Dentist
I'd probably spread those loan payments. We have a dental hygienist in the family and she said that once your practice is established your on your way to the big money as dental work has just a biggest mark up as the rest of the medical field
I love my hygienists. They do great work for our patients. They assist me in so many ways that I cannot thank them enough. However, they do not know anything about what the costs are of running a practice. For example, let's say they earn $45 per hour and see one patient per hour. The insurance companies may only reimburse you for a cleaning at $45. You also then may get $30 for an exam but that takes the dentist time as well. Now you have to figure in that the front office had to schedule the patient, reschedule one quarter of all patients. Then they have to do the billing, verify benefits (10-15 minutes), reschedule them for their next recare visit. Then the dentist has to pay for all the supplies that go into the appointment, $20 or more. Then the instruments need to be cleaned, sterilized, bagged and put away. Of course the instruments break and need replacing. Then the building needs to be maintained and updated so that it does not look unkept. Then beneifts are paid, vacation, sick, PTO etc. Ask the hygienist how much it costs to provide the care for one patient per hour. They would not have any idea. Only that the dentist is making lots of money in their mind. When I try to explain this to them they say, almost verbatim, "that is why we are hygienists, so we don't have to worry about those things".
Which is exactly my point. If a hygienist does not know what it costs to run a dental practice, how do I explain it to those who are not in the business and only see the time they are aware of, not the time that it actually took to get the job done.
It is much like painting a car. It only took a couple hours to paint it so why did it cost $15,000. You forgot that it took months to prepare the car and great expertise and training to learn how to do it. As well as the material costs and the equipment to do so. That is what dentistry is like.
