A business is a business no matter what industry you belong to. And to run a business, you will have to identify what product or service you’re going to offer, as well as who you’re going to offer them to. It’s the same thing when you’re opening your own dental clinic and deciding what services to offer.
Opening your own practice can be difficult when you don’t have enough experience, but if you’re confident in your abilities, then the only hindrance to your success is yourself. It might be overwhelming to start your own path, but the adventure itself can be both rewarding and enjoyable.
However, to get to the point where you’re already running a successful dental practice, you must first pick a niche to practice in. Having a specific niche and target market in mind will help you cater to your goals for your business, as well as allow you to grow as a dentist.
You might think a general dental practice can be your best bet when it comes to trying to get a business off the ground, but that can be hard when you’re doing everything on your own. It may be better for you to cater to a specific niche and then expand to more fields of dentistry as you go.
If you already have a niche in mind, then, by all means, go ahead with it. But if you’re still struggling to make a decision, you can refer to these dental specialties below. Each specialty caters to a specific dental problem and target market, which can help you decide for the future of your practice.
Niche #1: Oral Surgery
If you want to focus on performing surgical procedures in dental care, then you should open a practice that offers oral surgery. The common procedures done during oral surgery include extractions, implants, gum lifts, and frenectomies.
Not all dental practices can cater to patients that require surgical procedures to treat their problems. So, by opening a practice in this niche, you’re giving more people who might need to have wisdom tooth removal procedure a chance to ease their pain and get back to their normal routines.
Niche #2: Orthodontics
If you want to focus on diagnosing, preventing, or correcting misaligned teeth or jaws, then you should open an orthodontic practice. This will allow you to help people with teeth or jaw alignment problems by creating specialized treatment and dental care regimens.
Orthodontists can prescribe treatments based on what they deem fit for a specific case, which can help a person to retrain their muscles or slowly move their teeth through semi-permanent appliances. For instance, braces, aligners, and headgear are common orthodontic treatments for fixing bites or alignment issues.
Niche #3: Pediatric Dentistry
If you want to encourage children to start prioritizing their dental hygiene at an early age, then you can open a pediatric dental clinic. Children are usually opposed to going to the dentist because they are afraid of the pain it can come with, and that’s why a lot of kids experience dental problems as they grow older.
This is because not all dentists are equipped with the necessary charm and patience that pediatricians should have to make children feel safe. But if you can create a kid-friendly dental clinic and approach children with their best interests at heart, then you can easily become the preferred dentist by kids.
Niche #4: Cosmetic Dentistry
If you want to help more people become confident with their teeth by performing dental procedures, then you should open a cosmetic dental practice. Doing so can allow you to create brighter and whiter smiles through veneers, dentures, as well as teeth whitening procedures.
Dentistry isn’t limited to dental hygiene and health conditions — it can also be done to make people feel better and more confident about themselves. As a cosmetic dentist, you can make people’s whiter and brighter dreams come true by performing cosmetic procedures on their teeth.
Choosing a niche or dental specialty in the beginning doesn’t mean that you can’t offer other services in the future. You always have the option to go down the more general route and cater to more people, but that can be more counterproductive because you will be spreading yourself too thin.
However, if you can focus on a specific niche and create a remarkable dental experience for your patients, then you can easily build patronage which can help your business over time. And once you have enough money to expand your business, you can diversify your services by hiring other dentists to work with you. This way, you can focus on what you know you can do best.
