After I graduated from residency in 1995 and entered observe as an employed physician in a rural group, I used to be stunned to find that lots of my native dentist colleagues had been doing financially higher than many of the physicians I knew. They drove nicer vehicles, had extra break day, owned their very own workplace buildings, and talked extra comfortably about retirement planning than any of my medical friends. It wasn’t as a result of they had been essentially smarter or as a result of they’d chosen a extra profitable area. It was as a result of they’d constructed one thing physicians hardly ever do: a micro-business that labored for them as a substitute of the opposite means round.
How Dentists Are Educated to Suppose Like Homeowners
I began noticing how their practices had been structured in another way. Whereas most of us physicians had signed employment contracts with hospitals, the dentists owned their practices. Whereas we had been caught battling insurance coverage corporations for prior authorizations, they had been operating largely cash-based practices. They didn’t simply work of their observe—they owned it. And that delicate distinction made all of the distinction.
Dentists are educated—culturally and structurally—to be enterprise house owners. Whereas it’s true that extra dental graduates now begin out working in DSOs or established group practices, the bulk nonetheless aspire to and finally transition into possession throughout the first decade of observe.
Practically 80% graduate and rapidly transfer into non-public observe, usually shopping for into or beginning their very own. With higher than 30% being solo practices, they usually kind a PLLC or PC, set up S-Corp taxation, and begin paying themselves a wage out of their very own enterprise revenue. Many additionally purchase the true property the place their observe is positioned, permitting them to gather lease from their very own enterprise whereas constructing fairness in an appreciating asset.
In distinction, the script is flipped for docs. Practically 80% of physicians now select to work for healthcare organizations with W-2 employment preparations, the place they haven’t any enterprise possession, no asset creation, and minimal management over how they observe. This shift has important implications: physicians are more and more topic to inflexible schedules, company oversight, and productiveness quotas that prioritize quantity over worth. They usually lack the flexibleness to regulate their workflow, rent their very own help employees, or innovate inside their observe.
These structural constraints not solely cap their revenue to a hard and fast wage but additionally heighten the chance of burnout. A 2024 Mayo Clinic research reported that W-2 employed physicians are considerably extra more likely to expertise signs of emotional exhaustion and decreased skilled achievement than their self-employed counterparts. In distinction, many dentists, particularly those that personal their practices, take pleasure in higher autonomy over their time, methods, and employees—which interprets into extra management, much less stress, and higher life-style stability.
“Some docs nonetheless personal their careers. Most have quietly handed over the keys.”
Extra info right here:
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Wage vs. Wealth: What the Numbers Miss
As a health care provider, you may suppose that is fantastic—in any case, on paper, physicians usually earn extra in wage. In line with the 2025 Medscape Compensation Report, major care physicians common $281,000 and specialists earn about $398,000 yearly, in comparison with normal dentists who make between $180,000-$220,000. However right here’s the ignored issue:
Many dentists stack a number of revenue streams.
Along with their scientific pay, they usually generate income by means of observe income, lease from personally owned workplace buildings, depreciation tax advantages, elective cash-pay procedures, and retail product gross sales. In line with the American Dental Affiliation (ADA), practically 70% of dental observe house owners report revenue from no less than two separate sources. Over a 30-year profession, this diversified method regularly results in higher wealth accumulation. Whereas actual web value comparisons fluctuate, a number of surveys—together with a 2022 ADA Retirement Readiness report—point out that dental professionals, notably house owners, usually retire earlier and with greater web property than their doctor counterparts, particularly these in W-2 employment. Due to this fact, it’s no shock that though docs earn extra compensation, as a result of advantages of a sturdy enterprise mannequin, dentists can come out with just a few million {dollars} extra of their web value on the finish of a 30-year profession.
That’s to not say dentists don’t expertise burnout—they do. However possession usually offers them extra levers to drag: versatile schedules, observe mannequin management, and a number of revenue channels. For physicians, particularly these locked into employment-only pathways, those self same levers are sometimes lacking.
