A website offers a way for dentists to find specialists who can see their patients quickly.
Quickness is ‘what makes it shine,’ says a customer of clouddentistry.com
HOUSTON dentist Dr. Reza Sanjar faced a common concern for those in his industry: He’d refer patients to a specialist, but see nothing in return. Unlike the tooth fairy, specialists weren’t expected to reward people who basically sent them teeth.
“And then what happened was that the specialist might not have room for my patient for two weeks,” Sanjar said. “So my patient had to get by until then.”
Sanjar, one of two dentists who formed West Houston Dentistry in 2011, discussed the problem with his partner, Dr. T.J. Sahota. The dentists agreed on whether the Internet would offer a platform for finding specialists and getting them quickly to their office.
The idea went nowhere until one of Sanjar’s longtime friends moved back to Houston. Trey Tepichin, a Harvard-trained attorney, picked up where the partners left off in 2014.
“There wasn’t anyone doing it quite like this, and that’s why I got so excited about it,” Tepichin said. “You had a few mobile dentists doing it one-on-one, but for some reason people weren’t adopting it large scale.”
It’s not uncommon for staffing agencies to match dental workers and practices, but Sanjar said some of the systems can be cumbersome.
“If one of our assistants couldn’t show up for the day, I’d have to call an agency and they’d send over whoever was available. I wouldn’t get much say in the process,” Sanjar said. “There was a lot of back and forth, and it wasn’t very efficient.”
Tepichin said the goal was to let dentists pick and choose from candidates online and let both sides rate each other afterward.
The result was clouddentistry. com. The website began as a way to bring specialists to general dentists, but it morphed to include dental hygienists and dental assistants.
“Only because there are so many more of them,” Tepichin said. “The dental industry is characterized by significant turnover. Some 50 percent of dental employees are either temp or part-time workers. And, in Texas alone, there are thousands of assistants and hygienists, but only 200 to 300 specialists.”
The website went live Feb. 24 using Houston-area providers.
“What makes it shine is the quickness,” said Ali Khan, who manages three dental offices and also builds out offices and provides consultations for dentists. “Last week I needed to bring in a specialist for an extraction that involved wisdom teeth. I went online, read the profiles and — boom — I’d booked someone within five minutes.”
Ten partners, both passive and active, have spent some $1 million to bring the website to this point. Included in that total are marketing materials that company president Glenn Barnett uses to attract more people and offices to the site.
“One of the ways we reach people is through dental associations and trade seminars,” Barnett said. “We also sponsor all of the state’s dental schools.”
Now the partners are looking to expand the website to other cities.
“The product is very scalable, so we’re considering everything from Dallas to El Paso and Midland,” Tepichin said.
The site earns money two ways: as a subscription service, or by people finding staff on a case-by-case basis.
According to Tepichin, some 100 practices in the state have become subscribers so far.