Discover how one dentist successfully built a thriving TMJ and sleep practice by combining expertise in dental health with a focus on sleep disorders. By investing in specialized training and certifications, this dentist gained the knowledge necessary to diagnose and treat temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders and obstructive sleep apnea. Implementing a patient-centered approach, they developed tailored treatment plans that address individual needs. Through effective marketing strategies, community outreach, and building strong referral networks, this practice became a trusted resource for comprehensive care in both areas.
Transcription of Episode
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Should you open up a separate TMJ and sleep practice? We’re going to talk to a guy who’s done it before, right here on Marketing Chairside.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Hi, welcome to Marketing Chairside. And today, I’m joined again by Dr. Jeffrey Haddad.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
I’ll try to exceed expectations.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Yeah. Well, so last time we were on the show, I mean, I had all the intentions of getting what I want to talk about now on that show, but we just ran out of time. We talked about the problems that dentists run into when they want to add more TMJ and sleep patients to their practice. And, by the way, if you’re watching this and you’re like, “That’s what I want to know,” you can find that link in the description.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
But today, Jeff, I want to talk about what led you to open a second office that is under a separate brand. It’s not just a different location. It’s a whole separate brand. I’ll pull up the website here. And just would you tell us about how that came about?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Yeah. I don’t believe in random events, Jonathan. So I was actually in a course. It was a TMD course, and my brain’s always working, it’s always working, and somebody mentioned something about working with other physicians. I said, “Well, I had some really good relationships with other physicians, and ENT groups, and things like that.” And so, there happened to be a group that had kind of a medical campus, and they had internal medicine, they had cardiology, they had ENT. So, I made a phone call over to a friend of mine and, long story short, she said, “We would give anything for you to come over and help us, because we have no idea how to treat these patients, and we have no idea who we can send them to.” So, it kind of made me realize what a huge void this is. It’s in our country, so it’s not just my area. And, Jonathan, I think you’ve seen it too.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
So I decided, as a hobby, to share space for couple days a week, or, I’m sorry, a couple days a month, to start. And within three months I was there every Friday. A few months after that, I was there every Monday and Friday. And it opened up my eyes on the fact that there’s too few people treating TMD and sleep properly. And then, a little teaser here, I had no idea how much this was going to feed my general practice. It’s surpassed all my expectations. It’s amazing.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Well, and you’re a couple websites down, so the road from what you had this first started, but so this is your main practice’s website, and it’s not just TMJ and sleep. It covers kind of all the things that you do. And then you went into this medical building, and I actually worked with you on I’m developing this logo and this separate brand. And so this is, like I said, not just another location, I want to make that clear, but a whole separate brand. And so at that other office, you don’t offer general dentistry or cosmetic dentistry services. I mean, you obviously don’t promote yourself as a specialist, but this is just TMJ and sleep. And so when you started off, how many days a week were you seeing patients?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Twice a month. Two Fridays a month.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Two Fridays a month. And now, where are you at?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Well, now it’s a full on practice. I’m there two to three days a week, and it’s been an amazing accomplishment. It just, it was. And again, I was very confident in what I wanted to do, but I didn’t realize I was treating TMD and sleep patients for almost 15 years prior to this. In the last seven years that this has been open, I see double the amount of TMJ and sleep patients. Double. Because they find me, because I’m viewed as a specialist, right? I’m not a general dentist, and you could probably chime in here, it’s a lot easier to market a practice when all you’re doing is two services.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Right.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Right? You got TMJ and sleep. When you’re in a general practice where you’re doing kind of everything, it goes back to the adage of Jack of all trades, master of none. Well, my TMJ and sleep practice, I’m a master, right? And so it’s easier for me to market, and I believe it’s easier for you to market for me. Is that correct?
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
That’s absolutely right. I mean, just looking at the website again, I mean, both Google and human beings see this website, and the message is simple. I mean, Michigan’s choice for TMJ and sleep apnea, not and cosmetics, and Invisalign, and general dentistry. I mean, this just shows a focused experience. And in terms of search engine optimization, when Google comes to this, there are fewer keywords for them to have to keep track of. And therefore, up here, this is called the title tag. I’ll get rid of my ribbon here. Whoops. Well, I guess I’ll make it really difficult to see there. I’m really not sure what I did there. In terms of search engine optimization, there are opportunities for us to tell Google, “This is what this website’s about.”
