 Hello everybody, Andrew here. Let's talk about the pros and cons about having your own dental hygiene practice versus working for a dentist. So depending on where you live, you might be allowed legally to have your own dental hygiene practice. I do. So I am in Ontario, where I have my my own mobile dental hygiene practice where I actually travel to patients homes and do teeth cleanings and teeth whining. I also have a room here in my own home where if patients don't necessarily need me to come to them, they come to me. And patients love it because there are a lot of patients out there who don't necessarily want to go into a dental office. They're nervous during the pandemic. They might be more nervous to be exposed to more people. They don't want to feel the pressure about going to a dentist and possibly needing a dental exam x-rays, but they want to keep up with their oral health and teeth cleanings to have the best oral health possible in that regard. So what are some pros and cons about having my own dental hygiene practice? So I love it. That's the first thing that I'm going to say, but there are some cons as well. So let me first talk about the pros. So those are, I would say the obvious. You can have your own schedule. You can build your own schedule. That to me is fantastic. I typically work 10 until 10 until two. Not every day it does vary. I do have patients who I see in the evening time, but then I might work five till eight. So if I was in a dental office, those hours you wouldn't get. They would typically be eight 30 till six 30. You wouldn't get a lunch or you might get a lunch. If you're lucky, you might have to do two evenings a week at the dental office because that's just you guys sharing the load. Who knows, right? So that's one of the things I love about having my own practice is I set my own schedule. Another pro for sure. And that might surprise a lot of you is that I make more money in my own practice. Yes, I have expenses. Absolutely. But I don't have as much as many expenses as you might think. I make 100% of the profits. I'm not working for a dentist where I get paid my hourly rate, but they're making most of the money. When I was a dental hygienist, I was making, I want to say $32 per hour, maybe $35 per hour. And that was a lot back then I've had my own practice now for about two years. I worked in Kitchener. I believe I made closer to $39 per hour is not funny. I can't remember now, but now having my own dental hygiene practice. When I bill, let's say a new patient exam polish scale fluoride, depending on what I'm doing, teeth whitening, I could make $200 a person, or I could make $300 a person depending on what type of appointment that is. So $32 per hour versus $200 a person or $300 a person. Gee, I wonder which one's better. So that's the purse of having my own practice. But here is a con. So this is what typically scares a lot of people from having their own practice is you have to start somewhere. You have to get your own patients. The nice thing about working for somebody else working at the dental office is, well, your income is probably going to be the same. If you make, let's just say 30 to $30 per hour, I'm just picking a number, eight hours a day. You work five days a week, maybe four days a week, you will always know what kind of income to expect right so so you can plan that having your own business, your income is definitely scattered. You might have more patients this month, and then not as many next month because you've decided to take holidays, or you have to you soon start to realize, well, if I need more money, I have to work more, but I'm just one person so how am I going to bring in the money that's on me. I'm my own business. I'm the boss, I'm the, you know, I'm the provider, I'm the assistant, I'm everything. So you have to think about that too. So that's one of the reasons why people prefer working for somebody else and not necessarily having their own business because the pressure is taken off of them. Having your own business is definitely a roller coaster. I feel like I'm learning this, but I feel like I'm constantly working. I can't necessarily shut my brain off, but I've only had my dental hygiene practice for two years. So I'm super excited about it and I'm constantly thinking how I'm going to get my next patients, who I'm seeing tomorrow, who I'm seeing the next day. I need to follow up with those patients that I did see to make sure they're doing okay after a deep cleaning. I need to be booking appointments in to make sure that I'm still making the money, things like that. So one of the other cons about having your own practice is if you're just one employee like I am, you have to wear many different hats. As I said before, I'm the owner. I'm the provider. I'm the assistant who's answering calls, emailing, messaging, updating social media. I'm the accountant. Well, no, I'm not the accountant because I do have one. But I'm the one doing the bookkeeping. I'm the one depositing checks. I'm the one sending things off to insurance companies whereas if you work in a dental office, you have the dental assistant. You have the dental receptionist, probably more than one dental assistant, probably more than one dental receptionist. So you're not being pulled in 20,000 different directions. Being a business owner, you are. I am. I'm always doing something. But I could hire an assistant. I could hire a receptionist. But at this time, I choose not to. I like to be in control. I like to know what's going on in my business. But that can be hard for a lot of people, right? Another thing is you will have expenses. You start to realize how much things cost when you have to pay for them yourself. Masks, bibs, gloves, toothpaste, trophy paste, instruments, sterilizer. You soon start to realize having a dental hygiene practice is expensive. Whereas if you work for somebody else, you don't have to worry about the business expenses. When I first started, I had to buy a $10,000 sterilizer. I know. So here I'm thinking, okay, it's going to take me forever to make $10,000. But that's part of your business. That's a business expense. You'll probably need to take it alone. Whereas if you work for a dental office, you don't have to worry about business expenses. You don't have to worry about taking it alone because you don't worry about it. So having your own dental hygiene practice, you worry, think about a lot of things you have to handle, a lot of things you deal with expenses. Whereas working for somebody else, working in a dental office, you do not have to worry about those things. But those are kind of the main things. Did I forget anything, you guys? Please comment below if you have any questions. I'm sure I forgot something. If you haven't yet, please click like. That does help me so much in my channel. And if you haven't also yet, please make sure to click the subscribe button because I do upload videos often. And please comment if you guys have any questions whatsoever. All in all, you guys, there's pros and cons to having your own dental hygiene business and or working for a dentist in a dental office. Having my own business is absolutely for me. I am meant to be a business owner, but it's not for everybody. You're going to be nervous. You're going to be fearful at first because you have to find your own patients, make your own money, all of that. Who's going to pay the bills? You have to. So you have to figure this out on your own, but it's worth it. I love it. I'm so passionate about inspiring people to have their own dental hygiene practice. If you can, where you live, some states you can, some states you're not allowed to. You have to be a dentist to have your own practice, but thankfully here in Ontario, I can have my own business. So thank you guys so much for watching. Click like if you haven't yet. Thank you guys. And I'll see you guys in the next video.