Dentistry is just a small consumer driven business. Consumers today decide where they go and where they spend their money and you as a dentist are no different. There is a dentist on every corner, and every potential patient has an invisible checklist of what they are looking for in a dental office. So what are you willing to do? What are you ...
Read MoreI write articles every week, but make sure you open this and read it. You don’t want to be the only dentist that fails to hear this message. Mike Abernathy I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak in several cities in Australia this year. With the invitation was a request to bring ideas from the US that would address the challenges ...
Read MoreEvery time I speak to an audience or have a telephone call with a doctor, one resounding question pops up: “What do I need to do to survive the next 5-10 years in Dentistry?” That’s a great question, and one that each one of us needs to be asking. It could be a fatal error to think that after making it through three recessions and seeing ...
Read MoreWill corporations win the dental business model? I guess there is no way to be sure, but if we look at pharmacies, vision, and medical models it is a sure thing. The only item in question would be how long it will take. I think the independent practice of the future will have to take on the things corporations do well, while also adding the ...
Read MoreThis email came to one of our Summit Practice Solutions coaches working with a very successful Pediatric Specialist recently. Can you please ask Dr. Abernathy what he thinks about the future of dentistry? Will it be all corporate soon?? Will private practices be gone in the next decade?? There are so many corporate multi-specialty practices ...
Read MoreI am just one of those people that seem to be obsessive about little things. For a dentist, especially clinically, that can be great. But sometimes it’s a little frustrating. BEST for Dentistry continues to gather together dentists who want to preserve the independent practice of Dentistry while struggling with the reality of insurance and ...
Read MoreWe have identified what corporations do well, and how demographics of our own profession will accelerate the demise of the independent practice of Dentistry. We now need to look at what will save our profession. The only way for the 76% of dentists that work solo to survive the next 10 years is to start down the path of adding a doctor to your ...
Read MoreCorporate critical mass is just around the corner. This point of no return revolves around new graduates from dental school. Less than a decade ago we had 3,000 dental graduates a year coming into a profession where 5,000 existing doctors were retiring. There were always more practices available than buyers. Now fast forward to today. Two dental ...
Read MoreDr. Phil finds himself listening to some horrible situations created by what most people would conclude were just silly, stupid actions that resulted in the condition that these poor people find themselves in. His comment is usually: “How’s that working for you?” or “What were you thinking?” I end up speaking to thousands of doctors ...
Read MoreI love the water. From a very young age my parents considered swimming very important, because my mom nearly drowned as a child and was deathly afraid of the water. Rather than have me or my brothers grow up with that stigma and fear, she insisted from the age of one that we spend time in the water: So much time, that I never had any skin on my ...
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