Kiera reminds dentists to prioritize wellness and support in their day-to-day.

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Kiera Dent (00:01.006)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy National Dentist Day. I felt like today would be such a great day for us to highlight how we can support dentists on mental health, wellness, and excellence on National Dentist Day because I believe that dentistry can be a lonely profession. I believe that I've seen so many dentists feel alone and isolated like they're on their own island. And so today I just wanted to highlight and celebrate.

 

how much dentists do and also how dentists can help themselves, but also how your team can help support our doctors that do so much for us. So today, you guys, honestly, dentists face unique challenges. And so today I just wanted to have it be a powerful reminder that prioritizing wellness and support in our profession is necessary. It's needed. It's such a lonely profession in so many ways, if we choose. And I don't want us to choose that. I want us to choose a vibrant, a happy, a fulfilling

 

space in dentistry. And that's honestly what Dental A Team is about. We created this podcast to positively impact the world of dentistry. Our mission is to truly impact the world in the greatest way possible. And we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. And so really helping you see that there's two sides to this coin. There's ways that we can see that it's a lonely field and we can also see that it's a very fulfilling field. And so today I just really hope that you take some tips from today. I'll give you three simple steps of how we're able to really take care of ourselves through self-care.

 

through mental health and also team collaboration in dentistry. I'm really a big proponent of mental health, especially in dentistry. And so today I just wanted to walk you through, you guys know the Dental A team, we're here to support you. We have consultants that are truly in every position in the dental practice. We come into your practices. We coach you virtually. We help you. are your advocates in dentistry. We're your advocates in business. We're your advocates for having the life on your terms.

 

Like I've said many times, life is my passion, dentistry is my platform and helping you truly be the fulfilled dentist that you were created to be. I love focusing on you as a person, on your profitability of your practice and then on systems and team development for your practice and really making that be an achievable piece for you. And so today, you guys, I do believe that there is a balance needed between professional success and personal wellness. And I don't believe that it has to be one or the other, it's an and. And so really giving you some quick tips today.

 

Kiera Dent (02:19.418)

of some concise value-packed information that hopefully will be able to help you as we celebrate National Dentist Day. So number one, step one is to prioritize mental health and stress management. And I think the word prioritize in choosing that I am someone who does prioritize mental health and stress management. There've been studies that have been done that show that the workforce used to be one where it was more physical labor and so really taking care of our bodies. And now we've moved into this space where it's a very mental

 

world where so much of it is in the mental cognitive constantly running and it never shuts off. And I believe for dentists you have the mental where it never shuts off, but you also have the physical exhaustion of truly doing dentistry all day long and your bodies and making sure you've got the ergonomics. so being able to have that mental health and stress management where we have some shutoff time, where we do build the muscle of our brain. I remember I was in therapy and I said like, I can go and I can work out, but what can I do for my mind? And that's where we

 

we start to create the, if you will, the workout or the, the mental strength building through meditation and through silence and through some of that downtime shut off to allow ourselves to actually have that calm, have that space. so some key strategies for better mental health are mindfulness and stress relief practices like meditation. I'm a big believer. I read Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. So if you're interested in a book, I love some tacticals for you.

 

That wouldn't really help me see how I could have a miracle morning of meditation, journaling, taking some time for me. And I really would encourage you to schedule 10 minutes a day or even just one minute a day for you to have mindfulness and reflection starting today. Do yourself a favor. It's National Dentist Day. Buy yourself the gift, the gift of time, the gift of mental clarity, the gift of

 

of really taking care and honoring yourself. And for me, I was able to do a shift of, like to honor my body. This incredible body that does so much for me is where my mental health journey started and to relieve the stress. So whatever it is for you, for me, it's hiking, it's being outside. So I love to meditate and I love to go for a morning walk to give my brain a shower. So whatever it is for you, giving yourself the gift, because if we can take care of ourselves, then we're able to give in support to so many others. And so dentists really,

 

Kiera Dent (04:35.662)

being aware that you have the physical demands and you also have the emotional cognitive demands that are on you. And so having that, I also believe sometimes having a therapist can actually be a great thing for you within this mental health and stress management strategy that you create. And then also there's other things of joining communities of like-minded people like you. I believe that really can help and that's something I'm very passionate about. That's why we're bringing our dentists together because so many times as a consultant, I hear hundreds of offices.

 

and they have the same issues and the same concerns just colored in a little bit different way. so bringing our doctors together in person through our masterminds and through our in-person events really is a great way for our doctors to feel the support to say, I'm not alone. And when I hear dentists who have connected say, Kiera, I'm so grateful to know I'm not the only one. I think that can also boost that. So I would encourage you to schedule one minute to 10 minutes of just you time through meditation.

 

through stress relief, we're off the phones, we're off the screens, we're not listening to things, we're not trying to solve the problems of the world, but we just take that moment and reflect starting today. Step two is team members. This is for team members of how you can support your dentist. I do believe that teams, can really support our doctors by champion for them, helping our doctors get out on time, doing things for our doctors so that way we can...

 

Let them have the as much as we can take off their shoulders. So having our room set up and ready to go when doctors come in, so they're not looking for it. Hygienist calibrating. So that way your doctors have consistent exams. So when they walk in, they're able to get in, have a great exam and leave the room. Office managers, what your doctor asks you being really mindful and intentional to take notes and to follow up and to come back to your doctor. So they're not having to have the mental stress of trying to remember all the things they've asked for, but you proactively being on top of that.

 

Also making sure we're hitting our production goals and our profitability goals and our billing and keeping that AR down. I think are some really great ways to help support our doctor. And then also scheduling a schedule that's realistic for that doctor to be able to get through and not have to be superhuman and be in like five rooms at a different time or all at the same time. To me, that feels so unfair for that doctor. We expect so many things from our dentists. so teams, feel really being proactive on how we can help our doctor look to see because

 

Kiera Dent (06:53.912)

Your doctor, as an owner, can tell you, is constantly thinking of ways that they can help make you happier too. And so if we can be a yin and yang team together where we're all looking out for how can we help each other. But those are some quick tips, I think, from doctors and from owners and from CEOs that I've heard that if team members would just rally in those little areas, typically the things that cause the most stress for our doctors are unproductive schedules. working and not making money.

 

not collecting and not having that 98 % collections and then also team morale and problems. And then there's a million other things, but I think those things really are some, some clutch things for teams to support. so teams also, I would encourage you check in with your doctor, especially office managers. You're the one closest ask your doctor, Hey, how are you doing? And what can I do to alleviate stress for you? Because I want to remind you, there's so much weight that none of our teams can see.

 

When I was a team member, didn't realize how much weight was on my doctor and my owner that I couldn't see. so really like seeing that weight that we don't even know and lifting in these little ways, I think can really help. And doctors, going to encourage you to ask for the help. I know we think as CEOs and owners, we're expected to do it all and have all the answers and you're a doctor. And what I will tell you is that's a great way to be lonely, overwhelmed and come unraveled versus there is another alternative that I'd love to offer as a perspective where you can actually have a team that supports you, that trusts you.

 

that rallies around you that wants you to be the best that you can possibly be and really truly creating that type of a culture that allows freedom, allows creativity, that allows fulfillment rather than being completely like smothered by your practice and feeling like you have to do it all. Both are available to you and I might encourage that today you actually choose this path and a great way for this is have a team meeting.

 

to discuss that every ways that our team can lift and maybe say, hey, this could really help me out if you could do X and each of us brings only one thing for one person. So not one person is getting 75 different things, but we're being intentional and cognitive of that. But how can we lift that burden? And a lot of times those burdens aren't even known. And so speaking up and having a team where we're collective with this, because the reality is most of us can take on one little piece that would actually chip away the burden of somebody that's very heavy. And then step three is,

 

Kiera Dent (09:05.73)

I believe committing to lifelong learning and professional growth can also really help and this ties into a community. But finding ways to stay inspired, finding ways to get excited about what you're doing in dentistry rather than the day in day out mundane. And so finding ways where we can have continuous growth, we can find ways to stay engaged. I know for me, I accidentally got to a spot where I got disengaged. I lost the passion. I lost my why. I lost, why am I even doing this? I love what I do, but I'm stagnant.

 

And it was because I wasn't growing, I wasn't evolving. And so go to CE courses, schedule one in that really gets you excited. What do you really want to learn this year? What's kind of a pain point for me this year? It's marketing. And I'm super jazzed, even though it sounds daunting to me, but I'm super excited to learn the ins and outs of marketing, to take on AI courses, to figure out how I can incorporate that into the consulting company and then bring it also to our dental practices. But something that's going to engage me. I really have found that a lot of our doctors and myself included as a CEO,

 

getting in a community or a mastermind group with professionals, like where you can talk to them about these issues, you can be with them. I learned so much in person and that's why Dental A Team has brought in person to the table, to the scenes in 2025. I know when people have little kids or family agreement arrangements, it can be tricky, but I want to just remind you it's about a day and a half, at least that's Dental A Teams. It's a day and a half where you leave the practice, you leave your family.

 

and you go and you energize and you fill your cup. So then you're able to give to all these people so much more. And I think we, oftentimes make it bigger than it really is. It's a day and a half. So I'm giving up three days max of time to fuel my soul. And I think when we remind ourselves that we're worth that, but that's something essential. That's as essential as eating and having oxygen, at least for my soul and for me as a CEO and for a lot of the dentists that I consult and that our team consult, that's the equivalent of oxygen. And so really being able to have that of having a peer group,

 

And then really for yourself, just like, what do you want to evolve and to grow into set one or two of those that really just juices your life and gets you excited. I found that doctors, when they've joined groups, so a lot of our consulting clients, we have about a hundred clients and this year I'm excited. We're definitely going to be bringing on at least 200 and we've done it in a way where it will still feel very intimate, very small because I hate going into groups where I feel like I'm just one of the crowd. so

 

Kiera Dent (11:25.156)

keeping it to where you feel very connected, very tethered, but also being able to expand our reach to more practices and to get more people connected. That's something I'm super jazzed about. And what I found is when dentists come together, when they see each other, when they meet with each other, their happiness goes up, their productivity goes up, their stress goes down, their team engagement goes up, because we don't just do this for doctors. We actually bring your office manager or a leader in person for you, because I found that that was the hardest thing. I go, get all excited about CE,

 

then I have no one to implement with me. And so not having that be the problem for you, but bringing you together. So productivity goes up, happiness goes up, stress goes down, team engagement goes up and ease comes into place and having friends. was like, gosh, it's like six wins right there. Just by being a part of something professional that stimulates you have a community of like-minded people for you. So like I said, three ways to do it are one, prioritize your mental health and set aside time to meditate, to do something for your mental wellness and stress management.

 

Number two is have a team that supports you and surrounds you and make sure that you are supported as a dentist and also dentists, you're asking for that help, not just burying yourself. And number three is having a support group and CE that energizes you and jazzes you and makes you so excited to continue and to be engaged are three great ways for you to be able to celebrate your mental health, your wellness and your fulfillment. This is truly the zone where you're gonna be able to have long-term success. We're not playing for the short game.

 

We're playing for the long game. We're playing for you to be fulfilled and happy for long-term success. And so I want you guys to know that I'm here. DM me, ask for help, reach out. If you want to come join us in person, I'd love to have you. These are some things that we can do. I'm happy to share with you my favorite meditation that I do, whatever I can do. So DM me for any tips. The Dental A Team, we're on Instagram, we're on all the platforms, we're on LinkedIn. You can message me directly.

 

And then also subscribe for more Leadership Insights where we celebrate you. We help you be a successful, thriving dentist and team. And if this can be a support for you, if you need one-on-one help or you're like, it would really help if I just had a coach in my corner, reach out. [email protected] This is what we do. This is what we're experts at. And this is our passion. It's your success is our passion. And that's what we're here for. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

Tiff and Kristy explain how viewing claims as stories can improve how practices can streamline that process. They touch on doctor-led language to use from start to finish, how artificial intelligence can improve the process, safety protocols to implement, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.881)

Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here with you today. I have the one and only this Kristy back on the podcast today. She has done at least one other podcast with me so far. Kristy is a consultant here on our team. If you have not gotten the chance to meet her yet, please hop on over to our social or hangouts. We've got our

 

Doctor Collab that we do every single month and our doctor and team kind of round table get together that she's at every single week. So if you're a current client, you know where to find her. I hope that you've had the chance to meet her. If you are a listener and not yet a client and you haven't met Kristy yet, Kristy, welcome. We are just so excited to have you here. And I know I probably don't say this enough, but I'm just so happy to have you on the team and Dental A Team is so happy and so proud.

 

to welcome you into our team and our family. You've been here now for, it feels like forever, like you started with us seven, eight years ago, but you've been here now for, gosh, I'll go on your fourth month and I'm so excited. You've got so many amazing things under your belt and your wealth of knowledge is massive. So, Kristy, how are you today? Thank you for being here, but how are you doing? You're pumped?

 

Kristy (00:57.848)

Thank

 

Kristy (01:15.502)

Yes, Mary Pump. It's a subject that is near and dear and and help benefit doctors and teams. So I'm excited to be here. Thank you.

 

The Dental A Team (01:25.134)

Good, you're welcome, you're welcome. And I do kind of try to make sure that when I do pick the topics that we're going to talk about and who's going to talk about them with me, I do kind of choose based on your passion because I know all of us can do most of the things. Like all of us have been around a block of time or two, but I know we all each have our individual passions set aside of things that really, really drive us or areas where

 

You've seen incredible massive results and Kristy, this one today, I actually think you've seen massive results on a client already that you've been working one-on-one with when it comes to this subject matter. So I think it's really cool. Thank you for being here with us. Doctors who are joining us today and team members alike, I'm really excited for this one. Our main goal at Dental A Team is to produce results for you. We want you to have a thriving.

 

Wonderful practice and business that supports a lifestyle that you want to live. So our goal is always to increase profitability, increase joy and happiness, and make sure that your business is supporting that life and it's working for you, not you always looking for your business. So our subject matter today, I want you guys, doctors, and then team members who are listening to it that maybe your doctor sent it to you or hasn't listened to it yet. Make sure that you guys actually truly do listen to this one. The title.

 

is going to be, it's going to say something, I don't know yet around optimizing claim results. And I don't want it to just get shuffled over to your team because docs were actually speaking to you guys today. Team members can pick up the bits and pieces as well, because I think you are going to be able to do that in tandem. But docs, these are areas actually where you can help hold some accountability lines and where you can help provide a ton of value and information back into optimizing your claims for the best results. The reason that we talk about this, reason it's so important

 

is because, gosh, a lot of your money's actually tied up in claims processing. Even if you're a fee-for-service practice, if you're sending claims on behalf of the client, on behalf of the patients, by any means, you're getting a lot of money wrapped up and tied into the claims. And then you've got a whole human, a whole body, who's wrapped up in not only sending those claims and like doing their best to get as much money as they can in as possible, but they're also spending a lot of time on the phone with insurance companies.

 

The Dental A Team (03:48.763)

with the claims departments trying to get that money into the practice. So if we can streamline a lot of those places and spaces and just get that money returned as soon as that claim's received, I think it just helps to reduce a lot of the overload, reduce a lot of the work and overhead in a lot of spaces. So today is all about how you guys, doctors, and your back office support team can help optimize those claims.

 

so that your billing department can just shoot them off easy peasy style. And then also kind of like some futuristic talk on some things that we see coming down the pipeline. So Kristy, I mentioned that you've already got a couple of practices really, actually, I've seen quite a few of your practices already, working on streamlining their claims processes. A lot of doctors who are learning how to do the claims themselves just so that they can help their team and support their team. And I think it's brilliant actually because those doctors now see it from a different angle.

 

So it's kind of like, yeah, they do need that thing. Like that thing that I'm like, it's fine, dental assistant that we didn't get it, it's okay. Now their brains are like, no, actually we do need it in order to get paid. So I think it's brilliant that you have a lot of them doing that. But with that said, Kristy, what are some key spaces that you really had your current doctors now or doctors you've worked with in the past and doctors you will work with in the future? Where do you have them really focusing a lot of energy on?

 

to ensure that those claims processes are optimized and can just be sent out really easily.

 

Kristy (05:17.644)

Yeah, honestly, Tiff, I believe it's in the tools, you know. A lot of it is our x-rays, intra-oral pictures, and even clinical notes, if you will. And we can dive deeper into each of those, but definitely utilizing the tools and making the most of each of them. Really, that claim has to tell a story, right? And it tells a story of what happened from start to finish with the patient.

 

The Dental A Team (05:48.273)

Yeah, I love that. And I love that you mentioned those pieces. And I think specifically, like, we'll dive into the x-rays because I think that one's pretty common. We've been doing that for a long time, but then I to take a lot more time on a couple of the other pieces that are in tandem there. But on the x-rays, I've been a dental assistant, right? And I've been like, it's OK. It's fine. Or like, dang it, doctor. Like, do I really have to retake that x-ray? Because like, I've taken 16 already on this patient. So what is it that they're looking for?

 

Kristy (05:50.446)

you

 

The Dental A Team (06:17.318)

on the x-ray that you can help key in. So when a doctor walks in and sees that x-ray, if it doesn't have these parameters or if it's, you know, cut over here, like what should they have set in place where even the dental assistant or hygienist knows, actually that's a retake, like I need to retake that. What are those spaces that most of the time, if a claim's lucky enough to get to the doctor auditor, what are they looking for specifically that you know of on those x-rays?

 

Kristy (06:43.596)

Yeah, obviously depending on what procedure we're doing, again, the x-ray has to tell a story, right? So if for some reason we're doing a crown and you cut off the clinical portion of the crown, that x-ray probably isn't gonna work. So a lot of people think, we need a PPA for a crown and they're getting the apex of the tooth when really we need to see that clinical portion of the crown. But again, it's a two dimensional

 

The Dental A Team (07:10.782)

Yeah.

 

Kristy (07:13.52)

right? So if that x-ray isn't showing the fracture or the break, we have to use our other tools or pull them into it. But specifically for the x-rays, thinking is this capturing what I'm seeing visually in the mouth as well, right?

 

The Dental A Team (07:29.501)

Yeah, yeah, that's brilliant. I love that you said that's got to have the crown if you're doing the crown, you got to the crown of the tooth, you got to have the top there. So because I know sometimes they do get cut, right, we'll get the apex really well. And then we're like, okay, but I've got two x-rays, if you smash them together, I've got both of the pieces. It's like maybe sometimes, or a bite wing. But also, I think, and I've done this a time like with your premolars, right, if you don't have it just right, then you're, you're not getting just the individual tooth right now, I've got overlap.

 

So then it's kind of hard to, especially I know for me when I was a dental assistant, I would overlap a lot, right? In the beginning, especially, but I'd be like, come on. And the doctor's like, okay, but it's an open margin on the current crown. And I can't see that. I can visually in the mouth, but on the x-ray, I can't see the ledge because there's an overlap. So making sure too, I think for going backwards a little even, maybe even at diagnosis, that makes me think like, when you diagnose it,

 

making sure you're putting the reason for the diagnosis in your notes so that when you go back to it, that patient now comes back in for that treatment. Even the dental assistant, if that's today you're taking the x-ray, right, can look at why are we doing this? I would love for the dental assistant and the support team to know why we're doing things, no matter what. So why are we doing this? Because even at that point, she or he can look at that x-ray and be like, okay, does that make sense in conjunction?

 

Does this x-ray make sense and work in conjunction with the reason that I read for that? So making sure maybe even from a doctor's standpoint that we're always vocalizing it and then it's getting in those clinical notes at diagnosis. And then we're teaching and training our team to utilize those pieces just as much as they do. What's your thought on that? And then I think that kind of slides into then also intraoral photos.

 

Always, if you can do an x-ray and an intraoral photo, I think the insurance companies are like, great, you just made my job easy. Now I've got everything and it's quick to pass it in as a paid claim. What are your thoughts on those pieces?

 

Kristy (09:30.22)

Yeah, I think there's two things there, Tip. You pretty much mentioned an app diagnosis, and that's a huge proponent of this because many times we're not doing that treatment same day. And from a time standpoint, right, we don't want doctor to have to come back in and re-diagnose it because we've put the picture up there and he can't even see why we're doing it, right? So again, that x-ray needs to show a story. And if it doesn't, then to piggyback on what you said, let's make

 

The Dental A Team (09:52.093)

Thank you.

 

Kristy (10:00.154)

sure we're using our intraoral pictures to take a picture if it's not showing the abfraction or you know the broken tooth or just the reason why we're doing it because again from a claim standpoint we're at we're sending that in and asking them to pay on something for treatment that we've done and if they can't see it because they don't have the pleasure of having a patient sit in front of them right so making sure we're utilizing that but

 

The Dental A Team (10:24.004)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Kristy (10:30.134)

like I said from a time standpoint making sure that clinical note says why are we doing this and be specific you know not just that there's a crack in the tooth but maybe it's a distal buckle fracture running across the floor of the tooth or you know be very specific so they don't have to go back and re-diagnose at time of treatment as well.

 

The Dental A Team (10:42.992)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (10:53.535)

I agree. think you encompassed all of those pieces there. The x-ray that needs to show the pieces, the intra-oral photos, but then also the clinical notes, the pre-clinical notes for sure, right? The clinical notes at the exam date, but then also you kind of mentioned like, where is it? So even if it's on the, even if it is in the exam notes, it needs to come back again and follow through to the clinical notes on the day the treatment was done. Because now what I'm thinking, if I'm doing these pieces, right? I'm thinking, okay, what's the person like,

 

behind me, the next person that has to have a touch point on this patient's case, what are they going to need in order to do their jobs the best? And my billing coordinator was always like, I just need more information. I need better descriptors or better adjectives even, making sure, like you said, we're really encompassing where that fracture is, maybe how big it is. I know there's a lot of buildups out there that are done because keywords, 75 % or more of the tooth structure has been lost.

 

you've lost three out of four cusps, you've lost like how much of that tooth is missing, how much of the tooth was replaced. Those pieces actually do, I think, tend to make a difference and those pieces come from your clinical side. So your doctor's vocalizing those pieces and oftentimes docs, you are vocalizing those pieces, but it's not always getting translated into the notes. So making sure you're training your team on how important that is because now your billing coordinator can go in and just copy and paste that clinical note.

 

they're not a clinician. They shouldn't be writing their own stories, right? They shouldn't be trying to depict their own story from piecing all these things together. They should be able to go to your clinical notes, copy what it says, and paste it for the doctor who's going to be looking at it on claim state. My opinion or my concern, right, would be if there's not enough easy data to read, to see, to just say an easy yes, I think it's an easy no. And so I think

 

We have to assume, right, that insurance companies are, we know everyone's out, every business is there to make a profit. Insurance companies are not different than that. So for them to say yes, absolutely, to every single claim, like, that's just not, it's never going to happen in the world we live in today. So to assume that they want to say no, you've got to convince them to say yes. I think that kind of a mindset, Kristy, keeps you in the space

 

The Dental A Team (13:20.065)

on the clinical side of how do I convince someone who's not sitting here in my chair with my eyes seeing this patient right now, how do I convince them out of no to say, yes, this patient needed that? How do you, how do you feel about that kind of mindset? And have you seen that with doctors? Like how does a doctor, from your standpoint, you do fantastic at mindset and, leadership and training. How would you help a doctor kind of sit in that kind of a mindset?

