Of course you love doing dentistry. And everyone is even happier when the pay is appropriate for the work that is done!
Yet I hear from far too many associates who don’t really understand how their pay is calculated — and owners who haven’t fully thought through how much their associates’ pay can vary.
It’s pretty easy to understand a straight salary, which is common for those working in public health, academia, or government agencies.
It gets more complicated for those paid in whole or in part based on some percentage of their overall productivity in the office — which is the more common scenario for dentists employed in private practice or DSOs. In these cases, pay is typically based on total production, billable production, or total collections.