Podcasts about ndtr

Are you holding up everyone else at your own expense? In this episode, I talk with Noni Vaughn-Pollard, NDTR, MHC-LP about unlearning perfectionism and:  • Finding those safe spaces to receive support  • The unique challenges of sensitive black girls  • Giving yourself permission to be soft and sensitive when you need to  • The impact of superwoman syndrome • Navigating internal and external messages that block your intuition and true calling Noni is a mental health counselor and nutritionist in New York who focuses on empowering Black adolescent girls by boosting their self-esteem. She also supports sensitive adolescents & young adults of color dealing with anxiety, perfectionism, and relationship challenges.  Keep in touch with Noni: • Website: https://www.rootsarttherapy.nyc/noni  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afroandappetite  • Email: noni@rootsarttherapy.nyc  Resources Mentioned: • Nap Ministry: https://thenapministry.wordpress.comThanks for listening! You can read the full show notes and sign up for my email list to get new episode announcements and other resources at: https://www.sensitivestories.comYou can also follow "SensitiveStrengths" for behind-the-scenes content plus more educational and inspirational HSP resources: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sensitivestrengths TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sensitivestrengths Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sensitivestrengths And for more support, attend a Sensitive Sessions monthly workshop: https://www.sensitivesessions.com. Use code PODCAST for 25% off. If you have a moment, please rate and review the podcast, it helps Sensitive Stories reach more HSPs! This episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for treatment with a mental health or medical professional. Some links are affiliate links. You are under no obligation to purchase any book, product or service. I am not responsible for the quality or satisfaction of any purchase.

Tiff and Dana talk about a large trend happening in dental practices this year: last-minute cancellations, and why it's such a stressor for the doctors. They share how to notice the signs of no-shows further in advance, plus ways to troubleshoot the problem. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. I have the one and only Dana here with me. Dana, we're still working on that dynamite. Dana is my favorite nickname, but we'll see what Kara decides sticks. So.   Thank you, Dana, for being here with me today. If you guys are watching this podcast, which I think is still a weird concept in my brain, Dana has the most incredible hair today. Dana, I'm always impressed with your lovely loc. So thanks for coming ready to go today. How are you?   Dana (00:34) doing good. Thank you. If you only knew how little time it took me and that's why it's consistent because it takes me no time to get it to do this. I'm excited to be here anytime I get with you on this podcast tip is special time. So   Tiffanie (00:42) I love it.   Thank you. Thank you. And I do enjoy our time together. I'm trying to make sure we get that one on one time a couple more times per month than just podcasting. So thanks for being patient with me on that. Dana, I get to pick your brain all the time. We have a really fun one coming up here in a second that I know everyone's going to be really excited for. But right now, I really want to pick your brain a lot on cancellations and the cost of cancellations to a general practice. I know in   My client base, what I have seen and tell me Dana what you're seeing as well. I have seen this year just like a wild bag of like, patients coming? Are they not coming? Are they canceling? What are the reasons? Like it just feels like a mixed bag of information. Since realistically, I would say it probably, I think it started trickling around November, but January, February was wild. Weather was wild.   And then now that we're getting into, you know, summery months, we're getting out of spring and into summer months here in May, it just still seems to be like trends are just kind of cycling around that same space. are you seeing that with your clients you're working with and friends in the industry that you're chatting with as well?   Dana (02:03) Yeah, I feel like it is a weekly basis where it's like, okay, how are things going? Well, the schedule was full, right? It was looking great and it just seems to be falling apart. So a lot, a lot of last minute cancellations where it is really hard for the team to pivot and pivot quickly in those instances.   Tiffanie (02:09) Yeah.   Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. And so on one hand, I want you guys out there, doctors, team members, office managers, those of you who are listening today, on one hand, if this is something that you guys are coming up against this year, I want you to know that right now in 2025, this has been a trend that we've noticed within the dental community as a whole. today we really want to talk about the cost of those cancellations. I think it's great for doctors to know that information.   A lot of doctors do, lot of owners already have that information, but I think it's great for team members and office managers to really know the cost of that as well so that we can see why are the doctors harping on us, not just because they don't have patients, but why is it so stressful to them? And doctors, why am I feeling this internal stress? And then I've also got some tips in here, Dana and I have gone through that are ways for you to know that there's a problem, start noticing it more in advance.   