Bill Schu

The best dental office and football teams operate like an intricate ballet: many members, each doing their individual job, in service of a larger goal. The quarterback is essential, but if the left tackle forgets his blocking assignment, the play will more often result in a sack than in a touchdown. You may be the quarterback of your dental practice, but it takes the coordinated effort of the entire staff to achieve your practice’s goals.

Here are five essential tips for building and keeping a great staff.

1.      Hire for people skills, train for clinical skills.

 “People skills” means more than being good with patients; it also means the team member’s ability to self-motivate, come to work with a positive attitude, and work well with the other members of the team. Yes, your staff will need good clinical skills, but those can be taught. The general attributes of positivity and motivation can be encouraged, but it helps if you hone in on these attributes during the interviewing process.

Invest in your staff, and they’ll invest in you.

 This concept isn’t unique to dental offices, of course, but it can be particularly important in an environment where the staff might feel like they’re only a support person for the quarterback. Actively solicit feedback from your staff regularly about matters trivial (what small token to offer child patients) and momentous (e.g., what new services your practice might offer to patients; what additional training they’d like to pursue). Investments in people don’t have to always be monetary. Sometimes they can be as simple as giving people the opportunity to make a contribution or have a voice within the practice.

Watch and listen to staff interactions with patients. 

Do this both when the staff member knows you’re looking and listening, and at some times when they might not know. This isn’t spying and it shouldn’t make you uncomfortable; it’s making sure the face that the staff puts on for the patients is the same whether you’re in the room or not.

4.      Don’t be afraid to part ways with staff who are not working out. 

If, for whatever reason, one or more of your team members is taking more off the table than they are putting on, don’t be afraid to make a change. Bad morale can be as infectious as good morale. If team members who are working hard and staying motivated see that colleagues who are putting in half the effort face no consequences, their motivation is likely to dip. You should never make quick or uniformed decisions about hiring or firing, but you shouldn’t become paralyzed into inaction when it becomes clear that a problem is festering.

Respect your staff by making sure they’re put in a position to succeed. This means making sure you are fully staffed at all times. You and your partners will have to determine what “fully staffed” means. Yes, there is a magic number of staff needed to make everything run perfectly and efficiently. Schedule too many, and you’ll be inefficient and run the risk of having staff become de-motivated. Dip just one team member below that ideal, and you run the risk of throwing everything out of whack. The phone is ringing but no one can answer it. A patient’s visit is over, but he or she needs to make another appointment and no one is manning the book at the moment. A team member looked at the break schedule wrong and are now both out, leaving patients waiting twice as long for their appointments. Communication is breaking down all over the place, and patients heading for the exit door aren’t showing their pearly whites. Be prepared with a back-up plan if there is a call-out or an unexpected leave; you 

 need it. And don’t schedule with the idea that everything will go right on every day.

Once your team is in place and running smoothly, make sure everyone is on the same page and that everyone’s first priority is the care and satisfaction of your patients. If your patients see happy, motivated, and satisfied staff, they’re more likely to reflect those same characteristics as patients.

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You may be the quarterback of your dental practice, but it takes the coordinated effort of the entire staff to achieve your practice's goals.

5 Tips for Building and Maintaining a Great Dental Staff

Most dentists are team leaders, whether or not they want that responsibility. Many embrace the role with confidence and ease, but others have a more difficult time with a leadership role. If you’re a member of the latter group, don’t fret: there are some simple strategies you can employ to get the most out of your inherent role as the leader of your practice.

Teams often reflect the outlook of their leadership. Make sure you keep a positive attitude and outlook about the current and future outlook of the business. Take personal responsibility for things the practice could be doing better, and involve your team in open discussions about ways you could improve services or the patient experience. Staff members who feel invested in the practice—who feel as if they have a voice—will be more motivated and more likely to have positive interactions with your patients.

