Scottsdale Airpark News: Vol. 24, No. 6
2004
Personal Service Helps People Smile
“The key to business is personal relationships.” -Jared Jussim as Dicky Fox in Jerry Maguire
Dr. John Badolato, DDS, known as Dr. B to his friends and patients, was part of a pediatric heart surgery team and on track to attend medical school. That’s when, following the advice of several medical doctors, he tried dental school for a semester. The dental school was right next to the hospital where he worked, and he planned to transfer into medical school if it didn’t work out.
“I always thought, ’who are doctors who don’t get into medical school? – they’re dentists.’ I wasn’t even thinking about attending dental school,” says Badolato.
However, after being recommended to contact Dr. Bill Dorfman, a top aesthetic dental surgeon and the current surgeon on ABC’s Extreme Makeover, Badolato became enrolled in The Pacific Aesthetic Continuum (PAC) program, which Dr. Dorfman helped to start. Reflecting on the program, Badolato says, “The light at the end of the tunnel was shown to me for cosmetics, and I saw what was possible in that I could change people’s lives by changing their smile.”
Needless to say, Badolato never transferred to medical school and, after graduating from the University Of Missouri’s dental school, moved to Arizona and joined a dental practice. Two years later, he “took the bold leap,” as he puts it, and started his own practice in Scottsdale, opening Studio B’s doors January 6 this year.
“I moved to Arizona because I wanted to be in Scottsdale. My family had moved here from Missouri to retire, and this is sort of my focal point,” says Badolato. He explains that his current Shea Boulevard and Loop 101 location is ideal because it’s accessible to those in the Airpark and in south Scottsdale. However, he plans to move further north within the next four years to build his own office, with his eye on property at Loop 101 and Scottsdale Road.
When asked about his service, Badolato stresses his concern with customer care, saying he thinks Studio B is the Nordstrom’s of dentistry. “I have a great team, and we all work well together delivering five-star service to patients,” says Badolato. “We take the best care of our patients, just like we would our families.”
Even more unique is that Studio B provides aesthetic and family dentistry all under one roof. Badolato explains, “We do it all. We take care of everybody from their basic oral healthcare needs to the more contemporary and advance gum care and whitening, and we also do it all together in one place. We fuse the contemporary and the state of the art technique with genuine traditional care and concern.”
Services offered by Studio B include everything from routine care and cleanings to light-activated teeth whitening to complete smile makeovers. Smile makeovers involve anything that improves a person’s smile, including veneers, tooth implants, and Invisalign® braces. Veneers involve recreating the faces of teeth. They can change the tooth alignment, size, shape, and color, and only take three visits to complete. Badolato also provides tooth implants if a tooth is unsalvageable and Invisalign® braces to correct alignment and spacing. Invisalign® braces are invisible and removable, and eliminate the need for metal brackets.
Studio B provides the most up-to-date technologically advanced equipment around. Laser diagnostics detect tooth decay, rather than the traditional metal instruments that many dentists use to poke at teeth and gums. Badolato utilizes ultra-sonic cleanings to improve the effectiveness of cleaning sessions. He even has a soft-tissue laser that can reshape gums. Digital x-rays are taken advantage of because they expose patients to 90% less radiation than regular x-rays. They also allow Badolato to manipulate the x-rays on the computer to his professional advantage.
Badolato emphasizes that he respects his patients. He says, “I don’t put anything in anyone’s mouth that I wouldn’t put in my own.” He explains that he is conservative, saying, “I believe we are in the age of preserving everyone’s natural tooth structure. Undetectable restorations are possible without having to trim off 60% of the tooth just to put a crown on it, as many dentists do.”
Not only is Badolato conservative with prescribing, but he offers options to all of his patients in pricing and quality of services. He makes sure his patients understand the ups and downs of every product, along with its functionality and cost. Studio B also caters to insurance – call to find out if yours applies.
Studio B understands and provides for those afraid of dentists. Badolato says, “People hate going to the dentist. I hated going to my dentist.” He continues, “What I learned throughout school and practice is it doesn’t have to be painful and people don’t have to be nervous.” Badolato provides options to watch movies, listen to CD’s on headphones or use personal sedatives, like sleeping pills or nitrous oxide (otherwise known as “laughing gas”). He allows patients t o bring in their own CD’s and/or DVD’s, or to choose from his growing collection. His office is clean, contemporary and replete with top technology. Despite all the services that Studio B provides, Badolato says the most important thing to help people feel comfortable is to listen to them.
All of this is probably why he sees 30-50 new patients each month. Despite this growth, he is sincere about not stretching himself and his staff too thin. Appealing to the Jerry Maguire film’s theme of less clients and more personal service, Studio B focuses on treating each individual like family. Inspired by the film, Badolato says, “We don’t say we have patients for life, we have friends for life.” That is evident from the plethora of gifts appreciative patients drop off at his office, and also from the fact that people fly into Scottsdale from New Mexico, California, Kansas, Missouri, and Nevada to take advantage of Studio B’s services.
The reason for Badolato’s dedication to service and dentistry lies in its results. “I know it [dentistry] affects people’s lives, and it changes their lives.” He also says, in reference to aesthetic dentistry, “If they want it and it will make them happier, let’s do it.” Badolato truly enjoys helping people, and dentistry is his method of doing so.
