Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera Dent
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Dental A Team Podcast

This podcast is here to give dentists and all dental office team members, in EVERY position, TACTICAL and PRACTICAL TIPS to: - Be more efficient - Have more fun - Improve doctor and team communications - Eliminate frustration - And make your life easier! Jump in! We are thrilled you have decided to LEVEL UP and be part of the DENTAL A TEAM! New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

  1. 2D AGO

    #985: What It Means to Live Life On Purpose

    Kiera guides listeners in an activity that will help each person be more purposeful in how they’re going about their lives, and build a path toward ultimate fulfillment at life’s end. 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 (00:00.844) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I hope you are just having an incredible day. I hope things are going so well for you. I hope that you just, I don't know. I hope that as you look at your day, as you look at your life, you just remember, man, you are so lucky to be alive. You are so lucky to be here now during this time. I know things can be hard. It was really interesting. We always have a team huddle every single morning. You can tell Dental A Team was created by someone who worked in a dental practice.   and one of our team members said that she was really grateful for trials and challenges. And I just thought how, what a great mindset, that person has to just think of like, no matter what's going on in life, it's a great day. It's a great possibility. And I think that really ties into what I wanted to podcast about today is, living life on purpose rather than on autopilot. And it's something that has been, on my mind. It's something that we just did with our in-person.   event when we met with clients in person, which was super fun. If you weren't a part of it and you want to be a part of something like that, be sure to reach out. Hello at the dentalateam.com. If you are new to this podcast, welcome. I'm so happy you're here. I'm Kiera Dent. I love dentistry so much and I love helping dentists and teams align to have the best team experience, to have the best overall practice experience, to really help you just flourish and thrive and be living life on purpose. And so today,   I'm just really excited. This is something that I've been working on. It's been like a little labor of love because when we're bringing clients in person, I wanted it to be something where it was different. I wanted it to be something where it's not something that they've been privy to a lot. I wanted it to be something where it was getting them out of their norm and working on their life and also working on their business. So the theme of our in-person event was life on purpose and business on purpose.   What I kind of wanted to walk you guys through is just like a little snapshot of what we did in purpose in person and kind of like mapping your life on purpose. And I recently have gotten into Joe Dispenza in meditation. If you haven't gotten into that, rock on. Welcome. Joe Dispenza has been awesome. I feel like I understand meditation on a level that I never have understood. I went to a two day in person retreat and I feel like I started to learn.   Kiera Dent (02:24.736) a lot about meditation and about how to get rid of depression and anxiety. And he talked about how we have depression when we're focused on the past and we have anxiety when we're focused on the future. And a lot of times our mind tends to live in the known, which is the unconscious mind rather than living in the conscious, which is the unknown. So known means that we predict what our patient schedule is going to be, what the patients will say, what our day is going to be. We get in our car, we drive home, we're on autopilot, we don't even remember driving home.   We wake up, we do the same routine and to kind of shake ourselves out of that and start to live life on purpose. And so through meditation and also through some life mapping that I kind of wanted to share with you today, to start to live life and to have fulfillment in business and to figure out how can you just be living your life on purpose. what we found out was like language really, really matters when you build this. And when I started looking at my life, I started realizing like,   When I look at my week, a lot of times my week is just filled with things that I have to do. And I feel like that's again, living my life on autopilot. So all these things get put upon me. I put them in my schedule. You've got patients, you've got work, you've got kids, you've got soccer, you've got dance, you've got making dinner. And how can we see and add the fulfillment or the sprinkle or the sparkles to our world? And so what we did with our clients is we actually took our lives and we put kind of the   the categories of our life. And so what are the categories? What are the things that we're working on? What are the pieces that we would be like in a day and day out?   what I want you to do, I just grabbed a notebook. What I want you to do is I want you to start to look to see how am I going to actually build this out? How am I going to, what are the categories of my life? What, like when I look at my to do and my week to do, what is that going to be? And you kind of just like dump it all out. Like what are those categories? So you've got your health, you've got your work, you've got all these different pieces. And to really just kind of look to see like I've got health, I've got business, I've got   Kiera Dent (04:30.882) growth, I've got relationship, maybe there's some fun sprinkled in there, maybe there's kids, home to do's, what's all on your list? And then looking at that, and then I want you to think about, so you've got your list, so if you wanna do this in real time with me, that'd be great, pause it, build your categories of your life, and then I want you to think about where are you going to be when you're at the end of your life? So I just want you to like, let's go forward. I think of myself in a rocking chair.   I plan to have a really, really, really incredible, like I'm terrified of being in a, I don't know, like a rest home. Like it creeps me out, right? Cause we don't have kids and I'm like, gosh, like who's gonna take care of me? It creeps me out. Okay. So I have planned that I'm gonna have the most incredible rest home life. I'm gonna build this like villa on the beach. I'm gonna have awesome people that are there. I'm gonna have like friends that are there. I plan to have like a jazzy or a drone.   going to be on the water and I can like just jazzy out to my boat, get on the boat, go cruising around. Like I plan to have a jazzy with NOS. I really have like it's gonna be fun. And I'm like thinking like, okay, I'm sitting in my in like, a white rocking chair on my front porch, looking out and reflecting on my life. So whatever your place is, look back and I want you to just kind of think about what do want that life to feel like? What are some of the feelings like?   When you look back, what is the most successful, fulfilled, happy life that you could ever imagine? What does that look like for you? And to really, really think about that end of life. Again, I'm not going to give you an age because I think that's weird. Like, what if you live to like 180? What if you live to 200? What if you like, why are we putting an age on this? But to really think about what you want. And when we did this with our clients, one of the crazy things was that end of life actually didn't have a lot of work. There wasn't a lot of   are to do. So like you just listed those categories. And so then when we look at that, now what I want you to do is once you've kind of gone through that end of life, looking to see like what I want this to be, I've already told you like, I want to be healthy, I want to be strong, I want to have friends, I want to this like sick villa on the beach, like, I want to have like family around with me. That's what I see in like just having this life where I've traveled the world and I've made a huge impact in this world for good like   Kiera Dent (06:42.196) That's the life where I see Kiera Dent with cotton candy, pink hair hanging out, but really feeling like I made this huge impact in this world. So then what you do is you go back and you actually look at the categories that you have and like what maybe needs to be added in. For me, I realized philanthropy, like something of impact needed to be added into my world. Also for me to have this sick villa, wealth had probably better be on my categories of things that aren't, they're on, these things I feel are not put upon you.   And this is where I feel like this is living life on purpose. It's not living life anymore on autopilot, but it's living life on purpose. And I was talking to the girl who I was going to like, hair girl, basically, we'll just explain it that way. And we were talking and she's like, I can't wait for my kids. Like they're about to be out of daycare and then I'm going to have all this money. And I was like, yeah, and with that money, you can like put it into Ally and you can get a higher yield savings. And then you could be looking at investments and building up your wealth. And I think I was even.   thinking in those terms, we don't do that on the day in day out unless we train ourselves to do that. And that's what I mean by living life on purpose and getting sighted for life on purpose. And who do you need to be today to have that life when we're looking back on it? So what categories do you maybe need to add into your world? And then this is where it actually became really fun is to take those categories. Cause like when I look at health and business and growth, like great. And that's kind of like my wheel of life. So,   but those things don't inspire me. And so taking those categories and actually adding some juice and some excitement to them. So for example, for me health, when I look at like working out, hard pass, no, I never wanna show up to that category and I'm not excited about it. So what I actually did is I renamed my health category. My health category is actually called honoring my body. And that to me feels so good.   I love to work out now bec

