In the not so distant past, most dental practices had only one or two dentists. Their patients were taken care of as if they were part of an extended family. The patients would happily pay a fair fee to their dentist in return for his (or her) professionalism and caring spirit. That fee represented a fair contribution to the costs of the practice and allowed a modest income for the dentists. Today, the corporations are taking over. The corporate dentist have big advertising budgets (TV and radio). In their smooth, convincing advertising the corporations tell you that they are your best friends and that they will look after you.They make exclusive sweetheart deals with the health funds (also corporations) and try to squeeze the traditional dental practices out of existence so that their corporation profits will thrive and obscene amounts of money can be made for the CEO and the shareholders. Sheer profits are the corporation's driving motivation. Some of these corporate dental clinics employ many dentist that they often must source overseas, as the local dentists are aware of their reputations. The turnover and the resignation rate of the staff working for corporate clinics is high and patients despair that they can not see the same dentist over the time of their treatment course . So the world we live in has changed. More than just the high def TVs, internet everywhere and mobile phones. Changed for the worst, many would say.
Yet Adrian Longworth and the partners at Safety Bay Dental Care Centre operate as a traditional family dental practice with no affiliations or contract deals with corporations. Our advertising budget is minuscule and mostly depends on simple and free "word of mouth" or, in today's social media world, maybe a simple free and easy "like" on facebook, instagram or whatever you are using to keep in touch.