Post Your Income And Location

[sciappmed]

I am an associate dentist who's been practicing a relatively short period of time. I am looking to relocate because of the recession in Alberta. In my experience the single most important factor in a dentist's earnings is the location. Location determines how much dental work there is to be done per dentist, which determines income. 

 

Let's put all the anecdotal income information in one thread as a research project. It will demonstrate how income varies depending on location. For me personally, I need the information because I am trying to decide where to move to. With my monthly loan payments, my continuing education budget and my "fun" budget, I need about 150K take-home minimum, and I'm interested in where this is and is not reasonable. Please help me make my life decision. 

 

I'll go first and it will look like this: 

 

Average monthly billings/gross after lab: 40-45k

Percentage of billings paid (if associate): 40% 

Hours worked per week: 40

Location: Central alberta (Red deer area)

 

For average monthly billings, put a general range but do not post an anomaly and try not to overestimate because of your ego or whatever reason. For example if you billed 60k one month, your average monthly is still 40-45k. Putting 40-60k would be confusing.

 

Put as much information under location as you can without identifying yourself. 

[_dreamville]

I bet this is gonna go real well

[periospros]

I am an associate dentist who's been practicing a relatively short period of time. I am looking to relocate because of the recession in Alberta. In my experience the single most important factor in a dentist's earnings is the location. Location determines how much dental work there is to be done per dentist, which determines income. 

 

Let's put all the anecdotal income information in one thread as a research project. It will demonstrate how income varies depending on location. For me personally, I need the information because I am trying to decide where to move to. With my monthly loan payments, my continuing education budget and my "fun" budget, I need about 150K take-home minimum, and I'm interested in where this is and is not reasonable. Please help me make my life decision. 

 

I'll go first and it will look like this: 

 

Average monthly billings/gross after lab: 40-45k

Percentage of billings paid (if associate): 40% 

Hours worked per week: 40

Location: Central alberta (Red deer area)

 

For average monthly billings, put a general range but do not post an anomaly and try not to overestimate because of your ego or whatever reason. For example if you billed 60k one month, your average monthly is still 40-45k. Putting 40-60k would be confusing.

 

Put as much information under location as you can without identifying yourself. 

Wow, this thread could not have come at a better time, this morning I literally thought to myself "how much would i be making as a first year associate in Red Deer?" Less than I expected honest, so your yearly pre-tax income is about $204,000 and would be $137,300 taxed. How many pts are you seeing and day and what kinds of procedures? how many months have you been working for?

 

thanks

[cleanup]

I don't think there's enough dentists here either to be able to give you a good idea. 

 

I don't know what "relatively short period of time" is for you but I am a very new dentist (having only practiced since mid-June) and my income has been all over the map. I keep track in a giant Excel sheet and I have ranged from essentially losing money over the course of a month to making well over $20k in a month (but working really, really hard for it).

 

I couldn't tell you what my income is until I had a few years worth of numbers probably, and even then it'd be skewed because presumably my income is slowly climbing due to me just becoming more and more of a dentist (literally. I ain't shit right now).

 

That said, from what I can tell from a lot of my classmates in the GTA, 40-45k billings in a month on a regular 40-hour workweek is very solid, especially if it's relatively consistent. I was under the impression central Alberta was a very good place to practice dentistry, income-wise.

 

To put it in perspective, I have classmates doing prophys all day and/or barely making enough money to cover their living expenses., others doing quadrant endo and pumping out CEREC crowns. You say location matters; I'd say that's a tiny piece of the puzzle.

 

Also while I'll continue to keep track of my numbers I do find that it just makes me needlessly worry. The more I ponder whether or not I'm making enough money, the more stressed out I get, for no apparent reason. The more I focus on just learning and doing cool stuff and enjoying my life, the better I feel. 

[koft]

This is mostly a Student, pre-med/dent forum.  So it would be a difficult exercise for you to gain enough data to be meaningful.

 

Remember Alberta does not have a fee guide, so bill / charge the market can bear, unlike Ontario, and it depends on the practice, as associate you cannot really dictate which fee guide the principal uses.  as well 3rd party insurance are still working on some 3 years old guide.  so it is how hard your front desk staff collect the co-pay, as well as how many welfare patients are you seeing. which will greatly impact on your billing.

[periospros]

If you want to work in Southern California, you could work for a dental chain like pacific dental services. They offer a 3 month package where you will make a guaranteed $500USD a day. After that, they will offer you 25-28% of your billings. For most new dentists working for them, average daily billings are around/over $2000USD a day, ranging from $2000 to $4000 a day depending on your morals, and how fast you can turn an MO into a CEREC onlay or crown. So if you work 4 days a week and take 4 weeks off at $500/day you could make as little as $104,000USD  before tax ($70,146 USD after taxes) in year. If you can work like a well-lubed machine with a smooth tongue, you can crank out $4000 USD a day and manage to get an agreement of 28% and work 5 days a week 56 weeks a year, thats $313,600 USD before taxes ($191,391 USD after taxes). $4000 is a bit of a stretch and you probably won't be able to break 3k very often.

 

1. so you could make a slick $91,972 CAD
2. or you could make a hard $250,971CAD

compare the living in Red Deer AB with living in Riverside CA where the cost of living is estimated to be 1.09764x as expensive (mostly due to rent)

 

so to have the equivalent of 150k CAD left over in Red Deer, in Riverside California you would need a reasonable average daily of $2550 @ 27% where you worked 279 days a year which is 5 days a week with one 4 day week a year. 

[futureGP]

Get your calculators out guyz

[troothfairy]

I don't think there's enough dentists here either to be able to give you a good idea. 

 

I don't know what "relatively short period of time" is for you but I am a very new dentist (having only practiced since mid-June) and my income has been all over the map. I keep track in a giant Excel sheet and I have ranged from essentially losing money over the course of a month to making well over $20k in a month (but working really, really hard for it).

 

I couldn't tell you what my income is until I had a few years worth of numbers probably, and even then it'd be skewed because presumably my income is slowly climbing due to me just becoming more and more of a dentist (literally. I ain't shit right now).

 

That said, from what I can tell from a lot of my classmates in the GTA, 40-45k billings in a month on a regular 40-hour workweek is very solid, especially if it's relatively consistent. I was under the impression central Alberta was a very good place to practice dentistry, income-wise.

 

To put it in perspective, I have classmates doing prophys all day and/or barely making enough money to cover their living expenses., others doing quadrant endo and pumping out CEREC crowns. You say location matters; I'd say that's a tiny piece of the puzzle.

 

Also while I'll continue to keep track of my numbers I do find that it just makes me needlessly worry. The more I ponder whether or not I'm making enough money, the more stressed out I get, for no apparent reason. The more I focus on just learning and doing cool stuff and enjoying my life, the better I feel. 

 

I agree with all of this. Location matters...to an extent. Obviously on the average working rural will net you a higher income, but the specific dental office matters way more I would say. 

 

When I graduated there were about 5 newly grad dentists all working in a town of about 50000. Our incomes varied quite a bit even though we were all working in the same area. 

 

You have to find an office that gets good patient flow and has an eye out for efficient production.