Dental Blogs Archives - The Wealthy Dentist

Dental Marketing: Free Beer and Wine! What next – Topless Hygiene?

September 19, 2021 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Is serving free beer and wine the next big trend in dental marketing?

ABCNews reports that dentist Clint Herzog of Dallas, Texas, likes to serve beer and wine to dental patients in the waiting room at his “Floss Now” dentistry.

For years hair salons have been offering coffee, tea or wine as part of the whole ‘spa’ experience. Is this part of the fad towards ‘spa dentistry‘ – but with a Texas spin?

“I really got tired of people not liking to go to the dentist saying, ‘Hey I don’t like to go to the dentist no offense! ‘ Well it’s kind of an offense because it’s what we do all day,” explains Herzog.

So he created Floss Dental and began sending out a mailer offering “free spirits with a cleaning” to encourage nervous dental patients into calling and making an appointment with his dentist office.

Some dentists have an espresso machine in the reception area. But do you really want someone jacked up on caffeine in your dental chair? How does he like working on patients with beer breath?

Is there a two drink limit? Or a minimum treatment fee? Is this a new kind of sedation dentistry? How does this mix with nitrous oxide (laughing gas)? Or even triazolam?

Dr. Herzog shares more of this dental marketing story in the following video –

What do you think about this type of dental marketing?

Would you serve alcohol to some of your best dental patients?

For more on this story see: Texas Dentist Serves Cocktails With Cleanings

Filed Under: Dental Marketing, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Blogs, Dental Editorials, Dental Marketing, dental practice marketing

Dental Marketing: 7 Ways To Turn Your Dental Office Into a Hot Marketing Machine

September 19, 2021 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Dental marketing is more than just a geo-targeted, search engine optimized dental website and an effective email newsletter marketing plan. It also involves branding and an effective dental office display, which should begin before patients step inside your waiting room.

Great dental office signage offers you the ability to speak to those potential patients when your practice is closed.

The Wealthy Dentist went on a search for a dental practice that exemplifies great dental office display — one that effectively markets new patients on its own.

We found a perfect example in San Francisco at Marina Pacific Heights Dental Care.

This dental practice maximizes every opportunity to reinforce their brand so patients have no doubt what this dentist offers.

They also get their dental marketing right from the start with their geo-targeted dental practice name: Marina Pacific Heights Dental Care. There are over one hundred neighborhoods in San Francisco, with the Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods being two of the most well-known.

Are you curious how this dental office signage is considered a hot marketing machine that (very) effectively attracts new patients?

7 Ways To Turn Your Dental Office Into a Hot Marketing Machine –

1. Effective outdoor marketing starts with the appearance of the office front.
The front of your dental practice is the first impression a client may have of your business. It is important to portray an appearance of professionalism with fresh paint, clean windows and an entrance that is inviting to a new patient.

In this case, Marina Pacific Heights Dental Care chose marine blue as the color to their building front to most likely match the Marina branding, plus the color blue is often associated with depth and stability. The large, bright windows give the practice a welcoming feeling, thus inviting dental patients to walk up and take a peek inside.

2. Dental signage that is easy to read from a distance.
When deciding on a dental office sign, it’s important to consider optimal letter size, fonts that are easy to see along with plenty of negative space for readability at various distances. These considerations help make sure that passers-by can read your message.

Notice how big, how bright and how tastefully done the Marina Pacific Heights Dental Care sign is. It provides high visibility on what appears to be a heavily trafficked street in San Francisco.

3. The use of the office phone number in branding.
A domain name made up of the business phone number sends the message, “Please call us. We answer the phone!”

Not only is Marina Pacific Heights Dental Care phone number easy to read for drive-by traffic, but it also is cleverly used as a web address. If you visit www.415-922-3220.com, it automatically redirects you to their actual site: www.drbrattesani.com. Dr. Brattesani takes advantage of not only his name in his marketing efforts, but also his office phone number.

4. Effective window advertising displays.
As a dentist you need to make it very clear what your dental practice offers. Dental treatment advertising can enhance your appeal while prospecting for patients.

In Dr. Brattesani’s case, he utilizes his windows to tell patients what dental treatments his practice offers, along with images of happy, smiling patients. It also demonstrates that while he does “Cosmetic Dentistry” he does not limit his practice.

5. Prominent front door signage.
The front door of your dental practice should clearly display crucial information for dental patients, delivery people and street traffic. It should display important information such as your practice doctors, operating hours, contact details and dental treatments.

