Ed Rabinowitz

Dentists are all well versed in providing the finest in oral care. That’s why they spend years learning and refining their craft.

	But what’s often missing in their education portfolio is running a business. And in today’s competitive environment, even dentists need to know how to bring in new customers. They won’t simply show up on your doorstep.

	Mayer Levitt, DMD, FAGD, is a retired dentist who now 

 to other dentists in New England. He doesn’t mince words when assessing dentists’ business acumen.

	“I’d say that the typical dentist is often clueless about how to manage the business side of a practice,” Levitt says. “And everybody needs to be able to attract new patients.”

	Levitt says that a highly competitive environment exists within the dental community. Corporate dental practices are being set up, and they’re offering what patients want—come in any time between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., six days a week.

	“They can get everything done at one place, and they accept every single insurance plan in the world,” he says. “So you’ve got to compete on a different level. Specifically, on exquisite customer service.”

	Levitt is a believer in two types of marketing, neither of which, he says, is very expensive. The first type is internal marketing. For example, the average dentist may have approximately 1,500 to 2,500 patients—people who come back on a regular basis.

	“Those people should be referring their friends, family, and business partners to their dentist,” Levitt says. “World of mouth advertising is the most powerful way to advertise.”

	How do you get current patients to refer new patients? Levitt says it starts by letting them know you care.

	“If somebody sends you a new patient, do something nice for them,” he explains. “Send them a coffee card, maybe a lottery ticket or movie tickets. It’s easy to do, and it’s very inexpensive.”

	But any type of marketing you employ, Levitt says, must be consistent.

	“You’re trying to create such a ‘wow experience’ through exquisite extraordinary customer service,” he says. “And if you’re doing that, it’s the kind of stuff that people talk about at cocktail parties.”

	In addition to internal marketing, Levitt is also a big proponent of Internet marketing. Not necessarily ad campaigns on Google or Facebook, though they definitely have their place, but a focus on search engine optimization. That means when somebody searches online for a dentist in your community, your practice falls within the top three that come up.

	“You can do this without spending a lot of money,” Levitt says. “But there are very specific website strategies that will help create that.”

	Those strategies include adding Google patient reviews to your website, or incorporating video, where prospective patients can hear or read about what other patients have to say about your practice.

	“Something like 40% of dentists in this country don’t even have a website,” Levitt says. “And a lot of them have websites that haven’t been updated. So nobody can find it because Google rewards relevance. And relevance means adding new content to the site all the time.”

	In addition, it’s important to determine how you want to compete in today’s environment. Levitt tells the story of a dentist whose practice was stagnant. They’d reached a growth plateau and were trying to get to the next level but didn’t know how to get there. They weren’t attracting new patients. When Levitt asked what his hours were, he said Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.

	“Well, that should have gone out in the 18

 century,” Levitt says. “I’m not saying you have to work more hours, but change the hours up so that you can be more accommodating. That can be hugely successful in bringing in new patients.”

	As part of your strategy for attracting new patients, Levitt suggests that 3% of annual collections should be set aside for marketing. So, if you have a $1 million practice, it’s not unreasonable to think you could spend $30,000 annually on marketing.

	“And you don’t have to put it all in one bucket,” he says. “But you do have to be out there.”

	By “out there” Levitt means if you want to be doing more adult orthodontics, or more same-day crowns, or more implants, write a series of blogs—maybe once or twice every two weeks on the same topic.

	“It’s amazing how people click on that, and that can take them to your Facebook page where they see all these blogs about the same topic they’re looking for,” he says. “Now you’re starting to build a brand, and you can get some return on that.”

Articles

As the dental market becomes more competitive, how can dentists stand out?

Attracting New Patients Doesn't Have to Be Like Pulling Teeth

Are you using practice management software? Are you getting what you want out of it? Are you getting what you need to run your dental practice more effectively? More efficiently?

Trends in the dental industry, from corporate consolidations to insurance coverage, are squeezing profit margins. Dentists are doing more, and they’re getting paid less.

“If you compare to 10 or 15 years ago, many dentists are making less money for doing the same procedure they did back then,” says Tammy Barker, practice development sales manager for 

. “The only way you can really thrive in this type of economy is to drive efficiencies. And make sure that patients don’t slip through the cracks.”

