The Synergy Effect: How Practice Ownership Benefits Utah Lab

Operating a dental practice had always been in the back of Lab Owner Nick Oganov’s mind. After all, he had been a practicing dentist in the former Soviet Union before arriving in the U.S. as a refugee along with his wife and son, George, and finding work as a dental technician. He opened his own lab in 1995 and the lab was growing consistently until the recession hit in 2008.

Over the next year or two, dentist-clients continued to bemoan shrinking revenues and lighter patient loads; a few even closed their doors. As a result, the lab’s growth was slowing down. Coincidentally, around that same time, Nick discovered that a young dentist he knew was looking for an additional location in which to practice part-time. It was then he decided to make a bold move: opening a dental practice in the laboratory facility and hiring the dentist to see patients a few days a week.

“The idea was that it would give us a new revenue stream,” says Nick’s...