Amy Scott

But dental patients aren't the only ones facing higher costs.

All this week in our series, My Economy, we're bringing you stories from inside the world of health care.

My name is Catherine Sislo.

I am a dentist and owner of Sislo Family Dental in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

I graduated dental school in 2019, and then I went on for a residency, which was at a hospital.

So I was working in the hospital right as the COVID stuff was hitting.

And when I left my residency, there were no jobs, none.

I couldn't find a single associateship.

I couldn't find anything in public health.

There was nothing in academia.

I was like, I'll just do your cleaning as I'll be your hygienist.

And I still could not find a job.

I was like six months in and I was like, I need to make money.

I'd always assumed I'd own a practice at some point.

And so I went out and started looking at practice brokers and found a practice, bought it.

In dental school, they don't teach you how to run a practice, how to run a business.

So trial by fire.

Absolutely.

The initial investment front was very, very large.

And that was probably around my three-year mark where I was like, I'm, I was still in the red.