Having a solid practice management system in place, and using it uniformly and correctly, is key.

Barker explains that what you get out of a practice management system depends on what you put into it. She likens it to taking a car in for maintenance. You do that periodically to keep your car running well; you don’t neglect it. The same philosophy is true with dental practice management software systems.

For example, Barker believes that the initial training dental practice staff receive on the software is insufficient. It’s also impossible for them to retain everything they learn in one eight-hour session.

“And then, if you don’t use it, you lose it,” she says.

The problem is compounded by practice turnover, which Barker says happens, on average, every 12 to 18 months.

“And the kicker is that the new team member is trained by existing team members who don’t have adequate training to begin with,” she says. “Then we wonder why patients are slipping through the cracks, and why our hygiene numbers aren’t what they should be.”

It’s also a question of the data. Do you trust it? Barker asks, “Do you ever look at a report and circle a number because you’re not too sure the number’s right? That’s a red flag.”

The solution, like bringing a car in for maintenance, or having a trainer give you helpful tips at the gym, is to use the system correctly and uniformly.

“Because when you have good data,” Barker says, “then you can take it to the next level and make meaningful business decisions.”

So, how do you know if your staff is using the practice management system effectively, or if they need a refresher? Barker says one of the tools Dentrix utilizes is its 

 program. Each member of the practice team can test to assess his or her skill level. There’s also a practice advisor assessment that checks all key performance indicators.

“What percent (of revenue) is coming from hygiene versus the doctor?” Barker asks as an example. “And of the patients who come into hygiene, what percent reschedule their next hygiene appointment before they leave?”

From the assessment, Barker and her colleagues are able to customize a treatment plan, so to speak, that is a combination of advanced training and consulting.

“I find very often that a practice will invest in clinical ongoing education,” she says. “And I’m the biggest advocate; they’ve got to have that same type of investment of time and money in ongoing practice management and education.”

Barker says that helping dental staff use the practice management system more effectively is about driving it into the day-to-day processes and answering the ‘why’ question.

“It’s really hard to get a team motivated on a long-term basis,” Barker says. “So, we talk about the whys; how [the practice management software] makes the team member’s life easier. How it positively impacts better patient care—which is a top goal for every dental practice, otherwise they wouldn’t be in business.”

Barker also stresses the importance of Dentrix’s Daily Huddle Report. Each morning, for no longer than 15 minutes, the practice team huddles up to look at the numbers—from the day before, and how things look for the remainder of the month.

“You don’t wait until the end of the month to say, wow, we didn’t meet our goals,” she explains.

And then they examine which patients are coming in that day. Where are there holes in the schedule? The Daily Huddle will reveal patients who are coming in but also have an outstanding treatment that isn’t currently scheduled. That can save, Barker says, 60 to 90 minutes each day having staff look through patient charts gathering information.

“It saves them labor costs,” she says. “But more importantly, it helps them maximize their patient care.”

Even the best practice management software won't improve your practice unless you use it effectively. Here's how to do so.

Practice Management Software Offers Clinical and Business Benefits

When you grow up surrounded by oral health professionals, it’s not surprising when the success they’ve experienced and their enthusiasm for their careers rubs off.

That’s the case for Jeffrey Rappaport, a cosmetic dentist, whose father is a dentist and whose uncle is an orthodontist.

“I’ve always been around dentistry, and my father was happy, so it just seemed like a good fit,” Rappaport says.

But Rappaport, together with his wife and partner, Michelle Katz, a board-certified orthodontist, has taken his avocation to another level that is impacting not only patients, but other dentists as well.

Rappaport noticed that dentistry was moving from treatment to prevention. Dentists were doing “a great job” promoting how to prevent cavities and gum disease. But what was perhaps overlooked was patients wanted to have their teeth cleaned several times a year, which could prove costly.

“My wife and I really wanted to open a business that was able to provide affordable cleanings for people,” Rapport explains.

, a New York City-based dental spa that specializes in providing dental cleaning, whitening and straightening services in a relaxing, spa-like environment. But that’s not all they did.

The Lavaan model, Rappaport explains, was designed to get people through the door for high quality service with affordable pricing. And when services were needed outside the scope of their practice, patients were referred through a network of dentists throughout Manhattan.

