According to the CDC, oral health is a huge problem, with around 90% of U.S. adults above 20 years suffering from cavities. Therefore, dentists are vital professionals who offer several dental solutions to treat these oral health issues, giving their patients a bright smile. Dental patients can also enjoy more benefits by visiting a family dentist, offering them and their families more personalized care. So, if you’re considering opening a dental clinic, a family practice dentistry office can be an excellent idea. And below is everything you need to know about how to successfully open and run such a clinic.
Acquire the Necessary Licenses and Permits
Dental clinics must satisfy various legal requirements before they begin operations. Failure to do this can lead to problems with authorities, thus affecting your ability to serve your patients. Therefore, the first step towards opening a family practice dentistry clinic is to acquire the necessary licenses and permits.
One of the top licenses you’ll need to run a family dental clinic is a dental license from the state licensing body. According to the American Dental Association, the licensing requirements vary from one state to another, but common perquisites include academic certificates and dental care experience. However, some states require additional training before issuing you a license. For example, according to the New York State Education Department, dentists must receive training in identifying and reporting child abuse.
Apart from being a licensed dentist, you’ll also need to acquire business permits to operate your dental clinic. The permit requirement will also vary from one state (and local government) to another, depending on the business structure you want to establish. Therefore, you should hire a business lawyer to assist you in setting up your clinic and acquiring all the necessary permits.
Lastly, you must ensure your practice when opening a family dental clinic. At the most basic level, you’ll need general liability insurance to protect your business and dental malpractice insurance to protect yourself (and your dentist). Other essential insurance options are property, data breach, business interruption, and employee insurance.
Hire The Necessary Staff
Running a family practice dentistry clinic is a lot of work. Therefore, attempting to run it alone can greatly compromise the dental care you offer your patients. To avoid this, you should hire some employees to assist you in running your practice.
The type of staff to hire (and how many) will depend on the size of your practice. However, your dental clinic could greatly benefit from employees like an office manager, a front desk receptionist, a dental assistant, and a medical expert. You can hire additional staff like interns, dental hygienists, and dentists.
Of course, to guarantee the quality of dental care offered to patients, you’ll need to hire the most qualified staff available. One of the best ways to do this is to use a local employment agency, which can help you easily fill positions like receptionist, dental assistant, and office manager. However, you might have to advertise some positions and recruit yourself or use a recruiter for more specialized positions like dentists.
Apart from hiring employees, you must also invest in their continued training. This will help to significantly improve the quality of services offered to the customers, improving their satisfaction. At the same time, you also need to invest in the well-being of your employees to keep them safe and happy.
Decide on the Services to Offer
Before opening your family practice dentistry clinic, you must decide on the services to offer. Of course, this will largely depend on your target customers, who, in this case, are families. Therefore, your practice needs to offer comprehensive services that cater to every member of a typical family.
Kids are one of the most common types of patients you can expect in your family dental clinic. Therefore, you’ll need to offer several services suited for them, including regular dental exams, teeth cleanings, fluoride treatments, baby tooth extraction, and dental education. In addition, according to the CDC, cavities are widespread among kids, affecting more than 50% of children. Therefore, you must also offer dental sealants, filling, and extraction services to treat cavity issues.
Older kids are another common group of patients you’ll see in your family dental clinic. Consequently, you’ll need to offer services braces to fix crooked teeth, wisdom teeth extraction, and bruxism treatment to cater to their specific needs. Other vital dental services for older kids include fluoride treatments, teeth cleaning, whitening, dental fillings, and regular checkups.
Lastly, you should offer excellent dental care for adults visiting your clinic. Towards this end, you can offer services like dental checkups, cleanings, teeth whitening, fillings, root canals, gum disease treatment, Invisalign treatment, crowns & veneers, tooth extractions, and more. On top of that, you can also offer dental solutions like dentures, bridges, and implants for older adults suffering from tooth loss.
Offer Financing Options and Payment Plans
According to dental plans, the cost of regular dental checkups for kids is between $65 and $100, and parents can expect to pay around $30 to $35 per tooth for treatments like sealants. These dental costs keep increasing as one age; for example, orthodontic treatments for teens is between $3,000 and $7,000. On the other hand, adults can expect to pay between $500 and $900 for typical dental appointments, $1,000 for simple cosmetic treatments, and between $1,500 and $2,500 for services like root canals, crowns (per tooth), dental bridges, and dentures.
Dental care can be expensive, and not everyone can afford it out of pocket. Therefore, you must devise several payment and financing options when setting up a family practice dentistry clinic. This will help ensure your patients can comfortably afford your services, thus keeping their dental health in shape.
One of the top ways you can assist your clients in affording your services is by accepting several insurance plans. This can include public plans like Medicare assistance and privately-funded dental coverage policies. Where possible, you should also educate your patients on affordable dental insurance plans your office accepts and how they can receive them.
