A Completely Different Perspective on How to Enjoy Dentistry

Episode #320 with Dr. Kevin Kross

There is no real secret to enjoying dentistry, but there are ways to make it more pleasant for you, your staff, and your patients. To share some of those tips, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Kevin Kross to help you enjoy more of your time at the office. His first tip: don't take things quite so seriously! Break the ice with new patients and spend time getting to know them. Most patients want to know about you and how you can help them, not the technical details of their teeth. For more of Dr. Kross’ tips and advice, listen to Episode 320 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Take CE courses to learn what they don't teach you in dental school.

Be open-minded toward different teaching philosophies.

Show gratitude, especially towards your team.

You don't need to work full-time!

Be very intentional with your time.

Figure out what you truly love about practicing dentistry and target that.

Don't take things quite so seriously.

Quotes:

“I tell [students and mentees] all the time, ‘Listen, just don't take it quite so seriously.’ I think we get trained to, you know, everything is the end of the world. And early, early in my profession, I might’ve even been a dental student, when somebody told me, they kind of shrugged and said, ‘Well, at least it’s not brain surgery, right? We’re working on teeth here. But more importantly, we’re working on people. And they just want you to be honest. They want you to be straight up with them.’ It’s so rare, at least where we practice, that they want to know about their teeth. They want to know about you. They want to know how you can help them.” (08:09—08:42)

“Get to know the patient. Find out what they're after, why they're even in the chair today, and what makes them tick. And just that level of communication, I think it — I hope — it displays that I'm interested in them first. Dentists can kind of get a bad reputation, I think, a lot of times, from telling them about what's wrong with them, ‘The patient wants to know what's wrong with them first.’ It’s like, don't do that. We’re all great diagnosticians, to some degree, and I think it’s just easier to get to know them on a personal level first.” (08:46—09:22)

“There is no secret [to enjoying dentistry]. That's for sure. If I had to pick one word, it’s gratitude. And I've had some employees we had to get rid of. But I think we all have team members that didn't work the way you wanted to, and that kind of thing. But if you show gratitude towards a staff member, a team member, it’s not about the money so much with them. My thing is, I want to have the highest paid team around. But I think, more importantly, I want them all to always feel like they're effective at work. And I think that's really what we all want, right?” (10:16—10:58)

“If you want to run a truly comprehensive practice, learn the stuff that they don't teach you in dental school. And you have to do it all-in. You can't tiptoe around this, and do a little of that, but then go back. You just have to dive in and trust the multitudes of people that have done it that way and developed really, really good practices because of it.” (17:03—17:28)

“I think one thing that we maybe fail at in getting across to students is, yes, we can teach you how to do this. Yes, we can give you the protocols and all of the information and knowledge to really, really help patients far and wide. But you do have to figure out the way to implement that in a practice. It isn't going to be for every single patient that walks through your door. And that's okay.” (22:09—22:39)

“For me, it took three to five years of really sitting down and focusing on a certain patient’s problem and just helping them understand it. It doesn't