https://www.aaojournal.org/article/S0161-6420(25)00801-2/fulltext00801-2/fulltext)

Sorry if this has been posted here before but I didn't see it when I searched.

So a bit of context - I finished dental school in 2016 in Romania and it's always been a bit of an uphill battle. Managed to open my own practice, but I didn't really had a mentor and was kinda always managing on my own. I've always done whatever I could to improve my skills and always made sure I went to at least one hands-on course every year; got the chance to practice in UK which was a great learning and working experience, but COVID cut that experience short and returned to Romania; because of my type I diabetes and low immune system I had to stay in isolation for the whole COVID period until the vaccine came out. When that was finally over, I went back to my practice and, while still managing to keep it afloat after all the struggles, it was a steady pace and I was managing it fine. I was happy for a while.

This year while I was taking a specialized course on implantology I was noticing some odd things and mainly that whatever I was trying to read I just couldn't, in the way that I'd read the same line or the same paragraphs over and over and I would be stuck on the same thing to up to twenty minutes. I've always struggled with my studies throughout all my life - some things were extremely easy and would pick them up directly from classes, while others I would struggle to memorize lessons. But this time I just couldn't memorize not even a couple of lines.

At work I was noticing that I was setting higher and higher standards and thought it was because of the courses I kept taking and learning from and that my work had to look as if it'd be ready for a presentation photo. During crown preps, if my preps didn't look text book, I'd start correcting "just a bit here, and maybe just bit more there" until I would over correct. A lot of my preps or fillings looked objectively good most of the time - never good enough to me.

I was having more and more moments where it was hard to fall asleep on good days. On bad days I wouldn't sleep the whole night and the next I had appointments waiting. I had no choice but to cancel them because I wasn't able to function.

During very precise treatments like root canals or sutures after extractions, my hand would shake like crazy even though I didn't feel anxious and my blood sugar would also be stable (I have an insulin pump with CGM and the readings would be normal). I would be very clumsy knocking stuff over or dropping things out of hand. My workspace would start out very clean and organized and by the time I finished a treatment everything would be cluttered in disarray.

Running into a lot of reels or clips of people experiencing some of the same things I kinda suspected what it was and went for tests. So I discovered I had undiagnosed ADHD, which now is diagnosed and under medication. Thinking back, the signs were there since I was a child, but in a post communist 90s period, part of the Balkans, there was no such thing as a disorder like that and the treatment care was applied as always for all the kids back then - a good beating.

Does that mean that dentists with ADHD can't practice dentistry? No, not at all. I was finding testimonials and experiences from other dentists with ADHD and while it made some things difficult for them, each experience and management is different. Depending on the severity of it, some dentists practice with no problems, with or without medication, while keeping some organizing methods, while others do what I did - retire. I feel that my patients weren't safe under my care anymore and for me it got so bad at one point, while I was waiting for my test results, I had moments when I was wondering if my ceiling lamp would support my weight. It was probably for the best for everyone.

I am a bit better lately, the meds help me sleep (I've honestly never slept better in my life), but...I'll be honest - between all the shit parts, all the struggles, all the good patients, all the bad ones... I am going to miss it.

Hi all, I’m a new grad and this case has really frustrated me. Patient had a #14 DO caries that went deeper and bigger than expected. I tried DME. 1st attempt came out with a sealed margin filling but left an overhang so I called the patient back for a post-op. Thought I get that but…now I get a different kind of overhang. Honestly get a bit scared trying to talk to the patient for a 2nd post-op but to be frank, I can’t really leave an overhang like that…
What would you suggest to be able to remove the overhang effectively? Tooth was able to floss passively tho so I want to find a way to get rid of that ledge without taking out the whole filling

Relatively new to the Army, but plan to apply to the program. Did not do an AEGD, pretty bread and butter. Looking for first hand experience and possible mentorship. Would like to discuss workload, home-life balance, location, post-graduate relocation and general experience.

Any one else sick of the offices you work at and the patients expecting antibiotics be sent out for tooth pain.

When patients come in with symptoms of irreversible pulpits what is your protocols. I try not to prescribe antibiotics in these situations unless they have active abscess or systemic symptoms.

This usually doesn’t hold over well for the patients and owner doctors of the offices I work at. Everyone expects antibiotics as a quick bandaid.

I’m trying to not contribute to the growing antibiotic resistance.

Let me know your thoughts.

Hello, I am currently a 2026 new grad. I have only started practicing for couple months :) It sounds silly but I do enjoy doing extractions a lot. I am doing surgical ext right now but I am just a lot slower and not too confident with my technique.

I would like to start investing in CE courses for extractions. I know a lot of people recommended Dr. Tommy Murph but he is currently out of my budget for CE :(

I came across the Amplify Dental CE AMP2 courses. It is about atraumatic extraction and grafting technique. I don’t see a lot of comments about their CE on Reddit, so I made this post to see if anyone who has taken their courses can please share their experience. Or if there is any other CE recommendations for ext as well.

Thank you all so much!

