Office Visit: Dr. Marc Goldenberg by Kyle Patton, associate editor

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Categories: Practice Management, HR and Accounting;

Fresh from an expansion, this Florida Townie shares how his personable approach has grown his practice and centered him in the community

by Kyle Patton, associate editor
photography by Aaron Bristol, except where indicated

Orthodontists spend most of their working hours inside their own practices, so they usually don’t get many opportunities to see what it’s like inside another doctor’s office. Orthotown’s recurring Office Visit profile offers a chance for Townies to meet their peers, hear their stories and get a sense of how they practice.

As a kid running around in his grandfather’s dental practice, Dr. Marc Goldenberg thought his pathway to the profession was always just a matter of time. This Townie, known affectionately to his patients as “Dr. G,” called New York, Maryland and Missouri home before heading south and setting up shop in Boca Raton, Florida. There, in the “city for all seasons,” Goldenberg quickly established himself as an orthodontist for patients of all ages. His peers told him it would be a mistake to open an office in a heavily saturated area—now many of them come to him when they need a second opinion.

In our exclusive Q&A, we visit Goldenberg’s office along the southeastern coast, where he chats about building and expansion tips, explains how a saturated market isn’t a bad thing, discusses why recommending doing nothing nets him more new patients, and a lot more.

OFFICE HIGHLIGHTS

NAME:
Dr. Marc Goldenberg

GRADUATED FROM:
University of Maryland School of Dentistry; Saint Louis University orthodontic residency

PRACTICE NAME:
Goldenberg Orthodontics
Boca Raton, Florida

PRACTICE SIZE:
2,900 square feet; 6 ops and 2 consult rooms

TEAM SIZE:
9

How’d you find your way into orthodontics?

Going through dental school, I was kind of a dental nerd and loved all things dental. I used to spend a lot of my downtime reading through Dentaltown threads on practice management, financial preparation, and tips and tricks for restorative dental procedures. Then, toward the end of the second year, I was invited to attend an Alpha Omega CE event, which was held at a Chinese restaurant—couldn’t say no to that!—and it was given by an orthodontist. His lecture was essentially a potpourri of cases with initial, progress and final photos. My mind was blown by the ability to absolutely transform someone’s mouth without adding in anything external, just their natural teeth realigned. You could literally see the change in their smile confidence from before to after treatment, and at that point, I drank the ortho Kool-Aid.

Earlier this year, you moved into a new space that was built from the ground up. Tell us about the build and what surprised you about the process.

I was lucky in terms of timing for our build-out. About 1.5 years before, I had been living a happy and simple life—our practice was growing and the office was compact, efficient and beautiful. But when I hired a local practice consultant, William Spinosa of the Center for Practice Excellence, he told me, “You need to start looking for a new space tomorrow.”

I was taken aback, because everything seemed to be working fine at that time, but he said he could tell that by the following year, we would not have room in the office to continue growing and expanding. So the next day, I called a broker to start looking for a new space. How prescient Bill was, because by the time the office was ready 18 months later, we couldn’t imagine staying in our old office! It took about six months to find a new place, five months of permitting and seven months of construction.

The next step was finding a dental contractor. I visited 10–15 new-build dental and orthodontic offices, and if I liked their design and the dentists were happy with their contractor, they got added to a list that I narrowed down to find our contractor. I ended up going with Jorge Ruiz of the RCI Group, who had the highest recommendations from local colleagues.

Now, I’ve gone through both residential and commercial build-outs in the past, but nothing could have prepared me for a COVID-19 building project. I tried to be as forward-thinking as I could and ordered everything I needed really early, but certain things were just out of my control.

Because of the Palm Beach County backlog, our permitting took five months instead of two. And while I’d been focused on getting all my ortho needs like vacuum, compressor, chairs and delivery units ordered far in advance, I didn’t expect backlogs on standard construction materials. Halfway through the project, we found out there was a country-wide shortage of rooftop AC units and had to switch our architectural drawings and permit approvals to a split system, which pushed us back a few more months.

I think the main thing to focus on while doing a build-out is staying organized. There are always balls you’re juggling in terms of ordering, permits, design, signage, etc., and it’s easy to lose track of some things.

If you believe you can handle it along with your regular day job, then create a file with different sections for the different projects you need to do, and an updated to-do list of the next things to tackle. Also, expect to sprout a few sprinkles (what my kids call my new gray hairs) along the way. If you don’t think you can handle these decisions, hire a project manager or office designer to take care of these details for you.

Photo Courtesy of Bruce Len

Photo courtesy of Bruce Len

What kind of help or advice did you find on Orthotown?

