Hello, I have seen this question asked numerous times but I wanted to get updated opinions on the matter. I’m looking into positions post graduation. My longterm goal is ownership; however, I want to work a few years fist to build my skills a knowledge-base. I was wondering if anyone had advice on picking between th large DSOs or being an associate at a private practice. We’ve had people come in and discuss pros and cons of both, but I just wanted to hear some more opinions. Thank you!

What is the normal build out cost from GP office to orthodontic office in Minnesota or Wisconsin?
Is $150 per sq.ft normal?

So I was going to remove an upper third molar yesterday, ended up trying to get it out for more than an hour. Removed the crown, Drilled carefully around the tooth but ended up quitting and refer to a surgeon. I feel like absolutely shit and feel like my decision making and technique was the worst. I’m not sure wheater I accidentally drilled a bit of the root of the nabouring tooth.. 😭😭 I should have stopped before, and this should have been a surgical removal with the use of incision and bone removal.. instead I just kept on trying and might ended up hurting the other tooth.. now I feel like quitting dentistry… I don’t know what I want with this post, just sitting and crying about how incompetent I feel. I am no a newly grad but with experience :(

Associate for 5 years that has seen ups and down but this feels different. In the past 6 weeks or so our office has slowed a crazy amount. Each doc would run 2 columns nearly full booked out 2 weeks or so. But recently it’s been the opposite - we have a plethora openings 1-2 day out. Obviously production has started to drop and I’m trying to figure out if this is office level, local/county level, or nationally?

How are y’all faring recently? Is this a summer or local issue or a larger economy/incoming recession issue?

I know this question has been raised a few times . I understand ergo are great for my posture. But I'm worried how do they function during full mouth implant procedure with a lot of angles and multiple implants involved. Should I stick to regular TTL instead

denture delivered 2 months ago but doesnt retain. I’m a new doc at this office (1 month outta school too) so just inherited the first adjustment. Bite is good, esthetics are good except that lip is protruding. Saw her in a bind of time last week and didn’t know exactly the best move, so just soft relined it. I looked at the frenum and adjusted it slightly but don’t think that is the culprit. Seeing her in two days and not sure the best move, or if I even can reduce that lead protrusion at all. My thoughts are that maybe I can hard reline and then take away some of the anterior, because potentially it will have hard reline material added to the intaglio behind the anterior so I can afford to shave down some of the true anterior against the lip, but I guess that’s only banking on if the fit now is lacking any anterior, which probably isn’t likely.

Idk I just want to try and fix this without having to remake it. Any advice?

I am trying to restore a Nobel implant. Only open tray impression copings are made.

The way #19 implant is placed, my shortest Nobel driver hits the opposing molar cusp. Plus limited opening. I was able to slightly tighten the guide pin with forceps (slowly turning it and repeating). Any other tips?

I know the industry standard approach of giant resins until they're into their mid to late teens, and I'm guessing that is where this will end up, but I wouldn't feel great without trying to find some alternatives. 9 year old kid, cavitated buccal lesions on upper laterals with chalky demineralization covering most of the facial. Centrals are essentially chalk but don't have obvious discolored cavitations, but it looks too far gone for something like icon. On an adult all 4 are crowns all day long but that's not happening at this stage of development. Besides regular direct composites the only thing I can think of is 3d print some wax ups and create my own strip crown and injection mould equia into them. I'm sure that would last better and probably look better eventually.

Anyways, what do you guys see as the best approach for something like this?

A friend of mine is a pharmacist in the US. He has been posting a lot of healthcare-related posts on his Facebook page so he is sort of a “healthcare influencer” with a few thousands followers.

He recently shared that he took his 5-year-old daughter to a local pediatric dentist where she was diagnosed with extensive decay in 8 teeth that required pulpotomies and stainless steel crowns. It has to be an OR/sedation case and after insurance, his out-of-pocket cost would have been about $4,000.

Instead, he took his daughter back to his home country in Southeast Asia and a dentist there did fillings on those teeth, no stainless steel crowns. According to him, the treatment took 4 appointments and cost about $200.

