Dr. Jeong-Woo Yoo, a dental practice owner in Zug, Switzerland, and co-founder of digital dentistry service Smylor Dental, recently connected with Becker's to give advice to the next generation of dental leaders.
Note: This response has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Dr. Jeong-Woo Yoo: Healthcare is facing a lot of challenges. The expectation of patients is increasing, regulations are getting tight and staff is suffering (if you find some).
Here are some key attitudes and advices for dental leaders:
1. Obsessive focus on patients. Dentistry is not any longer just doing treatments (never was, actually). As a leader, you should take more care of what the people around you are feeling. Dentistry is about improving the health of patients. Future dentistry is about patient journey and patient experience (actually was all the time).
2. Confidence and positiveness. The core business in healthcare is and will be the trust of the patient. You should be able to show confidence and positive feelings to your patients.
3. Take risks going new ways. As long as your visions and key values focus on improving the health of patients, keep going.
4. Awareness of your own staff: You are only a leader if the team follows you. Take care of your team.
5. Share. Good leaders show and share their ideas.
6. [Ask] why? What is the reason you are doing this? Your vision has to be clear.
7. Digitization in dentistry (including AI). This will solve many problems in dentistry. Other businesses already have good established digital solutions. As a leader, you should be able to show how to integrate in dentistry.
8. Education. Take your team to the next level.
9. Time management. You only have 24 hours. Take care of yourself and your family.