Dear Fellow Dentists & Patients,
I'm a general dentist with about 10-years work experience in my field. Recently, I was unfortunate enough to accept a position as an employee dentist with Aspen Dental location (s) in Florida. I learned this organization is nationwide, and is set-up in the same "cookie cutter" style; therefore, each office nationwide is run according to the same management style, same proprietary software, same interior decoration, same exterior decoration, and same goals... That is: To pound the dentist's pride, and to pound the patient's wallet! Funny thing is, they do this all while proposing a common vision of: "Helping patients get the care they need." More like, "Helping themselves get the money they want!"
Dentists, (especially new grads), be very careful about this company!!! Aspen Dental is openly boasting about its unique market advantage of having an ever-increasing cache of upside-down dentists chained to accelerating student loan debt, and/or bad debts from past failed businesses... Aspen Dental is clinging to this philosophy of ample cheap talent, and in turn are spreading their clinics across the country like wildfire. They openly boast about opening 10 new clinics every month because they claim there's no end in site for dentists willing to prostitute themselves for the unilateral benefit of Aspen Dental... But, from what I've seen in Florida, most of their clinics are without dentists, and they have to hire staffing companies like Dental Power International to find temporary dentists to fill-in where they can. I noticed that many of the "permanent dentists" that were there before I was only lasted a few months, and were then gone with the wind. Nobody ever had a clue about where they went, either.
I graduated from dental school back in May. My first job was working as an associate in a private practice by August... Right about the same time as that huge Tech-Bubble recession. At that time, (10-years ago), I was being compensated the greater of $500/Day (or) 30% of my collections for my services. This was considered the average market rate back in those days. Guess what, today Aspen Dental is offering their new associate dentists a flat rate of $400/Day, even though its common knowledge that the dollar's value is about half of what it was 10-years ago! In addition, there's another class of dentists in the Aspen Dental ranks call an "MCD, " (Managing Clinical Director). Here, the MCD is typically paid the greater of $500/Day (or) 20% of their clinic's "profit margin, " (which is typically about 8% of the clinic's collections).initially, when I was being hired by Aspen Dental, they convinced me to try Aspen's business practice for 90-days to see their "business advantages" for myself... But after serious reflection, I discovered Aspen Dental has diminished the value of a dentist's services by (2 - 4) times of what it used to be back in 2002... And they think they can do this because there's so many dentists out there that are willing to prostitute themselves for these diminished wages. As an educated professional who takes pride in my work, I find this to be offensive and a big ripoff!!! In order to break-through that measly $500/Day draw, an MCD dentist would have to produce an average of $5,000/Day over 21-days per month on a predominantly PPO DHMO fee schedule... Fellow dentists, we all know that's working our fingers to the bone!!! Its nearly impossible to do with conventional dentistry.
As far as the title "MCD" goes, Aspen Dental recruiters would like their new dentists believe that they will be "co-managers" of their clinic, where the office manager runs to front of the clinic, and the MCD runs the back of the clinic... Well, I can honestly say that this hiring tactic is a classic bait & switch, because both the MCD & Associate dentist (s) are considered to be highly expendable and very insignificant within the Aspen Dental clinic... Especially when it comes to any kind of management decisions throughout the clinic.in fact, the office manager seemed to treat the hygienist as more of an "MCD" than the dentist that was supposedly hired for that position. Bottom Line: Either the dentist does what they're told to do by the office manager & regional manager, or they'll be fired without notice... That's exactly what happened to me when I offered my periodic written concerns to the office manager and the regional manager. Funny thing was, these concerns were totally legitimate, and all were geared in the best interest of Aspen Dental. Remember, I'm an educated professional who takes pride in my work, not just trying to be a "squeaky wheel" for no reason at all.
As it turned-out, my office manager was very unprofessional and immature, as I've learned most Aspen Dental managers are, simply because of Aspen's rapid expansion, tight manager salaries, and lack of ability to find quality help at all the right times. Bottom line, my office manager was fraternizing with subordinate staff members after-hours, and then developed personal friendships with them, and then basically gave them free reign of the clinic. The sub-ordinates became the super-ordinates, and they were completely immune from any company policy, as well as their unprofessional treatment of the dentist (s) and patient (s). Somehow, their rogue behavior would always find its way back to the MCD, although the MCD had no management authority inside Aspen Dental, nor could MCD initiate any disciplinary actions to help control bad behavior. The staff would come to blame the MCD for their own poor performance on any given day because they claimed the MCD would "belittle" them, or make them "feel stupid." They made these claims even though they wouldn't produce any clear evidence to support their claims, and even though the MCD had no idea what they were talking about... They just said it, and expected that to be enough... And, surprisingly, in the end it was enough for the management to be convinced into terminating the MCD without notice. LOL! Now, it would seem both the MCD and the MCD's patients feel "belittled" and "stupid" for having ever been associated with a crappy organization like Aspen Dental.
