Avsnitt
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Tiff and Britt discuss how a practice that was upside down financially picked through their systems with a fine-toothed comb to find success — and how you and your team can avoid this scenario.
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Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:02.146)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back again. I kept Britt today. If you've listened to the other one, that it was a beautiful Friday morning. It's still a beautiful Friday morning. I made her stick around so I could do even more with her today on this podcasting adventure. I know you guys love hearing from Britt and I love chatting with her. So Britt, welcome. Welcome. How was your day? We're rolling into the weekend.
How much fun are you excited to have? You're feeling better, you were sick, you caught what everybody else has had, and I think you get a true weekend, right?
Britt (00:29.812)
everyone.
This weekend should be better than last weekend. Let's just say that. And it is gorgeous out here. So I mean, I might have been slightly annoyed at the birds chirping and I'm like, really? Like waking me up? That's what you're going to be annoyed about. Get over it. It's a nice day outside.
The Dental A Team (00:47.151)
Oh my gosh, okay, Cinderella. I love that. I love that. It is like, it's a week. I keep thinking, gosh, it's like unseasonably warm and like it's not, it's supposed to be 85 degrees next week, FYI, but this time of year, last year was cold. That was the abnormality. This is actually normal for Phoenix. So I keep having to remind myself of that because it is warm, but the birds are chirping. The dogs are barking across the street.
Britt (00:49.486)
I know.
The Dental A Team (01:14.987)
There's people walking by and they they get angry. It's all here and we're here for it. And so if you hear the birds, you hear the cats, you hear the dogs, just know we are a company that fully encompasses the animals. We love them and they're here with us today. So I love it. Well, today's content I'm actually really excited about. wanted to I wanted to take like an excerpt from
Britt (01:28.136)
you
The Dental A Team (01:41.68)
practice that I've worked a ton with over the last few years. are near and dear to my heart. Some of my favorite human beings in the whole world. Trish was on a call with me with them, consultant Trish, and she just, she texts me on the side. She's like, he is the sweetest man. I'm like, he really, really is. They are just such a sweet, sweet human and individuals, but I've taken some journeys with them financially. And with a lot of their, their team members and doctors and stuff. And I wanted to kind of
highlight a piece that we found that I don't think I even like always thought about. And I think those are the spaces that I actually love about consulting is one, a challenge. I always love a challenge and decided like we're doing a steps challenge. I'm like, I'm to win. Like I was already doing it, but now I'm like, I'm for sure doing it. So you challenge me and it's going to work.
Britt (02:28.029)
We're going to
Britt (02:34.419)
Game on.
The Dental A Team (02:35.088)
It is, it is. It works every time. Ask Kira, she says it, she screams it from the mountaintops. It really does work, I don't know why. So I love a challenge, I love learning, and I really love when it's like, oh my gosh, that was so obscure from the normal, and it's so cool to see what we were able to create and figure out. And we all know at this point in the game that we need 98 % collections across the board.
And we all know it's not always that way. And doctors, I really wanted to bring you this information and this story, right? Storytelling time. This story from something that I've witnessed, experienced and worked through because I want you guys to be able to take some tools back to your own practices and implement some things that are actually really easy that not everyone is always doing. So, Britt, you're here with me for this journey and I'm excited because it brings in some of those business pieces.
that I know we love chatting about. So we're gonna chat through some of it and then I wanna bring in your brain on like, how can we implement these things in every single practice? So biggest space walking in to this practice was their overhead. Like their overhead was out of control and they were making massive production for a single doctor to hygiene. They're at like 140 to 160 consistently. And their hygiene department, let's do through some like,
digging, right? I find their hygiene department is like 11 to 15 percent of their production. So this doctor is exhausted. He is just like not able to sleep at night because he's stressed. He's working really hard and their overhead is really high, like almost 80 percent when we started working together, almost 80 percent overhead. You guys, that's before paying him. That's before paying loans. And so they actually had to take loans out.
Britt (04:07.923)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (04:30.884)
to pay bills and pay loans, like this giant cycle, right? This just upside down, stressed mess. And he could not figure it out because production wise, right? He should be okay. But his overhead's almost 80 % and his doing calculations, right? And then like collections is like all over the place. One month, it's like 103%, one month it's 87%.
Then it's like 92 and it's just like jumping all over the place. Like what the heck is going on in this practice? Like the production is fairly consistent, right? But the collections is inconsistent and the overhead is consistently high. So from, I think from many people's standpoint, the number one thing you do, right? I had a doctor yesterday that I was talking to and he's like not as profitable as he wants to be and
I get it and we can make him more profitable working on it, but he's like, okay, so I need to produce more. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't always outproduce the problem, right? And this practice is like that to a T because they are producing really well, but their overhead is still really high. And their collections, again, like they're collecting something, but it's just all over the place. So we had to like really do some...
weird tricks in my opinion. was just like, all right, we're gonna, we're gonna just dig in. We're gonna dive in. We're gonna figure some stuff out. So Brett, what we found one pre collections, right? love pre collects you guys. love pre collects, but what pre collects will do is inflate your collections. And so doctors implement pre collections, a hundred percent implement pre collections. But if you're going to implement when you implement pre collections,
Britt (06:19.931)
Laughter
The Dental A Team (06:21.144)
you have to pre-collect every time, right? So what they were doing is they were pre-collecting on large cases. They were doing full-mouth, like, large cases inconsistently. So they'd have two $50,000 cases in a month pre-collect that's, it's scheduled for next month, right? So they pre-collect for those two cases in January.
They do the cases in February and they don't schedule any cases for March. So then, Britt, what happened to February? Then we've got 103 % collections over here in January and then February is 87 % because we did the production and we didn't pre-collect for new surgeries.
Britt (07:05.713)
your collections are ahead of your production because you're ahead of time, a month ahead of time even.
The Dental A Team (07:08.795)
Yes.
a month ahead of time. And they were so upside down financially that the pre-collects were being used to pay bills. And so they'd pay down, they'd even pay down their loan that they got to pay bills. And then they'd have a low collections month and they'd have to use the loan, which I think personally, all of us have probably been in that situation in our personal lives at one point or another.
Britt (07:22.851)
Mmm.
The Dental A Team (07:39.046)
And it's always interesting to me the parallels there, because we like to think of business and personal finances so differently, but they are parallel. guys, money is money, business is business, life is life. But anyways, so then we figured out, okay, let's start pulling this money. So you pre-collect, you pull it, and you put it in a different bank account. So we started building their buckets, right? Their profit first style buckets without doing real profit first, because we couldn't. So we're...
Britt (07:41.651)
you
Britt (08:05.099)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (08:07.868)
pulling this money, planning for it, right? We're prepping for profit first. So we've got these buckets and I've got them starting to pull for lab because they were getting heat up, like, honestly, sometimes it was like 20 % lab bills. So we had to pull aside all this stuff and it was so fantastic to see the money moving in the right directions because it cleared things out of the way. And then we would like add it back in.
Britt (08:08.101)
of
The Dental A Team (08:35.6)
the month that we needed it, blah, blah, blah. So we were doing this like money moving, but the biggest piece of all that was like, okay, you guys level out your pre collects. You're going to be fine. Make sure you move the money. Make sure you've got the lab bills, lab expenses covered in a different account. The biggest piece of all Britt that blew my mind and the team found it. The team found it on their own as we're moving this money around. They're like separating it on my KPI sheet. have for them. So I'm like, okay, this is your collections.
This was your pre-collect. So this is your true collections. Your pre-collect were, that's gone. That's for next month. That's next month's money. This is your true collections. Their true collections tanked. And they're like, well, Tiff, we're actually, I'm seeing we're not actually collecting a lot over the counter. Like, well, that doesn't make any sense. What do mean you're not collecting? Like, so then collect, like get the money. And they said, well, everyone has credits on their accounts.
Britt (09:09.552)
Thank
The Dental A Team (09:34.066)
They found it. So the previous billing manager and treatment coordinator and front office total wasn't putting information into the system correctly or at all, right? They didn't have the insurance fee schedules in there. So we had already worked through a lot of that, right? The fee schedules, making sure all the insurance, making sure what goes out was correct because it was incorrect. That was already been, we've been solving that. But what
happened is she was guesstimating off of UCR, taking like 20 % ish off of UCR for treatment plans and collect over collecting for patients. then when insurance, which is great, I'd rather over collect than under collect. If you're going to pay attention to your credits and give credits back. We were not paying attention to the credits. And so Britt, all of these patients just like
Britt (10:17.875)
huh.
Britt (10:22.393)
Yes.
The Dental A Team (10:30.932)
thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in credits of patients who were coming in. We had the treatment, we had the production, but we had already had the collection. So this is where it's like, truth be told, you cannot out-produce your overhead. Because if you produce and you've got $100,000 in collection or in credits, right? All of these patients are coming in for fillings and it's like a $56 copay, they've got $300 credit.
working away on on their account. So the money's already been there. The money's already paid the bills. They had to then on our KPI, I'm like, okay, well, we're going to do another column. Next column is like, how many patients, what was the amount of credits that you use today so that if we had collected it, I need to see from a financial standpoint, I need to be able to see if we had collected it, could, would our overhead be okay? Is the overhead issue because we can't collect that money or is it because we
Britt (11:10.318)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (11:29.616)
need to produce and collect more. So it was so hard to like see all of the pieces because there was so much chaos in the accounts that was so like hard to find. did an incredible job keying into tip. think it's the credits and I was like, my gosh, you just blew my mind, right? Like I didn't even think of this. I thought for sure the pre collects, like let's level those out. Let's always pre collect on everything. We changed that model.
Britt (11:44.945)
Yeah. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (11:56.072)
but that was only adding now to the credits. So it was like, holy cow, but it was really cool, Brett, to be able to see that's one layer that I think a lot of practices and a lot of practice owners forget to look at, right? We look at our AR, we look at our production, our collections, our new patients. We never really truly look at our credits. And these credits had our overhead at like 80 % and our collections was literally like,
Britt (11:58.928)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (12:24.18)
87 to 95 on a really like good month of no surgeries pre-scheduled. So it was wild to see, but then once we started accounting for that, it took about a year to really truly get through all of those credits or most of those credits that were coming in. So it took about a year, but being able to visually see on the overhead spreadsheets, on the KPIs, all of the money and where it was going, what it was allocated to helped them to be able to see
where they needed to move money to, pull money to, what needed to be done. He could project like, how long do I have to work this hard? Because he's got to produce as much as he can to get through the credits, plus get some collections in. So he truly had to just work his tail off for this year to really dial back some of those issues. But it was really fun to see, okay, these are all of the spaces that you've got to make sure you're paying attention to.
especially because, I think we've all experienced this. I mean, I did in practice too. I'm like, the billing rep has got it, right? So many owner doctors, that's, you want to be able to, and I'm not saying you can't trust, right? But human error is a thing and we don't always know what we don't know. And I think that this gal just didn't know how to do it any other way. So she was doing it the best she could and honestly, like more money, the better. So if you're going to, I want you to collect more.
if that's an opportunity, but we have to be able to give it back. Like we have to be able to watch those. So I'd rather over collect than have to track somebody down for a bill. Right. I totally agree with that theory, but if we're not watching it though, like it's wild. So Britt from business standpoint, right. We've got all of these moving pieces, like from a business standpoint, if this doctor or a doctor who might be in a similar situation, right. They're like nearing
Britt (14:03.431)
Agreed.
The Dental A Team (14:20.792)
what they thought was going to be retirement, right? They thought they were getting there. Now their business is like spiraling. I mean, I did, you know, I did my digging. We did it. We got through it. It took a while. The next year, like we decreased their overhead by 10 % in that year. The next year, we decreased it again, almost another 10%. Like they're down to like 55 to 60 % overhead. At this point, they're freaking
Swim and they're doing fantastic. Their team is doing great. They're able to do great things with their team and with their family. So we did it. But from a business standpoint, we had to get a lot of help in there, a lot of CPA and financial advisors and things. But from your perspective, just on the outside hearing that, what would you tackle or what would you tell a doctor? Implement this right now so that you know if these things are happening. Like how would a doctor
from your standpoint, and if you were, I'm the doctor and you're the consultant, what would you tell me to be watching and be prepped for so that I don't fall into a situation like that?
Britt (15:20.657)
laughter
Britt (15:28.113)
Yeah, and number one, think this is like one of great scenario tips. Like these are the things that consultants love puzzles. So like this is one of those that it's like, there's something, I know it is, we're gonna find it, but we gotta figure out what exactly is happening in a scenario. And this is, think, one example of sometimes situations that doctors can find themselves in where it's like, okay, shoot, we figured something out and yeah, that's
The Dental A Team (15:37.048)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (15:58.128)
sucks. It's crappy, right? And we lived the high life for a while, but we spent money that really wasn't our stuff for a little while. So now we've got to work through this in between period and get it filled a squeeze because it's like, all right, we are now collecting the more accurate amount and we're using up these credits. So that is why our cash flow is struggling big time right now. And so I think what I would tell doctors from that end is
The Dental A Team (15:59.362)
Yeah. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (16:06.604)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (16:19.801)
Listen.
Britt (16:25.683)
I think you've got to watch all the pieces and the real numbers. think a lot of times, right, especially with credits, like, it's like the, the like thing we don't talk about. It's like the terrible awful that it's like, man, we're just going to be like, we know it's over there, but we're just going to kind of ignore that it exists unless someone asks about it. then we'll look at it. And the better way to do it to avoid
The Dental A Team (16:45.069)
Yup.
Britt (16:50.887)
pitfalls like this is of course watch it like there's always going to be some over there yes and have a process for handling your credits to where One credit should always be audited before we're refunding make sure it's actually due to that patient before we refund it because that's also a scenario I've seen where it hits us on the cash flow side if we just refund and Sometimes there's an arrow error and it's not actually theirs. So I think watching your credits
Having a process for how we handle credits for a couple of reasons, cashflow reasons, and also know the laws of your state, like fun surprise if you don't know already. Each state treasury has laws on credits and how those should be handled. So make yourself aware of those and then create your system to meet your clients with it. And with that, it's usually great by x.
date, like if it's a credit higher than X amount, you have to like do your part to try to notify that patient. And then sometimes once it gets old enough, you've got to pay that to treasury like fun fact, also go look up your name to see if you've got any credits sitting out there that I do back to you. And like that's the proper way to go through it. So have a system for it. And I think don't be afraid of refunds. Yes, we always want to try to schedule appointments, get treatment time.
The Dental A Team (17:57.498)
So.
Britt (18:11.367)
Get them to use it. Like that is my ultimate goal is get them to use it in the office. But if not, make sure you've got a process because then it's more digestible amounts to refund instead of like big amounts that hit you when they're surprises. Surprises aren't fun. So as much as we can avoid surprises, let's do it and have a process for it. Now, if you're in a scenario like this doctor was where there's a lot of sitting out there, strategize how we can handle that. Cause we can't just go refund a hundred thousand dollars all at once.
The Dental A Team (18:12.942)
Go.
The Dental A Team (18:21.336)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (18:40.933)
So come up with a plan that's manageable that you can handle with your cashflow that you have to be able to work on getting that into a good place. And that's a lot of times with these things. takes, usually things take at least six months in a dental office, right? Big things like this, it's usually at least six months to put an FX into play, if not a year. So know that sometimes when you find these things are right, we start to put the fixes into play and then we start to clean up what's been there and it can take a little bit of time.
The Dental A Team (18:41.046)
Okay.
The Dental A Team (18:55.864)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (19:10.16)
Yeah, I agree. love all that. think I love the tertiary comments. I totally go figure it out guys. And most practices I think on that note will give like, well, I know for me when I was office manager of my practice, I had like a certain amount that was allocated every month for refunds. So I'd have 3000 or 5000 or whatever it was that was like, okay, this is what I have allocated that I can give back as refunds this month and the next.
Britt (19:16.411)
No.
The Dental A Team (19:36.078)
If another one came in, was like, cool, I'm gonna hit it next week, because it's next month or whatever that was, like that'll go into next month. So make sure you do have that solid plan. And I love all of that and make sure you're looking at it. I think that's the biggest piece here that Britt's highlighted. Just make sure you're pulling those. I think production collections, new patients, like those are making sure we're thriving. Your active patient count, we talk about those all the time. Those are the ones that like, yes, let's make sure we're thriving. Our AR, our insurance AR and our patient AR, so it's outstanding money.
But that AR can get super skewed, you guys, if you've got money sitting over in credits, because your AR total, usually, unless you click the little button that says not including credits, will deduct the credits from the total. So your AR might say, like, our total AR is $68,000, and you're like, I'm freaking killing it, right? And you could be, and that's totally fair. But make sure it's not deducting $50,000 of credits sitting over there.
Britt (20:27.059)
You
The Dental A Team (20:32.847)
that need to be addressed as well. I want you to...
Britt (20:35.155)
which is a good point if I think on knowing how your system does things. And that's why sometimes it's not as easy to see. I've even seen some where it's allocation issues, right? And skew things a little bit as well. So yeah, good point on knowing how your system accounts for things.
The Dental A Team (20:38.629)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (20:45.125)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (20:51.453)
Yeah, yeah, I've done it myself, like not clicked that little button and been like, oh, we're good this month. And then I'm like, wait, where are all these credits coming in from? As an as a manager, these are all things that I had to learn. Because again, you guys, unless you have a professional by your side, there's not a really great like go to school to be a dental, you know, professional like dentistry dentist, hygienist, dental assisting schools. I'll add those in there.
Britt (21:18.122)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (21:19.405)
haphazardly adding those in there, right? There's not a place for the front office, really, unless you have a coach or a consultant or someone who is able to train them on the things that we've learned across the board, across learning all of the things. There's business classes that a lot of us have taken. Britt's got freaking so much, so many beautiful degrees behind her name. Like, there's so much that can come from that, but there's so much that can be missed because we're literally just learning from the person who was in front of us and we're teaching ourselves. So just make sure.
Britt (21:37.572)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (21:49.37)
You know your stuff, you know how your system works, you know what your numbers mean. And if you have any doubts or suspicions or you're just like, gosh, I just want to make sure we're doing the best that we can reach out. You guys were here for it, whether you're a future client or you're like, I just need free information. Like you guys, we built this company on serving the dental community in the best ways we possibly can. And we will stay true to that. So reach out any questions you have. [email protected]
I'm gonna put this caveat in there. We're not super pros at your dental software, but we can help you find the information and we can tell you what you should be looking for and what the stats should be. So reach out, you guys. Number one piece of information today, your number one to do, go figure out what your actual numbers are and figure out how your system is reporting them. Add them into your conversations with your office manager, your KPI reports, making sure that you're looking at those monthly, okay? Britt.
Thank you so much for taking this journey with me today. I love this. I told you like every time I'm like, okay, I'm gearing up. We're gonna figure this out. And it's just so much fun. I have so much fun with all with all of Dental A Teams clients in general. We have some of the most amazing people who partner up with us and team up with us. But I am partial to my clients. You know, I do. I have some incredible people that I get to talk to every single day. So.
Britt (22:47.027)
There's a fun one.
The Dental A Team (23:10.995)
Thank you for taking the journey with me. [email protected] you guys for any information. TheDentalATeam.com there's all kinds of stuff on there. There's all kinds of free resources and you guys we do these fun practice assessments where we really help dial in on areas that you should be focused in on. These are free free information. It's a free what I think hour with our team. So I don't know why you wouldn't sign up for that. If you're a client you guys just text your consultant. I promise you they'll hop on a call so.
That's that. Leave us a five star review. can't wait to hear how much value you took from today's conversation. Britt, thank you so much for giving me your time today. It means a lot to me. And everyone will catch you next time.
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Kiera walks listeners through five steps to understanding a profit and loss statement:
Know the structure
Follow the revenue streams
Track your spending
Calculate the ratios
Set financial goals
Episode resources:
Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript
Kiera Dent (00:03.726)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I just wanted to empower you with, if you're in the boat of struggling to understand your P &L, struggling to understand how to truly master your dental finances, you're not alone. This is common. This is what I'm obsessed with helping dental practices truly understand. And today I want to break it down into five simple steps to give you clarity, control, to really be able to understand your dental practice finances. So today,
I just wanted to let you know that when you understand your PNL, which is a profit and loss statement, it helps you just be able to know which metrics to move to understand how can I actually create better decisions to feel more empowered with my numbers. And so I want you just to know that there's five simple steps that I've learned that I wanted to bring to you to really help you understand this and to this year maybe embody the identity of I am a.
money master or I am a finance master or whatever it is where you really take control because at Dental A Team when we consult our practices we have hundreds of offices and we work virtually we work in person we work one-on-one we work group style but I found that like one of the biggest stressors for dentists is not understanding like how does the money work we understand the dental we don't understand the team per se front office is like I don't know but it's really like where is my money and how do I actually make my money work for me
And so understanding that, what does it mean to be profitable? We have overhead calculators, we have profitability scorecards for you that I really love helping our clients with. But really it's like, let me just break it down into the nuts and bolts. I am not a CPA. I will have that disclaimer out there. I just am going to break it down of like, how do I become a financial master? So today let's break it down into step one is understand the structure of your PNL. So a PNL is broken down into basically like our, our revenue, so our collections, and then our expenses from there.
and then that breaks it down into profit. Now, something that always gets a little funny is debt services. And if we've got loans or student loans or practice loans, sometimes those are associated with our P &L, other times they're not. And what we really care about as owners is cash, right? We want the cashflow, we wanna understand where that's at. And so if you understand that it's broken down into this where we've got money coming in, so those are our collections, we need to make sure our collections sit at 98%. So we produce, we collect money.
Kiera Dent (02:21.654)
those collections and then we spend money of our expenses. So payroll, rent, utilities, supplies, all of that paying you as a doctor as well. And then from there we have what's called our profit. And then after that we have our debt services and then that's our cashflow, but also cashflow then there's taxes that come out of it. And I think when you understand that instead of it being like, I don't have any money. We just understand that this is where it goes. And so if we're not tracked, if we're not tracking it, what happens is we're spending money.
We're spending more than we need. Like I had an office and they weren't tracking their supply spend. And so what happened is they were spending about 30,000 a month in one location. They're spending about $5,000 a month in another location. There's a discrepancy, but they didn't even realize that they were having this discrepancy until we started looking at their PNL. So once you start to monitor it, then we can actually get our supplies into more of like a 4 % of total collection. So if we're collecting a hundred thousand, 4 % of that would be $4,000. That's what we're allowed to spend for that month on supplies.
Well, now we have the budget. Now we can get it in alignment. We can actually track it and lean it down. Another officer looking at their P &Ls are doing it. They were at an 85 % overhead at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, they were coming in at a 53 % overhead. So to me, it's just a math equation. One plus one equals two. How do we, we have money coming in, subtract the things we spend. We have profit leftover from there. We have our debt services and our tax that gives us our true cash at the end of it. So then number two is we got to focus on
What are the ways that we actually bring production and collections to the practice case? We've got our PNL. We understand how that's broken down. I also want you to know there's a chart of accounts that you can change that up. But step number two is we've got to focus on the revenue streams or the production of how do we actually get money on the books to be able to collect that? Are we being profitable in that zone? So there's different ways that we do this. So like hygiene, restorative, ortho, cosmetic, like different ways that we do it. And some offices actually like to track this and break it down. And you can actually put this on your PNL.
You can literally put down how much production has come from restorative, how much production comes from hygiene, how much production comes from ortho, and then you can break down the collections that we have from that as well. So this is something really awesome to see how much of my practice is hygiene, how much of my practice is on implants or all on fours, how much of my practice is ortho. I have a pediatric practice and they really love to track their ortho amount of it because they want to see how much of their practice is truly ortho. Do we need to spend more marketing money there or do we not? This really helps you be able to see
Kiera Dent (04:45.64)
What services should we continue? Which ones are the highest revenue? Do we need to change our fees on it? Do we need to look at different ways to break this down? It's really, really, really fun. And so then I can look at what promos we put in the practice. Where do I put my blocks? What block scheduling do I need to have more of? What marketing do I need to spend to make sure we're getting the correct revenue or production streams of the correct patients? We're treatment planning it. We look at our treatment tracker to see, are we actually bringing this in? We can actually increase profitability without needing more patients if we follow this. So
A quick action item on that is maybe talking to your CPA about breaking down your revenue by services of what's coming into the practice to see where most of your income is actually coming from in the practice. Super enlightening when you start to look at this. Step three is now going to be looking at what we're spending. OK. And on the chart of accounts, if it's not broken down, you can ask your CPA to break it down. I've mentioned on prior podcasts that we were spending about fifteen thousand dollars on hiring once upon a time, but I didn't even know that's how much I was spending.
This last year, they had all of my marketing lumped into one. So I actually asked them to break it out. How much am I spending on the website? How much am I spending on events? How much am I spending on our ads that we're running? All these different little pieces, because I wanted to get more granular and understand where are the dollars going and what, if I spend a dollar, it coming back to me and what is it? So thanks for you on looking at your expenses. We usually have payroll, we have rent, we have supplies, we have labs, other things. We have our marketing, CE, consulting. We're going to want to look at
Maybe you have our associate doctors on there, but what are these different pieces and payroll? Oftentimes it's all the fringe benefits that go on to it as well. So making sure are the additional pieces of like our 401ks and our health benefits. What is all that going? Cause that does go into payroll. What's our payroll tax on that employee? Gosh, that was a fun day when I learned like what? So this also just helps you look at it. And then what we want to do is we want to look to see, there ways that we can cut costs? So going back to that example of cutting supplies,
Well, this office was just ordering through one supplier. There's companies like Ordo or Synergy or different group buying areas where you can still go through your same preferred vendor, but we can just get it on a discount rate. So for example, kind of like using Costco, like I can go and buy my, I thought Costco was ridiculous on their rotisserie chickens. Like they're $5 or I can go to Safeway and spend $9. I'm still getting a rotisserie chicken. It's just how much am I spending for it?
Kiera Dent (07:10.742)
Now I get that food's a little bit of a funny analogy because food is not equal across all stores. So let's do something a little bit easier. I could spend, you know, I can have my car insurance, like again, through Costco versus through someone else. We're just trying to get our reduced costs, still getting the same quality, but could we reduce those costs? Other times just giving a budget, me realizing that I'm spending 15 grand on hiring. Well, there's a great company called Viva HR. If you do Viva HR slash Dental A Team or just DM me or
email us [email protected] literally spend $100 a month on unlimited ads. So took a $15,000 spend down to a $1,200 spend right there. I freed up over 10 grand. I mean, we're talking more like 13 grand that I was able to then save and allocate somewhere else just by switching that one thing. I'm still doing the same thing. I'm still posting the same ads. I just use Viva HR rather than spending it on indeed, but I never would have known that if I would have been tracking this.
So this is where can we look at it? So what I recommend, and we haven't broken down into percentages on our overhead calculator that we've created for our clients, but you wanna categorize your expenses and look for areas where we can cut unnecessary costs. And also what's the percentage of our total collections that we're collecting that we can actually minimize and make sure that we're with the alignment of what's recommended. So for example, like I said, supplies are usually at 4%. Payroll is between 25 to 30%. So making it get all the way down, but also,
Those percentages are just baselines. If you want more profitability, can we shave a half our percentage? Can we shave 1 % and still maintain the quality of our practice? That's a question for you to answer, but great ways to analyze this. So that would be action item on this is let's categorize your expenses, look to see where we can cut, look to see the percentages to make sure what is in there. Is it allocated correctly? Meaning did they put actual supplies in supplies or did I get labs in there as well so that when my numbers are wrong and what other ways can I change that?
Okay, step four is now we wanna calculate our ratios. So on that, we're going to wanna figure out like, what is our profit margin? What's our payroll ratios? Like I was saying of those percentages, this is now where we break it down. If I'm spending $10,000 on payroll out of 100,000, well, that's a great gig and I probably don't have enough people on there and I have space within, because I'm only at 10 % and I could go up to 30 % again, depending upon what I want my profit margin to be.
Kiera Dent (09:33.39)
I target with all expenses paid for offices to be a 20 or 30 % profit margin. So that means, cause overhead and profit get a little funny, overhead means all of our expenses, I like you to hit around a 50%. So if I've collected a hundred grand, I don't want you spending more than about 50,000. That leaves 50,000 here. We pay our doctors here. The goal is to leave about 20 to 30 grand if we're on this hundred thousand collection practice of true profit. Now of that profit, we, like I said, you can have debt services there and also taxes.
and depending upon the tax bracket you're in, that can actually make a pretty big difference. If I'm collecting 20 grand, I'm really not collecting 20 grand because I owe taxes on that. So that's a big asterisk around cashflow of how to master this and how to look at this, but making sure we're at the correct percentages for it to then gauge where are we at. So figure out what your, what our costs are, get them in in the pieces, and then figure out the percentages of each one of them, making sure that we're actually at the correct ratio.
of what it should be. In Dental A Team we're high on payroll because the bulk of our company is team. I don't have a physical location. I don't have a place that goes. Our product is our consulting. So my payroll is much higher than 30%. I pay a lot in payroll, but that's also, that's my product for you. have a lot of product in your practice of the supplies that go into it. We don't really have a lot of supplies that go into ours. I have a lot of software that I spend on. So everyone's going to be a little bit different, but we do have categories for dentists that we recommend.
Like I said, payroll 25 to 30 % supplies at 4%. Labs are 9 % combined together. Those are between 13 to 14%, especially if you're on an implant practice marketing. If you're growing, it can go all the way up to 5 to 7%. If you're lower, it should be a 2 to 3 % again, pending upon your goals and also pending upon where we want our profit margins to be. I really love my doctors to be paid at least a 30 % and they're also can get in to a little variable of do we pay our doctors as associates if you're an owner or not?
Kiera's opinion, and I know, like I said, I'm not a CPA. My opinion is I like to help practices exit out of the practice if they want to. Meaning, if you want to own your practice and not have it dependent upon you, that's what I like to grow for offices. So they have the option if they want to, or if any life circumstances happen, they're not handcuffed of, I don't have anything else I can do because I'm no longer practicing dentistry. To me, that's a very scary spot to be in. So what I do like to do is pay my dentist as an associate and as an owner.
Kiera Dent (11:56.386)
because that way if I ever want to replace my doctor, I already have on my P &L paying them as an associate, not just as an owner or actually taking $0, which often happens because of distribution. Now your CPA can help you advise on tax strategy because there are strategies of how much you quote unquote pay yourself. But the way we have it is we just break it down and you don't necessarily have to run it through payroll. We're just making sure that our P &L matches so we know how much profit we'd have if any life circumstances happen to you.
All right, and now step five for you. Step five is we wanna set financial goals and track our progress. So like I said, where are you wanting to be on your profit margin? Do you wanna be, where are we at baseline today and then where do you wanna get to? And then we look at the pieces for it. Just like on a family budget, if we say we wanna save for a car or we wanna save for Disneyland or we wanna go on a trip to the Bahamas, well, now we start to save and we start looking at our expenses of well, what could we eliminate? Maybe we don't need Netflix anymore. Maybe we don't need a DoorDash. Maybe we don't need internet. Maybe we need to...
add an extra job to it to be able to pay for this. But it's the same thing in a practice. If we want to have profitability or we want to have long-term financial success or we want to be set up for financial freedom, what do I need my business to profit to be able to go after it? And how do I look at this? So then we look for how can I increase my production of higher revenue generating pieces that we enjoy doing? Maybe All On X, maybe Ortho, maybe same day crowns, whatever it is for you, how can we add more of that to our schedule?
How can we decrease the expenses or be smarter instead of just paying straight through a supplier? Could we work with a bigger supply company, like I mentioned, kind of like Costco and get a discounted rate for that? Could I do that and save money on things I'm already buying? And then we're gonna wanna make sure we get those profit target margins, the percentages, based on the industry benchmarks, like I mentioned to you, to really be able to grow for this. And so it's really fun if we look at those little items,
It just becomes a shave of a half a percentage here, a 1 % there, a couple dollars here, increasing our production, using better block scheduling that really makes us where we then are tracking our progress. And it's really fun when you can get an office manager and a leadership team bought into this with you as well, which is why we share it on the podcast, because when they're all tracking and they're all aligned and we know what our profit margins need to be, it becomes much easier. And so if there was a practice,
Kiera Dent (14:17.262)
Like I said, we track with them quarterly, we're watching it they went from that 85 % overhead all the way down to 53%. Well, let me just do some simple math for you. Pretend that practice was only, let's say that they collected a million dollars that year, okay? So they did a million and that they were at an 85 % overhead. That would mean that on a million dollars, and let's say a million was true profit. So we've got a million, we've got 85 % overhead. That practice was collecting or like take home.
not including tax and all the other things, 150,000 out of a million. Now I understand. Now, if they're able to go, that was an 85 % overhead. If they go, so still a million dollar practice, down to 53 % overhead, what that does is that actually moves them into 530,000 is now their costs, right? Did you follow my math on that? 530,000. if they, and from there, so that means they're taking home 470,000.
That just simple shift, they didn't increase their production. They just reduced their expenses. Again, a million dollar practice, 150 to 470. That's a really big swing. You don't have to do anything more. We just had to be smarter with our dollars. So when you look at that and you think about that, that's where numbers get really fun for me. And that's where I love to empower doctors, leadership teams to how can we actually achieve this? So my goal for you would be let's set a financial goal for the next quarter.
Based on your P &L review, do we wanna cut down our supplies? Do we wanna increase our production? Do we wanna add our block schedules? What do we wanna do in there? Because this then will literally help you exponentially grow to your financial freedom. So as a quick recap of these five simple steps are one, understand the structure of your P &L. Two, focus on the revenue or production streams that we can add in. Three, analyze our expenses. Four, calculate the ratio. So again, the percentages of them and get those into industry standards.
And five, set financial goals to track the progress and actually see where we want to be. It's such fun for me because this is how you actually are able to exponentially have your business work for you. You not working for your business. You don't have to do more work. You don't have to more patient flow. None of those things. We just have to be smarter with how we're utilizing our money, how we're collecting collections, impact that how we're spending our money, making sure we've got budgets in place for our team. Teams will follow suit. We just need to get this set up for them. So this is where it's really fun. And honestly, you understanding your PNL.
Kiera Dent (16:43.158)
It allows you to just make informed decisions, increase your profitability, AKA take home pay and grow your dental practice. And then the next step of this will be how do we actually keep the money that we're making that becomes so fun. So I'm happy to go through this. If you guys want, I can go through a PNL piece with you. [email protected] or go to our website and just book a call. We can do a practice assessment with you, totally free complimentary on my side because this is really where I love to just truly empower doctors and owners to take.
the like bull by the horns, you're already doing the dentistry. Let's have you now be compensated for that and do it in a fun way where you now feel like you were in financial control for yourself. So this is literally what the Dental A Team does in consulting. If this is helpful for you, you want one on one help, you want us to dive into your practice more in depth. Like I said, we have that complimentary assessment for you. Click the link or come work with us. I'd love to have you because this would really be a zone. You can DM us on social media, the Dental A team. So Dental A team is our hashtag.
or you can email us [email protected] This is truly the zone though. Become a financial master this year. You will be so happy that you did this. This is a gift you can give yourself. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Even if retirement is a long, long way off, it’s important to have an exit strategy ready to go. Tiff and Britt discuss both the emotional and business sides of things of making sure your practice is in order, including debt awareness, numbers in different scenarios, passive income possibilities, and more.
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Transcript
The Dental A Team (00:01.588)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I'm so excited to be here this morning. I don't know what time it is while you're listening here, but today it is a beautiful sunny Friday morning that I'm recording here with Britt. The one and only when I get her on these podcasts, I just soak it all up because I don't schedule her often. It's few and far Between. She's a busy lady. So, Britt, thank you so much for being here with me this Friday morning, and we are just kicking off the weekend in the right headspace.
And I'm so excited to chat these contents with you today. How are you, Britt?
Britt (00:33.486)
I'm doing great, Tiff. Thanks for having me on. You know, it's always like hangout time for us consultants, even though, yes, hopefully are providing value to all our listeners. That's our ultimate goal, but it's fun for us to get to chat about these things.
The Dental A Team (00:46.145)
I agree. I agree. had asked Kristy yesterday, I just messaged her, I'm like, how are you doing? Our consultant, Kristy, you guys know her. And I'm like, how can I support you? Like, how are things going? And she's like, I just missed my Tiff time. And my response was, we've got podcasting soon. So.
Britt (01:01.518)
Exactly.
The Dental A Team (01:07.913)
I like our one on ones. You guys, tell you to do monthly one on ones just so you know, we do monthly one on ones in our company. And then our podcasting time. I'm like, gosh dang it. actually, for a virtual company, I think we do fairly decent, but I love these podcasting hours. I'm excited today because just in case no one understands or knows this already, if you know, no BS, Britt is gonna call you today.
Britt (01:09.537)
you
The Dental A Team (01:34.209)
You know, Brit, you know that she's got a, like this business sense that she just knows. Like, you know, there's just things in life you just know. You just intuitively know, you're like, I don't know, it just makes sense to me. That's business for Brit. And I love watching you just work in that zone for our company, but then also for the clients that you've worked with and helping us consultants just learn so much more about that business side.
And today, your idea was so brilliant. That's what I'm saying, like your business. I'm like, leadership. And she's like, actually, let's talk about this. And I really wanted to bring Britt on today to pick her mind on how you doctors, you practice owners can really start preparing for your exit. know Dana and I've talked about this before and really talked about, even if you don't think, you're like, Tiff, I'm not.
I'm not leaving, like I just started. You're like fantastic, but you should always be prepping and planning for your exit because you just need never know when you're going to be like, I want a sabbatical and you're up and I don't want to my practice anymore. So you should always be prepping and planning for that. And my ideas, know, Britt's like, no, let's talk about this. I think it's brilliant. So we really, really want to take a look at the business side and how you can not only prep emotionally with your
leadership team with your ops manual. We already talked about a lot of that stuff on another podcast and Britt here is gonna bring us some information on really how to prep the business side. How do you prep your finances? How do you make sure that your practice is sellable? What are the pieces that that actually entails? And how do you make sure that you have it in order? I love to tell doctors all the time, evaluate your practice constantly, because you just wanna know. It's like never knowing the value and the worth of your home. I know my...
My lending team and my realtor team, they send me evaluations of my home every six months by email. And it's just really cool to see where the market's at. And so I think taking that mindset and applying it to your business is also really fantastic. So Britt, I'm excited for today. I know the listeners are excited today. I actually, know personally because I hear it and I think you need to hear this today.
Britt (03:20.834)
Yeah.
Britt (03:41.358)
Thank
The Dental A Team (03:41.983)
I actually hear from a lot of our listeners and a lot of my clients who listen how excited they get when you do come on. So I do want you to know that. I know it's not your favorite space. know you don't love that on a public forum, but I think it's really fantastic and you just bring such a wealth of knowledge. what do you see being like the biggest pieces that's like, let's start easy, let's start simple.
Britt (03:51.214)
Thanks, Ted.
The Dental A Team (04:09.099)
and then expand and really dive into like nitty gritties. So where do you see on like an umbrella scope of overarching, this would be a really great place to start to really start prepping your business for an owner's exit, whether they're dental or not.
Britt (04:23.33)
Yeah. So I kind of have the mindset, right? There's always, lots of things that go through my head, but working with clients and I tell them this, I'm like, ultimately, I always want you to be thinking about your business as like, it is truly an asset to you and what is the value of that asset that you have for, you know, so that it can be worth as much as possible whenever it is that you decide to sell it. So like even starting from the beginning of your career,
The Dental A Team (04:49.622)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (04:53.07)
Kind of knowing long-term goals even. I think we've seen probably to have plenty of people who even fresh out of school go into a lot of debt, like they're already in debt and they go into a lot of debt when it comes to purchasing a practice. like even when you're going into purchase a practice thinking about, right, what are my long-term goals? How long might it take for me to pay this off?
The Dental A Team (05:06.755)
Thanks.
Britt (05:13.762)
you know, how much value equity am I going to have within this business even? And just start having that in mind because I think it helps to guide your decisions knowing that like, yeah, sometimes we're going to make a big investment and say, yeah, I'm in this for the next 15 years for sure. No problem whatsoever. Awesome. Take on something that you know that at the end of 15 years that you're going to be able to have it in a spot to where great, that's going to be a fantastic asset. And then whether I actually want
The Dental A Team (05:23.9)
Thank you.
Britt (05:42.966)
to move on or retire in 15 years or whether I decide to stay here, totally fine. You're in a fantastic spot to have the ability to make that decision, whatever way you want to go. So I think starting from the beginning, always thinking of your business in that way. And so of course, that's what we do with a lot of practices, right? Like ultimately, when we want to grow it, we want to grow your bottom line, right? Profit at the end of the day. And when it comes to thinking of the value of your practice, kind of like
debt to EBITDA multiplier, right? So like ultimately when you sell EBITDA is the thing we want to focus on. And so really making sure that we're driving that profitability while you're still able to live a comfortable life, obviously, and take care of everything you need in the practice, but always working to grow that profit and grow that EBITDA so that your value of your practice, you kind of always have an idea of where it's at.
The Dental A Team (06:14.327)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (06:25.564)
Yeah.
Britt (06:37.216)
I would say check in from time to time even to say, great, how much debt do I still have left? What would my practice be worth? What could I walk away with maybe as far as selling it? What the value would be to me? I think those are some things just to kind of think about in the background and start to look at some of those numbers. The other thing I think it comes down to is sometimes I'll have clients come to me or even on sales calls come in and they're like, well, think I want to sell. I'm not sure. I want to be able to retire. And I'm like, have you
Do you know what you need to retire? Like, do you know what you want that life to look like? Because honestly, that's even the first step. So I know, all right, will the value out of this practice that I will have in 15 years based on what I've paid off, what it's potentially worth, is that enough for me to have the life that I want? Or am I going to get that point and be stuck? I think that's ultimately, I don't want anybody to feel like, my gosh, I'm stuck.
The Dental A Team (07:07.269)
.
The Dental A Team (07:15.204)
Thanks.
Britt (07:31.852)
and they have to keep going and they're not happy. I want you to be happy in the position and feel like you've got choices. So I think that kind of overarching view of things. So ultimately, always think about your business as an asset, right? Make decisions accordingly, financially on that end. And then also have an idea of when you might want to retire, right? Or how long you may need to work in order to retire in the fashion that you want to be able to retire.
Because again, that's just, I think, mindset for you and also mindset around decisions you make for the business. Because if I might want to sell at that time or I might want to transition to associates and still be an owner, cut back days, whatever it may be, if I kind of have a point of where I'm wanting to sell, I'm to make some decisions accordingly along the way to where I want my like peak value point to ultimately line up with when I might be ready to sell.
And so that's going to impact how much debt am I taking on, right? At what points do I want to move to another big building that's going to put me in a bunch of debt? Or I'm so close to that point, let's just crank up however much we can make this practice worth so it's ready to sell when I want to. Those are some of the big picture things in my mind that kind of play into long-term view.
The Dental A Team (08:29.337)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (08:54.606)
current decisions even from the get go of buying a practice and then as you make decisions, you know, along the way throughout your career, always making sure that you keep that
The Dental A Team (09:05.269)
Sure, thank you. Question, said to really be watching your EBITDA, will you, for the public here, just explain why and what EBITDA is and how they should be evaluating that monthly in comparison, right? Because we look at overhead and we look at profit, but then EBITDA is like the separate piece that you need to know, but it's not the profit debt. It's not all encompassing that you actually need to know to move forward with your...
today, but it's Ibara. Will you explain the difference there? Because I think a lot of people get stuck on Ibara, number one, and the definition of it, but then a lot of people get stuck on only focusing on that, but then they miss these other pieces over here and vice versa, look only at these pieces and never at Ibara. So can you just explain what Ibara is and how it plays a role coinciding with overhead profit and the month-to-month movements, but not being your sole focus?
Britt (09:59.522)
Good questions. And there's some other like detailed things I'll talk about when it comes to like when you're actually starting to like get more to that point where you're thinking more seriously. Some things I play around with even on the PNL, I'm playing around with numbers to start to prepare yourself for what that will look like. And like even a yes, there's a long term definition of it, which I think we get lost in. But ultimately, right.
The Dental A Team (10:22.522)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (10:24.97)
It comes down to what are the true operating expenses for that business. So it is not your debt. It is not some of the other fancy terms. It's not taking into account taxes. Right. But truly day to day operations of the business. What does that cost? So think of it in that way. Some things to think about. Right. Some of our private practices, Dr. Own, Single Dr. Own.
Right, we'll say overhead and then doctor pay usually falls below the line. When it comes to thinking of EBITDA, ultimately you're gonna have to replace yourself. That's gonna be part of operating expenses. And so that's where I'm like, all right, when you start really thinking about it, shift some things around, because like your, know, things that you might have running through the business that you like, parts of being a business owner that you pay for through the company, along with your.
The Dental A Team (10:57.671)
.
