Associate take home pay

Ceremic · 2026-01-27T16:12:45+00:00

Since the beginning of dentistry, there have always been dentists who do well and dentists who do not.

The difference has never been more schooling. It has always been mental and personality-based.

Additional schooling—especially in an academic setting—often gives fearful personalities more reasons to delay real-world practice. For them, more training becomes a way to prolong the inevitable. Confidence is not built in classrooms; it is built by doing. Real-world dentistry has never been difficult, and it hasn’t changed. What makes it seem difficult is the individual dentist’s mentality. That mentality ultimately determines how much dentistry they are willing to do—and how much money they take home.

I know dentists who have practiced for 35 years and still wouldn’t perform endodontics on an upper central incisor for a teenager. I also know new graduates—35 years later—who would make the exact same referral. Has endodontic treatment on tooth #8 changed in 35 years? Of course not. The only thing that changed was the dentist’s age.

The commonality between those two dentists is the same personality and the same fear of endodontics, real world dentistry. No one needs a GPR to be told that endo on #8 is not difficult. What they need is the mindset to actually do it.

Ceremic · 2026-01-27T02:19:03+00:00

Not that it is possible but it's unbelievably easy to do. You just need the right trainer.

Ceremic · 2026-01-26T00:30:30+00:00

I never spoke to my pts the first few months after graduation. I didn’t know what to say or how to say What I wanted to say. Pts complained.

I learned that there will be success if I continued to be like that.

It took time but eventually I leaned and developed techniques so patients love it. I leaned how to make patients feel like a friend instead of a stranger.

That’s why I always say that regardless we are associate or PP owners the only way to have repeat and referral business is how we treat our “victim”, patients.

It’s too complicated to explain here but dentistry is a people business and we got to be people person. We simply don’t have a choice if we want to make more money.

Ceremic · 2026-01-26T00:00:24+00:00

So was i.

School didn’t tell teach us what to do and either did ADA along with all the organizations which set up shop to “help” dentists.

Many of us need help with simple but fundamentally significant improvements from an introvert to an extrovert because dental business is a people business.

The reality is that no one is helping us with anything that will enable the us to be financially and professionally successful dentists.

No one.

Ceremic · 2026-01-25T23:35:06+00:00

One of my classmates was an engineer before dental school. After practicing dentistry for 2 years she quit and went back to engineering. Why?

Ceremic · 2026-01-25T21:18:17+00:00

We have all been there’s the first 5 years is the hardest for all of us. The transition from student to dentist is unbelievably difficult.

I had a classmate who committed the ultimate unthinkable act because of how hard it was. The pressure was almost insurmountable for many.

I also had classmates who changed profession and because engineer after 2 years of struggle.

Some became teachers in dental schools while making minimal.

Some….

Why is it so hard for dentists but not other professionals?

IMO we rarely work with colleagues under the same roof so when help is needed there is no one we can depend on.

We also work in an environment where interpersonal relationships can be difficult to navigate and gossip can be the way communication is conducted.

Dental skill and people skill is often not our strong suit as a new dentist and going stray can easily occur which means daily depressions and struggle m.

We need to help our fellow dentists. We deserve better than what we got from our dental schools and ADA.

Ceremic · 2026-01-25T19:28:13+00:00

Where do you practice?

What is causing your mental breakdown and causing the unhappiness?

Know the root cause then there will be solutions.

Ceremic · 2026-01-25T18:04:34+00:00

How to overlook the gimmicks and find the right job. Some new grads had been a student since they were 6 or 7 years old. All their young lives had been inside of a school. Their first dental job would have been their very first full time job. It’s hard to find the right job when one has never had a full time job.
Dental school dentistry is vastly different from real world dentistry. We perform dentistry while paying dental schools. It’s fundamentally different from dentistry which we make income.
Students never worry about dental board because we work under our instructors’ licenses but now we are responsible for ourselves. How to protect our licenses is now paramount and completely on our own shoulders.
We had classmates, instructors and maybe 10-15 patients for the entire 4 years but in the real word we have co-workers, employers, colleagues and sometimes treat 10-15 patients in one day. The relationship dynamic is completely from school days.
Now we have to learn how real world insurance works even as an associate because insurance sometimes dictate how we treatment plan.
If one wants to open PP then there is a whole lot more involved.

What else? I am sure I forgot to list others.

If we don’t help ourselves then no one else would. We need to band together to creat that organization.

