Dr Phillip Palmer, April 2017
When I graduated from dental school, having a practice in the CBD of Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne was a thing to aspire to. It seemed to be reserved for established practices, and there was an air of respectability about it.
Somehow, lately, it seems that the CBD practice has lost some of its shine. People have forgotten all of its virtues and seem to complain about its shortcomings, like expensive rent, poor street exposure and increased competition.
Having practiced in the middle of Sydney’s CBD for more than 30 years of my dental career, I can attest to the fact that these shortcomings have always been there, and that CBD dentistry has at least as many virtues, which people seem to ignore.
A CBD DENTAL PRACTICE IS MORE LIKELY TO HAVE:
- A high percentage of employed people with money to spend. There are less unemployed patients in the middle of the city than in the suburbs. As a generality, the patient base that a practice will attract in the CBD will be people with jobs there. They are more likely to be people with a profession (rather than tradesmen) and the patient base will have a higher disposable income on average than one in the suburbs. As a result, city practices have the potential to do much more high-end and comprehensive work than the average suburban counterpart.
- A high percentage of patients who are within close proximity during the day. Between 9-5, Monday to Friday, the population in the suburbs thins out, as people go to work in the CBD. As a result, a suburban dentist’s potential patient-base also thins out during these hours.
- Less demand for appointments on weekends. The CBD practice will be very similar to the suburban practice, in the demand for early morning and evening appointments. However, the CBD practice has little to no demand for appointments on the weekend.
- Less Emergencies. When I had a suburban practice, I found that patients had no problem asking me to come in for mild ”emergencies” on nights and weekends (mainly, I suspect, because it didn’t put THEM out, coming into the practice when it was near their house). Later, when I had a CBD practice, patients were much more likely to put off mild emergency dental work till Monday morning, because they couldn’t be bothered coming into town.
- More professional behaviour from patients. People coming from their place of work are more professional in their behaviour and in their interactions with the practice. They are (in my experience) more punctual, more likely to be punctual with payment of accounts and more likely to want to stick to the allotted time.
- Less kids. I liked seeing kids, but children (again, as a generality) are less lucrative as individual patients than adults. They are less likely to need crowns, bridges, implants and other comprehensive work. On top of this, there is a higher incidence of dental phobia, screaming, gagging, etc., amongst child patients.
- Easier to attract quality staff. Attracting quality staff in suburban, regional or rural areas is usually much more difficult than in the CBD of any major city. You are generally limited to those who can easily commute to your suburb, and are at the mercy of public transport routes and traffic patterns.
- The CBD acts as a transport hub for busses, trains, ferries, light rail, etc., and is typically central to the suburbs of the city. When you have a business in the CBD, staff can and do come from anywhere.
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