Welcome back to another episode of the Shared Practices podcast. On this episode, we're going to be doing one for our aspiring owners. We used to call those pre-owners. So if you're in dental school or you're early out of school, or for whatever reason, you might be out of school for a longer period of time as an associate and you have yet to enter into practice ownership.

This episode is for you. And really what we're doing is we're asking the question critically,

does practice ownership still make sense? You might think, like, wow, shared practices is approaching that question. Share practices has kind of made its name known in dental industry as being very pro-ownership and helping people get into

ownership as really a staple behind what we do. And, you know, also on the flip side, we started

shared practices group, which is a dental support organization, a DSO, where we're in the implant

space, and we work with dentists, and a lot of dentists choose to

forego ownership to work for shared practices group. And so we have a very unique perspective on

this question. And I think that the question has evolved a lot over the years in dental. Does ownership

still make sense? And what's the future of practice ownership? And so I'm going to take some time on this episode of Ask George to break this topic down

and talk through it so that we can all kind of maybe get a newer sense of the understanding

of where we're at as an industry and if ownership still makes sense for you as an aspiring owner.

So I think before we even get into if ownership is right for you, let's first talk about

some first principles. Right. So a dental career, the goal of that career is that you should

enjoy doing what you're doing so that you can sustain it for a longer period of time. Even if you

don't plan on practicing forever, just having the concept in mind

that you can practice for longer makes a whole lot of sense. So one, what you're doing should be

sustainable and enjoyable longer term. Two, you have an income need. I think I'll call it the

dentist lifestyle. It's something that, you know, I'm now, you know, coming up on seven and a half years out of school. So for me, I've watched my, you know, my lifestyle creep occur from the time that I was a dental student to the time I was a new owner, all the way until multiple years out of school. And you kind of settle into a higher quality of life that obviously has a higher price point attached to it.

And so this is what I would call the dentist lifestyle. So you would need an income to allow for the lifestyle that people often associate with being a dentist

while also being able to save and be responsible for your retirement.

Right.

So you need an income that allows you to live the dentist lifestyle plus a savings rate.

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