If your dental practice hasn’t yet embraced the recent technological impact of digital communications and laboratories, your employees and your patients will soon find other practices better equipped for their needs.
It can be difficult as a dentist, or someone else working at a dental practice to see your service from a business perspective. Your office to you is more than a business and most dentists don’t come into the industry simply for the money incentives. Unfortunately, this business mentality i needed in all practices to provide superior service that your patients are expecting.

What kind of inventory does your dental practice need?

Any type of dental practice knows inventory management is an essential skill to possess. For dentists particularly, ordering the proper amount of equipment and supplies ensures you’ll always have the right products when you need them to treat your patients. On the other hand, this process also ensures you aren’t wasting money with closets full of unneeded toothbrushes and floss.

Offices can minimize this risk by creating an inventory software system that works for the entire office. By keeping all of the necessary office supplies in one specified location and extra medical supplies in a separate location you have better organizational consistency. Also, ensure you assign just one person to the ordering tasks that way you avoid over-ordering or double placing orders.

Has your practice gone digital?

Retaining patients is just as important in your practice as the acquisition process. What’s holding your patients at your practice instead of going to the other dentist down the street? If you don’t have an affirmative answer, perhaps adapting digital solutions will change their minds.

Digital scheduling solutions avoid the hassle for both team members and your patients. The software program is able to use company data to simplify the scheduling process. This in turn improves office morale by giving all employees easy and equal access to all of their scheduling whereabouts. The same software, or a different system communicates with your patients to alert them of their upcoming appointment or follow up with those that still need to make appointments. Patients prefer this method to traditional direct mail approaches because it catches them on their cell phone where they can easily update the appointment into their calendar.

Are you aware what’s going on with your finances?

One part of having your own practice that no one ever wants to deal with this the financial dealings. If you haven’t begun to automate your billing, then say good bye to the headache that’s been consuming your life because there’s many software solutions that can deal with this for you in a fraction of the time, even further streamlining this process. Cutting down on this time will allow these employees more time to focus on their productivity in other realms.

Another way you can set yourself a part from the other dental practices is by offering help with these finances for your patients. According to the American Dental Association, one of the main reasons people fail to seek necessary dental treatment is because of the money. Unfortunately dental treatment is expensive and proportionately to how many people need dental treatment not enough people have the proper insurance. While you might not have the finances to assist these patients yourselves, you do have the resources to educate such clients about the financial options that are available to them.

Do you make use of cloud-based technologies?

Cloud based systems are super important when trying to improve your dental practice. Essentially when your practice is in the cloud it allows all of your data to be stored conveniently. No matter where you are everyone in the practice has access to images taken. CephX is a great place to start when you’re looking to improve your dental practice. All of your photos, x-rays, and worksheets will be made available 24/7 in real time ensuring security and the most up to date results for your patients and maximized efficiency for your employees.

Since most orthodontists are not orthodontic professionals by day and secretly businessmen or entrepreneurs by night, it can be rather intimidating starting your own orthodontic practice. You can imagine your orthodontist business similar to any other startup’s work to make it to the top. This time, in order to start off on the right foot you and your team can follow some of these steps to learn the business matters in starting your very own practice.
You’ll need time if you want to start an orthodontic practice in your area, in addition to your team you’ll need marketing efforts to gather your patients, to purchase expensive equipment, and a positive will to remain strong. Don’t worry, you’re in the right place to get started in pursuing your dream to opening your own orthodontic practice.

Are you qualified?

First things first, you don’t want to start this large business endeavor unless you’re sure you have all of the necessary qualifications. Running your own orthodontic practice and simply being a practicing orthodontist are certainly two entirely different things. In one case you’re part of a team where you work as a qualified professional, the other situation means you’re a business owner running your own team of orthodontists and managing day to day operations within the practice.

You need to ask yourself honestly, do you have what it takes to work in this area? Many will decide it’s most practical to work for someone else to start gaining the experience before trying it out on their own at first. Sometimes people during this process realize it’s for the better to continue working for an established practice. Either way, it’s essential for orthodontists to work in the field prior to starting their own business to ensure they’re physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially cut out for the work that will follow.

Of course it’s essential to be physically, and financially apt to the challenge but even more so you must be legally equipped. After you’ve made the decision you’re going to make your dreams come true by starting your own orthodontic practice it’s time to start the paperwork. Varying on your location the license will differ, in some places you’re required to purchase bond insurance before even applying for your business license.

Once you’ve purchased and received your license and registration you’ll also need to file for tax IDs for your business. In order to ensure this process is the least stressful as possible, ensure you leave yourself plenty of time for this ranging from six months to a full year.

Is there high demand in your location?

It’s important to take into consideration the area in which you wish to start your your practice. If your business is going to be financially stable, you’ll need to work in an area with a lot of available patients and a great existing need for your services. If you and your team decide to set up shop in an area where there’s already practicing orthodontists you must remember the competition you will face. How will you combat the competition? By offering cheaper services? More flexibility in scheduling?

On the other hand, if there’s a lack of orthodontists in your area, take this into consideration as well. Why are there so few orthodontic practices there, perhaps its the lack in demand to maintain the practice’s stability. Market research is a crucial aspect of this part of the process. This will not only guide your marketing efforts but also tell you which situations are plausible and what’s definitely not.

What is your budget realistically?

While we all know how expensive orthodontic care can be, whether it’s standard minimal care or top of the line state of the art services you need to be fully prepared beforehand to know what your budget is going to look like. A general rule to remember is, when starting your own orthodontic practice or dental business of any kind for that matter you shouldn’t be expecting a profit until at least 5 years down the road. Yes, orthodontists are known for their expensive services, but you won’t land any patients by charging too much right off the bat.

Once you’ve rented a location, gone through to purchase all of the needed equipment, employed all of your team members you must ensure you’ll have just enough money left over to pay your bills each month. If you don’t set your budget with realistic goals in mind it could be an early detriment to your business’s success in the long run.

Know who you know and know who you don’t know

Like any great business, an orthodontic practice is also about all of the networking and connections you have and create. God forbid you get into legal or financial trouble who is going to come to your rescue? If your practice has an attorney and an accountant nearby you’ll be thankful. The earlier on you form these relationships the better, they’re also a great source of professional advice many of them having started their own businesses as well.

How will you market your practice?

Here’s where the fun part comes in. This is just as crucial as any other step in the process, after all who is going to come into the practice as a patient if there’s zero marketing efforts? Your practice has no chance of succeeding if no one knows about it. Regardless of the size of your practice, or the size of your marketing budget, marketing plays an equally important role in the entire process and it mustn’t be forgotten.

Managing your own orthodontics practice will give you a new and exciting experience to put under your belt. Once you’ve accomplished these steps and you’re in the clear, all of your work has paid off and you will feel on top of the world. So what’s stopping you now, who’s ready to start their own practice?