Hello. This is Arianna Portallatin with the Becker's
Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled to
be joined today by Sam Patel, the CEO
of Imagine Orthodontic Studio. Sam, thank you so
much for being here today. It's great to
have you.
To start us off, can you introduce yourself
to our listeners and tell us a little
bit about your background?
Absolutely.
First off, thank you for having me on
the podcast. I appreciate it. Excited to be
here.
My name is Sam Patel. I serve as,
the CEO of Imagine Orthodontic
Studio.
We are an orthodontic
DSO practice here in the kinda greater Central
Florida area.
We have five offices spanning from Saint Petersburg
and Clearwater
through Tampa, Lakeland, and Orlando.
And we pride ourselves on being a kinda
non traditional orthodontic practice
in that, you know, we provide care to
what we believe is underserved communities in that
middle market. We accept Medicaid.
We work really hard to find,
budget friendly financial plans for our patients.
And we do some cool things like colored
brackets and other, fun stuff for for our
patients. So,
we're we're fairly young. We only established in
in late twenty twenty, but but I've already
grown successfully and and continue to grow.
A little bit about myself.
I've been with the company. I'm one of
the founder owners along with two clinical founders.
And, we started this
this practice, like I said, in 2020. Before
that, I come from a a background in
health care consulting
working for Ernst and Young for about eight
years doing,
operational
and strategic consulting for for medical and academic
medical centers, in my past life.
Hey. Well, thank you so much for that.
It's great to hear about your background and
the success of your organization launching in 2020.
And I'm sure we'll we'll hear a little
bit more about what you're doing at your
organization soon too.
Mhmm. First question here, what are some of
the biggest issues that you're following in the
dental industry this year?
Well, the good news is, you know, the
dental industry has continued to grow and expand,
which is is great for us and great
for our patients. I think there has been
an increase
in oral health and hygiene awareness,
and there's been, you know, great entries into
the market to kinda help support that.
But I still believe some of the continued
issues really around
the dental space is is education.
Right? Continuing
to educate patients,
especially
those young children.
Know, we already hear about kind of
the the diet of the general public and
then how
we we consume excess sugars
and all that kind of stuff. So we
really do need to be diligent
in making sure that,
young kids and adults and teens and and
even
all adults
are aware of how important
oral health and oral hygiene is to their
overall health
and how a lot of those,
early conditions can start really
from from the mouth and and travel and
become bigger issues
when when they're not addressed
comprehensively.
And then be beyond that, you know, it's
always
a financial component to it. Right? Making sure
that
the folks have adequate coverage for for dental
procedures and,
awareness
access to that care so that they can
get those issues and concerns dealt with rather
than letting them
proliferate into larger, more difficult,
and more expensive
complications later down the line.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely some important points that you've
you've made there and pointed out. So thank
you for sharing those.
My next question here, what are you most
excited about when it comes to dentistry right
now, and is there anything that makes you
nervous about the industry?
Yeah. So what I'm most excited about
as it relates to us especially is, you
know, we believe that,
like I said earlier, we are non traditional
orthodontists,
in the sense that,
we pride ourselves highly on affordability,
customization,
and convenience.
We really believe that kind of the new
generation of
adolescents and preteens and teens and young adults,
kind of those millennials and gen zers,
have a different approach
to orthodontic care than the the traditional mindset.
Traditionally, it used to be,
you know, mom or dad,
dragged you along to the orthodontist.
You were told you needed braces
and you just got those silver braces.
Maybe you got some additional appliances
and you kinda dredged with that look for,
your early,
high school years or maybe late middle school
years.
And then that was kind of the the
approach. Right?
Now what's exciting
is that
practices like us really do cater to
the needs and the desires of a a
new generation. So,
you know, we make,
access to care really easy.
Our our locations are strategically
located in
retail areas where you're already going
for your groceries or your shopping. And so
it's easy enough to, you know, drop off
your young one so they can get their
care or come in,
yourself and you're not going out of the
way. Anyway, we pride ourselves on convenience. Our
our appointments are really quick and fast. We
hope to get you in and get you
out and on your way without all the
the fluff and frills that slow things down.
And then customization. You know, we really pride
ourselves on not just providing, you know, silver
brackets.
