From watching back game tape like professional sports teams to operating like the Ritz-Carlton, industries outside of healthcare can provide valuable lessons and takeaways for dentistry.
Whether it is mastering one procedure like Raising Canes does with its chicken strips or implementing industrywide standardization like the airline and aviation space, those in the dental industry say there are lessons to be learned from other industries.
The 34 leaders featured in this article are speaking at Becker’s 2026 Fall Future of Dentistry Roundtable, set for Sept. 14-15 at the Hilton Chicago.
If you work at a DSO or dental practice and would like to be considered as a speaker, please contact Scott King at sking@beckershealthcare.com.
Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What is one thing that dentistry should borrow from another industry?
Tarun Agarwal, DDS. Founder and Dentist of Raleigh (N.C.) Dental Arts: Dentistry should steal film reviews from pro sports. Every NFL team watches Monday tape — not to blame anyone, but to get better. We don’t do that. We finish the day, go home and do it again tomorrow. The phone calls, the consults, the handoffs — gone the second they happen. The practices that grow fastest record their new patient calls and case presentations, then review them with a regular cadence. No ego. Just tape. It’s brutal the first few times. Then it becomes the biggest lever you’ve got. Reps don’t make you better. Reviewed reps do.
Jerry Asamoah. COO of ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers (Greenwood Village, Colo.): Dentistry should borrow how vision care has mastered the clinical-to-retail handoff to drive patient engagement. In eye care, the exam naturally flows into selecting eyewear, making the purchase feel like a continuation of care — not a sales moment. Dentistry often separates diagnosis from treatment decisions, which can create friction and hesitation. By making that transition more seamless and consumer-friendly, dentistry can improve case acceptance while elevating the overall patient experience.
At ClearChoice, we are working to close this gap by fully integrating the clinical and decision-making experience into one seamless journey where diagnosis, education, financial clarity and treatment initiation happen in a single, coordinated visit. When we do this well, the decision to move forward does not feel like a separate step. It feels like a natural continuation of care that is grounded in clinical excellence and meets the patient right where they are with treatment and financing options that fit their needs.
Hamza Asumah, MD. Director, Operations of Juniper Services (Sparks, Nev.): Dentistry should borrow the hospitality industry’s discipline around experience design as a core operating system. The hotel and luxury service sectors long ago recognized that the quality of the service interaction — the warmth of the greeting, the frictionlessness of check-in, the handling of a complaint — is not ancillary to the product; it is the product. In dentistry, we have professionalized the clinical encounter and, with the rise of DSOs, we have brought operational sophistication to multi-site management. But the patient experience layer — everything that happens before the patient opens their mouth — is still largely improvised and varies wildly not just across organizations, but across operatories within the same building. The Ritz-Carlton trains every employee, regardless of role, on 12 service values and empowers even a housekeeper to spend up to $2,000 to resolve a guest complaint without manager approval. That kind of institutionalized service culture, embedded into the operating infrastructure of a DSO, would be transformative for case acceptance, retention and brand equity. As someone who runs operations across multiple states, I can tell you: your clinical outcomes matter, but patients recommend you based on how you made them feel.
Catrise Austin, DDS. Owner of VIP Smiles Cosmetic Dentistry (New York City): Dentistry should borrow continuous health monitoring from medicine-like what we see with glucose monitors for diabetes-but applied to the mouth. In medicine, patients can track their blood sugar in real time and make immediate adjustments. Dentistry is still relying on snapshots every six months, even though conditions like cavities and gum disease are driven by daily habits.
The future of dentistry is a “smart mouth” where patients can track plaque levels, acidity, or sugar exposure in real time and course-correct before damage happens. Imagine a wearable or app-connected sensor that alerts you when your oral environment is becoming high-risk-so you can rinse, brush or adjust your diet instantly. That’s how dentistry shifts from reactive treatment to real-time prevention.