“But what we were finding is that most of our patients did not have insurance,” Rappaport says. “And when they were going to the dentist it would be expensive. So we wanted to come up with a better system. We wanted to give patients affordable pricing for the services they needed, and fair pricing for anything needed outside of that.”

Rappaport and his wife developed a plan where patients would receive cleanings at Lavaan, x-rays and exams at a dentist’s office, and a set fee schedule for all other services. And over several years, the plan grew.

“It was becoming too big to handle in-house,” he says. “So we decided that we wanted to serve more people and reach a wider audience.”

Rappaport and his wife recently launched Afora, a premier dental care membership plan that offers members access to an extensive network of trusted providers who charge a flat fee for services from cleanings to implants.

“We’ve been keeping close notes over the past few years any time someone would mention [an oral health professional] they were happy with,” he says. “We tested it out with maybe 10 to 15 dentists around the city, and in the last couple of months we’ve grown the network significantly.”

Getting dental professionals to agree on a fee schedule can be challenging, but Rappaport says he operated under the principle of getting input from people he trusts. He met with general practitioners throughout Manhattan, and for about two years tested the plan to see how it would be received.

“We got member feedback,” he says. “We got provider feedback. And we decided on a fee schedule that we believe is right for this market; for general dentistry now. And we’re in the final stages of putting together a specialist fee schedule.”

And, Rappaport adds, the financial benefits for dentists are significant. Patients are able to save as much as a third of the cost for the highest quality network of dental professionals and care.

“Our fee schedule is in line with the best paying dental insurance plans out there,” he says. “The only difference being you’re not dealing with a third party. You’re not dealing with maximums, and you’re not dealing with co-payments. The money is coming directly from the patient to the dentist. So we’re just setting up that relationship.”

“Members can feel confident that if they’re seeing any dentist on the plan, the price is going to be exactly the same for the same service,” Rappaport says. “It takes the pricing consideration out of it, and you can build a nice relationship with your dentist.”

Rappaport attended New York University’s School of Dentistry, which is where he met his wife. It’s also where he got his first taste of volunteering in Nicaragua.

“It was an outreach program started by a close friend of ours,” he explains. “We were lucky enough to be part of that first trip.”

The trips proved to be great learning experiences, as well as an opportunity to treat underprivileged people who, in some cases, had never seen a dentist.

“It was a good feeling at the end of every day to know that I saw X number of patients that today, and that I really made a difference,” Rappaport says. “And the sincerity from people who were truly thankful that you were able to provide services. That was a good feeling.”

Away from the practice of dentistry and running Afora, Rappaport is all about family. He spends time with his wife and 2-year-old daughter, and also enjoys running, skiing, and spending time at the beach.

“We’re lucky enough, on both sides, to have a big family, and everybody’s relatively close,” he says. “We spend a lot of time with them.”

What’s most rewarding? Rappaport says it’s all about taking someone who’s had a poor dental experience, for whatever reason, and getting them motivated to take care of themselves and actually look forward to coming to the dentist.

“Changing someone’s perspective of the dentist,” he says, “That’s been pretty rewarding.”

A Manhattan dentist joined the profession to change peoples' lives. Now he's working on changing the payment model for oral healthcare.

Cosmetic Dentist Gives Patients Alternative to Traditional Insurance

If you want to sell your home there’s not much to it. Find a realtor and have the house listed, or post it yourself if the local market conditions are strong. Then, start assessing offers. Not too complicated.

But selling a dental practice presents a much greater challenge.

“Most dentists coming out of school have so much debt that it’s really difficult for them to take on more,” explains James Schall III, DDS, co-owner of Maryland-based Berg Dental Group.

That means it’s essential to plan ahead—perhaps as much as several years&mdash;and formulate a strategy that will help you achieve your goal.

Hugh Norsted, DDS, a previous dental practice owner and current surveyor for the 

Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care

, recognizes that young dentists are pretty idealistic coming out of school about starting or buying their own practice. But they quickly realize that financing such a venture is usually out of reach.

“Often they’ll look to find a practice where they can become an associate, and eventually have an opportunity to buy,” Norsted says.

