Dental leaders have spoken with Becker's on a number of topics in the last 30 days, including patient interactions, education debt and cryptocurrency.
Here are what six leaders told Becker's in the last 30 days:
Heartland Dental's CFO on pandemic leadership, the advantage of failing forward
Travis Franklin. CFO of Heartland Dental (Effingham, Ill.): You also have to constantly build yourself. Great leaders build great businesses, so a focus on yourself is critical and making yourself a better person. Invest in leadership coaching, take advantage of feedback, incorporate that feedback, get better — because those are some of the key ingredients to advancing your career quicker. If you can fail forward and continue to be better for yourself as well as your family [and] business, it feeds all those things.
How interactions with patients have changed since the start of the pandemic
Steve Kuchuris. COO of Yellowstone Family Dental (Billings, Mont.): There's a continuum. If you'd asked me [this question] back in April of 2020, what people's reactions [about COVID-19] were going to be, they're way different than they are now. I would say right now, as of this week, only about 5 percent or less of our patients or prospective new patients come in with a mask. They very rarely use hand sanitizer anymore, even though we have it all over the lobby. Our front desk staff doesn't wear masks anymore. We only wear masks in the operatory like we used to do pre-pandemic. Now the interactions are completely back to normal.
Dental education debt is killing the private practice
Matt Carlston, DMD. Vice President of Marketing and Partner Recruitment for Comfort Dental Group (Lakewood, Colo.): I think it's very important that [dentists] don't get themselves caught up in a situation that is going to delay their career for three or four years, especially with the amount of student loan debt that they'll have. I talk to dentists almost daily who are in a position where they've been out of dental school for three or four years and it's not what they were promised with some of these larger DSOs, and they're looking for a way out or an alternative career path.
What aspiring dental owners should know: 5 insights
Oksana Boyechko, DMD. Owner of Boyechko Dental (Cameron Park, Calif.): We were taught in school that location is most important in opening your practice. I want to emphasize: not the location of the practice, but the location of your home. That is the most important. One needs to pick first the place to live, to have a family and be happy first, then look for the place to open the practice, near home. Also, start small: two operatories, doing your own hygiene, having only two employees, so as not to get overwhelmed. Try not to start many projects at once, like buying a house, car, and/or equipment for practice or learning several new procedures at the same time, like placing implants and doing 3D printing, etc. Pace yourself, accomplish small things, then move on to the next. Don't forget about the family and the loved ones!
Is there a place for cryptocurrency in dental?
Sharde Harvey, DDS. Owner of Upper East Dental Innovations (New York City): The robotics industry is still to come; I think that's the next level. In our market currently — and not just in [dental] but in medical and other fields, there is a shortage of employees. Going robotic or outsourcing is very big now and [artificial intelligence] is very big now. So I think the next step we're going to see is artificial intelligence playing a role across the board and not just in dentistry but in medicine.
How good faith estimates affect the business of dentistry
Rick Mars, DDS. President of Dental Care Group (Miami): Transparency in any business transaction is paramount. As much as it is uncomfortable to discuss dentistry as a business for some, the business of dentistry cannot be avoided, as we have to pay our bills like everyone else. Good faith estimates of uninsured and self-pay patients is an attempt to add another level of transparency to dentistry. I do not feel this will discourage patients from moving forward with treatment, but on the contrary, it might encourage some patients to commence treatment when they can establish a budget and fit their treatment into their lifestyles.