Dentistry is not easy money. It’s physically demanding, hard on the body, and mentally exhausting. Long days bent over, constant focus, and years of wear and tear add up fast. On top of that, running a practice is a grind, staffing issues, rising overhead, insurance headaches, and nonstop decision making. That pressure doesn’t end when the office closes. We also deal with stress most people never see: anxious patients, unrealistic expectations, and sometimes a lack of appreciation for the work we do. Dentistry is one of the toughest professions out there, requiring skill, precision, and resilience every single day. The income isn’t luck, it’s earned. And we deserve every dollar of it.

The good part about working for yourself is that you get to choose your own hours. The bad part is that those hours are 24/7.

Boomers got a lot of root canals because they have crappy amalgam (silver) fillings which are known to crack teeth in half. Most Gen X and Millenials don’t have as many of either.

There’s been a lot of chatter on here about dentists being a scam. So here’s a long winded post from a dentist about how the dentist is a scam. It will also contain offensive language towards the people who hate dentists. Basically, if you read this…you will feel offended. Part I: Diagnostic variability. The number one complaint that is consistent across most complaints about the dentist is that one says you have 12 cavities, but two days later a different dentist says you have zero. What gives? Cavities aren’t really a binary thing. It’s kind of like cancer. We all probably have cancerous cells floating in our body, but they get taken care of (it’s not a perfect analogy stay with me). The cavity causing bacteria decays the tooth over time with acid. Some dentists are much more aggressive at intervening. Sometimes this can be due to the fact that they trained in a low income area and know they’re gonna slug a Mountain Dew as soon as they leave their appointment. Get in there and drill it out before it becomes a root canal or worse. Then you have people that are more conservative. Usually practice in a more high agency and affluent area. They can provide guidance for proper nutrition to avoid cavity progression. In these cases, what people consider a “scam” is mostly just a philosophical mismatch. If you want to be treated conservatively, find a conservative dentist. Then you have crooks. They exist. I had an assistant that worked for an older doc who wouldn’t fully remove all the decay and it would continue to progress even after filling it. Letting it turn into a root canal or extraction. Just evil stuff. How do you know which category your dentist belongs to? Usually the staff gives it away. If your hygienist is whispering for you to get a second opinion, run and never go back. There’s no bulletproof way to tell you. Everyone thinks they are the exception. “Oh your dentist screwed you? I knew I didn’t have cavities. What a fucking asshole” Most of the time the people worried about getting screwed aren’t. It’s the innocent people who are none the wiser. Evil score: 4/10 Part II: Private equity takeover Much of the sales pressure you’re seeing in dental offices is downstream from the massive PE roll up happening in the industry. They are trying to turn every dentist into a CVS. They’re wrong, they just haven’t run out of money yet to learn the lesson. PE owned offices have morning sales targets (let’s get 4 dentures today, team!). There are bonus structures in place. Lots of pressure to sell sell sell. Worst part? Many times you can’t even tell the office is owned by PE. They come to a doc, buy them out, and employ them while keeping the clinic name the same. Deep cleanings are the biggest example of PE destroying the integrity of diagnostic criteria. They treat everyone like a deep cleaning to try and game the insurance companies. Evil score: 11/10 Part III: Patients are a little retarded. Dentistry is all about prevention. 90% of dental issues can be prevented with a few small changes. You probably won’t believe this, but most patients would rather get cavities & fix them than prevent them. They will tell us this point blank. When you challenge them, the say “my mom had soft teeth, it’s genetic *sips her mocha frappe with 8 pumps of syrup*” People don’t respect oral health, and they don’t believe that it’s all that important. They bark when you ask them to take their blood pressure. They view dental cleanings like a nail salon appointment. There is another reason why patients view the dentist as a scam. It’s one of the few places where there is a direct transfer of funds from patient to doctor. In a hospital, the scam becomes so obfuscated that the recipient of your 140,000 ER visit is a faceless soup of executives. At the dentist, you are looking right at him. You see the picture of his kid in college and think “you’re welcome for the Textbooks Eddie!” Evil score: 3/10

It's wild. Your grandpa who invested in the S&P500 is up 11.5% this year. You who went all in on Bitcoin are almost flat. What do you say at Thanksgiving dinner?

So satisfying. I want eat all of them 🥰

I’ve worked on patients from all walks of life: from trailer parks to heads of state. Of the few that actually couldn’t afford dental care, I did it for free. 95% of people that say they can’t afford it, really mean “I’d rather spend my money on cooler things and can’t be bothered to prevent future issues”

30 is so so young, incredibly young. You might as well be a caterpillar just escaping metamorphosis, about to take flight. However, paradoxically, 22 is very, very old — indescribably old. You’re washed. It’s over for you. Your ships have long sailed. Give it up.

Dental Insurance has arguably the best business model: Cap coverage, deny treatment, delay payment And WHO does the consumer get mad at?? THE DENTIST

Not a single person asked me if I could run fast in my new shoes today. Being an adult is dumb.

Set up your life to be as low friction as possible: walk to cafes, groceries, restaurants. Be close as possible to friends and family. An extra 1000sqft you fill with cheap shit isn’t gonna make you happy.

I need the Cyclones to do a rebrand night like they did with the “Cincinnati Coneys” where they do this:

Happy 513 day to all who celebrate

30’s is your prime… you look better, make more money, more accomplishments under your belt, wiser, dress better…. I think everything is just better lol

I'm of the opinion that both people in a marriage have a sacred duty to stay hot for each other

Living within walking distance of your friends completely transforms your quality of life. @naval

Men only want one thing

Lifting weights, eating protein, and going for long walks solves more problems than people realize.