    20 min

  2. 3D AGO

    #984: Collections Behind? Here’s How to Collect NOW

    Tiff and Kristy give tips on how to catch up on those collections fast, including a day-ahead assessment and treatment plan presentation. The advice given in this episode isn’t only effective for offices concerned about collections, but any office, regardless of what their bank account looks like. 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 (00:00.738) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope you are just having an incredible day today. I hope you are so jazzed and you are so excited about dentistry, because I'm excited about dentistry. You don't call us the Dental A Team for nothing. Our job is to help you in your practice become the A Team of dental offices. Honestly, I love this. I love what we do. I love talking to you. I love helping you and your team just become everything and more that you've ever hoped to be. So today, I hope you are ready. I just did a really incredible   team training with an office about case acceptance. And I realized, hey, maybe that's something where I can help you in your practice. I love doing this with teams. I have a couple of practices where I help their treatment coordinators. And we've actually been able to add multiple millions. And that's not an exaggeration, multiple millions to their practice. And the thing that I just love is when we increase our case acceptance from doctors and team members, we're able to help more patients. And that's what I tell everyone. are.   so blessed and so lucky to be able to be treatment coordinator masters and to be able to help more patients and to give patients this incredible life, to be able to give them the confidence, to be able to give them the smile, to be able to help their longevity. And I always enjoy hearing the objections. So it's a fun time. So we'll do a part one, part two of this podcast where I'll kind of break down case acceptance for you of kind of how I get team members into this mindset.   And then what I'll do part two of all the objections and how you can overcome objections and treatment planning. I think one of our greatest wins was when I had an office who literally was able to sell an electronic, like an electric toothbrush, which we all know is better than just a standard one to an Amish family. I was blown away. And it was because this treatment coordinator was able to provide so much value of what this patient actually needed and to help them have the best dental health. And I just...   I love treatment planning and case acceptance so much because to me it's helping more patients have healthier smiles, healthier mouths. And I just think it's one of the greatest gifts that we could ever, ever, ever, ever give our patients and our team. So I hope you're excited. I'll break it down for you in a couple of simple steps. These are some of the things that I do to get treatment coordinators and doctors in the right frame of mind. Because what I found is case acceptance is truly 80 % your psychology and what you're thinking and 20 % skill. So I'll give you both.   Kiera Dent (02:19.79) But really just wanting to break it down for you that so much of case acceptance is about Literally what you're thinking about. if you're new to the Dental A Team podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera Dent I'm your host I love all things dental and so much so that my last name is actually dent I created the Dental A Team consulting years ago when I left Midwestern University's dental college and working with so many of those dental students shout out to all of them and Realizing those students that I loved so much. We're going to go out into this   big bright world of dentistry and they were gonna need an advocate, someone who could vet companies for them, someone who could help guide them, someone who could help them understand what a P &L was, understanding what cashflow was, understanding the business aspect and the team aspect of dentistry, and that's how Dental A Team was born. So my first practice we took from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months and opened our second location. Dental A Team is a miracle grow for practices. We're able to increase.   your production, decrease your overhead and honestly decrease your stress and get a full doctor team experience. So that way doctors, don't just have to do this on your own. So that's a little bit about what Dental A Team is about. If you are part of our actual consulting dental family, welcome. I love you. I'm so grateful for you. It is truly one of the highlights of my entire life is watching offices succeed. Like we shout out office wins every single day in our team huddle. And when I hear offices who have broken a million or hit a hundred thousand for the first time or took home a paycheck for the first time or   got their team on board for the first time, literally, I light up, our team lights up because that's what we do. Our consultants are truly experts at what we do and we truly do love seeing your wins. Our tagline is your success and our passion. So our passion is seeing you successful. Our love of dentistry is being able to make sure you and your team are truly flourishing to help those patients get the best dentistry they can. So with that, setting up case acceptance is what I promise you are gonna come in part one of part two.   And like I said, we do this with teams. It's something really, really, really, I would say fulfilling for me to actually teach your teams how to present cases, how to help them. Like I said, I literally have a practice. We've got five offices and we have added multiple millions of dollars to their practices over the years of just working with their treatment coordinators and doctors. And it's funny, they have another person who watches their business and they said, what's happened?   Kiera Dent (04:39.342) how you guys grown so much and they said it all started when we hired the Dental A Team and just shout out to that practice and that owner and those owners at that, those locations because honestly, they don't just listen but they actually execute and they implement and we work on it and we listen to their treatment plans and we review and what I will tell you, one of my biggest secrets for it is it's usually one or two words that's making or breaking your case acceptance. And I hope you heard that. It's one or two words.   that's actually making or breaking patients saying yes or no to you. So that's where it's so fun. So, okay, step one that I always like to tell people is, like I said, 80 % psychology, 20 % skill. So what you've got to do is you've got to literally be in the right mindset before you go in. So doctors, before you go in and present an exam, team members, before we go and talk about it, before we hand things off, treatment coordinators, before you even think about presenting a treatment plan, I want you to have the right frame of mind. Kiera Dent's frame of mind is...   Everyone says yes to me and there's always a solution. That's my mantra. That's what I say. That's what I think about. And this is when I used to not even be able to close $500 cases. I went from closing $500 cases all the way up to closing 50, 60, 70, $80,000 cases same day. I literally had no idea a credit card could go up to $80,000. I was like, whoa, we're buying a boat today. Like I didn't even know this was reality. But what I learned was it was my psychology. It was me realizing that this was not a big treatment plan. It's just a treatment plan. So that's the second step to this.   We actually cut out the emotion of it's not a big treatment plan. And what I love to do is I love to ask you right now to tell me, and you can say this out loud. I know I'm not actually listening, but hopefully you're playing along with me today. It actually will make this really real for you. But what is the number for you that's your actual high dollar treatment plan? If I were to say, what's a big treatment plan for you? What's your number? Some people's a thousand, some people's 5,000, $10,400. What is your number?   I need you to tell me your number and do not sugarcoat to me. Don't go higher, don't go lower. If you're listening to this as a team, which, hey, that's a great idea. This is a great team training. You're getting it with me for free. But what is the number? And the reason I want to know this number is because no matter what, no matter what you're doing, guess what? That number actually is influencing you. And what I say is there's no judgment on treatment planning. I just need to know and you need to know.   Kiera Dent (06:56.126) what your number is so then we actually figure out where your ceiling is and how to go around it. When I start working with treatment coordinators, I usually say that I can typically tell when I look at a treatment tracker on a treatment coordinator what they're closing and it's usually close to us in their bank account. Dun dun dun dun dun, mic drop right there. The reason why is because we have this familiarity association where we think people are just like us and so I hear all the time of like, but Kiera, couldn't afford that or Kirea, could afford that or Kiera like,   That's like, it would be so hard for me as a parent to do this. And what we do is we try to put ourselves in other people's shoes, AKA empathy. But what we do on that is we actually close down a lot of cases that could be yeses because people are not just like us. Like I said, I didn't even know credit cards at the time could go up to $80,000. I had no idea. And had I assumed or projected or tried to be familiar with these patients, I would never have been able to close those cases. So what we wanna look at in these situations is,   We've got to cut the emotion. We've got to realize this is my ceiling and I'm going to get beyond that ceiling. Doctors, yo