Have a Plan for the Future of the Practice

Many dentists shine in their delivery of dental care, but some can struggle in the other important aspects of running a business. Businesses such as dentistry that often have relatively stable income from year to year nevertheless need a continued commitment to innovation and a plan for the future. Practices that earned significant portions of their revenue from teeth-whitening only a decade ago are finding that source much less dependable as over-the-counter whitening aids that really work have cut into that aspect of the business. Improvements in computerized technology are opening up new potential lines of business all the time. Do you follow the trends? Do you talk with your colleagues about areas of potential business expansion?

In today’s business world, you simply must have a social media presence and a robust business 

. But those are table stakes. You should also have a social media strategy and an overall marketing plan designed to bring in new customers. As part of that plan, pursue exemplary care for your current patients and show genuine interest in them as people and not just customers. Only then will they be likely to refer you to a friend.

Have a Robust Life Outside of the Practice

When you own or run your own business, the temptation can be to focus on it and nothing else. As they key cog in your dental practice, you may think you can’t ever afford to take a break. But time away from the practice is time to rejuvenate, and everyone needs it. You’ll be a better leader, a better person, and a better businessperson if you take some time away when you need it.

Leadership in your practice doesn’t always come easy, and it doesn’t have to. But if you act with integrity, make difficult decisions in a straightforward manner, and stand by your staff and your patients, you will, by extension, increase the effectiveness of your practice.

Dentists in private practice are more than just healthcare providers. They're also business leaders. If the latter doesn't come naturally, follow these tips. 

4 Strategies to Sharpen Your Leadership Skills

 in movies and television, I noted how few positive dental role models there have been throughout the years in pop culture. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some famous dentists, and many of them famous for very good reasons. 

How well do you know your dental history? Can you name the following famous dentists, just based on a few details of their lives and careers?

Though it might seem wrong to start the quiz of famous dentists with a physician, in this case, it’s justified. This French doctor is often called “The father of modern dentistry,” and for good reason. He wrote the first complete scientific description of dentistry, published in 1728. He built his physician career on identifying basic oral anatomy and function, treating those suffering from tooth decay and periodontal disease, and tooth transplantation. He is largely seen as the first dentist to treat dental issues as opposed to simply pulling teeth. He pioneered many methods to replace lost teeth, and used tools modified from other professions to treat patients. He was also an early patient advocate, ruthlessly pointing out “quack dentistry” and charlatanry.

This dentist enjoyed a successful practice before the allure of film and television took him away from dentistry and onto the big and flat screens. His acting credits include more than 172 movies and television appearances from 1939 to 1974. Though his IMDB page includes plenty of background roles, such as “bartender” and “party guest,” they also include Uncle Joe Carson from 

3. Short practice career, long notoriety.

 His dental practicing days were cut short by tuberculosis and the pursuit of slightly less noble aims, but his legend, established in the twilight of the American frontier days, lives on. Precocious and intelligent, he earned his dental degree before he turned 21, the legal age at the time to carry a dental license, and had to wait several months before obtaining his license and beginning to practice. The pursuit of gambling and his desire to treat his tuberculosis by pursuing drier Western air led him West of the Mississippi river and into a life that, quite frankly, should have led to an Oscar nomination for actor Val Kilmer.

 Every established field needs a woman pioneer, and dentistry was no different. After an accomplished teaching career in New York, this determined woman decided to become a dentist. Denied entry into dental school because shew as a woman, she embarked on a private study program with a mentor, then started her own practice in Cincinnati. After moving to Iowa in the early 1860s, she was finally professionally recognized by the Iowa State Dental Society in 1865. She went on to earn a doctorate in Dentistry, the first woman to do so. She later became a strong advocate for women’s rights.

 The use of ether in dental practice was a pioneering accomplishment, but who is responsible for it? Was it this gentleman, who, already a dentist, went to Harvard Medical School to assuage his fiancé’s parents? He did notably performed a painless extraction using ether in September of 1846. But others were soon hot on his heels, and many claimed to be the developer of the technique—including his own mentor and former partner. Also, ether had been used several years earlier in a medical procedure. This dentist’s attempts to develop a patent for the technique, both in the United States and abroad, raised questions about his motivations. Later, he joined the Army of the Potomac as a volunteer surgeon.

