The Best Practices Show with Kirk Behrendt

Bill Robbins and Joshua Austin are here today to talk about an inexpensive way to remove friction and get more customers in the door. You know Bill Robbins, he’s been on the show in the past. He’s an experienced dentist and a teacher. It’s his goal to remove friction and make dentistry easier for the dentist and the patient. He is joined by Joshua Austin who has a restorative practice in San Antonio, Texas. Joshua is a clinical columnist for Dental Economics and a host of the Working Interferences podcast. 

He started his practice in 2009 and didn’t have a lot of cash for marketing. He did notice that he was getting web traffic from reviews on Google and Yelp. That’s when he started using reviews and then social media to market his practice. Now everyone is doing that. Today we talk about a new tool called ScheduleWidget that can capture a new patient from your website before they bounce away. Schedule Widget can remove the friction of the phone call by allowing patients to schedule online without having to make that initial call.

https://www.schedulewidget.com/signup?promo_code=151

If you're looking for a brand new way to look at the new year and create the best year ever this show is for you, because Dr. Uche Odiatu is here to talk about getting fit, staying fit, and how to make that happen. Uche is my friend and one of the smartest guys in dentistry. Today, we are talking about dentistry and how critical it is to stay healthy when practicing. 

We all know that dentistry is a great profession, but it can be stressful. That’s why it’s so important for busy professionals to get fit and stay fit. We talk about finding the time to exercise. How it helps with stress, fitness, and making you feel better. According to Uche, the stats say that 95% of our population aren’t exercising on a regular basis at a level of intensity that would create benefit. To be at the top or our game, we also need to create a plan and make time for fitness.

When a young professional is putting their heart and soul into their practice, exercise can be one of the first things to go. Studies show that exercising for one hour can help slow down aging, lower your cortisol response, and enable better decision making. That being said, light exercise can also be very beneficial. Uche talks about interval training, going for walks, getting proper rest, eating whole foods, and so many more things that will get you fired up about fitness.

Are you struggling with bad discount plans, low rates of acceptance from uninsured patients, or dealing with dental insurance that just isn’t good for you or your patients? These are common problems that many practices face. Especially, those just starting out and existing practices in this ever changing landscape. I have an expert today that has a solution for these problems and more. 

Dave Monahan is the CEO of Kleer a dental membership platform that makes it easy for practices to create their own customized membership plans for their patients. The platform supplies the tools and resources needed to run things smoothly, stay in compliance, monitor data, and get support. Dave shares why a membership plan is a no-brainer for any practice. He shares benefits for the office, dentist, and patients. He also shares some of the pitfalls and how Kleer can help overcome these. 

For show notes, links and resources, please visit https://actdental.com/podcast/

Today’s Episode:

Being a dentist is one of the greatest jobs in the US, but it’s up to you as the dentist and practice owner to make sure that you schedule your work in a way that brings you joy, time, and money. Lead practice coach Christina Byrne is here to share six steps to creating a schedule that fits your work into your life and not the other way around. Proper scheduling can make everyone happier and more productive in the right ways. 

Christina has been involved with dentistry since 1985. As she puts it, she has sat in every chair. She’s been an assistant, worked the front office, and is a hygienist. She is also strategic in helping dentists build better practices that lead to more money and better lives. She shares her tips for time blocking or what she calls strategic scheduling. This strategy can help utilize assistants, staff, operatories, and the dentist's time in a way that makes the practice better for everyone involved including your patients. 

For show notes, links and resources, please visit https://actdental.com/podcast/

Today’s Episode:

Debt can be a huge stressor for recent graduates and young dentists. According to my guest today, students leaving NYU dental school in 2023 could have as much as $700,000 in debt. He also says that statistics like the average dental school debt of $280,000 is low based on the real cost of attendance. Fortunately, there are ways to manage student loan debt without living like a pauper or constantly being stressed. 

Travis Hornsby is a CFA who helps six-figure student loan borrowers by creating custom student loan plans. He runs Student Loan Planner which is a group of experts that can help you manage student loan debt that’s $50,000 or more. They can create a student loan plan that details your path to freedom or connect you with private lenders to refinance at a lower interest rate. 

Travis shares some great information and techniques that he helps people use to make the most of forgiveness plans and programs that are available. Even better, for a small fee, he and his team can create a plan that could save you thousands, along with those sleepless nights. He’s even created a free student loan debt calculator that helps you run your debt through different repayment options. This is a can’t miss episode for anyone who has student loan debt and needs a plan to tackle it in a smart way. 

 

For show notes, links and resources, please visit https://actdental.com/podcast/

Having the right people can make or break your practice. But finding and hiring the right team members can be one of the biggest challenges you face. In todays show, Tonya Lanthier shares her insights on how to attract and retain great team members.

Driving your practice forward is a goal that most dentists have. We have a special show today that will give you five solid methods to drive your practice forward through medical billing. My friend and frequent guest Laurie Owens is a professional coder and billing expert. She is trained in dental and medical billing, but focuses exclusively on the dental field. The steps that Laurie shares today will help improve case acceptance and help patients maximize all of their benefits. Laurie is the director of medical billing education at Devdent. They offer coaches, tools, and education to make dental practices thrive.

In this episode, Laurie talks about the importance of education and creating a strong foundation for billing practices. She talks about how coaching can help accelerate your practice and how continuing education is important for everyone. She also shares how to start small and get everyone on the same page for certain services. She shares techniques to maximize a patient benefits and get treatment covered. We talk about how to think outside the box, and Laurie gives her take on the future of dental insurance.

New studies in airway-focused dentistry are ushering in a major paradigm shift in our field. Fifteen Years ago, airway wasn’t even on our radar. For those of us focusing on TMD, it was all about second molar interferences causing TMJ problems. We spent our time debating CR and CO and muscle versus joint position. It’s exciting to see how experts are realizing airway is a critical point for evaluating a case. We’re better understanding just how important breathing is to so many of the cases we see. Breathing might be why a patient clenches his jaw, or why she grinds her teeth. Things wepreviouslyblamedon things like parafunction turned out to be airway issues.By expanding our focus to airway, we’re able to catch medical issues patients may not have thought to investigate. As dentists, we’re the health care providers spending a lot of time with healthy people. Our physician colleagues have unfortunately been siloed into only seeing sick people, and only being able to be in the room with them for a short period of time. When’s the last time you received an x-ray at the doctor as part of a regular check-up? Dentists are able to screen people who are asymptomatic and help patients to catch a health issue earlier. Take Orthodontics As an example. Orthodontists sometimes perform two-phase orthodontics where they treat children early then treat them again when they’re a bit older. Colleagues and parents alike though orthodontists were billing patients for money, and that kids should wait for treatment until they’re 11 or 12. Now that we realize early treatment could improve their airway, we see how it can also help children’s growth and development. Is it profitable? Yes, but most importantly it’s the right thing for a young patient’s healthy development.

Everyone agrees that the key to having a great practice is having a great team. But the key to having a great team is GREAT communication. On today's episode, ACT Dental Director of Coaching, Leigh Ann Feight, talks about the keys to creating successful communication rhythms in your practice.