When is too soon to quit a new job

[youraverageasia]

I've been working a month now at a corporate dentist office and so far I hate it. We have no hygienist so 70% of the patients I see are prophy patients and the new patients that I do see usually just need cleanings anyway. The compensation that I thought I would be receiving is also a lot less although the owner doc said its the slow months and should pick up in the fall. Should I stick it out for another few months or just start looking for better opportunities?

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[PerioDont]

start looking yesterday.

being a new grad associate generally sucks. find another position or two and try to see if you can move towards ownership

 

[oralcare123]

Tell the owner to give you daily minimum or you will be leaving. Never agree to do hygiene, unless for a very short period of time until hygienist hired. It's just dead boring

 

[Mauricio45]

This is why I am a fan of doing 2 part-times as it gives you more flexibility and leverage. That way, you're not fully dependent on one place. Never put your fate and career into the hands of one random dentist (who has the same education as you). Easier to walk away from a PT job than a FT job.

When it comes to dental associateships, people leave & fired all the time. I know people that left after a month and less than that. No big deal. Move on to the next place. Just don't keep making it a habit; otherwise, that looks suspicious on a resume.

Don't quit until you find another job(s) though. But yeah, doing hygiene work is a major morale killer. You're worth more than that.

The compensation that I thought I would be receiving is also a lot less although the owner doc said its the slow months and should pick up in the fall.

Ahhh, the classic "bait and switch" that is all too common in dentistry. They ALL say that. They're just stringing you along making you a fool. Dentists lie to each other all the time in this business.

 

[yappy]

Start looking for a better job. Think hard about the questions you need to ask, and signs to look for, so that you land in a better job

 

[cmjacks5]

I've been working a month now at a corporate dentist office and so far I hate it. We have no hygienist so 70% of the patients I see are prophy patients and the new patients that I do see usually just need cleanings anyway. The compensation that I thought I would be receiving is also a lot less although the owner doc said its the slow months and should pick up in the fall. Should I stick it out for another few months or just start looking for better opportunities?

Nah quit

 

[TanMan]

I've been working a month now at a corporate dentist office and so far I hate it. We have no hygienist so 70% of the patients I see are prophy patients and the new patients that I do see usually just need cleanings anyway. The compensation that I thought I would be receiving is also a lot less although the owner doc said its the slow months and should pick up in the fall. Should I stick it out for another few months or just start looking for better opportunities?

Too soon is when you don't have another source of income lined up. In the types of work environments that you describe, many docs end up doing 1 minute prophies since many people don't know any better and when there's no out of pocket expense, there's no value placed on it by the patient. Those that are unhappy end up self-dismissing and the cycle continues.

Don't quit until you have a better opportunity lined up.

 

[ElCubanito]

When is too soon to quit a new job?​

Lunch time? I would try to finish out the day...but really, look for other opportunities and bail without remorse. Its business, and you have a fiduciary duty to your family and your bank account.

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

just quit. who gives a crap. a new opportunity cannot be worse since unlucky things statistically cannot happen in a row. Good luck!

 

[2TH MVR]

Not sure if you are in a saturated urban area or rural. Best not to burn bridges especially in the rural settings. Be professional. Voice your concerns to your current employer. Find a mutual agreed amount of time (3-6 months to rectify the situation). During this time .... start researching other opportunities. Obviously .... private practice should be your goal. Once you have a private practice .... if you still have days available .... then continue PT at an associateship until your PP is busier.

We've all been there. Don't take it too personally. Do whats best for you and a family (if you have one).

 

[allDAT]

An office that needs an associate already has at least 5 days of hygiene completed by RDHs.

 

[LegendaryPanda]

An office that needs an associate already has at least 5 days of hygiene completed by RDHs.

Yeah I'm wondering what the owner is smoking. Why would he hire a dentist to do prophy instead of a RDH. That's just like, burning money.

 

[charlestweed]

Yeah I'm wondering what the owner is smoking. Why would he hire a dentist to do prophy instead of a RDH. That's just like, burning money.

The op said 70% of the procedures that he performs are cleanings. This means that there are only enough cleaning patients to fill 3.5 days in a 5-day work week (3.5 days/5 days x 100 = 70%). If the owner hired a full time RDH, instead of the OP, a RDH would get to sit around doing nothing 30% of the time and would still get paid a full time salary. And the owner would have to work harder because the hygienist cannot legally perform other dental procedures that only a licensed DDS can. By hiring a licensed DDS like the OP, the owner can dump more procedures (not just cleaning procedures) that he doesn’t want to perform to his associate dentist. Because his associate DDS can do more procedures for him, the owner now has more time to focus on more productive and complex procedures. Being more efficient helps the owner to produce more.....much more than if he hires a RDH.

Another reason for hiring a DDS, instead of RDH, is the owner doesn’t have to follow the labor law since most DDS’s are hired as independent contractors…. their hours and work days can be cut and they can be let go any time.

These are just my guesses.

