Students

What are Dental students saying prior to applying to Dental Schools from student doctor web site

From what my dentist told me: NY, SF, LA are crazy saturated. Midwest or South is where the big money is.

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PHX is extremely saturated. In fact, in 2008, over 80 dental practices went under (which is sorta expected IMO. You can spot about 15-20 dental offcies within a 1 mi radius. Plus 2 brand new dental schools in the city)

Vegas is pretty saturated. So are Houston, Dallas, Austin San Antonio.

This actually applies to all the major big cities in US.

Dentists no longer compete against one another. Corporate dentistry (Aspen, Western, SmileSmile, bigsmile, whatever cheesy names) are changing the game.

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Any city with a dental school = saturated

Any desirable place to live = saturated

So that leaves about 20% of America left unconquered lol

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Lol I wouldn't say 80% of America would be considered a desirable place to live. There are many nice places one can practice dentistry and make tons of money and still have a social life.. It seems a lot of people on this board don't think so. They think California and New York or Florida are the only nice places in the world and they must live there and pay 400k for their education to do so..

Everyone has their own preference of where they want to live, and you will have to make many sacrifices if you choose to live in very saturated area

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As far as Texas goes, like the poster above said, Austin, Houston, Dallas, SA are all very saturated. Hell my hometown with 100k population which is an hour and a half from Houston has a dental office on every block.

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I kind of accepted a long time ago that the supply vs demand situation the industry had going was going to disappear. I feel if you don't put yourself in the a situation where you have to make 200k, you won't be screwed.

I'm actually more excited about the job security aspect anyway. I just learned my company will be laying people off. (And here I am, surfing the web on my down time...)

As for the midwest being the place to strike it rich, dentists I've talked to around here seem to think that this is only true some distance from urban areas. They say suburbs and cities are still quite competitive, like anywhere else. Just my 2 cents - well their 2 cents.

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I think the problem of saturation in many areas is not limited to dentists. I think many industries face this same problem. Lawyers are now facing the problems of oversupply, yet many still find success. Obviously saturation results in more competition, but it does not mean that many dentists will not be able to achieve success in many areas. - See more at: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/how-serious-is-oversaturation-in-dentistry.903992/#sthash.VTnYxq2a.dpuf

From Student doctor.net about ortho 10/20/2014

Yes I said it. I am currently a recent ortho graduate and I can tell all on here the market is screwed! It is very difficult for me or my coresidents to find employment. The best offer you will get is a part time gig at some slime GP office looking to make some money off of you or a corporate gig seeing 80 patients a day. It is not just saturated areas too, the rural areas there's no opportunity. It's basically start up and suffer for a few years or become a slave to the chains. There is a major downshift in the field, it was estimated that the past year there was an average of 1/3 decrease in production for ortho offices! Did you read that? One third less production on average! Not to mention I have to compete with GPs doing invisalign or 6 month smiles and less kids needing braces. Expect to make similar to what your GP buddies make as associates. I'm looking to renounce the specialty and do some GP work to pay the bills. I'm just trying to give some advice, call me bitter all you want. I love orthodontics, but I can't make much money doing it. The ortho dream to dental students is a dream. A dream that's dead.

From Student doctor.net about "Gingivitis Treatment" 10/21/2014

If any of you have followed my previous threads, you know that I work for a dental corporation.

The corporation I work for has recently implemented a "Gingivitis Treatment" as a periodontal procedure charged out to patients. I have never come across this before, not in school, or in my short time in private practice before switching to corporate because to be quite honest... it was the only opportunity available to me that was going to pay the bills, loans, etc.

Anyways, our hygienists, managers, etc want gingivitis treatment to be done on pretty much every patient who doesn't need SRP. I have a hard time justifying this, for obvious reasons.

What gingivitis treatment entails is subgingival irrigation with Peridex. Hygienists want this to be done on patients as young as 10 years old because they have inflamed gingivae. They also want it to be done on every kid in braces, because, you guessed it, inflamed gums. The fact of the matter is (in my opinion) that improved oral hygiene measures will reverse gingivitis. To me, it seems just another way to increase production in corporate dentistry, charge an out-of-pocket expense that insurance companies do not cover, etc.

What do those of you in private practice think about "gingivitis treatment?" Have you ever heard of it? Do you implement it in your practice? If so, what types of patients? Also, what do you think about Peridex use in patients under the age of 18? What about patients as young as 10-12 years old? What is your recommendation?

Also, on another note... how many patients have you come across that truly need SRP at the age of 16?

The reason I ask is a recent patient came in and reported he/she had a history of SRP (10 years ago) and hasn't returned to a dentist since. His/her probing depths were generalized 2-3 with localized 4 mm (likely pseudo pockets), light calculus, BOP, alveolar bone WNL. But my hygienist was adamant about SRP because the patient had a history of it. My feeling is the patient more than likely did not need SRP 10 years ago. What are your thoughts?

RESPONSE OF DKM

In this era of decreasing caries, over supply of dentists in all areas and lack of supervision of dentist by dental boards it is another example of creative billing that increases the cost of dental care. Gingivitis treatment is doing a patient a disservice and results in the public losing TRUST in the dental profession.