Dr. Chris Salierno is a general dentist from Long Island, New York. He graduated from Stony a brook School of Dental Medicine in 2005. He has served as the National President of the American Student Dental Association, Chair of the ADA New Dentist Committee, and as President of his local dental society. He lectures internationally on clinical dentistry, practice management, and leadership development. His material can be viewed on his blog, The Curious Dentist. In 2014, he became the Chief Editor of Dental Economics.
In This Episode We Discuss:
– Recent changes in Dental Economics Magazine
– Is print media dead?
– Are there too many dentist in this country?
One of the things that I have noticed is that a lot of the contributors have changed recently. Whats going on with that?
We still have our favorite regular columnists. A regular columnist used to be that you wrote every month for 12 issues a year. We changed that because we just need the room. It is expensive and getting more expensive to send a print publication to 104 thousand people. So that means we are supported by advertising. The editorial integrity that we have is that you can not buy an article. We get a collection of editorial every month and if we love the content we are happy to put it in. Once it passes the sniff test we then look at what editorial has generated interest from advertisers. If there is an article that we love but it doesn’t generate any advertising interest then it may have to be bumped a couple of issues until we have that free real estate of open editorial where the advertising is great and we have the room to put it in. That open space is tough thing to achieve. If we have ten authors that are writing regular columns for twelve issues a year, than that is even less space. So by reducing our regular columnist from 12 to 6 issues a year or taking some authors and making them quarterly, then we have now opened up significantly more page space to get more fresh perspective and some other ideas in there.
So I understand that DE is hosting a conference soon. Can you tell us a little more about that?
This is the first time DE or anyone else has had a conference exclusively devoted to practice management. There is nothing in there that is clinical. This is a boot camp to for you to get tough on your business, whether you are fresh out of dental school, whether you’ve been out for a long time, or whether you are close to retirement. Just like an issue of DE we have content that is applicable for all of those areas. What you’ll notice is that the list of speakers are people who write for DE. We divided up the lecture topics so that we hit every area of practice management. One of the other things that we are excited about, is that there isnt going to be a giant exhibit hall. The speakers at this conference have not been purchased by some company and that does happen at some conferences. We want our audience to know that you are getting everything our speakers have and are sitting through an extended commercial.
Who is this event geared towards? Who should be going?
I don’t think that this would be the best for a hygienist or a dental assistant. I think that an office manager who is very interested in the flow and systems of a healthy and thriving practice could get a lot out of it. This is for business owners. People who are or are about to be business owners. It is all under one roof. One conference that has front to back everything you wish you knew or should know before getting into ownership.
Is there anything that you want our listeners to know?
I mentioned before about engagement. Its all about a dialogue. Dentistry as a profession should be a dialogue. Lets talk about the issues that matter most to you. If you see a story that you love or hate and want to hear more about it. There are great forums on our Facebook page and online to have that engagement. What worries me most about the future of our profession is that we will stop talking to each other. We are colleagues and we are in this together. Our competition is not each other. We need to keep the dialogue open and keep engaging in media that is directed towards you, keep going to meetings, be active members of your practice and active members of your profession.
How can we get in touch with you?
Email: csalierno@pennwell.com
Blog: The Curious Dentist