Inc. has listed it’s top job creators for 2012, giving the top 100 their “High Power Award”.
They called them “The Real Heroes of the American Economy”. I almost choked when I checked the list, there were 4 DSO’s in the top 40.
| Rank | DSO | Jobs Created in 2012 | Total Employees | Revenue | Location |
| 4th | Pacific Dental | 1451 | 3422 | $250-$500 million | Irvine, CA |
| 6th | Heartland Dental Care | 1150 | 3201 | $250-$500 million | Effingham, IL |
| 25th | Great Expressions | 660 | 1770 | $100-$250 million | Bloomfield Hills, MI |
| 31st. | Smiles Brands | 551 | 4483 | $250-$500 million | Irvine, CA |
Each of the above company claim they are Dental Service Organization or Dental Management Companies and are merely hired by dentists who hate mundane office work. Each claim they simply provide much needed day to day operational support, such as bookkeeping, payroll, human resources, software, records keeping, etc. Ya know, the office crap everyone hates. The duties normally an office manager and one assistant could probably handle.
Let’s see how that adds up.
Pacific Dental – Ranked at #4 in new jobs in 2012. It’s hard to nail down a number but it’s around 300 offices, they claim to simply support/manage. Let’s just say it’s 275. That means for each and every office they provide support takes 12.44 “support” employees. WOW!
Heartland Dental – Heartland Dental, ranked # 6, claims they do not own any dental clinics, but simply manager 370 across the US. According to “Inc.” they employ 3201 people. That means they have 8.6 employees to do the bookkeeping, filing, banking, and scheduling, for each and every clinic, that is supposedly owned and operated by self employed dentist who hates office work. Does this sound logical?
Great Expressions – Great Expressions says it “manages” 170 dental centers and it takes 1770 people to manage them. That is 10.4 employees per clinic to “manage” the day to day office duties.
Smiles Brands – Smiles Brands includes, Monarch, BrightNow!, Castle Dental and Newport Dental. Like the others, Smile Brand’s say they simply “support” about 400 clinics that has 1300 dentists and hygienists, in 18 states. Does this mean it takes 11 Smile Brands employees to manage each clinic, already staffed with dentists and hygienist? If this is the case, then their employees really suck at “supporting”.
Does it add up? Make any sense whatsoever?
No! Not unless these companies in truth illegally own and operate the clinics and all these employees include licensed dental professionals who are actually employees of each of these companies.
