We have a dentist in the family, and Dr. Mont has commented about the profession:
1. Out of a large dental school class, Mont was one of two dentists that didn't have large student loans hanging over his head. Most owe a few hundred thousand dollars on student loans and the monthly payments are a burden.
2. Dentists then have to borrow big, big money to purchase equipment for a 3 room office. And they also have to invest in expensive computers, software and electronic x-ray equipment.
3. With their first office, dentists must borrow more capital for salaries, rent, etc.
4. Beginning dentists can do a filling, but they were never taught how to manage a dental practice. Business can be pretty slow for a couple of years if they cannot figure out how to market themselves.
5. In the medical world, dentists and pathologists have very high suicide rates. They're often not happy in their jobs.
Mont ended up taking a seminar that taught him how to properly run a dental practice. He ended up having the largest dental practice (in sales) in a metro area of 1 million people. And he worked 30 years and took early retirement at 55 years old. He got bored and joined the National Guard at age 59 and ended up going to Iraq and later Afghanistan until he retired at age 70.
Many dentists that are going to retire will get a young dentist to come to work in their practice. If they work out, the dentist will often sell the assets of the practice to the "new guy" and finance the deal out of his pocket for a number of years. It's good business for the retiring dentist, the young dentist, the practice employees and also patients because they don't have to charge as much as someone with a completely new facility, equipment and capital loans to pay.
Why do tooth abscesses happen only on Friday afternoon--when there's not a dentist office in town that's open. There's no worse pain--other than kidney stones.
Yeah, I owe my dental health to quite a few cadavers- just had 2 implants placed a couple of weeks ago.