Click through to Page 2 for the answers…

3. The Old West legend with a short career and long notoriety:

5. The first person (maybe) to use ether in dental practice:

Are You a Dental Historian? Take our quick quiz to see if you can identify these famous dentists!

Quiz: Are You a Dental Historian?

Saving and investing, whether for a rainy day, extra income, or retirement, is viewed by many people as a “nice to have” rather than a “need to have.” Because retirement may seem far off in the distance, the need to put aside money now may seem less urgent than paying your mortgage, your car payment, and your credit card bills.

But here’s a little fact for your consideration: your retirement day is closer today than it was yesterday, and it will be even closer tomorrow. Whether you plan to work as a dentist for another 5 years, 10 years, or 40 years, the simple truth is that the day is coming when you will want to retire. What will you have when you reach that day?

If you follow the concept of paying yourself first, and if you set retirement goals and strategies accordingly, you’re much more likely to have enough money on which to retire comfortably.

Too many retirement “strategies” involve paying all of your current bills and day to day expenses, and then taking the “leftover” amounts every pay period or every month and perhaps socking some of that away for future use. This can be a particular challenge for a dentist who owns or shares a practice, because there is always the question of how much to include as earnings for yourself and what to reinvest in the business.

This can also be a challenge for dentists because of 

, which is the tendency to spend more as we earn more. Lifestyle creep is a very real phenomenon and one that isn’t all bad. But one of the potential problems it raises is that even as your income improves, the “extra” funds you have at the end of each period may not increase. That means you could spend your years of prime earning setting aside only the bare minimum for your retirement years.

Paying yourself first means setting aside retirement investments as if they have as much urgency and utility as any of your current bills. As much as you may want to reinvest earnings from the practice back into the practice, you should strongly consider doing so only 

One way to do that is to have part of your paycheck deposited directly into a separate account—either a retirement plan or your own savings account. This is especially true if you have a spike in revenue from the business or a raise if you work in a group dental practice. If you’re getting by just fine now with your current bills, any income you start to earn over and above that can painlessly be redirected to your future self.

A final note of great importance for dentists: As I covered in greater detail 

, relying on the sale of your practice as the single biggest source of your retirement income is a very bad idea in most cases. Many factors will be at play when the time comes for that sale, including the supply of dentists in your area, the success of those practices, local demographic changes such as the departure of a previously big employer or industry in the area, overall property values, local property and business taxes, and many more. Many if not all of these factors are beyond your immediate control. Also, selling a dental practice is much more complicated than a home sale and can take much longer.

There are many more strategies for paying yourself first that we’ll cover in future articles. The key concept is deceptively simple: You are as important as any of those other debtors. The debt you owe to your future self should have the same urgency as those you owe to others.

You've probably heard of the concept of "paying yourself first." But have you truly considered its potential impact on your budget? Here's a primer.

The Golden Rule of Saving: Pay Yourself First

It’s still only January, of course, and many of you won’t even begin to think about doing your taxes until early April. While the tax bill for 2015 isn’t technically due until April 15, you should consider filing your taxes sooner if, like most Americans, you’re in line for a tax refund.

According to 2015 IRS data, nearly 80% of Americans received a tax refund for the tax year 2014. On average, those people received about $2,500 each. Those in higher tax brackets are less likely to receive a refund. Only 34% of those who earned more than $200,000 per year received a refund for tax year 2014, a number that typically remains steady. There are a number of reasons for this, not least of which is that those in higher brackets owe more taxes (obviously!), but it’s also true that many high earners monitor their tax liability very closely, so as not to give the state or Federal government any interest-free loans over the course of the year.