If cutting into the dentist's wallet and sense of professionalism aren't enough, there's always the Aspen Dental office manager who openly admits disrespect for any dentist, and thinks they have the freedom to change and/or omit the dentists' recommendations for prescribing medication to patients, as well as changing and/or omitting certain procedures the dentist plans in a patient's chart.in fact, the office manager I worked with had no problem jeopardizing the dentist's license to practice dentistry on any given day, and would invalidate any objection the dentist would give for these secondary decisions ultimately being the dentist's responsibility when things would go wrong for the patients.in fact, such objections by the dentist would be viewed as contempt for the office manager's decisions, and would warrant spiteful reactions from the office manager soon thereafter.in hindsight, I noticed this frank disrespect and contempt for the dentist increased over time from the staff and office manager... Until the dentist was finally fired without notice one day.
If all this isn't enough, there's the crazy schedule Aspen Dental has... Monday: (9-6); Tuesday: (11-8); Wednesday: (9-6); Thursday: (9-6); Friday: (8-5); and Saturday: (8-5). Yes, that's right, night hours and 6-day weeks are the norm in this organization. Dentists outside Aspen Dental are typically accostomed to working 4-day weeks, and only during "regular" business hours. So, bottom line, Aspen Dental's schedule is full-time only, and really designed to wear-out even the most eager dentist over time.
When it comes to MOST patients, they can expect to be diagnosed with gum disease, have a team of "professionals" each remind them about the severity of their gum disease, and then be given no alternatives other than undergoing super-expensive "gum therapy" to get it under control. True, some patients fall into this category, but NOT the majority of them as I've seen happen so many times and been encouraged to go along with for my "stamp of approval." Even so, these patients that really need the gum disease help should ALSO be referred to a specialist called a "Periodontist, " rather than JUST being indefinitely cycled through an Aspen Dental hygienist's chair for topical and non-surgical treatment techniques. The regional manager admitted to us that "hygiene services" is the hardest thing to sell in dentistry, so we must work together as a team to increase to urgency of this department to the patients...
Also, as a consumer rights activist, I'm inclined to admit that Aspen Dental views each one of their clinics as "profit centers, " rather than as community oral health centers... They have universal software that produces a bunch of business numbers called "Metrics, " and from these numbers they focus on daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly sales performances from clinic to clinic... Then, they take it a step further by conducting behind-the-scenes competitions with other clinics to see who can produce the most from their own unsuspecting patients, and then reward the dentists, hygienists, and staff for doing so... Patients who are supposed to trust and honor the professional judgment and recommendations of their Aspen Dental healthcare providers are in many cases being way oversold. Fact: The average treatment plan for any given patient is usually about $4,000!!! With all the cheesy advertising Aspen Dental does on TV, and all the insurance participation they force dentists to do, they usually attract about 10 new patients a day... Then they have a "Metric" that shows how much treatment was planned, versus how much was accepted in dollar amounts. LOL! Quite greedy, indeed... Obviously, there's no "Metric" to see if a patient's primary concern was address and resolved on any given day. Such irrelevant details are of no importance to Aspen Dental.
Finally, there's the Chinese dental lab in Beijing that's producing ALL of Aspen Dental's crowns, bridges, and partial denture metal frameworks... Funny thing here is, any given Aspen clinic will try and be sneaky by sending their cases in the mail to their central lab in Syracuse, NY... Then, Aspen's QC will check the impression (s) there... Assuming the impression looks OK, they will forward the impression (s) to Beijing, China for final prosthesis construction. The finished prosthesis is eventually returned to the Aspen clinic in reverse fashion from above in about 2.5-weeks. As a U.S. Dentist, I must admit this is pretty sketchy, since the FDA has no over-site or authority on actual materials being used in these prosthetics, which Aspen Dental patients are expected to wear in their mouths for many years on end.
Dear patients, as a former Aspen Dental dentist, I must admit these truths to you. Likewise, for current and future Aspen Dental dentists & hygienists, I can only beg you to stand for your integrity and good clinical judgment to benefit the patient's interests longterm, rather than compromising your ethics and morals just to turn a higher short-term profit for Aspen Dental corporate executives who really don't care about you or your professional license. This is especially true for Dentists, (AKA: "Doc").
Well, I hope this information helps anyone reading this think twice about doing business with this rogue organization. After witnessing their tactics from the inside, I certainly wouldn't put my career in their hands, and moreover my health in their hands! Good luck!
Signed,
Concerned Dentist
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