That’s why it’s important for the solo practitioner to consider developing a succession plan. Whether it’s five or 10 years down the road, begin making plans now for someone to become a partner.

“Let them slowly buy in,” echoes Schall. “Let them start making some of the decisions, face some of the challenges, and reap some of the benefits.”

If you haven’t planned ahead, or circumstances don’t allow you to do so, a growing trend over the last 10 years or so has been the emergence of practice management companies, both regional and national. These companies make it easy for the practitioner because they often make cash deals, find someone to take over the practice, and even enable the practitioner to stay on, even if it’s part-time, as an employee.

“It helps the seller meet the challenge about how to transition your practice, and it’s good for patients with whom you’ve built long-term relationships because it’s easier to hand things off,” Norsted says.

One of the key challenges in selling a dental practice is staying current, especially for solo practitioners. Norsted explains that it’s easy for young practitioners to get set up and not change anything for the next 30 years.

“They don’t reinvest in the practice, in terms of new equipment and technology,” he says. “For a new buyer, especially if they’re coming out of school, they’re used to using all the new technology.”

Patients are savvy too, Norsted says, noting that it’s not surprising for a new patient to walk into a dental office, see that the practice is still using old technology, and get up from the chair and leave.

“It’s critical to stay current,” Norsted adds. “There’s much more value in a practice than if you’ve been static for the past 35 years. Now someone has to come in and convert things, and that takes time and money.”

Schall says another important consideration that can make a dental practice more attractive to a potential buyer is to have a web presence. It’s relatively inexpensive, and it’s an easy way to spread your message.

“We ask our patients, if we think they’ve had a good visit, would they mind writing something for us,” Schall says. “The computer is right there at checkout, and it only takes a minute. If you ask them to write the review when they get home, they’ll forget. Those reviews can be enticing to a new buyer, whether it’s someone out of school or a larger company.”

Norsted suggests the place to start when selling your dental practice is to know its valuation. That includes what the practitioner has earned or built up in the practice based on reputation, as well as how many dollars per patient will be turned over to the buyer.

“Dentists often think that they’ve made a big investment in equipment, but depending on how old it is, sometimes it can be worthless,” Norsted says. “But there’s real value in those patient records because it gives the new dentist an opportunity to maintain and retain those patients.”

Need help determining the fair market value for those patient records? Norsted says there are multiple formulas that can be used, and sometimes it’s best to work with a practice management consultant to make sure the valuation is realistic.

“Are you going to turn the practice over and walk away? Or do you want to stay on for a year or two on a part-time basis and help with the transition?” asks Norsted, rhetorically. “It’s important to consider timing and strategy, and then look for the right candidate that matches that philosophy.”

If you one day plan to sell your dental practice, don't wait until the last minute to plan for it. Here's why.

The Keys to Successfully Selling a Dental Practice

The power of the internet should not be underestimated or ignored. But that’s what many dentists are doing when they fail to develop a web presence, or worse, launch a practice website and then neglect it.

, a software company that has created a turnkey, hosted website solution designed specifically for dental and medical practices, says he sees many dentists with outdated or unfinished websites.

“I had a meeting with a dentist and he hadn’t updated his website in 10 years,” Comstock says. “His staff is all different.”

Is that the image you want current and potential customers to have of your practice?

Comstock recognizes that dentists are busy. They don’t have time to invest in learning how to develop or update a website. That’s not why they went to school. But the problem is that they often hire a website designer or developer, and pay them in the range of $5,000 to build the website. The developer then hands the website to the dentist who doesn’t have the time or the knowledge to manage or update it.

“[Dentists] need a team of people, all the time, to help them with their website whenever they make changes,” says Comstock, who set up RocketFire with a  subscription model. Once a website is developed, a technical team is always available to update software and make changes to the website when needed.

For example, if your website is not optimized for mobile use, you could be losing potential customers. That’s because most people today use their phones to search online. If they find your website but it’s not optimized for mobile, the individual will have trouble navigating the site.

“Dentistry is a business about experiences,” Comstock explains. “And a website is where people get a first impression. So, if they’re first impression is a bad experience, you’re off to a bad start in the relationship.”

Comstock believes that a well developed website can enable a practice to build and generate new patients. Online forms should be easily available for current or potential patients to contact the practice. Live chat software encourages interaction between patient and staff right from the start.