 

[LegendaryPanda]

The op said 70% of the procedures that he performs are cleanings. This means that there are only enough cleaning patients to fill 3.5 days in a 5-day work week (3.5 days/5 days x 100 = 70%). If the owner hired a full time RDH, instead of the OP, a RDH would get to sit around doing nothing 30% of the time and would still get paid a full time salary. And the owner would have to work harder because the hygienist cannot legally perform other dental procedures that only a licensed DDS can. By hiring a licensed DDS like the OP, the owner can dump more procedures (not just cleaning procedures) that he doesn’t want to perform to his associate dentist. Because his associate DDS can do more procedures for him, the owner now has more time to focus on more productive and complex procedures. Being more efficient helps the owner to produce more.....much more than if he hires a RDH.

Another reason for hiring a DDS, instead of RDH, is the owner doesn’t have to follow the labor law since most DDS’s are hired as independent contractors…. their hours and work days can be cut and they can be let go any time.

These are just my guesses.

Right, that's if he had to choose one, but he could just hire a part time RDH for 70% of the time and a part time associate for the other 30%. I imagine he would still save money that way.

 

[charlestweed]

Right, that's if he had to choose one, but he could just hire a part time RDH for 70% of the time and a part time associate for the other 30%. I imagine he would still save money that way.

That would be ideal for the owner. The problem is most people want to have full time job, especially for the new grads who have a lot of student loans. Therefore, it’ll be harder for the owner to find a P/T dentist who is ok with working only 1-2 days/week. Another benefit of having a DDS, who can perform multiple tasks 5 days a week, is it gives the receptionist more flexibility in booking the appointments for the patients. It’s also more stressful for the owner to deal with 2 employees (RDH + DDS) than to deal with just 1 employee (an associate DDS)…..what if these 2 don’t get along with each other?

 

[Mauricio45]

Lol. Associates are usually crapped on by everyone. Front desk, hygienists, owner, assistants, etc. They're the lowest in the hierarchy in the office. Lower than assistant, janitor, dirt on floor, and turd in toilet bowl.

 

[charlestweed]

Lol. Associates are usually crapped on by everyone. Front desk, hygienists, owner, assistants, etc. They're the lowest in the hierarchy in the office. Lower than assistant, janitor, dirt on floor, and turd in toilet bowl.

True. But at least the associates get paid the highest…..only second to the owner dentists.

Every new grad dentist has to go through this hardship. Without any clinical experience and money, one can’t expect much. Many owners had also had to clean teeth several years before their practices gained enough patients for them to hire RDHs and associate dentists. At the beginning, some owners even had to mop their own clinic floor, clean the chair after every patient, and walk to different parking lots to put their office’s flyers on the car’s windshield by themselves. Now they are older….in their mid 40s -50s…..it’s time for them to relax and dump all the procedures that they don’t want to do to the younger associates. That’s the reward they deserve to have for their hard work, sacrifices, and willingness to take business risk when they were younger.

My sister and my wife have practiced dentistry dentistry/perio for nearly 20 years and they both have to do all the cleanings by themselves. They’ve never hired RDHs nor associate dentists to work for them. There are not enough patients for them to do that. Lower overhead = higher take-home income.

 

[experiment626]

I've had my fair share of private practice associateships that I wanted to quit day 1. Got sold into a practice that advertised itself as a "multi-specialty" clinic with 30% production. What they hid from the job description was that the GP associateship just did 1 chair of hygiene, recalls, and new patient exams. Any cases involving endo, implants, Invisalign, or multiple crowns automatically gets sent to the specialists. No daily minimum to support you either.

 

[maruprime]

August is busy until this week. Kids started school today in California. September, October, November are slow. December is busy because ppo patients want to use their $1500 yearly limit before December 31. Don’t be sad. I read in a magazine during dental school in 2008 that over 70% of new dentist graduates quit their first job before 1 calendar year. I assume that number is higher nowadays.

 

[allDAT]

Yeah I'm wondering what the owner is smoking. Why would he hire a dentist to do prophy instead of a RDH. That's just like, burning money.

Most dentists will work for a percentage of collections. So it’s actually cheaper under most circumstances to have a dentist perform prophylaxis. If a hygienist was paid $40 an hour to do a $75 cleaning (as a common example), the owner is paying them 53% of collections. An associate would be paid 30%….just another example of how backwards dentistry has become.

 

[charlestweed]

Most dentists will work for a percentage of collections. So it’s actually cheaper under most circumstances to have a dentist perform prophylaxis. If a hygienist was paid $40 an hour to do a $75 cleaning (as a common example), the owner is paying them 53% of collections. An associate would be paid 30%….just another example of how backwards dentistry has become.

To get paid 53%, the hygienist has to do a lot more work and spend a lot more time per patient than the associate dentist. The hygienist has to set up the chair, gets all the instruments ready, walks to the front to call the pt in, and clean the pt’s teeth without an assistant. After that, the hygienist has to clean/disinfect the chair, put the dirty instruments away, and get the chair ready for the next pt.

The associate dentist doesn’t have to do any of these. The assistant does all these for him/her....and holds the suction for him/her. With all these helps from a dental assistant, the associate dentist can clean patient’s teeth 3-4 times faster and is able to see more patients and produce more $$$ than what a hygienist can.

Some busy offices hire hygienist assistants to assist the hygienists but most of the offices I know (including the corp offices that I work for) don’t. The hygienists have to do everything.