Exactly as stated, 1-800-DENTIST is basically a marketing gimic, where you as the dentist pay a yearly fee anywhere from $500 to a whole lot more depending on your area. You have no clue what so ever as to what type of patient will come in your door, if any at all. The "receptionist" will tell a prospective caller where your office is, where you went to school, etc, etc, etc, and of course how caring, considerate and wonderful you are. Oh yes and they'll also tell the prospective pastient if you do or don't accept the insurance that the patient has(This is often the major deciding factor about who gets referred to your ofice).
Basically, the best type of adverstisng that you can hope to get is word of mouth from one of your satisfied patients. Really good patients to get and "cut a break" that will pay you back thousands of times over are people such as personal trainers, hair dressers/cosmotologists, or anyone that is very active in your local community. About a year ago, I offered the owner of the gym I belong to, who is also one of the head trainers, a chance to bleach his teeth for free(my total cost on this was a less than $100 for the bleaching kit and the chairtime to take a couple of alginates. Since then I've gotten over 50 new patients referred in by the gym owner for bleaching, and many of them having a high interest in their personal appearance have gone on to have extensive cosmetic dentistry. I'd estimate that the $100 I spent on that well positioned person has brought in an extra $50,000(and and growing) to my practice over the last year
I've had similair, although not quite as much extra revenue brought in yet with the owner and a couple of the stylists of a local salon. I'm just waiting to find/go seek out the owner of a bridal salon for a similiar offer. Many times, some well positioned, "quiet" marketing to a few select people will yield a much higher return than a "loud" and widespread marketing assault.