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
But when it’s a practice-wide website that’s all about everything you do, we have to figure out an umbrella. And usually, that’s just dentist or maybe cosmetic dentist, and then we sort of have to figure out how we say, “But just because it’s cosmetic dentistry, it doesn’t mean that we don’t also treat TMJ and sleep apnea.” And so, I mean, obviously, most dentists’ websites have a TMJ page, if that’s something that they treat, and a sleep apnea page, and your website does as well. But Google can see this and we can optimize your homepage for sleep apnea and TMJ treatment, and it performs a lot better because of it. But then when patients talk to you, can you just talk about the difference when you get a patient at this office, versus your Rochester practice?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Well, I mean, people have come in there for a reason. Now, I don’t want to discourage people to think that they can’t achieve this by just marketing these services in their own general practice, because I did it for years and we were very successful with it, and we still are. It’s a little bit easier when somebody finds you for that one service or two services, whether it be TMJ and sleep, or one or the other. It’s a lot easier for me when I’m in my practice that is Michigan Center for TMJ & Sleep Wellness. They’re not asking about dentistry. I don’t even do dentistry there. Okay? So they’re asking about specific things. Now that said, we have, because of this, really gotten smarter in our practice too. We have patients who find us for these specific services, and we treat them the same way.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
So we’ve learned through this process. So I guess I don’t want people to think, “Oh, well, I can’t do this unless I open up a whole nother practice.” No, you can, but you just got to concentrate on the marketing, have your website positioned properly, built properly and optimized properly, and then you’re going to have patients find you. You want to be the go-to person for TMJ and sleep. And Jonathan knows, that’s what I teach in my courses. You can have the best skillset ever. If people don’t know what you do, or you have not set yourself apart from other people, I mean, you can have the great skillset ever, but you never get a chance to use it.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
That’s right. That’s right. And I’ll just show here on my screen, we have a link here. I’ll put it in the description, but this is the course that Jeff is talking about. It’s put on by Myotronics, and I would just encourage every dentist watching this, if you want to know more about doing what Jeff does, the way that Jeff does, because that’s what I love about the way that you teach that course, is that you are really just telling them all about how you do what you do, and give them the recipe so that they could do the exact same thing. And so, I mean, what more can you ask for? It’s like, if you do these things, it should work out this way. If you don’t do these things, I can’t tell you exactly what went wrong.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Yeah. I mean, listen, I’m very practical. Okay? There are a lot of people, especially in the TMJ and sleep apnea realm that are a lot smarter than me. Okay? And that’s not tongue in cheek. It’s real. What I see is how can I get patients to understand what I can do for them? How can I teach dentists and teams to implement and integrate these systems that I’ve proven? I mean, I’ve made all the mistakes. I have made the mistakes. I’m giving you guys the gold.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
I’m giving you the good stuff. That two-day course, and I mean, you were there Jonathan. I mean, I’ve never had such rave reviews, because people were like, “This is exactly what I need.” It wasn’t fluff. It was real meat. And so that’s what we do. That’s what we want to treat. I want people to leave that course and be able to implement things on Monday and start having the success. Because if you’re not treating a bunch of these patients, what is success? I’m glad that you know this. I know you have the knowledge. I know your skill, doc. It’s all great. But if people aren’t saying yes to this treatment, what are we doing this for?
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Right. Right. So you don’t have to start a second office in order to do that. But just selfishly, from a marketing standpoint, I would love for you to do that, because it will work the way that Jeff says. It’s like, this is all you do, and you’re amazing at it. And also, bonus points if you set it up kind of near the epicenter of your city, because Google will love that. But a good starting point would be this course. And like Jeff said, there’s real meat there. And it’s also. It’s big picture, but it’s also, this is kind of the big picture conversation of starting another office, but what I love about the course is that there’s little, bite-size things, good for team. They should bring their team, right?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Oh, please. Oh, my goodness. So Rachel, who is my assistant for almost 20 years, she started this practice with me. I cannot even tell you the value there. She has more of a following than me. I think. And I’m not joking. The team members, they respond to her. She just is such a great teacher, and so approachable. And listen, docs. I can’t teach your team as well as a team ever can. So please, let’s check our egos at the door. I know that we feel like we’re the smartest people in the room. We really aren’t. Our team really makes the magic happen. And if you get out of the way and let them succeed, you’ll have more success. And so that’s a huge component of our class, because the team is what drives it. I mean, you can be the leader, and I feel like I’m a very good leader, but I could not do it without my team. So bring your team is the key to success, in my opinion.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Well, Jeff, thanks for being on the show today. We are going to close it out, but I just really appreciate all the expertise you shared with us.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Love being here, Jonathan. Thank you so much. Thank you for everything you do for me, as well. You do an excellent job, and I wouldn’t be here without your skills. So it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. I mean, I got to give you a little bit, just a little bit of gratitude.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Aww, thanks. Well, and thank you for watching. Stay tuned for more episodes from Marketing Chairside, coming soon.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
(Silence).