 

is it's very easy to be like, I hate insurance companies, I'm not doing this. It's so easy to get to that space of like, I'm over it, I'm not doing this anymore, but how do we keep them in that space of no, I'm actually here to convince them that it's a yes.

 

Kristy (14:01.408)

Yeah, I think part of it is just really taking the time to see it from their standpoint, right? And making sure, I mean, just in anything we want to know that

 

The Dental A Team (14:08.58)

Thank

 

Kristy (14:16.14)

we're doing the right thing, right? So as long as we're coming in it with that mindset that there is without a shadow of a doubt, again, even a doctor going from the diagnostic phase to having the treatment, right? How many times have we seen a doctor come back in and go, now, why did we treat a plant of crown on this too? Right? So if we have that doubt, because we don't have that narrative, why would the insurance company not have that same doubt, right? So just flipping

 

The Dental A Team (14:31.15)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (14:45.218)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Kristy (14:46.164)

that script to go, I know our doctors are doing good care and doing what's right for the patient, we just need that data to support what we're doing. So easily coming from that perspective, it usually flips the doctors, you know, to thinking. Yeah, thinking the other way. So.

 

The Dental A Team (15:03.502)

mindset. Yeah, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. And I think that helps too then to think, okay, well, what x-rays, you know, what x-rays do I need? And what intra-orals? If I couldn't see this patient's mouth today, what pictures would I potentially need in order to confirm or deny that yes, I do in fact need to do this treatment? So if I, I might think if I'm a, if I'm a doctor clinician, I might think, okay, if I go back two weeks ago,

 

look through the diagnosis that I did, could I say yes or no, like support these diagnoses based on the data that I have at hand. And that I think kind of helps flip that script too. And realistically, think regardless, it's probably just good common practice to have a lot of that stuff on hand anyway, because it's not just the dental insurance. There's other board cases and things like that that

 

You really do. Having the stuff behind you is just a safety protocol. And while it might take a couple extra seconds, like chair time and while the patient's in there, I think it saves potentially a really long, rigorous amount of time later on both aspects. Fighting for a claim to get paid and then prepping for something unthinkable. You guys, we always have to think of worst-case scenario. How do I get prepped for that? Because if we're not prepped for it it happens, well, shoot.

 

I've seen it happen, right? And I'm like, girl, I don't know, my hands are tied. But I think that kind of mindset you're describing really would go hand in hand and just be a safety protocol for a practice. So making sure we've got all of those. And I know, gosh, a long time ago, because I was in practice taking x-rays at this time, which was feels like a whole lifetime ago at this point, but they really started requiring even in our PAs and intraorals for anterior fillings, which at that point,

 

I was like, throw the claims in the air, I'm over this. That's ridiculous. But when we started taking, we started implementing them in the practice, taking those PAs once a year, we found decay that we didn't find before. We were like, well, shoot, this is why things like that happen. So x-rays like apex and crown of the tooth for sure, but also making sure like even if it's just fillings, you've got the data to back it up. Intraorals, I think always.

 

Kristy (16:59.918)

You

 

The Dental A Team (17:24.102)

I just love interaurals for everything, and I think a lot of people take the extra aural photos now too, which are insanely helpful, especially for the like, bruxism and the wear, things like that. But then you mentioned also the clinical notes, making sure those clinical notes are really dialed in and they say what you need it to say in a clinical way. Your clinical notes don't have to be readable by layman's term, right? They need to be, they need to work for doctor's terms. They need to work for your terms. So making sure those pieces are there.

 

Before we just stick to those three, before we got started today, you actually even mentioned like AI. And I think AI is just like this crazy thing that's just, I mean, the amount of like emails that my boyfriend has written with his AI tool that have gotten him way past like the point of, you know, like he thought this was never going to be resolved. And then he's got email held, like it's been insane. So I'm so excited. And I know the world is excited for all this AI stuff to come in.

 

Kristy (18:04.718)

Thank

 

The Dental A Team (18:24.369)

But I'm excited to see how it really truly benefits the patient. And so Kristy, just ideas out there, like how do you think these AI pieces, Pearl and all of these companies and even just writing narratives, but how do you feel like that's gonna play a role in optimizing the claims and really helping practices get that, get them cleaned up faster?

 

Kristy (18:44.076)

Yeah, I'm going to take one step back and then go forward on AI, but because you did such a good job on the intraoral pictures too, I want to also make a comment here about that too. It's not just in the doctor's realm, but also in the hygiene realm too. Like when hygiene is doing perio measurements, right? And they're diagnosing for perio, snap an intraoral picture of that bleeding. That picture will go

 

The Dental A Team (19:01.232)

Mm-hmm. That's it.

 

The Dental A Team (19:12.589)

Yeah.

 

Kristy (19:14.01)

long way when you're doing your perio services. But with that being said, that also ties to the AI because what I'm seeing with AI is the offices that have it, they are not getting the rejected claims because the AI is so consistent in measuring the amount of tooth structure, right? The amount of decay, the bone levels. And so it just, it doesn't lie.

 

The Dental A Team (19:28.637)

Yeah.

 

Kristy (19:42.702)

It is consistent and there's no bias within the AI. So truly, I have yet to find a claim that has been sent to insurance that has x-rays, intraoral pictures, and or AI technology attached to validate the treatment they've done. I have not heard of anybody have a claim denied. Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (19:59.238)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (20:05.57)

That's amazing. I think one thing that I heard too, I don't know if it's implemented yet, but I can't imagine that it won't be, is the insurance companies actually having their own on their side that you send in your x-rays, you send in those those pieces and they shoot it through their own AI spaces. And so then it's like confirming your AI and your diagnosis or your no AI if you didn't send it, but it kind of feels like even

 

not having that tool within your practice is like, that's again that like safety protocol, like what are all the safety measurements I can put into place to make sure that I'm covered? It almost feels like one of those systems or tools might be just a good safety net for that. Have you seen, I mean, I know we don't work with the insurance companies, but have you heard of that yet or in your speakings? No? Yeah.

 

Kristy (20:53.546)

Yeah, sorry, I have heard that. In fact, one of the things that we've talked about from an insurance perspective is insurance companies know more about doctors than doctors know about them. I bet if you asked an insurance company how many crowns a doctor did, they could answer that question so much faster than even the doctor. And so, yeah, we would be fooling ourselves to think insurance companies are not using AI on us as well.

 

The Dental A Team (21:11.081)

That's fair.

 

The Dental A Team (21:22.131)

Totally, totally fair point. Because even just pulling like how many claims it takes us, we're like, I don't know, where do I find that information? And we're like, hobbling back and forth trying to find it. That's a really good point. They just click a button and they know it. I love that. So from a clinician standpoint, from our doctor's standpoint, I think they have a ton of control over the tools they're using to diagnose and then passing those tools. I think that's how I would.

 

want a doctor to think about it, right? Like, what tools did I utilize to diagnose this because someone else has to diagnose it without the patient in front of them and confirm my diagnosis, which is annoying. I agree with you guys. I'm 100 % behind you on that, but it's the way it is. safety protocols put into place, safety nets are clinical x-rays, clinically readable x-rays, intra-orals, notes. And something we didn't really hit on...

 

But I think you mentioned earlier, Kristy, that I think is really important with the notes is the note templates. So making sure, right, that the doc can have, even your support team should be able to fill in a lot of the clinical note for you because they're there to dictate what you're saying. And so they can dictate that and then utilize that template. And the doctor then goes back later to confirm, just like the other guys are confirming for you, that those notes are correct. Now, Kristy,

 

Do you do it the same way? I'm assuming, right, because we all have been in this world together for a long time in the dental world, but do you do the same thing and train your dentist to train their team members to do that as well? Fill in the templates, the support team supporting them, filling in those templates.

 

Kristy (22:59.618)

Yeah, I know there are a lot of doctors that like to do their notes because they want to make sure the details are there. But having those templates and the doctors can create those templates, right, for each procedure. We still want them to be custom notes, right? But the basis for what we do, like usually there's only a few types of anesthetic we use or how many different composite materials do we use? You know what I mean? We can have those basics in there and then the doctor can

 

The Dental A Team (23:26.748)

Okay.

 

Kristy (23:29.592)

go back and verify anything that the assistant has updated and if there's anything to add they can do it and sign off on those notes but absolutely having those templates can can help time wise and I will also say you know with the notes and billing insurances back in the day we used all these cam narratives and guys if you're doing that we need to get out of that habit truly it has to be a custom note and you're

 

seeing it more and more where they want it cropped, you know, they want it taken from the actual narrative in the clinical note. So it's very important that we do have those details in there.

 

The Dental A Team (24:00.651)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (24:11.78)

I love that and I totally agree and I think that also then if our team is supporting us in that and getting them done, I have a lot of doctors that are like, I'm so far behind on notes, I've got two weeks worth and I'm like, oh my gosh, to me, I'm like, that's two weeks worth of claims that probably have not seen the light of day except for your profis that have gone out.

 

That also helps clean that up where if our support team is doing them, our doctors are going back through adding their snippets that they need to, but confirming it, signing it off. now tomorrow my billing rep can get in first thing in the morning and send all of today's claims off. So I think it helps. We're talking about optimizing, like we want to optimize in every level. want all those safety nets together of how did I diagnose this? How do I confirm it? But then also we want it all prepped and ready to go. So our team can take it and just get it out there. The longer it sits there.

 

the worse it gets. There's timely filing for sure, which is a year, but you guys have to think, I have a year, that's awesome. But if I wait three months because I didn't get my notes done and then my girls have to fight to get it paid, like it's just not worth it and you're overhead. So great points, Kristy. So optimizing claims, if we're to it up, you guys, literally, I think Kristy, the best thing we can like summarize all this is how did I diagnose it?

 

And what are those safety nets? And how am I going to allow someone who's not sitting here to diagnose it and confirm it? So x-rays clinically, readable x-rays, intraoral photos. I love that you said the perio as well. I know the calculus, the nasty like, you know, behind the teeth pictures, those are always fantastic as well. And then notes, I think the templates is a brilliant idea. And adding that AI piece in there, I think is like the biggest safety net of all because it's all there.

 

One thing I do want to mention, and I know this because I've got a lot of doctors who are like, oh, I didn't even look for the x-ray until after the fact. And it happens. It's whatever, right? We've got, you diagnose it, you do it, whatever. If you get in the habit of, your x-ray is not up on the screen, you don't touch a tooth, you'll never run into that again. We used to run into it in my practice constantly. And my billing rep was like, I don't know what to do because we're not going to get these claims paid. And so we made a rule if the x-ray was not up.

 

The Dental A Team (26:28.428)

you didn't touch the tooth. one space there, but make sure your x-rays are readable. They're up. You're looking at them. Your notes are super, super duper clear. Your intro aural follow it. And you guys, think AI is probably worth looking into if you're not using it already. If you have it you're not using it, go freaking get trained and use it. Kristy, any last tidbits or thoughts on any of that that you want to wrap up for them?

 

Kristy (26:48.782)

Absolutely.

 

Kristy (26:55.104)

Yeah, I all of that I agree with you 100 % and I also think just so you know, we mentioned it used to be a year filing for claims. There's some of them that are getting down to 90 days, we may even see some less. So guys forming these habits today are going to reap rewards. And I will also say, many times, it's the office right waiting for that insurance money. You also touched on fee for service. That's very important.

 

The Dental A Team (27:07.138)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (27:16.845)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (27:23.65)

Yeah.

 

Kristy (27:25.008)

If we're asking patients to pay fee for service, we want them to get their money right away as well, right? That helps them stuck to your office. So all of it comes full circle to help each other.

 

The Dental A Team (27:31.896)

Thank you.

 

The Dental A Team (27:37.71)

Those were amazing points. Thank you, Kristi. I knew there was, I could tell there was something in there. You're like, nope, I got a little extra. I love it. I love podcasting with you. Thank you so much for being here with us today. You really do have this brain that just like you hear something and then it expands and you're like, okay, but and, and I love the way the way you present it. So thank you so much for being here with us today. Doctors, I hope if you are driving, you're going to re-listen to this. If you weren't driving, you were feverishly taking notes. Team, if your doctor hasn't heard this one yet,

 

send it over to him or her. It's a big one for them to be able to really support you guys and vice versa. This is all encompassing you guys. If we want to optimize the claims process, we want to optimize getting these things done, we all have to work together from start to finish. So ensure these things are put into place, fill the habits, do the things now that might take a little extra time upfront so that you're saving time and energy and work later. We want you to be insanely profitable. We want you to love your life. These are really easy ways that you can start doing that.

 

right away. So Kristi, thank you so much everyone. Thank you for being here. Drop us a five star review. We love to hear from you guys, especially when it comes to topics like this. How helpful was the information we want to hear from you? If you need help, if you want notes, templates, if you want ideas, if you're a current client, reach out to your consultant. We are all here to love on you. If you're not yet a client or you're just a listener for now, [email protected] and you can hop over to our website.

 

and we've got our practice assessments up there. thanks again, Kristy, everyone. We'll catch you next time.

Kiera shares a secret weapon to high morale in the office place: celebrations. There are three steps to maximize the fun while keeping everything running smoothly:

1. Create a birthday and celebration system.

2. Incorporate monthly team events.

3. Make recognition public and consistent.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.792)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I just want to ask you, do you really want a happier and more engaged team? Do you want to be able to know that they're going to be incredible with you? I do believe that celebrations are the secret weapon to building a positive culture. And today is a special day because it's Dental A Team's podcast fifth birthday. And so I thought it was just such a special time. You guys, this podcast has been running for so long. I am so grateful for you for being a part of it. And I just thought, hey,

 

Well, one of the greatest things is while we're celebrating Dental A Teams podcast birthday, let's teach you the secret weapon to building that positive, effective team culture. So you guys, the reality is when we acknowledge milestones, when we acknowledge celebrations, when we acknowledge things that our team is doing well, what that does is it puts our focus on the things we actually want our team to do. We put a focus on them as a human being. We put our focus on them actually being more of what we want them to become. And so what that does is it actually improves morale.

 

increases retention and that ultimately equals overall productivity. What's really awesome about this is people are looking for like, how do I hire? How do I bring on a team? Well, if it's a great place to work, people want to work with you. And a lot of times these celebrations are that secret weapon because it becomes fun. It becomes life. It becomes the things that we want to do. So in celebration of Dental A Team's fifth birthday, I cannot believe we've been doing the podcast for this long. Kudos and appreciation to all of you for being here. I just want to say thank you for being here.

 

And let's roll in three quick steps where you're able to use and maximize these celebrations to boost the morale that your team wants. Dental A Team was created for you. This podcast was created to bridge the gap between where we are and where we want to be. I try to create this in a quick tactical, practical way for you to be able to take this, celebrate your team, have the fun with your team and be able to truly live life. My passion is life and my platform is dentistry. And so that's why we've created this podcast and our goal in our dental consulting company is to make your life easier.

 

to make it easy to implement systems, to make it easy to achieve the life that you desire to be, to make it easier to have a team that's rallied around their doctor and it's truly supporting and serving their team, their community, their patients with ease. So that's what Dental A Team's all about. This is gonna be a short, actionable episode where honestly you can go take these tips and implement them today. So step one is.

 

Kiera Dent (02:17.53)

create a birthday and celebration system. I know this sounds so silly, but the reality is I love to build things on systems because they're automated. We don't have to think about it just like our morning routines. I don't have to think about how I'm going to do my hair. I don't have to think about how I'm gonna put my makeup on. I don't have to think about if I'm going to brush my teeth or not. It's a system that we've automatically done and by default as humans, we love to create automations. We love to simplify because it's less brain power. So let's create this into a way where it's a system.

 

that we can then add the sprinkles, we can add the intentionality behind, but we have the system for success. So birthdays and milestones matter for team connection. It's something where when people feel recognized, they feel special. And some people like to be recognized in public, other people like to be recognized in private. But as human beings, there is a need for us to be significant, to be recognized, to realize that we have purpose in this world. And so some key elements in the celebration system is...

 

we have to actually have a calendar with the team birthdays and work anniversaries on there. And then someone needs to actually be accountable for overseeing these. And then we need to personalize the experience for each person. So for us, we actually have a Google calendar called birthdays. Our client birthdays go on there. Our team birthdays go on there. Our work anniversaries go on there. And then what we have from there is we actually have a built into on their one to three year birthdays. This is what we get on our one to three year anniversaries. This is what we get.

 

three to five and so on. And it's actually built into a place. So that way we've taken the thought process of what do we do? And now we can customize it for each team member. So they feel special. Some dental offices love to do lunches for their teams on birthdays and anniversaries. Some people love to do flowers. Some people love to do gifts. Some people love to just write letters to them. Some people they can have like a big board in the break room for that team member where they're able to put up why we love this person. Some people do like, what does this person bring to the table? Like what are their key strengths that we're so grateful for?

 

And it's wild because if you did this throughout an entire year, imagine having some nice sticky notes in your office where that person on their work anniversary, we said, why Sarah is such a valuable player in our team. And that's up there. And then we put up John, and then we put up, I don't know, Brittany, and then we have Tiffany, and then we have Shelby, and we have Dr. John, whatever it is, we put those up and we actually can start to see this creation of this beautiful team that we've created and all the strengths that we bring to the table to make our team incredible.

 

Kiera Dent (04:32.204)

that becomes a powerful culture that you're starting to create as well. So what I've seen is offices who really take the time to be intentional with team members, team members stay, they feel important. They feel like they're cared about. They feel like they matter. And so even if it seems silly to you, this is a great way for you to give back. And also for me as a leader, I found that it makes me actually intentional and to remember why I love and appreciate this team member and pulls me out of the day to day.

 

and becomes intentional with that person as a one-on-one focus. So what we need to do is create a shared birthday calendar this week and assign a celebration leader. I think it's a really fun way. Have somebody who's just fun, they love to do this, this can be their job, give them a budget. That way we actually have a true system of our birthday and celebration system. What do we do? How often do we do it to recognize our team members? Now, the second piece we're gonna do, step two is incorporate monthly team events. So we're taking this one step further. I literally have a budget on my PNL and my chart of accounts.

 

that is team birthdays and anniversaries, team outings and events. So actually start to build this as a budget for you so that way you can incorporate these things and we know how much we can spend, what we're allowed to do to make sure we still maintain that profitability as well. So when we incorporate monthly team events, this is fun. It strengthens relationships, it strengthens bonds, it allows us to get close together. And what I like to do, since there's usually three departments within a practice,

 

We've got our front office team, our hygiene team, our dental assistant team. You can also throw in your doctor team. So you could do hygiene and DAs, whatever you want to do. But every quarter there's three months. Every year there's four quarters. So however you want to break it up, but I like to actually assign teams out to this, give them their budget and then they create activities. And these could be themed lunches and potlucks. I had an office and they called it dip day. And I really loved that. So they would do it like once a month, everybody would bring in their favorite dips and they'd have a potluck one day.

 

a month. That's super easy. Minimal costs to the team becomes something very fun that they're all able to participate in. But having something like that can really be fun for it. You can also do team building activities. Like I've seen offices do escape rooms or wine and paint nights, or they go to games like the, I don't know, whatever your team is, the Yankees game or whatever it is, but you actually plan these outings for your team. We can even go volunteer. You can have where we give back. have opportunities to serve together as a team.

 

Kiera Dent (06:49.422)

but team building activities really can grow and bond you guys together. And then you can also do celebrations of like when we hit milestones, maybe when we hit our first million or maybe when we hit our first 2 million or maybe when we get our first 100 Google reviews or whatever it is we're trying to achieve. Maybe it's when we get our block schedule in place, like whatever it is, these can be really fun things for you, but they're planned, the whole team knows. And what I found is when you break it up by department, your team actually has more buy-in for it because now people know what it feels like to have it.

 

And I, as a leader, feel like there's so much on my plate. That's why we need our celebration champion who really takes this on. They've got their budget. They're excited. They're jazzed. And now you just get to show up and be a player with it is really fun. So what's really incredible about this is offices who start to do this, you don't see the immediate effects. I know we like to get the positive reinforcement. We want this to hit us right away, but just so you know, this might take a year before your team starts to buy into it. But I want you to know we're playing the long-term game of retention of team like

 

satisfaction of love and connection of that morale because when people really feel like they've got each other's backs when they feel like they're a true team, this is when they get there. They're just sports team. I'm a BYU fan. Judge me or love me. It's your choice. But what was interesting is this year BYU actually had one of their best years. They've had a terrible, terrible, terrible time. And something that their coach talked about was he actually took the team at the beginning and they went up into the mountains in Utah and they bonded as a team.

 

And they actually had one of their best seasons that they've ever had. And I truly believe it was because they bonded together as a team. They did things that were outside of just practice and football to make them human. It's becoming a humanized experience. And I think that's the currency in today's world. And so having somebody be the person who plans these team events, whether it's the month or a quarter, I don't care, you choose, but really that's gonna be step two of incorporate monthly team events or quarterly into your practice.

 

And then step three of this awesome thing is make recognition public and consistent. And there's a million different ways to do it. But what I do believe is what we focus on is where our energy will flow. And so if we're focused on the great things of our team, if we're focused on the good things people are doing, rather than the negative, we actually create more of that behavior. And for me, I'm really pro of how can I teach all of you how to get more of what we want and less of what we don't want? Well, public recognition being consistent.

 

Kiera Dent (09:07.19)

is a very key piece of this. And so this will be shout outs and team meetings or social media posts highlighting team achievements or a team starboard or a high five kudos jar or any of those things where it's public and it's consistent. I have an office that I really love and what they do is once a month they actually have all the shout outs in a jar and they pull out a winner of it and the winner gets either like a personalized gift or a gift card. But then the...

 

that I really love is everybody wins because everybody gets their shout outs for that month of what people have said about them, what people have recognized about them. And leaders, you do need to set the stage on this. We need it to be something that's intentional. We need our team to know that we're serious. It's not just like, Kiera showed up today. That actually can actually hurt our culture rather than inspire our culture. And so if I do notice those things in the shout out jars, I actually do have a conversation.

 

to make sure that team knows that they're actually hurting rather than helping. And that's unacceptable within our culture. And they have an opportunity to change or they have an opportunity to leave if that behavior doesn't change. And so with this though, we have on our Wednesday mornings, Wednesdays are core value shout out day at Dental A Team We have our core values in every team member. No one's assigned to go. Everybody does have an opportunity to go, but the first person starts and they shout someone out of where they saw that person exhibiting the core value. I love it. It's a two fold because not only am I then

 

pushing culture within our company, but our team members are recognizing one another for the core values that they're doing. And what's always beautiful to me is each team member usually says like, gosh, I have like two or three that I could give out today, or I could highlight every team member. And that's what I want our teams thinking about. I want them to think about how great these people are, how wonderful these people are, how lucky we are to work together. Of course, there's going to be like issues. Of course, there'll be

 

frustrations, but if the bulk of what we're seeing are the positives, I believe that's how we're able to build an incredible culture. whatever it is, I would recommend that you implement a weekly recognition ritual in your practice starting next week. Like we can get this started. You can roll out Wednesdays of core value shout out. could roll out the high five jar. could roll out whatever it is, but we've got this where we've got birthdays and anniversaries. That's step one, where we celebrate those and we have someone championing over that in our celebration committee.

