Corporate dental offices — DSOs — are becoming more popular. Do you think they're good or bad for dentistry?

Whether you understand the economics you're walking into, and whether you can take a position on a contested question without sloganeering. A large share of new graduates start their careers in a DSO.

Written by Victoria Young, DDS · NYU College of Dentistry '24 · Penn Dental Medicine

The trap

Condemning DSOs outright. Some of your interviewers own practices, some consult for DSOs, and many of their graduates work in one. A sweeping verdict reads as someone repeating a talking point rather than thinking.

How to structure your answer

Show you understand the model → the genuine case for → the genuine case against → your own position, with reasons.

Know why new graduates join: no startup capital, built-in mentorship, immediate patient volume, admin handled for you
The case for: access in areas a solo practice couldn't survive in, and a softer landing for a new grad carrying debt
The case against: production quotas, pressure on treatment decisions, less clinical autonomy
Note the range across DSOs is enormous — some are excellent, some are not
Land on an actual answer rather than 'it depends'

A weak answer

What most people say

I have some real concerns about them. When corporate ownership gets involved there's always a risk that profit starts coming before patient care, and I'd rather be somewhere the dentist is the one making the decisions. I know a lot of new graduates go that route out of necessity, but I'd want a private practice where I could build long relationships with my patients.

A sweeping verdict delivered to a room that may include people who work with DSOs.

A stronger answer

What lands

I was an aide at a physical therapy clinic that got bought by a bigger group, so I've seen this from inside. Why new grads go isn't mysterious — no startup loan, patients on day one, somebody fighting the insurer, and a senior clinician down the hall when you hit something new. In plenty of towns the group office is the only office. The pressure is real. Our visit targets went up, and what changed was how much time we had with people. My position is that the spread between groups is wider than the gap between corporate and private. The question is who signs off on the plan.

Knows why grads join, names the pressure from experience, and lands on a position.

One answer picks a side. The other names the question you'd ask on your first interview at a group practice.

These are illustrations, not scripts. An answer you memorize sounds memorized — the point is the shape and the specificity, in your own words and about your own life.

Reading it isn't the same as saying it.

Most people can explain a good answer and still fall apart saying one out loud. Admitted asks you all 100 questions in a faculty voice, records you, and scores your pace and filler words.

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