Dr. Michelle (00:00):
I mean, I love it. It's a great song. It's just
Kevin (00:03):
Versions of it.
Dr. Michelle (00:05):
I mean, unfortunately, I mean, I love it. It's a great song. It's just often was used in funerals throughout my life too. Oh yeah. So yeah. Kind of makes you choke up.
Kevin (00:17):
Chip. Chip, chirp. Chirp. Yeah. Dr. Michelle is with us, Dr. Michelle DeFelice Hucke with Jax Beaches Family Dentistry. She joins us each and every month, and we talk about your dental health on this. Beautiful, and according to Dr. Michelle, chilly day.
Dr. Michelle (00:32):
Yeah. Not a fan.
Kevin (00:33):
Not a fan, right. No. Today, I thought we would talk a little bit more detail about when you're choosing a dentist, because if you are listening to us or listening to us via the web, you have a ton of dental options. You drive down any sort of retail corridor road, and there's going to be a dental practice sometimes every 2000 yards, right?
Dr. Michelle (00:56):
Yeah. There's plenty of dentists out there,
Kevin (00:59):
Or we type into our web browser, dentist near me, and all of a sudden we get 15 options. What are some criteria that you would use that you might recommend to a family member who lives in Seattle or something? They can't go and use you as a doctor? What should they consider when they're trying to pick a dentist?
Dr. Michelle (01:22):
There are a lot of things to consider. I do think a lot of what you are considering is personal. So if it were me and was, let's say I retire from dentistry and I moved to Stuart, Florida, and I need to find a dentist because I'm a dentist, obviously I'm going to figure this out a different way. But let's just say I'm moving there and I have to find a dentist. I would most likely want it to be convenient. So I would do the whole dentist near me, and then the quickest, fastest thing I would do is after looking at their websites is call each one of 'em and ask who owns the practice? Because I would never personally want to go to a dental practice unless it was owned by a dentist that worked in the building, because I would not want to go to a corporate office these days. Many of the businesses that we interact with, and some of them are fine, are owned by huge corporations, and we may never be able to run it in every aspect of our life, but there are certain businesses and professionals that I interact with that I hope going forward in my life, that I can avoid interacting with ones that are not locally owned and operated. So that's a personal thing for me.
Kevin (02:51):
And sometimes that's tough to figure out. I mean, obviously there's the big national dental chains like Aspen Dental or Coast, but then there are also a lot of ones that have nice little comfy sounding names, like Hidden Oaks Dentistry. It's like, oh, that must be a local dentist. And then you figure out usually after your third visit that because your dentist has changed each time that you've been there, that it's corporate owned.
Dr. Michelle (03:16):
Yes. In fact, years ago, I had a patient who ended up in my office finally, poor guy had lived here, lived in St. Augustine for three or four years. I used to have an office out on the beach, and he was like, I finally found you. I was like, what happened? And he had been in a dental practice. It was bought out by corporate. He didn't like it. So he was moving on, wanted to find a locally owned office, so it went to another office that he thought was locally owned. Turned out it had just been bought out also corporately. So yeah, it can be tricky, but I would say if you ask the person that answers the phone who owns it, they should be able to answer that question.
Kevin (04:02):
Yeah. It's good advice. Obviously, we're talking about the value of utilizing a locally owned dental practice for your dental health needs. Obviously, jacks Beach's Family Dentistry is locally owned and operated by Dr. Michelle, and she has a great team. And it's kind of like, let's face it, when you go to a diner, if you see the owner back behind the counter, it's probably going to be a better breakfast
Dr. Michelle (04:26):
Locally owned and operated
Kevin (04:27):
Than going to Cracker Barrel. No offense to Cracker Barrel, but it's just typically It is.
Dr. Michelle (04:33):
Yeah. Well, the whole, that's a good analogy. The whole diner Cracker Barrel thing. There are instances where certain people need to seek out a corporate office for that season of their life. If you have dental insurance and say it's an HMO, most locally owned and operated dental practices aren't going to take the HMO plan. So if that's a focus for you and your family, then that's what you have to do. The downside generally of a corporate office is that the dentists, especially working in those offices, are probably not going to be there. It just is what it is. Most dentists work in a corporate office depending on their life circumstances for a short period of time until they find their own space.
Kevin (05:27):
Is it fair to say that disproportionately a corporate owned dental practice would have recent dental college graduates?
Dr. Michelle (05:35):
Yeah. It's generally either a recent graduate or maybe somebody that's new to the area, and they have it as their job for a couple of years until they figure something else out. Now, there are advantages to working in a corporate dental office too. I tell a lot of my colleagues, especially if they're new out of school to work in corporate for a while, because they have benefits, they have maternity leave, they have things that as a private dentist, we can't offer. So yeah, I mean, there's advantages and disadvantages to everything. I would say the people that, excuse me, are patients in my office have sought us out because they personally want a certain type of care.
Kevin (06:19):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think your point that obviously if it's the dentist who owns the practice is at the practice, it's fairly safe to say that odds are when you have an issue five years from now, that same dentist is going to be there, hopefully. Right?
Dr. Michelle (06:32):
Absolutely. And I stand behind the dental work. I do that. Does that mean every single piece of dental work I put in someone's mouth lasts for 30 or 40 years?
Kevin (06:42):
Lifetime guarantee.
Dr. Michelle (06:44):
But what it means is I'm going to stand behind it and I'm still going to be here. And that can be different and tricky.
Kevin (06:53):
I meant to save you this recording. I was listening to something on the radio from out of state last week, and it was these two people going on and on about both of their dentists had retired and the sheer trauma and horror.
Dr. Michelle (07:05):
Yes.
Kevin (07:07):
It's like, I can kind of deal. This guy was saying he was in his seventies. I can deal with my doctor, whatever, but my dentist, this is a very intimate relationship. It is. This is somebody that, for the guy for like 45 years has had his fingers in my mouth. That's a special bond. Yeah.
Dr. Michelle (07:24):
Yeah. It's hard for people to switch. I would say that. And hairstylists for women especially.
Kevin (07:29):
Yeah. Guys, not so
Dr. Michelle (07:30):
Much. You don't really want to have to change either thing. Yeah. And that's the other thing, just consistency. I would say
Kevin (07:38):
Dr. Michelle's been my dentist since 2006. She of course dreads it when she sees me on the schedule. But I enjoy going to Dr. Michelle. Highly recommend, of course, Jax Beaches Family Dentistry. You can learn more by going to jacksonvillebeachdentist.com. That's jacksonvillebeachdentist.com. And of course, Jax Beaches Family Dentistry, locally owned. Right? That's right. All right. We're going to play a song or two. We'll be back.