 

Kiera Dent (11:16.728)

We have team events that we do monthly or quarterly. And then we have consistent weekly recognition that's public and consistent. So whatever it is, those would be the steps, the three steps for you to really be able to put into place a birthday and celebration system, which again, sounds so silly, but the goal is for us to truly be able to grow our engagement, to grow our community within our team, to grow the culture, to grow the bonds that we have, to have fun with each other.

 

to remember that we're not just colleagues, but we're human beings on the other side of that. So this is where we're gonna be able to shift and have small celebrations, create big shifts in culture and retention. I do want to be very honest with you that this is something that does take a hot minute. When I first started implementing these items, I didn't see the immediate results, but just like going to the gym, when we go and we start doing sit-ups, we don't walk out with a six pack as much as I wish we could. It does take time, it does take consistency, but I want you to know.

 

that while we don't necessarily see the results just like working out, the results are actually being built. We just can't visibly see them with our eyeballs, but they are being built within the internal. And so remember that these small consistent pieces have somebody set up to do it, have a lot of fun for it. If you guys want to DM us for any ideas that we have, I'm happy to share checklists with you. I'm happy to share kudos jars, shout out things that we do, our core values so you can see how that's done. Whatever I can do to support you, DM us to get started.

 

And always subscribe to the podcast, more leadership tips for your dental practice to thrive and grow. And just know that truly what we just talked about is exactly what the Dental A Team does. We go from the systems of the practice and the dentistry to the humans of the practice that create and make the practice thrive. And if that's something that resonates with you and you're interested in finding out more of consulting would be right for you, reach out. [email protected] I'd love to help you. I'd love to support you. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Kiera shares the most common problems dental practices face — scheduling inefficiencies, high overhead costs, and patient retention — and how to fix them.

Episode resources:

Sign up for Dental A-Team’s Virtual Summit 2025!

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Schedule a Practice Assessment

Leave us a review

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.93)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, I just wanna come in here. I've been kind of doing a little bit of research out there and I wanted to help you see that every practice is facing challenges. And really the key is knowing how to turn those problems into opportunities. I love just thinking about, we've got to find ways to turn these problems into opportunities because it can be a problem or an opportunity, depending upon how you choose to view it.

 

And so today I wanted to just kind of dive into the most common problems that dentists face and actionable solutions for you to actually overcome them. Because reality is if you can know what they are, you can game plan with it. You then are gonna be able to help serve more patients, help your practice, help your team, which is what Dental A Team is all about. Dental A Team was founded to help dentists and teams truly bridge the gap to have more fun, less stress, more profitability, serve patients on a higher level.

 

and to be able to do it with ease and fun. I love to think about it as like popping confetti when we're coming in to help you with systems. We are not your traditional consulting company. So many offices have told me, Kiera, you guys literally have revolutionized how consulting works. My team loves you. My team's excited for you to come in and you don't just help us with dentistry, but you actually help make us better people. And so that's what we're all about. And I believe honestly that while problems are common with the right systems and the right mindsets, you can actually solve them pretty quickly and effectively. You don't actually have to struggle with it. So,

 

super fast, actionable episode three of the top problems and how to solve them. So problem number one that I see consistently are scheduling inefficiencies. This is, think, one of the biggest bulk, the biggest beast of all of dentistry is that people really truly don't know how to schedule and schedule effectively and scheduling is an art. It's not a science, but why do we wanna have like unicorns out there when we can just schedule it effectively and efficiently? And what we actually found are...

 

A lot of offices, when we did deep dives, they missed their financial goals. They missed their production goals, not because they actually weren't able to, but because of open time within their schedule. True. So we've started tracking open time and schedules and realize if we would have just filled those effectively, you would have hit your goals with ease. And so how do we actually get our practices to look at the unproductive gaps, last minute cancellations, overbooking, not scheduling strategically. And the simple solution is block scheduling, also confirming appointments 48 hours in advance.

 

Kiera Dent (02:18.338)

And then also what's our cancellation policy within our practice? A lot of offices we have changed our model to when we call a patient, we want them to confirm their appointment. And if they haven't confirmed within 48 hours, we literally have a voicemail and let them know we will be moving your appointment. Now we actually pull it off the schedule. We can still see them when we come in. Fantastic. If not, we have solutions for that. But literally we start to retrain our patients. And then also our cancellation policy is if they call me to cancel today and it's less than 48 hours, they get moved out six weeks.

 

and then we move them forward. But everybody following this policy starts to retrain your patients so we stop having these gaps. I want you to think about your practice as are people so committed to coming to your office just like they do their hair appointments, their nail appointments, any of those like their doctor appointments where they know it takes months and months to get into. Do we have that high level of customer service, high level of customer care? Now, of course, if they call us within 48 hours, fantastic, they're an incredible patient.

 

But otherwise we are going to make sure that we start to train them. And we also do this with our new patients when they call us. So we're training our new patients at the beginning. They have to send their paperwork in 48 hours before their appointment to make sure their appointment's confirmed. These little things will actually fix the problem. Now cancellations, I don't allow cancellations via voicemail. I change voicemails. I also don't allow cancellations via text message. So we train our teams that these are things that we can't have happen. This is how we respond to the patient.

 

The reason being is if I can get them on the phone, I can usually find a solution to their problem, keep them on the schedule, figure out what the problem is. Maybe they think it's gonna be too much time. Maybe they just need to scooch down 20 or 30 minutes and I have that availability. But getting them on the phone rather than just the simple text for them to cancel can actually fill your schedule. So when I have practices implement, whether it's the new patient policy of having them confirm their appointment by giving paperwork back, whether it's that we...

 

have patients they have to call you back to confirm their appointment. Otherwise we scooch them off. We utilize the model of not allowing cancellations via voicemail or text message. Practices literally boost their production by at least 15 to 20 % because now we've got all these holes filled and we're actually able to fix the problem. Some other offices implement deposits or different pieces to that. So right now I would recommend review your current scheduling system and figure out where are the gaps.

 

Kiera Dent (04:35.828)

what's happening, what's happening consistently, not what we think, but what we actually know. A practice told me we were getting tons of cancellations and I said, fantastic, I want you to track it for 30 days and I want you to let me know what type of cancellations are coming through. And turns out they actually are only having about six. Now, just so you know, a common thing is you will actually have like one to 2 % of your total practice will cancel and that's okay. Like that's normal. We need to not hope and pray every single person.

 

actually shows up for it, let's add a one or two percent cancellation per day. That way our goals are not having to be perfect, but we can actually have that that room for life happening. That's actually going to set you up for better success as well. OK, problem number two, high overhead costs, really struggling to get our finances in order. And so like rising costs and payroll supplies, like everything with inflation right now, that's really a struggle. And so offices are having this squeeze of how do I manage the overhead of the practice?

 

the lower reimbursement rates, being able to produce. And what it is is number one, we've got to look at our P &L and know our numbers. Like that's the number one solution is knowing it and figuring out a plan and having budgets for it. Two, we got to figure out, can we increase our insurance rates with our insurance providers? Or can we actually start to diagnose different procedures that are not dependent within insurance, like implants, full ortho, all on X cases, different things that we could bring to the practice that would actually help us be more productive.

 

Can we also have budgets in place so that way everybody is able to know what we're actually going for and targeting for these overhead costs? Are we monitoring this consistently? Are we removing things that are unnecessary while also making sure that our schedule is productive? And so something that I found is when offices start to just track and monitor weekly with KPIs and the monthly reviewing their PNL, like literally I have a meeting with my CPA every single month. And when I do that, what happens is I actually am accountable to reviewing my numbers.

 

My CPA is accountable to making sure it's done on time. So I have timely numbers and metrics so I can use them as a guide. and I have budgets to where we know and we look through it every single month to make sure are we on track? Are we off track and why? We set up budgets for team expenses, team outings, team events, marketing, gifts for clients, all those little things that we forget about. Put that into your budget as you build these budgets out. So we better plan, we better project, we better prepare.

 

Kiera Dent (06:58.316)

This is going to help with high overhead costs. And a big piece on this is also maintaining your team and keeping team and longer team retention, which leads into amazing team celebrations, amazing team culture. This is going to help. So I would recommend weekly adding some CEO time into your schedule. 30 minutes to one hour is really going to help you to schedule your P and L to be able to look for areas to cut unnecessary expenses. And I always set up quarterly with my CPA that they send me all of my expenses for that quarter.

 

me and the office manager, Britt, we review them, every single one of them, same with Shelby, making sure nothing's in there that's overpaid, underpaid, and that our budgets are actually correct. All right, problem number three, patient retention and challenges. So like keeping these patients, and so patients not coming for followups, they're leaving for other providers, and so it's really this like game of, I mean, even myself, I went to a practice, I'm a fee for service patient, the office did not let me know that the doctor that I had been seeing,

 

because I work across the nation. I can go to any dentist. Like I do not need to have a set dentist. But I like the consistency. But knowing that about me, and I've been very honest with this practice is I want the same dentist and I want the same hygienist so I have consistent care. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if I keep coming to the same dentist. So I went into my appointment, fee for service patient, they didn't tell me that the dentist had actually left the practice and they were just going to put me in with a brand new dentist. That irritated me so much because I'm like, you didn't tell me.

 

I wasted my time, I blocked two hours of my schedule and that was so frustrating. And I'm like, that could have been prevented by them just calling me and saying, hey, this is where we're at. We wanna make sure you're taken care of and caring about me as a person. The reality is I'm not actually going back to that practice. I'm looking for another office. But it's something so simple of that. I'm a fee for service patient. I literally pay cash for every one of my visits. I am the dream patient to come in financially. You might think otherwise of my personality. Maybe you wouldn't want me, that's okay.

 

But just thinking of, have no insurance, I have minimal effort, I come in consistently, I make my appointments, I pay cash for everything I do, and yet one simple phone call of patient care and love and attention, I'm leaving and I'm going to go put that money to someone else. So for this, the solution is like, let's build really strong patient relationships. Let's have really strong systems. Let's make sure that we're offering payment plans within our practice. Let's make sure that our hygiene team is reappointing their patients. Let's say, make sure every patient is leaving.

 

Kiera Dent (09:22.878)

as a raving fan and also with an appointment. And so really looking at that experience, and this doesn't mean we have to go and do more. It just means we need to be really intentional of right now patients are free agents. Right now a lot of patients are shopping, but the answer is they're not just necessarily shopping for lower prices. I think patients are shopping for love. And I was coaching in office the other day and I told them, said, one way for you to set yourself apart right now is just to be kind.

 

If you remember and you've been listening since COVID, welcome and thank you. If you're new to this show, welcome. I'm so happy you're here. But in COVID, I called it the COVID crank. I said, think here we are five years later, we're still some people, like we forgot about customer service. We forgot about caring about people. We forgot about making these relationships intentional. And what I found is when we're not intentional with people, people leave, but just even being like an ounce of kind, an ounce of intentionality, an ounce of thought.

 

You actually can turn a ton of patients into raving fans with minimal effort. So I would say right now is an opportunity for you to be kind, for you to do things a little bit differently, not more, just differently, be kind, be intentional, look for that. What are follow-up calls that we could do and different things. And what I found is offices, I have offices that are raving bands. Like literally there was an office and they were doing like a new patient giveaway. And I kid you not, they had a patient.

 

So they had a good giveaway. So kudos to this office. They had a patient at their daughter's like birthday party telling everybody you need to join my dentist. They're the best dentist. Everybody loves them. Yes, she had a little bit of ulterior motives because she wanted to win the giveaway. It was a KitchenAid. Just so you know, I'm sure everybody was wondering what it was. But the radical thing about this is this woman at a birthday party was advocating for this practice. And my thoughts are, do you have patients like that that are raving about you that are telling the community that are being a part of it?

 

And if not, what are some of the things that we can do? And a good way for you to look at this or what are your top 10 patients that you absolutely love? You get so excited to see them on the schedule. Who are they? What are they? Why do we love them? Are there certain patterns and trends of those top 10 patients? And then let's maybe look at 10 patients who haven't returned and can we actually call them and reach out to them personally and offer that kindness find out why my like just try and get them scheduled assume that they're coming there. If they tell us that they've left, be honest and ask for the feedback of, you help me understand just for future?

 

Kiera Dent (11:44.792)

just true honest feedback and you become a human of why did you leave our practice? That way it doesn't happen to future patients. And when you come in as a human, you'll be shocked at how much your patients respond to you. So here's a couple, like the quick top three things that I've noticed are scheduling and efficiencies, high overhead costs and patient retention, making sure we're retaining those patients. And those are some of the common three problems that I really see. Yes, there's other things. Yes, there's team turnover. Yes, there's hiring hygienists.

 

Yes, there's all these things, but these are quick things that are within our control. Hiring and hygienist goes into that being kind, amazing practice. Do you also have a team of raving people on your team as a bonus piece for hiring? Do you have an incredible reputation where people want to work for you? It has taken me years and years and years, but it is the most magical thing when I interview people, when people say, Kiera, I've been following for you for years and I've been waiting to work with the Dental A Team.

 

I hope that your practice has a similar sentiment that people are dying to work with you, that they're waiting to work with you, that they're so excited that there's an opening within your practice because that means you've got raving fan team members. So for that, I just want you to know that every single practice faces challenges, every single one of us do, but being proactive on our solutions, finding true solutions and fixing it forever. We don't just fix it once and one and done. Like we want to fix this forever, not just band-aids, but actual true solutions. So if these sound...

 

similar to you, if you're like, my gosh, like Kiera you're talking right to me, DM me or visit our website. [email protected] I'm happy to go through a free complimentary practice assessment with you where we like look at your practice with you and we will give you a ton of value, whether you work with us or don't. But just to really kind of give you some of those blind spots. And if you're looking for a consultant, you're like, gosh, it would really just help to have someone with me. I'd love to work with you. I'd love to help you reach out. [email protected] This is the time.

 

Subscribe to our newsletters for more dental practice tips. You can share this episode with colleagues. This just helps us all rise and to truly impact and inspire. And the reality is dentistry can be hard, but if we do it together, we're all in this together. And I challenge you to be kind, to realize that these problems are just opportunities if we choose to see it that way. And to remember we are truly in the best, best, best industry we could ever be in. We change lives, we get to benefit and impact. And I want you to remember that this is magic that we're creating.

 

Kiera Dent (14:04.364)

We won't get to do this forever. So let's optimize the time that we have. Let's maximize and let's enjoy. And as always reach out if I can help you. [email protected] As always, thanks for listening. Catch you next time on The Dental A Team podcast.

Kiera and Britt continue their conversation from episode 958, Hiring Hygienists in Today’s Economy, by discussing the shifting landscape of hygiene. This includes the pros and cons of assisted hygiene, shortened appointments, practices without hygienists, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.73)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and the one and only Brittany Stone coming back for part two of our hygiene conversation. welcome back. How are you?

 

Britt (00:09.332)

It's always fun when you start off with my full name, so I'm like, alright, let's go!

 

Kiera Dent (00:12.304)

It is funny. You do range from Britney, Britt, like no BS Britt to B. B has recently come in. How do you feel about just B? I hope it comes across as like nice, but then I realized like, B could be taken wrong. So I never say the, hey B.

 

Britt (00:28.75)

You're not the only one. I'm fine with it because it's easy and I'm like shoot you grew up with the initials BS like what are you gonna do?

 

Kiera Dent (00:37.904)

Well, I never want to like sometimes when I call you and I'm like, hey B and I'm like, I hope it lands as like, like love. Yeah. Yeah. It's not meant for any other letters. But Britt and I, if you didn't listen to our other podcasts, Britt and I were chatting shop about how to hide like hire hygienists in today's economy. And with Britt bringing a hygiene perspective, if you don't know, Britt used to be hygienist.

 

Britt (00:46.83)

It's Brett. stands for Brett.

 

Britt (00:52.748)

Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (01:07.3)

Great. How long has it been since you graduated from a hygiene school? Let's just give people your scene.

 

Britt (01:10.05)

Kiera.

 

You're gonna age me a little bit here.

 

Kiera Dent (01:16.162)

Okay, don't feel age. The only reason I asked for it, so before you answer, just know my reasoning so you don't have to answer. I was just thinking because I wanted people to know you've been in the field for like enough time to give weight to your answers. But maybe we don't need to do that. Maybe it's been there for longer than five years. Shut, I didn't even know. All right, well, you have been in it for a long time.

 

Britt (01:31.512)

That's fine. Eighteen, Kiera, eighteen.

 

Britt (01:40.378)

I'll say this, was a young graduate from high school, so I'll give you that. That pushed me a year ahead, but 07 is when I graduated, so this year we'll make it 18.

 

Kiera Dent (01:49.111)

No way.

 

Kiera Dent (01:52.996)

Dang girl, I didn't even know. Okay, so Britt really has a lot of weight and you did hygiene for, and then Britt went from hygiene to then office management of a pretty large DSO and then came consulting and now does consulting and operations. So.

 

Britt (02:06.38)

Yeah, I did full-time hygiene for a decade. So I'm like a solid, five full-time, full-time, 40 hours for a decade.

 

Kiera Dent (02:09.21)

Did you really?

 

Wow. Man, I really like there's some moments that I just see you as a hygienist. Like I can just picture you walking up with your like, it's not a swagger, but you have a can't that you definitely walk. And I can see you walking up, getting your patient. Hey B, how's your swagger? But.

 

Britt (02:28.11)

You can call it swagger, I'll take swagger. don't know what else to

 

Kiera Dent (02:35.736)

Yeah, so I'm like, just, could imagine you being a hygienist sometimes, but then you're like, Britt the consultant, Britt operations, Britt, my yin and yang. So anyway, well, that's fun. That's a fun. Okay. So to give Britt credit, she did hygiene for a decade. I won't say anything about loops, Britt. We will not discuss that on this episode. We will.

 

Britt (02:56.238)

I mean, I just changed myself a little bit. you know, we talk about it. I would have to know if I was a full-time clinical, for sure.

 

Kiera Dent (03:01.752)

Of course. Yeah, of course. I know you would. You don't, you stay very current. I do appreciate that you stay very current with hygiene. You attend hygiene CE all the time. So what we were talking about in the last episode that this would be part two of was we talked about kind of like, do we, how do we work with the compensation pieces of hygiene? And then talking about it from a business standpoint and a doctor standpoint and a hygienist standpoint.

 

and really bringing those two perspectives to the table, which is what the podcast has been built to do is bring different perspectives. And something I just want to reiterate today, if you missed the last one is that the things Britt and I talk about today are going to be perspectives and never meant to weaponize. So doctors, can't weaponize it against hygienists and hygienists, can't weaponize it against doctors. And so really just setting the stage today of let's have an open conversation around where are we at the dynamics. there's no.

 

there's no like hiding the fact that it has been hard to hire hygienists since COVID. It's it we thought that it would probably be four years, maybe five years before the hygiene shortage caught up. I still think it's in like massive catch up time, then you tack in inflation on it. So raise like the amount people are coming out asking from school, but I, I mean, I don't really want to ask, but I am going to ask I'm sure hygiene has been like

 

attempting field to go back into. I'm like, you work at Dental A Team but you've got hygiene over there. And it just keeps like getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I think if I was in your shoes, I might just contemplate it here and there, especially on days when it maybe isn't your favorite day at Dental A Team, which is hopefully like one and every moon. I know what happens. We just had it like a week ago.

 

Britt (04:31.822)

Everybody's got a day there right like it happens but I Mean here's the I I love hygiene and I left it loving it so like that's the thing is I and I'm like I still go back I still double from time to time, but I'm going back full-time I The things that are appealing right hygienist know what do I love? It's like

 

Pretty predictable, right? Like you got a job, 100 % predictable, but my hours I'm gonna work, I know my schedule. If I can get the doctor to work with me, I can manage running on time. like, and then when I'm done at the end of the day, I go home and I don't have to take it. Like there's nothing for me to do outside of the office other than like learning stuff, but there's nothing to do outside. like, those are the, we know that those are the perks of hygiene.

 

Kiera Dent (05:02.692)

That does fit you so much, Britt. The stability, the...

 

Britt (05:29.23)

and that's part of why I loved it is because of those reasons. Do I debate going back? I don't know. I enjoy what I do now. It's different, right? Like you grow and you morph into different things and it's fun to take the next step. And can I go back to it? Sure. Would it be different? 100%.

 

Kiera Dent (05:47.888)

Hahaha

 

fair. I was just curious because I mean, like I know I've looked at what I want to go back into management, what I want to go run a regional, what I want to run a DSO. And for me, there was like a lot of fun in it. There's a lot of fun in being in a system. But I think I agree with you. I feel like I have morphed and evolved into things that I really enjoy. Like I really enjoy the creativity aspect. Do I sometimes wish, Britt, like sometimes I do miss the like, go in, just like you know your day.

 

You don't have to like be thinking and creating nonstop and you leave at the end of the day and like, we're done, we're done versus here. Ideas will continue to, I mean, I saw you last night. You're building a whole spreadsheet, which is fun, but it never shuts off unlike at the dental office. So different, different times. But what we were wanting to chat about is we talked about compensation on the last one. And now it's coming into how can offices kind of like did a really great job of like paying your junior.

 

Britt (06:33.269)

Yeah, yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (06:46.692)

like fresh out of school and it's based on skill set, not based on longevity or tenure. Then we morphed into talking about what do we do for base versus commission if offices can't afford it and different ways to navigate that. And so I wanted to just kind of finish up that conversation with a few other ideas of what's hygiene's take as a landscape of assisted hygiene and shortened appointments. Because as we were discussing on the last episode,

 

it's kind of coming to this like necessity and survival mode for practices of like, hey, we're like running such a high number up for hygienists. So what this is truly called is innovation and things are changing and shifting and adapting due to the nature of lower reimbursement rates of insurance, inflation has come up, there's a hygiene crunch. So hygienists are coming up as a higher paid profession than what they were even four or five years ago. And so it's kind of like, well, what do we do?

 

what about assisted hygiene? What about shortened appointments so that way we can have more appointments? And again, I'm not here to advocate for it. I'm just saying like, this is the reality of what doctors are thinking of. And it's the thinking of this. They're also thinking of do I bring a doctor and instead of hiring a hygienist, they're thinking of do I do a hygiene less practice? So I'm just curious, let's talk assisted hygiene first, give me kind of a hygiene perspective on because I don't I don't know how it feels as a hygienist. So you get to speak, I know every hygienist is different, but like just what you hear from colleagues in your perspective.

 

Britt (07:59.361)

Huh.

