Tiff and Dana discuss the numerous innovations happening in the field of pediatric dentistry, specifically minimally invasive care and maximizing shortened attention spans.

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Transcript:

Tiffanie (00:02.2)

Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be back here with you. If you listened to an earlier podcast, I alluded to the fact that Dana and I were going to have some fun with a really cool podcast. I'm excited for this one. I think it took a little bit for us to prep for this one, but I think that's the world of dentistry for us. Dana, thank you for spending so much time with me this afternoon busting out a few podcasts here for the...

 

For the listeners, how are you this lovely afternoon?

 

Dana (00:33.698)

Doing good, doing good. I'm excited to be here. I've had to reframe my podcast time to Tiff time because it helps really get me pumped up and excited for it.

 

Tiffanie (00:39.768)

I'll make it.

 

Tiffanie (00:44.986)

I appreciate that. I love that so much. It is our time together. Kristy started saying the same thing too. And, I love getting you guys on here and I can't wait to get some with Trish and all the other consultants that, that we have. think it's just so valuable for us to get the time together, share ideas. Cause you know, we have, we have our consultant co-labs, but this seems to be where the most ideas just like randomly spur out. Cause it's almost like we're coaching.

 

when we talk about these things. So you're welcome to the world. Thank you to the world for joining us for our consultant time. It's my Dana time, my Britt time, my Kristy time. So thank you, Dana. I appreciate it. Today, I thought it would be fun. And I want to caveat this before I truly talk about what we're talking about. This is for everyone. We want to focus today on pediatric dentistry innovations. But

 

I really think that there's some valuable tips and tricks in here for everyone and not just pediatric practices. I know a lot of GP practices see many children. I know a lot of pediatric practices that refuse GP referrals, which I think is really funny. And I totally understand because when I was in my GP practice, it was like we would take kids, but the worst kids we did not. And so I totally get it. It just makes me chuckle every time.

 

Regardless, my oral surgery practices, you guys are seeing kiddos and by kiddos, mean like realistically 16 and under is what we're talking about here today. I know my my periopractices, sometimes you guys are seeing them too. My son plays lacrosse and gosh dang those teeth. just cringe every time something happens, mouth guard or not. I have seen, I don't know how many mouth guards fly across the field and they have stopped play because it's thank God. I thank God for this for these.

 

rules and regulations, but it's part of the uniform. And so if they're missing, if they if if the ref see it fly out of their mouth, they'll call the bell stop the game so they can go get it. But I'm like, you got hit so hard your mouth guard blew out. Anyway, it's periodontist. I know you're seeing kiddos too. So everyone's seeing kiddos. And today it's just pediatric dentistry innovations and

 

Tiffanie (02:57.342)

I think, Dana, you said it well just before we got on here. There's not a lot of exciting new things for pediatric dentistry or realistically right now for dentistry in general. We've kind of hit the space of, we're gonna try this stuff out for a little while. So I agree with you there, but I think we've come up with some really good things and tested and seen some amazing things that are working for the generations of kids that we have right now.

 

we were talking attention spans. So I know that that will come into play with some of the stuff we're speaking on today, but really, really honing in on, I think it's, again, it's going to come back to like that trust and that value and making sure that emotionally we're, we're emotionally evoking things for our patients, whether they're adults or children, so that they're comfortable, they're confident, they trust us and they want to return. For the kiddos, I get really emotional and

 

I just love on the pediatric practices. I myself could never work in a pediatric practice full time. There's no way. I don't have the patience for it, but man, do I value and appreciate the work that all of you guys are doing and Dana, that you were able, that you've done and are continuing to do in your efforts as well. Because to me, I've done mostly GP and oral surgery.

 

And I really had so many patients. I've met so many people that are so afraid of the dentist because they had a horrible experience as a child or because they had a parent who had a bad experience as a child that passed it on to them. Those were the worst for me, but I just value and appreciate the amazing pediatric practices who are out there doing amazing work and creating lasting.

 

impressions for people because you've really set them up for success in so many different places. So whether you're a GP, a specialty, a pediatric specialty, no matter what a lot of these pieces we're going to talk about today are really going to help you set the stage and the tone for these people's lives. And Dana, you've done pediatric dentistry. Thank you. Praise to you. I just, you know, I love kids, but this

 

Tiffanie (05:13.536)

I just don't have it in me and I know that about me. I can consult them and I can spend a day and a half in office with them and love on those kids while I'm there and then I'm exhausted and need to go home. So I love it. Thank you, Dana for being there. Dana, I actually I really loved some of the things you were talking about, like the continuation of products and services and stuff that we're already utilizing. think GP and pediatric offices are using a lot of those. Tell me

 

here with everyone listening a little bit about some of those pieces that you used and that you're seeing still lot of your pediatric practices are using and what have you seen just continue to innovate in the world of that.

