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Women in Dentistry: Work/Life Balance: Flexibility and Creative Scheduling Go A Long Way Arselia Gales, Assistant Editor

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It's no secret that a dentist's schedule and obligations can go above and beyond the typical 40-hour work week, especially if that dentist owns a practice.

When it comes to having the perfect work/life balance, many dentists, especially female dentists, have turned to non-traditional scheduling options to fulfill their career goals while also tending to responsibilities outside of work. Instead of working five days a week, women now have the opportunity to work part-time and still make strides in their dental career.

Cindy Roark, chief clinical officer with Coast Dental, believes a non-traditional staffing model is best for dentists who have a large amount of responsibilities outside the office.

Before having her first child, Roark owned her own practice and worked up to 12 hours a day. After giving birth, she felt she could not continue her practice and still dedicate enough time to her newborn; it was simply too much to take on. She then sold her practice and moved to Florida with hopes of opening another practice after going the group/corporate route for a year. However, she ended up staying with Coast Dental.

"I feel like group practices offer the best scheduling options for female dentists," Roark said. "They provide a better opportunity, particularly for women, because you can walk in and work three days if you have to. A lot of women have a parent who's ill, a child who's in elementary school, and a thousand responsibilities. It just isn't the time in their life where they want to work full-time," Roark said.

Joining a group practice gave Roark the flexibility to work four days a week, something she could not have done at her own practice. Roark also noted that with more female dental students graduating—about 50 percent—it's important to meet their needs in terms of scheduling.

"I've had a critically ill parent at the same time I had a daughter in preschool and I was pretty much tapped out in terms of energy," she said. "I just did not have the ability to work five full days given my responsibilities. It was almost like a lifeline to be able to step into a lesser role—in terms of hours—with just as much prestige and just as much money."

Because Roark is all too familiar with the many decisions women must make when it comes to a career, when she switched into a management role she wanted to create a work environment that included options. She wanted it to be friendly to women, primary care givers, the semi-retired, and to those who don't want to chain themselves to a job, such as many "millennials."

"I wanted us to be an employer for those who could truly benefit from the flexibility group (practices) have to offer," she said.

Roark noted that some may view non-traditional staffing models as a "scheduling nightmare." However, she said that creative scheduling has created patient coverage that Coast Dental may not have had otherwise.

"If we've got two people that are working a three-day overlap then lots of times we'll have Saturday coverage that we never had," Roark said. "We'll have this pick-up in revenue from a day that we were never traditionally open so that's good for the business. It's good for the patient because a lot of patients want to be seen on a Saturday, so patients love it and the company loves it. Whatever bump you have by providing benefits for two providers is nearly always offset by the increase in revenue you got on that Saturday anyway."

Like Roark, other female dentists have found a way to move forward in their careers without overworking themselves.

Dr. Janice Frederick of Mendota Dental Associates, in Minnesota, created an "untraditional" schedule for herself while still owning her own practice. Frederick's father was a dentist and she says she has done every job in the dental office from cleaning the office to working the front desk and doing lab work.

"My first 10 years out of school I worked part time three days a week, which was very nice as my children were young," Frederick said. "I eventually bought the practice from my father and have worked full time since then."

Currently, she works 4.5 days a week and has two full-time hygienists who she says keep her on her toes.

"I think that dentistry is a profession where you can work part-time and make a decent income," Frederick said. "I worry about the new grads however, as their debt load may be too high for them to work shorter hours. If you are working part time, it helps to be in a practice where the patients are comfortable seeing more than one dentist, as scheduling can get trickier."

With the help of creative scheduling, Roark and Frederick, along with other women in the industry have seen success in their careers without having to make large personal sacrifices.
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