Career crossroads

Crossroads, sometimes unexpected, crop up at infrequent intervals in every dentist's career. Whilst personal or family choices often make themselves, picking the right business or professional direction, with long term financial implications often hanging on the outcome as well as the individual's job satisfaction, always demands careful thought.

The days have long past when practice principals could comfortably devote almost their entire energies to the delivery of high quality patient care. Today's dental practice, whether NHS or private, is unashamedly a business operating in an increasingly competitive market environment which is hedged on all sides by regulations. No independent principal will need reminding of the impact of recent changes to infection control requirements, for example.

Very few dentists graduate with the primary intention of becoming business managers, and yet more and more practising principals are spending more and more of their time on administration, organising personnel, regulatory compliance, equipment sourcing and financing, and basic logistics. It is no surprise that in many cases not only is their time with their patients compromised, but also their enthusiasm for actually performing dentistry is tempered by the pressures of ensuring their practice continues to function, expand and remain viable.