 

Dana (05:53.472)

Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that pediatric practices are always looking at ways to innovate is minimally invasive care. So how can I get this kiddo treatment that they need improve what they came here with in a way that is as minimally as invasive as possible because of exactly what you said. think pediatric practices beyond yes, all practices have to work on experience pediatric practices are unique and they've got a parent experience and a patient experience and oftentimes the patient experience impacts the parents.

 

experience, as I can tell you my mom heart, just for my mom heart too. So I feel like they have worked really, really hard in trying to find ways to treat kiddos as minimally as they can, right? And but yet still getting some really great results. So they have found a lot of things, you know, we're even starting to see a little bit of like, you know, non injection.

 

Tiffanie (06:26.552)

Yeah.

 

Dana (06:49.088)

anesthetizing and things like that that really really, know, SDF has made huge leaps and bounds. There's Cura.now for... What's the word I'm looking for, Tiff?

 

Tiffanie (07:01.784)

Keep going.

 

Dana (07:02.7)

Yeah, and so there's just all sorts of ways that we treat kiddos now that like didn't exist before and that is truly because we're looking at ways to treat them that helps create that positive experience and doesn't put them fearful in the dental chair.

 

Tiffanie (07:16.492)

Yeah, well, even Dana, I'm thinking too, even fluoride has come world so that they're not swallowing it or it's not as toxic, I guess is the best word to use there, or difficult because remember it used to, gosh, I remember the trays, right? I remember trying to shove those trays in kids' mouths in my office and I'm like, this does not fit. The doctor's like, no, it's supposed to be too big and it's just like fluoride foam is everywhere. So thank heavens those are.

 

hopefully a thing of the past. But even in the world of fluoride for kiddos, like what have you seen in that world, Dana, that has transpired over the course of last few years?

 

Dana (07:57.036)

Yeah, I think, you know, obviously the big switch to the varnish, think to like, I mean, I've even seen some pediatric offices, like I had a pediatric dentist and she basically like reached out to all the pediatricians in the area and was like, fluoride these kiddos as early as possible. I'll teach you how I'll so it's just expanding like the reach on that too has been incredible. And I think just the education to the parent because kiddos, you know,

 

they expose themselves to a lot of acidic things now. Diets have changed a lot over recent years and things in our food have changed a ton. And so as much as they can also just educate the parent on those choices and like, hey, we can kind of counteract some of those choices with Laura. really want to...

 

do a ton of nutritional counseling happens in pediatric practices too, but it just kind of reinforces the need for as we see these things change, we've got to make sure that kiddos get access to that too.

 

Tiffanie (09:05.462)

Yeah, and I think that's space of innovation as well that you just mentioned, the nutritional counseling. That's not something that's always been there. It's been there to a level, right? We know like soda, and I remember telling kids or being told to swish with water after I ate my lunch at school because I wasn't going to carry my toothbrush, you're supposed to brush. Like I remember all of those pieces. But I think in the recent years, nutrition, I think nutritional counseling in general, in the health industry has become bigger.

 

situation. It's become a bigger conversation and I know even standing in office with my pediatric

 

practices, consulting them, watching them work with patients. I've been just amazed at the level of nutritional counseling that they're giving the kids and the parents. And like you said, we're working with the parents. It's two experiences there, but really honing in on what are you eating and how it's affecting. And I think one of the biggest spaces that I love the most, is really being able to see like...

 

acid reflux, right, for one thing, but even just like the tongue thrusting, the different habits that they're able to see because of what the mouth looks like, and then they're able to correct it so early on and really build lasting changes. They can tell just by different visual things within the mouth, right? If there's gut issues, does your kid have an allergy? Like, maybe you should go check this out. And they're referring them back to their

 

there are pediatricians to get nutritional counseling or to get these tests and things done, or there's a lot of them that can be done in dental practices now as well, but really honing in and looking further than we've ever looked before to ensure that these patients are as healthy as possible. And I think that's massive. That's a huge innovation within the pediatric world. And I think it's a really easy space for dentists and...

 

Tiffanie (10:58.924)

for pediatric dentists specifically to really get extra training in. It's offered, you know, everywhere. I've got, you know, we've got gym.

 

trainers doing stuff like that, taking courses like that. So to be able to have your degree that you've got, your doctorate that you've got, and then add that aspect to it is just really, really freaking cool, in my opinion, and saves so much time and trouble and probably saves the parents a lot of time and trouble in figuring things out or finding out too late. So that was a huge one that you mentioned there. I think one space

 

One, I love that you highlighted again that it's two experiences. It's the parent's experience and it's the patient's experience. And when I work with pediatric practices, like we're building out avatars to attract the parents that we want because they're gonna have the kids that we want. So we're not talking to the kids, they're not making the decision, we're speaking to the parents.