“If a new patient came to your physical office looking to schedule an appointment and your staff ignored them, that’s a really bad thing to do, right?” Comstock asks, rhetorically. “Online, it happens every day with dental practice websites. And I think it’s important to have some way of communicating with patients when they go to your website.”

It’s also important that your dental practice website is easy to manage. That doesn’t mean staff will update software or do any other heavy lifting. But if changes need to be made to a form or policy statement, or adding a new staff member’s photo or bio information, the site should be designed in a manner that enables staff to easily make necessary edits.

“Some front office staff love the idea of being able to log in and change what they need,” Comstock says. “I think it’s important because they feel in control of their own website.”

A dental practice is a professional organization. You want your staff to act and behave professionally at all times. That’s the same approach needed when developing a practice website. Work with professionals. Or as Comstock says, “Stop hiring your nephew or cousin,” who may not be motivated to take ownership of the website.

, in Midvale, UT, noted that Comstock and his staff “… have done an incredible job designing and hosting my website. I could not be happier with the results. I have been able to create, with their help, the website that I should have had long ago. The process has been painless and fast.”

And working with professionals ensures that backend technology is regularly updated.

“Nobody ever talks about getting hacked, but it happens all the time, especially with websites that aren’t updated regularly with the technology,” Comstock says.

Beyond putting patient records at risk, hackers who gain access to the practice’s server can use those resources, which ends up costing the dentist money.

“You pay for a host, a server, like you do on your cell phone,” Comstock explains. “If you exceed your limits, you pay extra. A lot of hackers will do that and it can cost dentists a lot of money.”

And their reputation. Hackers have the ability to redirect patients to inappropriate websites, which is not the impression you want to leave with patients.

“All the tools that we provide help dentists improve their bottom line, and improve their practice.”

Most dentists accept that they need a website, but it can be difficult to maintain a site once it's up 

Dental Websites Help Unleash the Power of the Internet

Paul Glassman, DDS, MA, MBA, says he went into dentistry for the usual reasons. Among them: wanting to do something that involved working with people.

But Glassman acknowledges, “I’m not sure if the career I ended up in has any resemblance to what I was envisioning when I went down this path.”

Glassman, professor of dental practice at 

University of the Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry

, says that from the time he entered dental school he had the sense that he wanted to do something different than work on normal, healthy people.

“I always had some kind of a calling to want to work on people with more challenges to getting dental care,” says Glassman, who has more than answered the call.

During Glassman’s residency and early in his career he regularly worked with patients who were what he calls “medically complex.” That includes a young woman with severe multiple sclerosis. She wasn’t able to raise a toothbrush to her mouth, and her teeth reflected the neglect.

“I worked for almost 20 years in a hospital where the focus was on people with lots of complicated medical problems and disabilities,” Glassman explains. “That was what I had set out to do when I finished dental school.”

That exposure fostered a desire to move into public health.

“I initially saw people who ended up being taken to the hospital emergency room for treatment, and then four or five years later they’d be back with a whole new mouth full of problems,” Glassman says. “They weren’t getting any preventive care in between.”

But moving into public health required adjustments, mostly involving timeline and mindset.

“When I used to be a real dentist and was doing clinical care, there was much more opportunity for what I refer to as instant gratification,” Glassman says. “You do a filling, you can look at it, touch it, the patients say ‘thank you’ and you’re done.”

The public health arena presented a much longer time horizon. It could take years, sometimes decades before seeing that you’ve made some kind of difference. But, Glassman points out, there was also an opportunity to do things on a much larger scale.

Glassman has been working for nearly 40 years to figure out how to deliver oral healthcare to the most vulnerable and needy populations, and is now reaching the tipping point where everything is coming together. Sometimes referred to as the father of tele-dentistry, he’s helping to trigger an historic disruption in the way dental care is delivered in California.

“I think [tele-dentistry] was an idea ahead of its time,” Glassman says. “We were trying to do something that had never really been done before—at least not the way we were doing it.”

That prompted a variety of reactions, he says, ranging from “That’s great. I can really see the potential for doing something important here,” to “Over my dead body you’re going to go in that direction.”

