Photos and story by Kevin Henry, Editor
Dr. Glenn Ashmore makes no bones about it. He's not a high-tech, I-have-to-have-all-of-the-latest-gizmos kind of guy. There are no computers in the operatory. There are no lasers waiting to be used. There are no intraoral cameras ready to snap a picture. To some of his peers, Dr. Ashmore may seem a little old-fashioned. To Dr. Ashmore, it sounds like the perfect setting for a practice which generates more than $4.5 million per year.
Impossible, you say? Hardly. Dr. Ashmore and the Dental Depot in Oklahoma City is living proof that, as he puts it, there is still a place for "nuts and bolts dentistry."
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Located in the same spot since 1979, the Dental Depot has become a landmark in northern Oklahoma City. Situated between two of the city's main interstates and on one of the main east-west thoroughfares in the Sooner State's capital — in fact, Dr. Ashmore's practice is located just a couple of miles from the Oklahoma capitol building — draws an estimated 200 new patients per month. What's the secret?
Well, it could be the number of train-related items inside the building. Three trains constantly run on tracks suspended from the ceiling. Every operatory contains posters or memorabilia relating to the railroad. One of Dr. Ashmore's passions is trains (he'll even show you pictures of himself with trains taken throughout his travels), and that passion is shared by many patients and staff members.
"I'm learning to be a train-lover," laughed Pam Foster, Dr. Ashmore's office manager for the last 23 years. "All of the trains can be a little noisy at times, but patients young and old like them. A lot of patients bring us train memorabilia, and the trains are a great conversation piece and provide a lot of good interaction between staff and the patients."
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As patients pull into the parking lot, they must pass by a railroad crossing sign marking the beginning of the driveway. Once patients step out of their cars, they will hear train sounds coming from the 1/4 scale model train located near the front door. Stepping through the front door, patients are immediately whisked away to a different place and time. Wood paneling and station signs give patients a feel that they are in a train station in an era almost gone-by in America.
"This place is fun for big and little kids," Dr. Ashmore added.
OK, trains are fun, but is that why people come to the Dental Depot? It helps, but Dr. Ashmore credits long, flexible hours and the promotion of emergency care and service to walk-in patients as the real backbone to success.
With four doctors (including Dr. Ashmore) and a staff of 30, Dental Depot is open from 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday. While many in the profession are looking for ways to cut back, Dr. Ashmore is looking for ways to add more hours to attend to more patients.
"I think our staff's willingness to work has really made us a success," Dr. Ashmore said. "There really aren't a lot of dentists who want to work more than 35 hours per week any more. Dentistry is a profession where you can show up at your office, have a halfway decent personality and product, and really make a nice living. A lot of dentists don't need a Dental Depot-type of atmosphere to make a living."
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Many of his colleagues also don't need walk-ins and emergency patients either, but both are welcomed at the Dental Depot.
"Honestly, I would probably rather see an emergency patient than do about anything," Dr. Ashmore said. "I am going to treat people the way I would want to be treated, and that includes helping them during an emergency. I don't sell $10,000 cases. I like to do fillings, composites, and work on dentures. We have people from across the board who come to the Dental Depot, and we are able to help each of them."
The success of the Dental Depot in northern Oklahoma City has spawned an office in the southern part of the city, and plans are underway for a Dental Depot in the Dallas area as well. The expansion proves how far Dr. Ashmore's office has come since he opened it after graduating from dental school in 1975 and serving two years in the U.S. Navy.
"When I was looking for a place to have my practice, it was during the height of the Oil Boom in Oklahoma City," Dr. Ashmore recalled. "There really wasn't a lot of office space available, and it was important for me to find an office on the ground floor and on a street location. I had grown up in this neighborhood, and I remembered some of the dental offices I had seen in smaller towns which operated out of small houses. We decided we could turn this older house into a dental office, and we did."
Twenty years later, Dr. Ashmore decided to see about building a satellite office in southern Oklahoma City. Ground was broken on the site in 2000, and equipment finalization for the site was scheduled for March of 2001. No one knew how important it would be for the south office to exist until the night of Feb. 19, 2001.
