Some FAQ’s & Myths About New Clinic Setup You Need to Know

Some Myths:

1. It will take atleast a year or more before i start getting patients to my dental clinic.

• First to answer this MYTH. There's no such thing as a patient problem. There's only OFFER or STRATEGY Problems. If you think you'll require atleast a year from now on to establish and settle then think again.
• PATIENTS ARE EVERYWHERE. In more than 90% of people you'll find some dental problems, right from dental stains to caries, to malaligned teeth, to missing teeth. You name the problem, it will be there.
• You just need a strategy to get them to your clinic. In this blog, I talk more about how to get patients from social media to your clinic.

2. Patients in India DO NOT PAY money for dental treatments

• That's not 100% true. There are patients WHO ARE WILLING to pay a lot of money for their dental treatment.
• They just don't know, like or trust you.
• I'm a stranger to you, you come to me and if i tell you pay Rs.1 lakh for this stuff, you'll be like; what the hell are you talking about? He's crazy. 1 lakh...? Lot of things come to your mind...This is what comes exactly in the patient's mind and if you know how to overcome that..they'll be your patients for life.
• There's a SPECIFIC approach to for treating your patients. Once they are convinced then money is irrelevant. They'll pay how much you ask for.
• In my private course i talk about all these stuff.

3. There's no money in dentistry in India

• There are 2 different ways to look at it. Firstly; assuming you are someone who doesn't have ENOUGH money to afford a private dental college, so either you get into a government dental college or you TAKE A LOAN, and join a private dental college.
• In this scenario, if YOU DECIDE, to work under some other dental graduate he will NOT Pay you enough money as a dental graduate. This doesn't mean dentistry doesn't have enough MONEY.
• You can still do postgraduation or fellowship courses or start your clinic. You'll earn crazy amount of money.
• In another post i talk about how much a dentist can earn from his own clinic. Do check it out.

SOME FAQ's

1. When should i start my own clinic?

• You should start the clinic now. The opportunity is NOW. You can always decide to work under someone in a particular area, where you decide to start your own clinic.
• You can see what fellow dentists are charging, what type of cases are they getting?, what are the patient's expectations?, how many consultants visit them?, 
• Once you are sure, you can start your own clinic.

2. Should i choose a rural area or an urban area for my clinic?

• Ideally speaking, there's a lot of competition in urban areas, particularly in major cities, this DOESN'T mean you CANNOT BEAT your competition. 
• With the right marketing approach, you can grow your practice, since day 1.
• You can check out the tips in our marketing section.
• If you think, it will be a LITTLE TOUGH for you, or you don't feel like investing too much money, you can prefer areas located outside main cities, This way your COMPETITION will be less.  
• In such cases, you'll do more patients, and make decent money.
• If you can AFFORD some money to start in a city, you should always prefer a city

3. What all Instruments should i buy in the very start?

• I got my private checklist on instruments that you need to have when starting your own clinic, check this out here.
• In the very start if you DON'T HAVE enough budget you can go with the basic items in my checklist. Lateron, after you have budget you can upgrade your equipments.
• There's a section on this site, where i review the dental materials and recommend you materials of the specific companies.

4. How many chairs should i install in my clinic?

• If you ask 10 people, their opinion on this thing will vary.
• Personally if you ask me ATLEAST 2, one for you and one for your consultant. More the better.
• If you can afford more than 2, that would be great. Again it will depend on your budget. If you lack budget, stick with one, and whenever you have the budget, INSTALL another chair
• You can keep one chair for routine treatment like general restorative work, one for surgical room, if you plan to place implants or complex surgical procedures. Third chair can be installed for a pediatric patients. Fourth chair; extra for another consultant who visits your clinic.
• If you practice, lasers, you can segregate one chair for patient who requires just a laser treatment.
• So again your BUDGET will matter and vary.

5. How much profit do i split with the consultant?

• Well it really varies and depends on the consultant, material usage.
• Normally i have seen 60-40 and 70-30, even 80-20 in some cases
• If CONSULTANT uses your material, you will pay consultant 60 percent and 40 will be your profit. If consultant uses his material, you'll pay him 70 percent and 30 percent will be your profit.
•  In a lot of cases, an emergency situation comes where YOU NEED to call the consultant on an emergency basis, in those cases you MAY EVEN PAY 80 percent of the treatment cost AND 20 percent will be your profit.

So the list of FAQ's present here can be made so exhaustive, like interior design, logos,fonts, brand identity design, which social media platforms to use to market, how to talk with patients, and so on. I'll be posting more on such topics.

Thanks for reading this post. If you want answer to some specific question not listed here, please post in the comments, i'll get back to you ASAP.