Dental Entrepreneur is the informational hub that provides the insight, knowledge, and data to empower you to make informed decisions about your professional future. We give the dental entrepreneur a place to share ideas, innovation, success, and failures through their unique and honest story telling.

Dental Entrepreneur is the meeting place where experienced professionals in dentistry and up-and-coming dental entrepreneurs are learning and sharing. Our stories inspire and shape the future. Together, we use our voice, create community, and forge the future of dentistry. We hope you share your story with us, and take this opportunity to inform and inspire others.

Each and every one of us has at least one special skill, one developed talent that others seek us out for. This is your marquee quality. It not only distinguishes you from your peers, but it also makes you an essential part of your community. When we bring our marquee qualities together, we are unstoppable!

Whether youre talking about groceries, rent, or a new desk, inflation over time is normal. Due to COVID-19 and other factors, however, inflation rates have been putting many business professionals and customersincluding dentists and dental patients alikein tighter economic situations. As a result, you must take action in your practice to ensure that your service quality and availability stay high, so people continue to accept and receive your care and services.

According to the Federal Reserve, inflation projections remained between 5.3 and 5.5 percent in 2021. But consumer prices are currently rising by nearly seven percent compared to 2020, which is the fastest pace in almost 40 years. While the Federal Reserve anticipates relief in 2022 with rates dipping back between two and 3.2 percent, some economists assert that it will take the entire year for rates to come back down closer to the two percent norm. Other economists worry that inflation will keep rising and stay at eight percent or more through 2022.

In your office, you shouldnt be surprised by staff who request raises or quit to go elsewherethey need more money just to pay basic expenses. Basic supplies that support your services, such as PPE, will cost more. Patients may worry they cannot pay or need more payment options, or they may put off their visits altogether.

As MGE Management Experts, Inc. points out, most dental offices operate best if they can keep overhead categories within specific limits. For payroll, for instance, thats 22.5 percent of revenues, including payroll tax. When overhead costs increase, revenues must grow without raising costs to stay within these percentage limits. If youve already been as efficient as possible and cant slash expenses by streamlining anymore, other measures may become necessary.

You might be able to get creative or take advantage of options like referral programs to increase your caseload. But, this can be challenging. You have to ensure that you and your staff take on a level of work that remains reasonable in terms of burnout risk, especially if your office is smaller. If you and your team all work long hours, then the additional pay for those hours must be less than what you make from the new patients.

Patients may not resist rate increases as much as you expect, given that they are seeing and expecting price hikes everywhere else, too. Its critical to do market research to understand their current situation and find the ceiling of what they still can pay. Communicating well in advance about the increases and why they happen can make them more palatable. The current recommendation from MGE is to raise fees by as much as ten percent. Stage this increase gradually, so people have a chance to adjust and plan financially.

Participating in Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) can be enormously helpful to patients because it enables them to apply their insurance to your services. But right now, many insurance companies are reimbursing dentists less than before. If the majority of your business is PPO-based, you may have to rework your model so that a smaller percentage of your revenue comes from those reimbursements. Although you might lose some patients by refusing to work with their insurance provider, it probably wont be the sky-high number most dentists fearMGE asserts its usually no higher than 30 percent. Typically, you can make up that money by continuing to provide top-of-the-line care to full-fee patients who have adjusted to your inflation-based prices. Most dentists can actually maintain revenue levels after dropping plans and dont need new patients to bridge income gaps if theyre getting paid appropriately.

Inflation rates wont stay near the ceiling forever, but until they decrease to a more reasonable level, protect your practice. Effective marketing strategies and a careful approach to your insurance and fees will allow you to sail through the choppy waters. After things settle, if you continue with those ways of doing business, youll be in a much better position for the extended future, too.

Dr. Steven Ghim is a cosmetic dentist who also provides general and comprehensive dental care. Ghim has over 20 years of clinical experience and his private practice office is fully digital, ultra-modern, and serves the adult patient. He also serves as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force.

As a past President of the Ohio Dental Association, I have received many questions, complaints and comments. Some of the most common are Why should I pay those dues?, What does organized dentistry do for me?. I know that as entrepreneurs, we need to spend our money wisely. There are a multitude of organizations all clamoring for our support. Early in my career I used to ask the same questions.

