Up In Alaska, Charlie Cole is Looking for a Few Good Dentists

Up in Wasilla, Alaska, Charlie Cole, D.D.S., has invented the future of dentistry.

Nobody likes going to the dentist, but a lot of dentists don’t like being the dentist, either.

It’s tough. You get your daily calendar when you walk in the door, and then a bunch of the appointments either call in sick or don’t show up. For the new patients who do arrive, you work up a great big laundry list of all the stuff they need, and it might run six thousand to eight thousand dollars. They get sticker shock, say they’ll, “Think it over,” and you never see them again.

And that’s on a good day.

From the patient’s perspective, things aren’t much better. You go in for a cleaning or an X-ray, and even setting aside that time isn’t easy because you’ve got a job, kids, aging parents, or other responsibilities. Making multiple trips to the dentist? Super not easy. Once the cleaning is done, they scurry you up to the front desk only to schedule another appointment a month away that you may or may not be able to make.

There’s got to be a better way, Cole thought. And so he invented it: The Same Day Dental Revolution.

The SDDR works on a very simple principle: You get everything you need done the first day.

“Dentists’ offices have overhead,” Cole says. “An empty chair is costing you money. You still have to pay the staff, rent or mortgage, and utilities, whether you’re treating someone or not.

“And from the patient’s perspective, if they have a problem, they want it solved now. Not a month from now. So I created the SDDR to solve those problems.”

Here’s how it works: The patient has a problem — a chipped tooth, a filling that fell out, pain, whatever.

The patient either calls and gets an appointment for that day or just walks in, and is seen pretty much immediately.

“We don’t work up that big laundry list of problems,” Cole says. “Instead, we just focus on the problem the patient presented. We diagnose, and we treat right then and there. The patient’s happy, because the problem has been solved. And we’re happy, because we got to serve someone and make a few bucks. Everybody wins.”

Most dentists won’t even consider the SDDR approach, even though Cole now only works part-time, enjoys a multi-million dollar income (in small town Alaska — where can he even spend it?), and is absolutely loving life.

“It’s incredibly satisfying to solve problems for people immediately,” Cole says. “And then they say nice things about us on social media, and they tell their friends. And then they come back, either a few months later or a few years later. It’s an enormous generator of new business.”

Cole wrote a book about his process, The Same Day Dental Revolution, with an eye toward training other dentists in his methodology.

“It’s amazing how stuck most dentists are in their ways,” Cole marvels. “They are practically addicted to the false security of their daily calendar, even though a lot of the time, the patients on that sheet never show up. Or never agree to treatment.

“On top of that, dentists are so afraid of rejection that they are actually afraid to try to close cases, even though it’s in the best interest of their patients to get that treatment. They’re wishy-washy. They don’t say, ‘You really need this.’ They just say, ‘Let’s just put a watch on it.’

“No wonder so many dentists are miserable. I’m here to offer them the key to a better practice, a better income, and a better life.”

Cole, 67, is not looking to create a major consulting practice based on his revolutionary approach to treating patients. Instead, he’s looking for a small number of dentists — eight to ten or so — whom he can train in his methodology so that they can enjoy the same great results.

“You do have to give up a certain amount of freedom,” he says. “You can’t just say, ‘It’s three o’clock. I’m going to shut it down for the day. If somebody walks in with a broken tooth, and they are open to getting a crown done right then, you have to stick around to do it.

“But again, it’s a win-win. They got the treatment that they needed right away, and we’re happy because we got to fix someone’s problem and help our bottom line. Who knows when that person could’ve come back to get the crown done? How much suffering would they have had to go through until they could’ve shown up for their next appointment? Our patients don’t have that problem. And we don’t have empty chairs.”

Cole’s practice takes insurance but does not extend credit.

“People find a way to pay for what they want and need,” he says. “To me, it’s always amazing that someone will come to me — a complete stranger — and trust me enough so that they’re opening their mouth, and then their wallet, to the tune of a few thousand dollars. But that’s how it works. We’ve had this model in place for five years, and the results are stupendous.

“I wish every dentist in the United States would take on this approach. That’s not going to happen. But surely there are a few who would like to find a better way. If that’s the case, I’m here to teach them.

“And if you’ve never been to Alaska, you’re gonna love it.”