Spa Dental joins the Independent Dentist Network

Spa Dental joins the Independent Dentist Network

‘Dental practices driven by care not profit’

April 2017

Your trusted local dental practice in Top Ryde, Spa Dental, is delighted to announce that they have joined the Independent Dentist Network (IDN). Combining forces with a growing stable of highly reputable dentists nationwide, IDN seeks to unite all independent dental practices to preserve patient’s freedom of choice and promote better oral health care for all Australians.

Dentistry in Australia is experiencing notable change, unfortunately this is resulting in restrictions on patient freedom of choice for providers and treatment options as health funds are becoming more controlling of their members’ oral care management. To contain costs and maximise profits, many Health Funds have evolved to a model where they own their own dental practices. This enables them to keep their members in-house through the vertical integration of all dental services. On top of this we now have an ever-increasing number of corporate chains buying up multiple practices and operating them as corporate entities.

Founder and Managing Director of IDN, Mervin Saultry is committed to ‘helping dentists to help their patients achieve optimal oral health. IDN assists by facilitating freedom of choice for patients empowering them to enjoy a long-term relationship with a health professional they trust – not just by someone employed by a Health Insurance or corporate entity’.

With a genuine passion for dentistry and providing exceptional dental treatment and personalised service, Practice Principal of Spa Dental, Dr Sean Parsonage decided to join IDN to take control back for their practice and patients. According to Dr Parsonage, ‘more and more dental practices are being acquired by larger corporate groups with large marketing budgets and who are driven by achieving high profit and patient volumes but often jeopardising the level and quality of care’. He goes on to state that ‘today there is also greater health fund control leading to less choice for patients and less value for treatment received from cover’.

To achieve the Spa Dental vision of ‘creating beautiful smiles everyday’ Parsonage says, our priority is ‘building and nurturing long term relationships and providing highly personalised treatment and care’. As independent private practitioners, Spa Dental, as do all the IDN dentists, work collaboratively with their patients to achieve long term oral health that is not limited to health fund restrictions but based upon personalised plans that deliver maximum value.

Highlighted in the 2015-16 Patient Experience Survey conducted by the ABS on dental patients, one in five (19%) people who needed to see a dental professional delayed or did not go because of the cost. People aged 25-44 years were the most likely to delay seeing or not see a dental professional because of cost, with one in four (25%) in this category. IDN practices are coming together to provide better preventative oral health planning and care for their patients by giving them more personalised plan options delivering substantially better value in the long term.

To find out more about Spa Dental and Independent Dentist Network please visit
www.spadentalsydneycbd.com.au
www.independentdentist.com.au

Please call (02) 9809 2900 or email ryde@totallysmiles.com.au