Hey there, dental professionals and industry enthusiasts.
Picture this. It's October, and you're in the
middle of one of the most transformative
experiences of your career. You're at the Becker's
Fall Future of Dentistry Roundtable in the vibrant
city of Chicago, fresh off an incredible 3
days at the Hyatt Regency. Imagine yourself inspired
and invigorated after attending captivating keynote sessions by
none other than the legendary boxing world champion
and CEO, Lila Elite, and the extraordinary professional
player, Caitlin Clark. See yourself engaged in lively
discussions, exchanging ideas, and collecting a stack of
business cards from fellow dental experts and potential
partners. You've networked with over 350
attendees and learned from more than 80 speakers
who are at the forefront of dental innovation.
You sat in on educational
sessions exploring topics that elevate dental care as
a critical element of whole person health. You've
witnessed firsthand how digital technology is revolutionizing
patient outcomes
and how both large DSOs and independent practices
are flourishing.
Get ready to transform your career and don't
miss out on this incredible opportunity. The Becker's
fall future of dentistry roundtable is from October
30th to November 1, 2024.
Get registered by going to beckersdental.com
and clicking on the events page. Hello. This
is Cameron Cortejano with the Becker's Dental and
DSO review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
Andrew Goldsmith,
owner at North Shore Dental. Doctor Goldsmith,
thank you so much for being here today.
Ma'am, my pleasure. Thank you.
To kick us off, can you introduce yourself,
and tell us a little bit about your
background?
Yeah. I've been in dentistry for 26 years.
I am a founder of a group called
SmileSource, which is the largest network of independent
dentists with over 750
locations.
I'm a private practice dentist in Houston, Texas,
and I'm also host of the How Dent
Podcast where we answer people's burning questions about
how things are made in dentistry.
And that's me in a nutshell.
Awesome.
Thanks for that. Kind of the first question
as we get into it here, what are
some of the biggest issues,
in dentistry that you're following this year?
Yeah. The biggest issues I'm following in dental
currently are,
I would say, first, trends with dental service
organizations.
I believe there's going to be
an even larger push with consolidation in the
dental industry.
I see that it's really picking up momentum,
and the industry continues to remain highly fragmented.
Secondly,
trends with insurance companies and compensation as a
whole. I believe that insurance companies are looking
for ways to cope with inflation,
and as a result, are scrutinizing
treatment and treatment plans in a much more
sophisticated
way through tools like AI and data analysis.
Being aware of this gives everyone
the accountability
to continue to focus on patients in an
altruistic way.
And as a business owner, I follow the
economy and look for macro trends
and opportunities.
And finally, I'm also looking for opportunities in
marketing and advertising
to position
my office and our offices for growth.
Cool. Yeah. Those are definitely
trends that I'm hearing and seeing about industry
wide, and they're all kinda interconnected, you know,
especially with the economy and the the DSO
consolidation and talked a little bit,
about inflation.
In in the DSO consolidation space, it's been,
at least from my point of view, a
little bit slower
this year.
Do you see that kind of turning around,
going forward and
into the last couple months of 24 and
and into 25 at all?
I do see it turning around. I think
where we're seeing the trends shift
is away from the mid to large size,
mergers and acquisitions to more smaller mergers and
acquisitions. And so I think you're seeing
companies,
instead of, you know, instead of the money
flowing towards larger groups like 50,000,000 EBITDA and
up, I think you're seeing a trend of
there's more money being pushed towards companies that
are maybe 10,000,000 EBITDA and less or right
around that range. So I think that there's
there's more roll ups occurring in the smaller
groups now.
Got it. And what do you think is
kinda,
causing that shift from the bigger to the
smaller?
I think because a lot of the lot
of the large groups
have sort of
not necessarily maxed out their size, but they
are they're starting to compete with each other,
and they're starting to have their own growth
pains.
The smaller groups still present a larger opportunity
because it's all growth.
So I think that's where we're starting to
see or why we're starting to see some
of the money shift towards
smaller groups.
Got it. That makes a ton of sense.
Something that I'm curious about to hear from
you are,
some things that you're most excited about when
it comes to the state of dentistry right
now, and what are potentially some things that
are making you a little bit nervous?
Yeah. I would say that the things I'm
probably most nervous about is
whether or not we're gonna have a more
pronounced
recession than what we've already experienced. So that's
something that I've kept my eye on, and
I think it's something that people just need
to be
prepared for, you know, to make sure that
we're not
robbing the cash resources out of practices and
businesses
and make sure that we are prepared for
some sort of downshift.
I would say what I'm most excited about
is that we are experiencing another technology jump
in health care in general,
in large part due to the introduction of
AI into different aspects of practices,
but also in all the advances
that accompany that technology.
So we're starting to see
that take more effect and have a more
pronounced impact on the business side of practices
as well.
Yeah. Absolutely.
AI and other other tech, like 3 d
printing and and those kind of things have
definitely exploded
this year. And I feel like at least
it might not be this now, but in
the future,
AI is kinda gonna
be necessary for all dental practices
to Yeah. To incorporate.
Yeah. I agree with that.
Oh, you kinda touched on the potential recession.
If, you know, something like that happens, what
would kinda be the impact
on on dental practices and dentists, do you
think?
I think there's gonna have to be
I think leaders are gonna have to be
hyper focused on really three things,
rebuilding from losses realized
by whether it was a pandemic
or by a recession,
and that's really through focusing on core business
principles like overhead, profitability, and productivity. And then
I think it's gonna be a
profitability, and productivity. And then I think it's
gonna be essential for practices to focus on
building brand loyalty. You know,
patients are shopping now more than ever, so
health care companies need to distinguish their brands
and build followings. And then I would also
say, you know,
the
distinguish their brands and build followings. And then
I would also say that
health care companies in general need to get
better at promoting their value propositions
through
robust sales and marketing programs to make sure
that
people
are nobody likes to be sold anything. Right?
But people like to buy. And so
positioning your dental practice or your health care
practice in such a way that people want
to buy what it is that you're offering,
I think, is essential, especially if we have
some sort of downturn.
Absolutely. That makes a ton of sense.
You just touched on it a little bit,
but,
within the next 2 to 3 years, what
do you think that the most
effective health care leaders
throughout the the industry and sector
will need and and need to know in
order to to,
be successful?
I think one of the key essential ingredients
is gonna be differentiation.
Dental practices, health care practices in general will
need to differentiate themselves
from larger
groups,
and that differentiation
will lend itself towards brand loyalty.
If
a consumer
sees a dental practice
as
just another
consumable product, then people buy consumable products based
on price. You know, if you're buying gasoline,
you buy it based on price. If you
buy milk, you buy it based on price.
If they see a dental office only as
another consumable product,
then we're only competing against price.
But through differentiation,
they can position themselves so that they are
a more desirable product
or service that patients will essentially want.
Yeah. I think that's a great
analogy and a great point about,
you know,
dental care is not just
about
the the price of the cost. It it's
important to your overall health, and, you don't
want cost to be the only factor in
kind of your decision making.
Right. Yeah. Exactly.
Well, thank you so much for joining us
today, doctor Goldsmith, and thank you for sharing
your valuable expertise
and insights
into the dental industry and and space.
It's been a pleasure speaking with you today,
and I look forward to connecting again in
the future.
Likewise. Thank you so much.