When staying in an upscale hotel, a concierge is invaluable, especially if you aren’t familiar with the area. This local expert is available to answer all of your questions, give the best advice, and make you feel like you matter.
What many people don’t know is that this same type of concierge service is available in the healthcare arena too. Some medical professionals make it their goal to provide not only the best possible outcomes, but also the best experiences.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad, owner and founder of Rochester Advanced Dentistry, delivers what he believes is the best in dentistry. With his team of highly trained and compassionate cosmetic dentists, his patients often say they have never enjoyed a dental experience like it. “It's one of my favorite things to hear because it means we're doing it right,” he says.
PERSONALIZED CARE
Concierge dentistry focuses on providing a personalized experience with treatment tailored to each patient’s needs. The doctor spends more time with fewer patients. This provides quality over quantity and allows for more attention and flexibility than the traditional/general setting. It also makes it possible for patients to see the same doctor, hygienist, and team dedicated to their customized care.
“In this day and age of corporate medicine and franchise-type offices, patients are treated like a number,” says Dr. Haddad. “They are beginning to understand how important it is to have personalized attention. They want to be heard, especially when it comes to their health, and more and more patients are turning to concierge medicine when they know it's out there.”
It's all about wellness, he explains. “Just as concierge medicine has reshaped primary care, dentistry is evolving to meet the demand for flexibility, comfort, and premium experiences.”
INITIAL CONTACT
Unlike most dental offices, when prospective patients call and then visit, they’re not immediately taken to a dental chair, given a cleaning, and introduced to the dentist, with whom they may only speak for a few minutes. Instead, they are escorted to a consultation room to meet with a new patient coordinator to determine how they would like to be cared for and discuss their overall goals.
“We find out what we can do to give them the best experience and the best care for not only their mouth, but for their overall health.” (It has been proven that issues in the mouth can affect other areas of the body.) “This initial visit is very comprehensive, so we ask the proper questions and take photos. We also let patients ask questions and tell their stories about what may have happened in the past that they didn't like.”
His goal is to give patients a choice in their dental care. Some patients may want reactive dentistry, which is fixing something that’s already broken, while others, more importantly, desire a more preventative care approach.
“If patients want to wait for things to break, we can fix it, and that's fine,” says Dr. Haddad. “But a lot of people want to know ahead of time what the problems are so we can take care of them before something happens. This can save patients a lot of pain, time, and money because preventative treatment can be more conservative and less invasive.”
MAXIMUM COMFORT
We all know that tooth pain, before, during, and after treatment, can be debilitating. Dr. Haddad and his team want to eliminate this pain to the best of their abilities.
He’s had many patients come from other offices, which may have been great in many ways, and the dental work did get done, but the experience was painful and even scary. This is why his office offers different levels of sedation. It could be as simple as mild sedation to more complete sedation, depending on what the patient needs to feel at ease.
“One of my patients had PTSD from years of bad dentistry,” he says. “She was very scared and chose to have some sedation while I rebuilt her entire mouth all in one visit.” When she came in the next day, she told him that the two crowns she had done in the past were more traumatic than what he had done the previous day.
Sedation provides a level of comfort, and there's also an amnesic effect. “It makes the experience as ‘enjoyable' as it can be,” says Dr. Haddad. “It's dental work, and it still may be a big procedure, but we are as much about the experience as we are about the end result. I could give them the most beautiful smile in the world, but if I torture them while doing it, then I have failed.”
CONVENIENCE
Rochester Advanced Dentistry also respects people’s time by maximizing appointments to accomplish as much as possible in one visit. “We’re also a lot faster than the majority of offices, not because we rush, but because we have perfected these processes over the last 20-plus years. We are precise, and everything is planned out. Whereas a normal dental appointment elsewhere could take, say, two to three hours, it would take half the time in our office.”
They also cater to people's schedules. His team takes care of not only scheduling, but also lodging, meals, entertainment, and other needs, if necessary, for those coming from out of state, across the country, and even from outside the United States.
“I have a gentleman who drives all the way from Grand Rapids,” says Dr. Haddad. “I rebuilt his whole mouth. He said he won’t go anywhere else. We have other patients with extreme and complex cases who fly in from other states like Dallas, and last summer, someone flew in from London, England.”
He feels that people often go to the nearest dental office, but that’s not always the best solution. It's worth traveling to find the best care.
“There are patients who appreciate elite, personalized treatment and want to find a dentist who's been appropriately trained and has advanced training. Even though it may be a 40-45 minute drive, I have many patients from Grosse Pointe because they want the best. They flat out say that they’re so glad they drove out here.”