 

One thing that I hone in on is the avatar, but then the second step to that is how do we ensure that the parent wants to come back? How are we making them comfortable in the practice? How do we make them comfortable with the diagnosis, the conversations? How are we integrating them into all of this as well? And making sure, like you said, my mom at heart, that the patients are well cared for.

 

one space we're hitting with the generations, you know, the generations are getting further and further from us. But those generations that we're hitting now, there's a huge attention span differential between even our you know, teens right now already have like pretty low attention span compared though to like our

 

Tiffanie (12:40.408)

are four to eight to 10, like that 16, 13 to 16 is like, gosh dang it, this is kind of kind of annoying, you know, but then you get under 13. And it's like, holy cow, I've got about five seconds to grab your attention. And then you're gonna we were saying like, our kids keep saying, I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm like, oh my gosh, did I hear you say I'm bored before we get to the industry one more time, I'm gonna freak out. But their attention spans are so low. They're so small, because there's so much

 

stimulation, constantly going around, that we have to take that into consideration, I think, within the dental practice, because we've got to keep their attention, we've got to keep them excited and interested and build an experience that they don't walk away frustrated by, because the parents are taking into consideration their experience. Like, did you have coffee on hand? That's a huge one for the moms out there.

 

And then did the kid have a good experience? So I think those aspects are massive. And Dana, what did you, we talked earlier and you actually wrote this newsletter. So if you're getting this newsletter, good job, Dana wrote this one. If you're not getting our newsletters, you should go subscribe because they're pretty freaking awesome.

 

and they're written by the consultants if you didn't catch that there. So Dana, what are you suggesting the practices are seeing practices? I think this works for all practices, by the way, these ideas here, but specifically pediatric dentistry is going to thrive with it. What are you suggesting right now to a lot of your clients that they integrate and innovate within their practice to help keep those attention spans? like here, that they're excited and interested?

 

Dana (14:14.38)

Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's like a twofold. How do I keep them engaged and interested and excited and make dentistry fun? But then also, how do I kind of distract them so that I can do what I need to do in that short amount of time so that they stay comfortable and calm? And so I feel like we're looking kind of at a bunch of different tools. see, you know, I know there's lots of

 

TVs on the ceilings and and I'm even seeing some virtual reality. You know, kids are always like loving those oculus as I have a nephew that he's constantly like banging into the wall and you hear him on phone calls and I'm like, what's he doing? My sister was like, that's his oculus, his virtual reality game. And so it does allow you to kind of transport kiddos into the next world. So I think that it's, it's just coming up with how can we make dentistry fun? How can we make it engaging and make the patient feel like they're a part of the process? So these

 

Tiffanie (14:42.808)

Yeah.

 

Dana (15:08.494)

things that we use in general too but taking photos and showing them and talking about the icky bugs and like making it fun and in their terms and then also having tools on hand to be able to distract the kiddos that you can really do what you need to do very quickly very easily without minimal hands and minimal squirming so that again it creates that experience that you want them to have quick seamless easy in and out for them.

 

Tiffanie (15:33.344)

Yeah, yeah, the headphones are massive, right? I think the Oculus for the waiting room is brilliant. I know I've got to practice.

 

beautiful practice and she has a theater room and so they she's got like comfy chairs in there and that's dark and the movies going it's the same movie that's playing in the back and so the kids can go into the theater room but that oculus idea or the VR headsets whichever one you you choose is a great idea to have a little room where it's obviously the kids by themselves for

 

exactly what Dana said about her nephew, right? Kids are by themselves, but they're playing with that. used to do, I mean, gosh, this is so long ago, but I remember we used to have like a PlayStation one, you know, and it honestly drove me crazy. told you kids are not, I love kids, but.

 

Dana (16:06.446)

you

 

Tiffanie (16:20.728)

kids are not my jam for dentistry, but I would go crazy because it was the PlayStation one. So we had to flip the discs out, right? And so we had like 10 different games, but I had to keep them behind the counter and the kids would come up. But this is a little bit different where one, the kids know how to use this stuff. When we had the PlayStation, the kids did not know how to use a PlayStation. Kids were not like, they didn't understand it and they didn't get it. But now they're teaching us how to use this stuff. Like a six and eight year old could tell you how to use a VR headset.

 

My kid, he looks at something and he just knows. And I'm like, how did you figure that out? He's like, it's obvious. It's not obvious. I didn't get it. Right? Like, that was not obvious, but it's fine. So all these

 

these spaces of really making sure that they are super entertained. Like are we making them sit out there on their own phones or do we have things that they can do? Even as simple as like a coloring table. I know I had my boyfriend's kids the other day were walking through. It was old Navy and they were doing some sort of safety something. They had a table set up over the side with crayons and

 

coloring sheets, those kids flipped. They were so excited, screaming. It lasted about 10 seconds, right? Because it's going to be over quickly. But even just having something like that or having iPads with the color by number app, kids are obsessed with that right now. But making sure there's some sort of, like you said, that distraction, but also in the waiting area, like where are they sitting? And what are you making the parents do? You know, the parents are sitting in their school on their Instagram. So how are you keeping the kids entertained so that both parents or both

 

sides right are enjoying their time. So I love the VR headset. I love the the movies are still a pretty decent hit as long as you get bluey on there or something. I know it's got to be super relative. Apparently, the Disney movies are not super relative anymore. It's got to be bluey or bust.

