The Arcon Platform

Five dimensions. One score. Every market.

Arcon builds a Local Market Index for every dental practice — an elastic, locally-calibrated intelligence system that scores market opportunity, marketing execution, unit economics, vulnerability, and 60-month projected value creation.

Score your first practice →Explore the five dimensions

Why Local Matters

Your market isn't a zip code.
It's the real geography where your patients come from.

Most analytics use a fixed radius — 5 miles, 10 miles, or a zip code. Arcon builds an elastic market boundary that adapts to your specialty, local population density, and commute patterns. An implant center's true market boundary is 3× wider than a general practice in the same location.

The Elastic Boundary Difference

✗
Fixed 5-mile radius (industry standard)
Overstates in dense urban markets. Understates for specialists patients travel for. Every practice looks the same regardless of specialty.
✓
Elastic boundary (Arcon)
Radius = Base × Density Factor × Treatment Factor × Commute Factor. A general practice in Plano gets 4.2mi. An implant center in the same location gets 12.6mi. Because patients travel 3× farther for implants.
Same location, different practice types
General Practice
4.2mi radius · 47 competitors
$8.2M addressable TAM
Implant Center
12.6mi radius · 11 competitors
$4.7M addressable TAM

Same practice. Different markets.

National
Plano, TX
Meridian, ID
M
Market Opportunity
50
72
41
X
Marketing Execution
50
62
58
U
Unit Economics
50
58
84
V
Vulnerability
50
38
71
P
Performance Proj.
50
61
67
Why it matters: Plano has high opportunity (M: 72) but elevated risk (V: 38) from competitive density. Meridian has lower opportunity but exceptional unit economics (U: 84) and stability (V: 71). National averages reveal none of this.
M

Dimension 1

Market Opportunity

M-Score answers the strategic question: “Is this market worth being in, for a practice like yours?” It measures market quality on a 1–100 scale using four weighted factors, calibrated to your specific practice profile — not a generic score that treats every dentist the same.

Four-Factor Weighted Model

40%
Relevant Opportunity
How much addressable TAM exists for your specific specialty and positioning — filtered by D1 category, revenue type, and positioning clusters.
25%
Capture Ease
Market fragmentation, HHI-based competitive intensity, multi-location ratio. How hard is it to gain share from existing competitors?
20%
Growth Trajectory
5-year forward-looking demographic projections × procedure adoption trends × revenue type modifiers. Is this market expanding or contracting for you?
15%
TAM Size
Absolute market scale. Larger markets offer more room to grow even at the same opportunity ratio.

What M-Score reveals that others can't

  • → Keyword Codex: 113 symptoms, 99 conditions, 83 procedures tracked for revealed demand — not inferred demographics, but what people actually search for.
  • → Ideal Practice Profile: For every market, we generate the optimal D1 specialty, revenue type, and positioning clusters — and quantify the repositioning potential in points.
  • → Practice-specific scoring: The same market scores differently for a general practice vs. an implant center. Because the competitive landscape and demand pool are fundamentally different.
M
Market Opportunity
Sample Practice — Plano, TX
55
Average Market
Factor Decomposition
Relevant Opportunity40%
peer: 5872
Addressable demand exceeds competition by 28%
Capture Ease25%
peer: 5841
Concentrated competitors raise capture difficulty
Growth Trajectory20%
peer: 5568
Above-average demographic growth in key cohorts
TAM Size15%
peer: 6058
Moderate market scale — sufficient for growth
Repositioning Potential: +18 points
Shifting to Value-Family positioning with restorative secondary unlocks $1.2M in underserved demand
Elastic market boundary: 4.2mi radius (adjusted for metro density + general practice specialty)
X

Dimension 2

Marketing Execution

X-Score answers: “Of the new patients available to win in this market, how many are you actually getting?” While 70–85% of revenue comes from existing patients returning, X-Score isolates the 15–30% that flows through acquisition — the controllable growth lever.

