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Economic Downturn? You Don't Have To Participate!
by Mike Kesner, DDS
Recession? Downturn? Slowdown? Whatever you call it, the rate of income growth in most dental practices has slowed to a crawl or even declined. The fact is many dentists are worried about their future…

Many patients are worried about their future too, so they come into our practices grasping their wallets with both hands. Who wouldn't be worried with all the economic doom and gloom on the news every night?

In some ways, the economic downturn is bad news – obviously. Worried folks spend less money, which is why most dentists' revenues are either down or flat. But for those of us with the right approach, there's hope and even opportunity.

When everyone else is "hunkering down" hoping and waiting for this economic downturn to blow over, you can do the exact opposite. You can take advantage of this great opportunity! Throughout history the greatest opportunities have been during times of the greatest adversity. Just look back at the stock market crash in March 2009. When most people were selling and getting out of the market, a few people saw opportunity and were actually buying into the market. Two years later those people are sitting on a 72 percent increase!

Change the way you practice the business of dentistry. Most dentists practice the way they always have. But what worked a few years ago, doesn't necessarily work now. We can blame the economy and hope its going to go back to the way it once was, but it isn't going to happen.

Many of the successful doctors who are adapting to the economy are using PracticeSMARTS. This is a practice business model I've developed over the last seven years. It is recession-proof and will work in any economy. In fact this model has allowed me to net more than $1 million a year from my practice for the last five years. It has taken my annual practice revenue from $675,000 in 2004, to $7 million this year.

Dentists who implement PracticeSMARTS have an average increase in revenue of 32 percent in the first six months! And, many of these dentists are in the economically hardest hit areas of the country.

There are four ways you can increase your revenue:
  1. Increase your case acceptance rate
  2. Increase your capacity to do more dentistry
  3. Increase the number of high-profit procedures
  4. Increase the number of new patients
PracticeSMARTS works on all four of these areas at once to produce breakthrough growth in your practice. Here's a breakdown of how it works:

Systems for Everything
Would you like your practice to practically run itself? Do you want things to stop falling through the cracks? Do you want your stress low and your profitability high? Systems are the key. They must be written. Written systems make it very clear how things should be done, keep your staff accountable and keep things running smoothly and efficiently. You would never think of getting on an airplane with pilots who didn't use systems and checklists… so why would you want to "fly" your practice without written systems?

Non-stop Marketing
The right kind of marketing keeps a steady flow of new patients coming in month after month. I have found that having new patients fixes a lot of problems. The right marketing answers the question in the potential patient's mind… "What's in it for me?" Why should the patient come to see you instead of some dentist down the street? You need a good headline and a marketing piece that catches the potential patient's attention and you have about three seconds to do that. The right marketing is an investment in business growth and should not be considered an expense. My marketing brings me a 4:1 return every single month. Where else can I get a 4:1 return on my money these days?

Absolute Efficiency
Want to see a lot of profit at the end of the month? Make everything in your office more efficient. Efficiency creates time. The more time you have, the more dentistry you can do. The more efficient your staff is the more patients you can see. Overhead goes down by increasing production per hour. Efficiency also reduces your stress by making everything flow smoothly.

Reward Your Team (with profit bonuses)
The right bonus will turn employees into "business partners." They will run the practice for you so you can focus on the patients and the dentistry. Your time is the most profitable when you are treating patients, not doing all the other stuff in your practice. Your revenue will make a huge jump in just two to three months once you have the right bonuses in place. The bonuses have to be based upon the profitability of the practice. Do you want a team that is committed, has a feeling of ownership and takes on more responsibility? How about a team that helps patients say "yes" to the dentistry you recommend? The right bonuses motivate your staff, empower them and make you wealthy. It is a win-win situation for everyone!

Team "Selling" for Case Acceptance
"I'll do the fillings, but I am going to have to think about the crowns." Aren't you tired of hearing that? Getting patients to say "yes" to the treatment plan is a team effort. Believe it or not, the doctor actually plays the smallest role! Your case acceptance will go way up when you and your team connect with the patients on an emotional level and stop trying to teach them dentistry. Most dentists who begin our program begin with a case acceptance rate of around 20 percent and end the program at 70 percent acceptance! This doubles, even triples your revenue on the same number of new patients! No more working up a big treatment plan and then hearing… "I'll think about it."