Britt (11:16.968)
know, accountant's advice that you're following those rules. I start to pull those things out because that's not really within your overhead. And then I start moving above the line as if you are paying yourself as an associate because that's gonna be an expense of running the business, which is gonna give you a good idea of like, what are the true operating expenses? And then...
The Dental A Team (11:34.446)
Okay.
Britt (11:42.786)
depending on kind of what route you want to go, whether it's like, I'm prepping to sell, then great, let's work with your accountant, clean some things up ahead of time, clean them up. So then you've got good financial statements when you go into the actual like true valuation phase of getting ready to sell, that it's all like really clean and easy for them to see what the EBITDA is and what the value of the practice is going to be.
And so you might need to shift some things around and work with your accountant so that you're prepped for that. So it's not like, a month ago you started moving some stuff around and it looks kind of sketch. So let's get ready for it farther ahead of that. And then also knowing what direction you want to go. So whether it's just you that you're going to have to replace. So moving you above the line, paying you as an associate above the line, technically. And then if you're wanting to say, hey, what if I replace myself? And these are even some numbers.
The Dental A Team (12:27.08)
you
Britt (12:38.456)
that I also just recommend you play around with just to know your options. So it's not a, yes, there's feelings, but like also make a smart decision behind like the financial pieces on it as well. So if you're saying, Hey, what if I did just bring on an associate, right? And even have them just run it and take my place. yeah, I run some of the business stuff. All right. Well, what if I paid myself as a CEO of the practice?
and then paid an associate, like what would my numbers look like in that scenario? Or if it's like, yeah, I'll run it, I own it, I'll just pay an associate and then I'll just take distributions, what might that look like if I go that route? So that's where I like to, ahead of time, and even sometimes way ahead of time, I tell doctors, just cause you start like looking at some of this doesn't mean that you have to make a move. Cause you know, they're not sure, but I'm like, I'd like you to know your options. And again, I don't like you to feel stuck. So,
The Dental A Team (13:08.328)
you
The Dental A Team (13:28.296)
Hmm.
Britt (13:35.114)
Know your options, know what you can or can't do on your personal and financially what needs to be done. And then look at the numbers and be smart from there. So yeah, EBITDA gets scary, work with your accountant, they can kind of help you with some of that. But really think of it as what does it take to run the business? That's ultimately what we're looking at when it comes to that overhead expense and playing around and looking at EBITDA.
The Dental A Team (14:01.514)
Awesome. Thank you. I think there's a few pieces in there that I want to acknowledge for purposes of like professionals. You're mentioning accountants, things like that. A lot of the stuff that you've mentioned, I think there's three professionals I can think of off the top of my head immediately that are going to be key in making sure that you are lining things up correctly. Because like you said, even if you're doing it for six months, they still could be like, well, why are you doing this? Right?
Britt (14:03.726)
you
The Dental A Team (14:28.426)
So it's kind of like when you go to buy a house and they're like, well, where did this money come from? And you're like, well, my grandma gave it to me because I was buying a house. And they're like, that's weird. So can you afford the house? Right? So it's kind of like that where it's like, well, where did this come from? So the three professionals I can think of, right? Number one, consultant, obviously, because they're going to be able to, like Brittany's doing right now, steer you in the right directions and give you advice off of things that we've seen before, we've done with practices before, and really be able to do the checks and balances on all spectrums.
then you have your accountant, your CPA, your lawyer, right? All of that space right there that accountant, CPA, they're going to be able to tell you what it needs to look like. And I guess there's probably four, right? Because then you've got your broker to do your valuation, you've got your evaluation team there. But then also, I think a financial planner would be really, really beneficial in all of this because they see your finances from a different point than the CPA does. So when you combine a CPA and a financial planner, I feel like that's the magic sauce because the CPA is like,
Britt (15:10.968)
Okay.
The Dental A Team (15:27.807)
black and white, like this is what it looks like in a finance planner. It's like, well, if we play with it like this, like we could make it look like this. And then doing it in conjunction with your CPA really can like level some of those things out. But then you also mentioned, making sure earlier, earlier that you know your retirement and like the length of time that that is. So your financial planner, your CPA can help with that. Absolutely. But I think from a financial planner standpoint, they have better resources and tools than the CPA actually has access to.
Britt (15:32.366)
Okay.
Britt (15:41.612)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (15:57.683)
And so when you plan for that and then you work with your CPA, you plan for your retirement, you're like, okay, this is what it needs to look like. My financial planner's got that. My CPA is gonna make sure that that money gets to my financial planner because he's making sure she's making sure that it's all coming in. I think all of those spaces right there really help to dial that in. And then.
with the going back to the EBITDA, I wanted to get that out there because I know there's a lot of spaces that people are like, wait, who can, who would do this for me? Is that you? And I'm like, I don't do that, but I can tell you who to go to. Right. So those are the people I would tell you to go to if you had asked us. Now, going back to the EBITDA, you mentioned, Britt, a few times, pay yourself as an associate. And I wanted to clarify on that because when you're owner doctor, you're like, this is my collections. Everything is your collections, right? Everything that goes into
Britt (16:24.974)
Yep.
The Dental A Team (16:45.074)
your QuickBooks, everything that goes into your account is your collections because you own the practice. But to clarify, we're paying yourself as an associate, how would you pay an associate, right? You're not going to pay an associate based off of what hygiene has allocated over to them or what you have allocated to you. So you're going to look and correct me if I'm wrong, Britt, but when you say that, my brain says, okay, I'm going to pull my production. So if I'm the operating doctor,
I'm going to pull my production and my collections separate from the practice full collections because that's what I would be paying an associate on would be that 20 % or not 20 % probably, sorry guys, 32 % or whatever. Sorry, associates, I do love you, but 20 % popped in. But that 30 % of my produced collections, I'm going to pay off of that.
Britt (17:27.148)
No.
The Dental A Team (17:36.299)
not the total practice collections, which is what we're looking at our EBITDA from. So I want to make sure that that clarifier is there. And that's what then would go like, quote unquote, above the line to see. So I think overhead, we talk about being like your true overhead is if you sold the practice, this is what a doctor would take on. So it's not including your loans, it's not including your owner pay, but then your EBITDA to say like what they need to collect to be successful would include that doctor associate pay. Is that right, Britt? Am I?
Britt (18:05.838)
So you are accounting wise, accounting for yourself and yes, just you based on your collections, right? What it would cost to replace you. That's what you're moving above the line. And I'll add this caveat to it. Exactly how you get paid that amount and additional amount beyond that, because yes, you'll take more than that, right? As the owner.
The Dental A Team (18:06.005)
Clarifying that, okay?
Britt (18:32.088)
how you pay yourself, whether W-2, whether taken as a distribution, right? That can still be paid to you in whatever way you would like it to be paid to you based on working with your accountant for what's gonna be most beneficial tax-wise. But I want it to be accounted for above the line to replace you. And then with that, I also wanna make a note on this. As you run some numbers, if you're looking to completely replace yourself,
Usually our owner doctors are really good producers and finding associates. We love our associates, but them coming into this new practice, not having been there as long as you have been, usually their production is not going to be the same as yours. So that's where I'm like, play, play around with some numbers. And that's obviously I love to do this because like, so work with a consultant, right? We can run through some of this stuff with you.
The Dental A Team (19:01.388)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (19:16.203)
Thank
Britt (19:26.446)
Again, I like you going in with eyes wide open because we've worked with some doctors, right? And some, everybody has it at times. like, well, I should just sell it. And it's like, whoa, whoa, hold on. Let's see what this asset is worth. Even if you cut days back and bring in an associate, right? What can you still be making where some of that is even passive income or work yourself out of it?
The Dental A Team (19:36.063)
Yeah.
Britt (19:50.702)
what could the passive income look like for you with like, yeah, you're going to have to do some things in the business, but for how much time is that worth it to you? that's where I'm like, play through all the options, like get creative with it. There's a lot you can do. That's not your traditional, well, I'm retiring. I have to sell it. It's a different landscape these days. So there's a lot of options out there. I'll also make a plug for, I think most brokers we know and talk to brokers know it's like a, it's a, there's a long like,
The Dental A Team (20:10.443)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (20:18.992)
Okay.
Britt (20:20.718)
period of getting to know a broker, right? Because you'll reach out to him and it's like, I'm just trying to get an idea. And good brokers know that and good brokers are going to help to talk you through pros and cons and work with you through things. so knowing that like, hey, you can engage that relationship at an early point to get the value of your practice. And just to kind of understand the landscape of what's going on, especially knowing, right, depending on your area, depending on your type of practice.
The Dental A Team (20:48.22)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (20:49.55)
They will know what practices are most attractive depending on who you might want to sell to and how long it might take in some areas to find a buyer, again, which is just good information to have a current market to know. It adds into your timeline, right? And a lot of times we've got our doctor owners that'll be like, yeah, I think I'm ready to like retire. And that's where I'm like.
The Dental A Team (21:07.404)
Go.
Britt (21:14.702)
Like it's going to take a little time and I want you to know things ahead of time so that you can be prepared for it. And when you're ready to go, you've got all the information to have it work out as beneficial to you as possible instead of being like, well, I'm done. Let's figure it out. Let's go. And you start to make rash decisions and that asset is it, you don't take advantage of it as much as you think. Like it is, but it's just not as valuable as it could be. So yeah.
The Dental A Team (21:33.388)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (21:37.038)
It's no longer an asset, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that's great advice. I'm thinking like, because I have had that where doctors are like, I'm done, I'm out, I got to get out of this. Like, I'm like, well, if you're in the got to get out of this phase, like, that is just not the place to be living in. For either side, right? Like, you need to get out of that. I see that. But also for if you're offloading the practice, like this is going to be, this could be a really sketchy situation. So I think
for dentists and practice owners or business owners in general, earlier, when we first started, you said, always think of the long game. So I think when you think you're five to 10 years out from retirement, your financial planner should have this information. You should know when is a good timeframe for you to retire. And when you're five to 10 years out from that, think this is right when you should start.
moving all these pieces into place and at least have that knowledge because you don't want to even get two years out and be like, all right, Tiff, I got two years. And I'm like, shoot, I got a lot of stuff this goes into two years. Like it just takes, I think it just takes more knowledge and you really want to go into it from the sounds of all these pieces you put together today, Britt, thank you for that. It sounds like you just want to go in with the most amount of knowledge possible to make the best decisions possible because they're no longer
an emotionally based decision. Now they're a black and white, this is what's best for me emotionally, physically, mentally, financially decision because you've gathered so much information. So yeah.
Britt (23:12.672)
it helps on the emotional side of things, right? Sometimes even just knowing, hey, if I go five more years, right, the value difference of this is gonna be X, Y, Z. Is that worth it to me, right? And it may not be or it might be, right? So again, it just kind of, and sometimes I'm like, for that, yeah, I can do five more years for that dollar amount. So yeah, it just helps you to be able to make the wisest decisions, I think.
The Dental A Team (23:26.083)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (23:34.319)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (23:41.551)
I love it. Thank you. So if we had to give them three steps that they could take today to push forward towards just even the knowledge, what do you think those top three items would be?
Britt (23:52.61)
Yep. I would say have an idea and it doesn't have to be set in stone when you might want to retire or start to step back from the practice. I think that would be number one thing, which along with that then comes like knowing what you need to retire. like plan for that. Have an idea of a timeframe. Again, it doesn't have to happen, but you've got an idea of that timeframe. I think
Make sure you're looking at your financial statements and looking at it not only from a sense of overhead, but look at it from a sense of value. So looking for that EBITDA, what's that profit kind of number? What is the value of the practice? And then use that information to help make decisions in the practice. So you don't find yourself in a situation while I've made so many, like I've gotten in debt on so many things.
Even if you sell the practice, you've still got your debt that you need to pay so that you can make smart decisions with it. I think those would be my top three things. And then as you get closer, right, to the time when you're like, you know, I'd like to know the value just because I'm probably heading towards that within the next decade even. Then there would be some other steps, but that would be my main three for anyone, no matter what stage you're in going into buying a practice, having owned it for a while. Those would be my top
The Dental A Team (24:47.034)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (25:12.786)
Awesome, thank you. You guys, this was a chock-hole of a ton of information. I hope if you're driving, you have saved this or you do save this so that you can go back through and take some notes. If you weren't driving, I hope you were feverishly taking notes because there was just a ton of information here. Thank you, Britt.
Britt (25:14.264)
Bye.
The Dental A Team (25:30.161)
I knew you would come to the table with just so much with that business brain of yours. So you guys go take a look at these pieces. And if you've done some of them and you're past those three steps we just gave you, then pull out other steps from this conversation. Make sure you've got those professionals on your side. Make sure that you reach out when you do need help. Or you guys, if you ever need a recommendation.
For professionals too, we work with a lot of companies side by side simultaneously with them. We talk with them on behalf of clients and with clients. And so just know we have these resources for you. Just reach out and we are happy to help you. As always, come stop by if you're not yet a client of ours or you're just looking for information on your practice on goods in the beds and the hot ticket spots. Our team is always here to help.
really dial in biggest issues or biggest spaces of work for you, whether you're a client or not. So please reach out. [email protected] or TheDentalATeam.com. You can sign up right there as well to chat with our team to really just evaluate where you're at with your practice. And as always, leave us a five-star review. We love to hear how much you enjoyed this.
content and we love to see what you enjoyed the most of so we can recreate that and continue on those paths. So everyone, thank you so much. Britt, thank you so much for being here with me today and we'll catch you guys next time.
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Bringing on an associate is a big move for any practices, and while the benefits fill out a long list, the way it’s done will have lingering impacts, for better or worse. Kiera gives three actionable tips on how to make the transition a smooth one for all involved.
Find an associate who fits your clinical and cultural model
Schedule a team meeting with the associate
Establish regular check-ups with doctor feedback
Episode resources:
Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript
Kiera Dent (00:00.45)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, you guys, are you struggling to onboard a new associate without team tension? I know that this can be a tricky problem that a lot of our offices faces. And so these three steps will make the process smooth and successful. Honestly, onboarding an associate is such a critical piece. You're bringing on this new doctor, they already love you, they already know our existing team, and now we're bringing someone new in that's gonna help us help serve more patients. It's going to help our team be able to get those hygiene checks on time.
going to be able to help us expand our clinical suite. So whatever the reason for onboarding an associate, it oftentimes comes down to that team buy-in, not having the team tension, getting the patient retention. And so the goal is today, I'm going to walk you through really three simple steps for you to be able to onboard this associate with ease and success.
I am Kiera Dent. Dental A Team was created to really help give you guys wisdom and knowledge out in the field to have a trusted expert, someone who's been there, done that, done that successfully multiple times. Honest to goodness, our consultants are incredible. They really have real life experience. Every consultant on the Dental A Team has to have real life experience in the practice.
clinically and for an office. They've had to grow multiple practices exponentially. They've had to work through these kinks. So when we give you tips and advice is not because we're just here talking about theories and what we hope works. It's because we've been there, done that and done that successfully. Honestly, onboarding an associate is going to affect your long-term harmony. This is where it's going to be amazing for your team with harmony, but also productivity. And so today is going to be short, actionable episode. And honestly, you guys are going to want to wait till the end because I walk you through the three steps.
And then at the very end, I'm gonna wrap it up for you of exactly how you can do this with simplicity. So step one is you need to actually find an associate who fits your clinical and cultural model. This is really paramount because a lot of times we just want an associate. We just think, let's bring someone in. But what we forget is these patients have been coming to us as a clinician, as a practice, as a culture, and that's what we've actually built. So there's a lot about branding in other companies. Well, in your dental practice, you have to realize you as the dentist, you as your clinical skill set has actually been built.
Kiera Dent (02:08.034)
to be able to be a culture that your patients are accustomed to. So it's crazy because we just think we just need to hire an associate. No, actually looking to see are they clinically the same as you or adding to your skillset and also do they fit your cultural model. It's wild because if you'll just take the time to find this person who fits not being desperate but actually using the time to find them is really going to help. Now people ask me, Kiera, where actually can I go to find these associates because it can be tricky. And what I say is let's start talking with the community.
Talk to the dental colleges that are around you. Talk to your Henry Schein rep or your Patterson rep. Start talking to different offices because they might know someone. Get to the country club. A lot of deals have been made on golf courses that I've heard. Go to yoga studios, different places where people will be and start talking and networking and letting them know who you're looking for. Also let your team know, hey, we're looking for this. This is who we're looking for. Do you know anybody? Because your team can really be an advocate for you.
In addition to that, I like to build pipelines. So if you know family members that are going to dental college or you have friends, but somehow getting really intertwined into that, that dental college around you, in addition to being able to work with residencies and G, your, your practices that way, that's going to help you actually exponentially become stronger to get this pipeline of people there. So really looking for someone who fits your clinical and cultural model is going to help you exponentially because they're going to subscribe to the models like you do.
They're going to act like you do. They're going to have the feel of it. And really, like I said, this is all about your brand. And so it's interesting because I've actually seen there was an office that I consulted and what happened with them is they brought on an associate. They thought that they were great. They had the clinical skills that they needed, but culturally they weren't aligned and the hygiene team started to get frustrated because this doctor was actually not following protocol within the practice. So whenever the two different doctors came in,
the hygienist were trying to adapt to each different doctor, the exams weren't consistent, the treatment planning wasn't consistent. And yes, there will be varying shades of this, but really making sure that in the interviewing process, this associate aligns is actually gonna prevent that team tension in the future. So truly, before you hire, clarify what your core values are of your practice and the clinical expectations that you have before you even go out to hire. Now, if you already have someone, that's okay, there's still things that we can do.
Kiera Dent (04:25.88)
but really making sure that they're like almost this little perfect outline of what you're looking for because just like when we want to go buy a car, when we say, want to buy this G wagon or I want to buy this Toyota Corolla or I want to buy this Tesla. What happens is we start to see that car everywhere. Well, same thing's going to actually happen with your associates. When you know exactly what your crystal clear on, go for it. That's going to help you actually sift through and find the person that's going to work great for your practice.
Step number two is going to be once we get our associate, we know that they're going to be great. We need to actually have a team meeting and buy-in. Letting our team actually ask the questions because what happens is a lot of times the team tension just comes from fear. It's not that they don't want to onboard our associates. It's not that they don't want our practice to be successful. It's just fear. It's the, about this? What about that? What about my patience? And so what's going to happen is when we have an effective meeting with our team,
we're going to introduce the associate and their strengths, making sure we highlight why did we bring this person in specifically? What is it about them? Don't forget, this is about the branding, making sure that they're branded, making sure that they fit our brand of the company. And then we open up the floor of team questions and letting the team, like, what are your concerns? What do you think patients will feel? Because the more the team can air this out, the more we're going to be able to find solutions. And what I found is let's address them in, in person, in our meeting, but also have your office manager or a team member
actually take notes to where there's verbiage in their scripting because what we hear is not actually what we retain. And so just giving your team the tips and the tools of amazing, this is how Dr. Sarah is going to do a great job on our clinical experts or what's going to happen if they have redo treatment, what do we do then? And so that's really going to be able to help your team feel confident because now they've got the what happens when and here's the solution. And if you write that up, it's very simple.
This will help long-term and also we really want to like boost why this associate is going to be great for the practice. Now a question that you could also ask to follow up on this is what qualities do you think would help our new associate succeed here? Because these are also going to be things of what can we do to make sure this associate does great here? How do you think we need to behave? What do you think the things we need to do are going to be this way this associate is truly successful and set up for success within our practice?
Kiera Dent (06:37.838)
And what I found is when the team is bought in and they're bought into the associate, they're excited about the associate, they've had their questions answered, that team rallies around this associate. That team is super excited to recommend this associate for treatment. They're excited to recommend this associate for other patients in the practice. And something that really gets squirrely with teams is who's gonna see the new patients? Who does the hygiene exams? What can this doctor do? And as a team member myself,
I'm always looking at their clinical suite. And so making sure that that team knows perfect, we're gonna onboard them this way. We're gonna actually check their work with x-rays post-treatment. It's okay, we do this for the first three months. That way we don't have to do redos. Me and the doctor are actually gonna be working together. So the doctor and the associate will work together on monthly calibration meetings, weekly calibration meetings. They're also gonna calibrate with the hygiene team and really truly setting these in your schedules from the get-go will honestly help you onboard this associate with success. So what I like to do is,
the, the call to action on step two would be schedule a team meeting before the associates first day and set the stage for success. I usually like it to be a week or two before we type up that protocol for them. They know what's going to go on. They're able to meet this associate. They're able to get excited for the associate. And I also prep the associate like come in and be a human. They want to see your fun side. They want to see your clinical side. So if you can also show examples of case works that that associates done in the past, that also can really give the team buy-in for this as well.
And then step three of this process is going to be onboarding this associate successfully with daily, weekly, and monthly check-ins with consistent team and doctor feedback. Now I know this feels weird and a lot of doctors get funny because like, but they're a doctor and I'm a doctor and I don't ever want to undermine them. And what I, what I want to recommend and really emphasize for you is you are the expert in your practice. That doctor is an incredible dentist. That's why you're hiring them, but they don't know how to be an incredible dentist in your practice with your team in the ways that you guys have set it up of the culture of your practice.
So we're not here to tell them how to do dentistry. Maybe there's a few things that we do need to correct or to change or to calibrate on, but the bulk is how do we do it within our practice? And so there's onboarding checklists that we really love to do of how they can shadow. I really love to dovetail. So that means the doctor watches one procedure and then you watch one procedure. And I know this sounds annoying because usually when we want to hire an associate, we want them yesterday and we want to just fill their schedule.
Kiera Dent (08:56.44)
But I say if we slow down to speed up at the beginning, this is actually gonna help you be very successful with your associate, be very successful with their onboarding and catch the issues quickly and give the honest feedback before it becomes harder to give the feedback. The longer we go without giving that associate feedback, the harder it will be for them later on to take that. So it's giving the shadowing, maybe dovetailing. I use the same dovetail where it's one appointment then the next appointment. We go back and forth and we watch each other. Have them hear you do exams. You hear them do exams.
This allows you to calibrate very quickly. And I know it feels annoying, but I promise you, if you'll do this, that doctor will be able to produce for you so much faster than you think they'll be able to. So then from there, what we're going to do is we do a weekly where we actually calibrate with them and doctors, strongly recommend you put this in your schedule. We calibrate with them. We pull up X-rays just like going back to dental school. What's the FMX? What do you see in this X-ray? What am I, what do I see? We don't actually talk about it out loud, but we write it down and then compare notes.
We calibrate with our hygiene team. And if you have a really calibrated hygiene team, they should be able to tee up the treatment for the doctor. And then the doctor's then really just gonna have to come in and swing and make it happen. But that doctor might see things differently. And so really, what do we do if we see things differently? How do we calibrate our hygiene team? I recommend this takes about three months of being very intentional with it, meeting every week, meeting monthly and giving the feedback and doing true formal check-ins for both the associate and the team. Asking the team, how are they doing? Asking your hygiene team how they're doing.
giving the feedback of the positives and the areas to improve early on is going to fix that. Like I said, I'm very big when you onboard to make sure you're taking x-rays pre and post treatment. I know it sounds funny, but you really can get a lot further ahead if you're willing to take these quick steps. having a really structured check-in will help. And like I said, I have it in office and what was funny about them was it wasn't even funny. was just really like, truly it was sad because they had this amazing associate.
They brought them in. They didn't want to check the work. They didn't want to do the onboarding. They were like, they're just an amazing clinician. Let's go. Well, three, four months in, they started seeing a lot of redos and a lot of patient sensitivity and a lot of patient complaints. So they started looking, they started looking at the x-rays. had a lead assistant that sat with that doctor and started realizing there were open margins. Well, now it comes to the spot of they've been working with us for four months. We have all these patient treatments that's been done. We know we've got four months of not as great ideal dentistry. What do we do now?
Kiera Dent (11:17.826)
They ended up having to terminate that doctor and they had to do, was about eight months of redo dentistry that they had to do. And I thought we could have swallowed our egos. We could have swallowed our pride. We could have been here. We're here to help you. And let's fix these problems and issues before they become big issues. That's a much easier conversation to have than one after they've been in the practice for four months. It was awful for this practice. It was hard. And they have committed that every time they now bring on an associate, they always do the onboarding. They always do the calibrations. They always take the X-rays.
And also another tip is adding a lead assistant with that associate as soon as they start really sets them up for success because that assistant can see a lot of things that maybe we don't see otherwise when we're not in the operatory with them. So really having that, and I say map out your 30, 60, 90 day plan. What are you doing daily? What are we doing weekly? How do we make sure that they know how we treatment plan a crown? How do we treatment plan a root canal? How do we treatment plan and talk about implants? If they don't do this type of treatment, who do they refer with air quotes in our practice?
is really gonna set this associate up for success. So as a quick recap of how we onboard an associate effectively without team tension and amazing team buy-in is number one, we wanna make sure that we're hiring an associate that has our clinical and culture skillset. That's number one. Make sure we've got the DNA right of the correct person, because that's gonna help us exponentially. Number two is have a team meeting where we're able to actually talk through what does this associate need to be successful.
What are our questions? And we write it up a protocol for the team to follow. What do we say to patients? How do we introduce? Where do the new patients go, et cetera. And then step three is going to actually 100 % onboard this associate correctly with check-ins, calibration, and consistent feedback, 30, 60, 90 days, and possibly even beyond. And when you do this, this is going to be an incredible way for you to onboard them, have successful team buy-in, and hopefully incredible successful associate success.
I think one of my practices that I'm just really, really proud of within Dental A Teams Consulting is they were able to bring on two brand new straight out of school graduates. And they really were intentional about how they did it. They got the DNA right. They had a team buy-in of how we're going to do this. We set up the schedule appropriately. We figured out what this associate doctor needed. The associate doctors were mentored every single week. The hygiene team gave a lot of feedback. The dental assistant team gave a lot of feedback. And within nine months, their associates were producing about 100,000 a month.
Kiera Dent (13:42.156)
And to me, that's an incredible success story of we slowed down to speed up and look at the success that they were having. So with that, I really hope that you guys are able to take this to implement, to get excited for it. And if you're onboarding soon or thinking about us, DM us or email us, [email protected] for an onboarding checklist that we can share a sample of what this looks like. And always like subscribe for more tips on leadership and success in your dental practice.
This is truly what the Dental A Team does and we help offices overcome these issues and overcome these struggle points to make it very successful for you and your team. So if that's helpful, reach out, [email protected] And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
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Kiera reminds dentists to prioritize wellness and support in their day-to-day.
Episode resources:
Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:01.006)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy National Dentist Day. I felt like today would be such a great day for us to highlight how we can support dentists on mental health, wellness, and excellence on National Dentist Day because I believe that dentistry can be a lonely profession. I believe that I've seen so many dentists feel alone and isolated like they're on their own island. And so today I just wanted to highlight and celebrate.
how much dentists do and also how dentists can help themselves, but also how your team can help support our doctors that do so much for us. So today, you guys, honestly, dentists face unique challenges. And so today I just wanted to have it be a powerful reminder that prioritizing wellness and support in our profession is necessary. It's needed. It's such a lonely profession in so many ways, if we choose. And I don't want us to choose that. I want us to choose a vibrant, a happy, a fulfilling
space in dentistry. And that's honestly what Dental A Team is about. We created this podcast to positively impact the world of dentistry. Our mission is to truly impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so really helping you see that there's two sides to this coin. There's ways that we can see that it's a lonely field and we can also see that it's a very fulfilling field. And so today I just really hope that you take some tips from today. I'll give you three simple steps of how we're able to really take care of ourselves through self-care.
through mental health and also team collaboration in dentistry. I'm really a big proponent of mental health, especially in dentistry. And so today I just wanted to walk you through, you guys know the Dental A team, we're here to support you. We have consultants that are truly in every position in the dental practice. We come into your practices. We coach you virtually. We help you. are your advocates in dentistry. We're your advocates in business. We're your advocates for having the life on your terms.
Like I've said many times, life is my passion, dentistry is my platform and helping you truly be the fulfilled dentist that you were created to be. I love focusing on you as a person, on your profitability of your practice and then on systems and team development for your practice and really making that be an achievable piece for you. And so today, you guys, I do believe that there is a balance needed between professional success and personal wellness. And I don't believe that it has to be one or the other, it's an and. And so really giving you some quick tips today.
Kiera Dent (02:19.418)
of some concise value-packed information that hopefully will be able to help you as we celebrate National Dentist Day. So number one, step one is to prioritize mental health and stress management. And I think the word prioritize in choosing that I am someone who does prioritize mental health and stress management. There've been studies that have been done that show that the workforce used to be one where it was more physical labor and so really taking care of our bodies. And now we've moved into this space where it's a very mental
world where so much of it is in the mental cognitive constantly running and it never shuts off. And I believe for dentists you have the mental where it never shuts off, but you also have the physical exhaustion of truly doing dentistry all day long and your bodies and making sure you've got the ergonomics. so being able to have that mental health and stress management where we have some shutoff time, where we do build the muscle of our brain. I remember I was in therapy and I said like, I can go and I can work out, but what can I do for my mind? And that's where we
we start to create the, if you will, the workout or the, the mental strength building through meditation and through silence and through some of that downtime shut off to allow ourselves to actually have that calm, have that space. so some key strategies for better mental health are mindfulness and stress relief practices like meditation. I'm a big believer. I read Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. So if you're interested in a book, I love some tacticals for you.
That wouldn't really help me see how I could have a miracle morning of meditation, journaling, taking some time for me. And I really would encourage you to schedule 10 minutes a day or even just one minute a day for you to have mindfulness and reflection starting today. Do yourself a favor. It's National Dentist Day. Buy yourself the gift, the gift of time, the gift of mental clarity, the gift of
of really taking care and honoring yourself. And for me, I was able to do a shift of, like to honor my body. This incredible body that does so much for me is where my mental health journey started and to relieve the stress. So whatever it is for you, for me, it's hiking, it's being outside. So I love to meditate and I love to go for a morning walk to give my brain a shower. So whatever it is for you, giving yourself the gift, because if we can take care of ourselves, then we're able to give in support to so many others. And so dentists really,
Kiera Dent (04:35.662)
being aware that you have the physical demands and you also have the emotional cognitive demands that are on you. And so having that, I also believe sometimes having a therapist can actually be a great thing for you within this mental health and stress management strategy that you create. And then also there's other things of joining communities of like-minded people like you. I believe that really can help and that's something I'm very passionate about. That's why we're bringing our dentists together because so many times as a consultant, I hear hundreds of offices.
and they have the same issues and the same concerns just colored in a little bit different way. so bringing our doctors together in person through our masterminds and through our in-person events really is a great way for our doctors to feel the support to say, I'm not alone. And when I hear dentists who have connected say, Kiera, I'm so grateful to know I'm not the only one. I think that can also boost that. So I would encourage you to schedule one minute to 10 minutes of just you time through meditation.
through stress relief, we're off the phones, we're off the screens, we're not listening to things, we're not trying to solve the problems of the world, but we just take that moment and reflect starting today. Step two is team members. This is for team members of how you can support your dentist. I do believe that teams, can really support our doctors by champion for them, helping our doctors get out on time, doing things for our doctors so that way we can...
Let them have the as much as we can take off their shoulders. So having our room set up and ready to go when doctors come in, so they're not looking for it. Hygienist calibrating. So that way your doctors have consistent exams. So when they walk in, they're able to get in, have a great exam and leave the room. Office managers, what your doctor asks you being really mindful and intentional to take notes and to follow up and to come back to your doctor. So they're not having to have the mental stress of trying to remember all the things they've asked for, but you proactively being on top of that.
Also making sure we're hitting our production goals and our profitability goals and our billing and keeping that AR down. I think are some really great ways to help support our doctor. And then also scheduling a schedule that's realistic for that doctor to be able to get through and not have to be superhuman and be in like five rooms at a different time or all at the same time. To me, that feels so unfair for that doctor. We expect so many things from our dentists. so teams, feel really being proactive on how we can help our doctor look to see because
Kiera Dent (06:53.912)
Your doctor, as an owner, can tell you, is constantly thinking of ways that they can help make you happier too. And so if we can be a yin and yang team together where we're all looking out for how can we help each other. But those are some quick tips, I think, from doctors and from owners and from CEOs that I've heard that if team members would just rally in those little areas, typically the things that cause the most stress for our doctors are unproductive schedules. working and not making money.
not collecting and not having that 98 % collections and then also team morale and problems. And then there's a million other things, but I think those things really are some, some clutch things for teams to support. so teams also, I would encourage you check in with your doctor, especially office managers. You're the one closest ask your doctor, Hey, how are you doing? And what can I do to alleviate stress for you? Because I want to remind you, there's so much weight that none of our teams can see.
When I was a team member, didn't realize how much weight was on my doctor and my owner that I couldn't see. so really like seeing that weight that we don't even know and lifting in these little ways, I think can really help. And doctors, going to encourage you to ask for the help. I know we think as CEOs and owners, we're expected to do it all and have all the answers and you're a doctor. And what I will tell you is that's a great way to be lonely, overwhelmed and come unraveled versus there is another alternative that I'd love to offer as a perspective where you can actually have a team that supports you, that trusts you.
that rallies around you that wants you to be the best that you can possibly be and really truly creating that type of a culture that allows freedom, allows creativity, that allows fulfillment rather than being completely like smothered by your practice and feeling like you have to do it all. Both are available to you and I might encourage that today you actually choose this path and a great way for this is have a team meeting.
to discuss that every ways that our team can lift and maybe say, hey, this could really help me out if you could do X and each of us brings only one thing for one person. So not one person is getting 75 different things, but we're being intentional and cognitive of that. But how can we lift that burden? And a lot of times those burdens aren't even known. And so speaking up and having a team where we're collective with this, because the reality is most of us can take on one little piece that would actually chip away the burden of somebody that's very heavy. And then step three is,
Kiera Dent (09:05.73)
I believe committing to lifelong learning and professional growth can also really help and this ties into a community. But finding ways to stay inspired, finding ways to get excited about what you're doing in dentistry rather than the day in day out mundane. And so finding ways where we can have continuous growth, we can find ways to stay engaged. I know for me, I accidentally got to a spot where I got disengaged. I lost the passion. I lost my why. I lost, why am I even doing this? I love what I do, but I'm stagnant.
And it was because I wasn't growing, I wasn't evolving. And so go to CE courses, schedule one in that really gets you excited. What do you really want to learn this year? What's kind of a pain point for me this year? It's marketing. And I'm super jazzed, even though it sounds daunting to me, but I'm super excited to learn the ins and outs of marketing, to take on AI courses, to figure out how I can incorporate that into the consulting company and then bring it also to our dental practices. But something that's going to engage me. I really have found that a lot of our doctors and myself included as a CEO,
getting in a community or a mastermind group with professionals, like where you can talk to them about these issues, you can be with them. I learned so much in person and that's why Dental A Team has brought in person to the table, to the scenes in 2025. I know when people have little kids or family agreement arrangements, it can be tricky, but I want to just remind you it's about a day and a half, at least that's Dental A Teams. It's a day and a half where you leave the practice, you leave your family.
and you go and you energize and you fill your cup. So then you're able to give to all these people so much more. And I think we, oftentimes make it bigger than it really is. It's a day and a half. So I'm giving up three days max of time to fuel my soul. And I think when we remind ourselves that we're worth that, but that's something essential. That's as essential as eating and having oxygen, at least for my soul and for me as a CEO and for a lot of the dentists that I consult and that our team consult, that's the equivalent of oxygen. And so really being able to have that of having a peer group,
And then really for yourself, just like, what do you want to evolve and to grow into set one or two of those that really just juices your life and gets you excited. I found that doctors, when they've joined groups, so a lot of our consulting clients, we have about a hundred clients and this year I'm excited. We're definitely going to be bringing on at least 200 and we've done it in a way where it will still feel very intimate, very small because I hate going into groups where I feel like I'm just one of the crowd. so
Kiera Dent (11:25.156)
keeping it to where you feel very connected, very tethered, but also being able to expand our reach to more practices and to get more people connected. That's something I'm super jazzed about. And what I found is when dentists come together, when they see each other, when they meet with each other, their happiness goes up, their productivity goes up, their stress goes down, their team engagement goes up, because we don't just do this for doctors. We actually bring your office manager or a leader in person for you, because I found that that was the hardest thing. I go, get all excited about CE,
then I have no one to implement with me. And so not having that be the problem for you, but bringing you together. So productivity goes up, happiness goes up, stress goes down, team engagement goes up and ease comes into place and having friends. was like, gosh, it's like six wins right there. Just by being a part of something professional that stimulates you have a community of like-minded people for you. So like I said, three ways to do it are one, prioritize your mental health and set aside time to meditate, to do something for your mental wellness and stress management.
Number two is have a team that supports you and surrounds you and make sure that you are supported as a dentist and also dentists, you're asking for that help, not just burying yourself. And number three is having a support group and CE that energizes you and jazzes you and makes you so excited to continue and to be engaged are three great ways for you to be able to celebrate your mental health, your wellness and your fulfillment. This is truly the zone where you're gonna be able to have long-term success. We're not playing for the short game.
We're playing for the long game. We're playing for you to be fulfilled and happy for long-term success. And so I want you guys to know that I'm here. DM me, ask for help, reach out. If you want to come join us in person, I'd love to have you. These are some things that we can do. I'm happy to share with you my favorite meditation that I do, whatever I can do. So DM me for any tips. The Dental A Team, we're on Instagram, we're on all the platforms, we're on LinkedIn. You can message me directly.
And then also subscribe for more Leadership Insights where we celebrate you. We help you be a successful, thriving dentist and team. And if this can be a support for you, if you need one-on-one help or you're like, it would really help if I just had a coach in my corner, reach out. [email protected] This is what we do. This is what we're experts at. And this is our passion. It's your success is our passion. And that's what we're here for. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.
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Tiff and Kristy explain how viewing claims as stories can improve how practices can streamline that process. They touch on doctor-led language to use from start to finish, how artificial intelligence can improve the process, safety protocols to implement, and more.
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Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:01.881)
Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I have the one and only this Kristy back on the podcast today. She has done at least one other podcast with me so far. Kristy is a consultant here on our team. If you have not gotten the chance to meet her yet, please hop on over to our social or hangouts. We've got our
Doctor Collab that we do every single month and our doctor and team kind of round table get together that she's at every single week. So if you're a current client, you know where to find her. I hope that you've had the chance to meet her. If you are a listener and not yet a client and you haven't met Kristy yet, Kristy, welcome. We are just so excited to have you here. And I know I probably don't say this enough, but I'm just so happy to have you on the team and Dental A Team is so happy and so proud.
to welcome you into our team and our family. You've been here now for, it feels like forever, like you started with us seven, eight years ago, but you've been here now for, gosh, I'll go on your fourth month and I'm so excited. You've got so many amazing things under your belt and your wealth of knowledge is massive. So, Kristy, how are you today? Thank you for being here, but how are you doing? You're pumped?
Kristy (00:57.848)
Thank
Kristy (01:15.502)
Yes, Mary Pump. It's a subject that is near and dear and and help benefit doctors and teams. So I'm excited to be here. Thank you.
The Dental A Team (01:25.134)
Good, you're welcome, you're welcome. And I do kind of try to make sure that when I do pick the topics that we're going to talk about and who's going to talk about them with me, I do kind of choose based on your passion because I know all of us can do most of the things. Like all of us have been around a block of time or two, but I know we all each have our individual passions set aside of things that really, really drive us or areas where
You've seen incredible massive results and Kristy, this one today, I actually think you've seen massive results on a client already that you've been working one-on-one with when it comes to this subject matter. So I think it's really cool. Thank you for being here with us. Doctors who are joining us today and team members alike, I'm really excited for this one. Our main goal at Dental A Team is to produce results for you. We want you to have a thriving.
Wonderful practice and business that supports a lifestyle that you want to live. So our goal is always to increase profitability, increase joy and happiness, and make sure that your business is supporting that life and it's working for you, not you always looking for your business. So our subject matter today, I want you guys, doctors, and then team members who are listening to it that maybe your doctor sent it to you or hasn't listened to it yet. Make sure that you guys actually truly do listen to this one. The title.
is going to be, it's going to say something, I don't know yet around optimizing claim results. And I don't want it to just get shuffled over to your team because docs were actually speaking to you guys today. Team members can pick up the bits and pieces as well, because I think you are going to be able to do that in tandem. But docs, these are areas actually where you can help hold some accountability lines and where you can help provide a ton of value and information back into optimizing your claims for the best results. The reason that we talk about this, reason it's so important
is because, gosh, a lot of your money's actually tied up in claims processing. Even if you're a fee-for-service practice, if you're sending claims on behalf of the client, on behalf of the patients, by any means, you're getting a lot of money wrapped up and tied into the claims. And then you've got a whole human, a whole body, who's wrapped up in not only sending those claims and like doing their best to get as much money as they can in as possible, but they're also spending a lot of time on the phone with insurance companies.
The Dental A Team (03:48.763)
with the claims departments trying to get that money into the practice. So if we can streamline a lot of those places and spaces and just get that money returned as soon as that claim's received, I think it just helps to reduce a lot of the overload, reduce a lot of the work and overhead in a lot of spaces. So today is all about how you guys, doctors, and your back office support team can help optimize those claims.
so that your billing department can just shoot them off easy peasy style. And then also kind of like some futuristic talk on some things that we see coming down the pipeline. So Kristy, I mentioned that you've already got a couple of practices really, actually, I've seen quite a few of your practices already, working on streamlining their claims processes. A lot of doctors who are learning how to do the claims themselves just so that they can help their team and support their team. And I think it's brilliant actually because those doctors now see it from a different angle.
So it's kind of like, yeah, they do need that thing. Like that thing that I'm like, it's fine, dental assistant that we didn't get it, it's okay. Now their brains are like, no, actually we do need it in order to get paid. So I think it's brilliant that you have a lot of them doing that. But with that said, Kristy, what are some key spaces that you really had your current doctors now or doctors you've worked with in the past and doctors you will work with in the future? Where do you have them really focusing a lot of energy on?
to ensure that those claims processes are optimized and can just be sent out really easily.
Kristy (05:17.644)
Yeah, honestly, Tiff, I believe it's in the tools, you know. A lot of it is our x-rays, intra-oral pictures, and even clinical notes, if you will. And we can dive deeper into each of those, but definitely utilizing the tools and making the most of each of them. Really, that claim has to tell a story, right? And it tells a story of what happened from start to finish with the patient.
The Dental A Team (05:48.273)
Yeah, I love that. And I love that you mentioned those pieces. And I think specifically, like, we'll dive into the x-rays because I think that one's pretty common. We've been doing that for a long time, but then I to take a lot more time on a couple of the other pieces that are in tandem there. But on the x-rays, I've been a dental assistant, right? And I've been like, it's OK. It's fine. Or like, dang it, doctor. Like, do I really have to retake that x-ray? Because like, I've taken 16 already on this patient. So what is it that they're looking for?
Kristy (05:50.446)
you
The Dental A Team (06:17.318)
on the x-ray that you can help key in. So when a doctor walks in and sees that x-ray, if it doesn't have these parameters or if it's, you know, cut over here, like what should they have set in place where even the dental assistant or hygienist knows, actually that's a retake, like I need to retake that. What are those spaces that most of the time, if a claim's lucky enough to get to the doctor auditor, what are they looking for specifically that you know of on those x-rays?
Kristy (06:43.596)
Yeah, obviously depending on what procedure we're doing, again, the x-ray has to tell a story, right? So if for some reason we're doing a crown and you cut off the clinical portion of the crown, that x-ray probably isn't gonna work. So a lot of people think, we need a PPA for a crown and they're getting the apex of the tooth when really we need to see that clinical portion of the crown. But again, it's a two dimensional
The Dental A Team (07:10.782)
Yeah.
Kristy (07:13.52)
right? So if that x-ray isn't showing the fracture or the break, we have to use our other tools or pull them into it. But specifically for the x-rays, thinking is this capturing what I'm seeing visually in the mouth as well, right?
The Dental A Team (07:29.501)
Yeah, yeah, that's brilliant. I love that you said that's got to have the crown if you're doing the crown, you got to the crown of the tooth, you got to have the top there. So because I know sometimes they do get cut, right, we'll get the apex really well. And then we're like, okay, but I've got two x-rays, if you smash them together, I've got both of the pieces. It's like maybe sometimes, or a bite wing. But also, I think, and I've done this a time like with your premolars, right, if you don't have it just right, then you're, you're not getting just the individual tooth right now, I've got overlap.
So then it's kind of hard to, especially I know for me when I was a dental assistant, I would overlap a lot, right? In the beginning, especially, but I'd be like, come on. And the doctor's like, okay, but it's an open margin on the current crown. And I can't see that. I can visually in the mouth, but on the x-ray, I can't see the ledge because there's an overlap. So making sure too, I think for going backwards a little even, maybe even at diagnosis, that makes me think like, when you diagnose it,
making sure you're putting the reason for the diagnosis in your notes so that when you go back to it, that patient now comes back in for that treatment. Even the dental assistant, if that's today you're taking the x-ray, right, can look at why are we doing this? I would love for the dental assistant and the support team to know why we're doing things, no matter what. So why are we doing this? Because even at that point, she or he can look at that x-ray and be like, okay, does that make sense in conjunction?
