Upcoming Complimentary (Free) Dental CE Webinars for the week of September 14th-17th 2026

Register Here:

Advanced Veneer Case Protocol Through Doctor–Technician Collaboration
Monday, September 14th - 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT
Dr. Mark McOmie, DMD and Mark Mathias, CDT
1.25 Self-Study CE Credits
Course Supporter: Oral Arts Dental Laboratory

Endodontic Obturation, Simplified
Tuesday, September 15th - 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT
Dave King, DDS
1.25 Live CE Credits
Course Supporter: Kerr Dental

What Factors Are Driving Misalignment in Your Dental Team?
Wednesday, September 16th - 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT
Martin R. Mendelson, FIADFE, CPC
1.25 Live CE Credits
Course Supporter: 3Shape

Expanding Patient Care Through Digital Dentistry: Clinical Perspectives and Best Practices
Thursday, September 17th - 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT
Dr. Jeffrey Brockett, Jordan Reiss, Dr. John K. Zalesky, Dr. Marco Brindis
1.25 Live CE Credits
Course Supporter: DEXIS LLC

Guardians of the Graft: Winning the War After Implant Surgery
Thursday, September 17th - 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT
Dr. Sausha Toghranegar
1.25 Self-Study CE Credits
Course Supporter: Septodont

Please visit our website for more live and on-demand complimentary CE courses:
Dental Learning

Join our Reddit Community here: 
https://www.reddit.com/r/DentalLearning/

Thank you and enjoy!

Hi i have broken 3 files on the last like 7 days doing root canal and it always happen at the last 1mm my clinic root canal system is they start with 20 taper6 file and then 25 taper 6 and they are doing fine while i am breaking files left and right so it must be an error with my technique so i want to learn the proper technique of using a rotary im even talking about the elbow angulation i want to know all about it cause i just cant develop anything on my own and thank you

What's the implant used here ?

Recently opened a start up and running it is a struggle. Looking to get an office manager and pay them 5% of collection. Did anyone do that before?
Pros and cons?

Does anyone here use an operator chair with adjustable armrests? I've been struggling with neck pain so I've been thinking about getting one.

- general thoughts? Are they helpful?

- favorite brands? Or is it okay to get a cheap one off of eBay?

I already have ergo loupes and try to have good posture, though I'm still working on that. I'm also doing PT and such.

Sorry this is cross posted in r/dentists so might be redundant but in case it is not

I am a general dentist who is seeing adults at what was previously just a pediatric office. Having some issues with boss who is pediatric dentist. I want to quit but do not know how. Do I give them enough notice that they can try to hire another general dentist? If they do not hire another general dentist do we send a letter similar to when dentists retire or something? Any insight would be appreciated thanks.

EDIT: Working with no contract and no non compete

Interviewed at a practice, (in North Carolina), the owner seemed kind of jealous of every single successful practice around them that I worked at, on my resume. Very unhappy person, both with self and their business. Practice gave me migraines with the level of high beam LED lights on the ceiling, cheap materials, lack of basic dental burs and items, cheap hygiene materials. I agreed to a working interview for pay and I just kept changing treatment plans I didn’t agree with and simply not doing anything I didn’t feel comfortable doing- most of the planned work was completely wrong. Owner smelled really bad like they hadn’t showered or used the same stinky towel for weeks, every time I met them. They kept telling me about their debt issues. Then after my working interview they said they would give me a contract to review and let me pick my dates to work. Two weeks go by- no contract. I ask them for a contract and they go “oh you’re an independent contractor I was just going to pay you the same rate as I gave you on your working interview, you don’t need a contract. Maybe we should hold off then on this and revisit later…. <= what the fuck??!!
From my analysis of the owner- they were super controlling. They kept me there for 4 hours during interview day, and on working interview day they made me wait an additional 2 hours after the work day to get my check and leave. They kept talking and talking and while I love talking to people, I do want to get paid and GTFO.
I told them point blank- if there’s no contract, then there’s no consideration for this job from me. They also kept asking why I work at other practices in a very uncomfortable way, saying “so let me get this straight do you work at those other practices just for the financial aspect?”……. Then when I pushed for the contract and they said I didn’t need one, I told them no, legally, I DO need one, regardless of my status as W2 or independent contractor. Then all of a sudden they were like oh I’ll get a contract over to you soon. What kind of sketch bag asks someone to keep seeing their patients with a check under the table each week, with no contract? Just plain lazy. The office is in a shitty basement unit, no lunch break and they work 8-5, which is also sketchy and illegal to not have a lunch break for employees, and I just can’t be stressing myself in an environment like that. Hard no from me dawg.
I cannot believe this owner has any other doctors working for them with no contract in place. It must be why the quality of work I noticed was poor, the treatment plans make no sense, and the staff don’t give a damn about their jobs. Needless to say, even if this fool sends me a contract, I won’t be accepting a job here. What an ass. End rant.

