Congratulatons

Why am I congratulating YOU? I will get to that soon.

We had a big 'fight' on the dental forum that I joined a few  years ago. It is a group that would rather chat about politics or sports and less about dentistry...As I have told you before, most dentists don't really enjoy being a dentist. In fact, about 45 years ago the American Dental Association conducted a survey and the question was, "Would you be a dentist again."  The ADA was SHOCKED when 70% of the dentists said, "NO!" Twenty years later a similar question was asked, "Would you want your children to become a dentist?" and again, a resounding, "NO!"

So what was the fight about? There are basically three kinds of practices in the United States:
1. Fee For Service: The dentist does the treatment and you pay for the work. Sometimes the dentist submits your insurance form and waits for the payment and then you are billed for whatever your insurance company does not pay for. The emphasis on those remaining Fee For Service practices is excellence. (Not every FFS practice does indeed aim for excellence but the overwhelming majority do produce fabulous clinical dentistry.)

2. Insurance Dependent Dental Practice: The dentist signs up for some or all of the insurance plans and agrees to perform treatment for a huge reduction in fees.  The emphasis is to do as much treatment as possible to make up for the huge reductions in fees. Volume and speed are important in these practices.

3. Corporate Dental Practice: The dentists works for a large company which generally decides what treatment is performed to maximize profit.

On the forum, a large group of dentist said the Fee For Service dentistry only treats wealthy patients and that Insurance Dependent practices treat more patients  with reasonable  quality..


When we are just talking about quality of care and excellence, a Fee For Service practice delivers THE BEST POSSIBLE DENTISTRY....NO EXCEPTION. Which is why the best clinical dentists in the country are Fee For Service. When you are talking about taking care of a great number of patients then an insurance dependent practice does better because quality tends to be lower and fees are lower..."The old get what you pay for."

Those dentists like myself who are Fee For Service defended our style of practice by saying that there still remains a segment of the population that knows that average dentistry is not what they want and they will pay more for excellence. The overwhelming number of my patients are average middle class people who have been my patients long enough to know that HOW I take care of you has allowed you to keep the majority of your teeth your entire life with the fewest number of teeth destroyed with crowns. What the OVERWHELMING majority of the dentists on the forum said that I only took care of rich people so that my experience as a dentist did not count. They did not believe me that you care more about keeping your teeth than the cost of losing your teeth... They said I was spoiled because you were rich...They did not believe that YOU were more intelligent than average in that you value your teeth.

So why am I Congratulating YOU!!! Because all of my patients recognize that I am trying to take care of you, the best that I can and that I will always put your best care over my financial benefit.
You all know that excellent dental care is important and yes it costs more than mediocre care. Trust me...It was a tough week fighting YOUR BATTLES. lol

Perhaps that is why Dr. Banchs, one of the best root canal doctors,  tells me all the time, "You have the best dental patients. They are the most intelligent, the most engaged and understand that quality dentistry is what they want."

Thank you for being my patient. You indeed are the Best Dental Patients!!!!!!