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Fred Heppner of Arizona Transitions is back for part 2 of his chat with Kiera! Life comes at you fast, and sometimes, it comes in the form of a surprise. Kiera and Fred talk about creating an exit strategy today for your departure from dentistry, as well as what the economics look like for moving on from a practice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited for you to have part two of me and Fred Heppner going through associates, DSOs, how to really grow this. You guys, we had such an incredible first half of this episode. It was so long and so much information that I wanted to break it into two parts. So here's part two. I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. Kiera Dent (00:24) should people be talking when they're in their 20s 30s or is it something we're like start to think about it I know Ryan and I from Dentist advisors we we talk shop about this quite often of like there I mean there are studies that show that when you retire you actually start to atrophy in life and ⁓ there isn't as much of a purpose and so we talk often of like how can we continue that mental stamina, the things that are going to fulfill us, whether it's working or something else of philanthropy, like whatever is going to keep you going as a human, whether you're working in the chair or you're not, I think is important. So that's I was curious of like, really probably connecting with you three to five years before we think we might retire, but with the caveat of, hey, if something were to happen to me, what would kind of be my exit strategy? your like death list like I do, like if I die, this is what's going to happen. It's creepy, but it's awesome. Fred Heppner (01:15) No, it's, it's creepy and it is awesome. And at the same time, it's a really good conversation to have because if we're three to five years out, then one of the first things to do is say, okay, so what's going to happen if you're not here? And that carries on to the discussion we had earlier. So once the discussion about, what do want to do when you, when you retire or you stop practicing dentistry, then the questions start coming up. What about the economics? Kiera Dent (01:27) Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (01:44) So in any... Yep, absolutely. Kiera Dent (01:44) I was just going to say, like, is it sell? Is it DSO? it? And also, I mean, this to me also, I think might exponentially accelerate some people's plans because the DSOs are hot and it's like 10x EBITDA. That might accelerate your retirement or your sell because you're on a wave right now that who knows if in the next 20, 30, 40 years we'll be there. Fred, I'm super curious, like, how is this whole DSO model maybe shifting it for transitions? Or is it? I'm curious. Fred Heppner (02:13) It is, it's shifted quite a bit, but what it's shifted is a real desire for dentists to be able to sell their businesses and release the management responsibility and to have somebody else take that over. 15, 20. Yeah. I just want to do, I just want to do dentistry. I don't want to manage a business. I don't want to manage people. Um, I don't want to run the company. I want to be able to practice my trade. Well, Kiera Dent (02:22) you The dream for every business owner. ⁓ Exactly. Fred Heppner (02:43) I can tell you that in the last 15, 20 years, it's certainly exploded in dentistry and not in a bad way. And here's why. Dentists graduating from dental school today need a place to work. The banks that loan money to dentists to buy dental practices are looking for dentists that have a couple years experience in dentistry. They have a production track record. The banks can see what it is that the dentist can do. Chair aside. a good credit score and some liquidity, usually 8 to 10 % of the purchase price of the business that they're looking at in cash. So one of the things to consider is graduating dentists should be able to make the minimum payments on their debt, on their student loans, on what debt they have, and begin to put money away as quickly as possible to gain some liquidity. So as we look at the equation of what DSOs are doing, they're providing them with a place to work. Because as dentists come out, I mean, the majority of dental practices that I work with, maybe you can echo this or discuss it, are just single dentist practices. Right, they don't have a, somebody called it a plus one at some point time, and I thought, okay, that's decent. So you have the dentistry, but there's the ability to bring somebody on maybe one or two days a week. Well, that doesn't, Kiera Dent (03:44) Mm-hmm. Totally same. Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (04:09) That doesn't feed a hungry young dentist coming out of dental school who really has a lot of debt and wants to begin to work and develop a way to reduce that debt. They're looking for four days a week, five. They might have a quality of life thing where they just want to work three tens and be off Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. That's okay. But the point is, is that most private practices don't have the capacity to be able to bring on a full-time dentist and feed them right away and keep them very busy. The DSOs, corporate dentistry, Kiera Dent (04:19) Right. Fred Heppner (04:39) have offices that can provide that place. So essentially, if a dentist comes out of school and begins to work, they may very well work for one of the corporate DSOs, which gives them experience. It gives them the ability to work five days a week. It gives them the ability to practice in what I call civilian dentistry out of dental school. And it gives them the opportunity to be able to see what it's really like. I can tell you, Kiera, that 15, I think 15 years ago, Kiera Dent (04:57) Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (05:08) the most popular phone call I would get on my phone line was, hey, we just got 50 million from a private equity firm. We're starting a DSO, but we're different. And we want to buy practices from you because we heard you're good. And I just tell them, great, thanks very much. Get in line, register on my website. And when an opportunity comes up, I will email to you like I do everybody else the opportunity. Because most of my clients call and say, I... Kiera Dent (05:17) you Fred Heppner (05:34) Hard no to a DSO. I'm a private practitioner. I've got a legacy practice and I want to sell to another private dentist Okay, so that was the most popular second most popular call was I'm sick of working for a company find me a practice to buy Now it's shifted More so do I hear I'm sick of working for somebody else find me a private practice to buy I'm ready to go The the DSO calls have filtered off of it and I don't know that that's a global Kiera Dent (05:48) Mm-hmm. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (06:03) representation of the DSOs starting to slow their buying and really focus on the profitability of the offices they have to really maintain the profitability due to higher interest rates. Maybe they're slowing down their buying. Who knows? The interesting thing about it is that it's somewhat of a closed loop in DSO work. You really can't get into and find out exactly what everybody is doing unless you're member of their organizations, which is fine. And I respect that. Kiera Dent (06:12) Yeah. Fred Heppner (06:32) private information, but it begs the question. And ultimately, if a dentist is looking to buy their own practice, eventually they're going to need those one to two years experience, liquidity, good credit score, in order for them to go to one of the commercial banks and say, I want to buy a practice and let me get a practice to buy and then we'll put it together. Okay? So I can tell you that private practice is alive and well. Kiera Dent (06:55) Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (07:02) very bullish on the individual dentist who's out there still practicing and doing quite well. I can also tell you that those kinds of doctor to doctor transitions are extremely successful. The idea is some people who look at a transition like that would think, my gosh, the dentist leaves, all the patients will leave. They'll go somewhere else, they'll go to other practices. Well, if that was true, let's carry that forward. If that was true, Kiera Dent (07:14) Mm-hmm. No. Fred Heppner (07:28) then that would mean that the loans that the dentist used to buy the practice would go in default, would they not? Because if all the patients left, there would be no revenue and they'd have to fold up camp and see you later, right? The default rate on dental practice loans still over the last 15, 20 years and even recently is 40 basis points. 100 basis points is 1%. 40 basis points is four tenths of 1%. So if you follow the math, Kiera Dent (07:33) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (07:58) The default rate is less than half of 1 % on the billions of dollars that are loaned by banks for dentists to buy practices. They don't fail. Okay. Kiera Dent (08:08) Totally. They don't and they're such a good investment. I think that that's why so many people like, that's why I think DSOs are buying up practices. ⁓ And I think that that's where so many private practice owners now, I would say I've watched where it used to be legacy practices and there's still legacy practice doctors who do not want to sell to a DSO. Like when they're there, they want to sell doctor to doctor, they want to bring in an associate, they want to bring in partners. I think By default, dentistry tends to be a more humanistic, ⁓ very relationship model ⁓ versus I still think though, right now DSOs, you're right. I don't think people are getting as many calls. ⁓ But what I will say is my doctors are probably getting 20 to 30 emails every month from a DSO interested in buying their practice. So they are getting it as private practice owners. And so I think that that's where, ⁓ like I said, some people within the last eight years bought a practice as a private practice. the DSOs, they were profitable. were within the metrics that the DSO wanted. And it just made sense. was like, I'm going to get 10x EBITDA on this. My EBITDA is great. No private party is going to pay me what this DSO is going to pay me. And while yes, I'd love it to maintain a legacy practice, I'm in my 30s and I could basically have retirement today. mean, there's more risk selling out because they have a lot of it in their stocks and there's a whole ⁓ game around that. I think that that's where maybe some of the younger generation might be looking at transitions sooner than I think the more senior population of dentistry is. think that they're starting to be the shift and that's where I'm very curious of like, maybe conversations need to be had sooner. Maybe because DSOs are aggressive on the emails to the dentist. Like it is wild and they are sexy offers to them that are not always true. And that creeps me out too, because they're hearing a number. Like I had a doctor and he had a DSO. Fred Heppner (09:49) Yep. Yep. Kiera Dent (10:04) come to him and they said, Hey, we're going to give you 5 million. And he's like, here, it seems like a great deal. And I said, yeah, but you're going to do 5 million next year just in your own production. So that's actually a bad deal because you're already going to make that without selling to them and having to work for them for the next five to 10 years or like three to five is usually what their requirement is. So again, I think that this is where it's like, how do we cut through that noise to know when I do transition? Because I think people are getting asked to transition from private practice. sooner. You're right, they go work at the DSO, they go to some of those bigger corporate practices to get the experience, then they go buy their private practice, and then it really is, or they do a startup. And then it's pretty aggressive because I think Wall Street's pretty hot right now and private equity is very, very luring, but they do have to hit certain requirements to join DSOs. Fred Heppner (10:53) Yeah. There are tons of verticals that people are getting into, the private equity is getting into, you're right. There's a ton of money at it. You know, I would tell you that the devil is in the details. It may very well be that there are transitions that occur where a DSO or a corporation acquires the assets of a private practice and the dentist stays and works back in the office. And that transition works swimmingly well for the dentist who sells for the DSO. Kiera Dent (11:02) Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (11:21) And ultimately everything works out fine. There are others that don't and they're, they're out there. And I think what you mentioned earlier is, you know, I could get 5 million from my practice. Well, why would you, you will be able to make that in, your earnings in 2.3 years, whatever it might be, whatever the math pencils that be. But if you think about it, if it, if 10 times EBITDA is their offering price, what are, what are the details? How much cash at closing? Kiera Dent (11:38) Right. Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (11:49) Is there a work back or a work back arrangement where you will be paid to be the dentist? And what is your compensation? What are the benefits that you would receive? And what is the term of that work back arrangement? You're right. It's creeping up now more into five years. 15, 20 years ago, was maybe, you know, stay on one or two years and we're good. There's a claw back. There's a hold back provision that holds back part of the purchase price. And the dentist has to meet the Kiera Dent (12:04) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Fred Heppner (12:17) has to meet certain metrics from the trailing 12 months to be able to get that back. Well, let's pretend. Let's pretend that the DSO comes in and sets up the practice and nothing changes and the business continues to grow and develop because there's more marketing promotion and advertising. There's better cost control. There's just better stuff going on and that works. Well, what if it doesn't? What if all of a sudden the company comes in and says, we're changing these policies? You were Delta Dental Premier, we're jumping into PPOs because we've got really good reimbursement rates on these 12 PPO contracts. Well, if that reimbursement rate drops from fee for service, does that hinder the doctor to be able to generate the income necessary for that hold back to be acquired in the next two to three years? And then there's equity. You mentioned that they offer a stock in the company to be able to ultimately participate in a Kiera Dent (13:09) Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (13:15) recapitalization should that happen? Well, it'd be really interesting. You're going to love this one. I know you're going to love this one. So for any of your listeners, any of your A-Team clients, if they get approached by a DSO and they look at it and they think it's really, really good, have somebody look at it. What you will hear typically is you really don't need an advisor. You don't need an attorney. We've got all the contracts ready to go. You can come. Kiera Dent (13:35) Mm-hmm. Lies. Lies. Fred Heppner (13:44) Exactly. You can just take all of this and we'll be good. Well, trust but verify. And ultimately a good team would be able to review the…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera is joined by Fred Heppner of Arizona Transitions to talk through dental practice transitions. Their conversation includes when you should start thinking about your transition, what the economic outcomes will be any way you go, what a private indemnity group is (and how it can help), and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript Kiera Dent (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am so excited to welcome an incredible guest to our podcast, Fred Heppner. He's with Arizona Transitions. And honestly, I feel like right now in today's world, dentists need more than ever guidance and direction of like, what do we do? How do I transition my practice? What am I looking at for retirement? Do I go the DSO route? Do I do the legacy practice route? I just feel like there's so much confusion. And so trying to cut through that noise, Fred is incredible. We met him and I just said, you know what? He's incredible. And so he said for him, it's whether a person is buying a dental practice or putting a dental practice up for sale, Fred truly can help you successfully navigate through that transition. He deals with complete transitions of dental offices and also practices securing a partner or an associate, which that is such a hard thing. Like, how do we do this? There's a million ways to slice and dice that pie because he's worked with so many different aspects of the dental industry. His experience allows him to ensure that all parties are satisfied with the transition. So I'm super jazzed. Fred, welcome to the show today. How are you? Fred Heppner (01:02) I'm doing great. Thank you, Kiera. I gotta meet this guy. Who is this guy, Fred? Kiera Dent (01:06) Well, here he is, if I'm not mistaken. But truly, I'm so honored to have you on the podcast. When our team met you, they were like, Kiera, he's got to get on the podcast. And so just truly excited because like I said, this is a zone that I get excited to geek out on because we deal with it in consulting all the time. Our clients are constantly asking us like, what should we do? They want to bring on partners, they want to bring on associates, they want a retention model. ⁓ They want to know like, I feel like your dental practice can be your greatest asset or your greatest burden, depending upon how you set it up. And so really being able to just dive in with you. And like I said, I think there's so much noise right now. The dentists are like, it's almost like ostrich in the sand. Like, I just don't want to even think about it. I'm going to put my head in the sand. I'm not going to pay attention. But the reality is like, let's educate, let's learn. Let's bring experts in like yourself. So that way dentists can feel more confident making the decision. I don't think it has to be scary. I don't think it's be daunting. We just need to be educated and. Fred Heppner (01:41) Yeah, I agree. No. Kiera Dent (02:05) and hear wisdom and then do what feels right. So Fred, that was my intro, but anything else you want to add of how you got here or, mean, I'm just excited to riff with you today. Fred Heppner (02:14) I appreciate the opportunity and I can tell you even from what you just said back in, back in 