Methods and Scalability: Constructing Past the Dental Chair
Dentists additionally construct scalable methods. Their practices are constructed round team-based care. Hygienists and assistants deal with a big portion of routine work, permitting the dentist to give attention to high-value duties. If a dentist must be away, the workplace can nonetheless perform. Many physicians, alternatively, are trapped in a mannequin the place they need to personally carry out practically each affected person interplay. We handcuff ourselves to productiveness metrics, documentation necessities, and the lack to delegate meaningfully. That makes us extra weak to burnout, and it actually caps our revenue on the limits of our personal time.
Way of life and Longevity: Management Makes a Distinction
The possession mannequin offers dentists flexibility, too. They’ll take per week off and reschedule sufferers with out begging an administrator for protection. They management their workflow, hours, and staffing. Most work predictable 9-5 schedules. In the meantime, many physicians are nonetheless charting into the evening, managing name, or giving up weekends.
Maybe the most important differentiator is that dentists construct transferable enterprise property. Their practices may be bought on the finish of a profession, normally for 5-8x EBITDA. Their buildings admire. Their model has worth. Physicians in employment settings depart with what they got here in with: their license and some CME credit.
A Path Ahead for Physicians
Over a decade in the past, I transitioned from conventional employment to a micro-business construction working as a long-term contractor. I additionally bought a medical workplace constructing that I lease to the hospital that employed me as a contractor. I took this web page from the dental playbook, and the outcomes have been outstanding. I’ve spent the previous couple of years serving to physicians understand that they, too, can construction their careers in another way. You don’t need to be a dentist to construct a micro-business. You’ll be able to observe as an unbiased contractor, kind an expert entity, lease your personal area, and job-stack in a means that maximizes your flexibility, autonomy, and revenue.
Telehealth, concierge drugs, direct major care, cash-only specialty providers, skilled witness work, medical consulting, and each lengthy and short-term unbiased contracting are all viable paths.
Most significantly, physicians want to start out seeing themselves as greater than staff. We’re useful, not only for the work we do however for the companies we are able to construct round our experience. Dentists figured this out way back. Medical doctors used to grasp this, and it’s time for docs to pivot again towards this mannequin once more.
The reply isn’t quitting drugs or burning all of it down. It’s about reframing your identification from employee to proprietor, from technician to entrepreneur, from salary-earner to wealth-builder. I consider the doctor of the longer term received’t simply put on a stethoscope. They’ll additionally put on the mindset of a founder.
I’ve come to admire the dentist enterprise mannequin, not as a result of I need to be one however as a result of I consider it gives a roadmap for reclaiming autonomy in healthcare. If extra docs embraced the micro-business mindset, we might remodel our personal monetary lives and the tradition of drugs itself.
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5 Sensible Suggestions for Medical doctors
- Type a micro-corporation: Create a PLLC or PC with S-Corp election to separate your private {and professional} funds and to unlock tax benefits.
- Pursue 1099 work as a core or facet technique: Whether or not it’s full-time locums; employment-lite; or a mixture of moonlighting, telehealth, and consulting, 1099 work presents time management, revenue flexibility, and the power to job-stack by means of your micro-corporation.
- Purchase or lease workplace area: Take into account proudly owning your observe location to construct fairness and reap the benefits of actual property depreciation.
- Diversify revenue streams: Discover medical directorships, name protection, consulting, telehealth, content material creation, skilled witnessing, or area of interest cash-pay providers.
- Suppose like an proprietor: Start viewing each scientific encounter, system, and affected person relationship by means of the lens of enterprise possession, scalability, and autonomy.
So, the following time you drive by your native dental workplace, don’t simply see a clear smile enterprise. See a blueprint for how you can take management of your profession.
What do you suppose? Do you suppose the dental mannequin could make you extra money than the present doctor employment mannequin? How else might you improve your revenue as an employed doctor?