One common misconception that I encounter is that the State Dental Board and the State Dental Association are interchangeable. The State Dental Board is appointed by the Governor of your state, generally made up of dental professionals, and has as its mission the governance of the practice of dentistry and the protection of the public. The American Dental Association is the national arm of the tripartite that makes up organized dentistry, an association made up of dentists who pay yearly dues to belong. Its mission is to help dentists succeed and support the advancement of the health of the public. The American Dental Association, your State Dental Association, and your local dental society are not a part of the government and cannot set policy or make laws. What they can do is advocate for you. As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we cannot form a union that speaks for all of us and is stronger than we all are separately. But if we all joined an organization that had a political action committee to advocate for us, wouldnt that be something greater and stronger than each of us separately? That is exactly what organized dentistry does. ADPAC is one of the strongest PACs in the country and each of your states has its own PAC to address issues in your state.

Once I became active in organized dentistry, I discovered the multitude of things that were done not just for members but for all of dentistry. There are so many potential problems that are taken care of before they rise to the surface and affect our professional lives. We must be an enviable profession for so many to want to try to control us, tax us, and take a piece of us! At this point in time, insurance companies and other government entities are constantly trying to change the way that we practice and the way and amount that we get paid. No one has our best interest at heart more than we ourselves do. We need to advocate for ourselves and the only way that we can do that is to band together. The powers that be will not listen to an organization that represents less than half of the profession. That is why the AMA is not so strong any more. If we do not have over half of all dentists as members, we lose our power, our seat at the table. You can sit back and let everyone else pay their dues, just not you. But at the end of the day, who else will do this for you? Who is there if organized dentistry goes away? And how much money do you spend a year on coffee or the latest gadget?

If you still are not convinced, or you just dont care about advocacy, look at all of the other benefits that membership brings you. Other than maybe Dental Entrepreneur, where can you meet with other like-minded entrepreneurs where no one is trying to sell you something? Where independent dental offices are treasured and their success is everyones goal? I have a lifetime of colleagues that have become friends and allies. I save lots of money every month on different insurance products. In my state, we have a buying club that saves money on dental supplies. I have access to contract advice, the latest science on materials and the coronavirus. These are just a few of the many things that are under the umbrella of organized dentistry.

Since organized dentistry is made up of us, it is only as good as we make it. Like everything else in life, it changes as we change. It is now more diverse than ever before but if people from diverse backgrounds are not a part of it, it cannot grow and change in the ways that represent us all.

I was at first very timid to stick my toe in the water and get involved. I did not think that I could make a difference. I probably did get involved for what seemed like the wrong reasons. However, looking back on my path in organized dentistry, I have to admit that I did make a difference, a much bigger one than I ever imagined I could. The power of one, as it spreads through a group, becomes a movement. We are all capable of this. We are definitely stronger together. Please join if you havent done so already.

Dr. Sharon Parsons graduated from the Ohio State University College of Dentistry in 1981. She currently owns a group practice in Columbus, Ohio. She is a member of many professional organizations including the Pierre Fauchard Academy, the International and American College of Dentists and The Academy of Operative Dentistry. She was the recipient of the Lucy Hobbs Humanitarian award and the Icons of Dentistry award.

After achieving a dream 20 years in the making, opportunities are opening, signaling the next phase of my professional career. Plans for this phase of my career will create the most productive step providing everything for the rest of my life. Embracing my blessings while at the same time looking for what is lacking seems hypocritical. However, I am at this point due to the decisions I made. Decisions are a part of life and are made several times a day throughout life. Dentists make decisions every day in the business of dentistry and the treatment of patients. Decisions vary in importance to ones life, some affecting a wide range while others are not as important with little impact on anyones life. The choice of which opportunity I take will affect the remainder of my life. Therefore, the right decision is important because the selection effects will ripple through the rest of my life.

Fortunately, education and experience provided situations to shape and hone the process of series decision-making. Business school taught fundamental analysis. Experience taught me to set milestone short-term goals in enhancing achieving long-term goals. I want to share some of the fundamental decisional theories employed in making decisions for consideration by the reader.

The case method is used in business schools to teach concepts. For example, a famous case used in many graduate-level programs is the Prelude Corporation case. Prelude, a lobster supplier, wanted to become the preeminent lobster supplier in America. The following discusses the development of decision analysis, and the case is important in forming a foundational understanding.

Dental students receive an introduction to tooth preparation during the first few days of pre-clinical instruction. The number of burrs, diamonds, and hand instruments is overwhelming. Believing the purpose of the course was learning to use all the tools available on every preparation, I decided to illustrate to instructors that I understood how to prepare teeth. I tried to exhibit having command of each device and tried to use every one of the tools on every preparation. That approach was wrong.

Critical to entering clinical training, students had to exhibit skills demonstrating a level of competence before entering the clinic. Remembering those days in pre-clinical lab are cringeworthy and especially overlooking the most obvious path to competence.

