Have You Ever Asked Yourself: How can I get more patients? What are the systems I need to streamline operations? How can I be more effective with marketing? How can I align marketing and operations? How can I measure marketing results to see what’s working? If this is you, you’re in the right place. We’ve spent a lot of time talking with orthodontists, dentists, practice managers, office staff, and consultants, and we’ve actually built a framework to connect your office to patients & develop a relationship. Our Patient Acquisition & Retention Framework™ enables you to manage the patient experience from the first call through their procedure of interest. The GrowOrtho podcast is for orthodontists and dentists who want to run their practice like a business and discover how to take their practice to the next level.
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Have You Ever Asked Yourself: How can I get more patients? What are the systems I need to streamline operations? How can I be more effective with marketing? How can I align marketing and operations? How can I measure marketing results to see what’s working? If this is you, you’re in the right place. We’ve spent a lot of time talking with orthodontists, dentists, practice managers, office staff, and consultants, and we’ve actually built a framework to connect your office to patients & develop a relationship. Our Patient Acquisition & Retention Framework™ enables you to manage the patient experience from the first call through their procedure of interest. The GrowOrtho podcast is for orthodontists and dentists who want to run their practice like a business and discover how to take their practice to the next level.
The Secrets About Money They Never Told You In Dental School
The GrowOrtho Podcast
1 hour 19 minutes 38 seconds
3 months ago
The Secrets About Money They Never Told You In Dental School
Why High-Income Healthcare Professionals Are Financially Struggling: The Hidden Crisis in Medicine
The shocking statistics reveal a disturbing paradox in healthcare: 50% of physicians work beyond age 65 because they have to, despite earning in the top 1% of incomes for over 30 years. With over 400 physician suicides annually and financial stress ranking as the second leading cause of professional burnout, it’s clear that high income doesn’t guarantee financial security for doctors, orthodontists, and other healthcare professionals.
This crisis affects thousands of highly educated professionals who’ve mastered complex medical procedures but remain financially illiterate despite impressive incomes. The result? A generation of healthcare providers trapped in what experts call “golden handcuffs” – looking wealthy on paper while actually running on a dangerous financial treadmill.
Watch GrowOrtho episode here.
The Educational Gap: 27 Years of School, Zero Financial Training
Dr. Erik Nilssen, an orthopedic surgeon and financial educator, highlights a critical flaw in medical education: “I personally went to the 27th grade and I never had a class on how to invest or why to invest or what does retirement really look like.”
This educational blind spot is systematic across healthcare professions. Medical schools, dental schools, and orthodontic programs excel at teaching clinical skills but completely ignore business and financial realities. Students spend over a decade learning to treat patients but graduate without knowing how to manage wealth or build financial security.
Teresa Kuhn, a wealth strategist specializing in high-income professionals, traces this problem to its psychological roots: “We’re programmed to be consumers at a very, very young age, as opposed to thinking long term about what lifestyle do you want to live, what outcome do you want?”
The Lifestyle Inflation Trap: From Broke to Rich to Broke Again
The transition from broke medical student to high-income professional creates perfect conditions for financial disaster. After years of delayed gratification and accumulating massive student debt, new healthcare professionals suddenly have access to credit and income they’ve only dreamed about.
Dr. Nilssen describes the psychological trap: “You make nothing as a resident, you’re broke, you have all this debt, and then one day you get a paycheck which is more than you’ve made your entire life… and then you start buying the goods and feeling good and lifestyle creep kicks up and now you’re stuck in this system.”
The mathematics are brutal. When professionals reach their 50s and 60s wanting to retire or reduce their workload, many discover their balance sheet cannot support their lifestyle. This creates a vicious cycle where high earners feel trapped by their own success – making more money than ever but having less financial freedom due to high fixed costs.
The Burnout-Finance Connection: Why Money Problems Are Killing Doctors
The connection between financial stress and physician burnout isn’t coincidental – it’s systematic. Current healthcare economics create an impossible equation, as Dr. Nilssen explains: “With insurance companies dropping reimbursements, cost of practices increasing, so overheads increasing, reimbursements are going down. That mathematical equation over time doesn’t add up.”
This financial pressure contributes to an epidemic of professional burnout affecting 80-90% of physicians. The human cost is devastating: “Burnout leads to depression. And then depression leads to what? There’s over 400 physician suicides a year. That’s one a day,” states Dr. Nilssen.
Healthcare professionals often ignore biological realities tha...
The GrowOrtho Podcast
Have You Ever Asked Yourself: How can I get more patients? What are the systems I need to streamline operations? How can I be more effective with marketing? How can I align marketing and operations? How can I measure marketing results to see what’s working? If this is you, you’re in the right place. We’ve spent a lot of time talking with orthodontists, dentists, practice managers, office staff, and consultants, and we’ve actually built a framework to connect your office to patients & develop a relationship. Our Patient Acquisition & Retention Framework™ enables you to manage the patient experience from the first call through their procedure of interest. The GrowOrtho podcast is for orthodontists and dentists who want to run their practice like a business and discover how to take their practice to the next level.