    28 min

  3. 4D AGO

    #983: Outside-the-Box Summertime Marketing Ideas

    Kiera shares a ton of fun ideas on ways to attract and engage with potential patients in your community. These range from a killer referral program, to considering the locations of where you’re advertising, and more. 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 (00:01.752) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I am just so excited to be chatting with you. I hope that your day is just going incredible. My day has been incredible. I have the opportunity to work with clients and just a fun coaching call day. And I always enjoy it. I enjoy helping clients. I enjoy helping you. I love to get on a podcast and I love to share. And with summer approaching, I thought it might be kind of fun to give you a quick tactical podcast where I talk about maybe some summer marketing ideas that maybe you haven't thought of. know   For a lot of practices, summertime can get a little bit slower or different things can happen for you. And so just maybe a quick tactical for you about maybe some ideas that you hadn't considered to grow your new patients during the summer. If you're planning and preparing now, that way you can have a more filled summer for you. As always, the Dental A Team, we are here to give you tactical practical tips, helping dentists and teams.   have an easier life, helping you have a better patient experience, helping you just have more fun in dentistry. That's what we're about. And that's what I hope you're about. And I hope you remember that you are truly in the best, most incredible profession you could ever be in, and that's in dentistry. If you love our podcast, I hope that you rate it, you review it, you share it, and you are able to just help us positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So in today's episode, it will be short. It'll be technical.   I'm gonna break it down for you of just like I said, some summer marketing ideas that I think are a little outside the box thinking. So one thing to think of whenever we're going into marketing is we always wanna make sure that we're looking to see who is our patient and where are they located. So if you're trying to attract for pediatric practices, they're trying to attract moms, that's their ideal patient. I know you might think it's kiddos, but guess what? It's actually the mom. In some of my other practices, their patient base is more of a geriatric patient base.   For others, it's a transient. So you've got more new families moving into your area. And so when you're looking at that, paying attention to what is your patient base and where are they going to be hanging out, that's gonna impact some of these summer marketing ideas. So I think one of the easiest things is having a really, really great referral. I see this in the waiting rooms, I see this in practices, but making sure it's targeted to your patient base. I have a practice and I think this is just a huge shout out to this practice. They picked a KitchenAid.   Kiera Dent (02:19.562) That was what they're giving away to their patient base. And the reason why this is so impressive is because they know their patient base and their ideal patient so well that one of their patients was actually at their child's birthday party telling every person who came to please become a patient because she wanted to win this KitchenAid so bad. This patient A is a raving fan, B took it to their child's birthday party and C this practice picked up a ton of patients because what gift they were giving away actually resonated with their patient base.   So I have a practice in there in like upstate Washington and it's like more of a outdoorsy area. So like a Traeger or a Blackstone works really well in their area. A practice in Texas, concerts were really big. So they gave away these very limited concert tickets. It was like one of the top best ones. A pediatric practice gave away some like Lulu or Aloe gift cards. So that was something that was super, super powerful for another practice.   but really just knowing your patient and what's going to resonate with them. But I think like something to really know is making sure that your practice is focused on internal and external marketing efforts. So when we do referrals and raffles within our practice, that's more internal. Yes, we're attracting external patients, but what we're doing is we're only able to connect with the patients that are coming to our practice. So we really wanna make sure that we're not just like...   only focusing on the internal and then looking for some of the external opportunities. So I thought like that would be something fun, a referral program, bring a friend, share a friend, having cards made so that way people can get really excited. And with some of the practices we work with, a lot of them are like, gosh, I wish I just had a card as the dentist or as team members, because when I'm out and about, people always ask like, where can I get it? And like, I wish I just had a card where I could just give it to them. I could put my phone number on it. So if they had any questions, they could contact me.   So just really looking to see what are some of these internal ways that are so simple that maybe we're just overlooking that could really help us, especially with summer on the horizon. Some other things like, depending upon where you are, if there's a school around you, looking for possibly around fall time where you might do something with clear aligners or whitening. Think about those seniors who might be needing to get senior photos and proms and end of year. Those could be some really good promos that you could possibly run in your area. Again, depending upon your patient base and what's around you.   Kiera Dent (04:39.178) And now for some external ideas that I think are just kind of fun of look to see again, where is your patient base? So for like geriatric, they might be hanging out in some retirement homes, in retirement communities, maybe the YMCA club, like that's where these people are going to really congregate. And so could we put flyers there? Could we go to the retirement communities? Could we put on a wine and cheese evening for them? Could we put on some lectures, some lunch and learns for them?   Could we offer our membership program that's special for their residents in their area so that way if they don't have insurance, they're able to access our membership program, you're able to bring in a huge patient base, and you're also able to help and support these communities as well. And I really think some of those areas, like if you can actually access them and get in touch with them, think about if you're the preferred dentist for that retirement community, especially if you place implants, you do all on fours, that might be a really incredible area for you to go.   to access, to incorporate, to be with them. I also am really big on community. If you wanna be a community dentist, if your community is tight knit, which a lot of them are, where can you access? Can you get into county fairs? Could you be at some of the sports games? Could you be in any of those other areas where maybe your community's at? And that is more for branding, not necessarily for ROI of patients. So branding is something super important for you to have as well, where it's not necessarily just.   like, okay, great. Like I spent $5. Now we got a patient in a lot of times it's just awareness. It's just being there. And I use the example of the chiropractor in my hometown. They're Ellison chiropractic. And honestly, this chiropractor was everywhere. They were all of our high school games. They sponsored a lot of the football games. It was Ellison chiropractic, which makes sense. You know, these, these football teams, they were there. Our community was very tight knit. had   our high school colors were orange and black. Their colors of the chiropractor place was orange and black. So they had it everywhere. They were representing our school. They were representing our community. They were on the city council. Like they literally were everywhere. They're the chamber of commerce and everybody knew and everybody went to this chiropractor in our community. And so I've thought about dental practices of how can you be the town's dentist?   Kiera Dent (06:54.744) How can you be the one that everybody knows, that everybody sees, that no matter where you are, people are like, hell, that's the dentist. Like that's our community dentist. So looking to see, is there a festival that you can attend? Can you get your name out there? Can you be a part of it? Can you have swag? I know there was a practice that we worked with that made mouth guards for all the football players on the high school teams.   So that way, and it had their school colors, but it also had that office's logo on it. And I just think that's so clever because this is branding. These are opportunities, but you've got to make sure that you're doing this based on what your patient base is. So if your patient base is elderly, you don't want to be supporting the high school. They find out a lot of people there. You might want to do TV commercials. I have a practice and they do TV commercials and my in-laws actually saw one of our practices. Like I saw them on TV and I was like, yeah, because   my elderly in-laws are watching TV. They're listening to the radio. That's where that patient base is. So those marketing dollars are actually making an impact. So looking to see maybe mailers, maybe mailers work in your area. Maybe there's a new housing development that you could go get in and you could again offer a membership program to them. So if they don't have insurance, you could be there, throw some testimonials in there. Maybe talk about your in-house plan and how

