OUR JOURNEY
A brief history of dental care, and the emergence of a new and far better dental care business model.
OUR MISSION
Fixing Dental Care
Dental care today is based on 500+ procedures, each with embedded profit. ​ It's a broken model.
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Example: Charging $55 for a 2-minute fluoride treatment that costs 25 cents generates profits and drives up dental insurance rates. It causes insurers to exclude the procedure for adults, even though the ADA says it's the best step after a cleaning, for any age patient.
Example: Charging for each x-ray as if the dental office still has a photographic darkroom onsite. The darkroom of a developer, fixer, safelights and stopbath have been replaced by digital technology. Why is your dental office still charging as if it takes 20 minutes to see the results?
Symptoms of a broken healthcare model.
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For large employers SIMPLE DENTAL provides dental care using salaried employees. Expenses are paid by a "premium" paid direct to the dental team instead of an insurer. There are is no "price" for any procedure. The dental team simply performs any dental procedure needed as part of their work day.
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For employers who simply don't have enough patients (employees and their dependents) we design a dental plan that provides 100% benefit up to a more reasonable $2000+ annual limit.
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Simple Dental solutions that
make sense.
The Journey
1965
FIRST DENTAL INSURANCE
Fear of early dental offices
The idea was to encourage preventive care by offering 2 free cleanings a year. If any issues developed, the patient pays a greater percentage. Bad for the patient, but good for the insurance company. The patient assumes the risk, and the insurer grabs any profits.
1992
The American Dental Association and
Roger Schultz, the founder of Simple Dental
work together to create a better group dental plan. Initially coined "Direct Reimbursement" and now known as "Simple Plans", the new group dental plan eliminated virtually all limits and exclusions of the 1965 plan, eliminated insurance profits, eliminated state and federal taxes and ceased paying dentists based on each procedure performed. The Simple Plan is now used by some of the largest employersin the country. Today, over 5000 employers from coast-to-coast use a Simple Plan instead of a traditional group dental plan.
FIRST MAJOR CHANGE IN GROUP DENTAL PLANS
Roger Schultz, founder
2001
FIRST ONSITE DENTAL OFFICES
Ben Jolley, Director of HR
Dest Dental Management, a NC-based DSO (Dental Service Organization) forms one of the country's first onsite dental offices. Serving 10,000 patients in Wachovia's home office in Charlotte, employees never had to leave the building to obtain dental care. The dental office had no waiting room because employees could remain at their desk until called for their appointment.
2015
Dest Dental Management expands its onsite
presence to include 400 locations, primarily
serving healthcare facilities. The mobile dental team
visits each location for a day or two, before moving to the next location. Patients receive any needed dental care onsite using state-of-the-art mobile dental equipment. The
frequency and convenience of onsite visits quickly
improves the oral health of each patient.
The founder of Dest Dental Management, Dr. Richard Dest, DDS, serves as Director of Dental Care for Project Dental today.
EXPANSION OF MOBILE DENTAL CARE
Dr. Richard Dest, DDS
2021
REENGINEERING DENTAL CARE
The core focus of the business shifts from providing less restrictive dental plans to focus on $0 fee (100% coverage) plans with higher limits, including unlimited dental care.
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The strategy is based on "non-profit" dental care where the dental care staff is salaried and/or by providing financial motivation to patients to use a PPO dentist (at an average savings of 25% over non-discounted dental care.
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For large employers (1000+), paying for dental care on a salaried basis removes the uncertainty. Any needed dental care is provided with no fears of unexpected bills.
2023+
Simple Dental believes larger employers should
replace group dental plans with
direct-to-patient care. Just like an employer who offers "free" flu or COVID vaccines through a single provider, the employer offers "free, unlimited dental care" through a single provider onsite or nearsite.
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