Even though you have a few months yet before you 

 start thinking about filing, let’s go over a few reasons you 

If you’re filing business taxes, don’t do it yourself

If you’re relatively new either to the field of dentistry or ownership (in whole or in part) of a practice, there are many, many things to consider when filing your taxes. Depending on how your practice is structured (as an S-Corporation, partnership, or LLC), your returns may look quite different. Filing as any of these isn’t as simple as an individual tax filing. There are many forms and procedures you’ll need to follow. Non-compliance with tax law, including incorrect filings by simple mistake, can result in substantial penalties and interest. There are also state and Federal taxes to consider.

For this reason and many others, you’ll want to work with a professional, preferably a firm that has deep experience working with dentists or similar businesses. Seek recommendations from your colleagues and do your homework when selecting an accounting or tax preparation company. Shopping around now will give you ample time to consider the history, trustworthiness, and overall merit of whatever professional or firm you’ve selected to prepare your taxes. This is a very important step. Despite constant reminders from the Internal Revenue Service, many filers still don’t know that they—and not the tax preparation firm—are responsible for any errors made on their income tax returns. Check out the 

 on signs that your tax preparer may be more interested in a refund (of which they may share a percentage) than in filing an honest return.

Take the fear of the unknown out of the equation

When filing personal taxes, your income as a dentist is likely to remain relatively stable from year to year, and thus your tax liability and how much you already set aside in Federal and State taxes is unlikely to have a substantial swing. But there are many other factors that determine tax liability. Life changes such as having a child or getting a divorce will certainly change what you owe from one year to the next. Changes in state and local taxes may also change rates. Significant changes in personal income may not have been reflected in your tax withholdings, as many people don’t make changes to what is withheld until after they’ve felt the burn of an April tax bill. These and dozens of other factors may mean a significant change in whether and how much you owe or are owed.

Looking into your tax liability now doesn’t mean you have to file now. But knowing early about any tax liability can help you put away a little at a time now to cover the deficit. Conversely, finding out now about a large refund may help you avoid the same fate the following year by making adjustments in your withholding. For now, take a look under the hood and see how things are running. You may thank yourself later.

Note: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered tax or legal advice.

Officially, the deadline for filing individual income tax returns is almost three months away. However, there are several good reasons to turn your attention to taxes now.

Why You Shouldn't Wait 'til April to Think About Taxes

It’s the end of January, that time when your resolve may be starting to fade on those ever-hopeful New Year’s resolutions! What better time than now to add a new resolution—but one you’ll stick to throughout this year and the next 20. It may be time to start thinking about a college savings plan.

When you were in college or dental school, maybe you had some scholarships or grants. Or maybe you paid or are still paying those student loans. The cost of higher learning hasn’t gone down since your fraternity or sorority days. Quite the opposite, in fact. It may be time to start thinking about a 529 College Savings Plan.

529 plans aren’t your only savings option, but there are reasons they are increasingly popular. Unlike other educational savings vehicles and regular savings accounts, 529 plans give you control over your choice of investments and beneficiaries, plus the opportunity for tax-free earnings and withdrawals that are free from federal and some state income taxes.

As with all savings vehicles, time can work in your favor even if you don’t have a lot to contribute right now. The longer your time window before the money is needed, the longer you’ll be able to earn compound interest enhanced by federal tax-free growth potential. This is because any earnings in 529 plans are automatically reinvested in the plan.

Just about every state offers 529 plans and makes them available to both residents and non-residents. But your home state offers the best advantages of all—in many states and in the District of Columbia, 529 account holders have a full or partial state income-tax deduction, typically a dollar-for-dollar deduction based on your contribution. And there is at least one plan—the Private College 529 plan run by 279 private and college universities nationwide—that offers a prepaid tuition plan for all of those institutions. The private plan is unique in that it has no fees; the member colleges (which include institutions both large and small) pay all fees and bear all of the investment risk.

Most 529 plans carry fees, which can include advisor fees, program management and maintenance charges, and underlying investment fees. You’ll need to do some research to find out what fee structure works for you. Also look into the investment choices your 529 plan makes, the performance of that investment strategy over time, and the long-term viability of the investment provider offering the plan.