Does this x-ray make sense and work in conjunction with the reason that I read for that? So making sure maybe even from a doctor's standpoint that we're always vocalizing it and then it's getting in those clinical notes at diagnosis. And then we're teaching and training our team to utilize those pieces just as much as they do. What's your thought on that? And then I think that kind of slides into then also intraoral photos.
Always, if you can do an x-ray and an intraoral photo, I think the insurance companies are like, great, you just made my job easy. Now I've got everything and it's quick to pass it in as a paid claim. What are your thoughts on those pieces?
Kristy (09:30.22)
Yeah, I think there's two things there, Tip. You pretty much mentioned an app diagnosis, and that's a huge proponent of this because many times we're not doing that treatment same day. And from a time standpoint, right, we don't want doctor to have to come back in and re-diagnose it because we've put the picture up there and he can't even see why we're doing it, right? So again, that x-ray needs to show a story. And if it doesn't, then to piggyback on what you said, let's make
The Dental A Team (09:52.093)
Thank you.
Kristy (10:00.154)
sure we're using our intraoral pictures to take a picture if it's not showing the abfraction or you know the broken tooth or just the reason why we're doing it because again from a claim standpoint we're at we're sending that in and asking them to pay on something for treatment that we've done and if they can't see it because they don't have the pleasure of having a patient sit in front of them right so making sure we're utilizing that but
The Dental A Team (10:24.004)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kristy (10:30.134)
like I said from a time standpoint making sure that clinical note says why are we doing this and be specific you know not just that there's a crack in the tooth but maybe it's a distal buckle fracture running across the floor of the tooth or you know be very specific so they don't have to go back and re-diagnose at time of treatment as well.
The Dental A Team (10:42.992)
Yeah. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (10:53.535)
I agree. think you encompassed all of those pieces there. The x-ray that needs to show the pieces, the intra-oral photos, but then also the clinical notes, the pre-clinical notes for sure, right? The clinical notes at the exam date, but then also you kind of mentioned like, where is it? So even if it's on the, even if it is in the exam notes, it needs to come back again and follow through to the clinical notes on the day the treatment was done. Because now what I'm thinking, if I'm doing these pieces, right? I'm thinking, okay, what's the person like,
behind me, the next person that has to have a touch point on this patient's case, what are they going to need in order to do their jobs the best? And my billing coordinator was always like, I just need more information. I need better descriptors or better adjectives even, making sure, like you said, we're really encompassing where that fracture is, maybe how big it is. I know there's a lot of buildups out there that are done because keywords, 75 % or more of the tooth structure has been lost.
you've lost three out of four cusps, you've lost like how much of that tooth is missing, how much of the tooth was replaced. Those pieces actually do, I think, tend to make a difference and those pieces come from your clinical side. So your doctor's vocalizing those pieces and oftentimes docs, you are vocalizing those pieces, but it's not always getting translated into the notes. So making sure you're training your team on how important that is because now your billing coordinator can go in and just copy and paste that clinical note.
they're not a clinician. They shouldn't be writing their own stories, right? They shouldn't be trying to depict their own story from piecing all these things together. They should be able to go to your clinical notes, copy what it says, and paste it for the doctor who's going to be looking at it on claim state. My opinion or my concern, right, would be if there's not enough easy data to read, to see, to just say an easy yes, I think it's an easy no. And so I think
We have to assume, right, that insurance companies are, we know everyone's out, every business is there to make a profit. Insurance companies are not different than that. So for them to say yes, absolutely, to every single claim, like, that's just not, it's never going to happen in the world we live in today. So to assume that they want to say no, you've got to convince them to say yes. I think that kind of a mindset, Kristy, keeps you in the space
The Dental A Team (13:20.065)
on the clinical side of how do I convince someone who's not sitting here in my chair with my eyes seeing this patient right now, how do I convince them out of no to say, yes, this patient needed that? How do you, how do you feel about that kind of mindset? And have you seen that with doctors? Like how does a doctor, from your standpoint, you do fantastic at mindset and, leadership and training. How would you help a doctor kind of sit in that kind of a mindset?
is it's very easy to be like, I hate insurance companies, I'm not doing this. It's so easy to get to that space of like, I'm over it, I'm not doing this anymore, but how do we keep them in that space of no, I'm actually here to convince them that it's a yes.
Kristy (14:01.408)
Yeah, I think part of it is just really taking the time to see it from their standpoint, right? And making sure, I mean, just in anything we want to know that
The Dental A Team (14:08.58)
Thank
Kristy (14:16.14)
we're doing the right thing, right? So as long as we're coming in it with that mindset that there is without a shadow of a doubt, again, even a doctor going from the diagnostic phase to having the treatment, right? How many times have we seen a doctor come back in and go, now, why did we treat a plant of crown on this too? Right? So if we have that doubt, because we don't have that narrative, why would the insurance company not have that same doubt, right? So just flipping
The Dental A Team (14:31.15)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (14:45.218)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kristy (14:46.164)
that script to go, I know our doctors are doing good care and doing what's right for the patient, we just need that data to support what we're doing. So easily coming from that perspective, it usually flips the doctors, you know, to thinking. Yeah, thinking the other way. So.
The Dental A Team (15:03.502)
mindset. Yeah, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. And I think that helps too then to think, okay, well, what x-rays, you know, what x-rays do I need? And what intra-orals? If I couldn't see this patient's mouth today, what pictures would I potentially need in order to confirm or deny that yes, I do in fact need to do this treatment? So if I, I might think if I'm a, if I'm a doctor clinician, I might think, okay, if I go back two weeks ago,
look through the diagnosis that I did, could I say yes or no, like support these diagnoses based on the data that I have at hand. And that I think kind of helps flip that script too. And realistically, think regardless, it's probably just good common practice to have a lot of that stuff on hand anyway, because it's not just the dental insurance. There's other board cases and things like that that
You really do. Having the stuff behind you is just a safety protocol. And while it might take a couple extra seconds, like chair time and while the patient's in there, I think it saves potentially a really long, rigorous amount of time later on both aspects. Fighting for a claim to get paid and then prepping for something unthinkable. You guys, we always have to think of worst-case scenario. How do I get prepped for that? Because if we're not prepped for it it happens, well, shoot.
I've seen it happen, right? And I'm like, girl, I don't know, my hands are tied. But I think that kind of mindset you're describing really would go hand in hand and just be a safety protocol for a practice. So making sure we've got all of those. And I know, gosh, a long time ago, because I was in practice taking x-rays at this time, which was feels like a whole lifetime ago at this point, but they really started requiring even in our PAs and intraorals for anterior fillings, which at that point,
I was like, throw the claims in the air, I'm over this. That's ridiculous. But when we started taking, we started implementing them in the practice, taking those PAs once a year, we found decay that we didn't find before. We were like, well, shoot, this is why things like that happen. So x-rays like apex and crown of the tooth for sure, but also making sure like even if it's just fillings, you've got the data to back it up. Intraorals, I think always.
Kristy (16:59.918)
You
The Dental A Team (17:24.102)
I just love interaurals for everything, and I think a lot of people take the extra aural photos now too, which are insanely helpful, especially for the like, bruxism and the wear, things like that. But then you mentioned also the clinical notes, making sure those clinical notes are really dialed in and they say what you need it to say in a clinical way. Your clinical notes don't have to be readable by layman's term, right? They need to be, they need to work for doctor's terms. They need to work for your terms. So making sure those pieces are there.
Before we just stick to those three, before we got started today, you actually even mentioned like AI. And I think AI is just like this crazy thing that's just, I mean, the amount of like emails that my boyfriend has written with his AI tool that have gotten him way past like the point of, you know, like he thought this was never going to be resolved. And then he's got email held, like it's been insane. So I'm so excited. And I know the world is excited for all this AI stuff to come in.
Kristy (18:04.718)
Thank
The Dental A Team (18:24.369)
But I'm excited to see how it really truly benefits the patient. And so Kristy, just ideas out there, like how do you think these AI pieces, Pearl and all of these companies and even just writing narratives, but how do you feel like that's gonna play a role in optimizing the claims and really helping practices get that, get them cleaned up faster?
Kristy (18:44.076)
Yeah, I'm going to take one step back and then go forward on AI, but because you did such a good job on the intraoral pictures too, I want to also make a comment here about that too. It's not just in the doctor's realm, but also in the hygiene realm too. Like when hygiene is doing perio measurements, right? And they're diagnosing for perio, snap an intraoral picture of that bleeding. That picture will go
The Dental A Team (19:01.232)
Mm-hmm. That's it.
The Dental A Team (19:12.589)
Yeah.
Kristy (19:14.01)
long way when you're doing your perio services. But with that being said, that also ties to the AI because what I'm seeing with AI is the offices that have it, they are not getting the rejected claims because the AI is so consistent in measuring the amount of tooth structure, right? The amount of decay, the bone levels. And so it just, it doesn't lie.
The Dental A Team (19:28.637)
Yeah.
Kristy (19:42.702)
It is consistent and there's no bias within the AI. So truly, I have yet to find a claim that has been sent to insurance that has x-rays, intraoral pictures, and or AI technology attached to validate the treatment they've done. I have not heard of anybody have a claim denied. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (19:59.238)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (20:05.57)
That's amazing. I think one thing that I heard too, I don't know if it's implemented yet, but I can't imagine that it won't be, is the insurance companies actually having their own on their side that you send in your x-rays, you send in those those pieces and they shoot it through their own AI spaces. And so then it's like confirming your AI and your diagnosis or your no AI if you didn't send it, but it kind of feels like even
not having that tool within your practice is like, that's again that like safety protocol, like what are all the safety measurements I can put into place to make sure that I'm covered? It almost feels like one of those systems or tools might be just a good safety net for that. Have you seen, I mean, I know we don't work with the insurance companies, but have you heard of that yet or in your speakings? No? Yeah.
Kristy (20:53.546)
Yeah, sorry, I have heard that. In fact, one of the things that we've talked about from an insurance perspective is insurance companies know more about doctors than doctors know about them. I bet if you asked an insurance company how many crowns a doctor did, they could answer that question so much faster than even the doctor. And so, yeah, we would be fooling ourselves to think insurance companies are not using AI on us as well.
The Dental A Team (21:11.081)
That's fair.
The Dental A Team (21:22.131)
Totally, totally fair point. Because even just pulling like how many claims it takes us, we're like, I don't know, where do I find that information? And we're like, hobbling back and forth trying to find it. That's a really good point. They just click a button and they know it. I love that. So from a clinician standpoint, from our doctor's standpoint, I think they have a ton of control over the tools they're using to diagnose and then passing those tools. I think that's how I would.
want a doctor to think about it, right? Like, what tools did I utilize to diagnose this because someone else has to diagnose it without the patient in front of them and confirm my diagnosis, which is annoying. I agree with you guys. I'm 100 % behind you on that, but it's the way it is. safety protocols put into place, safety nets are clinical x-rays, clinically readable x-rays, intra-orals, notes. And something we didn't really hit on...
But I think you mentioned earlier, Kristy, that I think is really important with the notes is the note templates. So making sure, right, that the doc can have, even your support team should be able to fill in a lot of the clinical note for you because they're there to dictate what you're saying. And so they can dictate that and then utilize that template. And the doctor then goes back later to confirm, just like the other guys are confirming for you, that those notes are correct. Now, Kristy,
Do you do it the same way? I'm assuming, right, because we all have been in this world together for a long time in the dental world, but do you do the same thing and train your dentist to train their team members to do that as well? Fill in the templates, the support team supporting them, filling in those templates.
Kristy (22:59.618)
Yeah, I know there are a lot of doctors that like to do their notes because they want to make sure the details are there. But having those templates and the doctors can create those templates, right, for each procedure. We still want them to be custom notes, right? But the basis for what we do, like usually there's only a few types of anesthetic we use or how many different composite materials do we use? You know what I mean? We can have those basics in there and then the doctor can
The Dental A Team (23:26.748)
Okay.
Kristy (23:29.592)
go back and verify anything that the assistant has updated and if there's anything to add they can do it and sign off on those notes but absolutely having those templates can can help time wise and I will also say you know with the notes and billing insurances back in the day we used all these cam narratives and guys if you're doing that we need to get out of that habit truly it has to be a custom note and you're
seeing it more and more where they want it cropped, you know, they want it taken from the actual narrative in the clinical note. So it's very important that we do have those details in there.
The Dental A Team (24:00.651)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (24:11.78)
I love that and I totally agree and I think that also then if our team is supporting us in that and getting them done, I have a lot of doctors that are like, I'm so far behind on notes, I've got two weeks worth and I'm like, oh my gosh, to me, I'm like, that's two weeks worth of claims that probably have not seen the light of day except for your profis that have gone out.
That also helps clean that up where if our support team is doing them, our doctors are going back through adding their snippets that they need to, but confirming it, signing it off. now tomorrow my billing rep can get in first thing in the morning and send all of today's claims off. So I think it helps. We're talking about optimizing, like we want to optimize in every level. want all those safety nets together of how did I diagnose this? How do I confirm it? But then also we want it all prepped and ready to go. So our team can take it and just get it out there. The longer it sits there.
the worse it gets. There's timely filing for sure, which is a year, but you guys have to think, I have a year, that's awesome. But if I wait three months because I didn't get my notes done and then my girls have to fight to get it paid, like it's just not worth it and you're overhead. So great points, Kristy. So optimizing claims, if we're to it up, you guys, literally, I think Kristy, the best thing we can like summarize all this is how did I diagnose it?
And what are those safety nets? And how am I going to allow someone who's not sitting here to diagnose it and confirm it? So x-rays clinically, readable x-rays, intraoral photos. I love that you said the perio as well. I know the calculus, the nasty like, you know, behind the teeth pictures, those are always fantastic as well. And then notes, I think the templates is a brilliant idea. And adding that AI piece in there, I think is like the biggest safety net of all because it's all there.
One thing I do want to mention, and I know this because I've got a lot of doctors who are like, oh, I didn't even look for the x-ray until after the fact. And it happens. It's whatever, right? We've got, you diagnose it, you do it, whatever. If you get in the habit of, your x-ray is not up on the screen, you don't touch a tooth, you'll never run into that again. We used to run into it in my practice constantly. And my billing rep was like, I don't know what to do because we're not going to get these claims paid. And so we made a rule if the x-ray was not up.
The Dental A Team (26:28.428)
you didn't touch the tooth. one space there, but make sure your x-rays are readable. They're up. You're looking at them. Your notes are super, super duper clear. Your intro aural follow it. And you guys, think AI is probably worth looking into if you're not using it already. If you have it you're not using it, go freaking get trained and use it. Kristy, any last tidbits or thoughts on any of that that you want to wrap up for them?
Kristy (26:48.782)
Absolutely.
Kristy (26:55.104)
Yeah, I all of that I agree with you 100 % and I also think just so you know, we mentioned it used to be a year filing for claims. There's some of them that are getting down to 90 days, we may even see some less. So guys forming these habits today are going to reap rewards. And I will also say, many times, it's the office right waiting for that insurance money. You also touched on fee for service. That's very important.
The Dental A Team (27:07.138)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (27:16.845)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (27:23.65)
Yeah.
Kristy (27:25.008)
If we're asking patients to pay fee for service, we want them to get their money right away as well, right? That helps them stuck to your office. So all of it comes full circle to help each other.
The Dental A Team (27:31.896)
Thank you.
The Dental A Team (27:37.71)
Those were amazing points. Thank you, Kristi. I knew there was, I could tell there was something in there. You're like, nope, I got a little extra. I love it. I love podcasting with you. Thank you so much for being here with us today. You really do have this brain that just like you hear something and then it expands and you're like, okay, but and, and I love the way the way you present it. So thank you so much for being here with us today. Doctors, I hope if you are driving, you're going to re-listen to this. If you weren't driving, you were feverishly taking notes. Team, if your doctor hasn't heard this one yet,
send it over to him or her. It's a big one for them to be able to really support you guys and vice versa. This is all encompassing you guys. If we want to optimize the claims process, we want to optimize getting these things done, we all have to work together from start to finish. So ensure these things are put into place, fill the habits, do the things now that might take a little extra time upfront so that you're saving time and energy and work later. We want you to be insanely profitable. We want you to love your life. These are really easy ways that you can start doing that.
right away. So Kristi, thank you so much everyone. Thank you for being here. Drop us a five star review. We love to hear from you guys, especially when it comes to topics like this. How helpful was the information we want to hear from you? If you need help, if you want notes, templates, if you want ideas, if you're a current client, reach out to your consultant. We are all here to love on you. If you're not yet a client or you're just a listener for now, [email protected] and you can hop over to our website.
and we've got our practice assessments up there. thanks again, Kristy, everyone. We'll catch you next time.
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Kiera shares a secret weapon to high morale in the office place: celebrations. There are three steps to maximize the fun while keeping everything running smoothly:
Create a birthday and celebration system.
Incorporate monthly team events.
Make recognition public and consistent.
Episode resources:
Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.792)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I just want to ask you, do you really want a happier and more engaged team? Do you want to be able to know that they're going to be incredible with you? I do believe that celebrations are the secret weapon to building a positive culture. And today is a special day because it's Dental A Team's podcast fifth birthday. And so I thought it was just such a special time. You guys, this podcast has been running for so long. I am so grateful for you for being a part of it. And I just thought, hey,
Well, one of the greatest things is while we're celebrating Dental A Teams podcast birthday, let's teach you the secret weapon to building that positive, effective team culture. So you guys, the reality is when we acknowledge milestones, when we acknowledge celebrations, when we acknowledge things that our team is doing well, what that does is it puts our focus on the things we actually want our team to do. We put a focus on them as a human being. We put our focus on them actually being more of what we want them to become. And so what that does is it actually improves morale.
increases retention and that ultimately equals overall productivity. What's really awesome about this is people are looking for like, how do I hire? How do I bring on a team? Well, if it's a great place to work, people want to work with you. And a lot of times these celebrations are that secret weapon because it becomes fun. It becomes life. It becomes the things that we want to do. So in celebration of Dental A Team's fifth birthday, I cannot believe we've been doing the podcast for this long. Kudos and appreciation to all of you for being here. I just want to say thank you for being here.
And let's roll in three quick steps where you're able to use and maximize these celebrations to boost the morale that your team wants. Dental A Team was created for you. This podcast was created to bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to be. I try to create this in a quick tactical, practical way for you to be able to take this, celebrate your team, have the fun with your team and be able to truly live life. My passion is life and my platform is dentistry. And so that's why we've created this podcast and our goal in our dental consulting company is to make your life easier.
to make it easy to implement systems, to make it easy to achieve the life that you desire to be, to make it easier to have a team that's rallied around their doctor and it's truly supporting and serving their team, their community, their patients with ease. So that's what Dental A Team's all about. This is gonna be a short, actionable episode where honestly you can go take these tips and implement them today. So step one is.
Kiera Dent (02:17.53)
create a birthday and celebration system. I know this sounds so silly, but the reality is I love to build things on systems because they're automated. We don't have to think about it just like our morning routines. I don't have to think about how I'm going to do my hair. I don't have to think about how I'm gonna put my makeup on. I don't have to think about if I'm going to brush my teeth or not. It's a system that we've automatically done and by default as humans, we love to create automations. We love to simplify because it's less brain power. So let's create this into a way where it's a system.
that we can then add the sprinkles, we can add the intentionality behind, but we have the system for success. So birthdays and milestones matter for team connection. It's something where when people feel recognized, they feel special. And some people like to be recognized in public, other people like to be recognized in private. But as human beings, there is a need for us to be significant, to be recognized, to realize that we have purpose in this world. And so some key elements in the celebration system is...
we have to actually have a calendar with the team birthdays and work anniversaries on there. And then someone needs to actually be accountable for overseeing these. And then we need to personalize the experience for each person. So for us, we actually have a Google calendar called birthdays. Our client birthdays go on there. Our team birthdays go on there. Our work anniversaries go on there. And then what we have from there is we actually have a built into on their one to three year birthdays. This is what we get on our one to three year anniversaries. This is what we get.
three to five and so on. And it's actually built into a place. So that way we've taken the thought process of what do we do? And now we can customize it for each team member. So they feel special. Some dental offices love to do lunches for their teams on birthdays and anniversaries. Some people love to do flowers. Some people love to do gifts. Some people love to just write letters to them. Some people they can have like a big board in the break room for that team member where they're able to put up why we love this person. Some people do like, what does this person bring to the table? Like what are their key strengths that we're so grateful for?
And it's wild because if you did this throughout an entire year, imagine having some nice sticky notes in your office where that person on their work anniversary, we said, why Sarah is such a valuable player in our team. And that's up there. And then we put up John, and then we put up, I don't know, Brittany, and then we have Tiffany, and then we have Shelby, and we have Dr. John, whatever it is, we put those up and we actually can start to see this creation of this beautiful team that we've created and all the strengths that we bring to the table to make our team incredible.
Kiera Dent (04:32.204)
that becomes a powerful culture that you're starting to create as well. So what I've seen is offices who really take the time to be intentional with team members, team members stay, they feel important. They feel like they're cared about. They feel like they matter. And so even if it seems silly to you, this is a great way for you to give back. And also for me as a leader, I found that it makes me actually intentional and to remember why I love and appreciate this team member and pulls me out of the day to day.
and becomes intentional with that person as a one-on-one focus. So what we need to do is create a shared birthday calendar this week and assign a celebration leader. I think it's a really fun way. Have somebody who's just fun, they love to do this, this can be their job, give them a budget. That way we actually have a true system of our birthday and celebration system. What do we do? How often do we do it to recognize our team members? Now, the second piece we're gonna do, step two is incorporate monthly team events. So we're taking this one step further. I literally have a budget on my PNL and my chart of accounts.
that is team birthdays and anniversaries, team outings and events. So actually start to build this as a budget for you so that way you can incorporate these things and we know how much we can spend, what we're allowed to do to make sure we still maintain that profitability as well. So when we incorporate monthly team events, this is fun. It strengthens relationships, it strengthens bonds, it allows us to get close together. And what I like to do, since there's usually three departments within a practice,
We've got our front office team, our hygiene team, our dental assistant team. You can also throw in your doctor team. So you could do hygiene and DAs, whatever you want to do. But every quarter there's three months. Every year there's four quarters. So however you want to break it up, but I like to actually assign teams out to this, give them their budget and then they create activities. And these could be themed lunches and potlucks. I had an office and they called it dip day. And I really loved that. So they would do it like once a month, everybody would bring in their favorite dips and they'd have a potluck one day.
a month. That's super easy. Minimal costs to the team becomes something very fun that they're all able to participate in. But having something like that can really be fun for it. You can also do team building activities. Like I've seen offices do escape rooms or wine and paint nights, or they go to games like the, I don't know, whatever your team is, the Yankees game or whatever it is, but you actually plan these outings for your team. We can even go volunteer. You can have where we give back. have opportunities to serve together as a team.
Kiera Dent (06:49.422)
but team building activities really can grow and bond you guys together. And then you can also do celebrations of like when we hit milestones, maybe when we hit our first million or maybe when we hit our first 2 million or maybe when we get our first 100 Google reviews or whatever it is we're trying to achieve. Maybe it's when we get our block schedule in place, like whatever it is, these can be really fun things for you, but they're planned, the whole team knows. And what I found is when you break it up by department, your team actually has more buy-in for it because now people know what it feels like to have it.
And I, as a leader, feel like there's so much on my plate. That's why we need our celebration champion who really takes this on. They've got their budget. They're excited. They're jazzed. And now you just get to show up and be a player with it is really fun. So what's really incredible about this is offices who start to do this, you don't see the immediate effects. I know we like to get the positive reinforcement. We want this to hit us right away, but just so you know, this might take a year before your team starts to buy into it. But I want you to know we're playing the long-term game of retention of team like
satisfaction of love and connection of that morale because when people really feel like they've got each other's backs when they feel like they're a true team, this is when they get there. They're just sports team. I'm a BYU fan. Judge me or love me. It's your choice. But what was interesting is this year BYU actually had one of their best years. They've had a terrible, terrible, terrible time. And something that their coach talked about was he actually took the team at the beginning and they went up into the mountains in Utah and they bonded as a team.
And they actually had one of their best seasons that they've ever had. And I truly believe it was because they bonded together as a team. They did things that were outside of just practice and football to make them human. It's becoming a humanized experience. And I think that's the currency in today's world. And so having somebody be the person who plans these team events, whether it's the month or a quarter, I don't care, you choose, but really that's gonna be step two of incorporate monthly team events or quarterly into your practice.
And then step three of this awesome thing is make recognition public and consistent. And there's a million different ways to do it. But what I do believe is what we focus on is where our energy will flow. And so if we're focused on the great things of our team, if we're focused on the good things people are doing, rather than the negative, we actually create more of that behavior. And for me, I'm really pro of how can I teach all of you how to get more of what we want and less of what we don't want? Well, public recognition being consistent.
Kiera Dent (09:07.19)
is a very key piece of this. And so this will be shout outs and team meetings or social media posts highlighting team achievements or a team starboard or a high five kudos jar or any of those things where it's public and it's consistent. I have an office that I really love and what they do is once a month they actually have all the shout outs in a jar and they pull out a winner of it and the winner gets either like a personalized gift or a gift card. But then the...
that I really love is everybody wins because everybody gets their shout outs for that month of what people have said about them, what people have recognized about them. And leaders, you do need to set the stage on this. We need it to be something that's intentional. We need our team to know that we're serious. It's not just like, Kiera showed up today. That actually can actually hurt our culture rather than inspire our culture. And so if I do notice those things in the shout out jars, I actually do have a conversation.
to make sure that team knows that they're actually hurting rather than helping. And that's unacceptable within our culture. And they have an opportunity to change or they have an opportunity to leave if that behavior doesn't change. And so with this though, we have on our Wednesday mornings, Wednesdays are core value shout out day at Dental A Team We have our core values in every team member. No one's assigned to go. Everybody does have an opportunity to go, but the first person starts and they shout someone out of where they saw that person exhibiting the core value. I love it. It's a two fold because not only am I then
pushing culture within our company, but our team members are recognizing one another for the core values that they're doing. And what's always beautiful to me is each team member usually says like, gosh, I have like two or three that I could give out today, or I could highlight every team member. And that's what I want our teams thinking about. I want them to think about how great these people are, how wonderful these people are, how lucky we are to work together. Of course, there's going to be like issues. Of course, there'll be
frustrations, but if the bulk of what we're seeing are the positives, I believe that's how we're able to build an incredible culture. whatever it is, I would recommend that you implement a weekly recognition ritual in your practice starting next week. Like we can get this started. You can roll out Wednesdays of core value shout out. could roll out the high five jar. could roll out whatever it is, but we've got this where we've got birthdays and anniversaries. That's step one, where we celebrate those and we have someone championing over that in our celebration committee.
Kiera Dent (11:16.728)
We have team events that we do monthly or quarterly. And then we have consistent weekly recognition that's public and consistent. So whatever it is, those would be the steps, the three steps for you to really be able to put into place a birthday and celebration system, which again, sounds so silly, but the goal is for us to truly be able to grow our engagement, to grow our community within our team, to grow the culture, to grow the bonds that we have, to have fun with each other.
to remember that we're not just colleagues, but we're human beings on the other side of that. So this is where we're gonna be able to shift and have small celebrations, create big shifts in culture and retention. I do want to be very honest with you that this is something that does take a hot minute. When I first started implementing these items, I didn't see the immediate results, but just like going to the gym, when we go and we start doing sit-ups, we don't walk out with a six pack as much as I wish we could. It does take time, it does take consistency, but I want you to know.
that while we don't necessarily see the results just like working out, the results are actually being built. We just can't visibly see them with our eyeballs, but they are being built within the internal. And so remember that these small consistent pieces have somebody set up to do it, have a lot of fun for it. If you guys want to DM us for any ideas that we have, I'm happy to share checklists with you. I'm happy to share kudos jars, shout out things that we do, our core values so you can see how that's done. Whatever I can do to support you, DM us to get started.
And always subscribe to the podcast, more leadership tips for your dental practice to thrive and grow. And just know that truly what we just talked about is exactly what the Dental A Team does. We go from the systems of the practice and the dentistry to the humans of the practice that create and make the practice thrive. And if that's something that resonates with you and you're interested in finding out more of consulting would be right for you, reach out. [email protected] I'd love to help you. I'd love to support you. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
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Kiera shares the most common problems dental practices face — scheduling inefficiencies, high overhead costs, and patient retention — and how to fix them.
Episode resources:
Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.93)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, I just wanna come in here. I've been kind of doing a little bit of research out there and I wanted to help you see that every practice is facing challenges. And really the key is knowing how to turn those problems into opportunities. I love just thinking about, we've got to find ways to turn these problems into opportunities because it can be a problem or an opportunity, depending upon how you choose to view it.
And so today I wanted to just kind of dive into the most common problems that dentists face and actionable solutions for you to actually overcome them. Because reality is if you can know what they are, you can game plan with it. You then are gonna be able to help serve more patients, help your practice, help your team, which is what Dental A Team is all about. Dental A Team was founded to help dentists and teams truly bridge the gap to have more fun, less stress, more profitability, serve patients on a higher level.
and to be able to do it with ease and fun. I love to think about it as like popping confetti when we're coming in to help you with systems. We are not your traditional consulting company. So many offices have told me, Kiera, you guys literally have revolutionized how consulting works. My team loves you. My team's excited for you to come in and you don't just help us with dentistry, but you actually help make us better people. And so that's what we're all about. And I believe honestly that while problems are common with the right systems and the right mindsets, you can actually solve them pretty quickly and effectively. You don't actually have to struggle with it. So,
super fast, actionable episode three of the top problems and how to solve them. So problem number one that I see consistently are scheduling inefficiencies. This is, think, one of the biggest bulk, the biggest beast of all of dentistry is that people really truly don't know how to schedule and schedule effectively and scheduling is an art. It's not a science, but why do we wanna have like unicorns out there when we can just schedule it effectively and efficiently? And what we actually found are...
A lot of offices, when we did deep dives, they missed their financial goals. They missed their production goals, not because they actually weren't able to, but because of open time within their schedule. True. So we've started tracking open time and schedules and realize if we would have just filled those effectively, you would have hit your goals with ease. And so how do we actually get our practices to look at the unproductive gaps, last minute cancellations, overbooking, not scheduling strategically. And the simple solution is block scheduling, also confirming appointments 48 hours in advance.
Kiera Dent (02:18.338)
And then also what's our cancellation policy within our practice? A lot of offices we have changed our model to when we call a patient, we want them to confirm their appointment. And if they haven't confirmed within 48 hours, we literally have a voicemail and let them know we will be moving your appointment. Now we actually pull it off the schedule. We can still see them when we come in. Fantastic. If not, we have solutions for that. But literally we start to retrain our patients. And then also our cancellation policy is if they call me to cancel today and it's less than 48 hours, they get moved out six weeks.
and then we move them forward. But everybody following this policy starts to retrain your patients so we stop having these gaps. I want you to think about your practice as are people so committed to coming to your office just like they do their hair appointments, their nail appointments, any of those like their doctor appointments where they know it takes months and months to get into. Do we have that high level of customer service, high level of customer care? Now, of course, if they call us within 48 hours, fantastic, they're an incredible patient.
But otherwise we are going to make sure that we start to train them. And we also do this with our new patients when they call us. So we're training our new patients at the beginning. They have to send their paperwork in 48 hours before their appointment to make sure their appointment's confirmed. These little things will actually fix the problem. Now cancellations, I don't allow cancellations via voicemail. I change voicemails. I also don't allow cancellations via text message. So we train our teams that these are things that we can't have happen. This is how we respond to the patient.
The reason being is if I can get them on the phone, I can usually find a solution to their problem, keep them on the schedule, figure out what the problem is. Maybe they think it's gonna be too much time. Maybe they just need to scooch down 20 or 30 minutes and I have that availability. But getting them on the phone rather than just the simple text for them to cancel can actually fill your schedule. So when I have practices implement, whether it's the new patient policy of having them confirm their appointment by giving paperwork back, whether it's that we...
have patients they have to call you back to confirm their appointment. Otherwise we scooch them off. We utilize the model of not allowing cancellations via voicemail or text message. Practices literally boost their production by at least 15 to 20 % because now we've got all these holes filled and we're actually able to fix the problem. Some other offices implement deposits or different pieces to that. So right now I would recommend review your current scheduling system and figure out where are the gaps.
Kiera Dent (04:35.828)
what's happening, what's happening consistently, not what we think, but what we actually know. A practice told me we were getting tons of cancellations and I said, fantastic, I want you to track it for 30 days and I want you to let me know what type of cancellations are coming through. And turns out they actually are only having about six. Now, just so you know, a common thing is you will actually have like one to 2 % of your total practice will cancel and that's okay. Like that's normal. We need to not hope and pray every single person.
actually shows up for it, let's add a one or two percent cancellation per day. That way our goals are not having to be perfect, but we can actually have that that room for life happening. That's actually going to set you up for better success as well. OK, problem number two, high overhead costs, really struggling to get our finances in order. And so like rising costs and payroll supplies, like everything with inflation right now, that's really a struggle. And so offices are having this squeeze of how do I manage the overhead of the practice?
the lower reimbursement rates, being able to produce. And what it is is number one, we've got to look at our P &L and know our numbers. Like that's the number one solution is knowing it and figuring out a plan and having budgets for it. Two, we got to figure out, can we increase our insurance rates with our insurance providers? Or can we actually start to diagnose different procedures that are not dependent within insurance, like implants, full ortho, all on X cases, different things that we could bring to the practice that would actually help us be more productive.
Can we also have budgets in place so that way everybody is able to know what we're actually going for and targeting for these overhead costs? Are we monitoring this consistently? Are we removing things that are unnecessary while also making sure that our schedule is productive? And so something that I found is when offices start to just track and monitor weekly with KPIs and the monthly reviewing their PNL, like literally I have a meeting with my CPA every single month. And when I do that, what happens is I actually am accountable to reviewing my numbers.
My CPA is accountable to making sure it's done on time. So I have timely numbers and metrics so I can use them as a guide. and I have budgets to where we know and we look through it every single month to make sure are we on track? Are we off track and why? We set up budgets for team expenses, team outings, team events, marketing, gifts for clients, all those little things that we forget about. Put that into your budget as you build these budgets out. So we better plan, we better project, we better prepare.
Kiera Dent (06:58.316)
This is going to help with high overhead costs. And a big piece on this is also maintaining your team and keeping team and longer team retention, which leads into amazing team celebrations, amazing team culture. This is going to help. So I would recommend weekly adding some CEO time into your schedule. 30 minutes to one hour is really going to help you to schedule your P and L to be able to look for areas to cut unnecessary expenses. And I always set up quarterly with my CPA that they send me all of my expenses for that quarter.
me and the office manager, Britt, we review them, every single one of them, same with Shelby, making sure nothing's in there that's overpaid, underpaid, and that our budgets are actually correct. All right, problem number three, patient retention and challenges. So like keeping these patients, and so patients not coming for followups, they're leaving for other providers, and so it's really this like game of, I mean, even myself, I went to a practice, I'm a fee for service patient, the office did not let me know that the doctor that I had been seeing,
because I work across the nation. I can go to any dentist. Like I do not need to have a set dentist. But I like the consistency. But knowing that about me, and I've been very honest with this practice is I want the same dentist and I want the same hygienist so I have consistent care. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if I keep coming to the same dentist. So I went into my appointment, fee for service patient, they didn't tell me that the dentist had actually left the practice and they were just going to put me in with a brand new dentist. That irritated me so much because I'm like, you didn't tell me.
I wasted my time, I blocked two hours of my schedule and that was so frustrating. And I'm like, that could have been prevented by them just calling me and saying, hey, this is where we're at. We wanna make sure you're taken care of and caring about me as a person. The reality is I'm not actually going back to that practice. I'm looking for another office. But it's something so simple of that. I'm a fee for service patient. I literally pay cash for every one of my visits. I am the dream patient to come in financially. You might think otherwise of my personality. Maybe you wouldn't want me, that's okay.
But just thinking of, have no insurance, I have minimal effort, I come in consistently, I make my appointments, I pay cash for everything I do, and yet one simple phone call of patient care and love and attention, I'm leaving and I'm going to go put that money to someone else. So for this, the solution is like, let's build really strong patient relationships. Let's have really strong systems. Let's make sure that we're offering payment plans within our practice. Let's make sure that our hygiene team is reappointing their patients. Let's say, make sure every patient is leaving.
Kiera Dent (09:22.878)
as a raving fan and also with an appointment. And so really looking at that experience, and this doesn't mean we have to go and do more. It just means we need to be really intentional of right now patients are free agents. Right now a lot of patients are shopping, but the answer is they're not just necessarily shopping for lower prices. I think patients are shopping for love. And I was coaching in office the other day and I told them, said, one way for you to set yourself apart right now is just to be kind.
If you remember and you've been listening since COVID, welcome and thank you. If you're new to this show, welcome. I'm so happy you're here. But in COVID, I called it the COVID crank. I said, think here we are five years later, we're still some people, like we forgot about customer service. We forgot about caring about people. We forgot about making these relationships intentional. And what I found is when we're not intentional with people, people leave, but just even being like an ounce of kind, an ounce of intentionality, an ounce of thought.
You actually can turn a ton of patients into raving fans with minimal effort. So I would say right now is an opportunity for you to be kind, for you to do things a little bit differently, not more, just differently, be kind, be intentional, look for that. What are follow-up calls that we could do and different things. And what I found is offices, I have offices that are raving bands. Like literally there was an office and they were doing like a new patient giveaway. And I kid you not, they had a patient.
So they had a good giveaway. So kudos to this office. They had a patient at their daughter's like birthday party telling everybody you need to join my dentist. They're the best dentist. Everybody loves them. Yes, she had a little bit of ulterior motives because she wanted to win the giveaway. It was a KitchenAid. Just so you know, I'm sure everybody was wondering what it was. But the radical thing about this is this woman at a birthday party was advocating for this practice. And my thoughts are, do you have patients like that that are raving about you that are telling the community that are being a part of it?
And if not, what are some of the things that we can do? And a good way for you to look at this or what are your top 10 patients that you absolutely love? You get so excited to see them on the schedule. Who are they? What are they? Why do we love them? Are there certain patterns and trends of those top 10 patients? And then let's maybe look at 10 patients who haven't returned and can we actually call them and reach out to them personally and offer that kindness find out why my like just try and get them scheduled assume that they're coming there. If they tell us that they've left, be honest and ask for the feedback of, you help me understand just for future?
Kiera Dent (11:44.792)
just true honest feedback and you become a human of why did you leave our practice? That way it doesn't happen to future patients. And when you come in as a human, you'll be shocked at how much your patients respond to you. So here's a couple, like the quick top three things that I've noticed are scheduling and efficiencies, high overhead costs and patient retention, making sure we're retaining those patients. And those are some of the common three problems that I really see. Yes, there's other things. Yes, there's team turnover. Yes, there's hiring hygienists.
Yes, there's all these things, but these are quick things that are within our control. Hiring and hygienist goes into that being kind, amazing practice. Do you also have a team of raving people on your team as a bonus piece for hiring? Do you have an incredible reputation where people want to work for you? It has taken me years and years and years, but it is the most magical thing when I interview people, when people say, Kiera, I've been following for you for years and I've been waiting to work with the Dental A Team.
I hope that your practice has a similar sentiment that people are dying to work with you, that they're waiting to work with you, that they're so excited that there's an opening within your practice because that means you've got raving fan team members. So for that, I just want you to know that every single practice faces challenges, every single one of us do, but being proactive on our solutions, finding true solutions and fixing it forever. We don't just fix it once and one and done. Like we want to fix this forever, not just band-aids, but actual true solutions. So if these sound...
similar to you, if you're like, my gosh, like Kiera you're talking right to me, DM me or visit our website. [email protected] I'm happy to go through a free complimentary practice assessment with you where we like look at your practice with you and we will give you a ton of value, whether you work with us or don't. But just to really kind of give you some of those blind spots. And if you're looking for a consultant, you're like, gosh, it would really just help to have someone with me. I'd love to work with you. I'd love to help you reach out. [email protected] This is the time.
Subscribe to our newsletters for more dental practice tips. You can share this episode with colleagues. This just helps us all rise and to truly impact and inspire. And the reality is dentistry can be hard, but if we do it together, we're all in this together. And I challenge you to be kind, to realize that these problems are just opportunities if we choose to see it that way. And to remember we are truly in the best, best, best industry we could ever be in. We change lives, we get to benefit and impact. And I want you to remember that this is magic that we're creating.
Kiera Dent (14:04.364)
We won't get to do this forever. So let's optimize the time that we have. Let's maximize and let's enjoy. And as always reach out if I can help you. [email protected] As always, thanks for listening. Catch you next time on The Dental A Team podcast.
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Kiera and Britt continue their conversation from episode 958, Hiring Hygienists in Today’s Economy, by discussing the shifting landscape of hygiene. This includes the pros and cons of assisted hygiene, shortened appointments, practices without hygienists, and more.
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Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.73)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and the one and only Brittany Stone coming back for part two of our hygiene conversation. welcome back. How are you?
Britt (00:09.332)
It's always fun when you start off with my full name, so I'm like, alright, let's go!
Kiera Dent (00:12.304)
It is funny. You do range from Britney, Britt, like no BS Britt to B. B has recently come in. How do you feel about just B? I hope it comes across as like nice, but then I realized like, B could be taken wrong. So I never say the, hey B.
Britt (00:28.75)
You're not the only one. I'm fine with it because it's easy and I'm like shoot you grew up with the initials BS like what are you gonna do?
Kiera Dent (00:37.904)
Well, I never want to like sometimes when I call you and I'm like, hey B and I'm like, I hope it lands as like, like love. Yeah. Yeah. It's not meant for any other letters. But Britt and I, if you didn't listen to our other podcasts, Britt and I were chatting shop about how to hide like hire hygienists in today's economy. And with Britt bringing a hygiene perspective, if you don't know, Britt used to be hygienist.
Britt (00:46.83)
It's Brett. stands for Brett.
Britt (00:52.748)
Yeah.
Kiera Dent (01:07.3)
Great. How long has it been since you graduated from a hygiene school? Let's just give people your scene.
Britt (01:10.05)
Kiera.
You're gonna age me a little bit here.
Kiera Dent (01:16.162)
Okay, don't feel age. The only reason I asked for it, so before you answer, just know my reasoning so you don't have to answer. I was just thinking because I wanted people to know you've been in the field for like enough time to give weight to your answers. But maybe we don't need to do that. Maybe it's been there for longer than five years. Shut, I didn't even know. All right, well, you have been in it for a long time.
Britt (01:31.512)
That's fine. Eighteen, Kiera, eighteen.
Britt (01:40.378)
I'll say this, was a young graduate from high school, so I'll give you that. That pushed me a year ahead, but 07 is when I graduated, so this year we'll make it 18.
Kiera Dent (01:49.111)
No way.
Kiera Dent (01:52.996)
Dang girl, I didn't even know. Okay, so Britt really has a lot of weight and you did hygiene for, and then Britt went from hygiene to then office management of a pretty large DSO and then came consulting and now does consulting and operations. So.
Britt (02:06.38)
Yeah, I did full-time hygiene for a decade. So I'm like a solid, five full-time, full-time, 40 hours for a decade.
Kiera Dent (02:09.21)
Did you really?
Wow. Man, I really like there's some moments that I just see you as a hygienist. Like I can just picture you walking up with your like, it's not a swagger, but you have a can't that you definitely walk. And I can see you walking up, getting your patient. Hey B, how's your swagger? But.
Britt (02:28.11)
You can call it swagger, I'll take swagger. don't know what else to
Kiera Dent (02:35.736)
Yeah, so I'm like, just, could imagine you being a hygienist sometimes, but then you're like, Britt the consultant, Britt operations, Britt, my yin and yang. So anyway, well, that's fun. That's a fun. Okay. So to give Britt credit, she did hygiene for a decade. I won't say anything about loops, Britt. We will not discuss that on this episode. We will.
Britt (02:56.238)
I mean, I just changed myself a little bit. you know, we talk about it. I would have to know if I was a full-time clinical, for sure.
