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Tiff and Dana discuss the ideal ways to utilize expanded functions dental assistants (EFDAs). They provide different ideas of how an EFDA can effectively fill in gaps, address scheduling SNAFUs, why state regulations need to be taken into consideration, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.464) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back at you. Dana and I, Dana, thank you for being here with me today. I'm so excited to see you. How are you on this lovely, lovely, still morning? Yes, morning. Dana (00:14.474) God, I'm doing pretty good. I'm excited to be here. I like this. I know you're always like, I love my time with Dana. It's equally reciprocated. So I'm excited to get a little extra Tiff time today. The Dental A Team (00:21.101) Thank you. Thank you, me too, me too. We really need to, I was thinking this morning, as I was getting ready for work, I was like, my gosh, we need to schedule the Seven Falls hike in Tucson because it's getting cooler, we'll say. So yeah, we need to find a weekend that we can get down there, you can get up there, and we meet, it's almost in the middle, right? So, awesome. Okay, hiking is my jam, you know that, we'll get that scheduled and... Dana (00:42.731) Yes. The Dental A Team (00:49.771) We're going to spend some time together today. We've already recorded one podcast and I cannot wait for that one to release. I think it was fantastic. Doctors. was really good. We just did it about coding and making sure that systems are accurate and billing is accurate and billing representatives, making sure that you're getting the support you need from your doctors within that coding accuracy department. So go listen to that. If you haven't listened to it yet, I do love all of our podcasts. I think that they're all fantastic, but We like to hear it from you guys too. So whatever you think, whatever you need, if there's ever ideas that you guys have too that you're like, gosh, I would love more information about this. Do you know anything? One, ask us at Hello@TheDentalATeam.com We're always here to help answer questions or give ideas. But if you've got podcast ideas, like we are open to them. literally, the consulting team goes through and we pick the topics and we try to think of the things that you might like. And I honestly think sometimes we might miss the mark on something. So. Let us know if there's things that you want more information on or things that we could dive into further for you, because we're here for that. Also drop a five star review. Let us know what you think down there as well, because we do love hearing about it. I love sharing podcasts, Do you ever share a podcast with your friends? I have a very specific friend group that's podcasters, and we very specific podcasts that we share. Do you have one of those in your life? Dana (02:10.75) Yes, I do. And I always joke around and say, if I start sending you podcasts or even sometimes like funny Instagram things, like you've made it to my inner circle. The Dental A Team (02:18.672) Yeah, I totally agree. I saw a the other day that was like, it's a full-time job. I'm here for it. You're welcome. And it was like sending memes all day to my best friend or something like that. And my best friend is a stay at home mom. And so I sent it straight to her. She's like, You're welcome. I'm gonna log on at the end of the day and I'm like, my gosh, got a lot of things in here. Yeah, but I do, I love sharing the podcasts and sometimes I'll share a podcast and they're like, gosh, I can re-listen to this. I'm like, I don't know. Like sometimes I just re-listen to podcasts and I get nuggets and tips that I didn't catch before or it hits a little bit differently. And I know I've gone back and listened to years later a podcast and been like, wow. I didn't even realize it could have meant this or now I'm in this space of my life and it's completely applicable. And I think about that on my free time, I listen to much different, I listen to leadership and life coaching style podcasts and I do sprinkle some dentistry in there just to stay up to date. But it made me think this morning too, these podcasts that we do. Sometimes we've got startup doctors or two years into owning the practice or associate doctors who maybe don't own their own practice yet or maybe they don't want to own their own practice but they're super new, listen to a podcast and then fast forward five years, we've been doing this podcast for a long time you guys, going back and listening to it from a different perspective. Today I'm a different person than I was five years ago when I first listened to it. It made me think about that this morning. I love podcasting, I love pulling you guys into the podcasting world and getting this time with you. And it really made me think about how different stages of your life things are just gonna hit a little bit differently. So I wanted to take that minute to just remind everyone to go back through. We've got a million podcasts. Share with your friends, share with your family who's in dentistry. Like how many of us, right, have some sort of family member who's also in dentistry that could use the information? The Dental A Team (04:19.771) Just a quick reminder, and today's topic is super fun. I am not an EFDA. I will put that out there. I'm not an EFDA, but I'm a dental assistant at heart. I will say it every single time. I just said it on the last podcast. I love dental assisting. It just makes me so happy. It fulfills my soul. So today, Dana, I thought it would be really fun to take a little adventure down the road of what an expanded functions. dental assistant within a practice might look like. And I think this is a good space for teams and for doctors, a good podcast for doctors to really get some ideas on what that could look like within their practice. Now doctors, will say and listeners out there, not every state sees an EFDA for what another state sees them as. So a lot of the things that we're going to talk about, remember we consult practices from coast to coast. We are all over the country. And so we've got tidbits and pieces that we picked up from different practices all over different states. So caveat to today, I want you to go check what your state's requirements are, what your state's legalities are, what they can or can't do before taking anything we say and implementing it right off the bat, right off the bat, unless you already have that information. Really easy place to go is your state dental board. ADA usually has some interesting facts on per state. So just go double check those beforehand. So that's my caveat, but Dana and I both have worked with a lot of practices who do utilize EFTAs. It's a wild wild west out here, so we don't require the EFDA, but we do have that available here and you can do more with it. You can do the coronal polishing and things like that here in Arizona, but it's... sadly not yet required in Arizona. I think it is getting pushed towards that way. But I wanted to pick your brain a little bit Dana on some things that you've seen maybe just within different practices across the country. We don't have to like state specific them or anything, but how have you seen chair, know, chair side wise with a doctor and after really be useful to the dentist and the practice for maybe even practice flow. Dana (06:29.374) Yeah, so I there's two ways that I think are super common. And I do think that, like knowing, like you said, knowing your state regulations, exactly what you're after can and can't do will kind of help you choose which way might work best for your practice. And there is the first way is they really have their own column, right? And the doctors hop in where doctor is needed. And then the flip side of that is there isn't a separate column for them. They just follow the doctor. So I think it just kind of depends on how much they can do independently based on state laws as far as which one you choose. But those are the two most common structures that I see. And I think that... Again, we wanna maximize the way that we utilize them. The other thing that I see is EFTAs being used a lot for assisted hygiene because if they can coronal polish, that's just another avenue for them to be able to help in a different way, help to boost production too and just see more patients. The Dental A Team (07:19.283) Yeah, thank you. The Dental A Team (07:29.703) Yeah, I agree with that. I was thinking the same thing with hygiene and I was actually thinking as you were talking about like their own provider column or utilizing that provider situation where the doctor's kind of almost the assistant following the assistant, right? It makes me think of your hygiene schedule because if you've got an assisted hygiene schedule or even just two or more hygienists, your doctors are going in for what they need to for their exams. So it's kind of similar I think to... practices and team members get a little hung up on the scheduling piece and like wrapping their minds around it because you're kind of like Reworking how you thought about an appointment you learned how to schedule an appointment you learn the X's and slashes and the block scheduling but now we're like totally warping what you knew and adding a new caveat but if you think of it in that like assisted hygiene or Double or triple hygiene where the doctors coming in for the exams. It's kind of similar the doctors coming in for their pieces, right, for the drilling and the decay removal while the assistant stays there just like the hygienist would stay there and finish the cleaning, et cetera, the assistant staying there and filling the tooth back in and finishing it out. So the doctor would come and go and follow the assistant more as a provider. So I do have, I actually have an interesting like smash of all of that information. I do have a practice in a state in Tennessee. that she's a fantastic dentist and she has like these insanely great ideas and she's always smashing things together. She actually took a hygienist, had a hygienist EFDA. So she had a hygienist go get her EFDA and now she truly is like a provider column because she's doing hygiene and she's doing EFDA out of that column, out of her chair in her room. So it's kind of cool because when practices do that, I have a few practices that are maybe not hygienists, but doing that kind of column in that chair, that process for like a provider of a few offices that are doing that. And it's almost like you can then look at it as you would an associate or that fifth hygiene. Like how much is this column, how much is this chair able to produce based on what my UFDA can produce and not just what my doctor. So then my doctor column, like my doctor heavy column over here can be those big long. The Dental A Team (09:46.101) crown appointments or root canals or whatever. And while he or she is able to break and go do what they need to do in my assistant, my EFDA column, they go pop over and do that and my EFDA finishes it. It's almost as if my EFDA is a provider there and can provide that column's worth of production. So it really helps you, think, when you do it that way to be able to split it out very easily. And then Dana, you mentioned the assistant following the doctor. that's kind of the same as it is now, but you would need that other assistant to be there if the other one, like you've got two assistants calling the doctor, but that one makes it, that one I think is probably the easiest version for the scheduling aspect for people to digest because it's more similar to the way we naturally already learned how to schedule. So I think that's probably the most common one that we see. Dana (10:22.368) there. The Dental A Team (10:41.62) And then the hygiene one, I love that, the assisted hygiene, because yeah, coronal polishing, most of them can coronal polish and most states allow that, but again, double check that for you. But I do, actually have a practice that seriously struggles with hygienists. Like they're just in an area that is impossible to get and keep a hygienist. It is so hard. So what they've done is they've actually completely changed the model of their practice and we're still testing it. We're only a few months in, so do not drop everything and change everything unless you have already been on this train and you're ready for it, but I'm not suggesting you drop everything and change it. Hygiene is difficult right now. I will put that out there. And we need more hygienists, so everyone out there listening, if you wanted to be a hygienist, go be a hygienist. need more of you guys. But this practice is really struggling in their hygiene department, so what they did was they actually got rid of the normal hygiene model, and the doctor is the hygienist and the doctor, but he's got his FDES who are running the hygiene schedule. So he'll actually have like full hygiene only schedule and he'll run three or four columns of just hygiene. And it's actually super similar to a pedo practice scheduling. So there are smaller appointments and the assistants are doing most everything. He goes in and scales and does the exam at the same time. And he pops out and he's just running around like a pedo doctor would from room to room doing the scaling and the exam. So that's actually been super beneficial for their practice because then they'll do three days of hygiene, two days of heavy treatment because they've got now four assistants. And so they can run assistant-driven columns on treatment days. And then his column, he can run two chairs on his with two assistants and then two assistant-driven columns. where his F-Dos can be over there doing whitening, they can do impressions or scans for night guards, all of those pieces. So smashing all of those worlds together, he is exhausted, I'm not gonna lie. He's still trying to figure it out, because he's running around like a chicken. But it is a kind of cool smash between that Peto style of scheduling and then going back to that GP style of scheduling for those F-Dos. The Dental A Team (13:00.019) I know you have lot, have practices spread out all over the place too. What have you seen practices doing? Those were kind of like examples, even similarly, but what have you seen in your practices, them really be able to utilize those F-DOS4 within all of their treatment? Dana (13:03.21) Yeah. Dana (13:15.86) Yeah, I love that you pointed out, Pito, because that is a great space to utilize an EFDA because assistants are doing a lot of the hygiene, but when the assistant can do the sealants and do the night guards and even do some of the restorative, you know. The Dental A Team (13:25.984) Yeah. Dana (13:30.812) after the preps are done, jump in and do that. So, PETO is a great avenue where you can really maximize an EFDA. So, if you're a PETO practice, consider at least having one EFDA on your clinical team because you really can maximize what they can do, especially, I mean, kiddos were trying to crank and burn out those sealants pretty routinely on those kiddos. And so, having an EFDA that even they can be scheduled specifically in their column for that, that's a really great way to maximize it. I do agree on those powe…
Full show notes at the publisherThe more engaged your team members are with your practice, the happier everyone (patients included) is. Kiera shares four questions to ask employees in connection to their engagement, then breaks down how to interpret the responses and what to put into place for improvement.
Episode resources:
Reach out to Kiera
Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar
Practice Momentum Group Consulting
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Become Dental A-Team Platinum!
Transcript:
Kiera Dent (00:00.75)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm so happy you guys are here. I hope today has just been an incredible day for you. And I hope you guys just remember that we are so lucky and so blessed to work in this incredible industry of dentistry. We are getting ready to roll into Q4 and I hope you guys are just feeling good about it. Like Q4, end of year, here it is. And I hope you guys are just loving it and enjoying it. And you just feel like you are completely and utterly prepared for the greatest time ever.
As always, thank you for listening and please, please, please go leave us that five star review. Please share this in other groups, tag this, snag this. You guys are gonna wanna share today's podcast. I know you will, but you guys downloading these episodes, sharing them with other people, that's how you keep us as the top dental podcast. And you know our mission is to get this podcast into every dental practice out there because I believe that if we can positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible, we are gonna make the greatest good.
We're gonna be able to help teams. We're gonna be able to help owners. We're gonna be able to help patients have the best lives, the best experiences, the best communities. And that's what I'm here for. So today I wanted to go into a topic about how to get better employee engagement. All right? Anybody here for it? Are you here for employee engagement? Because if you are, I am here for it. I think having employees is some of the like hardest and most rewarding part of owning a business. And so today,
I just wanted to give you guys some amazing tips of how can you guys get your employees engaged. So my husband, actually is overseeing several, several, several physicians and people within his hospital. And we were talking about employee engagement and I feel like there's a space of like, we, do we survey our teams? Do we not survey our teams? What do we do with this? And he mentioned that at the location that he's at that they actually hide.
four questions within their survey to find out how employees are engaged. And so I will read them to you. Number one is, my work gives me a sense of personal accomplishment. Number two is, and you guys, I'm definitely looking and I'm reading this right now. I would recommend your company as a good place to work. I intend to stay with your company for at least the next 12 months, and I am proud to work at your company.
Kiera Dent (02:21.742)
So those four questions, my work gives me a sense of accomplishment. I would recommend this place is a good place to work. I intend to stay here for the next 12 months and I'm proud to work at this dental office. And as we were talking about this engagement, my husband has, with all of his team members, he has several, several team members and he just came in getting tens across the board of his employee engagement. And so I was asking him about it I said, what is it? And he said, these are the four questions that at their hospital that they're the most concerned about knowing.