Marina Pacific Dental does this effectively on their door which is clearly visible to people as they walk down the street. Take special note of the “Big Smiling Lips” and the inclusion of the Hygienist’s name on the door – classy touch.

6. The use of key visuals with pop-art sculpture.
Humans remember key visual images better than they remember words. Effective dental visuals can capture attention instantly, and communicate what your business does quickly.

This dental practice captures immediate attention with their toothbrush and mouth mirror sculptures. There is no question to passers-by that a dental practice occupies this location. These pop-art sculptures could be especially effective in San Francisco where people might be tempted to stop and have their photos taken next to one of these eye-catching icons, then post it on Facebook, or other social networking sites for their friends to see.

Plus the scupture send the message that this dentist office is fun.

7. Utilizing the entrance space as an advertising platform.
Adding something special to your entrance way with a custom welcome mat, engraved tiles or painted pavement can do wonders for inviting your patients into your practice before they open your front door. An attractive entrance adds to the ambiance of your building, both by the way it looks and by the impression it gives to street traffic and patients.

Dr. Brattesani does this effectively by literally painting the street the same marine blue color and creating a “Welcome to a new smile” floor mat at the entry to their practice.

All in all, The Wealthy Dentist gives Marina Pacific Heights Dental Care high marks for turning their dentist office front into a hot marketing machine.

It is important to leave a lasting impression in the minds of your patients. The more your people who know your name, where you are located and what treatments you have to offer, the better patient-ambassadors they can be.

It all starts right at your front door.

For more help on great dental signs see our $1,000,000 Sign Tutorial

*photos courtesy of Matt Huber

Filed Under: Dental Marketing, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Blogs, Dental Editorials, Dental Marketing, Dental Patient Marketing, dental practice marketing, dentistry marketing

Taxpayers Footing the Bill for Braces in Texas

September 19, 2021 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

The business of charging taxpayers for putting braces on kids’ teeth has exploded in Texas over the last three years according to a story by WFAA-TV in Dallas.

In 2010, Texas spent $184 million on Medicaid orthodontics — more than the rest of the United States combined.

I want you to understand, right up front, that I’m tremendous proponent of just about any program that put dollars in dentist’s pocket for providing quality dental care. Time to be honest, this level of government pork could only have been arranged in a smoked filled back room in the dead of night.

While Texas struggles with its Medicaid budget, 34 dental organizations collected more than $1 million in Medicaid orthodontics last year.

Orthodontic treatment for children is generally an elective cosmetic procedure that many parents spend thousands of dollars on for their children. Very few dental insurance carriers cover orthodontics or elective procedures such as teeth whitening.

But in Texas, Medicaid pays dentists for orthodontics per procedure, instead of a lump sum for the “finished mouth” of straight teeth, according to WFAA-TV. This has made Medicaid orthodontia a lucrative dental business in Texas.

So much so that just three years ago, dentist Richard Malouf’s All Smiles Dental Centers of Texas collected $5.4 million from Medicaid orthodontics. Since that time, All Smiles’ Medicaid orthodontics billings nearly doubled to $10.2 million. This caught the interest of Chicago-based hedge fund Equity Partners who recently acquired All Smiles Dental for an undisclosed sum.

Now Texas dental clinics are being bought up by hedge funds, making Wall Street the ultimate destination for millions of taxpayer dollars as reported by WFAA.

The following is a video of WFAA’s investigative report –

Nowhere is the lucrative business of Medicaid braces more evident than with dentist Richard Malouf’s mansion in Dallas. It is a massive French chateau with a pool house, big enough for the average American family of four to live in. The Maloufs also own the mansion next door. According to tax records the combined value of the two properties is more than $14 million.

It is known as the house that braces built.

Dr. Malouf isn’t alone in offering Medicaid braces; there are five other dentists’ offices that provide Medicaid orthodontia on the same half-mile street in Dallas. Many of them advertise free braces under Medicaid. Jefferson Dental is one such dental operation and, according to WFAA, it is owned by hedge fund Black Canyon Capital of California.

During a struggling economy, many question whether this is the best use of taxpayer dollars. A Medicaid dollar that is spent on braces is a Medicaid dollar not being spent on fighting cavities and procedures most dentists feel are necessary.

It will be interesting to see how this story unfolds. I really want to see the which legislators initiated and signed off on this this piece of legislation and who the lobbyist where who pushed it through.