 

Tiffanie (18:10.552)

But making sure we have those, think headsets in the back are really fantastic if they're going to be back there for a while. Or if you're going to be using the drill or anything like that, mean noise, have those noise canceling headphones so that they don't understand what's going on. And then one space too, Dana, that I think all practices are starting to implement. And I think it's brilliant for pediatric care because it makes it seamless and easy as the AI tools. So making sure you've got those AI tools, Pearl or

 

whatever it is that you decide to utilize, download it and working because I mean, Dana, how often did you see, I know just in our practice we'd be like, shoot, like that was hard to see or we just couldn't get to it that something could have been missed, but also like you said, super non-invasive attempts.

 

Dana (18:58.966)

Yeah, yeah, I think AI tools are great clinical AI tools are fantastic as far as helping us diagnose again with like minimal contact within the teeth or in the mouth for the patients. And then even AI for like having a chat for parents because parents right typically work when the office is working. That's why those middle hours are so hard to fill and ding ding pediatric practices, right? So if I've got an AI bot that can chat with my parents after work can get them scheduled can do those things. That makes it so much easier because again, like Tiff said, we've got two experiences

 

here but our target experience is that parent and so the more that we can make those things easy and again pediatric practices rely on volume right so bones are constantly

 

Last time I was in a pediatric practice for a visit I was just like the phone does not separate in there are hundreds of phone calls every single day and so having an AI tool that can get the ones that we miss or that can chat with the parent via text or can be available for after hours those types are crucial for pediatric practices because that is when the parent has free time

 

Tiffanie (20:00.504)

So.

 

Yeah, that's brilliant. That's brilliant. I think that's a wonderful tool. So AI in a lot of different areas. We've got the virtual reality headset, the Oculus or whichever you choose, AI pearl or whatever chair side to get as much value out of that appointment and that chair time as you can. And then also the AI communication tools. think that's brilliant. Virtual assistance is also a great way to handle that because they can work any hours. And so we've got a lot of practices

 

Pediatric or not that are utilizing virtual assistance to catch those after hours and also I know a lot of practices especially pediatric practices are closed on Fridays or they're closed on Mondays open on Friday So you've got that you've got that four-day work week three or four days and so

 

The AI tools, the communication tools or the virtual assistant can grab a lot of those missed opportunity phone calls. And I know from the marketing standpoint, working closely with the marketing company for a few of my clients, that is massive.

 

being able to bring either of those tools in to grab those calls has drastically changed the marketing efforts and increased their results tenfold just because the opportunities were getting missed while we were closed. So I love those and that's brilliant. I think there's a ton of tools here. think kids are digital natives. Kids know what's out there. They know when you're not a digital native. So watch out for that. They will tell you they will call you on it. And if your VR headset is

 

Tiffanie (21:33.07)

is like, I don't know, an Amazon $20 ordered one, they'll tell you. tell you. I'm not saying go spend a ton of money on it. I'm just saying make sure whatever you get is going to keep the attention span of the child and that the games that are on there are quality. I think movies, things like that are fantastic. So my suggestion, my action items for you, really look at the patient experience. Take your dentist cap off.

 

and say if I had to come here, what would I expect if my kid were coming here? What would I expect? And really look at what your systems and all the pieces that are keeping people's attention, what are those things doing to create that experience for your patient and your parent?

 

and really take inventory of those spaces. Is there something that we can innovate on that we can just make it better, make it new? You always want to have that seamless experience and make it high end. And if we stay where we are, never innovate or change, we will eventually just die. So don't let that happen. Dana, thank you so much for your nuggets. Thank you for being our pediatric brain here in The Dental A Team and for sharing those tips and tricks. I appreciate you being here today.

 

Dana (22:49.28)

Yep, I always have fun. Thanks for having me, Tiff.

 

Tiffanie (22:52.062)

Of of course. All right, guys, go take inventory, go figure out what it is that you need to innovate on, if anything, and leave us some comments in the section below. Five star reviews are always appreciated. If you've got tips and tricks that you can share with people, people really do go through and read those reviews. So if you've got some, drop them in those reviews. We want to hear them too. [email protected] is how you can reach us. And if you are a practice who's ready to freaking innovate, let us know. We are here to help you along your journey. Dana, thanks

 

again and everyone we will catch you next time.