In a place like the Iowa 80--a 200 acre carnival, billed as the world's largest truck stop, which boasts its own movie theater, a 300-seat restaurant and a giant truck-gear showroom--one dentist on wheels doesn't get a lot of attention.
But when truckers need him, they really need him, notes Dr. Thomas Roemer, who runs his one-man practice inside Iowa 80 at Exit 284 off of Interstate 80 near Walcott, IA. "When your dental practice is in a truck stop, you don't have a lot of patients coming in for their six-month cleanings," Roemer told CNN.com. "You have people walking in holding their jaws in pain."
Roemer, who used to practice in nearby Davenport, noticed in the early 1990s that his Yellow Pages advertisement drew lots of calls from truckers using the phone booth in the Iowa 80. After thinking over the fact that the truck stop draws 5,000-odd customers a day, he realized that he might do better working solely on-site at Iowa 80. He made arrangements with the management there to open an office and eventually, closed his traditional location.
Roemer said that he misses building up relationships with steady customers sometimes--he may never see the people he treats a second time--but that business has been good, with none of the drop off in business that other dentists have seen during the recession. That's because the people who see him must be treated right away, while other dentists build their practices around easily-postponed teeth cleanings.
To learn more about Dr. Roemer's business:
- read this CNN.com piece