The Thriving Dentist Show

Should your practice hire offshore dental team members? Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah take the question on. Gary's 2018 test put a trained remote team member on his phones when the office was missing close to 30% of calls during business hours. The standard today is 10% or lower. They cover dental insurance verification, revenue cycle management, rising staff compensation, and the 28 to 30% wage target. Naren, who hires 1 in every 100 applicants, explains why remote staff need buttoned-down systems.

Is a dental practice partnership the right practice model for you? Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah cover the benefits of the partnership model, from lower associate turnover to a 3-day doctor week. They also explain how to vet a potential partner before any equity changes hands. Learn why partnerships don't have to be 50/50, the $5,000 decision-making rule that replaced a 98-page legal agreement, and why too few patients is the number one reason partnerships fail. Plus, Naren shares how to futureproof your dental marketing in an AI-driven world. Book a free marketing strategy meeting: thrivingdentist.com/msm Book a free coaching strategy meeting with Gary: thrivingdentist.com/csm

Should you run Google Ads for your dental practice? Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah settle paid search vs organic SEO: why ad patients cost 5 to 10 times more, the four cases where Google Ads make sense, the 15% cap on ad management fees, and the five ways dentists waste ad budget. Book a free marketing strategy meeting at ekwa.com/td or a free coaching session with Gary at thrivingdentist.com/csm.

Two thirds of dentists in the largest private dental Facebook group said they would not advise their own son or daughter to become a dentist. Gary Takacs reads that as a work-life balance problem and argues balance may be the wrong goal. Gary and Naren Arulrajah separate work-life balance from work-life integration: a practice you enjoy so much you have no reason to escape it. They work through Dan Sullivan's three-year question, and Gary makes the case that three clinical days can produce what four produces now. Plus Dr. Kristin Yont's 30-second chairside reset and Naren's marketing tip on Google reviews and call conversion. Marketing Strategy Meeting: https://ekwa.com/td Coaching Strategy Meeting with Gary: https://thrivingdentist.com/csm

Dental practice scheduling is the difference between a $2,000 day and a $7,000 day in the same eight hours. One solo dentist saw 41 patients and finished feeling like he'd been run over by a Mack truck. Gary Takacs gives five specific scheduling recommendations - a defined daily production goal, a dedicated scheduling coordinator, rock production blocks, new patient blocks, and protected time to fill the schedule - then walks through the two-column template hour by hour. Naren Arulrajah opens with the three-marketing metrics every dentist should check monthly.

Dental practice cybersecurity is a patient-retention problem, not an IT problem. Health and Human Services counts a ransomware infection as a reportable breach, and Dr. Lorne Lavine has watched practices lose a quarter of their patients after mailing that notification letter. He and Naren cover why an out-of-date operating system is a HIPAA violation by definition, why patient information can never go into ChatGPT, and what AI search is doing to how patients choose a dentist. Dr. Lavine is offering listeners a complimentary security audit, no cost and no obligation: https://thedigitaldentist.com/call See how your practice shows up in AI search — book a Complimentary Marketing Strategy Meeting (Gift for our listeners) : https://ekwa.com/td Gary is taking new coaching clients (Reserve Your Free call): https://thrivingdentist.com/csm

Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah on the startup vs acquisition decision that shapes a dental career. The three situations where a startup actually makes sense, and why most dentists do not qualify for any of them. A real coaching client who was collecting $700,000 on $1 million in production, replaced $300,000 in annual PPO write-offs with $15,000 in Ekwa SEO marketing, and grew collections to $1 million in year one. The 35-year client story on why you connect with patients before you renovate. The financial comparison: organic SEO at $60 per patient versus paid ads at $300 to $400. Plus Dr. Darryl Burke on the three essential CBCT views for every implant case.

Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah on the one question that separates thriving dental practices from stuck ones: if your practice was as good as it could be, what would that look like? Three real coaching case studies — Invisalign starts from 3 to 29, solo to two-doctor, PPO-heavy to fully out of network by June 30th. The 68% statistic. The office manager hallway story. Why PPO plans are 30 times more expensive than SEO. Naren on turning every Google review into a multi-channel marketing asset.

Gary Takacs and Naren Arulrajah on the five marketing numbers every dental practice should track and most do not. The two-chasms model. The conversion grading scale: A is 70%, national average is 33%, failing is below 50%. A coaching client who went from 12 to 38 new patients per month with zero extra marketing spend after their team's first real phone training. Plus, the bonus problems: missed calls, stale reviews, broken booking links. Dr. Greg Toback on the iPhone Send Later feature that changed how he leads.

In 2025, 60% of all high-value cases across Gary Takacs's coaching client base came directly out of the hygiene exam. This episode covers the full system: intraoral camera protocol, verbal pass-off, the personal detail that makes patients feel remembered, AI-powered patient note preparation, and how to balance efficiency with genuine connection. Plus, Naren on the 40% of the population actively searching for a new dentist, what makes Google reviews produce patient acquisition, and how paragraph reviews written in the patient's own voice outperform any paid ad. Dr. Darryl Burke on ridge preservation and socket grafting decisions.