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On that night, a massive fire gutted Dr. Ashmore's practice, leaving little behind and causing some quick thinking on the part of the Dental Depot staff and the Patterson Dental representatives who were helping Dr. Ashmore build the south office. Of the 13 operatories, only five A-dec 1005 chairs and two Planmeca intraoral X-rays were salvageable.
"This was really the first time I had ever dealt with a situation like this," recalled Michael Robinson, an equipment specialist with Oklahoma City's Patterson Dental branch. "The local news showed the office burning live on their newscast. It was engulfed in flames and was already destroyed. I knew the first thing I needed to do the next morning was to see Dr. Ashmore and get the recovery plan going."
"The fire just devastated this place," Dr. Ashmore added. "I knew we had insurance, so I wasn't terribly worried. I also knew that we had a safe back-up location for our computer data, so that was very important. In fact, that something I can't stress how important it was to have our data saved. All of us knew we were in for some long days to try to get things somewhat back to normal."
Part of the work — which Dr. Ashmore describes as 16-hour days — included using a tennis court-sized room in a warehouse to lay everything recovered from the site.
"It was crazy to try to get back on track," Foster remembered. "We would make a daily trek to the warehouse to see what we could find and see if what was what we needed. We were working on salvaging patient charts while our computer contact was getting four computers up and running in what looked like a contractor's building outside of the south office, which was still being finished."
Amazingly, Dr. Ashmore began practice at his new southern site just two weeks after the fire, which was also two weeks before the project was originally scheduled to be completed.
"When you're dealing with a company like A-dec, you can't get the chairs immediately because they are so popular and there is a lead time involved," Robinson explained. "Luckily, we had a local A-dec representative who was able to pull some strings and speed along the process. The exterior of the building was really set. Our attention immediately after the fire turned to the inside and getting it ready."
With staff and patients now making the 10-mile trek to the new office, the attention turned back to the charred remains in northern Oklahoma City.
"With the north building, we had to do our planning quickly," Robinson said. "Normally, it's tough to get a full set of plans together in two months. Thanks to a lot of people working very hard, we had it hammered out in one to two weeks."
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The original building remains were bulldozed, and a new 14-operatory building was begun. In just over five months, the 5,960-square-foot building was ready for use.
"After going through all of that, my words of advice for all dentists is to re-evaluate their insurance coverage," Dr. Ashmore said. "In order to compensate for everything in an operatory, it's really in the neighborhood of $50,000, and we weren't near that in our estimates. Also, dentists need to remember all of the supplies when insuring. You can stock up for months on product, and have tens of thousands of dollars sitting in your storeroom."
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Now back on track (forgive the pun) after the fire, Dr. Ashmore is proud to watch the Dental Depot concept, which he has copyrighted and trademarked, grow exponentially.
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"I'm really a proponent of the cottage industry aspect of dentistry," Dr. Ashmore said. "Other doctors and I put the money together to form an office. I really have no part in the south office, other than that of landlord. It's a completely different office. Dr. (Sheldon) Shapiro loves to do implants. He also has a CEREC machine that is doing wonders for him. He estimates he does two to four crowns per day on the CEREC. It's not something I have in my office, but I'll have to admit I'm a little jealous when I look at the success he is having with it."
In the same way, the south office is partnership, so will the Dallas office be. Dr. Cal Nunnally, who currently works in the north office with Dr. Ashmore, will take the lead in the Dallas office using the same business principle as the Oklahoma offices.
"Really this has become a vehicle for dentists to grow their practices in a few years rather than waiting 20 years or so," Dr. Ashmore said.
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Just like the little engine who thought he could, the Dental Depot keeps churning along, and it keeps growing as more and more patients discover its charm.
Editor's Note: Dr. Ashmore encourages any dentists interested in learning more about the Dental Depot concept to call him at (405) 949-0123.
To contact Dr. Glenn Ashmore: Phone: (405) 949-0123 Web site: www.dentaldepotok.com e-mail: [email protected]