Murat Ayik, DDS. Partner, Specialty1 Partners (Houston): Dentistry should borrow hospitality’s obsession with experience — treating every patient like a guest, not an appointment. That means thoughtful environments, anticipating needs and removing friction at every touchpoint — from the front desk to post-op follow-up. When the space, service and communication all feel intentional, trust builds faster, referrals grow and loyalty becomes a true driver of growth.
Sibera Brannon, DDS. Dentist and Owner of Affordable Dentures and Implants (Sun City, Ariz.): One thing dentistry should borrow from other industries is the concept of building a true talent pipeline. In fields like technology and hospitality, there’s a strong focus on developing people — from entry-level to leadership — with clear pathways for growth.
In dentistry, we often focus heavily on production but not enough on training, mentorship and long-term team development. If we invested more intentionally in building and growing people, we would not only strengthen our teams but also create more sustainable and scalable practices. More importantly, this shift allows dentists to evolve beyond the chair — stepping into roles as mentors, leaders and builders of something greater than just daily production.
Jeffrey Burch, DMD. Co-Founder of Burch Dental Partners (Rockford, Ill.): The borrow is private equity’s CFO function — delivered through AI. Dentists are trained to produce, not to read a P&L, and that’s what keeps most practices stuck. An AI CFO plugged into Open Dental, payroll and accounting gives the owner-doctor the same real-time margin intelligence a PE-backed platform gets from a full finance team. That single borrow democratizes ownership economics — and it’s the most defensible moat a clinician-led DSO can build this decade. My CFO is an AI bot that I trained. The best ROI for me was keeping all my people, not laying off anyone, and not having to hire a really expensive C-level executive.
Jaime Burks. Senior Director, Operations of Providence Dental Partners (Atlanta): Dentistry should adopt AI-powered diagnostic imaging like the doctors have in radiology. Radiology has proven that AI doesn’t replace the clinician; it makes them faster and more accurate. Every dental X-ray and CBCT scan is an opportunity for AI to pre-read images, flag early caries or bone loss and track subtle changes over time that a busy clinician might miss. The days of clinical guesses and putting a tooth “on watch” could be replaced by confident, data-driven decisions that benefit the patient and validate the dentist’s expertise. Tools like Detect AI and Overjet are emerging, but adoption is still slow. The practices that integrate AI diagnostics early will have a real clinical and competitive advantage, and more importantly, patients will benefit from fewer missed diagnoses. When dentists see this technology as a powerful tool in their hands rather than a threat to their role, the entire standard of care elevates.
Jamie Clarke. Vice President, Network Development of Delta Dental of California and affiliates (San Francisco): Dentistry should embrace the commitment other leading industries have toward purposefully and responsibly utilizing innovation and technology to prioritize more seamless digital connectivity for payers, providers and patients and other stakeholders. Adopting this focus allows the industry to bridge traditional gaps in care to ensure that health information supports real-time decision-making and preventative care across the entire care continuum.
As consumers increasingly adopt digital platforms in all aspects of their lives, practices should leverage technology to meet patients where they are. This evolution in engagement strengthens the patient-provider relationship and serves as a meaningful catalyst for practice retention and sustainable growth. These advancements provide the essential framework for dental-medical integration. They also drive the operational efficiencies and accelerated decision-making, at the chairside and with payers, that support practice longevity and a measurable return on investment. By further leveraging these modern strategies to turn data into actionable insights, we can better empower the dental team, deepen patient connections, and move care forward to prioritize positive holistic health outcomes for everyone, everywhere.
Aditya Desai, DDS. Chief Clinical Officer of Familia Dental (Clovis, N.M.): Dentistry should borrow structured, ongoing training from the defense forces. In a busy clinical environment, we rarely carve out protected time to revisit fundamentals or deliberately practice skills, yet that discipline is essential for long‑term excellence. Whether done individually or in small groups, low‑pressure rehearsal builds confidence, consistency and mastery. Alongside technical skill, dentistry would benefit from the defense forces’ emphasis on calm decision‑making and mental toughness in moments of uncertainty and chaos.
