Who’d be a dentist for quids?

Or, more specifically, who’d be a dentist owning and running a dental office?

Last weekend at a non-dental congress I had the misfortune of someone leading with a comment that dentists make a lot of money.

Well wave a red flag at me!!

Because I don’t think they get paid sufficiently for the duties that they perform and the role that they have in society.

Dentists don’t charge enough for their services.

And all the other things they do. And have to do.

Performing intricate medical procedures for fees often less than plumbers charge to fix roofs.

So don’t get me started…

Years and years of education and university fees and taxes, and student loans and student debts. Just to get a degree and a license.

And don’t mention the establishment costs of buying a business or building a start up dental office.

And out there in the marketplace, from what I see, dental office owners don’t put their fees up in line with inflation, cost of living, material supplies, rent rises and salary increases.

So they’re giving themselves a *PAY CUT* every time they don’t keep fees in line with these market forces.

Because those market force increases just eat straight into the bottom line.

On a second note, most or nearly all dentists I meet *DO NOT* run their Dental Offices arithmetically.

They do not run them by formulae.

They run them by gut feel.

And this is sad.

Most Dental Office owning dentists fail to pay themselves a salary firstly out of their earnings.

Or, if they do, it’s a dribble. Never a good salary.

They might take bits of money here and there, but more often than not, there is no structure to their remuneration.

None at all.

So, guess what? They end up paying themselves lastly, if at all.

And there’s no reason for them to punish themselves in this way.

None.

We know associate dentists, working in other dental offices, receive remuneration based upon a percentage of billings, or gross fees.

For just drilling teeth.

Nothing else.

So why shouldn’t Dental Office Owners get paid up front the same way. For their “just drilling teeth” roles?

Then, out of what’s left on the business side of the ledger, the dentist owner needs further remuneration for all the other roles he performs.

• Human resources manager
  • Staff recruitment
  • Staff training
  • Staff appraisals
  • Staff management
  • Staff Dismissals
• Payroll
  • Salaries
  • Leave.
  • Sick leave
• Employment contractor
• Stock and inventory controller
• Accountancy and bookkeeping
• Equipment purchasing
• Equipment servicing
• Bill payer and cheque writer

Sadly, these additional duties that are performed by a dental office owner, go unpaid.

Performed, yet not remunerated for. Correctly.

And often, they are performed in after hours time slots.

After dinner, lunch times. Weekends. Sunday nights.

Oh, the joys of being a small business owner…..

Sadly I see this right across the board in private dentistry.

And simply, it’s because Dental Business is not taught in Dental School.

Adequately and properly.

The running of the business of dentistry, is a BIG part of  The Ultimate Patient Experience, a simple easy to implement system that I developed that allowed me to build an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb.  If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

Email me: david@theUPE.com

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