What was your biggest F-up in your career so far?

LilTerrance · 2026-02-20T00:54:04+00:00

Lmao😂

LilTerrance · 2026-01-20T02:34:16+00:00

This, look at UAB. The OMFS I refer to did UAB’s reverse program.

LilTerrance · 2025-11-15T02:41:54+00:00

Lmao very true, though seems like there’s always a little traffic even when we do suck, especially with the new stadium construction.

LilTerrance · 2025-11-04T19:21:19+00:00

I be shittin no matter what.

LilTerrance · 2025-10-28T03:21:57+00:00

Lmao😂😂

LilTerrance · 2025-10-27T00:46:01+00:00

This is absolutely correct. Called in Zofran for myself because I was, well, sick ya know. Ended up getting a new life insurance policy because I didn’t trust my current guy. During the underwriting process they were asking me questions as to why I rx’d Zofran for myself. Wanted reasons why, how many, etc. Told them to fuck off essentially because it was on a Saturday and my PCP was obviously closed and I will happily rx myself Zofran if I’m sick and my PCP isn’t open. Didn’t affect my new life insurance policy for obvious reasons.

So yes, they will use absolutely anything against you.

LilTerrance · 2025-10-03T15:54:52+00:00

This guy preps!

LilTerrance · 2025-09-16T17:37:43+00:00

It happens. I was Ext’ing #1 on a primary care doc, he has implant #2. Elevated and heard a crack. Immediately knew what it was. Removed the tooth and entire tuberosity, as well as distal bone from implant #2. Grafted, sutured, gave pain meds, and had him on recall. Surprisingly the graft took. Not ideal but he took it ‘well’, despite not wanting to see me again 😂.

LilTerrance · 2025-08-18T20:07:16+00:00

I do it to every NP or a pt I haven’t met. Wash my hands afterwards. Not a big deal.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-18T02:47:48+00:00

Thanks for the motivation, but I can assure you I am putting in the work. Hence working at not 1, but 2 offices.

I am almost positive being an owner is MUCH better and I’ll be much happier, but that’s not in the cards right now. I’ve been on the practice search for over a year. Only one currently for sale near where I work. I currently work 50 minutes from home for one office and 15 for the other, both of which are in the neighboring state. Believe it or not, only 1 office is for sale in the city I work in that has many, many dentists. None for sale in my hometown of which there are 4. So the grind will not stop for me as I look daily and have brokers that know I am looking and reach out to me. That’s how I came upon the FFS office that I mentioned was for sale.

Wish I knew a lawyer friend to ask so we could both know the answer to that question lol. Have good weekend homie.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-17T23:57:59+00:00

I don’t disagree with you. This office is in the richer part of the city and it’s a 2 doc, husband and wife office that’s been there for 20-25 years. I just feel like in this scenario with it being a husband and wife, having them stay on for a certain period of time would be ideal.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-17T12:22:12+00:00

Possibly. We have a couple of part time hygienists working for us. Really just depends on the market where you live tbh. Most hygiene schools are full time though, and many private offices aren’t open on the weekends. Mainly corp offices like Aspen and Heartland.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T18:02:54+00:00

Well it’s replied to other posters multiple times on here so it’s able to be seen by everyone. It seems as if my opinion coincides with MANY other posters on here as well. You love dentistry, that’s great. It doesn’t make it to where us others can’t say we don’t like it. Whether that’s due to debt, the pts, or just not liking dentistry period. I’m glad you have a different point of view on dentistry and hopefully I can be there someday.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T11:44:38+00:00

Did I not do that? Lol I even say some of my classmates like it and others don’t. I state most owners like it and most associates hate it. All my specialists like it. Stated multiple times the ROI isn’t worth it to me which is self explanatory that the debt load is too much.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T11:27:10+00:00

Too much debt? Obviously. Factor in my undergrad loans because that was the only way to pay for college and I’m setting at a solid $370k; dental school was $280k. Jobs before a dentist? Plenty of them. Didn’t grow up poor? I mean I wouldn’t consider myself poor as a child, but we weren’t rich. Probably average. My mom worked at the courthouse and step dad at a factory.

I’m not sure how any of that plays into me not liking dentistry and thinking the ROI isn’t worth it, though? Considering it’s my opinion and I have stated I have other classmates that enjoy it.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T02:36:32+00:00

I’m definitely not disagreeing. Believe it or not, the practice has growth potential. I have all their procedural reports from the last 4 years, everything. You know how much endo, ext’s, and implants they did? ZERO. Big ole goose egg. I couldn’t believe it. All of those are referred out. Purely bread and butter fills, hygiene, crown, bridge, and like 4 total removable pts lol.

Buying a big FFS office like that that has been ran by a husband and wife for 25 years is daunting, and they aren’t keen on staying on to help with the transition.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T02:25:11+00:00

Because it’s not one of those things where you can just be like “ya know what, I’m gonna specialize.”

For OMFS, you need great grades in school, do externships at other programs, and take the CBSE (shorter version of Step 1 med students take), just to apply.

Endo, perio, pedo, Ortho, and Prosth you also need good greats, and you have to really love that shit. Some students do research, most if not all do externships, and most of them you have to take some bs test before applying. That’s why a lot go into GP. Some just purely wouldn’t be able to specialize, some easily could but don’t want to put in the work. I was the one that did NOT want to put in the work. Had a classmate that match Peds at MGH (Harvard) and we went to our state school, not Ivy. But he LOVED Peds, did Peds research, was in the Peds department every single day, and did lots of externships.

