The changing realities of the team approach to implant dentistry. Interview.

How to Build and/or Maintain a 500-1000 Implant (per year) Referral Practice The marketing dynamics within the dental implant industry are changing with regard to Oral Surgeons and Periodontists growing or even maintaining their implant referral practices. General Practice dentists, who have traditionally worked in the Team Approach to provide the optimal treatment for their patients, are realizing that the most profitable way to participate in the implant revolution is to start placing implants. In some cases this is being encouraged by the same implant sales reps professing to help increase referrals to the surgical specialists using their implant system. The salesperson offering to increase referrals by providing “technical support” in the way of abutment selection or training on impression procedures may achieve this objective by directing referrals away from another surgical specialist not using that salesperson’s implant system. This pits one company’s’ sales force against another and surgical specialists against each other in competition for implant referring dentists. These same salespeople who help increase implant referrals to a surgical specialist can hold that specialist captive by the veiled threat of redirecting those referrals to another surgical specialist if you do not stay loyal to using that salesperson’s system. Surgical specialists find themselves victims of this shell game, having to use 3 to 4 different implant systems to retain certain referring dentists and to neutralize the potential threat of the salesperson advocating to the restorative dentist that he switch to a surgical specialist more committed to that salesperson’s system. Through all this, the surgical specialist loses control of selecting the system that offers the best clinical results and value. The confusion in ordering surgical instruments, implants and related components for 3-4 different systems is an expensive, time consuming problem. Competition among surgical specialists for referrals is increasing with some dentists funding educational programs and study clubs. Many of the largest implant practices were built by surgical specialists assuming an expanded roll in the prosthetic phase, including buying and attaching abutments. Nobel Biocare is promoting an even more insidious form of competition by direct marketing to the public to create brand awareness among potential patients. To maintain their largest customers, Nobel recently announced an ambitious direct marketing campaign of $60-$100 million to expand public awareness for its products. Patients will be exposed to this marketing and question your implant knowledge if you are not using Nobel Biocare implants, putting further pressure on you to use the popular rather than the best implant product. Nobel Biocare’s website provides online referrals directing patients to dentists buying their implants regardless of their training, experience or qualifications. Only a small percentage of dentists on Nobel Biocare’s website referral list are Oral Surgeons or Periodontists. Another concern of competition is coming from corporate sponsored Implant “Super-centers” like ClearChoice springing up in a number of US and Canadian cities. They market through TV commercials and full page newspaper ads to attract patients with the promise of “Teeth in a Day” claiming to eliminate the need for bone grafting. Whether Nobel Biocare supplements the marketing costs for this chain of implant centers using their implants exclusively, or just provides deep discounts that are not available to surgical specialists competing with these implant chains, remains a dark secret. Nobel BioCare’s US President appeared on an infomercial with other proponents of the ClearChoice Implant Centers and Nobel allows use its trademarks.