatZinnie]

hi vicchick

 

are you going to ubc next year? if yes it would be nice to meet before class starts!!! Let me know ^^

[Guest Mossy169cm]

Hi all, this is my 1st post in the site, and I am surprise I see dentist, dental student, faculty member joining the discussion. So I guess I have to express what I, my friend and colleagues are experiencing right now to all pre-dental students and current dental students. Hope those faculty members or dental students who has family member in dentistry now, don't intervene this freedom of communication! I am speaking of generality in most of the following.:rolleyes

 

After reading your msgs, I agree with DDSad. Kelly120 case is lucky for her as she got a family who has established dentistry already. In Vancouver 35% of collection is an avg. Some poorer practice will give you 40% of collection hoping that you will sit in their empty office waiting for patient to come. 40-50% of billing is unlikely as that principal dentist either is out of date (ie no communication with his colleague or didn't join any society meetings) or in small town outside greater vancouver area (couldn't get an associate to join his isolated practice)... If it is in Vancouver, then it might be in area like Commercial & Broadway where there is a dentist who has habit of not paying his associateS adequately, plus unethically Tx to patients including overcharging, extract 7s without proper ortho Dx, using non-qualified worker to take X-ray (who is quite famous by now. Alert 4th yr DMD student!!! Watch for the Big Red sign facing the Big Yellow M with 1.69 special everyday, you won't miss, ask your peers last year and you will find other victims!!!), or Gastown where your life may be endanger (if you can find a practice there). Even in downtown area with homosexual patients, you should get like 40% collection not billing. Perhaps, that particular student knows a dentist well so that he get 40-50% billing. But talking to you guys who don't have family/friend connection, it is a pain to find jobs in Vancouver area. So for those who get married or having other 1/2 already, should consider moving.

 

Dear DDSad 9T9, sorry to hear what your friend do, I am surprise to hear she is driving patient around... perhaps she is working in community clinic for handicap patient? who knows?

 

For those who are in pharmacy now, finish your pharm degree as it will be rewarding even if you want to go into dentistry afterward. I guess you can do P/T pharm with P/T dentistry as long as you are not filling your own prescription. Afterall, you are double professional! MD/DDS can do both dentistry and medicine, why not pharmacy/dentistry then?

 

For those of you who is thinking of NOT going into dentistry after this speech, I strongly discourage you as other profession or career is suffering too. With SARS, doctor office is slowing down, doctor in Southeast Asia getting infected. New strain of virus/bacteria from Ladin & Hussein corporation may strike again. With WARS, economy is slowing and so does the chain effects from it, including science & engineering. Company cutback, layoff etc. So medicine & dentistry is still a relatively bulletproof career comparing other career in that sense. The drawback is you may risk of being single or lose your other 1/2 as you won't have much free time for those (why they ask the family question in interview eh?). The nice thing about dentistry is once you get through the 1st stage of being a new dentist, your lifestyle and work schedule can be better than a physician. You got the challenge of treating patient, and not counting pills for life.

 

For those who just want quick money, commerce (for those who like to play the mastermind game esp) or pharmacy may be good option for you. For those who can wait for the exponential growth, dentistry may be a good career. Afterall, you don't need to visit the UI office.

 

Guess this forum will soon become dental student forum rather than pre-dental forum eh?

 

Mossy169cm :x

[Guest bcdentalgirl]

I don't quite get the reference to homosexual patients...

And this isn't your first time posting here.

[Guest kellyl20]

I think what is meant is in certain parts of town the patient demographics would have more homosexual patients. Thus there is the health risk to the dentists who work in those areas, and even there the dentist associate's % of pay verses the total amount of billing is not that great. Not sure but I think that is what he wants to say.