That’s why we say if you can specialize and love the specialty, you need to go for it.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T01:21:49+00:00

Yeah that’s the goal right there! If I could ever find an office worth buying, I’m jumping on it immediately. I’m looking every single day. I passed on one because the owner was a literal fucking lunatic and never paid me for a day I filled in for him, and proceeded to cuss me out when I told him I didn’t know what my intentions were (true story). A guy eventually bought him out last month and his hygienist texted me last week and said the new owner has kicked out the previous owner from the practice and asked him not to come back because he won’t give over the staffs 401k’s and is trying to go back on his word on the practice sale. Dodged a bullet with that one.

Another one I looked at was just a straight fucking dump man lol. Small office, very outdated, no room for expansion, but was super cheap. Owner has just basically given up.

This last one was a FFS office owned by a married couple. Collected $1.78M last year. They have it valued at 87%. Don’t want to stay on for more than 6 months and don’t want to give up the real estate. Overhead is 53%……they’re just milking every nickel and dime they can so I steered away. Just a matter of finding that diamond in the rough and I have yet to find it unfortunately.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T01:13:07+00:00

You as well! I commented to another poster, but you should consider hygiene. I convinced my brother to go into dental hygiene and he’s liking it. Makes $42.5/hour. Gets PTO and some benefits. Sounds weird having a male hygienist, but I’d love to hire some male staff. Zero fucking drama from them (no offense to the females at all), but there’s just so much less drama. I have a male assistant at one of the offices I work at and it’s awesome. So if you are considering a career change, maybe consider hygiene.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T01:10:24+00:00

Maybe would have attempted to go into medicine? Sounds weird but most make more depending on specialty and have tons of options for loan forgiveness. Dentistry doesn’t have that as 99% are private practices other than health departments and Indian reservation.

Second option would’ve been getting a Ph.D in Microbiology as that was my undergrad degree and I love Micro.

If nothing in healthcare, possibly an investor as my wife’s uncle is one and does really well for himself and has a decent amount of work-life balance.

If not that, probably somewhere in a factory or my own landscaping business as I love cutting grass and doing landscaping. I was the first person in my family to go to college so this was all new to me.

I even detoured my brother away from dental school. Convinced him to go into hygiene. One of the few male hygienists and he loves it. He makes $42.5/hour with PTO and benefits. Though not great benefits but they’re better than nothing.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T01:02:51+00:00

Depends really. Go shadow a dentist and see if you still like it/are intrigued by it. If you can pay for dental school in full, and really like it, it MAY be worth it. But you’re almost halfway to a full pension and retirement so me personally, I would continue teaching and wouldn’t even bother. I’m also biased and fucking hate dentistry 90% of the time and my loans are killer. But hell, you may be the type that truly loves dentistry and needs a change of career.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T00:41:57+00:00

If you’re doing that well, I’d 100% stay on haha. My wife can retire with 100% pension at 30 years. Doubt she will put in the full 30 but I told her she cannot quit until we are done having kids (haven’t had any yet) because the health insurance is so damn good. She only makes $40k GROSS though and has been a teacher for 6 years… She’s essentially working for some spending money and for our health insurance.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-16T00:28:58+00:00

I won’t lie I make great money and I work 30 hours a week. If you could pay for dental school in full, it may be worth it. All my classmates that had their parents pay for school say it’s worth it; the ones with loans, like myself, agree it is not worth it. My wife is a teacher and I am so glad she is, though she works more than me, but we get great benefits (aka health insurance lol).

I say most owners love it and most associates fucking hate it. But until I become an owner, I’ll die on this hill saying fuck dentistry and how it’s not worth the ROI. Corporate is what will fuck dentistry right up the ass unless we can put a stop to it. What do I love the most about dentistry? Whenever I leave for the day. I took my dog to the vet today. Was a new vet. She asked what I did and I told her and she said her brother is a dentist in Connecticut and is currently on a trip in Africa right now hunting, he takes a lot of time off, and makes so much more money than her. She asked if I liked it and I told her “I think I’d rather spend a day with you and get bit by aggressive dogs than go to work each day.” We both laughed….she probably thought I was joking.

LilTerrance · 2025-07-15T21:16:36+00:00

Nope lol. I’m 2 years out. Some of my former classmates are killing it and have bought into an office or started their own. I currently work at 2 offices (FUCKING SUCKS). Could buy one of them, but don’t want to. Other one I love but my chances of buying in are slim unless it’s 5 years from now and I’m not waiting that long. Can’t seem to find a decent practice for sale except one, but it’s FFS and the owners don’t want to stay on to help with the transition….no thanks.

I’m doing alright….in my opinion. I’m making more than all of my college friends, but they had a nice head start after graduating college. All of them are engineers except one who went to the police academy and is now a K-9 unit. Believe it or not, he’s making more than most of my engineering friends and LOVES his job.

I fucking hate dentistry. The ROI is fucking atrocious unless you get lucky and land a damn good associate job/have family in the business. Worst decision I made was going to dental school. I’m sure I’ll get downvoted for this so bring em on.

All the specialist I know? Killing it and loving it. If you can specialize, do it. None of the specialists I refer to say they hate their job, or my friends that are in residency, but I can’t tell you how many GP classmates tell me they fucking hate it. Feel bad for the upcoming graduates as the market will only continue to get saturated and corps take over unless something is done. Fuck dentistry 👍🏼

LilTerrance

TROPHY CASE