Kiera Dent (03:01.752)
Of course. Yeah, of course. I know you would. You don't, you stay very current. I do appreciate that you stay very current with hygiene. You attend hygiene CE all the time. So what we were talking about in the last episode that this would be part two of was we talked about kind of like, do we, how do we work with the compensation pieces of hygiene? And then talking about it from a business standpoint and a doctor standpoint and a hygienist standpoint.
and really bringing those two perspectives to the table, which is what the podcast has been built to do is bring different perspectives. And something I just want to reiterate today, if you missed the last one is that the things Britt and I talk about today are going to be perspectives and never meant to weaponize. So doctors, can't weaponize it against hygienists and hygienists, can't weaponize it against doctors. And so really just setting the stage today of let's have an open conversation around where are we at the dynamics. there's no.
there's no like hiding the fact that it has been hard to hire hygienists since COVID. It's it we thought that it would probably be four years, maybe five years before the hygiene shortage caught up. I still think it's in like massive catch up time, then you tack in inflation on it. So raise like the amount people are coming out asking from school, but I, I mean, I don't really want to ask, but I am going to ask I'm sure hygiene has been like
attempting field to go back into. I'm like, you work at Dental A Team but you've got hygiene over there. And it just keeps like getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I think if I was in your shoes, I might just contemplate it here and there, especially on days when it maybe isn't your favorite day at Dental A Team, which is hopefully like one and every moon. I know what happens. We just had it like a week ago.
Britt (04:31.822)
Everybody's got a day there right like it happens but I Mean here's the I I love hygiene and I left it loving it so like that's the thing is I and I'm like I still go back I still double from time to time, but I'm going back full-time I The things that are appealing right hygienist know what do I love? It's like
Pretty predictable, right? Like you got a job, 100 % predictable, but my hours I'm gonna work, I know my schedule. If I can get the doctor to work with me, I can manage running on time. like, and then when I'm done at the end of the day, I go home and I don't have to take it. Like there's nothing for me to do outside of the office other than like learning stuff, but there's nothing to do outside. like, those are the, we know that those are the perks of hygiene.
Kiera Dent (05:02.692)
That does fit you so much, Britt. The stability, the...
Britt (05:29.23)
and that's part of why I loved it is because of those reasons. Do I debate going back? I don't know. I enjoy what I do now. It's different, right? Like you grow and you morph into different things and it's fun to take the next step. And can I go back to it? Sure. Would it be different? 100%.
Kiera Dent (05:47.888)
Hahaha
fair. I was just curious because I mean, like I know I've looked at what I want to go back into management, what I want to go run a regional, what I want to run a DSO. And for me, there was like a lot of fun in it. There's a lot of fun in being in a system. But I think I agree with you. I feel like I have morphed and evolved into things that I really enjoy. Like I really enjoy the creativity aspect. Do I sometimes wish, Britt, like sometimes I do miss the like, go in, just like you know your day.
You don't have to like be thinking and creating nonstop and you leave at the end of the day and like, we're done, we're done versus here. Ideas will continue to, I mean, I saw you last night. You're building a whole spreadsheet, which is fun, but it never shuts off unlike at the dental office. So different, different times. But what we were wanting to chat about is we talked about compensation on the last one. And now it's coming into how can offices kind of like did a really great job of like paying your junior.
Britt (06:33.269)
Yeah, yeah.
Kiera Dent (06:46.692)
like fresh out of school and it's based on skill set, not based on longevity or tenure. Then we morphed into talking about what do we do for base versus commission if offices can't afford it and different ways to navigate that. And so I wanted to just kind of finish up that conversation with a few other ideas of what's hygiene's take as a landscape of assisted hygiene and shortened appointments. Because as we were discussing on the last episode,
it's kind of coming to this like necessity and survival mode for practices of like, hey, we're like running such a high number up for hygienists. So what this is truly called is innovation and things are changing and shifting and adapting due to the nature of lower reimbursement rates of insurance, inflation has come up, there's a hygiene crunch. So hygienists are coming up as a higher paid profession than what they were even four or five years ago. And so it's kind of like, well, what do we do?
what about assisted hygiene? What about shortened appointments so that way we can have more appointments? And again, I'm not here to advocate for it. I'm just saying like, this is the reality of what doctors are thinking of. And it's the thinking of this. They're also thinking of do I bring a doctor and instead of hiring a hygienist, they're thinking of do I do a hygiene less practice? So I'm just curious, let's talk assisted hygiene first, give me kind of a hygiene perspective on because I don't I don't know how it feels as a hygienist. So you get to speak, I know every hygienist is different, but like just what you hear from colleagues in your perspective.
Britt (07:59.361)
Huh.
Britt (08:06.85)
heterogeneous is different and I feel like it's a it's one of those polarizing things that I think there's people that love it and either you love it or you're not really a fan of it I feel like so that's like the that's the I don't see a lot of in between or it's like sure I'll do it for a little while while we hire like even I would do it maybe for a little bit while we hire someone but it's it's not my jam I can't say that I love it when it comes to
Kiera Dent (08:31.738)
Tell me why, why don't you like it? Like what is it about assisted hygiene just from a hygienist perspective that's almost like a grind for you that you're like, I'll do it for a little bit. Cause I hear that all the time, like I'll do it for little bit. Like what is it from a hygienist perspective that makes that a bit trickier?
Britt (08:46.446)
I think the piece that makes it tricky is like you're just, I don't know, probably part of why we get into what we do is like the one-on-one with patients and interacting with them and being able to ensure like from kind of beginning to end, right? The team has an impact, but I'm...
I'm giving them a good experience from beginning to end that doesn't feel rushed, that doesn't feel jumbled. And so I think that's for me personally, and I think some other hygienists, it feels like, great, I'm popping in, I'm in their mouth pretty much the whole time that I'm in there, and then I'm popping out and going on to the next one. I don't think it has to be exactly like that, but I think that's how it can feel from the hygiene side. I think having a really good assistant can make it much more doable. I think how you schedule it, how stack that.
Assisted hygienist can definitely make a difference on how much time you've got to interact. like, do hygienists, we like a little bit of control. I don't know, probably. And so it's just like, I know I've reviewed the things. I think that's probably the difference between hygienist and doctor is I'm not leaving it to an assistant to review medical history or ask the questions or hear what's going on and gathering it. Like I get to do that from beginning to end when I'm.
Kiera Dent (09:41.411)
Yeah.
Britt (10:00.332)
So it's just a little different when you've got the assisted hygiene in there.
Kiera Dent (10:03.834)
So, and I'm also curious, like, I've never really scaled teeth for real. I mean, I kinda, in Utah, as an assistant, I was supposed to be able to profite, and I'm like, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. There was one time I pretended to scale because my hygienist was late, so I just like, I didn't even actually really touch their teeth. just, you know, like, did a little tap, tap, tap, waiting for this dang hygienist to come, and I was like, yeah, we'll just like get started. I didn't do a darn thing. So I don't actually know what it feels like to scale that much. I'm curious, like, on a body.
Britt (10:18.744)
you
Kiera Dent (10:33.622)
Does it like hurt your hands? Does it, is it exhausting to just go because you don't really get any break or reprieve? You're just going nonstop. I'm just curious or to like the ultrasonics and things like that now help that make it easier for you. I don't really know the mechanics of that.
Britt (10:48.994)
So yeah, scaling time, like absolutely. Does technology help? Yes, I'm a big fan. I will say it. Polish first. Polish first. If you're not polishing first, you're spending a lot of time on stuff that you don't have to be spending time on. And I'm a big fan of ultrasonic or piezo. I will use it on pretty much everyone. Like even my kids because they got a lot of plaque and I can polish and I can get a lot done with that that doesn't sound or feel the same as scaling. And so I'm a big fan of it.
Kiera Dent (11:06.117)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (11:18.636)
And then so like So there's a lot you can do to help minimize it But that's the piece of doing assisted hygiene usually it's if I've got an assistant if they can polish right they're doing They're doing all the easy stuff and so it is me just doing what's the stuff that I only I can do? Pia's own hand skill, right? And so like it's more of that every day and it does hygienist need dentist hygienist assistance, right? We all need to take care of our bodies because it's
It is a more physically taxing job than people think that it is. And so taking care of yourself, making sure you're doing some stretches. And so, yeah, it is a little bit more physically taxing to do assistive tithing, but it's a lot better than it used to be because we got a lot better tools than we used to have.
Kiera Dent (12:02.607)
Right. Okay. So that actually helps. And so I'm curious, like, let's just throw out a scenario. And Britt, this week, I mean, we talked to offices about this in our consulting where, so let's say a hygienist, I'm going to use really easy numbers because I don't want to get wild. Let's say a hygienist is $30 an hour, which some of you are laughing at me. I know that's not even in the realm of your hygienist. I'm very aware of this. I also don't want to throw ranges out there intentionally on the. Exactly. There's also a reason I'm not throwing high ranges out there because I don't want to set standards that are not.
Britt (12:24.366)
a bit apathetic.
Kiera Dent (12:31.056)
Realistic for your area. I feel like 30 is a safe number for me So if I'm hiring a hygienist at 30 and I bring on another hygienist for 30 That would be $60 an hour that I'm paying of compensation for it Well in this area if my hygienist is 30 odds are I could probably get an assistant for between like 17 to 20 realistically if my hygienist is only at 30 I think that that's like a fair number probably more like 15 in that area, but let's say you're there at 20 just for easy math I've got $30 for hygiene. I've got $20 for an assistant
I actually have $10 of extra, if you're following my math, $10 of extra that's not being paid. Britt, what are your thoughts of if an office takes that $10 and even if they pay a hygienist say 35 an hour during assisted hygiene time versus just 30, does that actually make any difference for a hygienist? I know some can do more. Some it's gonna be like, you're paid 30, now I'm paying you 40 during your assisted hygiene days. Tell me like how that is from an office standpoint.
because there's obviously different compensation amounts we're going to be doing. And from a hygienist standpoint, does that feel better? Does that make it easier? Is that like, sure, I'll take on a couple assisted hygiene days. I'm always pro don't run assisted hygiene every single day. I think that does burn your hygienist out. Usually if I recommend it, it's either for a day or a half a day for a hygienist, but trying to make it, but like, is that necessary, Britt, from your perspective from hygiene?
Britt (13:50.786)
mean, yes, some degree of compensation difference 100 % if you're running assisted hygiene. I know on the last episode we talked about a base plus commission. I like that even for assisted hygiene because, if we're doing assisted hygiene, we should be producing more. And so again, I do like that model because it naturally adjusts things and compensates accordingly. So yes, I do think there should be some sort of compensation that's more on those days. And I do like it when it's
Kiera Dent (14:01.775)
Mm-hmm.
Kiera Dent (14:11.972)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (14:20.494)
Base Plus Commission. Now I've got some, I've had one client where it's nice when you have a group of hygienists. I do love an office with a few. And they did, they rotated an assisted hygiene day through all of them. And they were like fighting over who got the assisted hygiene day. Like they wanted it, right? Like, and it's because yeah, they make more on those days and they were compensated based on their production was a part of it. And so they loved having those days to get a little bit more of a boost. And it was almost like
Kiera Dent (14:34.743)
They do!
Britt (14:46.862)
when we don't need it anymore what's going to happen because they all like getting that little bit of extra income coming from.
Kiera Dent (14:53.368)
And so how do you even win over a team to do it? Because I agree, and I actually hear that more than I hear the opposite. I hear more hygienists actually enjoy it more than they thought they would. I hear a lot of them figure it out, especially when that's not my everyday. think if they had to do it every day, it'd be a little bit more taxing. But think about it. You've got four hygienists. We add an extra column of hygiene four days a week. We've literally brought in a whole extra hygienist without bringing a hygienist on. So I think it's a very creative way to do it. But how do I even like?
package this, you know I look at in sales terms, like how do I even like convince a team that this is a great idea to trial it out rather than just the resistance of hygienist saying no, just like you said, no, I want my patient care. I want to own over this. Like I want A to Z. I hear all the time we're going to have the patient care. It's going to be disrupted. And I'm like, well, it can be, or it could actually be more awesome. How do you win a team over to even be open to trying it?
Britt (15:47.084)
Yeah, I think it depends on the office scenario, right? Like what's the reason, what's the why that we're doing it? And I'm a big fan of like, hey, let's try it first, right? Like I'm not saying you have to do it forever. I'm not saying you have to do it every day, but like, let's try it and let's figure out a system that feels comfortable and meets our like standard of care that we want to provide. So let's start easy, let's work through it, let's train up an assistant. do think.
Cystid Hygiene needs one of your best assistants to be helping in Cystid Hygiene to make it run smooth and give those patients that great experience. And so let's work through the system and see how it goes. like, yeah, it's going to be compensated. If I've got a hygienist who's a gunner and likes to run and does not like to stop, then that's usually my first one. Then I'm like, great, let's team up. Let's get that figured out and see how it goes first. And then word can kind of spread because usually they'll do really well.
Kiera Dent (16:14.681)
I agree.
Kiera Dent (16:34.448)
Hmm.
Britt (16:42.062)
And so yeah, sometimes it's a personality thing, right? Some will love it, some will struggle a little bit. Sometimes there's people that like are gonna be your ones to help you figure it out. And some are like, well, once I see someone else do it and like, oh, that's not so bad. All right, then I'll go ahead and do it. So I think depending on the reason why, I think trying it first, I agree with you, not an everyday thing. It can even be like start with half a day and see how it goes and just start to figure out to find the rhythm of it.
Because I think when you find the rhythm of it and you're like, yeah, that works really well, then it's like, OK, like we can do more of this. And I think it can run.
Kiera Dent (17:18.276)
And I'm really grateful that you shared about the office that you have, that they all want it and they enjoy it because I think that that actually can be the reality of what can happen from it. And I'm really big when you roll it out, agreed. Having not a great assistant really will actually make this harder. So do not go and hire a brand new fresh off the street assistant that does not know what they're doing, can't take great x-rays, can't move through because hygienist having someone that they trust that they can lean on, that they know is going to do a great job.
If they can polish, that's a great way for them to be able to use it. And then really also another big piece are no new patients, no SRP, no perio maintenance put in that. It's really just pro fees because that's gonna make it so much cleaner for them to be able to run this effectively. And you're running it on the half an hour. And then doctors, you have to be very strategic when you go in for exams. And doctors, you cannot be late on assisted hygiene because that will throw your whole hygiene. Like it's a domino and it will be good part.
Britt (18:12.302)
That's the quickest way to take your hygienist off when you're asking them to do assisted hygiene. 100%. That's the way. That's the way to do it.
Kiera Dent (18:15.44)
And that's not like, we'll be there, we'll be there. It's like, you've got to get up and jump. But that's also with hygienists too, making sure that we're giving our doctors enough time. Like I try to ask hygienists to give a 30 minute window of exam time where a doctor could come in. So that way doctors can find the end time of prep, come and get their exams done and keep everybody on schedule. So hygienists plug there, try really hard because I know there's some hygienists who love to alert right at the end of the appointment. And then they're fresh when doctor doesn't come in.
Well, like let's notify when they could come in. Like let's take our x-rays the first 15 minutes and then try to get doctors out at that. I try to have them out. Please do.
Britt (18:51.934)
I'll one-up you a little bit on that as soon as diagnostics are done. As soon as my diagnostics are done and they've got x-rays, they've got period charting photos, I'm letting them know. Come at any time. I'm happy to have you. And of course, there's a bunch of plaque that's gonna make it more difficult once I've got that done, but I'm gonna notify them. at any time.
Kiera Dent (19:04.856)
Yes.
Kiera Dent (19:12.536)
And then doctors, I try to have you out at the quarter to the hour, meaning like you're not walking into the exam, you're walking out of the exam. So that allows hygienists to polish floss, wrap up, get everything done, get the patient out, flip the room and get their next patient back on time. So I think that that's something that before I maybe rolled out assisted hygiene doctors, I might take that on with the hygiene team. Like let's get really good on our exams. Let's calibrate those exams up so they can be more efficient. Let's do the, I have a better.
I haven't told you my new acronym. It's not iCrap. So if you've been listening to me, I have a new one. It's called iCreep. So it's iCreep when you come in that's introduction, compliment, recap, and then a personal note. And if hygienist can get really good at that handoff when doctors come in or assistance, and then doctors are really good on their NDTR, so wrapping up your treatment plans, that's gonna really help that synergy. And then also maybe doing what would doctor do to diagnose and to help tee up treatment. I think that that can just...
Again, we're all working together to make those exams as efficient as possible while also giving the best patient care. But I creep, that's my new one. It's not I, Sierra. It is, I creep. Someone was like, creep, and I was like, amazing. I wish it could be CPR. I've been working to figure out different letter and words. So to be determined, but okay, let's like, go ahead.
Britt (20:16.11)
It's a step better. It's a step better than the last one.
Britt (20:28.014)
Real quick, one more thing on the exams, because with a really good assistant on exams, the other thing I think about, and that for me as a hygienist I care about as well, is making sure treatment is teed up really well.
Kiera Dent (20:40.675)
of greed.
Britt (20:41.59)
Patients aren't having to repeat themselves and get frustrated and then not wanting to get treatment done just because they feel like they're not being listened to. So that communication piece and having an assistant who's really strong who can relay that information to doctor if they're the ones that are going to be in there for the exam and make sure that it's teed up really well for the doctor and they can speak to it is huge because that's, I don't want to, you know, rob Peter to pay Paul, right? I don't want to.
have not so great exams and not close as much treatment by adding an assisted hygiene, I'd rather leave it and get really good exams and really good case acceptance. Overall as a business, that's gonna help me a little bit more. So just making sure that again, that assistance key, really quality exams for your patients, even though you're working assisted hygiene, make sure that experience is stellar and 100 % can be done. It just takes a really good team to work together with a hygienist and assistant.
Kiera Dent (21:35.0)
Yeah, that's a great point because you can have forms where the hygienist can document it in there because people are in opposite rooms. But getting a good role and a good synergy is going to make this so much better for setting this up for success. And I think the answer is I actually don't think hygienists hate assisted hygiene as much. think it's there's quite a few little like tick boxes that if you can check them off, have a good assistant have good exams.
have doctors in and out on time, have the assistant really, really solid with being able to tee up the treatment and close the cases, have someone that has a similar vibe to the hygiene team that cares about these patients a ton. I think if you can check those boxes, and then you also compensate higher. There's so many little pieces that everybody's super excited about to do it, but I think if you're missing any of those six, it does not feel as good to try. okay.
Britt (22:14.701)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (22:24.022)
Yeah, and patients are used to working with two people, right? So that's even, it's like, yeah, it's one more person in the mix, but on the doctor's side, there's two of you. So having an assistant with hygiene, isn't that big of a deal? Seeing the same two faces every time, like they'll be fine with it. Cause I know that can be a concern. I'm like, they're used to having two people on the doctor's side.
Kiera Dent (22:41.104)
I see the same. I'm like, just because we're not used to it doesn't mean it's odd for the patient. I tell doctors when you're onboarding an associate, I'm like, you can assist each other. And I know that feels weird to you, to the patient, they're used to someone else in there. To hygienist, they're used to people switching rooms. it's not something, if we're not weird about it, your patient won't be weird about it. But I think we feel very awkward because we feel uncomfortable. But just not projecting that onto your patient. Cause I don't think it's as much as you might think it is. So, okay,
Britt (23:10.316)
And ender fun for assisted hygiene, I always have someone to pair your chart for me. So I'll take that as a win.
Kiera Dent (23:15.28)
True, that is a big win. mean, truth, you're not having to call for it. Okay, the hot topic of shorter appointment times. I'm talking, I've heard 50 minute appointments, 45 minute appointments. Is this doable, Britt? And I think I'm gonna know your answer, I also, like come from both, come from hygiene, Britt, and operations, Britt. Bring both of those Brits to the table and you answer. I'm curious.
Britt (23:40.11)
And I'll say this, I have worked in offices with all of the above, right? So I've done all of the above.
Kiera Dent (23:44.42)
came. Her bigade you guys have idea. Good thing we plugged that at the beginning.
Britt (23:49.038)
So all are doable. I think there's a couple of things that make a difference when it comes to shortening appointments, depending on what type of experience you want them to have, right? That's an important part to consider for doctors. Depending on our pay or mix, what we need to do in order to the business running, that's something to consider. And then also how efficient we are.
Kiera Dent (24:11.376)
true.
Britt (24:17.07)
as a team and like doctor doing exams, right? That's an important piece of it. And then another one is our patient base slash how good are we at keeping them healthy and not giving ourselves a lot of work every single time our patients come in. If you know what I'm saying, those bloody profusers, they're a lot of work. So if I'm treating period appropriately, I'm educating my patients, they're coming in regularly.
Kiera Dent (24:30.85)
you
Kiera Dent (24:36.089)
I do.
Britt (24:42.734)
We all know those are patients that are a lot easier to see and more efficient most of the time. And yeah, there's gonna be even working on shorter appointment times, there's gonna be some. Like you know that person that's like an advanced period patient and I'm like, I cannot in my right moral standing do that in 45 minutes, it's gonna be an hour. There's gotta be some of that liberty where needed.
Kiera Dent (25:03.888)
Yeah, I agree. So I think the hard thing of switching appointment times is I do think it becomes an all model because for me to shift it, it feels like a daunting project to shift from 60 minutes to 45 minutes. Now I'm moving everything up. My exam times don't hit at the same time anymore. Things just are moving all around. that's a huge jump.
Britt (25:18.99)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (25:29.804)
And 60 to 45 is a big jump. I wouldn't go that far if we're going to play around with times. Maybe you could go from 60 to 50. Most offices are running on 10 minute increments. So you can make that shift. And it's just you've got to be really on point to run that efficiently, because the quality's still got to be there. It's just we've got to be able to run really efficiently.
Kiera Dent (25:45.208)
I agree.
Britt (25:57.944)
And I'll add this, and depending on what I was expected within that appointment as well, right? If we want the hygienist to be super comprehensive, we want them to get scans done, we want them to collect a lot of information for us, like, I map it out, right? That takes me two minutes, that takes me three minutes. Like, what's reasonable in an appointment for us to get done by the minute mapped out and then make your decision?
Kiera Dent (26:11.002)
Mm-hmm.
Kiera Dent (26:19.652)
I think that that's a wise and don't go for your fastest hygienist and don't go for your slowest hygienist. Let's find that middle ground of what's reasonable between the two because you do have some. mean, Britt and I, can even hear in our, the way we talk, we've got different tempos. mean, but you can guess who's a little bit faster and who's a little bit slower between me and Britt. And sometimes it's really good. Like Britt slowing me down and me speeding her up. And I think Britt and I would both agree that a happy medium between the two of us is the right spot to be, which is usually where we end just in
Britt (26:33.752)
huh.
Britt (26:41.87)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (26:48.814)
Yeah. And a team working together really well, right? Especially when I was working on 45 and 50 minutes. I mean, we had a fantastic clinical coordinator, right? So if my next patient was here and there was a room to be had even for a few minutes to get x-rays done, and someone was available, they were getting those x-rays done and getting it started. So it's a different tempo and pace you run on. And it does take full team support. It's not going to be like, oh, well, they're early. Oh, they're here. We have space to see them.
Kiera Dent (26:49.561)
in decisions.
Britt (27:18.058)
start getting them taken care of so that it helps your team members out and we get them out as efficiently as possible.
Kiera Dent (27:24.464)
So that's a good point because then it becomes, it's not just the hygienist. Cause I think 60 minutes is kind of like hygiene does their own thing. We want them to do everything on shorter appointment times. We are trying to get more, more bodies in and out. But I did the math and it's like, if I'm going from 60 to 50, I'm getting 10 extra minutes per appointment. That's going to give me 80 minutes in a day, but that's not enough for me to get two extra appointments unless I do a 50 minute plus an additional like 30 minute. And so I would ask the question, Britt, and I don't know if
Britt (27:32.897)
Mm-hmm.
Kiera Dent (27:53.36)
you run the numbers or not on it. I mean, I haven't, so that's why I'm asking. But if I've got a hygiene team that does take ortho scans for us when we do ortho, I've got a hygiene team who's taking CBCTs for implants and we're teeing it up for all on X cases. If they're looking for sleep and we're doing snore tests on them, does it really make sense to get me one more hygiene patient for hygiene? Or does it make sense to look to optimize the additional services? Now I get like, we might be trying to get
because I'm like, well, what's the reason we're doing it? If we're trying to shorten the appointment times because we have too many patients, maybe it's worth looking at our fees. But if we're trying to get more patients in to optimize our hygienist pay, to be able to pay them and compensate for the amount of production they're doing. And I know a lot of offices don't pay hygienists for those scans. Like if you do a night guard scan or you do an ortho scan, it goes to the doctor, which I understand because the doctor is going to need to do a lot. But I'm just curious, like to me, it makes a little bit more sense, possibly.
If my hygienist have 60 minutes, I'm already there, why don't I try to optimize and maximize that appointment, paying them maybe a little bit of these scans that I want to be done so that way they can hit their production number, but it benefits the office on a bigger scale. What are your thoughts on that, Britt?
Britt (29:05.61)
where I think it comes back to what type of experience, what type of office, what's your vision. It comes back to ultimately write any business. It comes back to the volume value question. By cutting time, we're choosing volume. By using that time better, we're choosing value.
Kiera Dent (29:20.208)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (29:26.318)
It's going to be a personal preference. I'm not going to say there's a right or wrong answer in that because there's a lot of factors depending on kind of what your payer mix is like. I definitely have some areas that even for me, I tried to move that culture of the area, if I tried to move that patient at the speed that I need for a 45 minute appointment, they are not going to love it. Even though I might be the most pleasant human being they've ever interacted with because the pace that they run is a little bit slower, right? And so...
Kiera Dent (29:50.916)
Yeah.
Britt (29:56.334)
right when I was running 45 minutes, we were right outside of DC. Those people don't want to be there that long. Right. And they were, you know, demographic was easy for us to run them through. And so they didn't mind the fast pace and we still connected, but we were able to run like that. So I think it comes back to overall experience on what you want to have. and there's no right or wrong, but I love making more use of the time we have, which is where I think hygienist functioning to the
the height of their capability, right? If you can use laser and that's something your office wants to bring in, great. That's something that can be an adjunct service that adds to the production. You know, what can you do for the patient? I think not only on the hygiene side, but that's where I think it really is a team to where what can I do in scans, in pictures, in educating patients about treatment options, talking to them about what do they really value? What do they really want? Are there cosmetic things that they're looking for?
Kiera Dent (30:29.232)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (30:53.24)
There's a lot you can do and I think that's for hygienists to realize if we do well overall, right, everybody wins. So when we're able to get where we need to production collection wise as an office overall, it makes it easier for us to say, yeah, that time is useful. We're making good use of it on the hygiene side. Let's keep our appointments at 60 minutes. Or if it's like, hey, we're not, we either need to do that and get things up or.
we're going to have to evaluate and make some decisions because sometimes there's just business decisions that need to be made and we need to figure out how to adapt and innovate.
Kiera Dent (31:28.324)
Yeah, right. That was such an insightful piece. And as you were talking, I just thought, I hope offices are listening because I think that this is just a really good, like, this is where we, have to get into the, are we doing this? What are additional pieces rather than just the like quick surface level decision? Because I think there's so many pieces below it. Like you said, demographics, DC, 45 minutes makes a ton of sense. Those people are faster in and out. They're younger population. Like it's an easier model to roll that.
Britt (31:56.268)
Mm-hmm.
Kiera Dent (31:56.396)
versus maybe let's say some areas in Arizona, like you might not have a same, you might have it like in Scottsdale Tempe, but if we're going a little further out to maybe some of those senior centers, that's not an ideal model for maybe an older population base. So really like you said, and I think like volume versus value, and I don't think it's the value that we're bringing to the patient. It's the value of are we doing ortho? Are we adding these adjunct services to it? You obviously add value to your patients, but are we doing a lot of people?
or are we doing less people but more extensive? That's gonna be a clinical or a business decision and also a clinical decision and also a cultural decision of what you ultimately want your practice to be. But I get it, you gotta make these decisions, you gotta make the business run. I would just caution, don't make the quick decision because I think there's multi-layers below each of them to really consider. So hygiene Britt, thanks for coming today. Any last thoughts you've got as we wrap up? Assisted hygiene, shorter appointments, I think they are really good perspectives to bring.
Britt (32:55.822)
I think my last thing I like that you said, right, don't make the quick decision, evaluate it. And I think even hygienist, right, it's easy for us as team members, I do the same thing, right? I can see my world and what it's gonna impact for me, but I understand there's more behind it than just my view. And so really taking a good look overall and seeing what's gonna be the best decision. And yeah, how we're functioning now might make us think that we need to make this decision, but maybe we can keep running and function a little different to where we don't have to make that change.
Kiera Dent (33:25.52)
I think it's a really good perspective. if you guys are in this debacle, we're speaking to your souls. This is what we love to do with our practices is really weigh the pros and cons and help the office make the best decision for their practice, not just a decision and really thinking through the, all the different pieces and then executing and getting your whole team on board, helping the team see the pieces so you can really be successful. So reach out if we can help. [email protected] thanks for being with me today. I appreciate it.
Britt (33:53.196)
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Kiera Dent (33:54.648)
Of course, and for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
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Tiff and Kristy talk about how doctors can get to that point where their practice can function with and without them, including taking a good and hard look at your numbers, dialing in your BAM, encouraging delegation and accountability, and more.
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Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:01.676)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. my gosh, I'm so excited for today. I know you guys diligently listen constantly that you're here, that you're here for us, and we just love you and we value you and we appreciate you. We recently had some virtual events and it's just been really cool to see the masses show up in such incredible support for who we are, what we do for this community, and just all of the outpour of love. So we want to say thank you guys for
being listeners for always showing up for us. We hope we do the same for you, that we always show up for you. And I'm just so excited for today. I have with me today the one and only Miss Kristy. She is a consultant here on our team. If you have not gotten to meet her yet, you are doing yourself a disservice. I'm excited for you to hear from her today. We've got a really great conversation we're about to have. And honestly, guys, Kristy is just this incredible wealth of knowledge. She has been such an asset to our team.
such an asset to the consultant team alone and her clients that she works one-on-one with are just already raving about her. So we are so excited. Kristy, welcome to the platform. I know this is our first podcast and you came in, you know, late to the podcasting game, I'm going to call it, where it's video too. So it's like not to be, you know, overwhelming or put you on a pedestal or anything here, right? But I'm just super excited to have you here. And I know that the
Doctors who are listening today are just going to get so much valuable information. So, Kristy, thank you for being here today. Thank you for carving out the time in your schedule for this. And gosh, how are you? You're in Idaho right now, but soon, guys, she will be with me in Arizona, don't you fret. It is down the pipeline for her, but you're in Idaho right now, so what's the weather like? You know, it's drastically different from here. What's the weather like? How are you, Kristy? How are you on this fine recording Friday morning?
Kristy (01:38.274)
Yeah.
Kristy (01:52.95)
Love it. I'm happy to be here with you. Nervous for the first podcast, but we're going to do it because it's all about serving the doctors. actually, I'm excited to get to Arizona. It's snowing this morning. So yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready for some warm weather.
The Dental A Team (02:11.754)
Good. I'm excited for you to be here too. Phoenix has no snow. I don't know that Flagstaff even has real snow right now. I have no idea. But Phoenix has no snow and it's a brisk, like, I don't know, probably 60 degrees. It was 38 this morning though. Anyways, I'm excited you're here, Kristy. Thank you. And doctors, team members who are listening, leaders, office managers, today is going to be super fun. I've probed some tips and probed Kristy's brain today.
on a subject matter that I think she's actually really smart on. I think we all work really hard with our doctors to help you guys work yourselves out of the business. Like that's the ultimate goal. Whether you work out of the business or not, whether you're like, gosh, no, I actually really love this stuff, Tiff. I want to do the admin stuff. I don't care. But I want you to have that opportunity to be able to say yes or no, I want to do those things. So building and creating a business that can work without you is our ultimate goal. Like a profitable...
survivable business that works for you, that you can take a step back and say, gosh, you know what? I want to go to Aruba for a month and I think my team's going to be fine and my business can survive. I want you to be able to make those decisions. So today, that's what we're going to be talking about you guys. How do we create a sustainable business that can survive with and without you? Not or with and without you so that you get to make that decision. And Kristy, I know we
have a ton of clients that we work with this every single day. And I think both of us, both you and I kind of have that mindset of like, cool, these are the places that we're going, but forever more, like I want you to always be thinking.
Forevermore, I want you to always be thinking, how do I work myself out of the business? Like, how do I make sure that I'm ready to go and I can take that vacation or whatever? So I know, Kristy, that's something that we work on a lot. And I have some ideas, and I know you do too, and I want to pick your brain some today. So first and foremost, I think one of the spaces I want to start with is really the overhead and the profitability. That's a huge focus of DEML-A team for
The Dental A Team (04:15.605)
all of the consulting that we do. I know we do a ton of team training and I know that's what a lot of people come to us for is for that team training for the systems. But you guys, the reality is if we're not focusing on your overhead, your profitability and the metrics of your business, there's no telling if that training is even beneficial for you guys. I could train somebody to do something, but is it actually making a result in your practice? And are you able to pull that back into that profitability space? So as your...
Working yourself out of the business, air quotes were there for those of you who are listening, not watching. As you're working yourself out of the business here, I want you to really sincerely be focused on the numbers and the metrics of your practice. What is your overhead out? Where is your true profitability? And Kristy, I think we can both agree, true profitability is like such a vague statement in dentistry because...
Everybody says your overhead should be like 50%, right? 50 % or less, and your profitability should be at least 20%. Well, guess what, guys? Nobody talks about the loans, paying yourself, the taxes. Like, all of those extra pieces aren't always talked about. So, Kristy, know this is something, forecasting is something that you're really fantastic at and you work really hard with your clients at.
Within that world of trying to make sure that we're prepped to exit the practice at some point, how do you implement with your teams and your practices that overhead profitability piece so that your doctors know what to look for so they can say, hey, I think I'm ready for that step?
Kristy (05:45.718)
Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, I think it's obviously projecting out, looking at what is it gonna take? What do I need to make this happen? And then reverse engineering it from there. Really dialing in to what will it take every single month for me to be away from the practice? What is that number that I need? And then working it backward to find that goal.
The Dental A Team (06:07.103)
Thank
The Dental A Team (06:15.978)
Yeah, I actually love that you said that. That's a beautiful, beautiful way to look at it because you guys, if you know what your BAM is, right, your bare ace minimum is how we say that at the Dental A Team, your bare ace minimum, how do we get to what that overhead needs to be? So if you know at X amount of dollars, your overhead, your true overhead, so that true overhead, right, is anything above the line. So anything that if someone were to purchase your practice today, they'd take those over. That does not include your owner pay.
Okay, your loans and your taxes, those are after bottom line, right? So your bottom line, if you say, okay, if I make Epsilon dollars, that's gonna get me to 50 % overhead, how much of that production or collections, right? Production turns into collections. How much of that money is coming from the treatment that I'm providing for my practice right now? So if you're the owner slash doctor and you're still clinical chair side, you need to take a look.
then at how much of that overhead piece is within your control as a provider. Because if you're looking to work yourself out of the business, you want to just be the overseer, you want to go on vacation for a month, you have to replace that production slash collections somehow. So then if you know what that bare ace minimum is to get to that profitability that you want and keep your business thriving, now you can look at what Chrissy is saying, like projecting and looking at every single month.
How do we replace that income? How do we replace that production and collections to ensure that the business is still moving forward? Now, in order to get that number, which is step one, I believe, in working yourself out of the business is knowing your freaking numbers, is really to look at where are you now? What's your overhead now? What is it after you pay yourself, et cetera? What's your true profitability? And where do you actually want it to be? So if you have an overhead of, I don't know, 60%.
Right? It's not horrible. Honestly, 55 to 65 % for people who aren't always like looking at it, don't know their numbers is pretty common. 55 to 65%. So maybe you're at 60%. Maybe you're at 80%. Okay, great. Well, I got to 80 % by collecting X amount of dollars. So if I want to lower that percentage, right, there's things to play with, right? Within your metrics, there are things to play with. Maybe you've got areas that we can slim down. But also if I were to increase my collections,
The Dental A Team (08:38.078)
with that decrease my overhead. So that's what Kristy's saying there, like really looking at what is our various minimum and then how do you now create that into someone else's schedule so that you're not the main provider. I love that Kristy. I think within that same conversation is really bringing in the leadership aspects of the practice and so you know your numbers, you're learning your business, you're you pedal to the metal, you're freaking figuring it out and who's supporting you.
Do you have an office manager who's trained to support you in those pieces? Are you still doing all of the admin work that an office manager truly could do? And do you have a leadership team set up within your practice who can create those spaces for you? And Kristy, you work a lot on leadership development, just like as a person for yourself and then as a person for your doctors. And then within that office manager and leadership positions too, how do you see an office's
You know, square one, no leadership, just a doctor thinks they might have somebody for an office manager compared to, I don't know, six months a year down the road, that doctor made the decision. They've got the rockin' office manager and they're making the leadership team. How do you feel that helps in the doctor's personal life? Like, how does that relieve stress for the doctor? You know, how does that relieve pressure from the doctor? What does that lifestyle change like once they implement and truly just go for it on a leadership standpoint?
Kristy (10:04.48)
Absolutely, truly it's that trust, right? It's a transfer of trust and having a peace of mind that the people that are in the leadership are living up to the same vision and mission of the practice and...
really developing the team below them and elevating them to a level, if you will, to help them grow and sustain that mission for the doctor. But really, when you delegate that and you see them rising to that occasion, it gives you that personal satisfaction too, if you will.
The Dental A Team (10:47.076)
Yeah, yeah, totally. I agree. And that trust aspect that you're talking about, think it's just like trusting anyone in your life to do anything. you when you're a parent and you trust a friend or a family member to pick your kids up from school, like, how much stress does that relief from you not having to be the one that does it or you got a carpool situation like
Any of those spaces are going to correlate back to it. And I totally agree with that because I think when you can dig in, you can get that office manager fully trained. can get a leadership team that's rising up to the occasion and able to take some of that load off of your plate. You now have space and energy to do other things. And in my opinion, when you're a practice owner, your job is to create something really, really freaking cool.
You're creating a space that people can come and love to work. So you're creating an avenue and a lifestyle for people. I don't know if you realize that. Your team, your employees, you're creating a life for them by creating an incredible life for yourself. So when you open up those spaces and you delegate those things off and you trust your team to take them on with accountability, there's always accountability coming back. That's how trust is earned and how trust is maintained.
When you delegate those things off and that accountability is there, the pieces are there and you trust them to do it, it opens up the space to have time to ensure that what you're creating still lines up with your vision. It still lines up with what your mission is as a dental practitioner and having a dental practice within your community. So then having a leadership team and within that same vein, like having core values, mission, vision, those are clear for you. They're clear for your team.
especially your leadership team, those pieces give us a heading of where we need to go. And those pieces now for your leadership team are developing autonomy within the leadership team, autonomy within decisions. I want you guys to think about, want you to take like 30 seconds, doctors, and I want you to just think of all of the ridiculous questions that you have been asked in the last three business days within your office, that you're just like,
The Dental A Team (13:02.245)
Why is this coming to me? I had a doctor out in California that I worked with for a little while and he is so amazing and he is just like this knowledge factory. Like he just soaks it all up and he's constantly learning and learning and learning. And so he's got, you know, that's own aspect of stress of his own that he's consuming constantly and creating constantly. And then we'd get on a call and he's like, my gosh, they asked me, why isn't Dentrix pulling up? He's like, I
I'm doing a root canal. I know. hey, what are we getting for lunch for the meeting today? He's like, I don't know. I'm doing an exam. Like, the amount of questions that come to you guys when you're chair side or when you're doing the thing that only you can do, remember, only you can fill this tooth. Only you can do this root canal. When those questions come to you, your brain has to stop what it's doing.
restart on whatever the question was, catch up, maybe even answer it, or at least get frustrated, stop, restart, come back again. And not only does it take more time, but you lose that value of who you are, how you're showing up for the patient and for your team in those moments. So those are the spaces I want you guys to think about. What are the things that are coming to you that's like, why am I doing this? Or I don't want to answer this question, or I'm in the middle of something.
Is that something that if trained correctly and given the right boundaries for autonomy, someone else could do for you? Because I think that's likely something that Kristy's talking about here, that you delegate off and you build that trust with that other person, with that accountability coming back. And Kristy, know you actually, you've got a ton of amazing doctors under your belt actually.
I have to brag on Dental A Team. I don't know what we do. I don't know what we do, right? But we attract the most incredible people into our company to work for us and with us, and into our client base to work with us. So we really, really have some incredible people. And you guys listening, I think we attracted you as well, and that means you're freaking incredible too. So kudos to all of you guys. I don't know what we do right, but we are so happy with the people we get to work with. And Kristy, you've got a handful of
The Dental A Team (15:25.628)
two handfuls more maybe, of incredible doctors that you're working with and leaders. And what are some ways that you've helped them? Because you do have some doctors who are really kind of fresh into this idea of delegating things off and building a lifestyle within their business where they could say, I want to take vacation. How do you help them to really figure those things out that they can delegate off and then to trust the process and stick with it?
Kristy (15:52.066)
Yeah, well first and foremost, I always like them to create a list. Like sit down and really think about all of those things you're doing and divide them out. Like is it something you enjoy doing? Is it something only you can do? Is it something that maybe you don't like to do? You know what I mean? And really create those lists and start.
The Dental A Team (16:15.227)
Yeah.
Kristy (16:19.338)
organizing them in that way so that you can start getting clear on the things that you want to delegate out. But then the other flip side of that TIF I would say is getting them to see that they're actually stifling the growth of the team and leadership beneath them.
when they are holding it so close to the vest. And, you know, when, maybe you can remember the saying, but we only rise as high as, do you remember the saying?
The Dental A Team (16:49.232)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, as we're allowed to, as we're given the space for. Yeah.
Kristy (16:52.834)
Yeah, yeah. you know, flipping it that way and getting them to see that, you know, by you hanging on to this so tightly, you're not allowing your team to grow and develop and support you in the way that they truly want to.
The Dental A Team (17:07.036)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that one hits home for a lot of people. That was a really great way to take that because I know, especially the doctors we work with, they are in the business of growing themselves and growing the people around them. I just had a conversation this morning with a doctor and his office manager wife who were like, gosh, dang it, how do I get them to want to learn more? And I'm like, well, they have to want it first, but then you have to allow the space. I think that's like nail on the head because
you're not allowing that space, you're not giving the opportunity, they're only going to arise to the limits that you set for them, that you allow for them. That's the boundary, right? Like that's the standard. You've set the standard to here and until you move that bar, giving them more opportunity, they're going to keep hitting that standard. And I actually, it's come up a lot this week because I had a conversation yesterday with the regional manager that was like,
How do I get this? How do I do this? And I'm like, gosh dang it. You have to pave the path, right? And it's hard. can be a lot of work and it takes a lot of consistency and it takes a lot of desire on your part to truly want the results. So what is the results you're looking for? Do you want autonomous leaders? Do you want this stuff off of your plate? Do you want a business that works for you that you can say, I'm gonna take a vacation? Because if you do,
You're going to pave that path and you're going to do the hard work now to reap the rewards and the benefits later. Because if you do that hard work now and you say, I'm going to raise the standards, I'm going to delegate things off, I'm going to give them the opportunity for growth, I'm going watch them blossom and I'm going to hold the accountability line so that I can continue to trust that it's being done. It takes consistency. My practice I spoke to this morning, I was like, don't give up.
The Dental A Team (18:58.643)
Just because you said this is what you want doesn't mean they're going to turn around and do it. It's just, it's likely not going to happen that way because human nature just doesn't work that way. I wish it did. I truly wish it did, but it doesn't. I forget things, right? Kira will ask me to do something. And if Kira doesn't stay on top of me or we don't create like a system of accountability to report back that it's been done or to report back weekly on certain stats, it doesn't get done because I'll forget. I will get inundated with so many other things.
and will forget. And she loves me. She thinks I'm an incredible leader, but it frustrates the heck out of her. So we've figured out how to make sure that those report back systems are there. So I love that because that growth space is huge for both of you guys. And like I said, the doctors that we attract, I know this is what you want for them. Even if you're like, I don't care, Kristy, don't care, Tiff, I don't need to work myself out of the business I just started. Cool.
Guess what? You're still going to work yourself out of the business, but you actually love growing other people. I know that that's a space in you. I know it's spark that lights up in you because I know that's the type of humans that we attract in the Dental A Team. So if that's true and if that's what you want, help grow those people. And that will progress this so much faster than you could ever imagine. And I think all of those pieces, right, put together overhead and profitability first.
Teach your office manager how to shoot for overhead profitability and the numbers that you need. Figure out what that looks like to work yourself out of the business. Build an autonomous as you can leadership team. Continue working with them and you guys make sure that there are plenty of meetings for accountability set up. Accountability and forward progress. Constantly looking at the pieces we should have done. So accountability and looking at what's to come. The forward progress. And you guys make sure everyone knows.
Core values, vision, mission. You have to know them. You have to be solid on them. Your leadership team has to be solid on them. They have to live and breathe them and the rest of the team will follow. That's why they're the leadership team. The rest of the team will follow them. I think this is huge and I'm so excited. Kristy, out of all of those pieces, overhead, office manager and leadership team, the meetings, core value, vision, mission, out of all of those pieces, I'm just like,
The Dental A Team (21:25.043)
wondering what is your favorite space to work with doctors on?
