In this episode of Dentistry Beyond the Numbers, Dr. Marc Liechtung shares his vision for the future of dentistry and why being a "super generalist" is essential for a successful career. Dr. Liechtung breaks down his concept of the "dental hamsa," a metaphorical glove that represents five key procedures every modern dentist should master: Invisalign, root canals, crown & bridge, cosmetic dentistry, and surgical extractions with bone grafts, including implant placements.

Learn how embracing these skills can set you apart, increase your production, and take your practice to the next level.

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Transcript:

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:12

Speaker 1

That is what separates somebody who is taking home close to seven figures and somebody who's saying they like dentistry, but they're not bringing home nearly that much because they are dealing with the ceiling of knowledge. What monies do I need to run my business on my associate? Absolutely. Efficiently, without understanding the numbers that go into our practice. We're not going to survive.

00:00:21:12 - 00:00:45:08

Speaker 1

We're going to wonder, why aren't we driving that type of car? Why aren't we having that renovated office? What I really like about being a super generalist is, at some point in your career, when you're doing these procedures, nothing fazes. You can market all you want, but if we're doing fillings instead of crowns that are needed, referring out root canals or extracting those teeth because we're not comfortable with those who canals, and we want to get it under our own bill, that's going to hold the growth of the practice.

00:00:45:08 - 00:01:02:12

Speaker 1

But when you have a dentist that wants to embrace this country, wants to do it all, look left, look right, look at the quadrants. This is what's going to make dentists have a tremendous career. It's not about money. Money comes.

00:01:02:13 - 00:01:24:15

Speaker 1

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to dentistry. Beyond the numbers. If you can tell, I am very excited to be here. Took a few weeks off my son and my daughter in law and had a daughter, which makes it my granddaughter, my wife and I. Granddaughter. First grandchild. We are over the moon just to share some good news. Personal. I have three sons that my wife and I raised and, never had.

00:01:24:15 - 00:01:48:12

Speaker 1

A girl in our life was so excited and took a little time off, spend some time, got myself situated. But we're back to dentistry beyond the numbers, and we're going to engage in a ten week program. The ten week program is to really dive in to what we talked about. Our first our first venture, the dental hamsa. Really this roadmap of having just a quality, exceptional career.

00:01:48:13 - 00:02:10:20

Speaker 1

This is something that I've thought about for many, many, many years. When I first came out, I'll remind everyone I had a large practice in New York City, still part of it, and we had specialists. But I've seen through the years some of my associates, a couple of them mainly have really embarked on the super general dentist. What we're going to term the super generalist.

00:02:10:22 - 00:02:43:23

Speaker 1

To me, the super generalist is the future of dentistry. And it is my observation through many years of having associates and what I've seen is and studied is that a dentist that allows themselves to be able to learn and seek the knowledge of really a well-rounded dentist. And if you look at the five digits, the five fingers Invisalign root canal, kind of bridge, cosmetics, surgical extractions, bone graft, and of course, implant placement the fastest growing procedure in in our field.

00:02:44:01 - 00:03:07:02

Speaker 1

When you embark on those things, you are what I call really a super planner or a comprehend treatment planner. And what I mean by that is when we're a super generalist, I want patients to know that it doesn't matter to us whether we do a root canal or extraction and bone graft, or an implant or a crown or anomaly.

00:03:07:04 - 00:03:33:17

Speaker 1

We do it all. So the only goal for us is really to do what's best for the patient. And it's so important when when we look at that situation. Because once you have adapted and I've seen young and old, I mean, I have we have partners, I have associates that have embraced this concept and really understanding what it means to be a super generalist.

00:03:33:19 - 00:03:53:11

Speaker 1

Well, to me, they're the most well-rounded dentists. You know, when I went to University of Pennsylvania, the goal in life was to be a period prosthesis dentist to spend the program there and be a dual specialist. I think this is what it's about. This up puts us on the roadmap for somebody to say, I really want to embrace all aspects.

00:03:53:11 - 00:04:18:10

Speaker 1

I love surgery, but I understand the importance of crown and bridge. I certainly understand the importance of clear aligners. What I really like about being the super generalist is at some point in your career, when you're doing these procedures, nothing fazes you. You can do it all and you can handle it. And it's really fascinating to me how we will embrace this and use this as our roadmap.

00:04:18:10 - 00:04:38:12

Speaker 1

And I've said this before, you know, I look at how are we going to build our new patient load? Are we going to go out market more? Are we going to blog reputation about, you know, put different videos? It doesn't matter if we up our marketing to 20,000 a month, what happens at the chair is what makes the ROI.

00:04:38:13 - 00:04:56:12

Speaker 1

You can market all you want, but if we're doing fillings instead of crowns that are needed, if we're referring out root canals or extracting those teeth because we're not comfortable with those root canals, that we want to get it under our own bill, our own production, that's going to hold the quality of the practice, the growth of the practice.

00:04:56:14 - 00:05:17:18

Speaker 1

But when you have a dentist that wants to embrace this concept, wants to do it all, look left, look right, look at the quadrants. This is what's going to make dentists have a tremendous career. It's not about money. Money comes. That patient will absolutely know exactly who is treating planning them the right way and who is treatment planning them.

