Reproduced from:  CDA Update, March 2006

Research Defines Dental Lifecycle

By: CDA Update Staff

“The research will help CDA tailor programs and services that are even more targeted and beneficial to our members’ needs.”

-- Jon Roth, vice president, CDA Member Programs.

What do dentists need to boost their professional careers? New research commissioned by CDA indicates that needs evolve over the course of dentists’ careers, and what is needed depends upon where dentists are in their professional lives.

The analysis delves into the dentist’s lifecycle from student to new dentist to established dentist to retiring dentist and looks at what is required along the way. In the most extensive research ever conducted concerning California dentists, more than 1,300 dentists, both CDA members and nonmembers, responded to a survey and offered input on their top professional concerns and what they expect from organized dentistry. Conducted by Edge Research, the survey included 17 focus groups in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego, which provided first-person comments from a wide range of dentists. Highlights from the survey include:

* Emphasis on the major transition from dental school into practice, and the increasing need for business practice information such as insurance, staff management, billing systems and patient communication.

* Focus on the balancing act dentists perform in the role of health care provider and businessperson.   

* Clarification of the top concerns among practicing dentists in running an office, including keeping a practice profitable, third-party issues, staffing, and maintaining and growing a patient base.

* Definition of a point in a dentist’s career cycle — typically about age 45 — when a practice runs more efficiently and a dentist has the opportunity to give back to the profession and community.

* Identification of generational differences in viewing organized dentistry. Dentists in practice more than 25 years view membership in organized dentistry as a professional responsibility whereas younger dentists are more interested in specific benefits and services.

For dentists, the research means programs, services and benefits refined to meet their specific needs.

“CDA currently offers a broad range of services for dentists — everything from loan consolation programs for new graduates to health savings accounts for practicing dentists — but the Edge research will help us tailor programs and services that are even more targeted and beneficial to our members’ needs,” said Jon Roth, vice president of CDA Member Programs.

The research allows CDA to communicate member benefits in a different way by viewing needs based on where members are in their practices.

“We will be analyzing each stage of professional life and looking at everything that is needed in that particular phase of practice,” said Katie Fornelli, CDA membership manager. “In looking at the services CDA offers in this way, we will be able to discover new ways of delivering what members need in their everyday practices.”

Based upon the research findings, CDA is encouraged by the fact that many of the programs and services currently offered to members meet their needs and have received high satisfaction rates.

“CDA will continue to enhance these programs in order to meet the changing needs of dentists in California, and utilize the research to assess additional benefits that can be offered,” said Conor McNulty, recruitment and retention administrator for CDA. “For instance, the research strongly indicated that dentists are highly concerned about managing third-party-payer issues in their practices. CDA offers one-on-one expert advice and numerous seminars throughout the year on this topic. To further boost this member service, CDA recently added to the Resource Center additional staff who specialize in third-party-payer management.”

In recent conversations about the various stages of their careers, dentists articulated distinctly different concerns. A dental student expressed the need for time and patient management tools, a new dentist emphasized the importance of job placement assistance, and a seasoned dentist spoke of the priority of communicating effectively with patients and staff.

“Student life is filled with challenges, but the most notable is balance and time,” said Sean Rockwell, third-year dental student at Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. “As a married student, it is important to balance school time and personal time.”

Rockwell said that taking care of paperwork and managing a patient pool at the university clinics is also a challenge.

He said the experience has given him a new-found respect for a well-run dental team. Rockwell said he expects there will always be a new set of challenges as his career moves forward, and he views the situation as positive.

A new dentist cited an increased set of demands as she explores career options.

“My biggest challenge since graduating from dental school, besides passing the board exams, has been deciding what to do and figuring out how to do it,” said Namrata Patel, DDS, who graduated from USC last year.

“In thinking about trying to open my own practice, I have been working on writing a business plan, visiting potential sites, studying demographic reports, figuring out zoning laws and investigating property insurance. It’s totally exciting, but it is also frustrating, especially deciding upon a site where I will be most successful.”

Patel said she is trying to take full advantage of her new dentist status to grow professionally and, in addition to exploring the option of opening her own practice, is working at a San Rafael County Clinic one day a week, participating in an FDA clinical trial, volunteering at University of the Pacific, and working through temporary agencies as a hygienist. She is also a member of CDA’s Committee on the New Dentist and a new-dentist liaison to the Scientific Sessions Board of Managers.

She acknowledges the importance of working as an associate, but also articulates the desire to build a practice that reflects her own personality.

“I want to build a practice based on the idea of a futuristic dental spa,” she said. “I would like to incorporate sustainable architecture and create an atmosphere that is not intensely clinical — one that includes elements such as a waterfall and soothing sounds.”

Patel added that she is interested in working with the Committee on the New Dentist to organize information for dentists starting their own practices and enhance the way CDA communicates its benefits to new dentists.

Even a seasoned dentist reports challenges, albeit a different set of challenges.

Working with all kinds of people every day is challenging,” said Robert Daby, DDS, a Sacramento dentist who has been in practice for more than 23 years. “Sometimes it’s difficult to communicate with patients, as they are often preoccupied or anxious.”

Daby also said that finding and training professional staff is a challenge, a situation he thinks is faced by many dentists.

He noted that how a business runs is based on a number of things, including the circumstances of new patients and how the staff is operating as team. However, he said that many of the challenges of setting up a practice are behind him.

“There are at least 150 systems a dental office must put into place to get a practice running,” he said. “In the beginning, I didn’t have these systems in place. I knew what to do in the operatory, but I didn’t know about bookkeeping, labs or billing systems.”

However, no matter where dentists are in their careers, there is a common theme, and that is the support of friends, family and colleagues.

For Daby, a former CDA trustee and current chair of CDA’s Leadership Development Committee, alliances forged at CDA have been invaluable.

“One of the greatest things that ever happened to me developed out of my work on the CDA Council on Peer Review. The council deals with problems dentists face in dealing with patients. As a result of being on the committee, several of us decided to form a study group to talk about the challenges faced by dentists. That was 20 years ago, and the Northern California Study Club still meets at least once a month.”

Daby said the support of this professional network has been extraordinary.

“When I had surgery a few years ago, I was off work for a month, but my practice didn’t miss a day. My colleagues from the study club worked for me.”

For Daby, CDA offered a forum for forming lifelong alliances.

Likewise, CDA strives to be an ally for life. By further understanding dentists’ concerns at various stages of practice, the entire organization is able to refine programs and services for a lifetime.

CDA UPDATE
© 2006 California Dental Association