We have colored brackets in blue and black
and rainbow colors
that really appeal to the more,
let's say, Instagram focused,
young teens that love to show off and
be different and not be kinda cookie cutter,
in their own
braces experience or or aligner experience. So it
really gives them an opportunity to shine and
bring some uniqueness
to their care.
And so those those,
changes, I think, in how we approach oral
hygiene, dental, and orthodontic care,
really
come to the forefront, at least for us,
in terms of making sure that we're providing
service
that's always top tier, but also providing a
a a tailored experience
for the patient that makes them,
feel unique and feel valued
rather than just, looking like everyone else who's
who's getting the same type of care.
What makes me nervous?
You know,
in in like I said earlier, education is
always top of mind
for us.
You know, while there's a lot of
external,
stressors and factors in people's lives, especially
with the economy being like it is inflation
and just the priorities of schools and meetings
and work and,
all those other,
additional things that just come with life,
the fact that you that people may put
oral and dental orthodontic care on the back
burner
sometimes makes us nervous.
We're a high volume practice.
Our offices see between
80
to a hundred plus patients per day in
each one of our offices.
But we off also do get a large
amount of folks that go great
lengths of time without continuing their care, and
that makes us nervous,
because as you know,
oral health is is a continuous effort to
make sure that we are
doing the preventative
measures we need to to make sure that
people are, set up for success throughout their
life.
Yeah. That's definitely,
a good point that you mentioned there about
the economy and how it's kind of affecting
the dental and orthodontic
industries. I know a lot of the times
dentistry is seen as recession proof, but some
of these specialties definitely take a hit when
you get fewer patients in the door, maybe
fewer referrals, or as you mentioned, patients kinda
putting their care on the back burner, maybe,
giving it a second thought just because of
the economy. Is there anything that you could
speak to to how your organization sort of
adapts to these harsher economic situations?
Yes. Absolutely. And and we're not
immune to that either. We we recognize that
that's that is
part of the environment we're in. And so
we will work and do work with our
patients very closely to
defer payments or structure payments in a way
that gives them more flexibility
so that they can continue their care,
without any interruption because that's our primary focus
is is making sure that our patients get
the best care and continued care.
So we really do work hard to create
flexible
plans and and structures that allow them
greater
ability to make that dollar stretch in the
short term so that they can meet their
other needs while
not,
completely
terminating or or dismissing them as patients from
the practice because
we know that
setting setting your child or yourself up with,
a proper bite, which is important for many
things including
TMJ,
lockjaw.
You know, it can affect your airway, breathing,
and snoring, and sleep apnea
can be affected. So these are things that
many patients don't realize there is a,
direct correlation,
or causation at times between.
And so we wanna make sure they're educated
and make sure they're getting that continuous care.
So we'll work with them to figure out
a structure that that helps them achieve both
their oral health and, you know, other personal
goals as well.
Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. So
thank you for sharing that. I I'm also
curious. Just another follow-up question. Obviously, inflation is
a big issue right now. Supply costs have
gone up for for a lot of things.
Are there any changes that your organization has
made to
deal with those rising costs or any changes
that you plan to make this year?
Yeah. Like I said, we're very focused on
providing care at affordable price.
So from our standpoint, we have not raised
prices
on our treatments or our services. We don't
plan on doing so.
The increases that we do feel from the
supply side, you know, we're
confident that we can manage internally
and not need to place any additional burden
on our patients. So,
you know, that's something that we prioritize, like
I said, and we do accept state programs
like Medicaid
to serve those underserved populations.
But it,
you know,
we hope things turn around a little bit
better and things get a little more comfortable,
but we are committed to making sure that
we honor any sort of contract that we
have with patients, and we're committed that we
do everything we can to not pass on
any burden
to to our patients as well.
And then, like I said, it's all about
communication.
Right? As long as patients communicate with us
and and come forward when they're having some
difficulty
in managing their finances, we will work with
them in every which way we can
to to make sure that they have that
peace of mind.
Okay. Great. Well, yeah, that is all I
have for you today, Sam. So thank you
so much for joining us today. It's been
a pleasure speaking with you, and I look
forward to connecting with you again in the
future.
Absolutely. Thank you for, having us on the
podcast. Really appreciate it. Again, if anyone's interested
in orthodontic care here in in the Greater
Central Florida, we welcome them to check us
out at imagineorthostudio.com
or visit any of our five locations across
Greater Central Florida.