I am looking to buy an in house mill and like everyone else my first thought was cerec. I currently use a 3shape trios 5 scanner and I have read they are now optimized for use with cerec mills. I reached out to my rep asking questions about the cerec and he answered them by suggesting the planmeca 35 mill setup. He said this setup is 66k vs the 150k for cerec and it mills the same materials. I have heard of planmeca but I didn’t know they had a mill. I’m very name brand oriented so when I think milling I want cerec but I was wondering if anyone has experience with planmeca or has heard of their mills being compared to cerec mills. I will say I’m skeptical that a 66k setup can rival a $150k setup. I’m also wondering why my rep would suggest a cheaper mill when he likely makes more commission when I spend more money and I directly asked for the cerec, not how I can save money.. let me know your thoughts/experiences. Thanks!

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/dental-implants-increasing-profit-experts/

How do we address this as a profession?

If the doctor does an exam with hygiene, who’s responsible to write the note, ? Also legally, who’s responsible for the note? Doctor or hygienist?

I am failing my IANB frequently, especially on the right side. Someone please help. I am feeling so helpless and like a disappointment. I had no issues my first few years out, but now it's happening frequently. We buffer our anesthetic and I mostly use Septocaine with epi.

This office has to pay someone to "carry a pager" after hours and adds a little extra to their paycheck that month for it. I have no idea if this is a physical pager or what, but I'd like to cut this out with AI or something else that is a little more cost effective. How do you guys handle after hours calls?

Title says it all.. looking to get a new pair. Which one would you guys recommend Currently using Univet

I’ve been in the dental field for 20 years and used many different dental software systems and Denticon is the absolute worst one I have ever used! We’ve had it for over a year now and every day I hate it more and more! It’s not user friendly, it’s outdated and it’s way more clicks and steps to do everything.

I do well with restorative case acceptance, but never really push ortho. I'll do around 25 a year, and they're pretty much all patients who ask for it.

What systems do you have in place to increase Invisalign treatment in your office? Any ideas/videos/or courses that help with that?

I am trying to create a schedule for an RDA located in Michigan to where they are running their own column and making production. What are some things they can do? My list already includes: sealants, class 1 fills, fluoride tx, whitening, ortho… what are other ones?

Getting Dentina AI installed this afternoon. Everyone in the office is against. Is it worth it for after hours?

Thanks

Hey everyone!

I have access to a 3d printer and wanted to see if anyone had any STL files of teeth with deep caries they would be willing to send me a link to. I wanted to print a few models out and practice deep margin elevation on those before I try it out on a patient. Ive looked around online but haven't seen much out there. Thanks in advance!

Any US dentists here have experience working with the Indian Health Service? Just curious about it, thanks.

To all dental professionals,

Just read a heartbreaking story that could have been avoided with proper BLS preparedness. As a BLS instructor, I’ve seen three types of dentists:

1.	Those who want to know BLS thoroughly and expect their staff to be ready at a moment’s notice.
2.	Those who simply want the card and are okay with just their staff taking the class.
3.	Those who want cards for everyone, with minimal to NO focus on training. (I refuse to do this) 

If you think an emergency “could never happen to you” – think again! Emergencies are unpredictable, and when they happen, a well-prepared team can make all the difference. Don’t settle for the bare minimum when it comes to BLS; strive to truly understand it, and make sure your team is confident and prepared to act. This is about protecting our patients and each other.

Let’s commit to knowing it inside and out.

Stay safe and stay prepared.

Also, there is an AMAZING anesthesiologist in Texas- Dr Ben QUENZER - (N Dallas area) and he teaches an 8 hour CE course on Medical Emergencies In the Dental Office. If you want his contact and or the information emailed to you on the common emergencies, I am happy to send either. Just PM me and I’ll take care of you. WHY? Because I care! I care first about the patients and their safety, and secondly, I care about you and your career! I have been a RDA for over 33 years in TEXAS and I’ve seen it ALL!!

