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Is mobile dentistry driving industry change? Dr. Frank DiCicco of Smiles Delivered shares insights, experience

Frank DiCicco, DMD, of Smiles Delivered in New York City shares his insights and experience with on-demand and mobile dental care.

Question: How did Smiles Delivered, an on-demand mobile dental service, begin?  

Frank DiCicco, DMD: There is certainly a demand for dental care in New York City. However, with the city's fast life, most of us seem to forget the importance of routine dental care. By providing a team of compassionate dentists and hygienists, we are able to deliver dentistry to our clients and thus creating an ease and convenience for dental checkups.

Our goal is to ensure that our patients receive a relaxing experience, by providing them with our undivided attention and the highest quality of care in the comfort and privacy of their own living or working space.

Q: Have you seen a spike of on-demand and mobile dental care? Do you foresee this kind of care increasing in the future?

FD: This is a newer concept just like some other on-demand mobile services. However, people may not realize that with technology we are able to mobilize our equipments to work outside of a traditional dental office. This is why Smiles Delivered not only provides a unique service, but also educates and promotes the importance of dental health. Our hope is to become a successful pioneer in on-demand mobile dentistry.

Q: What challenges does Smiles Delivered face? How do you overcome these challenges?

FD: Our challenge is to successfully market and promote ourselves to make our services be heard of and to demonstrate how we operate in an uncustomary setting. This is traditionally a service for the geriatric and disabled, while the rest of the population are used to traveling to dental offices for their routine checkups.

Since this concept is fairly new, our marketing strategies are based off of trail and error in order to find the right channel to successfully market ourselves to the right audience.

Q: As dental service organizations become more popular, how will they affect mobile dental services like Smiles Delivered?

FD: Our business structure is supported by a dental service organization. This allows the dentists to focus on dentistry and provide personable and high quality care to our patients. Dental service organizations can help run the back end of a business. This is a perfect dynamic relationship and works very well in cultivating a growing business, as seen in various other large dental corporations.

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