Our Blog - Practice Pirate

How a 31 Year Old Dentist Saved $750,000

byPractice PirateJanuary 4, 20220 comments

Happy New Year. I hope this post finds you well and healthy. The student loan payment and interest freeze have gone on much longer than expected with the most recent “final” pause set to expire this month being extended until May. Since most of the readers of this blog are interested in student loans, you are also probably interested in personal finance. While it’s expensive to go to…

Pediatric Dentistry

What You Should Know Before Applying to a Pediatric Dental Residency Program

byPractice PirateJune 6, 20210 comments

Pediatric dentists separate themselves from general dentists, by gaining familiarity with current and historic literature in the field of pediatric dentistry and becoming masters of behavior modification techniques necessary for working with anxious children. Depending on the program, obtaining your certificate in pediatric dentistry requires two to three years of additional education and…

Endodontics

How to Prepare for Endodontic Residency Applications

byPractice PirateApril 27, 20210 comments

Deciding to apply to postgraduate specialty residencies is an important decision. This post outlines how a dentist or dental student should prepare to apply to endodontic residency programs.

On Dentistry

Should You Become a Dentist?

byPractice PirateJanuary 24, 20210 comments

I am asked this question often. There are several factors to consider when choosing a profession and two of them are the return on investment you expect to receive from obtaining the education and the suspected level of personal satisfaction or job fulfillment you would expect to achieve while working. The latter is much more difficult to quantify as one can find satisfaction from multiple…

Dental Practice Websites, Practice Management

Recommendations for Website Hosting for Dental Practice Websites

byPractice PirateJanuary 17, 20210 comments

Over the last decade, I have designed and built many websites using WordPress and Squarespace. For general dentists, the best platform for their websites is self-hosted WordPress. I wrote a guide about why WordPress should be chosen and you can read it here. Once you decide to use WordPress, you will need to choose a hosting provider. I have used many services to host websites. In the…

Dental Practice Websites, Practice Management

5 Reasons Every Dentist Should Use WordPress

byPractice PirateJanuary 17, 20211 comment

What is WordPress? It is my belief that without exception, every single dental website should be powered by WordPress. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) created and managed by Automattic. While Automattic owns WordPress, WordPress is an open-source project that is free to download and use. Since its official release in 2003, WordPress has become the most popular content…

On Dentistry

Is Being a Dentist Worth It?

byPractice PirateDecember 23, 20200 comments

This project was inspired by a blog post authored in 2014 titled “Dentistry Sucks”. The post has accumulated more than a thousand comments and I discovered it during a Google search when I was trying to connect with others who find this career choice particularly challenging. I enjoy practicing dentistry, but do feel that I knew too little about the profession prior to committing to applying…

Dental Book Reviews

How to Buy a Dental Practice Volume 1 – Second Edition by Brian Hanks – Book Review

byPractice PirateSeptember 22, 20200 comments

As you explore the possibility of ownership, this book is probably the single best resource available for dentists interested in purchasing a practice. Buying a business is a complicated transaction and doing it by yourself is ill-advised. This book highlights the importance of assembling a competent team to assist in the acquisition. Regarding your team, you’ll learn why the only advisors…

Basic Terms and Definitions, Featured

How Are Associate Dentists Paid?

byPractice PirateJuly 4, 20200 comments

I get asked this question frequently. “What is the difference between production, adjusted production, and collections?” Associates are typically paid on either adjusted production or collections. Adjusted production is production minus any insurance write-offs or discounts. To understand adjusted production, you need to know what “production” means. Production is how much dentistry…

Featured, Student Loans, IDR, and PSLF

Emergency Forbearance

byPractice PirateApril 5, 20200 comments

The COVID crisis effects on student loans continues. This pandemic has highlighted a complete lack of communication between the Department of Education and the loan servicers. You may have noticed that your federal student loans were automatically placed into forbearance last week. My loans are held with FedLoan and they automatically placed my account into an emergency forbearance in 2017…

0% Interest

byPractice PirateMarch 22, 20200 comments

The last two weeks have brought many changes to student loans. I have delayed publishing any information regarding these changes because the details of a policy was yet to be defined. COVID-19 has interrupted our lives and the dental profession has many unanswered questions regarding how we will move forward during and after this crisis. Many readers are aware that student loans held by the…

Best of Dentistry

Dental Blogs Worth Reading in 2019

byPractice PirateJanuary 17, 20200 comments

I believe blogs are powerful tools, and we would all benefit from writing one. I began writing at OneLooseTooth.com in 2013, and it has resulted in several opportunities that I would not have had a chance to pursue otherwise. Before One Loose Tooth, I was writing as the Engaging Dentist (a site I deleted while in dental school). In 2014, 2015, and 2016, I compiled a list of the best dental…