I'm working with two dentists who are planning the launch of a dental practice incubator in a large metro area. The long and short of it: dentist are able to rent chairtime monthly while slowly building a patient base without buying or starting an existing practice. They will avoid the overhead of running a practice and mitigate the risks of being a solo practitioner. Services such as receptionist and billing are ad hoc, otherwise the dentist is responsible for their own admin and assistants.

During the lease, the dentist can work with the company to learn credentialing, practice management, and marketing, as well use all shared resources and equipment.

...So, what could go wrong with this?

Looking at practices to buy in the rural Southeast. I received a valuation and tax returns from an owners broker (whose team did the valuation). The overhead in the valuation says 59% but when I looked at the math, the 2 associates salaries are not included in the overhead.

Then the valuation lists the “normalized owner salary” which includes all of the profit after the 59% overhead. And this profit margin was used to calculate the value of the business.

Is this a common practice for valuations?

Thoughts on single root deciduous teeth pulpotomy procedure rather than pulpectomy?

My friend is a foreign trained dentist just got his license, trying to weigh the pros and cons of working as a federal dentist vs being an associate. He's 45 yrs old, 3 kids in middle school, no retirement saved and 380k in school loans. I told him Federal dentist may be the safest route at 67 he gets a pension, saved some in a 401k and SAVE plan for the school loan. Been running numbers on the whitecoatinvestor calculator 20yrs is doable to save $4m granted he buys a clinic within 5 yrs, he's extremely frugal so saving and investing would not be the issue it would be earning more. Anyone care to chime in on their experiences on earnings Federal practice vs ownership. Thank!

Hi yall, I’m a senior dental student graduating May 2025. I’ve been looking for general dentist jobs that would accept newly grads around Chicago and Im finding a hard time looking for some that are accepting us. I got a contract sent by dental dreams but I’ve heard too many horror stories about them so I’ll prob lay off of them for now.

Heartland and aspen I looked into but they are mainly hiring internally for offices closer to the city.

Any DSO or offices that are good spots for us newly graduates? I’m not looking to work literally downtown but suburbs definitely my move I want to do. Indeed has been okay in getting me in contact with some but honestly idk if it’s getting me solid choices.

Hi docs I am trying to get this practice but I was told by the loan rep he can try to get me the loan with a credit score of 670. However the charge off on my account ($0 balance, paid it in full) might give me a problem.

Did anyone go through a similar case? Have a credit repair fix it but it would take months and it still won’t be guaranteed it’s taken off. I have called the creditor and they wouldn’t take it off.

Appreciate any tips or recommendations.

I probably had one of the worst days in my dental career today.

I'm a recent grad in one year general practice residency. I had one of the worst days I've had since I've started.

Everything went wrong - had to refine preps on a patient that had crown lengthening; couldn't get my temporary crowns to stay (patient lost one of his temps & couldn't reuse the matrix).

Had to seat implant crowns and forgot to take post-cementation radiographs

Did a terrible filling on distal #31 & ON TOP OF THAT, accidently swiped my patient's tongue when polishing (luckily, it was minor / minimal bleeding but the first time that's ever happened to me & I was terrified).

So, I guess my question is: do you ever experience really bad days? Days where everything goes wrong. Truly questioning my abilities right now

I am thinking of purchasing my first dental 3d printer . and found the LUMII from phrozen to be budget friendly

and wanted to know . if anyone tried it or uses it in his practise

mainly i will use it to print temporarry crowns . splint and reiatners

So basically I’m reaching my breaking point in this office, I’ve been here since I graduated and now I’m into my 5th year in the same practice everything was okay until like a year ago and it has gotten worse since then. I’m a general practitioner, my boss and owner of the practice is an orthodontist, we would get along well and even help eachother a lot but it changed when his ex wife who I didn’t know holds a share of the practice started coming in to work in here, she is unbearable to be around and does whatever tf she wants in here.

