Having graduated from dental school in 1977, I’m closing in on 40 years of serving and observing our profession. From this perspective, I’m becoming more and more aware of how much of life runs in predictable cycles.

Thinking of myself and many of my peers, I see that our personal lives are very similar to each other in many ways. With some notable exceptions, most of us grew up in somewhat stable home environs, made it through college and dental school, married, had children, and found that dentistry provided a reasonably rewarding career for many years. Now we can see the same cycle repeating with our own children.

With that as a backdrop, I’m convinced that our profession has its “life cycles” as well. I recently read an article in Dentaltown magazine that proved to be especially interesting because it was a round table type discussion about the future of dentistry. As I read the article, I had one of those deja vu experiences. I was sure I had seen similar discussions many years ago about the future, and even the demise, of the private practice of dentistry. (I have searched in vain for a picture I’ve seen – circa 1980s – of a family in a museum, looking wistfully at a display of what a “dental operatory” looked like, now that they no longer existed.)

I think a case can be made that we are again in a cycle in which it is timely and pertinent to discuss the future of private practice. This cycle has been revisited, in large part, because other professions, particularly pharmacy and optometry, have changed to much more of a franchise model, with large corporate ownership. In the same magazine, Dr. Howard Farran, in his monthly column, makes a very good point, asserting the following:”Let’s talk about the reality. Dentistry’s unique selling proposition is surgery. We work in an operatory. Our hands and fingers are in someone’s mouth. It’s not the same as a pharmacy or an eye clinic. It takes human hands and human eyeballs to perform dentistry.”

Because I have a sense that I’ve heard much of the pessimism before regarding the ultimate death of the private practice, I recall the statement credited to Mark Twain, when he is purported to have said, ” Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

I do think we’ll see changes in the field of dentistry in the coming years. But I firmly believe there will always be an important role for the solo practice.

Dr. Brad Babcock