“About four years ago, I wanted to change my practice,” says Dr. Dominic Cringoli, of Raritan, New Jersey. “I had owned my own practice for about 22 years and I really didn’t have that much interest in it; I got into various other businesses on the side – an antique shop, a travel agency, a coin business.

“So in the end, even though my practice wasn’t horrible, it somehow wasn’t interesting and I’d cut down to practicing three days a week.

” It was at this point, however, that Dr. Cringoli decided to change his operating basis. He thought that in fact what he wanted to do was orthodontics and to make it interesting he needed an expanding, prosperous practice.

“I wanted to reestablish myself in a major practice,” he says, “so I bought another practice about a mile and a half away and relocated into a more prosperous area.

"But there was one element missing and that was the knowledge to take control of the practice and expand it as he wanted to. A dentist friend referred him to Sterling.

“I went to one of their seminars and liked what I heard, so I signed up.

Dr. Cringoli says that the Sterling program more than lived up to its promise to provide him with the tools he needed and wanted.

Asked to summarize what principles he found most valuable, Dr. Cringoli named three main categories.

“To begin with, I became more aware of my practice through management by statistics.

“Secondly, I was able to improve my management skills with my staff. There was better coordination and cooperation and as a result, better delivery of services. Their morale greatly increased when I put in a bonus system and their production increased as well.

“The third thing which I found really important was gaining the techniques to increase patient acceptance of the optimum treatment plan and to get that acceptance in a shorter time. Soon there were a lot fewer cases hanging around making decisions.

“With all this,” says Dr. Cringoli, “I found I was better off increasing my existing practice, than going off in different areas. In truth I wanted to do orthodontics, I just needed to improve my practice.

“Instead of just working three days, I come in four and a half days and where my receipts were about $325,000 a year, they have gone up to $675,000.

"With lots of referrals, a high percentage of new patients rapidly getting on with the treatment they need and good collections ensuring fair compensation for his work, Dr. Cringoli has indeed found success at his chosen profession."