Competition is an infinitely complex area among dentists and dental specialists. It’s not like supermarket conglomerates battling each other out over price. In dentistry, your friends and colleagues are your competition. People who go to the same meetings or belong to the same societies or love what they do as much as you do.
In my case, this is Endodontics. The Harley Street Centre for Endodontics is competing with dentists who are highly competent at Endodontics and then there are endodontic specialists who run rival practices or work as visiting specialists in general practice.
Do I mind? Do I take a leaf from the book of a supermarket and put up a sign in my window advertising that my price is the same as the Endodontist down the road? The Office of Fair Trading would take a dim view of this, of course, but more importantly, this is not the way I want to promote myself.
What matters most to me is that patients get excellent treatment wherever they choose to go. It is with this in mind that I have worked with Dentsply on the development of WaveOne, which simplifies Endodontics. And the reason that I lecture as much as I do is that I love to share what I know. I’m not sending myelf a herogram here, I really enjoy teaching.
As I write, a new Facebook movement has launched dedicated to Cosmetic Orthodontics by general dentists. This is in reaction to an advertisement placed in the national press advising patients to be wary of the “quick fix” in orthodontics. I understand that some orthodontic patients can be treated very well in just a few months, while others would benefit from long-term orthodontics or even inter-disciplinary treatment by specialists.
The trouble, I think, arises with the use of the word “cosmetic” which some dental practices are using as a key marketing issue. This is not a word we hear very often in the world of Endodontics. We don’t differentiate between specialist and non-specialist, we just want excellent Endodontic treatment to be available to all our patients, regardless of who provides it.