Hey everyone,

​I’m seriously considering pursuing Orthodontics for my postgraduate studies. While I know it’s generally seen as one of the most competitive and financially rewarding paths, I want to look at it from a different angle.

​For those currently in ortho residency, practice, or academia:

​Is orthodontics genuinely fulfilling if you want to dive deep into research, innovation?

Source: CDA

California AB 1629 was signed into law on September 27, 2026, and takes effect January 1, 2027. It requires dental plans to honor patient assignment-of-benefits (AOB) requests, allowing out-of-network dentists to receive eligible insurance payments directly rather than relying on patients to receive and forward checks. The law also strengthens patient disclosures and oversight of dental provider networks, but it does not guarantee higher reimbursements or eliminate the financial disadvantages of being out of network.

The fine print — how this plays out in practice:
Direct payment isn’t the same as better reimbursement. Plans must honor qualifying AOB requests, but out-of-network dentists remain subject to the plan’s applicable benefit limits, reimbursement rules, and patient cost-sharing.
Patients must understand what they’re signing up for. Out-of-network status, estimated treatment costs, and the possibility of lower out-of-pocket costs with an in-network dentist must be disclosed as required by the law.

You can’t simply collect the entire fee upfront and wait for insurance. The law establishes requirements around patient consent, direct payment, and the amount a noncontracting provider can collect before the plan pays. Practices will need to follow the statutory process and documentation requirements.

The law doesn’t fix Delta’s fee schedules or make every patient financially equivalent. It addresses payment routing and network oversight, not a blanket increase in reimbursement or a guarantee that patients will pay the same amount they would at an in-network office.

Question for California dentists: Now that AB 1629 is law, are you considering dropping Delta Dental PPO and going out of network? Will direct insurance payments make leaving the network more attractive, or are Delta’s patient volume and negotiated fees still worth staying in network for? I’d especially like to hear from owners who have already made the switch or are planning to in 2027.

This year I had to visit endodontist about 2 times because my fillings started chipped this and there. Fine enough, my old fillings last well (more than 6-7 years, its amazing)

But this 26 my then dentist did a root canal around 2007-2010. Then I did panoramic at 2018 for orthodontic purpose, 27 look great I could see the sealer filled it nicely to apical.

This year around July I tried my new X-Ray on 26 (picture 2). I was suprised how the sealer look way more less.opaque than I remembered back then also it doesnt look like one of the mb canal got filled either.Though its asymptomatic.Then 26 started to have some pain while biting and I could feel the gum around apical are tender to touch. I'm not convinced enough to addressed this back then but I know this one sooner or later need to be done

Today gum near cervical 27 had a formed some abcess boil. Poked the boil with#15 gutta and took another Xray (pic 1)

And there we go. I cant meet my local endodontist until Monday.

I am amazed on how 27 endo could last, but still kinda dreading to finally addressed this issue. I dislike go to dentist despite being a dentist lol its kind of embarassing.

Hi everyone!

I'm a first time mom to a 2.5 month old baby, and I'm already stressing about going back to work when she's around 6–7 months old.

I'm trying to decide between daycare and a nanny. I'm worried about how often babies get sick at daycare, especially since it's not easy for us dentists to cancel patients last minute. But I'm also nervous about trusting someone I don't know to care for my baby at home. We don't have family nearby to help.

I'd love to hear what other dentist moms did. What worked best for you? How did you handle sick days? And would you make the same choice again?

Any advice would be really appreciated! ❤️

I am quite interested in 2 different type of training of implant dentistry, there are are places like residency or CE or individual courses that teach dentists from simple single implants to multiple before starting complex like full arch cases, there are also places like corporate practices where they mainly focus on full arch cases and offer much cheaper price to patients , hence dentists only get taught to do full arch in their corporate even without much experience of basic implant dentistry, some places just offer FP3 full arch to all patients.

how would those type of implant training be different in terms of development of skills ?

i am not familiar with places like Affordable Dentures & Implants in USA, anybody can share any insights ?

Hi guys. I’m at my lowest low. I graduated 2023 and only been working 3 years at this point but having severe back issues. I’ve been living off of pain meds and going for physical therapy but spine surgeon said I need to take 3-6 months off and just focus on resting/PT if I want to avoid surgery. I’m not getting surgery at the moment and would really like to avoid it but not sure what options I have.
I already took unpaid medical leave (FMLA) this time last year. I haven’t completed a year yet to take it again. What are my options? Can I go and unpaid leave and collect short term disability from the state? My company does offer disability insurance but I’m afraid they will fire me as soon as they find out so I haven’t talked to them.
Looking for any leads from people who had to take significant time off due to medical conditions.

EDIT: I’m not asking what to do for my back, I’m asking how to keep my job and get a medical leave/apply for disability etc? Like what do women do in pregnancy?

