Dentist patients about chain practices: ‘They wanted to sell us all kinds of unnecessary treatments’
“Sign up!” pretty glamorous heads scream with their toothpaste smiles from slick websites and shop windows. Self-employed dentists are increasingly joining oral care chains. What does this mean for the patient?
Besides being larger than independent practices, chain practices are distinguished by extended opening hours and various specializations, such as dental hygienists, dental technicians and implantologists. Administration, joint purchasing and personnel policy are managed centrally. “Pocket fillers,” some dentists call investors who buy up and merge practices for profit, they say. Sometimes this is true, says dentist Nico de Jong and chairman of the Rotterdam Dental Association: “Without shaving all chains together, there are chain organizations that teach young dentists to sell a crown.”
According to data from the trade association Royal Dutch Society for the Promotion of Dentistry (KNMT), the Netherlands had about 4400 dental practices last year. According to the latest estimate by Dentiva (support organization of dental practices), the number of chain practices in 2020 was 350. Alexander Tolmeijer (Dentiva): “Chains that I can trace most easily have grown about 50 percent since then, the global number is now 525.”
Trusted dentist on the corner
“All commerce”, Joeri Lansbergen (41) calls the practice, where he and his family were being treated, “they wanted to sell us all kinds of unnecessary treatments.” That was also the experience of Eva Munnik (45): “They wanted to carry out a laundry list of treatments. While we had nothing to worry about. They wanted the best for our teeth, but they put this above the person who is attached to it.”
Lansbergen felt a number when he and ten others were treated simultaneously by his dentist, as a simultaneous chess player: “Hurry and impatient to my wife, who is somewhat anxious.”
They wanted to carry out a laundry list of treatments. While we had nothing to worry about
Eva Munnik felt impersonally approached in chain practices and often not taken seriously: “That sweet, trusted dentist who knew me through and through, retired. Chain practices in Amersfoort and, after my move, in Amsterdam insisted on installing a rubber dam to isolate a molar, while that thing made me feel anxious. Zero flexibility. In another chain practice I met an understanding dentist, but the next time a different one. There was a lot of throughput.”
Dentist Cees Wijsman and several colleagues regret the loss of the trusted dentist on the corner, under which he shares his Rotterdam practice: “He knew his patients. Personal attention is still paramount to us, we are familiar faces.”
flexible
Nevertheless, practices incorporated into a chain practice can retain their identity as a ‘dentist on the corner’, according to Jet Holshuijsen (59), who is happy with Tandartspraktijk Heemstede, who is affiliated with Fresh Tandartsen: ,,My regular dentist is enthusiastic and involved, never uses unnecessary treatments. At first I did not realize that it is such a large practice, so intimate and without fuss.”
By joining forces, practices that join us can improve the quality of care together
“Due to increased legislation and regulations and high investments in digital equipment, graduate dentists have little desire to have their own practice,” notes Koen Clement, general manager at Fresh Tandartsen. “They want to organize their time more flexibly and work in multiple places.”
Otto Cazemier, general manager at Dental Clinics also mentions the high investments and having to comply with laws and regulations as reasons: “By joining forces, practices that join us can improve the quality of care together.”
Quality and prevention
“A dying breed,” dentist Ismael el Youbari calls the familiar one-on-one. “Novice dentists no longer take over a one-man practice, because they then have to arrange everything alone and cannot focus fully on their profession,” notes the Amsterdammer, who works in chain practices of Dental Clinics in Diemen (one year) and Koog aan de Zaan (thirteen). years). “In principle, patients have a permanent dentist with us: sometimes that is complicated to arrange, many part-timers work. Patients can meet on days when their dentist is working. We can give more personal attention, because everything else is centrally arranged. We focus on quality and prevention, not on profit. We do not overtreat.”
We focus on loyalty between patient and practitioner
“After taking over a practice, we don’t use the word euro anymore,” emphasizes Clement. “We focus on loyalty between patient and practitioner. We know the returns of the acquired practices and consult with the dentists about the occupancy rate, agenda and points for improvement. Thanks to stored data about dental treatments in the past of patients, we are able to continuously improve their oral care. We don’t force anyone to work harder, we just check whether seats are occupied and agendas filled.”
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