Dentaltown January 2017 - 14

howard speaks
column

Continued from p. 12

dentists who, after paying out their rent, mortgage,
equipment, insurance and overhead, are referring out
things like extractions of wisdom teeth, single-tooth
implants, and molar endo.

What you're giving up
Do they know how much they're referring out? If
they tracked on a spreadsheet every time they referred
out a molar endo-the date and $800-the data would
surprise them. If you can't measure it, you can't manage
it. The average dentist makes $174,000 a year; the average
endodontist makes $325,000.
Similarly, oral surgeons make $413,000 a year but
all these general dentists-and not just millennials,
but dentists in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s-sit here and
say, "I don't like blood." Dude, I'm pretty sure you
became a doctor. If you don't like blood, you should've
been an engineer and worked on a chip at Intel. Suck
it up, buttercup! I don't care if you don't like blood
or guts, because you're a doctor, and people are fi lled
with blood and guts.
An orthodontist makes $301,000 a year and you,
carrying $350,000 in student loans, don't want to
do clear aligners? It's mostly about oral scanning and
impressions-the company designs the trays for you-so
basically you're taking an impression and inserting trays.
If you can't figure out the process, Dentaltown's online
CE section has lots of courses on it.
My generation of dentists was so busy working on
decay that we had a bad attitude and said, "Yeah, we
don't like working on kids." It's different times now,
though: The U.S. graduates just one new pediatric
dentist for every 1 million people, and meanCheck out
while the A ffordable
Howard Farran's Healthcare Act made
podcasts!
medical insurance cover
Listen to free Dentistry
chi ld ren's dent istr y.
Uncensored with Howard
There's a huge market
Farran podcasts about
clear correctors-and
for pediatric dentistry.
pretty much anything
If you don't like givunder the sun!-by
ing
children
shots, there
downloading them
from iTunes.
are amazing hard-tissue

14

JANUARY 2017 // dentaltown.com

Howard Live
Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, is an international speaker
who has written books and dozens of articles. To
schedule Howard to speak at your next national, state or
local dental meeting, email rebecca@farranmedia.com.

2017
10

Coastal Carolina Orthodontics

MAR

Jacksonville, North Carolina

29

Patterson Dental Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame Event

MAR

19-22
APR

28
APR

Cleveland, Ohio

Townie Meeting 2017
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

Winnebago County
Dental Society
Rockford, Illinois

lasers now. You say, "It cuts slow," but you don't have
to numb the tooth, which saves 10 minutes and your
sanity because the patient isn't losing it because of a
needle. If you started with a hard-tissue laser, you've
already removed all the decay and are filling it by the
time that tooth would have been given an injection and
numb enough for you to even start. Plus, there's nitrous
oxide. Between laughing gas, hard-tissue lasers and you
changing your attitude, I don't ever want to hear one
person with even $1 in debt saying in 2017 that they
don't like working on kids. Only debt-free millionaire
dentists with fully funded 401(k) funds can have the
luxury of not working on kids.
Same with periodontics: Soon we'll have 10,000
baby boomers retiring a day, and those people don't want
to be missing their teeth or messing with removable
dentures or partials, so the implant business is going
crazy now.
So for 2017, make the decision to suck it up,
buttercup, and take some CE for all that stuff you're
sending out the front door! ■
http://www.dentaltown.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown January 2017