As with any investment, there is a degree of risk. And the inverse relationship between risk and return is the same with a 529 plan as it is for any investment. A plan that invests very conservatively will have less risk but less potential return. Your time window, the number of individuals you plan to save for, and your overall risk tolerance should match the plan you ultimately choose.

Truly conservative investors who don’t mind a small rate of return should always be aware of the power of inflation to deplete your savings. Time windows work both ways: compounding interest means the potential for growth, of course, but if the fund’s return is really low over a 20-year period, your investment may not keep pace should the next couple of decades include a few periods of steep inflation. Talk to a financial advisor about your options if you are unsure how to proceed, and don’t hesitate to reach out to a tax advisor for more on the amount of your contributions, if any, may be tax deductible in your state.

Two other notes about 529 plans are worth mentioning. First, you are not locked into your choice of 529 plan. If the original beneficiary of your Pennsylvania-based plan suddenly falls in love with Beantown, every state allows a 12-month rollover to another 529 plan with no tax consequences, though you may be faced with a penalty. Second, if your beneficiary instead decides to follow her rock-and-roll-band dreams, you can change the beneficiary on your account to another child, grandchild, or another relative.

As a last resort, you can use the money from your 529 plan to upgrade your own skills by taking classes at a qualified college or trade school. Perhaps your sorority days aren’t over just yet!

A new year is a great time to start saving for your children's education, even if you're still paying off your own. These simple steps will get you started.

How to Start a College Savings Plan

Making a budget is one of the most critical steps not just in living without your means, but also in being able to save and invest for retirement. While you don’t necessarily have to maintain the strictest budget ever created, it’s still a good idea to have some general financial parameters you set and stick to. Having a solid structure in place is great for managing your current cash flow, expenses, and investments, but it can be even better as a tool to help you with long-term savings.

Even if you’re determined to make and adhere to a good budget, the tendency can be to drift away from hit. Here are four simple signs that your budget could use a little work.

Last year’s budget can and often should be the basis for this year’s numbers, but copying and pasting all the fields from last year into this year is a recipe for a broken budget. Why? Because the only constant is change. Maybe you’ve finally finished paying off that clunker in the driveway, and you have more disposable income than you expected. Alternatively, maybe your 18-year-old has worked on your defenses long enough that you’ll be adding a car payment in 2016. 

Last year’s expenses will often bear a close resemblance to this year’s, but just as often there will be changes, both subtle and significant, that will necessitate some adjustments. Keep in mind that these changes may not just be in your expenses—they may come in the form of revenue or earnings changes as well. A crusty budget is most likely a broken budget.

Ah, the comfort of the catch-all “miscellaneous” category in your budget. We all have one; all that differs is what percentage of the budget and the actual expenses fall into this vague category.

Too much miscellany can mean you haven’t drilled down enough into the categories of your budget. Too little is another problem. Miscellaneous expenses are actual expenses that crop up every so often. Not accounting for them at all is as big of a mistake as using the category too much. Things will come up. You don’t have to have a line item for each and every one of them. But failing to monitor the miscellaneous category at all is a sure sign of a broken budget.

No one can know exactly what twists and turns await this year or next. You might find yourself suddenly out of work or on the doorstep of a lucrative inheritance. Some potential changes can be anticipated. But if you’re going to include them in the actual budget, make sure they’re based on reality and a realistic timeline. I made an alternate budget when the Powerball went over a billion recently, but fortunately I didn’t spend based on it until after I discovered that I didn’t win. That story isn’t quite true, but you get the idea. Are you overly optimistic in your projections? If so, your budget may be broken.

A budget is a tool to help you meet your financial objectives. It is not, in and of itself, a financial mission statement. The point seems fairly obvious, but it is often overlooked: budget only after you’ve fully and firmly established your financial goals. Otherwise, your budget will lack both structure and purpose, and the temptation will be to ignore it. And an ignored budget…well, you get the idea!

