Overheads & underpaid

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With rising costs, pricey licensing laws and high lab charges, Dubai's dentists are feeling the pinch of small business. Dr Ahmad Amer, owner of the The Dental Spa, tells Middle East Dentist about the realities of practice in an expensive emirate.

Many small businesses in Dubai are feeling the strain of inflation. How do you think dentists are faring?

Dentistry is certainly expensive. The amount of investment that has to happen behind the screen, the amount of licensure that we need to go through, especially in the UAE market, is just huge.

People think that this market is not well regulated - on the contrary, it is over-regulated in comparison to European markets or the Northern American markets. It's extremely expensive, extremely long and time-consuming.

On the other hand, the profit margins for a dental business are extremely low when compared to any other industry that you might think of.

Doesn't tight regulation guarantee a minimum level of competency?

Dental providers here are from different backgrounds and educational levels, so the country needs to ensure these standards are adequate. I totally understand and support this as well.

But to go through every nitty-gritty and prove that we are who we say we are, then we have to go through this endless verification process. It is loaded upon us expense-wise and time-wise.

I don't know how we can meet in the middle and reassure the patients, but still put bread on the table.

Is this impacting on the number of dentists willing to set up a practice in the emirate?

It is driving up the costs and reducing the profit margins - making the job entirely unprofitable and uninteresting to highly trained professionals. We now have major problems attracting the right individuals to this market.

This is an expensive city to live in - for any well-renowned, well-trained professional to make a living they need a decent income, like in any other market.

You feel the toll of the licensing process here, especially if you are running a successful practice. It's frustrating and leaves you unwilling to expand any further.

You know that if you attempt to introduce a new service to this market that is really top of the line, you'll struggle with every step.

Are fee schedules reflecting these rises? Is it putting dental services out of the reach of the general community?

Dentists have to put the price in a segment that will have a reasonable profit margin after the costs of rates and the expense of licensing requirements.

It's very difficult to justify these high prices to expat patients from western markets, which is why profit margins are diminishing by the second. We can't ignore the public demand for reasonably priced dentistry, but we are taking the crunch of the inflation.

I am sure that a lot of my colleagues share the same point of view. We're on the line of living here, or going back to our countries. If it is not as sustainable as at least our own native markets, then there is no point in our staying.

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