1983, when I started in the business of dentistry, the interesting thing was I didn't hear very often, Hey, what's your transition plan? Because oftentimes dentists were really just going to build a practice and then that was going to be their retirement and they would sell their practice and retire. Financial planners were, were non-existent to a large degree. And it was early on that I heard somebody and it really resonated with me. They asked a young dentist who had just taken ownership or started a practice, when are you going to hang up your hand piece? And the dentist kind of, I just got started. What do mean? When am going to hang it up? I got, you know, I got 20, 30 years here. No, no, no. The moment you take ownership of a business, you want to consider what your transition plan out would be early on so that it doesn't spring it on. Kiera Dent (02:51) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (03:09) We may talk here later on about, what happens if you're not there? What happens if there's an injury or disability or illness and you can't practice dentistry? Now what? And let's consider talking about that maybe later on. So early in the game, it's appropriate to have some kind of idea of some kind of transition plan. Transition plan doesn't mean I have to value my business. I have to procure a buyer act to make sure that financially qualified. I have to get a contract. I have to get a lease. That's not a transition plan. In simple, think. Kiera Dent (03:21) Yeah. Fred Heppner (03:38) The transition plan is what do you want to do when you sell your practice, when you move on from dentistry? And you know, as well as I do, you have clients who have been in dentistry and practice for 25, 30, 35, 40 years. And if they stopped doing something that they've been doing for three decades, what are they going to do with their time? And that's, that's really high on the scale of importance in a transition plan, because ultimately they're going to sit back and say, Kiera Dent (03:53) Mm hmm. Yeah. Fred Heppner (04:08) I don't know that I want to be home. I don't know that my spouse wants me to be home all day. And you have to think about these things. So it's much more than I have a practice to sell. I've got a purchase price. I have to figure out how I'm going to sell everything and my staff and my patients and so on. It's more than that. So I think in the initial phases of somebody considering what's my transition plan that can pull their head out of the sand and look at a spot and say, what do I really want to do if I Kiera Dent (04:12) Totally. Fred Heppner (04:37) If I don't do this, what will I do? And then feels a whole bunch of other questions into the play. Number one, how much am I going to make from selling my practice? What are the economic outcomes? How much in proceeds will I have after all the fees associated with selling the business and the taxes associated with paying for the proceeds? Now, what have I got left? What is that? What does that number look like? Well, I have no idea. Well, I need to find out. That's why I have a business. Kiera Dent (05:05) Mm-hmm. Gosh, Fred, I am so grateful you brought this up because honestly, feel like so I don't know my financial advisor teases me all the time. He's incredible. And he's like, Kiera, you are the person that has every exit strategy. You're like, all right, so what's going to happen if this happens or what happens? And I love to play this game with my husband. I'm like, okay, so if there was a fire in our house in this location, how are we going to get out? Or if we had this, because I feel like when you have almost that North star, especially in your life of Okay, this is how much I want when I wanna retire. This is when I wanna retire. This is like you said, if I want to, what am I gonna do when this doesn't, like when I'm no longer doing dentistry? Because you're right, I actually, ⁓ working at Midwestern ⁓ University in Arizona, I know a lot of dental students and I know a lot of dentists now. And ⁓ I've been gone from Midwestern for about now, about nine years. And ⁓ in those nine years, which does not seem that long, it's not even been a decade, ⁓ Fred Heppner (05:50) Mm-hmm. Kiera Dent (06:05) There have been students who have gotten a disability. There have been students who have gotten cancer and can no longer practice dentistry. There are students that have already sold to DSOs. And I'm like, their life looks so different. The student I'm thinking about who ended up getting pretty sick and had to leave, thank goodness he had his ⁓ insurance on him, his disability insurance. But like when I met him, there was no way that we ever would have thought like four or five years into practice. I went and saw him in his practice and now like he's not doing dentistry anymore. And so I think Fred, it's one of those things where I help him pray every dentist who's listening gets to work until they're 80, 90, however long they want to go that they get to practice their craft. but I think what you're talking about of let's think of what would I do if I couldn't do this anymore, whether by choice or whether by life, ⁓ and then be able to make decisions because I feel like When you stair step it back, you're able to actually navigate today way more confidently than if you don't have a plan. And I think that gives you more security than anything else. ⁓ Fred Heppner (07:08) Amen. And if your practice is stable, strong, producing a good profit and you are able to not only retire debt, but start to put away for your own retirement, you are much more in a direction of control also. So retirement may not be a year or a number. It sometimes is an event because injury, disability, illness, sudden death have no discrimination. It can happen to anybody. And if there isn't a plan in place for that, which I would recommend dentists look into, ⁓ if they don't have them in their community, forming private indemnity groups, disability coverage groups, where if a group of 16, 17 dentists that per oculi are in the same community and know each other and respect each other would agree that if anything were to happen, the group would get activated and it would cover the practice a day at a time on rotation for all the membership. until the practitioner returns from the injury or disability or the practice is sold because the dentist is incapacitated and can't come back. As a side note, I want to mention to you that I do this for six different groups here in the Valley in Phoenix where I live. And there are anywhere from about 12 to 22 dentists in each of those groups. So if you're listeners or if anybody in the A team wants to know more about forming groups, I'm happy to pay it forward, provide it for you. It's important. It's really something that dentists, we're invincible. Nothing's going to happen to us, especially when they're 30 years old and they just graduated from Midwestern and they bought their first practice and they're fired up. And it's like, they are looking at nothing other than growth, development, coaching. They're not even thinking if something were to happen to them. So. Kiera Dent (08:38) Mm-hmm. hope. Right? Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (08:57) Just as an aside, let's you and I make sure that we talk more. And for any dentists who want to develop those kinds of groups, it is invaluable. And there are tons of stories that I could impart to you and impart to anybody who's willing to listen about dentists that have a mishap. ⁓ Jim Jorgensen here in Phoenix ⁓ owns Squaw Peak Dental for years. He was in Vegas with his wife, Terry, midnight. They were up in the hotel room and he flatlined. He had a massive heart attack. Kiera Dent (09:15) Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm. Fred Heppner (09:28) She kept him going until the paramedics arrived. He survived. We activated the group. We covered his practice for three months. He came back, continued to practice. A year later, he sold it. So he couldn't have done that. He would have lost that asset and lost the value that that asset has on the open market if that group hadn't been in place. So. Kiera Dent (09:39) incredible. Thank I will. love that. And thank you for sharing that. And that's something I didn't even know existed. And I, I don't, I'm just very pro. Like, I remember when I was filling out our trust and I had to write my will and I was not very old, still like in my thirties, it was really weird. And it made me feel icky. And when you said the phrase earlier of like death, disability, illness, that has no discrimination. It hit me in my core of you're right. Like we do feel like we're invincible, but the reality is those three are hanging out at any moment and we have no idea when they're going to strike us or our family or someone that we know. As icky as that is. And so I feel like it's like, let's just get, let's get prepared. Like when I had to figure out what's going to happen to me, if I ever am incapacitated and I called my brother, who's my power of attorney. I said, okay, this is what I want. Are you willing to do it? But now I don't like if it happens great. Like he knows, I know there's a plan in place and as much as I would hate for it to happen, there is a plan that's like, and I feel Gosh, maybe I'm just a selfish egotistical human over here. It does give me a lot of empowerment to know that I know if something were to happen to me, things are good. And I will also say my whole team hates it, but I have an entire death plan of if Kiera Dent dies, I haven't made it so sweet that they want to kill me off. So like, that's my, that's my caveat. Like, let's not make it that good. But there's an entire plan because I realized... If I don't have this plan in place, if things aren't able to be transferred quickly to people that I trust and that people need to execute on, this company would die and we would not be able to serve all the people that we have. And so as, as weird and as eerie as it is, I feel like Fred, there's so much empowerment that can happen because it's no longer scary. Just like getting an operations manual, just like getting all your systems in your practice in case someone leaves. I feel like it's the same thing for your business in your life. So Fred, like that's a great tip. And I think people should reach out and definitely connect with you. Fred Heppner (11:42) maybe for another future podcast. Coming to an A-Team podcast near you, Kiera Dent (11:44) Like, I mean, hey, I'm here for it. Fred Heppner (11:50) I don't know. It's really important. People take it for granted. And it's interesting because the people that are in the groups that I have and sponsor just sitting back and say to themselves, why wouldn't anybody not be involved in this type of group? So good for future. Kiera Dent (12:05) That's helpful. Okay. All right. And Fred, just like, mean, we'll, share it at the end too, but if people are interested, how do they connect with you? We'll just put it in the middle too. So people have the info and then of course we're going to continue on. Fred Heppner (12:16) ArizonaTransitions.com is my website. ArizonaTransitions@gmail.com is my email. Best way to reach you. Kiera Dent (12:23) And I'm sure people are questioning, you work only in Arizona or do you work outside of Arizona just to clear that up for our listeners? Okay. Fred Heppner (12:29) Good. Time for a little backstory. So back in 1983, when I started in dentistry, I was a, I was a business coach, similar to how you operate and develop business systems and coaching and training for dentists and their teams to grow and essentially develop profitable and enjoyable practices. I did that for about 20 years. And then about 22 years ago, I really saw a void in Phoenix where I live. moved here in 1995. of the transition space. just didn't see dental practice transitions being done with integrity, in my opinion. They could have been, but I saw some of the aftermath because dentists would call me and say, hey, I just bought this practice. Can you help me? It's a mess. So I would go in and…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Kristy talk about how to reach an ideal state: three-day work weeks and clearing that seven-figure mark. Their advice includes block scheduling, mining your patient base, aligning your team, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript Tiffanie (00:01) Hello Dental A team. I am back here today with Kristy. I am so excited to be here, Kristy. And for those of you who maybe this is your first podcast with us, my name is Tiffanie and I am a dental consultant here with the Dental A Team. And as Kara said, we're taking over the podcast. So I've got Kristy, one of our other amazing and just beautifully minded and just sweetest ever. consultants. Kristy, you are just one of the most amazing human beings I've ever met and I'm just so excited to have you here on the podcast with us as well as on our team. So happy Friday. It's Friday here for us and we are we've got a couple podcasts we're going through today, Kristy. I'm really excited for this one. But before we get started, how are you today? Kristy (00:47) doing wonderful. The weather's great and I'm here with you. It's equally ⁓ mutual feelings to be here with you and podcast for our people. So love it. Tiffanie (00:59) Amazing. Thank you. I'm glad you're having good weather. It's hot here. So be prepared for that. I know you're coming to Arizona soon. So it's very hot here right now and it should cool down a little bit next week while you're here though. So you should be fine. Maybe bring some of that nice weather with you. So today you guys, really want to chat. There's a few things I want to chat about and today on this podcast, I wanted to chat through really making your life whatever it is that you want that to look like. And a lot of the doctors that we work with want to obviously cut down clinical hours. I think that's something that's on everyone's radar is really being able to. Work the days of the week that you want to in the practice and then investing that additional time back into your family and into your personal life, your friends, all of those spaces that you would normally spend that time, whatever that looks like for you. And Kristy, we've talked about this a lot and I actually, have one plan I can think of off the top of my head right now that we have worked really hard to get his schedule and his intentionalities exactly what we're talking about today. And what he does so that everybody can hear is he works about three and a half days per week and definitely definitely clears over seven figures and so what I wanted to talk about today is really how do we get to that three day per week clinical time and that seven figure mark that you know we're dentists here like you guys should be you guys should be making that if that's what you want to make you should be making that and how do we make that happen as a reality and when I first started working with this practice years and years ago he was like gosh I think you know Tiff long-term, like within five years, this is what I want to be making, but I think I'm gonna have to add a fourth day a week. I'm gonna have to work Monday through Thursday. And I was like, well, maybe, but I mean, do you want to work Monday through Thursday? And at the time he said, I maybe by the time I get there, I do right now, I don't. Great, well, if you change your mind, then we can add it, but let's build this without that fourth day. And he along the way decided, you know what, actually want to do two Thursdays a month because it fits, it just fits with his lifestyle, fits with what he wanted to do. So it turned into, you know, average of three and a half days per week. But he stuck to the idea of creating his practice to look like what he wanted it to look like. And I remember Kristy early on and still to this day sometimes that happens, but I remember early on him really acknowledging the fact that this was what he wanted for himself, for his family. This is what he, you know, was active in his community and within his church. And he wanted this to be a reality for him. His opposing side, what was happening there, was that he was on a lot of dental forums with a lot of classmates and people he'd met at CE courses or wherever along the way. And he was really, really getting wrapped up in the numbers of it all and what... what they're doing and having a bigger practice and adding operatories and adding an associate and five hygienists and he was thinking, gosh, to get where I want to go, all of these doctors feel like they've made it, you know, and do I then is that what I need to do to make it? And I think all of us do this, whatever position we hold, think even as like a mom, right? It's like just that compares the night as we look at other people. other moms and we're like, how come I don't do that or should I be doing that or etc. And it's got to be so hard to live that way. Right. And really, really, what we had to do was we had to take a step back and think about what is the most important thing for you right now? What do you want your life to look like again? Right. And what does that mean in your life if you're posting? And we had to create all of those spaces from a feeling standpoint and then implement them. So my story, that practice, know, it just pops into my head. He's the one that pops in my head when I think three days, seven figures. And he's just come such a long way and it's had its trials and its tribulations, but I really wanted to take a step back and look at what did we do? How did we create that for our clients? and how do we help someone to get to that point? And Kristy, I know you've worked with a lot of practices as well, and you've helped dentists do the same thing. So I wanted to take them through some of those processes today and the build out of those goals with the intentionality behind it. Kristy, I know you... work with a ton of practices and I know you've done this a million times and if I were to come to you and say, gosh, I have this dentist who wants to work three days a week, this is the amount of money that he or she wants to make, take home, the profit. What would be the first space you would, you would coach on? Where would you say, let's start here? Kristy (06:04) Yeah, I love that you're speaking that because again, we can make those goals. We just got to clearly define them. And to your point, I would definitely start with scheduling it, right? If that's what we need to make, let's reverse engineer it and block schedules so that we ensure that's happening. The other part that I would add in there is it's kind of funny that you're saying like three