If you've made a budget, you're on the right track to financial security. However, a budget is only helpful if it's tethered to reality. Use this guide to evaluate your spending plan.

4 Simple Signs Your Budget Is Broken

As a practicing dentist, it’s often difficult to find time to keep up with your office hours, much less pursue a lot of outside interests. But for some, who question, “Is that all there is?” or for those who may be nearing retirement, you may want to consider volunteering. Beyond being a great low-cost activity, volunteering can be very rewarding—both for the recipients of your efforts and for you personally.

While volunteering can be an opportunity for you to use your acquired dental skills and experience—and while there is great need for dental services both domestically and internationally—it can also be an opportunity to get away from dentistry if your personal life could use a little space. There is tremendous need for volunteers of all types, so don’t get locked into thinking that your only contribution is with your dental tools. Check out a list of local or national charity organizations to see what the needs are, and find one that matches up with the area of service you’re most interested in.

If, on the other hand, you are interested in using your career training there are a few things to consider:

 There are many local needs for dental care and information, including such organizations as 

, Missions of Mercy, and Donated Dental Services, among many, many more. Volunteering close to home can further the sense of community with your fellow local residences, and it can easily fit into a busy schedule. Talk to some of the local schools about visiting to speak to children about the importance of brushing. The ADA website includes a ton of 

, and most municipalities have their own websites that list areas of need.

If you are considering a longer commitment and a deeply immersed experience, there are a wealth of overseas opportunities waiting for someone like you. The ADA has a Health Volunteers Overseas Dental Education program that can match you up and provide the details on serving a community entirely different from your own. Other organizations have opportunities as well. 

, for example, is “the world’s largest civilian hospital ship providing state-of-the-art care to those in desperate need—free of charge.” The organization runs a floating hospital that brings volunteer medical teams and sterile operating rooms directly to people who would otherwise go without care or receive substandard care.

When you first start researching volunteer opportunities, you may be overwhelmed by the number of options there are and the number of people who need help in some form or another. Don’t be. You won’t solve gum disease, world hunger, or adult illiteracy or any number of issues by volunteering. But you will almost certainly make a difference in someone’s life. That may, in turn, make a big difference in your life.

Start with a personal assessment of what’s important to you. Don’t think about just the potential scope of the volunteering task, but also the impact you can have, the time commitment it would take to make that impact, and whether there is a philosophical fit with the organization you’re considering.

By the nature of their profession, dentists play an important role in their communities. But volunteering can expand a dentist's impact. 

Volunteering Helps Others, Yourself

 of this series, we covered advisor missteps that should raise a red flag and trigger a more in-depth review of the advisor’s performance and/or conduct. Among those was not learning or adhering to your investment goals, talking down to you or your spouse, and being vague about how fees and commissions are structured. As I noted in that article, working with an advisor is a good solution for many physicians. But as with all things investing, there are some things to monitor that may help you assess whether the professional you’re working with is the right professional for you.

 As I noted previously for our sister site 

, advisors who aren’t fiduciaries don’t necessarily have to operate with full transparency and put the best interests of their client—you—ahead of their own. Many are only held to a standard of “suitability.” Know to which standard your advisor is required to adhere. If it’s a suitability standard, look for some common signs that investments your advisor is suggesting may be benefiting him or her more than you:

 is a way for an advisor to earn commissions through a high volume of trades. While a high degree of activity may look like churning, it may simply be an advisor strategy that does indeed benefit you. How can you tell? Talk to your advisor. Ask them about the necessity of the number of transactions and to show their rationale for making the transactions. Ask for the results. Most importantly, make sure the rationale you’re given matches up to your expressed investment goals.

• Secrecy about returns or performance.

 An advisor who out-performs the market on every investment vehicle is either the best advisor ever or a criminal. Not even experienced investors like Warren Buffett win on every investment. The best advisors are up-front with you about investments that did not perform as well, and they can typically articulate why and what action they’re taking to get you into better-performing investments.

