Dentaltown June 2019 - 14

at least once a week, you'll never meet critical mass to
do it well enough, and it will never put you in the profit
zone for it. (Plus, follow the guideline of treating other
people as you want to be treated-I've had only one
surgery, a vasectomy, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted
it performed by a doctor who'd only done it twice!)

That doesn't mean you shouldn't take CE!
In psychology, we've all observed someone who gets
really, really into that new specialty, and they spend
all their spare time dedicated to something that's not
even 1% of their practice growth. But it's intoxicating
to sit next to other dentists at the continuing education
courses who are optimistic! That said, the most important
economic thing you might learn at a seminar could
be something that applies to your bread-and-butter
dentistry, or maybe one of the business functions of
marketing, HR or payroll.
I do think that the fundamental base of a long,
happy, prosperous career correlates first to the hours of
CE you take. Dentists who earn their FAGD, MAGD or
diplomate standing in an association always seem happier
and more fulfilled, and they're making more money.

See Howard Live
Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, is an international speaker who
has written books and dozens of articles. To schedule him to
speak at your next national, state or local dental meeting,
email rebecca@farranmedia.com.

2019
July
26

Aug.
15-16

14

Tennessee Academy
of General Dentistry
Pigeon Forge

Kentucky Dental Association
Louisville

JUNE 2019 // dentaltown.com

Select what you do and do
it well-and profitably
If you're not in the profit zone being a general
dentist-doing cleanings, exams, X-rays, fillings, crown
and bridge, and routine endo-you have to fi x that
first. You can't say, "Well, this all loses money, so now
I have to learn these other procedures." That would be
like an Italian restaurant going bankrupt and saying,
"We're not making money off pizza and lasagna and
spaghetti, but if we add osso bucco it's going to fi x all
our problems." At the base of your foundation, you
have to have your business running profitably. Watch
my program Dr. Farran's 30-Day Dental MBA and get
your house in order.
I want you to add the specialty to keep from avoiding
burnout, but I need you to know that it's all fun and
games until you follow the Rule of 52 and start making
money on it. I've seen this so many times: Dentists
enter all kinds of specialty work and have a ball for five
years, then decide they don't want to do it anymore.
None of them regrets having the knowledge, none of
them regrets having that skill set in the toolbox for the
rare time they need it ... but over their practice, they
decided they'd rather just not do it.
It scares me to see people on Dentaltown message
boards just trying to figure out how they can get out
of dentistry and retire as quickly as they can. Let's take
away retirement from reality. You're not retired today.
You're not going to retire until a future time-it could
be around the corner, it could be five years, 10 years, it
could be decades. The more fundamental question is,
why do you want to retire right now?
If you say you don't like some of your staff, replace
the staff. If you don't like doing molar endo, send it to
an endodontist. If you say that you're not making money
and your overhead's too high, fi x your overhead. Get
profitable. Get staff that's happy. Do procedures you like!
But if things start feeling monotonous, don't think
for a second that we're going to go back 120 years to the
time when we had no specialties. The "hero"-dontist is
for your mind, not the long-term strategy for the rise
of the American health care system. ■
http://www.dentaltown.com
Dentaltown June 2019

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