and a half days a week because ⁓ What we tend to see is when we do add those block schedule and doctors hit that three, three and a half days a week, they tend to be more profitable during the time that they're there rather than working five days a week. So yeah, most definitely I would start with number one, looking at that goal and then reverse engineering it into the schedule using their scheduling blocks. Tiffanie (06:55) For sure. I love what you said there because it makes me think of, always tell my son like, gosh, you would take and I would too, right? If I gave you an hour in the morning to get ready, you would take the hour and be rushed. But if I give you 30 minutes in the morning to get ready, you're gonna be ready at 28 minutes. Like you're gonna get it all in, you're still gonna get it done, you're just always gonna utilize the amount of time that you have. So what you said there is I do agree, I do see a lot of doctors that will work. less clinical than other doctors and their intentionality behind getting the production in there, especially when there's a really good why behind it is so high that they work harder to get that production there and to maintain it. And so they actually do become a lot of times more profitable than doctors who are working maybe five days a week because their production is getting spread out, especially on the scheduling side for a team. They're like, well, I got to have something on Friday. We got it. We've got to be here. So I'm gonna put this crown on Friday, whereas if we were only Monday through Wednesday, it would probably get stuck on Wednesday this week rather than Friday and giving so much availability to the patient. So I totally agree. And you're spot on with the goals. So that's exactly what we did. We said, okay, well, if you wanna make this much money, take home, what does that look like fixed cost-wise, overhead-wise? So we had to build out what that goal meant. how we could get the practice to be profitable enough to make that much money as take home and then reverse engineer that. So we had to say, what does that look like? All the multiplication, the addition, all of those pieces. What does that look like in a production goal? so that 98 % or higher of collections gets you to that profitability. Then you have to backtrack and say, well, great, this is how much money I need to make this year, maybe a million dollars, right? We wanna break one million this year. How do I do that? What does that look like per month in production? Then we say, okay, divide that by how many days per month we're working. So if we're working three days, right, it was probably about 12 days on average. So what does that look like every day? And how much production does that equate to? And I do have to say a caveat here. because I think it's easy to say, yeah, but what about the fee schedules? Totally agree with you. You need to get your fee schedules up. Number one, if you can do anything about your fee schedules, go work on those. First and foremost, number one, get those things in line. But I do have to say this dentist I'm thinking of specifically is in the heart of a very saturated state and a very difficult area to get ⁓ fees increased and he is PPO driven in lot of different directions. So it is possible. It just depends on what you're willing to do and then also what treatment you're doing. So what we have done with that is we've built out that block schedule. We've built out how his optimized days would look. So when is he doing his crown preps? When is he doing his large treatment? ⁓ Is he doing root canal? love them. So which root canals is he doing if he's going to do them? Oral surgery, like what are we doing in those three days? And how do we build the production to match that daily goal? And then it was a, there, are there things that you want to be doing that maybe you're not doing a lot of yet? And he, this specific dentist, I've got another doctor, I've got a couple doctors that are like, yeah. Tiff, I want to do implants and I want to do cosmetic cases. I want to build smiles and do smile design. And I'm like, well, great. If you can get one or two smile designs a month, are you kidding me? We're halfway there. So then what we had to do is we said, OK, great. Where would we do those in the schedule? When they come, where would we put them? And build that out as well. So the implant. Obviously the implant placements like those were going to go first. Where are those going to be and how many implants do we need per year to help equate to that goal? then Kristy, I know you've done this a few times as well, looking at the marketing space, right? Because what do you feel like Kristy then? We've got this goal set, we've got this block scheduling in place and we're like, okay, great. We want to do more implants and more cosmetic cases. Kristy, what would you then look for to increase those within the practice? Kristy (11:38) Yeah, well number one, I always like to go mining in our own patient base, you know, and I love that you mentioned like the service mix and doctors wanting to do specifically in this case, the implants, because it's funny how many times we hear that and then we go back and look like at the last 12 months and maybe they've done five implants, you know, I love doing them, but why aren't we doing them, right? And so just by recognizing that, putting a goal to it and then Tiffanie (12:01) Yeah. Kristy (12:08) consistently going back and measuring that. We've talked about this before Tiff, if I'm gonna go buy a white car of a specific brand, all of a sudden I start seeing all those. So to your point, I would go back to our patient base. I would definitely make sure the team is aware of that goal and then enroll the whole team on how do we find more of these patients that could use implants, right? Then amongst our own patients when they're coming in, do they have missing teeth? Did we do a recent extraction, right? Have we discussed this before and it's time to bring it back up? So ideally that's where I would go because they're already in your practice, they love you, you've got a relationship with them and you'll be amazed at how many patients you'll find just by putting it front of mind and enrolling the whole team behind you to look for it. Tiffanie (13:06) I agree and training them on the right questions, the right scenarios. Like what are we looking for? Are we looking for missing teeth? Are we looking for cracks? we like bringing that awareness? I totally agree. think everything we want is actually already here. We're just not tuned in to see it. So just like the car, we want the white Camaro because we never see a white Camaro. We make that decision to like, that's what I'm going to get. I'm going to get a white Camaro because no one has them, right? Or a purple Camaro because no one has them. And this Kristy (13:35) Thank Tiffanie (13:36) the next thing you know, you're like, well, shoot, I was wrong. There's a million of them. I want something different. And you're just going to keep going on that road because you brought the awareness to you. So I love that analogy. And I think it's so fitting for any, any treatment that you're trying to increase in your practice. It's already there. We're just not attuned to looking for it yet. So there's already opportunities there. How do we get the team members? Kristy (13:41) Thank Tiffanie (14:04) in line with seeing them to support you in the diagnosis. Now, the biggest thing I can say right now is if you have this goal or a different goal, I don't care what your goal is, if your goal is to work three days and make seven figures, that's fine. ⁓ Whatever your goal is, enlist your team in the support factor of achieving that goal. because without them, it's all on you and there's no way, doctors, that you can do it all. You cannot, you will not remember. all of these spaces to look for the implants, especially if you're like, well Tiff, gosh, Kristy, I want to do implants, I want to do cosmetic cases, I want to try all on fours, I want to, you know, I want to reduce the number of root canals I'm doing, but I want to do more extractions, like gosh, dang it, there's 16,000 different things that you could want to do that are top of mind on your brain, but what is the decision of today? What is our focus? How are we gonna measure it and how are we gonna stay consistent? I've had multiple dentists ⁓ wanna add more implants and Kristy, I love how you said to go back through the inventory, because it's exactly where we started. Many, dentists have done this very successfully. I know with me, with you Kristy, with all of us and on their own, really looking at how many di…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera and Kristy discuss ways your practice can completely "drain the lemon" of juice (aka, financial opportunity) without becoming completely overwhelmed. This happens by identifying a goal and reverse engineering it. Kiera and Kristy give numerous examples of how this works, as well as other opportunities for hidden value in your practice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is such a special day. I hope you guys are having the best day because I'm having a great day because today I'm podcasting with our one and only Kristy Treasure, one of our incredible consultants. And I am so excited to have Kristy with us. Kristy, how are you doing today? Kristy (00:17) Gosh, it's fantastic. The first day is spring and we're gonna bring some new life to clients here. Add potential clients, right? Kiera Dent (00:24) I agree. I completely agree with you, Kristy And honestly, if you guys have not met Kristy, Kristy is incredible. She's been on our team. Kristy, feel is just like the queen of wanting to have these amazing practices, just hit great numbers. Kristy loves numbers. She loves to dig in. And Kristy has this like very delicate leadership style. Like I watch you and I see you just transform practices. You gain their trust, you build their trust, you help team members. I mean, offices who've said, Kiera I only want to work with you, are working with Kristy and loving her. And so it's just really fun, Kristy, to have someone who just is so passionate about dentistry. And I'm just so happy to have you on the podcast with me today. So that's a little intro to Kristy. If you haven't met her, haven't heard from her, you definitely need to. So Kristy, love having you on our team. It's always a treasure. Kristy (01:11) Thank you. I love being here. It's a great culture and you know what? We just have fun serving clients and that's what it's about. Kiera Dent (01:19) We totally do. And so Kristy, I want to join the podcast today because I feel I've been watching you consult some clients and I've been seeing it's fun in our morning huddle. Don't worry guys, in Dental Team we have a morning huddle. You can tell I used to be a dental assistant, team member, that's what I do. And so Kristy, we always share client wins and it's really fun because then we can share from consultants like, hey, what are you doing really well? What things are we doing well? And Kristy, I've been watching, she's been posting up some really fun changes that she's been able to do with practices, so much so that offices who have never been able to hit certain dollar amounts in their production, things that they never believed were possible, getting overheads like, Kristy is burning and churning and doing it, it's like, Kristy, you come in with this like delicate wave of authority and it's just beautiful. And so I kind of wanted to talk, not necessarily specific to these practices. But I mean, offices who have never had 100 grand, Kristy's been able to help them. Offices who have never been profitable, she's been able to help them. Offices who feel like they can't get their leadership team on board, Kristy's getting them. People who say like, we'll never be able to make an operations manual. I'm watching and Kristy you're just like getting these offices to navigate along. And so I thought today would be really fun for us to talk about maybe what are some of the tips or tricks. Again, not necessarily specific to these practices, but things you see overarching that really work to add. production to a practice or get a team bought into it. So let's start first. mean, everybody always wants to geek out on numbers. So Kristy, what are some of the things that you've found are just really successful? I mean, you're an office manager of a very, very, very successful practice. You've consulted lots and lots and lots of practices even before coming to Dental A Team. You've got some history with you. So Kristy, let's kind of share some Kristy magic of what are some of the things you've seen that really help impact numbers in a practice quickly and easily with a whole team bought into that. Kristy (03:06) Yeah, would say first off and foremost, like obviously picking maybe the top five metrics to start working on and every doctor in office talks about production and collection. And so starting with some of the basics that they already understand, but also like. Figuring out that point, what are we working for? Not just in a five year or 10 year range. I mean, you talk about that all the time, but also what are we looking for this year? And then reverse engineering it. Because if we don't have a point to guide to, It's just numbers and even when we're talking percentages, we can have 100 % of collections, but is it enough to pay the bills? Is it enough to do the goals that we're reaching for as a team? So definitely it's about starting where they're at and then letting them see something bigger, if you will. Kiera Dent (04:07) And Kristy, I think it's such a good thing because like when teams just feel like they're only about today, right? Like it's like, here's my daily bread today, but we don't understand the bigger picture. This is oftentimes when offices get fresher and they're like, my team isn't even looking down the line. They're not taking the ownership. They're not doing any of these things. So Kristy, how do you get a team to look further down the line and not feel the overwhelm, not feel like, cause you know, you come in and start to change. How do you have some tips to navigate with team members who maybe aren't as pro? Getting into it. Kristy (04:38) Yeah, I would say number one, I mean, we're starting out the year, we're ending first quarter. And so to think, ⁓ I want to hit a million dollars by the end of the year. That's such a big overwhelming number that we literally break it down. We can project out where are they currently, you know, Where are their numbers currently projected to hit at the end of the year? And then reverse engineer that. Guys, my gosh, we're only $1,000 short a week. How could we go find $1,000? right? And do what we do. It's all in the name of getting our patients healthy. you know, let breaking it down to that simple step and letting them achieve something daily, if not weekly, and showing them it's easy. And it all relates back to our why. Why did we get into dentistry? You know, it's to serve and get our patients healthy. So when we do that, and we know where we're headed, it's really easy to achieve. and then just start building in the goals from there. Kiera Dent (05:46) Mm-hmm, I agree with you because I think in dentistry is so fun I mean a million seems so hard, but let's break it down like if we really want to do I mean Let's just do some fun math here. So we're gonna do a million. All right, so some offices. They're like, I've never hit a million Let's figure out a million. I think these are fun. Kristi and I do love numbers So I hope you do and if you don't I hope you take on our mantra of like I love numbers and numbers Love me. I want the numbers to love me. So let's enjoy that. So if we have a million we divide it by 12, okay And this is just really rough math. There's more sophisticated ways to project this. That's 83,000 per month. Let's bump it up to 84 because it's 83,333. So let's just do 84,000. So if we're at 84,000 and then we know, let's say you're a practice that is only working four days a week, that's fine. You do not need to work five days. You don't need to work six days. Let's just do a four day work week. Cause I like to prove to people and Kristy, I know you do too. We don't have to work harder. Let's just work a little smarter. So with that, let's say it's 16 days a month. Does that make sense? You got four days a week. Most months are four weeks. I get that there's a few more, which is why this is very loose. Don't worry if you do this, you'll slush in the right direction. So what that brings it down to is 52.50 per day. Now let's say in this practice that they have two hygienists. Usually a hygienist is producing about a thousand-ish rough numbers. That's 32.50 per day for an office. And so I think Kristy agreed with you. When we look at that and we're like, all right, if we're only scheduled to 2,700 today, where can we go find that extra $600 or $500? And it's not saying we're over diagnosing patients. What we're doing is we're looking to see, could we add in some fluoride? Could we add in that FMX? How can we do better patient care? Oh my gosh, that patient only wanted to do one filling, but they're about to get numb. And that quad of filling seems a lot more enticing because they're about to get numb. It's crazy how like, you know, when I talk to patients and they say, oh, I think I just want to this one filling. And then when they're about to get numb, it's like, Hey, we can actually do the whole quad. And they're like, yeah, we should actually do that. It's wild. That injection, you guys never, ever, ever, ever underestimate the power of an injection. ⁓ but the reality is this is how you can look for it. This is how it becomes fun. And I think helping teams and Kristy, do an amazing job with this, helping teams have fun with this. That's the whole point of a morning huddle. We go to morning huddle to huddle. How do we win the game? Just like a huddle in basketball or huddle in football. How do we actually win the game? Where are we at? What's that extra five? I mean, I have been shocked when offices will implement pro, ⁓ fluoride, or they'll look for FMXs. We're like doing our x-rays on normal cadences, or we're even doing our comp exams. That will add up so fast for you. Adding a sealant, adding in quad dentistry rather than single tooth dentistry. You can find these things so easily. And so, Kristy, I think you do a beautiful job of that with your practices. And I'm just curious, like, But what happens when you have that one team member in the back who's just like not having it? What do we do with them and how do