Kristy (21:29.883)
really... Ooh! Favorite space.
Honestly, think, well, there's two, getting them to dial into what they really want. You know, what is that number metric? Because so many people get afraid of the metric, you know, and the metrics only a North Star was here say North Star to guide us. so being very clear on that, but then also really develop developing their leadership, you know, especially when doctors are open to it, you know, most
The Dental A Team (21:48.576)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (21:52.989)
Yeah, yeah.
Kristy (22:05.134)
of them are thriving in wanting or desire, I guess it would be a better word, desire to grow their people. And you you even mentioned something earlier, even if they're not looking to get out of the practice right now, starting this early and developing the team early, my gosh, that just creates more success within that timeline, you know, so.
The Dental A Team (22:05.62)
Mm-hmm.
Kristy (22:30.498)
The leadership part is really fun to watch unfold, you know?
The Dental A Team (22:34.696)
Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I think I wanted to ask because I thought I knew I was like, I think I know. But I also feel like within that space, because I you and I are both similar in that we love growing people. We love growing the leadership we love when not we love nothing more than when we can help something on the business side that they're like, Whoa, actually, you just blew my mind. And that's my whole life. And we're like, yes, yes, your your whole life. So I know we're both
Kristy (22:58.507)
Thank
The Dental A Team (23:02.534)
like running down that road. But what I've noticed, and I think you probably have too, and the coaching that you've done for so many years as well, is like, that's a space that all of these other pieces fall into. Because you can't grow just that, in my opinion, without growing the other pieces. And you can't grow, you can grow, you can grow numbers, overhead profitability, and not grow leadership, but you're stuck. You're like, you're stuck in this space. You can't grow out of that stuck.
without that leadership development within yourself and within your team. So I think that's why we love it so much because it creates so much opportunity for everything else to fall into place when we can dive in and figure out our why, what are we even here for and how we're going to get there. So thank you for letting me pick your brain on that, Kristy. I loved it. Gosh, this was a really fun conversation, you guys. I, Kristy, thank you so much for riffing with me, letting me.
Pull out the big questions and just for being here with me. I truly appreciate and value your time so much. And you guys listening, gosh dang it, action items, here they come. I need you to evaluate where you're at. Like, what are your numbers? What's your BAM? What's your bare-ace minimum? Where do you want to go in comparison and create that roadmap? And if you guys need help with that, you know to reach out. [email protected] I don't know how many times I have to say it, we're here for you. So.
Create that number. What is that number? What does it look like? What does it need to look like? And when are you working yourself out of the business? Create that whole roadmap, you guys. Leadership. Develop yourself. You cannot develop leaders if you are not developing yourself. You can do them simultaneously, but you can't make other people become something you're not willing to become. So develop your leadership skills, develop your leadership team, create autonomy within that. Lots of meetings for accountability.
Mission, vision, core values, you guys, those are huge in my books. That's your heading and probably goes right back to that step one action item that I just gave you. So go to the things you guys, it might feel cumbersome right now. It might feel like, dang it, Kristy, you're giving me a whole lot of things to do this weekend. But guess what? You're going to do this now and it's going to take this X amount of time, maybe three hours, and it's going to save you time in the long run, because if you wait,
The Dental A Team (25:28.684)
you're gonna get to the end and you're gonna be like, I need out of this and you're not ready. But if you do it now, you can get to the end and be ready. It's gonna be so much more work if you're to a point where you need out and you're not ready than doing the hard work now and being ready when you get there. Kristy, thank you for your time. Thank you for traveling down this fun podcasting world with me. I truly appreciate you and I value your input. So thank you for being here.
Kristy (25:56.504)
Thank you for having me. And I would also say, Tiff, we're gonna come to that point, right? We're gonna travel down the line that you talked about, and we can either do it by default or we can do it with intention. So hopefully, it'll take your advice and we'll be intentional about it. So, fun
The Dental A Team (25:58.876)
Of course.
The Dental A Team (26:10.739)
The Dental A Team (26:15.871)
I love it. Thank you. You guys, I hope you picked up on the fact that Kristy has some freaking nuggets that she drops, and I am so excited for you guys to partake in these nuggets. Kristy, I will surely have you back on for so many more podcasts, and the world needs to hear them. I get them constantly, and I'm just like, dang, that was good. And so I'm excited for everybody else to hear them. Thank you for that. It was truly invaluable. You guys, go do the hard things. And while you're at it...
Leave us a five star review because we love to hear from you here on this podcast and also on Google. We need them everywhere. We love them. We want to know that we're doing right by you. So tell us that you enjoyed it. Tell us if there's something different that you'd like to hear. You know we want all the feedback. So leave us a five star review. You guys, if you haven't done it yet, you can sign up for a strategy call with our team. Current clients, you get those all the time. If you need a strategy call, tell your consultant, non-current clients, if you want a free call.
to just dive in and figure out where you are and where you need to start. Sign up for a strategy call. They're free, they're fun, and it really gives you a great direction, whether you're going to become a client with us or not, get that strategy call in there. Have so much fun. Thank you for joining. Thank you for being a podcast listener, and we will catch you guys next time.
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Kiera and Britt have a deep discussion on the ins and outs of hygiene right now, including what’s on hygiene grads’ minds, the right ranges for skill sets, how different practices are staying scrappy amid the dearth of hygienists, and more.
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Transcript
Kiera Dent (00:00.822)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I have Brittany Stone, the one and only No BS Britt. And today I'm asking her to play Hygiene Britt. If you didn't know, it's actually fun. It is. And it was funny because yesterday, Britt and I actually like had, we were heavy in Dental A Team mode. And then I called Britt back probably like a minute later and I said, Hey Britt, can you be Hygiene Britt for me? Cause I have a hygiene question.
Britt (00:26.988)
you
Kiera Dent (00:29.102)
So Britt, welcome to the show today. How are you?
Britt (00:32.308)
I'm good, how are you doing?
Kiera Dent (00:34.23)
I'm great. How does it feel to be hygiene Britt? Like go from, mean, you're Dental A Team's operations manager, you're also consultant, like all the things. How does it feel like go back into that clinical space sometimes?
Britt (00:45.678)
I mean, hygiene are roots, man. Like that's the beginning. So it feels to me, I know you guys haven't known me as like hygienist. Like, yes, I know hygiene stuff, but you never worked with me clinically as a hygienist. But to me, I'm like, yeah, that's me.
Kiera Dent (00:54.872)
true.
Kiera Dent (01:00.91)
I'm glad because it is fun. I actually was talking to Jason last night after you and I had chatted and I said, Jay, it was actually really fun to talk to Britt about like where we started. I mean, I'm dental assistant, Kiera, office manager, Kiera, treatment coordinator, Kiera. No one's known me as that in Dental A Team. And so I'm just going to throw it out there because you never know who's listening to the podcast and who would ever like take me up on this idea. But if there's someone out there,
that would love to allow Dental A Team to come in for one day and go back to our roots. So Britt, we probably have to do this in Arizona, because I think you're only licensed in certain states, right? Okay, so Arizona offices, if you know someone in Arizona, all of our crew will be there in March and there might be a few other times, but I think it'd be funny to see a Dental A Team take over. Like how would it be for Tip to be an assistant?
Britt (01:35.318)
Yeah, currently still just Arizona. My OG state over here.
Kiera Dent (01:52.462)
me to either be an assistant or a treatment coordinator, and Dana to go back into hygiene and just see like how it would run. if anybody's open to letting us come back into our, like put the scrubs on and just see like, shoot, we'll cover for a day for you guys.
Britt (02:01.198)
.
Britt (02:06.358)
It would be like a good and wild time all at the same time because I think we're all a little bit more maybe assertive than we might have been in some of our olden days in those positions.
Kiera Dent (02:14.038)
Hahaha
Kiera Dent (02:18.316)
I agree. And this is why I want to see like what would Dental A Team do if we were all put into one office at one time. So anyway, if you're interested, email me [email protected] This isn't a passive ask. This is like, I really think it'd be so fun. We've talked about it so many times, like what would it be like? So, Hey, if you're ever interested in Dental A Team.
Britt (02:23.046)
Yeah.
Britt (02:35.982)
Usually what we do is we say if we could all only be one role, so no doubling up on roles, this is the game Kiera likes to play, who would be which role within the office is usually how this goes. yeah, not to say we don't get along, we would have a fantastic time, but you'd get a lot of ideas that they would run quick, I'll tell you that.
Kiera Dent (02:45.118)
I do.
Kiera Dent (02:49.762)
and
Kiera Dent (02:55.608)
Thank
Kiera Dent (02:58.99)
Well, and I'm like, believe it or not, I would actually not go for office manager. So I'm out on that. Shelby will probably take on office manager role, even though she's never done it, she'll do great. But it is kind of funny, Tiffany, we were talking the other day and I said, Tiff, I remember being a dental assistant and I had hours of time sitting there like root canals, crown preps, where I just thought of all these ideas and Tiff's like, I would like, I literally would hate if you actually went back to that and had that much time to think of ideas.
Britt (03:08.014)
Thank you.
Kiera Dent (03:26.904)
Fair enough. anyway, throwing it out there, Britt and I have a good time, but truly I do think it'd be fun if an office allowed us to come and just like see what would happen if all of us went back into it. You might hate it. Don't worry, doctors. You can still keep like one or two main assistants. Like we won't fully do it, but like we're, we think we'd be the A team. I'm just curious if we'd actually be rated A, B, C or D going back in as a whole team. Exactly. But on that note, pivoting into what we want to chat about.
Britt (03:47.327)
Put our money where our mouth is. Is that what you're saying?
Kiera Dent (03:55.96)
Britt and I wanted to get on the podcast and I really wanted Britt to be on this podcast with me because Britt is a hygienist and believe it or not, I have had actually some clients ask Britt and Dana like, hey, if you ever want to like leave consulting and come back to hygiene, hey, poo poo on you, that's terrible, don't do that. We don't poach your people, don't poach ours. But it is interesting because I do know that hygiene is a hot topic and so I thought Britt, if we came on the podcast today and we actually chatted about...
Britt (04:08.174)
Thank
Britt (04:12.056)
you
Kiera Dent (04:22.508)
All right, let's talk about hygiene. How do we get hygienists? How can we hire? How can we attract? What are maybe some out of the box thinking today? And also doing on both sides of the coin because I do know we have hygienists that do listen to the podcast as well. So shout out to you listening in and educating yourself and understanding kind of the predicament the doctors are in because it's this constant, like I do feel over the last four years since COVID, the hygiene pay range has like just like escalated up this ladder, which is making it hard for practices to stay profitable, which then leads to if
The practices can't maintain profitability. I do actually wonder and this is kind of just my thoughts and I'm sure Britt you've thought of it. Will there come a point where hygienists are actually asking for too much that dentists say it's not worth it for hygienists? I'm just going to hire a dentist. So I'm just like just so we know and I want hygienists. So it's going to be kind of like a really open conversation. My goal today is that none of what we bring ever should be weaponized against people. So there might be some ideas discussed hygienists if we're talking about certain things to me. This is not always on where you can go in.
take this to your doctor and demand certain things and doctors if that happens, like it sounds like that's a great opportunity to coach that hygienist out and bring someone else in and vice versa. Hygienists and doctors, like doctors not weaponizing and saying, hygienists we're so high, I can't afford to do this or things like that. I think really understanding the dynamics of where we're at, I think is gonna be a good conversation. So Britt, you, hi, Janice Britt, welcome to the scene, hello.
Britt (05:45.454)
Thank you. I'll put that hat on. And it's all in fairness, right? I think that's what it comes down to in any working relationship. And even when it comes down to talking about things like compensation, like it should be a conversation for both sides, right? And sometimes there's things that can be done. Sometimes there's things that can't be done. And sometimes performance-wise, it doesn't warrant being done. So I think that's just the mindset to go into it with always when it comes to those conversations is it is a conversation. It should be a conversation.
demands back and forth and finding the best fair solution.
Kiera Dent (06:20.502)
Yeah, absolutely. And Britt, I'm so glad that you're open to this. And Britt, the reason I love her in operations next to me, like I feel like her and I are really good yin and yang. think Britt and I truly, we have very different personalities. We have very different mindsets. We have very different pieces. And I think when you can bring those two perspectives to the table, I'm very strong entrepreneur. I'm very strong business. very, like Britt will tell you, I come in very strong on those and Britt will come in very strong on team.
Britt (06:32.876)
you
Kiera Dent (06:45.282)
I think that to have someone like that in your corner to me is invaluable because it allows Britt and I to really, like we say hash, like we really do go back and forth knowing that our ultimate goal is to land on what's fair and best for the business, what's fair and best for the patients, what's fair and best for our team, what's fair and best for every player in the scene and the arena. And I believe when you can have these conversations, you can get there. So Britt, I wanna just kick off.
It's something that's come up and I'm just curious from your perspective as a hygienist, because you are a senior hygienist. You've been in the ranks. You haven't been there as a brand new grad. And there are some hygienists who are feeling like these new grads are coming out asking for quite a lot. I've actually been told that a lot of the hygiene teachers are actually telling them to ask for higher amounts. And I'm really curious, like, do you feel that there should be ranges where if you've been out of school for say zero to five years, it's kind of like this is your range.
if you've been out of school from five to 10 years or 10 years plus, because some of those senior hygienists do feel like, hey, I've been in here, I've been running the ranks. And then I'll give you the flip side that I also think of, but sometimes my senior hygienist might not be as up to date as my brand new grads out of school. So there's this like, there is an experience piece of you've been with the patients longer, but sometimes like, I know certain hygienists don't do as much perio, whereas new grads do more perio sometimes. So.
Again, I'm not here to judge the hygiene world. I'm just curious, Britt, from your perspective, being a hygienist who's been in the realm for a while, what's your take on like, should there be ranges based on experience or is it on performance? Like, what's kind of some metrics that you see that would be beneficial when we're looking at compensation to be fair across the board?
Britt (08:22.414)
I mean, you know fairness is a big thing to me, right? So I and this will be a probably to some maybe not the most popular opinion But I do think it's the fairest and I no matter the role right whether it's a hygienist whether it's an assistant whether it's a front desk whether it's an associate coming in I'm big on it comes down to skill set and what are they able to do? Right? What what's their skill set in the position? How are they able to perform? What things can they be?
responsible for and own and make sure that they get done. Now with a new grad, would I probably be a little bit conservative on what they start them out with and say, hey, here's your path forward, right? Once you show me XYZ, you're running on time, you're making sure your diagnostics are quality, all those things, this is your path forward as far as compensation goes. But I do think it should be a skill set based compensation, not just like tenure based compensation. I'm not a big fan of tenure overall, no matter like
Kiera Dent (09:21.517)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (09:22.176)
like where it is. The thing that I will say along with that though is to make sure that our owners, right, whoever's making those decisions on compensation, that we keep it all fair. So I think sometimes some of those more senior ones, maybe they've stayed at a rate for a really long time and maybe haven't been increased according to inflation or what they're paying other people now. And so like that piece needs to be fair as well. So make sure, I'm a big fan of tears, what's
the skills and make sure that it stays within those tiers. And yeah, if you've been with me for a long time and you've got a full set of skills for hygiene and you do really well, you should be at the top end of that top tier. And if not, then we need to have a conversation and talk about it and see how we can get you there. Because that's ultimately my goal for any of my team members is how do we get you performing to the top of your skill set, your ability or your license. And with that should come like fair compensation that comes along with it.
Kiera Dent (10:22.392)
So, okay, I really like that. I've got two follow-ups on that. One is what are like set skillsets that could be ranging someone up? Are we just talking perio? Are we talking laser? Are we talking like, what is it that is specifically for hygiene, the skillset? And I do love, I hope you guys all asked like that, like every person should be performing at the top of their license. So that's follow up question number one. Second is gonna be about a compensation question. So what are those skills that you feel will range them up exponentially?
Britt (10:50.252)
Yep, so for me, like basic skills, running on time. If you have an anesthesia license, you're doing your anesthesia, if that's allowed within your state. Chart audits are good. You're getting everything that needs to be done, that your charting is complete. You're getting all your diagnostics done. You're coming prepared to huddle. You're being a team player. All of those things are kind of like my basic level stuff.
Kiera Dent (11:16.846)
Should they like interjecting real quick on that? Should they be hitting a certain production amount or is it more just those? It's like, what is the production amount that they should be hitting in like basic skill level before they even move on?
Britt (11:29.038)
Yep. I think whatever your basic goal is, I'm usually depending on the area, depending on your PPO fee for service, right? There's going to be a little bit of a difference, but I'm usually like a 12 to 1500 is usually around kind of like my base, depending on if you're PPO or if you're fee for service kind of on that upper range. And then as you as you one, I think get more confident with perio, have those conversations, perio percentage rate, that's case acceptance for peri
percentage rate would be a next level to look at. So not only are you having the conversations, right, you can do it, but how effective are you educating patients in advocating form to get the treatment done that's needed? So this is where a few more specific metrics are gonna come into play. So per year percentage is gonna start to come into play looking at jumping to that next level. I'm also gonna start looking at how well are you setting up doctor and teeing up doctor for treatment.
That's going to be my mid range that they need to be able to have those conversations. TFDoctor, be a partner in that conversation. So that's kind of like my mid range ones and my high range ones I'm going to tie in. Yeah.
what's your case acceptance coming out of your room? How well are you supporting the doctor and advocating for those patients? Having conversations because at some point with hygiene, right, there's clinical skills and with those, right, doctors should be checking, sure, check my perio from time to time on my charting to make sure we're aligned. Yes, if I'm missing stuff that I shouldn't be missing, then like absolutely those should be things that are talked about and would keep me in that like basic pay range if I'm not doing well at my job.
But to get up into that advanced pay range, it comes to a lot of the soft skills. Are you adding in that scan? Are you on board? Are you advocating for the practice and getting things done? Are you talking about treatment? Do you have good case acceptance coming out of your room? It's a lot of those soft skills and showing initiative instead of like, no, that's too much. I'm not going to do that. It's almost like a difference in personality and an initiative once you get to those higher range and you know them, you see those hygienists that are just rock stars and they're like, yep, they will
Britt (13:34.33)
help out, they are a team player. Yep, I can get that done. I've got time to do it. They are having the conversations, they're supporting the doctor really well. That's my top tier. That's what I ultimately want everyone to be.
Kiera Dent (13:47.918)
And I think that actually really helped in like that 1500 that 1200 range like there has been a model out there of like three times their pay and I'm just curious Britt. Is that even a realistic number from your perspective now of three times a hygienist pay? I do say for fee for service usually at a four or four point five times their pay but with PPO schedules and with the new rate of hygienist coming out, do you still feel like three times their pay is fair?
Britt (14:14.242)
I think it is a great starting point, right? There's across the country, and this is where like you can pull the economics of it into it, right? Depending on the area, depending on how many hygienists there are.
Like that's something that we, I think, have seen across the board that impacts higher ranges or lower ranges, right? That's the way a free economy works. Welcome to it. So, right, depending on the area, I would say yes, that is, everyone should be shooting to hit that. And some of our areas where
you know, it's a little bit more competitive or depending on, you know, well, we'll throw it out there. State laws, different things that have to be offered, right? That impacts the price and how expensive it can be to pay a hygienist. And I'll say to my hygienist, you guys are worth it, right? Especially you're that top tier hygienist. Like you guys are worth it. But from a business standpoint, there's like we got to we got to stay profitable at the end of the day. And so I do think that three times fee for service
us up to like four times pay is a great place to start. And if we are not there, then we need to start looking at other factors. Is it reasonable? Most of time, yes, 100 % it is. Some cases, depending on the area where there's like those shortage, those higher ranges, like it's a little bit more of a struggle. And that's where it comes to the conversation of, all right.
hygiene or associate. And we've definitely had those practices where it's like, for what I'm paying this hygienist, I can have an associate who can not only do hygiene, but can also do treatment. Which direction should I go?
Kiera Dent (15:38.862)
Mm-hmm.
Kiera Dent (15:48.96)
I agree. I think, I think the hygiene world, like making sure that it's cognitive of that too, because I think it could be a dangerous zone where without trying hygienists actually like work themselves out of the marketplace. I agree. think hygienists is such a valuable player on the team. And so just making sure that like we're cognitive of that. And I love that, Britt, you bring that from a hygiene perspective. I will also say though, I don't just think it's fully on the hygienist. And Britt, I know you agree with this completely that
Britt (16:15.555)
Mm-hmm.
Kiera Dent (16:16.334)
looking for that three times and instead of saying like we can't get there, let's look to see how could we get there. So it has the office actually looked at their fees and are we making sure that our fees are competitive, that we're negotiating with the insurances. This doesn't mean you have to drop in and drop your insurance plans, but it does mean we need to be very effective with it. Looking to see can we add in laser? Can we add in PRP or PRF? Can we add in some of those adjunct services? Are we adding fluoride? Are we getting all of our x-rays on the right series?
Are we billing out the correct comp exams for it? Are we looking for those additional pieces and looking for like, what are all the codes that we can bill out within hygiene? Of course, not over diagnosing things out or billing things out. But I think like, let's also look at medicine. They bill for the gauze, they bill for the cotton, they bill for all these things. And I'm not here to say like nickel and dime your patients, but I am here to say.
I think they're starting to become a world where we've got to start being more proactive on what we do, bill out to insurances to hit the rates that the hygienists need to be producing as opposed to just doing what we've always done. So I think like as an office collectively working in conjunction with a hygienist, let's not just throw our hands in the air and say like, they're too expensive. There's no way they'll hit it. No, that's not true. There's actually a lot of hygienists who are being paid those higher ranges and they are producing three, four times their pay. I have hygienists in...
less affluent areas able to hit that. And so it's kind of like the four minute mile. People thought it couldn't happen, couldn't happen, couldn't happen. Well, I think sometimes it's telling us it can't be done. We actually find ways to make that true rather than saying, hey, other offices are doing that. Let's get creative and let's let's let's work together and figure out what we can do. So I want to maybe have some commentary. Please do.
Britt (17:51.118)
Yeah, I want to make a quick plug on this because I know I threw out there like there does come a point where like sometimes we sit there and we contemplate of like associate or not the hygienist and me do I want doctors doing hygiene? No, I don't. don't. No. Do doctors want to be doing hygiene? No.
Kiera Dent (18:04.27)
No, I don't either and I'm not even a hygienist.
Now.
Britt (18:11.072)
No, they don't want to, right? So like it's not an ideal solution, but when it comes to a business being able to survive and stay profitable and keep running to take care of patients and provide livelihoods for everybody, like some that's the that's the business side of my brain that it's like sometimes those are things that we have to contemplate and see what's the best decision moving forward.
Kiera Dent (18:30.296)
for sure. And I'm glad you put that because the ultimate goal is to not replace hygienists. The ultimate goal is no. But I think it's like, look at other businesses. Do you think other businesses wanted to convert to AI? The answer is probably not. But due to necessity of profitability, like to me, that becomes a survival skill. Like is this business going to live or die? They're going to find ways to live. That's a natural human tendency. And so I think it's like, let's partner together. Let's find the solutions. I even have some practices who have elected to go
Britt (18:35.598)
I don't want that.
Kiera Dent (18:59.064)
hygiene, like no hygiene in their practices. so knowing that, like, but again, this is just getting scrappy. This is doctors just like, we have to find a way to survive. think it's
Britt (19:01.71)
Mm-hmm.
Britt (19:08.14)
And out of necessity, if they can't find one, right? Like sometimes that's kind of been the state that some of them have been in, so.
Kiera Dent (19:15.342)
for sure. So Britt on that we did talk about like baseline pay and we talked about longevity of it. What happens when you have a seasoned team that has been there? And we've got hygienists, they love the practice, they love the things they're doing. recruiters are pretty impressive these days. Like I do feel everybody's being bombarded with other offers constantly. And it's like you might be very happy. But hey, like sometimes dollars do count. What do you do for a practice?
when like these new grads are coming out and let's say they're asking because like right now I have a practice and the new grads like literally looking on indeed all practices hiring right now are like $5 an hour more than what they're currently paying like their highest hygienist. Like what do you do in that realm because like if you've got three or four hygienists now I've got to increase everybody $5 an hour just to be able to bring one new hygienist in. I think this is where it's like this wave of constantly like chasing a number but it's not just one person I'm chasing it's multiples.
what do you recommend for businesses and new grads? Because I'm like, if I tell this new grad, like, well, this is where we'll start to, I've got seven other offices willing to offer this hygienist that they only need one hygienist. They can do it because the finances make sense for them. What do we do in those scenarios to help these practices out?
Britt (20:27.724)
Yeah, I think having a community near you to know kind of what people are really getting paid, right? There will always be, especially in your more like city, right, areas, there's always going to be someone out there who can pay more.
There's gonna be an offer on the table somewhere. I always say question that. Know what you're getting into on those ones that are like real high from everybody else. But I think it's a real question of what are you ultimately looking for? One, with that higher rate you better believe you're still, you're gonna have to make your way, right? To make it worth paying you that amount. So that's gonna be there.
Also, you know, what do you value in the people you work with and the type of things that are being done and the care that's being provided in practice not taking a hit at anybody but I'm like that's an overall it's not just a dollar like sure you can go out and you just want to pick a job based on dollar Go for it. If you want it's risky in my opinion Look at the whole picture and see kind of what you're gonna be living because we spend a lot of time at work, right? It's a it's a big part of our life and we spend a lot of time and I don't know I take a lot of pride in where I work. So I care about when
the people and what we do. And I hope that's the same for our providers out there, for our hygienists out there. But I think take a look overall.
And then I think when it comes to those rates, so have a community know what like the actual rates are not just the jobs that are out there and what people are getting paid. Make sure you're competitive like 100 % the rates need to be competitive and if you fall in behind some unlike yeah we might need to see what we can do and see if we can start to get back within the range of the market to stay competitive. And then
Britt (22:16.45)
that also I think brings confidence in knowing you're offering something fair, right? So if I'm like, if I know, hey, it's competitive, it's fair.
We're a great place to work. I always want to get people in to come meet us, experience us, because again, it's more than just a dollar. If they're making a decision just off of a dollar, they're probably not the right person for me anyways. So I want to get them in, let them see the whole picture. And then, you know, when it comes down to it, at the end of the day, I can offer what I can offer and offer a path of like, hey, this is where it starts. And here's what you can do moving forward in the potential. But we're getting to know each other. And
I'll say this recently, especially for assistants as well, because I think it's the same, similar scenario in assistant world, is some of the doctors that know their affair, they come in, they're confident.
have people who like them and they're like, okay, you know, not to say it always happens, right? It won't always, but it's more likely to happen instead of just chasing a dollar amount and trying to like outbid someone. So I think still be confident in your moves. Don't jump too fast. Make sure you're competitive. Make sure you're allowing people to see the whole picture of you. I'll add to that. Make sure you're actually a good place to work along with that so that you attract people.
Kiera Dent (23:12.878)
Right.
Kiera Dent (23:32.398)
Agreed.
Britt (23:34.382)
because I think trends and you'll see articles and research out there, money matters and there's always going to be those people where money is their top priority, but life I think these days matters to people a little bit more.
Kiera Dent (23:46.22)
I would agree. think that that's something that the shift of the, think money used to be the currency that people were going after. And I think now it's time and lifestyle that is the new currency. so realizing that and recognizing that, Britt, let's say an office, the going rate is higher than what you are really like able to afford in your practice. What's your take on offering like a lower base, but commission from a hygienist? Like does this, I don't know how it lands for hygienist. Is it like, well, I want the guarantee of like knowing that I can
let's say it's $5 different between offices, but this office is really struggling, but they can offer you the commission base. How attractive is that to a hygienist? I have my opinions, but I'm not a hygienist. So I'm just curious from your state, what you hear from colleagues in the industry. Cause I know you see very connected to the hygiene world. What are you kind of hearing around?
Britt (24:33.42)
Yeah, I think it's a super fair model. I know when I was managing, that's the model we were off. I want you to know that you can count on something that's reliable, right? So that's where I do like having a base that's very reasonable, that's very fair, that is an amount that easily hygienists should be able to produce and make that and cover themselves.
But for those who do like hustle, right? They're not gonna be like, well, I've got an opening, I'll just go home. Or like, I'll just like chill. Like they want to work. They wanna keep people on their schedule. They want to be supportive of the team. They should make more. And so it's even just a fair from a multiple hygienist in an office. I'm like, yeah, yeah.
working hard I should make a little bit more than the person that's kind of slacking off a little bit. And so I like that model to where one you know what you can count on because there's that base there. And then yeah commission is going to be ultimately whatever you want it to be right? Like that's where you've got some control and if it's a commission based on production or adjusted production or collections whatever route the doctor ends up going
fees rise in the practice, right? That's you naturally kind of build in that increase over the years as office fees change.
Kiera Dent (25:56.782)
Fair, that's a good point. And Britt, I have so many more questions I wanna ask. I think for today, keeping it here, I really also think one thing to plug on the commission that I think Britt, you and I have done a really good job. Like, mad kudos to you within our company, because we do offer our consultants based in commission. So I think like we can actually speak to this model pretty well. But something I really pride ourselves on is we actually go and look at real numbers. I don't want to be going for my best hygienist and offering off of my best hygienist.
We want to find an average between like our lowest producing hygienist and our highest producing because I would rather set a clear expectation with that hygienist coming in of like, if you do basically like bare minimum, this is what you'll be making. And then if you choose to like go more, which there are opportunities, this is the range you could do. And literally when we do offers, we literally show a hygienist or like in our instance, it's a consultant. Here's what it is. Here's what the averages are.
And for me, I think that actually makes me way more confident going in because I'm not offering the highest end. We have we have consultants that produce a lot more than other consultants. But I don't want because that just sets an expectation for that hygienist coming in. This is what I think I'm going to be paid. And then when I'm not, they get angry with you versus it being like, this is where I think it's very fair. This is very realistic. This is the time frame. Realistically, I think you can hit it. This is an average day. Here's our actual numbers. This is an actual hygiene schedule.
So that way I really do think that that will make you more confident when offering. If you can't offer say that $5 more or you want to bring people in and maybe you're a little bit less than that. You don't want to raise your entire hygiene team. And again, hygienist, it's not because I don't want to raise you. Like I just want to make that super clear as a business owner. I want to pay my entire team exponentially well. Like truly this is like my heart of hearts. Like Britt knows this. I'm constantly looking like how can we raise people? How can we do it?
Britt (27:38.413)
Thank
Kiera Dent (27:40.918)
I also know as a business owner, my job is to make sure I keep the business profitable because if I don't, I've actually heard every person that we serve in the community of patients. I've heard our entire team of being able to afford it. And also I don't want to be stressed as a business owner, like fully. would, I like, I love you and I want to pay you. I also want to be able to sleep at night and not constantly stressing of do I need to take a second mortgage out on my home? So like just understanding it's, it's a business, it's a person, it's a human, but I think be fair with your numbers that you offer.
And Britt, I do want to do another episode. I'll just tee it up of what do hygienists feel about assisted hygiene? Cause it is a model that's starting to come as popularity of not being able to find hygienists. Is it something of we like it, we don't. Also, I know there's conversations around, we shorten hygiene appointments to be able to see more patients as insurances aren't reimbursing as much. So I definitely want to like tee it up of having a few more hygiene conversations. But Britt on this, thank you for giving you the perspective of like the ranges of how to pay and what you feel about base plus commission.
Britt (28:13.528)
Thank
Kiera Dent (28:38.874)
Hopefully we were able to give you guys some tips on how can we attract these people. think like you said, Britt, having a great place and a great reputation within the community, having longevity of team members, it's been shocking. Britt and I have been doing interviews and I don't know if you picked up on it, Britt, but the last, I think two or three interviews we've done, one of the questions they've asked is how long is your longest team member and can we ask why they've stayed? It's been shocking to me that that's a question that has come through. It's been consistent.
Britt (29:02.156)
Consistent. 100%.
Kiera Dent (29:05.132)
And I'm thinking it's because people really want to work in places long-term and there's so much jostling that I think they're also wondering, are employers keeping team members too? So just note, that's been a very random comment that's come through on our last very, and we're talking like yesterday. We just had an interview yesterday, that question was asked, so it's very real. But Brittany, any last thoughts you've got you want to wrap up today? I appreciate your Brittany hygiene today, coming to the table for the perspectives.
Britt (29:29.102)
No, I just, I think it's a good conversation and agreed on running numbers and especially if you're wanting to maybe like transition within your practice, right? Hygiene wanting to propose it or doctors wanting to like switch over so that it's a much more sustainable model for you. Run the numbers and see what it looks like, right? That's reality and I'm with you on like low and high end when it comes to hiring. Worst thing you can do is set expectations you're not gonna meet.
Kiera Dent (29:54.094)
Agreed Well, Britt, thanks for being on the pod. You guys, appreciate you. We will definitely come back. I know there's lots of questions. I know this is hot right now. So, Britt and will definitely podcast again about assisted hygiene, what we do for shrinking hours. Is that even doable from a hygienist perspective? Or is that like, no, there's other solutions because I know everybody right now is just trying to find solutions for the pickle that we're in wanting to maintain and...
really pay these hygienists what we believe that they deserve. So Britt, thanks for being on it. And for all of you, if we can help you and your hygiene team, if these are issues you're struggling with, if you're like, am just like hitting my head against a wall. I don't really know what to do. Reach out. That's what we do. [email protected] And as always, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.
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It’s time for a Dental A-Team office spotlight! Dana shares with Tiff how she’s worked with a practice that started off with room for financial growth, and began adding in auxiliary procedures without losing control of the business.
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Transcript
The Dental A Team (00:01.415)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here. This is, I think, Dana and I, we get our like, alone time, our us time when we come in here to podcast. So I love, and I love that it switched to videos, however long ago that was. I remember in the beginning I was like, dang it, I can't wear my like, comfy leggings anymore, but whatever. Here we are, we gotta have our hair done, we gotta have our makeup done, it's great. But Dana, I love getting the time with you, so thank you so much for being here with me today. How are you on this beautiful Friday?
in Arizona.
Dana (00:31.822)
doing really good. It's a little bit chillier, but I'm learning to like, you know, find some happiness in that even when I'm freezing outside of softball games.
The Dental A Team (00:34.928)
No!
The Dental A Team (00:41.702)
Yes, yes, and you're colder down there than I am up here in Phoenix. But I had a client the other day, well, actually it wasn't, was Eve, our marketing gal. I don't know if you were on that call, but she was like, I was like, it's cold, because honestly, in the mornings here in Phoenix, it's like 35 degrees. And that's cold to me, right? And she's like, you can't complain that it's cold. It's eight degrees here, whatever it was. And I was like, actually, this has been my whole week. I've been saying this to people.
I decided, I chose, to live somewhere that's supposed to be warm. So when it's not warm, I get to complain. I don't complain when it's 120 outside and I'm like, I chose this. I wanted warm. So when it's freezing cold and I'm getting breeze warnings on my freaking phone, that's when I'm going to complain. Same with Florida right now. I saw it snowing recently on the beaches in Florida. anyways, thank you. That's our Arizona Girl Tangent.
Dana (01:27.896)
I
The Dental A Team (01:38.169)
We like the heat, that's why we're here. And Dana grew up in the cold. So I feel like if you're saying it's cold, it's freaking cold.
Dana (01:45.9)
I will say, you know, I always use the excuse that like, you know, my body acclimated to the heat. So now 32 degrees is in fact freezing for me.
The Dental A Team (01:55.466)
It is. It is. It is. And my son always says like the Arizona, the desert, like there's just not a lot of insulation in the desert. And so desert nights are freaking cold. They are wild and it drops so quickly. As soon as that sun gets on the other side of the mountain, it's freezing cold. So he's always like, yeah, it's the desert nights. That's fair. I appreciate it when it goes.
when it drops the 30 degrees in the summer to 90 degrees at 8 p.m. I appreciate that, but the 30 degree swing in the winter, a little bit rougher. So happy Arizona girls. So I'm excited Dana today because I really wanted to client wins, client pieces. And I feel like we're always dedicated to systems and I love that. And we're dedicated to growth, which I think this conversation falls into both of them. But really, you've had some really impressive growth with
a lot of your practices, all of your practices. But one in particular we were chatting about earlier this morning that I think would be a really fun conversation for a lot of our doctors because the growth that your doctor has seen within this practice and practices has been really, really fun. And I think what we chatted about earlier, you hit on a lot of different areas that I think a lot of practices are actually in.
at the same time. know what you were speaking on. I had some practices there and I really want to just pick your brain on some tips and some tricks on that. So Dana, your practice, I think you mentioned a few things, right? But one of the biggest pieces I wanted to like hear from you, one, obviously like financial wins. has that grown? Because I know that was a really big space for profit. The profitability of this dentist was fairly low and you were able to help
that increase, but then also this specific dentist has added in a lot of auxiliary procedures that I've seen a lot of doctors going to courses for Botox and tongue ties, lip ties, all of those different pieces and separating those out from our GP stuff, which I think also helps the profitability.
The Dental A Team (04:05.878)
So the way you guys have done this practice and taken those spaces, always focusing in on the profitability and the growth of the practice, but figuring out how we can create it into like quote unquote departments to increase the value and to increase that profitability is really cool. So slew of questions within that, but take us through Dana first steps. Like how did you figure out where the profitability was lacking and how did you figure out how to increase that?
because then that led into her being able to add more procedures. think adding more procedures before we know where the profitability is and before we know where the money is going, adding in those extra procedures can be really, really difficult. So it's already hard enough. And how did you help her figure that out and then slide into being able to add more procedures?
Dana (04:55.596)
Yeah, this is this is just been a really fun practice for me too, because it helped to show like, when you truly focus on comprehensive dentistry and all the things that you can provide for the patient, not only is it great for your patient, but it massively helps production too. And so this was a really fun practice to kind of highlight that and to kind of take, take them through it.
And I will say like the first part of it really was honing in on their systems and making sure they were most efficient block scheduling was huge and being able to say, okay, this is how you're scheduling now if we block scheduled everything out and we follow the schedule pretty much to a tee look at the growth that you could have just by Maximizing the things that you currently do. So that was where we started kind of in year one So year one was really developing systems to make sure that the new patients that we were bringing in we kept
The Dental A Team (05:24.383)
Thank you.
The Dental A Team (05:34.867)
Awesome.
Dana (05:46.082)
Right? And the practice actually continued to truly grow in patient number too. So, you know, making sure that we honed in on re-care systems, making sure we honed in on reactivation systems. And then it was really cool that once we got systems under our belt, now let's focus on big picture things. And so let's focus on, we've maximized kind of, one cool thing that we did is we separated out, she does a really heavy load of,
The Dental A Team (05:46.345)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (06:03.232)
Okay.
Dana (06:15.948)
you know, there's tongue ties and all sorts of adjunct procedures. And, and so we actually separated those things out. And it's actually a business within a business, which then really helps her see numbers as far as general dentistry and some of her adjunct services that she provides. And so that really helped bring in a lot of clarity because we could start to look at individual numbers separately. We could start to separate new patients. So new patients for this avenue who were more fluid patients. So they would come to those things. And yeah, we worked on a whole lot on converting them over into
The Dental A Team (06:18.675)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (06:23.56)
Awesome.
The Dental A Team (06:41.584)
Yeah.
Dana (06:45.874)
the general side, but that we could really look at those things independently to hone in on.
growth for each side. And what's been really fun is as we've separated them out, we've actually even separated out the days. So she now has like, you know, more like tongue tie days and general days and it helps her team to and we now are to the point where she actually gets to do more of the things that she loves, which are those adjunct things and bringing in an associate to
The Dental A Team (06:53.661)
Mm.
Dana (07:20.184)
helped continue to grow the general dentistry side. So it's been really, really fun. But I think the biggest thing is mapping out your schedule to make sure that it works, mapping out your schedule where you can add more of the things. What does that look like? And being able to look at those numbers consistently.
The Dental A Team (07:36.957)
Yeah, I love that perspective in most pieces and I know there's been a heavy push for the associates and making sure that the people who are there, the doctors who are already there and the doctors who are coming are really making sure that their schedules are in alignment and that they make sense. one thing that you said was like a business within a business and I just love that model. I've done it for a few practices as well where
It's like, this is the thing that we love and we want to do. This is our passion project business. How do we supplement now our practice that's already thriving and doing well with our passion project business? And I think that might be a space that some dentists going to the CE and they're like, I'm passionate about this thing. I think that's sometimes the space that gets overlooked is we've got to have the profitability and the thriving on just
practice, like we're doing really well, we're getting the new patients, we're getting the pieces because we want that to be supplemental. And yes, you're going to decrease your GP work. So it's going to take some of that load, right? So we're just kind of shifting some of that production and collections every now and again, but it should increase as well because it should be higher value, right? So watching you do this with this specific client and watching you add in those tongue and lip tie for sure, but the oral surgery pieces that they're doing and all of the different
modalities, the Botox and fillers, and like there's this practice has a few different avenues that they're working towards supplementing that GP. So it is really cool because in my opinion when I've done this with practices, you now have two different pools of patient avatars to pull from for one single practice. And when I think about it from a marketing standpoint, it's super awesome because now we've got two avenues to take this and I have
I have a dentist that I work with who wants to do a ton of practice or cosmetic dentistry, right within his practice. And he's definitely gotten to the point where his GP is pretty well oiled over there. And so now what we've done with his marketing dollars is really switched some of that funnel to focus in on consults.
The Dental A Team (09:49.658)
So it's a new patient, but we're categorizing it differently. We're tracking it differently. And I think that's likely what you've done with this practice and the doctors who are there at that practice doing all of these other pieces is funneling in those consults, smile makeovers. A lot of practices are doing those because we're looking at new patients on a GP side and 25 to 30 new patients on a full-time doctor on the GP side, standard. That's what we want. But when we're part-time on a GP side, we're looking for, you know, 12 to 15.
And then when we're part time on a a oral surgery, a cosmetic, whatever is going on over here side, now we want to see how many consults do we need to get to our case acceptance. So then it's like it's this big spiral when we're adding these new pieces in, because now your case acceptance is in play as well. And your consults, especially for bigger procedures, higher value dollars like
longer appointments, just a different set of pieces. Your case acceptance is not going to be the same as your GP. So having a consultant on your side that can help separate those pieces, separate the information, separate the understanding, separate the marketing of it and strategize how to get those to work together feels like a no brainer because I cannot imagine being on the business owner doctor side where I've just taken all this CE.
super passionate about something. I already have a business I'm trying to work in and then trying to get home, train my team, get the patients. Like trying to do all of that as one human being, the person who's doing it feels really hard. So when you see when you came in or this client came in, right? I think if I remember correctly, this specific client already had some of this stuff under their belt and they already had providers like trying to
generate this within the practice? So how did you, as the third party, the consultant looking over the overarching pieces, how were you able to kind of almost slow it down and speed it up at the same time to extract those pieces and allow it to be so fluid?
Dana (11:59.938)
Yeah. And I really think that it really comes down to, we've got to look at these in two different, we've got to make sure that we look at these things as two different things because a patient that's coming in for general and a patient's coming in for the other side, they're looking for different things. They value different things. Their experience needs to be different. Our systems need to be different. The way we schedule them needs to be different. And when this client first came in, it was like,
there were all these providers providing this, all kind of at the same time, right? So we're running this side at the same time we're running this side and providers are hopping back and forth. And then, you know, an adjunct provider that was in there to do another specialty service had to hop in and it was, it was, they were doing well at it, but it felt so stressful for them.
The Dental A Team (12:32.02)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (12:46.547)
Yeah. Yeah.
Dana (12:47.17)
And it felt so like we're never gonna grow any of the pieces because where we're living right now is so, so stressful and chaotic and a little bit discombobulated, rightfully so. And so when we decided to say, okay, no, let's separate the two, let's look at them very differently, let's build the pieces that work for both.
The Dental A Team (12:58.389)
Yeah.
Dana (13:06.808)
places and let's understand that like you said, two different patient avatars, two different patient flows, two different patient experiences. And when we actually separated them out, looked at how we could streamline both sides, general and the other side, and we built out a schedule that worked to have them both.
The Dental A Team (13:23.06)
.
Dana (13:27.278)
be there. And I mean, this client even went on to create just an even an amazing separate space for these patients. And that does help create all of this. But it really took at like, let's look at both of these take different things, right? They take different
The Dental A Team (13:28.514)
Yeah. That's awesome.
The Dental A Team (13:42.52)
Yeah.
Dana (13:43.246)
Conversations they take a different amounts of hands-on approach they take a different way of treatment planning and presenting things and outlining consoles differently and so until we separated them It was functioning and they were doing okay, but it felt really hard Yeah, figuring out a way to make them both feel easier
The Dental A Team (13:55.976)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (14:00.06)
Yeah, it's chaos. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (14:07.515)
Mm-hmm.
Dana (14:08.434)
and how we can maximize both ends. I feel like that was where the win was and really started to paint a much clearer picture of how you can continue to grow both ends to feed each other.