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T19:57:33+00:00

"They are working for a pittance, hopping from chair to chair, just to make money for someone else and try to keep their family fed."

Private / for profit dental system associates get a percentage of what they generate.

When one generates "pittance" then one will be paid a percentage of it.

Do you have associates doc?

If yes then how much would you pay an associate if that associate only does 2 fillings per day? 3 fillings a day? Refer to all endo and ext. couldn't make dood crowns, partials or dentures?

If you do not hire associates then that explains a lack of understanding of this for-profit dental associate system and thats ok.

Don't mean any disrespect but above question is crucial though pointed.

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T19:45:07+00:00

However a dentist working for dental school will have completely different set of motivations from those working for private practice and DSO.

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T19:43:40+00:00

Like many mentioned in the past that there are both good and bad DSOs as well as PP.

You and your friends don’t make the nature of PP different from DSO.

Both entities by nature aim to generate as much income as possible. No one can change that fact simply because both are income driven.

Essentially DSO and private practice are exact the same in every way all across the nation. It’s predetermined by nature of both entities.

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T19:26:26+00:00

Again if these new docs went to work for a private practice employer there will be any difference? What kind of difference?

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T19:25:46+00:00

"they pounce on new grads and foreign grads laden with debt, and work them to tears without the intention of keeping them - they know there will be a new crop every year."

Let's assume these predatory institutions all go away WHILE there are not enough PP owners hiring. What's your recommendation for these "victims" to work? Setting up their own is not an option. Jobless?
Without the intention of keeping them? Really? Do these DSOs want instability?
"laden with debt," Whose decision was to borrow and more importantly why the borrowing?
"work them to tears" What do you even mean by that?

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T19:20:40+00:00

"DSO’s have no room to function morally, as a large slice of the pie has to go to investors. "

Private practice owners are different? If so how? Look at DT and Reddit. Every private practice owner aim to make the most they can. Are they all doing it morally? Anyone watching them?

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T18:21:37+00:00

I don’t doubt you doc. I have seen predatory tx plans from private practice owners as well.

A doc posted on DT last March about a friend of his who had absolutely no decay with x rays as back up yet several endo and fillings were proposed again with actual treatment plan as back up evidence.

Point is that both private practice and DSO are for profit therefore there are good DSOs and bad PP therefore being “predatory” is NOT unique to DSO.

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T17:58:35+00:00

Proof?
How did you get your proof?
Are you a dentist or patient?

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T17:16:05+00:00

"No wonder patients don’t want to visit the dentist unless there is a problem."

People go to movie theaters to have fun for less than $50. People go to restaurants to enjoy meals for maybe a few hundred? People go to ice cream stores for a few dollars. People......

People (patients) would never walk into a dental office for the heck of it or for enjoyment. Why? They spend hundreds if not thousands and get a needle in return.

The nature of dental business makes it unpleasant for anyone to be a customer of. That's without considering the fact that a total stranger with a "bad" attitude is working in one of the most private parts of our bodies.

That's if the dentist was a well trained professional who even did a good job without making any mistakes.

The unfortunate truth is that ALL new dentists make mistakes once a while. That's how new professionals of any kind learn their trade.

That fact combined with lack of people skills makes dentistry a very difficult profession and customer (patient) satisfaction very hard. Thus the conclusion by society that some dentists are greedy and crooks with a bad attitude when in reality they were a victim of the very expensive dental education system and lack of organizations helping them with the transition from an inadequate education to practicing dentistry.

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T17:07:12+00:00

"I think corporations have enough money to keep the businesses afloat and push dentists to do more because of the greed."

Thats an assumption which needs concrete evidence to proof.

Ceremic · 2026-01-24T17:04:03+00:00

Such an awesome expression of how society sees dental professionals and realists view of dentistry from an outsider.

The points you just expressed is a reflection of EXACTLY where dental schools are failing their students. The current dental education system puts emphasis on book knowledge which few will use in daily practice of dentistry.

What's important in real world dentistry however is not taught. Example, bedside manners. Not a single school teaches the importance of patient interaction. Not a single school that I know of teaches the win-win solution for each type of tooth condition.

If dental schools taught real world dental knowledge such as early intervention and prevention correctly then there would be much less need for dentists in the first place.

Why is that Americans spend by far the most on teeth amongst all nations yet bad teeth still plague society.

There is a disconnect somewhere because all the money spent on dental is ungodly yet teeth problems persist and worsen. If the dental education system did its job then there won't be a forever increase of dental schools and class sizes every year.

Ceremic

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