Five Acquisition Channels

~51%
Earned
Referrals and branded search — patients who already know your name. Lowest CAC, but relationship-bound.
~17%
Organic
SEO, directories, reviews, and AI discovery. Four weighted signals: unbranded search (40%), review presence (35%), social engagement (10%), AI-Readiness (15%).
~18%
Distribution
Insurance panel assignments, walk-ins from payer directories. Structural, capacity-bound.
~6%
Paid
Google Ads, Meta ads, paid directories. Highest CAC but immediately controllable.
~8%
Other
Offline and unmeasured. We allocate it proportionally — we don't pretend to measure billboards.

Beyond the score

  • → Retention Health Index (0–100): Branded search trend + review velocity + sentiment. Are you keeping the patients you win?
  • → Conversion Readiness Grade (A–D): 7-element audit — online scheduling, chat, mobile optimization, CTAs, page speed, click-to-call, contact form placement.
  • → AI-Readiness: Visibility to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini — the next patient discovery channel. Schema markup, directory coverage, backlink authority.
  • → Share Trajectory: Gaining, stable, or losing? Your acquisition share vs. your market position reveals whether you're winning or ceding ground.
X
Marketing Execution
Sample Practice — Plano, TX
62
Outperforming
Acquisition Channels
$323K est. first-year new patient revenue
EarnedReferrals & branded search
51%$165K
OrganicSEO, reviews, AI discovery
17%$55K
DistributionInsurance panels
18%$58K
PaidGoogle Ads, Meta
6%$19K
OtherOffline & unmeasured
8%$26K
Retention Health
72↑ Strong
Branded search +8% YoY · 4.7★ avg
Conversion Grade
A80/100
5/7 elements · 68th percentile
AI Readiness
44→ Below avg
Schema partial · 3 directories · Low CBA
⚠
Visibility Gap Detected
Strong referral engine (51%) but organic discovery underperforms at 17% vs 20% norm. SEO investment would compound over 12–18 months.
Share trajectory: Gaining — acquisition share outpacing market position by 1.3×
U

Dimension 3

Unit Economics

U-Score answers: “Are you acquiring patients profitably?” A practice can have excellent acquisition (high X-Score) but terrible economics — growing revenue while destroying margin. U-Score exposes the difference.

Why margin-based LTV:CAC changes everything

The industry uses revenue-based LTV:CAC ratios (10:1 to 40:1 range). At that scale, everyone looks healthy. Arcon uses margin-based ratios (3:1 to 16:1), which compress the signal and expose real economics. A practice at 3.5:1 is viable but tight. A practice at 2.4:1 is consuming 58% of its gross profit on acquisition. Revenue-based ratios can't tell the difference.

What U-Score measures

Margin-Based LTV
First-Year Collections × Gross Margin = First-Year Value × Retention Multiplier (capped by procedure type — orthodontia 2.5×, implants 1.5×). Not inflated revenue numbers.
Fully-Loaded CAC
Direct spend + hidden infrastructure (MarTech, staff time, content, community branding). Industry-reported "marketing spend" systematically excludes $36K–$97K/year in real costs.
Spend Sustainability Ratio
Total spend rate ÷ Minimum Viable Spend. Below 1.0 = Decline Zone (patient base shrinking). 1.0–1.3 = Maintenance. 1.3–2.0 = Growth. Above 2.0 = Aggressive.
⚠ Measurement Integrity Warning
When U-Score is high but Spend Sustainability is below 1.0, we flag it: “High efficiency is a product of underinvestment, not superior acquisition economics.” The practice looks efficient because it's barely spending — but it's structurally shrinking.
U
Unit Economics
Sample Practice — Plano, TX
58
Average
Margin-Based LTV:CAC
3.96 : 1
Peer median
4.1 : 1
48th percentile
1:13:16:110:116:1
LTV Waterfall
First-Year Collections$1,013
GEN-FAM profile avg
× Gross Margin43%
Regional benchmark
= First-Year Value$436
Margin-based, not revenue
× Retention Multiplier4.3×
87% retention, 10% discount
= Patient LTV$1,875
Margin-based lifetime value
Fully-Loaded CAC
Direct marketing spend$112K
+ Hidden infrastructure$56K
MarTech, staff time, content
= Total acquisition cost$168K
÷ New patients (est.)355
= CAC per patient$473
Growth Zone
Spend rate 8.1% exceeds 6.5% maintenance threshold
DeclineMaint.GrowthAggr.
Why margin-based? Revenue-based ratios (10:1–40:1) mask real economics. Margin-based (3:1–16:1) exposes actual profitability.
V

