Managing Dental Drama

Mental and emotional health have always been important. Yet, the last two plus years of pandemic changes have caused a number of people to go from confident, stable, and happy to depressed, anxious, and discontent. According to Boston University School of Public Health, depression rates have tripled in the United States, where now 1 in 3 American adults are affected. Therefore, the number of our employees now struggling with emotional health and the number of our patients struggling with mental health has now quadrupled. As business owners, it is critical to recognize and respond to this crisis. In this episode, Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss a strategy for supporting team members as they work to regain mental and emotional health.  

One of the most popular episodes thus far on Managing Dental Drama has been the first episode called, “The Art of Retaining Good Employees in a Post-Pandemic Market.” Thirty episodes and ten months later, Dr. Kuba and Bethany tackle this topic again. They both reflect on how much the job market landscape has changed even over a ten-month period of time. Together, they dialogue together on the strategies and mindset necessary to retaining employees while also fully admitting that they do not have the answers. Although almost every practice owner has either lost a valuable team member or is at risk of losing a great employee, Dr. Kuba and Bethany express the importance of not burying the metaphorical head in the sand and ignoring the changing landscape. Instead, practice owners must remain vigilant in watching the changes and continuing to work to get out ahead of them as much as possible. 

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Back by popular demand! Dr. Jones joins Bethany again to discuss three subject matters. First, he tackles marketing and reflects back on various strategies he has tried over the years. An avid believer in consistent marketing, Dr. Jones encourages listeners to engage in a variety of marketing activities and stick with it. Second, Dr. Jones discusses his individual ways of showing appreciation and encouragement to his team members. He believes that his team are experts in their roles and that he couldn’t practice dentistry without them. Finally, Dr. Jones gives advice to all of those practice owners at the beginning of their careers. He encourages them to invest in technology, education, as well as spiritual and family time. 

In the everyday reality of new stresses, Dr. Kuba and Bethany were compelled to spend thirty minutes discuss all of the positive aspects of dentistry and dental practice ownership. They challenged each other to discuss thirty positives in thirty minutes. No negatives allowed. In this episode, listeners will enjoy the opportunity to reflect on all of the wonderful blessings of the dental field. Dr. Kuba and Bethany hope that this episode brightens many days and causes listeners themselves to fight for the positive in a world with plenty of negatives.

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Employees seem to feel more valuable than they’ve ever been before, so when they are not performing as expected, it becomes difficult to know how to handle them. Should a practice owner address the issues and potentially risk upsetting the employee? What if the employee decides to leave, once again leaving the practice understaffed? Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss several real-life examples from the past two weeks – two brand new employees with attendance issues, two different employees with attitude issues, one employee not achieving her assigned tasks, etc. Strategies of how and when to have uncomfortable conversations as well as what to say are all discussed in this episode. 

On this episode of Managing Dental Drama, Bethany is flying solo! 
Last week's episode,  Dr. Kuba and Bethany talked about marketing and gave some ideas and tips on low cost marketing strategies.  Today, Bethany is using these 10 minutes to provide more marketing strategy takeaways that you can implement in your practice.

Many dental offices experienced new and unpredictable patterns during and after the COVID crisis. During the volatile ups and downs, many practice owners found themselves so focused on new problems and new trends that marketing was an afterthought at best. As the waves of change have started to settle into a more predictable rhythm, the evident need for new patients has surfaced once again. In this episode, Dr. Kuba shares one of her main marketing events – patient appreciation. Bethany throws in a few additional low-cost ideas to consider. Listen in to the discussion on the importance of new patients as well as a few strategies for getting some in the practice door.

While disgruntled patients have always been a reality, they seem to be growing in number. The combination of massive social and economic changes has turned even some of the nicest patients into grumps. In this world-wide rise of grumpiness, the dental field certainly gets hit hard by the patients who are simply looking to fight. In this episode, Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss specific disgruntled patient examples from just the last week and share insights on how they each handled or would have handled the patient. The ability to successfully deescalate a tense situation is very complicated. However, over the last two years, it has become increasingly difficult. Listen in as Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss this topic and their strategies for dealing with unhappy patients. 

At 71 years young, Bethany’s Dad, Dr. Jones, is still practicing dentistry full-time and is loving every second of it. What is his secret? Dr. Jones shares a brief synopsis of his 45-year history in the dental field. Then, he focuses on mistakes he’s made throughout those years and what he has learned from those mistakes. Like many of our followers, Dr. Jones also hit a wall about 20 years into his career. Listen to how he restored his passion for dentistry in a 4-month exit from the field. Although Dr. Jones experienced challenges and even set-backs at times, he found that his love for dentistry and the patients he gets to serve has continued to sustain his passion for the field. In an effort to encourage the Managing Dental Drama listeners, he shares tips and tricks for practice owners as he tackles difficult topics like sour-patch employees and the loneliness of practice ownership. 

Although performance reviews and the office policy manual can often be two tools that fall to the bottom of the management tool bag, they are incredibly vital to running a successful practice. The office policy manual provides a management philosophy that becomes foundational to the team. It also clarifies rules, procedures, and expectations for team members while protecting the practice owner. Performance reviews force consistent communication with employees. The reviews keep the employees improving throughout the year and gives them the feedback they often desire. 

Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba discuss the following topics: 

• What are performance reviews? 
• When should performance reviews be conducted? 
• What all should be included in an office policy manual? 
• How often should it be updated and reviewed with the team?