Community Contribution
There was a time in this country where dentists were respected members of the community. They were trusted. I feel like that trust is quickly eroding away. There are a few things that contribute to this, in my opinion. Dentistry is quickly moving to a more corporate setting as opposed to a private practice, solo doctor platform, especially in urban areas. Patients have become increasingly leery of corporate dental offices, at least that has been my anecdotal experience. One chain in particular is very good at treatment planning periodontal disease. It seems like everyone that even walks past that office gets diagnosed with periodontal disease that not only requires 4 quads of scaling and root planing but they would also need “medication” placed under the gum of each tooth to induce proper healing. This would have to happen before they would address any other concerns that the patient might have, including having all their amalgams replaced with crowns and the like. The grand total seems to be a magic number of around $8000, at least that is the number every patient tells me when they come to see me for a second opinion.
To be fair to the corporate gigs, there are plenty of solo practitioners who operate the exact same way. There’s an office in town that I practice in where if you were a new patient you were getting scaling and root planing, and the doctor was going to push that probe until it registered 5mm come hell or high water. I know this because one of her hygienist came to work for me after dealing with the doctor’s nonsense for 2 years. Whether it’s greed or the need to produce to cover the debt load, the reason isn’t really important. These behaviors totally undermine the profession and make patients extremely skeptical of anything any other dentist tells them in the future. It’s like that patient who tells you that they’re tough to numb because one idiot dentist in the past told them that they had nerves that were crossed. I’d love to go back in time and punch that guy in the nose. That patient will mentally not get numb for the rest of their life. When dentists take advantage of patients it leaves a lasting impression on them and they don’t hesitate to tell everyone they know.
I had a friend once who had moved around pretty regularly with her husband’s job. In one of their many stops throughout the country she had established care with a dentist in town. According to this guy she had 10 cavities that needed to be filled. She found this odd since she had only had a couple of cavities in her entire life, but now she had reached double digits seemingly overnight. She wisely chose not to have the treatment done and visited her hometown dentist when she was visiting family. He assured her that she didn’t have any cavities and to not visit that guy again. She came to my office years after this exchange and I saw her for 3 years until she moved away. Never did she have a cavity.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, this behavior is very common in areas where dentistry is scare. Not the access to dental care being scare, but where there is so much competition that you “have to” find something to do on patients because there isn’t enough work coming in the door to keep the lights on. Whether you want to believe this or not, it’s completely true. I’ve seen it a million times, everywhere I’ve practiced. That being said, I’ve also see this behavior in rural settings which speaks more to greed and dishonesty being the catalysts than lack of work.
So how do we combat this distrust we are experiencing? We become members of the community. What do I mean when I say that? We get visibly involved in our community, and there is no better place to do that than in a rural community. This is going to sound stupid, but one of my biggest concerns of practicing in a rural community was that I would run into patients all over town. I have a pretty good memory and I remember patients and recognize them constantly, but I always feel like they aren’t going to remember me. I dread that awkward encounter of running into someone at the grocery store and saying, “Hey Donna, how are you?” Only to have them stare back at me with a blank look on their face and I have to explain to them that I am their dentist. I’ve gone so far as to see someone at Walmart and I’ve hidden behind a clothes rack so that they wound’t see me and I immediately high-tailed it to the parking lot and left my wife alone in the store to finish shopping. In my defense, it was a former employee who didn’t leave on good terms, but still.
So what does it look like to get involved in the community. I would start with the schools. Sponsor sports teams. My kids are involved in football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, swim, and tennis. I have sponsored the swim team by purchasing everyone’s goggles for the year. I’ve donated to the football team and had a banner hanging up around the field. In the community we live in Friday night football games are attended by a large portion of the population. They hear my practice’s name announced as a sponsor throughout the game and throughout the season. They see me there. I go to every home game and people see me there. It’s not to say that I’m a big deal or anything like that, but they know I’m there. Again, the benefit for me is that I’m the ONLY dentist who is sponsoring the teams at our high school. There aren’t 12 other dentists jockeying for position as to who can pay more to get mentioned more often or who is going to get a full page ad in the program. It’s just me. When you get lumped in with 10 other businesses that are just like yours it becomes white noise. People aren’t paying attention when they hear the 8th dentist sponsor being named over the PA system. This sounds so stupid, but it absolutely happens in urban communities throughout the country. I know because I’ve seen it. It’s the same thing you see in your mailbox. We used to get the Valpack ads in our mailbox once a week. If you’re unfamiliar with this company, they mail you an envelope that has 1/4 page ads from local retailers offering discounts and promotions. Each mailing would have 25-40 ads in each envelop. Every week when it came I would filter through the ads and pick out all the dental ads. They were always at least 5, and usually more, and they were all the same. Each one would have a picture of the dentist with his family on one side and on the other side would be the offers. A New Patient special, a Second Opinion special, and usually and Invisalign or Implant special. They were all the same! It made me laugh every time! Again, you can’t stand out as a member of the community when you’re the same as 15 other guys and gals in your same zip code!
Rural communities give you opportunities to serve on boards that you care about, if you want. You can get involved in local government if that’s your thing. My town, in the early 2000’s, had a local practicing dentist as their mayor. Local government isn’t my thing, but it might be yours. You can sponsor local festivals and events. Our town has multiple summer festivals every year that always need sponsors. We have a local theater/concert venue in town that is always looking for sponsors as well. I’m not saying these opportunities don’t exist in your city. They definitely do, but when I’m sponsoring anything I might be one of two dentists sponsors, and more times than not, I’m the only one. Any team/venue/event/cause will gladly take your money, but is it money well spent if you’re lumped in with 7 other dentists on their program/t-shirt? Not likely. Also, I guarantee that I’m paying considerably less for my exposure that anyone else in a big city.
Regardless of whether you want to be a known figure in your community or whether you want to be a faceless practitioner, the opportunities for community involvement that exist in rural communities greatly outpace the exposure and relevancy that you get in the big city for a fraction of the cost.