Dentists everywhere are now reporting that they’re victims of their own success, so to speak.
It’s not that their chairs aren’t filled. Quite the opposite, in fact – their schedules are jammed to the point where they’re frantically running between rooms. If those dentists were making tons of money, that might be acceptable, at least for a while. But that’s not what’s happening.
Those dentists are victims of their own success because they’re getting what they market for – an unending stream of routine exams, drill-and-fills, and maybe a crown once in a while. In other words, low-value cases and patients who are price-driven, insurance-driven, and looking for the minimum amount of dentistry that they can get away with.
Busy Doesn’t Always Cut It
The upshot is that dentists are working too hard for too long for too little. And many of them are beginning to wonder how long they can keep this pace up. Younger dentists probably have an advantage over more mature dentists, but wear and tear isn’t always the cause of chronic pain among dentists. A neck or back injury can happen to anyone at any time.
Some dentists have responded by staying open later in the evening or adding a half-day on Saturday. While that may temporarily reduce the pressure on their schedules, the result is that they’re putting more hours into their practices… hours that they could otherwise have spent with family, with friends, or just recharging and de-stressing.
The Reinforcements Have Been Diverted
This high-volume scenario might sound tailor-made for bringing on an associate, but it’s not that simple these days. A large number of new dentists are gravitating toward corporate dental practices due to enormous sign-on bonuses and dental school tuition repayment programs. Practice owners might snag an established dentist who’s ready to leave corporate practice, but they almost certainly won’t be cheap. In some markets, owners might even find themselves in a bidding war.
No wonder those dentists – and you, maybe – are feeling trapped and overwhelmed.
Market For Quality Rather Than Quality
A factory can get away with making millions of products that only return a few cents each in profit. That model doesn’t work for dentistry. Dentists aren’t machines. They get tired, they wear down, and most of their parts aren’t replaceable.
Dentistry was never intended to be a high-volume operation. The way to leave that model and work less, earn more, and enjoy life again is to attract better dental patients.
Better dental patients comprise up to 30 percent of a given market. These are people with the ability and willingness to pay more for the right dentist. They’re not motivated by low cost or insurance acceptance. And, they represent much higher average and lifetime case value to your practice than what you may be getting now.
With better dental patients, you can get out of the rat race and begin enjoying both dentistry and time away from your practice.
SmartBox helps dentists thrive by providing a steady stream of better dental patients. To see what out industry-leading Patient Attraction System® can do for your practice, visit the SmartBox website and click on the “Get Started” button. Reserve your free, no-obligation Practice Discovery Session
.
You don’t have to wait until retirement to enjoy life, and with SmartBox you won’t have to.
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