and then ways to troubleshoot those problems as well. So first and foremost, I think, Dana, the most important thing to remember is that we've got to make sure that we've got a solid plan and a solid action, actionable pieces as far as our goals. If we don't know our goals, if we don't know where we're heading, then...   Like, what are we even doing? Right? So as long as we, as long as we can keep a good heading on our goals. And I mean, by that, like, what is our monthly goal? What is our daily goal? And then always looking at what have we done? Where are we going? And what's that gap in between? If we're not watching that gap in between, we can fall into a really scary space. And then it's that last week of the month that we've all lived where the office manager is like, okay, guys, we just need $30,000 in addition this week. Who needs ortho?   right? And we're like, scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get that money in. But it's because we haven't watched all month where those numbers are at. making sure that we're always looking at that, and we're always paying attention to those things is going to be massively important. Now, Dana, I know you have a lot of practices that are tracking this, that are they're watching these trends. As far as like dollar per hour kind of cost to the practice and what this actually looks like in conjunction to the goals.   What are you seeing with your practices right now and what do you suggest they really start to watch?   Dana (04:39) Yeah, I think that it is one just like you said, tracking and making sure that they know how much is open schedule time impacting their production and their ability to get to their goals. How much you know, if their hygiene team isn't getting to their 30 % or hitting their daily goal, is it because they just didn't have a full schedule of patients because that is pretty crucial for them to get to that point. Daily goals are set up with full schedules in mind, especially if we use block scheduling to get to daily goal. If   our blocks aren't full, we're not gonna get there. So I think it is tracking to be able to look and say, how much is it impacting our production and what are we losing when we have a hole in our schedule? Because sometimes when we can attach a monetary value to that actual appointment, it becomes a little bit more important. When we see, if we know that every time a restorative appointment is open, that that costs us   $1,000 right or $900, right? Well, then we know how much that's going to impact our goal if we know that every time a Recare patient doesn't show up that equals $230 well, then we can sure be strategic about how we make that gap up   Tiffanie (05:40) Yeah.   Dana (05:56) later in the month or later in the week and sometimes too for team members it's like oh we only have one cancellation well one cancellation for every 17 days that you're open when you know what that value of that appointment is it really really   You can see how it's impacting. And so I would say take a look at your doll, you know, your production per hour on both sides so that you know, when I've got an hour open, it's costing the practice this much. When I've got an hour and a half open, it's costing the practice that much. And that's just the missed dentistry. That's not the costs of the practice just to be open for that hour, right? Like there's all of those fixed costs that extend into that too. And so getting a real picture of what each hour in our practice leads to   Tiffanie (06:25) Good job.   Dana (06:41) production and expenses can just be so eye-opening on its impact.   Tiffanie (06:48) I totally agree.   I think the actual cost, like if you look at it and we're looking at our goals, that actual cost is what is your dollar per hour? So like Dana said, it could be anywhere between $500 to $1,500 an hour on a doctor's schedule. And then again, that $100 to $300 on a hygiene schedule just really depends on what your practice's goals are and what you guys are set out to achieve. So if you've got $1,200 between doctor and hygiene, we've got a goal of $1,200 per hour and you've got those openings on the schedule, that's what the cost is.   that data that we've done really really well and we've done differently this year with our current clients is really having them go through and track the number of open hours on each provider's schedule. So the reason that we do that is last year   I had a couple of doctors that were really, really close to, one of them was really close, he was about $30,000 away from hitting the goal that he wanted. Another one was like $20,000 away from exceeding where he thought he would be this year. And I was like, gosh, wow, how did we get so close, but we missed it by that much. So what I did was I sat down and I looked through the whole year and I tallied.   doctor, open hours, hygiene, open hours. So whether that was cancellations, the schedule fell apart, who knows, but it was just open hours that were on the schedule that could have been scheduled, meaning that was an open block, nothing was there. And both of those doctors would have far exceeded what they anticipated had those been filled. Now,   We like to say a variation rate of about 5%. If you're more than 5 to 8 % on the long end, like 8 % is high.   