Jaideep Deshpande. Executive Director, Strategy and Marketing of University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry: Dentistry should borrow flexible scheduling and elevated experience design from luxury wellness and spa industries. Instead of rigid appointments, practices could offer extended hours, same-day access and frictionless booking — meeting patients where they are. At the same time, reimagining the clinic as a calming, spa-like environment can reduce anxiety and transform visits into a more positive, even restorative experience. The opportunity is to shift dentistry from something patients “have to do” to something they feel genuinely comfortable — and even good — about.
Joseph Feldsien. President, Medical of PDS Health (Henderson, Nev.): The clear and obvious solution to this question is the ability for AI to take a more prominent role in patient and team engagement. AI is able to take the administrative burden off the team so the team is able to dedicate time to patient engagement. Solutions such as chat bots to answer phones, AI scribes to capture notes to the patient record vs dental assistants charting in the room, coding solutions to support best billing practices and more. These solutions improve level of service while reducing cost of care.
Jay Glazer. Director, Business Development of DC Dental (Baltimore): One thing dentistry should borrow from the hospitality industry is intentional customer experience design.
Dentistry is clinically advanced, but the patient experience often feels cold, confusing, and anxiety-inducing. Hospitality businesses — especially hotels and high-end service brands — excel at making people feel: welcomed, informed, comfortable and in control. If dental practices adopted that mindset, it could transform patient trust and case acceptance.
Sherry Hassler. COO and EOS Integrator of Today’s Dental Nebraska (Omaha): One industry dentistry can borrow from: hospitality. More specifically we can refine the art of the warm handoff. In great hotels, every staff member who passes you in the hallway acknowledges guests with a warm smile. They anticipate needs before you voice them. The experience feels seamless and human, never transactional.
In dentistry we can tend to operate in silos. The front desk checks you in, an assistant preps you, the hygienist cleans your teeth, the doctor examines you and looks at your images and then you’re handed off to scheduling — often with little connectivity between those moments. Patients can feel shuffled and uncared for. Leaning into AI technology lowers the barrier many patients have for scheduling appointments. Let AI find the date and time at 10 p.m. when busy patients have time to call the office, collect the data and do it with the utmost courtesy. Have you talked with an AI receptionist? They’re impressive! The technology gets patients in the chair; the hospitality keeps them coming back.
Haim Haviv. Founder and CEO of Hudson Dental (New York City): Dentistry should borrow revenue cycle discipline from healthcare systems. When financial systems are strong and consistent, practices are better positioned to reinvest in what matters most — advanced technology, team development and a higher standard of care. That foundation allows clinicians to focus fully on delivering great outcomes and a better patient experience. The practices that get this right create the consistency and resources needed to truly elevate care.
RJ Jerome. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Heartland Dental (Effingham, Ill.): I’ve thought about this quite a bit and my answer is that dentistry, specifically dental technology vendors, should borrow the composite architecture approach adopted largely in the enterprise software industry. For decades, enterprise software was sold as monolithic suites: one vendor, one stack, one throat to choke. The 2010s (and cloud architecture) broke this model. Modern companies assemble best-of-breed components, connected by APIs. For years, our industry has paid integration tolls between practice management software, imaging, AI clinical tools and revenue cycle vendors. Every handshake has a price tag. As the DSO model continues to grow, so does the need for a simpler, easier approach to integration among technologies.
Johnny Joseph, DMD. Founder and CEO of Pediatric Dentistry Asleep Group (Pittsburgh): One thing dentistry should borrow from the airline industry is operational standardization. Aviation relies on clear protocols to ensure safety, efficiency and consistency — something dentistry can improve on, especially in surgical and sedation-based care. Adopting more systems-driven workflows would enhance patient outcomes and allow practices to scale more effectively.
Craig Kierst. Senior Vice President, Sales Strategy and Growth of ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers (Greenwood Village, Colo.): I believe that dentistry should embrace more of a frictionless platform to approach patients, borrowing from the technology industry. As you think about what apps you use on a weekly basis, a few came to my mind. The first few I used this week were a transportation app (Uber), and a fitness app (Nike Training Club). The frictionless consumer experience to hail a car or deliver some food allows me to have convenience at the tip of my finger. The unlimited options in the fitness app allow me to stay on my fitness plan and pivot from a run to a walk, still supported with customized content. This is not yet in dentistry. Companies are trying to lead the way, but the ones that make the consumer experience frictionless with customized options, will enhance the overall outcome and increase customer loyalty and win. This patient experience is at the top of my priority list at ClearChoice.
