Dental Practice & Entrepreneurship

- Dr. Aster Shail Vas The modern-day mantra to be successful as a dentist is to be a -

Dentist-Preneur (Dentist + Entrepreneur)

Dentists offer the finest dental care, but it’s entrepreneurship that motivates them to make a difference in the world. In the modern-day world, a dentist and an entrepreneur share a similarity of skills. Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk. The constant expectations of dealing with dental pain & esthetics is where the thrill and satisfaction of being a dental surgeon lies. But entrepreneurship is a form of innovation directed at business development and is seen as one of the major areas of sustainability for higher education in the future (Provasnek et al.; 2017). Both dentistry and entrepreneurship are very different from each other but can be merged for their betterment. Both the professions show a “symbiosis” for each other. Quality of dental practice has improved in the last few years. Entrepreneurs are the leaders in making use of market opportunities by planning and management of resources. A study found that the dentists in the age group of 35-45 years have the strongest EI (Entrepreneurial Intention). Additionally, dentists’ entrepreneurial behaviors, risk aversion attitudes and their family background all have significant associations (Jiabi Wang, 2020).

Dentists as Entrepreneurs

There are two aspects in becoming a successful Dentist-Preneur i.e.;

1. The Dentist Way
2. The Entrepreneur Way

The dentist way is

• proper history, diagnosis and treatment.
• responsibility of proper case selection.
• the people dealing skills along with the tingling spider sense during clinical practice.
• proper post-treatment instructions.

To be able to manage these, one should develop the entrepreneurial bent - the capacity for planning and assessing the prospects of profits and loss. The entrepreneurial way is understanding that we are in a service oriented business as a doctor with a professional set-up depending on patients. This requires adopting few skills during professional practice. The patient journey analysis is

• asking patient/relative to fill the feedback form
• taking reference of friends/relatives
• follow up with the patients
• informing patients regarding any offers on treatments through e-mails
• invitation for free consultation
• organizing small awareness programs and
• marketing one’s professional set-up (Arshee Hashmi.; 2020).

Successful Entrepreneurship

The key to success with entrepreneurship and innovation is moving from:

Innovation has been identified as the spearhead of growth of dental industry as well as dental practice in the future. Both, innovations as well as dissemination of innovation, is important for future growth of dentistry into a more client friendly and person-centered profession (Sharma Ankur.; 2018).

Make-In-India Campaign

Indian government is promoting entrepreneurship in India through its “Make in India” campaign; and operates many schemes for the benefit of existing and prospective entrepreneurs. This is being done to promote emerging technological and knowledge-based innovative ventures that seek the nurturing of ideas from professionals beyond the traditional activities of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Dentist-Preneurs have contributed greatly to the dentistry community. At present, 25,000- 30,000 graduates pass out every year from around 300 dental colleges in India. One must appreciate the intentions of the innovators, based on enduring innovations such as

• high-speed turbine handpiece,
• high-speed suction,
• rubber dam,
• endodontic files and obturation systems,
• digital dental radiography,
• dental cone beam computed tomography,
• digital smile designing,
• maxillo-facial materials,
• elastomeric impressions,
• dental implants, to name a few.