THE FRONT OFFICE
Marketing online
Background.—Practice success often requires that the
dentist take changes in stride, remaining informed about
new research and clinical studies, advances in technology,
and better ways to deliver treatment. Change can be
especially difficult, however, when it involves business-
marketing practices. Often business owners feel ill-
equipped to market their practices properly, but it is
possible to update marketing efforts and still deliver excel-
lent patient care. New techniques in online marketing can
help.
What Works.—In previous times, dentists relied pri-
marily on Yellow Pages advertisements to inform prospec-
tive patients about their services and availability. Other
approaches that have been tried include direct marketing,
local sponsorships, trade shows, and traditional advertising,
all of which achieved some measure of success. Today, how-
ever, it is important to have an Internet and social media
presence to reach the largest audience and achieve the
best results. Dentists want to maintain the reputation for
providing the highest quality of oral care, but need to attract
patients and convey their message in ways that are popular
today.
Characteristics of New Options.—Social media tools
such as Facebook and Twitter have significantly accelerated
the speed at which individuals and businesses have moved
to online engagement. For businesses, being online is only
advantageous if it is possible for prospective patients to find
the enterprise. Strategies to help prospective patients find
dental offices and enhance dental practice growth include
search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search.
When people need products or service, their first and
preferred method for reviewing options and becoming sav-
vier about choices is the Internet. Electronic media have
made patients more sophisticated and educated about
what they want, but have also promulgated incorrect infor-
mation. The dentist must ensure that his or her message is
both relevant and correct. This means creating an informa-
tive, solid online presence based on knowledge of the
patient demographics and the community served by the
dental office.
Dentists who have been practicing for decades must
now compete with younger dentists for whom technology
is second nature. The key is knowing how to approach pa-
tients who are using the Internet to research dental care. It
is important to constantly research the community served
by the dental office. Even experienced dentists with little
technologic know-how can stay relevant and market their
practices successfully with this foundation.
Suggested Practices.—New patients can be reached
by integrating forms of online marketing, but a few caveats
are essential. Making a great first impression is critical. The
website should not only be attractive but interactive,
serving as a virtual waiting room. Practice websites should
offer patients the opportunity to schedule or cancel ap-
pointments online, for example. Automatic appointment
reminders can be generated, as can newsletters that keep
patients informed about what is new. Social media connec-
tions also contribute to this connectedness.
Marketing should reflect the type of practice the dentist
has. Existing and potential patients should be able to get a
sense of who the dentist is and what the practice offers, so
that they can develop a level of comfort with the practice
even before their first visit. If the online practice site is
not attractive, they may sense that the physical office will
be equally unappealing.
Dentists have always encouraged spreading information
about their practices through word-of-mouth referrals from
satisfied customers. An online presence can recreate that
scenario and serve as a validation tool. Internal marketing
allows potential patients to receive reviews from actual pa-
tients and make choices based on the dentist’s personality,
treatment philosophy, fees, or even collection policies. If
the individual has heard about a practice from a friend, it
is likely that the first thing he or she will do is check it
out online. It is important that the practice can be found
there and that the site offers all the information needed
to give the prospective patient a good feeling about the
practice and the dentist.
Making the Change.—Internet marketing will continue
to be an important component of marketing for dental
practices, especially those that want to serve younger pop-
ulations. This approach offers the opportunity to do much
more than the Yellow Pages could and may actually provide
good solutions to old problems. Changing the way a dental
Volume 59  Issue 2  2014 65
practice is marketed may be the best way to reach audi-
ences in a meaningful, effective way.
Clinical Significance.—Remember those Yel-
low Pages ads? Many of our patients don’t even
know what the Yellow Pages offered and
certainly wouldn’t go there to find out about
our practices. They are more likely to do a quick
search or tweet with friends. With all the mobile
devices now available, it is essential to connect
in new, more immediate ways. We need to mar-
ket to our patients where they are at—and most
Corporate dentistry
Background.—In business, big chains thrive because
they provide a wider variety of goods and services, better
quality, and lower cost than smaller stores. Their size offers
them buying power, allows centralization of common func-
tions, and helps them adopt and disperse innovations more
rapidly than small, independent operations can. Health
care has recently begun to follow the successful trend to-
ward bigger offerings, with dentistry being one of the last
to move into corporately driven professional health care de-
livery. Both patients and dentists have yet to determine
whether such a change will be successful.
Why Corporate Dentistry?—Over the past 10 years at
least 25 dental management organizations (DMOs) or
dental service organizations (DSOs) have sprung up, with
management or employment of about 8% of all US dentists.
Dentists may contract with the companies for business sup-
port, or the corporation may own the business and hire
dentists. Outside investors and dental corporations are
interested in dentistry because profit margins are consider-
ably better than with medical group practices.
Corporate dentistry can appeal to dentists on several
levels. DMOs or DSOs can take care of staff recruitment, pa-
tient scheduling, and marketing. Supplies, equipment, and
technology can be purchased for less because of their clout,
deep-pocket capital, and size. The deals they can negotiate
with dental laboratories and third-party payers are much
better than those offered to solo practitioners. In-house
specialist consultations and referrals may be provided.
Employee dentists may be given generous salaries, benefits,
and bonus incentives. The corporation also assumes finan-
cial responsibility for malpractice cases and relieves the
dentist to concentrate on delivering patient care.
66 Dental Abstracts
are online these days. It’s time to make a change
that will increase the return on our marketing
investment.
Walton D: From Yellow Pages to web pages: Embracing the shift in
dental practice marketing. AGD Impact November 2012, pp 26-28
Reprints available from the Academy of General Dentistry. Fax
your request to Jo Posselt (312/440-4261) or e-mail
AGDJournal@agd.org
Corporations can also provide a de facto private dental
society, offering a wide range of benefits and perks and pro-
moting the group’s interests in community and political cir-
cles. Corporate dentistry can offer the comfort of a ‘‘brand,’’
which patients often equate with better product delivery at
a reduced cost.
Corporate dentistry also offers freedom from challenges
that private practitioners must face. These challenges
include handling staffing, bookwork, tax preparations, sup-
plies, equipment, and maintenance. Dentists are then free
to provide patient care and still have a life outside of the
dental office. New dentists often graduate with massive stu-
dent education debt, making a set salary an attractive draw-
ing card. Although previous generations of dentists could
obtain bank loans or associateships with established prac-
tices to help with costs, the current recession is adversely
affecting these options. There are also fewer dental prac-
tices being offered for sale, since older dentists are prac-
ticing longer. Associateships are harder to secure, with
fewer dentists taking them on in private practice. Positions
with public health clinics or hospitals are also rare.
On top of all these factors, more graduates choose to
have a balanced work-home life than to own their own prac-
tices. This may reflect the greater emphasis on group work,
social interactions, and constant communication via tech-
nology that characterize dental education. This more social
group thrives in a community rather than a solo situation.
Drawbacks.—Serious operational and ethical com-
plaints have been lodged against corporate dental service
organizations. There have been accusations of patient
abuse, unlicensed practice of dentistry, and fraud, as well