Dimension 4

Vulnerability

V-Score answers: “How fragile is this practice's current performance?” A practice can have excellent scores across M, X, and U — and still be a house of cards. One provider departure, one payer contract loss, one Google algorithm change from collapse. V-Score quantifies that hidden fragility.

Five Risk Dimensions

25%
Concentration Risk
Provider concentration (top provider % of production), payer concentration (HHI), referral source concentration. What happens if one thing goes away?
20%
Competitive Vulnerability
Brand moat (branded search share vs. capacity share), reputation moat (review count × rating), positioning differentiation in LMI.
20%
Patient Churn Risk
Retention Health (from X-Score) + Acquisition Sustainability (from U-Score). Are you keeping patients and investing enough to replace the ones who leave?
15%
Channel Risk
Paid dependency vs. D1 norm, earned channel strength, channel diversity (HHI). How reliant are you on fragile acquisition channels?
15%
Saturation Risk
Market share ceiling (50% practical cap), D1-specific saturation, positioning cluster saturation. How much room is left to grow?

Pattern detection

  • → House of Cards: High X-Score + High U-Score + Low V-Score = strong execution on fragile foundations. De-risk before you grow.
  • → Silent Decline: Retention Health looks strong (72) but Spend Sustainability is below maintenance. Looks healthy now — structurally shrinking in 12–24 months.
  • → Continuous severity: No binary thresholds. A practice with 65% provider concentration gets a different stress than 80%. Every risk is proportionally modeled.
V
Vulnerability
Sample Practice — Plano, TX
38
Elevated Risk
ConcentrationCompetitiveVulnerabilityPatientChurnChannelRiskSaturationRisk
Your practice
LMI median
Risk Dimensions
Concentration25%
med: 5528
Competitive Vulnerability20%
med: 5256
Patient Churn20%
med: 5848
Channel Risk15%
med: 6241
Saturation Risk15%
med: 5465
3 Diagnostic Flags
● Key Person Risk
Top provider generates 68% of production — single departure reduces revenue by 41%
▲ Paid Addiction
Paid channel dependency 2.1× D1 norm — budget cuts would collapse 28% of acquisition
▲ Silent Decline
Retention looks healthy (RH 72) but spend sustainability at 0.85× — structurally shrinking in 12–24 months
Floor stress impact: -$340K downside exposure (−22% vs Present State)
P

Dimension 5

60-Month Projection

P-Score projects 60-month Marketing Contribution — not just revenue, but revenue × gross margin − acquisition spend. The economic output most directly addressable by the entire MXUVP pipeline. Ranked as a percentile against national peers.

Three projection lines

Present State
Current trajectory extrapolated using a stock-and-flow model: the patient base decays by churn each month, while new patient revenue replenishes it. Realistic growth, not compounding fantasy.
V-Score Floor
What happens if vulnerabilities materialize. Five independent stress dimensions applied continuously — provider departure, payer concentration, referral dependency, churn acceleration, paid fragility. Your downside, quantified in dollars.
Optimal State
Achievable improvement with focused execution. Follows a phased architecture: Build (months 1–12) → Cultivate (12–24) → Transition (24–36) → Harvest (36–60). With realistic investment lag modeling.

HIDA Framework

Every practice receives a strategic classification: Hold (protect position), Invest (grow the binding constraint), Divest (capital better deployed elsewhere), or Accelerate (top performer, maximize). Based on P-Score band + Floor gap + Optimization opportunity + binding constraint.

