The face of dentistry is changing, and despite the various opinions as to if that’s a good or a bad thing, in order to survive, adapting to change is vital. Tim Herman is doing just that at his practices.
What exactly does adapting look like? For Herman it means his practice opens for patients at 7 a.m. and goes straight until 7 p.m, every single weekday. He added six hours on Saturdays too, for emergencies. And he’s hired an orthodontist and periodontist as on-site independent contractors, in addition to the seven dentists he oversees, all with their own unique specialties.
As less and less people go to the dentist these days (according to most recent data, only 61.6 percent of adults, ages 18 to 64, said they saw a dentist in 2011), these changes were made to acclimate to patient-centered dentistry.
“One of our biggest challenges: People truly don’t want to go to the dentist,” Herman said. “So we’re in competition for their discretionary dollar. I have patients come in and say, ‘Oh that (treatment) is so expensive,’ but they’ve just spent $200 on the slot machines in Reno. ... It’s a reality we all live with.”
It’s no secret that dental attendance has been on the decline, making it a more competitive field than ever – so much so that the American Dental Association calls the current environment a “watershed moment” for dentistry.
According to a recent article by the Sacramento Bee, the “near-stagnant growth seen in the last few years may be the ‘new normal,’” the ADA said in a recent report, “A Profession in Transition.”
Read more about this new normal and all that it entails in the Sacramento Bee’s in-depth article, As Dentistry Changes, Practitioners Must Adapt.