New Year, New Beginnings

Things have been all topsy turvy in the Millner household since the holidays. It actually all started in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have been unhappy at my job for quite some time. I was in a very stagnant place. The other dentist that I worked for had a very set routine and didn't want to learn anything new...PERIOD. I have known since before Lily was born that I had no future with the practice. The office manager (owner's wife) is never going to be able to cede enough of her control over the office for a true partnership to happen. I have stayed in the location for several reasons. First and foremost, it's convenient. I am 10 minutes from home and 10 minutes from both kids' schools. I am able to drop everything and go pick up the kids if they need me (mainly because I'm not busy but I'll get to that in a second) and it's usually not a problem to shuffle patients around if one of us is sick. Second, I hate confrontation and am not always wild about change and the unknown! Also, when I came back from maternity leave with Lily, the economy had bottomed out and there wasn't anywhere to go. It's still slow in a lot of areas. I guess teeth tend to get the back burner when money is tight, and many have lost their dental insurance.

Anyway, there were some very frustrating and disturbing trends going on in the office over the past year. I can overlook one or two instances but it was becoming more and more common. My schedule would suffer so the owner could be busy. If I was busy, it was because I was cleaning teeth. NOT what I really went to school for. I had also taken a class on Enteral Conscious Sedation back in March of last year and am still waiting on them to order the equipment so I can put said certificate to good use! So everything came to a head shortly after Thanksgiving and I called a dental broker to see what was out there.

Within a few hours of sending my resume to the broker I had a dentist in Fort Worth contact me about a position with her practice. I have spent the past 6 weeks meeting with her, doing working interviews and ironing out all of the parts of a new contract. I signed the contract last Monday and gave my notice on Tuesday! I am very excited about my change of venue. The practice I am going to is cutting edge and they are willing to teach and mentor me! It's certainly not convenient but I think the pros outweigh the cons in the long run. The only big change to our normal schedule will be Joshua going to after school care three days a week and he's excited about it. His best buddy goes to after school care so the two of them will have more playtime together. I finished working at the other office last Thursday and decided to take a week to myself and recharge. I start this Thursday and am spending the next few days organizing closets and getting our new schedule figured out!