    14 min

  4. APR 17

    #982: The Future of Dentistry and How You Can Keep Up

    Kiera talks about the numerous shifts on the horizon in dentistry, what your practice can do to embrace the changes, and how Dental A-Team can help. 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 (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am so excited to have you on the podcast today. I hope today is just an incredible day for you. And I hope you remember you are in the greatest industry possible. And today I'm really excited because I feel like there's some opportunities to discuss and challenges that I think offices are gonna be facing in the next five to 10 years. I wanted to pop on and just say like, hey, dentistry is changing fast. And my question is, are you and your practice gonna be ready to seize the opportunity or?   Honestly, are you going to be struggling and hanging out in the back? I think that there will be a lot of shifts. I think we've seen a lot of shifts in dentistry. And so really just popping on to help you look for different things for technology, patient experience, different things within the practice, and really be able to help you guys prepare and get your practice there. Do you guys know Dental A Team? We are here to serve. We are here to help you and your practice have the best experience. I truly do believe that running a dental practice that's profitable and successful does not need to be hard. It does not have to be crazy.   and it can actually be fun and we can get doctors and team members aligned to be able to work in tandem together. And so that's why we're here today. I'm super excited because honestly, staying ahead of these trends is going to help you have long-term practice success. I've really been watching in the offices that we consult, the ones that are adapting and early adapters to technology, I think are going to be in the forefront. And so really just looking at where you are in the life cycle of your practice, looking to see where you want to be in the next five to 10 years.   and not making decisions to sell or to go to a DSO or to stay in a legacy practice out of necessity, but actually out of choice. So number one, I think that AI is coming in. AI is coming in pretty popular. There's a lot of different things. So we're having it in diagnostics. So like Pearl and Overjet, they're able to help co-diagnose with you. There's 3D printing that's coming in. I know offices are using AI and creating bots. We have an office.   where they've created an actual 24 hour a day bot for their practice. And I really think right now is a time for you to be learning. So whether it's 3D printing within your practice, automating our patient communication, looking into AI like this practice where they have a bot, using chat GPT for other things, utilizing AI, think helping practices with case acceptance. We've talked with Pearl, I've had Pearl on the podcast before, but what's crazy cool about that is offices are utilizing it.   actually you're seeing like a 30 to 50 % increase in case acceptance just by using this AI assisted technology. And I prefer Pearl over Overjet. Honestly, I think that there's no wrong choice on it. But the reality is like, I think you've got to get these things in motion. You've got to start looking for them. Otherwise, I really am concerned for you as a practice that you will accidentally become outdated. So really making sure that you are, you're working through this, that you are adding these things in because I think   AI is going to rapidly take off. And if you're not prepared, I think you will be outdated. So that's opportunity number one. So I'd say get involved in some sort of AI, whatever it is, even if you just start dabbling in chat GPT every single day, whatever it is, but really starting to utilize that. Opportunity number two. Now these are the opportunities that I see in the next five to 10 years. I think they're hitting this now. But number two is going to be like looking at membership plans, fee-per-service.   looking at some of those things. Now I'm not here to say drop insurance plans. I've actually been, think a consultant who's been pretty adamant about hanging onto insurance plans for as long as you can, pending upon what you want to do for marketing. If you're an incredible marketer, rock on, you might not need it. But insurance is just going to be something where I feel over time, it's going to get a little bit funkier. I don't think you're going to see a huge increase in insurance funds. I could be totally off on this. I'm not stamping my like everything that I am, but I think like, let's pay attention to it and let's see.   costs are rising in dentistry, but insurance plans are not paying a lot. And so could we start to shift our patient base? Could we start to retain our patients and actually build this fee for service model in? Now you've got to be super careful and I'm going to put like huge asterisks and exclamation points and pieces around it because if you do not transition out of insurances correctly and have a plan and a process and a patient experience in place, you will get like, I've seen it be so bad for practices. So really I think like,   One, if you don't have an in-house membership plan, let's get that started. I'm very pro these. It allows you to have options in the future. It allows you to have different marketing strategies. I think a lot of people are just looking at benefits at a different way now. And I think it just helps you to not be as dependent upon insurance in the future. Then number two is assess your insurance plans. And let's see, are there maybe any insurance plans that we could drop that aren't really going to hurt your production? You really got to do this strategically. Otherwise it will burn you in the booty.   and I do not want you to be at that practice. I've had too many of those offices, so let's make sure you're not there. And then make sure that we're like really getting people sticky to our practice. I think this will be a really, really, really big change for people. And then also it's something where even as fee for service patients, if you can get them on membership plans, I can speak for myself. Being on a membership plan, I actually came in for my two cleanings as opposed to a fee for service patient who often will only come in one time.   So I think it's just another way for you to have more patient flow, more opportunities to diagnose by having that membership plan. I have a practice where they were, this is me as a patient, I was going to them and they had a membership program. The doctor left, branched off, opened up their own practice and they don't have a membership program. And I was like, well, sweet, maybe I'll just go to you once a year. This is as a consultant. I know I need to go in twice a year. I know I have amazing teeth, but I don't need to go twice a year. Like honestly, if I only go once a year, my teeth are probably fine.   but if they had put me on a membership plan, there are other opportunities. For example, you could offer me a night guard, you could do whitening on me, you could do fluoride treatments on me, but because they're not putting into place a membership plan, odds are I probably won't be going back. So look to see how can we actually get our patients to be retained in our practice, not dependent upon insurance. So when we start to trickle that down, we start to convert more and more of our patient base. And what I will say is a lot of practices have transitioned say,   30 % of their patient base over to a membership plan. They start practicing on this, they start getting used to it. So when they want to drop insurance plans, they have a solution that's been really ingrained into their practice. The team's really good. I'm obsessed with companies like Dental Menu. I think that they do a great job for membership programs. I think that they've got a great one built. BoomCloud Clear. So you can just take a look to see who you like the most for it. And then I'm really obsessed with Moola. Moola, I think is a great credit card processor for you.   that actually helps you with your membership programs in-house so you can actually save on your credit card fees. I'm really pro them. Any of these companies that I'm recommending today, be sure to tell them, Denali team, you heard it on the podcast because they actually have a referral pricing for you. So that's what I negotiate. We don't do hardly any affiliates within our company. I just negotiate the lowest fees for you. but really I think looking to see, I think it's an opportunity for you with insurance plans and the economy to start adding in a membership.   Opportunity number three for you is looking into, tell the dentistry I don't think like hot, hot, but I do think virtual consult and online payments. So how can we make things easier for people? So can we get a virtual consultation? Can we start to have, I know there's like, we've had other people on our podcast before where they do virtual, like your smile, what is it? Your virtual smile consult. And what you can do is you can actually do treatment planning. You can have new patients meet you.   You can have videos on your website where it's like, hey, I'm the doctor. They can actually ask questions to the doctor. I have seen a lot of this with bigger cases come into pretty strong effect. Also, if you're wanting to do say consultations where maybe we're doing bigger treatment plans or even like full mouth cosmetic, there's a lot of those that I think are out there to help virtually. I have a doctor and they do a lot of what's called hybrid. So all on X cases and there's a software they can literally use and show the patient their new smile sitting in the chair.   So I think whether you're having patients virtually meet you or if you're u