I felt the need to hear from others about the process of building out an office, recommended ortho supplies, and best practices. While I always get the magazine and enjoy it, I hadn’t looked at the Dentaltown and Orthotown websites since dental school. I went back online and scoured the message boards searching for everything I could, and found a treasure trove of helpful advice and links. It helped me weigh differences between different X-ray units, negotiating leases, floor plan ideas, office flow concepts and different mistakes to stay away from.

Some examples of the tips I saved that really helped:

Try to make big purchases around the AAO Annual Session and negotiate better deals.
Make sure to have a 2:1 ratio of reception chairs to treatment chairs.
Place the main shut-off switches near the exit door.
Don’t let the consult room chairs face the open bay— it’s too distracting.
Increase AC tonnage more than you think you need.
Floor choice: Go modern with dark lines to hide any small, dirty areas.
Sign up for a buying group like Mari’s List before building out.

There were so many others, but these were among the most helpful.

One thing your practice does exceptionally well is generating authentic reviews. What’s your process?

The most important part of generating reviews is making sure your team understands your office, its mission and its vision. If you can get them pumped up about why your office is so incredible, they’re more likely to be on fire to get patients to share their experiences. If it just feels like a chore they don’t care about, and they’re not on board with your office vibe, they won’t do it even if you entice them with money. (That being said, once they understand why reviews are important for growth, a small bonus for each successful review received can really be a strong incentive for your staff!)

A great tip I heard from Dr. Dovi Prero is to never let a compliment fade away into oblivion. If you’re doing your job well, you will inevitably receive compliments: “Your office is beautiful,” “Your front desk team was so nice,” “The doctor really took the time to answer my questions,” etc. When a patient offers that compliment, reply, “Thank you so much, we’re so happy you enjoyed or appreciated that. Can I ask a small favor? It would mean so much to us if you’d share your thoughts so people who haven’t met us can see what the process is like. Would it be possible for me to send you a text message with a link to write a review?” This can and should be said by any person or position in the office.

What kind of cases excite you the most?

My favorite cases to treat are anterior open-bite cases. (See example below.) Not only can we completely change the smile and macroaesthetics of these patients, but you give them the ability to adequately function, which they’ve never had before. These patients come into our offices having never used their front teeth during mastication, and when you’re complete with treatment, they’re delighted to bite into a burger for the first time.

Before

After

You have a consultant come in every other week. What did he do for your practice?

Coming out of residency, I felt comfortable with the clinical task of aligning patients’ teeth, and I naturally feel comfortable connecting with and developing relationships with people. However, the human resources portion of the job was an entirely new area of expertise.

About two years ago, when I finally had the guts to admit that I don’t know the things I don’t know, I decided it was time to reach out to an expert. That’s when I hired Bill, who focuses on HR for small dental and medical offices. He’s been incredibly helpful in creating a backdrop of information I didn’t know I was lacking.

I think every person should have some form of business coach to close up the gaps of knowledge we’re not necessarily comfortable with. It doesn’t have to be a forever relationship, but at least something and someone you can reach out to when you’re not sure of something.

How do you think other docs can improve their soft skills?

I think the first step to improving soft skills is to truly care about the answers. People can sense if you care or not, and when they feel like you’re really listening, they’ll open up and the connection will be a totally natural progression.

When we speak with patients during consultations or adjustment appointments, details of their summer plans, favorite hobbies or personal lives often come out. Instead of that information ending there and floating into space dust, we try to actively remember it so we can ask them for updates at follow- up visits. Patients are blown away when you remember a small detail of something they told you at their last appointment. It makes them feel like they’re a person and they have a relationship with you, rather than just being another number.

In the beginning, it may seem like a lot to remember these things, so try to find a hidden place in the patient’s chart to write these down. After doing this for long enough, you’ll be able to remember these details without writing them down.

What’s your trick for dealing with difficult patients?

No matter how excellent your office is and no matter how personable you are, there will always be patients who are just difficult. There’s nothing wrong with expressing frustration, but some patients go beyond that and act rude and disrespectful to you or your team. In the past, when that phone call would end or you’d see that patient on the schedule, you could feel the energy in our office get dark, as if everyone was upset and frustrated they would have to deal with this patient.

Then, about three years ago, I started reviewing the phrase “sad, not mad” during our bimonthly huddles. The gist is that instead of carrying the baggage of anger and madness a patient is trying to make you carry, turn it on them: Try to feel sad for them, because they don’t realize how impolite and rude they’re acting. Your practice probably isn’t the only place they’re acting out—they’re likely behaving the same way at the mechanic, grocery store and the nail salon. If you start feeling sad for this patient instead of being mad at them, you’ve flipped the baggage from your shoulders and placed it squarely on theirs. There are some things you just can’t change, and there’s no reason to ruin your day because of someone else’s poor choice of actions.

