How does direct-to-public marketing change the economics for dental specialists? By reducing the specialist's dependence on the referral relationships that historically defined their patient pipeline and giving them direct access to the patients they actually want to treat. Specialists have traditionally built their practices through referrals from generalists, which required substantial relationship-building time, glad-handing, and acceptance of whatever cases the referring doctors happened to send. The trade-off favored the generalist: they controlled the patient relationship, decided what to refer, and often kept the more lucrative work for themselves. Direct-to-public marketing inverts the dynamic. The specialist communicates directly with the patient population, [...]