CDA Essentials 2018 • Volume 5 • Issue 5

S upporting Y our P ractice Advice for new graduates: Should you choose an urban or a rural location? This interviewhasbeencondensedandedited. Theviewsexpressedarethoseoftheauthors anddonotnecessarilyreflecttheopinions orofficialpoliciesoftheCanadianDental Association. David ChongYen Eugene Chu david@dcy.ca e ugene@dcy.ca Where should you start your practice? We asked David Chong Yen and Eugene Chu, chartered professional accountants in Toronto who focus their services on dentists, to share their perspectives on practising in a rural versus urban environment, based on some of their clients’ experiences. Here’s an overview of what they said. Going rural doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing your social life. Many new graduates grew up in metropolitan areas and have family and friends there. They often want to stay close to the amenities that cities have to offer in terms of social activities. To many, working in a small, rural community implies having to make sacrifices. However, those sacrifices may sometimes be overstated. Working in a big city as a dental associate could mean having to work odd hours, working weekends or having a patchy schedule. While you may be physically closer to the social activities, you may not actually have the time to attend them. On the other hand, you could work 4 days a week in a rural town that is 2 hours away from a big city. You would have long weekends to visit your friends and family and enjoy all that the city has to offer. So, you have to ask yourself: by choosing a rural environment for your practice, are you really sacrificing your social life? Boost your clinical experience in a rural environment. If you are the only dental office in a town of 3,000 people, there is a higher chance that you will end up doing a greater variety of challenging cases for the simple reason that the closest specialist might be hours away. This will allow you to build clinical experience much faster. If you are the only dental office in a town of 3,000 people, there is a higher chance that you will end up doing a greater variety of challenging cases for the simple reason that the closest specialist might be hours away. 29 Issue 5 | 2018 |