Growth plan has teeth
Voorhees dentists tap baby boomers with plan for a superstore
John George
Staff Writer
VOORHEES, N.J. -- The sounds of hammers and saws along Laurel Oak Road
will soon be replaced by drills -- dentist drills, that is -- in this
Camden County township.


The construction sounds are coming from a $5 million medical office
building being constructed for a multi-specialty dental practice. The
41,000-square-foot medical office will include 30 treatment rooms.

Dr. Jack Piermatti, owner and founder of Dental Arts of South Jersey,
believes his group's new home will be among the largest, if not the
largest, dental practice sites on the East Coast.

Clinical treatment space will occupy 15,000 square feet of the medical
complex, which is being built just down the street from the group's
current office on Haddonfield-Berlin Road. It has 12 treatment rooms.

The group also will lease space at the building, which will be called
the Voorhees Professional Plaza, to other doctors.

Another portion of the facility, comprising about 1,200 square feet,
will be used to create a medical conference center where Piermatti
will train other dentists in his specialty: prosthodontics, which
includes implant and aesthetic dentistry.

"The basics of dentistry are basically all that's taught at most
dental schools today," Piermatti said. "New dentists really haven't
had a lot of training in implant and aesthetic dentistry because there
is so much conventional dentistry to learn. Implants and aesthetic
dentistry are such buzzwords these days; all the dentists want to
learn about it."

Dental implants are prosthetic posts made of titanium that are placed
into the bone of the upper or lower jaw. They act as replacements for
the root portion of lost natural teeth and also serve as an anchor for
replacement teeth. Dental Arts' fee for a single implant, abutment and
crown in a patient with no complications or special circumstances is
$2,315.

Piermatti himself has performed nearly 10,000 implant placement and
tooth restoration procedures. He is among the estimated 5 percent of
dentists nationwide who have received specialized training to perform
both procedures. Piermatti teaches dental implant procedures to
dentists using technology developed by implant products maker Nobel
Biocare of Sweden.

The surging demand for implant dentistry, along with cosmetic
procedures such as teeth whitening and porcelain veneers, among older
patients has fueled the need for Dental Arts' expansion.

"People are living longer and staying healthy longer," Piermatti said.
"The baby boom population is much more concerned with maintaining oral
health and this year, the [first] baby boomers turn 60."


Dr. Glenn Wolfinger, a Montgomery County prosthodontist who
specializes in implant procedures, thinks the growing demand for the
service is a result of patients becoming more educated.

"I've found that through the Internet, people are able to figure out
all the different solutions available to them today," Wolfinger said.
"We get people coming here from all over the world."

Wolfinger is a partner at Prosthodontics Intermedica in Fort
Washington. With its 11 treatment rooms, 7,200-square-feet of space
and a support staff of 25, it is the largest Pennsylvania dental
practice in the Philadelphia suburbs. The practice recently added the
11th treatment room, designed as an education center where other
dentists can view procedures through windows and on video screens.

For dentists, the surge in people seeking -- and willing to pay for --
aesthetic improvements for their teeth has helped boost their profit
margins because health insurers typically don't reimburse services
deemed cosmetic in nature.

An American Dental Association survey, the result of which was
announced last year, found tooth whitening, at 63.7 percent, ranked as
the No. 1 requested dental procedure by patients between 40 and 60
years old. The dentists surveyed said veneers, bonding or crowns, each
at 58 percent, tied as the second most requested procedure by baby
boomers.

As for the dental implant market, a report by the Millennium Research
Group found U.S. dental implant procedures generated revenue of $270
million in 2003. The Toronto research firm expects that figure to
reach $500 million this year in a hike that is largely caused by the
rise in the number of dental practitioners attending training seminars
for the procedure.

Dental Arts' revenue has climbed 122 percent during the past five
years, from $2.7 million in 2000 to $6 million last year.

The practice sees, on average, about 1,000 patients a month -- 100 of
whom are typically new patients.

Piermatti, a dentist for the past 17 years, said after the new office
opens in June, the practice expects to add two or three new dentists
to its existing staff of seven, and double its support staff to 44
from 22 employees.

Dental Arts differs from large dental groups, Piermatti said, in that
its practitioners cover all aspects of general and specialized
dentistry. Patients do not need to be referred to other specialists at
other locations. The group consists of two prosthodontists, two oral
surgeons, one periodontist and two general dentists.


"Patients not only stay in the same building, they deal with the same
people," Piermatti said. "Everybody here can help you regardless of
the complexity of the treatment."

The new office will also include its own lab and technicians to make
customized implants and crowns on the spot.

Piermatti just laughed when asked if he set up shop in Voorhees
because so many members of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team -- who
compete in a sport not kind to one's teeth -- live in the area.

"I can't name names because of privacy issues," he said, "but you
could say I performed dental implant procedures on many people you
would know, including a few hockey players, CEOs and politicians."

jgeorge@bizjournals.com | 215-238-5137.