you get those team members on board? Kristy (08:46) Yeah, number one, most team members want something more for themselves, right? Whether it's a yearly raise or I don't know, maybe the office doesn't offer insurance and they want to offer insurance. And I'm like, well, let's find a way to offer it. You know, let's figure out how much it is. What does it cost? What do we have to do to show the doctor we can earn our way to doing it? So showing them that they can also achieve what they want. mean, honestly, today I had a a team that was talking about taking time off between Christmas and New Year and possibly paying the team for that time off and surprising them. And I'm like, well, let's reverse engineer it, find out what do we have to do to pay for that. And then we can surprise that gift ahead of time because we can measure if we're on target for it. And... give them that, gift them that time off if you will, but just again showing team what's in it for them and relating it again back to their why they got into dentistry which was to take great care of people. And when you do it, we all reap the rewards. And I love that you said morning huddle because nine times out of 10, we have that treatment in our schedules already. And it's just having conversations with patients in a relationship fashion. Many people think you have to have more new patients, right? We don't need more new patients. They're in our schedule and we have the opportunity to just do more on the patients we have. And if you don't believe me, have them run their unscheduled treatment report. Kiera Dent (10:31) Amen to you, Kristy. And I agree with you tenfold. And that's why we consult so well together. And I really love that you said like, let's show them, let's gift them, let's figure out what our team wants. And that's what's actually so fun. Like this is why I love numbers. I hated numbers because I didn't understand them. But when you realize that numbers can just be the way to get whatever you want in life. Like it's just truly this really, really fun, dreamy, like you said, if they want to take time off between Christmas and New Year's, Fantastic, let's figure out what that production would be. Let's figure out the cost of paying all the team members. It's very simple, it's not a hard equation to do. Then let's add that amount, divide it amongst the rest of the months of the year. You can literally pay for it. So offices who wanna go on trips, offices who wanna add in bonuses, offices who wanna pay for scrubs, like you name it, all these things can be paid for. And for people listening, this isn't too overdiagnosed on the patients. It's not like we're going hunting because we're like, we wanna go on that trip. it's we are looking for the best patient care like Kristy said. We are looking for the little opportunities that we're not doing. And every practice is like, no, we're doing all this already. Yeah, right. I promise you, I've yet to see one office who has done every single thing perfectly 110%. And so I think like, let's drop that ego as well and look to see where it can be. And Kristy, I love that you bring it. As you were talking, I'm like, Kristy to me feels like the analogy of like squeezing the juice out of the lemon or squeezing the tube of toothpaste. And Kristy is the gal who looks at your practice and you're like, my tube of toothpaste is empty. And she's like, yeah, let me show you. got like three more months where the toothpaste in this tube, like we are squeezing it rather than just going and looking to buy a brand new tube of toothpaste. And within your practice, there's so much more opportunity to like squeeze the juice, squeeze the opportunities rather than having to look outside. Yes, we still need to work on the outside pieces too, but then when we look inside, and I think that this is where you do such a great job, Kristy like. Kristy (12:04) Yeah. Kiera Dent (12:25) I tell you, Kristy can turn to practice so quickly. It's been magic to watch you, Kristy I'm like, this girl comes in and she just like hangs out. She's working with the team. She's tracking the numbers and la la la la la. The doctor's like, oh my gosh, we hit this and I didn't even know that was possible. But Kristy's squeezing juice. You're looking for the juice constantly. And so I'm just curious, other squeeze the juice, squeeze the tube of toothpaste? You said like new patients, you're looking for unscheduled treatment plans. Kristy (12:30) you Kiera Dent (12:53) We don't need the new patients. We're looking for just little, what are some of those other opportunities, Kristy, that like I spy with my little consultant eye, what do you see in there? Kristy (13:02) Yeah. Obviously there's a few areas, but one of the things too when we have limited coming in how many of those do we work to convert? I mean how many times do we schedule them for a half hour appointment when really if we just schedule them for an hour a…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera and Tiff share highlights from the Dental A-Team Summit — the best one yet! They touch on communication, the life cycle of a business, keeping teams energized, and more. Mark your calendars for the Dental A-Team Summit 2026! Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and ⁓ gosh, today's a great day. I have the one and only Spiffy Tiffy on the podcast. I feel like we're going back to like OG status here, Tiff. Like it's been a while. Welcome to the podcast. How are you? Tiffanie (00:14) I'm good. Thank you. Luckily, Shelbi snuck a time in here for us. I mean, gosh, we've got a birthday podcast. We've got this coming up. Like we've got all kinds of stuff in the works, but I'll see you in a gear in a year. Right? That's all we get. Kiera Dent (00:26) I know, right? See ya! See you next May. I'll see ya. No, I love it because honestly, you and I host, we podcast, you take a lot with the consultants and so ⁓ I selfishly put you in on my day of podcasting because I miss, I miss our OG days. I miss ⁓ us hanging out. I mean, I did take us on a hike and podcast. Like that was really going back in style. Supposedly the video works. If you guys saw it, give us a thumbs up. ⁓ We were both very awkwardly uncomfortable sitting up there, but it was awesome. And the things like this, got sunburned. So that was funny when we were up there, all the pieces, but it was a good time. And I felt like this back to our original roots, Tiff. Sometimes I think we need to remember where we came from and how we got here. So, I mean, I was just talking to Shelbi and Kristy and told them about our Venmo days and how you stayed with me through all these years. If you don't know the Venmo story, Tiffanie (00:57) There were so many courts. I agree. Here I am. Kiera Dent (01:22) When Tip first started, I paid her via Venmo and Venmo has maxes if you didn't know that. Tip was a 10.99, so I paid her via Venmo. I would not recommend this. And why Tiffanie stayed with me, I don't know because the Venmo would max and I'd have to text her and be like, hey, so it's maxed out. Give me like two days. It wasn't that I didn't have money. It's just that Venmo would max. So Tip, I don't know. Like how did you feel like that wasn't a shady business? That's question number one and then we'll get into our real topic today. Tiffanie (01:31) Thank you. have no idea. Honestly, I don't have an answer for that. I truly just don't. I just trusted and I mean, by early on, it was like the first two months of working together and you didn't have employees yet. So I guess in the back of my mind, I was like, we're just creating the systems, like we're figuring it out. And worst case scenario, like I always, I always have a backup plan and I was still in my office. So it was like, that's fine. We're figuring this out. We're going to see how it works. And here we are almost eight years later. Kiera Dent (01:51) Ha you You are. It's incredible. Nope. Definitely not Venmo. And it was funny because I was thinking back to like startup businesses and I did a podcast with someone else and we were talking about like, I think you forget when you like go to open your second location or your third of like, ⁓ yeah. Like we had to scrap it that hard when we first started. So Tiff, thanks for, thanks for being an OG, which stands for original gangster, not oldie, but goodie, but it's okay. If you want to do Kiera's style, I had to ask Tiff. Tiffanie (02:18) Not Venmo-ing. Kiera Dent (02:44) a things in my life. had to educate me on a few and that was one of them. was like, Tiff, does OG stand for? And here we are. So, Tiff, I figured with you and I on the podcast today, I thought it'd be really fun. You and I just in person did our fifth summit. Can you believe five summits? Like Tiff. Tiffanie (02:49) Luckily I'm all filtered. No, when we had, actually saw it on social media, on our social media. It said like, our fifth summit is coming. And I was like, oh my gosh, is that true? Like, you sent the postage on our Instagram and that's how I knew. So no, I can't believe that it was our fifth summit. It blew my mind when I saw that. Kiera Dent (03:09) you Yeah, it was well and there was a point in time where I debated if I wanted to keep doing summits. And the only reason that I actually went through is because we started the summits. Our first one was in 2021. And I knew I would be able to remember how many we had done because 2021 is one, two is two, and I was like, we got to keep this up. Otherwise, I'm going to really get off count. So that's why I know it's the fifth because it's 2025. ⁓ But I think honestly, Tiff, you and I, I wanted to give some highlights. If you missed it, you missed out and you should definitely mark your calendars for next year. I will say with wild confidence and Tiff, I think you would agree of all the summits that we have put on, ⁓ this was by far, think our best production that we've ever done. I think it was our best content. I think it was our best flow. And like the feedback that we got from this summit was off the charts, like shocking how good it was. That's my opinion. Next year, it's April 24th. So if you missed us, Tiffanie (03:45) piece. Kiera Dent (04:14) this year, mark your calendars right now, block it out. It is a Friday. We do it for a half a day. It is CE. So you're definitely going to want to block April 24th, 2026. That's coming to you guys. But Tiff, I felt it was our best and I've got some ideas and we want to give some recaps, but what were kind of your takes on the summit this year? Tiffanie (04:30) Yeah, I think we just got it dialed in. We take feedback every time we do anything. Every time we consult a practice one-on-one, every time we group consult practices, webinars, like anything we do. So Summit, there's always been feedback requests. And I think we've done really well narrowing it down and figuring out what the biggest requests were. I think one of the major things that played to our advantage was really getting a ton of information in a short amount of time. I think, crammed as much in, what do we do? Like four and a half hours as we have done in a day and a half. And we did really, really well. The presentation was clean. It was crisp. had a ton of engagement and honestly, we're still getting people scheduling the calls right now. ⁓ Today you've even done some during your podcasting day. I know just to make sure that everybody's gotten the resources that we had available. And I just think it was jam packed with a ton of information and Kiera Dent (05:02) Yeah, four and a half. Yeah. ⁓ Tiffanie (05:28) It stacks really, really well with the consulting that we do for our one-on-one clients and for our group consulting. It just honestly played right into how all of the consultants operate with all of our clients. So it was fantastic. I agree. Kiera Dent (05:42) Yeah, I thought it and I agree with you. think it was, ⁓ I think we really dug into this extraordinary and something Tiff, you and I, this was Tiff's vision. So Kiera's vision was summit, Tiff's vision were these in-person like doctor, leadership, masterminds. And you have been pushing me for probably what? Like four five years to do this. Like it has been, we're at five years then. It's been a solid push. I remember the day this came about, I think you do too. were, ⁓ Tiffanie (05:59) Bye as long as we've been doing summit. Kiera Dent (06:08) definitely team was on a budget back in the day. And I still think to this day, even not on a budget tip and I would still do this. We're sharing a hotel room and we were sitting there chatting late at night. And I remember Tiff, you're like, Kiera, I have this vision of these in-person events where we get all our doctors together and we do like life and we do business. And I was like, I see it. And then you're like, and I also think we should have a coffee shop. Like it was like both mixed into one. I think the coffee shop also threw me cause I'm like, how are we going to do all that? Tiffanie (06:29) I'm you Kiera Dent (06:37) But we literally came to it, by the way, just highlighting, you're in the blue shirt, I'm in the pink shirt today. How perfect is that? If you guys don't know, this is another vision. Tiff and I aren't going to be 90, 90 plus year old grannies. We have the same birthday. I'm gonna be cotton candy pink, Tiff's gonna be cotton candy blue. So whenever we show up this way, it always makes me giggle just how in sync we always are. But back to our vision of these in-person that Tiff had, I think it played into our summit of we're really getting intentional of like, Tiffanie (06:56) You can have steak. Kiera Dent (07:06) life on purpose and business on purpose. And so this year's theme was ⁓ unlocking, gosh, was unlocking extraordinary leadership and profitability. And what we wanted to do is I get really annoyed as a CEO when I do CE and it just is coming to me as the owner to then take it back and rally TIF. And honestly, when I've tried to come back and rally the whole team, I just noticed there was this disconnect. And I think as a company, we've always had this vision of like, it's dental, it's doctors and team. Like, look at our name. Dental A Team doctors and team, like it really flies together. And so being able to bring teams together and doctors together in your office, in your space, but teach you life skills and dental skills. And Tiff, know like when you go to offices, people tell you all the time, like how grateful they are. You teach them life through dentistry. Like walk me through why you do that, how you do it. I know it's just like who you are as your DNA, but I think that's why you have so much passion for what we do. Tiffanie (08:00) Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. I truly believe that ⁓ if I can create passion in someone for what they do for a living, that they'll stay lifelong. think that, I don't know. I don't know, Kara. I think, like you said, it's just naturally ingrained in me. It's just who I am. I take a lot of... what I learn personally, and I duplicate that and I kind of like copy and paste it onto who I am as a as a team member and as an employee because I don't believe I hate the term work life balance. ⁓ I have like a Jars and crazy because I live one life I have one life and I have different spaces of life for sure. But if I 100 % show up differently in every space of life, I'm going to feel like I'm running ragged. So if I can look at Kiera Dent (08:31) Ha ha! Mm-hmm. Tiffanie (08:48) relationships as just relationships. And then there's the stack of like, intimate versus friendship, like for sure, there's that deviation. But if I can treat every relationship with the same basics, and communication with the same basics, then I'm not confusing myself. I'm not trying to be something I'm not, and I'm not working harder. You know, I love easy, you know, I love nothing more than defined efficiencies. And like, that's a major efficiency in my life is really being able to stack a belief that I have and then copy and paste it into work. So the way that I communicate with you is the same way that I communicate with my boyfriend, Aaron, or my son Brody. It just, I'm using different words ⁓ to get a different, to get a point across. So when I go into practices and I work with teams and I work with doctors, that's the kind of stuff that I leave them. So when I'm speaking about how we can communicate, I'm also mixing in how those communication tools not only have helped our company and UNI's communication tenfold, but also how it helps me and my personal relationships at home. So I constantly, I think if you polled all of my offices, I don't think there's anyone out there who doesn't know who Brody is. He secretly probably hates that. He gets hellos, gets birthday cards, all these things. But I utilize him as such an example for how we can show up for our families and for our kids using the same tools. And so when I walk away and teams are saying that, they're saying, my gosh, Tiff, like. Kiera Dent (10:00) Mm. Mm-hmm. Tiffanie (10:17) I went home and I talked to my husband last night and I had the first real conversation that I've been able to have with him in forever because I listened, because I used the tools that you told me to use on patients. So the way that you're listening to a patient, the way that you're putting your ego aside and allowing your patient to be the most important. person in the room, sometimes we have to put that aside and allow our spouse to be the most important person in the room for the time being and have a conversation instead of having a telling where we kind of just sit and we just talk at each other. We're not actually listening. We're not actively engaged and jumping to the assumptions, all those pieces. So I think that's how I do it. And then I want like mass scale of that because I can only hit so many, so many people one-on-one. And I think that's something that you and I have envisioned for the company for a really long time. We know that there's a limit of how many teams and how many doctors each consultant can affect. So being able to take these pieces and these skills and these developments that do smash life and work together on a mass scale like summit or these in-person events that we're doing now for our doctors and our leaders was really something that I think spoke to both of us to be able to just get the message out, get things changed on a mass scale. Kiera Dent (11:32) Totally. And I think that that just ties right into our vision of Dental A Team is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And you're right. Like it's funny, we always run into these zones of like, we've hit the ceiling, we've hit the ceiling of where we are. So how do we like turn and pivot and give more? Because as you were saying that I might actually think that that's the secret sauce to Dental A Team. I think we focus on life and business. We focus on you as a human and we do it through dentistry and like dentistry is our vehicle. What did I say the other day? said, ⁓ life is my passion, dentistry is my avenue. And so really, or our platform. So we're able to come and like help you have this amazing life. And that's, think what all the summit was about. Like it was literally, how do we do this? And so we walked the participants through like, what does extraordinary mean to you? And so if you attended the summit, hopefully this is a good like analysis and like, how did you do and how are you doing? And kudos to all those who joined our Dental A Team family. By far, this was our best year of welcoming new offices in. And I think it just spoke to like, the flow that we were in and the mission that we're about. And we really brought in our Dental A Team Success model and we call it the Yes Model. So you can say yes to more things in your life, to whatever you want. And the Y stands for you as a person and the E stands for earnings and profitability. The S stands for systems and team development. And when you add those three components together, you get success with E's. And Tiff, I think the U part was probably my favorite and…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Dana discuss the numerous innovations happening in the field of pediatric dentistry, specifically minimally invasive care and maximizing shortened attention spans. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:02.2) Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be back here with you. If you listened to an earlier podcast, I alluded to the fact that Dana and I were going to have some fun with a really cool podcast. I'm excited for this one. I think it took a little bit for us to prep for this one, but I think that's the world of dentistry for us. Dana, thank you for spending so much time with me this afternoon busting out a few podcasts here for the... For the listeners, how are you this lovely afternoon? Dana (00:33.698) Doing good, doing good. I'm excited to be here. I've had to reframe my podcast time to Tiff time because it helps really get me pumped up and excited for it. Tiffanie (00:39.768) I'll make it. Tiffanie (00:44.986) I appreciate that. I love that so much. It is our time together. Kristy started saying the same thing too. And, I love getting you guys on here and I can't wait to get some with Trish and all the other consultants that, that we have. think it's just so valuable for us to get the time together, share ideas. Cause you know, we have, we have our consultant co-labs, but this seems to be where the most ideas just like randomly spur out. Cause it's almost like we're coaching. when we talk about these things. So you're welcome to the world. Thank you to the world for joining us for our consultant time. It's my Dana time, my Britt time, my Kristy time. So thank you, Dana. I appreciate it. Today, I thought it would be fun. And I want to caveat this before I truly talk about what we're talking about. This is for everyone. We want to focus today on pediatric dentistry innovations. But I really think that there's some valuable tips and tricks in here for everyone and not just pediatric practices. I know a lot of GP practices see many children. I know a lot of pediatric practices that refuse GP referrals, which I think is really funny. And I totally understand because when I was in my GP practice, it was like we would take kids, but the worst kids we did not. And so I totally get it. It just makes me chuckle every time. Regardless, my oral surgery practices, you guys are seeing kiddos and by kiddos, mean like realistically 16 and under is what we're talking about here today. I know my my periopractices, sometimes you guys are seeing them too. My son plays lacrosse and gosh dang those teeth. just cringe every time something happens, mouth guard or not. I have seen, I don't know how many mouth guards fly across the field and they have stopped play because it's thank God. I thank God for this for these. rules and regulations, but it's part of the uniform. And so if they're missing, if they if if the ref see it fly out of their mouth, they'll call the bell stop the game so they can go get it. But I'm like, you got hit so hard your mouth guard blew out. Anyway, it's periodontist. I know you're seeing kiddos too. So everyone's seeing kiddos. And today it's just pediatric dentistry innovations and Tiffanie (02:57.342) I think, Dana, you said it well just before we got on here. There's not a lot of exciting new things for pediatric dentistry or realistically right now for dentistry in general. We've kind of hit the space of, we're gonna try this stuff out for a little while. So I agree with you there, but I think we've come up with some really good things and tested and seen some amazing things that are working for the generations of kids that we have right now. we were talking attention spans. So I know that that will come into play with some of the stuff we're speaking on today, but really, really honing in on, I think it's, again, it's going to come back to like that trust and that value and making sure that emotionally we're, we're emotionally evoking things for our patients, whether they're adults or children, so that they're comfortable, they're confident, they trust us and they want to return. For the kiddos, I get really emotional and I just love on the pediatric practices. I myself could never work in a pediatric practice full time. There's no way. I don't have the patience for it, but man, do I value and appreciate the work that all of you guys are doing and Dana, that you were able, that you've done and are continuing to do in your efforts as well. Because to me, I've done mostly GP and oral surgery. And I really had so many patients. I've met so many people that are so afraid of the dentist because they had a horrible experience as a child or because they had a parent who had a bad experience as a child that passed it on to them. Those were the worst for me, but I just value and appreciate the amazing pediatric practices who are out there doing amazing work and creating lasting. impressions for people because you've really set them up for success in so many different places. So whether you're a GP, a specialty, a pediatric specialty, no matter what a lot of these pieces we're going to talk about today are really going to help you set the stage and the tone for these people's lives. And Dana, you've done pediatric dentistry. Thank you. Praise to you. I just, you know, I love kids, but this Tiffanie (05:13.536) I just don't have it in me and I know that about me. I can consult them and I can spend a day and a half in office with them and love on those kids while I'm there and then I'm exhausted and need to go home. So I love it. Thank you, Dana for being there. Dana, I actually I really loved some of the things you were talking about, like the continuation of products and services and stuff that we're already utilizing. think GP and pediatric offices are using a lot of those. Tell me here with everyone listening a little bit about some of those pieces that you used and that you're seeing still lot of your pediatric practices are using and what have you seen just continue to innovate in the world of that. Dana (05:53.472) Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that pediatric practices are always looking at ways to innovate is minimally invasive care. So how can I get this kiddo treatment that they need improve what they came here with in a way that is as minimally as invasive as possible because of exactly what you said. think pediatric practices beyond yes, all practices have to work on experience pediatric practices are unique and they've got a parent experience and a patient experience and oftentimes the patient experience impacts the parents. experience, as I can tell you my mom heart, just for my mom heart too. So I feel like they have worked really, really hard in trying to find ways to treat kiddos as minimally as they can, right? And but yet still getting some really great results. So they have found a lot of things, you know, we're even starting to see a little bit of like, you know, non injection. Tiffanie (06:26.552) Yeah. Dana (06:49.088) anesthetizing and things like that that really really, know, SDF has made huge leaps and bounds. There's Cura.now for... What's the word I'm looking for, Tiff? Tiffanie (07:01.784) Keep going. Dana (07:02.7) Yeah, and so there's just all sorts of ways that we treat kiddos now that like didn't exist before and that is truly because we're looking at ways to treat them that helps create that positive experience and doesn't put them fearful in the dental chair. Tiffanie (07:16.492) Yeah, well, even Dana, I'm thinking too, even fluoride has come world so that they're not swallowing it or it's not as toxic, I guess is the best word to use there, or difficult because remember it used to, gosh, I remember the trays, right? I remember trying to shove those trays in kids' mouths in my office and I'm like, this does not fit. The doctor's like, no, it's supposed to be too big and it's just like fluoride foam is everywhere. So thank heavens those are. hopefully a thing of the past. But even in the world of fluoride for kiddos, like what have you seen in that world, Dana, that has transpired over the course of last few years? Dana (07:57.036) Yeah, I think, you know, obviously the big switch to the varnish, think to like, I mean, I've even seen some pediatric offices, like I had a pediatric dentist and she basically like reached out to all the pediatricians in the area and was like, fluoride these kiddos as early as possible. I'll teach you how I'll so it's just expanding like the reach on that too has been incredible. And I think just the education to the parent because kiddos, you know, they expose themselves to a lot of acidic things now. Diets have changed a lot over recent years and things in our food have changed a ton. And so as much as they can also just educate the parent on those choices and like, hey, we can kind of counteract some of those choices with Laura. really want to... do a ton of nutritional counseling happens in pediatric practices too, but it just kind of reinforces the need for as we see these things change, we've got to make sure that kiddos get access to that too. Tiffanie (09:05.462) Yeah, and I think that's space of innovation as well that you just mentioned, the nutritional counseling. That's not something that's always been there. It's been there to a level, right? We know like soda, and I remember telling kids or being told to swish with water after I ate my lunch at school because I wasn't going to carry my toothbrush, you're supposed to brush. Like I remember all of those pieces. But I think in the recent years, nutrition, I think nutritional counseling in general, in the health industry has become bigger. situation. It's become a bigger conversation and I know even standing in office with my pediatric practices, consulting them, watching them work with patients. I've been just amazed at the level of nutritional counseling that they're giving the kids and the parents. And like you said, we're working with the parents. It's two experiences there, but really honing in on what are you eating and how it's affecting. And I think one of the biggest spaces that I love the most, is really being able to see like... acid reflux, right, for one thing, but even just like the tongue thrusting, the different habits that they're able to see because of what the mouth looks like, and then they're able to correct it so early on and really build lasting changes. They can tell just by different visual things within the mouth, right? If there's gut issues, does your kid have an allergy? Like, maybe you should go check this out. And they're referring them back to their there are pediatricians to get nutritional counseling or to get these tests and things done, or there's a lot of them that can be done in dental practices now as well, but really honing in and looking further than we've ever looked before to ensure that these patients are as healthy as possible. And I think that's massive. That's a huge innovation within the pediatric world. And I think it's a really easy space for dentists and... Tiffanie (10:58.924) for pediatric dentists specifically to really get extra training in. It's offered, you know, everywhere. I've got, you know, we've got gym. trainers doing stuff like that, taking courses like that. So to be able to have your degree that you've got, your doctorate that you've got, and then add that aspect to it is just really, really freaking cool, in my opinion, and saves so much time and trouble and probably saves the parents a lot of time and trouble in figuring things out or finding out too late. So that was a huge one that you mentioned there. I think one space One, I love that you highlighted again that it's two experiences. It's the parent's experience and it's the patient's experience. And when I work with pediatric practices, like we're building out avatars to attract the parents that we want because they're gonna have the kids that we want. So we're not talking to the kids, they're not making the decision, we're speaking to the parents. One thing that I hone in on is the avatar, but then the second step to that is how do we ensure that the parent wants to come back? How are we making them comfortable in the practice? How do we make them comfortable with the diagnosis, the conversations? How are we integrating them into all of this as well? And making sure, like you said, my mom at heart, that the patients are well cared for. one space we're hitting with the generations, you know, the generations are getting further and further from us. But those generations that we're hitting now, there's a huge attention span differential between even our you know, teens right now already have like pretty low attention span compared though to like our Tiffanie (12:40.408) are four to eight to 10, like that 16, 13 to 16 is like, gosh dang it, this is kind of kind of annoying, you know, but then you get under 13. And it's like, holy cow, I've got about five seconds to grab your attention. And then you're gonna we were saying like, our kids keep saying, I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm like, oh my gosh, did I hear you say I'm bored before we get to the industry one more time, I'm gonna freak out. But their attention spans are so low. They're so small, because there's so much stimulation, constantly going around, that we have to take that into consideration, I think, within the dental practice, because we've got to keep their attention, we've got to keep them excited and interested and build an experience that they don't walk away frustrated by, because the parents are taking into consideration their experience. Like, did you have coffee on hand? That's a huge one for the moms out there. And then did the kid have a good experience? So I think those aspects are massive. And Dana, what did you, we talked earlier and you actually wrote this newsletter. So if you're getting this newsletter, good job, Dana wrote this one. If you're not getting our newsletters, you should go subscribe because they're pretty freaking awesome. and they're written by the consultants if you didn't catch that there. So Dana, what are you suggesting the practices are seeing practices? I think this works for all practices, by the way, these ideas here, but specifically pediatric dentistry is going to thrive with it. What are you suggesting right now to a lot of your clients that they integrate and innovate within their practice to help keep those attention spans? like here, that they're excited and interested? Dana (14:14.38) Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's like a twofold. How do I keep them engaged and interested and excited and make dentistry fun? But then also, how do I kind of distract them so that I can do what I need to do in that short amount of time so that they stay comfortable and calm? And so I feel like we're looking kind of at a bunch of different tools. see, you know, I know there's lots of TVs on the ceilings and and I'm even seeing some virtual reality. You know, kids are always like loving those oculus as I have a nephew that he's constantly like banging into the wall and you hear him on phone calls and I'm like, what's he doing? My sister was like, that's his oculus,…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera and Tiff are tuning in from a hike to talk about their shared birthday (today, May 8!) and how their personal and business evolutions have morphed. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript The Dental A Team (00:00.977) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and... Spiffy Tiffy. Oh my gosh. We are on a hike and we're in the middle of the wilderness. We're a hot mess right now. So Tiff flew in and we decided since we're actually together, we should do our birthday podcast together because little known fact, if you don't know, Tiff and I actually shared the best birthday in the entire world. Yeah, May 8th. I think they knew that though. I think they did too and if you didn't well welcome and so I convinced if we were gonna go on a hike today and when we used to be like old school old school dental a team we used to go on hikes and podcast on a hike so we decided to We've got cords all over us. Like this is in our ear. We haven't done this in so long I feel like rookie move here So if the video turns out amazing and if it doesn't well Just imagine Tiff and I are sitting up on a hill on this bench It was a beautiful hike up. We're in Reno, Nevada right now, but we get to celebrate our birthday and I wanted to riff this because May 8th is an incredible day. Tiff and I are both like so random. Tiff, we met. I feel like Tiff and I in the work world, we met on a blind date basically. Like we were set up by a mutual friend for Tiff to come and join and she is still on my phone Tiffany Trader DPP. Yep. DPP is the company that Kara previously owned that brought us together. it was DPP. Dental placement pros. Tiff was a recruiter and then Recruiter turned consultant turned lead consultant. She's kind of done it all but if I feel like happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you. Gosh, it's like just right around the corner It is and so this is releasing on our actual birthday And so I thought a fun rift would be to if we are both about to enter a new decade of our lives And I thought about thinking about like decades decades in practice ownership decades in our life I don't know how you're feeling but going into our birthday this year I've really been like on this mole of like, do I want to be in the next decade of my life? And what do want that to embody? And I know you and I are both kind of on that same path. It's really fun. It's been fun with you. think over the course of time, shoot girl, it's been almost eight years. Five, eight, eight years. That's actually cute. But just thinking about like, we've gone through so much together. And I think if we were to look back at when we first started the company. The Dental A Team (02:14.635) I feel like Tiff started it with me. Like seriously, you've been through 99.999 % of all of it. just thinking back of like, I think of who we were when we met versus who we are today and really like huge kudos to us of like both progressing and growing. But I'm like, Tiff, what does this next decade look for you? Like I thought, let's think about it. And like, maybe what was the decade before? What was that focused on? And then what are we going into for this next one? From your perspective, from my perspective and helping owners and like offices think about like. when you first started your business, might look different and like, what are the different decades or even five years of your life? How do we kind of like capture that and maximize? To me, this I feel like is living life on purpose rather than just unconsciously going through the motions. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think it's actually it's a really fun conversation, not only because it's a fun conversation, but it's actually. I think I can make it super applicable for life and for business in general. So whether you're a dental practice owner or you're an entrepreneur of your own or just whatever kind of business you're owning or working in or managing, I think I can make it pretty applicable because when you ask me that question, like, what am I going into? What did I come out of? Like, what does that look like? And I think we both are very intentional human beings. So we're always very intentional with our time and we're very intentional with like what's coming and how can we make the best or the most of what's coming. And I can say this one's fun too and easy for me because I'm going into a whole new world of age. Going from 39 to 40, that whole new like 10 years, everybody looks at their lives in like 10 year segments. And going into 30, that life was how can I show up the most for my kid? Because Brody, you know, was at an age where he needed me. He needed the best parent that he could have. He needed the happiest mom that he could have. And I was very intentional with who I was being and what kind of a life I was creating for us so that Brody could have the best experience as possible. So going into 30 was like, okay, how do I show up the best for my kid? Because he's at these formative years and ages that he just, needs me to continue showing up and how do I show up the best for him? So it was very much about my identity as a mom, I guess, and like reforming that. The Dental A Team (04:27.144) And allowing my work to be a part of that and a part of Brody's life and a part of showing him how to be a good employee and good team member and a good human when it comes to work as well. And it's fun actually going into this next decade because Brody and I hit milestones together, which is incredible. I didn't plan it that way, but it works out really nicely. And so as he is graduating high school and going on to college, I will be a year into 40. And so I'm going into my 40s with this whole new mindset of how do I support my adult child the best, which frees up honestly like so much for space for me because he is going to be so independent. And when I think about that, it's crazy because now I have all this time for me and this space for me. So really like reforming what that looks like for work, for pleasure, other relationships in my life. making sure that I'm super intentional still, but thinking about it in like a business mindset, it's kind of like the, last 10 years was like my teenage years. Um, those Brody's, you know, out of like middle adolescent to into his teen years and really being intentional with that time in the teen years of like grit and the hard and the, um, emotions and the puberty and all of the changes and business does that too. It does. Right. So you get to like five years in business and you're like, okay, I still have like a screaming toddler. And then you get to 10 and you're like, okay, this is kind of cool. We're sustaining. And then you, that next 10 years, right? Like if we're getting to those markers is like, okay, now we're like in our adolescence or however you might want to look at it. But then you get to the space where it's like, wow, this has opened up and I have leads and I have people on my team that are sustaining my business. So it's like having an adult child, right? Who's like in college. So I still have to like be there and hold accountability lines and like do so much of it and financially still have to be there. But then in the next, you know, one to six years from now, that's going to shift and change again, where it's like, now I'm like, maybe not finance, so financially tied and so emotionally invested. And when you look at your business, I think it's kind of the same trajectory. So The Dental A Team (06:49.486) That's my long-winded answer. I liked it. No, I love it a ton because like, so when we did Summit together and we talk about the life cycle of a business, which came from Tony Robbins, and it really does talk about like from toddler to like from birth to top like infant, then toddler, then you go into like your middle school years. I do remember Brody in his middle school. were going to like, Tiff was like on coaching calls. We were running to like after school pickups. We weren't like the longest line. And then they go into like high school then they move into college and then it's kind of this prime and it's interesting because I think as you and I shift into these decades That are different like I agree with you. I think our 30s were so much of building us building a business building who we wanted to be I feel like so much of my identity and who I am Not that it's tied to the business. I think at the beginning it was and I think we both watched We watched a lot of that and then we realized like this was crushing us and crippling us and we had some really strong breaking points like you said I think it's like that refining and redefining who we are and like what we actually want it to be because we're no longer in survival mode like thank heavens like cheers to that like we should cheers our microphones here we go but like cheers to that that we got out of survival mode because every business and I think every person goes into survival mode that it's almost like tiff I'm I'm a little scared but like beyond optimally optimistically hopeful that we can like sit and take a breath and actually enjoy what we created and enjoy the life we created rather than trying to keep building. And I think like that's like the crusting it feels like we're headed into in business and life. Like, so to like what's on horizon for 40. I mean, for me, I know I've been looking at, and it's funny, you and I are actually gonna probably switch roles. You're about to be childless, like less dependent. And if everything goes the way that my life is shaking up, we will become very child dependent. Like babies were hoping like that becoming a portion of our life, which. Honestly, it feels funny that you and I are constantly shifting lives, like literally shifting all the time. But also so beautiful that the different seasons of life, we can show it for each other in different ways. But like what's on the horizon for 40? Like what does 40 feel? Because I've been thinking like, what's the energy of that? What do want it to be? We think of this in business every year. There's an energy, there's a creation, there's a like a word that we have. But it is interesting to not feel so survival-ish, but more sustained. And like to me, it feels like we're headed into true prime. The Dental A Team (09:08.765) in business and true prime in life. So what's on Tiff's prime? Like Tiff's not, Brody's like full-time parent all the time anymore. Like he's weird. That's gotta part. You also feel weird. what's the vibes you're feeling for moving into that decade of your life? Yeah, I'm really excited. I think the human and the man that Brody has already become, he impresses me every single day. Like literally every day I'm He's an amazing human. I feel so lucky that I've been a part. mean how he was so little I think it was eight when we met and so to watch Brody I feel like I didn't see the child like I I don't know Tiff is like brand-new newborn mom I have no clue and that feels like hard hard years of your life And I met you when he was eight but to watch you and him just this incredible bond and he's such an amazing human like kudos to you has got to feel really good of like moving into 40 you grew you raise this human that's really going to go impact the world in such a special way. is. He is going to do something incredible. And I remember when he was an infant and when he was like a baby and a toddler, I remember reminiscing with his grandma, his dad's mom, that he was going to do something really incredible. And every year of his life, the two of us have just been like, he's going to do something incredible. So we have known since that baby came into this world that he was here to impact the world in really great ways. Brody does a lot of it on his own, if I'm honest with you, like I love taking credit for it because I know that I do impact him and I know that the way I communicate and the person that I am definitely helps mold him. but we've had a village of people around him, you and Jason included, like that have just impacted who he is, but Brody just intuitively and innately knows how to be a good human and he trusts himself. He trusts his intuition and he just goes through life. So. I'm really proud of him and it's fun to watch that. so I'm really excited. I'm so sad. Like, gosh, it's just like heart wrenching to think of how massive that changes and like how different life will look in a year. But I'm so excited to see him as an adult and like see him create his own life and all of his own adventures. So I'm really excited about that. And what the next decade looks like is, I don't know, it feels like, The Dental A Team (11:24.478) I feel like things are slowing down but still speedy at the same time, if that makes sense. Like there's a lot coming, a lot of trips and a lot of fun and Aaron and I's relationship is just incredible and there's a ton on the horizon there, I can tell, and with his two younger kids. But being able to be in a space and in a relationship that I can continue to soar and continue to. find freedoms and share those and spread those with him and explore the world with him while still being a part of the kids' lives but not being dependent on for that. don't know how to say that. You're be the auntie. Yeah, I'm not raising the kids. I'm there to positively impact and to support Aaron in whatever ways that he needs, but he doesn't need me to raise the kids, which is freaking incredible. It's the best relationship I could have ever drummed up. So like that's on the horizon fostering that relationship those relationships all three of them and their mom fostering a relationship with her. She's incredible and really I don't know intentionally devoting into that new space and area and allowing me and Brody to find a new Just a new adventure like for both of us. It's gonna be The next ten years is gonna be really shifty. I mean just think he's gonna go from 18 theoretically to 28 in a decade Jason I were talking of like how crazy is it that when you look at the decades of your life So like from 1 to 10 you go through a lot of school But from your 10 to 20 like you're finishing up high school So basically like almost 20 years those first two decades are so much school But then I feel that third decade the 20 to 30 is so much freaking growth. It's finishing college. It's figuring out who you are It's getting your first job. It's figuring out how life works and then I feel like your 30s to 40s for us at least we're like building. Like it was the big build of who we are as people. It's building your, it was building the business together. It was building our identities. It was building, like you were building with your children, um, like just so many pieces. And then it feels like the forties, it's almost like you've crested the mountain, which that was cute. We're at the top of the mountain right now with podcasting, uh, and knowing that there's so much more ahead, it's not the, it's not the final peak. There's so many more peaks, but, uh, it doesn't feel as hard as it was to grind to this area. And I think for, The Dental A Team (13:46.043) For me, I'm not quite to 40. I'm very close to one year behind Tiff. S…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Dana talk about a large trend happening in dental practices this year: last-minute cancellations, and why it's such a stressor for the doctors. They share how to notice the signs of no-shows further in advance, plus ways to troubleshoot the problem. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have the one and only Dana here with me. Dana, we're still working on that dynamite. Dana is my favorite nickname, but we'll see what Kara decides sticks. So. Thank you, Dana, for being here with me today. If you guys are watching this podcast, which I think is still a weird concept in my brain, Dana has the most incredible hair today. Dana, I'm always impressed with your lovely loc. So thanks for coming ready to go today. How are you? Dana (00:34) doing good. Thank you. If you only knew how little time it took me and that's why it's consistent because it takes me no time to get it to do this. I'm excited to be here anytime I get with you on this podcast tip is special time. So Tiffanie (00:42) I love it. Thank you. Thank you. And I do enjoy our time together. I'm trying to make sure we get that one on one time a couple more times per month than just podcasting. So thanks for being patient with me on that. Dana, I get to pick your brain all the time. We have a really fun one coming up here in a second that I know everyone's going to be really excited for. But right now, I really want to pick your brain a lot on cancellations and the cost of cancellations to a general practice. I know in My client base, what I have seen and tell me Dana what you're seeing as well. I have seen this year just like a wild bag of like, patients coming? Are they not coming? Are they canceling? What are the reasons? Like it just feels like a mixed bag of information. Since realistically, I would say it probably, I think it started trickling around November, but January, February was wild. Weather was wild. And then now that we're getting into, you know, summery months, we're getting out of spring and into summer months here in May, it just still seems to be like trends are just kind of cycling around that same space. are you seeing that with your clients you're working with and friends in the industry that you're chatting with as well? Dana (02:03) Yeah, I feel like it is a weekly basis where it's like, okay, how are things going? Well, the schedule was full, right? It was looking great and it just seems to be falling apart. So a lot, a lot of last minute cancellations where it is really hard for the team to pivot and pivot quickly in those instances. Tiffanie (02:09) Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. And so on one hand, I want you guys out there, doctors, team members, office managers, those of you who are listening today, on one hand, if this is something that you guys are coming up against this year, I want you to know that right now in 2025, this has been a trend that we've noticed within the dental community as a whole. today we really want to talk about the cost of those cancellations. I think it's great for doctors to know that information. A lot of doctors do, lot of owners already have that information, but I think it's great for team members and office managers to really know the cost of that as well so that we can see why are the doctors harping on us, not just because they don't have patients, but why is it so stressful to them? And doctors, why am I feeling this internal stress? And then I've also got some tips in here, Dana and I have gone through that are ways for you to know that there's a problem, start noticing it more in advance. and then ways to troubleshoot those problems as well. So first and foremost, I think, Dana, the most important thing to remember is that we've got to make sure that we've got a solid plan and a solid action, actionable pieces as far as our goals. If we don't know our goals, if we don't know where we're heading, then... Like, what are we even doing? Right? So as long as we, as long as we can keep a good heading on our goals. And I mean, by that, like, what is our monthly goal? What is our daily goal? And then always looking at what have we done? Where are we going? And what's that gap in between? If we're not watching that gap in between, we can fall into a really scary space. And then it's that last week of the month that we've all lived where the office manager is like, okay, guys, we just need $30,000 in addition this week. Who needs ortho? right? And we're like, scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get that money in. But it's because we haven't watched all month where those numbers are at. making sure that we're always looking at that, and we're always paying attention to those things is going to be massively important. Now, Dana, I know you have a lot of practices that are tracking this, that are they're watching these trends. As far as like dollar per hour kind of cost to the practice and what this actually looks like in conjunction to the goals. What are you seeing with your practices right now and what do you suggest they really start to watch? Dana (04:39) Yeah, I think that it is one just like you said, tracking and making sure that they know how much is open schedule time impacting their production and their ability to get to their goals. How much you know, if their hygiene team isn't getting to their 30 % or hitting their daily goal, is it because they just didn't have a full schedule of patients because that is pretty crucial for them to get to that point. Daily goals are set