by Jane Kay

Created on: December 04, 2009

Whether you have a new startup dental practice, or a stale existing practice that isn't going anywhere, there are several core requirements for managing a dental practice. As a dental business consultant, I've had to enter practices to assess what's going right, what's going wrong, and what is missing. As is the case for every single business, location is extremely important in achieving success; but if your already established practice is in a less desirable location, no worries. Your practice can still improve on revenues and get patients walking in through the door, assuming you have built your practice in a location that has a significant accessible population.

That said, you have to for your practice what I get paid to do: examine, eradicate, build, and change.

I've never seen a patient who commits to a practice because their dental chairs are comfortable. I've never seen a patient who is loyal to practice because they like the sample given after a visit. Why a patient comes and stays with a practice depends on a lot more than the dcor yet doctors nationwide spend tenfold (if not more) on equipment over marketing or employee training. This is a surefire way to build a stale practice that will plateau and start a slippery downhill slide.

Figuring Out Your Niche

Before you figure out the details of how your practice works, you have to figure out who your existing and potential patients are. The best practice in the world means very little if you don't have patients coming into your office.

Examine your patient records and see where the patients you have are coming from: which areas do they live in? Which demographics? What race? What language is their primary language? Especially when you are located in a large metropolitan city, and there's a dental office on every other block, you have to figure out the pattern of who has been opting to come to your practice. Also, look at which of these patients you have retained, and which have opted to have dental work done elsewhere.

Then, assess how much treatment these patients are receiving at your practice. How much revenue are these groups bringing into your office? Are they mostly one-time patients who receive a new patient exam and possibly a cleaning, but opt for nothing else? Or are they patients who get their dental work done at your office, albeit at a slow rate?

Finally, you have to decide whether these particular demographics are the ones you want for your practice. Just because you want a different

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