June 19, 2016

AXPM CEO Merritt Dake has been sharing an office with the company’s president, its chief marketing officer and its head of business development. Taking a phone call in private has required Dake, and others at the consulting and software company for dental practices, to duck into a storage room.

Taking a phone call in private has required Dake, and others at the consulting and software company for dental practices, to duck into a storage room. Cellphone service is rarely ideal there. Dake has generally chosen to look at those cramped conditions as a sign of progress, rather than a source of complaint. AXPM has grown more rapidly than Dake envisioned. It will soon move from

Dake has generally chosen to look at those cramped conditions as a sign of progress, rather than a source of complaint. AXPM has grown more rapidly than Dake envisioned. It will soon move from site of the Clinton Presidential Center gift shop.

The company offers software that primarily helps with office-management tasks such as scheduling, processing of insurance payments and accounting.

AXPM had 10 employees when it started in 2012. Its new location will accommodate 55 initially, with room to grow.

“We thought we had plenty of room,” Dake said. “It’s changed a little bit. We can’t complain about it, really. We’ve seen a lot of growth.” AXPM’s rapid growth has come in conjunction with that Westrock Orthodontics, Leap Kids Pediatric Dental and Impact Oral Surgery. Currently the company has 31 locations in Arkansas and Missouri.

Dr. Mark Dake, an orthodontist in Mountain Home and Merritt’s father, is co-founder and CEO of Rock Dental Brands. Although AXPM and Rock Dental Brands have the same founders, they are managed separately.

Combined the companies have averaged 90.58 percent revenue growth between 2012 and 2015. Employment at the sister companies has grown from 35 to 226, spread out across the AXPM offices in Little Rock and dental practices in the two states.

Initially, Merritt Dake, a former certified public accountant, and orthodontist Bryan Hiller managed three orthodontics practices. From there they realized the need for developing software that could make managing dental practices easier.

Dr. AnnaKate Tatum joined Rock Dental Brands in Harrison in November. Through Rock Dental and AXPM, Tatum said she has been able to be less hands-on with the business side of the practice and devote more time to patient care and continuing education.

Tatum began her practice with one other employee. She said she and her husband cleaned the offices at night. Now she oversees 17 employees and her practice includes offices in Harrison, Berryville, Branson and Springfield, Mo.

“It’s amazing to wrap your head around the growth,” Tatum said. “Relinquishing control [of the business] was a little hard at first, but once we saw how smoothly things were going, it wasn’t hard after that… I’m focusing on what I want to focus on.”

Streamlining the scheduling and accounting processes through AXPM has been a significant help to growth, Tatum and other doctors in the practice said. Some offices were using as many as 15 different computer programs to run the back end of their offices.

Merritt Dake noticed the need for a simplified process while building an accounting practice focused on the dental industry. Soon he shifted his focus to include more office needs like scheduling.

AXPM will continue building its platform and marketing it to dentists, including those outside the Rock Dental Brands operation. Dake said the software could work for any business “that requires scheduling and payment collection from multiple parties,” including places as varied as medical offices, nail salons and auto mechanics.

Rock Dental Brands also has plans for growth with additional dentists and locations. What its founders are trying to do is maintain a balance between making money and caring for patients.

“Our group came together as a group of individual doctors,” Mark Dake said. “If you want to call us corporate that’s great, but we’re coming at it from a different standpoint. We’re not a corporate office trying to run a practice. We’re not a business first.”

Rock Dental Brands doctors are subject to peer review, a practice that helps them stay current on treatment options and keeps them focused on quality of care. Doctors who are brought into the company are paid a base salary with bonuses, student loan payoffs and other benefits that can range from $222,000 to $347,000 annually.

To read the article from its source, please visit the Arkansas Online article published here.

June 13, 2016

Dr. Bryan Hiller followed in his father’s footsteps and became an orthodontist. After graduating from Temple University in Philadelphia, Hiller, 37, practiced with his dad in New Hampshire. But the relentless snow proved too much for Hiller, and he moved to Arkansas in 2010.

In 2012, he started buying dental practices in southern Missouri and central Arkansas with his business partner, Dr. Mark Dake, also an orthodontist. The practices’ names were changed in 2015 to Westrock Orthodontics.

“What we were setting out to do is focus on patient treatment and efficient processes in our office,” Hiller said. “And we started to see that we could replicate our model.”

