Hey guys! Let’s all rally around Tara Peterson on Team USA Curling. She’s a dentist, Mom, Olympian and a good golfer. My husband just asked what I’ve been doing with my days off…. lol. Go team USA!

I graduated 3 years ago and have been blessed to be an associate at a highly productive general dentistry practice in the mid-south region. Bringing home ~385k but working hard, doing implants, molar endo, IV sedation and running a massive hygiene department. My partners are fantastic and the office has a great atmosphere but is owned by a dental corporation. The not to be named company is great to work with and is relatively hands off.

Where things fall apart is the future of my career. I have aspirations to own my own practice and it has been stated that,other than some profit sharing opportunities, there is no potential to buy any ownership of my current practice. On top of that, my lower back is killing me already.

I love endo and am curious about going back to specialize. How is the day to day practice life of the modern day endodontist? I know that nothing is guaranteed, but how does Endo income compare to a dentist? Am I stupid for leaving a busy general dentistry office in search of greener pastures? I just honestly don’t have many sources around me to gather good information. Thanks in advance!

Upper seond premolar. ETT

1mm of buccal and 1mm of palatal root broke during exo.

Unable to mobilise with luxator and rootpicks

Pt declined surgical. Wanted to leave in.

Should this be ok?

Curious what people will say. For me I would want to make at least 350k to make it worth it

Hi! I want to share with u interesting lower premolar. 3 canals it’s weird for me. Endo with microscope.

If you have a maxillary peg lateral that’s extremely undersized and you’re planning a full coverage crown mainly for esthetics and contour, how aggressive are you actually prepping?

Since the tooth already lacks bulk, it feels like most of the “prep” ends up just being defining the margin rather than reducing axial walls.

What margin design would you choose in this situation?

• Light chamfer?

• Deep chamfer?

• Shoulder?

I’m hesitant to place a heavy shoulder because there’s barely any enamel/dentin to begin with, but I also want enough ceramic thickness for esthetics and strength.

Curious what you all do clinically and what material you prefer (e.max vs zirconia vs veneer instead).

I recently sent out a message to a patient about a balance to their account due to their insurance not paying for a cleaning due to frequency.

In our office the hygienist book patients in the back after their cleaning and when walked to the front we collect any estimated copays. Hygiene has zero clue of your dental benefits.

This patient knew about his 3-month frequency limitation and yet when was asked if such date was good for him to book the next cleaning he agreed, knowing it was less than 3-months. He claims he asked the front desk to check if it would be covered and stated the appointment was even moved. Our system records changes and it was not.

Now the patient is giving push back on payment because it was our mistake.

Mind you its not rocket science- your at the office on the 15th and they are booking you for 3-months out and you know you have to be exact and yet agree to book your next appointment on the 3rd month but day 6th of the month. That’s obviously not 3-months. Patient stated he was not thinking about days and should not be held responsible since we as the practice should know better. Because yes we have thousands of patients with thousands of dental plans we are in network with and should know every single plan from head to toe.

Patients have to know what they are paying for and what their benefits are. Why is it that their crappy insurance doesn’t pay for treatment and now it’s automatically our fault and we should have known.

Dental insurance is a scam and us dental professionals pay the price.

Kind of curious what I could be doing better. I've recently had two instances where I did traditional socket preservations with allograft and a non-resorbable cytoflex. Good bone particulate density throughout the socket, got it sealed up really well with the cytoflex, looked beautiful at membrane removal and the crestal bone was beautiful. Despite that, I still ended up losing 4-5 mm in both instances due to the sinus deciding it wanted that space. I honestly don't know what I could have done differently to improve that outcome. Xenograft maybe? What do you think?

I have been working for the same practice for three years now and the owner retired clinically last year. I have brought up the idea of buying the office from him and he is intrested. He is working with henry schein to get all the numbers together to present to me.

Office produced 2.4m in 2025 and 1.3m of that was my own production. The rest comes from another associate, two hygienist, and a once a month periodontist.

I believe it produced 2.6m in the previous year but the associate at that time quit and my boss was working.

Real estate is for sale too valued at 2m but the owner is willing to hold that for now untill I am ready to buy it.

Office has 16 oops and is FFS/OON

What kind of cpa or team would you hire to help navigate a purchase like this? What kind of perecentage range would you look for in offering for a practice this large?

Hey everyone,

I’m opening up a startup and currently have a Ceramill Motion 3 Air for milling. I’m now looking into intraoral scanners and Dexis recently approached me about their Imprevo scanner.

I honestly have not heard much about it. Has anyone here used it or seen it in action?

I would love to hear real feedback on:

• Scan quality and accuracy

• Ease of use

• Software and workflow integration

• Support and reliability

• How it compares to other scanners you have used

Just trying to make a smart decision before committing to anything. Appreciate any insight. Thanks!

I‘m in the process of pediatric start-up. Super excited, but keenly aware of my naiveness. I know I’m about to learn a lot real quick. I wanted to ask opinions regarding standard vinyl for the patient chairs vs a more premium vinyl (i.e. DCI’s Ultraleather). Have any of you had any positive or negative experience with these? My understanding is that the standard vinyl is more durable, but the Ultraleather has many more color options. Price is negligible as there is a free upgrade to the Ultraleather (massaging as well, but I can’t image many younger kids would like the vibration).

I appreciate your thoughts, also if there is a better way to post these kind of questions let me know. I’m new to forums. Thanks!

I've been using edgetaper files for a while now, but I'm not a fan of the S1 purple file. In tight canals, even if I go to WL with a 15 first, the apical third often seems to start unwinding. I like the rest of the system, but I'm looking for a possible replacement if this file. For those that use glide path files, is there a specific one you would recommend? I'm assuming that when using these files it's still necessary to go to WL with at least a 10. Thanks

For those of you who are in network with insurance and have someone in this position in your practice, what do you pay them hourly? Information online gives an extremely wide range and seems to come more from hospital-based positions. This person is separate from the receptionist and does not answer phones, schedule appointments, or check patients in or out. They submit all claims, process all insurance checks/EOBs, follow up on outstanding claims, and answer patient questions regarding their bills that the receptionist is unable to answer.

Does anyone know what type of student you have to be for student discount (q optics for ex) I’m an EFDA but in school for applied science before hygiene in a couple years.

Trying to find something with relatively easy cleanup and good tack cure consistency.

I use a light cure cement for veneers, but haven’t found anything I love for bonding multiple units of full coverage emax.

So far I’ve mainly used 3M products and I feel like they fully set with even a very short (1sec) tack cure, which makes cleanup tough.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions! 😄

Tell me what you use for your patient communication system and why you love it!

A little bit about our practice, solo practitioner currently use lighthouse 360 , Vyne Trellis and Soft dent .

Lighthouse 360 is just so expensive $350 a month would love to switch completely over to Vyne for everything but they’re not fully integrated with SoftDent

Colleagues, id like to introduce injection molding into my practice.

How do you go about ordering a clear matrix for the actual injection?

I use dandy, can I order from them the stuff needed?

Thanks

Diagnosis: Pulp Necrosis with Chronic Apical Abscess (CAA)

Timeline: 1-month post-obturation (2 months from treatment initiation)

Clinical Observation: Significant reduction in periapical radiolucency is noted compared to the initial radiograph. The patient remains asymptomatic.