2017 New Grad Edition - 39

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Long Timers, Any Regrets Looking Back?
Townies share what they've learned over their years of practicing and what they'd do differently

For those who have practiced 20-plus years, especially those nearing retirement or already
retired ... any regrets in the way you ran your practice? Would you have gone bigger, or smaller,
with the wisdom of hindsight? Work/life balance? Were you ever burned out and hating dentistry or has it been good for you? Do you look back and find you got a little stale and in a rut?
Did you try lots of new things later in your career and regret doing it? Or was that the icing
on the cake of a long career? For those fully retired-do you or did you wish you could have
puttered along for a few more years in a part-time, low-volume, low-stress way? ■

raclro
Member Since: 08/17/05
Post: 1 of 358

3/24/2016

I practiced small and do not regret that. I do my own hygiene and maybe I would have
considered hiring a hygienist if I had it to do over. A large, overly busy practice would have
burned me out. You need to know your limitations. ■

hendoc4ct
Member Since: 04/12/11
Post: 3 of 358

3/24/2016

Well, if practicing 20 years makes me a long-timer, then I either have to start lying about
how many years I have practiced (25) or thinking about retirement (not going to do that, because
I love what I do!)
Three chairs, low volume. My biggest regret was not getting the right consultant/coach to
help me learn earlier in my practice. When I started with coach Ron Arndt (now retired), my
practice just took off and my stress went way down, because he taught me how to be a leader, a
boss. Once that happened, dentistry got easier.
The keys to no regrets (in my book):

nosilverdotcom
Member Since: 05/03/03
Post: 5 of 358

Learn every day. Take CE and add it to your practice. Make it so that if anyone asks
you, "Have you ever heard of such and such or so and so?" you can say, "Yes, I read/
saw/heard about that, and I know something about it. May not do it, or ever have
done it-but I know of it." It will make you a better doctor.
2.
Do what you want to do. If endo sucks for you, don't do it! If surgery sucks, don't do it!
I have found that massive debt that does not add to your bottom line is what causes
this. If you've got to pay a lot of bills, then the job owns you; not too many bills, then you own
the job. Then it's not a job-it's your life, and you like it. ■
3/24/2016

I could have been more aware of the market, which would have made me available to more
new patients, but I still would have built a practice around personal dental care versus marketplace care. I am in a large, competitive market and as the commercial practices have grown in
number, our practice has also grown. That's either due to the awareness of dentistry they create
with their marketing or with the problems they create with their style of practice. ■

Tom Mitchell
Member Since: 02/16/04
Post: 7 of 358

3/24/2016

I've also been out almost 28 years and owned a small home office for 15 years. (Three years
after I graduated.) Yes, I got to spend lots of time with my kids in their early years. However, I

Epis Quattlebomb
Member Since: 07/09/04 |
Post: 15 of 358

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