Just found out that one of the dentists in our relatively small-ish city took his own life yesterday, right out in front of his office. I didn’t know him well personally, but knew him of him as a colleague and he had spoken kindly of us to mutual patients. He had one the nicest offices (in terms of architectural style and updated equipment) in our town, and his social media always appeared upbeat and showing his latest adventures with his family. Never would have guessed something like this would happen to him. Just goes to show you never really know what someone is going thru. This job is fucking hard and so stressful in so many ways. Let’s just remember to cut ourselves some slack and also take care of and support each other however we can.

Hey all-

I'm opening a clinic, expected to be completed next year. I'm tryin to line up a reputable marketing company. Would love to hear what marketing company you used? What were regrets and things you learned as you interviewed with different marketing companies?

Also cost too please.

I read some do their own marketing. No idea how...

No soliciting please. Only want to hear from fellow dental professionals, no need to flood my DMs, I don't accept any. Thanks.

Hey everyone, looking for some perspective from both owners and fellow associates.
I’m currently an associate at a practice with two associates; the owner is only in the office once a week. My contract is at-will with no set end date, and it includes a daily guarantee versus production.
Here’s the breakdown:
Tenure: I’ve been here for 15 months.
Guarantee Usage: I only actually needed to draw on the daily guarantee during my first 2–3 months. Since then, my production has consistently exceeded it, so it hasn't been a factor in over a year.
The Issue: Out of the blue, the owner texted me asking if I’d be okay with canceling/removing the daily guarantee from my agreement.
I’m trying to gauge what to think about this:
1. What’s the owner's logic here? If I’m consistently outproducing it anyway, why go out of his way to remove it? Is it a cash flow issue, prep for a practice sale, or just trying to cut loose an onboarding safety net?
2. Is this a hill worth dying on? Since I haven't relied on the guarantee in 12+ months, does giving it up actually hurt me, or is removing that safety net (e.g., for unexpected slow seasons, schedule drops, or ops issues) a risk I shouldn't take?
3. How would you recommend responding?
Has anyone (associate or owner) experienced something similar? Would love to hear what might be going on behind the scenes or how best to approach the response.

72 yo male patient
(-) smoking
(-) systemic disease
(-) pain
(-) fever
(-) abscess

Bone quality during placement: D4
Torque: 50ncm
System: Osstem Korea

Should I remove this ASAP? I hope a seasone implant dentist can guide me. This is only the 10th implant I have placed.
One implant already failed on the other side. All implants were submerged. Thank you

Im a general dentist and new to implant dentistry so just wanted advice from the veterans what they would do in this case.

For this patient, the UL2 has chronic apical periodontitis with root caries.

I’m planning for the patient an XLA and implant once perio stable.

BPE codes of 4 however bone levels seem decent.

I’m just not sure whether a socket graft will fail or not if the patient has active perio?

My main question: CAN i do socket grafting if the patient has unstable periodontitis?
What have been your experience doing this.

My doctor is looking for these for sale in Canada or US.
Any comparables from major companies.
Thanks

I’m not up to date (never was) on my dental socials, besides this Reddit and dentaltown years ago.

Is there a FB group, Reddit, DT, etc that focuses on best practices to survive and thrive while doing a dental office start up in this ppo-opy climate, where everything goes up in price, minus insurance reimbursements of course (us based).

A place people can help each other in all aspects of doing a start up from pre-planning to hiring the first employee to efficient tax strategy.

Already have practice biopsy, it’s ok, want something thats ongoing and less ”pay to hear my latest marketing strategy“ vibe.

Recently started doing custom crown art, I’m having a lot of fun doing this. Would love suggestions for more designs.

I am a 4th year dental student who will be graduating with around $290k debt. I am currently stuck between choosing to practice at a private practice or applying for the NHSC Student to service .

The S2S program says that it will give 120k tax free towards student loans over 3 years ( 30k a year starting your last year of school) in exchange for working at an FQHC for those 3 years.

Working there I’ll probably average between $160k-$180k a year. Working in private practice my first year salary will probably be similar but I have a chance at higher income after that. And I’ll have an opportunity to do cosmetic dentistry, implants, etc which FQHCs will never attempt.

Paying off my debt is of high priority to me but I wanna know if this program is worth it and won’t be hampering my future in terms of experience.

New grad here. In dental school they didn’t necessarily give a guideline on what procedures / dental pain require T3s (we were just informed what order to increase med strength eg acetaminophen to ibu to t3).

I work with different dentists who prescribe very differently (one will prescribe 20 tabs for endo pain before and even after rct completed, the other one only prescribes for surgical extractions). What procedures do you usually prescribe for? I work rural so I want to make sure I am not overprescribing as opioid addictions are very common here

Hey y’all I’m trying to improve my skills for surgical extractions. I feel pretty confident for simple extractions but I tend to struggle more when it goes surgical especially for a maxillary molar. I know you want to section all 3 roots separately but how do I ensure I’m splitting the roots evenly and I’m not making a slice too mesial or distal or too lingual? Would the best way be to cut the crown off at the CEJ to expose the roots to see how to section it? I really want to get better at these types of extractions but I find visibility and grasping the tooth difficult and I would appreciate any advice 😅