Thinking of Starting Your Own Dental Practice? What You Need to Know

Running a successful dental practice is about much more than just providing excellent clinical care. You need to have great strategic leadership skills to guide teams, safeguard standards, and drive responsible growth. Aspiring practice owners must balance their clinical objectives with key commercial and operational duties. Let’s have a look at how you can get this done.

Conduct Thorough Market Research

Before making major commitments like signing leases or resigning from any current jobs (be careful!), make sure that genuine demand exists in your community beyond any assumptions you’ve made or limited existing patient feedback.

Research key questions: Is there clear data showing a sizable demand to support the services that you’re going to provide? Given the state of NHS dentistry, you’d think the answer would be yes, but make sure. Do current providers struggle to meet patient needs, signalling an opportunity? Realistically assess any gaps you could fill.

Survey your target neighbourhoods anonymously to understand if there are any key needs that are going unmet. Maybe people want their dentists to accept more insurance plans to increase affordability or provide mobile dentistry for homebound patients. Proactively understanding these pain points reveals underserved groups you may be able to cater to.

Get First-Hand Operational Insights

Shadow other established practices to see how their day-to-day operations and workflows actually function. Identify potential inefficiencies you could improve on, like implementing automated check-in to reduce those pesky waiting times. Learn from experienced mentors before striking out on your own.

Analyse Funding Options Thoroughly

Whether self-financing through personal funds or looking at commercial loans, carefully think through the right approach for your situation based on realistic scalability in your area's market. Model cash flows conservatively, accounting for slower patient ramp-up timelines and ensuring you can meet your personal/professional obligations through any potential struggles before profitability.

Choose Practice Premises Strategically

While high-visibility retail locations may seem enticing for foot traffic, you should prioritise finding sustainable premises that maximise commercial viability and stay within your operational budget. Don’t just go after the prestige address! Focus on providing exceptional services that will organically attract your target neighbourhood audience through word-of-mouth.

Build A Supportive Leadership Team

Don't overburden yourself trying to manage every aspect of the business by yourself while also providing care. That's a perfect recipe for burnout. Instead, build a leadership team that combines complementary expertise to tackle the problems you’ll face together as you scale. Recruit experienced advisors to cement a strong support network.

Enlist Specialists for Key Roles:

Financial Management - Rely on financial experts well-versed in capitalisation, cash reserves, tax laws, profit optimisation and more to protect your business through tough times.

Operations Management - Ensure operational reliability and risk management through efficient digitised workflows, compliance monitoring, and robust contingency protocols.

Vet Suppliers for Total Value

When selecting equipment, consumables, and lab suppliers, don’t get blinded by discounts. Prioritise providers who offer excellent services like responsive support, reliable inventory access and consistent account management.

Design Facilities with Patient Experience in Mind

While impressive finishes are nice for everyone, you can elevate the patient experience with an efficient functional design that showcases your care standards at every touchpoint. Invest in ergonomic equipment to avoid staff injuries. Ensure that your rooms meet compliance codes to avoid fines. It’s all about the details, everyone.

Cultivate a Caring Practice Culture

Ultimately, what will set your dental practice apart is the personal touch and caring culture your team collectively embodies in every patient interaction. From front desk staff providing a warm welcome, to dentists and hygienists prioritising empathetic communication that alleviates fears - you must hire, and train team members aligned with this service philosophy.

Emphasise ongoing training to instil consistent standards for delivering outstanding chairside manner that makes patients feel comforted, not anxious. Roleplay challenging scenarios staff may encounter to build their confidence addressing concerns with patience and emotional intelligence. Establishing this foundational culture of compassionate care creates loyal patient relationships.

Continuously Elevate Customer Service

Never let your practice rest on its laurels when it comes to patient experience and customer service standards. Consistently find new ways to go above and beyond, delighting your patients at every touchpoint:

• Implement systems for proactively gathering feedback and quickly resolving any service failures before they become bigger issues.
• Train staff on using positive language focused on benefits and building value in patients' minds, not just listing treatment prices.
• Create a comfortable, relaxing office atmosphere with ambient music, modern designs, and engaging visual displays.
• Explore technologies like online booking, automated appointment reminders, and video follow-ups to provide ultra-convenience.
• Develop creative patient appreciation programs that build a community feel around your practice.

Hire Staff Aligned with Your Vision

Look beyond just technical dental qualifications and hire staff who embody the spirit of personal, caring service you want your practice to be known for. Define the must-have attributes like a warm sense of humour that aligns with your brand personality.

Provide Ongoing Staff Training

While hiring experienced staff is ideal for faster onboarding, realistically you'll likely have some skills gaps to fill on your team. Encourage your staff to enrol in high-quality, modular training programs from reputable providers to build well-rounded competencies in clinical protocols, customer service, and more in a cost-effective way. For example, a diploma in Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopaedics can be a great boost to an employee’s career as well as your practice. Orthodontics training is key if you want your practice to thrive.

Implement Central Management Technology

Adopting unified practice management software is pivotal for juggling a whole mess of administrative tasks like scheduling, billing, inventory and more efficiently - especially in those lean early years. This protects you against costly oversight errors in all the operational chaos that comes with growth.

Proactively Market Your Services

There’s a lot of noise when it comes to advertising, so you need to reinforce your brand's local visibility with engaging educational content that highlights what you do. Participate in community events to build name recognition and positive word-of-mouth.

Rigorously Forecast Cash Flows

Before leaving your secure employment for the risks/rewards of setting out on your own, work with financial experts to model a realistic worst-case scenario. Plan for potential slow adoption periods where your expenses are going to be more than your earnings. Start with a survivalist mentality. It’s a little scary at first, but it’s always better to be prepared!

Comply with Legal and Regulatory Requirements

While you’re focused on delivering excellent care, never lose sight of the major legal responsibilities and liabilities you open yourself up to as a practice owner. Lawsuits or compliance breaches could trigger personal bankruptcy if you don’t have the right corporate protections and insurance coverage in place.

Thoroughly understand all licensing, regulation, and ongoing governance requirements like:

• Prescription stocking permits
• Workplace health/safety protocols
• Public liability insurance coverage
• Proper waste disposal documentation

Work closely with dental organisations and advisors to avoid oversights that risk costly fixes or being forced to shut down. Establish rigorous processes for self-auditing and improving compliance over time.

In Summary

While running your own dental practice can be an alluring goal, the reality involves juggling a lot of complex duties beyond just clinical care. Prospective owners must have the business acumen and leadership mindset to oversee everything from finances and compliance to operations and growth marketing.

However, you don't have to go it alone. By thoroughly researching the market, building supportive advisor teams, implementing reliable systems/technology, and upholding stringent governance - you can confidently launch a viable practice that delivers excellent patient care while responsibly managing all commercial accountabilities.

With the right preparation and attention to detail in both areas, you can successfully start a great dental practice.