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Wired for Success: Writing Your Office Mission Statement by Alan A. Curtis, DDS, MS, Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

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Treating Special Needs Orthodontic Patients

by Alan A. Curtis, DDS, MS, Editorial Director, Orthotown Magazine

Does your office have a mission statement that is reviewed periodically? Why should you have one, you ask? And how will having one change (for the better) the decisions you make in your office?

In 2010, after practicing for four years, I wrote my first office mission statement:

We at Curtis Orthodontics strive to create beautiful smiles in a comfortable, caring and high-tech environment. We seek to create long-lasting relationships where we are the “go-to” source for healthy, beautiful smiles. We will do so by providing excellent care, treatment at the right time, for the right reason, with integrity, honesty and a caring heart.

This mission statement was pulled out of the air and was a good start. Developed by myself, I merely stated what I aspired to create. I was stating to the public at large what they could count on from my practice and its employees. This gave the team a paragraph that would hold them accountable for decisions they made outside of the orthodontist and CEO’s direct supervision. At every office meeting the office mission statement was read aloud to serve as a blueprint for the decisions that would be made during that month. Each decision needed to be in line with what the office mission statement professed.

This mission statement held us accountable by making sure that prospective Phase I cases were not started unless it was “treatment at the right time, for the right reason.” We wanted parents to know that if we recommended interceptive treatment, that we felt it was treatment at the “right time” and the reason was fully understood and agreed upon.

Additionally, we sought after every opportunity we could to produce a comfortable, caring and high-tech office. We made every decision we could to make sure that the office environment, the clinical experience and outcomes implemented comfortable, caring and high-tech strategies.

Four years later we decided it was time to revisit and rewrite our office mission statement. This time we had a two-hour block of time dedicated to rewriting the statement as a group. The process was as follows:

After reading 15 mission statements from notable high service companies, we began by subjectively discussing what we hear from our patients and parents of patients. The positive things people say about our office were jotted down on our white board. Next, we read roughly 50 online reviews of primarily positive reviews. The sum result of “what people say we are” (our brand) was written on the white board. Finally, each staff member was given a marker and was asked to select five of the most important things that they felt were our core strengths. As business owner and leader of my orthodontic team, I took the information from our brand (what patients say we are) and what we aspire to be, and I sat down and wrote our updated 2014 mission statement.

It reads:
Curtis Orthodontics is committed to creating amazingly beautiful smiles with mind-blowing, patient-centered customer service. We seek personal, long-lasting relationships where we are the trusted source for information about your dental health.

Pilars of mind-blowing, patient-centered customer service:
  • High-tech
  • Positive
  • Patient-centered
  • Comfort
  • Fun and humor
  • Follow-through and consistency
  • Honesty and integrity

The vision of your future starts when you articulate your fondest desire. Write it down and make all of your actions match the thoughts in your head.

Orthotown Magazine
September 2025
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