• Pushing products or services excessively

. If your advisor keeps bringing up the same opportunity, over your objections or your goals, it may be that she believes so strongly in it that she doesn’t want you to pass it up. It could also mean that she may stand to benefit by drawing investors to that vehicle. Good advisors are good listeners.

Always agreeing with your financial choices.

 This sounds counterintuitive, right? You are the primary decision-maker, after all. But an advisor who simply follows directions is an administrator. A good advisor will likely disagree with you on some investment choices you make, and he or she should raise those objections with you and be able to articulate the reasons behind those objections. You may ultimately plow ahead anyway, as is your right, but an advisor who simply nods at all your strategies isn’t providing very much value.

Not understanding your business challenges.

 There are a number of advisor firms that specialize in working with dentists. While I won’t endorse or criticize any of those firms for our purposes here, I will reiterate a point I return to often: being a dentist brings unique financial challenges that simply aren’t the same as they are for many professionals—even physicians. Thus, specialization in working with dentists is something you may want to consider, alongside credibility, trust, historical performance, and overall philosophy.

The majority of financial advisors working with investors want what’s best for their clients. Very few are out-and-out criminals. But some are, and others may be misguided, or just not very good. Working with any sort of partner or advisor, whether in dentistry or finance, has to involve a certain degree of trust and communication. Those two things feed off of one another.

Communicate regularly with your advisor, encourage them to do the same, and that needed level of trust will have been earned.

In Part 2 of our series, we look at three more investor malfeasance warning signs that ought to raise red flags. 

Warning Signs for Spotting Advisor Malfeasance (Part 2)

You have roots. Your patients, your employees, your colleagues, and your practice. Maybe family is nearby, too, or far enough away, if that’s your preference! For dentists, thinking about relocating can be daunting, because part of what defines you is your location. Perhaps not the physical building itself, but the town and the local community, your patient base, and the satisfaction and joy that come from taking care of patients throughout their lives.

But…what if…? Where would you go if you could? What factors would drive your decision? And where would you go, based on what’s most important to you?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, dentists earned a median salary of $146,340 in 2013. But in some places, supply and demand, along with many other factors, make you a hotter commodity.

Have you thought about Holland? Not the country—the wonderfully nicknamed “Tulip City” near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Sure, the winters are cold, but dentists in Holland (which was founded by, you guessed it, Dutch Calvinist separatists in 1847), are among the highest paid in the country, earning an average salary of more than $250,000 per year. Sure, the winters are cold, but if you like pickles, Holland is home to the Heinz pickle factory. You can’t go wrong with that.

If you want to be the only game in town, don’t even think about moving to Washington, DC, which has the largest number of dentists per capita in the United States, at roughly 100 dentists per 100,000 residents. If you really want to stand out, you’ll have to look below the Mason Dixon line. According to BLS statistics, 8 of the bottom 10 states in dentists per capita are in the South, including Texas, both Carolinas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, New Mexico, and the bottom two states, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Mississippi has fewer than 40 dentists per 100,000 people.

Proclaiming that any city is “the best” of something is subjective and frivolous, but that doesn’t stop the press from doing it anyway. 

 2015 “Best Places to Live” column cites the generally laudable Apex, NC, as the No. 1 place to live in the United States, citing a charming downtown area, good schools, and a burgeoning industry nearby in Research Triangle Park (which is a district 18 miles from Apex, not a park!). You’ll notice, too, some synergy here, as North Carolina is among those states with the fewest dentists per capita. Maybe it’s a sign.

If you’ve never been to Hawaii, let me just warn you that everything except for fresh fish is more expensive in Hawaii. And, to be honest, there are plenty of dentists in Hawaii, and in Maui in particular. But…it’s Maui. You should consider it anyway!

When you get there, try the opakapaka at Mama’s Fish House. You’ll know you made the right move.

What's your ideal practice vacation? Do you already practice there? Do you have big plans for a move? Comment below, or connect with us on 

For dentists, thinking about relocating can be daunting, because part of what defines you is your location. But what if... ? Where would you go if you could?