The Dilemma of Free Dental Care

No matter where your employees work, they’ll expect some kind of “insider” deal as part of employment. Even the bag boy at the grocery store gets a free donut every once in a while.

A dental office is a little more complicated. You’re offering a very professional, time-consuming, expensive service.

Some offices have no written policy at all on who gets discounted and/or free dental work. Others have written policies that are very vague or generous – sometimes to the point of being dangerous.

Here’s my hard-and-fast rule on the subject:

“Promise on paper the minimum benefits you are comfortable giving to staff and their families.”

You can always go above and beyond the written rule and be the bighearted professional who treats employees like family…. and people will love you for it. But scaling back a written promise will make you look unfair and cheap, and as someone who maintains a leadership role, this just isn’t an option.

Consider this:

Mary has been working your front desk for a little over 3 months. She has proven herself to be what we call a “marginal” employee and you don’t anticipate that she’ll be with the practice long-term. At lunch one day, one of Mary’s friends suggests to her that since she works in a dental office, she should get some dentistry done to improve her smile. When Mary returns to the office, she consults the Policy Manual you gave her when she started with you and she sees it states that after three months of full-time employment, she is entitled to free dentistry.

She asks to speak with you at the end of the workday, and when seated in your private office, she states, “Dr. Generous, I’ve been here for more than three months, and I know that I’m entitled to free dentistry. So, I’m ready to get some porcelain veneers to improve my smile.”

You have no choice but to do the necessary dentistry for free.

Let’s look at a slightly different scenario, same employee, and same desire to have cosmetic dentistry done. This time, however, your office manual states,

“After one year of full-time, continuous employment, a team member is entitled to $1,000 per year of free dentistry.”

 Now, you have a choice whether or not to do this treatment for free. Further, if Mary were a superstar, wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing to sit Mary down and explain:

“Mary, I know you’ve only been here for three-months, and our policy states you have to be here for one year to receive free dentistry, but you’re such a great employee, and we know you will be with us a long time. For that reason, I would love to help you out by doing your veneers for free.”

 Instead of Mary feeling entitled that you owe her the dentistry, she is grateful for whatever benefit you offer her beyond the stated and expected policy. This shifts the work culture from “what can I get out of working here?” to “I’m so glad I work with such a great team.”

You can edit your own handbook any way you like. Maybe you’ll have employees only pay the nominal laboratory free. Maybe you’ll offer free dentistry, but only when there are vacant gaps in your schedule. It’s up to you to choose how generous you are, just make sure the rulebook doesn’t make promises that will weigh heavily on you later.

Dr. Mike Goldstein
Goldstein Management