Reinventing the Dental Industry – A Podcast

Access to Anyone is Michael Roderick’s professional advice and inspiration podcast, and I was honored to be a featured guest on a recent episode! Titled “Reinventing the Dental Industry with Dr. Sonia Chopra,” we took some time to explore where the industry has been, where it is now, and where it’s going.

Here’s a sample of what we discussed:

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Michael Roderick: “A question I think a lot of our audience has is what’s the difference between a dentist and an endodontist? Not many people know. It’s not like we have an endodontist on Peppa Pig.”

Dr. Sonia Chopra: “Haha. So, endodontics is the specialty of root canal therapy, or saving teeth. And you’re right, there’s very little awareness for my specialty, or that endodontists even exist. Most people go to their general dentist and would love to get everything done there, but the reality is that dentistry is just as specialized as medicine, and every little thing in our mouth deserves its own domain.

That’s why we have oral surgeons who do implants and wisdom teeth extractions, periodontists who look at the gums and the bone, or pediatric specialists who work with children. These specialists do that one thing over and over. That’s the main difference. Yes, you can have dentists who are capable of all of this, but there’s so much to learn, so much tech that comes into play that having people with their zone of genius is really important to the quality and level of care you receive.”

Michael: “It sounds to me like a dentist is similar to what you’d find in a general physician at your city MD. Someone who has those things as part of their background, but they aren’t really specialists in whatever your issue is. So they’re helping you, but there may be something that they’re missing. Does that sound accurate?”

Dr. Chopra: “Yeah. There’s so much depth to each specialty that if a general dentist wanted to dive down to any of them they’re totally capable of that, but for me, I wanted to focus on being really good at one thing and able to fix that one issue, rather than be good at everything.”

Michael: “From a standpoint of marketing, often when you have a specialization, it’s something that can help drive people to you. It’s a big part of when people discuss the power of a brand, the reach of a brand. What did that look like for you when you were coming up and developing this practice? Was there any branding that came behind this, or was it more that dentists knew you as a specialist and sent people your way?”

Dr. Chopra: “For me, I decided I wanted to speak through tooth stories because that’s what I experienced. I wanted to showcase different ways these teeth were behaving and ailing patients. That has become my brand, because I think it’s valuable to learn through these cases and these unique patient experiences.”

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And so much more! We continue to talk about how I choose tooth stories, why I want to increase awareness for both dentists and patients to understand what the patient’s body is telling them.

To listen to the full audio, you can find it on the official Access to Anyone podcast website, here:

REINVENTING THE DENTAL INDUSTRY WITH DR. SONIA CHOPRA

Empower yourself,

Sonia