Oral surgery practices are a very important part of the healthcare world given that these individual surgeons are able to provide a significant amount of work for people that have serious dental issues. The biggest strength relating to owning and operating an oral surgery practice is that these businesses have very high barriers to entry. Someone that is becoming or has become an oral surgeon has gone through extensive dental and medical training and often will have both a dental degree (DDS or DMD) as well as a medical degree (MD). There is also an extensive amount of training that is involved so that an individual can properly operate as an oral surgeon within their target market. The gross margins generated from the services is extremely high as are the fees. It is not uncommon to have procedures that can cost anywhere from $2,000 all the way to $15,000 depending on the complexity of the work that needs to be done. These businesses are also completely immune from negative changes in the economy given that people are always going to have substantial dental issues that must be attended to by an oral surgeon. The startup costs associated with these types of businesses typically ranges anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000 depending on the location and whether or not associate oral surgeons will be on staff from the onset of operations. These businesses also have the strength and being able to receive their payments not only from patients but also from private insurance and publicly funded healthcare systems such as Medicare and Medicaid.
For weaknesses, as with any type of dental practice there are always going to be issues pertaining to the malpractice if the surgeon does not do their job properly. However, there are a number of insurance policies available that can remedy the risk associated with operating an oral surgery practice. For competitive threats, there are usually only a handful of licensed oral surgeons within any given market. At the time of this writing, the demand for oral surgeons typically far outweighs the supply within the market. As such, while there are some issues with weaknesses regarding competition – this is a very modest weakness and should have no impact on the businesses ability to generate revenues on a monthly basis.
Relating to opportunities, oral surgery practices can rapidly expand their revenue base by hiring associate surgeons that will provide their services as either independent contractors or employees. Many oral surgery practices will also seek to establish different locations in order to serve a greater portion of the target market. In some cases, these practices may also hire associate dentist that include orthodontists, periodontists, and endodontists, and related dental specialties that can provide a whole host of specialty surgical services to the general public. However, it is usually standard practice for most oral surgeons to only provide this type of service. Many oral surgeons will also offer cosmetic procedures including implant dentistry.
For threats, these are actually considered to be somewhat moderate for an oral surgery practice. Of course, changes in regulation could impact the way that these businesses generate revenue from the perspective of receiving reimbursements from publicly funded healthcare systems as well as private insurance companies. One of the other threats that is faced by these businesses is the ongoing expansion of the number of dental specialties that provide implant dentistry services. However, given an oral surgeon’s substantial training within this market – there is very little competition given that many people will seek out an oral surgeon in order to have an implant properly placed into their mouths. As such, while many other types of healthcare focus businesses face a number of different threats – these are somewhat moderate for an oral surgery practice.