YOUNG DENTIST
DEBUNKS STEREOTYPING
There is an axiom lately that younger
dentists just don’t have the same drive
or entrepreneurial spirit once identified
as a hallmark of the profession.
Instead, the stereotyping says young
dentists are risk-averse, don’t want to
scrimp and save to venture into the dog-
eat-dog world of small business
ownership, and would rather work for a
lucrative salary so they can plunk down
monthly payments for a shiny new
“beamer.”
However, there’s a 29-year-old named
Scott Drucker who splits his time
between nurturing a start-up business in
a health care incubator hub in the
Merchandise Mart and traveling the
country supporting that business, and
also spends a day practicing dentistry at
an office more than 40 miles from his
home.
He begs to differ with that stereotype of
the young dentist.
“I wouldn’t necessarily make the blanket
statement that young dentists aren’t
entrepreneurial,” he said.
“I know several other young dentists
who have super innovative technology
platforms, devices that they are creating,
the ones diving into the tele-dental
world. . . I would actually argue quite
the contrary,” he said.
Dr. Drucker does not fit into the risk-
averse category.
He grew up in South Florida, where
both his parents practice medicine; they
encouraged him to consider becoming a
dentist.
“Growing up I heard all of the positives,
but also all of the negatives, about the
health care system that we work in here
in the states,” he said.
Los Angeles Dental Society Explorer
After shadowing a dentist, he decided
dentistry was the profession for him.
After receiving his dental degree in
2013 from the University of
Pennsylvania School of Dental
Medicine, he moved to Chicago to take
a residency in periodontics at the
University of Illinois at Chicago
College of Dentistry, which he
completed in 2016.
It was his residency that lead him to the
idea that spun him into the
entrepreneurial world.
His business idea grew out of his
residency acceptance letter from the
University of Illinois at Chicago
College of Dentistry. The letter
included a list of supplies he needed to
buy. “You really don’t get any practice
management education in dental school;
it’s a weak point in dental education,” he
said. “I had no idea what I needed to do
with this list of products I received.”
Faculty members at Penn told him to
call representatives at the big box
medical supply distributorships.
But an online search showed Dr.
Drucker that pricing was inconsistent.
And in looking into the business
landscape, he realized an opportunity
existed to do things differently with
more efficiency and at lower cost. And
with that, his web-based medical supply
company, Supply Clinic, emerged.
He tapped his brother, Jacob, who was
completing a joint program for an
undergraduate degree in economics and
a master’s in statistics at Harvard
University, to join him. Dr. Drucker
said he began building the business
model during the summer between first
and second year of residency.
By Joseph DeRosier, Chicago Dental Society Staff Writer
Reprinted with permission from the Chicago Dental Society
Scott Drucker
As it turned out, he had extra time to
devote to the business because of an
approval delay for his residency research
project. And during his second and third
year of residency he accelerated his
involvement in his online business. “My
routine was that I would wake up at
5:30, I would do my didactic and
residency-related work, then would go
in and have an hour or two of classes or
lectures in the morning, then have six to
seven hours of patient care and surgery,”
he said.
After that full day ended, he would go
to the Merchandise Mart at 5 or 5:15
p.m. to “start his work day” and toil
there until about 10:30 or 11 p.m.
before going home to his River North
apartment to get some sleep before
starting the routine over again.
“Towards the end of my residency, I had
a big decision to make,” Dr. Drucker
said. “I had a couple of offers to work as
a full-time periodontist in a couple of
different practices.” But, he said, he
decided that he would regret not
pursuing his business idea more
vigorously.
“Our industry is changing and changing
really quickly on multiple levels,” Dr.
Drucker observed.
He said those changes will either be
driven by corporate entities that have
their best interest in mind or those in
the dental community who can drive
that change and make things “efficient
with the best interest of dentists in
mind.”