At that time, I forgot the importance of three things: 1) understanding the problem, 2) setting goals, and 3) how issues link to objectives. My college courses taught the vital issue to solve a problem was understanding the problem. Understanding the problem is difficult as complexity increases. Experience changes understanding because experience changes perspectives and reveals previously unknown knowledge. I prepare teeth differently today than I did in dental school because of the experience years of preparing teeth provide.

Preludes teaching points analogously illustrate the process of achieving a goal like mine in dental school of preparing a tooth. For several weeks, prepping the tooth meant I used every burr, diamond, and hand instrument available. My preparation initially took hours. Imagine the unfortunate patients enduring crown preparations taking hours to finish. At some point, I realized, after a kind word from an instructor, that patients do not tolerate lengthy procedures. Treating patients in the clinic required the ability and skill to prepare teeth quickly, with relative comfort for the patient.

Experience from the pre-clinical instruction revealed that besides preparing teeth, time was an essential factor. The instructors guidance helped disclose the information I needed to change my preparation method to include the time involved in the preparation.

Business school graduate programs teach decision theory. After practicing for several years and buying and selling a few practices, I felt successful. However, I wanted to go to a higher level than what my experience provided. So I decided, contrary to expert advice, to get an MBA. Business classes used business cases to teach business theory. One case illustrated that the smallest gap in knowledge provided the solution to the problem. In that business case, Prelude Corporation wished to become the preeminent lobster supplier in North America. Like the choice of burrs and diamonds that I had to deal with in dental school, the managers of Prelude had boats, crew, lobster traps, and lobster tanks to deal with. Like my goal of preparing the tooth, Prelude contemplated bringing more lobsters to the market.

Using the analogy of Prelude helped me make decisions by recognizing options, not only in patient care but in businesses. In this case, Prelude managers looked at each process of the lobster industry. Then, much like I wanted to use every tool available to me for tooth preparation, Prelude evaluated every tool for catching lobsters.

First, the managers asked a good question, how does Prelude achieve its goal of preeminence? The pertinent question in dental school was what do I need to know about preparing a tooth to gain the skills to advance to clinical training? Then the managers asked what was preventing Prelude from reaching that goal. Analogously, I wanted to prepare a tooth by not considering time; my goal was not attainable. Pursuing the correct milestone is critical to arriving at the goal. One must comprehend the endpoint. Otherwise, one does not know how to achieve a destination.

Understanding a problem is essential. Equally important is understanding the goal. Then by linking the two together, goals are achievable. Furthermore, it is critical to know that dreams are adjustable as new information becomes available. Imagine the unfortunate patient having to endure a tooth preparation without regard to the patients comfort.

Initially, Prelude considered increasing the size of the crew and the number of boats in the fleet in pursuit of dominance in supplying lobsters. Increasing the size of the catch was initially assumed the answer because Prelude thought the catch size was the key. However, the managers lost sight of the fact that the size of the catch is not the same as bringing more lobsters to market. Likewise, the fastest method of preparing a tooth is not the same as considering patient comfort during the preparation.

Prelude eventually realized, through analysis, that bringing more lobsters to market was achievable by increasing the survivability of the lobsters. At the time, the survivability of lobsters was generally low throughout the lobster industry. Preludes analysis revealed that the number of lobsters brought to market alive was the key. Thus, Prelude Corporation set a milestone that increased the survivability of the lobsters. The gap preventing achieving the goal was the water temperature in the lobster tanks. Maintaining the proper range of temperature filled the gap by providing water the lobsters tolerated. Thus, Prelude brought more live lobsters to market and achieved preeminence.

Opportunities require decisions anticipated to have lifelong effects. My analysis is complex, accounting for years of experience of accomplishment and failure. Although I love my life now and am grateful for my many blessings, I want new career adventures and challenges. Fortunately, there is no pressure to decide, and there is time to evaluate every option. Assuredly, the process described above will form a portion of the decision-making process.

Dr. Barbosa dedicates his time to business issues affecting dentistry and, as a recent graduate of law school, will focus on legal matters affecting dentistry, Patent Law, and Tax Law. After receiving degrees in Biomedical Engineering and a Doctor of Dental Surgery, Dr. Barbosa received admittance to medical school. However, a cancer diagnosis caused numb fingers after the chemotherapy, and Dr. Barbosa switched focus. After owning many dental offices and other businesses, Dr. Barbosa recognized the gap in knowledge requiring pursuing the MBA. Dr. Barbosa maintains his dental license and is awaiting licensure as an attorney in Texas and admittance to the Patent Bar. He continues to Dream Big.