Hiller and Dake began partnering with other orthodontists, pediatric dentists and oral surgeons.

Hiller and Dake founded Rock Dental Brands in 2015. It now has about eight owners and 20 doctors in the group, said Hiller, who is the president of company.

Rock Dental also has offices under the names Leap Kids Pediatric Dental and Impact Oral Surgery. Hiller has helped grow the group to more than 30 locations in Arkansas and Missouri.

Hiller also partners with the Smile for a Lifetime Foundation, which provides free braces to 11- to 18-year-olds.

Hiller said his guiding principle is to always do the right thing. “We really try to put the patient first,” he said.

To read the article from its source, please visit the Arkansas Business article published here.

April 1, 2016

If a pediatric dentist creates positive experiences in the beginning, amazing dental groundwork can be set both physically and mentally for the child. In a perfect world, a parent will begin taking their child to the pediatric dentist around age 1, and continue to schedule visits twice a year after, all the while enforcing healthy dental hygiene practices at home. When a child reaches age 7, the first adult molars and some of the lower incisors will begin coming in, and then a parent and pediatric dentist must make the vital decision on if an orthodontist is needed.

“The most common age for kids to begin navigating the need for braces is age 7,” said Dr. Bryan Hiller, orthodontic specialist at Westrock Orthodontics. “This is a great age because their adult molars are coming in. There are so many things that can be done when children are younger to help intervene and make sure corrections don’t get too dramatic later on in life.” When a skilled pediatric dentist can recognize early on when a child needs to see an orthodontist, the corrections can begin earlier and end up saving a lot of time.

“Parents will sometimes say that as young as 9, their children are aware of dental imperfections, sometimes due to other children pointing it out,” Hiller said. Making these corrections early can help boost a child’s self-esteem, especially if the issues can be addressed before they enter their teenage years.

While any kid or teen will groan at the idea of getting braces, there are many options available today to make orthodontic correction a breeze. “When choosing what correction to use, ceramic and metal brackets are still the overwhelming patient preference. They both treat the same type of mouth collusion, and the technology has gotten so much better,” Hiller said.

Invisalign, which hit the market in 2000, consists of clear aligner trays made of smooth, comfortable, BPA-free plastic that are worn over the teeth to subtly and gently move them. It is growing in popularity, and can be used when the severity of the correction is minimal.

“If you’ve got intervention early on, your ability to use Invisalign is much greater. However, the thing with Invisalign is it’s great that you can take it out, but it’s also terrible that you can take it out, and it must be worn 95 percent of the time,” Hiller said. He’s found that, surprisingly, teens will keep up with it better if being allowed to use Invisalign is viewed as a reward option. Adults seem to have trouble remembering to wear the device.

Correction doesn’t end when the braces come off. Post-braces care almost always involves either a permanent or removable retainer. Permanent retainers offer guaranteed placement and a no-loss factor, but they also provide a space for plaque to build. If your child opts for the permanent retainer, there will be a need to place extra focus on hygiene. “It would be nice if I could follow kids around all day long and tell them to wear their retainer, but we obviously can’t do that, and parents can’t either, so we advocate for permanent retainers,” Hiller said.

No matter what age, you want your kids to have a healthy smile to allow them to be a happier and healthier person, and you must start with a good pediatric dentist to achieve this. “The best part about my job is that it doesn’t feel like a job. Having the ability to make an impact in another’s life is a such a privilege.”

To read the article from its source, please visit the Savvy Magazine article published here.

March 28, 2016

Westrock Orthodontics moved its Springfield practice March 16 to 2800 S. Fremont Ave. from 1320 E. Kingsley St. after buying out the practice of Dr. Farhad Moshiri in January. Drs. AnnaKate Tatum and Mark Dake run the Springfield office, and Westrock comprises 21 offices in Missouri and Arkansas. Tatum said the Springfield clinic offers complimentary orthodontic exams, and specializes in temporomandibular joint disorder treatment. She said the company uses Damon-brand metal and ceramic braces and is a provider of Invisalign braces. Westrock spokeswoman Olivia Geels said the new 3,500 square foot building was designed by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, the general contractor was Canyon Construction LLC, and Warren & Goodin Engineers-Architects PC was project engineer. The estimated construction cost was $850,000, according to a city building permit. Westrock employs 160 systemwide, with six full- and two part-time employees in Springfield.

To read the article from its source, please visit the Springfield Business Journal article published here.