00:05:17:18 - 00:05:48:05

Speaker 1

The way that they know. That is what separates somebody who is taking home above 500 and close to seven figures, and somebody who's saying they like dentistry, but they're not bringing home nearly that much because they are dealing with the ceiling of knowledge. Whoever embraced embarked on this career and wants to envelop and gain that knowledge also understands finances, because they're not going to come to work and run their business without understanding what goes into that business.

00:05:48:05 - 00:06:15:23

Speaker 1

What money do I need to run my business on my associates ship absolutely efficiently? Without understanding the numbers that go into our practice, we're not going to survive. We're going to be sucking wind for a long time. We're going to wonder, why aren't we driving that type of car? Why are we having that renovated office? Because we, as dentists, need to understand that there's a tremendous difference between understanding and really embracing.

00:06:15:23 - 00:06:40:09

Speaker 1

Numbers. Tell the story. Numbers tell the story. If the hygienist in that office is is is probing and advising, scaling or route planning and asking for certain procedures like an arrest and procedure or deep cleaning procedure on those people or the hygienist really producing and generating numbers like in the past or or are they not? Are the numbers from marketing really?

00:06:40:09 - 00:07:08:07

Speaker 1

You know, we're spending 10,000 a month. Are we really getting a three to 4 to 1? Are the phones ringing? What are we doing? Let's understand how our payroll is being affected. We are going to dig into this hand like you've never dug in. I want to bring people in to make you understand the doctors, the teams that if you institute root canal therapy in your office, you'll do more crown and bridge than you've ever done in your life, whether it be associate or training.

00:07:08:07 - 00:07:37:15

Speaker 1

If you're young enough and or old enough and willing to embrace it. Doing root canal therapy is amazing. Doing Invisalign or clear aligners or ortho brain, and understanding the concept of occlusion will help you with future work. We're going to get deep into that cosmetics crown and bridge. If you can understand the concept of the curves of Bliss and Spey and, and and etc. and understand how to deliver an absolutely beautiful case, you're going to be better for it.

00:07:37:17 - 00:08:06:07

Speaker 1

And of course, surgery. You know, every young doctor coming out love surgery because it is absolutely rewarding when you could take out a tooth grafted and put an implant in. And these are the ones that I see are going to embark on building great practices. And if they're associates coming into a practice, we're going to talk about the integration of that today, because to me, I'm seeing a lot of people being brought into practices and asking, how do I get in?

00:08:06:07 - 00:08:26:04

Speaker 1

If there's a specialist, how do I do the work I want to do? We'll talk about that. But right now I want to show you some. I have seen many dentists. Let's bring up that x ray. I have seen many dentists that are making some changes. I am very fortunate to deal with a number of dentists that I feel are really excellent clinicians.

00:08:26:06 - 00:08:55:21

Speaker 1

Now, if I look at this x ray and I see tooth number 14 and I'm an average general dentist, I probably wouldn't even address number 19. Although we know what has to be done there. So if I'm a dentist who not sure about root canals and I'm definitely not going to take these teeth out, I'm going to refer almost this entire case because the tooth number 29 needs a new root canal or right, you look at the teeth in the anterior, they need crown, a bridge.

00:08:55:21 - 00:09:20:08

Speaker 1

Some of them need retreats or extractions and implants. The difference is that if somebody wasn't educated, didn't have the confidence in the five procedures, this would be a punt as opposed to somebody sitting inside and saying, look, the root Canal Zone was a 19 is almost through the furcal with the lodge pap. That tooth should come out grafting, put an implant in the tooth number 29.

00:09:20:08 - 00:09:41:21

Speaker 1

We'll try to say it. Tooth number 14. Probably too much decay to save. It's going to need a graft. May have to wait. We'll put an implant in there. The point I'm making is somebody who came to this office is now being referred either out or to another room is so different than one of the super general doctors who have.

00:09:41:21 - 00:10:04:16

Speaker 1

And she or he had them embrace this concept of being somebody that refers out the things that need to be referred out. I'm looking at somebody who comes into the office and this office has always referred things out. Now you're coming in or I'm coming in or somebody is coming in, is now hired as a dentist, and they're fully aware this is a doctor who does those things.

00:10:04:16 - 00:10:38:14

Speaker 1

Now. It's a it's an office change. The whole office is is focused. The whole office is excited because now assistants want to assist on surgery. The team wants to collect bigger cases. Production would be enormous. Case in point, doctor goes into a practice. True story. Doctor goes into a practice. After five days. This doctor produced close to $60,000 12,000 a day between 10 and 12,000 a day five days.

00:10:38:16 - 00:11:19:08

Speaker 1

The owner doctor, after three weeks, produce close to 38,000. The difference in production between a super generalist and an excellent general doctor who refers everything out except fillings, crown and bridge and partials and restoring teeth, as opposed to being a dental Hampshire believer. The difference in production if you analyze that, is 1,000,001 a year. That's the difference. If you annualize that the doctor just made himself difference from the other doctor of close to 350 above what the other doctor was producing.

00:11:19:10 - 00:11:41:15

Speaker 1

So the difference of production is astronomical and the difference of quality, well, it should be no different. And that's what we're going to get into today a little bit. And that is, you know, the integration process. But the entire office needs to understand what it really means to bring in somebody like this. Oh, doctor, is that a is that a felony.

00:11:41:17 - 00:12:09:21

Speaker 1

No, no, that's not a filling. That's going to be a quadrant of this. I've said this before and I'll say it again to you doctors, I love anglaise