 

Britt (08:06.85)

heterogeneous is different and I feel like it's a it's one of those polarizing things that I think there's people that love it and either you love it or you're not really a fan of it I feel like so that's like the that's the I don't see a lot of in between or it's like sure I'll do it for a little while while we hire like even I would do it maybe for a little bit while we hire someone but it's it's not my jam I can't say that I love it when it comes to

 

Kiera Dent (08:31.738)

Tell me why, why don't you like it? Like what is it about assisted hygiene just from a hygienist perspective that's almost like a grind for you that you're like, I'll do it for a little bit. Cause I hear that all the time, like I'll do it for little bit. Like what is it from a hygienist perspective that makes that a bit trickier?

 

Britt (08:46.446)

I think the piece that makes it tricky is like you're just, I don't know, probably part of why we get into what we do is like the one-on-one with patients and interacting with them and being able to ensure like from kind of beginning to end, right? The team has an impact, but I'm...

 

I'm giving them a good experience from beginning to end that doesn't feel rushed, that doesn't feel jumbled. And so I think that's for me personally, and I think some other hygienists, it feels like, great, I'm popping in, I'm in their mouth pretty much the whole time that I'm in there, and then I'm popping out and going on to the next one. I don't think it has to be exactly like that, but I think that's how it can feel from the hygiene side. I think having a really good assistant can make it much more doable. I think how you schedule it, how stack that.

 

Assisted hygienist can definitely make a difference on how much time you've got to interact. like, do hygienists, we like a little bit of control. I don't know, probably. And so it's just like, I know I've reviewed the things. I think that's probably the difference between hygienist and doctor is I'm not leaving it to an assistant to review medical history or ask the questions or hear what's going on and gathering it. Like I get to do that from beginning to end when I'm.

 

Kiera Dent (09:41.411)

Yeah.

 

Britt (10:00.332)

So it's just a little different when you've got the assisted hygiene in there.

 

Kiera Dent (10:03.834)

So, and I'm also curious, like, I've never really scaled teeth for real. I mean, I kinda, in Utah, as an assistant, I was supposed to be able to profite, and I'm like, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. There was one time I pretended to scale because my hygienist was late, so I just like, I didn't even actually really touch their teeth. just, you know, like, did a little tap, tap, tap, waiting for this dang hygienist to come, and I was like, yeah, we'll just like get started. I didn't do a darn thing. So I don't actually know what it feels like to scale that much. I'm curious, like, on a body.

 

Britt (10:18.744)

you

 

Kiera Dent (10:33.622)

Does it like hurt your hands? Does it, is it exhausting to just go because you don't really get any break or reprieve? You're just going nonstop. I'm just curious or to like the ultrasonics and things like that now help that make it easier for you. I don't really know the mechanics of that.

 

Britt (10:48.994)

So yeah, scaling time, like absolutely. Does technology help? Yes, I'm a big fan. I will say it. Polish first. Polish first. If you're not polishing first, you're spending a lot of time on stuff that you don't have to be spending time on. And I'm a big fan of ultrasonic or piezo. I will use it on pretty much everyone. Like even my kids because they got a lot of plaque and I can polish and I can get a lot done with that that doesn't sound or feel the same as scaling. And so I'm a big fan of it.

 

Kiera Dent (11:06.117)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (11:18.636)

And then so like So there's a lot you can do to help minimize it But that's the piece of doing assisted hygiene usually it's if I've got an assistant if they can polish right they're doing They're doing all the easy stuff and so it is me just doing what's the stuff that I only I can do? Pia's own hand skill, right? And so like it's more of that every day and it does hygienist need dentist hygienist assistance, right? We all need to take care of our bodies because it's

 

It is a more physically taxing job than people think that it is. And so taking care of yourself, making sure you're doing some stretches. And so, yeah, it is a little bit more physically taxing to do assistive tithing, but it's a lot better than it used to be because we got a lot better tools than we used to have.

 

Kiera Dent (12:02.607)

Right. Okay. So that actually helps. And so I'm curious, like, let's just throw out a scenario. And Britt, this week, I mean, we talked to offices about this in our consulting where, so let's say a hygienist, I'm going to use really easy numbers because I don't want to get wild. Let's say a hygienist is $30 an hour, which some of you are laughing at me. I know that's not even in the realm of your hygienist. I'm very aware of this. I also don't want to throw ranges out there intentionally on the. Exactly. There's also a reason I'm not throwing high ranges out there because I don't want to set standards that are not.

 

Britt (12:24.366)

a bit apathetic.

 

Kiera Dent (12:31.056)

Realistic for your area. I feel like 30 is a safe number for me So if I'm hiring a hygienist at 30 and I bring on another hygienist for 30 That would be $60 an hour that I'm paying of compensation for it Well in this area if my hygienist is 30 odds are I could probably get an assistant for between like 17 to 20 realistically if my hygienist is only at 30 I think that that's like a fair number probably more like 15 in that area, but let's say you're there at 20 just for easy math I've got $30 for hygiene. I've got $20 for an assistant

 

I actually have $10 of extra, if you're following my math, $10 of extra that's not being paid. Britt, what are your thoughts of if an office takes that $10 and even if they pay a hygienist say 35 an hour during assisted hygiene time versus just 30, does that actually make any difference for a hygienist? I know some can do more. Some it's gonna be like, you're paid 30, now I'm paying you 40 during your assisted hygiene days. Tell me like how that is from an office standpoint.

 

because there's obviously different compensation amounts we're going to be doing. And from a hygienist standpoint, does that feel better? Does that make it easier? Is that like, sure, I'll take on a couple assisted hygiene days. I'm always pro don't run assisted hygiene every single day. I think that does burn your hygienist out. Usually if I recommend it, it's either for a day or a half a day for a hygienist, but trying to make it, but like, is that necessary, Britt, from your perspective from hygiene?

 

Britt (13:50.786)

mean, yes, some degree of compensation difference 100 % if you're running assisted hygiene. I know on the last episode we talked about a base plus commission. I like that even for assisted hygiene because, if we're doing assisted hygiene, we should be producing more. And so again, I do like that model because it naturally adjusts things and compensates accordingly. So yes, I do think there should be some sort of compensation that's more on those days. And I do like it when it's

 

Kiera Dent (14:01.775)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (14:11.972)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (14:20.494)

Base Plus Commission. Now I've got some, I've had one client where it's nice when you have a group of hygienists. I do love an office with a few. And they did, they rotated an assisted hygiene day through all of them. And they were like fighting over who got the assisted hygiene day. Like they wanted it, right? Like, and it's because yeah, they make more on those days and they were compensated based on their production was a part of it. And so they loved having those days to get a little bit more of a boost. And it was almost like

 

Kiera Dent (14:34.743)

They do!

 

Britt (14:46.862)

when we don't need it anymore what's going to happen because they all like getting that little bit of extra income coming from.

 

Kiera Dent (14:53.368)

And so how do you even win over a team to do it? Because I agree, and I actually hear that more than I hear the opposite. I hear more hygienists actually enjoy it more than they thought they would. I hear a lot of them figure it out, especially when that's not my everyday. think if they had to do it every day, it'd be a little bit more taxing. But think about it. You've got four hygienists. We add an extra column of hygiene four days a week. We've literally brought in a whole extra hygienist without bringing a hygienist on. So I think it's a very creative way to do it. But how do I even like?

 

package this, you know I look at in sales terms, like how do I even like convince a team that this is a great idea to trial it out rather than just the resistance of hygienist saying no, just like you said, no, I want my patient care. I want to own over this. Like I want A to Z. I hear all the time we're going to have the patient care. It's going to be disrupted. And I'm like, well, it can be, or it could actually be more awesome. How do you win a team over to even be open to trying it?

 

Britt (15:47.084)

Yeah, I think it depends on the office scenario, right? Like what's the reason, what's the why that we're doing it? And I'm a big fan of like, hey, let's try it first, right? Like I'm not saying you have to do it forever. I'm not saying you have to do it every day, but like, let's try it and let's figure out a system that feels comfortable and meets our like standard of care that we want to provide. So let's start easy, let's work through it, let's train up an assistant. do think.

 

Cystid Hygiene needs one of your best assistants to be helping in Cystid Hygiene to make it run smooth and give those patients that great experience. And so let's work through the system and see how it goes. like, yeah, it's going to be compensated. If I've got a hygienist who's a gunner and likes to run and does not like to stop, then that's usually my first one. Then I'm like, great, let's team up. Let's get that figured out and see how it goes first. And then word can kind of spread because usually they'll do really well.

 

Kiera Dent (16:14.681)

I agree.

 

Kiera Dent (16:34.448)

Hmm.

 

Britt (16:42.062)

And so yeah, sometimes it's a personality thing, right? Some will love it, some will struggle a little bit. Sometimes there's people that like are gonna be your ones to help you figure it out. And some are like, well, once I see someone else do it and like, oh, that's not so bad. All right, then I'll go ahead and do it. So I think depending on the reason why, I think trying it first, I agree with you, not an everyday thing. It can even be like start with half a day and see how it goes and just start to figure out to find the rhythm of it.

 

Because I think when you find the rhythm of it and you're like, yeah, that works really well, then it's like, OK, like we can do more of this. And I think it can run.

 

Kiera Dent (17:18.276)

And I'm really grateful that you shared about the office that you have, that they all want it and they enjoy it because I think that that actually can be the reality of what can happen from it. And I'm really big when you roll it out, agreed. Having not a great assistant really will actually make this harder. So do not go and hire a brand new fresh off the street assistant that does not know what they're doing, can't take great x-rays, can't move through because hygienist having someone that they trust that they can lean on, that they know is going to do a great job.

 

If they can polish, that's a great way for them to be able to use it. And then really also another big piece are no new patients, no SRP, no perio maintenance put in that. It's really just pro fees because that's gonna make it so much cleaner for them to be able to run this effectively. And you're running it on the half an hour. And then doctors, you have to be very strategic when you go in for exams. And doctors, you cannot be late on assisted hygiene because that will throw your whole hygiene. Like it's a domino and it will be good part.

 

Britt (18:12.302)

That's the quickest way to take your hygienist off when you're asking them to do assisted hygiene. 100%. That's the way. That's the way to do it.

 

Kiera Dent (18:15.44)

And that's not like, we'll be there, we'll be there. It's like, you've got to get up and jump. But that's also with hygienists too, making sure that we're giving our doctors enough time. Like I try to ask hygienists to give a 30 minute window of exam time where a doctor could come in. So that way doctors can find the end time of prep, come and get their exams done and keep everybody on schedule. So hygienists plug there, try really hard because I know there's some hygienists who love to alert right at the end of the appointment. And then they're fresh when doctor doesn't come in.

 

Well, like let's notify when they could come in. Like let's take our x-rays the first 15 minutes and then try to get doctors out at that. I try to have them out. Please do.

 

Britt (18:51.934)

I'll one-up you a little bit on that as soon as diagnostics are done. As soon as my diagnostics are done and they've got x-rays, they've got period charting photos, I'm letting them know. Come at any time. I'm happy to have you. And of course, there's a bunch of plaque that's gonna make it more difficult once I've got that done, but I'm gonna notify them. at any time.

 

Kiera Dent (19:04.856)

Yes.

 

Kiera Dent (19:12.536)

And then doctors, I try to have you out at the quarter to the hour, meaning like you're not walking into the exam, you're walking out of the exam. So that allows hygienists to polish floss, wrap up, get everything done, get the patient out, flip the room and get their next patient back on time. So I think that that's something that before I maybe rolled out assisted hygiene doctors, I might take that on with the hygiene team. Like let's get really good on our exams. Let's calibrate those exams up so they can be more efficient. Let's do the, I have a better.

 

I haven't told you my new acronym. It's not iCrap. So if you've been listening to me, I have a new one. It's called iCreep. So it's iCreep when you come in that's introduction, compliment, recap, and then a personal note. And if hygienist can get really good at that handoff when doctors come in or assistance, and then doctors are really good on their NDTR, so wrapping up your treatment plans, that's gonna really help that synergy. And then also maybe doing what would doctor do to diagnose and to help tee up treatment. I think that that can just...

 

Again, we're all working together to make those exams as efficient as possible while also giving the best patient care. But I creep, that's my new one. It's not I, Sierra. It is, I creep. Someone was like, creep, and I was like, amazing. I wish it could be CPR. I've been working to figure out different letter and words. So to be determined, but okay, let's like, go ahead.

 

Britt (20:16.11)

It's a step better. It's a step better than the last one.

 

Britt (20:28.014)

Real quick, one more thing on the exams, because with a really good assistant on exams, the other thing I think about, and that for me as a hygienist I care about as well, is making sure treatment is teed up really well.

 

Kiera Dent (20:40.675)

of greed.

 

Britt (20:41.59)

Patients aren't having to repeat themselves and get frustrated and then not wanting to get treatment done just because they feel like they're not being listened to. So that communication piece and having an assistant who's really strong who can relay that information to doctor if they're the ones that are going to be in there for the exam and make sure that it's teed up really well for the doctor and they can speak to it is huge because that's, I don't want to, you know, rob Peter to pay Paul, right? I don't want to.

 

have not so great exams and not close as much treatment by adding an assisted hygiene, I'd rather leave it and get really good exams and really good case acceptance. Overall as a business, that's gonna help me a little bit more. So just making sure that again, that assistance key, really quality exams for your patients, even though you're working assisted hygiene, make sure that experience is stellar and 100 % can be done. It just takes a really good team to work together with a hygienist and assistant.

 

Kiera Dent (21:35.0)

Yeah, that's a great point because you can have forms where the hygienist can document it in there because people are in opposite rooms. But getting a good role and a good synergy is going to make this so much better for setting this up for success. And I think the answer is I actually don't think hygienists hate assisted hygiene as much. think it's there's quite a few little like tick boxes that if you can check them off, have a good assistant have good exams.

 

have doctors in and out on time, have the assistant really, really solid with being able to tee up the treatment and close the cases, have someone that has a similar vibe to the hygiene team that cares about these patients a ton. I think if you can check those boxes, and then you also compensate higher. There's so many little pieces that everybody's super excited about to do it, but I think if you're missing any of those six, it does not feel as good to try. okay.

 

Britt (22:14.701)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (22:24.022)

Yeah, and patients are used to working with two people, right? So that's even, it's like, yeah, it's one more person in the mix, but on the doctor's side, there's two of you. So having an assistant with hygiene, isn't that big of a deal? Seeing the same two faces every time, like they'll be fine with it. Cause I know that can be a concern. I'm like, they're used to having two people on the doctor's side.

 

Kiera Dent (22:41.104)

I see the same. I'm like, just because we're not used to it doesn't mean it's odd for the patient. I tell doctors when you're onboarding an associate, I'm like, you can assist each other. And I know that feels weird to you, to the patient, they're used to someone else in there. To hygienist, they're used to people switching rooms. it's not something, if we're not weird about it, your patient won't be weird about it. But I think we feel very awkward because we feel uncomfortable. But just not projecting that onto your patient. Cause I don't think it's as much as you might think it is. So, okay,

 

Britt (23:10.316)

And ender fun for assisted hygiene, I always have someone to pair your chart for me. So I'll take that as a win.

 

Kiera Dent (23:15.28)

True, that is a big win. mean, truth, you're not having to call for it. Okay, the hot topic of shorter appointment times. I'm talking, I've heard 50 minute appointments, 45 minute appointments. Is this doable, Britt? And I think I'm gonna know your answer, I also, like come from both, come from hygiene, Britt, and operations, Britt. Bring both of those Brits to the table and you answer. I'm curious.

 

Britt (23:40.11)

And I'll say this, I have worked in offices with all of the above, right? So I've done all of the above.

 

Kiera Dent (23:44.42)

came. Her bigade you guys have idea. Good thing we plugged that at the beginning.

 

Britt (23:49.038)

So all are doable. I think there's a couple of things that make a difference when it comes to shortening appointments, depending on what type of experience you want them to have, right? That's an important part to consider for doctors. Depending on our pay or mix, what we need to do in order to the business running, that's something to consider. And then also how efficient we are.

 

Kiera Dent (24:11.376)

true.

 

Britt (24:17.07)

as a team and like doctor doing exams, right? That's an important piece of it. And then another one is our patient base slash how good are we at keeping them healthy and not giving ourselves a lot of work every single time our patients come in. If you know what I'm saying, those bloody profusers, they're a lot of work. So if I'm treating period appropriately, I'm educating my patients, they're coming in regularly.

 

Kiera Dent (24:30.85)

you

 

Kiera Dent (24:36.089)

I do.

 

Britt (24:42.734)

We all know those are patients that are a lot easier to see and more efficient most of the time. And yeah, there's gonna be even working on shorter appointment times, there's gonna be some. Like you know that person that's like an advanced period patient and I'm like, I cannot in my right moral standing do that in 45 minutes, it's gonna be an hour. There's gotta be some of that liberty where needed.

 

Kiera Dent (25:03.888)

Yeah, I agree. So I think the hard thing of switching appointment times is I do think it becomes an all model because for me to shift it, it feels like a daunting project to shift from 60 minutes to 45 minutes. Now I'm moving everything up. My exam times don't hit at the same time anymore. Things just are moving all around. that's a huge jump.

 

Britt (25:18.99)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (25:29.804)

And 60 to 45 is a big jump. I wouldn't go that far if we're going to play around with times. Maybe you could go from 60 to 50. Most offices are running on 10 minute increments. So you can make that shift. And it's just you've got to be really on point to run that efficiently, because the quality's still got to be there. It's just we've got to be able to run really efficiently.

 

Kiera Dent (25:45.208)

I agree.

 

Britt (25:57.944)

And I'll add this, and depending on what I was expected within that appointment as well, right? If we want the hygienist to be super comprehensive, we want them to get scans done, we want them to collect a lot of information for us, like, I map it out, right? That takes me two minutes, that takes me three minutes. Like, what's reasonable in an appointment for us to get done by the minute mapped out and then make your decision?

 

Kiera Dent (26:11.002)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (26:19.652)

I think that that's a wise and don't go for your fastest hygienist and don't go for your slowest hygienist. Let's find that middle ground of what's reasonable between the two because you do have some. mean, Britt and I, can even hear in our, the way we talk, we've got different tempos. mean, but you can guess who's a little bit faster and who's a little bit slower between me and Britt. And sometimes it's really good. Like Britt slowing me down and me speeding her up. And I think Britt and I would both agree that a happy medium between the two of us is the right spot to be, which is usually where we end just in

 

Britt (26:33.752)

huh.

 

Britt (26:41.87)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (26:48.814)

Yeah. And a team working together really well, right? Especially when I was working on 45 and 50 minutes. I mean, we had a fantastic clinical coordinator, right? So if my next patient was here and there was a room to be had even for a few minutes to get x-rays done, and someone was available, they were getting those x-rays done and getting it started. So it's a different tempo and pace you run on. And it does take full team support. It's not going to be like, oh, well, they're early. Oh, they're here. We have space to see them.

 

Kiera Dent (26:49.561)

in decisions.

 

Britt (27:18.058)

start getting them taken care of so that it helps your team members out and we get them out as efficiently as possible.

 

Kiera Dent (27:24.464)

So that's a good point because then it becomes, it's not just the hygienist. Cause I think 60 minutes is kind of like hygiene does their own thing. We want them to do everything on shorter appointment times. We are trying to get more, more bodies in and out. But I did the math and it's like, if I'm going from 60 to 50, I'm getting 10 extra minutes per appointment. That's going to give me 80 minutes in a day, but that's not enough for me to get two extra appointments unless I do a 50 minute plus an additional like 30 minute. And so I would ask the question, Britt, and I don't know if

 

Britt (27:32.897)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (27:53.36)

you run the numbers or not on it. I mean, I haven't, so that's why I'm asking. But if I've got a hygiene team that does take ortho scans for us when we do ortho, I've got a hygiene team who's taking CBCTs for implants and we're teeing it up for all on X cases. If they're looking for sleep and we're doing snore tests on them, does it really make sense to get me one more hygiene patient for hygiene? Or does it make sense to look to optimize the additional services? Now I get like, we might be trying to get

 

because I'm like, well, what's the reason we're doing it? If we're trying to shorten the appointment times because we have too many patients, maybe it's worth looking at our fees. But if we're trying to get more patients in to optimize our hygienist pay, to be able to pay them and compensate for the amount of production they're doing. And I know a lot of offices don't pay hygienists for those scans. Like if you do a night guard scan or you do an ortho scan, it goes to the doctor, which I understand because the doctor is going to need to do a lot. But I'm just curious, like to me, it makes a little bit more sense, possibly.

 

If my hygienist have 60 minutes, I'm already there, why don't I try to optimize and maximize that appointment, paying them maybe a little bit of these scans that I want to be done so that way they can hit their production number, but it benefits the office on a bigger scale. What are your thoughts on that, Britt?

 

Britt (29:05.61)

where I think it comes back to what type of experience, what type of office, what's your vision. It comes back to ultimately write any business. It comes back to the volume value question. By cutting time, we're choosing volume. By using that time better, we're choosing value.

 

Kiera Dent (29:20.208)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (29:26.318)

It's going to be a personal preference. I'm not going to say there's a right or wrong answer in that because there's a lot of factors depending on kind of what your payer mix is like. I definitely have some areas that even for me, I tried to move that culture of the area, if I tried to move that patient at the speed that I need for a 45 minute appointment, they are not going to love it. Even though I might be the most pleasant human being they've ever interacted with because the pace that they run is a little bit slower, right? And so...

 

Kiera Dent (29:50.916)

Yeah.

 

Britt (29:56.334)

right when I was running 45 minutes, we were right outside of DC. Those people don't want to be there that long. Right. And they were, you know, demographic was easy for us to run them through. And so they didn't mind the fast pace and we still connected, but we were able to run like that. So I think it comes back to overall experience on what you want to have. and there's no right or wrong, but I love making more use of the time we have, which is where I think hygienist functioning to the

 

the height of their capability, right? If you can use laser and that's something your office wants to bring in, great. That's something that can be an adjunct service that adds to the production. You know, what can you do for the patient? I think not only on the hygiene side, but that's where I think it really is a team to where what can I do in scans, in pictures, in educating patients about treatment options, talking to them about what do they really value? What do they really want? Are there cosmetic things that they're looking for?

 

Kiera Dent (30:29.232)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (30:53.24)

There's a lot you can do and I think that's for hygienists to realize if we do well overall, right, everybody wins. So when we're able to get where we need to production collection wise as an office overall, it makes it easier for us to say, yeah, that time is useful. We're making good use of it on the hygiene side. Let's keep our appointments at 60 minutes. Or if it's like, hey, we're not, we either need to do that and get things up or.

 

we're going to have to evaluate and make some decisions because sometimes there's just business decisions that need to be made and we need to figure out how to adapt and innovate.

 

Kiera Dent (31:28.324)

Yeah, right. That was such an insightful piece. And as you were talking, I just thought, I hope offices are listening because I think that this is just a really good, like, this is where we, have to get into the, are we doing this? What are additional pieces rather than just the like quick surface level decision? Because I think there's so many pieces below it. Like you said, demographics, DC, 45 minutes makes a ton of sense. Those people are faster in and out. They're younger population. Like it's an easier model to roll that.