Same-day Dentistry
Did you know that your profitability on dentistry done the same day is around 90 percent, compared to waiting until next week? So, why would you want to schedule it for next week? We typically add $7,500 – $10,000 a day in same-day dentistry, every day! Cancellation problems also go away with same-day dentistry. When you have your systems and efficiency working, you have the capacity to do same-day procedures rather than waiting until tomorrow. Patients love it too, since they don't have to make another trip to your office.

Take advantage of one of the best opportunities in dentistry, and make the income you deserve! The world has changed. You can't practice the same way you did three years ago and expect it to work in today's environment. Don't participate in this economic downturn! Instead implement these strategies in your practice to increase your revenue and decrease your stress at the same time.
Author’s Bio
Dr. Mike Kesner is a practicing dentist and the creator of PracticeSMARTS. He is author of Multi-Million-Dollar Dental Practice, and founder/CEO of Quantum Leap Success in Dentistry, a consulting company that helps dentists build the practices of their dreams in 24 months or less.


Practice Made Perfect


Join Aspen Dental – the premier network of dental practices.


Aspen Dental's Proven Practice Model
Aspen Dental recognizes that success is a direct result of empowering and supporting ambitious dental professionals. Aspen Dental provides a professional, fast-paced, entrepreneurial work environment based on a mutual respect that keeps interests aligned. Together, Aspen Dental and its team of professionals build and develop successful, patient-focused dental practices. Aspen Dental currently has more than 300 offices across the United States.

Why Aspen Dental?
Tremendous Earning Potential
At Aspen Dental, an individual's income is not limited to the production of his or her own two hands. We recognize that each individual is critical to the development and financial success of the entire practice and therefore deserves to share in the financial rewards.

Defined Career Path to Ownership
Aspen Dental provides opportunities that accommodate dental professionals with varied skills and ambitions. From associate dentist to managing clinical director to practice owner, Aspen Dental defines the path to practice ownership, making it easier by minimizing the hassles and risks associated with building a traditional private practice. In fact, the average Aspen Dental practice owner spends less than two years with Aspen Dental prior to becoming an owner.

Comprehensive Marketing and Business Support
Aspen Dental's practice support center takes care of all the business details including: administrative, marketing and operations responsibilities so dentists can focus on patients' needs and still have time for a life outside of the office.

Ongoing Professional Development
At Aspen Dental, personal and professional growth is vital to business growth. New dentists earn 21 hours of CE credit during a five-day doctor orientation program. Professional development is extensive and ongoing. Aspen Dental's world-class training facility in Syracuse, New York includes an 85-seat theater, two training operatories and state-of-the-art technology – providing a variety of delivery methods for the sharing of knowledge.

Student Loan Reimbursement
Aspen Dental's student loan reimbursement program offers one of the smartest ways to pay off dental school debt with a benefit potential up to $150,000, no service obligation and a simple application process.
Contact
For more information, call 866-748-5707 or visit AspenDentalJobs.com.


DentalSpots.com: New Solutions to Solving the Age-old Challenges of Finding Temporary Staffing for Dental Offices

The educated hiring of qualified dental assistants, hygienists and front office staff can help dentists prevent costly drops in production income.

by Feridoon Amini, founder of DentalSpots.com

Twenty years of managing people and dealing with HR issues for a number of large IT organizations prepared me for addressing some of the challenges of running a successful dental practice.

Prime among these challenges is the never-ending quest to fill vacant office positions. Complicating this issue is the increasing reliance on part-time and temporary help, and the difficulty in identifying truly qualified candidates.

"In six years I've had employees quit suddenly, not show up and embezzle funds, but it happens to all dentists I talk to," says Mojan Safavi, DDS, who practices in McKinney, Texas. "My colleagues and I struggle with these issues on a regular basis, hoping to find a solution so our practices aren't hijacked by our staff."

However, there is hope. By applying successful strategies from the corporate world and harnessing the power of the Internet, practitioners can regain control of their office to prevent devastating drops in productivity caused by employee vacancies.

One thing I've noticed in the dental industry, especially in smaller offices, is too great of a reliance on individuals. "I've had days where I'm fully booked with patients, but five minutes before the day begins, the dental assistant calls in sick," says Safavi. "What do you do? Without them, it's hard to do procedures like veneers. You aren't even sure where some of the dental products are, so you have to cancel most of your patients. All that potential income vanishes."