Why Marketing Contribution, not revenue?
A $1M practice spending $400K to acquire patients has different value than a $1M practice spending $80K. Revenue alone can't distinguish them. Marketing Contribution isolates the economic engine Arcon's pipeline directly influences.
P
60-Month Projection
Sample Practice — Plano, TX
61
Performing
INVEST
BuildCultivateTransitionHarvest$28K$47K$66K
Present State
$2.6M
60-mo cumulative MC
Floor (if risks hit)
$2.0M
-25% downside
Optimal
$3.2M
+20% upside
HIDA: Invest — Binding constraint: Marketing Execution
X-Score (38th pctl) limits growth. Acquisition velocity is half the rate of peers at equivalent spend. SEO and earned channel development recommended.
Marketing Contribution = (Revenue × Gross Margin) − Acquisition Spend · Stock-and-flow model with monthly decay + replenishment

What Powers Every Score

Real data. Not surveys. Not self-reported metrics.

Every score is built on observable, market-specific data — continuously updated, locally calibrated, and cross-validated across sources. Here's what goes in.

Keyword Codex

113 symptoms, 99 conditions, 83 procedures — revealed demand signals from actual search behavior, not inferred demographics.

Elastic Market Boundary

Radius adapts to specialty (implant centers 3× base), population density, and local commute patterns. Not a fixed 5-mile circle.

NPI Provider Registry

Every licensed provider mapped, enriched with specialty, positioning signals, digital presence, and estimated capacity.

DataForSEO Intelligence

Branded and unbranded search volumes, backlink authority, market share estimates, and competitive ranking data.

AI-Readiness Signals

Schema markup coverage, directory presence (Healthgrades, Zocdoc, WebMD), and backlink authority — visibility to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini.

Payer Mix Inference

Three-segment templates (FFS, Private, Medicaid) with 6 adjustment layers: D1 specialty, insurance signals, positioning, carrier overrides.

Referral Network Analysis

Specialist referral patterns, network connectivity scoring, and patient flow analysis across provider relationships.

Regional Economics (BLS/ACS)

Wage growth trends, demographic projections, income distribution, and insurance coverage rates at the census-block level.

What You Get

See it. Decide. Act.

Arcon doesn't just hand you data. We give you the intelligence to understand your position, the frameworks to make decisions, and the pathways to take action.

1

understand

Market Report
Elastic market boundary, competitive landscape, demand sizing by Keyword Codex, white space analysis, and market archetype classification.
Practice Scorecards
MXUVP scores with L0→L1 factor decomposition, diagnostic flags, benchmarks against local competitors, and trend analysis.
Portfolio Dashboard
Cross-practice comparison ranked by P-Score with HIDA classification, binding constraint identification, and heatmap visualization.
2

decide

Growth Audit
Channel-by-channel X-Score decomposition (Earned, Organic, Paid, Distribution, Other) with budget reallocation recommendations and AI-Readiness assessment.
Efficiency Audit
Margin-based LTV:CAC analysis, fully-loaded CAC waterfall, Spend Sustainability Ratio, and channel mix optimization by profile.
Risk Assessment
V-Score 5-dimension radar with continuous severity mapping, Floor stress quantification, and "house of cards" / "silent decline" detection.
3

act

60-Month Projection
Stock-and-flow Marketing Contribution model with Present/Floor/Optimal lines, phase architecture (Build→Cultivate→Transition→Harvest), and growth cap constraints.
Prescriptive Pathways
Each diagnostic flag wired to a specific, prioritized intervention — actions matched to your data, not generic playbooks.
Performance Monitoring
Ongoing score tracking, trend alerts, share trajectory signals, and re-scoring as interventions take effect.

Pick one practice. If it doesn't change how you see your market, you don't pay.

We'll build a complete Local Market Index for one practice — all five dimensions, 10,000+ data points, scored and benchmarked against your actual competitive context. If it doesn't deliver value you can see, it's on us.

Solo practice ownersDental agenciesDSO & PE portfolios
Score your first practiceExplore the platform

No contracts. No commitment. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.