Dare To Be Different

Why Dental Practices Need More Than Credentials

This week, I was a guest on The Thriving Dentist Podcast, a joint effort between a noted consultant and a marketing company. I was invited to speak about growth with two other consultants.

Even on a Zoom panel, I could see their amazement when I spoke about two things.

The first was the importance of defining your audience — what I call your Patient Avatar.

The second was generating referrals from physicians — what I call The Physician Referral Magnet.

Their reaction surprised me.

Not because they disagreed.

Because they seemed amazed.

Why would seasoned consultants be surprised by ideas I consider so basic?

Then it hit me.

Because most consultants, like most dentists, follow a playbook. They learn from other dentists and other dental practices.

And when you follow the same playbook as everyone else, you usually get what everyone else gets.

Average results.

And then it occurred to me that both Jamison and I did something different.  He joined a mastermind with Frank Kern, and I joined one with Dan Kennedy.  Neither are dentists.  So we adapted non-dental “best practices” to our own.  We think like entrepreneurs, not dentists.

Thinking like a dentist may have been acceptable years ago. But in today’s DSM world in particular, average is getting more dangerous by the day.  The AADSM and at least 3 other sleep groups are churning out “Diplomates” by the boatload.  Soon, they’ll be as common as a DDS or DMD degree, and just as undifferentiatable.

Patients are more confused. Competitors are multiplying. Medical companies are entering the space. AI is influencing what patients read, believe, and eventually choose.

And the dentist who simply says, “We treat sleep apnea,” or “We help with TMJ pain,” is no longer different enough to be noticed, trusted, or chosen.

You may have excellent training.

You may own impressive technology.

You may have taken hundreds of hours of continuing education.

You may truly care.

But here is the harsh reality:

The patient does not know how to evaluate that.

And the physician may not know how to evaluate that either.

So unless you give both of them a clearer reason to understand you, trust you, and refer to you, you risk becoming just another name on a list.

And once you are just another name on a list, you are competing on convenience, insurance participation, location, or price.

That is not authority.

That is commodity dentistry with a more complicated appliance.

One of the principles I discuss in my new book, The Pursuit of Happiness…In Dentistry: From Philosophy to Fulfillment, is simple:

Dare to be different.

That sounds easy.

It isn’t.

Dentists are trained to follow rules, instructions, protocols, lab slips, insurance codes, clinical guidelines, and step-by-step systems.

That training has value clinically.

But the same wiring that can make someone a good clinician can also make them a very ordinary business owner.

Because differentiation requires you to step away from the crowd.

It requires you to stop asking, “What is everyone else doing?”

And start asking:

What does my market actually need to understand, believe, and trust before they say yes?

That begins with the Patient Avatar.

Not “adults with sleep apnea.”

Not “people with TMJ.”

Not “patients who snore.”

Those are categories.

A Patient Avatar is a person.

It is the exhausted spouse who has been sleeping in another room for three years.

It is the woman with jaw pain, headaches, ear symptoms, and neck tension who has already been told, “Everything looks normal.”

It is the CPAP-intolerant patient who feels like a failure because the machine that was supposed to save their health is sitting in a closet.

It is the chronic pain patient who is no longer sure whether anyone believes them.

When you understand that person, everything changes.

Your website changes.

Your phone call changes.

Your consultation changes.

Your treatment presentation changes.

And your physician communication changes.

Because now you are no longer selling an appliance.

You are solving a problem.

And that brings me to physician referrals.

I have never understood why this is considered unusual.

DSM and TMJ live at the intersection of dentistry and medicine.

These patients often have relationships with physicians, ENTs, neurologists, sleep physicians, primary care doctors, pediatricians, physical therapists, chiropractors, pain specialists, and other providers.

Yet many dentists spend enormous amounts of money trying to convince strangers on the internet to trust them, while ignoring the professionals who already have trust with the exact patients they want to reach.

That makes no sense to me.

Physician referral relationships are not about begging for referrals.

They are not about dropping off cookies.

And they are not about sending a glossy brochure that says, “We make oral appliances.”

Physicians do not need another brochure.

They need confidence.

They need to know that when they send a patient to you, that patient will be listened to, evaluated properly, communicated with professionally, and returned to them with information that makes the physician look wise for having made the referral.

That is The Physician Referral Magnet.

A magnet does not chase.

It attracts.

But only when there is something worth being drawn to.

For a DSM or TMJ practice, that “something” is not merely your appliance, splint, CBCT, scanner, or training.

It is your ability to become a reliable, thoughtful, medically aware, communication-centered partner.

That is differentiation.

Without differentiation, you are one of several names.

Another website.

Another appliance provider.

Another person claiming to treat snoring, sleep apnea, headaches, or jaw pain.

And when everyone says the same thing, the patient hears nothing.

You may be clinically excellent.

You may truly be the best choice.

But if the patient cannot understand that, and the physician cannot communicate that, it does not matter.

You have become invisible.

Not because you are unworthy.

Because you are unclear.

So the question is not simply:

How do I get more patients?

The better question is:

How do I become meaningfully different in a way that matters to the patients and professionals I most want to serve?

For the DSM/TMJ practitioner, that may mean becoming known as the practice that helps CPAP-intolerant patients find a medically appropriate alternative.

It may mean becoming known as the practice that helps chronic headache and jaw pain patients connect the dots after years of fragmented care.

It may mean becoming known as the practice that communicates beautifully with physicians.

It may mean becoming known as the practice that does not rush to an appliance but first helps the patient understand the cause, the consequences, and the choices.

But it cannot mean simply being “another dentist who treats sleep and TMJ.”

That is not enough anymore.

Daring to be different is not about being weird.

It is not about being loud.

It is not about gimmicks.

It is about being intentionally, strategically, and unmistakably different in a way your market values.

Because without differentiation, you are just noise.

And patients who are suffering do not need more noise.

They need a signal they can trust.

Michael