Natalya Korobeynyk. Director, Operations of ProHEALTH Dental Management (Lake Success, N.Y.): Dentistry should borrow end-to-end revenue cycle transparency and ownership from more mature, system-driven industries like healthcare and aviation. Today, dental RCM is often fragmented, with front offices, clinical teams and billing operating in silos — leading to delays, leakage and inconsistent patient experiences. Aviation offers a strong parallel: every flight is managed as a coordinated journey, with standardized protocols, real-time visibility and clear accountability from pre-flight to landing. Applying that model to dentistry means treating the patient’s financial journey the same way — from scheduling and eligibility through final payment — with proactive issue identification rather than reactive follow-up. Standardized workflows and defined ownership at each stage would reduce errors, improve efficiency and strengthen patient trust. Ultimately, dentistry has optimized individual functions; the opportunity now is to optimize the entire system for predictability and performance.
Alan Law, DDS, PhD. Chief Clinical Officer, Specialty Practices of Park Dental Partners (Minneapolis): Dentistry should borrow the concept of consumer-permissioned data vaults from the financial services and tech industries. In those sectors, individuals manage their own sensitive information, like credit data or digital IDs, within secure “virtual folders” and grant temporary, verified access to organizations as needed. If patients held their own ‘dental identity’ complete with radiographs and clinical history, it would eliminate the friction of inter-office transfers and empower patients to be the true stewards of their own health data. This shift would transform interoperability from a technical hurdle between clinics into a seamless, patient-led experience.
Trevor Lines, DDS. Owner and Dentist of Robison Dental (Mesa, Ariz.): Kaizen, also known as continuous improvement. Dentistry is a manufacturing business wherein we manufacture bespoke health solutions for individuals. The throughput is people and the output is health. Every manufacturing system with throughput and output is subject to the Theory of Constraints and every practice’s performance can be improved through structured cycles of continuous improvement in which bottlenecks are systematically identified and relieved.
Tia Meyer. Clinical Director of NBD Partnerships (Sioux Falls, S.D.): One thing dentistry should borrow from other industries, especially hospitality and high-performing service organizations, is intentional, consistent design of the patient experience. Every touchpoint, from scheduling to follow-up, should feel seamless, personalized and purpose-driven, not transactional. In dentistry, we often focus heavily on clinical excellence, but pairing that with a clearly defined patient journey elevates trust, case acceptance and long-term outcomes. When teams are aligned around both standards of care and experience, production naturally follows because patients feel seen, understood and confident in their care. That’s where the true transformation happens — when clinical quality and experience are no longer separate but fully integrated.
Jenifer Minarsich, Marketing Director, Seuss Orthodontics & Pediatric Dentistry (Scottsdale, Ariz.): When I started in dentistry in 2006, providing the Ritz-Carlton experience was novel. Now “excellent service” alone isn’t enough. The real opportunity is to design an experience and a system that feels intentional, modern, and differentiated at every step.
My approach now is that the “Ritz-Carlton service” was phase one; phase two is:
Becoming a modern, experience-driven office that is: Effortless, personal, engaging, trust-building and memorable. I believe this combination is what actually separates top practices now — not just being “really nice.”
Satish Pai, DMD. Founder and CEO of Brite Dental Partners (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.): Concierge-Style Communication: Using retail and hospitality strategies to move beyond transactional interactions confirming appointments, such as following up with personalized messages that remember a patient’s recent life events or preferences.
Seamless Digital Journey: Borrowing from retail e-commerce by implementing friction-free booking, online payments and financing and subscription services for preventive services and diagnostic services.
Personalization through Tech: Utilizing AI and digital imaging to move away from “one-size-fits-all” treatments.