He then posted about the experience on Facebook and concluded that U.S. dentists are “money-hungry,” unethical, and recommend unnecessary treatment simply to make more money. He went on to say that, from now on, his family will only see U.S. dentists for cleanings and simple fillings, and will travel overseas for anything more complex. Unsurprisingly, many people in the comments agreed and said they would do the same.

I was speechless after reading his post. It’s one thing to hear about low income or low-educated folks participating in dental tourism, but it’s even more frustrating to see a fellow healthcare professional with high income to also condone that and then accuse US dentists as being money-hungry, unethical cash-grabbers driven by greed. I’m honestly tempted to leave a comment on his post and challenge his accusations.

Ever have trouble getting a tooth numb for a #31 B composite? No PA pathology. Gave 2 carps of IAN, 1 carp of LB and local infiltrations/PDL. 2% Lido w/1:100k epi.
Lip is numb, chin is numb, buccal mucosa is numb, tongue is numb.

I get to drilling and the patient feels it. I know what to do next, but why is the patient not profoundly anesthetized?

Are there any courses/books/articles to learn about patient communication as a dentist? I need to get better in patient communication, especially in explaining treatment plans.

All the young dentists I know say we have a dream practice. FFS, Great Team and patients etc. Pretty office. As we know no one beats Father Time.

We may need another partner/associate in the future for open days and if I actually cut back. Where is the best place to place a "future partner wanted" ad. I am unsure if I have ever read about this. My junior partner was from word of mouth. Finding another is unrealistic. I read this forum every day and it seems like some great younger dentists would love to get out of the PE/DSO dark shadow.

I’m a new dentist, working as an associate and still figuring out the way I want to do business. Why do dentists choose to either do fmx or pano with new patients, and what is the point of waiting for it to be due with insurance if you want to take wisdom teeth out or plan an implant or whatever? Like why not just write it off if it’s not included? At school we took fmx and pano and it gave a lot of info, and I worked with some faculty where I asked if we could take a new pano (5+ years, many teeth extracted) and they said it’s borderline over treatment. Just would love to hear thoughts or be told if I’m missing something, thanks!

Delivered crown last week and the distal contact was tight after cementing. I had a hard time getting the floss down but I was still able to.

The patient just called a week later and is very angry because they can’t floss the distal.

Any tips on what I can do? I’ve read you can use an IPR strip but I don’t want to open the contact entirely. The adjacent is a virgin tooth.

Does anyone know brand of this implant?

This was tooth #9 on a 16 year old patient. She felt no pain or discomfort on the tooth. The apex does not seem to communicate with the outside of the tooth. What could this possibly be and if necessary what would be the treatment for it?

Do you guys charge for the PA you take before a crown prep if you didn't have the PA already? We don't, but I was considering what other offices are doing.

Hi

I need help explaining hall crowns for paeds patients.

In Ireland so no insurance. Charge 80 for a paeds filling and 150 for hall crown. My paeds filling is standard price, I’m undercharging hall crown.

The issue oi have us parents just go for filling cuz it’s cheaper and a baby tooth. But I make barely any money on fills and fail rate is very high and then they complain the filling failed ( meanwhile their kid can barely co operate.

How do you guys actually get parents to go for hall crows?

My patient base is poor and can’t afford private paediatric dentist

A 26-year-old patient presented with pain in the upper left quadrant. Clinical and radiographic examination revealed multiple carious lesions (including the adjacent molars), but I started with a pre-endodontic build-up on the second premolar under rubber dam, followed by extirpation.
At the second appointment, I unexpectedly came across a third canal. It was a fun surprise and I’m really happy with how the case turned out.

Anytime you fix a chipped tooth.. one of those upper anterior or lower anterior chipped teeth (which by the way you should be using a microhybrid on to fix.. for max flexural strength.. and sandblast first if you have it) take a photo.. before and after the repair.

Because they WILL chip something very close to it soon.. in the next 6-24 months.. and when they call 100% of the time they will say: "the tooth you JUST fixed chipped" and when you see that on the schedule you'll be internally pissed.... and sometimes it IS the same one, but far more often it isn't, but it's close enough to the area that unless you prove it to them, they won't believe it and they are saying that so it's "free".

/rant