Just to be clear, I am writing this short article to help young doctors overcome the common mistakes in searching for that first job, as well as helping educate yourself on the type of practice that would be a good fit for employment as an associate. With this said, there are no perfect jobs nor will there ever be a perfect transition from being a student to being an employed dentist. While seeking perfection, understand that you will fall short. The trick is to find a job that can keep you extremely busy, offer a wide range of services that you can learn to perform, on a wide age group of patients, while figuring out that your education in dental school is never enough. Your dental license is just a learner’s permit, and at best, you are just barely not dangerous. Your real-life dental education begins the moment you begin working on patients that actually pay you.
While searching for that ideal job, keep in mind that there are many points of importance that you will need to consider. I want to quickly bullet point these with a short explanation of what they mean and what you should look for. Secondly, keep in mind that 90% of the offices with associates are not really ready for them. That same group of owner doctors are clueless as to how to find and onboard new doctors, and even fall short on how to run a profitable practice.
Here is a quick list of things you need to know and data that would be great to have before you take that first job.
- Location: The ratio of dentists to population should not dip below one dentist per 2,000 potential clients. Violating this in an area with a lot of competition ensures a poor practice and a poor potential for a strong financial future. Is there visibility from the road and great signage? Hopefully the office is not in a professional building (the worst possible location for a dental office).
- History of consistent growth: Offices ready for an associate have consistent growth of 15% to 20% a year, year in, and year out.
- New Patients: The average office has 20-30 new patients per month. The average practice is not a practice that is ready for an associate. You need an office doing at least 20% better than that (well above average) and that also has the ability to double the new patients if they want the new doctor to be successful. They must have a history of successfully marketing their practice that has created a built-in demand for dentistry.
- Reviews: Should have hundreds of 4.8 to 5-star reviews on Google, Health Grades, Vitals, Yelp, etc. Poor reviews mean a low number of new patients.
- Has the doctor ever had an associate? If not, be sure to check that they have the new patients, overhead, and capacity to add another doctor. It is likely that they do not. There needs to be at least two chairs for each doctor, and at least one extra swing room between them for same day dentistry.
- If the doctor has had an associate: Why did they leave, what was their monthly new patients, monthly production, total time there, how did the patients and staff feel about the doctor? The previous associate doctor should be contacted by you to find out their story concerning the time they spent working in the office.
- Marketing: Where do their new patients come from: DSO, Internal Referrals, or external marketing? If they do not track this and if they do not have at least about a 50% direct referral rate, there is something wrong.
- Strong Recall System: Look out 3 to 5 months in the schedule and see what the days look like. The only people booked should be recall hygiene. If they do not have 90% of the schedule on hygiene filled, there is something wrong. Why are the patients not referring their friends and neighbors and why are they not coming back? This can be a huge challenge for a new doctor as a new employee in an office.
- What are the demographics of the practice and location: Let’s assume you go to zipwho.com and look up the office zip code and determine the income, educational level, race ratios, marriage ratio, density of population and the average age of the population. If the practice demographics don’t mirror the population demographics, there is a reason, and this reason is keeping the practice from consistent growth.
- Look up and do a background check on the practice and the doctor: Check the state board and, if you are looking a job leading to a partnership, do a thorough background check for civil and criminal history of the doctor. It costs about $75.00. It is better to know now if there were lawsuits and bankruptcies in their business history.
- Talk to the team: Get a feeling for their job satisfaction, culture of the practice, and the average length of employment. High turn over means poor leadership and poor culture.
- Profitability of the practice: These are numbers that you would love to see, but probably will not be able to study them. Chapters 16 and 17 in the Super General Dental Practice discuss in detail what a great practice should have. Long term success hinges on this being a win-win relationship with both parties being part of the solution.
- Hire an attorney to go over your employment agreement before signing: While nearly every recent graduate has very little to offer as a raw new dentist, there are things in the contract that can be negotiated. One thing to remember is that if you are taking a job in a city where you would ultimately want to own a practice, be sure that your non-compete will not prevent you from leaving the employment and still be able to practice in the town.
Short and sweet, but this should get you started on the right foot to a successful first job. Call if you have any questions. I know with a little effort and complete engagement to the process, you will be successful in your first job.
Michael Abernathy DDS
972.523.4660 cell
[email protected]