The absence of a hygienist proves equally as costly. "For the lack of a hygienist, the doctor can lose around $20,000 to 30,000 a month," says Fariba Dadgostar, general manager for the Dossett Dental chain located in Dallas, Texas. "A delay in securing a dental insurance specialist can be equally as financially devastating."

In contrast, large organizations will require employees to document their processes so that others can take over, in their absence. These should be written so that anyone can follow those steps.

Also critical to the success of a dental practice is the ability to identify qualified temporary workers, yet many dentists still rely on traditional temporary agencies with no way of knowing whether a person is qualified. "I used to call a temporary agency to send me people who were supposed to be the best," recalls Safavi. "But they'd come to my office without knowing how to take film X-rays, let alone digital."

Given the inexpensive resources found on the Internet, it is now hard to justify calling on costly brick and mortar temporary agencies, which charge $30 to $50 a day in addition to the worker's hourly rate. Using a Web site that allows you to post temporary jobs and screen candidates based on skills and ratings for free, paying a nominal fee only when you choose to use the person, and then nothing else if you do hire him or her permanently, can literally save thousands.

DentalSpots.com has built into its portal a means to allow dentists or office managers to rate recently acquired temporary help that other offices can review to determine a good hire. While seemingly a benefit only to employers, such practices also benefit well-performing employees in their job searches.
Contact
For more information, contact: DentalSpots.com at 972-325-4295, info@DentalSpots.com or visit www.dentalspots.com


IMTEC Software Cuts CNC Programming Time for Dental Implant Maker from Four Days to One


An ENDURE implant
from IMTEC.

Dental implants represent a complex computerized numerical control (CNC) machining challenge because of their intricacy, close tolerances and small size. IMTEC Swiss Manufacturing, Inc., programmers would historically spend three to four days writing G-Code for Marubeni Citizen-Cincom Swiss CNC machines, and another day or two on the machine troubleshooting the program. The Ardmore, Oklahoma company recently switched to new programming software that uses solid modeling to automate the geometry definition process and allows operations to be moved from one spindle to another by simply dragging them across a computer screen.

"The new software has taken the drudgery out of programming and has cut the time needed to write and set up the typical program to less than one day," says Marvin Saucer, manufacturing engineer and CAD/CAM programmer for IMTEC Swiss.

IMTEC Swiss is a wholly owned manufacturing division of IMTEC, a 3M company, a dental specialty products manufacturer/marketer.

IMTEC designs, develops, manufactures and markets root-form endosseous dental implants, proprietary, pure Polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) membranes, resorbable membranes and tacks, Sendax MDI mini-dental implants, tissue and bone regeneration systems, surgical drills and instrumentation, and an extensive line of dental prosthetics and laboratory components. With the use of new software, ESPRIT, IMTEC can now program an average part in four hours with another few hours setting up the machine with the correct tooling for the new part, running the first part, and then performing a detailed inspection.

"We inspect the part utilizing 3D non-contact measuring systems and then compare the measurements to the solid model engineering drawing that expresses the design intent," Saucer says. Working with the DP Technology support representative, IMTEC has also taken advantage of ESPRIT's Visual Basic (VB) programming interface to develop macros that automate the process of programming inside diameter broaching operations.

"One of the biggest advantages of ESPRIT is the way it lets us validate the program on a computer screen rather than tying up a much more expensive machine tool," Saucer says. "Our parts are so small that it's very difficult to get the cutter compensation right when programming with G-Codes. Mistakes can take a considerable amount of expensive machine time to diagnose and correct. With ESPRIT we can find them in the simulation. This helps explain why nearly every part that we program works perfectly the first time we run it on the machine."

"The implant business has changed considerably in the last few years," Stephen Hadwin, vice president of manufacturing of IMTEC concluded. "Our company has stayed ahead of our competitors by developing innovative implant designs that are effective and durable. The challenge is that these new shapes are more complicated and difficult to manufacture. Our switch to new CNC software has helped us quickly develop programs that consistently produce products with very high levels of quality."
Contact
For further information, contact DP Technology Corp. at 805-388-6000 or visit www.dptechnology.com.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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