5 Advantages of a Private Dental Practice

Once you graduate from dental school, you have an important decision to make: what type of practice you want to join. Although corporate practices provide administrative support and other resources, many dentists choose to stick with private practices.

When you have a private dental practice, you get to offer highly personalized care and set your own standards for the amount of time spent with each patient. Best of all, you don’t have to worry about meeting corporate quotas. 

So before you make your final decision, take a look below at 5 advantages of owning a private dental practice.

1. Tight-Knit Relationships 

Corporate dental practices have bigger teams than private practices, so it’s a bit tougher for dentists, hygienists, and other team members to get to know each other. This makes it difficult to build trust and work together to reach common goals.

In a private dental practice, however, team members often see themselves as parts of the same “family.” They support each other during tough times, celebrate important milestones, and pitch in to help when it’s busy. Over time, team members will start treating patients the same way, creating a more comfortable atmosphere for everyone.

2. Less Focus on Profits

When you work for a corporate dental practice, you have to give some of your profits to the corporation, leaving you with less money in your own pocket. Opening a private practice eliminates the need to share your profits with someone else. Additionally, you have the freedom to set your own goals for revenue, expenses, and profit margin, ensuring that you can earn a good income without worrying about reaching corporate financial targets.

3. Reduced Patient Turnover

Retaining patients is one of the biggest challenges of dental practice management. It costs a lot more to bring in a new patient than it does to continue working with an existing patient, so retention is an important metric for any dental practice. Fortunately, private dental practices have an advantage in this regard.

Because you don’t have to worry about rushing from one patient to the next, you can take time to get to know each person and understand their unique needs. Patients are less likely to leave your practice if they trust you and know that you have their best interests in mind. Current patients may even refer new patients to your practice just because they feel so comfortable with your team members.

4. Less Need To Attract New Patients

Production is important, but it isn’t as important as building strong patient relationships. When you work for a corporate dental practice, you have to meet production goals every month. To help you meet these goals, you need to bring in a significant number of new patients, leaving you less time to focus on serving your current patients or staying abreast of changes in the dental field.

If you have a private dental practice, there isn’t as much pressure to attract new patients. You need to do some marketing, to be sure, but you aren’t required to bring in dozens of new patients every month just to keep your practice going. You have more time to build relationships with your existing patients, expand the practice at your own pace, develop your skill set, and provide professional development opportunities to your team members.

5. Freedom To Run the Practice as You Please

Corporate dental offices may require you to focus on high-dollar services, leaving you with fewer opportunities to learn new skills or brush up on treatments that you haven’t done in a while. For example, a chain may want its dentists to focus on whitening and veneers rather than preventive care or periodontal therapy. These services are valuable, to be sure, but not every dentist wants to focus on cosmetic dentistry.

In a private dental practice, however, you have complete control over your schedule. If there’s a treatment type you’d rather refer out, you can do so. You also have the freedom to specialize in the area (or areas) that interest you most. For example, you may be more drawn to periodontal care than cosmetic dental services. When you operate your own practice, you get to decide exactly how to spend every hour of your day.

Help your private dental practice succeed.

If you decide to open a private dental practice, it’s important to market your services effectively. Launching a high-quality website is one of the best ways to connect with potential patients in your area, but many dental practices make the mistake of publishing pages that aren’t accessible to users with disabilities.

Jameson Marketing can help you make sure that every person who visits your dental practice website can understand the content, navigate each page with ease, and interact with forms and other elements. Reach out today to discuss your needs and learn how to develop a plan that will set your practice up for success.