If you're more than that in cancellations, you're in hot water. So even if we deducted that five to 8 % from that math that I did, we still would have hit those goals. And so it really brought a lot of reality into the situation. Like you were saying, Dana, to really be able to see what that gap is and why it happened. And I had a practice just the other day, she did fantastic. This office manager, she had the information before we even went into the call. one of the doctors, one of the owner doctors was really, really intrigued on why are we   just why are we short in collections and by that he was looking at QuickBooks, right? So why is the bank short? So because when we look at their data, when we look at their collections and their production, just looking at those straight from Dentrix, they were above 100 % on collections. So the team is like, bro, like we're at 102%. Like, what do you mean? And he's like, yeah, but there's no money. Like there's not the overhead, right? So the overhead is hitting well,   The office manager knew that we were going into this conversation. She knew that he was going to ask these questions and that I wasn't going to have that immediate information. So prior to the call, she went through the whole first quarter of the year. And what she did was not only she took cancellations on one side, because that was an aspect of it, but another piece that she took was we've had a lot of call outs from hygiene and ⁓ vacation.   And surgery, was a surgery that, you know, quote unquote, she's on her vacation. So we had a lot of time that there wasn't a hygienist available to see patients. And when she tallied that it was literally that missing piece and his mind was just blown and he was like, my gosh, thank you. He just needed the satisfaction of knowing what it was, right. But the cost of not only cancellations, but that missed opportunity of hygiene because there had been hygienists ill, there had been hygienists on PTF.   as a hygienist that had to have shoulder surgery, these things come up and they happen, but we're not always anticipating them and our goals get missed. So these cancellation spots where patients are calling and they're like, gosh, I just can't come in are even more important.   because there are times where we can't, we can do something about that. We can fill an open spot on the schedule. I can't do hygiene if I don't have a hygienist, a licensed hygienist there to take that spot. So those different spaces really took a toll. the cost on the practice, right? The cost of the cancellations is the dollar per hour, but then on a grander scale, it's like, what did we miss out that month and that quarter? And how did it impact our overhead? Because this example, all three examples,   the doctors were like, why is my overhead so high? Where's my profitability? Why is this sucking? Especially when you feel like we're rolling along pretty well. It's like, where's the profitability? Where is it missing? That's the big toll. And then also I think, Dana, the stress, like, gosh, being a team member and then like inefficiencies that it creates, the stress of having to save a patient or   Dana (11:22) Mm-hmm. Yeah.   Tiffanie (11:40) having to talk somebody into coming last minutes, the stress of knowing that there's a cancellation there and Doc's gonna, know, Doc and manager or owner or whomever is gonna come ask me questions. Like Dana, you've been in that position too. And even maybe even from a hygienist standpoint, the stress of having openings, like that's a cost as well. What was that for you and your perception as a provider and a team member, but then also as a consultant, what are you seeing there as far as the cost on a practice with those cancellations from an emotional standpoint?   Dana (12:09) Yeah, I I think is I do this definitely something that weighs heavily on you because I mean, I'm very goal oriented. And so if you put a goal in front of me, I'm going to want to tackle it. And so it is a little bit defeating in that way. And then it's like, okay, well, I would have to book patients out, right. And sometimes even further than when they were due, right, just to have my schedule fall apart. And it's like, man, like I could have seen those people that I had to look out a little bit farther. So it is a stressful on a patient care level is stressful on a   goals level it's stressful on like hey I'm here and like I want to do things that are of value to the practice so yeah it plays a burden on everyone and so it's just something that's so important to look at and to set a game plan for and to tackle as a team.   Tiffanie (12:58) Yeah, I totally agree. totally agree. Now areas that we'll tackle some areas where you can tell there's an issue, like not only you see like, my gosh, I feel like there's a lot of cancellations happening, but really just being able to see what that what that entails. So I think one space is open schedule, obviously, right? Open schedule. I think frustrated team members, Dana, do you agree? Yeah.   Dana (13:23) Yeah, yeah,   because it's so much more work on the back end to save something that's fallen off or to fill something than it is to just be really good at reappointing from the beginning and being really good at creating value from the beginning. Those things are much easier than this stress and the crunch time of after the fact.   