Last Updated on October 3, 2024
With over 30 years of experience as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Louis Bourget has established several practices across Atlantic Canada. Balancing his efforts as a medical practitioner and entrepreneur, Dr. Bourget’s practices include the Gander Family Dental Clinic in Newfoundland and three facilities in Nova Scotia: East Coast MediCentre, Truro Dental Specialists, and the South Shore Regional Hospital. Dr. Bourget holds his PhD from McGill University and is a fellow of the International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Dr. Bourget specializes in a variety of services, from dental implants to Botox to full facial reconstruction. Known for his philanthropic efforts, Dr. Bourget provides dental services during annual mission trips to South America and Africa.
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Q: What financial challenges did you face when you first started your own practice?
Dr. Louis Bourget: It was a challenge at first, for sure. I had to learn how to best manage that gap between the low initial income and the high and often unpredicted initial expenses. As medical practitioners, we move from a hospital setting where equipment and resources are provided to having to buy our own equipment, lease space, hire staff, and handle management tasks.
There can be some sticker shock in those first months or years, and you often find your income isn’t going to cover it all. In the beginning, you may not even be able to pay yourself. We, as business owners, are usually the last ones to get paid, which is very different to the system in hospitals where public money funds everything.
Q: In terms of advertising, do you have any advice on what works best?
Dr. Louis Bourget: We maintain high quality business websites, and we’re constantly trying to improve those to create clarity for our patients and to make it easy for new people to find us. Beyond those, we’ve had success with social media, which can be very effective for medical professionals.
Word of mouth means so much when gaining the trust of your community. And to get that, you have to do excellent work and show that you care about your patients’ needs. That’s the best advertising.
Q: You’ve decided to bring a service dog into your practices to help provide comfort to patients, as a dentist visit can often cause anxiety. Have you noticed a big difference?
Dr. Louis Bourget: It’s made a huge difference, both to our patients and our staff. We bring Finley around to visitors who need him at our Gander and our Truro clinic locations. He’s a Cortisol Detection Service Dog, so he can detect the cortisol that’s produced by our adrenal glands, which is usually caused by stress and anxiety, especially in a dentist’s chair.
So when he senses that change in mood, he can provide comfort. It’s a big help with the patients who need him, especially the children. It can be a challenge to create a calm environment, and Finley helps a lot with that.
Q: What’s your favourite part of the work that you do?
Dr. Louis Bourget: I have a lot of favourite parts—but I’ll narrow it down to three. The professional relationships I have are wonderful, as they keep me inspired and motivated and feeling supported. Having generational patients is another, where you’re part of their lives and their family’s lives and you’re on a first-name basis with everyone. And the last is seeing how happy patients can be after we’ve solved a problem for them, or after any stress-free, successful visit. Their smiles are the best part.
Q: What would you say are the guiding principles to your dental practice?
Dr. Louis Bourget: Our guiding principles are our dedication to high quality work, our consistency, and our passion for patient satisfaction. We want to go beyond what they expect from their visit, and Finley is a great example of that. We want them to feel reassured and know that they’re in good hands, and that we’ve done everything possible to make them comfortable and to deliver the care they deserve.
We push each other to stay on top of our training with continued education—there’s no way I could have gone through 1200 hours of courses without the support and encouragement of my colleagues, who were all the while striving for their own goals. But it all comes down to a commitment to our patients—that’s what guides our practice.
