How do you handle friends who want to come see you professionally?


I am currently on holiday with my son and some of his closest friends. David is applying to dental school and hopefully will get in and become a dentist. His friends are happy for him and many have indicated that they would love for him to be their dentist! Interestingly, one of his "supporters" was surprised to hear he might not do their dentistry for free.

This is an issue every dentist has to deal with. It is especially prevalent when a new dentist starts to practice. "Friends" seem to pop up from every where, asking about the dentists new practice and expressing interest in possibly coming to see their newly minted dental friend.

I experienced this phenomenon  in the early 1980's when I started seeing patients in Manhattan. I was quite social and went out frequently with friends. The question that invariably came up was Would I be willing to treat them. I was quite excited about the prospect of treating my friends, at least until the point where it came to deciding on an appropriate fee. They often then asked how much would it cost them for their treatment.

You see some of my friends were not aware of the "business of dentistry" and had an over inflated idea of how much of the fee went into my pocket. Initially, I too was unaware of the cost of providing care and often made my fees way too low.  Most of my initial patients of my own private practice were friends and family. Since I was renting another friends office and paying him by the hour my initial over head was quite low, but when I took over another dentist's practice and office I inherited a "fixed " over head. Each month I had a loan payment due to the dentist, a salary for my assistant , rent and assorted other expenses. This monthly nut was sobering to say the least and I "readjusted my attitude to the treatment of friends.

Since under optimum circumstances, most dentists had an overhead of 50-60% in the 1980's , I decided to make a 20% discount for friends and a 40% discount for most relatives. To me this seemed fair since I wouldn't be making a hefty profit from caring for them.

Some of my family and friends stayed away, but most did not since they felt my fees were fair,especially for a midtown Manhattan dental practice.  I am glad I have stuck with this policy, because I am happy to be able to "help" my friends, but do not want to be in position of either them or me resenting our professional relationship. I try to be as transparent as possible and OK with them seeking their care either with me or somewhere else. After all, when my friends are choosing where to have their treatment is a personal decision, but I choose not to take it "personally" one way or another.

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2017/08/how-do-you-handle-friends-who-want-to.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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