Learn to Love Being a Dentist… Again

Dentists with strong surgical and sedation skills are finding that our non-traditional practice model restores their passion, improves their lifestyle, and increases profitability.

Being a dentist can be really stressful, especially when you spend more time managing employees, dealing with dental insurance, working on accounting and juggling all the non-dental duties that go along with owning and running a successful dental practice.

The average dentist spends only about 60% of their time performing dentistry, while the other 40% is spent on managerial and administrative tasks. (Dental Economics; vol. 95, issue 6; “Production Increase”).

It is no wonder so many dentists feel stressed out, burned out and (gasp!) even tired of being a dentist.

If you are like most dentists, there are a handful of procedures that you truly love to do, which are the most fulfilling to you emotionally and professionally.  For a growing number of general dentists whose passion and skillset lies in performing surgical procedures and sedation, the answer is a practice model that suits their passion while

providing a positive and predictable experience for patients. Ask yourself this question:  Would you rather offer 40-50 dental procedures that you are pretty good at, or 4-6 dental procedures that you are expert level: ninja at?

Introducing the Win-Win VIPS Dental Practice Model

The Virtual Innovative Practice Systems model was developed behind one simple idea: patients dislike the inconvenience of referrals, and doctors hate giving away production. VIPS has built a better way – a system where everyone wins.

Reach New Heights

A VIPS practice provides in- house surgical and sedation services to patients in the comfort and familiarity of their regular general dental office.  The patient wins because they do not have to go outside of their dental “home” for treatment such as wisdom teeth extraction or dental implants.  The hosting general dental office wins because their patients are more likely to follow through with treatment in this model, not to mention the boost in office production and collections that comes with adding surgical services to the practice.  The VIPS mobile dentist wins because he or she spends all of their time performing the procedures they enjoy the most, and minimal time running the practice.

Tilting the Way You Look at Dental Practice

In order to fully understand what being a VIPS dental practice owner can mean to a general dentist, we need to take a closer look at the differences between a traditional brick and mortar practice vs. a VIPS mobile dental practice.

Lower Overhead

A VIPS practice is different from a traditional practice.  Because the practice is mobile, meaning that the dentist travels to “hosting” dental offices, there is no physical central location.  Think about what that means- no mortgage or rent, no utilities, minimal equipment expenses, and fewer staff members.  The overhead costs involved in owning a VIPS dental practice vs. a traditional practice are markedly lower.

Less Debt

The average general dentist begins his or her career about $400k in debt from student loans and living expenses incurred while in school and residency.  A dentist, who then purchases or builds a traditional practice, will add another $500k- $750k more debt on top of that just to get the practice started (we are up to about $1.15M in debt now).  Imagine the mental pressure of carrying all of this debt!

A VIPS dental practice owner incurs only a fraction of this debt, making it easier to become debt free faster.

Say ‘No’ to Reinventing the Wheel

After initial practice set up, practice building is often an expensive series of trial and error, spending money, time and resources on figuring out what works best.  Dental consultants can help streamline the practice building process and help you set up systems to increase profitability and reduce inefficiencies, but most dentists starting a practice do not have the resources to hire a great dental consultant on a regular basis.

Add in supplies, equipment repairs, rising fixed overhead and advertising expenses.  You can start to see why most young dental practices are understaffed, with the majority of administrative and business planning duties falling on the dentist.  Unfortunately, the dentist rarely relinquishes those responsibilities as success comes, and continues to spend 40% of the day working on administrative work.

A dentist makes a living by expertly performing dental procedures on patients in exchange for a fee.  According to research, the average dentist is only producing at 60% capacity because the rest of the day is spent working on things that do not produce income for the practice. A VIPS dentist spends 85% of their workday actively engaged in patient care.

A VIPS practice follows a proven model which has produced consistent, predictable results for more than 30 years.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel- the best practices are spelled out and time tested to help VIPS dentists attain greater success faster.  VIPS doctors rely on a team of clinical, administrative, practice management, accounting, legal, marketing and financial experts to maintain the day to day functions and long term planning for the practice.  VIPS doctors spend an average of 85% of their workday actively engaged in patient care.

Success is in the Support

A mobile surgery practice is not a new concept, and many have ventured out into the vast traveling surgery wilderness to forge their own way.  Very, very few have been successful.  The fact is, to mobile surgery success, and it relies heavily on providing a level of support, training, education and mentorship that simply is not available outside of VIPS.

Success comes faster and more predictably to VIPS dentists because the systems have been perfected many times over the past 3 decades.   With the infrastructure, personal mentorship and administrative leadership available to VIPS doctors, their success is all but guaranteed.

Our doctors consistently report:

• Low overhead
• Fewer staffing problems
• More time spent on patient care
• Higher than average productivity and income
• Significantly improved work-life balance

 Take Back Your Career

If you don’t love surgery, or the idea of starting your own mobile dental surgery practice, you probably would not have read over 1,000 words into this post.  Because you are intrigued, we invite you to contact VIPS Dental for more information.  There is more to the story than we can include in this short post, and you owe it to yourself to explore the options available to you through VIPS.