When I speak about the topic of “The Business Of Dentistry” I’m often questioned as to whether putting those two words, “Business” and “Dentistry” together in one sentence, is in fact correct.
Because Dentists and the Public often see Dentistry as being a profession rather than a business.
I think that in life, nearly everything is business, of sorts, when it comes to dealing with people.
There’s the business of meeting people.
I believe that the way we groom ourselves, the way we present ourselves, the way we speak to each other, be it in a social sense or not, is business.
Your demeanour, your attire, the way you comb your hair, all relate to the business of presenting yourself.
This week, I was flattered and honoured to be the first recipient of a new category of membership of the Australian Dental Buying Group Dental Innovations.
Dental Innovations is Australia’s largest commercial network of dentists. As an organisation, Dental Innovations provides commercial support to dentists Australia-wide though a subscription based suite of services.
I joined, I have to say, so long ago that I can hardly remember the year.
But I know that I was, one of the Foundation Members.
One of the first.
Because I saw the merits of collective bargaining for a start.
I saw that immediately.
Through the bargaining power of its collective base, member dentists enjoy the benefits of significantly discounted products and consumables, both dental and non-dental, as well as access to a wide range of clinical and business services.
There’s also a sense of “community” established because of an active support created by being amongst a collective network of industry peers.
The membership of Dental Innovations is larger than any corporate Ownership of Dental Services.
As such, collectively, the members enjoy significant savings on a wide variety of dental consumables as well as Insurance products and Banking and Merchant Services.
Anyway, this week, as I said, I was honoured to be the first recipient of a new category of membership of Dental Innovations.
Dental Innovations recognised that although I was now no longer an owner of a Dental Surgery, nor a Dentist Practice Principal, they recognised that I still had a lot to contribute for other members of the group.
I was heartened by the warm acceptance of the members when this announcement was made in their private chat forum.
I know that now I’m spending less time at the coalface, I’ll be doing my best to add value to those dentists’ memberships with my contributions to their forums.
Many years ago I had the pleasure of playing a reasonable amount of golf with Dr George Gow-Gates, during his retirement.
George’s contribution to Dentistry is well documented.
His technique for Inferior Alveolar Nerve Anaesthesia is recognised and taught more widely in North America than here in his Australian homeland.
I got on well with George.
I think I’d been a Dentist for maybe just over ten years when we met.
And although I thought I knew a lot, I knew there was a lot about Dentistry and the Business of Dentistry that I did not know.
And fortunately for me, George was a wealth of knowledge, and information, and opinion.
I learned a lot about the business of Dentistry from those times we spent chasing our Titleists.
There’s a lot to be learned from talking to those retired from business.
Be they Dentists or not.
I’ve always considered myself a businessman firstly.
And I’m a student of the business of business.
I’ll continue to provide the profession with insights and observations and things I’ve learned from both outside of Dentistry, and within.
I share this knowledge freely on Facebook and LinkedIn, on my personal profile pages as well as in Groups that I am a member and Groups that I administer.
Feel free to contact me about these groups via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or email.
https://www.facebook.com/davidmoffet
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmoffet
https://twitter.com/davidmoffet
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
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