I have told you before that statistics exist which says that the average dental patient will not travel more than 5-7 miles to see a dentist (with the obvious exception that in some rural areas, people travel 80 miles for anything.)
Just this week, I had a patient from Manhattan, a patient from Princeton, NJ and 3 patients from Boston, MA. And another patient from Buffalo, NY called to say that she finally wanted to move ahead with her cosmetic treatment 7 years after I consulted with her.
What is going on here?
Perhaps it is the concept of EXCEPTIONALISM.
Exceptionalism is the perception that a country, society, institution, movement, or time period is "exceptional" (i.e., unusual or extraordinary) in some way and thus does not need to conform to normal rules or general principles.
Perhaps our patients see something in our office that is unusual enough or different enough to make it worth their while to have their dental treatment in our office.
What could make our office different?
1. My office has been together as a team for well over 100 years
2. Our minimum office appointment is 1 hour and our larger cases are scheduled for the entire day.
3. I have over 5200 hours of post dental school training with much of the education with some of the best in the world.
4. We photograph every tooth that we restore so that there is a record of what I have done and we SHOW the photographs to our patient so that they KNOW why we are fixing their tooth/teeth.
5. All of our direct posterior resins are placed using a rubber dam...the absolute, standard of excellence in dentistry.
6. We post our work on well known, international dental forums for critiquing by some of the best in the world.
7. We limit our practice to fixing teeth and restoring implants...from very simple to very complex. My license allows me to perform every area of dentistry but I have chosen to limit my practice to one area which allows me to become very proficient in what I do.
8. I hold a Certificate of Proficiency in Esthetic Dentistry from SUNY/Buffalo and I am a Clinical Associate Professor at the SYNY/Buffalo School of Dentistry (visiting). No other Capital District dentist has either or both of those credentials.
How else would someone explain patients traveling 6 to 8 hours round trip for their dental care? Or being willing to travel 60 miles round trip for a cleaning?
Needless to say, I am so honored to be your dentist.
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