How are they at? And so I asked my husband, said, okay, tell me more. I want to like do some information research outside of dentistry. What are people doing in other healthcare professions? What is that? And he said, I asked him, said, what are the things that really helped for your organization? And he gave me a pretty good list of as a manager, as a leader, what is he doing for his team to make sure that they're taken care of? And one of the things that I thought was crazy interesting is he said, the first one was that they're never alone.
that everybody helps each other out, that they feel like that they're a part of a team. He said that all of them actually talk about getting a lunch break and being able to have that time away from patient care and that they are fulfilled by their patient care and that they're like what they're doing is something they're very passionate and fulfilled by. They're compensated well. They have great hours that they're working and we're talking, this is a hospital setting. So it's stressful. It's hard. They have a lot of cases there and patients that they're responsible for. They see patients every 15 to 30 minutes. like
Just think about dentistry, we're not seeing them that often, at least we're hopefully, unless we're pediatric or ortho. But just thinking about how can we get our employees more engaged? And I've kind of had this like weird space of, we've always done two times that we would actually, send out surveys to our team and something, I was talking to a friend and they have done a lot of studies on, on surveys and your employees actually will rate themselves higher.
than how they actually are because we had some surveys and people were giving us tens across the board and then like a month later they were giving us a notice and I thought, gosh, like how is this even real? And so I'm in this weird, conflicted space of, here's the four questions but how do we actually get that information? Because there have been a lot of studies that have been done that actually show that employees actually want to show up the way they think that their employer wants them to be. So they're going to maybe give higher numbers and higher ratings than how they really feel.
Kiera Dent (04:44.396)
because as human beings, always want to be seen better than we actually are. so thinking about that and how do we build that and how do we build this space? But really, how can we get our employees engaged and excited about what we're doing? I think those four questions, if I were to go back and to look at offices that we consult and work with practices and looking at my practices, like I have several practices that have some of the best engagement. And I think about them that their work does give them a sense of fulfillment.
that they do plan to stay with that office for the next 12 months. And I think that comes from leadership giving a great vision of where they want to go and really having it be something that these people are passionate about. think them feeling like that they would recommend your office as a great place to work and that they are proud to work at your location. And maybe today your team's not that way. And maybe we need to flush some people out and bring on people that really are aligned with that vision.
I know it feels scary because the world has been tricky to hire and the world has been harder to find and retain team members. But I do believe that when we have those four things core and we have our employees bought into it, we have our leadership team in place with that. And we really are working towards that. I do believe that we have stronger engagement. I also think I'm working on really, really speaking the truth and encouraging your team to do so as well.
At the end of the day, you should be able to put your vision out and your team should be buying. And if they're the correct team and the best team, and if not, then it's okay to let people go and find a location that they really are satisfied with and you can keep driving it forward. It's always interesting when I consult practices and I see offices that have right people, right seat. And we were actually just on a meeting. I'll pull up some notes for you guys. We were just on a meeting and we're super excited to be working with this guy. And he was talking about.
If you guys haven't read the book, it's called the EOS life and I really really really loved the EOS life because there's a great definition where they talk about that people are compensated correctly, that people feel like they are having a sense of fulfillment and excitement and engagement, that they feel like they have time for their other hobbies and their lives and that they're just truly truly fulfilled within what they're doing.
Kiera Dent (07:04.844)
and that they have time and the bandwidth to do it. And I thought, how often are we kind of scraping things together, myself included within our companies, because right now it feels like, it's hard to get people hired. It's hard to get people engaged. But if we can think about, all right, these are the four questions that we want for our employees. But in addition to that, we do want people to be really engaged in the work that they're doing. They find it meaningful. We want them to feel like they're compensated very well and that they're giving back and contributing to the growth of the organization and that they have the time.
to have passions outside of work and they feel fulfilled by that. And like we have them in the right seat so much that we almost have to tell them to stop working because they have such a love and a passion for what they're doing. And so maybe today you might be looking and thinking, my gosh, there's no way my team's that way. Or you might be looking and thinking, wow, my team really is more engaged than I give them credit for. But what is a small one or 2 % shifts that you can make that would actually make your team more bought in and more engaged to it. And this is what I think I am the most passionate about within consulting.
is being able to help offices get their teams aligned to be rowing in the same direction where, like this coach told us, they said, the greatest thing is getting all the human capital rowing in the same direction. That's gonna create the momentum with ease. But if we're not there, we need to figure out is our vision wrong, is where we're headed wrong, are people wrong? Do we not have people engaged? Is this a place where culture is wrong, where leadership's wrong? Like what is the piece that needs to be fixed? Because oftentimes we try to like,
throw out so many great things when really it's just one small change that if we were able to make that change, things would actually move forward a lot faster. So really looking at those four questions, really looking to see what is our culture, what is our vision, and do we have all of our human capital rowing together? And if not, it might be time, like myself, where I hired a mediator coach to come in and help us set the vision of our company, to help get our team realigned and reinvigorated on where we wanna go. You guys, I am a consultant and you would think that I would,
always know how to do it the best. And that I would like to dispel any falsehoods around that because, yes, I'm an incredible leader and yes, I have it credible. I also can run out of like, where am I going? And was this vision the right vision? And I need some clarity around it. And so knowing when it's time to pull in a coach or a guide or a consultant to help you get aligned because they can hear things and they're not in the weeds.
Kiera Dent (09:26.602)
I realized I was in the weeds and I can't see clearly myself. You guys, I do this for a living. I coach other practices. I'm able to get their visions, but when you're in it, you're so close to it that you can't see it. And I realized to get my engagement scores higher, to get our team bought into things higher. I needed to hire somebody outside of our organization who can say the things that maybe I can't say, or who can say the same things that I say, but my team hears it differently because it's coming from someone else. And it's crazy because I believe as leaders.
When we can realize that we need that help and that guidance for ourselves and also for our team. That's the greatest thing a leader can do. Our job as leaders is not to know all the answers. Our job is to find the answers. Our job is to guide them on a compelling vision. Our job is to make sure this is a place that's, that's fair. That's incredible that people are proud to work here, but that doesn't mean that we need to enable. That means that we need to empower with accountability and ensure that where we're going, our human capital, AKA our entire team.
is bought in and driving. Now we won't have all A players and that's okay. We might have some B players, but the reality is we want everybody passionate driving towards that same goal with vigor and vim and excitement. Otherwise we've got people pulling us back and that's where things get very hard. That's when we start to have a lot of the team turnover, but truly when we can set our goal and our vision and our sights in the same direction, our entire team will be more aligned. So.
I would love to help you guys. I'd love our team to be able to help you guys guide you, help your team get that vision and that guidance, help give you doctors that vision and guidance, because oftentimes we're on our own isolated islands thinking we have to figure this out ourselves. But I realized that's our own ego speaking, not what's real. There is so much help out there around you to give the guidance, to bring your team, to get them bought in. and I'm so grateful that Dental A Team.
I truly believe is the best consulting company out there to do this for you and for your practice. So let's get your team bought in. Let's get you guys excited. Let's get that energy back. So everybody's rowing in the same direction and we can truly have that incredible definition of an incredible life where we're so fulfilled. We're so passionate. We're compensated well. The business is thriving. We have time for hobbies and family and other things extracurricular. And we do it with so much ease because we love what we do so much and getting people in those right seats, right places with the correct deliverables around it.
Kiera Dent (11:45.408)
is really the greatest way. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com There's no reason to wrap up this year and have it be hard for you when the easy answer is right in front of you. You just have to reach out. And I promise you that if you're not the right fit, we'll let you know. We'll let you know if you are the right fit. But generally speaking, when you come, we probably have a solution that you haven't thought of. And we always do everything with ease, simplicity, and making sure it's fun for you and for your team. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com
And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.
Tiff and Dana discuss the importance of coding accuracy in dental practices. That includes universal codes everyone can understand, how to stay up-to-date on resources, the best way to know team members are getting paid for all their work, different codes across specialties, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.11) Hello Dental A Team listeners, we are back at you today. I have the one and only Miss Dana here with me to podcast. I love pulling Dana in. I love pulling all the consultants in, but I truly love pulling in Dana. think I shouted you out this morning. do. Wednesday core value shout out in our. I know that we've done some podcasts on that. So if you're not already doing a core value shout out every day or every week, please by all means go listen to those podcasts because it's freaking incredible and Dana you truly are the epitome of ease within our company and for your clients and I just think you need to publicly shout it from the rooftops be Just recognized for that aspect of your personality. You truly do make life easier I know a lot of your clients feel the same way you are so good at finding the easiest path for the systems implementation for whatever it is that needs to be done for us as a company. So Dana, welcome today. I'm so excited to have you here with me. Thank you for joining me on this beautiful Wednesday. I don't know what day this is gonna air, but it's a Wednesday today. And it's absolutely gorgeous here in Arizona. How are you, Dana? Dana (01:08.193) doing good, Tim, doing good. love days like today. The Dental A Team (01:11.629) I do too, I do too. It's starting to get fallish in Arizona, which means 85 degrees instead of the 105 that we had last week, least up in Phoenix. I know you get a little bit more fall down where you're at, but I'll take the 85 over the 105 for sure. Today, Dina, I wanted to pick your brain. I've got some information today I wanna share with the doctors. It's also for billing departments, for treatment coordinators, for whomever wants to listen to this. But I really wanted us to shout out our doctors for really, really just knowing everything about their businesses. I know that you guys are all here listening. I know you're watching, whatever it might be, to really learn more about the business side and about what the team is doing to help support your practice. So I wanna shout you out for that. And I just think it's a really incredible tool. and resource to have to truly know what it is that's going on, the inner workings behind the scenes of your practice, aside from just the dentistry that you're performing. So shout out to you guys for being here, for listening. Team members, if your doctor's not listening yet, please share it with them. Dana, today I really wanted to pick your brain and go over some coding information. I know it sounds super boring, you guys, but stick with us. We've got some great tips and tricks and some tools, especially for you doctors who are out there to really focus in and pay attention to the things that are being input into the system and sent off to insurance companies, or if you're fee for service, you still need to be insanely accurate within your system and making sure that we're using the right tools. So doctors, again, this one's for you as well. Billing representatives, treatment coordinators, front office representatives, office managers, whoever you might be, whoever might be touching a ledger or an account or a code in general dental assistance, hi, Genes, you guys. This is all gonna be really great information for all of you. Coding with Accuracy happens to be a book, by the way, you can purchase that. But honestly, coding with accuracy is incredibly important and valuable to your system, not only for the billing portion to ensure that we're accurately sending things off to insurance companies, accurately getting paid, but realistically to show super accurately what you've actually done with your patients to your patients. That way, if anything were to ever come about and anyone needed to look into it or The Dental A Team (03:28.327) your patients had questions and they asked for the account, it makes sense to the next person who's looking at it. And you can say, yes, I did that, that was me. I did that filling, I did that crown, I did that crown seat, I did those pieces. I know a lot of practices, and Dana, I think you've probably seen this too, a lot of practices will overuse, in my opinion, an office visit or a palliative treatment, to certain codes like that and unspecified, because they're just not sure. what to use. And so they throw one of those, especially office visits, and I'm like, what is this office visit? How many, this patient's been in for 20 office visits. They're like, most of those are crown seats or like if a filling needed to be adjusted or like, and I'm like, wow, so we don't have any documentation right here that we ever sat any of these crowns. That's an issue. looking at those pieces and making sure that we're super accurate with what we're calling things is something I really, really want to talk about today, Dana. Have you noticed that as well? I know you see a lot of clients, you do a lot of virtual clients, but you see a lot of ledgers, you get a lot of things sent to you, and you have been traveling a ton this year in office to practices as well. So what are you seeing when you're out there when it comes to coding and just kind of like randomness that you're seeing thrown around? Dana (04:40.983) Yeah, I agree with you on just like the miscellaneous codes. I delivery. What did we deliver? Because we need to know exactly what we delivered today. And then a lot of just like 999 things and sometimes a 999 code you absolutely The Dental A Team (04:47.133) Yeah. Dana (04:55.967) can utilize it, should be utilizing it, but oftentimes too, it's like, no, there's actually a code for that. Like we don't have to send a 999 with documentation and notes, there's a code specific for that. So making sure that offices really are up to date, also to like when things change because they do change occasionally. And so just having somebody who knows those things in and out has resources to spot check and that we are billing what we're doing and coding exactly what we're doing. The Dental A Team (05:25.511) Yeah, I totally agree. The 999 code, I love that one. It is thrown in there for everything and I am guilty of the 999 code because I'm like, don't know what he's even talking about. 