Nimesh Patel, DMD. COO of Brite Dental Partners (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.): A CRM. We need to control our data and mine it for greater customer lifetime value.
Robert Rubino. CEO of Qualitas Dental Partners (Sharon, Mass.): Dentistry would benefit from better vendor diligence and management protocols. Many other industries have taken steps to ensure vendors can deliver the capabilities they advertise, are well capitalized and have reputations for meeting deadlines. In addition, mature vendor management programs ensure documentation is streamlined and appropriately protects the user of vendor services. Effective vendor management takes time and usually involves professionals engaged in the process. These professionals are looking out for the company’s best interest in engaging vendor services. It is very difficult for dental practices to devote the time and develop the expertise to manage a proper relationship with a vendor. As such, dental practices often pay too much for services and/or do not receive the benefits the vendor pitched them at the time of sale.
Ronald Saffar, DDS. CEO and President of My Orthodontist (Lawrence Township, N.J.): One thing dentistry should borrow from another industry is the organized, system-driven care delivery model seen in medicine. Medicine has evolved to operate with greater efficiency, coordination and scalability through integrated systems and standardized processes. Dentistry, by comparison, remains highly fragmented, which can limit both access and operational efficiency. Moving toward a more organized model of care delivery would allow dentistry to improve patient outcomes, enhance the patient experience and operate more effectively at scale.
Chris Salierno, DDS. Chief Dental Officer of Tend (Nashville, Tenn.): I’m a big believer in Kaizen, the Japanese business philosophy. It was originally used for industrial manufacturing, but it has transferable applications for driving incremental improvement in the healthcare and services industries. Some of the best ideas come from your teams in the field and there are ways to harvest them to evolve your workflows. In multi-site leadership, bottom-up management beats top-down the majority of the time.
Alex Sharp, DDS. CEO of Shared Practices Group (Scottsdale, Ariz.): Dentistry suffers from hypercustomization. Back in a former life, the most challenging part of patient care was knowing that no two patients’ treatment plans would be exactly the same. Some needed fillings, some needed crowns, some needed root canals, some needed extractions and many needed all of the above.
So then my team was required to be able to explain, prepare for and help execute thousands of combinations of treatment modalities every single year. To me, it’s impossible to approach mastery in anything with that breadth of services. In my view, dentistry should learn from the restaurant industry. The best restaurants offer a carefully curated menu of options. If a customer wants a different option, the customer can pursue that option elsewhere.
Consider Raising Canes. They serve chicken strips, and they’re one of the most successful food service businesses around, largely due to their commitment to simplicity and their degree of mastery over the few things they do well. The CEO of Raising Canes probably loses zero sleep over not serving burgers. So why should we worry about tailoring our services to what we love and our patients need?
At our core, most dentists are people pleasers. That tendency leads to a mindset rooted in scarcity. “If I’m not all things to all people, someone else will be.” That’s a fallacy, and I learned that lesson the hard way. By saying no to procedures that are commoditized and/or unfulfilling, we say yes to those procedures that we’re uniquely suited to provide and that light us up.
Bob Stewart, DDS. Dental Director of Blessed Dental (Pasadena, Texas): Dentistry doesn’t need to reinvent excellence — we just need to look up. If there’s one thing our profession should borrow from another industry, it’s this: intentional curiosity. The best companies in hospitality, aviation, and even retail don’t just focus inward — they constantly study what others are doing better and adapt it. Meanwhile, in dentistry, we often get so immersed in clinical work and day-to-day operations that we unintentionally limit our perspective.
What would happen if we approached our practices more like a luxury hotel, where every touchpoint is designed around the patient experience? Or like aviation, where systems, checklists and communication are relentlessly refined for consistency and safety? Or even like high-performing tech companies that obsess over user experience and feedback loops?
The opportunity is huge. When we stop thinking of dentistry as an isolated profession and realize we are part of a much larger world, we can unlock better patient experiences, stronger teams, and more sustainable growth. Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs don’t come from within dentistry — they come from having the humility to learn from the world around us.
