What You Should Know About Dental Support Organizations (DSOs)

When it finally comes to mapping out their careers in dentistry, most dentists either have to choose between these three options:

1. Join a private practice
2. Look for a dental business for sale
3. Join a Dental Service Organization (DSO)

But what is a DSO?

A Dental Service or Support Organization is at the core a business model that offers non-clinical dental functions for a dental practice. In several cases, these services can include business operations, such as marketing, supply chain, human resources, IT operations, and admin support. If you’re a dentist who wants to treat patients primarily and forget about the secondary operations involved in the process, you should consider partnering up with a Dental Service Organization.

A DSO usually promises an enhanced work-life balance and greater flexibility. Compared to this, dentists who manage all of their practice operations may have to switch hats way too often. That said, you may have to consider a few additional points if you’re outsourcing some of your business’s operations to a DSO.

Will You Maintain the Authority Over Your Practice’s Operations?

By getting rid of the administrative burden that can come with running a business, a DSO should give you the freedom to focus only on providing care to people in pain. It’s also important to ensure that the DSO’s involvement in your practice’s operations is only limited to the business side, while decisions pertaining to the clinical side are left to you. Ultimately, you should have complete control over your practice’s operations.

You should have the autonomy to practice dentistry the way you always have while using the resources at your disposal.

Will You Have Access to Expansive Infrastructure?

The structure that a DSO builds in your practice should not be one that limits future growth. To understand the infrastructure they’re providing, ask them about the different available resources.

Want to know more about dental practices for sale? Visit our website.