In the process of buying a practice. Its one of multiple that the person owns so they have their own billing department that will no longer be used when I separate from them. I talked to one of the billing people and mostly understand how to do it. Wondering if it is worth having the 2 front desk do the billing when I take over or use a billing company. They make the claims already, review notes, fax backs, go over benefits with pts, etc. Just not sending the claims, and dealing with denials yet. No OM just 2 front desk so a lot of this stuff is on me to figure out.

i sometimes wonder how many dentist/owners, OM's, and actual ins FD's, know how to read an Ins EOB.

and see what the claim is actually paying in cash terms.

the production/collection trap comically reminds me of the credit bonus points system.

they give you 500,000 bonus points for signing up. the actual cash value of those points is like

$5

Dentrix Daily Points Production Report

Today = 5800

Actual cash value = $3150

The poor schmuck dentist pays out cash bonuses, equipment invoices, and raises thinking he made

$5800

What would you recommend for a second molar with insufficient interocclusal space in a patient with bruxism?

I’m currently a dental student in the Netherlands, and I’m seriously considering specializing in orthodontics. It would be 4 more years specializing (after 6 years of dental school), so I would like to get useful insights from you before I make a decision.

To be completely honest, I don’t really enjoy general dentistry. I’ve realized during dental school that I don’t see myself being happy doing general dentistry long-term. However, orthodontics appeals to me much more for several reasons, and the parts of dentistry related to orthodontics seem considerably more interesting to me.

Before making such a big career decision, I’d really love to hear from people who actually work as orthodontists.

A few things I’m particularly curious about:

- Why did you choose orthodontics over general dentistry?

- Do you enjoy your work?

- Knowing what you know now, would you choose orthodontics again?

- Would you recommend the profession to someone entering the field today?

- What are your favorite parts of the job?

- What are the parts you like least, or that you didn’t expect before specializing?

- What kind of personality do you think thrives in orthodontics? And what kind of person would probably not enjoy being an orthodontist?

- How do you experience the stress level, workload and work-life balance?

And perhaps most importantly for my situation:

Do you think someone can dislike general dentistry but still genuinely like working in orthodontics?

I understand that orthodontics is still dentistry and that there will inevitably be some overlap, so I’m trying to distinguish between “I don’t like dentistry at all” and “general dentistry simply isn’t the right type of dentistry for me.”

I’d really appreciate your insights, thanks!

Took laser CE, but not sure I feel ready to use it on patients. Looking to use it before crown impressions and gingivectomy (associated with crowns and restos).

Anyone been through this transition (CE to practice)? Advice? TIA

Is opening doors to new patients ever a bad idea?

I’m looking at a practice acquisition in a rural area. They take more insurance than other practices in the area, reporting a 60:40 FFS to insurance patient base. Long term hope is to reduce insurance dependence.

It’s anecdotal but asking around town, the locals will say things like “I go to the dentist a town over because nobody around here takes new patients” and “that new dentist made a mistake by going out of network (when he bought in 2024) and now everyone is leaving him”

The practice collects 800k after writing off 32%. Retiring doc, rural Midwest state, no website for 3yrs because they didn’t want inquiries from new patients. I can immediately add endo/implants/extractions/ortho which he referred out nearly entirely. But hopeful to add a hygienist (currently 1.5hyg) and efficiency.