Top products

Anycubic Photon Mono X 6K 3D printers.
These incredibly affordable and efficient little 3D printers have been game-changers in our retainer workflow. Instead of relying on a thirdparty lab to make our retainers, we can maintain a tight turnaround schedule and help quickly in emergencies.

MR Lock visible light cure band cement (American Orthodontics). I never liked placing blue band cement for bite turbos because of how conspicuous it looked, but the problem with regular composite is the difficulty of seeing it later to remove. MR Lock comes in a convenient carpule dispensing system and is light yellow, which is the perfect mix of color needed.

SoftFlow temporary mucosal protector (SoftFlow USA).
This light-cured flowable mucosal protector allows you to quickly and easily cover any part of a bracket, wire or ligature irritating a patient.

Element 5D intraoral scanner (iTero) with occlusogram.
I can’t imagine practicing orthodontics today without an intraoral scanner. In addition to not having to ever take impressions— my assistants don’t even know how to!—it’s a phenomenal consultation tool. There’s no substitute for showing patients what’s going on in their mouths on the big screen. Our patients are always amazed when we turn on the occlusogram and can show them where they’re biting heavier than they should be.

What’s your favorite piece of office technology right now—and what do you think you’ll adopt next?

About six months ago, we pulled the trigger on a 3D printer and I haven’t looked back. The flexibility of handling much of our lab work has unshackled us from relying on third-party labs to process our requests. We can do our own bracket removals, print our own models for quick turnaround, print models to fabricate to lower fixed retainers and, of course, cut down on our lab costs.

I’m looking forward to bringing in remote monitoring—particularly with Invisalign college patients, who may come back to town only a few times a year, as well as with Class II elastics patients. These types of appointments need to be monitored but don’t need constant and consistent appointments as much as others.

What’s a trend in the profession you love?

Office management has changed significantly with a focus on a more patient-centric treatment. We are now in a service industry that happens to be aligning teeth. Don’t get me wrong, you still need to put health and effective treatment first, but at this point in our profession, you won’t succeed if you don’t also design your office so customer service is foremost.

When you have to think of your office as a service industry, it makes you pick up your game and actually create relationships with patients for them to feel at home and comfortable in your office. I love that I can see both teen and adult patients and have real conversations with them that will make them walk out of my office feeling heard and important.

It’s an intangible benefit we can bring to society. Instead of just aligning teeth, you could be the one person who shows care and attention to that patient that day. Who knows what kind of ripple effect you can have by having 60 people walk out of your office and into their communities in a better mood?

Tell us more about your practice and the surrounding community.

My wife and I always knew we wanted to live in Boca because it has great schools and we have a lot of family and friends in the area. But when I was looking for a practice location, many colleagues advised against opening here because the market was already saturated. I took a leap of faith and decided to open here anyway, based on two things:

I remember hearing you can open where there are few orthodontists and may also be a few patients, or you can start something in a saturated area, which means there’s already a large base of patients.
I firmly believe that quality of life is worth more than a busier, more profitable practice. Even if you told me I’d make less money in this saturated area than I would if I opened a practice further away, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. To me, the ability to drive 10 minutes to work and be able to run over to my kid’s school easily if needed was on the top of the list. We don’t work to make the most money we possibly can—we do it to have an enjoyable and comfortable life.

Thankfully, our practice has done well, even with so many other orthodontists in the area.

A side benefit of living close to my practice is that I see my patients all over the place. I know that sounds like a nightmare for some people, but for me, it’s cool to feel so connected to the community in which I live.

Give us a snapshot of your life outside of dentistry.

We are blessed to have five vibrant, active and awesome kids: Daniella, Aiden, Ariel, Elisha and Hailey. I work my schedule around theirs so two days a week, I can be home when they get back from school and we have time for basketball, biking, running and swimming. I’m also very involved with our local synagogue, which is one of the largest orthodox Jewish synagogues in the country.

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Office Visit: Dr. Marc Goldenberg by Kyle Patton, associate editor

Fresh from an expansion, this Florida Townie shares how his personable approach has grown his practice and centered him in the community

September 2025


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Office Visit: Dr. Marc Goldenberg by Kyle Patton, associate editor

Fresh from an expansion, this Florida Townie shares how his personable approach has grown his practice and centered him in the community

September 2025

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