Three Ways Your Dental Practice Can Expand to Help the Community
Posted on: 31 August 2015
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As a dentist you, know there is an increase in tooth decay, tooth loss, and severe dental issues. One of the contributing factors is the lack of dental care for certain demographics, such as people living below the poverty line and the elderly. You may want to expand your dental practice in order to help these various demographics. If you are just starting your research on ways to expand your dental practice, here are a few ways to consider.
Mobile Dentistry
One of the ways that you can expand your dental practice to help the community is to open a mobile dentistry clinic. This clinic can go to different locations and set up a dental plan during the day and take on income-based and charity based patients. Though you may not be able to do major dental work in this mobile clinic, you can still offer a basic outreach to do check-ups, x-rays, and consultations in poorer neighborhoods and other locations. You can also choose to offer a mobile dentistry clinic as a home visit option for housebound patients.
Senior Partnerships
Senior partnerships are ways that many dental practices are expanding their businesses to help the community. These partnerships allow the dental office to partner with various assisted-living communities as well as nursing homes. When the partnership is developed, your dental office will open up a small practice inside of an existing assisted-living community or nursing home.
You can send a dentist from your office or a dental assistant to the senior partnership location. They will conduct basic check-ups, cleanings, x-rays, and take notes to bring back to you regarding the patients. You can then go over the absence schedule appointments to help patients who have severe tooth decay issues or other dental issues and may need further treatment.
Low-Cost Clinics
Another way to create out reaching to your community and expand the dental practice is to offer low-cost clinics. These clinics can be offered after hours or on weekends. This will allow you to reach out to lower income families and the elderly that may be able to visit a dental office but may not have the funds. You can also use this option to partner with local dental schools and allow their students to come in and have hands-on experience in a functioning dental practice or lab.
These are just three of the ways that you can expand your dental practice to help your local community. Each one offers a benefit to the communities that are seeing an increase in tooth decay, tooth loss, and severe dental issues, and your efforts may help decrease those issues in your local community.