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Professional Courtesy: Is Dentistry a Job or a Profession? by Dr. Thomas Giacobbi

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Categories: Practice Management, HR and Accounting;
Professional Courtesy: Is Dentistry a Job or a Profession?


by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, editorial director

The “Today’s Active Topics” collection of message boards on Dentaltown is the Daily Planet of dentistry, showcasing the topics of discussion that have captured the attention of dental professionals across the country and around the world. A recent visit included the topics below and at first glance, the selections paint a dark picture of the current state of our profession. Many dentists who have been around long enough will recognize these as recurring themes throughout the history of our profession, as career satisfaction waxes and wanes like the moon in difficult economic times. To quickly access any of these message boards, click the linked titles below.


Battling Overhead
There are two quick pathways to dealing with increased overhead: Raise your fees or cut your expenses. Many discussions on Dentaltown address the trend of dentists quitting their PPO insurance contracts as one strategy to increase revenue. Releasing yourself from the restrictions of PPO contracts will increase your revenue but also shrink your patient base because some will choose to stay in-network. This may lead to a reduction in expenses as your shrinking patient base leads to staff layoffs. Taking your office completely out-of-network isn’t for everyone, and has risks that must be carefully considered. Learn from others online as they share the things they did right and wrong in making this move.


ADA Openly Promoting DSO Model to New Grads
The migration of young grads to the DSO model makes me wonder if our profession is turning into a job or this is simply a new option for experience. It’s no secret that many dental service organizations struggle with retention as new dentists get burned out by the pace, become increasingly frustrated working as an employee or simply decide that private practice in a smaller office is a better fit. (Meanwhile, the increasing challenges of running a private practice shared in a separate thread about early retirement—see more in next item—may suggest that dental practice is destined to become another job, not a profession, because solo practice has become too complicated to be enjoyable.)


• Quitting Practice Ownership at 45–50
• Selling Early, Going Part-Time
These two threads make it clear that switching from owner to employee is a popular topic of discussion for experienced dentists. When you still love your profession but no longer want to deal with the other responsibilities of ownership, this may be the right path.

Retiring early has often been one of the privileges of a career in the dental profession … and at the same time, many dentists choose to practice well into the later years of their career because they want to keep working. The recent run of conversations around this topic tells us more about the current state of running a dental practice in an environment of increased regulation, rising overhead and HR challenges. There is also a bit of irony that dentists will spend the majority of their careers defending small or solo practice, only to desire to work as an employee at the end.

Fortunately, this is a profession filled with options! You can stay full time or part time, you can choose to be an employee or an owner, and your office can be busy with the needs of PPO patients or limited to the discerning few that make choices for their care beyond what the insurance company will cover.


Please share your thoughts on any of these topics under this article online! Reach out to me directly at tom@dentaltown.com.
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