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well in other places. The cost-of-living to quality-of-life ratio sucks. Hurricanes sure as hell don't
help the situation. My wife and I have a plan to leave in the next two to five years. I would leave
tomorrow, honestly, but the main thing keeping me here is that my wife is getting her DNP.
Good thing about living in a poorer state is that the doctorates are cheap. OP, do it. If you're
serious, start now because based on what I've been looking at, it could take a couple years. ■
9/11/2019

doc_ock
Member Since: 07/17/04
Post: 6 of 44

Sorry to hear about hurricanes. They would make me want to move as well. Agree totally
with you on the sweat equity being wasted. Do a lot of cities suffer from staff shortage, or is it
just the cities that have high housing costs? ■
9/11/2019

naj118
Member Since: 02/26/07
Post: 8 of 44

If you can find something that is better financially and personally, it may not be worth it.
I've seen lots of folks move from City A to City B or State A to State B with family and discover
things are more of the same, or other factors such as weather, family proximity, patient base, age
of kids, schools, etc., are new challenges to be faced. It is probably difficult to know what the
challenges of a new place will be until you've spent a year living there.
Colleague moved from State A to State B for better weather and staffing choices; now facing
some hurricane issues they hate, as well as same staff issues and different culture/values than
original state. It's probably a wash, and the decision was mostly prompted by cost of living.
There are extremes, of course-if you say you're living in San Francisco and housing is easily
over a million, you spend all day in your car and can't save a penny, then perhaps a move to a
different state would make sense no matter what. ■
9/11/2019

WolfpackDDS
Member Since: 06/18/14
Post: 9 of 44

I think they're related. Dental assisting/hygiene has a cap in pay, IMO. There's a point
where they have to accept that, find something else to do or be prepared to work like a damn
dog. My best friend has an office about 35 minutes away "down da bayou." He and I pay good
EDDAs the same amount. That amount of money gets you more there than here. People don't
want to commute any more than 20 minutes for just an assisting job, based on assistants I've
worked with, minus a couple of rare exceptions who were multiple-location kind of deals. Trims
down the hiring market for experienced assistants and what's left are untrained people, new
"graduates" or people who can't/won't keep a job. When I had to look into hiring a while back,
the worst ones wanted $18-$20 hour starting. ■
9/11/2019

Bewildered
Member Since: 04/02/03
Post: 11 of 44

Damn, man-I didn't think it was that bad here. But I agree, the people here who can afford
high-end dentistry and rehabs are slim to none. ■
9/11/2019

TARDIS
Member Since: 06/05/11
Post: 13 of 44

I think OP is in Seattle area, based on his past post about website company. I am in the same
area and facing same challenges: no staff to hire and fee cuts, etc. Getting harder and harder.
Not sure where he is moving, could be anywhere. Maybe Idaho. ■
9/11/2019

WolfpackDDS
Member Since: 06/18/14
Post: 14 of 44

It's not great here. The quality of life for what you pay is abysmal. Can't send your kids to
public school, so get ready for $6K per year for kindergarten. I have two kids; that's $12K per year
that I could be investing, vacationing or putting towards something other than school (which my

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Dentaltown November 2019

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