To put you all into perspective we only have 2 cubicles, one for me one for him so obviously she wants my cubicle when she comes in, if I have a patient and she is supposed to go after me she will go into my cubicle and put her stuff in and stay there until I finish, I’ve already addressed this situation with my boss and herself asking her politely to leave until im done, and recently being a little more rude to see if she understands, and my boss always tells her but she doesn’t listen to him either, she finishes her treatments and gets into a personal conversation with her patients for over 20 minutes and that’s after taking 30 minutes over my time already and as always even if i ask her to go out she doesn’t listen.

So anyways I’ve been living with this for over a year but it’s gotten worse recently, she has been stealing the office supplies and my boss is calling me out for the lack of them and when I tell him it’s her who is stealing stuff he tells me that it’s ok then and let her grab whatever she wants. Since then I decided to buy my own stuff and take money from his share to cover for that since that was the initial agreement, I didn’t have to put in anything but work and he had to give me everything I needed to work but about 6 months ago he said his part was being too low and he was thinking im ripping him off, I explained to him that since he didn’t wanted to buy supplies i had to make it work by myself and that if he didn’t want me to take money that way he should have everything in the office, needless to say it didn’t change anything but him getting mad and now we don’t talk as we used to so it’s been getting uncomfortable to be around.

So if this wasn’t enough here comes some more, it’s been around 2 months since I noticed he doesn’t give af about anything, he fired the receptionist and janitor claiming he doesn’t have any money and he would take care of that, obviously he hasn’t the office is always dirty and I have to get hands on without any pay so it doesn’t look bad, he doesn’t come to the office without explanation and obviously his patients have started to complain to what he says “if they don’t like it they can go somewhere else”, his assistant has complained about him not paying her on time and the cherry on the cake is that i took my vacations 2 weeks ago leaving for a week and when I come back it turns out he took like 3 patients with big payout treatments from me and they where non urgent treatments when it’s been 3 years since he told me he just didn’t have time for anything else and he would only do ortho now.

Now the reason I have not left before is obviously money, it is good or at least it was until like 2 months ago and since it was good money i bought a house and still got an active mortgage on it so im afraid to start my own practice from scratch and being unable to pay for some time, I got friends who own their practice but since we are kinda fresh out of school they are doing good by themselves but it wouldn’t work with someone else in there so my brain shoots me only this options:

1. risking it all and putting all my savings into my own practice.
2. Giving up dentistry for some time until im financially stable to start from scratch.
3. Grow some more balls to stand this ish for some more time, throw my savings into a masters degree and then leave.

But im open to hear more experienced opinions. I’m sorry for the long text, and if you stayed up to here thank you!

Not my bridge but had a new patient exam with a implant #4 bridged to natural #6. Restoration is from "about a year ago" and I am able to feel the lingual margin on #6 pretty good but no clue if that is how it was made or if there's been movement already. No evidence of cement failure that I can see and overall it looks fine at this point. I went with a "we'll keep a close eye on it" for now because while they did train me to not do that in school, they never indicated what the best thing to do when you see it would be.

Has anyone attended this course? I'm a dentist working in Croatia, looking to start doing implants and have already been to a couple 2-day courses but this seems more in-depth. If not, do you maybe have some other recommendation where you can get some clinical experience?

Kind of curious if anybody else is having these kinds of problems. I'll export a low profile model from the itero site which I can verify was a good scan, and then in the sprintray slicer it will tell me there's a file integrity issue and when I "fix" it, often times it will delete an entire tooth or something weird like that. Has anybody else experienced that and figures out why it's happening?

I just was notified a patient complained about me to the board. I feel confident I did the right things and followed up multiple times with the patient to make sure treatment was done properly. However, my understanding was the board doesn't proceed with investigation if there is no concern. However, the complaint was filed in september and they just notified me now and are asking me to include all records xrays notes etc and send it to them. I am really disappointed and nervous because this makes it seem like the board sees a reason to investigate that there is wrong doing. Is anyone aware of the process? I already contacted my malpractice insurance and they said someone is calling me back soon but this is heavy on my mind.

How many employees are necessary for a single doctor, fee for service practice that is trying to grow in patients?

Currently we have 1 1/2 hygienists, 2 assistants, a billing coordinator and a scheduling coordinator. Bought the practice right out of residency and this is what the previous owner had in place.

