Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Lorne Lavine.
Hi Dr. Lorne, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was a practicing periodontist for 10 years in Vermont. I never loved the clinical side of periodontics, patients usually don’t have great oral care and surgical success depends on the patient taking care of their teeth, it wasn’t just a matter of doing surgery but also changing habits, and I got frustrated seeing patients return after a short time with the same problems. During my time as a periodontist, I built my own computers and set up my own network, my family owned the largest electronics distributorship in Canada and I grew up with technology.
During my time as a periodontist, I helped many of my colleagues to set up their networks and integrate new technologies such as digital x-rays, intraoral cameras, and 3D imaging. I knew I wanted to spend more time on the IT side of dentistry but wasn’t sure how.
In early 2000, California announced that as they had a shortage of dentists, they were temporarily allowing qualified dentists in other states to come practice in California without needing to take stringent licensing exams. I thought that this was ideal for me; I could practice 3-4 days/week, do the IT consulting 1 day a week, and hopefully flip that ration in 5-7 years.
What I didn’t know was that there was 15,000+ people on the waiting list for the license! I gave up my practice in June of 2002 and moved to Woodland Hills, expecting to be able to practice right away, in reality it would be at least a year before I could get my license. Oops! In retrospect, it was the best thing that could have happened, as it pushed me to develop my IT business since it was my only source of revenue. By the time I eventually could get my license a year later, I already had two employees and the IT business had taken off, so I elected to not get my license at all.
I have been very fortunate to have developed a very successful IT, cybersecurity, and HIPAA compliance business. I have lectured all over the world, write regular columns for dental magazines, am active on dental website communities, and have developed a great reputation as the #1 source for dental offices when it comes to IT.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
That first year was very rough as I had little income and while I had done OK in Vermont, the cost of living was much higher in LA than Vermont. Also, IT is not a stationary target, you have to keep up with it daily, and we’ve had to go through paradigm shifts every 4-5 years. At first it was hardware and networking, then digital dentistry, then HIPAA, and now, cybersecurity.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Digital Dentist?
My USP is that I believe I’m the only dental IT business that is actually run by a dentist, I spent 10 years in the trenches, I walk the walk and I talk the talk. We take pride in being a full service IT company that can handle the needs of any dental office, anywhere in the world. We offer numerous services like HIPAA risk assessments, management plans, application whitelisting, and staff training that few if any dental IT companies provide.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I subscribe to numerous dental podcasts to stay current on the dental community, and also enjoy health related podcasts such as the recent ones on peptides that I find fascination. I enjoy reading mostly fiction and fantasy, pretty much anything from Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, Robert Ludlum, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thedigitaldentist.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lornelavine/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedigitaldentist
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/digitaldentist/
- Twitter: https://x.com/digitaldentist
