fbpx

Expanding Your Skill Set to Grow Your Practice

When you’re running your dental practice by yourself, you can reach a point where it feels like you’ve hit a wall. Your practice’s growth is limited by your skill set and the amount of work you can take on, so it can seem difficult to grow your practice past a certain point. It’s at this stage that many dentists consider adding an associate, but this isn’t the right move for every dentist. Some dentists avoid adding an associate because managing them adds work and brings the potential for personality conflicts. While dentists in rural areas often find it’s an impractical business move because there simply aren’t enough potential patients to expect to double their client base.

Thankfully, adding an associate to your practice isn’t the only way for you to grow your pediatric dental practice. Whether you simply prefer to work solo or recognize that adding an associate isn’t a wise business decision, you can still grow your practice considerably and increase its monthly revenue by expanding your services to include orthodontics. We’ve broken down why and how beginning to provide orthodontic treatment to your pediatric patients can transform your practice for the better.

Why should you add orthodontics?

Since orthodontic treatments like braces are necessary for a large percentage of people, they’re always in demand—just as many people need braces in a bad economy as in a good one, so orthodontics isn’t a service that will see a drop in demand during times of economic downturn. As a result, the specialty provides a steady, long-term revenue stream that you can rely on year-round. To determine your potential customer base, simply think about how many patients you’re referring on for orthodontic treatments. Most patients prefer to stick with a dentist they already know and trust at a location they’re familiar with instead of going to a specialist they’ve never met before. So most of the patients you’d otherwise be referring to specialists would love the chance to receive their orthodontic treatment from you instead. You’ll immediately have a potential customer base right at your fingertips in the form of the patients you’re already treating.

Additionally, the fact that you offer in-house orthodontic treatments may serve as a draw for new patients, especially those who know their children will need braces in the near future, because it’s rare for pediatric dentists and general dentists alike to offer these services. According to this study, only 20% of general dentists offer orthodontics within their practice. But, according to the same study, only 10% to 20% of orthodontic problems were being diagnosed at the time of the study. This makes offering orthodontics a great way to set your practice apart from other general dental practices.

How can adding orthodontics transform your practice?

Adding orthodontics to your skill set is an investment, but it’s one that begins providing returns quickly because you can start treating patients while you’re still learning. The result is an added service that quickly becomes a steady and sizable increase in revenue for your practice. To illustrate this, here are some numbers. A typical amount to charge for an orthodontic treatment is $5,000. At this rate, even adding two new orthodontic patients to your practice every month can grow your revenue by more than $200,000 with estimated profits of $80,000—just in the first two years (if you begin adding cases within three months)!

What can our course offer you?

Our Basic Straight Wire Orthodontics course uses a combination of lectures and hands-on exercises to teach you to diagnose and treat Class I and Class II malocclusions. During the course, you’ll even spend time doing in-depth reviews on cases that you’re considering treating or that you’re actively treating in your office. Throughout the length of the course, you’ll focus on learning how to integrate orthodontics into your practice in both a practical and financial sense, which cases you should and shouldn’t treat, how to diagnose patients and plan treatments, how to keep diagnostic records, basic cephalometric analysis, and how to band and bracket teeth.

Additionally, throughout the length of the course, Dr. Brad will be available by phone and email to answer any questions you have about the course or cases you’re treating. His insights are an invaluable resource, playing a large part in allowing you to begin treating patients while you’re still learning. Once you’ve completed the course, which consists of 100 continuing education (CE) credit hours, you’ll be able to diagnose and treat up to 70% of the cases you see in your pediatric practice. This means that the majority of the patients you were once referring to orthodontists will now be able to seek treatment directly from you, which can translate to a sizable increase in revenue very quickly! Even after the course is completed, members of the American Orthodontic Society will benefit from an additional 100 CE credit hours of free monitoring for the next year, providing an extra helping hand when you need it and bringing the total course to 200 CE credits.

Since orthodontics is a specialty that most of your pediatric patients will need to receive treatment from at some point in the near future, it’s easy to integrate into your existing services and to market to your current patients. Adding orthodontics to your skill set is a great choice that will help you expand your practice’s revenue whether you operate in a small town or a bustling city. If you’re ready to add orthodontics to your skill set, you can find out more information on the course or register for it here.