By: Bruce Bryen
Dental school is over as is the training as an associate dentist working for a local, single-owner office.
Was the education as an associate enough to take on the responsibilities of being the top person at a dental practice where you are the owner?
Think about what you have absorbed and what questions are still open for learning from your understanding of the running of a dental practice from the clinical side of the practice to the administrative operations as well.
If the A to Z of operating a dental practice is mastered, you have gotten yourself into a position where the availability of any type of opening anywhere is available for you.
Consider a Dental Practice Merger
The merger with another dental practice is now a good fit since your knowledge of the overall operations are probably better than the dentists at the practice with whom you are merging.
Many associates did not care about and never wanted to learn anything regarding the administrative side of a dental practice while learning the ropes at the job they obtained after getting out of dental school.
Even changing from that job to another may not have taught the associate anything more about the administrative side of dentistry in the next job as an associate as well.
Money Saved is Money Earned
Thinking of what has been learned and applying it practically to the real world of work, understanding the administrative chores at the dental practice, think of those who don’t have to be hired.
The dentist should be prepared to assume the bookkeeping role of the practice until he or she is doing enough dentistry to afford to hire someone to do that.
Personnel management should be available to the dentist, such as knowing when to give a raise, how many people should be working at the office, and the type of effort those employees are exerting to make the practice run smoothly and become profitable.
Insurance coverage, retirement plans, and other fringe benefits to keep the employees happy and working hard are additional items that the now owner will know about as he or she has gotten additional insights into the administrative side of the dental practice.
Another benefit of these understandings is when a DSO comes along who may be interested in acquiring the practice and mostly the dentist who would fit right into the culture of the DSO. Of course, that is where the big money is supposed to be.
It’s good to see the potential and the reality of what the DSOs offer but not matter, there is still an opportunity for advancement in the DSO with a knowledge of the way the administrative side of a dental practice works.
Jobs, Jobs, and More Jobs
With the background now earned by the new owner of a dental practice, there will be an opportunity to have many jobs with good pay, benefits, and responsibilities if they are wanted.
The associate worked his or her way up to this point and now it is time to take advantage of the job opportunities that are available.
In the event that one tires of the responsibility of owning and operating a practice, being able to slide into numerous other job opportunities with almost no responsibility if that is what is wanted will be available to this dentist in many parts of the country and that type of job offer will be ready for an acceptance soon enough.
The offers will come and the thought of an early retirement or at least a slowdown in the chores that were part of the day-to-day work are on the horizon.
From a DSO to working part-time for a dentist and going home at the end of a shift with no overtime or worrying about meeting a payroll become pleasant thoughts for this dentist.
Age is not a barrier or an asset. By this time in the career of this professional, there should be a reasonable amount of money earned and saved.
The future is something that can be contemplated with contentment because whether it’s a job or a retirement or semi workload in mind, this particular dentist is ready for anything professionally.
Investment Opportunities are Available
At this point in the dentist’s career, investment opportunities are also readily available in the dental field.
The DSO is an intriguing choice of investment. The operations are something the dentist knows about in abundance as this was his or her life’s work.
If the dentist was flexible enough to want to learn about the administrative side of the dental practice, the DSO is made up of both sides of a dental practice.
The DSO will let this person know that they were looking for someone to hire who understands the administrative side of the dental practice. This type of hire would need little training since he or she has been working on the administrative side of dental practices while getting to this point of their career.
A dentist without administrative experience is also a good candidate for a job with a DSO since that type of organization is always looking for someone to learn and enhance the DSO.
About the DSO
This is one of the fastest-growing organizations in the field of dentistry.
This type of entity is gobbling up dental practices all across the country and merging them into a larger, hopefully, more profitable organization with plenty of support and working capital.
If it’s the right DSO, there is plenty of security and a stable outlook on the future. There may also be a pot of money available from the DSO if an early enough investment is made into it.
The later the investment in terms of the DSO’s life cycle, the lesser the return will be to an investor. Some of the DSOs will not even take additional investors as they let those investors know that it is too late and that they have many investors and don’t need any more.
Photo by Cedric Fauntleroy
