Dental News - Location, location, location

Dental Tribune USA

Sun. 24 July 2016

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In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. In dentistry, it’s also about location, and that certainly was the case for Dr. Monica Garnache. Many dentists who own or work with an Aspen Dental-branded practice join Aspen after getting a taste of private practice. But Garnache took a different route on her way to owning multiple Aspen Dental practices.

Garnache knew she wanted to be a dentist at a young age. She had a childhood dentist who inspired her to work in health care. Dentistry appealed to her because of the instant gratification. As a dentist, she imagined being able to immediately help people and see quick results – whether giving a patient some pain relief or a new smile.

After attending Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston, Garnache became a temporary dentist. She joined an Aspen Dental practice in New England as an associate doctor before becoming a lead dentist in that office. She then opened a new Aspen office in New Hampshire. She loved working in an Aspen practice, with the support of Aspen Dental Management Inc., the dental support organization that handles the business side of things. She wanted to become a practice owner right away.

Due to family reasons, however, Garnache had to relocate to California after only two years with Aspen. Since there are currently no Aspen practices in California, she couldn’t fulfill her dream of ownership with Aspen. Instead, she purchased a traditional private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even though there are close to 900,000 people in that area, there are also more than 8,000 dentists, making the area highly competitive for practicing dentists because there is no shortage of dental care. When Garnache discovered this, she knew she had to make a change.

“One morning, my office manager came to me and said, ‘Doc, you need to find two crowns to do today so we can pay the bills,’” Garnache recalls. “This was a complete shock. I never heard that when I was working with Aspen Dental. We always had plenty of patients who truly needed my help without me having to ‘look’ for dentistry.”

Around the same time, Garnache heard that Aspen had expanded into the Pacific Northwest, so she sold her practice in California and moved to Oregon, where she opened her first Aspen office as a practice owner. Just a few years later, she now owns three Aspen practices, has been able to build strong and engaging teams, and has a steady flow of patients who desperately need dental care.

With Aspen Dental, dentists can work their way up – in just a few years – from an associate dentist right out of college to an owner of multiple practices. Although Garnache is now an accomplished dentist and practice owner, her path to success required her to be open to relocation and new adventures in order to achieve her childhood dream. Luckily, the Aspen model provides dentists with the opportunity to relocate for a variety of reasons.

If you or someone you know is interested in relocating or joining an Aspen practice, you can send the company an email at recruiting@aspendental.com.

Note: This article was published in Dental Tribune U.S. Edition, Vol. 11, No. 7, July 2016 issue. (Source: Aspen Dental)