An Alternative to the Associate or Partner Solution

What do you do as a dentist if you find yourself hitting a saturation point but you don't want to bring in an associate or partner? In a previous article, “Are You Capturing All the Value in Your Practice?” I discussed the mid-career transition solution. This is where you bring in another dentist to help capture the value in the demand you have created.

But many owner-dentists are reluctant to go that route either because of space considerations, or they simply want to keep their practice small and personal. If that is the case, there is a different model you can follow.

Most dental practice growth follows a familiar trajectory. After graduation you start a practice and you do whatever it takes to get patients and to get busy. As time goes by and you improve your clinical and value skills, you do indeed get busier. If you're like many dentists, you eventually reach the point where you are going full speed just to keep up.

So it all comes down to volume of work (mostly tooth-based dentistry) versus value of time (mouth-based dentistry). If you aren't interested in enlisting help to deal with the volume, you have to approach it from the other end. You have to focus on your time and this means finding ways to do more with less. This may mean purifying your patient base. It's not the approach I recommend most often, but it is a choice.

To do this you have to begin restricting the kind of dentistry you do. That may mean referring out pediatric cases and some procedures you currently do to specialists. Eventually it may mean no longer doing routine tooth-based dentistry at all, and focusing solely on providing mouth-based comprehensive care to patients. It means building an invitation-only practice exclusively for those who want comprehensive dental care.

This may sound like a pipe dream and it is an approach that comes with its own risks. If there is a downward swing in the economy that affects the economic fortunes of patients in your area, you can end up feeling the hit more than other dentists who provide a full spectrum of services. But there are dentists who have taken this route with great results. In fact, many of the top practitioners in dentistry got that way by using this method to purify their base and enhance the value of their time. The truth is it's the only way to grow your practice without adding another provider.

Another solution is to do both by bringing in another dentist to take up much of the routine work so you can begin to focus on the cases that bring you the most satisfaction. Again, this is not an approach that works for everyone, but I offer it as food for thought. The point is, when you find yourself overwhelmed by the success you have created, there are options for relief. Why not investigate them?