A niche. Who says I need one?

Lots of dentists don’t have a niche.

“I’m a general dentist. I do a bit of everything.”

Fair enough. Can’t argue with that, but I’m going to give you four reasons you might want to consider having a niche.

1. You’re setting up a new practice
   Trying to grow a new practice when you are offering the same as most other dentists is very hard to do. Patients have no special reason to come and see you if your selling point is the same as an already well-established dentist down the street.
   I personally set up a practice 20 years ago in a very competitive area. From day one I did everything I could to differentiate myself — to offer something new and different. The result was that my practice took off very rapidly and within 6 months I was flat out.

2. You don’t want to treat certain types of patients
   Every dentists has types of patients that they don’t gel with. Maybe it is children? My experience with children was that nine times out of ten everything ran smoothly and the tenth time, with a super difficult child, made you regret you ever became a dentist.
   Maybe for you it is another type of patient. Whatever it is, if you have a niche, you can simply exclude the type of patient that you find difficult or unpleasant to treat.

3. You don’t want to do certain types of treatment
   Some dentists love doing dentures. Some hate it.
   Personally I’m in the latter category. Whenever a patient asked about dentures I could simply tell them that I don’t do them and then offer a referral to someone who did.
   Another example is patchwork dentistry. Some patients just want things fixed as cheaply as possible even if it will break again. I found that was frustrating so didn’t do it.

4. You want to become better and more efficient at what you do
   If you do a little bit of everything you are never going to become great at anything. Have you ever heard the expression: “Jack of all trades. Master of none.”?
   In my practice, because I did so much indirect restorative dentistry that I became really good at it and really efficient.

So, there are four good reasons to find a niche for yourself.

What do you think? Are you convinced or will you go on doing a little bit of everything?