Tiffanie (13:45) Yeah, totally agree. So upset team members, like stressed out front office team members, upset doctors, empty schedule, seeing repeat offenders. So patients that are repeatedly coming off of the schedule seem to cancellations. And you guys, I want to tackle a little bit too on why.   why this happens. There's a few things and I mean, you guys are going to tell me and your team is going to tell me patients are sick and patients can't come in because of work. Like I totally hear you. I get that. I understand. But what it boils down to the root cause in my opinion is a lack of a lack of systems or a lack of systems follow through. So lack of consistency. So ⁓ handoffs and patient buy-in might not be there. Team buy-in might not be there. Scheduling rules. So how do we form   and build the right schedule. If we're consistently behind on patients appointments, or they're taking longer than we said they would, they're not getting sat on time, like if we're showing that we don't value our schedule because our scheduling template isn't working for us and it's running us behind, I don't like we're telling the patients our schedules don't matter. I'm not sure why we expect a different result. On the other side, we expect our patients to, you know,   really, really take into consideration the schedule and to make that a top priority, but we're not even doing that. So hard truth, I think there. ⁓ If you're having these issues, if you're running behind, you're seeing high cancellations and you feel frantic, it's typically a reflection of the schedule that you're running. Right, Dana, do you agree? Am I just in mean?   Dana (15:23) 100 %   I hands down took the words that I say all the time and I'm like honestly it comes down to a lack of value and that's really hard for offices to hear but it is a lack of value on the appointment itself right we've not created enough value for the patient to feel like this is something I cannot miss and we also haven't valued it enough to ensure that we've done that.   Tiffanie (15:42) Yeah.   Dana (15:47) to ensure that we followed our systems that we've worked really hard to put into place. And so maybe we don't value those systems or we don't see their value. And so it truly comes down to just a lack of value on both ends.   Tiffanie (15:58) I absolutely agree. Yeah, yeah. And the patient's buy in comes from value, you guys, and it takes multiple times. So some of the systems I think, Dana, that we can we can pop through a couple of systems that really, I think, stand out and helping that. And I think one space to remember is that we want to attract and we want to keep the patients that we want. Not every practice is built for every   patient, every person. So some patients are not going to respond well, they're not going to care, they're always going to cancel or they're going to hop. You know, I used to work in a dental practice that it was a heavy retirement community and we had a lot of, them in Arizona snowbirds. And so we had a lot of winter visitors and they were just special hoppers. We would see somebody on, you know, one new patient special that we were running at the time and we'd never see them again or we'd see them three years later trying to use another special.   always going to happen. So work really hard and aim to create systems that work for the patients that you want to keep. Who's your patient avatar that you're trying to attract to your practice? What will they appreciate about your communication about your systems? And don't be afraid to lose some patience to make room for the patients that will appreciate the systems you're putting into place. So that's my caveat. And to create that value. really Dana, that word that you use   there is spot on because that's really what it's all about. We're creating value, which creates retention and we're, we're selling not only a product, a dental product, we're selling a filling, right, but we're also selling an emotional product of how are they feeling when they're in our practice and our systems boil down to create to   being there to create feelings, to evoke emotions in patients so that they do see the value in that product that you're selling. So handoffs, you guys might hear this constantly. If you've ever listened to any podcast, NDTR, if you ever want to hear Dana and I talk about it, there's probably about 50. So go type in NDTR, Next Visit Date, Time, Recare. It's literally the perfect handoff situation. It's something we've used for years. It was something that and I trialed many years ago.   And it's worked so well in so many practices to turn around case acceptance, to turn around scheduling, and to really just turn around communication between front and back office that we continue to harp on it. So go type in NDTR on our website, TheDentalATeam.com. When you go to podcasts, you can search NDTR.   ⁓ And I think treatment planning in general. So making sure those handoffs are right, treatment planning. And I think Dana too, like I stress to practices to treat re-care appointments very similarly. Like it's so easy to get into that routine of like, okay, let's just, let's schedule your next six months real quick. We'll pop it on the schedule. You can let me know as it gets in or, don't worry, they're scheduled. And it's like, we haven't built any value.   In my, we built the value of the appointment hygienist, like the value that you have built during that appointment 100%, but that patient has to remember to evoke that feeling in six months from now to keep that appointment on the schedule. So how are we building and creating that value for those appointments even thereafter? So Dana, like NDTR.   treatment planning, and then how do you suggest and how did you maybe even as a hygienist build that value for those re-care appointments when they're coming three, four, six months later?   