Being a private practice owner has allowed Rajdeep Randhawa, DDS, to keep better control of his schedule, avoid burnout and develop better relationships with his patients.
Rajdeep Randhawa, DDS, is the owner of Innovative Dentistry in Colts Neck, N.J. He recently spoke with Becker's about his biggest career accomplishment.
Editor's note: This response was lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What is the biggest "win" of your career so far?
Dr. Rajdeep Randhawa: The biggest "win" of my career has been to be an independent dental practitioner with a very independent thought process where you are in control of your own schedule, seeing all of the patients by appointment only, working only on days or hours you want to, after prioritizing yourself and your family and much-needed vacations, taking time off any time to do all the amazing things in life.
I have never looked at the highly esteemed dental profession in terms of win or loss, profit or loss, from the financial goals aspect or a very materialistic angle. This is something that is increasingly becoming a career guide for many very aggressive, goal-oriented corporations or other highly ambitious business-oriented dentists.
It has been a blessing to simultaneously enjoy dentistry and the unique lifestyle of not being involved in the never-ending "rat race" that fulfills many dentists financial goals, but there is a heavy price to pay for it that includes mental health issues, physical health issues, isolation from family and friends, missing on the real enjoyments of life, increasing burnout and even premature retirement.
When you love being a dentist, dedicating a lot of your intellect, time, effort and energy to your chosen profession, it shows on a daily basis in your interactions with your patients, dental team and everyone else you interact with. Dentistry done the right way is so much fun with immense professional satisfaction when you develop very trustworthy dentist-patient relationships over the years, serving their needs and wants with patients referring to you as friends and family.
Amazingly, many patients travel long distances asking for second or third opinions when traditional insurers or corporate dentists unwittingly scare them with aggressive maximally invasive dentistry treatment plans to prematurely extract their teeth and do all different types of aggressive treatment.
It always feels good when you are able to offer patients minimally invasive dentistry options, totally focused on patient interests, instead of telling them what to do based on unending dictation from the insurance industry, corporate dentistry, or being influenced by the high stressors of high volume, low-profit dentistry.