Learn more about dental technology, office design, financial tips, and more in the 2023 highlight reel for the Brush Up Podcast. These are some of the best moments from the first 10 episodes. Thanks for listening throughout the year!
Listen to the full episodes.
Read the audio transcript below:
Dr. James Younger: So part of it is, and again it’s funny there’s never a one factor answer for these things, but if I was to sum it up, what I would say is the most critical thing – if someone is looking to find and retain good people and grow their team in that direction – fundamentally, it’s to be the office and to be the team and to be the leader or to be the manager that attracts and retains good people. And I’m sure we all know there are some dental offices and dental office owners and managers that would say “Ah, where are all the good people?” but I think it’s an opportunity for self-reflection, to say “Are we creating a work-life? Are we creating respect for dental professionals? Are we creating a culture that attracts and retains good people to our team?” So I know it sounds a little cheesy, but the first thing to me is to be in office with the team, be a leader, be a manager, have a culture that deserves to find and retain good people, because that’s your garden. That’s what’s going to grow that and make it happen. So if you have that and you work on that internally, when you’ve got that as a foundation then that allows you the opportunity to network with better professionals, go to trade shows, use Indeed, use personal connections, use recruiting agencies or temping services, all of those different things, to find that pool.
Dr. James Yacyshyn: The amount of time and effort put into training staff. So the more you invested is a function of staff training, and the more you invested in their background with the new technology, the faster the adoption curve was for the technology, the quicker it was brought in without disruption to workflow, the more successful that change initiative was. So it’s kind of interesting, really, when we think about bringing new technology in. If we actually just look at basic needs analysis, as a clinician, why are we doing this? Who’s involved? What are we hoping to accomplish? Set those goals, get those objectives outlined, and then actually hold people accountable to timelines, because when you actually think about these teams that we have, they’re complex. It’s more than just us and the resources that are involved as well. And if you don’t actually reflect on it and pull people into the conversation, it just gets to be a little more muddied, to be a little bit more of a challenge and then all of a sudden you get very expensive paperweight sitting there.
David Chong Yen: Some dentists often say to me, “Dave, Eugene, I want to buy a home for my child or help them buy a home, but I’m concerned that they might get divorced, etc., and then I flushed that money down the toilet, so to speak. Can you give me some practical tips on how to minimize that loss if it ever arises because of an ex son-in-law or daughter-in-law divorcing my son or daughter?” And the answer is yes. What we recommend our clients consider is lend money to their child. And actually have the loan documented. “Dave, Eugene, what’s the benefit?” Benefit is, if your child ends up getting divorced, then that loan will reduce how much your ex in law gets because it’s a liability. I would make sure you document that loan. That practical idea extends beyond just lending for home. Example: many of our clients send their children to university. They may go to all different schools and, especially if it’s in the states, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. So what we suggest our clients do is lend that money, document the loan, and in an unlikely event the child gets divorced, that loan will reduce what the ex in-law gets.
Darcie Galbraith: We find that in these clinical settings, that we work day-in day-out, we are really finding that there’s a trend or some concepts and themes that are starting to come about in the interior design world. So, when it comes to dental world, we do find that we’re shying away from clinical settings and creating our offices to have more residential vibes. So, what I mean is the offices are starting to look more homey. They’re starting to incorporate more familiar concepts that we know in our own homes and now bringing into that dental setting. No longer is it perhaps as clinical, clean, sterile look – it is also beautiful to do that. But perhaps now, looking into making it more familiar for everyone who walks in. So, including fireplaces in the front reception, to include modern amenities like a coffee station. Those key details that make it familiar.
Dr. Lou Shuman: So let’s start in the clinical area. It’s really neat what’s happening, is the companies that are coming out in AI, they are all excellent. So you look at companies like Pearl, OverJet, VideaHealth, Dentai.ai, – these are all very clinically focused AI that really do a tremendous amount of work around natural language, language processing, machine learning, really focusing on X-ray analysis, oral diagnosis, early detection. But there is one company that is right now in Canada that is not yet in the United States. And they are a clinical AI company that has raised the bar and they’re called Diagnocat. They have raised the bar by not only being 2D but being 3D. So they’re, from what I’ve seen, the first clinical AI that has introduced 3D into our ability to diagnose, our ability to visualize. They have literally 35 2D conditions and six 3D reports, being able to look at the patient in many ways. And it’s a great benefit in educating the patient. A ton of it is all these companies are really doing a great job in giving us a tool to be able to have early detection look at periodontal, you know, look at carries. This detection and those properties, capabilities, will continue to grow with Diagnocat being the first to move into 3D.
