The Web-based Dentist
June 2015
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For: 

Gary Kadi
Power Thought: Gary Kadi
The Super Generalist General Practitioner

NOT ALL general practitioners have joined the ranks of the big corporate dentistry companies. Many general practitioners still run private practices all across the country. Historically, these have been the GPs from whom independent periodontists received their referrals. They still send periodontists the bulk of their referrals, but the quantity of those referrals has gone into serious decline.

 

In response to the drop in patients that resulted from the economic mayhem brought about by 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis, privately practicing general practitioners entered scarcity mode. Rather than refer out patients they might never see again, GPs began to hoard patients. They now try to keep patients in-house whenever possible by providing periodontal, orthodontic and endodontic care themselves.

 

Of course, keeping patients in-house required GPs to broaden their repertoire of dental treatments. This has been made possible by various breakthroughs in technology . They are doing their own implants, Invisalign®, surgeries and more. Once medical manufacturers saw that they had a new market in general practitioners for selling lasers, implants and other equipment, they began marketing to them in earnest, even training these general practitioners in how to use the new technology. They offered weekend seminars, further commoditizing periodontics by reducing what had taken three years to learn down to a three-day seminar.

 

Many periodontists are angry with the super generalist GPs for commoditizing periodontics. Periodontists' bread and butter has become their burnt toast.

 

Here's our advice for periodontists on that front: Get over it.

 

You're not going to change them. They are making money. They are building viable practices as super generalists and establishing lucrative careers. In some markets, such as rural areas and small towns that cannot support a full-time periodontist, the super generalist GPs make the most sense from a healthcare and dentistry perspective. A GP doing periodontics is better than no one doing periodontics at all.

 

The problem is that patients don't always want or need a jack of all trades doing their procedures. It isn't ideal care.

 

When general practitioners try to do everything, they risk mastering only a few procedures.


 

Learn More About Gary Kadi...

 

This is an adapted excerpt from Stop the Bleeding! by Gary Kadi.

 


Why the Web? Reason #258
Redefining the "Gold Standard of Dentistry"

 

You can't win them all. Even if you're decreed as the world's best dentist not everyone in your community will become one of your patients. And so it is with Curve Dental: We lose one or two doctors to the competition, I'm sorry to say.

 

Sometimes Curve Dental loses in a head-to-head competition with the larger distribution companies simply because they are larger and, said one practice, these larger companies are the "gold standard in dentistry." This practice said Curve Dental was definitely the more capable software but thought they would be better off with the "gold standard".

 

Let's take a closer look at the service these "gold standard" companies actually provide:

 

Customer Service Standard. With the "gold standard" companies it's not unusual to wait ten or twenty minutes for technical help. On really busy days a 90 minute wait is not a record. And these companies may use third-party foreign call centers. Who wants to wait forever to speak with a person who you can't quite understand? With Curve Dental your call is answered within minutes and you speak with a native English-speaking technician. Doesn't that sound like a better standard by which to do business?

 

Customer Relationship Standard. With the "gold standard" companies you're more of a number than a person. If you take your business elsewhere it makes no impact--they've got a thousand practices just like yours. At Curve Dental, every customer is a VIP customer and every customer matters. We've been in business for more than ten years and we lead the profession in providing cloud-based management software.

 

Technology Experience Standard. The "gold standard" companies have decades of technology experience--in out-dated technology! They may be great at writing software for the 1990's but they are babies when it comes to the cloud. Curve Dental has been developing cloud-based software for more than 10 years--ten more reasons why our standard is better. We'll forever have an experience advantage over our competitors.

 

Bottom Line: I worked for one of the "gold standard" companies for more than 16 years. The people I worked with were good people. And so are the people at Curve Dental. The processes at the "gold standard" companies are pretty robust. Curve Dental has proven processes, too, but we're much more nimble and capable to do whatever it takes to help your practice.

 

The term, "gold standard of dentistry" is just another cute sales line. When you look at the facts the "gold standard" doesn't stand up to today's cloud standard.

 

You can learn more about how the cloud standard by chatting with one of our dental software consultants at 888-910-4376. Call today to learn more or visit our website

 
  

Informative Video Links
Expert Opinion: Dr. Huang
Expert Opinion: Dr. Williams
Expert Opinion: Dr. Mark E. Hyman
Expert Opinion: Dr. Mark E. Hyman


Classic Dental Jokes

What did the tooth say to the departing dentist? Fill me in when you get back!


Fun Dental Facts 

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