Actually, his newest associate, Michael Haddad (no relation), lives in Grosse Pointe. “He's been a dentist for three and a half years, practicing in other offices, but he was not being fulfilled. He sought out this office because he was looking to perform elite and advanced dentistry. So now he’s commuting every day in order to do this.” (See sidebar for more about him.)
EXPERTISE
“I call what we do ‘Life Changing Dentistry,’” says Dr. Haddad. “We have the level of expertise to manage large complex cases, and are actually known in the state of Michigan as well as nationally for being able to handle the cases that most dentists can't.
He adds, “Not all dentists are created equal, and it's very sad to me because I have had many patients come in after they’ve been to so-called ‘cosmetic dentists’. I don't know what was cosmetic about it. The patients were unhappy, and I had to redo all the work that was done.”
Dr. Haddad always advises patients to do their research before making an appointment with any dentist. “First, look at their website and see the type of work they're doing. Look at the photos and ask if that is their actual work. Sadly, some dentists will put other people's dentistry on their websites. It's not necessarily being deceptive because they're not saying it's their work, but they're putting it there, and people are assuming it is.”
His patients, he says, will be offered the highest level of options, unlike what they may get in many other dental offices. “Most dentists are trained in tooth and gum disease. We are trained in what's called bite disease.”
Imbalanced bites are destructive because they can cause a wide range of dental problems, including broken and lost teeth. Most people don’t understand why they’re having these problems because they’re taking such good care of their teeth, but their dentists aren’t addressing their bite issues.
Dr. Haddad explains that the reason their teeth have experienced significant wear and tear over the years is because of their bite, or because they’re clenchers or grinders.
“We can actually help with that. We can give them a beautiful smile, but we can also give them proper function and rebuild things so they are stable, so they’re not going to clench or grind. And, this new, beautiful dental work is going to last.”
Dr. Haddad and his team are also specialists in treating TMJ, which can cause migraines, headaches, ear and neck pain, and/or vertigo. “By treating the TMJ, we’re getting patients back to living their lives without pain,” he says.
INVESTMENT
Custom style dentistry is personalized and patient-centered. “We let patients know up front what we want to do and what we recommend,” he says. “We’re going to educate them on the solutions to give them exactly what they want. Whatever they choose, it is up to them, and we will respect that and give them what they’re asking for. I think that's another thing that sets us apart. We don’t pressure anyone and tell them what they must do.”
Patients are also informed of the costs up front, and if they can’t afford to do everything at once, they can do it in stages. “It's a journey and an investment in your health,” says Dr. Haddad.
While his team of professionals are also experts at working with people's insurance, he believes insurance is sorely lacking when it comes to achieving optimal results. “We want to give our patients the best solutions for their health, and unfortunately, the majority of insurance plans don't take that into consideration,” he says. “So, we educate patients on what is needed to make them the healthiest they can be, and when their insurance isn't supporting that, they'll know exactly what their out-of-pocket investment will be before moving forward.”
ACCESS
His team is always readily available, whether by phone, text, or email - whichever patients prefer. “My team and I communicate with our patients, and I'm very proud of that because it helps put people at ease,” says Dr. Haddad.
Patients who undergo anesthesia receive a phone call from their doctor at the end of the day, and all patients are given their doctor’s cell phone number for non-office-hour concerns. “If there is a problem, they call us and we can put their minds at ease. It makes them feel comfortable knowing if what they're feeling is normal.”
Dr. Haddad and his team can also give them tips on what they can do at home to feel better. Other times, they’ll err on the side of caution and have patients meet them at the office, even on a Saturday or Sunday.
“Our patients are so thankful because it gives them comfort to know that their doctors care about them,” he says. “And that is the ultimate goal.”
Rochester Advanced Dentistry.com
“I call what we do ‘Life Changing Dentistry’”.
Welcome to the Team
Dr. Michael Haddad joined Rochester Advanced Dentistry in November of last year. A Grosse Pointe resident, his godmother is a long-time patient of Dr. Jeffrey Haddad and would often talk about him to her godson, even before he enrolled in dental school. She also gave him a book, Building a Healthy Smile That Lasts, that Dr. Jeffrey authored with another cosmetic dentist.
“She told me he loved it and asked if I would be willing to speak with him,” says Dr. Jeffrey. “I said yes, of course.”
Dr. Michael was looking for a different path. After graduating from dental school and practicing for a few years, he knew he wanted to take it to the next level. “I've been talking to him for about two years; he’s great, and I was really looking for a spot for him in my practice,” says Dr. Jeffrey.
He finally found it. Now, Dr. Michael commutes every day from Grosse Pointe to Rochester to practice elite-level dentistry, or, as Dr. Jeffrey calls it, Life-Changing Dentistry.