 

Britt (31:56.268)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (31:56.396)

versus maybe let's say some areas in Arizona, like you might not have a same, you might have it like in Scottsdale Tempe, but if we're going a little further out to maybe some of those senior centers, that's not an ideal model for maybe an older population base. So really like you said, and I think like volume versus value, and I don't think it's the value that we're bringing to the patient. It's the value of are we doing ortho? Are we adding these adjunct services to it? You obviously add value to your patients, but are we doing a lot of people?

 

or are we doing less people but more extensive? That's gonna be a clinical or a business decision and also a clinical decision and also a cultural decision of what you ultimately want your practice to be. But I get it, you gotta make these decisions, you gotta make the business run. I would just caution, don't make the quick decision because I think there's multi-layers below each of them to really consider. So hygiene Britt, thanks for coming today. Any last thoughts you've got as we wrap up? Assisted hygiene, shorter appointments, I think they are really good perspectives to bring.

 

Britt (32:55.822)

I think my last thing I like that you said, right, don't make the quick decision, evaluate it. And I think even hygienist, right, it's easy for us as team members, I do the same thing, right? I can see my world and what it's gonna impact for me, but I understand there's more behind it than just my view. And so really taking a good look overall and seeing what's gonna be the best decision. And yeah, how we're functioning now might make us think that we need to make this decision, but maybe we can keep running and function a little different to where we don't have to make that change.

 

Kiera Dent (33:25.52)

I think it's a really good perspective. if you guys are in this debacle, we're speaking to your souls. This is what we love to do with our practices is really weigh the pros and cons and help the office make the best decision for their practice, not just a decision and really thinking through the, all the different pieces and then executing and getting your whole team on board, helping the team see the pieces so you can really be successful. So reach out if we can help. [email protected] thanks for being with me today. I appreciate it.

 

Britt (33:53.196)

Yeah, thanks for having me.

 

Kiera Dent (33:54.648)

Of course, and for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

 

 

Tiff and Kristy talk about how doctors can get to that point where their practice can function with and without them, including taking a good and hard look at your numbers, dialing in your BAM, encouraging delegation and accountability, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.676)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. my gosh, I'm so excited for today. I know you guys diligently listen constantly that you're here, that you're here for us, and we just love you and we value you and we appreciate you. We recently had some virtual events and it's just been really cool to see the masses show up in such incredible support for who we are, what we do for this community, and just all of the outpour of love. So we want to say thank you guys for

 

being listeners for always showing up for us. We hope we do the same for you, that we always show up for you. And I'm just so excited for today. I have with me today the one and only Miss Kristy. She is a consultant here on our team. If you have not gotten to meet her yet, you are doing yourself a disservice. I'm excited for you to hear from her today. We've got a really great conversation we're about to have. And honestly, guys, Kristy is just this incredible wealth of knowledge. She has been such an asset to our team.

 

such an asset to the consultant team alone and her clients that she works one-on-one with are just already raving about her. So we are so excited. Kristy, welcome to the platform. I know this is our first podcast and you came in, you know, late to the podcasting game, I'm going to call it, where it's video too. So it's like not to be, you know, overwhelming or put you on a pedestal or anything here, right? But I'm just super excited to have you here. And I know that the

 

Doctors who are listening today are just going to get so much valuable information. So, Kristy, thank you for being here today. Thank you for carving out the time in your schedule for this. And gosh, how are you? You're in Idaho right now, but soon, guys, she will be with me in Arizona, don't you fret. It is down the pipeline for her, but you're in Idaho right now, so what's the weather like? You know, it's drastically different from here. What's the weather like? How are you, Kristy? How are you on this fine recording Friday morning?

 

Kristy (01:38.274)

Yeah.

 

Kristy (01:52.95)

Love it. I'm happy to be here with you. Nervous for the first podcast, but we're going to do it because it's all about serving the doctors. actually, I'm excited to get to Arizona. It's snowing this morning. So yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready for some warm weather.

 

The Dental A Team (02:11.754)

Good. I'm excited for you to be here too. Phoenix has no snow. I don't know that Flagstaff even has real snow right now. I have no idea. But Phoenix has no snow and it's a brisk, like, I don't know, probably 60 degrees. It was 38 this morning though. Anyways, I'm excited you're here, Kristy. Thank you. And doctors, team members who are listening, leaders, office managers, today is going to be super fun. I've probed some tips and probed Kristy's brain today.

 

on a subject matter that I think she's actually really smart on. I think we all work really hard with our doctors to help you guys work yourselves out of the business. Like that's the ultimate goal. Whether you work out of the business or not, whether you're like, gosh, no, I actually really love this stuff, Tiff. I want to do the admin stuff. I don't care. But I want you to have that opportunity to be able to say yes or no, I want to do those things. So building and creating a business that can work without you is our ultimate goal. Like a profitable...

 

survivable business that works for you, that you can take a step back and say, gosh, you know what? I want to go to Aruba for a month and I think my team's going to be fine and my business can survive. I want you to be able to make those decisions. So today, that's what we're going to be talking about you guys. How do we create a sustainable business that can survive with and without you? Not or with and without you so that you get to make that decision. And Kristy, I know we

 

have a ton of clients that we work with this every single day. And I think both of us, both you and I kind of have that mindset of like, cool, these are the places that we're going, but forever more, like I want you to always be thinking.

 

Forevermore, I want you to always be thinking, how do I work myself out of the business? Like, how do I make sure that I'm ready to go and I can take that vacation or whatever? So I know, Kristy, that's something that we work on a lot. And I have some ideas, and I know you do too, and I want to pick your brain some today. So first and foremost, I think one of the spaces I want to start with is really the overhead and the profitability. That's a huge focus of DEML-A team for

 

The Dental A Team (04:15.605)

all of the consulting that we do. I know we do a ton of team training and I know that's what a lot of people come to us for is for that team training for the systems. But you guys, the reality is if we're not focusing on your overhead, your profitability and the metrics of your business, there's no telling if that training is even beneficial for you guys. I could train somebody to do something, but is it actually making a result in your practice? And are you able to pull that back into that profitability space? So as your...

 

Working yourself out of the business, air quotes were there for those of you who are listening, not watching. As you're working yourself out of the business here, I want you to really sincerely be focused on the numbers and the metrics of your practice. What is your overhead out? Where is your true profitability? And Kristy, I think we can both agree, true profitability is like such a vague statement in dentistry because...

 

Everybody says your overhead should be like 50%, right? 50 % or less, and your profitability should be at least 20%. Well, guess what, guys? Nobody talks about the loans, paying yourself, the taxes. Like, all of those extra pieces aren't always talked about. So, Kristy, know this is something, forecasting is something that you're really fantastic at and you work really hard with your clients at.

 

Within that world of trying to make sure that we're prepped to exit the practice at some point, how do you implement with your teams and your practices that overhead profitability piece so that your doctors know what to look for so they can say, hey, I think I'm ready for that step?

 

Kristy (05:45.718)

Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, I think it's obviously projecting out, looking at what is it gonna take? What do I need to make this happen? And then reverse engineering it from there. Really dialing in to what will it take every single month for me to be away from the practice? What is that number that I need? And then working it backward to find that goal.

 

The Dental A Team (06:07.103)

Thank

 

The Dental A Team (06:15.978)

Yeah, I actually love that you said that. That's a beautiful, beautiful way to look at it because you guys, if you know what your BAM is, right, your bare ace minimum is how we say that at the Dental A Team, your bare ace minimum, how do we get to what that overhead needs to be? So if you know at X amount of dollars, your overhead, your true overhead, so that true overhead, right, is anything above the line. So anything that if someone were to purchase your practice today, they'd take those over. That does not include your owner pay.

 

Okay, your loans and your taxes, those are after bottom line, right? So your bottom line, if you say, okay, if I make Epsilon dollars, that's gonna get me to 50 % overhead, how much of that production or collections, right? Production turns into collections. How much of that money is coming from the treatment that I'm providing for my practice right now? So if you're the owner slash doctor and you're still clinical chair side, you need to take a look.

 

then at how much of that overhead piece is within your control as a provider. Because if you're looking to work yourself out of the business, you want to just be the overseer, you want to go on vacation for a month, you have to replace that production slash collections somehow. So then if you know what that bare ace minimum is to get to that profitability that you want and keep your business thriving, now you can look at what Chrissy is saying, like projecting and looking at every single month.

 

How do we replace that income? How do we replace that production and collections to ensure that the business is still moving forward? Now, in order to get that number, which is step one, I believe, in working yourself out of the business is knowing your freaking numbers, is really to look at where are you now? What's your overhead now? What is it after you pay yourself, et cetera? What's your true profitability? And where do you actually want it to be? So if you have an overhead of, I don't know, 60%.

 

Right? It's not horrible. Honestly, 55 to 65 % for people who aren't always like looking at it, don't know their numbers is pretty common. 55 to 65%. So maybe you're at 60%. Maybe you're at 80%. Okay, great. Well, I got to 80 % by collecting X amount of dollars. So if I want to lower that percentage, right, there's things to play with, right? Within your metrics, there are things to play with. Maybe you've got areas that we can slim down. But also if I were to increase my collections,

 

The Dental A Team (08:38.078)

with that decrease my overhead. So that's what Kristy's saying there, like really looking at what is our various minimum and then how do you now create that into someone else's schedule so that you're not the main provider. I love that Kristy. I think within that same conversation is really bringing in the leadership aspects of the practice and so you know your numbers, you're learning your business, you're you pedal to the metal, you're freaking figuring it out and who's supporting you.

 

Do you have an office manager who's trained to support you in those pieces? Are you still doing all of the admin work that an office manager truly could do? And do you have a leadership team set up within your practice who can create those spaces for you? And Kristy, you work a lot on leadership development, just like as a person for yourself and then as a person for your doctors. And then within that office manager and leadership positions too, how do you see an office's

 

You know, square one, no leadership, just a doctor thinks they might have somebody for an office manager compared to, I don't know, six months a year down the road, that doctor made the decision. They've got the rockin' office manager and they're making the leadership team. How do you feel that helps in the doctor's personal life? Like, how does that relieve stress for the doctor? You know, how does that relieve pressure from the doctor? What does that lifestyle change like once they implement and truly just go for it on a leadership standpoint?

 

Kristy (10:04.48)

Absolutely, truly it's that trust, right? It's a transfer of trust and having a peace of mind that the people that are in the leadership are living up to the same vision and mission of the practice and...

 

really developing the team below them and elevating them to a level, if you will, to help them grow and sustain that mission for the doctor. But really, when you delegate that and you see them rising to that occasion, it gives you that personal satisfaction too, if you will.

 

The Dental A Team (10:47.076)

Yeah, yeah, totally. I agree. And that trust aspect that you're talking about, think it's just like trusting anyone in your life to do anything. you when you're a parent and you trust a friend or a family member to pick your kids up from school, like, how much stress does that relief from you not having to be the one that does it or you got a carpool situation like

 

Any of those spaces are going to correlate back to it. And I totally agree with that because I think when you can dig in, you can get that office manager fully trained. can get a leadership team that's rising up to the occasion and able to take some of that load off of your plate. You now have space and energy to do other things. And in my opinion, when you're a practice owner, your job is to create something really, really freaking cool.

 

You're creating a space that people can come and love to work. So you're creating an avenue and a lifestyle for people. I don't know if you realize that. Your team, your employees, you're creating a life for them by creating an incredible life for yourself. So when you open up those spaces and you delegate those things off and you trust your team to take them on with accountability, there's always accountability coming back. That's how trust is earned and how trust is maintained.

 

When you delegate those things off and that accountability is there, the pieces are there and you trust them to do it, it opens up the space to have time to ensure that what you're creating still lines up with your vision. It still lines up with what your mission is as a dental practitioner and having a dental practice within your community. So then having a leadership team and within that same vein, like having core values, mission, vision, those are clear for you. They're clear for your team.

 

especially your leadership team, those pieces give us a heading of where we need to go. And those pieces now for your leadership team are developing autonomy within the leadership team, autonomy within decisions. I want you guys to think about, want you to take like 30 seconds, doctors, and I want you to just think of all of the ridiculous questions that you have been asked in the last three business days within your office, that you're just like,

 

The Dental A Team (13:02.245)

Why is this coming to me? I had a doctor out in California that I worked with for a little while and he is so amazing and he is just like this knowledge factory. Like he just soaks it all up and he's constantly learning and learning and learning. And so he's got, you know, that's own aspect of stress of his own that he's consuming constantly and creating constantly. And then we'd get on a call and he's like, my gosh, they asked me, why isn't Dentrix pulling up? He's like, I

 

I'm doing a root canal. I know. hey, what are we getting for lunch for the meeting today? He's like, I don't know. I'm doing an exam. Like, the amount of questions that come to you guys when you're chair side or when you're doing the thing that only you can do, remember, only you can fill this tooth. Only you can do this root canal. When those questions come to you, your brain has to stop what it's doing.

 

restart on whatever the question was, catch up, maybe even answer it, or at least get frustrated, stop, restart, come back again. And not only does it take more time, but you lose that value of who you are, how you're showing up for the patient and for your team in those moments. So those are the spaces I want you guys to think about. What are the things that are coming to you that's like, why am I doing this? Or I don't want to answer this question, or I'm in the middle of something.

 

Is that something that if trained correctly and given the right boundaries for autonomy, someone else could do for you? Because I think that's likely something that Kristy's talking about here, that you delegate off and you build that trust with that other person, with that accountability coming back. And Kristy, know you actually, you've got a ton of amazing doctors under your belt actually.

 

I have to brag on Dental A Team. I don't know what we do. I don't know what we do, right? But we attract the most incredible people into our company to work for us and with us, and into our client base to work with us. So we really, really have some incredible people. And you guys listening, I think we attracted you as well, and that means you're freaking incredible too. So kudos to all of you guys. I don't know what we do right, but we are so happy with the people we get to work with. And Kristy, you've got a handful of

 

The Dental A Team (15:25.628)

two handfuls more maybe, of incredible doctors that you're working with and leaders. And what are some ways that you've helped them? Because you do have some doctors who are really kind of fresh into this idea of delegating things off and building a lifestyle within their business where they could say, I want to take vacation. How do you help them to really figure those things out that they can delegate off and then to trust the process and stick with it?

 

Kristy (15:52.066)

Yeah, well first and foremost, I always like them to create a list. Like sit down and really think about all of those things you're doing and divide them out. Like is it something you enjoy doing? Is it something only you can do? Is it something that maybe you don't like to do? You know what I mean? And really create those lists and start.

 

The Dental A Team (16:15.227)

Yeah.

 

Kristy (16:19.338)

organizing them in that way so that you can start getting clear on the things that you want to delegate out. But then the other flip side of that TIF I would say is getting them to see that they're actually stifling the growth of the team and leadership beneath them.

 

when they are holding it so close to the vest. And, you know, when, maybe you can remember the saying, but we only rise as high as, do you remember the saying?

 

The Dental A Team (16:49.232)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, as we're allowed to, as we're given the space for. Yeah.

 

Kristy (16:52.834)

Yeah, yeah. you know, flipping it that way and getting them to see that, you know, by you hanging on to this so tightly, you're not allowing your team to grow and develop and support you in the way that they truly want to.

 

The Dental A Team (17:07.036)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, I think that one hits home for a lot of people. That was a really great way to take that because I know, especially the doctors we work with, they are in the business of growing themselves and growing the people around them. I just had a conversation this morning with a doctor and his office manager wife who were like, gosh, dang it, how do I get them to want to learn more? And I'm like, well, they have to want it first, but then you have to allow the space. I think that's like nail on the head because

 

you're not allowing that space, you're not giving the opportunity, they're only going to arise to the limits that you set for them, that you allow for them. That's the boundary, right? Like that's the standard. You've set the standard to here and until you move that bar, giving them more opportunity, they're going to keep hitting that standard. And I actually, it's come up a lot this week because I had a conversation yesterday with the regional manager that was like,

 

How do I get this? How do I do this? And I'm like, gosh dang it. You have to pave the path, right? And it's hard. can be a lot of work and it takes a lot of consistency and it takes a lot of desire on your part to truly want the results. So what is the results you're looking for? Do you want autonomous leaders? Do you want this stuff off of your plate? Do you want a business that works for you that you can say, I'm gonna take a vacation? Because if you do,

 

You're going to pave that path and you're going to do the hard work now to reap the rewards and the benefits later. Because if you do that hard work now and you say, I'm going to raise the standards, I'm going to delegate things off, I'm going to give them the opportunity for growth, I'm going watch them blossom and I'm going to hold the accountability line so that I can continue to trust that it's being done. It takes consistency. My practice I spoke to this morning, I was like, don't give up.

 

The Dental A Team (18:58.643)

Just because you said this is what you want doesn't mean they're going to turn around and do it. It's just, it's likely not going to happen that way because human nature just doesn't work that way. I wish it did. I truly wish it did, but it doesn't. I forget things, right? Kira will ask me to do something. And if Kira doesn't stay on top of me or we don't create like a system of accountability to report back that it's been done or to report back weekly on certain stats, it doesn't get done because I'll forget. I will get inundated with so many other things.

 

and will forget. And she loves me. She thinks I'm an incredible leader, but it frustrates the heck out of her. So we've figured out how to make sure that those report back systems are there. So I love that because that growth space is huge for both of you guys. And like I said, the doctors that we attract, I know this is what you want for them. Even if you're like, I don't care, Kristy, don't care, Tiff, I don't need to work myself out of the business I just started. Cool.

 

Guess what? You're still going to work yourself out of the business, but you actually love growing other people. I know that that's a space in you. I know it's spark that lights up in you because I know that's the type of humans that we attract in the Dental A Team. So if that's true and if that's what you want, help grow those people. And that will progress this so much faster than you could ever imagine. And I think all of those pieces, right, put together overhead and profitability first.

 

Teach your office manager how to shoot for overhead profitability and the numbers that you need. Figure out what that looks like to work yourself out of the business. Build an autonomous as you can leadership team. Continue working with them and you guys make sure that there are plenty of meetings for accountability set up. Accountability and forward progress. Constantly looking at the pieces we should have done. So accountability and looking at what's to come. The forward progress. And you guys make sure everyone knows.

 

Core values, vision, mission. You have to know them. You have to be solid on them. Your leadership team has to be solid on them. They have to live and breathe them and the rest of the team will follow. That's why they're the leadership team. The rest of the team will follow them. I think this is huge and I'm so excited. Kristy, out of all of those pieces, overhead, office manager and leadership team, the meetings, core value, vision, mission, out of all of those pieces, I'm just like,

 

The Dental A Team (21:25.043)

wondering what is your favorite space to work with doctors on?

 

Kristy (21:29.883)

really... Ooh! Favorite space.

 

Honestly, think, well, there's two, getting them to dial into what they really want. You know, what is that number metric? Because so many people get afraid of the metric, you know, and the metrics only a North Star was here say North Star to guide us. so being very clear on that, but then also really develop developing their leadership, you know, especially when doctors are open to it, you know, most

 

The Dental A Team (21:48.576)

Mm-hmm.

 

The Dental A Team (21:52.989)

Yeah, yeah.

 

Kristy (22:05.134)

of them are thriving in wanting or desire, I guess it would be a better word, desire to grow their people. And you you even mentioned something earlier, even if they're not looking to get out of the practice right now, starting this early and developing the team early, my gosh, that just creates more success within that timeline, you know, so.

 

The Dental A Team (22:05.62)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kristy (22:30.498)

The leadership part is really fun to watch unfold, you know?

 

The Dental A Team (22:34.696)

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I think I wanted to ask because I thought I knew I was like, I think I know. But I also feel like within that space, because I you and I are both similar in that we love growing people. We love growing the leadership we love when not we love nothing more than when we can help something on the business side that they're like, Whoa, actually, you just blew my mind. And that's my whole life. And we're like, yes, yes, your your whole life. So I know we're both

 

Kristy (22:58.507)

Thank

 

The Dental A Team (23:02.534)

like running down that road. But what I've noticed, and I think you probably have too, and the coaching that you've done for so many years as well, is like, that's a space that all of these other pieces fall into. Because you can't grow just that, in my opinion, without growing the other pieces. And you can't grow, you can grow, you can grow numbers, overhead profitability, and not grow leadership, but you're stuck. You're like, you're stuck in this space. You can't grow out of that stuck.

 

without that leadership development within yourself and within your team. So I think that's why we love it so much because it creates so much opportunity for everything else to fall into place when we can dive in and figure out our why, what are we even here for and how we're going to get there. So thank you for letting me pick your brain on that, Kristy. I loved it. Gosh, this was a really fun conversation, you guys. I, Kristy, thank you so much for riffing with me, letting me.

 

Pull out the big questions and just for being here with me. I truly appreciate and value your time so much. And you guys listening, gosh dang it, action items, here they come. I need you to evaluate where you're at. Like, what are your numbers? What's your BAM? What's your bare-ace minimum? Where do you want to go in comparison and create that roadmap? And if you guys need help with that, you know to reach out. [email protected] I don't know how many times I have to say it, we're here for you. So.

 

Create that number. What is that number? What does it look like? What does it need to look like? And when are you working yourself out of the business? Create that whole roadmap, you guys. Leadership. Develop yourself. You cannot develop leaders if you are not developing yourself. You can do them simultaneously, but you can't make other people become something you're not willing to become. So develop your leadership skills, develop your leadership team, create autonomy within that. Lots of meetings for accountability.

 

Mission, vision, core values, you guys, those are huge in my books. That's your heading and probably goes right back to that step one action item that I just gave you. So go to the things you guys, it might feel cumbersome right now. It might feel like, dang it, Kristy, you're giving me a whole lot of things to do this weekend. But guess what? You're going to do this now and it's going to take this X amount of time, maybe three hours, and it's going to save you time in the long run, because if you wait,

 

The Dental A Team (25:28.684)

you're gonna get to the end and you're gonna be like, I need out of this and you're not ready. But if you do it now, you can get to the end and be ready. It's gonna be so much more work if you're to a point where you need out and you're not ready than doing the hard work now and being ready when you get there. Kristy, thank you for your time. Thank you for traveling down this fun podcasting world with me. I truly appreciate you and I value your input. So thank you for being here.

 

Kristy (25:56.504)

Thank you for having me. And I would also say, Tiff, we're gonna come to that point, right? We're gonna travel down the line that you talked about, and we can either do it by default or we can do it with intention. So hopefully, it'll take your advice and we'll be intentional about it. So, fun

 

The Dental A Team (25:58.876)

Of course.

 

The Dental A Team (26:10.739)

The Dental A Team (26:15.871)

I love it. Thank you. You guys, I hope you picked up on the fact that Kristy has some freaking nuggets that she drops, and I am so excited for you guys to partake in these nuggets. Kristy, I will surely have you back on for so many more podcasts, and the world needs to hear them. I get them constantly, and I'm just like, dang, that was good. And so I'm excited for everybody else to hear them. Thank you for that. It was truly invaluable. You guys, go do the hard things. And while you're at it...

 

Leave us a five star review because we love to hear from you here on this podcast and also on Google. We need them everywhere. We love them. We want to know that we're doing right by you. So tell us that you enjoyed it. Tell us if there's something different that you'd like to hear. You know we want all the feedback. So leave us a five star review. You guys, if you haven't done it yet, you can sign up for a strategy call with our team. Current clients, you get those all the time. If you need a strategy call, tell your consultant, non-current clients, if you want a free call.