    19 min

  5. APR 16

    #981: Knowing These 5 KPIs Will Keep Your Practice Successful

    Kiera is a guest on the Dentalligenstia Podcast, hosted by Nick Zagar and Remy Isdaner. She talks about the connection between success and knowing your practice’s numbers for the following: Production Overhead Collection New patients Case acceptance Kiera also gives tips on streamlining workflow, working through scratch starts, startup versus seasoned practice needs, and more. 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: The Dental A Team (00:00.16) Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and today I am so excited. I did an incredible podcast and I just thought it'd be fun for you guys to hear it, to listen to it. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. Welcome to the Dentalligentsia podcast. I'm Nick Zager and we have Remy Isdaner, my partner, and we are Mirlo Real Estate Partners. Today we have a special guest, Kiera Dent from the Dental A Team. Welcome Kiera. Thanks guys. I'm super excited to be here.   I love what you guys are doing. I'm just jazz. And I'm glad that I didn't have to say the name of your podcast because I would have totally botched that. So thank you for taking that on for me. I love what you guys are doing. And I'm just super, super excited to be here. I love geeking about dentistry and business and all things. So thank you guys. I'm really honored to be here. We appreciate that. you know, our favorite clients are typically early to mid-career dentists. And we love what you do to support.   our mutual clients and really want to know a little bit more about you and why you do what you do. How did you get into this? Yeah, for sure. Well, luckily for both of us, we love the same type of clients. So it's really fun. I actually started my career in dentistry in high school. I was offered an opportunity to either go into nursing or dentistry. And I thought, hmm, I want to wear scrubs. Like that was my end goal. And I thought, learn the whole body or learn the mouth. I'm surely going dental route. So that was honest to goodness. The reason why I got into dentistry.   I was a dental assistant for years and then became office manager, treatment coordinator, scheduler, biller, you name it. I have not been a hygienist and I'm not a dentist, but my husband, he went to pharmacy school at Midwestern Arizona. And during that time, I'm a little hustler. I found out if I could work at the college, I'd get a discount on his tuition. And so I knew there was a dental college and so I found out, got a job at the dental college.   And I was super blessed, super fortunate. And I worked there for three years with dental students. And one of the students asked me while we were in school, she said, hey, Kiera, do you want to come help me open my practice in Colorado? And I was like, heck yeah. Dental assistant to practice owner. Like, this is a great plan. I never knew how I'd be able to do this. I'm not a dentist. And I'm like, I see what you guys do in dental school. Yes, I want to say yes to this. So I went and helped her open the practice in Colorado. And we took our office from 500,000 to 2.4 million.   The Dental A Team (02:25.773) in nine months and opened our second location. And what I found from that was I learned a lot. We built a pretty big group of practices and I learned so much from that of what not to do. My marriage was about in shambles. Her marriage was about in shambles. My health was deteriorating. I was working from 2 a.m. till 10 p.m. trying to make these practices grow and I thought, well, shoot, one, if I could help her grow a practice, I wonder all my other students that I love.   Could I help them grow their practices and give them the confidence as well? And two, there's got to be a better way to do this than what I've been doing and what she's been doing. Like, yes, we have success on paper, but behind the scenes, we're deteriorating as human beings. And so that's really what spurred my passion. I never worked with a consulting company. Everything that Dental A Team's consulting is are things that I wish I would have had when I was a practice owner, things that I wish I would have known.   things to help all of my dental students. It's fun because it's becoming full circle. A lot of those students are now buying practices and coming and working with me, which is super fun. But really the passion comes from how can I help these dentists live their best lives, get the profitability they want, but also get their team bought in because most consulting companies work with just the dentist or just the team. And I thought, but if I can get the team on board, these dentists lives become a lot easier. And so it's really fun to talk about both sides of the coin.   And shoot my last name is Dent. So I think I was destined for this career path. It's not a stage name It's just the third fiance finally like I didn't get married I just took three fiancees to get a better last name So that's kind of my story and how I got into it and truly just love love this industry and love helping dentists Flourish and succeed and help more people But nursing never had a chance Yeah, I mean the scrubs if it would if they would have cuter scrubs than maybe but   The fact that I had the short path didn't just the mouth, but it's funny. I don't even get to wear scrubs anymore. like, man, that was a short lived moment. yeah, nursing. don't think I could do rectal trumpets. That's just like, I mean, I'll take the mouth all day long versus that. I don't think I could. I have such a gag reflex. I don't think I could honestly do it. Well, talk to us about some of your favorite client stories. gosh.   The Dental A Team (04:39.725) So knowing that like the startup to the mid range are kind of the ideal clients, I was thinking of a couple and one comes to mind. He attended one of our summits. We have one in April every year for doctors and teams. And so he attended it. And I remember he had like a really funny name on his screen because I see all the participants. I really try to make our summits really engaging and active. And I remember it was iPhone. And so I just kept calling this person out. was like, hey, iPhone, how you doing over there?   just kept kind of like razz and I had no clue there's no camera on it just says iPhone and lo and behold iPhone decides to sign up with us and he had just bought his practice and paid in full for consulting which I was always like man that's a pretty like gutsy move you just bought a practice but I also like people that are gutsy and this committed to it and what was interesting is we'll call him iPhone if you listen to this you'll know exactly who I'm talking about but over the course it's been about two years now iPhone has gone from   Being a practice owner who literally knew nothing about ownership had a pretty seasoned team when they bought their practice And went through all these hard transitions like I'm telling you this was a labor of love on both sides the consulting side and his side from needing to transition out his office manager who was really really causing a lot of like Shakes within the practice and and driving the team in a direction. He didn't want to go   So learning how to hire, learning how to lead, learning how to present treatment plans, learning how to put KPIs into the practice. Like you want to talk about a jumpstart to business ownership. And I remember he's like, Kiera, I'm not even taking home a paycheck. And those moments always rock me because this is real life for a lot of dentists. And my goal is to help them get to taking home their paychecks quickly. And so about six months, he was taking a little bit, but we started like at six months, he was able to take his full paycheck and then fast forward to   I just saw him actually last weekend and he was sharing that now he's producing over 250,000 a month in his practice, collecting home a paycheck, has a new office manager that was sitting next to him. They've shifted the culture. This office manager said that this doctor like makes for Phil Seen, Heard and appreciated. He understands his KPIs. He's got a profitability margin of 60%, which makes me so proud.   The Dental A Team (06:59.629) excuse me, his overhead 60 % profit margin of 40%. He knows his numbers. He knows how to look at it, getting ready to possibly expand his practice. But he said, we were just meeting last week and he said, Kiera, I want to give back because Dental A Team's given me so much. so having him help coach other practices now of things that he's learned really just inspires me. But I think about this man of...   like the rocky road he went on to get there. And I think that his journey is not unique. I think this is so common for so many owners who buy practices two, three, four years in, but to be able to have him be an example of what can happen and for him to be going from about 150,000 when he first bought the practice to now doing 250,000 a month, just to give him the confidence, I think as a leader, as a dentist, to get a team bought in and on board.   the fact that he knew his numbers and it's been, it'll be two years in April since he bought his practice and joined. And I think that is one of my most favorite stories because to see him excited about life, to see him excited about his practice when there were some dark days, I remember like his name, we'll just say iPhone was on our schedule a lot of times to give more support and to review resumes and to teach him how to hire for culture and to build a culture.   That is a magical experience. And there's, like I said, so many things from KPIs to numbers to culture to hiring to diagnosing and getting patients to accept you when the other dentist was still a part of the practice and moving on. He's h

