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When you figure out how to outsource going to the dentist, let us all know. That's one of those services that pg talks about that everybody needs but nobody wan
by SiVal 14y ago
When you figure out how to outsource going to the dentist, let us all know. That's one of those services that pg talks about that everybody needs but nobody wants to provide: great startup opportunity.
- Timothee 14y agoPut a dentist in a van and drive to wherever you'd need?
- petercooper 14y agoHere in the UK, a group of Hungarian dentists did this with inflatable surgeries (and could offer Eastern European rates too): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1051660/Deflated-charges-blow-dental-surgery-Travelling-Hungarians-offer-half-price-treatment-UK.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1051660/Deflated-c...
- bubbleRefuge 14y agoLike mobile dog grooming. I like it.
- pavel_lishin 14y ago"Yeah, my dentist is a guy in a van." There would definitely have to be some great marketing for this to not seem shady.
- patrickgzill 14y agoDentists seem to have about 5 different rooms, pay dental hygienists to do 90% of the work, then stop in for about 5 minutes during the course of the 45 minutes you are there. A van wouldn't cut it - you would need a bus.
- sliverstorm 14y agoYou should take it for granted that people mean the hygienist. "Dentist" is sort of a colloquialism referring to the whole operation. You're spot on though, as a single dentist operates at a higher level, that dentist would be underutilized overseeing just one chair. Can a hygienist practice independently?
- mbrameld 14y agoI'm surprised nobody has done this, actually. I live in Alaska and have a friend who is a dentist. He works exclusively in remote villages with a portable kit of equipment he flies around with on small chartered aircraft. It would definitely fit in a van.
- maxerickson 14y agoThere aren't very many licensed dentists that have to bother much about finding customers.
- davorak 14y agoI think the idea would be to charge a large amount to make it worth the dentists while to do so. So high population density high income areas. New York and maybe San Francisco?
- nuclear_eclipse 14y agoWe actually do have this where I work. I don't know the schedule, as I would never trust my mouth to someone I can't easily return to with problems, but it does actually exist.
- slackson 14y agoThey do this for New Zealand school students. A truck with a dental clinic inside it comes to the school and everyone gets a check-up.
- refurb 14y agoThe already have something like that in the Bay area. I was up near Genentech a few months back and they had a huge trailer setup in the parking lot. It was a portable dentist office setup for employees to use. I assume it shows up once or twice a month.
- sliverstorm 14y agoI'm not so sure it's a great startup opportunity. Getting your teeth cleaned is awfully hard to outsource, considering your teeth generally cannot be removed from your mouth and picked up or dropped off. If you're just talking about, "we come to you", that doesn't seem like a real compelling service. Dentist visits are rare and important, so I'm willing to invest a little more, and it seems like dentistry in the back of a truck would be limited. Much of the equipment at a dentist's office can't exactly be thrown into a truck.
- SiVal 14y agoI assumed that it would be obvious that this was a joke, but somehow the notion of outsourcing going to the dentist was taken seriously. Something about my deadpan delivery apparently needs more fine tuning....
- sliverstorm 14y agoAh, good. Well, you know what they say- "sarcasm always translates well over the internet" ;)