Of course, dental insurance plans won’t cover some of the services offered by your dental clinic. Therefore, you can offer various payment options to ease the financial burden on your patients. These include working with a third-party credit to offer dental loans, in-office dental insurance, and installment payment plans.
Promote Your Dental Clinic
You must invest in marketing to run a successful family practice dentistry clinic. After all, your business relies on customers to make money and be successful. Fortunately, there are several techniques that you can use to promote your dental clinic.
One of the top ways to promote your family dental office is to increase its visibility, thus making it easy for potential customers to find you. For example, you can hire custom banner services to create a banner sign advertising your clinic’s location and services offered. You can also increase your business’s visibility by listing it on Google Maps or creating a dental business website.
Another top way to promote your business is to invest in marketing solutions that target new customers. For example, you can create custom business cards and hand them around your dental clinic’s location to target local customers. You can also list your clinic on local and online directories, advertise on neighborhood apps, or invest in digital marketing techniques like SEO and email marketing.
Lastly, you should invest in customer retention techniques when promoting your family dental clinic. Of course, an excellent experience is one of the top ways to keep your clients returning. However, you can invest in other solutions, like offering incentives, for example, free dental checkups, teeth cleanings, and discounted services. In addition, you can use social media and newsletters to engage with your existing clients and even generate more leads for your dental business.
Create a Welcoming Environment
Your office environment is essential to patient comfort and thus plays a huge role in deciding whether new customers will return. On top of that, according to the National Institute of Health, 36% of Americans are afraid of dental offices and procedures. Therefore, creating a welcoming environment in your family practice dentistry office can help to keep these fearful individuals at ease.
One of the top places to start when creating a welcoming environment for your dental clinic is your employees. After all, your patients will have a lot of personal interactions with your staff during their visits, which will significantly impact their experience. So, you need to invest and train a good team of workers who are polite, happy, and easy to approach. On top of that, you should invest in long-term employee relationships, which can promote a consistent atmosphere and customer experience.
Besides good employees, you should keep your dental office as welcoming as possible. For example, you can hire regular cleaning services to keep the clinic neat, bright, and inviting. You can also invest in an air conditioning service to keep the dental office comfortable, especially on extremely hot or cold days. Other excellent ideas include installing an entertainment system in the waiting area, playing relaxing music in treatment rooms, and offering patients treats (like candy).
Keep Your Dental Clinic Looking Great
The office space’s condition greatly impacts the employees’ safety, well-being, and productivity. In addition, according to AllBusiness, the office is an extension of your business’s brand image and, thus, has a huge impact on how customers view it. Therefore, another key tip to running a successful family practice dentistry clinic is to invest in keeping the office space looking nice.
Routine maintenance is one of the top ways to keep your office looking amazing. This includes changing the air conditioner filters, regularly servicing the HVAC system, cleaning the office space, replacing worn-out light bulbs, etc. In addition, you should invest in exterior maintenance services like cleaning and maintaining the windows, landscape, parking lot, walkways, exterior walls, and roofing.
Repairs are another excellent way to keep your family dental clinic in great condition. Therefore, you should hire prompt repair services for critical areas like plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems. You should also have any structural issues with your office’s floors, walls, doors & windows, ceiling, and roofs fixed when they occur. Lastly, you can invest in restorations like wall repainting or office furniture refinishing services to keep your dental clinic looking amazing.
To run a successful family dental practice, you should also consider regular upgrades to the office space. For example, you can hire flooring contractors to install new floors or expand the flooring space, which can significantly improve your office’s appeal, comfort, and functionality. Other top upgrades to consider are installing a security system, replacing the door, installing new windows, resurfacing the exterior surfaces, and more.
Invest in the Latest Technology
According to a 2020 census by the Dental Products Report, 32% of dental practices were using technology, and 18% more offices were planning to go digital. There’s a good reason why technology is becoming so widespread in the dental industry; it allows for faster, more affordable, and better dental care for patients. Therefore, technology is another critical item to invest in when setting up your family practice dentistry clinic.
You can leverage several types of technological solutions for your dental clinic. The first and most common type is office technology like computers, laptops, tablets, paperless patient charts, online booking systems, and billing software. These solutions can help to streamline your practice’s operation, leading to more productivity and better customer service.
Dentistry technology is another excellent investment you can make for your dentist office. And one of the best places to start with dentistry technology is diagnostic equipment like digital radiographs, 3D x-rays, digital microscopes, and intra-oral cameras. These solutions can help to improve your clinic’s diagnostic capability, leading to faster and more thorough dental examinations.
Lastly, you can use technology to enhance your dental treatments. For example, you can invest in technological solutions like pain-free injections, laser surgery, and CEREC machines for producing custom crowns, inlays, and inlays. These technological solutions can significantly improve your dental care, allowing you to offer patients faster, more precise, and less painful treatments or dental procedures.
Starting a family practice dentistry office can greatly serve the community. With a good clinic, you can offer comprehensive dental solutions to families in a joyful and relaxing environment. And while launching and opening such a venture can be a huge undertaking, the above tips can help smooth the process.