    1h 8m

  6. APR 15

    #980: How To Know If Your Practice Is Thriving (Or Just Surviving)

    Tiff and Kristy give listeners examples of different practices that have different definitions of ‘thriving.’ They then provide questions each practice owner (or even team member) can ask themselves to identify what success looks like for 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: The Dental A Team (00:02) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. My name is Tiffany. If you've never heard me on this podcast and you haven't been listening for long enough, then go back through, sift through. We've got so many episodes with so much amazing content and information for doctors and teams alike. There are very doctor-specific ones and very team-centric ones, but I do tell you this. Doctors, listen to them all because I want you to always know   what your teams are doing, what they should be doing, or what they could be doing. So there's a million different ideas in here. Please make sure you listen to all of them. We love you for that and we value you as a listener, client, prospective client, or just listener. Thank you guys so much. Kristy, I've got you back here today. I have stolen you today for quite a few episodes and I am so, so thankful for you carving out this time in your calendar, making sure that we could be here together.   I know we both really love this time together and I'm just super appreciative of it. So Kristy welcome and thank you for being here. Yeah. So I'm excited for today's podcast. One, because there's not a lot of structure to it. So it makes it fun for me. Cause I, you know, I just like to ramble sometimes. So just be here with it.   Kristy (01:05) Thank you.   The Dental A Team (01:19) I'm just kidding, but I am excited for today's podcast because I really love telling stories and I really love to utilize experiences that we have had, and teachings that we have done with other clients or things we've learned along the way. love utilizing those things to just provide more valuable information to the world. And today I want to, Kristy, just have conversation about the difference between surviving.   and thriving in the business owner world. And these two words, I love them because you know, they almost rhyme and that makes it fun. And I think our marketing department enjoys that. But I really love it because it's such a wide definition for anyone, right? Just surviving could be someone else's thriving. And someone else's thriving could be someone else's I'll never get their dreams.   Right? I think it's really interesting to chat about a subject like this because it is so in like independent, right? It's so dependent on the individual's dreams and what it means to them specifically. And Kristy, I think you have a really wonderful ability to articulate yourself really well.   and to see into spaces of life for people and with people. And I just think it's really cool that you can take a statement and really see further into it than maybe your average Joe might be able to see. And so I want to pick your brain a little bit on this and the idea of thriving or surviving. And it kind of makes me think of, you know, our onboarding call when we get a new client and we ask them, you know, what does success mean to you?   and what are your goals? mean we take them through this goal build out and Kristy what is this thriving or surviving like where does it take your brain? What do you think of and how do you think it relates to just dentistry right now?   Kristy (03:26) Yeah, I'm with you. It is a vast subject, if you will, and it can mean different things to different people. Surviving could be that they just worked really hard and they're kind of burning out. They don't see the spark anymore, right? Yet, it could also mean that they're fearful. They don't know or they're unknowing of the next step. They don't know what's next.   for them. They feel like they want to do more, but they don't know how to do it. I think asking more questions when we get on these calls. And I love that you say that onboarding because they obviously come to us for a reason, but sometimes I think they are just surviving and they don't really even know what they're looking for yet. And same with thriving. mean, thriving, it almost sounds like it has a little more positive spin on it, but yet sometimes   The Dental A Team (04:16) Yeah.   Kristy (04:25) Our docs don't feel that way when they're thriving. They feel burnout as well. So it is a big topic on both sides.   The Dental A Team (04:29) and   Yeah, I agree. And I think the difference there, right, or the space to find is the definition. And so, Docs, I think...   Figure out what thriving means to you. What is it that you're going for? What is it that you're here for? If we don't have a purpose driven behind us, right? We don't have anything driving us to our goals, then you could make that $300,000 this month that you wanted and it still might mean nothing or you might just be surviving because like Kristy said, you're burnt out. So what does thriving mean?   And I have, you know, I told you that we do this on our onboarding call. We chat with our doctors. We do this with every doctor that we work with. It's what is your business doing for your personal life?   How is your business projecting your personal life and what do you want your business to afford it? I work really hard with every client that I have and Kristy, I know that you do too because we believe, both of us believe so strongly in this. I want your business to work for you, not you to work for your business. And I want your business to be providing that life for you. And...   I've worked with a lot of clients over the years and Kristy, you've worked with a lot of clients over the years as well. And I have a few that really just come to mind for me. And my...   one of my all-time favorite practices that I have ever worked with and I will say that from the freaking rooftops, from the mountaintops, from everywhere. They're incredible human beings and I want to tell their story today because I think it's a really incredible space for everyone to find themselves a little bit in what this practice went through and where they are today.   And when I met this practice, they were pretty new to ownership. I think they were about three years in, a doctor and his husband. And they had just decided that his husband was going to leave his job, which is not in dental whatsoever. He has no dental knowledge and become the office manager.   And they decided this because it was the easy route and that it just kind of really made sense for them personally in a lot of different ways. So it made sense and it was all good. And they had a lot of ambition. They had a lot of change that needed to be made. And then they had a team that was just kind of upside down and at each other's throats. And they were three years into having taken over a practice and they really didn't lose a lot of team members in that takeover, which was impressive, but   We had a lot of cattiness going on in that practice. And one of the first things that I had them work on, they had been working with somebody already who was working on their numbers and telling them, gosh, you need to expand and you need more room, you need more space, and you can do so many cool things. And I sat them down and I said, yeah, absolutely, you can do all those things. That's not a question in my mind. But do you want to do those things? Why are you doing those things? Why did you become an office manager? Why did you become a dentist?   And how do we know when you've reached it? What does success look like to you guys? And I made them sit down and I made them figure it out together as a couple. And I made them figure it out individually within their own positions. And this process of really figuring out the impact that they needed and they wanted to make on the community.   turned into this incredible space of this dentist wanting to serve a community who is unserved and unseen within their   rural town community and it's just really impressive and so amazing and this community thrives with him like they just they know him for it and he's been able to make his name out of this this space because he really believes in it but really what it did was it allowed them to not only see the community aspect but to also see the team aspect and it   we worked together, Osmander and I have worked side by side for many years now and he is this incredible human that just said he wanted something different. He wanted to go home feeling different every day. He wanted his team to feel different every day and we worked through a lot of personal development spaces, a lot of leadership spaces and he has come just, I mean he's achieved so much but in the early stages it really was about him being able to see what he wanted his team to say about   the practice when they weren't at work. So when they're in the community, are they recommending my practice? When they're in the community, are they thinking about the office and are they representing the practice or are they just done working? And he wanted to build a community within their team. He wanted to build a place where his team felt loved and welcomed and all of these things. And that was to him what thriving as an office manager would be.   he would feel less stressed obviously and feel more in tune with his position. But if he had a team that could stand behind him and he had a team that he could say they were thriving, they were reaching goals, that to him was success. And we worked through so much leadership.   Gosh, tenfold with this team. got his entire team. They both did got their entire team invested in the leadership like space and in learning the leadershi

