Locations for a dental practice (Dallas, Plano: transplants, rent, insurance)

[wmusa]

Hello,

My husband is a dentist and is considering opening a dental practice in the near future. We live in Boston and are debating whether or not we should remain in Boston or move to the Dallas area. The biggest factor motivating us to move to Texas is housing prices. Aside from that, is there a saturation of dentists in Dallas? Which locations/suburbs would you recommend to set-up a practice?

Thanx!!

[MaryS80]

I can't imagine going into a private practice without an established patient base. Would his practice just be general dentistry, or some sort of specialty?

[wmusa]

I agree - it is not easy to start a practice with no patient base. For that reason, he is considering buying an existing practice rather than starting from scratch. Right now, he's an associate dentist and has established his boss' practice from no patients to 3000 patients and most patients came b/c of word-of-mouth. So we are hoping for the same results if we were to open a practice in dallas.
My husband practices general dentrist but also does some cosmetic procedures, invisalign as well dental implants.

[MaryS80]

IMO there is a need for general dentistry, a lot of cosmetic dentistry places have popped in recent years. I would suggest someplace like Frisco or McKinney where there is a lot of growth, and people have the money to spend. There are are a lot of transplants coming into those areas who will be looking for doctors and dentists.

[mckinneydeb]

I wouldn't consider McKinney to be saturated with dentists although we have a lot more now than we did 10 years ago. The group I'm with has been in McKinney for over 20 years, may have even been here over 30. Throughout the years partners/associates have come and gone. Because I am a Saturday patient, I always get the new guy when he comes on board. That's OK with me, I've never been displeased with any of them and I've had 4 different guys over the past 16 years or so. The place is ALWAYS busy. Right now I think there are 4 dentists in the group. There are tons of dentists in Plano but I would think Allen and Frisco would be great places to consider. If he would consider starting his own individual practice consider one of the outlying communities like Melissa or Anna.

[wmusa]

Thanx for the info. I'll look into those towns...
I was in the Plano area a few months back and I noticed that there were dental clinics in almost every strip mall. I was quite surprised since I havent noticed this at all in the Boston suburbs. But I guess its b/c Dallas is much larger population wise and Dallas is experiencing tremendous growth so there is an influx of ppl moving into the area...

[nsumner]

The other area that I would consider is east of Dallas, such as Rockwall, Royse City, Fate. It is an area that is growing tremendously and everyone has to drive west towards Rowlett/Garland for dentists needs because the few in Rockwall are overbooked.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by nsumner

The other area that I would consider is east of Dallas, such as Rockwall, Royse City, Fate. It is an area that is growing tremendously and everyone has to drive west towards Rowlett/Garland for dentists needs because the few in Rockwall are overbooked.

I was also going to say even East Dallas around Lakewood. One of our friends had a practice in that area (had two offices w/ one there and one in Garland). They closed the one in East Dallas recently because keeping up w/ two locations was too much burden w/ a family. They stayed BUSY!!!!!!

We service a lot of dental offices and there are areas where they seem to be a dime a dozen. However, a good dental practice becomes well known and can prosper. Some dentists have two locations and have for years and have done well. There was enough of a need for them to have two locations even though they were only about 15 miles apart. There are a couple of older dentists that I'm aware of that have started to retire and have been bringing in younger dentists to kind of take over - they have not sold the practice to them and the "established" dentists is hardly ever in the office. I know of two in that catagory that actually just went in w/ each other instead of bringing in younger dentists.

You will want to join a couple of the better Dental Insurance programs and that will REALLY get you a BIG client base REALLY QUICK!!! Several of the dentists on most of the better plans don't even take new clients . I refuse to go to the dental warehouse type of places so I look for the individual dentist w/ their own practice. Others do also. Delta Dental is one pretty good insurance program that we have been pleased w/ that offers a lot of individual dentists and pays well.

There is not need to go into one of the high rent areas where dentists are on every single corner. People DO drive to a good dentist that they like.

[loves2read]

lots of the stip mall dentists are doing braces--

[wmusa]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions !! Initially, I was thinking of checking out Frisco but I never realized that there were so many "up and coming towns" in Dallas. I'll have to plan a trip to Dallas soon to scope out these towns Got alot of homework to do ...

One last questions, how are the dental insurances in Dallas?