Culture is a crucial aspect of dental practices for a number of reasons. It defines how practices operate and how they provide care to patients, according to dentists.
Having a positive culture typically includes listening to patients, strong teamwork and freedom for employees to learn and improve.
These three dentists recently connected with Becker’s to share why culture is important for dental practices and organizations.
Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: Why is culture important for dental practices/organizations?
James Mah, DDS. Dean of the UNLV School of Dental Medicine (Las Vegas): Culture is critically important as it can be a limiter or a force multiplier and ultimately charts the destiny of the organization. It fundamentally sets the stage for so many of the defining characteristics of a successful organization such as capabilities, esprit de corps, trust, resilience, advancement, competitiveness, endurance and others. My acid-test question for assessment of organizational culture is “Given your existing culture, would your business survive if it were in another industry such as a café or a clothing boutique?” Elements of positive culture such as listening to customers, ability to learn, honesty, adaptability, teamwork, communication generally shift the answer to “yes” and demonstrate that positive culture is not only transferable but can be the most valuable asset for an organization.
Julia Richman, DDS. Dentist of Dino Kid’s Dentistry (Covington, Wash.): Culture determines how we approach patient care and has a huge part to play in the morale of the team. Culture determines: do we see a difficult patient as a challenge or a headache? Do we work together as a team or do we get embroiled in interpersonal disputes? Do we have an identity as an organization that we are proud to be a part of? Do we agree on office policies and management? Of course, a dental office is not a democracy, but any good manager knows that if the team does not buy in, nothing is going to work well. Culture means a culture of psychological safety as well where people can freely ask questions and admit to mistakes, and where we can debrief after a difficult appointment to see what we could have done better or if there is anything we can learn.
Nick White, DMD. Dentist at Lake Mary (Fla.) Pediatric Dentistry: Culture is what defines the values and beliefs of an office. From the way the office team is dressed, to how they answer the phone. The way they smile and interact with patients from the minute they walk through the door, to the minute they check out and leave. And this starts with the top down. The doctor has to define the culture they would like in their office. They have to communicate this and train their team to implement it. Will they be customer service oriented, going the extra mile for their patients, or will they be a production numbers-driven office focused solely on the amount of revenue?