The Dental A Team (14:21.725)
Totally. think what you did there too, and as you're talking, I'm like envisioning it all, is you really extracted what would simplify it down. And it's just like anything when you go try to do something and it's there's 15 different things that can be done. Picking the right first step is usually the most difficult, right? Picking like what do I do next that's going to move the needle? And I think
my opinion is that's one of the reasons that we pulled back from pushing forward with things is we just can't figure out what that next step is. So you were able to make this massive thing two smaller things, and two smaller things is much easier to dissect and figure out than one massive piece. So you kind of separating them made it so that it was easier to look at them as individuals instead of instead of one monster to take care of.
think as you're talking to what you did is you were able to not only yourself, but have your dentist or doctor sit in the patient's seat. So it's almost like you got her and the team and everybody, but in that mindset of if I'm coming to you for this procedure, who am I? What kind of a person am I? What are the things that I like building out that avatar? But you have to sit, you have to like turn on that brain.
of that person who's looking for that procedure and then separating that. Because like you said, a patient who's coming and they're just like, just need a cleaning compared to a patient who's like, hey, I've been thinking about this for a while. I need ortho, right? You do whatever, smile design. You do, I see you do this. Like that patient's mindset drastically different than the patient who's just coming for a cleaning. So separating those out and creating that space.
where it is like the consults. And you understand you're likely going to need more of the consults over here to get the case acceptance and get the ball rolling. Then you do maybe even your new patients. Like that ratio is going to be a little bit different, but you are able to separate that out for them. So I have a ton of doctors. Like we both have so many doctors that are doing so much CE in the last three years. Like CE the last three years has been the word of the freaking year.
The Dental A Team (16:42.647)
And so many of them get so hyped coming out of their course and their class. But then again, it's that next step. think sedation has been huge and implementing sedation can be tough. think oral surgery procedures in a GP practice has been huge or pediatric practices implementing more tongue and lip ties. GP practice is going to more cosmetic services, the Botox, the fillers, all of those pieces and they get there. And then they're like, okay,
but I have so much going on. I have a full schedule. I have chaos in my schedule already. I have patients that are getting seated late. I have team turnover. And so then they get there and it's so defeating sometimes to just get to the front door and be like, I'm gonna do this. And then it's like, but the chaos I already have is taking my whole schedule. I don't have time for this. And...
what do you do in those instances where they truly like, it's chaotic. It sounds to me like you've answered some of that, like some of the systems, but what are those systems that help reduce that immediate overwhelming chaos where they can see the pockets of time to implement something new?
Dana (17:53.356)
Yeah. And I think for this practice in particular, their biggest barrier was her having these other things made it really easy for them to... And let me preface this by this particular doctor's goal was to build both...
areas, right? Yes, they wanted to do these things, but they still wanted their general dentistry to thrive because we wanted to bring in other associates and we wanted to continue to grow that part. And so where it became a barrier was the teams. If there was a hole in the schedule, or if there was the team's easy reaction was, we can fill it with a tongue tie, or we can fill it with a bowtie filler or we can. And that's great in that like, production did keep growing. But the vision of the practice then, it was like,
The Dental A Team (18:12.3)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (18:31.913)
Yeah.
Dana (18:41.654)
we were growing one side more heavily than the other and that wasn't the ultimate goal. And so I think that it is building in the space.
The Dental A Team (18:46.283)
Yeah.
Dana (18:51.786)
for those things to where it doesn't feel chaotic. And so if you say, Hey, I want to add on Botox and filler, okay, well, let's decide let's pick the times when okay, four o'clock are going to be our Botox and filler consults. And we're building that into that template. If we say, Hey, I want to do more all in excess, great. How many more do you want to do? two of them. Okay, well, let's book out a surgery day, right? Or let's book out a surgery morning. And we have to have the room for it in our schedule to be able to consistently add it in and do the things. And sometimes
The Dental A Team (18:55.221)
Yeah.
Dana (19:21.7)
with bigger procedures, like the key to utilizing them to grow your practice is to do them consistently, not sporadically, right? And so often we're like, hey, I want to do all the nexes or I want to do big surgeries. And it's like, well, I'll add them when I find them. No, you've got to build the time into the schedule. You've got to build them in consistently. And then you've got to work really hard to find them to fill those spots.
The Dental A Team (19:30.72)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (19:44.854)
Yeah.
Dana (19:45.59)
And so it's sometimes just flipping that mindset of this is something I'd love to add. Well, if you want to, how much of it do you want to add and where can we actually put it in that it's in there consistently and continues to grow?
The Dental A Team (19:58.636)
I love those words of wisdom. I have a few practices that have implemented surgeries and things like that. I have one practice in particular that I've worked really hard with on becoming mostly an oral surgery GP practice. And that's something that there's currently struggling with is, and it's, it's kind of coming from the doctor of like, just plug it in and know what a surgery is more important, get the surgery patient in and move the other patients and narrowing them down to those days.
is so valuable because then you know how many you need. You know that you can or can't fill it. You know what the GP site is. It just clarifies so many pieces. So I love that. I think that's surely step one in implementing anything new is just deciding where is it going to go. I know I have a ton of doctors that will do root canals on Wednesday mornings. Like I only do root canals Wednesday mornings. Perfect. Do root canals only Wednesday mornings. What does that need to look like? And I think what you said there
is key in the beginning you said you did the block scheduling and got the GP side done, handled. Like let's get consistent with what we're already doing. Let's learn how to do it with what we're already doing before we add another aspect that just confuses and creates chaos and more change to the team. So if the team can get really good at what you're already doing, it's much simpler to add another aspect in there, because it's just layering then.
on top of what you're doing, now you're just layering something else. that's so cool. I'm so impressed with everything you've been able to do with this client and all of your clients, but this one's a fun one for me to watch grow. I know all of our clients are so valuable to us and she's just, she's in a lot of things with us. So it's just really cool to hear all of these pieces and to watch you be able to pick those pieces out and teach everyone a couple lessons here and there. So thank you for letting me.
that out of you and pick your brain on it today. Dana, you are an incredible consultant and your clients are so so lucky to have you and just keep up the amazing work. I think this is incredible.
Dana (22:05.378)
Thanks, and I will say a lot of this is just to the hard work and effort that her and her team put into things to get the results. so just shout out to them too.
The Dental A Team (22:16.366)
I agree. I agree. you're coming to work with us, you're coming to see us, know we are here for you. We support you and we will hold you accountable to those ding ding buyers. And as long as you're willing to put in that work on the other side, because I can't be in the practice for you, but as long as you're willing to put in that work on the other side, if you're ready to make those changes, holy cow, it's exponential what we can do with you. So thank you, Dana. That was an awesome shout out. I'm sure they appreciate it as well.
You guys go look at what you're already doing. I know everyone out there is looking for something more they can add. What value, more value can they bring to their patients? But look at what you're already doing first. Take Dana's tips today and look at how can we create more systems or create more efficiency in what we're already doing so that we can layer something new on top of it. If you need help, if you have questions, if you're looking to do block scheduling and you need help with that, you've already got CE, like whatever it is you guys, we're here for it.
want to answer your questions, [email protected] is an easy space for that. You can send things in if you're a client already, reach out to your consultant if you have anything exciting you want us to know or help with. And as always, thank you so much for listening. Drop a five star review below, we'd love to hear it. And if you are a soon to be client, or just someone who wants an assessment, don't forget we do our free practice assessments with anybody who wants to sign up for them. Our clients have already had them on whether you've had that one specifically or one
similar to it with your consultant, but anybody who's not a client yet, please go do it just for fun. Sometimes it's good to know. So thank you, everyone. Dana, thank you. And we'll catch you guys next time.
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Kiera walks listeners through easy but critical accounts receivable systems to implement in your practice so you never have to face a financial crisis again.
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Transcript
Kiera Dent (00:00.932)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I just wanted to ask, are you struggling with cashflow because of overdue payments or you don't know how to do your AR or billing just fills out of hand? Well, great news. Healthy AR is an incredible way for you to keep your practice profitable and successful. And today we're going to dive into it and give you some really incredible systems to help you actually keep this on top so that way you don't ever feel like you're in a financial crisis again. So hooray, hooray. I'm so excited.
I hope you're ready for it. I hope you're just having an incredible day today. I know talking AR is not always super fun, but honestly having a well-managed AR system, being able to track to follow up to figure out where the gaps are really can give you confidence. So I wanna give you guys three quick actionable tips to be able to take this and have a healthy AR. You guys know the Dental A Team's all about practical tactical, making your life easier, making you super successful and happy.
doing it with ease, having a fun time with doctors and team members. So we are able to possibly impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So let's kick it off you guys, because honestly, AR is one of the most overlooked areas. It feels taboo. feels like we don't really know. So what are we even going to do? So like, let's just dive into this and really get it there. So number one is to set up clear payment policies and make sure that we're upfront with our patient. And if you don't have this, adding it onto your treatment plans, adding it into your practice,
Don't worry, everyone has this. So it doesn't need to feel scary or daunting or my gosh, like we're changing everything on our patients. You're not, we're just being very clear upfront. And what this does is it actually makes it easier for your front office to be confident with their treatment planning, to be confident with their scheduling, because now we all know the rules of the game. We know what we're doing and we don't have to be rude about it. We don't have to be mean about it. We just need to be crystal clear so people know the rules of the game of our practice. So a couple of quick tips are.
we do require payment at the time of service. I know back in time we used to not, but this is something that we do for routine procedures. And yes, we estimate and we go in, we try to maximize everything that we have within our practice by getting insurance estimates. But the reality is sometimes we aren't gonna be able to get that correct. Insurances aren't even accurate until we bill out. And so we don't crutch on that and bill out and then collect money. We collect, we estimate the best that we can. We collect at the time of service.
Kiera Dent (02:18.604)
and then we're able to let them know if they have a balance or if they have a credit. Hopefully we're getting close. I'd prefer credits more than I'd prefer balances. I don't like to chase money, but you choose how you want to do that. And then making sure we have really good payment options like Cherry or Sunbit or some of those other ones are really great ones. We actually have some offices that have a really beautiful spreadsheet where we have all the different payment options that we can offer. I only like offering one, two or three max of payment options.
but for your practice to know all the different carriers, like I said, Cherry and Sumbit, Cherry tends to be really high right now of a great financial one, Care Credit always is the top one, but having some of those options so that way we as the practice aren't carrying the bulk of this debt, but we're able to have options for our patient can help you get that better case acceptance and also keep us out of that financial pickle. So, and then also helping our patients have a clear financial policy and I actually have a practice that worked on this and
They were saying like a couple of things like they had six steps on it. And I really loved this of one is like no future scheduling until the payment, their balance is paid. And I think that really helps because then we're not just adding to the debt and we help our patients know like we've got to get this taken care of before we're able to schedule you for more treatment. Then we expect full payment on the first day or we're able to go like two payments half and half. So sometimes for crowns we'll do 50 % today, 50 % upon crown seat.
Those are some great things. I don't go beyond two payments within the practice. Otherwise they go into third party financing. You also, if you are struggling with this for larger payments or treatment plans, so you can decide is it 2000, is it 4000, is it 10,000, you choose. But I usually do a deposit and some people will have higher deposits, but let's say it's a 2000, you can do 10 % of that. So that would be $200. I like a 10%. I think it's easy. I think it also
for a patient who wasn't expecting to do treatment, it's not as daunting for them. So giving that 10 % down payment could also help out. And then really making sure that we are staying on top of our AR, which is going to lead into the next point, making sure that our accounts aren't going past hopefully 60 days in general. I know we might have higher AR right now where they're into that 90 days, meaning we've done treatment and 90 days have passed since we've made payment. And then making sure that we have a good collection policy as well.
Kiera Dent (04:39.266)
really making sure all those pieces are there is going to help. And we communicate this to our patients. And if we'll communicate it to our patients, then they know the rules of the game. So for that, when offices start to do this, they start to have patients understand that we make payments, that we only do two payments in-house, that we are collecting at the time of service, that we are making sure that they have these financial policies written. We're not allowing more treatment to stack up on delinquent accounts. What happens is that practice actually starts to
become profitable and they start to get more cashflow. Patients start to pay their balances and it's crazy because just asking for the financial money really actually helps a ton. And it's weird because you just think, all I did was ask for the money. Well, yeah, I have a practice that I was able to add over $20,000 per month to their schedule. And they said, Kiera how are you able to do that? One, it's through some tactics, but two, it was just stopping at the front desk and collecting the money before the patient left. Like it sounds so simple, but really,
just collecting and a lot of offices are even putting credit cards on file, which can really help. So number two, so that's like step one is like, let's collect the money before it goes back. Let's make sure we're checking upon check-in to collect the balances. Let's make sure we're collecting on checkout so we're not following up with all this money. And then number two for this healthy AR is we've got to have a strong follow-up system for outstanding balances. So what I like to do is I like to run the AR report at the beginning of the month. I like to put it into a Google Sheets file.
And then I like to actually have it color coordinated of what area is this account at? Are we on statement one, statement two, statement three? Before I ever send out statements, we always, always, always call. Hey, Kiera great news, your insurance paid. The balance is left, remaining is this amount. I can do Visa or MasterCard over the phone, which do you prefer? This way I'm collecting balances instead of just sending statements. I know a lot of offices love to send statements. It feels really great. We love to.
send it out, send it through the mail, make it feel like we're really moving the needle forward. But if we would just pick up the phone and call, I even tell some offices like we're going green, we're trying to save on paper and stamps, so we're collecting this. There's also a lot of companies like Mula, I really love Mula, and you can actually text the statement to your patient, which can help. But please, let's not lose the power of calling them, because calling and collecting payment can really, really help a lot. So making sure we have this where it's automated.
Kiera Dent (06:58.168)
Patients can pay online if we don't have that, that's going to be something that they really need to do. Like I said, Mula is coming in as one of my top companies for processing right now based on their fees and also the availability to send electronic statements to have it link into the patient ledger. I think they're doing a really great job. And then making sure we're actually tracking that entire scorecard of the AR on our Google Sheets or whatever you wanna do. But I like it color coordinated and then I like the doctor and the billing representative.
To meet together at the end of every month, we see how many first statements, how many collections we made, how many 60 day, how many 90 day, and then are there any that need to go to collections or do we need to figure out what to do with that account? I am not here for an advocate of whatever is right or wrong. You get to decide what's best for your practice, but we've got to have a way to follow up on this. And insurances should be receiving statements 15 to 30 days. Following up on them more consistently can actually help us get payments quicker. So making sure we're also sending clean claims.
So everything's attached, everything's put together. So we're not getting things back because we didn't do our part, making sure everything's being submitted on the first run, I really think can help it out. And so when offices do this, what's interesting is we've been able to actually pay for all of our consulting in very quickly because we've taught the office how to go and collect the money that is already in the accounts. And so, and it's crazy because I'm like, you already did the work, let's just collect the money. And so sometimes it is on sending statements, sometimes it's calling the patients, but it's crazy how just even.
connecting in with your patients really can help them realize that like we just have this money that's outstanding, let's get it paid. So right now I would figure out, can you get with Mula, can you have an automated system to be able to send out statements and then have someone who oversees AR and they follow up on it every single week. That's something we're really gonna need to make sure it's taken care of. I like Tuesdays and Thursdays for billing days, you do it whatever you need to do. Not the full day, usually a four hour chunk is probably pretty good for.
Most practices, every practice is different, but that would be a good one. And then step three, pretty simple, is we've got to review our AR metrics and take actions. So this is what I was talking about, the doctor and the billing representative meeting together, and we've got to monitor our 30, 60, 90, and over 90 days where we're at. So the zero to 30, 60 to 90, over 90, we've got to make sure, and what I like is of all of those accounts, we're never over one month's worth of collections. And so I try really hard to get that down.
Kiera Dent (09:16.868)
Over 90 should be less than 10 % of total AR. I even like it to be chipped down to like 5 % of that. So if you know the metrics that we need to do, we've got to be collecting. And if our team knows our goal is to collect in 30 days always, we get better at insurance verification, we get better at collecting, we get better at watching our AR, we get better at all these different things, then we truly have a system that works. And then making sure that it's in there so the doctor can take a look at it so you can see how many first statements, second statements, third statements, you can even make a
little dummy codes that you attach to each patient's ledger. So at the end of the month, you can actually run a report to see how many statements really went out of first, second, third. I don't go past three. I do not want it going past three. And if you call on the first one, usually we're not getting to a second one. We're setting up options. We have payment options if necessary that are external, not internal, that really, really can help you. for me, I would, if I was a dentist, I would have my billing meeting set up. I would expect my team to get through that entire AR list within a month.
I don't care how many accounts are on there. We might have some cleanup to do, but getting through that, and I have an office where we were able to take them from about a 65 % collection ratio. It was really drastic, all the way up to 98%, but we had to go back three years to clean it up. And there's a lot of them that we weren't able to collect them because we'd waited too long, but it was a process. I think we had about 10,000 accounts we had to go through, but this team was diligent. They were dedicated. It was hard, but we were able to actually make progress.
And it was so fun for them to actually build the system and for the doctors to understand and the team to understand and they'll never get into that position again. And so really going through these three steps, like I mentioned, of clear financial policies with our patients and collecting before they go back and also when we do time of service, we have a full follow-up system of how do we have it? How do we submit our statements? Do we call for it? How do we have this? And then we review it every single month with our doctor and billing.
a team member meeting, it's really gonna help you guys stay on track and be able to get this healthy AR. So the reality is we've got to enforce this. We've got to make sure that we're following up on it, that we're expecting to be at 98 % collection and that we actually go through with this because right now is the time like you've done the work, let's collect the money. And so if this is something that you are like, gosh, like Carrie, you're just speaking my language, reach out, DM us, I'm happy to show you some AR tactics that we've done for other practices, give you some resources and tips.
Kiera Dent (11:36.32)
or head on over to our website, TheDentalATeam.com and just book a call. And I'm happy to go through it with you and give you some, some complimentary value and practice assessment to see where you're at, the great things you're doing in areas that we can help out. This is what we're obsessed with doing. And Dental A Team does this. This is what we do for our practices. This is why we have the systems. This is why we have the systems for success for you. And I'd love to help you. So when, when you're ready and if you're ready to boost and master your AR and cashflow reach out, we're ready for you. And I'd love to help you, but truly commit to
being a master of AR and having that healthy cashflow, you're doing the work, get paid for the work you do. You deserve it. You're worth it. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
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It’s not difficult to enter a practice and feel whether a team is synergistic and they love each other versus if they have animosity and do not get along. Kiera gives advice for spreading love to team members and patients, and establishing a culture of appreciation beyond Valentine’s Day.
Episode resources:
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:01.23)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it is the season and the month of love. And honestly, Valentine's Day and February isn't just about hearts and chocolates. It's truly the perfect time to show appreciation to your team and patients if you desire. So today we're going to teach you some simple, impactful ways to spread love in your dental practice, because why not? One of my favorite quotes is to spread love like confetti. And I think in today's world and in Dental A Team's mission to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible,
Why not spread love, spread kindness, spread joy to our team and our patients. So just wanted to give you guys a couple quick tips on how you're able to do that. You guys know that this is something that I'm really passionate. I'm really passionate about you loving your job, you loving your life, loving your patients, impacting your community and your team to ultimately live the most fulfilled and impactful life. Showing love and appreciation increases our morale in our practices. It increases retention and the overall practice culture where patients feel that love.
crazy because when I walk into an office when consulting, you can feel if a team is synergistic and they love each other versus if they're animosity and they do not get along with one another. And so really just something for you to highlight that people can feel the energy. And so let's spread that love in a quick action packed episode for you today on the season of love. So number one, step one is show love to your team. I do believe that it comes from when we
recognize and appreciate our team's hard work when we show that love to one another. That's really how we're able to highlight and enhance in some quick easy ways that I think are love appropriate within the workforce, our right personal thank you notes to each team member, maybe once a quarter, we we bust out the thank you cards and we write them. It's crazy how a little pen and paper can really make a big impact for people. You guys could also have like around Valentine's Day, maybe have a Valentine's Day themed lunch or treat where
We really do maybe exchange Valentine's Day gifts with one another, like go back to the time where we wrote Valentine's for one another. And also like we've talked about in other times of creating a shout out board where you can write kind notes to each other. I've seen offices where they just have a whiteboard there where people just write a quick note of like, here you crushed it today or Sarah, you crushed it today and we just leave it. And it's almost like our wall of love. And you can even create a wall of love where we just like stamp them up there or on shout out jars. We post those up there because again, showing love to one another.
Kiera Dent (02:25.7)
It creates a habit, creates a pattern. creates a way for us too of how we operate. And so just again, thinking of that. And so my suggestion for you is pick one of those ideas. Are we going to do thank you notes to one another? Are we going to have a lunch of a Valentine's themed? Are we going to get those little Valentine's boxes back out? Are we going to have a shout out board for one another? What are we going to do to implement kindness and love within our practice? And then step two is now we've done it to our teams. We've taken care of ourselves.
Now we're going to spread this to our patients. And so what can we do to show love to our patients? And what's crazy is when people feel loved, they're actually very bound. There's a retention piece. There's a loyalty piece because people feel that love and that genuine appreciation. And so little things for them that we can do of you can send heartfelt emails or text messages to patients. We could even have little hearts this month and write little love notes to our patients of how much we appreciate them. You could highlight one patient.
that you just every day to have them be the patient of the day. We could actually create a social media post highlight, make sure it's a HIPAA and you've got consents for it. A patient appreciation and highlight the patients to like why we really love them and why they love their smile. So lots of different ways where we can show them. But I think that intentionality, there's a book called Unreasonable Hospitality. And I loved in there where they had like this whole little like craft kit is how I imagine it. I've never been there.
But where they were allowed to, they really encouraged their team to create magic moments for their guests, for these people who would attend the restaurant. so having a way for your team to produce this unreasonable hospitality, if we know someone's having a baby or we know someone's getting married or we know someone's it's their birthday or like just having a little, like I said, a little craft station where we can do these things on an intentional basis every single day to really create magic and to spread love to our patients. It's crazy how just a small little intentional thing
I mean, I can't imagine it's never happened to me, but could you just imagine if your hygienist in your little goodie bag wrote you a handwritten note, like again, like a little heart or a little card, like, Kiera, I just really always look forward to when you come. You're one of my favorite patients. And I just want you to know how much I really appreciate you and do it without any expectation other than just giving the gift of love to this person. I think that this would actually really truly grow your practice, grow your,
Kiera Dent (04:47.136)
retention, grow your patient base. And then another idea is think about our online reviews. Yes, we respond to those reviews for Google Analytics and for different pieces. But what would it be like if you actually wrote a personalized letter to each person who left your view, thanking them for that review, or a personalized letter to each person who referred someone to your practice? It just seems crazy how this intentionality of personalization and creating magic for our patients and spreading the love.
really would be able to be something. I think in the month of February, it's a fun time for us to pick one patient focused, like idea where we can show them the love and implement it, whether before Valentine's day or after Valentine's day you choose, but really like how can we create this magic for our patients? And then step three is foster the culture beyond Valentine's day. Like how do we foster this culture of appreciation and love beyond? And I think a lot of the pieces for this were,
talking about things of creating the magic moments, creating the shout out boards, but maybe for this ideas are we start a monthly recognition program for team and patients. How can we recognize somebody every single month that really we just love and we want to like shower them with love, sprinkle them with the confetti of love. Maybe we also do positive feedback, like the shout out jars, the kudos jars, keep the board going of how much we love each other. Maybe these things like that. And what you can do is even like rotate. I like to have systems and cadences. So maybe it's.
Kiera's day is on Monday and Kiera goes and writes love notes to each team member every single Monday. Every Tuesday it's Britt's turn to do it. Every Wednesday is Tiff's turn to do it. But really like finding a way to have this where it becomes, yes it will be quote unquote forced at the beginning, but then becomes automatic in the longterm. We could also do quarterly patient appreciation events. So I've seen offices, one of my favorite offices that I've seen is they had donuts on the corner. offices like patients would be driving all the time for high school.
and they had donuts and they just like gave a little like, love our patients and they would do it. And people in the community knew about this all the time. I have an office where they're gonna start running promos of if your name is blank, come in and get free whitening. We love our patients. We love to have them smile bright and something like that where it's just fun things where we're showing appreciation, we're showing love, we're able to give back. These are ways that we're able to make this not just be about Valentine's Day and the month of love.
Kiera Dent (07:00.9)
But like I said, spreading love like confetti all year long. And so I would plan one appreciation initiative. So what we're gonna do this year of are we doing recognition for patients and team? Are we going to have a quarterly event? Are we gonna do donuts? But the goal is not to cost a lot of money, not to create more busy work for you, but to really be in the habit of adding love for our team and our patients. I feel like our world has become such a world.
where we've forgotten to be humans. We've forgotten to be, we've forgotten to love. We're so automated, we're so into AI and automations and doing and maximizing and optimizing that we've forgotten to just love. We've forgotten what our center is, what our core is, what it means to be a human being, not a human doing, but a human being, being intentional, being in that spirit to really create magic. So I think a good book is Unreasonable Hospitality.
to just think of how can we create magic and love moments more often, to have that be the culture and the feel. And I know families who have love, you can feel it when you walk into a home, relationships that are very centered on love. You can feel that when you're around them, why not make your practice a space where people feel loved, they feel accepted, they don't feel judged. They feel like they're special, but they're important. Everyone in this world is looking for that, whether big or small, they're looking for that. So like I said, we've got the three steps of number one, show love to our team.
Number two, spread love to our patients. And number three, have that culture of appreciation beyond just Valentine's Day in the month of February. This is how we're able to change the world. This is how we're able to create magic. This is how we're able to change people's lives just by coming to the dentist. And if we see that by, we're not just changing their smiles, we're changing them as a human. It's what we do in consulting. Yes, I'm here to talk to you about profitability and systems and consulting, but I believe in changing the human. I believe in impacting the soul.
I believe in having you have your dream life as team members and as owners to really give you the best life you can possibly have. And we do that through love. Love is the connector. Love is the bridge. Love is what makes us so happy. So I encourage you to truly like, if you're ready to spread love in the practices, like share, tag us. Like that would be my, my action for you is go spread love and tag the Dental A Team. Um, on Instagram, I would love to just have like it flooding of
Kiera Dent (09:22.358)
an initiative of all the podcast listeners. Let's just make it this month of love where we're tagging, we're spreading, we're saying hello. Can we add love into Facebook groups? Can we share this podcast with someone that we love? Where can we do that? And truly, this is a way that we're able to give back. if this is what you want and you want a team that's not just about systems, you want consulting that's not just about the dentistry. Yes, that's what we do, but it's more about being, it's more about intentionality, it's more about love.
reach out. This is what we do. when we are ready, we're ready for you. And so reach out [email protected] or just go click and book a call for a complimentary practice assessment for you and your team to just show you value and insights and help you. Because at the end of the day, the mission of Dental A Team's podcast and Dental A Team is from love. Loving my Midwestern students when I worked with them to give them resources to then loving our dental offices and loving them as people to give them the resources.
to change their lives, to change their communities and have this impact that goes far beyond our dental practice and our space. It blesses our families, it blesses our teams, it blesses our patients. And so really, that's what we're about. I'm so happy you're here. So go spread love like confetti. Know that I love you, that you're doing better than you think you are. Give yourself the grace, the kudos, make magic moments for those patients and let me know. And I cannot wait to see you guys. Tag me, DM me. This is where we're at. I would love to get Valentine's from you.
I love Valentine's, so send them out, spread them out, give those love bombs to people around you, inside and out, and so truly, this is the time. It's your time to spread love like confetti to change the world. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
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Kiera talks about the power of ‘state of the company’ meetings, how to set them up, how to roll them out, and how to continue having them quarter after quarter.
Episode resources:
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.802)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I just wanna ask you the question of does your team know where you're going and what you're trying to achieve as a practice? And if the answer is not absolutely 100 % yes, if you came into our practice, Kiera, and asked every person, then today this episode is for you. And it's something beautiful that we've just recently learned that I'm so excited to share with you to make your life easier, to get your team aligned, to get them all rolling in the same direction.
and I just tested it on my team and we're testing it with offices and the feedback has been outstanding of better team buy-in, more clarity and easier ability to row in the same direction. Dental A Team is here for you. We love to support you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And I'm so honored that you're here as part of our podcast family. All of our consultants, we work with you virtually or one-on-one, in person.
or on the screen, we make sure that you are thriving and that you are living your best self. It can be hard, it can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be. And that's what Dental A Team was created. And that's why we created the podcast was to give you tactical tips to make sure that your world is easier, more efficient, and that you're able to feel not alone, but supported in the world of dentistry. All right, so today we're gonna rock this out. This is something from Traction. You know that I'm a huge fan of Gina Wickman and I'm gonna break down three simple steps of the state of the company.
The state of the company is something to do after your quarterly meetings. So you go as a leadership team, you meet, you have a quarterly meeting. We do this with our clients. We work with this within our mastermind group. It's so fun. And I'm so excited to help people really deep dive on the businesses. I've done a lot of research over the years to make sure that I'm able to deliver the best of the best to you. So we meet with our leadership team. We work on our action items.
We're able to figure out what's the focus. What are our annual goals? What are our quarterly goals that we need to do? And the leadership team gets crystal crystal clear. We're able to have the uncomfortable conversations, solve the issues. That step one is you've got to have your annual meetings to make sure that you are then focused on where are we going? And then also breaking it down into our quarterly meetings. So step one of the state of the company, getting your whole team rowing in the correct vision is number one, leadership team needs to meet annually and quarterly to set the vision, to set the focus, to say where they're going.
Kiera Dent (02:13.454)
I love it to be leadership teams because I feel like that's where we can really get to the nitty gritty, the juicy. I have an office and they're truly remarkable and I absolutely love them. And what's really fun is the leadership teams able to come hash it out. What does hygiene want? What did dental assistants want? What does front office need? What did the doctors need? What does the practice need from all those different perspectives? And it's been amazing to watch them go from a $3.5 million practice up to a $6 million practice in one year.
by simply getting their leadership team aligned and then rolling this out to their departments. So step one is leadership team needs alignment annually and quarterly. Step two is now you prepare for what the team needs to hear and this is called the state of the company. The state of the company feels like I should have a top hat on and that I should be Abe Lincoln and it felt really funny to me. But really what it is is it's a snapshot of where is the company at? What has happened? Where are we at and where are we going? And it was crazy because as I was doing it, it's a one hour meeting with your team.
but you need to prepare for this. So that step two is prepare for the state of the company meeting. And on that, what we do is, like I said, where have we been, where are we going, and what do we need to do to change? What are updates on the company? Where are our goals? What were the quarterly rocks that we just set in traction terms that we then are going to be able to take to our team and deliver in a clear, concise manner? This is usually done by your office manager. Office managers prepare it, they put it together.
Doctors, you're going to be the one who presents it or whomever the lead of the team is ultimately. So for me and my company, I'm the one who gets to deliver the state of the company. So step one, leadership team needs to work together. They need to create the annual and the quarterly goals. Step two is office manager and doctor need to combine together to figure out what exactly are we needing to do to make this state of the company report there. We build it. Britt kudos to her on our team. She built it in the most beautiful format. So we had it at the top. We have it mapped out.
Here's where we were, here's where we're going. If there's a gap, so if it's Q1 and we're behind, what's the gap? What have we learned and why are we here? It was a really beautiful conversation between Britt and myself where we were able to really assess how did we get here? Why are we here? And what are we going to do moving forward? For me, I don't believe in failures, I believe in results. So what are the results and why did we get here? And what are we going to do to move forward and to learn from that? Step three is now hold your state of the company meeting. I plan and prep an hour with our team.
Kiera Dent (04:31.564)
We do it at the beginning of each quarter. So we roll it out to them. And what we do is we actually show, I share screened this document that Britt and I had put together. I go through it I really empower the team and I talk to the team, this is where we are. This is the nuts and bolts. These are the facts. This is what needs to happen in order for us to move forward. This is the reason that we're doing these goals. And it's really to me, the state of the company addresses more giving the why behind along with the tangibles of what needs to happen. So it's why did we get here?
Why are we wanting to implement for our company this year? It's marketing masters and AI innovation. We're adding that in because I believe if we look down the line dentistry is going to be shifting heavily. And so we need to be ahead of that. We need to be ahead of the curve. We need to see, we need to build different ways for people to be coming to our company. We need to be having a way to truly, if our mission is to reach out to all the dental practices, we've got to be building different funnels, different methods, different models from what we've been doing and be ahead of that.
but me educating my team and teaching them, this is why we're doing it. Now the team has what I call the lock and loaded buy-in because now they're clear. And I had no clue how this would land. We ran it for an hour, gave them all the information. had it prepped. We asked them for questions. And then I actually wasn't there the next day. And Britt actually asked the team for feedback of, you want this every quarter? Do you not? And it has been an outstanding resounding. We loved that. And it's been so interesting to hear throughout the week, throughout the trickling.
of Kiera, feel so much more clear. Kiera, I feel like I understand where we're going. Kiera, I'm so grateful that you took the time. It was broken down in such simple steps for us. And what was great for me as a leader was I was able actually to do a deep dive on my practice, my business to see what were the strengths, what were the weaknesses, why did I get here? Ask the hard questions and for Britt and I to align and then lock and load our team in the synergy and the energy of having a team drive this forward for you is there.
Teams often just need clarity. They need to understand the why. They need to understand why are we doing this? Where are we going and what is the purpose of this? And then like I said, they lock and load and they're rock solid with you executing, taking ownership. I have seen teams that do this, elevate the ownership, elevate the clarity, elevate the synergy of them all rolling together. So my question is, do you want a team that's rolling together with ease, efficiency and effectiveness? The state of the company, the quarterly address.
Kiera Dent (06:51.916)
is something that I would strongly recommend with these three points to add into your practice. Feel free, I'm happy to share a sample of what we've done so that way you can see it so you can kick it off to share it with your team. Like I said, we pulled this from Gina Wickman Traction and built it up Dental A Team's version of how we wanted to do this, giving you the resources because my goal is to make dentistry easy, to make running a practice easy, to make it to where this isn't hard for you because really running a practice can be easy. Being a profitable dentist can be easy.
being fulfilled and not having to do it all can be a reality. Having a team that rallies and is so incredibly accountable can be a reality. And that's what Dental A Team does. So if that's of interest for you, reach out, [email protected] We do a one hour free practice assessment for you, where I literally deep dive with you, your practice, where you're at, some of these huge hits that need to happen in order for your practice to flourish and for you to have the life that you're wanting. So reach out, [email protected]
You'll get a ton of value. You'll be able to have clarity of where your practice goes. And if we're a great fit for you, I'd love to work with you as always. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
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Tiff and Dana share common pitfalls that scale back your practice’s production — and what to do to address them. Included solutions are Dental A-Team’s scorecard and a fixed cost spreadsheet, which you can reach out to the DAT for help on: [email protected].
Episode resources:
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:01.967)
Hello, Dental A Team podcast listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. This is Tiffanie. I never introduced myself, which is weird. Hopefully there's like some sort of intro that goes to that. just thought of that. Anyhow, here we are. Another day, another podcast. And first and foremost, I want to thank all of you guys who listen. I know we get a lot of practice assessment.
schedules from people who listen to our podcasts. That's how you guys are finding us. And it just means a lot to us that you're here, that you're with us, that you're supporting us. We want to support you and we are doing forever. As far as I can tell, we're doing new free practice assessments for practices all over, all over the country, all over the world. Sometimes we get Canadian practices and it's super cool. I know we've worked with practices all the way in New Zealand and it's just really cool. And these complimentary practice assessment tools.
are fantastic because we really are helping you deep dive and figure out where your focus should be or could be to get you to the results that you're looking to gain, whether you're gonna work with us one-on-one in a group fashion or just continue being a listener no matter what. We love doing these complimentary practice assessments with you guys. And it's just really fun. It's so cool to see where dentistry is at and where you guys are at.
wins and the struggles you guys are having and it's just, it's super awesome. So thank you to everybody who's here with us today. We are excited to take you on this journey with us and doctors and practice owners, leaders, whoever's here today. I really wanted to chat here. I've got my girl Dana with me and I wanted to chat about projections, scheduling, reaching goals. I think that's a huge focus.
for everyone always needs to reach goals, right? But I think in 2025 so far, Dana, like we need to heavily focus on this because 2024, there was a lot that happened in 2024. It was a weird, it was a wild year, right? Like was so weird. It felt like, okay, we're getting momentum with everyone. And then it was like two steps forward, one step back, five steps forward, three steps back. And it was like, gosh, we're getting momentum. But it was an uphill battle in 2024. I don't know what happened, but holy cow, this year feels cleaner already. It feels different.
Dana (01:57.805)
wild.
The Dental A Team (02:17.795)
And I think everyone's kind of shifted their focus to the areas to be able to see what's the most important. So I'm excited to chat with you about that today, Dana, and I hope our listeners are excited for this one. I wanted to just have a conversation around what impacts production from a schedule standpoint, not technical scheduling, right? Not our blog scheduling. We've done a million freaking podcasts on that. Dana and I are not doing that today.
Dana (02:45.276)
No?
The Dental A Team (02:47.601)
But really those other pieces that impact it and how doctors can and practice owners can look at these factors and project. It's still early enough in the year that if you haven't done this yet, get on it. It's totally fine and look for those pieces. So I wanted to pick your brain a little bit Dana and I think let's take it in the space of let's talk about the things that can impact and then let's talk about how we can.
project that and fix it and work it into our goals. So what are the spaces Dana that you have, your clients, and I think we likely do this the same, but what spaces and what do you have your clients look for when they are getting prepped for that next year? We're into the year and we're trying to figure out what's going on, what things impact production goals from a scheduling standpoint like that that you guys are taking a look at.
Dana (03:37.388)
Yeah, I love this topic because I do think when we think about production and impacts on production, we go right to scheduling, we go right to those pieces. And so I love that today is a little bit different. And I think that sometimes we just forget that like taking a vacation is going to impact production, having holidays in there, holidays will sometimes fall on work days and sometimes not.
you know, yearly, they're different. so looking at how many holidays do we have in there looking at, if we're going to take CE, how much of that is time away from the office, team meetings and quarterly meetings and admin time, knowing all of those things, right? All of those things impact your production because then that isn't necessarily time spent taking care of patients. It's definitely needed. It's time spent working on the business. It's time spent training and, working on all of our processes. So
The Dental A Team (04:21.495)
So.
Dana (04:27.664)
let's not not do it because it affects production, right? Knowing it will impact your production and being able to combat that is definitely super helpful.
The Dental A Team (04:31.174)
Yeah, yeah.
The Dental A Team (04:40.57)
Yeah, I totally agree. think CE is something that a lot of doctors will find on a whim or be like, I need to take this course. You need to block me out these days. And if we're not projecting and planning for that or accommodating the schedule in other places, it really impacts it. I had a client that I was chatting with last week, an office manager, and she's like, Tiff, what the heck do I do? Like they want to make XML this month, but they took between the two doctors, they took two weeks off. And I'm like, well,
This is the shared reality, right? So their reality is they're not looking at that. They're not thinking about that. Your reality is that you have to get it on the schedule. And so that's the first place you look when they come to you and tell you to shut down days is you're like, well, what am I supposed to do with this? So coming to that shared reality is huge and trying to project as much as you can the CE that you want to take this year or
estimating how much CE you're willing to take time off for is always huge as well. I know I've got a few doctors that don't know when they want to take vacation or where they want to go or if they want it. And I say, you know what? That's totally fine. In the perfect world, how much vacation time do you want to take with your family? And I have one doctor that said four to six weeks. I said, great. Then plan for six. I want you to take six weeks out of your productive
numbers, days of work, right, take those six weeks out of that productive time, now estimate what you can do and how we can bump those goals. Because the reality is we need to increase production and collections by seven to ten percent every year to keep up with inflation. And team members that are listening, every year, no matter what, you're going to get a new goal. It's going to be different than it was last year. And guess what? We're doing things on the other side to help you with that.
just FYI, you're going to get a bigger goal every year. Soap. Soapbox. The days of the year that we're willing, that we're able to work, right, impact if how easily or how difficult it's going to be to get to that goal. So we've got to say, okay, this is our goal, this is the number of days we're working with, what do have to do every day to get to that goal? So it's not necessarily, this is how many days I have to work, what is my goal, it's, this is what I need to do, this is how many days I
The Dental A Team (07:03.878)
I have that I'm working, how do we fix that? So I love that. And I've had a lot of doctors in the last couple of years that have really learned to just say, okay, well, I don't have it planned yet, but I would love to take three CEs this year, because I want them and I need them. And I'd love to take this much vacation with my family. Great. Swipe it off, figure it out, we move on. Other pieces that I know have come into play, in the dental industry. So
Guess what, guys? We've got a lot of babies that come along. Maternity and paternity leave is a real thing. Like, we're family. We're healthcare providers, so we are family-oriented beings. So making sure that we're considering that as well. I know a lot of offices that are like, shoot, I didn't even think about the fact that my hygienist is going to be out for three months starting in June, and what am I supposed to do? And it's May. And I'm like, my gosh.
Dana (07:59.95)
you
The Dental A Team (08:00.052)
Why didn't Oyrin want this information? You know, it's just like those pieces we forget about. So I love that. Like, Observed Holidays, which 2024 taught us a lesson if we were not pre-planning for Observed Holidays because Christmas and New Year's landed on wild days for that year, and it really, really messed with December production. 2025, it's similar. It's at least towards the end of the week, so you can work the beginning of both.
Dana (08:03.246)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (08:29.897)
but observed holidays and how much time are you gonna give yourself and your team off during those holidays? CE, how much do you want to on vacations? How much do you want to take? How much do you aspire to take? Always go big, because you can work extra days. Team vacations, especially when it comes to providers, so associates and hygienists, you've gotta make sure we're prepped for that. Maternity and paternity leave.
making sure we're prepped for all of those situations and scenarios, and I'm sure there are some that I didn't even think about, that impact it. I do have doctors that will take some time off and then they'll work maybe extra Fridays or they'll work extra long on Thursdays where they normally would have done some admin work, which I don't love you guys getting rid of admin work. and you said, know, admin hours and meeting hours, things like that, making sure we're accounting for those things. But if you can,
pick up extra days for sure. I'm never gonna turn that down and neither will your schedulers. But making sure we're prepping and planning for that. some tools, Day, let's talk about some tools that we have that we have our clients utilize and then also that you guys who aren't yet clients, your listeners, use tools like this or reach out and we can help you with tools like this. Really narrowing in and making things easy is...
what I love in life. I hate... doesn't mean things are never going to be hard. I hate hard forever. I want hard right now, so maybe it's time consuming right now, but it's going to save me pain later. That's what I want to do. So, Dana, we have our projections sheet, so maybe talk about our projections sheet a little bit and our scorecard and how those combine and then how you're using that now two months into the year with your clients to really assess and see.
Dana (09:59.5)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (10:21.856)
how their goals are going for them as we're rounding out middle of Q1.
Dana (10:26.092)
Yeah, so I love our projection sheet and I feel like in 2024 I used it more than ever because 2024 was wild so let's prep and make sure 2025 stays a little less wild than 2024 was.
The Dental A Team (10:32.031)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (10:37.896)
Absolutely.
Dana (10:38.766)
And so really, it truly is it's mapping out I go through every month of the year with the client, how many working days are we going to have for each provider, including hygiene. And some of that does take prep work as far as hey, I need you to get that information from your heart to can they do they have any idea when they're going to take vacations? Do they have any idea and then honestly, if we don't, okay, well, how much PTO do they have and we build that in just saying like, okay, well, we know they're probably going to use their two weeks of PTO somewhere. So if we even it out throughout the
The Dental A Team (10:53.716)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (11:01.909)
Yeah.
Dana (11:08.72)
quarters, at least we kind of have the number of days that we're working with. And so we'll go through and we'll say, where do you want to end up next year, right? We'll base it on this year, we'll look at all sorts of things. And then we go through that sheet together and we basically say, okay, if these are the number of working days, if this is the number of providers we have available, this is what it's going to take every single day from each provider to get you to your ultimate goal. So it's kind of some reverse engineering, but it also is some planning and prepping.
The Dental A Team (11:34.315)
Yeah.
Dana (11:38.83)
And I love that meeting with clients because a lot of that goes like a lot of things go into that projection sheet. And I love that you said, okay, well, how many CE days do you want to take? Sometimes actually CE comes down to what do we have for a CE budget next year? And then of that budget, okay, well, that can likely get you two to three CE courses, which then helps with our projections that way. So it is a lot of planning and prepping that goes into it. But I think that it really helps.
got them down to the penny what needs to happen every single day in each month and really gives them a roadmap that then as the year starts going and we bring in our scorecard we're constantly paying attention to where are we to getting to that and following that roadmap that we set out at the end of the year prior. So it's a really cool combination of tools and and I love to see especially this year is like we're
The Dental A Team (12:21.32)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (12:30.802)
Yeah.
