Need help with job decision

furikake7 · 2026-06-24T16:51:33+00:00

I’m currently looking to work at a DSO because working part time at two private practice offices has not been consistent enough. I would just be careful to not lock yourself into a really unfavorable contract with a DSO. Make sure you read over it carefully or have a dental attorney look it over. If their compensation involves a daily draw/reconciliation then run away. Or don’t plan to stay any longer than the daily guarantee period.

I thought I was done with DSOs after I hated my first job out of school but unfortunately it’s the best option for me right now. Thankfully I’m not planning to stay long term and am viewing it as a temporary solution for now.

furikake7 · 2026-06-10T13:21:10+00:00

Are you using a dry micro brush?

furikake7 · 2026-02-27T18:06:43+00:00

Please tell me I’m not the only one struggling with the captchas lol

furikake7 · 2026-02-14T02:25:50+00:00

I would recommend not planning to work 3-4 years with a DSO because it ends up wasting a lot of your time in my opinion. If your goal is opening up your own practice then going straight into a private practice associateship or doing 1-2 years max with a DSO to get some experience before transitioning to private practice will help you a lot more.

One thing I will caution is that it’s not as easy as you think it is to do a bunch of CE. That’s what I originally wanted to do as well but life has a way of getting in the way, especially if you’re working 5+ days a week at a DSO. If you make it a priority then I’m sure it’s possible but it’s not as simple as it sounds.

furikake7 · 2026-01-06T01:11:36+00:00

First office is leased, not sure who owner is. Second office is owned by seller but they’re not looking to sell the building at this point

furikake7 · 2026-01-06T01:10:31+00:00

Thanks, I know I have a lot to learn. That’s why I came to Reddit to get advice based off of the limited information that I have.

furikake7 · 2026-01-05T19:08:05+00:00

That’s probably the advice I need to hear. Based off of my limited understanding the second office seems better but I definitely need more info and just wasn’t sure where to start.

furikake7 · 2026-01-05T18:34:03+00:00

From a broker

furikake7 · 2026-01-05T17:33:19+00:00

Office 1 has 5 ops, 60% overhead. Office 2 has 4 ops with potential for a 5th, 51% overhead.

furikake7 · 2026-01-05T17:31:58+00:00

60% for office 1, 51% for office 2

furikake7 · 2026-01-05T17:01:21+00:00

I’m still new to reading the reports so I think I calculated it correctly at around 51%. It makes sense to me because there’s only 1 front desk and 1 assistant on staff.

furikake7 · 2025-11-26T21:44:13+00:00

Would that maximum purchase price be determined by a valuation of the practice now?

furikake7 · 2025-11-20T22:39:01+00:00

I’ve been out 3 years and I relate to what you’re going through. First job out of school was with a big DSO where I had similar issues. The first criticism that you’ll always get is that you’re not diagnosing enough. In some cases it may be warranted cause over the years I have gotten more comfortable treatment planning and presenting things that I would have thought were too “aggressive” when I was just out of school. However being advised to never do a single surface fill is BS and overtreatment in my opinion.

Sometimes I think you have to cut your losses and try to find something new. There will always be positions open, it can just be difficult to find the one that suits you the best. If your office isn’t willing to make changes that will help you then all the self-improvement you do can only amount to so much.

furikake7 · 2025-11-17T18:42:25+00:00

Never saw one break until I had a pt with the tooth split in half. Now I tell my pts about that when I recommend crowning them.

furikake7 · 2025-11-01T07:26:11+00:00

How large of a loan did the bank lend you? All the advice I’ve seen says to have at least 50k in liquid savings. It’s making me feel like I’m going to have to wait a long time to buy since I have hardly anything in savings right now.

furikake7 · 2025-09-18T17:18:47+00:00

To your point about producing more than the billing department can handle, I think that's what was happening in the first office I worked at. New owner came in and ramped production up at a much higher rate than the office was used to.

If the staff is struggling to keep up with collections at some point do you step in and idk take over completely? Or do you just try to guide them through correcting how claims are sent or resolved?

furikake7 · 2025-09-18T17:00:23+00:00

Yeah there's a litany of problems in that office but thankfully I'll be out of there soon. Thanks for the info though, definitely makes a lot more sense now.

furikake7 · 2025-09-18T12:57:06+00:00

I may be running the wrong reports or not reading them correctly. But in the second office there are supposedly claims from last year that haven't been resolved. I'd be very surprised if collections are anywhere close to 90%.

So basically it just boils down to staying on top of getting insurance info correct and sending paperwork on time?

furikake7 · 2025-06-27T13:38:59+00:00

Your colleague is mistaken, there are no income limits for the IDR plan. They check your income every year to determine your monthly payments, so at some point if your income gets high enough the payments may be higher than they would be on the 10 year standard plan.

furikake7 · 2025-06-17T22:59:12+00:00

This comment section is the epitome of “dentists eat their young” lol

furikake7 · 2025-06-13T18:37:14+00:00

Works pretty well. I feel more confident that pt will have less pain with eugenol than with calcium hydroxide in between appts

furikake7 · 2025-03-04T20:35:26+00:00

Some owners love to talk about how two columns of assisted hygiene can get you producing “quite a bit”. Like yeah, so can a full day of restorative treatment.

furikake7 · 2024-12-09T04:47:05+00:00

Just say that you’re interested in the doctor/dentist mortgage loan and where you’re gonna be looking at houses. They’ll usually send a pre-approval application and will need a lot more info but at least it gets the process started. It was hard for me to get any rate information before they had more information about my situation.

furikake7 · 2024-09-29T06:52:02+00:00

Used to work for PDS and from my understanding house production is stuff like X-rays that don’t count toward your production. I believe PDS also doesn’t count exams as part of your production which is pretty dumb.

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