It started by winning a waiver from the state of California to train a handful of hygienists in inclusive tooth replacement without a dentist on site; gained passage of a state law expanding hygienists’ scope of practice to include ITR replacement; and has grown to the point where the Arthur Dugoni School is now the first dental school in the country to train dental students in tele-dentistry.

“Some of that initial resistance I think was based on fear that this would maybe somehow be bad for dentists in particular,” Glassman says. “But the reality is it’s not only really good for dentists, it’s important for the profession. It’s taken a while for that to sink in.”

Glassman says the premise has always been to get out into the community. A lot of the principles that are being following today are the same from back in the early 1990s, only without the aspect of tele-dentistry.

“But about 10 or 12 years ago, we began to think that technology had evolved to the point where it was possible to think about doing things differently and using the technology tools to connect dentists in their offices with both dental teams in the community, and then community members who were not part of the dental team,” Glassman explains. “So it’s been a gradual evolution.”

Travel is Glassman’s other passion. He and his wife frequently travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles to visit family and grandchildren. But there’s also an impressive list of “wonderful countries” he’s visited.

“We’ve been to China and Tibet, which was wonderful,” he says. “And then there’s Myanmar, a country that is just opening its borders to outsiders. We were among the first wave of tourists coming in, so it was great to see a country at that level of development.”

What Glassman finds particularly interesting in his travels is the variety of ways people live throughout the world. He wishes everyone could experience at least some aspect of that.

“We all tend to get sort of mired down in what we see in front of our faces on a day to day basis and can lose track of the wider world in a variety of ways, and people that exist on this planet.”

Glassman says it’s particularly gratifying to see how much has been accomplished in oral and public healthcare, and acknowledges that many people have helped make that possible.

“It’s great to see that there are systems emerging now that can actually do a much better job of reaching the population that’s not getting dental care, and getting services to them early on so they don't develop dental problems,” he says. “I feel more hopeful now than I did maybe 20 years ago that this is something that could really make a big difference in the way the oral health system works in the United States.”

A California dentist has taken a different path than most. He's now on the first wave of advocates for new technology, like tele-dentistry.

California Dentist Carves a Path by Going Public

The Yellow Pages (remember them?) used a slogan that invited consumers to let their fingers do the walking. In other words, finding the best source for a product or service was made easier.

, may be able to do the same when it comes to earning continuing education credits. The Apple Store-style platform enables users to earn CE credits directly from the company’s website.

“We’re building an ecosystem,” explains Tonya Lanthier, RDH, CEO of DentalPost. “One part of our ecosystem has job postings and resumes. The other part is EDU.”

And with it comes the opportunity for both clinical and financial benefits.

DentalPost has partnered, and continues to partner, with educators countrywide who provide the courses listed on the DentalPost EDU platform. DentalPost members log in to view a continuing education marketplace, where they can browse the catalog by title, subject, or keyword to see an overview of each course. Members can then securely purchase a course to take online, begin immediately, or save it for later.

Lanthier explains that EDU seamlessly integrates with an existing CE management tool. So, once a course is completed, it is automatically updated within the user’s DentalPost resume profile. In addition, members receive alerts when CEs are about to expire.

“I believe in helping people,” Lanthier says. “People are busy. They need it to be easy to keep their continuing education up-to-date.”

But, she adds, it’s not about to replace hands-on, face-to-face offered courses.

“There’s nothing that will ever replace hands-on,” Lanthier says. “You can’t automate that and you can’t replace the human element with a robot. But this certainly supplements that for folks who are busy. And this makes it a little bit easier for them to stay current, and to update their skills.”

Studies indicate that distance education enrollment growth is continuing. According to a recent report, “

Online Report Card: Tracking Online Education in the United States

,” the number of higher education students taking at least one distance education course in 2015 grew by 3.9% over the previous year. More than one in four students (28%) now take at least one distance education course. That continues a 13-year growth trend.

Lanthier says that while clinical courses tend to be more hands-on, people learn in different ways.

“You can’t put people in a box,” she says. “This is another choice they have. Some people learn better in person, hands-on, and some learn better online.”

Courses include transcription, which offers assistance for hearing impaired users. Audio functions help those with visual impairments, and on-screen learning allows them to adjust the settings to make text easier to read. Members also receive personalized recommendation for available courses from various industry providers.

