In this article you’ll find out:
- How to build a successful practice and what unnecessary mistakes to avoid
- What practical things will in time positively affect your well-being and profitability
- Why choosing the right dental set is the key to running a dental practice smoothly
- How to set up the processes correctly to make work easier and avoid complications
When setting up their own dental practice and later, a clinic, they followed a number of useful principles based on their own long-term experience in the dental business. These should be read by any newly qualified dentist who is considering opening their own dental practice. These principles will not only help in avoiding frequent mistakes but also in setting everything up to make the entire dental team effective. A dentist’s top-quality skills are essential but without good work management and processes in place, the skills alone are no longer sufficient to run a successful clinic sustainably.
Advice from Martin Lisý, M.D and Soňa Lisá, DMD
Owners of the successful dental clinic Somadent
Advice BEFORE you open your own dental practice
–1– Gain initial work experience with an established dentist
Opening a dental practice immediately following graduation is now possible and if you have the means and opportunity to do it, it is certainly tempting. However, you should instead gain initial experience in an established dental clinic. Apart from gaining valuable professional experience, you will have an invaluable opportunity to find out what works best when running a successful dental practice business. You will get more ideas about how you would want to run your dental practice, and what you would do the same way or completely differently. This way you might avoid unnecessary mistakes that would cost you time and money. Your vision of owning your own dental practice will be much clearer and more realistic than if you started without this experience.
”It’s never been easier to gain knowledge from the world’s top dentists or to see the latest technologies in practice in virtually real-time than now.“
Martin Lisý, M.D., dentist and co-owner of dental clinic Somadent
–2– The best ones are just a few clicks away from you
Take full advantage of all the possibilities offered by today’s technological age. Today, in order to hear the best dentists in the world, you don’t have to travel to expensive conferences in far corners of the world. You can watch them from your workspace or without leaving the comfort of your home. There are great webinars or annotated videos showing top treatments online. It’s never been easier to gain knowledge from the world’s top dentists or to see the latest technologies in practice in virtually real-time than now. Get inspired and choose which direction you will follow or what you’ll want to focus on.
Advice DURING the setting-up of your own dental practice
–3– The dental unit determines your success and health
A quality modern dental unit is the focus of every dental clinic, and the patients, upon seeing it, make first impressions of what level of service to expect. Its features directly affect your long-term health as well as the efficiency of your work, i.e. profitability. Pay close attention when selecting one. Think not only about yourself and your work but also about the other members of your team and how to avoid interfering unnecessarily with each other when working together. Good positioning prevents chronic back problems and functional ergonomics reduce the time required for individual performances. And don’t forget the design and comfort of 21st-century patients.
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–4– Imagine yourself in your patient’s shoes
When you start designing and choosing spaces and placement for everything in your dental clinic, put yourself in your future patient’s shoes and look at it all through the eyes of your clients. Imagine stepping into your own clinic as a guest, not as its owner. Make sure everything makes sense in terms of where it is located, and whether it’s comfortable. The start of your clients’ satisfaction begins way before they sit in the dental chair and receive the treatment. If you have everything well and meaningfully organized, you get good points from patients. The more comfortable they feel, the less they feel stressed. Your services are not just about performance, it is a comprehensive package. Think behaviourally, it will come with rewards.
Advice on the WORKING PROCESS within the team and with clients
–5– From good ergonomics to efficient processes
Even if you have a stable practice and you are already moving sustainably in black, not red figures, always make sure that the processes in your clinic or clinic are set up efficiently. Think of the other members of your team, not just yourself. This applies to the ergonomics of work, but also to the entire system in which your business operates. As you grow and scale up your services, well-designed processes from a functional booking system that reminds patients of appointments to the smooth delivery of materials are often the key difference between success and failure. After all, you want to manage your practice, not endlessly micro-manage it.
”As you grow and scale your services, well-designed processes from a functional booking system that reminds patients of appointments to the smooth delivery of materials are often the key difference between success and failure.“
Soňa Lisá, DMD, dentist and co-owner of dental clinic Somadent
–6– Fewer customers and an individual approach will bring more
You could open a practice in a large catchment area where you can perform treatments like ‘a production line’. You can focus on quantity, but consider whether you will really enjoy it and whether it would move you forward. If you instead choose an approach where you spend more time on fewer patients, welcome them, listen to them and treat them comprehensively, they will reward you with multi-generational loyalty and bring you more loyal patients themselves.
This will also save you money on marketing. Such a system is harder to start, but if you are patient, it will not only reward you with more freedom in your pricing with an emphasis on quality, but it will certainly boost you more professionally. The choice is yours.
One last advice from Mr and Mrs Lisý:
Do keep on consulting not only with more experienced colleagues in your field but also with experts and people who have experience in fields other than yours. Why? Running a successful dental clinic is a complex process, and the path to success leads not only through top professional services but also through good management of people, processes and finances. As they say, ‘advice is cheap’!
For more information about popular dental units from our latest, award-winning Model Pro range click here.
