PAGD Keystone Explorer Winter 2019 20

Keystone Explorer |  Winter 2019–20  17 you share the same calendaring struggle, mommy guilt, and sharing of responsibilities in your family. Where in career progression do you think is the biggest obstacle to practice ownership for women in dentistry? Every situation is different. I think it would be very difficult to be pregnant or having your first child and starting your first practice for the first time without any support (without husband or family members to help). Especially when you are newly pregnant and don’t know how the pregnancy will progress. This is particularly true regarding maternity leave as a business owner. Some women come back to their office two days after having a baby. You have multiple associates, male and female. Do you find that the expectations of your associates differed between them when it came to scheduling accommodations related to family or maternity/ paternity leave? There hasn’t been a difference in their expectations with scheduling. I have three male doctors of which two have children. None of the male doctors asked about paternity leave. With the women, we did accommodate maternity leave of three months, but almost all of them were ready to come back sooner. You were a business owner first, and then a mom. If I’m a new mom, and a dentist but not yet a business owner, what is something I can do tomorrow that will enhance my career toward ownership? Just be astute in the office where you are working. Learn the front desk. The front desk is a mystery to many doctors. There are so many moving parts and so much you have to learn about running a business. The best thing to do as an associate is to start there. With the changing demographics of graduating dental classes consisting of more women in general, what related changes do you expect to see in the future of dentistry? I think that more and more women will be business owners and what I think is going to happen and is already happening is more DSOs are going to come into play and not go away. I think that women who want to own and run businesses are going to be competing with DSOs along with everyone else. “I am amazed at how many specialists and GPs are practice owners that are doing such incredible things. There are women who are in organized dentistry, there are women who have seven practices (like a mini DSO), and there are some that have a small three chair practice and are just killing it!” dentistry issues Q