Get Ready to Take Your Practice to the Next Level

Episode #384 with Dr. Leonard Hess

Are you ready for your practice to work for you, and not you working for your practice? If you are, it’s time to take your practice to the next level! And to guide you through this process, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Leonard Hess from The Dawson Academy to share the best advice for being in the top 10% — not just in production, but also in quality of life. To learn how to take your practice to the next level with The Dawson Academy, listen to Episode 384 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Be a physician of the masticatory system, not a tooth mechanic.

Stop comparing yourself to what you see on social media.

Don't be pressured to do treatment that you're not ready to do.

Never attach your self-worth to your case acceptance rate.

Predictability is important for overall practice health.

Become the go-to dentist within your community.

Be in the top 10% for quality of life, not just for production.

Quotes:

“There are different ways that you could be in the top 10%. You can be in the top 10% for production, which is nice. But I want to be in the top 10% for net income. There are a lot of people out there producing $1 million a year, yet they're dragging home $180,000 or $200,000 a year because their overhead is 80%, 85%. It’s not uncommon that we’re running into dentists that have overhead pushing 85%. And, boy, I'll tell you what, dentistry is really hard work. And if you're working that hard only to be making $0.15 or $0.20 on the dollar, then there are things that have to change.” (4:49—5:22)

“There are a lot of foundational skills that we weren't really taught in dental school that we need to learn if we want to put ourselves in that top 10%.” (6:16—6:25)

“Dental school, it’s a hard process. It’s difficult. But it really only prepares us to be minimally competent. Dental school prepares you to pass a board examination, which is an examination of minimal competency: can you do an MO on tooth number 12? Can you scale and root plane? Can you set some denture teeth? Can you do an endo access on a fake tooth? Can you do a crown prep on a single tooth? That's what it prepares us for. And then, when we get out in the real world, the challenges that we face are far beyond bacteria.” (7:28—8:01)

“When you think about it, in the world, who makes the most money? Who are the most successful people, if we want to look at money? It’s people that can solve the biggest problems. And what we want to do is we want to be able to set you up to become a problem-solver within your community. When somebody has a problem that's beyond normal and ordinary, we want you to be the go-to dentist in that community, and those people will start coming to you. But there's a lot that you need to learn to become that problem-solver. And if you commit yourself to that journey, the money is going to start beating down your door. And the next thing you know, you're going to have to see less patients. You can work less days. Your production per hour is going to start to go up. And dentistry is going to start to become fun again.” (8:34—9:16)

“A lack of predictability, I predict that you're going to have a very rough road ahead of you. You're not going to enjoy dentistry as much as you could. Because when it’s predictable, also, not only is it profitable, but that's how your patients are happy. And when your patients are happy, they start going out in the community and start talking, and you build your reputation that way.” (9:46—10:07)

“To be a very effective dentist, you need to stop being a tooth mechanic and you need to start being a physician of the masticatory system. And so, what you need to understand is you need to gain the perspective that teeth are functioning...