Curtis Swogger. CEO of North Pittsburgh Oral Surgery (Pittsburgh): The patient experience in dentistry remains highly inconsistent, varying across organizations, teams and care models. As healthcare continues to evolve toward a more consumer-driven model, dentistry has been slower to adapt. While clinical expertise remains the primary reason patients seek care, the journey surrounding that care is just as important. Many medical practices and service industries have already streamlined this experience through digital intake, efficient check-ins, and minimal wait times — placing a clear value on the patient’s time. Dentistry has a meaningful opportunity to close this gap by rethinking and modernizing the patient journey.
There is a proven playbook in hospitality and other service-driven industries. Organizations like Airbnb, boutique hotels and the Ritz-Carlton prioritize simplicity, reduce friction and deliver a seamless experience from start to finish. Today’s dental patients expect the same. They are often anxious, time-constrained and increasingly comparing their experience to the best interactions they have elsewhere. Practices that adopt a hospitality mindset — eliminating delays, simplifying processes and intentionally guiding patients through their care — will differentiate themselves. In doing so, they not only enhance satisfaction and build trust but also strengthen referrals and position themselves for long-term success in a consumer-driven healthcare landscape.
Mariz Tanious, DDS. Chief Dental Officer of Affinity Dental Management (Holyoke, Mass.): After years of auditing charts and clinical outcomes, I have become an expert in how to assess providers. However, I keep coming back to the same question — are we measuring the right things?
Dental peer review has traditionally focused on the technical: crown margins, radiographic angles, restoration contours, etc. All important. But medicine takes a wider view. Medical peer review looks at the full arc of care — the history, the preliminary workup, the differential diagnosis, the decision-making and ultimately, how the patient does over time.
There’s something worth learning there. Imagine if our assessments asked a few more questions. Did the provider gather the right information before treatment? Was a differential considered? How is the patient doing six months later — not just radiographically, but functionally, comfortably, holistically? A radiograph shows us what was done. It doesn’t always tell us whether the patient is better off for it.
I don’t think this is a critique of dentistry — it’s an invitation. We have an opportunity to evolve our standards, and peer review is a natural place to start. Borrowing thoughtfully from medicine could help us raise the bar in a way that benefits providers, practices, and most importantly, patients, while also bridging the gap between medical and dental. The technical craft will always matter. But maybe the next chapter of dental quality is about the bigger picture.
Geoff Wayne, Chief Executive Officer, Jefferson Dental & Orthodontics (Dallas): While I think there are a nearly endless number of opportunities to learn from other industries, I believe dental would benefit the most from embracing the customer experience model from the companies with routinely high NPS scores. These organizations tend to have invested heavily in creating seamless experiences for their customers. Website look and feel, appointments/ordering, payment offerings, etc. Organizations like Chick-Fil-A and Amazon have not only become ubiquitous in our society, but the vast majority of customers are pleased with their experience. Now, going to the dentist is not the same as some of these examples, however, why can’t we make primary elements of the experience the same? There are structural and economic limits on dentistry, but we can and must do better if we want to retain patients over the years.
Greg White, DMD. President and CEO of PepperPointe Partnerships (Lexington, Ky.): Dentistry should borrow the concept of a systematized, consistent experience from high-performing organizations in the hospitality industry. At the highest level, those businesses deliver a predictable, high-quality experience regardless of location or individual because the system outweighs individual variability. Dentistry still relies too heavily on personal style instead of scalable, repeatable processes.
The opportunity is to pair clinical autonomy with operational consistency by establishing clear standards, defined workflows and a shared commitment to the patient experience. Done well, this does more than improve satisfaction. It builds trust and drives long-term loyalty. The reality is that many in dentistry do not fully understand the difference between the two. At the end of the day, patients are not comparing us to other dental practices. They compare us to every other experience in their lives, and we have to meet that standard.
At the Becker's 5th Annual Future of Dentistry Roundtable, taking place September 14-15 in Chicago, dental leaders and executives will gain insights into emerging technologies, practice growth strategies and the evolving landscape of dental care delivery, with a focus on innovation, patient experience and operational excellence. Apply for complimentary registration now.
