As DSOs continue to scale, independent dental practices are competing against organizations with more purchasing power, greater leverage with payers and centralized back offices to take administrative work off dentists’ plates.
Those advantages come at a cost to independent practices, which often pay more for supplies and shoulder staffing and operational challenges on their own. But consolidation hasn’t erased what makes a single practice appealing to patients. Some leaders say independents can still outcompete larger groups on relationships, patient experience and clinical flexibility.
Four dentists and industry executives discussed where smaller, independent practices can still have the upper hand on larger organizations at Becker’s 5th Annual Future of Dentistry Roundtable in Chicago.
Note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What can smaller, independent practices still do better than large dental organizations?
Jeffrey Burch, DMD. Co-Founder of Burch Dental Partners (Rockford, Ill.): From a technology standpoint, you can move a lot quicker. At our size, I find it difficult to build a lab across a number of locations. If I were the sole doctor, I’d probably do more lab work and more “super dentist” work, with more implants and a different toolbox, all under one roof. With that kind of clinical ability, it’s easy to beat most DSOs.
Jay Glazer. Director, Business Development of DC Dental (Baltimore): It’s all about relationships. If your patients walk in and have a relationship with the doctor and the hygienist, you can make everything work. In a small town, everybody knows everybody’s name. Even in a big city, if your patients work in the same building or a couple of blocks away and you have that relationship, it works. You obviously have to know what you’re talking about, because word gets out if you’re overselling, but if you have that relationship and you know what you’re doing, referrals will flow in. The online and website experience matters, because people today go online to figure out where to go. At the end of the day, though, they’re going to talk to their friends and the people they know from their kids’ school, and they’re going to go to their people. If you’re able to relate to people, you’re golden.
Dan Romary. COO of CERTIFY Health (Washington, D.C.): Patient experience. That’s exactly what we saw. Being a member of the community and being able to make decisions faster are key. From a DSO’s perspective, those are the things we’d want to preserve in an acquisition: the soft skills that made the practice successful and shape the patient experience. You want to strategically identify opportunities to improve operations without taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
Alex Sharp, DDS. CEO of Shared Practices Group (Scottsdale, Ariz.): As much as it pains me to say it, patient experience. In a single practice, everyone’s boots are on the ground in the same four walls. You have a personal relationship with the person who has done your check-in for the last 20 years, and that’s really hard to scale, automate and spin up across the country. If you have a national footprint, you can still deliver a great patient experience, but you have to use a different tactic. In an individual practice, think about what you can do that doesn’t scale. What can you do that patients recognize as value, and that the big-box DSO down the road can’t? That could be local branding, community engagement or a procedure mix that’s hard to replicate across state lines. If I’m a single-site owner, I’m probably going to focus on quality and convenience. If patients want the individual touch of a privately owned dentist, maybe they’ll pay a little more for it, and the right people will see that value and happily do so.
At the Becker's 5th Annual Future of Dentistry Roundtable, taking place September 14-15 in Chicago, dental leaders and executives will gain insights into emerging technologies, practice growth strategies and the evolving landscape of dental care delivery, with a focus on innovation, patient experience and operational excellence. Apply for complimentary registration now.
