Cheaper dentistry a change to chew on
MOST dental practices are long in the tooth and need to accept change is on the way, according to the head of the Gold Coast’s newest ASXlisted company.
Smiles Inclusive debuted on the ASX last month after a $35 million initial public offering saw it buy up 52 small practices around the country.
It is headed by founder and managing director Mike Timoney, who founded the Totally Teeth dental practice and is the co-founder of Dental Partners, now Maven Dental Group.
Mr Timoney, who spoke to the Bulletin at the company’s launch party on Wednesday at the Southport Yacht Club, said in the past that dentists did not need to be efficient, but that was rapidly changing.
“As a businessman I have seen the inefficiencies of dentistry,” he said.
“It is inefficiently delivered to the Australian public. We have 154 chairs across our practices and 40 per cent have never had a bum on the seat. Dentists have had it too good for too long.”
Mr Timoney said up until 2012 there had been an undersupply of dentists in Australia.
“Dentists did not need to be efficient, they opened the doors and patients flooded in.
“Since 2012, we have got an oversupply of dentists. Australia needs 460 each year and we now have about 960 qualifying each year.”
Mr Timoney said dentistry is expensive because of the inefficiencies.
He said dentists needed to be more like airlines.
“If you remember the days when it cost you $1000 to fly from Brisbane to Sydney on a half-empty flight, now you pay $100, and in my opinion you get a better experience, but there are no empty seats,” he said.
“That is because the industry has been dragged kicking and screaming into a competitive environment and the consumer got a better product at a cheaper price. That is what I’m passionate about.”
Mr Timoney said his model, under which dentists sell their practices while retaining a 40 per cent stake in the business, would maximise efficiencies through a sharedservices model.
Dentists, therefore, would not have to take care of compliance, human resource, social media, and marketing, because that would be done by the 30 staff at head office in West Burleigh.
He said dentists needed to respond to consumer demands, and open on weekends, or even offer a 24/7 service.
Mr Timoney said he wants to trial a 24/7 service in Brisbane, to determine if it was viable.
“What people have missed is that dentistry has gone retail,” he said.
Smiles Inclusive has just one Gold Coast practice in Surfers Paradise, but Mr Timoney said he expects that to change soon.
“We’re in discussions with 12 more on the Gold Coast,” he said.
Shares closed yesterday unchanged at $1.12.