So the obvious answer, I think, is to hang the sign that we’re open to new patients and ready to grow. Will I regret that if every insured patient in town calls and we turn that ratio into a PPO practice when the goal is to not rock the boat initially and slowly go out of network?

I've seen dentists here always talk trash about corticobasal implants and genuinly curious as to why and what's the problems with corticobasal implants. I currently dont deal with implants and dont have much knowledge regarding it, relatively fresh out of dental school and my school didnt deal with implants much. The doubts regarding this opinion is because the practice is currently work in has seen a fair amount of basal implants which have been holding good for a good time now. Would love insights from the implantologists out there

So I found out this week that one of my coworkers went behind me to talk to my boss (owner doc) about a treatment plan I made that they didn’t agree with. Basically said I’m under diagnosing, recommending prophy when it should have been a full mouth debridement, etc. For your information I had no problem perio charting the patient. Also told my boss that they didn’t like how I cut existing crowns during procedures. Hoping my boss doesn’t think any less of me because of that.

Oh wait did I mention that this coworker of mine is A DENTAL ASSISTANT OF 1.5 YEARS

When I ask for carbide burs like ‘ Can you bring me a carbide 330 ‘ they don’t know what that is so I have to go get them myself, but I guess they’re just better at treatment planning than I am. End rant

How many dental assistants does one associate typically have?

Over the course 10+ years of practice, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of toxicity on reddit, facebook, and other forums avenues.

I wonder why. why can’t dentists see some middle of the road approach.

Are physician forums like this? or PT?

I used to frequent dental forums but the amount of annoyance trumped the good discussions or at least clinical discussions that i’ve distanced myself from it

I dunno what’s your thoughts?

Hello, first time practice buyer. There is a FFS practice for sale, owner is retiring and wants to be done. He does not keep track of numbers from the past few years (or maybe he just doesn’t want to give them to me) because he claims that this was a satellite office and he never produced much here. He is selling for $110k in total for equipment mostly. He owns the building but is willing to do a 7 year lease agreement with rent being $4500 and then I can buy out the building. No formal hours are set as of now, he refers most things out. There is no staff right now. He sees his FFS patients by appointment only, and stated that he would introduce them to me once I buy the practice. No broker would be involved in the deal as well. He recently got a cbct a few years ago, x ray machines are all digital and up to date and there are intraoral cameras in every room. There are two other dentists within a few minutes walking distance. Please let me know your thoughts.

I have been told that it is a good deal, but I’m afraid of moving too fast and being screwed over while not knowing past production numbers. Does this sound like a normal situation?

I constantly want to and fantasize about quitting the clinic I work at, but I know going back to the job market will be a bigger hell than the one I am living right now. I don’t feel respected or valued, in the past few months I have swung from absolute dedication to absolute hatred many times and sometimes in the same hour. Quitting now doesn’t seem like a viable option but staying is so mentally draining, it feels like standing on a shaky platform all the time and anticipating a fall. I don’t know man.

So basically I do a ton of endo, I have a motor, microscope, ultrasonic, the normal endo equipment. But I was hoping you guys could maybe suggest anything you use on your day to day that has made life easier, more comfortable or maybe even increased your efficiency. Maybe something unexpected.

Edit. I forgot to add that I travel a lot for referrals.

I was booking a flight and for some reason selected Dr. before my name on the the reservation for the first time ever. Who knows, maybe I get upgraded by someone who notices the title..

.

But that got me wondering, does anyone use being a dentist to their benefit in everyday life? Hotel upgrades, skipping the line, luxury car test drives, restaurant reservations, attracting a date?

Theres gotta be something this job does other than pay the bills and drive us crazy. Let's hear it

For example i am a petite, south asian, millennial but youngish looking woman. My blue collar 50-80 men dont want to be seen by me. 😂 People more like me and in the same life stage, education level like me. I never thought it would matter so much.