up with full schedules in mind, especially if we use block scheduling to get to daily goal. If our blocks aren't full, we're not gonna get there. So I think it is tracking to be able to look and say, how much is it impacting our production and what are we losing when we have a hole in our schedule? Because sometimes when we can attach a monetary value to that actual appointment, it becomes a little bit more important. When we see, if we know that every time a restorative appointment is open, that that costs us $1,000 right or $900, right? Well, then we know how much that's going to impact our goal if we know that every time a Recare patient doesn't show up that equals $230 well, then we can sure be strategic about how we make that gap up Tiffanie (05:40) Yeah. Dana (05:56) later in the month or later in the week and sometimes too for team members it's like oh we only have one cancellation well one cancellation for every 17 days that you're open when you know what that value of that appointment is it really really You can see how it's impacting. And so I would say take a look at your doll, you know, your production per hour on both sides so that you know, when I've got an hour open, it's costing the practice this much. When I've got an hour and a half open, it's costing the practice that much. And that's just the missed dentistry. That's not the costs of the practice just to be open for that hour, right? Like there's all of those fixed costs that extend into that too. And so getting a real picture of what each hour in our practice leads to Tiffanie (06:25) Good job. Dana (06:41) production and expenses can just be so eye-opening on its impact. Tiffanie (06:48) I totally agree. I think the actual cost, like if you look at it and we're looking at our goals, that actual cost is what is your dollar per hour? So like Dana said, it could be anywhere between $500 to $1,500 an hour on a doctor's schedule. And then again, that $100 to $300 on a hygiene schedule just really depends on what your practice's goals are and what you guys are set out to achieve. So if you've got $1,200 between doctor and hygiene, we've got a goal of $1,200 per hour and you've got those openings on the schedule, that's what the cost is. that data that we've done really really well and we've done differently this year with our current clients is really having them go through and track the number of open hours on each provider's schedule. So the reason that we do that is last year I had a couple of doctors that were really, really close to, one of them was really close, he was about $30,000 away from hitting the goal that he wanted. Another one was like $20,000 away from exceeding where he thought he would be this year. And I was like, gosh, wow, how did we get so close, but we missed it by that much. So what I did was I sat down and I looked through the whole year and I tallied. doctor, open hours, hygiene, open hours. So whether that was cancellations, the schedule fell apart, who knows, but it was just open hours that were on the schedule that could have been scheduled, meaning that was an open block, nothing was there. And both of those doctors would have far exceeded what they anticipated had those been filled. Now, We like to say a variation rate of about 5%. If you're more than 5 to 8 % on the long end, like 8 % is high. If you're more than that in cancellations, you're in hot water. So even if we deducted that five to 8 % from that math that I did, we still would have hit those goals. And so it really brought a lot of reality into the situation. Like you were saying, Dana, to really be able to see what that gap is and why it happened. And I had a practice just the other day, she did fantastic. This office manager, she had the information before we even went into the call. one of the doctors, one of the owner doctors was really, really intrigued on why are we just why are we short in collections and by that he was looking at QuickBooks, right? So why is the bank short? So because when we look at their data, when we look at their collections and their production, just looking at those straight from Dentrix, they were above 100 % on collections. So the team is like, bro, like we're at 102%. Like, what do you mean? And he's like, yeah, but there's no money. Like there's not the overhead, right? So the overhead is hitting well, The office manager knew that we were going into this conversation. She knew that he was going to ask these questions and that I wasn't going to have that immediate information. So prior to the call, she went through the whole first quarter of the year. And what she did was not only she took cancellations on one side, because that was an aspect of it, but another piece that she took was we've had a lot of call outs from hygiene and ⁓ vacation. And surgery, was a surgery that, you know, quote unquote, she's on her vacation. So we had a lot of time that there wasn't a hygienist available to see patients. And when she tallied that it was literally that missing piece and his mind was just blown and he was like, my gosh, thank you. He just needed the satisfaction of knowing what it was, right. But the cost of not only cancellations, but that missed opportunity of hygiene because there had been hygienists ill, there had been hygienists on PTF. as a hygienist that had to have shoulder surgery, these things come up and they happen, but we're not always anticipating them and our goals get missed. So these cancellation spots where patients are calling and they're like, gosh, I just can't come in are even more important. because there are times where we can't, we can do something about that. We can fill an open spot on the schedule. I can't do hygiene if I don't have a hygienist, a licensed hygienist there to take that spot. So those different spaces really took a toll. the cost on the practice, right? The cost of the cancellations is the dollar per hour, but then on a grander scale, it's like, what did we miss out that month and that quarter? And how did it impact our overhead? Because this example, all three examples, the doctors were like, why is my overhead so high? Where's my profitability? Why is this sucking? Especially when you feel like we're rolling along pretty well. It's like, where's the profitability? Where is it missing? That's the big toll. And then also I think, Dana, the stress, like, gosh, being a team member and then like inefficiencies that it creates, the stress of having to save a patient or Dana (11:22) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tiffanie (11:40) having to talk somebody into coming last minutes, the stress of knowing that there's a cancellation there and Doc's gonna, know, Doc and manager or owner or whomever is gonna come ask me questions. Like Dana, you've been in that position too. And even maybe even from a hygienist standpoint, the stress of having openings, like that's a cost as well. What was that for you and your perception as a provider and a team member, but then also as a consultant, what are you seeing there as far as the cost on a practice with those cancellations from an emotional standpoint? Dana (12:09) Yeah, I I think is I do this definitely something that weighs heavily on you because I mean, I'm very goal oriented. And so if you put a goal in front of me, I'm going to want to tackle it. And so it is a little bit defeating in that way. And then it's like, okay, well, I would have to book patients out, right. And sometimes even further than when they were due, right, just to have my schedule fall apart. And it's like, man, like I could have seen those people that I had to look out a little bit farther. So it is a stressful on a patient care level is stressful on a goals level it's stressful on like hey I'm here and like I want to do things that are of value to the practice so yeah it plays a burden on everyone and so it's just something that's so important to look at and to set a game plan for and to tackle as a team. Tiffanie (12:58) Yeah, I totally agree. totally agree. Now areas that we'll tackle some areas where you can tell there's an issue, like not only you see like, my gosh, I feel like there's a lot of cancellations happening, but really just being able to see what that what that entails. So I think one space is open schedule, obviously, right? Open schedule. I think frustrated team members, Dana, do you agree? Yeah. Dana (13:23) Yeah, yeah, because it's so much more work on the back end to save something that's fallen off or to fill something than it is to just be really good at reappointing from the beginning and being really good at creating value from the beginning. Those things are much easier than this stress and the crunch time of after the fact. Tiffanie (13:45) Yeah, totally agree. So upset team members, like stressed out front office team members, upset doctors, empty schedule, seeing repeat offenders. So patients that are repeatedly coming off of the schedule seem to cancellations. And you guys, I want to tackle a little bit too on why. why this happens. There's a few things and I mean, you guys are going to tell me and your team is going to tell me patients are sick and patients can't come in because of work. Like I totally hear you. I get that. I understand. But what it boils down to the root cause in my opinion is a lack of a lack of systems or a lack of systems follow through. So lack of consistency. So ⁓ handoffs and patient buy-in might not be there. Team buy-in might not be there. Scheduling rules. So how do we form and build the right schedule. If we're consistently behind on patients appointments, or they're taking longer than we said they would, they're not getting sat on time, like if we're showing that we don't value our schedule bec…
Full show notes at the publisherA lot of practices are concerned about keeping their team members on board right now. In this episode, Kiera lays out 3 effective ways to create a workplace that employees want to show up to, leading to a happier office crew and happier patients.
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Transcript
Kiera Dent (00:00)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I hope that you're just having the best day of your life. I hope that you are just truly, truly, truly remembering why you're even doing this. I hope you have a strong why. I hope you have a strong commitment. I hope you have just the best honest day-to-day. Dental A Team's purpose is to truly make your life better, to make running a dental practice easier, because I don't believe that being successful and profitable has to be hard.
I don't believe that having like great patients and great teams has to be a hard journey. So our job is to give you tactical tips that are able to implement immediately and make your life and your job even easier. Today, I wanted to pump you guys up because I believe that stronger teams, happier practice, this is where we're at. How do you actually boost team morale and job satisfaction? This is something that I feel is super common right now. People are like, Kiera, how do I get more team members to stay? And we just had an in-person.
event where doctors, we had doctors and leadership, so office managers there, and the doctor like, please just tell us like, what do you want? We will try our best to do this for you. And so the reality is a happy team leads to truly a thriving practice. And I don't believe that happy means you have to give everything to them. And so really how do we create a work environment where your team loves to show up every single day? This truly impacts patient care.
It impacts efficiency. It impacts the practice success. And so really I'm going to give you guys three of the most effective strategies that I've seen with hundreds of practices to truly boost job satisfaction today. You guys, we are the dental team. We are the experts and dentists and team training. We love to do this. We love to help you in your practice. And the reality is we have been able to help within our consulting, boost team morale, boost doctor morale, which ultimately leads to greater patient satisfaction and happiness.
So today, number one, it was interesting. were like, literally at this event, we were listing off all these things and asking the team members and the doctors were like, my gosh, like, just tell us. And one of the office managers raised her hand and she said, you know, a lot of these things are important. But the number one thing that's important to me is when my doctor says, hey, you did a great job. And I like, there it is again. Like it shows up constantly of creating a culture of recognition and appreciation and
when team members feel valued, I remember like the best thing my doctor could have told me was, Keri, like you did it, you like crushed it today. Like, I'm so grateful for you as my assistant. And I think like, we think that that doesn't matter, but when it's genuine and sincere, this is what our team members are craving. And so figure out a way where you can like recognize your team members, figure out a way where you have peer to peer, so it's not just leaning on you doctors. So office managers looking for this.
And then having personalized appreciation. And this is something where I really emphasize this heavy in our company, in our team, in our culture. So for example, you guys have heard me probably talk a million times about our morning huddle structure, where every Wednesday is core value shout out and every team member, it's kind of like popcorn. So if I'm going to start today, I'm going to shout out a team member for one of our core values. And then I choose that team member and then they'll shout someone else out. And even if like it's someone else, then great, no problem. We're just going to make sure that every person
shout someone out and it doesn't matter who got shout outs. But what the goal is, is that peer to peer recognition where we're looking for each other's strengths, we're looking for each other's greatness, We're looking to elevate and celebrate one another. We have every Friday 5 where we highlight different team members of great things that they've done, things that have gone really well. And I will tell you, this is one of the greatest ways to foster a great culture. And then other things that you can do is on you can personally
Shout out team members of what they're doing well and highlight them But really being genuine and I know some doctors like really struggle with this I even had a doctor who had like 17 members and they had seven little rocks in one pocket and Every time they would compliment a team member. They'd move one rock to one pocket So by the end of the day all seven rocks had to move for giving them appreciation I had another doctor who put an alarm on their phone to just
say thank you to their team members. And I know this feels so silly, but literally we had a team of doctors and a team of office managers all in a room and consistently they all said that feeling valued and appreciated was the number 1 thing. it didn't matter about the money. Of course these things need to be there. But truly, if you just create a simple recognition plan and start acknowledging your team members this week, I know that this will be a great way to boost that team morale and keep team retention.
So number two is going to be investing in growth and development. So different things, think team members love to know what is like my progression within my workplace. How can I grow? How can I get to the next level? How can I be like, what's this? And so we love to have tier programs for every single position within the practice. We share this with our clients where it's like, what does a dental assistant from here to here to here? What's that expectation of the skillset? Also, what's the growth potential financially? And so this way it's like, how can I grow?
Also within Dental A Team, offer, I have an X amount of dollars for continuing education for all of my team members that they can use every single year to learn other things. And it can even be things like if they want to learn about investing or they want to learn about budgeting and they want to take a Dave Ramsey course, that's totally fine because I want to invest in them as people and in professionals. And so how can we actually help them know like within their career, how they can grow in advance, but also then within their life, how can they grow in advance?
You know, Dental A Tetam, have done this and Britt and I have gone back and forth of, we want to like share dollar amounts? We not like there's pros and cons around it. But what I do like is the growth trajectory of what do these positions need to be? And it's something where I felt we were clear and I found out from our team, weren't as clear. so find ways for you to help your team know how to grow and advance within the practice. and then guess what? They'll tap out. There will be a tap out phase of every position and that's okay. At least they know that.
the expectations are not missed. And then that's when we start to provide CE for life, CE for these other things. And what I've seen is when offices invest in growth and development within their teams, it reenergizes them. think consulting is a great way for you to reenergize your team. And what we see is we usually see a 10 to 30 % increase in production just with coming into a practice, just with helping them, because the whole team now is super excited. They're all on board and we've literally been able to grow them.
And so I think this is a great thing within your one-on-ones. Find out what things are interested in, find out, roll out these tiers for every position so it's super crystal clear with each team member. And then within their one-on-ones monthly, within their evaluations, you're able to help them just see their growth and development. And I know teams really do care about that. Then there of course is going to be the piece of step three will be two things. So it's gonna like, there's one of communication and team bonding, honestly having it be a fun place to work.
So things that they get excited about, and I usually break this up by quarters, because there's four departments in a practice. We've got our doctors, front office, dental assistants, and hygienists. And if I put all those together, there's one group per quarter. Give them a budget, and we just build up this incredible space where we actually have fun as a team together. We go hang out. We do paint and wine nights. We go to sports games together. We go on a cruise. We go to the movies together. We go to a movie launch. I don't care what it is. And when all the different departments have to plan it, then guess what? We all show up for each other.