Paul Jacobson: I love life insurance. I really do. And I actually think that we should rename it. It shouldn’t be called life insurance because people don’t like talking about it because it means that I’m going to die kind of concept. I call it a liquidity contract. So it’s a contract that provides liquidity on an event and that event just happens to be death. But think of it as a liquidity contract. And what does that mean? Well, that means that it will provide a cash injection to the estate for a number of things. It could be buying out a business partner. It could be paying CRA debt, capital gains tax debt. It could be an equalization. Maybe you preferred to give the business to the one child and the other child you have to equalize and the best way to do that is through life insurance. And then you can also use it just to enhance the retirement of the surviving. So those are kind of the big things that I look at and I really think it’s a great tool and, in fact, a lot of professionals and who run their practices through professional corporations, tend to have life insurance called permanent life insurance in their company. And it’s a really good investment in my opinion and it’s a necessity to the family. The government feels that it’s a super asset of the family. They have policies to protect it around that concept. And just a wonderful tool that people, when they get older, realize that it is going to be pretty beneficial. When you’re younger, when you’re in your 30s doesn’t mean much. But when you’re my age, it starts to.
Elizabeth Ogundare: I believe there’s several channels that work well for dental practices. Of course, you know, these may vary based on the needs and goals of your practice, but one that typically works for all is, you know, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. These provide practices with the opportunity to really engage with their current and potential patients. I feel like it’s a great way to showcase your practice in a more personable way. You know, for example, creating social media content that highlights and celebrates dental assistants and the dental hygienist weeks and administrative days. Those are more the dental specific events that happen throughout the year that should be highlighted. And there’s other things such as like, you know, introducing new staff that join your clinic, celebrating birthdays and just announcing new services. Some other channels you know, direct mail, radio ads, billboards – it’s another great way to reach specific local audiences. And then there’s also the digital aspect to that. So whether that’s, you know, e-mail marketing, your Google ads, SEO and PPC are all really great channels as well to market your practice, so there’s not one-size-fits-all. It’s kind of based on the needs and goals of your practice.
Jennifer Kim Fields: There’s a number of resources available to dental professionals on what you can do to take that first step around sustainability, and there’s probably things that you’re already doing that you might not call sustainable, but you’re doing it already. That’s what we found internally within our business teams, and I think it’s because everybody wants to do the right thing. And what does that right thing mean? It could mean being more paper conscious than being paper free. So rather than providing receipts to your patients in paper form, you’re doing it electronically and things like that. But I would encourage all dental professionals to explore what are the steps that make the best sense for your practice and where you are in your sustainability journey, right? That could be building similar to us, like our Environmental Impact Council, building a cross functional team to assess your impact. You know, patient provider safety, the financial health of your organization, it could mean evaluating your products, identify those that could be reused or recycled. It could be running a practice energy audit, but it also could be simple things like putting timers on your office lights or choosing green products. I think that the most important thing is, you know, as I mentioned earlier, all of these small actions add up and can make a difference. And I think it’s, you know, important to keep in mind that today’s patients, especially the younger generation – if you think about it right to Gen. Z’s and on – they’re more interested in sustainability and purpose driven organizations, and I think that having a green practice has the potential to attract new patients and set it apart from others.
David Harris: And one thing, Luisa, that people don’t always appreciate is how interactive a crime embezzlement is. In other words, if I work for you and I plan to steal from you, the first question I ask is: all right, so what does my doctor look at? And, more to the point, what doesn’t she? So let’s start by saying there are two kinds of dentists. There are those who sit there at the end of the day, they print a report from their practice management software that says what was collected and they compare that to the bank deposit. And then there’s the other 85%. if you are in that 85%, stealing is easy because I don’t really have to conceal. In other words, if you’re not sure how much money should be going into the bank today, if you don’t confirm that that amount was deposited, the dumbest, laziest thief on the planet can still steal from you. If you do confirm that, and confirming bank deposits is a lot more challenging than it once was, just because of the number of different ways that money can arrive in your account. But if that is something you pay attention to, then I can still steal, but now what I have to do is I have to make your practice management software lie to you about how much money came in. And I’m not going to get into the details here of how that happens, because I don’t want to empower thieves. But I will say that it is far less challenging than people probably believe to make your software underreport how much you collected today.
Dr. George Freedman: Current 3D printers are fully capable of managing the great demand for temporary, transitional, and permanent restorations and appliances, and achieving the clinical excellence required by the dental profession. Within the profession, there’s a great acceptance of this transformative technology. 3D printing is seen as an industry game changer and a prediction of the dental practice of the future. 3D printing techniques include stereo lithography, fused deposition modeling, subjective laser sintering, photopolymer jetting, electron beam melting and direct light processing. But before you get confused by all of these terms and products, you don’t have to know the difference. All you have to know is when you choose the appropriate printer for your practice, you press a button on the computer to begin its printing process. The currently use 3D printing applications can be grouped by treatment categories. In fixed spots dontics, you have permanent, provisional, indirect restorations, crowns, onlays, inlays, bridges and permanent monoblock direct restorations, all custom fabricated chair side within minutes of scanning the preparation. This is where the science fiction comes in.