Reality #9. Highly Competitive Dental Practice Market
(It is a fight)
(It is a fight)
10 to 15 years back the dental practice field in India was very relaxed. Today there is cut-throat competition. I will give you an example. I did my BDS in Chennai. There is a location in Chennai called as the Anna Nagar. It is divided into Anna Nagar – West & East.
In that entire Anna Nagar Area, there are around 1000 + dental clinics.
Can you imagine – how can a new dentist even start a practice?
Senior people who had passed a BDS/MDS 10 – 15 years ago have established well oiled and funded practices. If that was not enough, now big corporate sectors have ventured into the dental industry. Corporates like Apollo, Amri, Vasan, Dentistree are investing huge sums of money into setting up multi-specialty dental hospitals.
So, for a fresh BDS graduate or a New Dentist, it is not possible to compete with such setups.
They have three choices only
- Work for the big established clinics of senior dentists for a monthly salary.
- Work as a staff dentist in the corporate dental setups.
- Open his personal clinic and run a modest practice.
In the first two choices, there is again a competition between BDS & MDS. Also, the salary offered to a BDS graduate/New Dentist is not up to the satisfaction. That adds more to the frustration. The last option is of opening the clinic, but at least it makes the dentist his own boss and the harder he works, the more chance he has in earning more.
However, the moment he decides to set up his clinic, he is again faced with the situation described in the points 1, 2, 3, 4 previously