    24 min

  7. APR 10

    #979: Signs You (Or Your Practice) Are Experiencing Burnout

    Have you noticed signs of apathy in your practice? Does your job feel insurmountable? Kiera talks about telltale signs of burnout, how to help people bounce back from burnout, and ways to avoid burning out in the first place. 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 (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I am so happy you're here. I'm so happy that you're spending your time with us, that you are truly here committed to making your practice, your patient experience, your team experience that much better, which ultimately impacts your life. It ultimately impacts your profitability and it ultimately impacts the success that you have in this world. This is one of the greatest opportunities for you to truly live your dream life, to truly have everything and more. And that's what I love and I'm so passionate about. And so today,   I just wanted to talk about some telltale signs of burnout and what to do if you are a practice experiencing burnout or what to look for to avoid burnout. know burnout is one of these hot topics and I was talking to an office today and I thought, you know what? I need to podcast about that because offices feel alone. Offices feel like I'm the only one who's experiencing this. I'm the only one who feels this way. Like, gosh, I don't even know what to do. And so I feel like it's just a really...   important topic that I'm super passionate about that I am excited. So today, it's going to be a quick tactical one of what to do for burnout. What does that look like? What are some symptoms and then what to do to help with that? Because I think all of us can be in that space at one time or another. And so just noticing being able to have it, I've done some other ones. There's been some other doctors that have been guests on here. But I realized that today when I was talking to this office, I realized, my gosh, this doctor is just struggling from burnout.   And I don't think that they even realized that. And so just giving you some quick, like, these are some things to be aware of. But then in addition to that, I always love like, but what's the solution? How do I get out of this? Because burnout, think is a little bit of a buzzword. What are truly the steps out? So I'm really excited that you're here. If you're a part of the Dental A Team family, I'm so glad you're a part of it. I love our clients. We are a consulting company that works across the nation. I'm really trying to bring.   dentists and team members together because I think it's so tricky when doctors are consulted but the team's not or the team's consulted and the doctor's not but getting both parties on the same page to where we can really truly thrive we can gain a lot of traction and momentum within our practice having the best team and patient experience because I honestly believe that building a dental practice should be easy building a practical building a practical and profitable practice should be easy so with Dental A Team that's what we do that's what we're here for we're the masters at team and   and practice success. And really we've been there, we've done it, we've done it successfully many times and I hope to be able to help you in your practice. So today talking about burnout, this doctor called in and they were saying, Kiera, I need some help. I was like, all right, great, let's talk. And this doctor, what I started noticing was there was a lot of apathy. As they were talking, they just said, I know I should be doing this and I just don't. I know that I...   Like these are some issues that I'm struggling with and I've just said it a lot of times and I've just kind of given up asking for it. Like when I have patients there, like I know I should be diagnosing this and not that I'm not diagnosing, I'm diagnosing, but maybe I'm just not presenting all of it because I honestly don't want to tell the patient like you've got seven crowns. So you know what? This one, I could watch it. I started hearing and I know some of you were like, my gosh, I don't want you to judge this office.   Because guess what? hear this from a lot of practices and I'm not sitting here judging. I never sit here and think, wow, that doctor's crazy. I think, wow, that doctor is burnt out and we need to figure out why. Doctors at the end of their careers, they get this way too. Doctors when they are at different areas in their life, they get these things. And I really hope that today we come to this with love and empathy and no judgment and no judgment of yourself.   and no judgment of these offices. I'm mixing and mashing a bunch of offices together so that way you can't figure out who I'm talking about because I hear this from so many practices. But it's apathy. It's saying like, gosh, I just feel like I can't find the energy. I'm tired of just asking for this to be done. It's the insurmountable to-do list. It's the, I think like as I just took that breath, I think that's how they feel. It's like I have this never ending to-do list.   I don't quite know what I need to do. I'm tired. I've got things going. I know I could be doing better. Do I really want to? And it's just kind of like this swirl. I also notice when officers are really at a good burnout space, they swirl. They swirl a lot because honestly, I think that their mind is swirling and they're just like, I know I need to do this and I know I need to do that, but I'm so tired. Or gosh, like I just like, no matter how many times I like tried to take a step forward, I've got 10 steps back. And what I look for when I'm   when I'm seeing a practice, the first thing I'm gonna ask when I have a doctor who's in this space, those are some telltale signs. And then after that, we just get to a workspace where we actually stop caring, where you don't wanna come work, dentistry is not fun for you. And so what I get excited about is like, when I get to catch a doctor before they get to that where they've lost the interest, they're not excited about it, they still have a little bit of that spark and sparkle and they're like, hey,   I know I need some help and they reach out. That's like the prime spot. I love to catch them even before that, but hey, we can catch you at that spot. Fantastic. Because otherwise, like I said, you go into complete and total like shutdown and it's things. It's almost like the world loses its color. Food loses its taste. Things that you used to love. They just don't inspire you anymore. You start to detach. start to, it's hard to find the energy. It's hard to find the motivation. It's hard to get excited for things. You really are just sitting in this space of   I feel like it's almost complete overwhelming. So your system is just naturally shutting down and it's like, all right, we're just gonna like put a, we're gonna put a blanket on that. Like it's a fire and we need to put the fire blanket on it and just like put everything to baseline zero. So we're not having highs, we're not having lows. We're just gonna settle. And I think when I look at practices like this, that's the part I don't like because you got into dentistry because you love it. And so when I find doctors like this, one of the first questions I'm going to ask is, do you have a great office manager or right hand?   And a lot of times I will hear, and office managers, this is nothing on you, office managers, I hope if you're listening to this, you are picking up, that's why I do this podcast. So doctors and office managers can have conversations. You can talk about this. You can say, my gosh, like, hey, these things are things we need to talk about. And so with that, what I found is usually the office manager has been there for maybe a while, but the office manager is not truly managing. And so,   What I like to highlight on this to these offices is like this doctor, they'll something like, Kiera, just, I know I need to hire this person, but I can't get the ads. And I'm like, that's what your office manager should be doing. They should be placing the ads. They should be interviewing. You can help with the compensation, but they should be bringing that to you. Like literally owner doctors. That's what you should be relying on your office manager for. And office managers, this is what you are supposed to be doing as an office manager. And I know there's no rule book for office managers. So a lot of times it's just.   You didn't even know that this is part of your job description. So things like payroll, things like website, things like marketing, things like tracking our cases, things like figuring out new softwares in the practice, things like listening to podcasts. So kudos to all those office managers out there. Doctors, if you're office manager listens to the podcast, or if they haven't started, have them join us. It would be great. We try to talk about these things so you don't have to have the awkward conversation. We have it for you. But so many things that when I look at doctors lists, I'm like,   well, high five, all of these things that you're doing for the most part actually should be delegated out to your office manager or your leadership team. Now again, pending upon the size of your practice, but the reality is doctors, you're an owner. And so your job is to do dentistry and be an owner and a CEO of your practice. That's what your job is. It's not to be the manager. And so oftentimes I find that the burnout for a lot of doctors comes because they don't have a strong office manager next to them. And even if...   because a lot of people are like, Kiera, can't find an office manager or I don't want the office manager title in my practice. And I'm like, that's fine. So we can hire a personal assistant. We can hire an office manager. We can hire a