I had a neighbor who’s a retired RDH tell me she thinks that’s too many employees. My overhead is definitely high and payroll makes up the biggest portion. Wondering if I could do without one of the people upfront or one of the assistants.

Thank you!

I'm looking for a set of loupes with a wireless headlight. The light needs to be bright, convenient to use, easily cleanable (no wires or crevices) and with a long battery life. So far I haven't found anything better than the Orascoptic Dragonfly. Other than the annoying screw-on of the batteries, it ticks all the boxes and is better than the competitors. However, all of the companies don't have reps in my country, so I might be missing something. What is the best wireless loupe light on the market at the moment?

I've heard there are some great educational resources online, like youtube channels, demos, forums, and more. I'm interested in seeing real demos with explanations that offer practical, clinically applicable tips. Ive heard dentists mention picking up valuable tips from online demos, but I’m not familiar with many channels myself. It could be really helpful if others would share their recommended resources. I’m most interested in advancing my skills in extractions and endo, but I’d appreciate any content recommendations

Hello everyone,

I will try to keep my story short but with enough details. I graduated in September 2023 in Transylvania and after having a member of my family propose me a job as a dentist in a clinic she is an associate in ( in France), I accepted and started learning French 6 months prior to having my language test and move there to start working. I had 3 months of staying and assisting arround ( mainly observing as I wasn’t allowed to do anything until I had all my papers in order even though I was already accepted by the Order of the Dentists). Since the beginning there were a lot of problems with my relative’s associate and the secretary of the clinic at the point where she clearly stated she would do everything in her power so that I don’t work there and that everything will go wrong for me. With the help of a lawyer and my relative, we continued and I started working this April. Since then, I had to get myself used to : being a new dentist as I have never practiced before in a clinic, talking to patients and explaining procedures, treatment plans, working without an assistant, getting used to all the protocols of the clinic regarding the documentation for patients, the appointments, planning the schedule 2-3 months in advance, learning the French dental system, insurance policies and reimbursements for the patients, learning the administrative and secretarial system, new sterilisation protocols, having to complete mandatory courses, finishing paperwork and all this is a whole new different language ( my 5th).

It was a lot but I told myself I’m gonna make it.

Clearly, I did a few mistakes along the way, mostly on the secretarial administrative part and regarding the quotes for the patients that they had to send to the insurance company, as there are quite a few things to take into consideration in the French system with the 100% reimbursed, moderately and non-reimbursed. But in the end, nothing too serious or without a solution.

The problem was that I was not receiving a lot of help from either part, my relative had it tough when she came in France also 20 years ago and think that ( more or less) it s normal for me to have it just as tough also. The secretary started getting angry and annoyed every time I would ask a question more than 2-3 times or do a mistake cause “ she likes things done perfectly and I don’t know how to do anything”, and then would also complain I do not communicate with her. But when asked why she is so rude and though towards me the response was always “so I learn better”. Even after i expressed to my employer ( my relative) that I do not works like that, I cannot communicate with people who belittle and talk in a tone of superiority in everything to me, the situation continued.

I have reached a point where I had a verbal altercation with the secretary, after having forgotten to do something for my relative that she imposed on me while I was also in a moment I was doing sterilisation, helping another colleague and being late for my next patient. I was told I am good at nothing, I never learn, that since April there is no improvement in anything I do, and that I am always forgetful and can’t be trusted with anything ( all of which I find to be exaggerated accusations)

I feel burnt-out, I started having anxiety about work, I feel like I’m not good at anything I’m doing, even when 80% of my patients are happy and some also tell me how I have changed their perspective on dental appointments, I still feel a sense of hopelessness, depression, I feel alone and overwhelmed.

My relative, who is also very aware of all the problems, as her last 2-3 collaborators also left because of this, promised moving to another place that she started building last year. But I cannot wait and endure this any longer, I fear for my wellbeing.. and I want to leave even if I feel indebted to her for helping me move to France.

What would you do in my situation?