Dr. Charles Reinertsen started his dental career in 1979 after graduating from the University of Florida’s College of Dentistry. He opened his family dental practice in Tavares and has been serving the dental needs of local residents for almost 40 years.
Dr. Chuck Reinertsen once thought as many Dentists do: the key to earning more was to produce more. After all, his central Florida general dental practice grew steadily since 1979; his waiting room always seemed full, and he had a loyal base of patients. What also grew steadily during the same period was his overhead. So at the age of 61, Chuck was at a crossroads: he had not saved enough to maintain his current lifestyle in retirement. His strategy to improve his finances and hope for aggressive retirement savings growth was risky. He was betting that a significant increase in production would fill more chairs and therefore lead to a similar increase in his personal income.
All this activity would hopefully keep his overhead in check while he would divert some of that new income into his retirement savings. While these plans for expansion were exciting, they kept the good doctor up at night. That’s a lot of birds to hit with one stone, but what other options were there?
In this episode we discuss:
- [2:36] – As a pioneer Dr. Reinersten explains how the discussion around oral and systemic health has evolved over 30 years.
- [5:36] – What sort of systemic diseases are typically linked to oral diseases?
- [7:44] – How broadly has this link between systemic and oral diseases been adopted by our medical colleagues?
- [10:58] – What’s the transition from ‘tooth mechanic’ to ‘health provider’ look like?
- [14:31] – The gateway is the new patient exam, Dr. Reinersten explains what he asks his new patients and how he is educating them?
- [18:16] – How does Oral v Systemic health look in a modern practice.
- [24:09] – Where are some good resources for someone to find out more about dental disease and systemic disease?