“It’s a global platform,” Lanthier adds. “Members can take courses provided by educators from all over the world. We can even change the language if we needed to.”

Individuals interested in contributing a course as an education partner can email 

And, she adds, “We’re not selling anything on DentalPost. We’re trying to provide education, and give people the freedom to take what they want when they want. We’re about giving you information to help improve your skills, and giving members control of their own destiny.”

The DentalPost EDU courses include a range of topics and content formats, including videos, presentations and handouts. Dental professionals can take the test for their course online from the site or app.

“There are many financial benefits,” Lanthier says. “Members can take the courses any time, and they don’t have to travel somewhere. They can even do it on their time off. And if you stay advanced, you will be more valuable to your employer, and obtain more jobs.”

Courses have been available on the platform for about three months, and thus far have functioned smoothly. And the third part of the ecosystem, which Lanthier says still needs to be built, will enable people to see what courses others are taking.

“We want people to know what everyone else is doing,” she explains.

“EDU is a tool designed to advance your knowledge, keep you on the cutting edge of dentistry, and help you continue to grow both personally and professionally,” Lanthier says. “That’s what it’s all about—a shared community.”

A popular dental job marketplace aims to become a central hub for continuing education programs.

Education Marketplace Enables Earning CE Credits Online

If you’re looking to attract new patients, retain current patients, and encourage those who may not have dental insurance to move forward with needed treatment plans, you might want to consider developing an in-house membership program.

The combination of dentists not wanting to deal with the hassles of third-party payers, and many patients or potential patients not having dental insurance, has resulted in significant growth of this type of program.

“I started as a lab technician,” explains Jordon Comstock, founder of 

, a software company that allows dental practices to accept payments through their website. “And as a lab technician, the number one complaint I heard from dental practices was, ‘Insurance companies are a pain to work with. They’re not paying out claims, and the patient needs it.’”

The US Department of Health and Human Services states that approximately 108 million people in the US 

. And even those who do have insurance have trouble getting service.

“The only way an insurance company can make money is by rejecting claims, or hoping their subscribers don’t use their insurance benefits,” Comstock says. “That’s a business model right there. I just think it provides a bad patient experience.”

But in-house membership programs are starting to change that.

Comstock likens an in-house membership program to an Amazon Prime or Costco membership. Individuals pay a subscription, whether it’s monthly or annually, and they receive benefits.

And the dental practice receives predictable revenue.

“Whether the dentist is working in dentistry or not, he gets that revenue each month,” Comstock says. “I spoke with a dentist last week and he’s generating $100,000 a month with his dental membership program. That’s going to increase the value of your practice tremendously.”

Patients are also more likely to have work done if they’re paying into the plan, because they know exactly what they’re covered for—how many exams, cleanings, and what different preventive measures may cost. That not only generates income for the practice, it benefits patients because they’re getting the oral health care they need.

“Patients become more loyal to the practice that way,” Comstock says.

Ben Tuinei is the president and founder of 

, which focuses primarily on negotiating fair and sustainable reimbursement rates from insurance carriers and employing proper billing and coding practices in an effort to fully maximize practice revenue.

Tuinei worked with an Arizona-based practice to develop an in-house membership program. The result was of the $300,000 the practice collected per month, $75,000 came from the dental benefit program.

“That’s 25% of the total monthly revenue that was coming in,” Tuinei says. “That $75,000 was coming from a combination of the monthly or annual fee from patients, as well as treatments that we were able to capture as a result of making dentistry more affordable.”

Tuinei says that as the program started to grow, they realized they were tapping into an area of dentistry that was underserved. And when crunching the numbers, they found that if they were able to active another 10% of the underserved patients in the community, they would have to build another dental center.

“That’s why [in-house membership plans] are becoming more popular,” he says. “Having your own in-house dental benefit program is a great way to create not necessarily an insurance product, but a product that is designed to be like insurance in terms of increasing utilization, and increasing frequencies of patients coming in for routine dental care.”

Tuinei acknowledges that some staff training is involved when starting an in-house membership program. But if the dental practice is already dealing with third-party payers, training is minimal.

In-house membership programs can make a practice's revenue more predictable, and improve patient health, too.