Build a Practice Within a Practice as a Dental Business Strategy

What Is a Practice Within a Practice?

For dental practices considering scaling and growing the bottom line, you may want to consider building a practice within your practice. But what exactly does that mean?

We like to think of it as growing patients and revenue within one area of your practice—like Invisalign®, implants, or even aesthetics. This strategy works well for owners who offer a wide range of services. It allows you to focus on growth in a key area—which can benefit your practice overall. This dental business strategy can open up opportunities to earn more revenue, bring in more patients, and provide a more comprehensive patient experience.

What Dental Services Work Best for This Dental Business Strategy?

If you’re thinking about building a practice within a practice, get creative and look at your service mix! You might be able to identify which service would work well. But to get you started, here are a few ideas of potential services for this dental business strategy.

• Dentures and implants: These fit in smoothly with general dentistry. And patients who are candidates for dentures are also often candidates for implants. This opens the door to implant-supported dentures for patients with no teeth at all. Plus, it can boost the patient’s value within your practice.
• Sleep apnea and TMD treatment: Many people in the U.S. have a sleep breathing or airway issue that leads to sleep apnea. And temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMD, is another common ailment. This type of practice within a practice could use one diagnostic system to identify and treat both sleep apnea and TMD.
• Orthodontics: Invisalign and other clear aligners are in high demand. And if your practice can add an orthodontics department and have a dedicated associate, you’ll reap the benefits.
• Facial aesthetics: With dentists in many states now being able to offer laser and injectable services, this service is emerging as a good option for dental practices. You can delegate the procedure to an associate to start. As patient volume increases, consider hiring an injector or aesthetician to increase professionalism and expertise.

What Makes a Dental Service a Good Practice Within a Practice?

It might help to check whether a service would actually profit as a practice within a practice. Here a few qualities of successful services:

• High profit margins
• Your existing patient base would benefit from the service
• You could acquire new patients explicitly for the service
• You could hand off the service to another provider
• Not often commoditized by the general public
• Can be advertised separately from the dental office brand
• You can see an increase in value month to month with the service
• You could eventually raise the sale price

If you plan to sell your dental practice or DSO someday, consider that profits are valued much higher in the medical aesthetics world. So adding an aesthetic practice within your practice could help build maximum value.

Steps for Building a Practice Within a Practice

Here are a few steps to help your practice with this dental business strategy:

1. Acquire customers: Think back to when you started your practice. You likely marketed, made connections in the community, and tried different methods that brought patients through your doors. When launching a practice within a practice, you can leverage your existing patient flow. But also consider how you might use your new service focus to draw new patients in, as well.
2. Create a unique brand: The new practice within a practice might live in your current facility. But it helps to create a unique brand, marketing plan, budget, and customer experience.
3. Train staff: You can teach your providers to keep an eye out for patients who are good candidates for the practice within a practice. This might include screening, educating, and referring patients. Plus, learn these case acceptance strategies.

Find Guidance for Your Dental Business Strategy With Skytale

A dental consulting group like Skytale can be the key to accelerating your growth. Scaling—and eventually even selling—a DSO is hard work, but our team of professionals can help you get there. Get in touch with us to start the conversation!