999, that sucker. And I'll explain, I'll say exactly what he just said to me. I have no idea what he said, but I've got this. So I'm surely, surely guilty of that one. I do love the staying up to date and doctors, I really want you to know and understand within dentistry. There's not, like we have a course for billing that will review billing for you and will go over the basics of billing, what it needs to look like, how to send a claim, how to input an EOB and a payment and all of those pieces. But there's really not a good school for billing where it's like, gosh, I'm gonna send them to a billing school and now they've got this accredited school has shown them this kind of like medical billing, right? You can go to medical billing school and now you're a medical biller. to be a dental biller, you just needed someone ahead of you to show you how to do it. So within this world, it's just super important, like Dana said, that we stay on top of it as best we can. So making sure that we're getting ADA emails sent to us and that we're watching for any codes that change, because they will let us know. Whatever your state's dental association is, I know here it's the AZDA, the California Dental Association. Whatever it is, make sure that you're signed up for those auto emails, because that's going to be the best resource. And then as those yearly conventions come around that we all love to go to, that we hate taking boring classes, look for any updates. I wouldn't say you've got to hit the billing courses yourself, or you have to send your billing rep to the billing courses. Sometimes they're a bust. Sometimes they're super insurance prone or driven. I don't love that. But if there's anything that's like coding updates or New laws things like that. It's always a good idea. So I do want to preface it with that Just know always staying up to date just getting those resources sent to you is going to be super super important And now aside from that there are things like coding with confidence coding with accuracy All of those different books that you can get I believe coding with confidence you can order from Amazon or ADA I think both of them have it. I think it probably comes from the ADA when you do it from Amazon, whatever you choose The Dental A Team (07:37.7) It's a fantastic book and having that resource, there's a companion book that goes with it as well. I always had that resource with me. It was literally in a drawer behind my desk and as soon as I had something pop up for an implant or gosh, when we were doing over dentures and there's just so many parts and pieces and little things that need to be accurately coded. There's no way I'm gonna remember all of these things or intuitively know it. So I would pull those books out constantly and I would go through it with my doctor and I'd say, okay, does this describe, is this what you're saying? Is this describing it? Because even just for regular dentures, there's different codes that can be used. And if you use one that's a maxillary but you're doing a mandibular denture, you're not gonna get paid, right? And even if you put upper denture in the thing and you did a mandibular code, they're still not gonna pay it because it doesn't match. So just making sure that those codes are super accurate. Now from a doctor's standpoint, why is this important? Super important because you need to be paid, right? So my owner doctors, you need to be sure that your practice is being paid, that you're being paid for what you're doing, your hygiene team's being paid for what they're doing, and that if, again, anything were ever to have been and come about, somebody looking at the ledger, looking at the account, looking at the chart, can accurately and confidently see exactly what you performed. So not only do you need to get paid, you need to cover your tail. For my associate doctors and even my hygienist who might be listening, you really, really wanna watch your production and your collections, because typically, especially my associates, you guys are gonna be paid off of that in some form or fashion. So making sure that the coding is correct and that it accurately, actually reflects what you've done is key. Otherwise, you might get paid for a filling when you did an onlay. Right, and the billing representative, has, or he has no idea, they were not chair side with you. So if it's not fixed chair side, or if you, gosh, Dina, how many times have you seen this one, where chair side, you know, we were scheduled for an MO, chair side, doctor's like, this went into the distal, we've gotta update that. So we update it, we tell the patient, we're like, got another service added, get the treatment plan going, lay them back, finish the filling, and then they go up front, and then they get paid on an MO. The Dental A Team (09:51.99) because the MOD was never switched out and the appointment went before it was set complete. again, the billing representative, he's not chair side. They have no idea that that billing changed. The dental assistant needed to update and change it. So making sure that that's accurate in there. Now, Dina, I know you have a lot of practices and a lot of associates. You've got a lot of big practices that have a lot of associates. How do you make sure at the end of the day, at the end of the month, at the end of everything, that these guys are knowing exactly what their being paid on? Like how do you make sure that they know with confidence that they're getting paid for everything that they did? Dana (10:28.329) Yeah, I have them usually daily check their provider production and check their individual provider day sheet just to make sure that everything was accounted for. If there were changes, if something was walked out inaccurately, catching that from the very beginning is super important because honestly, like you pointed out, the difference in some of these codes is hundreds of dollars worth of production. And that can be even within implant parts, even with indentures, like a difference in that that coding can majorly impact production. So making sure that everything is accounted for, everything that they did is on there and everything is walked out and ready to submit. So that whether it's insurance based or we've got to call a patient and say, hey, you know, we under collected that service did change, we had added. whether it is patient portion that we've got to update or insurance portion, just making sure that we're catching that. And I like to do it daily because Claims are submitted daily. We're reaching out to patients and we don't want a patient to go till the end of the month before we're like, hey, by the way, you missed a thing, right? So I like my, especially my associates and hygiene to just look and make sure everything's accounted for each and every day. The Dental A Team (11:34.98) Yeah. Yes. The Dental A Team (11:47.01) Yeah, I agree. think that's perfect because pulling that sheet, especially like Dentrix and Eagle Soft and OpenDone, like all of these programs have a super easy sheet to print at the end of the day or even like print screen and then just look at it. So we're not using all the paper all the time. I've definitely had it where a doctor will come back like a week later and be like, we didn't actually do a buildup because we just, you you treat and plan a crown and we should plan a buildup just in case, or you have your doctors who treat and plan only a crown and then add a buildup. if we needed a buildup and so vice versa. A week later, we're like, I didn't build up on that crown. I'm like, well, bro, she gone, she lost. There's no way, it's so uncomfortable to call a patient and be like, by the way, we forgot to charge you for that billing that's underneath the crown that's to build the tooth back up because of the K. And now I'm in this whole conversation of like, why didn't this just get done the first time? So I totally agree. I think that's brilliant. And doctors also, looking ahead at your schedule, Dana (12:21.687) It was true. The Dental A Team (12:43.172) Prepping your schedule in conjunction with that is gonna be huge. We get really comfortable. Our dental assistants are incredible. I was a dental assistant near and dear to my heart. It's my favorite position. If I were ever to like quit everything in life and go back to in-office dentistry, it would have to be as a dental assistant. I would not do anything else. It's my favorite space. But you guys, I messed up sometimes. Like it happens. I would get forgetful. Like how many times did I forget to grab the bond? And I'm like, you can't do a filling…
Full show notes at the publisherJosh Scott of Studio EightyEight is back for more! He joins Kiera to talk about the marriage of creativity with performance marketing for dental practices, how to pull meaning from conversations when talking about dentistry, why putting yourself out there actually helps your patients, and more. Episode resources: Learn more about Studio EightyEight Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00.526) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera And today I am so jazzed. have one of my dearest friends and I don't mean that like as a podcast intro, like truly this person is someone that I just count as one of my greatest friends. And I'm so excited to welcome Josh Scott, CEO, founder, Studio EightyEight Marketing. They have the best swag. I was just telling Josh, I wore their sweatshirt all summer long. I am a terrible ambassador. I don't take pictures and post, but I love your swag. So Josh, welcome to the podcast. How are you today? Hey, I'm great. It's always good to be here. looking forward to this all week when I see it show up on my calendar. And yeah, you know, I don't know that I believe you, Kiera. You say you wear the flag, but I've never seen proof of it. So we can talk like that on a podcast, but just saying I've never seen it. You know, I should like stop this podcast right now and run upstairs and go grab it. So then we have the, all the social proof, which I think I'm going to do. So we're just going to hit stop. All right, Josh. So, like I said, we were going to hit stop and for the world to see. All right. It exists. It exists. All right. I love this sweatshirt so much, truly. And I love you guys so much, but like your swag this year was my favorite swag of all because the sweatshirt just feels like a nice hug and I appreciate that it's your company, but it doesn't feel like I'm just wearing like swag, like EightyEight You've got the nice like sports attire to it. So it felt good that I wasn't like. Studio EightyEight I need to work on our Dental A Team. Cause I'm like, when I send you swag, it's like be Dental A Team today. Of letting me still be a human, but also that. So it does exist. I hope that my marketing team takes this crops it. It's on here. We'll tag you. We're going to use this clip for like the next three years. That's what's going to happen. Yeah. No, it's fun. Our team, they, so, so first off with swag, it's like, try to give people stuff that they would actually wear. So it's not just like, blatant, you like you look like a team member of ours when you're wearing our stuff because you're just all EightyEight out. But, and they have a theme every year. So this year was this whole athletic company kind of vibe, which was a ton of fun next year. We're already like in concepts for, we do it in Q1 every year. So already in concepts, this whole like camping, kind of like modern camping theme. It's kind of fun. Like, they're, they're all geeked out about the videos. They're going to shoot around it. The, know, we're looking at like little tin mugs and things like that. The Dental A Team (02:22.413) So it's fun, but I always encourage, this is a good segue, because I encourage dental practices, like when they do swag, sometimes it's just like their logo, really big on the shirt or the hat or whatever. It's like nobody wants to wear a hat that says XYZ dental. But dentistry is so easy. If you just put, get a trucker hat, put smile on the front of it, put your logo on the back, smile more, smile bigger, let's all smile. That message is so... awesome to like wear out in the world. And people love that. I've got this one sweatshirt from a dental practice to smile more on the back. And what's funny is when I wear it's a really cool hoodie. When I wear it, like people talk to me. They're like, yeah, I love that. You know, like, yeah, the world needs a smile more. And sometimes like when I'm traveling, I'm pretty introverted. And I had this on one time. It was like eight people kept talking to me and I was like, okay, I remember to never wear this again when I'm traveling because it actually creates conversation. And I'm trying to like check out from. So I love it. And I think like good call to that because it can be so easy. And that's what I actually love about you guys with your marketing is your marketing is so very intentional. And I think dental practices can have it be very intentional, but it's very easy and it's fun. And I think you guys make it fun. And that's actually why I love you guys as marketing people that I recommend you guys do so many great things, your rebrands, your websites, your marketing. So Josh, we were talking before about how there's kind of like these two parts to marketing that practices have really struggled with up until now within marketing. let's kind of like just do some chit chat on marketing. We'll probably like morph into CEO. Like I don't even know where we're going to go today, but we're just going to have a good time. Cause when Josh and I podcast, it's since the first podcast we ever did together, it's been a comical, like comedy show, either pre post or in the middle. And I think that's why we both love to podcast. Yeah. Awesome. No, I think in dentistry, it's what's really interesting is up until this point, like historically from a dental marketing standpoint, if we go 10 years ago when the 15, whenever when digital started to come around, everybody got real focused on what we call the marketing services. like SEO, digital ads, some social media and, and dental marketing companies on the whole have been really bad at what they've put out. And so they almost kind of do this, like what's this minimum viable product we can put out. The Dental A Team (04:43.819) at a recurring retainer rate, like 500 bucks a month, a thousand bucks a month, 250, whatever, and just do enough to get by. Lots of stock content, how can we replicate it, how can we scale it, do it at an MVP, and just get it done and collect revenue. And so that was the state of dental marketing for a while. When we came around, I kind of had this different vision of, it felt like nobody was doing creative work. So I kind of came in with this whole creative agency approach of. let's make beautiful brands and websites and photography and video. Cause I felt like all things being equal. If you're just looking at a bunch of stock websites, the first one that's kind of waves your hand and says, Hey, we're different. Look at us. It's just going to win. Like the Gary V says, the creative is the variable. And I've always believed that. But now, so, so then it kind of led us to this point where people were having to choose and they would say like, okay, like our competitors, their biggest knock against us was okay. Beautiful websites. Like they would actually concede that like, beautiful websites, but they're not going to score good on Google. If you come with us, they're going to score better on Google. And so we almost had this war of, okay, you can speak to humans and do something that's designed really well, but Google doesn't like it. Or you do something that Google is going to score well, but like it just is not connecting with humans. And so maybe we get a lot of traffic to it, but we're not converting at a high rate. And so it just becomes this kind of cycle. And what we've been able to do the last couple of years is I really challenged that belief within our agency and just said like, guys, can we do something that's still gonna connect with humans? Like you're still gonna feel something, but can we also build amazing SEO into it? Can we build amazing ad strategies that get that same traffic, but now they're gonna convert higher. And so for me, it almost became this like custom story-driven creative meets performance marketing. And that's really like the most ideal growth strategy out there. And so we spend the last two years really, mean, we've hired SEO specialists, ad specialists. I honestly think right now, mean, our two SEO specialists, I would probably put them up against any dental marketing SEO in the country at this point. And it's kind of led us in this whole reorganization because now our marketing services are starting to take off and The Dental A Team (06:57.801) internally, we're trying to actually marry that too. Like, okay, we've got a creative agency on one side and a performance marketing agency on the other. And it's, you know, it starts breaking stuff and then you're like, okay, these systems don't work. And so that's been a ton of fun. is, yeah. of fun, like air quotes. I that's the CEO fun, right? Like, it's so fun. I know. And this is what happens. It's like you, as a company, as a business, you find a better way to serve clients and you're like, yes, let's do that. and you get a year or so into and you're like, this is like breaking a lot of stuff that we have to now go back and rebuild. This is the fun when they're like, hey, start your own business, your freedom and you know, then you get into and you're like, this is a lot of work and energy. But we're having a ton of fun with it. And I think that that's really where the so kind of a history of dental marketing and where it's at today is I think being able to bring the both, both of those together, like this best of both worlds. If we're talking about growing a practice, it's custom creative storytelling content with performance marketing. Man, if you can put those together, like you can grow a practice. And I think something I really love about you guys is I think as dentists who are a bit more introvert, like you say, you're introverted traveling. I think they feel very similar that way too. And it's like, my gosh, but I have to now be all online or in order for me to have this, have to be this like very bubbly. Like, I mean, there's some amazing doctors out there that have actually done it. But I really love that you guys don't make them be anything that they're not. And that's like your whole premise of what you guys do for marketing is like, no, you be authentic to you. So if you're outgoing and extroverted, like let's do that and let's build your marketing message around that. But if you're more introverted and more person, like you want to, you want to keep that close to you, that's also fine. And so really just giving people the playground of be who you want to be and tell your story the way you want to tell it and run your practice the way you want to. And you're ultimately going to attract patients who jive with that. Like you don't have to be a one size fits all to be successful. And that's something I've just always loved about your guys' style, your approach, and the way you operate. Yeah, it's probably the biggest pushback we get when we talk to potential clients. And to be honest, I would imagine people don't reach out to us because of this as well. But they're like, Josh, I don't really have a story. Or I don't know what my story is. The Dental A Team (09:15.495) or I saw these clients that you showed in this speech, but like I'm not them, you know, cause sometimes we tend to show the more sexy work, the work that we're really proud of and people like, yeah, but that's a brand new startup and that space looks amazing. And my space just does not look like that. And so there's this barrier to it. And what I would say is there's a couple of things is number one, like everybody has a story and that's part of our job and our discovery is to really pull that out, you know, with questions like, why did you even go into dentistry? Like why choose this profession? why this location, why this path of CE that you've decided to commit to. Those types of things really help us put together, okay, here's