 

to just dive in and figure out where you are and where you need to start. Sign up for a strategy call. They're free, they're fun, and it really gives you a great direction, whether you're going to become a client with us or not, get that strategy call in there. Have so much fun. Thank you for joining. Thank you for being a podcast listener, and we will catch you guys next time.

Kiera and Britt have a deep discussion on the ins and outs of hygiene right now, including what’s on hygiene grads’ minds, the right ranges for skill sets, how different practices are staying scrappy amid the dearth of hygienists, and more.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00.822)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I have Brittany Stone, the one and only No BS Britt. And today I'm asking her to play Hygiene Britt. If you didn't know, it's actually fun. It is. And it was funny because yesterday, Britt and I actually like had, we were heavy in Dental A Team mode. And then I called Britt back probably like a minute later and I said, Hey Britt, can you be Hygiene Britt for me? Cause I have a hygiene question.

 

Britt (00:26.988)

you

 

Kiera Dent (00:29.102)

So Britt, welcome to the show today. How are you?

 

Britt (00:32.308)

I'm good, how are you doing?

 

Kiera Dent (00:34.23)

I'm great. How does it feel to be hygiene Britt? Like go from, mean, you're Dental A Team's operations manager, you're also consultant, like all the things. How does it feel like go back into that clinical space sometimes?

 

Britt (00:45.678)

I mean, hygiene are roots, man. Like that's the beginning. So it feels to me, I know you guys haven't known me as like hygienist. Like, yes, I know hygiene stuff, but you never worked with me clinically as a hygienist. But to me, I'm like, yeah, that's me.

 

Kiera Dent (00:54.872)

true.

 

Kiera Dent (01:00.91)

I'm glad because it is fun. I actually was talking to Jason last night after you and I had chatted and I said, Jay, it was actually really fun to talk to Britt about like where we started. I mean, I'm dental assistant, Kiera, office manager, Kiera, treatment coordinator, Kiera. No one's known me as that in Dental A Team. And so I'm just going to throw it out there because you never know who's listening to the podcast and who would ever like take me up on this idea. But if there's someone out there,

 

that would love to allow Dental A Team to come in for one day and go back to our roots. So Britt, we probably have to do this in Arizona, because I think you're only licensed in certain states, right? Okay, so Arizona offices, if you know someone in Arizona, all of our crew will be there in March and there might be a few other times, but I think it'd be funny to see a Dental A Team take over. Like how would it be for Tip to be an assistant?

 

Britt (01:35.318)

Yeah, currently still just Arizona. My OG state over here.

 

Kiera Dent (01:52.462)

me to either be an assistant or a treatment coordinator, and Dana to go back into hygiene and just see like how it would run. if anybody's open to letting us come back into our, like put the scrubs on and just see like, shoot, we'll cover for a day for you guys.

 

Britt (02:01.198)

.

 

Britt (02:06.358)

It would be like a good and wild time all at the same time because I think we're all a little bit more maybe assertive than we might have been in some of our olden days in those positions.

 

Kiera Dent (02:14.038)

Hahaha

 

Kiera Dent (02:18.316)

I agree. And this is why I want to see like what would Dental A Team do if we were all put into one office at one time. So anyway, if you're interested, email me [email protected] This isn't a passive ask. This is like, I really think it'd be so fun. We've talked about it so many times, like what would it be like? So, Hey, if you're ever interested in Dental A Team.

 

Britt (02:23.046)

Yeah.

 

Britt (02:35.982)

Usually what we do is we say if we could all only be one role, so no doubling up on roles, this is the game Kiera likes to play, who would be which role within the office is usually how this goes. yeah, not to say we don't get along, we would have a fantastic time, but you'd get a lot of ideas that they would run quick, I'll tell you that.

 

Kiera Dent (02:45.118)

I do.

 

Kiera Dent (02:49.762)

and

 

Kiera Dent (02:55.608)

Thank

 

Kiera Dent (02:58.99)

Well, and I'm like, believe it or not, I would actually not go for office manager. So I'm out on that. Shelby will probably take on office manager role, even though she's never done it, she'll do great. But it is kind of funny, Tiffany, we were talking the other day and I said, Tiff, I remember being a dental assistant and I had hours of time sitting there like root canals, crown preps, where I just thought of all these ideas and Tiff's like, I would like, I literally would hate if you actually went back to that and had that much time to think of ideas.

 

Britt (03:08.014)

Thank you.

 

Kiera Dent (03:26.904)

Fair enough. anyway, throwing it out there, Britt and I have a good time, but truly I do think it'd be fun if an office allowed us to come and just like see what would happen if all of us went back into it. You might hate it. Don't worry, doctors. You can still keep like one or two main assistants. Like we won't fully do it, but like we're, we think we'd be the A team. I'm just curious if we'd actually be rated A, B, C or D going back in as a whole team. Exactly. But on that note, pivoting into what we want to chat about.

 

Britt (03:47.327)

Put our money where our mouth is. Is that what you're saying?

 

Kiera Dent (03:55.96)

Britt and I wanted to get on the podcast and I really wanted Britt to be on this podcast with me because Britt is a hygienist and believe it or not, I have had actually some clients ask Britt and Dana like, hey, if you ever want to like leave consulting and come back to hygiene, hey, poo poo on you, that's terrible, don't do that. We don't poach your people, don't poach ours. But it is interesting because I do know that hygiene is a hot topic and so I thought Britt, if we came on the podcast today and we actually chatted about...

 

Britt (04:08.174)

Thank

 

Britt (04:12.056)

you

 

Kiera Dent (04:22.508)

All right, let's talk about hygiene. How do we get hygienists? How can we hire? How can we attract? What are maybe some out of the box thinking today? And also doing on both sides of the coin because I do know we have hygienists that do listen to the podcast as well. So shout out to you listening in and educating yourself and understanding kind of the predicament the doctors are in because it's this constant, like I do feel over the last four years since COVID, the hygiene pay range has like just like escalated up this ladder, which is making it hard for practices to stay profitable, which then leads to if

 

The practices can't maintain profitability. I do actually wonder and this is kind of just my thoughts and I'm sure Britt you've thought of it. Will there come a point where hygienists are actually asking for too much that dentists say it's not worth it for hygienists? I'm just going to hire a dentist. So I'm just like just so we know and I want hygienists. So it's going to be kind of like a really open conversation. My goal today is that none of what we bring ever should be weaponized against people. So there might be some ideas discussed hygienists if we're talking about certain things to me. This is not always on where you can go in.

 

take this to your doctor and demand certain things and doctors if that happens, like it sounds like that's a great opportunity to coach that hygienist out and bring someone else in and vice versa. Hygienists and doctors, like doctors not weaponizing and saying, hygienists we're so high, I can't afford to do this or things like that. I think really understanding the dynamics of where we're at, I think is gonna be a good conversation. So Britt, you, hi, Janice Britt, welcome to the scene, hello.

 

Britt (05:45.454)

Thank you. I'll put that hat on. And it's all in fairness, right? I think that's what it comes down to in any working relationship. And even when it comes down to talking about things like compensation, like it should be a conversation for both sides, right? And sometimes there's things that can be done. Sometimes there's things that can't be done. And sometimes performance-wise, it doesn't warrant being done. So I think that's just the mindset to go into it with always when it comes to those conversations is it is a conversation. It should be a conversation.

 

demands back and forth and finding the best fair solution.

 

Kiera Dent (06:20.502)

Yeah, absolutely. And Britt, I'm so glad that you're open to this. And Britt, the reason I love her in operations next to me, like I feel like her and I are really good yin and yang. think Britt and I truly, we have very different personalities. We have very different mindsets. We have very different pieces. And I think when you can bring those two perspectives to the table, I'm very strong entrepreneur. I'm very strong business. very, like Britt will tell you, I come in very strong on those and Britt will come in very strong on team.

 

Britt (06:32.876)

you

 

Kiera Dent (06:45.282)

I think that to have someone like that in your corner to me is invaluable because it allows Britt and I to really, like we say hash, like we really do go back and forth knowing that our ultimate goal is to land on what's fair and best for the business, what's fair and best for the patients, what's fair and best for our team, what's fair and best for every player in the scene and the arena. And I believe when you can have these conversations, you can get there. So Britt, I wanna just kick off.

 

It's something that's come up and I'm just curious from your perspective as a hygienist, because you are a senior hygienist. You've been in the ranks. You haven't been there as a brand new grad. And there are some hygienists who are feeling like these new grads are coming out asking for quite a lot. I've actually been told that a lot of the hygiene teachers are actually telling them to ask for higher amounts. And I'm really curious, like, do you feel that there should be ranges where if you've been out of school for say zero to five years, it's kind of like this is your range.

 

if you've been out of school from five to 10 years or 10 years plus, because some of those senior hygienists do feel like, hey, I've been in here, I've been running the ranks. And then I'll give you the flip side that I also think of, but sometimes my senior hygienist might not be as up to date as my brand new grads out of school. So there's this like, there is an experience piece of you've been with the patients longer, but sometimes like, I know certain hygienists don't do as much perio, whereas new grads do more perio sometimes. So.

 

Again, I'm not here to judge the hygiene world. I'm just curious, Britt, from your perspective, being a hygienist who's been in the realm for a while, what's your take on like, should there be ranges based on experience or is it on performance? Like, what's kind of some metrics that you see that would be beneficial when we're looking at compensation to be fair across the board?

 

Britt (08:22.414)

I mean, you know fairness is a big thing to me, right? So I and this will be a probably to some maybe not the most popular opinion But I do think it's the fairest and I no matter the role right whether it's a hygienist whether it's an assistant whether it's a front desk whether it's an associate coming in I'm big on it comes down to skill set and what are they able to do? Right? What what's their skill set in the position? How are they able to perform? What things can they be?

 

responsible for and own and make sure that they get done. Now with a new grad, would I probably be a little bit conservative on what they start them out with and say, hey, here's your path forward, right? Once you show me XYZ, you're running on time, you're making sure your diagnostics are quality, all those things, this is your path forward as far as compensation goes. But I do think it should be a skill set based compensation, not just like tenure based compensation. I'm not a big fan of tenure overall, no matter like

 

Kiera Dent (09:21.517)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (09:22.176)

like where it is. The thing that I will say along with that though is to make sure that our owners, right, whoever's making those decisions on compensation, that we keep it all fair. So I think sometimes some of those more senior ones, maybe they've stayed at a rate for a really long time and maybe haven't been increased according to inflation or what they're paying other people now. And so like that piece needs to be fair as well. So make sure, I'm a big fan of tears, what's

 

the skills and make sure that it stays within those tiers. And yeah, if you've been with me for a long time and you've got a full set of skills for hygiene and you do really well, you should be at the top end of that top tier. And if not, then we need to have a conversation and talk about it and see how we can get you there. Because that's ultimately my goal for any of my team members is how do we get you performing to the top of your skill set, your ability or your license. And with that should come like fair compensation that comes along with it.

 

Kiera Dent (10:22.392)

So, okay, I really like that. I've got two follow-ups on that. One is what are like set skillsets that could be ranging someone up? Are we just talking perio? Are we talking laser? Are we talking like, what is it that is specifically for hygiene, the skillset? And I do love, I hope you guys all asked like that, like every person should be performing at the top of their license. So that's follow up question number one. Second is gonna be about a compensation question. So what are those skills that you feel will range them up exponentially?

 

Britt (10:50.252)

Yep, so for me, like basic skills, running on time. If you have an anesthesia license, you're doing your anesthesia, if that's allowed within your state. Chart audits are good. You're getting everything that needs to be done, that your charting is complete. You're getting all your diagnostics done. You're coming prepared to huddle. You're being a team player. All of those things are kind of like my basic level stuff.

 

Kiera Dent (11:16.846)

Should they like interjecting real quick on that? Should they be hitting a certain production amount or is it more just those? It's like, what is the production amount that they should be hitting in like basic skill level before they even move on?

 

Britt (11:29.038)

Yep. I think whatever your basic goal is, I'm usually depending on the area, depending on your PPO fee for service, right? There's going to be a little bit of a difference, but I'm usually like a 12 to 1500 is usually around kind of like my base, depending on if you're PPO or if you're fee for service kind of on that upper range. And then as you as you one, I think get more confident with perio, have those conversations, perio percentage rate, that's case acceptance for peri

 

percentage rate would be a next level to look at. So not only are you having the conversations, right, you can do it, but how effective are you educating patients in advocating form to get the treatment done that's needed? So this is where a few more specific metrics are gonna come into play. So per year percentage is gonna start to come into play looking at jumping to that next level. I'm also gonna start looking at how well are you setting up doctor and teeing up doctor for treatment.

 

That's going to be my mid range that they need to be able to have those conversations. TFDoctor, be a partner in that conversation. So that's kind of like my mid range ones and my high range ones I'm going to tie in. Yeah.

 

what's your case acceptance coming out of your room? How well are you supporting the doctor and advocating for those patients? Having conversations because at some point with hygiene, right, there's clinical skills and with those, right, doctors should be checking, sure, check my perio from time to time on my charting to make sure we're aligned. Yes, if I'm missing stuff that I shouldn't be missing, then like absolutely those should be things that are talked about and would keep me in that like basic pay range if I'm not doing well at my job.

 

But to get up into that advanced pay range, it comes to a lot of the soft skills. Are you adding in that scan? Are you on board? Are you advocating for the practice and getting things done? Are you talking about treatment? Do you have good case acceptance coming out of your room? It's a lot of those soft skills and showing initiative instead of like, no, that's too much. I'm not going to do that. It's almost like a difference in personality and an initiative once you get to those higher range and you know them, you see those hygienists that are just rock stars and they're like, yep, they will

 

Britt (13:34.33)

help out, they are a team player. Yep, I can get that done. I've got time to do it. They are having the conversations, they're supporting the doctor really well. That's my top tier. That's what I ultimately want everyone to be.

 

Kiera Dent (13:47.918)

And I think that actually really helped in like that 1500 that 1200 range like there has been a model out there of like three times their pay and I'm just curious Britt. Is that even a realistic number from your perspective now of three times a hygienist pay? I do say for fee for service usually at a four or four point five times their pay but with PPO schedules and with the new rate of hygienist coming out, do you still feel like three times their pay is fair?

 

Britt (14:14.242)

I think it is a great starting point, right? There's across the country, and this is where like you can pull the economics of it into it, right? Depending on the area, depending on how many hygienists there are.

 

Like that's something that we, I think, have seen across the board that impacts higher ranges or lower ranges, right? That's the way a free economy works. Welcome to it. So, right, depending on the area, I would say yes, that is, everyone should be shooting to hit that. And some of our areas where

 

you know, it's a little bit more competitive or depending on, you know, well, we'll throw it out there. State laws, different things that have to be offered, right? That impacts the price and how expensive it can be to pay a hygienist. And I'll say to my hygienist, you guys are worth it, right? Especially you're that top tier hygienist. Like you guys are worth it. But from a business standpoint, there's like we got to we got to stay profitable at the end of the day. And so I do think that three times fee for service

 

us up to like four times pay is a great place to start. And if we are not there, then we need to start looking at other factors. Is it reasonable? Most of time, yes, 100 % it is. Some cases, depending on the area where there's like those shortage, those higher ranges, like it's a little bit more of a struggle. And that's where it comes to the conversation of, all right.

 

hygiene or associate. And we've definitely had those practices where it's like, for what I'm paying this hygienist, I can have an associate who can not only do hygiene, but can also do treatment. Which direction should I go?

 

Kiera Dent (15:38.862)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (15:48.96)

I agree. I think, I think the hygiene world, like making sure that it's cognitive of that too, because I think it could be a dangerous zone where without trying hygienists actually like work themselves out of the marketplace. I agree. think hygienists is such a valuable player on the team. And so just making sure that like we're cognitive of that. And I love that, Britt, you bring that from a hygiene perspective. I will also say though, I don't just think it's fully on the hygienist. And Britt, I know you agree with this completely that

 

Britt (16:15.555)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (16:16.334)

looking for that three times and instead of saying like we can't get there, let's look to see how could we get there. So it has the office actually looked at their fees and are we making sure that our fees are competitive, that we're negotiating with the insurances. This doesn't mean you have to drop in and drop your insurance plans, but it does mean we need to be very effective with it. Looking to see can we add in laser? Can we add in PRP or PRF? Can we add in some of those adjunct services? Are we adding fluoride? Are we getting all of our x-rays on the right series?

 

Are we billing out the correct comp exams for it? Are we looking for those additional pieces and looking for like, what are all the codes that we can bill out within hygiene? Of course, not over diagnosing things out or billing things out. But I think like, let's also look at medicine. They bill for the gauze, they bill for the cotton, they bill for all these things. And I'm not here to say like nickel and dime your patients, but I am here to say.

 

I think they're starting to become a world where we've got to start being more proactive on what we do, bill out to insurances to hit the rates that the hygienists need to be producing as opposed to just doing what we've always done. So I think like as an office collectively working in conjunction with a hygienist, let's not just throw our hands in the air and say like, they're too expensive. There's no way they'll hit it. No, that's not true. There's actually a lot of hygienists who are being paid those higher ranges and they are producing three, four times their pay. I have hygienists in...

 

less affluent areas able to hit that. And so it's kind of like the four minute mile. People thought it couldn't happen, couldn't happen, couldn't happen. Well, I think sometimes it's telling us it can't be done. We actually find ways to make that true rather than saying, hey, other offices are doing that. Let's get creative and let's let's let's work together and figure out what we can do. So I want to maybe have some commentary. Please do.

 

Britt (17:51.118)

Yeah, I want to make a quick plug on this because I know I threw out there like there does come a point where like sometimes we sit there and we contemplate of like associate or not the hygienist and me do I want doctors doing hygiene? No, I don't. don't. No. Do doctors want to be doing hygiene? No.

 

Kiera Dent (18:04.27)

No, I don't either and I'm not even a hygienist.

 

Now.

 

Britt (18:11.072)

No, they don't want to, right? So like it's not an ideal solution, but when it comes to a business being able to survive and stay profitable and keep running to take care of patients and provide livelihoods for everybody, like some that's the that's the business side of my brain that it's like sometimes those are things that we have to contemplate and see what's the best decision moving forward.

 

Kiera Dent (18:30.296)

for sure. And I'm glad you put that because the ultimate goal is to not replace hygienists. The ultimate goal is no. But I think it's like, look at other businesses. Do you think other businesses wanted to convert to AI? The answer is probably not. But due to necessity of profitability, like to me, that becomes a survival skill. Like is this business going to live or die? They're going to find ways to live. That's a natural human tendency. And so I think it's like, let's partner together. Let's find the solutions. I even have some practices who have elected to go

 

Britt (18:35.598)

I don't want that.

 

Kiera Dent (18:59.064)

hygiene, like no hygiene in their practices. so knowing that, like, but again, this is just getting scrappy. This is doctors just like, we have to find a way to survive. think it's

 

Britt (19:01.71)

Mm-hmm.

 

Britt (19:08.14)

And out of necessity, if they can't find one, right? Like sometimes that's kind of been the state that some of them have been in, so.

 

Kiera Dent (19:15.342)

for sure. So Britt on that we did talk about like baseline pay and we talked about longevity of it. What happens when you have a seasoned team that has been there? And we've got hygienists, they love the practice, they love the things they're doing. recruiters are pretty impressive these days. Like I do feel everybody's being bombarded with other offers constantly. And it's like you might be very happy. But hey, like sometimes dollars do count. What do you do for a practice?

 

when like these new grads are coming out and let's say they're asking because like right now I have a practice and the new grads like literally looking on indeed all practices hiring right now are like $5 an hour more than what they're currently paying like their highest hygienist. Like what do you do in that realm because like if you've got three or four hygienists now I've got to increase everybody $5 an hour just to be able to bring one new hygienist in. I think this is where it's like this wave of constantly like chasing a number but it's not just one person I'm chasing it's multiples.

 

what do you recommend for businesses and new grads? Because I'm like, if I tell this new grad, like, well, this is where we'll start to, I've got seven other offices willing to offer this hygienist that they only need one hygienist. They can do it because the finances make sense for them. What do we do in those scenarios to help these practices out?

 

Britt (20:27.724)

Yeah, I think having a community near you to know kind of what people are really getting paid, right? There will always be, especially in your more like city, right, areas, there's always going to be someone out there who can pay more.

 

There's gonna be an offer on the table somewhere. I always say question that. Know what you're getting into on those ones that are like real high from everybody else. But I think it's a real question of what are you ultimately looking for? One, with that higher rate you better believe you're still, you're gonna have to make your way, right? To make it worth paying you that amount. So that's gonna be there.

 

Also, you know, what do you value in the people you work with and the type of things that are being done and the care that's being provided in practice not taking a hit at anybody but I'm like that's an overall it's not just a dollar like sure you can go out and you just want to pick a job based on dollar Go for it. If you want it's risky in my opinion Look at the whole picture and see kind of what you're gonna be living because we spend a lot of time at work, right? It's a it's a big part of our life and we spend a lot of time and I don't know I take a lot of pride in where I work. So I care about when

 

the people and what we do. And I hope that's the same for our providers out there, for our hygienists out there. But I think take a look overall.

 

And then I think when it comes to those rates, so have a community know what like the actual rates are not just the jobs that are out there and what people are getting paid. Make sure you're competitive like 100 % the rates need to be competitive and if you fall in behind some unlike yeah we might need to see what we can do and see if we can start to get back within the range of the market to stay competitive. And then

 

Britt (22:16.45)

that also I think brings confidence in knowing you're offering something fair, right? So if I'm like, if I know, hey, it's competitive, it's fair.

 

We're a great place to work. I always want to get people in to come meet us, experience us, because again, it's more than just a dollar. If they're making a decision just off of a dollar, they're probably not the right person for me anyways. So I want to get them in, let them see the whole picture. And then, you know, when it comes down to it, at the end of the day, I can offer what I can offer and offer a path of like, hey, this is where it starts. And here's what you can do moving forward in the potential. But we're getting to know each other. And

 

I'll say this recently, especially for assistants as well, because I think it's the same, similar scenario in assistant world, is some of the doctors that know their affair, they come in, they're confident.

 

have people who like them and they're like, okay, you know, not to say it always happens, right? It won't always, but it's more likely to happen instead of just chasing a dollar amount and trying to like outbid someone. So I think still be confident in your moves. Don't jump too fast. Make sure you're competitive. Make sure you're allowing people to see the whole picture of you. I'll add to that. Make sure you're actually a good place to work along with that so that you attract people.

 

Kiera Dent (23:12.878)

Right.

 

Kiera Dent (23:32.398)

Agreed.

 

Britt (23:34.382)

because I think trends and you'll see articles and research out there, money matters and there's always going to be those people where money is their top priority, but life I think these days matters to people a little bit more.