Dana (12:38.704)
really customizing and tightening of the scorecard that it constantly has them assessing gaps, it constantly has them going back to that initial roadmap we set, and then like you said, really just looking for opportunities of what is the thing we need to focus on right now.
The Dental A Team (12:56.073)
I love that. think you nailed it with those. The projection sheet is huge. And then coupling it with the scorecard and a piece that made me think of that's on the scorecard. And we purposely put it on the scorecard because this made a massive impact on goals being reached last year. I think every year, but last year, it really showed its face is the number of hours that were left.
open on the schedule, so they were not filled with production either in hygiene or on the doctor's schedule. So when you look at the projections, you're like, great, this is awesome. This is if I were full to 100%, this is what my estimated production could be by provider. But then when you get in there and you start utilizing the scorecard and you're looking at the production, you compare the two, you're like, why am I off and why is it hard to reach these goals? Or why am I just not there yet? Why am I not reaching this goal yet?
A lot of times it's lost in those pieces that we haven't always paid a lot of attention to, or just like we could, we should, why isn't it happening? I'm not sure. Looking at those open hours and even taking into account maybe, know, with that, that you're likely going to have like 3 % or so left open on the schedule. But looking at those open hours and saying, great, well, if I multiplied these open hours by that producer's average dollar per hour, that's going to show me I probably could have made that goal.
really focusing the attention in on there and bringing it back then to the schedulers and treatment planners and full team of handoffs and all of those pieces we talk about because of schedule working takes the full practice. So it takes you guys projecting, you guys prepping and planning takes, you know, the back office and front office working really hard together to ensure that our patients are the healthiest they possibly can be. Dana, you mentioned CE budget.
And that made me think of the other tools that we're utilizing that I hope other practices that are not yet Delay Team clients are utilizing as well. that's in the, which goes along with that projection, right? The fixed cost spreadsheets, making sure you know what your fixed costs are. That's also part of that planning and projecting because if you're fixed costs and your bare minimum production and collections that you need in order to have the overhead that you want,
The Dental A Team (15:12.587)
If those aren't in alignment, right, with your projections, your projections are low, we might need to look then and say, okay, well, where can we add days back in? Because if we're not combining all of that information, again, we're just not seeing all the levels. It's like not seeing all of the colors. It's like being colorblind to orange, right? You can't see orange anywhere and you're just missing all of these flowers and things that could light up your life. It's like.
not being able to see those pieces. So the fixed cost spreadsheet and knowing what are the fixed costs, what are my average payrolls, what are my average supplies, what should this look like? Then you look at what that needs to be, what are my projections, and what can I do then minus those fixed costs? What would my overhead look like if this is the projection for that month? So then tackling that and looking at that growth percentage and profit percentage,
opportunity allows you then to again look at what you're projecting and what you're taking time off for and evaluate what do I need to do to change that result or it's perfect. And Dana, I you've been working a lot, a lot, a lot with the fixed cost spreadsheet. How has that impacted the being able to project and impact the schedule for the clients that you've got utilizing that spreadsheet?
Dana (16:35.374)
Yeah, I really used to fix costs heavily this year because I do feel like that was part of the wild of 2024 is you know with everything going on and things are just more expensive wages are higher and I feel like practices we're seeing really good growth as far as looking at production but offices who weren't keeping quite an eye on expenses got some surprises because it ended up that like
The Dental A Team (16:41.294)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (16:56.345)
Yeah.
Dana (17:03.36)
you know, we set goals based on the numbers from the previous year. And so then when this year's expenses are quite a bit higher, and they're not watching them, or that's not something, you know, that they consistently look at, it just became more necessary this year to ensure that they knew where their fixed costs were. And they also knew that, okay, if it's outside of this, right, that is like,
The Dental A Team (17:07.769)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (17:17.051)
you
Dana (17:28.31)
an alert that like we need to take a deeper dive into this and we need to really keep an eye on it. So it was something that I really incorporated in 2024. And again, this year, I love that it is part of our scorecard and the things that we're really tracking with clients because that was an area that really hit offices hard. was like, were just giving raises and we were just saying, yep, you know what, I think I can extend my pay range for this new position to this and, just making some of these
The Dental A Team (17:29.614)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (17:56.641)
Mm-hmm.
Dana (17:58.186)
decisions like a little bit on the fly without crunching and saying, All right, well, what does that look like on the expense side? Or how much does that actually add to my BAM and my bottom line? And so I think that that it really was impactful this last year. And so, you know, I with you, I'm encouraging offices, even those listening to really make sure that that is a number that you know.
The Dental A Team (18:08.548)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (18:22.36)
For sure, and I think you're 100 % right because our goal is to be profitable and to have a thriving business that patients can continue to come to. But when we're making decisions without knowing the full spectrum, makes it really difficult. And to combine those pieces into what you just said, the...
holiday situation at the end of the year. I know I had a lot of clients and it was like November, December. They're like, Tiff, we decided to just take the two weeks off. And it's like, my gosh, like you just deleted four days out of December and that's massive. So going from a 16 day month to a 12 day month, like if you're averaging, you know, $10,000 a day, that's 40 grand that we've now deleted at the end of the year. There's nowhere else to put that. So being able to know.
Is that 40 grand going to affect the profit, the profitability and the overhead of the practice? Do I have that saved somewhere to cover it because I'm not collecting that 40 grand in January from December, right? So having that fixed cost information and what your bare minimum is to know where your overhead will be to know, can I actually deduct 40 grand from my production?
and be okay because I've got a couple practices now, you know, into January, February that are like, Tip, why is my collections low? And I'm like, well, girl, you took two weeks off in December and we collect on a lag when it comes to dental insurances. So I'm not surprised that it was a little low in January. So I think that was brilliant to really be able to combine all of those pieces. And again, that's like missing a color in the rainbow spectrum of colors, whatever. Like, you can't, you've got to look at it all.
Dana (19:51.595)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (20:09.444)
And if any of those pieces aren't missing, it could be really detrimental to the practice. So I think that was really cool, Dana. Thank you for bringing that up. You guys, it's simple. Even though it's February, if you haven't done this yet, like, that's okay. It's not December. You guys, you're not telling me in November, you're taking four days off in December. So guess what? It's only February. It's only whatever month you decided to live, you decided to listen to this in, go do these things. So look at, if you don't have the spreadsheets, if you're not one of our clients, then...
Dana (20:26.67)
Thank you.
The Dental A Team (20:37.805)
Create one. All you have to do is know what you can work and what your estimated dollar per hours are or reach out to us. [email protected] We're happy to help you with some ideas and some tools as well. Again, we are doing our complimentary practice assessments. Always TheDentalATeam.com That'll pop up. You can sign up for one those. This is definitely something that we talk about on those a lot. So we always look at your profitability. We always look at how the business can grow clients and non-clients. We like to help you guys with all of that. So
Dana, thank you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for being such a huge advocate of the business side of all of this and really helping your clients and all of everyone to see those pieces and for helping on the back end so much of the creation of all of these pieces. It was a huge project within our company to ensure that we had it dialed in as much as we.
have the knowledge for now or know to look at. So thank you so much for that. Thank you for this conversation today and freaking rock it out. Your clients are doing amazing and I love seeing you all, you and your clients just thrive in those worlds. So super cool. Awesome. Guys, go do the things. Like I said, it's gonna take some time upfront, but it's gonna save you.
pain in the long run. So do the hard right now, save yourself pain and hard later. Get those numbers dialed in. Dana had some amazing tips and tools today within all of those different areas and realms to look for. Don't forget the meetings, you guys, I think that's a space that a lot of us miss. Meetings, CE credits, those hours, those pieces like that that you're taking off in admin hours. So make sure you're calculating correctly.
Go look at what can impact your production and your schedule and work with your team to make sure you guys are doing the best ever possible. Dana, thank you for being here with me today. I loved this conversation. Your brain is incredible and I don't, that's it. Like you're just freaking amazing. I don't know how you do it and I just love it. So thank you so much.
Dana (22:37.826)
Thanks for having me and right back at you, Tiff.
The Dental A Team (22:40.263)
Thank you. Thank you. All right, guys, let us know what you thought about this. We'd love to see a five-star review and letting us know how much help this information was or what have you. [email protected] And we can't wait to see you guys, if you are not yet a client, on a complimentary practice assessment because I really, really, really want you to get dialed in this year, no matter what that looks like for us and you. And keep listening, you guys. We're gonna always have some amazing content here for you. Catch you next time.
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Kiera is joined by Mike and Stephanie Walton of Walton Family Dentistry in Bardstown, Kentucky. For the past almost year, the Waltons have not had a hygienist in their office. They talk with Kiera about why they were struggling to keep one staffed, what led them to stop having one in the first place, and how they efficiently and profitably operate to this day without a hygienist.
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Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:05.844)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and today is such a special episode. I am so excited. I am being joined by our incredible clients. I've got Mike and Stephanie Walton. They are running such an incredible practice. They are doing something so different, so unique, and I just wanted them to come on and share just about themselves. I think they're just a great example for so many offices out there. So Stephanie and Mike, welcome to the show. How are you today?
Mike Walton (00:30.602)
Doing great, doing great. Thanks for having us on.
Stephanie (00:33.948)
Thank you so much.
Kiera Dent (00:35.114)
Yes, absolutely. And I'll do better. I'll ask like Mike this, Stephanie that, because I know when there's three of us on here, can get a little funny, I'll just have Mike, I'll have you kind of kick this off. You two are incredible. I finally met you for the first time. We've worked together for so long. Tiffanie's your main consultant, but it was really dreamy when I got to meet you in June at the Dennis Money Show with Dennis Advisors.
Stephanie (00:39.209)
.
Kiera Dent (00:59.07)
So super fun, I'm excited to see you guys in person really soon too, but Mike, I'll have you just kick us off, kind of tell us a little bit about your practice, where you guys are at, kind of the dynamics of what you guys do in your practice. So the audience gets to know Mike and Stephanie Walton's office.
Mike Walton (01:11.809)
Great. So we are central Kentucky, little south of Louisville. So we're in a town called Bardstown. That's the bourbon capital of the world and the most beautiful small town award that we've received as well.
Stephanie (01:27.244)
In America.
Kiera Dent (01:28.69)
I agree. And you also bring the best candies and treats with you. Like they loaded us up when they came and met us. Bourbon Central, it was amazing. It was great. I was so like, it was so, the Carmel Stephanie, top notch, incredible. That was my favorite. So thank you.
Mike Walton (01:43.318)
Well, and Kara, have to say, you know, when I first saw you there, you know, of course we've seen each other on the think tank and, I saw you across the room and I was like, Hey, there's Kara. And I was like, she probably don't know who I am. We've never met before officially.
Stephanie (01:44.759)
You're welcome. Majestics.
Kiera Dent (01:46.961)
Exactly.
Kiera Dent (02:01.086)
I did it. Well, cause you know, you guys can see Mike, like there's video of him, Mike always, so we have, meant in think tank, which is our doctor mastermind every the first Tuesday of every month that we have. And Mike always wears his Yankees hat. Always. He always has a hat on. So even tonight I'm like, Mike, what are you doing? I'm not even going to recognize you. And you're right. I was like, where's your Yankees hat? That's fair. All right. So you guys are in Kentucky.
Mike Walton (02:19.4)
I'm saving it for next season.
Kiera Dent (02:27.103)
Tell us kind of the dynamics of your practice. How long have you been practicing? What does this practice look like?
Mike Walton (02:30.026)
So I've been practicing, it'll be 22 years in June. Started out in partnerships and then went out on my own about six years ago. So we are a small office where you are about five operatories. It's one doctor. And then right now it's four assistants, two front desk and then office manager.
Stephanie (02:35.246)
you
Kiera Dent (02:56.552)
And did you hear there's no hygienist, which is what we're going to lead into of how Mike went from a hygiene practice where he had hygienist to the shortage. was crunch time. Like he couldn't figure out how to, like it was so hard to hire. And so that's what I'm super excited to talk about. There was literally four assistants, no hygienist. Stephanie, tell us about your place. How are you in the practice? How did you get involved? I mean, you must really love Mike to be working there. You're even like scrubbed up over there, girl. It's not like you just shop. Tell us kind of how you.
Stephanie (03:07.129)
you
So I could tell that he was kind of unhappy at the last place and I was like, you know, it doesn't have to be that way. And so we started doing some research about how to open an office because they don't tell you a lot of business in dental school. And I had my own career and we had three little kids, but I wanted him to be happy. And we found ideal practices and they helped us open the office up and it was well worth the money.
And so that's how I got in there with him. And it was just he and I and an assistant and a hygienist when we started. And now we have two wonderful girls at the front desk. And so they do the majority of running the day-to-day stuff and I get to do the stuff that expands the practice and things like that. So we've come a long way, especially with your all's help.
Kiera Dent (04:16.54)
amazing. Tiffanie loves you. She raves about you. guys, every time you're on her coaching call schedule, Tiffanie is like, I get to talk to the Waltons today. Like truly, it has been such an incredible relationship. She adores you. And Stephanie, I love that you love Mike so much. And I think that that's just so telling of who you two are as a couple, what your practice is, the vibe you have, really just coming together as a couple. So now everyone is wondering and I'm wondering, like, how did you guys even come to this decision to have no hygiene? And how is that even like
operating. Like I need to know this because when you mentioned it on think tank, I didn't realize because I'm not on all of your calls that you literally had zero hygienist in your practice and it's been that way for a little while. So whomever wants to like take this on, I don't know whose brainy idea it was, like how did you guys even come to this decision and how is it going and give me all the things.
Mike Walton (05:04.002)
Well, I think what kind of led to, know, after COVID came through, you know, the number of hygienists went way down and, you know, it was constant turnover. It was, you know, they were in such demand and every office needed them that it was constantly training and getting them adapted to how we like things done. And then
Stephanie (05:19.492)
Okay.
Mike Walton (05:30.66)
somebody else would make a better offer and then they would go. And you know, their schedule would be booked out six to eight months and they'd give you a two week notice. And it was super stressful because you know, then we're faced with, well, we're running an ad, there's no way we're gonna get somebody to replace you in two weeks. And it got to the point where it was like, do we reschedule all these people or do we squeeze them in? And we were squeezing them in.
Kiera Dent (05:34.666)
Mm.
Kiera Dent (05:42.377)
Yep.
Mike Walton (06:00.778)
And it was stress and stress and stress and more stress. And then we got to the point where we're like, we can't do this anymore. and you know, you'd go through the cycle where you'd finally get somebody to bite on your ad, you'd get them in the office. And then, you know, I think about every maybe three or four months, it was turnover. And we were going through the same thing again. And we finally got, we're like, how do we, how do we get out of this terrible cycle of.
Stephanie (06:19.136)
you
Mike Walton (06:30.441)
of one, having to train, and two, having to deal with a six month schedule that's booked out for a two week notice. And the team was feeling that too. It wasn't just us because they were picking up a lot of the slack. And so we were like, gosh, if we keep doing this, they're going to get frustrated. We're going to lose the whole team. And then what are we going to do?
Stephanie (06:53.736)
And we have a wonderful team. The assistants are wonderful and the two at the front desk, shout out to Haley and Jessica. They are great.
Kiera Dent (07:03.346)
Yeah. Stephanie, how did you feel going through this? Did you agree with Mike? Were you like, let's just cut bait and try and see if we can figure this out? Or were you like, let's not do that. I mean, the traditional model is we need hygienists. We know we need two hygienists for every doctor. Like, Stephanie, what was your take? Because I think if I was in your shoes, I have a reasonable level of risk, but I'm also very risk adverse. And so how is it for you? I mean, this is your livelihood. You two are a couple in this. You went away. You've given up your career. You're in this now. Stephanie, how is that for you?
making this decision to go hygiene-less in a practice.
Stephanie (07:36.508)
you end up with kind of your opposite when you marry you know and so I'm the kind of like let's don't miss the boat and he's like that let's not rock the boat kind of person so so this was my idea like I was like
Kiera Dent (07:48.042)
Okay. I love it. I knew it was. I didn't even know, but I was like, I bet it was Stephanie's. Just knowing you two, I'm like, I bet.
Mike Walton (07:54.627)
But that's what I was gonna say is that I think you're directing this question to the wrong person.
Kiera Dent (08:02.612)
Yeah
Stephanie (08:03.274)
So I'm always like, well, what about this? And what about this? And what about this? And they're like, you're wearing us out. And so I try not to change too many things. But at the same time, I'm like, if anybody has any ideas, that's the great thing about small business and not having anybody to be your boss. You can try it. And if it doesn't work, you try something else.
Kiera Dent (08:26.47)
Exactly. Stephanie, what was your career prior to joining the dental practice? Where did you come from? What were you doing? I know you had three littles. So what did you do beforehand?
Stephanie (08:34.462)
was an occupational therapist. So I did, you know, worked at the hospital post, you know, rehab for strokes and hip replacements and things like that. So it comes in handy telling him about ergonomics and protecting that because I had patients that were former dentists. And so I can help the assistants and hygienists. We had one when we switched to this model and assistant
that was having some ulnar nerve impingement because she was doing so much of the same task. And so I was teaching her about ulnar nerve glides and ergonomics and stuff. So that's what I did before.
Kiera Dent (09:13.564)
I love it. And so what's fun about that is I wanted to highlight that because I think so often having a fresh perspective like you'd have Stephanie of we're running a ragged race and Mike, I think we're in dental. We're so ingrained in dental. That's why it's really fun to have consultants or have other business people or have someone else's perspective. So Stephanie, how did you pitch this and what was your reasoning? Like walk me through, how did you even say like we're getting rid of the hygienist? Like forget it, Mike. We're going to go for this. Walk me through kind of your thought process of even how you
thought to do this and then I'm excited to hear Mike how you guys actually ended up doing it.
Stephanie (09:46.832)
You know, I don't even know if I'm on a lot of different forums and a lot of just to learn podcasts, consume, you know, and I don't know if somebody else was doing it or if it was like a hybrid from like accelerated hygiene or if it was just the fact that can we entertain the idea of not having that position in the office.
and then boost the wonderful people that we do have, you know, could we make that work? Because I'm kind of like, you know, out of the box, you know, well, have we ever tried this before? And, you know, I watch a lot of Simon Sinek, you know, you can have anything you want as long as you don't hurt anybody else in the process, you know? So.
Kiera Dent (10:29.224)
Yep, yep.
Kiera Dent (10:33.13)
Mm hmm. All right. So Mike, she pitches this to you. Let's get rid of hygiene. I can only imagine a dentist's worst nightmare is, hey, you want to start scaling teeth again? So I'm just dying to know, Mike, how did this pitch go? I'm imagining Shark Tank. Stephanie's got the like white boards. Like we could do this. We can think outside the box. And Mike, you're like, but this means I have to scale again. So Mike, how did this go for you? Give me come because I guarantee you dentists listening are like
I'm hanging up. Like I'm not even gonna listen. How did this dentist even say yes to wanting to do hygiene again? Because I imagine that that's how it's rolling in your practice right now. Well.
Mike Walton (11:04.144)
Well, you know, we've been married. We've been married for it'll be 24 years this year and together for 31 years. And I learned a long time ago that I say, you're right. you know, it doesn't take a lot of fight anymore to kind of get me to go along because
Kiera Dent (11:13.374)
Wow, congrats.
Kiera Dent (11:22.942)
Yeah
Mike Walton (11:28.956)
She does a lot of that research and a lot of that background. You know, I've always been more of the technician and she kind of says, hey, if you think about this, you think about that. And she's got a good way of presenting it to where it makes all the sense in the world. You know, I think there were some logistical things that were kind of popping in both of our heads of how does this work? But also from her background as an occupational therapist, she is...
Stephanie (11:38.526)
.
Mike Walton (11:57.744)
incredibly structured and organized. And so it, you know, she took a lot of that on and kind of said, Hey, what if we do this? What if we do that? And I was like, I couldn't find anything to argue with other than, you know, in dental school, I remember graduating dental school thinking, well, that's the last prophy I'm ever going to do. and you know, I kind of dreaded it going into it at first, but you know, it's not, it's not bad. know, right now I'm still like, you know,
Stephanie (12:02.157)
.
Mike Walton (12:25.787)
I'm not gonna do any scaling and root planing. you know, I say we're hygienist-less. We do have one of our old hygienists that does come in and do our scaling and root planing for us. And we set her up every couple of weeks and with a full schedule and she's fantastic. And she comes in and takes care of us with that. But we do all the paramedinance and all the pro fees. you know, it took a little time to kind of get into that groove because we were trying to figure out, we do it all?
all hygiene in one day and all restorative in another day or do we mix and match it? And we decided and figured out that it was more efficient and profitable to kind of break it up and do it day by day. we got one day or I guess we work four days a week. So in a two week span, we got eight work days and we'll do several days of just hygiene and several days of restorative.
Stephanie (13:22.5)
Three.
Mike Walton (13:24.859)
and we kind of alternate those doors. So yeah, so like today was a full day of hygiene for me. So we had three operatories of hygiene just back to back to back and ran all day like that.
Kiera Dent (13:27.316)
So you do a full day. It's a full day. Go ahead.
Stephanie (13:27.383)
you
Kiera Dent (13:40.668)
Amazing. And so you basically are doing triple accelerated hygiene. You've got your assistants who are over a column and then you basically just go in scale. You can do the exam at the same time. So that is convenient. Is that how it operates? Now I'm dying to know the logistics. All right, so we've got three columns of hygiene that we're doing, which is why we have our assistants. How does that work for you, Mike? Are you just scaling, they're polishing, they're taking the x-rays?
Mike Walton (13:42.594)
Thank
Kiera Dent (14:07.282)
and do you stagger your schedule so that way you're able to get to all of them or are they blocked on the hour just like a regular hygiene schedule?
Mike Walton (14:12.26)
So good question. We do not stagger them. We kind of have them on our appointments. I'm trying to think of what's the best way to start here.
Stephanie (14:29.31)
The front desk does a really good job of mixing patients that need x-rays with patients that don't need x-rays. So that's kind of the substitute for staggering and the DAs do too, looking forward.
Mike Walton (14:33.186)
Yes.
Kiera Dent (14:35.978)
Amazing.
Mike Walton (14:37.518)
Yeah. So yeah, we'll have somebody that needs x-rays and two that don't. And so what happens is I'll start out and I'll just scale. As soon as they get the first three patients back, I'll scale one. The other assistant is getting all the data and profi. And then the other one's doing the x-rays. And so they're a little bit behind that second one. And then it kind of staggers when I need to go into each room, if that makes sense.
Kiera Dent (15:07.614)
Mm-hmm, it does.
Mike Walton (15:08.043)
And then, you know, that's what it is. It's just kind of a bounce, room to room to room, and then they got time to turn over, and then we bounce room to room to room again.
Stephanie (15:20.476)
And we're real fortunate in the state of Kentucky because the dental assistants can do everything but the scaling. With the certification, they can do the coronal polishing. They can do, we trained them to do period charting. We trained them to do everything but the scaling and of course the diagnosing. And that has worked out tremendously well as far as that. But they can do everything. They can do sealants, can do flora, they can do polishing.
Kiera Dent (15:20.659)
Amazing.
Stephanie (15:48.785)
They can establish rapport and so they fill that time with what we call how's your mama experience, you know, because that's what it is when people come in, we say how, you know, how are you doing? How's your mom? And we know that good.
Kiera Dent (15:54.984)
Yeah.
Kiera Dent (16:00.095)
Mm-hmm.
Right. And in the state of Kentucky, because I don't know all the laws, are they, when we go to the restorative side, can they act as like F does in others or are they, they do fillings? Can they do crown preps? Like you obviously prep. that, does that work for you? Because I'm just trying to figure out logistics on restorative day, because I'm guessing you've got quite a few columns of restorative. Is that how your, your assistants work?
Mike Walton (16:22.74)
Right, right, exactly. yeah, anything that is reversible they can do. And so they are all extended duty certified.
And that's kind of how we run. Whatever they can do, they are allowed to do, they do, and they do it well. You know, that was one of the...
Kiera Dent (16:46.473)
Right?
Stephanie (16:47.311)
And the great part about that is, is they understand the restorative part when it comes to treatment planning during a hygiene appointment. And the hygienists always struggled with that. They knew hygiene inside and out, everything about that. But when it came to treatment planning, the process of extractions and dentures or whatever it may be, they didn't understand that. And these dental assistants understand it forwards and backwards. And so they're his right hand in the restorative. And so when it comes to treatment planning,
Kiera Dent (16:55.156)
Totally.
Kiera Dent (17:09.258)
right.
Stephanie (17:17.147)
They already know how he likes it, the procedure process, the steps of it. And so even the treatment planning is so much better because they understand the restorative part where the hygienist really didn't.
Mike Walton (17:21.558)
All right.
Kiera Dent (17:30.394)
That's a good point Stephanie and I hadn't actually not thought about that. Like you're right. They're probably teeing up treatments so much better. They don't even need to know what would doctor do because they know they've assisted you and as an assistant, I'm like, I know what my doctor is going to do. You're so intimate with your doctor that you really do know. That's actually like a plug for people that want to go fully hygiene, hygiene less like you guys have. If you're looking at assisted hygiene, that assistant really can tee up a lot of treatment if they've worked with a doctor and they are an experienced assistant.
Stephanie (17:36.078)
Yes.
Mike Walton (17:36.469)
you
Stephanie (17:39.856)
Yes.
Mike Walton (17:42.101)
Okay.
Kiera Dent (17:58.346)
That's a really big pro that I had not thought of. So Mike, is it for you as a dentist, like scaling all day long? Are you okay with it? Do you like the piezo? Walk me through, how many months has this been since you guys have gone to this model?
Mike Walton (18:06.516)
It was probably May when we started doing this. Yeah, yeah. And so it was tough at first because it's a whole different positioning. know, it was, I would end the day and could hardly, you know, stand up straight. you know, it's taken a long time to try to figure out
Kiera Dent (18:15.754)
Okay, so we're like nine months, 10 months in.
Kiera Dent (18:27.145)
Yeah.
Stephanie (18:29.765)
It's.
Mike Walton (18:35.858)
where proper position was, you know, cause it had been so long since I'd done it. But you know, the last, probably the last month or two, month and a half, it's gotten to where I found that groove and I get in. it's not, you know, it's not that strenuous on me as it was in the beginning. You know, I think that was one of the things early on that we thought, gosh, we might not be able to pull this off because it was so hard, you know, physically, but.
Kiera Dent (18:41.833)
Right?
Stephanie (18:58.051)
Okay.
Mike Walton (19:05.363)
I think we just kept working and of course, know, Stephanie's got a lot of good input on how to do things with the ergonomics and, you know, if I was complaining about something bothering me, she's like, try this, try that. And so, you know, that all kind of panned out and, you know, I think with the assistants learning new skills and taking on more responsibility, they really like, they've run with it, you know, it's pushing there.
Stephanie (19:27.051)
Okay.
Mike Walton (19:35.388)
their level of importance up in the office and they appreciate that and I appreciate that. It kind of makes their job more fulfilling and it allows us to get through the day. We tend to on time a lot better than we did before. I think one of the nicest things is that there's no interruption. When you had a hygienist, was no matter what you were doing, was constantly, I'm ready for a check.
Stephanie (19:53.614)
Okay.
Kiera Dent (19:54.834)
I bet.
Kiera Dent (20:01.279)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Walton (20:04.518)
and you'd have to stop and get up and go check and then you come back and then it seemed like as soon as you sat down and put your gloves on and got your fingers wet, it was time for a check again. And so we don't have that anymore. And so that's like a huge stress reliever. And because you're not having to get up and down all the time, it allows you to schedule more efficiently. know, it...
Kiera Dent (20:14.461)
Right.
Kiera Dent (20:26.856)
I was going to say, I bet on restorative, can actually do a lot more restorative faster and more efficiently and actually get more done than you were prior. Have you noticed that to be true?
Mike Walton (20:37.027)
It has because and you know just kind of jumping a little bit into probably what you would ask down the road, but you know I think our our overall production has gone down a little bit just because we Yeah So like it's it's gone down a little bit just because we can't see as many patients anymore
Stephanie (20:50.092)
Okay.
Kiera Dent (20:52.262)
Yep, you knew, you know me. Of course I want to know like what are the numbers?
Mike Walton (21:01.584)
So we had to scale back just a little bit to make it work with the amount of appointments that we had possibly available. But with how efficient we are now with the scheduling, the profitability has gone up. And I had those numbers and I did that on a presentation with another mastermind group and I don't have it right in front of me, but I don't know, do you remember what those were Stephanie or no?
Kiera Dent (21:02.634)
Mm-hmm.
Stephanie (21:26.668)
Not exactly, we took home more is what it came down to and our team did. Like we were able to give raises, we were able to share that because we didn't have that hygiene overhead. But another good point is that we had to set aside specific time in the schedule, make appointments, make events.
Kiera Dent (21:33.353)
Mm-hmm.
Stephanie (21:45.75)
to formalize their training with how to do period charting to his standards, how to do these skills to his standards. It's like everything else you had to put it on the schedule so that everybody could check it off. And so it's kind of like a loss in the beginning, but it pays off in spades down the road because they feel confident about it. And it's like they're their patients, you know, and they're, you know, in charge of it.
Kiera Dent (21:48.383)
Yeah.
Stephanie (22:11.335)
and responsible for it and they're very proud of how many skills they have now and you know so they were kind of hesitant at first because it's just like it's unknown and you know I don't know if I can do that and but you know by checking off and feeling confident you know it's made the biggest difference.
Kiera Dent (22:30.75)
That's amazing. And as an assistant myself, and I know tips and assistant as well, it actually is really fun to think of elevating assistants to give them more skill sets, things that they can do giving them that autonomy. It actually kind of comes down to an ortho assistant model where they're able to do so much more while still being able to have the the general side where we get to do all the fun, like I call it the blood and guts of dentistry, like ortho is so clean, which hygiene is so clean with air quotes around it.
Mike Walton (22:45.23)
you
Kiera Dent (22:58.538)
And so I think you've actually blended for assistance because I was always envious of the ortho assistance. I'm like, gosh, they get to do so much. They get to do so much more than I do. So I think like really incredible work agreed. think I'd be nervous to take this on and be like, if we're doing hygiene, but I think also way to give them a huge elevation piece. So, and it's also fun to hear about your numbers. I would imagine without that hygiene expense that you will be more profitable. So you run
When you run restorative days, you run three columns of restorative on that, or how many columns of restorative do you normally do?
Mike Walton (23:30.189)
three and then. We'll have a foot. We've got a fourth room that if we have kids we can squeeze in a fourth. Yeah, yeah.
Stephanie (23:42.692)
that are assistant only.
Kiera Dent (23:44.842)
Sure. Okay, so we're running three columns of hygiene on one day, then three columns of restorative, which you can. Now you can have them shorter appointments. You can get in and out. You can utilize your assistants more. So they're having fun too. They have a hygiene day, then restorative day, hygiene. So it breaks up their model too. They're not running all the time. But I'm curious. I always think like long-term, like, do you guys wanna go back to hygiene and or would you hire another dentist?
So then Mike, you and another dentist are doing this hygiene model. can see, cause I'm thinking, well shoot, you're seeing three columns of hygiene. You're probably only seeing two before, but we're seeing three columns, but just not consistently across the time. So what are your kind of your long-term pieces? You took home more, you had a little drop in production. I'm super curious like to see a full year of this. Like will the numbers come back up now that everybody's trained? We kind of have this whole model, but what's kind of in the long-term scope? Are you thinking of another doctor or maybe looking for hygienists?
or like, no, we're gonna just ride this out for a little while.
Mike Walton (24:41.671)
I think the plan is gonna be to kind of ride it out. We kind of talked about if you brought on another doctor, are they gonna buy into doing hygiene like we have? I think that's a hard pill to swallow until you've had the heartache and the upset that we had with maintaining a hygienist. So I think it's gonna be kind of ride it out and see how things go.
Stephanie (25:00.407)
.
Kiera Dent (25:03.486)
Right.
Mike Walton (25:12.317)
Is there ever a time where you'd have a hygienist back in? Absolutely. I think there's some things that have to change market-wise and availability-wise and knowing that security because I think that's one of the biggest things that the patients have noticed is they're getting consistency with the same person. And we're...
Stephanie (25:34.233)
They love seeing the doctor. There's no pushback to not having a hygienist. They are very excited to have more time with him.
Kiera Dent (25:34.495)
Right.
Mike Walton (25:41.29)
And, you know, and I think we're getting into that cycle where from when we started, we're seeing the six month, you know, group coming back through and they're like, you know, we had so much turnover that every time they came, it was a different person. And now there, there's like, I get to the same person again. And, and so, you know, that's a, that's a good feeling for them too. And, you know, I think that that would be the limitation on a hygienist is one, no one, you know,
Kiera Dent (25:42.889)
I believe it.
Stephanie (25:59.533)
you
Mike Walton (26:09.994)
If I could guarantee that they would be here long term, absolutely. Or if the market were to change to where there was a surplus that you felt like that was gonna drive them to stay for a long time, I think that's where the change would come in that perspective.
Kiera Dent (26:31.582)
Wow. I'm so intrigued and I'm sure listeners are just beyond intrigued by this. It is fun to know about the numbers. It's fun to hear. And I remember Mike in our mastermind that we were chatting, you literally said like, I wouldn't go back. You're like, it was the best thing we ever did. And I'm like, we're getting on the podcast because it's such a anomaly. think it's, it shows your guys's grit. It shows your determination. I love Stephanie, you pushing to think outside the box. So I'm just curious, like with this.
Stephanie (26:52.164)
.
Kiera Dent (27:00.202)
What would you say are like the best benefits? mean, Mike, I've heard a few come through from you benefits and Stephanie, you just said them. So I'll list a few and see if there's anything I might have missed was something I love that you said they get consistency with the, with the doctor, like they're seeing Mike, they're seeing him more often. Um, I think Mike, for you not having to get the, we're ready for a check. We're ready for a check. Like you feel like you can just get in and almost like do your thing every single day. I also heard the assistants have been able to rise up. You've been able to
probably pay them more than they would normally make, which also then retains your assistance and makes them more sticky to you, I would presume. But any other things that you've seen that have been positives of moving to a hygiene-less model?
Stephanie (27:38.747)
Well, I want to speak to that because the team is so much more unified because and they're candid with us because everybody feels like they're on the same level.
Kiera Dent (27:44.681)
Interesting.
Stephanie (27:48.192)
Like there's no hierarchy in the office. The back office people are candid with the front office people and telling us how we can schedule more efficiently. The front office people are telling the back office people you need to document this so we're getting paid quicker. It's like the barriers have been broken down. Like everybody's on the same level and that has unified the team, I think, like we didn't anticipate.
Kiera Dent (28:17.574)
I wouldn't have thought that either. I could see like some divides, but I also think when you go through quote unquote hard times, which you were, you were losing hygienists consistently. We're having to pick up the slack. That's stressful. We've got all these columns of hygiene. It does bring people together when they go through that. And I bet this team is pretty rock solid sticky with you for quite some time going through this, which I think is awesome. Mike, anything you've seen that you want to add to that or Stephanie, either one of you.
Mike Walton (28:40.738)
you know, I think those are the big highlights. you know, it's, it's, it seemed like there was always tension before and we don't have that. Like Stephanie said, it's, you know, that, that unifying of the team and it's because everybody's, you know, pulling, you know, a very important role in the office and making it work and everybody's establishing that relationship and
Stephanie (29:09.907)
All right.
Mike Walton (29:10.817)
It's kind of like not your right hand talking to your left hand. It's like having one big hand and it's all just working together. And I did look up while you all were talking a minute ago, I pulled up the other presentation I had with the profitability. So this was when we were four months into it. Our payroll overhead was falling between 15 and 18%.
Stephanie (29:18.016)
Okay.
Kiera Dent (29:18.58)
Yeah.
Stephanie (29:25.633)
Okay.
Kiera Dent (29:26.89)
Oh yeah, I wanna know these. I love numbers.
Mike Walton (29:37.284)
because we lost the payroll for the hygienist. Our average overhead for that four months was 48%. And then our overall production was steady, but our profitability was up 27 % over the same four month period the year before. So.
Kiera Dent (29:38.504)
Wow.
Kiera Dent (29:47.306)
amazing.
Kiera Dent (29:56.854)
That's insane. And to hear payroll numbers coming in at, you know, 15, 18 % when right now people are struggling to keep it at 30, 34, 35%. Everything's rising up. And so that had to just feel good to, I mean, I don't know, Mike, I saw both, I saw you for many months. And I just remember the stress, like so many think tanks, you're like, can't find a hygienist, we just lost a hygienist. And I feel like the stress and the
angst that you are going through and watching you two tonight, you just seem like, yep, we have a plan and I'm wondering if there's now, do you feel more certainty? And I think Stephanie will come to you on this one. Is there more certainty that like your success, your future's in your hands or does it feel like there's more stress because now it's all on you? has it, has it freed you up? Has it created more stress? What do you feel Stephanie from your perspective?
Stephanie (30:46.206)
think making this change has recreated more stress at all. I enjoy this. I worry about it being physically hard on him, but I enjoy the team being a lot happier when they come in and them feeling fulfilled. And I think that decreases our worry. And I think a lot of people that own practices are worried that people, if you rub them the wrong way, they're just going to leave.
If you ask them to do one more thing, they're just going to leave. And that was a constant stress for us. And I don't feel like that with this group. So, you know, I don't know if it's going to be a long-term option because, you know, I worry about the wear and tear on him, but they seem to really care about each other. it's...
Kiera Dent (31:15.604)
Right?
Mike Walton (31:15.811)
Thank
Kiera Dent (31:18.442)
Mm-hmm.
Stephanie (31:39.249)
Yeah, it's working for now and we just need to watch trends and see if it's going to continue to work or if we need to pivot.
Kiera Dent (31:48.212)
Sure, I love that. Mike, what about for you?
Mike Walton (31:49.637)
you know, I think, I think the excess of stress is kind of what pushed us to make the change. And I would say that definitely the, you know, since we've made it just with the demeanor and the whole office and, and the, the lack of the headache of constantly replacing somebody is, I mean, that's taken mountains of stress away. And, and, you know, I mean,
I think that was the most valuable thing that we've done is relieving that stress because it was taken as toll. It was pretty hard on us.
Kiera Dent (32:31.006)
believe it. How does it feel Mike for you being like Stephanie was saying you are now the hygienist and the dentist and so like those two hands I always told my dentist every night I'm like hey keep those hands good because that's my job I tell him like when you walk through the crosswalk put your hands up so in case like the car hits you like they just take your body out but your hands are still good but truly I was like you are my job Mike how is that for you like you are the hygienist you are the dentist it is you in that practice
Stephanie (32:35.292)
.
Kiera Dent (32:58.524)
Is there stress on you feeling that or is like, well, I'm to do what I can do. And Hey, worst case scenario, I'm going to find someone to replace me if I have to. What, does that feel?
Stephanie (33:05.843)
So I think that was something that was really eating at him. And then we sat down with Matt at the dental advisors. And once we got the disability insurance in place and everything was, we have a contingency plan. So if the works were to happen, for whatever that the team is provided for for a little while, and then we have.
Kiera Dent (33:16.446)
Mm.
Kiera Dent (33:21.712)
Tell
Stephanie (33:30.649)
And I think that's, and Mike, you need to speak to this. I think that made him feel a whole lot better because there was a lot of responsibility on his shoulders is just having those contingency plans if something bad were to happen.
Mike Walton (33:44.404)
Right and like what she was saying, you you kind of carry that load of everything is dependent on me and what happens and You know, I think that's just seeing the numbers, you know once you see the numbers just like anything that it Relieves you a little bit and you know that hey, you know, you don't want the worst to happen but if it does you know things are provided for you know, as far as
Kiera Dent (33:45.224)
For sure.
Stephanie (34:10.606)
you
Mike Walton (34:11.42)
you know, hands and things go, you know, I see lots of people that go through years of work and I think if anything, my hands are good. It was my back that I was worried about, but you know, I think just repositioning and kind of paying attention and listening to your body too that, you know, I, I've had hygienists that only hand scale and you know, and I'm like, use the use of ultrasonic, you know, that's what it's there for. It's meant to save your hands. And so
Kiera Dent (34:22.472)
you
Kiera Dent (34:38.833)
Exactly.
Stephanie (34:40.133)
.
Mike Walton (34:40.315)
You know, I do most everything ultrasonic and if I can't get to ultrasonic, I hand scale and like I said, it's not, you know, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to that wear and tear, you know, because it's so minimal. But, you know, it's one of those things that, you know, at first I thought I wasn't going to like, but I've always been the talker with the patients too. And it's like, now I've got a little extra time to talk, you know?
Kiera Dent (35:07.751)
Yeah.
Mike Walton (35:10.746)
I think it's been a good change.
Kiera Dent (35:11.058)
I bet.
Kiera Dent (35:14.842)
It's such a fun thing and I'm so grateful you guys were willing to come on and share and definitely love you guys as clients, love seeing your success, love seeing the change. love just you sharing your experience. It's really fun. So just super appreciative of you coming on. And of course my mind's thinking like, well, if you guys are gonna stay this model, you might as well go fee for service. Like you've already got a huge tether to these patients, make more, it can do less.
bring on another doctor that could swap you out. Hi Jenna. So really fun past for you in the future. I'm just curious as we wrap up tonight, like so appreciative. Any last thoughts, maybe things I didn't ask that I should have asked or things that you're like, Kiera, this would be really helpful for practice thinking about doing this. Stephanie, I'll pivot to you first and then we'll wrap with you, Mike. Anything I maybe didn't ask or something you want to add as we wrap up tonight.
Stephanie (36:00.993)
So it probably helps us tremendously that we do not have contracts with any insurance. So we're not straight up fee for service, but we do get full fee now. So that probably makes it a little bit more doable for us, but it also adds a little bit of stress on our wonderful front desk people because they're having those hard conversations.
Kiera Dent (36:10.398)
Yes.
Stephanie (36:20.951)
And then another barrier was there are only so many hygiene spots that we could fit in a calendar year. So we could literally with only one doctor see probably 2300 hygiene appointments in a year. And so we had probably 4,000 active patients when this was going on. And so we were like, what do we do? And Mike said, you know, a little bit of health issues. And so we wanted to decrease the stress. We're at a point where we could do that. And so
Kiera Dent (36:38.376)
Yeah, the big cut.
Stephanie (36:50.006)
we had to like downsize some patients and I bet every office would like to downsize some patients. And we just started with the people that gave him the highest stress or didn't value keeping their appointments. And we enacted a super strict cancellation policy, which is a little bit of a hard conversation for the front desk, but it's a little work upfront that pays off in spades and...
Kiera Dent (36:55.946)
Hahaha
Stephanie (37:17.353)
And it's kind of like people are coming to the understanding that this more of a specialist type office. If they truly value coming to see Dr. Walton, which they love seeing him because of that relationship, you know, they're going to keep that appointment. They're going to book it far out. And so we got to kind of let some people go that didn't respect, you know, his time or we didn't enjoy seeing necessarily. So, you know, I think that was, you know,
something that was hard that we didn't anticipate. But I think it's kind of a good thing in the long run.
Kiera Dent (37:53.596)
Yeah, no, and you're right, that is a big downsize, but it's also an upgrade in life and fulfillment and happiness. And I tell a lot of offices, like the best gift, there was one dentist I worked with and they said every year for the holidays, the gift they gave was like, the employees could go through the list of patients of which ones give us the heartache, which ones are the ones that like we just grown, and we're going to dismiss them and we're going to actually like fire them as patients in a very respectful way, send them to another office.
But elevating that, like it's crazy how much that can do for your morale. I only work with clients that I like. That's part of the Dental A Teams model. Like, yes, I understand that there'll be some tricky ones, but we really only, we like to work with our clients. love, and I love the name, my day is full of all the clients that I love working with. And I know Tip feels the same way. So I can only imagine giving yourself that life upgrade was incredible. So thanks for that. That's a, that's also a good, think, key point, cause you're right. Limited space. What do we do with that? And based on where you are in your career path,
It makes sense to possibly downsize. Who knows how much longer we want to practice, but I think if you're really early on in your practice, that'd be something to really consider because downsizing a practice and then if you ever bring in doctors, you're going to need to re-increase that. think that's something that was a wise decision based on where you are. So Mike, anything for you you wanted to add or highlight?
Mike Walton (39:07.389)
Well, I think the only thing that Stephanie didn't mention, I'm going blank here now, but it was... What was I going to say?
Kiera Dent (39:23.624)
I chatted too long for you, Mike.
Mike Walton (39:23.896)
Caught me off guard there. Oh, I know, was when we made that change, one of the other difficult things was, you had six months of hygiene people that you had to reschedule to the days that you were seeing hygiene. And so that was a tremendous load on the front desk as well to move all of those patients and get them lined up on the days that we deemed as the hygiene days. But that was for...
six months and we've made it through that and you know that's a huge load off of their shoulders now and yeah yeah.