the why behind it. The other part of it is it doesn't have to be entirely like your personal story either. It's really more the story of the practice. And some people are real okay with those intertwining and it kind of meshing into the gray. And then some people are like, nope, they compartmentalize it. Here's my business, here's my personal life. They are completely separate. And so like, get that too. I'm like, well, then the storyline becomes the practice. Like, why is this practice here? Why should patients choose you? Why is your team better? If given the choice of any practice in the community, you say patients should come here first. Why? Like, let's explore some of that. So it's a little intimidating to approach it. And I mean, need to hear the doctors right now. mean, with video, it's, nobody likes being on video and watching themselves. And so that's, that's also, they're like, so I need video. I'm like, well, your site's gonna perform way better with a video. Okay, I'm trusting, I'm like, trust me, our team's gonna be great, it's gonna be interview style, you're really gonna feel at ease, but that's another big hurdle to overcome sometimes. And I just have to say, as someone, I mean, I had to learn video pretty early on in my career of Dental A Team, and I remember there was a company called... drive and we hired a marketing company. I $80,000 in three months with zero ROI and I made probably I kid you not 200 videos. Like I literally pulled our operations manual. I should have the team pull some of these videos from the archive for you. Like there's one where I buy into cake and I ate so much frosting that it actually hit my uvula and I started gagging, but I was so committed to finishing this video, not redoing it that I like. And then I like, The Dental A Team (11:38.079) I'm crying and laughing and keep going like commercial. Another one I'm pulling the operations manual out of the oven as like a turkey dinner like I'm dressed like like the amount of video nonsense that I did was ridiculous. But I think it was really great because it taught me like nothing's perfect. And I think even now you don't have to be perfect to get this. But what I love is I actually use you guys if you go on to Denali teams website, I love I always say if you want to feel like a million bucks. Like even better than going to the spa or getting your hair done or anything like that. Like men, I don't know what you guys do to feel like posh and luxurious. Like maybe it's like getting a like well tailored suit. Like Josh, what is it for men? Like for girls it's like we go get our hair done, we get our lashes down, we get a makeover. What's like the equivalent for men? You know, I can get down with a good, you know, massage and a manicure. Like I'm not gonna lie, but I'm not talking about most. man, you know, maybe a football game with a beer. can, I can go that way too. So whatever it is where it makes you feel the most posh. always say, if you want to feel that way in photography and video studio, EightyEight will make you feel that way. And that's something I have always loved about you. say like my best photos, my best photo shoots, my best video shoots always are studio EightyEight can tell without a doubt. Like you guys have this, you must have set pres…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera is a guest on Dr. Gallagher's Podcast in this crossover episode! There is a lot of important ground covered here, including how to establish the ideal practice flow, the differences in consulting between speciality and general practices, why being a human being feels like a lost art, how to hire the best people, and more. Episode resources: Listen to Dr. Gallagher's Podcast: Apple, Spotify, YouTube Reach out to Tiff, Britt, and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Brendan (00:02.346) Of the Dental A Team, this is Kiera Dent, right? So this is, I love that it's dent because there's dental dentin, part of the tooth and stuff. So it's just perfect. It really worked well. And you have a consulting agency, right? Dental A Team. And how many years have you been in around? Kiera Dent (00:16.95) Yeah. Kiera Dent (00:25.494) Thank you. Kiera Dent (00:30.976) Yeah, so we've, the company is almost eight years old. She's about to have her eighth birthday in November, but yeah, it's been fun. It was a complete random idea that I came up with to start it, honestly, to help a bunch of dental students and here we are. So it's been a really fun place to be. Brendan (00:49.738) Two more months and eight years, congrats! Kiera Dent (00:51.796) I know. Thank you. Thank you. It came from, I worked at Midwestern University's Dental College for three years while my husband did pharmacy school. And one of the students straight out of school said, hey, Kiera, I want you to come help me start my practice. And I said, my gosh, like, absolutely. I've always wanted to be a practice owner. I was a dental assistant and a treatment coordinator and an office manager prior. And so I went and I helped her start her practice and We took our practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. And then I thought, my gosh, like if I could help her do this, there's all my other like favorite dental students. Like I'm sure I could probably be a resource and a help for them. And so that's really what spurred the consulting company. I had never worked with a consultant before. And then I started helping practices and adding, you know, 25,000 of production to their schedules very quickly. I was adding, increasing case acceptance to a hundred percent. within one day and I just thought, okay, there's something about this and it doesn't have to be hard, but I'm gonna be a resource for all those dentists in school because you guys go to school and you're so passionate about what you're doing, but then there's the business side of it. And so if I could be a resource, a trusted resource, knowing what you're learning in school, so that way you guys can be so successful, positively impact your world, help your community, help your team, help your patients, and you guys are living your best lives. That really is what spurred me into being a consultant. So here we are all with the love. have no clue what consultants should do. I just keep making up what I believe my students from Midwestern would want to have and just keep coming from love of you guys, just doing the best to support dentistry and us supporting you in that vision. Brendan (02:30.004) Excellent. And so you're not at Midwestern anymore. That was only in the beginning for those years. So roughly eight years ago. Kiera Dent (02:33.068) Mm -mm. Yep. Yep. I worked there for three years. No, so three years. And then I went and I worked in Colorado for two years. And then I started the company in 2016. Yeah, 2016. So it was great. It was a good time. And here we are now, eight years later. Brendan (02:48.904) And in Colorado, that was the practice that you brought them from X to that would be roughly five X. Wow. Well done. Well done. So they started for a year there. You knew them. You had a good rapport, good relationship with them over a year or two. You grew it from that. then you're like, and that's when you decided, OK, let's scale. How did you take that next step from there? So it was just you working at her practice. Right. And then from there, you said. Kiera Dent (02:55.008) Mm -hmm. Yeah. Thanks. you Kiera Dent (03:08.384) Totally. Kiera Dent (03:13.344) Mm -hmm. Yep. Brendan (03:16.136) So you don't work with her anymore. was like a see you later. I'm going to figure it better. Kiera Dent (03:18.072) No. It was incredible. And we had such a good run. And I have to give mad kudos to her as a dentist, because I think we were really a dynamic duo. I came in with amazing like management and TC skills. We both didn't know what we were doing. And I think that that's part of doctors opening practices. But kudos to her for bringing me on because she knew I knew pieces she didn't know how to do. but yeah, it was, I think more her vision. We both were very gung -ho. We wanted to serve more. We wanted to have a bigger impact and footprint. And so it was, we got this practice going and then we bought our second location and then there ended up getting like seven practices all together. But things I learned from that was, it was over the course of like five, six, I ended up leaving. She continued. and it was something very interesting that those are like sexy numbers to put up on a scoreboard and. Brendan (04:00.019) In two years? Kiera Dent (04:12.268) Everybody always has the bright eyes of like, my gosh, like how did you do that? But I think my obsession has come, like her and I were both on like death row. Like we were working 2 a to 10 p It was insanity to try and get that success. And while yes, there's sexy numbers on the board, we both realized that there's more to life than what we were doing. And are we gonna just like slay and try and drive this through or is there maybe something more to this? so yes, it was, we did part ways and I'm just so proud of everything that she created. But I, like one, my marriage, my life, all of those things were falling apart. And I realized me traveling back and forth from Reno Tahoe area to Colorado all the time was just really hard on my marriage. I wasn't seeing my husband. I was completely anorexic. I was like 98 pounds and I'm 5 '8". And it was just, everything felt like it was deteriorating. And so that was where it had to be like, let's do a step back. Her life was deteriorating. And I thought... there has to be a better way to success than what we've done. Like, yes, we've got sexy numbers to throw up on the board. Yes, we've got all these cool things, but is there not a better way that we can do this where you can have an incredible family and you can have incredible numbers and you can have a thriving business. And that really has become my passion and obsession is helping more dentists live a fulfilled life, hitting up those sexy big numbers or whatever they want to do, but still maintain their life, their identity, their freedom is really what I'm obsessed with within our company and our culture. and really helping dentists get that life. Brendan (05:41.89) yeah, and that's such a great pitch to where it's let's let's seize that life that we dreamed of again. love that now in where it started to get a little rocky there speaking of Colorado, but while it started to happen was that the first two years when you were there was that within the five six years when she scaled to seven or so practices first two Kiera Dent (05:47.68) Yeah. Kiera Dent (05:51.634) Hahaha Kiera Dent (05:55.564) Mm Kiera Dent (05:59.692) No, so that was my first two years. Yeah, absolutely. And both of us were there. And I think that that happens, right? You've got all the student debt. I used to call her 2.5, like when she's hunched over, not like good ergonomics. I'm like, hey, 2.5, we're 2.5 million debt. Like with student loans, the practice acquisition, within our first couple of months of owning the practice, our building was being torn down. So we had to move our patient base to another location, build up another practice. So And I think oftentimes it's how people come out, right? Like you've got a lot of debt, you've been sitting in residency for so long, or you've been in school for so long or whatever it is, or you're an associate and you feel like, okay, I bought this practice. I think there's this like innate desire to just hit the ground running, but we forget that that can only sustain for so long. Like we are human bodies, we are not human robots. And realizing that there's... so much that can happen. We also were very naive. We did not have systems in place and we just kept adding more fuel to our fire that was already burning and blazing bigger than we were. And so we got to a good place. We were hiring other doctors, but I think that that's where my obsession has come of, like, let's give systems. And I just got off a podcast with one of our doctors that we work with and her and her husband are kind of thriving and jamming the same way I was. But what they've done differently is we like, we're really specific of let's get all these systems in place before we buy our second location. And like, let's slow to grow rather than like fly to die. Like it was a very different model and they're thriving and they're happy and their marriage is incredible. There's different, like both are available to us. I think I'd prefer, let's take the, take the sustainable route that's very doable that keeps your passion alive rather than killing you off at the beginning. Brendan (07:46.548) Yeah, yeah. So when you translate into systems and processes, I, so coming from a clinician, a provider background system and processes, I have an idea, you know, like the system I'm thinking of is like the computer or no, but really in a practice setting, if I could just have some insight to what you mean behind that developing systems and processes before you buy that second practice, what were some of those systems, if I can, if I can know. Kiera Dent (07:51.178) Of course. Kiera Dent (08:01.321) Yeah. Kiera Dent (08:06.102) Sure. Kiera Dent (08:16.015) Of course, yeah. And this is what I just geek out on. This is why we have the podcast. It's like tactical, practical with ease. So it's like, do you have a process for how you're doing our billing process? And in Dental A Team, I actually made 12 categories that kind of fall within the 12 months of systems to have. So there's your office management. You've got your practice profitability and your numbers. We have our dental assistants and how we set up our rooms and our operatories. We have our handoffs. We have our like how we hire and onboard people. We have our operations manual completed. We have our treatment tracker and case acceptance. We have our hygiene protocols to put those into play to make sure our hygiene teams diagnosing and we're treating patients the same way. We have our doctor optimization where we're really working on like, what are the clinical skill sets of our doctors and are we maximizing their skills within? And so those are what I mean by systems. And I'll be completely honest. We were like just two girls flying by the seat of our pants. So like we did not have a process for billing. We did not have a process for scheduling. It was just like dump it in and we'll figure out how to do it versus like you can have, I mean, I've added multiple millions to people's schedules just by having block scheduling with ease and they're out by four o 'clock, they're out by three o 'clock. We're putting up really hard, like great numbers. The patients are happy, the team is happy. Like literally I have a practice that I took from 2 million to 4 .5 million just by changing their block scheduling. And so it's like, these are the simple systems that maybe you don't have to go buy another practice unless a DSO or something like that is what you're trying to do. But let's make sure that we have those, because I've also gone to offices and they're like, we're completely maxed out on our space and I find an operatory there. We don't actually have to go buy a bigger building. We can keep it here. We can systematize it here. We can maximize, like, are we doing our handoffs? Are we collecting before they leave? Are we having proper treatment plans? Are we tracking our case acceptance? Are we watching the things that like our hygiene teams doing? What's our hygienists producing per hour? Are there ways that we can help our patients more? What's our morning huddle? Those systems in place make it clockwork where it's very predictable magic behind the scenes. Like we know we will have magic in our practice because we have systems in place. And maybe we don't have to go for the multi -practices unless that's our drive and our desire, then by all means, let's do it. Kiera Dent (10:37.408) but let's make it to where we can stamp it out. I promise you, like you look at McDonald's, think that's the easiest one. They were the crowning jewel of systems. They were not stamping this out haphazardly. They were looking for the efficiency and making it to where each new place would have the same exact experience just in a different location. What's your experience and your practice and how can you go replicate that with ease is really what I mean by systems behind the scenes. Brendan (10:43.572) Mmm. Brendan (11:01.556) Yeah, and were you doing all this at Midwestern? Kiera Dent (11:05.67) No. So at Midwestern, if you recall, I feel like I was your tooth lunch lady. I handed out all the teeth, the composite, the like all the things I don't know in the simulation center. So I worked with the first and second year students and helped with the radiology and all of that. But prior to that, I was a dental assistant, a treatment coordinator, a scheduler, a biller. I just wanted to get a discount on my husband's tuition. I'll be fully honest. And it just had to work out. So then I became this cute little tooth lunch lady. Like, here's your teeth, here's your composite, here's your bands. Brendan (11:32.958) Hahaha Kiera Dent (11:34.99) And then went and helped her in Colorado and then started helping other dentists just really. Brendan (11:40.084) Yeah. And Midwestern, because there are two Midwesterns, there's Arizona and Illinois, right? You were in Arizona, was going to say, because Reno, Nevada. Are you still in Reno, Nevada? Kiera Dent (11:43.262) Arizona. We are. Yep. So we still live here. My husband ditches residency here because my family lives over in California. So it was the closest location without paying California tax. Yeah. Brendan (11:57.16) Wonderful wonderful and just just just step back to being at Midwestern have you ever seen it like a show or a movie or something where The guy or girl moves the plant that's in the shade into the light and then all of a sudden the flower blooms I Feel like that's where you moved yourself out of the shade into the light not to make the old figurative But I literally see like because because now you're killing it you're consulting with all these practices and stuff doing so no, that's a really Kiera Dent (12:11.338) Yes. Kiera Dent (12:22.262) Thank you. Brendan (12:25.662) First of all, the story is incredible because you've to appreciate someone who takes that hop, skip and a jump gets into the environment. That's a maybe it's a risk an…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera gives listeners advice on what they should be checking in on with their practices as 2024 begins to wind down. This could be finances, operations, staffing, or personal health. She also encourages setting strategic goals as you begin to forecast 2025. Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.842) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera Welcome to the podcast. I hope today is just an incredible day for you. I hope you're loving it. I hope you just remember, hey, we're in dentistry and dentistry is the most incredible thing that we can ever be a part of. You guys, just think it's absolutely magic of what we get to do. It's absolutely incredible of the lives we get to live. It's absolutely incredible of the lives we get to serve and to help every day between our teams and our patients and our community. Like it is just magic. that we get to be here. And so I hope all of you today, just like write maybe a little letter of gratitude of how grateful you are for this life that you get to live, for this practice you get to be a part of, for this community that you get to be a part of. Maybe journal it, maybe text it to somebody, because I truly do believe that we build momentum and seeing the good in our world is truly, I think, a talent. I think it's a muscle that we have to strengthen day in and day out. And that's really what I try to do on the podcast is bring you tactical while also positively impacting your world. And so please share this with someone, leave us those five star reviews, download this podcast, put it in the Facebook groups, tag us while you're listening, whatever feels right to you, because you doing that helps other people see this and other people who might be in darkness or not knowing where they're going or maybe not feeling as optimistic about where we're at in dentistry. This can be a great resource and a gift for them. So please share and just thank you for all of you that have shared and made Dental A Team Podcast the greatest podcast out there for dentistry. All right, today I'm excited because it's end of year. And end of year for me is like exciting and exhilarating and sometimes daunting. So I really, in our private consulting within Dental A Team, we actually do this where we prep our doctors and our teams to look at the next year and to really go through a deep dive review. This is actually my favorite time of year with our offices to deep dive them through. What should we be looking at with it being end of year? So today on the podcast, I'm going to just take you guys briefly through it, but just know if you want that deep dive, please come join us on TheDentalATeam.com book a call with us, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I am obsessed with planning and preparing and making sure our offices are thriving without worry. That doesn't mean that every day is a great day, but it does mean that they always know the Dental A Team is going to prepare them and be planning ahead with them and looking down the line with them. Kiera Dent (02:21.346) because that's what I feel like we need to do. And so often we're very reactive because we forgot to be proactive. And so that's what I'm obsessed with doing with our offices and doing it with ease. And so every quarter having a way to check in on these things, every quarter we assess where we're at and where do we need to go and really being able to do that within our practices. So today, just thinking about end of year, a few things that you guys should be looking at as a quick highlight, like this is a very high level. I spend a good chunk of time preparing this for our doctors. We do it in our private doctor. mastermind that we have every single month together. And then with our private clients, definitely working on this. just did it with my clients prepping for end of year. and like I said, I will give you a high level so you guys can have a taste of it. And then if you want to go deeper and one -on -one with your practice, be sure to join us. It is never too late to join. It's never too late to take the step to a different life. It's never too late to reach out for an expert who can guide you. And I would just encourage you, if you've been on the fence or you've been thinking about it for a while, do it, give yourself the greatest gift to have. resource in your pocket. We never know when things will be hard for us. We never know when those days will come. This year, I haven't shared this publicly, but I had a really, really hard year this year, probably the hardest year I've ever had in business. And I just think about what did I do to be prepared for that? I could never have planned for that to happen in my life. It happened so unexpectedly. It kind of came out of left field on me. And I think about how did I get through that? got through that with an incredible team, truly of people who supported me through it. And I got through it with incredible coaches. Had I not built that incredible network of my business coach, my financial coach, my CPA who's there with me, my lawyer team, I have a legal team, my personal trainer, my physical therapist. If I would not have had my mental therapist that I go to for therapy as well, that seven people in addition to my family and my team that were there supporting me, I would not have made it through. And I had no clue that that hard time was coming. There were no warning signs. It came out of left field. And so I just think like, we never know when that's going to be there, but having that advisory board around us to support us, to guide us, to give us the direction when we can't see it is truly, I think, the greatest gift I've ever given myself, the most confidence I've ever given myself as a business owner. And so I think that's where the passion comes of. Kiera Dent (04:42.75) You don't know what you don't know. You don't know what's coming ahead. But what we do know is we can always be proactively prepared for it. And so I think I have proactively prepared for the last seven years to be to this place. I brought in experts. I don't want to know everything, but I know as a business owner, it's my responsibility to know all those things. So I hire people. I have great consultants. I have great coaches. I have great people on my team to make sure that our business is always where it needs to be, no matter what my life cycle is. So with that, I think that that's actually something great to start off with for end of year. Where are you at with your advisory board? you have an amazing consultant? Do you have an incredible CPA that guides you? Does your CPA look ahead and do you know your tax planning? Where are you at right now for the end of the year? Are you prepared with that? Do you need to start saving? Do you need to make end of year expenses? Consulting, equipment, CE, different things that you want to do to grow your team for next year and for your business for next year. Do you have a CPA that's proactive or are they reactive and just send you a bill? Because to me, they're a partner in the business with me and I expect them to be a partner with me. I expect them to be looking down the line where I'm not seeing things. Do you have a financial advisor that's making sure that you're on track for where you want to be when you retire and that all this work that you're doing is actually going to the work and the lifestyle that you want to have when you're done working. Do you have a plan for bringing in associates in an exit plan? What does your exit plan look like and do you have that mapped out? with your consultant, with your financial advisor, with your CPA. So all of you are rowing in the same direction. And if not, let's get that in place. Let's look at this year. How did we do? Did we hit the goals we want? Did we not hit the goals? Why? I want you to get to the root cause of why. Why did we or why did we not? And I want you to answer it with no excuses. It's very easy to say, we didn't hire, but is that really true? Or did we just not look outside the box? There's outside the box thinking there are people everywhere. And to me, I don't allow myself to have excuses for end of year. What happened? Why did we get here? What was the root cause of it? And I push my clients. I don't let them just give me the easy of like, Kiera, it was a hard year. Yes, I always wrap them with a hug. Yes, I'm always there as a support. And yes, I'm always there to ask the hard questions because if we don't have someone asking the hard questions and answering them ourselves, honestly, we are going to stay in a rut of excuses rather than action and execution. And to me, that's the, that's the worst place to be because you can't get out of it. Kiera Dent (07:04.11) We're constantly sitting in this swirl that we can't get out of. And so really having somebody that doesn't let you off the hook. I think that's why my clients are with me for so long is because they know that I'm gonna guide them to where they wanna go. I'm gonna ask the hard questions, I'm gonna support them, but we're also gonna get like, we're gonna GSD and get some work done. And so looking at yourself, why did you or why did you not? Now setting goals for next year, it should be at least a 10 % growth minimum. Unless you're in heavy growth mode, then it could be higher than that. But something I've learned in a lot of the coaching and trainings that I've gone through is let's make sure our goals are super achievable and attainable because that actually builds momentum for practices. Bringing on new doctors, looking at our forecasting. We have our doctors go through and they forecast out how many days off they're going to be taking throughout the year. Doctors, I want you to take time off. Let's do that. Let's plan for that. And let's make sure that we have a plan in place to set appropriate goals. with the time you're taking off to plan and prepare for it. So we're not just haphazardly setting goals, but we're actually strategically knowing where we need to go and what we need to do. So right now should be a time where we're forecasting out what raises, what hires, what are our costs gonna be? What's the time off that we're going to be doing to make sure our goals are very realistic for next year as well. Right now you should be assessing every department, what's going well, what can we improve on? Looking at your marketing efforts, looking at your accounting efforts, looking at your advice from your financial advisor efforts. All these things are the things you need to be doing right now to be preparing for the end of the year to make sure that we're on a great foot to ring in 2025. I really have learned that having a good plan in place, having somebody who, who like really pushes me to answer these questions. I love it. I love to be challenged. I love to look, I love to ask the questions. I love to get my team on board. So me myself as the owner, I need to do this first. Then I take it to my team and I ask them the same questions. And then together we co -create the answers together that all of us are bought into. What's our bonus? If we're going to have a bonus, what's our profit share? If we're going to do a profit share, why are we working towards these goals? What is it getting us? Is it giving us the life that we ultimately want to be living? And if not, let's make some changes to make sure it is. Are you happy with the work you're doing? you fulfilled? would say 80 % of the time it's okay. There's going to be 20 % where we do not feel fulfilled and that's okay. Kiera Dent (09:20.462) But 80 % of the time, do you feel fulfilled? Are you excited to go to work? Are you making the money that you want to be making? Is your team compensated the way you want to pay them? Do we need to make some adjustments and some improvements? You guys, what's crazy cool about dentistry is every single thing that you want to do is fully within your control. All of it. We just need to be proactively planning rather than reactively responding. So proactively plan rather than reactively respond. I want you to be having the dreamiest life. I want you to know that next year you're going to hit the goals with ease rather than hoping and wishing and praying on everything, single possible star that we're going to hit it. I have an office right now that's been trying to add some doctors to their practice and our goals are a little shaky because we planned, we prepared. I mean, we've been working six months to find the right doctor. We're not willing to just hire a doctor, but we've been working. And when I look at that, it'd be really easy for me as a coach to be like, guys, like great job. Like we did it. But we looked at it and we said, all right, what do we need to do to make it strong? What do we need to do to find this person? We are not going to take the excuses with my team. We've been trying to hire consultants. So if you know anybody, don't worry, we're not poaching from your practice. But if you know someone who's ready to take their next step and become a consultant, please email me. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or just send in your resume. We actually have it online. Like I said, we do not take anybody from practices. We consult. But if you know anybody, send them our way. But when we went to our meeting, I asked our team, said, all right, what other things have we not done? We just keep doing the same thing and that's freaking insanity. I'm like, I'm crazy about it. You guys are crazy about it. They are out there. What do we need to do to change? And it was interesting because when we came into it with that mindset, we came up with some incredible solutions that we have never thought of, but it was a must, not a wish. And so for you as end of year, how can we make your goals for next year be musts, not wishes? How can we think outside the box? How can we like not let ourselves off the hook? How can we be like this office where it was like, all right, we've got to find a doctor. We've got to do these things for us. We need to find consultants. We're not going to take this hiring's hard. That's for the weak. That's for the offices that aren't really here for it. Yes, that's true. It's fact, but guess what? Life's not fair. And you guys are better than that. All of us are better than that. So let's rise up to the potential that we have within us instead of falling to the mediocrity that is so easily available. Let's rise up. Kiera Dent (11:47.788) Let's be better next year, but let's do it with ease and fun and confetti and glitter and all the happiness because I don't believe that rising up has to be hard. I believe it needs to be disciplined and executed. I believe that we need to truly have good people around us and good support systems around us. I believe that every possible thing we want is out there. We just have to figure out how to find it and how to get there. And honestly, right now I am truly here to say that Dental A Team has two incredible consulting models. We are rolling out something that I have never done before. And I am so excited. We are bringing people in person for the first time in Dental A Team's life, because I decided I w…
Full show notes at the publisherOften when scheduling appointments, it's all about the patient. But what about the doctor or team members? Britt and Tiff give tips for scheduling while keeping efficiency and quality in mind (for both parties). Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Britt Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.057) Hello everyone out there listening. I am so excited to be here today. I have snagged the one and only Britt Stone again today to do some podcasting with me. Britt, how are you today? Britt (00:13.087) doing great. I mean, we're cooling off a little here in Arizona and it's a great time of year. Fall's beautiful. The Dental A Team (00:19.89) I agree. I loved the weekend weather. I know you weren't here for all of it. You had an awesome vacation, but it was really truly beautiful. And then I saw, well, Sunday got a little bit warmer. We went for a hike and we were like, well, this is a little bit warmer. And then I saw, gosh, by Thursday we're supposed to be like 95 again. So it's only here for, I think the heat's only here for a moment again. And then we'll drop back down, but it has been a wild. summer, like it's still summer here. I don't know how we're still experiencing summer. And I know, Brett, you and I both grew up here and I think people always ask us like, how do you do it? And we're like, I don't know, it's like three months of heat. And I think this year they challenged us and they were like, the universe was like, I'm gonna give you six months. And then their nature said, no, we're gonna like see if you can handle this. I feel as though I've never experienced anything like this in my life of living here. Britt (01:10.389) I mean, we broke some records. Sometimes that's an exciting thing and sometimes that's not an exciting thing to say. The Dental A Team (01:16.857) Totally agree. Not the records I wanted to break, but that's okay. We're still alive. You guys were still surviving. and I think we both probably, yeah. And I think we both probably can still say that we love where we live. So I love it. Love it. Love it. Thank you for being here. today I really wanted to pick your brain on some efficient appointment, scheduling, tips and tricks for the doctors out there. I really want to speak to, we always speak to both doctors and teams, but I really wanted to speak to doctors today and I wanted to Britt (01:23.351) I'm not trying any place. The Dental A Team (01:46.223) pick your brain a little extra because I you've really, really hard on some efficiency tips within the, you know, cost world as well. So we'll dive more into that. But Britt, from hygiene perspective as well, dental assistant perspective, we've got all of those different spaces. I'm really, really looking at efficient appointment scheduling. And for me, I'm constantly reminding teams, team members and doctors because I think doctors will stick their foot in their mouth sometimes too, to really, really look at what's working well for your practices flow. Like what's going to work best for you. And as the doctor of the practice, like when do you want to do these appointments? Do you want to do a root canal at 8 a.m.? Maybe possibly like do the root canal at 8 a.m. Right? Do you want to do a root canal at 2 p.m.? Would you rather do it, you know, after lunch, before lunch? Like where do you feel the most yourself? and the happiest to do these procedures because if we're just constantly looking at where the patient wants to come in, what's convenient for the patient, that's not always going to give them the best experience. So in that moment of scheduling. The patient might be excited and happy because they got the appointment that they wanted, but when they get there for the appointment, are they getting the best experience that they possibly can based on the flow and energy of the practice? Or did we just schedule you something super late in the day when you're exhausted and tired and you've been working so hard or you had pizza for lunch and you're like, I don't want to do this freaking root canal. Like, I don't know. know