Clinicians across the U.S. are faced with a growing ethical dilemma that challenges the core quality of our profession. How do we continue to provide high-quality treatment despite the rising cost of practicing dentistry? Further, how can we keep our practices competitive in a shifting dental environment that includes managed care and corporate group practices?

Now more than ever, factors outside of our control are shifting the playing field. Laws require business owners to pay employees higher wages and provide more benefits; the growth of the corporate dental model forces private practices to advertise to stay visible; and insurance providers don’t adequately compensate for the true cost of services. Patients’ needs have not changed, yet their decisions are increasingly driven by cost. Compounding that, competing colleagues might be willing to offer treatment at a lower price point than what your practice can afford to accept. Can we find a balance between delivering high-quality dentistry and maintaining a profitable practice?

Often, passing the high costs directly to the patient will result in pricing yourself out of the market. On the other hand, devaluing your own chairside compensation will not allow the practice to afford basic necessities.

Partnering with companies that share the goal of making treatment affordable is a valid solution. Since founding his laboratory in 1970, the goal of Jim Glidewell, CDT, has been to keep dentistry affordable by providing high-quality and high-value products at a reasonable cost. BruxZir^® Solid Zirconia is the physical realization of that message: a clinically proven esthetic restorative solution at a very reasonable price point. We hope our continued research and development across all of our product lines is allowing you to offer ethical, necessary care at a price that allows your business to thrive.