Stephanie (39:58.002)
.
Shout out to Jessica.
Kiera Dent (40:01.93)
Right. It is something where I think you guys have really painted a picture of it's short-term pain for long-term gain. Yes, those are annoying. Yes, those things are just obnoxious. And I think a lot of people aren't willing to do the short-term pain. So they stay in long-term pain thinking that that's easier. And so it is annoying as a front office to move patients, but it's what the benefit going to be. Like we have a pediatric practice that I worked with and we got the doctor where she has
We work just ops in the morning and then we do all hygiene in the afternoon. So it's a similar, it's just split days for them. And she's so much happier, but they had to move. I mean, we're talking pediatrics. That's just like so many little appointments in a day. But that team, hunkered in just like your team did. And it's amazing at how happy this team has become, how much happier the patients are, how much more efficient they are with their time. So mad kudos to you and your team. Yes.
Stephanie (40:55.583)
And add those hard conversations about that. that's what people, a lot of people don't want to do is have those hard conversations to have the long-term benefit.
Mike Walton (40:57.526)
All
Stephanie (41:06.927)
That's what we've experienced is they just, even the doctors, they just avoid those hard conversations, tell them what they want to hear and just get out and.
Kiera Dent (41:16.604)
Yeah, and then here we are. So I'm so proud of you. I know Tiff has been proud of you. I know she's been a huge instrumental part to help you guys navigate through this and just work with it and just like really I think the tenacity, the grit and the love that you have is just so incredible. So thank you. I know it's late for you. You guys are East Coast. I'm West Coast. So thank you for taking time. You had a full day today. But really, just thanks for sharing your experience. And I think for offices listening, I think think outside the box like Stephanie and I Mike and go through those
the pains, you will, it's the pain, the pain of holding on and like having that constant replacement, or is the pain of let's figure this out so we're not there. And I'm so excited, like, thanks for letting me, you know, eat my popcorn on the sideline of your life and watch to see how this unfolds. I think you have so many fun things to see how does this year shake out? Is this something we want to do long term? Or is it something where no, maybe we might go back to a more traditional, maybe we do a hybrid of what we've done and what we used to do. I'm really excited to see the future and I think it's bright and
Mike Walton (42:03.859)
Yes, thanks.
Kiera Dent (42:13.588)
hallelujah, you're not in the hygiene debacle anymore for now. We'll see what changes in the future, but mad appreciation to both of you.
Stephanie (42:20.239)
Thank you for letting us share our story.
Kiera Dent (42:23.58)
Of course. All right, you guys, that wraps it up. And for all of you listening, thank you for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
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Artificial intelligence is steadily growing as a presence in our personal and professional lives. In this episode, Tiff and Dana talk about how AI can be used effectively in practices, game-changing technology in recent years, and the never-out-of-style human interaction among it all.
Episode resources:
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Leave us a review
Transcript
The Dental A Team (00:01.681)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited. We are second month of a new year, and that means you should be tracking your goals. If you're a Dental A Team client, you have this amazing new scorecard that we've introduced that my personal clients have freaking loved. And being able to see where those goals are so quickly in the month and being able to track along and see what we need to do to pivot or change or continue growth has been really cool. So welcome to new month, new year.
knew you. Dana, thank you so much for being here with me. I know you have a ton of clients that have been onboarded with that scorecard and doing super well as well. How is this new year treating you? This 2025, how's it going, Dana?
Dana (00:46.03)
Oh, it's going pretty well. Happy New Year to you and everyone listening. Yeah, I'm super excited about the scorecard. Clients seem to really like it and I think it'll just be a game changer for 2025 to keep everybody just intentional and focused on the things to move forward. So I'm really looking forward to 2025.
The Dental A Team (01:04.136)
Yeah, me too. Me too. I have a client that I talked to actually this morning that was like, well, we needed to make some adjustments to the scorecard to fit their practice, which is why we say that we're customizable because anything that we do, it's got to be custom fit to that practice. So we had made some adjustments in there and then.
I was like, you know, you guys, know that you're tracking everything. Like this office manager is meticulously tracking everything in the practice. So I said, this is like an overview. Like my meticulous tracker is like an overview for you guys. So make it your own. Let's figure it out. But I told her there's so many practices out there that don't know what to track or how to track it or how to see the trends within the numbers. And her mind was just blown.
She's the wife, they've owned the dental practice for years and years and years and years. They've been in dentistry forever. So she's learned all of that along the way, but she was just mind blown at how some people just don't know. And I didn't know when I first started managing, I was like, what do all these numbers mean? And we all have to learn somewhere. So it's just been really cool to watch everyone continue that growth in the new year and really, like you said, track along with those goals and see.
what can be done to manipulate and change the results to create something magical. Whatever it is that you want, can change those tracking metrics and change those results to create something really cool. Within that conversation, I'm excited about today, because today, Dana, we just prepped for this. And I think your track that you're thinking for this conversation today is so beautiful. We talk a lot about new dental tech is what I'll air quote it as.
kind of like new things on the scene. And it's really easy to talk about scanners and lasers and all of those CBCTs and all the different things in the practice that we can implement kind of in the clinical aspect. I really love what you are talking about now with all the other pieces. There's so much AI coming into play. And that's what you had mentioned Dana. And I really want to chat about that because it's so cool.
The Dental A Team (03:06.342)
I know I chat GPT, especially on my personal side. like, I create and think of so much stuff, you know, for Dental A Team, I'm sure you do the same, you create so much for us and our content. I know on my personal side, I'm like, Ben, chat GPT, tell me what to do. that, like, AI has really come into play strong, I would say in the last year. And this year, even a month and a half or whatever into the year feels like
Like it's a do or die. Like you're using AI. There's just no two ways about it. So how have you seen in your practices currently, the AI bots come into play and all those pieces aside from chat GPT that can help with the patient response. But how have you seen those AI tools really be being implemented? And then I want to think about how do we see like the future, what that's going to look like as well.
Dana (03:58.528)
Yeah, I think it's actually pretty incredible some of the new like dental AI stuff that's coming out essentially now you can use AI to be almost like a receptionist or a part of especially your front office team. Lots of dental tech companies coming out with
They can, you know, the chat bot or the AI bot can take care of missed calls or after hours calls. So now patients can have communication with you 24 hours a day, not just when your office is open. Being able to log into your system and actually schedule the patient without you there.
The Dental A Team (04:35.067)
Mm-hmm.
Dana (04:38.23)
and doing it really actually pretty well. And then sending, you know, a lot of the AI, the reception, it's like, then they send you, you know, an overview of the call so that you know exactly what was said, you can add in any notes that you want. So it truly can be as if they called while somebody was in the practice. And so AI is really coming in strong this year, especially in the dental world. And I'm excited, you know, I know a lot of offices in my calls, it's like they struggle with call volume, and they struggle with
The Dental A Team (05:06.285)
That's nice.
Dana (05:08.685)
getting their team members to be able to handle the volume of calls that are coming in and still get their tasks done. So when you have something that can easily handle that overflow and keep you going and keep you moving forward and you can still have a pulse on it, I think it's actually really cool.
The Dental A Team (05:14.163)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (05:23.313)
I agree, and it makes me think of vacation time too, because there's so many practices that don't have 20 team members that if people are taking vacation or if doctor wants to take vacation, there's not two associates to take over the schedule. And so it's like the practice is closing down. But one of the biggest fears I think a lot of practice owners have is shutting down the practice means there could be a week or how many other days of patient calls and patient interactions that are missed.
Sometimes we don't have the staff to be like, hey, sometimes they want to take vacation with you, know, or the same time as you. So that's what it made me think of too, is, well, grab a bot for, you know, that we have somebody maybe checking in on it and looking at it. Obviously, we don't fully trust it yet. They haven't taken over the world just yet. But having somebody monitor it, but for vacations, things like that, you said the after hours kind of extends into that. Or Fridays, a lot of doctors, and it's a lot of new patient opportunities on Fridays because...
dentistry. You know, we love being off on Fridays as often as we can as well. But a lot of companies are actually off on Fridays or have flex Fridays. And so sometimes I think for the just humans in general for the population, Fridays are kind of a catch up day where we're making appointments, we're calling in, we're asking questions and we're getting appointments done. And so we miss a lot of opportunities there. And the dreaded Monday fell apart.
Dana (06:44.91)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (06:45.046)
So, you know, it might still fall apart. You might still get those calls, but at least it's not walking into 30 voicemails on Monday morning and then being like, oh my gosh, everything we talked about in huddle is just completely destroyed because everybody fell off the schedule or whatever. So I love that. I love that. Have you seen to I know there's a lot of third party companies, Modento and Dental Intel and Diversion, all those companies. Have you seen to I haven't like looked into it. So I'm asking.
For reals, if they're using any of those tools yet within their stuff, think Modento had some stuff like on the wire. I'm not sure, but, any opportunities or anything for like confirmations, right? Cause I know, I guess like Modento has done voicemail jobs. So it's like, we're already partially there with like voicemail jobs and the automated, voicemails or phone calls for re-care and things like that. So how do you think that'll affect having the AI bot I feel like is so much more.
customizable and you can like give it rules. can give it lingo and verbiage and just kind of different things. So how do you see that transitioning for companies like that too?
Dana (07:55.734)
Yeah, I can't say that I've seen any of the companies integrate it yet. I do think it's coming, but I do think some of the newer companies that are doing AI really well and are coming out, they are offering those things like confirmation calls, like re care calls. You can get your basically AI receptionist to do those things for you. And truly, I think because it is customizable, it also does feel more as if it is a human versus those automated text messages that as much as we try to make them warm and
The Dental A Team (08:19.937)
Yeah. Yeah.
Dana (08:25.592)
friendly and specific and just from our office, right? AI, think is a little bit of a step above that.
The Dental A Team (08:33.717)
Yeah, I agree. I agree. think it's caveat, I know I said chat GPT and I know a lot of people love verbiage. think Dana and I get a lot of, and the other, other consultants as well. But I know Dana and I for sure get up so many text messages or emails of like, how do I say this? I want to say this to my team or I want to tell my doctor this. How do I, how do I do this? Give me words. I have a couple of practices that just call it like tiffisms and like what would tiff say? And I'm like, holy cow.
which I love and I love verbiage and I love communication. like, warning, I guess, or a reminder, if you are going to chat GPT or whatever AI, any of that stuff, just make sure that you guys are still looking at it and personalizing it, especially if it's you throw some, I've seen a lot of people throw things into a program like chat GPT.
that spits out like a patient response. And sometimes it is robotic, because it is a robot. It's not a human on the other side. They did as good as they could so far with it, and they do really great job. But sometimes those things can still come off, like you said, Dana, a little cold or harsh. And so I just stress the importance of taking it, making it your own. I say the same thing about my verbiage when I give it to people. This is a template. I love giving templates, and I want you to make it your own, because it should sound like you. It shouldn't sound like...
a robot a shouldn't sound like a script, it should sound like you still. So no matter how you're getting those verbiage tips and tools or what you're choosing to do with it, just make sure there's a human interaction side of it, and you're bringing that humanization back to it. That's my warning, my caveat there, because I do use it occasionally, or sometimes my brain's just dead at the end of the day, and I'm like, my gosh, how do I make this recipe? Gosh, I'm...
ChatGPT is becoming a best friend in my personal life, feel like. But aside from the AI stuff, or you're in transition with the AI stuff, I think that pulls into that teledentistry side as well. Because I know a lot of practices that are still doing a lot of teledentistry. Obviously, it was huge during quote unquote COVID times. But I think it spurred something for us in the availability to create more opportunities for our patients. So a lot of practices are doing the cosmetic
The Dental A Team (10:50.787)
consults virtually. And it's really cool smile designs, smile makeover, all of these different variations of a teledentistry appointment. And I'm thinking with that kind of AI kind of smashing those two together, because that's an easy opportunity to allow an AI bot or someone to schedule those appointments and have someone who's like over the cosmetic consults when you don't have the opportunity or availability in the practice.
So teledentistry is still really, really a fantastic idea, I think, and something that we don't consider tech in our brains, but it kind of is. And it's kind of cool to be able to say, let's take a half day Thursday and take three hours in the afternoon and bust out three cosmetic consults or more. And I've seen a lot of success with that. Dana, have you seen that as well? You still have a lot of clients who are using teledentistry or considering it.
Dana (11:45.036)
Yeah, they do definitely do for different types of consultations and even I have one office that will do teledentistry to like pre-screen for limited right to see if this is something I just need to refer out or do we need to see you in the office? So they'll use it for that to end some PEDS offices using it for like surgery or sedation consulting and I have one office that's even trying to do some just case presentations or treatment.
The Dental A Team (12:14.493)
yeah.
Dana (12:14.786)
presentations if the patient left the office, right, and they can't come in, just doing that too. So I think using the technology at your fingertips that make it that it's convenient for the patient, that it's easy for you, I think take advantage of it where you can within your practice.
The Dental A Team (12:31.234)
Yeah, that's a great idea doing the consults because a lot of practices will have those monster treatment plans. So it's like, okay, let's have you back in for a consult. And we know that's difficult to get patients to come back in, especially if we're not accomplishing something, right? They're not getting treatment that day. So I always tell clients who are doing that style of treatment planning, it's totally fine. And I love it. But just make sure maybe we do fillings with that.
treatment console, but I think that's a great idea to doing it by zoom or Google meet or any of those platforms really are a lot of them have free up to while Google meet is free, right for however long you want it, but even zoom has up to I think 35 or 40 minutes of free information that you don't have to pay for. So that's a really great idea because then it just locks it in and I think we've all become accustomed to this being like being in person, you know, I think virtual.
has become the norm. It's almost weird to constantly be in person with people. Again, thank you, 2020. And I think it's worked out well for the dental industry. So that's a great idea to be able to do those bigger consults. And I too have some pediatric practices, even the moms who are moms and something happens and we're like, I got to get my kid in. Like right now you got to look at this. And a lot of my pediatric practices will.
do the same thing where they'll take a picture, send it in, or let's hop on a Zoom call or Google Meet, and they'll kind of tell the parent how to angle the camera or what have you to show whatever it is. I mean, I remember one time I brought Brody all the way in and I was working in office and I'm like, you have to look at this and it was literally nothing. It was like, he's like, you are just being so silly. You are in dentistry.
you know these things, but as you put your mom hat on and you're like, I don't know anything, my kid, like something happened, you just have to look. And so I can't even imagine being outside of dentistry and something happening to my kid and really not having any of that background knowledge. So for my pediatric practices, it's been really beneficial to be able to do things like that and take some of that stuff off their plates. And for pediatric practices too, with the AI conversation, like they're seeing so many patients.
The Dental A Team (14:44.728)
in any given day, right? They're seeing 45 to 80 patients any given day with one doctor, let alone, you've got practices that have two or three doctors, they're seeing a lot of patients. So for a front office team to have to keep up with the confirmations, even the check-in, the check-out, like, you've got to understand they're spread so thin, and then they've got phone calls coming in and they've got new patients to schedule, and it's hard in a GP practice to be working on the hour, but in
peed practices, right? We're really, Dana, working on the 15 minutes. And so every 15 minutes, you have anywhere from one to six to eight patients coming and going every 15 minutes. So I think that's a great idea to really be able to add that tech into practices like that. I love it. I love it. And I love the, I just love the transitions dentistry takes. We think back, gosh.
Dana (15:17.774)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (15:42.844)
Even three years ago, it was like, oh, let's do a scanner, right? We're doing that whole mouth scans was like crazy town. And it's like, now you're doing a whole mouth scan before you ever get to my practice. You're taking pictures of your mouth just so my doctor can do a virtual consult with you and doesn't have to be in the practice. So think it's really cool. Um, hygiene side, I know we've talked lasers before and I think that's still like one of the
Dana (15:47.816)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (16:10.541)
one of the latest and the greatest, but what have you really seen the hygiene side? I know I pick your brain on this a lot, be able to implement maybe not, you know, virtual or AI or whatever, but just how have scanners and CBCTs and all of this new-ish, right, within the last five, maybe even 10 years, how has that impacted the hygiene visits and the care that hygienists have been able to provide to the patients in your opinion?
Dana (16:37.676)
Yeah, I think the technology advances in lasers, in all of the microscope and the saliva testing and all of the things that are coming out for hygiene right now. It really just allows you to give more individualized care, that you have more options to get the patient in your chair, the best result for them, because patients come in very unique varieties.
The Dental A Team (16:56.881)
Yeah.
Dana (16:59.968)
every single day and so being able to say, I have this thing that's going to benefit you. I have this thing that I know will make this area better and being able to have more choices of those to be able to give individualized care.
And individualized instruction too. I not even just things in the office, the technology that's available even over the counter to patients to help with home care, to help with the things that hygienists are talking about those things every day. And so I think the technology has been a game changer in the last decade as far as being able to get patients results from adjunct treatments or different products or different.
The Dental A Team (17:29.117)
you
Dana (17:40.108)
things that are available now that just weren't.
And things that don't necessarily so much of the hygiene products that existed before and still do right it It's patient compliance. So as long as patient does it does it correctly they get results and now there's so many things that actually if I do this in my chair you get the results so I don't it's not so reliant on Patient compliance and patient following through and patient stepping it up It's great come more often and I can do this come more often and I can oversee this and I can get you the results Which I think is incredible
The Dental A Team (17:43.447)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (17:52.123)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (17:59.686)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (18:07.731)
Yeah.
Dana (18:13.264)
you
The Dental A Team (18:14.173)
I agree. I love that conversation of just come more often and something that we've always been afraid of. Having that conversation with our patients, which has always interested me, because I mean, we tie ourselves by these rules that we feel like we're in place by the companies we won't mention today. We won't go on that tangent, but we do like put ourselves in this little box. And it's like, if we are here actually for the patient's best benefit, then all of these things
Come into play for that. Come into the practice more frequently. Get your testing done. Like, let's figure out what your saliva tells us. How can we positively impact your dental health and your full body health just by the foods that you're eating or things you're drinking, which is insane and so cool. And again, couple of that with a results-driven conversation over a virtual call. Like, that's incredible. So you can help them.
just in so many different ways. And as you're talking, was thinking, gosh, thinking about how different tools like AI can help support the team that you have. I think the first thing, especially from a front office standpoint is like, you're going to replace me with a robot. We're all going to be replaced with robots one day, right? Like 50 years down the road, guess what? I don't know. But the point of all of those tools is not to replace the humans.
that we love and want on our team, it's to provide them support so that they can do more and do better for the patients that are coming in, the other humans. So it's like, these tools are being integrated to help support you to give a better experience for the patient base.
and to support the patients in their overall health. If I have more time to spend even interacting and having a simple conversation face-to-face with a patient who's in the practice because an AI bot is scheduling someone for me, that patient is likely to say, yeah, that sounds great. I'm gonna stop drinking coffee because it's tearing up my insights based on this test you just gave me results for. Like getting people to the level where they're comfortable.
The Dental A Team (20:26.63)
Right? They're open that vulnerability space of just having that human interaction. So if we can take confirmations off of your plate, if we can take these things off of the humans and allow human human contact and conversation and AI or bots to text messages, like I don't need to send the text messages. Somebody else, know, a bot can do that. A service can do that. I want to be human interaction. I don't need to be electronic interaction. So.
It's really cool. Thank you, for that conversation. You've got my brain thinking, you know, and hopefully those who are listening got your brain thinking too and you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. Dana, think we always like to leave with action items, right? And I think action items right now are really that conversation of how can I support my team with tools like this or where do...
Dana (20:58.638)
No.
The Dental A Team (21:18.249)
Where do my team members need support so that they can have that more human interaction? So I think that's an item Dana and tell me if there's something to add or if you want to spin this a little bit. But I think that's the conversation and the action item is to really just start thinking about how your patient experience might be better or how your team's experience might be better by utilizing some of those tools. Can we do teledentistry appointments for
you know, and not calling it tele dentistry, calling it your consults. Can we do consults by virtual? Can we get a bot or an offsite virtual assistant, someone that can help support our team? I that's your action item guys. Dana, what are your thoughts? What do you want to lead them with today?
Dana (22:03.276)
Yeah, no, I love that and I think that, you know, leaders, practice owners take time even every year to just look at office optimization and is there a new technology? Is there a new product? Is there a new service or something that can help me optimize, whether it's my patient experience or my team or, you know, services that I've got.
for patients, think it's just a great time to sit down and look for opportunities there and how can you, like you said, optimize and help, not necessarily take away.
The Dental A Team (22:35.533)
I love it. Good. I love the word optimize. Good word to pull out there. All right, guys. This was a fun conversation. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you got some good tips or sometimes hearing something that you've heard before will spin you to think, okay, gosh, now I really actually need to do this or yeah, that was a cool thing I forgot about. So have fun with it. Go enjoy it. Optimize your practice. Go optimize your team.
and really, really truly support your team and your patients in the best ways possible. And that's how it comes back to you and they will support you in the best ways possible. So leave us a review below. We love a five star that tells us how much you loved this. Tell us what you loved about it. And if there's anything else you guys ever want to hear, please make sure you send it along. [email protected] And if you need any help with your practice or you need ideas, [email protected] is an easy way to get that as well.
you can pop over to TheDentalATeam.com and sign up for a practice assessment if you're not already a Dental A Team client. We love to just honestly give you guys ideas and tools. So thank you so much, Dana. Thank you for being here with me today and we'll catch you guys next time.
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Do you ever feel like there’s too much happening in dentistry to keep your head on straight? Kiera talks about 4 ways you can stay up to date without being overwhelmed:
Listen to podcasts
Attend conferences
Join a consulting group
Find what you’re passionate about
Episode resources:
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.554)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the podcast. I hope today is just a magical day for you. I hope that you're having just a great time and I hope that you just remember that we're in the greatest space possible. We get to be in dentistry. We get to help people. We get to literally help people have greater smiles and greater happiness in life. And I think that that is one of the most incredible things that we get to be a part of. So thank you for being a part of our family. Thank you for being on the podcast with us.
Thank you for listening in, get ready. We're gonna actually start to have a lot of you join us on the podcast. I have a new idea that's ready to trickle out and I hope you are excited for it. I wanna get to know more of you. I want to hear from more of you. So get ready, it's coming for you. Today is going to be kind of a funny topic. I thought it was funny. I have our team, they're super kind, our marketing team, shout out to them. They actually go and they read Facebook groups and they read.
different areas, they read a lot of dental information and they're constantly watching things and they listen for what you guys are emailing in on, which you could always email me a podcast topic. [email protected]. I love to hear from you. love pen pals. and so our team, they go out and they scope and I read this one and I said, I don't want to podcast on that. and then I read through, they have a nice list for me of about seven pages of topics for me, which is super nice. And this topic was on there like,
It was here. And then I looked on the list and it was here again. And I thought, okay, fine. I will talk about a topic. And I hope that this is helpful for you. And the question is like how to stay updated on all the new dental technology and how to keep my team educated and up to date with the latest techniques and technology. And to me, this feels like a no brainer, but I realized this is obviously a question that you guys have. So let's answer it. All right. So welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast. I'm going to teach you how to do this, how we do it, how we help other offices do it.
And again, something that I thought was so just everyday knowledge isn't. So here we go. That's why we had the podcast. That's why we share. And if you love our podcast, please do me a solid favor, go like, review and share with somebody today. Okay, so ways that we were able to do this. Number one, you're doing a great job. You're listening to a podcast. So high five there. I try really hard to bring people to the industry that I've met, that I talk to, but it is tricky. And it's like, how do we know that these people are the best? So find somebody who's a trusted source.
Kiera Dent (02:19.774)
within the industry that you can trust. I have prided myself for years that I started Dental A Team because of Midwestern students. Shout out to all my Midwestern students out there. I noticed that in dental school, they were gonna get freaking eaten alive coming out into the world of dentistry. And it's like, how do you trust different reps? Because people are so good at selling you on the latest technology and the latest this and the latest that, that it's kind of scary.
And so that was something that I wanted to do is to be a resource, to be a beacon, to help you know, these are people I've vetted. Just so you know, any sponsor I bring on, they have to work with us. They have to do different pieces. They have to let me beta test on them of other practices before I will even introduce them. So I have quite a few people in the back burner at all times that I'm testing, that I'm vetting, that I wanna make sure that they're getting results before I bring them onto the podcast. I got burned a little bit early on. And also if you listen to past podcasts,
that company might not stay the top of the list. I'm constantly looking for it and I tell offices like you might not get to be or sponsors. I will always be looking and if someone comes in better than you, they will get promoted from me. So I think that that's one zone. Like I've told Zeke at Swell, if anybody comes onto the market that's better doing Google reviews than him, I will definitely promote them. As of today,
Zeke is still the number one way that I get Google reviews for clients. They tell me all the time, Kiera, but we have it in this software, this software. I say, guess what? Zeke does it for, think like 149 or 199 a month. And I have offices who I literally beta tested on who got over 50 reviews in one month from using Swell. They have grown their practice from having like three new patients a month, I'm not joking, to having over 45 new patients a month by using Swell. People ask, how did you do it, Kiera? And I'm like, honestly, it was Google reviews and time. That's it.
And so for that, I will promote them. And so when you're curious about how do we find this up to date of new technologies, I think listening to podcasts and listening to trusted sources out there, like AI and different pieces, I also think going to conferences. So the way I actually meet a ton of our sponsors and speakers and different people are through conferences. I go to these conventions and I go meet people and then I go test their products and then I work with them and I figure out and I have a lot of our clients are beta testers for me and they'll try them out and I get free trials for them.
Kiera Dent (04:35.566)
but going to your conferences in your areas, not only is great for a CE, but go meet people. And I know it can be annoying to be sold all the time, but it can be helpful. And so for example, like right now, the greatest AI on the market is between Overjet and Pearl. Those are the top two for adding AI onto your X-rays to help you co-diagnose, to helping you with that. They're the best on the market. I love Pearl. That's the one we've selected to go with. We have an affiliate relationship with them where I get the most preferred pricing for all of our clients.
So if you're interested in that, be sure to reach out. We can help you connect with them and get that discounted rate. But this is how we do it. Also, I think online, like watching reels as silly as that sounds, but there's a lot on Instagram and TikTok and things like that. But then questioning it as well of is this really real and what really is needed for my practice? So right now AI is hot. So let's be looking at AI and what things could we implement into our practice. And it's one of those things I don't like to be the earliest adopter, but I also don't want to be the person who never adopted and I actually got left behind.
So when we're looking for this new technology, we're looking for these new things, attending those pieces, watching it, and then doing our own individual research. Like you can email me anytime, hey Kiera, have you heard about this company? I love it when people do that. Cause one, you expose me to other companies and two, I'm able to then go research them, vet them, and then bring it to the podcast and share. Because my goal is within our community, within consulting, I love it. We bring our offices together. And this is actually how I also learn about a lot of things. And that would be my third point of like, join a consulting group.
I know I'm a consultant, so hopefully you want to choose the Dental A Team, but join a consulting group that brings people together, that shares. We bring our doctors together every single month, and then we meet in person actually twice a year. And it's because I want you to mastermind and I want you to talk to each other, and I want you to figure out what are the best ideas, what are the best resources, who are you using for this, who are you using for that? Because just hearing and talking with other people, it's like, my gosh, I didn't even know that. In our company, we call it Tip Tuesday.
And every Tuesday, our team member brings pieces to the tables. Like today, Shelby brought like a window cleaner. And it seems so silly, but I think back to community, right? Think back to back in the day when we didn't have technology and we weren't all connected virtually, we were connected in person. And when you're in person, you chat. And when you chat, you share your secrets and you share the best things that work for you. And so like Shelby sharing a glass cleaner that's $2.89 on Amazon, life-changing.
Kiera Dent (06:59.234)
But without community and without chatting, that's something that I would have just gone on my merry way continuing to buy Windex that is the strongest being promoted product out there. And it sounds so silly, but it's tips like that. What are the little things you're doing in your practice? What are the elite practices doing? What are other offices doing? And let's all share. And it's not just the elite practices. It's a lot of startups. Startups are scrappy. They've got other resources. But like I talked to my gym trainer and we used to virtually coach. And then I went in person with her.
And instantly I'm connected to people for the podcast and people for social media and different people for whatever it is because I'm with her. And so getting together with a consulting group that meets in person or meets virtually that shares ideas, our community goes wild and it's incredible to see them all sharing, hey, what cosmetic group do you want to go to? Or, hey, what's a great resource for this? Or what's a great thing for that? But being a part of a group of community of trusted colleagues, I also think is a great way to stay on top of it. Now, how do we get our team educated on it?
I think that there's other ways like you can take them to courses. So look to see, I usually try to do things within our team that I want to learn. So let's say we wanna learn marketing. We're gonna take our team to marketing events. We're going to find coaches for marketing. We're gonna find events around it. If you wanna do cosmetic, let's do cosmetic. Let's bring it to the office. Again, that's why I love consulting is because we literally fly to the office and we show you guys what you can implement within your practice that can help with it. So finding those things, but...
Also on your leadership team, get them fired up. Hygenist will go and look for research and information and see E that's going to make them so excited and so fun that they're excited about with laser and PRF and PRP and what can we do for snoring and different pieces like that. But find what you're passionate about. And that's also another way, because I think sometimes we get so inundated with technology that we miss what we're actually passionate about. And so really helping you realize this can be fun. You don't have to be.
over the top and like, my gosh, I'm missing out on all of this. I would say in a simple form of number one, plan to go to at least one dental convention every single year. I don't care what it is. I don't care where you go. I don't care if wanna travel out of state, but that's gonna be your best way to bring those people in because those conferences are constantly looking for sponsors and people and a lot of the newer companies, a lot of the OG companies.
Kiera Dent (09:13.528)
they tend to attend these conferences. If you're not in a big area where maybe a lot of people won't come to it, go to some of the bigger ones like RMDC in Colorado, Chicago Midwinter, Dicama. Some of these are really big ones that will bring more people in for you. And you don't have to even go for the CE. Just go walk the vendor halls, go see who this is there, and then go do some research on it. Next would be, would say, listen to podcasts and attend free webinars. Our company puts on the third Thursday of every single month, we do a free CE webinar.
And I do that intentionally to bring great people to the audience, to share with you other people that are out there, to get all these different pieces of technology and sponsors and vendors and different things that will make your office easier, attend those. So I would pick once a year, go to a conference every month, find some sort of CE, whether it's a book, whether it's a webinar or something that's going to get you educated. And then the third thing I would say is to join a group, a consulting group, because honestly, that's where it's the networking, it's the community, it's sharing.
that you're going to learn all these different pieces. It's too hard to do it on your own. And so find someone. And of course, I would love Dental A Team to be your preferred consultant. I'd love us to help take you to the next level. I'd love to expose you and your team. We have virtual, we have in-person and we have in-person events and we have in-office visits as well where we come to your practice and we also meet together as a community, as a collective group. We do it on Friday and Saturday. It's really fun. It's really exciting. And it's a really great time to just connect to
to share and I think that you doing those items, you will stay up to date. There's no way you can't stay up to date as long as the consultant is innovative. And of course, I'm going to like toot my own horn. We're one of the youngest consulting companies out there. I'm nervous for us to become an older one, but I've tried really hard to keep myself young. Being a millennial, I'm very tech savvy. I'm very aggressive on research and knowledge and innovating and implementing ideas because I know that if we don't, be dated very quickly. And so,
also finding someone who is maybe a little bit younger on that. Like I look for social people that are in their twenties because they're going to innovate even better than I will. And so those would be some of my suggestions of how you can stay up to date, how you can stay current, how you can make sure that you're gathering all these research, these resources, and then realize I'm not going to catch them all, but I'm going to focus on the ones that turn my practice to ease efficiency in the areas I want. And that's what I'm going to do. And I guarantee you, if you do that, you will be so happy. So
Kiera Dent (11:36.386)
Hopefully those gave you some ideas. Like I said, this was a topic that I thought everybody already knew, but in digging into it, I realized this can feel daunting and it can feel like I'm always behind, but I think breaking it down to your annual, your monthly, and then also joining a group. Again, like I said, I'd love you to be a part of it. I think those three things will keep you current and will keep your team current as well. And as always, if we can help you reach out, [email protected] You guys are incredible. We're doing an incredible work. There's amazing things coming into dentistry. And I would say do not get left behind.
but stay current. And then I guess my fourth final tip for you would be commit to implementing at least one item of new technology every single year. And I think if you do those items, you will always stay up to date. I'm happy to share a ton of our resources. So reach out, [email protected] And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
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Did you know you’re losing $600,000 to $1 million by having open time in your schedule? Kiera talks about what is likely impacting your schedule and how to fix it (without working overtime).
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Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.974)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is just a great day and I hope you're having a great day. I hope that you remember you are changing people's lives through dentistry. Like what you're doing, know billing, hygiene, hygiene checks, dentistry, doing the exams, doing the numbers, looking at the profitability, running the business doesn't feel like you're changing lives, but you are. You're giving people the confidence of their smiles and their healthy mouths. You're helping them have long-term systemic health. You're saving them from period disease. You're helping them have like
preventing the risk of cardiovascular disease. You are doing such a great service in this world and you're also helping more people smile more confidently, changing their lives exponentially. And just remember you're doing so much good. So let's keep it up. And I'm here to give you all the tactical practical tips, infusing your world with positivity and changing this world in the greatest way possible. If you love the podcast, leave us a review, share it with a friend, do something of goodness today. You guys just stay here and listen on your own.
Share with someone, send it to a doctor, send it to a team member, send it to a colleague, whomever it is, put it in a Facebook group, tag me. I'd love to see a picture of you where you're at. Tag us. It makes me so happy to get to know you instead of just talking to you. So share, I'd love to hear from you. And thank you for being a part of our family. Make sure that you guys are sharing though. keeps us at the top of the list. And my goal is to bring you massive value that you naturally want to be sharing. And so today my massive value is...
how to give you back like 600 to a million dollars to your practice. You on board with that? Does that sound dreamy enough for you to share with someone to listen in to take some notes? I hope so because Tiff and I were actually talking the other day and she was like, Kiera, it's so interesting. I talked to practices and like, I'm not hitting my numbers. I can't afford these things. I can't do this. And the answer is that's true. But there's a simple, simple, simple solution. And then we're going to, I'll give you two. That's actually helping you.
miss this money and it's so simple and yet we look at over all the time and it's your schedule being open. I know, I know. I took you to the top and brought you down to the bottom. What, Kiera, you want to tell me that? Yes, your schedule being open because if we take your hourly production and your hygiene's hourly production and we go and look at your open time in your schedule, if you just filled your schedule, it's like we calculated it. It's 600 to a million dollars in most practices by just having open time in their schedule.
Kiera Dent (02:24.216)
which then you're like, well, I can't afford these things. can't do it. Well, yeah, because your schedule's open. And so I want to give you some tips. Like I said, it seems kind of like, gosh, OK, we're going to do this. We are going to do this because 600 to a million just with an open schedule. So what impacts our schedule being open? Cancellations, not closing treatment, not getting patients to schedule, not reappointing our patients, not having a cancellation policy within our practice.
Those things create open schedules. And then also I'm going to lovingly and directly say not having our team focused and obsessed on filling the schedule. Offices who are obsessed with filling the schedule, meaning we have it to 90 to 95 % to goal every single day are the offices that are freaking killing it. The other offices are like, we tried our best. See you later. It's five. No. As a front office team member, the expectation and the agreement we made was I was not allowed to leave for the day.
unless my schedule for the next day was full. Now people tell me, Kiera, we fill our schedule, it's full at the end of the day and I come in in the morning and I have voicemails canceling my whole day out. Well, phenomenal, you don't have a cancellation policy. Number one, don't let them leave a voicemail to cancel. It's way too easy to break up with someone on a voicemail. So let's eliminate that. On your voicemail, can say, thank you for calling, if you have an emergency here, this is. Also, we do require.
Kiera Dent (03:56.866)
Also, we do require a 48 hour notice for any appointment changes and we do not accept those via voicemail. Give us a call back during normal business hours to move your appointment or reappoint your appointment. That was really, really clunky. Call back during business hours to reappoint or reschedule your dental appointment. Also, text messages, I do not accept them via text message. I tell them, hey, thank you for reaching out. We can't take any appointment changes via text. Give me a quick call and I'll help you get this taken care of.
Amazing. They text you. So we don't have to worry about that. My dermatologist literally has no voicemail. I kid you not, there is no way for me to leave them a voicemail after hours for cancellation. They don't have it and they have a policy that if we don't have a 48 hour notice that we have a credit card on file and it's a hundred dollar fee, you can choose whatever you want. I'm not here to advocate that you should charge fees. I'm not here to say you should have a credit card on file, but I am saying you need to have a policy that your whole team is behind.
I'm very big on you are a specialist, you are a doctor's office and patients should value your time. So whether we're having them leave you on, they put a deposit down, there's a credit card on file, but every specialist, I'm talking IVF, dermatologists, doctors, like everybody in healthcare has a credit card on file. And if you choose not to show for that appointment and you don't give them a 48 hour notice, there is a deposit that's non-refundable that they do take. Now you don't have to do that, but you do have to have a policy.
Some offices, if you choose to cancel or reschedule your appointment, I never use the word cancel, they just reschedule because I have no one who cancels on me. They reschedule their appointment. If they choose not to do it within 48 hours, that's okay. We push them out six weeks or 12 weeks, whatever it is, and then we move them forward after they've waited for about four weeks. If they continue to do it, so it's a three strike policy for me, if they choose to continue to do that, then they actually get put on what's called our walk-in.
list like, Hey, care, it sounds like you're super, super busy. We're actually not going to reschedule this appointment for you. just give me a call and you'll be on a same day walk in, that we'll be able to get you in if we have availability that day. but either way, there's a set policy and we're going to start to train our patients. So our patients stop canceling off of our schedules because remember 600 to a million, just by having open schedules is something we need to stop. And so looking at this, you can also have them sign that they understand that these things are happening, but really
Kiera Dent (06:18.958)
getting super clear on what our cancellation policy is, having everybody follow through on it and making sure, and you're not being a jerk. You're just saying like, these are the rules of our game. We want you to play the game with us. These are the rules. Do we agree that we're both going to play by them? Absolutely. Yes. Phenomenal. Come to our practice. We're going to be on time for you. We're going to get you back and we're going to make sure that we see you and we have the adequate time for you. That's how we play the rules of the game. So number one, keeping our schedules full. We don't take those cancellations.
We make sure that at the end of the day, our schedules are always filled, filled up to goal. We call, you guys, I used to call all the time and I got so good when patients called to cancel and I'm like, my gosh, Mrs. Jones, tell me what's going on. like, I hope you're doing okay. Tell me what's going on. And I find out what her problem is and then I find the solution. Mrs. Jones, doctor was so excited to see you today. I understand you have a work meeting. Like thank you for letting me know. We do require a 48 hour notice for any appointment changes.
Let's see, I could actually like if we could get you in and out by two o'clock today, does that work for you? Yep, that works great. Amazing. Mrs. Jones is in my schedule. I just move her time. We move along. There's so many ways that we can keep patients on the schedule. We can let them know like, hey, like I have people that like I can't make it send an Uber. If they're a big case, send an Uber to the patient. But you've got to have some solutions for them to where patients are staying on our schedule. And I feel like this is where if you own
and your friend office owns that the schedule will be full and that's what their agreement with you is. Excellent. Hold them to that level. And people are like, but Kiera, patients are canceling for sure. Let's count for a 10 % cancellation. Like that's normal, but guess what? We've still got to keep 90 % of it full. We still have to go through that open time. Hygienist not hitting their goals. does it do to open time? Anytime we have open time on the schedule or if we like finish with a patient on time or like, let's say it's an hour and we finish at 45 minutes.
For every 15 minute increments, let's have people make five phone calls. So we've got outbound calls going all the time to make sure our schedule is always getting full with people coming in. This is how we keep our schedules full. This is how we own it. This is how. And then the next thing is doctors needs to be diagnosing. I shouldn't share our secrets. We have a question for consultants interviewing for our company, and I'm always looking to see if they can catch it. It's the hardest one for them to catch. It's the schedule is so busy, but we're not hitting goal.
Kiera Dent (08:42.052)
Well, usually that's because doctors not diagnosing enough. So let's check at that. And doctors, this is not me saying you're doing anything wrong. But what I am going to say is, we being comprehensive and are we diagnosing comprehensively for that patient? Are we doing quad dentistry or are we like watching a lot of things because we don't want to have the conversations of treatments needed? That's a question you get to answer. I'm not your dentist. I'm not a doctor. You get to tell me that. I'm just here to ask you the question. So when we look at that, if we're not able to hit goal and we don't have these schedules filled,
Is it because we're not presenting enough treatment? Is it because we're not closing enough treatment? And are we not calibrated between hygiene for an office and doctors to make sure that all of us are actually on the same page with each other and that we're closing all these cases? Are we reviewing our cases together? Are we looking to see what's going on with these cases? Are we looking to find out why is it not closing? We presented it this way. Are we recording ourselves and listening to them back to find out what are we saying that's not having these cases closed? Because patients are the dentist. They want dentistry. And I want you to remember that. There's an office that I coach in there.
team is incredible. We have added so much to their practice and helped so many more patients. And one of their treatment coordinators, says, she's like, Kiera, when people come to the dentist, they want to do dentistry. So they want to do dentistry. My job is to make sure that they get the dentistry done. Like they're here. And I was like, that is the most beautiful way to think about this because you're right. They're at the dentist. They're here. They're giving up their time to be here. Let's make sure that we're giving them the information that they need. We're helping them. We're guiding them. And we're actually helping them have good, clean, healthy mouths.
That's what we're here for. And so for you guys looking to see these are easy ways for us to actually add money to our schedule. We can afford things, but money is being lost because the team's not unified. So if all of us know no one gets to leave, it's not just the front office. No one leaves until our schedule is full. Well, hygienist, reappoint. You should be at 98 % reappointment. Let's not ask like, Hey, Kiera, do you want to schedule back? It's Kiera, we're going to schedule your six months. I've got you on May 5th at 8 a.m. same time as now.
Can't wait to see you in May and then I'm gonna walk you up to the front if May 5th doesn't work for me I'm going to let you know we always remind them like we do require 48-hour notice for any appointment changes 48 hours and then I also really big on unconfirmed appointments because the schedule can look totally full But if they're not confirmed, they're probably not gonna show and so what's our policy for that? I do have some offices where we call the patients and say hey I've got to hear from you today If not, I am going to need to reschedule your appointment. They scooch off the appointment
Kiera Dent (11:07.914)
we fill it with someone who's guaranteed to come. If that patient comes, I get to have the fun conversation with them. Notice it's fun. Hey, awesome. Again, these are the rules of our game. We called you, we told you we needed to hear from you. And because we didn't hear from you, we did pull you off the schedule. If I have time that day, I'm going to scoot them in. I'm not going to do the whole thing. If I don't, I'm going to say like, I am going to reschedule you. Let's get you back at this time. I do need you to confirm your appointments because we have, we have so many patients that we want to see that every patient does need to confirm their appointment. Great.
They know the rules of the game. You can even tell your patients new year, new start. This is what we require. So patients do need to give a confirmation. Otherwise we will be moving you off the schedule. It's totally fine. But these little areas and people are like, gosh, Keira, is it really worth it? To me, 600 to a million is definitely worth it. I'm not working any extra days. I'm not working any extra hours. I'm literally working the exact same time. I'm just making sure my schedule is full every day. If you wanted to change one thing in 2025,
Keep your schedule full and have the entire team unified on this. I guarantee you, you will see results. Guaranteed. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Guaranteed. You can have it there. But it's a whole team effort. And I promise you, goals will be hit easier. Your team will do better. You'll serve more patients, and you will work less. People are like, Kiera, how do you cut down from five days to four days? You have full schedules. You're able to do it.
we're and we're better with our block scheduling and we map it out. So we're super productive every time. So doctors are diagnosing treatment, treatment coordinators are closing cases. Hygienists are reappointing and schedulers are filling the schedule. The whole team is ticking together and we can actually consolidate. can expand whatever your goals and dreams and desires are. And we have good block schedules in there to fill it full. Then if we can't fill a block with what we're supposed to, we have a 24 hour hold on that. And then if we can't, fill it with something that's going to be productive for it, whether it's an emergency.
We also schedule emergency times in our schedule. Scheduling is so clutch in a practice. And yet I feel like we just haphazardly oftentimes do it. It's so easy. It's so easy to add production to offices, schedules, and consulting because we work on this. We train the team. We watch it. We see it. We make sure they're productive. And then from there, we're able to help offices grow exponentially. So go look to see how to add $600 to a million to your practice. And if we can help you.
Kiera Dent (13:28.056)
We're experts at this. We're really, really good at it. We're really good at helping your team with the verbiage. We're good at helping them understand like how we change the voicemail and what do we do with the upset patients and how do we handle this? Reach out. It's easier to do it with a buddy. So reach out. Hello @ TheDentalATeam.com And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
- Visa fler