my doctor that I worked with side by side for years, hated nothing more than coming back from lunch and having fillings, like interproximal fillings and crown seats for three hours. He was like, this is going to be the worst three hours of the day because it was so much movement. It's like, just want one crowd, like, or one long appointment, right? Like I just needed one patient with three crowns. Like I just want one something long that we can just sit down, dig in, be done. All of that like crazy running around and like sporadic energy. The Dental A Team (03:48.869) for him needed to be earlier in the day when he was more like spry, right? He's just like ready to run. And I could appreciate that too because I felt the very same. And so when we figured that out for this doctor specifically, we were able to really switch the way the day works. It was better for me as his assistant. It was easier for me when I was doing scheduling and the patients actually had a better experience. So when I think of effective and efficient appointment scheduling, it's one of the first places that my brain goes is really what does the doctor want? I think we tend to look at what do our patients want? What does our team want? Our team wants easy and it's easy to let the patient dictate the schedule. But we forget to say the doctors, what do you want your day to look like? And I think Today, focusing super hard on that doctor aspect and really leveling up how much the doctors take into consideration and take that control on within that is what I'm here for today. Britt, what are your thoughts on that efficient appointment scheduling and from a doctor's side, like a doctor's angle, what could that look like for them? Britt (05:00.515) with you and everyone's different right some doctors want the big things in the morning and the smaller things in the afternoon some function the opposite and the reason why ultimately we want to know what doctor wants and how they're gonna work best is because one when doctors always are limiting factor right so like when we can have them functioning at their best everything's gonna run a little bit smoother and so like you said when it comes to guiding patients in the schedule think of What's going to help everything over all run smoother? Because that's going to give the patient a better experience. The team's going to be functioning a little bit better. The day's just going to run smoother when our limiting factor, which is doctor, is able to function at their best. And when they're functioning at their best, they're also going to be the most efficient. So I love that when it comes to taking that into account. And we'll talk about some things today that are even some like good like numbers or metrics to know of and be aware of to see like, it working? Is it not? Where are we? What can we improve upon? Right? Because at the end of the day, I know all my doctors, right? We want to be able to also like produce as much as we can in the time we're there, right? You're spending time away from your family, you're working. So how can we do the most with the time that you are spending at the office? And it does come down to scheduling and there's some ways to track it to know exactly how we're doing. with this, whenever I start to talk numbers, I'll always say, we always want patient experience to be fantastic. And of course, quality of work to be fantastic, which we know you guys do as well. And there is a point where you can like push that line a little too far. So when we're talking about these things, even when it comes to scheduling, quality of work and quality of patient experience are always top of mind. we make sure we remember those. But some good numbers to look at to see how we're doing when it comes to scheduling will be like your doctor production per hour. So do you know how it's averaging out so you can take your whole entire month? How many hours did you work in that month, are patient hours? We know you guys work a lot more hours, but how many patient hours did you work? And what's your production per hour? Because that's when it comes to efficiency or how is our block schedule working. That's kind of what we're playing with is how much can you do within the time that you have? And if that number is low or not where we need it to be, then Britt (07:17.377) How can we be more efficient, schedule more appropriately with the correct production, or tighten up the schedule if we can and still giving that a great experience and the quality that we need to have there. What can we do to get that production per hour up? So it's a good number for doctors to track. If you don't know your number, figure it out, super easy. What did you produce last month? How many patient hours did you have available on the schedule? divide it and it'll give you your production per hour and then you know where you're starting and then you know where you can go. The Dental A Team (07:51.121) I love to do that formula as well in looking for open hours on the schedule because it really, really shows us how efficient or effective we could have been or what we could have produced as well. So efficient appointment scheduling, think with the block scheduling, you guys, we talk about block scheduling all the time. So we're not gonna dive into block scheduling a ton today. There are a million podcasts on it. Like reach out to us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com if you need more information on that. So we're not going to do that right now, but when you do have that set, which is what Britt and I were alluding to, like where do you want to do these procedures? Where do you want them scheduled? How do you want your day to flow? When you have those things set, meaning you have to know how long it takes you and your assistant to complete certain appointments, you need to know. how many of each appointment you need in a day to get to your production projections, right? Like what's my goal for production per day? I'm gonna build that out and do a perfect day schedule and then I'm gonna go back through and like Britt said, really count my hours. And you can do this for hygiene, you can do this for a doctor, count how many hours were available to be scheduled and divide your production by that to get your dollar per hour, to get your hygienist dollar per hour. If you've got assistants who are operating as producers because they're FDs or whatever you've got in your state, you can do it for all of those different spaces and really see how well you or your associate or your high-dense or dental assistants are really paying for yourselves and what that could look like. Now on the flip side of that, I like to go in then and say, okay, well, this is my dollar per hour goal. Owner doctors, Britt. Tell me if I'm completely off base here. I'm typically gonna have my owner doctors 850 plus per hour. My associates, I'm like 550 to 750. I would love to see an associate at 850. Totally possible. Owner doctors, I would love to see you closer to like 1050, 1200. Like those are the numbers I would love. PPOs, like they're gonna drastically change that for you. But we can work around it and it's the time of year to ask for being pieces, all those pieces. So we don't need to get into that today, but those are like. The Dental A Team (10:04.485) good goals to mull around. So then what I do on that note of the schedule, right, is look at these were my available hours. Well, as I'm doing my available hours, I'm also going to count my open hours. I just did this actually. I was in Utah a couple weeks ago with a prized practice and I just did this for him because he's like, tiff, like, we just tanked. I don't know what happened. And so I went through the whole year and I did available hours. Britt (10:22.58) Thank The Dental A Team (10:33.214) And then at the same time, I had one screen was available hours. The screen over here was open hours and it was how many for each provider I did the doctor, I did all of his hygienists and I did it for each one. And I said, okay, so we're about 40 to 50,000 off from the goal we've set this year. Let me show you where it's at. And we could literally pinpoint the month that had enough open hours just for him alone, not even including hygiene that was that gap. the month, like not even just production for sure. You can say like, we were down a little bit here, but there was a month that he should have far exceeded the production, the monthly production goal that they had set that he was still under. But you could easily see because we had that perfect day scheduling in, we had the blocks in there. We were able to easily see how much he should have been doing and then calculate it backwards and forward. So we could do the lab measures to see Why didn't we hit those goals and where was it and how could we have been more efficient with our appointments? And then the lead measures to see, okay, well, if that's the case, what do we have to do moving forward? So I love that you said to do that. And I think, too, what you're alluding to and what you're getting to with that is really looking at what are you doing now? Because then you can see, am I using this time efficiently and effectively? Like perhaps you've got the perfect day schedule in there. and you've got your blocks, but maybe you did it two years ago or even six months ago and you're like, I'm still not where I thought I would be. So now go back through and see one, what were your open hours? And then two, is it actually working? Cause Brett, think I'm, you know, I've experienced this and tell me if you have where I've gone in and doctors are like either scheduled, not enough time. for certain things and they're going late and now patients are like, but we're using blocks. And I'm like, but these patients are like waiting, like there's such an issue here. Or they're scheduled too long and then they've been done for an hour before the patient gets back. But on the schedule, they're not changing it. And so there's no reality set in. Have you seen that as well where doctors are like, well, I'm full and practices, right? Our teams are like filling the white space, it's full, but it's still not reaching goals. Britt (12:57.111) Yeah, and though agreed and you're right on your numbers. I'm like 500 minimum That's my low end for anyone per hour that you should be hitting so if you're not there Hey, that's an opportunity for you to get there and know where a benchmark is and agreed in a PPO office 500 to 850 like it's it's attainable fee for service and Just to kind of clarify one thing when you say owner doctor right getting that 850 or plus Even easily some doctors into like thousand pretty easily or more Owner doctors usually when you start to bring on associates you get to do the more complex things that you like Usually to do and so you're getting those higher dollar procedures while associates are taking care of some of the lower dollar one Which is why we say that so just to give a little context behind some of those numbers and agreed when we look at open space or how we're scheduling, then it's…
Full show notes at the publisherHappy Halloween! In this episode, Kiera lists four "tricks" in dental practices that might scare a practice owner off, and gives advice on how to turn them into treats. Leaking revenue A team that doesn't care about company goals Untapped potential holding you back Low case acceptance and high overhead Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.09) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy Halloween -y. man, I love Halloween. This year, I'm so excited. We have some really, really, really special neighbors and they have two kids and they have definitely allowed us to be a part of their family. And so they're now six -year -old son. They have a six -year -old and a two -year -old. Their six -year -old plans our Halloween costumes for us. If you know anything about Kiera Dent or if you don't, my mom was very much not. pro having her kids trick or treat. My mom is very, very, very conventional and she did not want to teach her children. She felt like trick or treating was slightly like begging and she did not want her children to be that way. And so I do not, I do not endorse that nor agree with that. And my mom has since changed, but that was her beliefs as a young mom. so trick or treating, she had us go what's called pick a treat where we would actually take treats to our friends instead of trick or treating. And so Actually last year, 2023 was the first time that Kiera Dent actually went trick or treating. And it was with this family that takes us with us. Last year we were Incredibles. And this year he has given, this little boy has given all of us the assignment of something from Toy Story. He plans every one of us who we're going to be. So this year I get to be Little Bo Peep. My husband's Woody. Don't worry. We'll definitely post up some pictures for you guys, but happy Halloween. I hope you have the best time. I hope it's fun, but. What I wanted to do today is one, thank you guys for being a part of our podcast family. But two, remind you, please share this podcast with someone fun. Today's gonna be a fun one. These are things that should scare you as a dental practice owner. Our goal is to help you learn to overcome them and running practice does not need to be scary. So come and join our consulting with us. There's no tricks, just treats for you guys. And I'm gonna give you guys four little things that probably do scare you as practice owners and ways to overcome them. We're going to do a little trick or treating here where I might trick, I might treat. Of course I'm going to treat guys. Here we go. but please share this podcast with those around you. And thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. If I could give you a giant hug right now and just tell you how much I love and appreciate you for who you are and the special things that you bring to dentistry and to this world. And, just you being here, no matter what you do or don't do is a huge blessing to those around you and in my life as well, even though I might not know you personally. Kiera Dent (02:26.07) I feel you, I feel your energy and I'm so grateful for you. just share this with someone that you feel could use that huge giant hug of love and appreciation and probably just like some fun and some support. with that, right. Number one possible scary thing in a practice is revenue leaks in your practice. So what are some of those things that are leaking out revenue that if we just were able to patch up that hole might actually be able to help you. So things such as inefficient scheduling, billing errors, uncollected payments. So I want you guys to look at your practices and see where are our revenue leaks. I think this could be a really fun almost scavenger hunt for you and your team to think about like, where are all the ways that we might be losing money on imperfect handoffs, on not billing out all the procedures that we do, on not having the correct dollar amounts attached to those. Keir Dents practice definitely sent out a $0 crown. We billed it straight to insurance. You better believe they were so happy to send me the EOB on that. That is a revenue leak in our practice. so, on our inefficient scheduling? Have you built in the block schedules? Have you created a perfect day schedule? Are we working and role playing on how we can get people perfectly in there? Are we looking for same day treatment opportunities? That's a huge revenue leak within your practice. Looking for those same days, you get raving fans out of it and you're also able to help a ton of people with it. So can we actually help you guys close up that revenue leak and make it even better? What about the billing errors? Like I mentioned, attaching the correct things to our procedures so we get our money in within those. 20 to 30 days the first time and we're not having to rebuild or reattaching like setting up a process and a policy that we all follow every single time. Make that quick checklist, have it in the notes. We just grab it and go and everybody's there with it. It makes it so much easier. Uncollected payments, I can't tell you how many offices just let patients leave without stopping at the front desk or getting credit cards on file so that way we can bill these patients very quickly and collect. It's so easy. You guys, I have all of my stuff on autopay. I go to the therapist, I credit card on file, click, paid, done. At my chiropractor same thing at my therapist my my physical therapist same thing at my gym person All these quick ways like you guys we live in a world of credit cards on file. We have Apple pay We have all these different pieces. Can we do that there? And what are the revenue leaks within your practice? Those are just some to get your your mind spurring But really look at that because that could be very scary in a practice. You're doing the work Let's make sure you're getting paid for it. Like I said, no tricks just treats. It does not need to be scary Kiera Dent (04:50.132) Number two, your team not caring about your company goals. Well, that can feel scary because doctors can feel like, I'm rowing this boat all by myself and it can feel awful. And so let's get your team to care about the goals. How can this help give them a better life? How can this help them help more patients? How can we get them on board and excited? I have an office right now and we're rolling out sleep in their practice and I cannot wait. We're making it all fun. They're going to get like part of the bonus and the rewards of helping more patients not die from sleep. That's incredible. That's such a fun way to do it. And so looking for ways, people don't care about things that they're not passionate about. No surprise, right? Like that's a very easy thing. Kiera, give us some wisdom here. But I think sometimes simplicity and remembering what we already know is half the point of learning. And a lot of times learning is just remembering what we already know. And so getting our team, like what inspires them? Why do we want to hit these goals? How many patients do we want to serve together as a team? And oftentimes if your team doesn't care about the goals, guess what, they might not be your right team. You want people that are obsessed about hitting these goals. You want people that are excited about building this practice. It's gonna serve so many patients. And so you also, as the owner and the leader, need to feel that way about it. Oftentimes when teens don't care about goals, it's because the owner doesn't actually care. And I say that with love and a huge giant hug and no judgment, because sometimes it's hard to stay motivated as owners. Sometimes we need someone to pick us up. You guys, am so appreciative over these last couple of months. I've had some personal things in my life and so grateful for