I not sure other state dental boards should hire them or hang them?

For more on this story see: Tax Money for Unneeded Braces Goes to Hedge Funds

Filed Under: Braces, Dental Editorials, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: Dental Blogs, Dental Editorials, dental legislation, Dental News, dental practice management, dentist, dentists

Dental Practice Management: North Carolina Senate Bill Wants Dentists To Do It Themselves

September 19, 2021 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

Last week in our post, ‘Dentists Beware: The Government May Want To Tell You How To Manage Your Practice‘, we reported on the story of the North Carolina Senate and Senate Bill 655, which would require the North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners to examine all business contracts entered into by dental practices in their state.

Dr. Clifton Cameron, a dentist in North Carolina reported to the Fay Observer that, “Senate Bill 655 would give the Dental Board complete control of how dentists in North Carolina run their practices so they can keep fees charged to patients artificially high and insurance acceptance artificially low.”

We wrote that we couldn’t find the reasoning behind such a move by the NC Senate and Board of Dental Examiners, but the Board did post the following to their website:

“The Board has become increasingly concerned about the expanding scope and nature of management company services and agreements, and their impact on the control of dental practices by the licensed dentists.

The bundled services offered by management companies typically involve some combination of (1) administrative management services; and (2) financial management services.

Based on its knowledge of the operations of dental practices, and after reviewing management arrangements with dental practices for almost ten (10) years, the Board has identified features of management arrangements which it has determined to be highly likely to create a situation where the ownership, management, supervision or control of a dental practice is impermissibly conveyed to an unlicensed person or organization because either separately or when bundled, those features interfere with the licensed dentists’ professional decision-making and their exercise of clinical skill, judgment and supervision in the dental practice.”

After we ran our original story, several doctors commented. A New Jersey dentist wrote:

“In New Jersey, the state board already forbids outside management. My partner and I spend about 20-30 per week running my business instead of on continuing education or, patient care.

The real argument isn’t whether or not I could be one of the practices recruited by management companies, but the unfair advantage it would bring to my practice over anothers’. Lower overhead, decreased fees, increased insurance acceptance, large marketing budgets would destroy competition and lower practice values and access to care.

Management companies specify laboratory selection, supply selection, employee selection, and continuing education budgets. While they bring lower overhead, they take money from the practice as well. If you fail to be attractive, your practice cannot contract with them.

Giving this advantage to a small percentage of dentists is unfair to the majority of dentists that do not wish to join or would not be accepted. I have 10 dentists within a 0.5 mile radius. We can’t all be Aspen Dental Centers. The other 9 practices would suffer, and that wouldn’t be fair.

This is about the only aspect of dental life in New Jersey that makes practicing here worthwhile. Defeat it. Resist, North Carolina!”

Another dentist responded with:

“Have they gone mad over there? Sounds like there’s something they are not telling us about…It sounds like the insurance companies are in bed with the politicians again….”

Indeed, it could be a game changer that would impact North Carolina dentists and how they manage their dental practices. The North Carolina Office of Research, Demonstrations and Rural Health Development reports that there is already a severe shortage of primary health care providers in North Carolina, particularly in the State’s rural areas.

But perhaps this isn’t about patient care at all — or making dental practices transparent. Perhaps this is about lawmakers just playing politics.

Filed Under: Dental Editorials, Practice Management Tagged With: Dental Blogs, Dental Editorials, dental legislation, Dental Marketing, dental practice management, dental practice marketing, dentistry

Do You Have The Best Dental Sign? See Who Thinks Theirs is Better!

September 19, 2021 By Jim Du Molin Leave a Comment

In this article, we are featuring a few of the top contenders in our contest for the best dental practice office sign, display window or office front.

Do you think you have the best dental sign?

Does your dental office front kick butt?

Well, what are you waiting for?

Take a picture and enter The Wealthy Dentist Dental Practice Office Sign, Display Window or Front Picture Contest!

Hurry! We are still accepting submissions through June 30th.

Here are the most notable entries to date:

1. Jayhawk Dental

Window –

Signage –

2. Biderman Dentistry

Signage –

3. Boger Dental

Window dressing and signage –

4. Marina – Pacific Dental

Window dressing, signage and front office –

So come on!

Enter your dental office sign or office front for a chance to win a Cisco Flip. Just submit a photo of your dental sign or office front by emailing chughes(at)drs1.com before midnight on June 30th.

Dental Signage tutorial Designing The $1,000,000 Dental Sign –