Last week, my colleague and close friend Tiger Safarov interviewed me for his video podcast series Dentistry Unveiled. Tiger is not a dentist, rather a dental entrepreneur who moved into the dental space via construction. An immigrant from Russia, Tiger finished his Bachelor’s degree at Illinois Institute of Technology and founded Siegel Construction. He spent the better part of a decade growing Siegel into the dental office design and construction company it is today.
Every dental practice needs to have a website, but these sites also need to be well organized, effective, and easily accessible. Here are five simple ways to make your practice’s online footprint more attractive to potential patients:
Do you know how much your practice spends on supplies?
Dental offices across the country are facing increased financial stresses in order to stay open and competitive. Smaller boutique dental practices contend with better-capitalized competitors, cost-conscious customers, and rising overhead. Many practice have turned to increased advertising, or working hard to build a loyal clientele. Costs, though, need to be kept in check as well.
As of last year, Vitaldent was a hugely successful chain of dental practices throughout Spain, Italy, and Portugal. Its founder and owner, Ernesto Colman, was a well-respected businessman on Spain’s list of 100 richest people.
Now, Colman is being held in jail with no bond, where he’s keeping company with the rest of Vitaldent administration.
Henry Schein, Patterson, and Benco have allegedly been fixing prices for years according to court documents, and dentists are finally taking notice. Clinicians across the country are suing these companies for colluding to squash smaller supply vendors and keep prices high. These marked up prices may have cost dental clinics tremendously, and could be making worse the financial pressure that practices are already facing. Based on numbers in court papers, it’s possible that they owe more than $2 billion to dentists in the US.
An update on the lawsuit is available here.
A post on the more recent, related FTC complaint is available here.