the coaches in my life that literally have like lifted me up with love and support and helped me figure out what is my vision? What is my path? I have probably five really strong people in my life and I'm so grateful. I happily pay them. so, I could not do this without all five of them. And just so thankful that I have that support system around me because A lot of times it is hard to keep trying to figure it out on your own day in and day out. And so really being able to have that from your team and have that support is something absolutely magical. All right, number three is untapped potential losing you money. So things like, could we do some CE within our practice? Could we do helping a lot of our team start like learning to scan or taking impressions, or could we add Invisalign or could we add sleep to our practice? Kiera Dent (07:09.886) Or what other things are untapped potential within every team member? Could we do better with our treatment plan acceptance? Can we do better with how we schedule our practice? But what is this untapped potential? If I was looking at your practice today, what I think that your practice is a brand new baby, like in the life cycle of a business. Is it maybe a toddler? Is it maybe like a teenager? Is it a young adult? Is it like in its prime? Is it a dying practice, like getting a little bit older to retirement? Or is it on its way to death? There's untapped potential within all of those lifespans. And so what's our way that we're able to find that untapped potential because there's so much opportunity. I have offices right now that are, we've just added very simple things to the practice and we've been able to take them from a $2 million practice to a $4 million practice just by adding in some untapped potential with them. Are there untapped potential within like the operatories in the space within your practice? Is there untapped potential around your hygienist being able to offer fluoride to every patient or fluoride therapy where it's toothpaste and fluoride treatments? Is there untapped potential with us scanning for night guards? Is there untapped potential with us looking for same day treatment opportunities? These are fun little things that could be spooky and scary, but if we look at them, make them fun. Now, I'm gonna put a huge like asterisk caveat with this. We do not wanna add all these things at the exact same time because that is very scary and daunting for our team, but we can brainstorm and like throw everything on a board and then pick the thing that's the easiest, least amount of effort with the greatest impact. And that's what we wanna go implement and execute on our practice. right, number four of things that are scary, no tricks, just treats today, of low case acceptance and high overhead. So kind of technically two in one. So low case acceptance, that can feel really scary. It can make doctors feel like patients don't like me. It can make treatment coordinators feel like, we're just not closing cases. Case acceptance to me just tells a story. One, are we doing incredible with how we're presenting treatment? Doctors, are you using that NDTR next visit date, time, the re -care, there we go. Are you doing that and putting the bow on every single treatment plan that you're giving? Kiera Dent (09:20.032) Are you diagnosing with confidence? Are we doing quadrant dentistry rather than solo tooth dentistry? Are you confident on how you're presenting it to the patient? Are you possibly planting weeds in your flower garden by giving them obstacles as opposed to opportunities without realizing it? After doctors give this the most amazing confident treatment plan, they put the bow of NDTR on it. Team members, are we all taking that perfect hand off, scheduling them first and then having our team present the treatment plans and the finance? Are we leading with insurance? Because if you better believe if I'm any part of your life, you will never lead with insurance. You will always lead with what we need to do. And then we will help the patient say yes to the treatment. Low case acceptance to me tells what are the doctors confident in, what's the treatment coordinator confident in, and where are awesome opportunities to grow. I love case acceptance. I'm obsessed with it. I'm obsessed with helping offices. I have literally taken a practice from 9 million. to over 40 million just by working with them on case acceptance. I kid you not, there's multiple practices in it. They are incredible. And we just work on case acceptance over and over and over over over and over and over and over over again, because we know that that's what's gonna help more patients have a happier life. So when I look at this, I love it. It tells me what is that treatment coordinator afraid of? What does that treatment coordinator need to break through? What does that doctor need to break through? I can look to see the type of treatment plans just by looking at your case acceptance. And so looking at this and how can we boost it? Now, if it's too high, I know we are actually not diagnosing enough. If it's too low, I know we're not closing and it's a happy medium. If you're presenting implants and high cases, it should be a little bit lower. If we're doing a single tooth dentistry and general dentistry more so, you should have a much higher case acceptance. So looking at that, because that can feel very eerie in a practice of like, what are we doing wrong? Oftentimes it's not what are we doing wrong? It's what are we saying? That's actually not helping us get to our case acceptance that we want. So play the game, have fun with it because that case acceptance fills the schedule. Now if our schedule is too full and we're not hitting our goals, let's look to see what are we diagnosing doctors? Let's see, are we truly diagnosing full comprehensive care or are we diagnosing what we think they want? No, those are questions for you to answer that can feel spooky and eerie, but they do not need to be. Just be confident, the patient's there. It's not your fault they're there. It's not your fault that they have this treatment. It didn't get there overnight and now you have the amazing opportunity to educate them. Kiera Dent (11:40.93) help them get healthy again and become like so fulfilled by having that confident smile again. And then that in turn can also reduce your overhead. Looking at our P &L consistently, making sure that we're not overpaying for things that we don't need, but also making sure that our revenue we're producing what we need to be producing for our practice. These are things that I am obsessed with. I love them. It doesn't need to be spooky for you. It really just needs to be fun for you. And so that's why at this Halloweeny time, No tricks, just treat. And within our consulting, we have our online version and we also have our in -person version and both of them give you a way for these spooky things to actually be done with ease. So I'd love for you guys to come try it out. Like, what's it gonna hurt you to come and be a part of a community of people of like -minded dentists, to have consultants at your fingertips that literally will give you the answers to all these spooky things and also get your team on board with you. to come and either be in person and meet us. We're literally getting ready to have our doctors in person together and work on your business from the minds of brilliant people to be able to lift you and your practice to the highest heights tha…
Full show notes at the publisherTiff and Britt are here to give advice on how to maintain consistency during the busiest times. They talk about keeping a positive mindset when things become stressful, how to avoid getting stuck in "fix mode," how to find what tasks you can automate, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Britt Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02.11) O my gosh, Dental A Team listeners, I am here today with the one and only Brittany Stone. I am so excited. I bring you Dana a lot and Dana is freaking fantastic. You guys know how much I love my time with her. But recently, I have been mixing it up a little bit and I love it. I get my couple hours a month of just one -on -one solo time with you, Britt. So thank you. I love having you here. I love that we're in different colors today. I think it spices it up a little bit. How are you on this beautiful Friday when we're recording right now? It's Friday and it's freaking beautiful outside, right? Britt (00:38.059) I know Arizona, it's like the end of summertime where it starts to break a little bit in the heat. We're like, my gosh, this is why I live here. yeah, that's right. This is the reason why. I like that I got a full name today. It's always fun when that comes out and I get called by my full name. So I'm excited to be here. know, anytime I get with you consultants, anyone on our team, especially one -on -one, it's my favorite. The Dental A Team (00:49.495) You got it. The Dental A Team (01:01.005) I love it. love it. I had I had a client today actually on our coaching call say, what's the weather like out there? Like, are you is it cooling down? And I was like, no, it was like 101 the other day, I think he got down to like 95. But there was 99. And like, we're all over the place. And I told my friend the other day, she's like, gosh. it's supposed to be fall, like where's our fall? Where Arizona is, and we don't get fall, we get ideal hiking weather. So we are walking into ideal outdoors weather in Arizona. There's no fall. We just get our hiking season until now May. So here we go, ready to hike. Britt (01:36.779) we can get back outdoors. know Tiff today is like, should I go for a run? And I'm like, should I go for a ride tomorrow? Probably. Like now we can liven back up and be outside. The Dental A Team (01:46.702) I was actually thinking that last night when I was like, gosh, dang it, what do do? And I was like, Britt would totally be on a ride right now if she could. I love it. I love it. Well, I want to hear from you guys. What do you do when it's nice outside? And I hope that some of you are in some beautiful weather as well. I know we've got some Arizona listeners out there for sure. But we've got listeners all over the country. And honestly, we have listeners outside the country. So I love hearing about the weather. I love thinking about that. And I love just making sure that Britt (01:52.384) -huh. The Dental A Team (02:12.777) No matter what your experience with Dental A Team is top notch and we are here for it. So you guys today, I really want to talk about busy season because with fall coming, with winter coming, being in fall, all of these pieces, your busy season is about to really, really hit in the dental practice. I know for a lot of pediatric practices that summer. So sorry guys, you're coming out of your busy season, but for majority. Britt (02:38.145) Congratulations. The Dental A Team (02:38.89) Yeah, they were crazy, right? just did analysis with my Peto practice this morning in July and August were freaking bananas for them, but September is starting to slow down. So with October coming as well. So here we are in the middle of it all in the thick of it all and hopefully you guys have already done things to ramp up that schedule from September to October now looking freaking amazing and really just getting into it maybe within the year benefit letters things like that. I know we put all the suggestions out there. But as it gets busier, I know me and I think you know me. I you probably know me better than most people in my life at this point. I tend to, as it gets busier, get more and more and more forgetful. And I don't know if I'm the only one out there, but I'm forgetful by nature just in general. a very forgetful human being and I don't mean to be, but it's just who I am and I have to love myself for it. But as things get busier, especially when I was in practice, this time of year where it's like that end of year rush, get the end of your benefits done, prep for the new year that's still busy, we tend to forget to focus in on that ultimate patient experience. And those pieces that we do that really set us apart from other practices, they get forgotten. Those are the first things to go. It's kind of like forgetting the chocolate chips and the chocolate chip cookies and you ended up with these bomb sugar cookies because you forgot that stuff or Britt (04:00.307) You The Dental A Team (04:03.164) the baking powder or whatever. Like we just, start forgetting those little things. And Brett, I really wanted to talk with you today because I know you coach a lot of practices and especially in our group practice realm, you have a ton of practices in there, you and Dana and the other consultants that really come together every week to talk about these kinds of things. And in preparation for that, I wanted to pick your brain and see what do you have practices doing right now or what have they been doing and how do you Truly help your practices prep for this busy season to really keep that patient experience at the forefront and top notch. What are you doing and how can our listeners do something maybe a little bit different, something they can pick up? Britt (04:45.471) Yeah, end of the year we know it gets busy. I always say once Halloween hits, it's like poof, like we're in January because that seems to be the holiday that after that all the rest of them come along and it goes real fast. And in the dental world, we are really busy on top of it because people are coming in to utilize their end of year benefits, whatever it may be, getting stuff done before the holidays or in between their travels. While our team has also taken some time off for the holidays. The Dental A Team (04:58.983) That's so true. Britt (05:14.707) So I think it's a time that number one thing I would say is remember the things to be consistent at, right? So be consistent at our huddle, be consistent at making sure we have a plan on how we're gonna tackle the day. Because if you start with that strong foundation, keep it consistent, it's gonna help you to make sure that like, all right, we can handle this. And it's not gonna get too wild for us to where we kind of hit that frazzled zone where we start to forget about that patient experience. So I think. That's number one, is stay consistent on the things that are gonna help you. And I always say, if you're leaving morning cuddle saying, well, we'll just figure it out. my gosh, it gives me anxiety. No, we won't, it'll get crazy. So figure it out before you leave morning cuddle when those things get added in and even add a little like reminder, right? We're here for team and patients. So let's make sure our team and our patients have an awesome day today. I think even just that to keep it a little bit top of mind can go a long ways. The Dental A Team (05:54.873) hahahaha The Dental A Team (06:13.067) I love that. I love that the consistency of it and really finding those pieces that create the magic when you're not busy. So you said like morning huddle, making sure our team is prepared and making sure our focus there is too, that our team has a good experience because when we have a happy team and our teams enjoying what they're doing, it just translates to the patient experience so easily. So staying consistent in those pieces and If you don't have a good morning huddle routine, like reach out, we've got a million of them and we've got a million ideas, a million podcasts on them. And writing those things down, right? Make sure that the systems and processes, even if you're in the thick of the busy right now, write it down. What's working for you guys? What's separating you from the others? What's projecting your success today? so that you can keep doing those over again. And Britt, it makes me think I have this conversation with practices and honestly with people in my life constantly, I hate nothing more in life than wasted time. And to me, Britt knows this. It makes me so angry inside and it makes me wanna just like leave whatever situation it is, right? I'm just like, this was so absurd to me. Britt (07:17.665) That's accurate. It's accurate. 