Howard Speaks: The Whole is More Than the Sum of its Parts by Dr. Howard Farran

by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

Sometimes, one plus one equals three. That’s what we’re seeing in the new business model of dentistry, which is a one-stop shopping approach.

Three hundred years ago, retail was all shop houses, where the butchers, the bakers, the candlestick makers all worked in an area about the size of a garage, and lived upstairs. Then, the next-generation business owner said, “I’m going to buy two shops and combine them,” and the store went from 200 square feet to 400 square feet. Then it was 800 square feet, and kept going until it maxed out around 250,000 square feet for today’s big-box warehouse stores.

Eventually, Walmart told Wall Street that its stores had actually gotten too big and their overwhelming square footage had become a negative. I can easily see what they mean: I would rather pay more to get my milk and bread from the convenience store where I’m filling up my car with gas than walk into a giant Walmart—it’s like walking into a stadium for an Arizona Cardinals football game. It’s just too big, which doesn’t make it convenient.

There’s safety in numbers

Mom usually gets saddled with driving kids to their dentist appointments—but 60% of moms today work, so they’ve got to take time off to get to that appointment. Now, what happens when it’s time to consider orthodontic treatment?

Let’s go back to the old retail days. You go into a store to pick up some bread, and when you say you’d like to buy some meat, too, the answer would be, “Oh, well now you’ve got to go down to the butcher. He’s two doors down.” The store that sells fresh produce is another place, even farther away. Inconvenient!

A typical grocery store today has all those things in one place — bread, produce, even a butcher on staff. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Without a doubt, the fastest-growing pediatric dentists have an orthodontist in house. If one pediatric dentist sets up shop with one orthodontist, that one plus one equals three. [Editor’s note: To read about such a practice, turn to this month’s cover profile of Dr. Christine Chu, a pediatric dentist who opened a practice with her orthodontist husband, Dr. Howard Chu.] Periodontists who place implants should be setting up shop with prosthodontists so one can place the implants and another can restore them when the time comes. A total one-stop-shop implant solution under one roof.

Take a hard look at your practice

It’s so hard for dentists to be patient-centered! They always believe they are, but when they say it, it’s very hard not to laugh out loud. Between 85% and 90% of dentists all practice only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday—the same window during which an estimated 100 million Americans aren’t able to visit them because they’re working at their own jobs.

Are your hours patient-friendly? You expect restaurants, grocery stores, dry cleaners and malls to be open on weekends, but you’re not offering the same options to your potential patients? You think that “treat other people as you want to be treated” applies to everybody except you?

Remember, you’re a service provider, even if that service is better dental health. You’ve got to make things as appealing as possible for your patients—same-day service, one-stop convenience and patient-friendly hours. Especially now, your business will depend on it!