 

Kiera Dent (23:46.22)

I would agree. think that that's something that the shift of the, think money used to be the currency that people were going after. And I think now it's time and lifestyle that is the new currency. so realizing that and recognizing that, Britt, let's say an office, the going rate is higher than what you are really like able to afford in your practice. What's your take on offering like a lower base, but commission from a hygienist? Like does this, I don't know how it lands for hygienist. Is it like, well, I want the guarantee of like knowing that I can

 

let's say it's $5 different between offices, but this office is really struggling, but they can offer you the commission base. How attractive is that to a hygienist? I have my opinions, but I'm not a hygienist. So I'm just curious from your state, what you hear from colleagues in the industry. Cause I know you see very connected to the hygiene world. What are you kind of hearing around?

 

Britt (24:33.42)

Yeah, I think it's a super fair model. I know when I was managing, that's the model we were off. I want you to know that you can count on something that's reliable, right? So that's where I do like having a base that's very reasonable, that's very fair, that is an amount that easily hygienists should be able to produce and make that and cover themselves.

 

But for those who do like hustle, right? They're not gonna be like, well, I've got an opening, I'll just go home. Or like, I'll just like chill. Like they want to work. They wanna keep people on their schedule. They want to be supportive of the team. They should make more. And so it's even just a fair from a multiple hygienist in an office. I'm like, yeah, yeah.

 

working hard I should make a little bit more than the person that's kind of slacking off a little bit. And so I like that model to where one you know what you can count on because there's that base there. And then yeah commission is going to be ultimately whatever you want it to be right? Like that's where you've got some control and if it's a commission based on production or adjusted production or collections whatever route the doctor ends up going

 

fees rise in the practice, right? That's you naturally kind of build in that increase over the years as office fees change.

 

Kiera Dent (25:56.782)

Fair, that's a good point. And Britt, I have so many more questions I wanna ask. I think for today, keeping it here, I really also think one thing to plug on the commission that I think Britt, you and I have done a really good job. Like, mad kudos to you within our company, because we do offer our consultants based in commission. So I think like we can actually speak to this model pretty well. But something I really pride ourselves on is we actually go and look at real numbers. I don't want to be going for my best hygienist and offering off of my best hygienist.

 

We want to find an average between like our lowest producing hygienist and our highest producing because I would rather set a clear expectation with that hygienist coming in of like, if you do basically like bare minimum, this is what you'll be making. And then if you choose to like go more, which there are opportunities, this is the range you could do. And literally when we do offers, we literally show a hygienist or like in our instance, it's a consultant. Here's what it is. Here's what the averages are.

 

And for me, I think that actually makes me way more confident going in because I'm not offering the highest end. We have we have consultants that produce a lot more than other consultants. But I don't want because that just sets an expectation for that hygienist coming in. This is what I think I'm going to be paid. And then when I'm not, they get angry with you versus it being like, this is where I think it's very fair. This is very realistic. This is the time frame. Realistically, I think you can hit it. This is an average day. Here's our actual numbers. This is an actual hygiene schedule.

 

So that way I really do think that that will make you more confident when offering. If you can't offer say that $5 more or you want to bring people in and maybe you're a little bit less than that. You don't want to raise your entire hygiene team. And again, hygienist, it's not because I don't want to raise you. Like I just want to make that super clear as a business owner. I want to pay my entire team exponentially well. Like truly this is like my heart of hearts. Like Britt knows this. I'm constantly looking like how can we raise people? How can we do it?

 

Britt (27:38.413)

Thank

 

Kiera Dent (27:40.918)

I also know as a business owner, my job is to make sure I keep the business profitable because if I don't, I've actually heard every person that we serve in the community of patients. I've heard our entire team of being able to afford it. And also I don't want to be stressed as a business owner, like fully. would, I like, I love you and I want to pay you. I also want to be able to sleep at night and not constantly stressing of do I need to take a second mortgage out on my home? So like just understanding it's, it's a business, it's a person, it's a human, but I think be fair with your numbers that you offer.

 

And Britt, I do want to do another episode. I'll just tee it up of what do hygienists feel about assisted hygiene? Cause it is a model that's starting to come as popularity of not being able to find hygienists. Is it something of we like it, we don't. Also, I know there's conversations around, we shorten hygiene appointments to be able to see more patients as insurances aren't reimbursing as much. So I definitely want to like tee it up of having a few more hygiene conversations. But Britt on this, thank you for giving you the perspective of like the ranges of how to pay and what you feel about base plus commission.

 

Britt (28:13.528)

Thank

 

Kiera Dent (28:38.874)

Hopefully we were able to give you guys some tips on how can we attract these people. think like you said, Britt, having a great place and a great reputation within the community, having longevity of team members, it's been shocking. Britt and I have been doing interviews and I don't know if you picked up on it, Britt, but the last, I think two or three interviews we've done, one of the questions they've asked is how long is your longest team member and can we ask why they've stayed? It's been shocking to me that that's a question that has come through. It's been consistent.

 

Britt (29:02.156)

Consistent. 100%.

 

Kiera Dent (29:05.132)

And I'm thinking it's because people really want to work in places long-term and there's so much jostling that I think they're also wondering, are employers keeping team members too? So just note, that's been a very random comment that's come through on our last very, and we're talking like yesterday. We just had an interview yesterday, that question was asked, so it's very real. But Brittany, any last thoughts you've got you want to wrap up today? I appreciate your Brittany hygiene today, coming to the table for the perspectives.

 

Britt (29:29.102)

No, I just, I think it's a good conversation and agreed on running numbers and especially if you're wanting to maybe like transition within your practice, right? Hygiene wanting to propose it or doctors wanting to like switch over so that it's a much more sustainable model for you. Run the numbers and see what it looks like, right? That's reality and I'm with you on like low and high end when it comes to hiring. Worst thing you can do is set expectations you're not gonna meet.

 

Kiera Dent (29:54.094)

Agreed Well, Britt, thanks for being on the pod. You guys, appreciate you. We will definitely come back. I know there's lots of questions. I know this is hot right now. So, Britt and will definitely podcast again about assisted hygiene, what we do for shrinking hours. Is that even doable from a hygienist perspective? Or is that like, no, there's other solutions because I know everybody right now is just trying to find solutions for the pickle that we're in wanting to maintain and...

 

really pay these hygienists what we believe that they deserve. So Britt, thanks for being on it. And for all of you, if we can help you and your hygiene team, if these are issues you're struggling with, if you're like, am just like hitting my head against a wall. I don't really know what to do. Reach out. That's what we do. [email protected] And as always, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

 

It’s time for a Dental A-Team office spotlight! Dana shares with Tiff how she’s worked with a practice that started off with room for financial growth, and began adding in auxiliary procedures without losing control of the business.

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Transcript

The Dental A Team (00:01.415)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I am so excited to be here. This is, I think, Dana and I, we get our like, alone time, our us time when we come in here to podcast. So I love, and I love that it switched to videos, however long ago that was. I remember in the beginning I was like, dang it, I can't wear my like, comfy leggings anymore, but whatever. Here we are, we gotta have our hair done, we gotta have our makeup done, it's great. But Dana, I love getting the time with you, so thank you so much for being here with me today. How are you on this beautiful Friday?

 

in Arizona.

 

Dana (00:31.822)

doing really good. It's a little bit chillier, but I'm learning to like, you know, find some happiness in that even when I'm freezing outside of softball games.

 

The Dental A Team (00:34.928)

No!

 

The Dental A Team (00:41.702)

Yes, yes, and you're colder down there than I am up here in Phoenix. But I had a client the other day, well, actually it wasn't, was Eve, our marketing gal. I don't know if you were on that call, but she was like, I was like, it's cold, because honestly, in the mornings here in Phoenix, it's like 35 degrees. And that's cold to me, right? And she's like, you can't complain that it's cold. It's eight degrees here, whatever it was. And I was like, actually, this has been my whole week. I've been saying this to people.

 

I decided, I chose, to live somewhere that's supposed to be warm. So when it's not warm, I get to complain. I don't complain when it's 120 outside and I'm like, I chose this. I wanted warm. So when it's freezing cold and I'm getting breeze warnings on my freaking phone, that's when I'm going to complain. Same with Florida right now. I saw it snowing recently on the beaches in Florida. anyways, thank you. That's our Arizona Girl Tangent.

 

Dana (01:27.896)

I

 

The Dental A Team (01:38.169)

We like the heat, that's why we're here. And Dana grew up in the cold. So I feel like if you're saying it's cold, it's freaking cold.

 

Dana (01:45.9)

I will say, you know, I always use the excuse that like, you know, my body acclimated to the heat. So now 32 degrees is in fact freezing for me.

 

The Dental A Team (01:55.466)

It is. It is. It is. And my son always says like the Arizona, the desert, like there's just not a lot of insulation in the desert. And so desert nights are freaking cold. They are wild and it drops so quickly. As soon as that sun gets on the other side of the mountain, it's freezing cold. So he's always like, yeah, it's the desert nights. That's fair. I appreciate it when it goes.

 

when it drops the 30 degrees in the summer to 90 degrees at 8 p.m. I appreciate that, but the 30 degree swing in the winter, a little bit rougher. So happy Arizona girls. So I'm excited Dana today because I really wanted to client wins, client pieces. And I feel like we're always dedicated to systems and I love that. And we're dedicated to growth, which I think this conversation falls into both of them. But really, you've had some really impressive growth with

 

a lot of your practices, all of your practices. But one in particular we were chatting about earlier this morning that I think would be a really fun conversation for a lot of our doctors because the growth that your doctor has seen within this practice and practices has been really, really fun. And I think what we chatted about earlier, you hit on a lot of different areas that I think a lot of practices are actually in.

 

at the same time. know what you were speaking on. I had some practices there and I really want to just pick your brain on some tips and some tricks on that. So Dana, your practice, I think you mentioned a few things, right? But one of the biggest pieces I wanted to like hear from you, one, obviously like financial wins. has that grown? Because I know that was a really big space for profit. The profitability of this dentist was fairly low and you were able to help

 

that increase, but then also this specific dentist has added in a lot of auxiliary procedures that I've seen a lot of doctors going to courses for Botox and tongue ties, lip ties, all of those different pieces and separating those out from our GP stuff, which I think also helps the profitability.

 

The Dental A Team (04:05.878)

So the way you guys have done this practice and taken those spaces, always focusing in on the profitability and the growth of the practice, but figuring out how we can create it into like quote unquote departments to increase the value and to increase that profitability is really cool. So slew of questions within that, but take us through Dana first steps. Like how did you figure out where the profitability was lacking and how did you figure out how to increase that?

 

because then that led into her being able to add more procedures. think adding more procedures before we know where the profitability is and before we know where the money is going, adding in those extra procedures can be really, really difficult. So it's already hard enough. And how did you help her figure that out and then slide into being able to add more procedures?

 

Dana (04:55.596)

Yeah, this is this is just been a really fun practice for me too, because it helped to show like, when you truly focus on comprehensive dentistry and all the things that you can provide for the patient, not only is it great for your patient, but it massively helps production too. And so this was a really fun practice to kind of highlight that and to kind of take, take them through it.

 

And I will say like the first part of it really was honing in on their systems and making sure they were most efficient block scheduling was huge and being able to say, okay, this is how you're scheduling now if we block scheduled everything out and we follow the schedule pretty much to a tee look at the growth that you could have just by Maximizing the things that you currently do. So that was where we started kind of in year one So year one was really developing systems to make sure that the new patients that we were bringing in we kept

 

The Dental A Team (05:24.383)

Thank you.

 

The Dental A Team (05:34.867)

Awesome.

 

Dana (05:46.082)

Right? And the practice actually continued to truly grow in patient number too. So, you know, making sure that we honed in on re-care systems, making sure we honed in on reactivation systems. And then it was really cool that once we got systems under our belt, now let's focus on big picture things. And so let's focus on, we've maximized kind of, one cool thing that we did is we separated out, she does a really heavy load of,

 

The Dental A Team (05:46.345)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (06:03.232)

Okay.

 

Dana (06:15.948)

you know, there's tongue ties and all sorts of adjunct procedures. And, and so we actually separated those things out. And it's actually a business within a business, which then really helps her see numbers as far as general dentistry and some of her adjunct services that she provides. And so that really helped bring in a lot of clarity because we could start to look at individual numbers separately. We could start to separate new patients. So new patients for this avenue who were more fluid patients. So they would come to those things. And yeah, we worked on a whole lot on converting them over into

 

The Dental A Team (06:18.675)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (06:23.56)

Awesome.

 

The Dental A Team (06:41.584)

Yeah.

 

Dana (06:45.874)

the general side, but that we could really look at those things independently to hone in on.

 

growth for each side. And what's been really fun is as we've separated them out, we've actually even separated out the days. So she now has like, you know, more like tongue tie days and general days and it helps her team to and we now are to the point where she actually gets to do more of the things that she loves, which are those adjunct things and bringing in an associate to

 

The Dental A Team (06:53.661)

Mm.

 

Dana (07:20.184)

helped continue to grow the general dentistry side. So it's been really, really fun. But I think the biggest thing is mapping out your schedule to make sure that it works, mapping out your schedule where you can add more of the things. What does that look like? And being able to look at those numbers consistently.

 

The Dental A Team (07:36.957)

Yeah, I love that perspective in most pieces and I know there's been a heavy push for the associates and making sure that the people who are there, the doctors who are already there and the doctors who are coming are really making sure that their schedules are in alignment and that they make sense. one thing that you said was like a business within a business and I just love that model. I've done it for a few practices as well where

 

It's like, this is the thing that we love and we want to do. This is our passion project business. How do we supplement now our practice that's already thriving and doing well with our passion project business? And I think that might be a space that some dentists going to the CE and they're like, I'm passionate about this thing. I think that's sometimes the space that gets overlooked is we've got to have the profitability and the thriving on just

 

practice, like we're doing really well, we're getting the new patients, we're getting the pieces because we want that to be supplemental. And yes, you're going to decrease your GP work. So it's going to take some of that load, right? So we're just kind of shifting some of that production and collections every now and again, but it should increase as well because it should be higher value, right? So watching you do this with this specific client and watching you add in those tongue and lip tie for sure, but the oral surgery pieces that they're doing and all of the different

 

modalities, the Botox and fillers, and like there's this practice has a few different avenues that they're working towards supplementing that GP. So it is really cool because in my opinion when I've done this with practices, you now have two different pools of patient avatars to pull from for one single practice. And when I think about it from a marketing standpoint, it's super awesome because now we've got two avenues to take this and I have

 

I have a dentist that I work with who wants to do a ton of practice or cosmetic dentistry, right within his practice. And he's definitely gotten to the point where his GP is pretty well oiled over there. And so now what we've done with his marketing dollars is really switched some of that funnel to focus in on consults.

 

The Dental A Team (09:49.658)

So it's a new patient, but we're categorizing it differently. We're tracking it differently. And I think that's likely what you've done with this practice and the doctors who are there at that practice doing all of these other pieces is funneling in those consults, smile makeovers. A lot of practices are doing those because we're looking at new patients on a GP side and 25 to 30 new patients on a full-time doctor on the GP side, standard. That's what we want. But when we're part-time on a GP side, we're looking for, you know, 12 to 15.

 

And then when we're part time on a a oral surgery, a cosmetic, whatever is going on over here side, now we want to see how many consults do we need to get to our case acceptance. So then it's like it's this big spiral when we're adding these new pieces in, because now your case acceptance is in play as well. And your consults, especially for bigger procedures, higher value dollars like

 

longer appointments, just a different set of pieces. Your case acceptance is not going to be the same as your GP. So having a consultant on your side that can help separate those pieces, separate the information, separate the understanding, separate the marketing of it and strategize how to get those to work together feels like a no brainer because I cannot imagine being on the business owner doctor side where I've just taken all this CE.

 

super passionate about something. I already have a business I'm trying to work in and then trying to get home, train my team, get the patients. Like trying to do all of that as one human being, the person who's doing it feels really hard. So when you see when you came in or this client came in, right? I think if I remember correctly, this specific client already had some of this stuff under their belt and they already had providers like trying to

 

generate this within the practice? So how did you, as the third party, the consultant looking over the overarching pieces, how were you able to kind of almost slow it down and speed it up at the same time to extract those pieces and allow it to be so fluid?

 

Dana (11:59.938)

Yeah. And I really think that it really comes down to, we've got to look at these in two different, we've got to make sure that we look at these things as two different things because a patient that's coming in for general and a patient's coming in for the other side, they're looking for different things. They value different things. Their experience needs to be different. Our systems need to be different. The way we schedule them needs to be different. And when this client first came in, it was like,

 

there were all these providers providing this, all kind of at the same time, right? So we're running this side at the same time we're running this side and providers are hopping back and forth. And then, you know, an adjunct provider that was in there to do another specialty service had to hop in and it was, it was, they were doing well at it, but it felt so stressful for them.

 

The Dental A Team (12:32.02)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (12:46.547)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Dana (12:47.17)

And it felt so like we're never gonna grow any of the pieces because where we're living right now is so, so stressful and chaotic and a little bit discombobulated, rightfully so. And so when we decided to say, okay, no, let's separate the two, let's look at them very differently, let's build the pieces that work for both.

 

The Dental A Team (12:58.389)

Yeah.

 

Dana (13:06.808)

places and let's understand that like you said, two different patient avatars, two different patient flows, two different patient experiences. And when we actually separated them out, looked at how we could streamline both sides, general and the other side, and we built out a schedule that worked to have them both.

 

The Dental A Team (13:23.06)

.

 

Dana (13:27.278)

be there. And I mean, this client even went on to create just an even an amazing separate space for these patients. And that does help create all of this. But it really took at like, let's look at both of these take different things, right? They take different

 

The Dental A Team (13:28.514)

Yeah. That's awesome.

 

The Dental A Team (13:42.52)

Yeah.

 

Dana (13:43.246)

Conversations they take a different amounts of hands-on approach they take a different way of treatment planning and presenting things and outlining consoles differently and so until we separated them It was functioning and they were doing okay, but it felt really hard Yeah, figuring out a way to make them both feel easier

 

The Dental A Team (13:55.976)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (14:00.06)

Yeah, it's chaos. Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (14:07.515)

Mm-hmm.

 

Dana (14:08.434)

and how we can maximize both ends. I feel like that was where the win was and really started to paint a much clearer picture of how you can continue to grow both ends to feed each other.

 

The Dental A Team (14:21.725)

Totally. think what you did there too, and as you're talking, I'm like envisioning it all, is you really extracted what would simplify it down. And it's just like anything when you go try to do something and it's there's 15 different things that can be done. Picking the right first step is usually the most difficult, right? Picking like what do I do next that's going to move the needle? And I think

 

my opinion is that's one of the reasons that we pulled back from pushing forward with things is we just can't figure out what that next step is. So you were able to make this massive thing two smaller things, and two smaller things is much easier to dissect and figure out than one massive piece. So you kind of separating them made it so that it was easier to look at them as individuals instead of instead of one monster to take care of.

 

think as you're talking to what you did is you were able to not only yourself, but have your dentist or doctor sit in the patient's seat. So it's almost like you got her and the team and everybody, but in that mindset of if I'm coming to you for this procedure, who am I? What kind of a person am I? What are the things that I like building out that avatar? But you have to sit, you have to like turn on that brain.

 

of that person who's looking for that procedure and then separating that. Because like you said, a patient who's coming and they're just like, just need a cleaning compared to a patient who's like, hey, I've been thinking about this for a while. I need ortho, right? You do whatever, smile design. You do, I see you do this. Like that patient's mindset drastically different than the patient who's just coming for a cleaning. So separating those out and creating that space.

 

where it is like the consults. And you understand you're likely going to need more of the consults over here to get the case acceptance and get the ball rolling. Then you do maybe even your new patients. Like that ratio is going to be a little bit different, but you are able to separate that out for them. So I have a ton of doctors. Like we both have so many doctors that are doing so much CE in the last three years. Like CE the last three years has been the word of the freaking year.

 

The Dental A Team (16:42.647)

And so many of them get so hyped coming out of their course and their class. But then again, it's that next step. think sedation has been huge and implementing sedation can be tough. think oral surgery procedures in a GP practice has been huge or pediatric practices implementing more tongue and lip ties. GP practice is going to more cosmetic services, the Botox, the fillers, all of those pieces and they get there. And then they're like, okay,

 

but I have so much going on. I have a full schedule. I have chaos in my schedule already. I have patients that are getting seated late. I have team turnover. And so then they get there and it's so defeating sometimes to just get to the front door and be like, I'm gonna do this. And then it's like, but the chaos I already have is taking my whole schedule. I don't have time for this. And...

 

what do you do in those instances where they truly like, it's chaotic. It sounds to me like you've answered some of that, like some of the systems, but what are those systems that help reduce that immediate overwhelming chaos where they can see the pockets of time to implement something new?

 

Dana (17:53.356)

Yeah. And I think for this practice in particular, their biggest barrier was her having these other things made it really easy for them to... And let me preface this by this particular doctor's goal was to build both...

 

areas, right? Yes, they wanted to do these things, but they still wanted their general dentistry to thrive because we wanted to bring in other associates and we wanted to continue to grow that part. And so where it became a barrier was the teams. If there was a hole in the schedule, or if there was the team's easy reaction was, we can fill it with a tongue tie, or we can fill it with a bowtie filler or we can. And that's great in that like, production did keep growing. But the vision of the practice then, it was like,

 

The Dental A Team (18:12.3)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (18:31.913)

Yeah.

 

Dana (18:41.654)

we were growing one side more heavily than the other and that wasn't the ultimate goal. And so I think that it is building in the space.

 

The Dental A Team (18:46.283)

Yeah.

 

Dana (18:51.786)

for those things to where it doesn't feel chaotic. And so if you say, Hey, I want to add on Botox and filler, okay, well, let's decide let's pick the times when okay, four o'clock are going to be our Botox and filler consults. And we're building that into that template. If we say, Hey, I want to do more all in excess, great. How many more do you want to do? two of them. Okay, well, let's book out a surgery day, right? Or let's book out a surgery morning. And we have to have the room for it in our schedule to be able to consistently add it in and do the things. And sometimes

 

The Dental A Team (18:55.221)

Yeah.

 

Dana (19:21.7)

with bigger procedures, like the key to utilizing them to grow your practice is to do them consistently, not sporadically, right? And so often we're like, hey, I want to do all the nexes or I want to do big surgeries. And it's like, well, I'll add them when I find them. No, you've got to build the time into the schedule. You've got to build them in consistently. And then you've got to work really hard to find them to fill those spots.

 

The Dental A Team (19:30.72)

Yeah.

 

The Dental A Team (19:44.854)

Yeah.

 

Dana (19:45.59)

And so it's sometimes just flipping that mindset of this is something I'd love to add. Well, if you want to, how much of it do you want to add and where can we actually put it in that it's in there consistently and continues to grow?

 

The Dental A Team (19:58.636)

I love those words of wisdom. I have a few practices that have implemented surgeries and things like that. I have one practice in particular that I've worked really hard with on becoming mostly an oral surgery GP practice. And that's something that there's currently struggling with is, and it's, it's kind of coming from the doctor of like, just plug it in and know what a surgery is more important, get the surgery patient in and move the other patients and narrowing them down to those days.

