Every retirement is as personai as every practice.

Selling a practice is not like selling a car; many lives are bound up in the transaction This is a personal narrative about career planning and circumstances. Without the author's succession of detailed plans, he never would have been sensitive enough to the need for nearly continuous adjustments. In the end, the true value of the practice was not measured in dollars.

Practice transitions--past, present, and future.

Until the 1960s, the value of a practice upon the retirement of the dentist was considered to be nil. In the next several decades, the value of a practice as a going business concern was recognized and formulas based on productivity were used to establish the sales price of "walkaway" practice transitions. Increasingly creative means, such as pre-sale, deferred pre-sale, shareholder process, incremental practice sale, and practice mergers have been created to make practice transitions more flexible, thereby maximizing the financial value of transitions. Dentists at the beginning of their careers will have an increasing range of opportunities in the future, with various combinations of financial security, freedom from manage- ment concerns, control over the practice, and accumulation of equity. Those in the 45- to 55-year age range should be planning in detail for their transition. Those older than 55 should begin exercising their plans since the future will involve much longer transitions.

Retirement plans for Korean dentists after the economic crisis in 1998.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the economic hardships of dentists from the rapid reduction of incomes after the IMF crisis in Korea 1998, the retirement plan status of those dentists, and to provide the basic data to determine an economic retirement plan of dentists. METHODS: Among the 14,359 dentists in Korea, 855 dentists were surveyed. The surveys were from February 22, 2010 to April 22, 2010, and were carried out with 484 copies that were selected to be used for analysis. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS statistics program 15.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS: The dentist group with a net monthly income of '2-2.5 million [corrected] won' showed the highest retirement planning (P < 0.001). The preparation period for an economic retirement was about 10 years (P < 0.001). Single and married dentists both showed 'private insurance' as the highest economic retirement plan (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A more systematic retirement plan for Korean dentists is required and the government needs to implement a training program for professional retirement planning.

Dental care expenditures and retirement.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship of dental care coverage, retirement, and out-of-pocket (OOP) dental expenditures in an aging population, using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). METHODS: We estimate OOP dental expenditures among individuals who have dental utilization as a function of dental care coverage status, retirement, and individual and household characteristics. We also estimate a multivariate model controlling for potentially confounding variables. RESULTS: Overall, mean OOP dental expenditures among those with any spending were substantially larger for those without coverage than for those with coverage. However, controlling for coverage shows that there is little difference in spending by retirement status. CONCLUSIONS: Although having dental coverage is a key determinant of the level of OOP expenditures on dental care; spending is higher among those without coverage than those who have dental insurance. We also found that while retirement has no independent effect on OOP dental expenditures once controlling for coverage, dental coverage rates are much lower among retirees.

Dental care utilization and retirement.

OBJECTIVE: The authors examine the relationship of dental care coverage, retirement, and utilization in an aging population using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). METHODS: The authors estimate dental care use as a function of dental care coverage status, retirement, and individual and household characteristics. They also estimate a multivariate model controlling for potentially confounding variables. RESULTS: The authors show that that the loss of income and dental coverage associated with retirement may lead to lower use rates but this effect may be offset by other unobserved aspects of retirement including more available free time leading to an overall higher use rate. CONCLUSIONS: The authors conclude from this study that full retirement accompanied by reduced income and dental insurance coverage produces lower utilization of dental services. However, they also show that retirement acts as an independent variable, whereas income, coverage, and free time (unobserved) act as intervening variables.

How well prepared are Australian dentists for retirement? A survey of practitioners aged 50 and above.

AIMS: To determine how financially prepared Australian dentists are for retirement. METHODS: Information was collected in the Dentist Retirement Intentions Study from members of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Dental Association, all of whom were aged over 50 years. One way ANOVAs were used to test for differences between groups of variables. A forward stepwise multivariate regression identified predictors of the expected value of savings at retirement. RESULTS: It was found that while there was variation in preferred retirement income, there was general agreement that this preferred retirement income would be achieved. Current assets mostly totalled between dollars 250,000 and dollars 2 million (Australian dollars), with 35% of assets held in the family home. However, 7% of dentists had no net savings or were in net debt. Half the surveyed dentists predicted their savings at retirement to be more than $2 million. Superannuation was the most commonly cited predicted source of retirement funding. CONCLUSIONS: Most, but not all, dentists are generally well prepared for retirement. They have a significant amount of wealth, which is above that generally recommended for a comfortable living standard in retirement in Australia, they have this wealth stored in easily accessed, high return assets, and they also intend to spend this wealth on financing their retirement rather than running down their capital.

Seller beware.

Any dentist thinking of retiring needs to plan for the event, and that planning should include how to maximise Capital Gains Tax retirement relief. With assets having to be held for 10 years prior to retirement, that planning should start when the dentist reaches 45 years of age. As every dentist's circumstances are different, it is a tax that can become complicated. The best advice is to review your tax planning with your dental accountant as early as possible, and ensure you make the most of your practice assets.

Designing a New Payment Model for Oral Care in Seniors.

With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day, many will be on fixed incomes and will lose dental insurance upon retirement. This article presents why a dental benefit in Medicare might save the US government money, and who would likely benefit. It details an approach to estimating costs of inclusion of a dental benefit in Medicare, and compares the proposed approach to existing proposals. Additionally, the ensuing steps needed to advance the conversation to include oral health in healthcare for the aged will be discussed.

Disparity in dental out-of-pocket payments among older adult populations: a comparative analysis across selected European countries and the USA.

BACKGROUND: The current study addresses the extent to which diversity exists in dental out-of-pocket (OOP) payments across population subgroups within and between the USA and selected European countries. This represents the final paper in a series in which the previous two papers addressed diversity in dental coverage and dental utilisation, respectively, using similar data and methods. METHOD: We used data from the 2006/2007 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and from the 2004-2006 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for respondents ≥51 years of age. We estimated the impacts of dental-care coverage and of demographic, socio-economic and health status on the likelihood and amount of dental OOP payments. RESULTS: In the USA, older persons with the least education, lowest income and worst health are most likely to pay nothing OOP for their dental care and, for persons with an OOP payment, the amount of this payment increases with income and education and is higher for persons who are uninsured and in fair or poor health. However, these results were not consistently found in the 10 European countries we studied. CONCLUSIONS: European countries classified according to social welfare state or the presence of social health insurance (SHI) showed no effect on the likelihood of making payments OOP for dental care nor, when OOP payments were made, on the amounts paid. Variation in generosity of coverage and procedures reimbursed by insurance, even within countries with SHI, as well as differing needs, tastes and access to care across countries, contribute to this finding.

Prepaid dental annuity for retirement.

A number of different groups exist within those ages sixty-five and up. They have varying dental needs and resources with which to treat those needs. This program is targeted at those individuals who are moving toward age sixty-five, currently have dental insurance through their employer, and desire to prepay their dental insurance premiums for the remainder of their lives while preserving any unused portion of their prepaid amount for their heirs. It does so by creating a "dental annuity" instrument with minimal administrative burden.