I have been with my students in one dental laboratory today. Dental laboratories are some sort of outsourcing in dentistry which is: “the process of contracting an existing business function or process of an organization to an independent organization, and ceasing to perform that function or process internally, instead purchasing it as a service” (used from Wikipedia).

We have many students that are dental technicians, so they know procedures and how to “make something” in dental laboratories, too. Because of financial crisis it is very hard to start dental business in these days, so they asked me how to know where to draw the line between doing something by yourself in dental practice and sending it to a dental technician’s office. That is the same question in every outsourcing, in every business.

To facilitate thinking, you have some parameters regardless of business type.

First one are legal issues. There are some jobs that you can and others that you cannot do. For example: if you have need for biochemical laboratory you cannot do blood sample analyses because you’re not certified and that procedures are protected by the law. This is not the case in dentistry. Dentists can do nearly everything in dentistry in mostly all countries around the world.

After you have passed legal restraints you have to carefully choose procedures that are well candidates for outsourcing on economical basis. How? You have to calculate a ratio between costs and earning. Many entrepreneurs forget to calculate all costs and that tricks them to bring wrong decisions. It is easy to understand that you have to include costs like material, needed equipment and complicated education, but it is easy to forget to include production time. That last is important that distinct a dentist from dental technician. Dentists have much higher salaries on hour basis than dental technicians.

I have good contacts with my recent students that have finished dental medicine and are working for some time now. When they have problems, their problems are closely linked to the idea that “you have to use outsourcing as much as you can”. That is correct only if you have a lot of patients so in effort of saving time you can select “expensive” procedures for outsourcing. Under “expensive” I mean that if something is complicated, takes a lot of time, needs expensive equipment and cannot reach a high price it is a good candidate for outsourcing.

What do they choose for outsourcing? Great example are orthodontic retainers or plaster casts. In the beginning I teach them to do everything they can do because in first months they will have a small number of patients so it is not good to outsource something what is not needed. They can make plastic orthodontic retainers in dental office. The same thing are plaster casts made for analyses. The cost of plastic orthodontic retainers is around 100$ (for dentist) and they take 45 minutes of production per pair. The same procedure is for teeth whitening trays. If a young dentist has two patients in a day he cannot be feasible with doing of whitening with dental technician. Especially if he want to lower price to attract patients. Do not forget that one important factor is that young dentist has a lot of time to do anything so in the pause he can make simple not demanding procedures that technicians do.

Why this is all important? Because when you are a dentist or you are managing any other business you have to understand that you have the same goals: lowering the costs and production times in the same time with raising the quality. That will present you as a good and desirable service provider and in the end that will increase your earnings.

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