 

is so valuable because then you know how many you need. You know that you can or can't fill it. You know what the GP site is. It just clarifies so many pieces. So I love that. I think that's surely step one in implementing anything new is just deciding where is it going to go. I know I have a ton of doctors that will do root canals on Wednesday mornings. Like I only do root canals Wednesday mornings. Perfect. Do root canals only Wednesday mornings. What does that need to look like? And I think what you said there

 

is key in the beginning you said you did the block scheduling and got the GP side done, handled. Like let's get consistent with what we're already doing. Let's learn how to do it with what we're already doing before we add another aspect that just confuses and creates chaos and more change to the team. So if the team can get really good at what you're already doing, it's much simpler to add another aspect in there, because it's just layering then.

 

on top of what you're doing, now you're just layering something else. that's so cool. I'm so impressed with everything you've been able to do with this client and all of your clients, but this one's a fun one for me to watch grow. I know all of our clients are so valuable to us and she's just, she's in a lot of things with us. So it's just really cool to hear all of these pieces and to watch you be able to pick those pieces out and teach everyone a couple lessons here and there. So thank you for letting me.

 

that out of you and pick your brain on it today. Dana, you are an incredible consultant and your clients are so so lucky to have you and just keep up the amazing work. I think this is incredible.

 

Dana (22:05.378)

Thanks, and I will say a lot of this is just to the hard work and effort that her and her team put into things to get the results. so just shout out to them too.

 

The Dental A Team (22:16.366)

I agree. I agree. you're coming to work with us, you're coming to see us, know we are here for you. We support you and we will hold you accountable to those ding ding buyers. And as long as you're willing to put in that work on the other side, because I can't be in the practice for you, but as long as you're willing to put in that work on the other side, if you're ready to make those changes, holy cow, it's exponential what we can do with you. So thank you, Dana. That was an awesome shout out. I'm sure they appreciate it as well.

 

You guys go look at what you're already doing. I know everyone out there is looking for something more they can add. What value, more value can they bring to their patients? But look at what you're already doing first. Take Dana's tips today and look at how can we create more systems or create more efficiency in what we're already doing so that we can layer something new on top of it. If you need help, if you have questions, if you're looking to do block scheduling and you need help with that, you've already got CE, like whatever it is you guys, we're here for it.

 

want to answer your questions, [email protected] is an easy space for that. You can send things in if you're a client already, reach out to your consultant if you have anything exciting you want us to know or help with. And as always, thank you so much for listening. Drop a five star review below, we'd love to hear it. And if you are a soon to be client, or just someone who wants an assessment, don't forget we do our free practice assessments with anybody who wants to sign up for them. Our clients have already had them on whether you've had that one specifically or one

 

similar to it with your consultant, but anybody who's not a client yet, please go do it just for fun. Sometimes it's good to know. So thank you, everyone. Dana, thank you. And we'll catch you guys next time.

 

Kiera walks listeners through easy but critical accounts receivable systems to implement in your practice so you never have to face a financial crisis again.

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Transcript

Kiera Dent (00:00.932)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I just wanted to ask, are you struggling with cashflow because of overdue payments or you don't know how to do your AR or billing just fills out of hand? Well, great news. Healthy AR is an incredible way for you to keep your practice profitable and successful. And today we're going to dive into it and give you some really incredible systems to help you actually keep this on top so that way you don't ever feel like you're in a financial crisis again. So hooray, hooray. I'm so excited.

 

I hope you're ready for it. I hope you're just having an incredible day today. I know talking AR is not always super fun, but honestly having a well-managed AR system, being able to track to follow up to figure out where the gaps are really can give you confidence. So I wanna give you guys three quick actionable tips to be able to take this and have a healthy AR. You guys know the Dental A Team's all about practical tactical, making your life easier, making you super successful and happy.

 

doing it with ease, having a fun time with doctors and team members. So we are able to possibly impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So let's kick it off you guys, because honestly, AR is one of the most overlooked areas. It feels taboo. feels like we don't really know. So what are we even going to do? So like, let's just dive into this and really get it there. So number one is to set up clear payment policies and make sure that we're upfront with our patient. And if you don't have this, adding it onto your treatment plans, adding it into your practice,

 

Don't worry, everyone has this. So it doesn't need to feel scary or daunting or my gosh, like we're changing everything on our patients. You're not, we're just being very clear upfront. And what this does is it actually makes it easier for your front office to be confident with their treatment planning, to be confident with their scheduling, because now we all know the rules of the game. We know what we're doing and we don't have to be rude about it. We don't have to be mean about it. We just need to be crystal clear so people know the rules of the game of our practice. So a couple of quick tips are.

 

we do require payment at the time of service. I know back in time we used to not, but this is something that we do for routine procedures. And yes, we estimate and we go in, we try to maximize everything that we have within our practice by getting insurance estimates. But the reality is sometimes we aren't gonna be able to get that correct. Insurances aren't even accurate until we bill out. And so we don't crutch on that and bill out and then collect money. We collect, we estimate the best that we can. We collect at the time of service.

 

Kiera Dent (02:18.604)

and then we're able to let them know if they have a balance or if they have a credit. Hopefully we're getting close. I'd prefer credits more than I'd prefer balances. I don't like to chase money, but you choose how you want to do that. And then making sure we have really good payment options like Cherry or Sunbit or some of those other ones are really great ones. We actually have some offices that have a really beautiful spreadsheet where we have all the different payment options that we can offer. I only like offering one, two or three max of payment options.

 

but for your practice to know all the different carriers, like I said, Cherry and Sumbit, Cherry tends to be really high right now of a great financial one, Care Credit always is the top one, but having some of those options so that way we as the practice aren't carrying the bulk of this debt, but we're able to have options for our patient can help you get that better case acceptance and also keep us out of that financial pickle. So, and then also helping our patients have a clear financial policy and I actually have a practice that worked on this and

 

They were saying like a couple of things like they had six steps on it. And I really loved this of one is like no future scheduling until the payment, their balance is paid. And I think that really helps because then we're not just adding to the debt and we help our patients know like we've got to get this taken care of before we're able to schedule you for more treatment. Then we expect full payment on the first day or we're able to go like two payments half and half. So sometimes for crowns we'll do 50 % today, 50 % upon crown seat.

 

Those are some great things. I don't go beyond two payments within the practice. Otherwise they go into third party financing. You also, if you are struggling with this for larger payments or treatment plans, so you can decide is it 2000, is it 4000, is it 10,000, you choose. But I usually do a deposit and some people will have higher deposits, but let's say it's a 2000, you can do 10 % of that. So that would be $200. I like a 10%. I think it's easy. I think it also

 

for a patient who wasn't expecting to do treatment, it's not as daunting for them. So giving that 10 % down payment could also help out. And then really making sure that we are staying on top of our AR, which is going to lead into the next point, making sure that our accounts aren't going past hopefully 60 days in general. I know we might have higher AR right now where they're into that 90 days, meaning we've done treatment and 90 days have passed since we've made payment. And then making sure that we have a good collection policy as well.

 

Kiera Dent (04:39.266)

really making sure all those pieces are there is going to help. And we communicate this to our patients. And if we'll communicate it to our patients, then they know the rules of the game. So for that, when offices start to do this, they start to have patients understand that we make payments, that we only do two payments in-house, that we are collecting at the time of service, that we are making sure that they have these financial policies written. We're not allowing more treatment to stack up on delinquent accounts. What happens is that practice actually starts to

 

become profitable and they start to get more cashflow. Patients start to pay their balances and it's crazy because just asking for the financial money really actually helps a ton. And it's weird because you just think, all I did was ask for the money. Well, yeah, I have a practice that I was able to add over $20,000 per month to their schedule. And they said, Kiera how are you able to do that? One, it's through some tactics, but two, it was just stopping at the front desk and collecting the money before the patient left. Like it sounds so simple, but really,

 

just collecting and a lot of offices are even putting credit cards on file, which can really help. So number two, so that's like step one is like, let's collect the money before it goes back. Let's make sure we're checking upon check-in to collect the balances. Let's make sure we're collecting on checkout so we're not following up with all this money. And then number two for this healthy AR is we've got to have a strong follow-up system for outstanding balances. So what I like to do is I like to run the AR report at the beginning of the month. I like to put it into a Google Sheets file.

 

And then I like to actually have it color coordinated of what area is this account at? Are we on statement one, statement two, statement three? Before I ever send out statements, we always, always, always call. Hey, Kiera great news, your insurance paid. The balance is left, remaining is this amount. I can do Visa or MasterCard over the phone, which do you prefer? This way I'm collecting balances instead of just sending statements. I know a lot of offices love to send statements. It feels really great. We love to.

 

send it out, send it through the mail, make it feel like we're really moving the needle forward. But if we would just pick up the phone and call, I even tell some offices like we're going green, we're trying to save on paper and stamps, so we're collecting this. There's also a lot of companies like Mula, I really love Mula, and you can actually text the statement to your patient, which can help. But please, let's not lose the power of calling them, because calling and collecting payment can really, really help a lot. So making sure we have this where it's automated.

 

Kiera Dent (06:58.168)

Patients can pay online if we don't have that, that's going to be something that they really need to do. Like I said, Mula is coming in as one of my top companies for processing right now based on their fees and also the availability to send electronic statements to have it link into the patient ledger. I think they're doing a really great job. And then making sure we're actually tracking that entire scorecard of the AR on our Google Sheets or whatever you wanna do. But I like it color coordinated and then I like the doctor and the billing representative.

 

To meet together at the end of every month, we see how many first statements, how many collections we made, how many 60 day, how many 90 day, and then are there any that need to go to collections or do we need to figure out what to do with that account? I am not here for an advocate of whatever is right or wrong. You get to decide what's best for your practice, but we've got to have a way to follow up on this. And insurances should be receiving statements 15 to 30 days. Following up on them more consistently can actually help us get payments quicker. So making sure we're also sending clean claims.

 

So everything's attached, everything's put together. So we're not getting things back because we didn't do our part, making sure everything's being submitted on the first run, I really think can help it out. And so when offices do this, what's interesting is we've been able to actually pay for all of our consulting in very quickly because we've taught the office how to go and collect the money that is already in the accounts. And so, and it's crazy because I'm like, you already did the work, let's just collect the money. And so sometimes it is on sending statements, sometimes it's calling the patients, but it's crazy how just even.

 

connecting in with your patients really can help them realize that like we just have this money that's outstanding, let's get it paid. So right now I would figure out, can you get with Mula, can you have an automated system to be able to send out statements and then have someone who oversees AR and they follow up on it every single week. That's something we're really gonna need to make sure it's taken care of. I like Tuesdays and Thursdays for billing days, you do it whatever you need to do. Not the full day, usually a four hour chunk is probably pretty good for.

 

Most practices, every practice is different, but that would be a good one. And then step three, pretty simple, is we've got to review our AR metrics and take actions. So this is what I was talking about, the doctor and the billing representative meeting together, and we've got to monitor our 30, 60, 90, and over 90 days where we're at. So the zero to 30, 60 to 90, over 90, we've got to make sure, and what I like is of all of those accounts, we're never over one month's worth of collections. And so I try really hard to get that down.

 

Kiera Dent (09:16.868)

Over 90 should be less than 10 % of total AR. I even like it to be chipped down to like 5 % of that. So if you know the metrics that we need to do, we've got to be collecting. And if our team knows our goal is to collect in 30 days always, we get better at insurance verification, we get better at collecting, we get better at watching our AR, we get better at all these different things, then we truly have a system that works. And then making sure that it's in there so the doctor can take a look at it so you can see how many first statements, second statements, third statements, you can even make a

 

little dummy codes that you attach to each patient's ledger. So at the end of the month, you can actually run a report to see how many statements really went out of first, second, third. I don't go past three. I do not want it going past three. And if you call on the first one, usually we're not getting to a second one. We're setting up options. We have payment options if necessary that are external, not internal, that really, really can help you. for me, I would, if I was a dentist, I would have my billing meeting set up. I would expect my team to get through that entire AR list within a month.

 

I don't care how many accounts are on there. We might have some cleanup to do, but getting through that, and I have an office where we were able to take them from about a 65 % collection ratio. It was really drastic, all the way up to 98%, but we had to go back three years to clean it up. And there's a lot of them that we weren't able to collect them because we'd waited too long, but it was a process. I think we had about 10,000 accounts we had to go through, but this team was diligent. They were dedicated. It was hard, but we were able to actually make progress.

 

And it was so fun for them to actually build the system and for the doctors to understand and the team to understand and they'll never get into that position again. And so really going through these three steps, like I mentioned, of clear financial policies with our patients and collecting before they go back and also when we do time of service, we have a full follow-up system of how do we have it? How do we submit our statements? Do we call for it? How do we have this? And then we review it every single month with our doctor and billing.

 

a team member meeting, it's really gonna help you guys stay on track and be able to get this healthy AR. So the reality is we've got to enforce this. We've got to make sure that we're following up on it, that we're expecting to be at 98 % collection and that we actually go through with this because right now is the time like you've done the work, let's collect the money. And so if this is something that you are like, gosh, like Carrie, you're just speaking my language, reach out, DM us, I'm happy to show you some AR tactics that we've done for other practices, give you some resources and tips.

 

Kiera Dent (11:36.32)

or head on over to our website, TheDentalATeam.com and just book a call. And I'm happy to go through it with you and give you some, some complimentary value and practice assessment to see where you're at, the great things you're doing in areas that we can help out. This is what we're obsessed with doing. And Dental A Team does this. This is what we do for our practices. This is why we have the systems. This is why we have the systems for success for you. And I'd love to help you. So when, when you're ready and if you're ready to boost and master your AR and cashflow reach out, we're ready for you. And I'd love to help you, but truly commit to

 

being a master of AR and having that healthy cashflow, you're doing the work, get paid for the work you do. You deserve it. You're worth it. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

 

It’s not difficult to enter a practice and feel whether a team is synergistic and they love each other versus if they have animosity and do not get along. Kiera gives advice for spreading love to team members and patients, and establishing a culture of appreciation beyond Valentine’s Day.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01.23)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and it is the season and the month of love. And honestly, Valentine's Day and February isn't just about hearts and chocolates. It's truly the perfect time to show appreciation to your team and patients if you desire. So today we're going to teach you some simple, impactful ways to spread love in your dental practice, because why not? One of my favorite quotes is to spread love like confetti. And I think in today's world and in Dental A Team's mission to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible,

 

Why not spread love, spread kindness, spread joy to our team and our patients. So just wanted to give you guys a couple quick tips on how you're able to do that. You guys know that this is something that I'm really passionate. I'm really passionate about you loving your job, you loving your life, loving your patients, impacting your community and your team to ultimately live the most fulfilled and impactful life. Showing love and appreciation increases our morale in our practices. It increases retention and the overall practice culture where patients feel that love.

 

crazy because when I walk into an office when consulting, you can feel if a team is synergistic and they love each other versus if they're animosity and they do not get along with one another. And so really just something for you to highlight that people can feel the energy. And so let's spread that love in a quick action packed episode for you today on the season of love. So number one, step one is show love to your team. I do believe that it comes from when we

 

recognize and appreciate our team's hard work when we show that love to one another. That's really how we're able to highlight and enhance in some quick easy ways that I think are love appropriate within the workforce, our right personal thank you notes to each team member, maybe once a quarter, we we bust out the thank you cards and we write them. It's crazy how a little pen and paper can really make a big impact for people. You guys could also have like around Valentine's Day, maybe have a Valentine's Day themed lunch or treat where

 

We really do maybe exchange Valentine's Day gifts with one another, like go back to the time where we wrote Valentine's for one another. And also like we've talked about in other times of creating a shout out board where you can write kind notes to each other. I've seen offices where they just have a whiteboard there where people just write a quick note of like, here you crushed it today or Sarah, you crushed it today and we just leave it. And it's almost like our wall of love. And you can even create a wall of love where we just like stamp them up there or on shout out jars. We post those up there because again, showing love to one another.

 

Kiera Dent (02:25.7)

It creates a habit, creates a pattern. creates a way for us too of how we operate. And so just again, thinking of that. And so my suggestion for you is pick one of those ideas. Are we going to do thank you notes to one another? Are we going to have a lunch of a Valentine's themed? Are we going to get those little Valentine's boxes back out? Are we going to have a shout out board for one another? What are we going to do to implement kindness and love within our practice? And then step two is now we've done it to our teams. We've taken care of ourselves.

 

Now we're going to spread this to our patients. And so what can we do to show love to our patients? And what's crazy is when people feel loved, they're actually very bound. There's a retention piece. There's a loyalty piece because people feel that love and that genuine appreciation. And so little things for them that we can do of you can send heartfelt emails or text messages to patients. We could even have little hearts this month and write little love notes to our patients of how much we appreciate them. You could highlight one patient.

 

that you just every day to have them be the patient of the day. We could actually create a social media post highlight, make sure it's a HIPAA and you've got consents for it. A patient appreciation and highlight the patients to like why we really love them and why they love their smile. So lots of different ways where we can show them. But I think that intentionality, there's a book called Unreasonable Hospitality. And I loved in there where they had like this whole little like craft kit is how I imagine it. I've never been there.

 

But where they were allowed to, they really encouraged their team to create magic moments for their guests, for these people who would attend the restaurant. so having a way for your team to produce this unreasonable hospitality, if we know someone's having a baby or we know someone's getting married or we know someone's it's their birthday or like just having a little, like I said, a little craft station where we can do these things on an intentional basis every single day to really create magic and to spread love to our patients. It's crazy how just a small little intentional thing

 

I mean, I can't imagine it's never happened to me, but could you just imagine if your hygienist in your little goodie bag wrote you a handwritten note, like again, like a little heart or a little card, like, Kiera, I just really always look forward to when you come. You're one of my favorite patients. And I just want you to know how much I really appreciate you and do it without any expectation other than just giving the gift of love to this person. I think that this would actually really truly grow your practice, grow your,

 

Kiera Dent (04:47.136)

retention, grow your patient base. And then another idea is think about our online reviews. Yes, we respond to those reviews for Google Analytics and for different pieces. But what would it be like if you actually wrote a personalized letter to each person who left your view, thanking them for that review, or a personalized letter to each person who referred someone to your practice? It just seems crazy how this intentionality of personalization and creating magic for our patients and spreading the love.

 

really would be able to be something. I think in the month of February, it's a fun time for us to pick one patient focused, like idea where we can show them the love and implement it, whether before Valentine's day or after Valentine's day you choose, but really like how can we create this magic for our patients? And then step three is foster the culture beyond Valentine's day. Like how do we foster this culture of appreciation and love beyond? And I think a lot of the pieces for this were,

 

talking about things of creating the magic moments, creating the shout out boards, but maybe for this ideas are we start a monthly recognition program for team and patients. How can we recognize somebody every single month that really we just love and we want to like shower them with love, sprinkle them with the confetti of love. Maybe we also do positive feedback, like the shout out jars, the kudos jars, keep the board going of how much we love each other. Maybe these things like that. And what you can do is even like rotate. I like to have systems and cadences. So maybe it's.

 

Kiera's day is on Monday and Kiera goes and writes love notes to each team member every single Monday. Every Tuesday it's Britt's turn to do it. Every Wednesday is Tiff's turn to do it. But really like finding a way to have this where it becomes, yes it will be quote unquote forced at the beginning, but then becomes automatic in the longterm. We could also do quarterly patient appreciation events. So I've seen offices, one of my favorite offices that I've seen is they had donuts on the corner. offices like patients would be driving all the time for high school.

 

and they had donuts and they just like gave a little like, love our patients and they would do it. And people in the community knew about this all the time. I have an office where they're gonna start running promos of if your name is blank, come in and get free whitening. We love our patients. We love to have them smile bright and something like that where it's just fun things where we're showing appreciation, we're showing love, we're able to give back. These are ways that we're able to make this not just be about Valentine's Day and the month of love.

 

Kiera Dent (07:00.9)

But like I said, spreading love like confetti all year long. And so I would plan one appreciation initiative. So what we're gonna do this year of are we doing recognition for patients and team? Are we going to have a quarterly event? Are we gonna do donuts? But the goal is not to cost a lot of money, not to create more busy work for you, but to really be in the habit of adding love for our team and our patients. I feel like our world has become such a world.

 

where we've forgotten to be humans. We've forgotten to be, we've forgotten to love. We're so automated, we're so into AI and automations and doing and maximizing and optimizing that we've forgotten to just love. We've forgotten what our center is, what our core is, what it means to be a human being, not a human doing, but a human being, being intentional, being in that spirit to really create magic. So I think a good book is Unreasonable Hospitality.

 

to just think of how can we create magic and love moments more often, to have that be the culture and the feel. And I know families who have love, you can feel it when you walk into a home, relationships that are very centered on love. You can feel that when you're around them, why not make your practice a space where people feel loved, they feel accepted, they don't feel judged. They feel like they're special, but they're important. Everyone in this world is looking for that, whether big or small, they're looking for that. So like I said, we've got the three steps of number one, show love to our team.

 

Number two, spread love to our patients. And number three, have that culture of appreciation beyond just Valentine's Day in the month of February. This is how we're able to change the world. This is how we're able to create magic. This is how we're able to change people's lives just by coming to the dentist. And if we see that by, we're not just changing their smiles, we're changing them as a human. It's what we do in consulting. Yes, I'm here to talk to you about profitability and systems and consulting, but I believe in changing the human. I believe in impacting the soul.

 

I believe in having you have your dream life as team members and as owners to really give you the best life you can possibly have. And we do that through love. Love is the connector. Love is the bridge. Love is what makes us so happy. So I encourage you to truly like, if you're ready to spread love in the practices, like share, tag us. Like that would be my, my action for you is go spread love and tag the Dental A Team. Um, on Instagram, I would love to just have like it flooding of

 

Kiera Dent (09:22.358)

an initiative of all the podcast listeners. Let's just make it this month of love where we're tagging, we're spreading, we're saying hello. Can we add love into Facebook groups? Can we share this podcast with someone that we love? Where can we do that? And truly, this is a way that we're able to give back. if this is what you want and you want a team that's not just about systems, you want consulting that's not just about the dentistry. Yes, that's what we do, but it's more about being, it's more about intentionality, it's more about love.

 

reach out. This is what we do. when we are ready, we're ready for you. And so reach out [email protected] or just go click and book a call for a complimentary practice assessment for you and your team to just show you value and insights and help you. Because at the end of the day, the mission of Dental A Team's podcast and Dental A Team is from love. Loving my Midwestern students when I worked with them to give them resources to then loving our dental offices and loving them as people to give them the resources.

 

to change their lives, to change their communities and have this impact that goes far beyond our dental practice and our space. It blesses our families, it blesses our teams, it blesses our patients. And so really, that's what we're about. I'm so happy you're here. So go spread love like confetti. Know that I love you, that you're doing better than you think you are. Give yourself the grace, the kudos, make magic moments for those patients and let me know. And I cannot wait to see you guys. Tag me, DM me. This is where we're at. I would love to get Valentine's from you.

 

I love Valentine's, so send them out, spread them out, give those love bombs to people around you, inside and out, and so truly, this is the time. It's your time to spread love like confetti to change the world. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.