DentalAce Leadership Blog – Our Covid-19 Special
Since the country is now in the re-opening phase after the Covid-19 pandemic, we from the DentalAce leadership team believe that it makes sense for our members and portal visitors to hear our thoughts on the current situation of and our future outlook for dental care in the city of Vienna.Though the weeks of the “lockdown” had a negative effect on the economy and consumed almost the entire “news cycle”, there were nevertheless several bright spots related to the dental care sector, which we'd like to elaborate on here.
Index
- Clearly proven value for members
- Dental tourism is the future no more
- Transparency and ease of use are valued
- Innovation happens right here at home
- Call to our readers and to representatives of the local press to spread the word
Clearly proven value for our members
First, the Covid-19 crisis completely confirmed the business model of the DentalAce platform and its utility for dentists and patients. This is because, even at a time when most dental practices in Vienna kept their doors shut and the majority of the local population stayed at home, DentalAce still managed to help our dentist members, who worked through the crisis, gain 15 or more new patients on a monthly basis. Our platform was able to do this because the few patients who were looking for a dentist could not find one via any other avenue because they were either blocked or associated with exceptionally long waiting times. In short: Even at crisis times, DentalAce delivered on its promised value to customers and very clearly proved itself.Dental tourism is the future no more
For several years now, an increasing number of press outlets is commenting on how the so-called dental tourism is putting increasing competitive pressure on local dentists and how it will, in the longer run, steal the "show" from local dental care professionals due to significantly lower treatment pricing. Though it is undoubtedly the case that some dental practices on the Austrian borders to Hungary and the Czech Republic have seen an increasing number of Austrian patients over the past few years, these patient streams completely died down after the border closures related to the Covid-19 pandemic.This forced even the most hardcore dental tourists to change plans and many of them discovered that the novel price transparency-related functions on the DentalAce platform made it absolutely possible for them to find a competent dentist here in Vienna at a price that they could afford. We from DentalAce not only foresaw this changing trend but actually actively supported it with our unique functionality in an effort to help local patients and dentists with finding their "perfect match". The Covid-19 "lockdowns" ironically only accelerated this development.
Transparency and ease of use are valued
To continue along the same lines of the previous topic: Our novel price transparency-related functions are being used increasingly frequently by our members and visitors and will continue to gain in popularity because they allow patients to finally clarify any questions around treatment pricing prior to an appointment with only a few clicks. This allows them to show up for their next assignment with a relaxing certainty, which is something that was not possible in the past.On top of that, DentalAce is the only online platform in Vienna that allows patients to book a dentist appointment with fewer than 5 clicks and our built-in 24/7 direct messaging function makes communication between patients and dentists significantly easier. And the best thing about this is that all of our functions can be used via PC as well as via any table or smartphone and do not require any personal contact, which made them that much more useful during the "lockdown" period and which certainly enabled a number of booked appointments that would otherwise not have been booked.
Innovation happens right here at home
Another very interesting trend that is not necessarily tied to Covid-19 is the fact that the DentalAce platform is seeing an increasing number of dentists of choice join, which is great because these dentists specialize in the newest and most modern dental therapies. This stands in stark contrast to panel dentists who offer only the most basic and necessary services due to the reimbursement rules set up by insurers. Simply put, this limits a panel dentist to only perform at a satisfactory or, at best, a good, but never at an exceptional service level.A perfect example for such an innovative service is the novel treatment approach called laser therapy, which is already being offered by some of our member dentists - of course with our price check options in order to allow interested patients to confirm pricing ahead of time to make sure it fits into their budget. Thereby, DentalAce manages to make even the most cutting edge therapies available to patients at affordable prices. And all of that without any help from local health insurance companies or even wrap-around insurance providers (though wrap-around insurance policies can only be a welcome service to patients).
Call to our readers and to representatives of the local press to spread the word
Thanks to the above-mentioned trends and because DentalAce has made it one of our goals to pave the way towards optimal dental care for as many patients here in Vienna as possible after the "lockdown", we have scheduled an Online Info Session on June 11, 2020 at 5:30pm CET to discuss further details about this topic.Our readers and representatives of the local press are cordially invited to join this event (invitations will be sent separately) and we also stand ready to follow up on any interview requests after our info session.
For additional questions, we are always reachable at: dentalace@acemydental.com and for any press inquiries, we would like to refer you to our press corner HERE.
Stay healthy and all the Best!
Your DentalAce Team
-------------------------
Author: Emil Nedev - Co-Founder of DentalAce
Emil Nedev is one of the two co-founders of DentalAce and had the idea that ultimately resulted in the company's formation back in 2012 when he had to have his wisdom teeth removed. Since he could not find a suitable appointment time or a solid pricing estimate for the procedure in Austria, he decided to travel to Bulgaria to get the job done there. While the wisdom tooth extraction was a success, the whole trip cost Emil a lot of time and Austrian dentists effectively lost a patient.
This was not acceptable, he thought, and founded DentalAce in an effort to more effectively match local dentists with dentist-seeking patients and to thereby solve the problems of appointment time mismatches and lacking price transparency.
Emil created the first version of DentalAce in 2016 while working on his MBA at Columbia University in New York and has since then been actively developing the platform here in Vienna.
