TRUCKING Truck-stop dentist pulls for rig drivers

She had to rethink traditional dentist-office practices.
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Dave McIntosh pulled his rig into the Petro truck stop and saw a sign he'd been aching to see for a long time: "Dentist."
The dentist is Dr. Lillian Landrigan, and she opened her truck-stop dentistry in July. Her hours are officially 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but if she's needed she will rush from her home after hours and on weekends.
"For us that's very convenient," said Knoxville-based McIntosh, who has had a couple of teeth pulled and a partial reconstructed. "That's a real handy thing, that you can have someone you can go to any time during the day.
"When you find out you're headed her way, you can give her a call and she fits you in. She works with us instead of trying to make us work her way, and that makes a big difference."
Nontraditional
Opening a dental office that caters to truck drivers meant changing the traditional way such offices operate, Dr. Landrigan said.
Her schedule had to be more flexible, and the old system of an examination one visit and treatment the next had to be thrown out.
She also had to throw out the gas. Rendering a driver unconscious for a procedure and then sending him off in a tractor-trailer is generally not a good idea, she said.
This is Dr. Landrigan's second practice. She had an office in the area for more than a decade. But in 1999 she decided to join the Army full time, after serving in the reserves for 14 years.
She served as a dentist for the Army and was sent to Iraq at the end of 2003. After returning, she opened the truck-stop location.
"I think it's a good business plan," Dr. Landrigan said. "Most truckers have excellent dental plans but are unable to take advantage of them because they are unable to stay at home."
Not much overhead
Her two-person operation (she has one employee, Star Mathews) and new technology means she is able to keep overhead costs down. She uses a digital X-ray machine, which means there is no processing time, and insurance claims can be filed on secure sites over the Internet.
"The expense of dentistry is the time it takes you to do it and the number of people you have to employ," Dr. Landrigan said.
But even with her small office and time-saving equipment, she doesn't expect to start seeing significant profits for five to six years. Still, she is encouraged by the amount of walk-in traffic and regular customers she's seeing.
Her clients are mostly truckers, but Dr. Landrigan said some of her old patients have followed her.
Local residents
She is also seeing a good number of local residents and those in the service industry who, like truckers, find it difficult to visit dentists with traditional practices.
"I believe in this," Dr. Landrigan said. "I hope it's going to work. The biggest problem is no one knows we're here."
But she hopes that will change soon. She's trying to alert company dispatchers to her existence so they can direct truckers her way.
"The companies want their drivers taken care of; it's to their advantage," Dr. Landrigan said. "There's a big issue with drivers of these huge machines being in pain."
Most of her patients have not received dental care recently, she said. She does some routine cleanings, but mostly the patients are in some sort of pain.