But having something that's just really fun. also think like potluck lunches can be an easy thing. can have, there's just like so many things you can do as a team. You can have a date night. can have, there's just finding ways to connect beyond work is going to be a really great way of just fun. Like I know so many team members watch other offices on social media and they're that office just looks like they're having a ton of fun all the time. And a lot of them really are. And so it's like, how can we actually have so much fun together as a team? We want to make sure that we are
teammates and my husband was talking to me, he works in the hospital and he works with a pretty large team and they said that our teams are becoming a lot of what communities used to be. Communities used to be like where you lived would be about like your politics and your religion and all these other things in your support system and your friends and work is now becoming that. And so finding ways to connect.
even as human beings, I think is a really, really great way to just have it be a fun place. And that doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money. It could just be getting creative where we remember we're people in addition to being coworkers. And then of course, I will just say like a fourth bonus tip is going to be making sure that we are compensating our team appropriately and that our benefits are where they need to be. Even if you don't offer healthcare, you can offer a health stipend for like gym memberships or wellness. You can offer like a half day on certain days of the month, but
Getting feedback in a positive way, I think there's been some ways to have it negative, but figuring out what really is super important to your team is going to be great ways for you to just truly boost this team morale, boost this connection. And so really what we wanted to highlight is number one, the number one thing, like literally, I just did this like a couple of weeks ago. It is the recognition and appreciation. Number two is growth and development. Three is strength and communication and team bonding. And four is going to be making sure that you are compensating your team.
where you are adequate to where they're not stressed and you're able to have that. But I really think in that growth section, showing them the tiers, you've actually helped foster that as well. So this is where you can actually get like positive team culture. takes time. Culture is not something that's built overnight. Culture is not something that you just show up. It usually is quite a long turn, but it is undue dividends. And the reality is you've got to be able to create this thriving team culture. Otherwise you're going to be dealing with constant turnover.
constant chaos and that is not a fun space to be. So if you want some help, if you want to create that thriving team culture, DM us or visit our website and we will truly help you out. We've got some tips for you. I'm happy to share shout out jar pieces for you. I'm happy to share Friday five examples for you. I'm happy to share one-on-ones, tiers, whatever we can do to support you, DM us and ask for that or email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.
Truly subscribe to our podcast or our newsletter for more leadership strategies and tips and honestly share this with another office that you know could help, another team member that this could help because this is truly what the Dental A Team does. You're obsessed with this and if you are ready to boost your morale, build a higher performing team, reach out. Now is your time. This is not something that's hard. It can definitely be easy. It's something that we're obsessed with. Three simple tips and we would love to help you in any way we can. As always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.
Today's case acceptance focus is all about presenting the treatment plan and sequencing. Kiera shares language to use and the kind of confidence to adopt when discussing game plans with patients, and why it will stop objections in their tracks nine times out of ten. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners, this is Kiera and I am so excited to welcome you back to part two of Treatment Planning Masters, increasing that case acceptance, getting you guys into the tactical, but you better believe if you have not listened to part one, get your booties back to part one and go listen, because if you don't fix your mindset, if you don't work on those items, everything I teach you today is going to be a little bit better for you. I promise you it will be a little bit better for you, but the real secret sauce to treatment planning is the words that you speak. Words create worlds, you guys, and the words you're saying and how you're saying it how you're presenting it and the sequence you're doing is ultimately impacting your yeses, your nos, your full schedules or your not full schedules, helping you realize full case acceptance versus partial case acceptance. It's all within mindset. And I have literally a hundred percent done this for so many offices. So I can sit here confidently telling you, guys, you've got to do that. So if you're new to the podcast, welcome. I promise I don't usually start podcasts out this way. I usually tell you, I hope you're freaking loving your day today. I hope you're having the best day and I hope you remember we are truly so blessed to work in dentistry. Dental A Team's mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible and we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. Honest to goodness, I can say very confidently that Dental A Team consulting is second to none. We are truly experts. We drive production. We drive overhead down. We drive teams to be incredible leaders and we do it in such a freaking fun, positive, easy way. We help doctors get the lives of their dreams. Yes, you have to show up. I can't just do it for you, but I can promise you that Dental A Team Consultants are truly people that have passion, that have grit, that have solutions. And it is so fun to hear client success story after client success story after client success story, increasing their production to numbers they never thought that they could do, decreasing their overhead, having dream their vacation homes being built when they didn't even know how to take home a paycheck. Just the life, the business, the teams, team members telling us that we have literally changed their lives, that we've helped them financially, that we've helped them personally, that we've helped them help more patients. This is why Dental A Team exists. This is what our mission is. And I hope that we can help you in your practice. If it ever resonates with you, I hope it does. DM us. We're on Instagram, Dental A Team. Also pop onto our website, TheDentalATeam.com. Click on a call. I'm happy to do a... a complimentary practice assessment where we actually look at your whole practice and I'll kind of help you see the gaps and our team will help you see where are kind of the areas within your practice that you can exponentially improve. We have six proven areas that we know if you will tackle those six areas, you will truly find success with ease. And it's something where it's not hard. The secret to success is not hard. It's simple little changes, but being consistent and staying accountable. And I think our team does it. in such a fun way. add the confetti, we add the sprinkles, we make you giggle. I have a client and we are always giggling and we have expanded him to multiple, multiple, multiple growth beyond anything this client could ever could imagine. And we do it with giggles and ease because honestly, business is a fun, it's a fun game if you allow it. So reach out if any of that resonates with you. I'd love to have you be a part of our Dental A Team family. I'd love to help you. Live the life you deserve and to live the life of your dreams and get there even easier So with that here's part two of case acceptance treatment planning. Like I said, here's a tactical so I've got you're in the right mindset We're not planting weeds in our flower garden. If you have no clue what I'm talking about go listen to part one And if you are ready, you're like, okay care. I've got the mindset. I was practicing it all day yesterday and Like crazy it just happened patients are saying yes to me like Wow What do you say? next up is going to be, all right, so now a patient has come. I am in the right mindset. This is going to be, doctors, I need you to be freaking comprehensive. Do not use little league words for major league problems. Tell them what's really going on and have confidence and let's use the terms of the great news is we're going to be able to get you healthy. I strongly encourage you doctors to use our NDTR, proven handoff. Tell them the next visit, the date to return, ND. So next visit, date to return, T is how much time, and R stands for recall being scheduled. If you will follow that, I promise you, you are going to cut down half of the objections that your patients will have, and you're going to actually get them into the right frame of mind. So if you will do that, now treatment coordinators, we pick this up. So first steps first, I'm in the right mindset. Now I'm going to say, my gosh, Sarah, it's so great to see you. Dr. Taylor is absolutely incredible. You are in such good hands with Dr. Taylor. I know Dr. Taylor gave you a treatment plan. we're going to get that taken care of. Let's get you scheduled. Dr. Taylor is super busy, so let's make sure we get that done. I've got Monday or Wednesday, one o'clock or two o'clock, which works best for you. Now you might be like, Kiera, what the heck? You didn't even present the treatment plan. You are right. Gold star. You figured it out. This is a subtle shift that will help you exponentially. And it's crazy. I just did this with the team and the team was like, are not going to like that. And there was one team member who piped up and was like, I actually do this and it works so well now. Fun fact that team member is the one who's closing the 30 40 $50,000 cases So, you know just brush my shoulders off this works and this works for very large cases So all your poo pooing. Oh my gosh care. This isn't gonna work. Please I just encourage you you're listening to this and doctors give this to your teams and doctors listen to this as well because Doctors this I think is a little like seat The secret to your success, one, you gotta be diagnosing as much as we need you to. So if you wanna be producing 100 grand a month, you've got to be diagnosing at least $300,000 a month. So I need you to diagnose, because if you're not diagnosing enough, no matter how great your treatment coordinator is, no matter how much we teach them, we don't have enough to fill your schedule to the schedule you want it to be. So doctors, we need you to diagnose and please do not ever over-diagnose. I know you're ethical. I know you're not looking for treatment that's not necessary. but I do know that sometimes you might be so busy or sometimes you might be like, I don't really want to talk here. like, gosh, like I told her like the last seven times. Well, guess what? Maybe the eighth time she needs to hear it. Maybe she's ready to hear it. And also doctors work with your hygiene team. So they're teeing it up. You are the second person to tell this, not the first person to tell that doctors that will help you a ton. We have other podcasts on helping hygiene teams, T up treatment. So doctors, if you need that also utilizing AI software can really help you out if you're struggling to diagnose. I think that these are some great investments that you could make if you're struggling to diagnose. So next thing is treatment coordinators, high five, it's your turn. Doctors done an incredible job. They teed it up. You go to schedule first. I've got Monday or Wednesday and you're like, but Kiera, they're going to be like, well, what does it cost? Well, A, stop thinking that and B, we're going to say amazing, Sarah. I am definitely going to go over that with you. I want to make sure we get you scheduled. That way we get this into Dr. Taylor's schedule because he's so busy. Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you? And then we'll definitely talk about all that. I want you to be rock solid confident, which works best for you Monday or Wednesday? I've answered their questions. I've told them we're gonna talk about it. But what happens here that I really wanna highlight is you are putting the emphasis on we are doing treatment and the question is not, we doing treatment or are we not doing treatment? AKA when I present a treatment plan to you and I'm focused on that as number one, what I'm telling the patient is treatment is optional if you can afford it. When I schedule them, what I'm saying is we're doing treatment and the question is, how are we going to pay for this? Those are the things that we have options for, not are we doing treatment or not? Because like I told you on the last podcast, I'm like, I will tell you forever, if a doctor diagnoses it and I believe that they are incredible dentists, my job is to schedule it as a treatment coordinator. No ifs, ands, or buts, I don't care. There are solutions. Remember, Cure is mantra. Everyone says yes, and there is always a solution and we will find it. So, Edify the Doctor. Schedule first. I promise you if you will just do this one shift in the tactical, this is the 20 % now we're not in the 80 % psychology. We are now in the 20 % tactical. You will start to have more cases to close. 100 % this is going to be for you. So after we do that, then I'm gonna present the treatment plan and there is a sequence to presenting a treatment plan. If you even think about talking about insurance first, it's because you're afraid of numbers. It's because you're afraid that patients are going to say no to you. It's because you think insurance is the most important thing and it's not. Insurance is just a coupon. Do not crutch on insurance. Stop it, because insurance does not matter unless you make it matter. So I present a treatment plan. I'm like, awesome. So Dr. Taylor, we presented this treatment. This is what we're going to be doing. Here's the total out of pocket for the treatment. This is what our insurance estimated payment is. This will be your total when I see you on Wednesday. Or if your practice does a deposit, it would be like, this is your total. And today we're going to collect our 10%. So that'll be 421. I can do cash or card, which do you prefer? Do you feel my confidence? Do you feel this is what we're doing? This patient's like, my gosh, this is what I'm doing. I'm not talking this patient into it. The doctor diagnosed it. You're the one who got yourself into this opportunity. And now my job is to help you. If the patient has an objection, remember I said, do not freaking plant weeds in your flower garden. If the patient has an objection of like, hey, like, do have any payment options? They will ask you. Now I will give you like if you want to have a little bit of a say, you can say, what questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid confident moving forward. You can also say, this is the total. Do you have savings or would you like to talk about third party financing? I would strongly encourage you not to use those last two until you try this one for about four weeks until you get like out of your awkwardness because all it is is just uncomfortable and you're so scared these people are gonna break up with you and they're not. They're not, they're just thinking about it. But Notice I'm like, I've got Monday or Wednesday, which do you prefer? I can do cash or card, which do you prefer? I'm putting my focus on the right question. I'm not saying, do you want to do dentistry today? Yes or no? I'm not saying like, do you have money for this? Because if you don't like, okay, I'm scheduling you. I'm assuming the yes. I'm assuming this patient's going to take on. I am assuming that they are going to do treatment. Why would I assume otherwise? My thoughts create my reality. So why am I even going to think a thought of like, they might say no. Great, if they say no, it's an opportunity for me. High five. And then I'm going to be silent. And so now objections to me, when I have objections and I promise you I'd give you objection know how today, the objections, because you're like, Kiera, tell us the objections. Like, this is where it's so hard. And I'll tell you, no, no, no. Everything above that will cut most of your objections. I hope you heard that. Everything above that from your psychology to the words you say, to the way you present treatment plans, to the way you schedule. all of that will actually prevent 90 % of your objections. And then you just got to get good on those 10%. And for me, it's not an objection, it's an opportunity. So again, notice, I'm like, it's not an objection, it's just an opportunity for me. And when I look at an objection, I know that I just need to educate this patient more. They're just unsure. Now there are 10 % of patients, maybe 5%, that truly do need to talk to their spouses. And I'm not here to minimize that, but 95%, that's just to like, push back. They aren't confident on something and your job is to figure that out. So whatever it is, I've got solutions for spouse, for work, for money, for time, for pain, for overwhelming, for deposit, you name it. I have literally not gotten an objection that someone has given me that I'm like, great, you've stumped me. I don't know what to do. No, there's always a solution and we will find it together. So what we'll do is for this, every objection, we validate them first. So let's say it's like, hey, Kara, I need to talk to my spouse before I can make this decision. What I'm gonna say is, my gosh, Sarah, absolutely. I 100 % want you to talk to your spouse. I want you to be so confident moving forward. What questions do think your spouse is gonna have? That way I can prep you with those answers before you talk with them. What this does is Sarah is now going to tell me what her real problem is hidden behind the barrier of their spouse. Truth, she's going to. It happens every time. They'll be like, they're gonna be wondering about money or they're gonna be wondering how long will this work or they're gonna be wondering about how much time this will take. Well, if I've done a really great handoff, it should never be time. It should be, they know when they need to come back and they know what they need to come back for. So then she's just gonna let me know and be like, my gosh, yeah, we can talk about payment options. Like, what were you kind of thinking? What's a ballpark? Do you have savings for this? And then I'm gonna present two options for financing. So care credit, CHERI, Proceed, Sunbit, lik…
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