    20 min

  8. APR 9

    #978: Eco-Friendly Methods To Establish Today

    Tiff and Dana walk through different dental departments and share ideas many practices have used to keep things green, including reconsidering which items actually need to be disposable, reducing paper, reusing plastic, and more. 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: The Dental A Team (00:02) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I'm so excited to be here with you again. You know that I am just always so happy to bring Dana on the set with us and be here with you. We love sharing our tips. We love sharing our tricks. We love sharing our, I don't know, workout gear with you and all of the pieces and just sharing our lives with you. So we are both so excited to be here today. Dana, thank you for always being on board, for hopping on, for jumping in on any conversation. I know I spin you.   and throw you in some directions that you're not always expecting. So thank you for keeping up with me and knowing how to roll with the punches. How are you on this fine, fine afternoon?   Dana (00:42) Doing good. I'm excited to be here. You know you're right. You keep me on my toes. I never really know what you're going to throw at me, but I leave with a smile on my face and having loved it. So I'm excited to be here too.   The Dental A Team (00:48) That's true.   Perfect.   And now clients and non-clients and listeners here, you guys know that this is truly unscripted from our brains. We come up with topics, but we do riff here and we really pick each other's brains and really come up with solutions for things just the same as we do on your coaching calls. So when you guys bring stuff like this to us clients, this is how we roll. And for anyone who is wondering,   We do have conversations like this outside of the podcast world as well, as consultants are constantly talking to one another about things that we're seeing in practices, things we're experiencing when I need something, maybe I don't have an answer for it. Cause you guys, I know this is going to sound crazy and wild, but we do not know everything. I know it's a shocker. It's a shocker, but combined between all of us, we've got it pretty well handled. So if there's something I don't know,   or have questions on, I definitely, definitely throw it to my ladies and get those answers for you guys. So rest assured everyone, we're constantly collaborating just like we tell you to collaborate and we're constantly growing and learning ourselves. So Dana, thanks for being one of those beautiful ladies behind the scenes for me on so many occasions and I'm excited for today's topic. I...   I just barely prepped you with it, but it sounds like you've recently had a conversation like this with a practice and I'm excited for it. So think it's really something that has been coming around the dental scene for probably the past 10 or more even years, but really strong recently. listeners, we're going to talk today on some eco-friendly dental practice methods. And that doesn't just mean dentistry, but really a lot of the products and just what are we doing?   new out there right now to really go green and a lot of the practices and Dana with your conversation that you've just had with your practice recently I know you've got a lot of hot tips and tricks and there are other practices out there we both talked to as well but what do you have for us today on on that like what eco-friendly things did you guys chat about on that call?   Dana (03:04) Yeah, and I think that it is just coming up with ways any ways that we can reuse, reduce and recycle things right When it comes to eco friendly offices And the biggest thing in dentistry is our disposables, right? So what are the things that we have that are disposables? Can we find a recyclable option? Or that we can reduce the number of disposable items that we're using or eliminate them altogether if it is, you know,   The Dental A Team (03:10) Yeah.   Dana (03:31) I'm all about sanitation, infection control, all of those things. But I think COVID put us in a little bit of like a redundancy mode in some of those areas. And so I feel like in the last 4 years, our disposables have gone up a ton. And our infection control, while those standards are great, I think even above and beyond what is really needed. And so I think it's just finding ways to navigate those things. And we tend to like put plastic over everything and just use   things that aren't super eco-friendly to keep like sanitization standards. And so we don't want to give up on those things, but there are a lot of new products and new technologies and things that we can use that aren't necessarily disposable like we're so used to them being.   The Dental A Team (04:19) Yeah.   Yeah,   I love all of that. I totally agree with you and I hope everyone got the 90s child reference, the late 80s 90s child reference there, reduced, recycle. If everyone could see the commercial and hear the song, I would be even happier right now. I think it needs to come back. I agree. I do love the fact that you mentioned the disposable pieces and like the plastics on everything. And it's funny because I've   Dana (04:32) Did you love it?   The Dental A Team (04:50) I've done it myself and I've watched people put the plastics on and then take the plastics off and then like we're scrubbing everything still and so it's like gosh that's that redundancy space that is it necessary and is it always necessary for every appointment too?   know, because my implant placement appointment or extraction or perio surgery or SRP even is going to be a little messier, we'll say. It's going to look a little different than my limited exam with a PA where I'm not actually infiltrating any tooth structure whatsoever and everything's very clean. So are we taking that into consideration too, which I think leads into exactly where you said like, are we taking inventory of the disposables that we're using? Because do we need to   to   do we need to have disposable air water syringes? Number one, is that completely necessary? And do we need it on both air waters for the limited exam because they're both gonna be removed likely and tossed out after that appointment, especially if you've got.   sterile tech or another dental assistant or anybody coming into the room because they don't know what you touched and so they're going to dispose of anything that's disposable. So I think just taking into consideration too what the next appointment is.   what's actually necessary and only putting out the things that are necessary. for doctors listening, this definitely is an overhead situation. It's going to help supply cost immensely. But for everyone who's listening, this is a reduce, reuse, recycle situation of we've got to save the dang planet, you guys. We've got to do what we can to really make sure that we're not filling those landfills with unnecessary debris and that we're really doing the best that we can for the people that are.   the people that are here.   I think I still see Dana when I go in offices, I still see, you know, those dental assistants running around there. And I was this person, they just grabbed, you know, we've got a filling coming up and I just grab a stack of two by two by two. So just grab a stack or the hygienist, right? Just grab a stack instead of like, how many do I actually need? And my doctor, realistically, we only need two. If I'm cleaning off your instrument, you're passing it, you know, you, you pack the composite in there and I need to clean the instrument off before you pack more composite.   it's not going to take this whole stack. I'm never using all of those. And if I do need more, then I can get more. It's available. And same with hygiene, right? When you're going through and scaling, like you don't need a massive stack in most cases. You probably need two to four, I would assume, to really keep your instruments clean. So even just as simple as that. Now, Dana, I...   On the same subject, right, eco-friendly, what are you seeing practices do within the front office with paper? I know paper's always been a big thing. And then COVID happened. And like, I think we got paper crazy again, which was the exact opposite of what I thought would happen, but we got paper crazy again. And what are you seeing offices do now to try to combat that and switch things back around?   Dana (07:58) Yeah, and I think it is. just going back to making sure that they're doing medical histories, like sending those to patients ahead of time and doing them electronically, doing their consents electronically when patients walk in, you know, using the iPads for new patient information, for treatment planning and presenting. So there's a lot of ways and not only, think that a lot of this is there's kind of like another benefit to it, right? We can switch everything to electronic, which is also going to save us a fair amount of time.   I was just in a practice recently and they were like, Hey, we're clocking a lot of overtime. And I'm like, front office, like, what are we doing with our overtime? And I'm not kidding you. They looked at me and said, well, we spend about two hours at the end of the day shredding. And I was just like, wait, what? So not only right, are we being eco-friendly by eliminating paperwork, we're truly eliminating work from our team two hours every day spent on shredding.   The Dental A Team (08:38) Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. I had an office last week that said the same thing.   Dana (08:54) then we're paying a shredding company to come and take our shreddables too. So it's like you said, it helps with supply costs and it helps with costs and it truly also buys us back time while also serving the environment and being really, you know, as eco-friend

    22 min
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About

This podcast is here to give dentists and all dental office team members, in EVERY position, TACTICAL and PRACTICAL TIPS to: - Be more efficient - Have more fun - Improve doctor and team communications - Eliminate frustration - And make your life easier! Jump in! We are thrilled you have decided to LEVEL UP and be part of the DENTAL A TEAM! New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

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  • Creator
    Kiera Dent
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2025
  • Episodes
    983
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 668974
  • Show Website
    Dental A Team Podcast

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