100%. The Dental A Team (07:31.458) So, and I say that meaning I don't wanna do things that aren't getting the result that I intended. And if I'm doing things consistently that are not getting the result that I wanted, that is wasted time because I could have been doing something that was getting the results I wanted. And what I tell practices and friends and family is like, you're literally running the definition of insanity. If you feel insane, you feel crazy, you feel... spun up and out of this world out of control, it's probably because somewhere you're running the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. And with what you're saying, kind of combining those things, it's really taking back that control and seeing what's working that you're doing consistently. And when you're busy, how do you maintain the control over that consistency? How do you ensure that those things stay top of mind for you? Britt (08:09.291) Thank The Dental A Team (08:29.344) I love that I get on a, you know, I get on a time tangent. So you guys like don't even test me on that. It's not worth it. It's like my biggest pet peeve and Britt does. Go ahead. Britt (08:39.967) You have a really good point and I think a lot of times it's easy for us to get stuck in what's not working or like picking the things that go wrong and any practice we walk into there are a lot of things you are doing that are working. So I think it's big to recognize whenever we're evaluating what's going on within the practice, what is working for us because I guarantee you there are things that are working for you. The Dental A Team (08:47.487) Yes. Britt (09:09.483) And we don't want to lose sight because sometimes we try to fix another issue and we get rid of something that's working for us and then it doesn't turn out the way we want it to. So I just want to kind of highlight that a little bit. Like that's an important statement that you made is focus on what's working, focus on the wins. They're in there, they're out there. Don't just focus on the bad things. And keeping those things that are working top of mind are just as important as working on improving the things that aren't working. The Dental A Team (09:37.368) I love that so much. And I work with clients constantly on that very topic because it is really easy to get lost in that. And I always say that it's like, you've got a new haircut, and you decided bangs were your jam this time. And you're like, I'm doing bangs and your hairdresser's like, cool, let's do it. You get bangs and we're like 1990s style bangs and we're walking down the street. and somebody walks by and is like, my gosh, you did it. Your bangs look amazing. And 10 people tell you your bangs look freaking amazing and your hair is bomb. And then one person walks by and they're like, ooh, I don't know if I would have done bangs. When we go home and we look in the mirror, we're like, should I have done bangs? One person out of 11 said, don't know about that. And we're contemplating whether we made the right decision or not because it is so much easier to find and look at and and be stuck on what's not working, what's wrong, how do I fix this, do I do better, than it is to look at what could be right. And when we start with what's working, rather than starting with what's not working, we can easily see what systems and processes are creating what's working and can any of those apply to what's not working. But if we flip it, we're stuck on fixing. we get stuck in fix mode and we say, what's not working? How do I fix this? Instead of saying what's not working and how or what is working and how do I do more of this? Efficiency you guys like that is just efficiency and time management. those are Kira Dent says like efficiency will be on my tombstone on my grave one day because that is what I live my life by and this is why because it just doesn't my brain cannot comprehend. doing something for no reason. There is a reason behind everything and we have to be intentional about it or we go crazy. And in the midst of being busy, that intentionality gets dropped. We're just doing, we're taking everything in as it comes and we're like, my gosh, I'm inundated. have so many things to do. Front office is checking out, checking in answering the phone and sending claims at the same time. Like one person is doing all of these things. The Dental A Team (11:52.476) And we're like an octopus in every space dental assistants, they're running four chairs because we had emergencies at the front office was like, no, we can do it. It's fine. One more crown before the end of the year. Don't worry. And my dental assistants are like, I'm going to kill you. And we've all got these octopus arms running all over the efficiency piece, the intentionality, the integrity of it all, the action ability that gets left to the side because we're just moving. And those are the days you guys that I run into the most walls. Those are the days I wake up the next morning with bruises and I'm like, how did this even happen? I don't remember, but I've ran into 15 walls because the universe is like slow down, slow down and do the things that matter. So in the midst of being busy, the patient experience actually drops. And what I've seen happen is we cram a ton and I just talked to a practice actually yesterday about this and I was like, this is what happened. You guys got busy. So we get busy. And we're like, I don't have time for all of that stuff that worked to get us busy. You guys, that's the point. I don't have time for re -care calls and re -care is booked out for three months anyways. Why am I calling them? And then what does three months from now look like for a hygienist, Britt? Britt (13:06.635) We got holes in it and then all of a sudden we're like, well shoot, why are there holes in the schedule? The Dental A Team (13:11.036) Because we stopped doing what worked to fill that schedule. And when we're busy, we stop doing those pieces, or we stop looking for a workaround. If I don't have time for calls, what can I automate to ensure that the information is still getting out there that people are still getting touch points? Can I ramp up emails and text messages? If I can't get on the phone? Like what can I automate that keeps those touch points going and keeps that relationship building? Because this practice I talked to yesterday had a stellar month, stellar month, they were li…
Full show notes at the publisherKiera and Dana download the latest Dental A-Team book, The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price. Specifically, the two discuss why it's so important to strive for playfulness, connection, and fun even in the workplace, as well as a new DAT project — coming March 2025! Find the full book club rundown here! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.026) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and I am so pumped. I got the one and only Dana with me, usually Tiff and Dana podcast. And today Dana and I are gonna podcast. How are you, Dana? Dana (00:11.532) I'm good. I'm excited to be here. I know it's been too long and it's a fun space, so I'm glad I'm here. Kiera Dent (00:17.514) I agree. told Shelbi, I was like, record. Can we start getting the consultants on with me too? Like I enjoy solo casting, but it'd be fun to hang. So I'm super glad. And today you guys, Dana and I are bringing you a special treat. We are going to book club podcast. Dana, Britt and I are probably the ones who actually book club in our company. So we're the constant three that do it. And I, as Dana this morning, I was like, did you by chance read that book? Because if so, I'd love a podcast guest with me on it. Thank you, Dana, for coming to the rescue with me. But I think it's gonna be great. Our podcast, our book club for this month is The Power of Fun, How to Feel Alive Again by Katherine Price. And honestly, Dana, I think you might know this, but maybe you don't. The reason I chose this podcast or this book was because the confetti was on the front. Like, that was why I chose it. On the book cover, there was confetti. Ryan Isaac and I were talking about it, because I think I sent him the book of like, Probably Die with Zero or profit first, like some like hard book and he's like, why don't we have more fun books, Kiera? So that's actually where it came from. But I'm super curious. Kind of let's dive into this book. If you guys didn't read it, totally fine. If you did, I think it's a slower read. I think Dana felt the same, but I think that there was a lot of good nuggets for now. And I'm all about how we can create more fun because I think adults forget how to have fun. That's I think my biggest takeaway is like, we've forgotten how to have fun. And she gave some good tips on how to have more fun in our lives. What about you, Dana? What do you think? Dana (01:46.936) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was a lot for me to take away. I don't think I've ever like, categorized my fun, or like, thought about creating space for fun. Like I think I'm a person that has a lot of fun, and I laugh a lot and there's a lot of joy in my life. But I did definitely like reframe my like, okay, well, what level of fun am I having and prioritizing that higher level of fun or what she calls true fun in my life. Kiera Dent (02:14.752) Yeah, absolutely. And she kind of talked about like, well, I loved a lot that she talks about is how much of our society has actually shifted us to not have as much fun. And I think one of my favorite takeaways in the book was when she talked about how like, our cell phones were actually designed to be like slot machines. And so like slot machines are intent, like, so much study has gone into keeping people like in the slot machine mode. And yet if we're doing that with our phones, gosh, like our world is crazy to think about. And so helping us find ways to minimize distractions. And something she said is like, when you're not fully present, you're not happy. And so how can we be like in the moment having fun and like we're spending so much time consuming, but she said like, phones are actually causing constant stress and higher cortisol levels. And so playfulness, connection and fun are the things that we should be going for. And that's like laughing, being in nature, being purposeful and being present. And like times when we feel most alive are when we're actually playing. And I just thought it was such an interesting mindset of like, great, my phone's a freaking slot machine, which we all know. It's a heavily addictive, we're constantly wanting to go to it. And yet that's actually what's causing us to not have as much fun, which I don't know, like to be debated, like is it true? Is it not true? And this is where Dana and I love to book club. This is how we actually book club is we talk about like, well, what do you think? How do you feel about that? What are like your thoughts? So Dana, tell me your thoughts. Let's have a real book club, Denali team style today. Dana (03:34.574) Yeah, I mean, I do think that like, I can admit my phone can be a distraction and I can think that I'm enjoying something but if I put it away and I do something else, like, I can definitely see that I enjoy that other thing more, right? And so I think we tend to hold on to the phone or do the phone thing because in the moment it's like, yeah, scrolling, tick tock, I'm laughing, right? Or looking and catching up with family on Instagram, like that's fun. Kiera Dent (03:56.097) Mm-hmm. Dana (03:59.982) But when I put the phone away and I focus on connecting with the people around me and being really playful and engaging, I feel like that is definitely a different level of fun. And so I think that it it's prioritizing those moments and understanding that like what your phone really lacks is that connection. Kiera Dent (04:21.944) Right, for sure. And I think some people might argue like is connection really fun? And like, do I actually need that? And do I want that? And I just think like, again, the books are here for conversation. They're here to challenge our beliefs and to question and to see like, what are we doing? And what really is that way? But what I thought was interesting is, so over the summer, I had some things that came up for me and I was very disconnected from my phone. And I'm not gonna lie to you. for like the first three days. And that happens every time I go on vacation. I don't know about you, Dana, but literally every time I go on vacation, I have like withdrawal. So Jason and I will intentionally go to places where I to like shut my phone off. I don't have service. I will purposely not buy service when I go places. And it's like a withdrawal. And I feel angry for usually like my first two-ish days, sometimes even up to three, which I don't know if that's a good thing or not. But I thought about it and over the summer when I didn't have my phone, it was crazy how like, I want to say carefree, I became, but I went through the withdrawal period first of feeling angry, mad, annoyed, like, just give me my freaking phone. It was weird. And I'm like, gosh, am I like a, like literally having withdrawals, leaving this addiction? I don't know. Or was it like chicken and the egg, or was it like cause and effect? I don't know. So I don't know, Dane, if you've got thoughts on that, but those are the things that I've been thinking of. like, is it really true or is it not? Dana (05:43.374) Yeah, I definitely go through like, I would say more like anxious, like am I going to miss something that's important or am I going to so like the anxiousness at first, I will say that I do have like when we go on family vacations or we go camping or we do those things, like I will put my phone in a drawer even if I don't have service. But then the flip side of that is I get really upset that I didn't snap photos because I'm like, I want to be in the moment. I want to remember the moment like with my eyes and be super present. But then I get home and I'm like, I didn't take any pictures. Kiera Dent (06:03.658) I agree. Kiera Dent (06:12.33) I know, because like, but that's all we have, right? Are the memories and the photos and photos can like, Jarrett, it's even crazy because like Apple vision right now has a quote unquote live. And I was at this thing in an Apple vision, like guru came to our little conference. Like we got all these Apple vision pros and they said, like, what we're doing is like, we're creating time travel. Like I kid you not, this was part of their pitch for Apple vision pro, because what they said is like, if you do the video in live, you can put the Apple vision pro on and it is Simulated as if you are really back in that moment So like taking the videos which I think is like perpetuating us having our video so we can relive the moment rather than living in the moment is Contrary to I think how you have fun and so I think that there's like I think that's why she categorizes the fun within the book I think that's why she has you look at it because I don't think it's an all-or-nothing But there is a company I was talking with Jason Tonori shout out to him when I was up at his practice and we were talking about and there's this company called Brick like a brick wall and the purpose of the brick is what you do is you actually like tap your phone and you brick your phone so we basically put our phones back into brick mode like remember when we used to have brick phones and all they did was like call and kind of text like that's actually the purpose and what this company is about because so often and it's crazy because when you brick your phone you literally have nothing on there and it's wild how much you like it's almost like phantom hands go to the scroll or phantom hands go to Siri or phantom hands go to Safari, like all these things that I don't think we realize how dependent and reliant we are on it when it's like, no, I want to go on a hike and just use my phone for this. But then on the hike, it's like, well, let's check where we're going to go for lunch. Well, I don't have that. And I've got to go back to survival skills of like, all right, I guess we like drive to the town and figure that. So it is this like interesting concept, but I'm curious if we had like less phones, would we be happier? Or is there like this or like have more fun or is there maybe a middle ground Dana and this is something we're obviously just rifting on right now and we don't have answers to it. We're just talking, talking shop here. What do think? Dana (08:13.028) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think with anything, right? Like anything is great for you in small doses. And then, you know, when it can be large doses, maybe it's not so good for you. you know, my hope is that there is a middle ground on this and that we can use technology and advance in technology and use our phone. But also, I think big takeaway from this book is making space for more fun. Kiera Dent (08:39.668) And Dana, what are some of the things like, how do you make space for Murphun? Like, what did you take away from the book or what are you applying in your own life? I'm putting you on the spot. Maybe you, I don't know. Dana (08:45.218) Yeah. No, that's okay. No, I like that she kind of like went through like one big thing I'll use myself as an example, right? As a mama for like, something that she suggested is just making time as far as like looking at the things that you have to do and making sure like with your partner in my instance, like my husband, like that those things are distributed evenly, right? So that like, I'm not the one that's making all the doctor's appointments and coordinating all of the kids schedules and doing those things helps to create space when those roles are divided evenly, there's more space for both of us to be able to prioritize fun. She talked about like organizing your physical and mental space. So using a planner and making sure that you plan for things and you've got deep, you know, deep work and focus time. And then outside of that, when you get lots of things done in your deep work time, it frees you up time to have more fun. Physical space, you know, she talked about just like organizing your physical space so that when those things are organized, you don't have to constantly be cleaning up clutter or doing those things. It frees you up more. So I thought she had a lot of great suggestions that I think most of us can apply something to to buy a little bit of time. Kiera Dent (09:57.034) Right. And I'm, I am obsessed about this. So this summer I went and attended a bunch of conferences with Tony Robbins about, he calls it his RPM, Rapid Planning Method. And like I learned about it and I hated it. And then for some reason it clicked this year. And I'm actually super freaking pumped because like non-shameless plug here, our new, like we're rolling out a little bit different of our consulting program and we are bringing people in person. and I'm super jazzed if you're interested and you want to come like mastermind with doctor to our brilliant and it's a leadership. it's you and your OM and then we actually help take it back to your team for you. So like still doing all the pieces. We focus in on your business for a nice retreat time. And then we're also going to work with you quarterly. Plus you still have your customized calls. Like it's like 99 % Dental A Team. We're just now bringing you guys in person to mastermind together and with us. And like the fun, exciting part of it is I actually am so excited because I am so passionate about life and dentistry. Like I realized life is my passion, dentistry is my platform. And so how can I help more dentists and more people have more time in their lives, but do it in the way that is fun? And so part of Tony's thing that we're actually going to incorporate like styles of Tony, but made Kiera's way and then tied into dentistry for your practice is Tony had us go through and actually map out like the categories of our life. And I'm so pumped because I'm going to help dentists do this again. like taking from Tony Robbins and then adapted to Kiera's way of how I want to do it. But it was so magical because Dana, I actually built a category of fun because I realized I never did fun and I didn't actually like schedule fun. And so every week when I'm looking at my week, I look for like, where am I connected to Jason? What am I doing for the business? What am I doing for like, and I call our house like our Oasis, there's also power and language. So like, it's not just Jason, it's like my forever love story with Jason and then fun. Like I wrote like life is meant to be fun and playful and like have the sprinkles and the confettis. And so every week as I've been doing this for the last couple of months, prepping and preparing and like fine tuning how I want to do it with our doctors. So don't worry, like it will be so much business. But if you don't have the life that's fun and fulfilling for you, we missed the mark in my opinion, which is why I'm so excited. And if you're interested and you want to be a part of our inaugural like beta group with us, like please join us. It's gonna be freaking magic. But like Kiera Dent (12:19.512) It's been awesome Dana because I feel my life is more balanced and I hate the word balanced because work and fun are not equal. Like they're not, but they feel balanced. And I feel like every week I look forward to like, what is my fun? And if it's not in my calendar, I'm like, well shoot, I need to have more fun. And it is the…
Full show notes at the publisher
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