HIS BUSINESS MODEL WOULDN’T work everywhere, admits Dr. Paul Melchiorre. But in Palm Beach, Florida, where the clientele want high accessibility, he’s grateful that they’re looking for what he is ready to deliver.
It’s the concierge structure, so personalized that Melchiorre does almost everything himself. “It’s me and one employee who handles the front office and assists with procedures like sterilization,” he explains. “I even do my own hygiene. I have two operatories, so I’m really only seeing one patient at a time. And patients know I’ll take care of them morning, noon, or night. It’s all very personable and relationship based.”
Asked how the obvious limits of his time affect adding more patients and growing his business, he is practical. “I know what numbers I need to hit to live the lifestyle I want. And I think that’s possible to do without growing too much.”
In fact, as a young dentist, he sees advantages. “My patients’ average age is 60 to 65, and a lot of them are in their mid-80s. I can take care of my patients their whole lives.” Especially for an older patient population, he thinks that’s important. “There’s nothing worse,” he notes, “than developing a relationship with a dentist who then retires.”
Pro bono work
With a lifelong dream to help others, Melchiorre feels as if he’s contributing to society. He describes a recent experience when he became friends with a young, single mother who needed dental care and realized how much she was struggling financially.
Assuring her that he would help without any fees, he pulled her tooth, did a couple of fillings and a deep cleaning. “Since then,” he says, “I’ve slowly been giving her a beautiful smile because she’s missing some teeth and has a client-facing job. She came here almost in tears with a lot of dental anxiety, and now she has tears of joy.”
He continues: “Being able to use my skills to instantly help someone is really, really gratifying. I don’t need financial compensation for that. It’s just very rewarding. And I’m able to do pro bono work since I’m my own boss.”
Pointing out that the concierge model is not actually new to him, Melchiorre compares how he works now with the treatment structure at Temple Dental. “We had to manage our patient base, basically doing everything. It was almost like a concierge type of model where you were very directly involved with the patient.”
He took that experience, he says, “and now I run my practice much like I did at Temple Dental. And because it’s the kind of practice I would want to go to myself, I want to keep this way of working alive.”