Dana (19:25) Yeah, I see it all the time. And I do think NDTR builds in some value in that and I've been getting a lot of doctors question like, hey, why do I have to ask about their re care? Right? Well, that is that is your chance to build value as the doctor that not only do I need to see you for that treatment, but it's super important to me as the doctor to see you in six months or whatever your regimented cleaning time is. So there is that but then I would use this as a hygienist myself every single patient before I scheduled.   Tiffanie (19:47) Yep.   Dana (19:55) They were given a reason why I needed to see them back. Right? So even my regular six months, and I learned this from an amazing coach, right? So I'm not even going to take credit for it, but it's something that like I did routinely that I instill in all of my hygiene teams that I work with. And that is every patient has to leave with a reason to return. Even if that is, my gosh, Mr. Smith, seeing you every six months has kept you looking so good. We need to make sure we keep that up.   Tiffanie (20:01) ⁓ I that.   Thank   Dana (20:25) Let's get your next six month appointment scheduled. Even if Mr. Smith has zero issues, concerns, anything, right? Then my people with concerns, that's even more so. All right, so I need you to work on that flossing technique. We did have a fair amount of bleeding this time. My goal for you the next time you come in six months is you've been able to really target that in and we've got that bleeding reduced. I can't wait to see you in six months to check on it.   Tiffanie (20:27) Beautiful.   Dana (20:49) Right, so when giving them it's not just like let's get your routine appointment scheduled No, there is a reason why every single patient needs to be back in my chair at the recommended interval and   Sometimes too we would put little notes and it helped the front office, right? Hey, I know Dana really wanted to keep you on that six months She said you were looking so good last time. Is there any way we can make today work, right? So it was in my auto note I always put it in there and help the front office then they gave them the reason right? Hey, don't forget Dana wanted to check those bleeding points. How's that flossing going? Let's get you in today Let's make sure you're here so she can double check on that so it's something that I have used religiously and that I feel like truly does because   we do see that hygiene appointments, right? That's where a lot of the cancellations happen and that's because it's just the routine cleaning, right? Or the routine preventive. And so building that value in hygiene and you can do it with something so simple as just something you need to check on the next time that they're there.   Tiffanie (21:48) Yeah, my gosh, Dana, was stop the podcast. That was all they needed. It's brilliant. Thank you. I love that. So I think that in itself is huge because that that went into the confirmations that went into saving the appointments and the pre scheduling. So I think that was huge, Dana, that little nugget was more than we could have ever asked for. Thank you.   Thank you. So, systems, guys, NDTR, go look it up, treatment planning. I love this idea of making sure every patient, whether they're coming in on doctor's schedule, whether they're coming in on hygiene schedule, they have a reason to come back. And remember, I mean, gosh, it makes perfect sense because...   your patients are coming back on your your dental schedule and your doctor's schedule because they have a reason because they have decay, broken tooth, missing tooth, whatever the case may be. So find that reason for their re care as well. And I love that you pointed out even the healthy patients you were like, let's keep this up. Let's keep that going. I can say I had my eye exam the other day and he was fantastic. And he was like, gosh, yeah, it hasn't changed a lot from last like he was just bringing up so much information from the last time and like can't wait to see it again next time. I was like, wow, this guy actually in a very short amount of time, I think I spent   five minutes with the man, ⁓ massive amounts of trust build and value. I truly will not go to another eye doctor as long as I can go to him. So just building that value, doesn't have to take a long time.   It just has to be massive amounts of value. So make sure you're under TR treatment planning, make sure there's a reason for them coming back. They're always scheduled to come back. Confirmations are in place and make sure that you're tracking your cancellation rates, you guys, and really seeing what the impact on the business is and sharing that with your team so that everyone's super aware. This awareness is meant to bring light to trends.   It is not meant to be a you guys suck, this is where we're at. It's a hey, this result sucks. Why is this happening? Let's look at our systems. I tell my teams all the time and I think Dana, you do too. I don't want you doing something that's not working. That is such a waste of time and I...   would gouge my own eyes out, I could not. There's no way I could live life like that. I did not expect other people to as well. So when we track these metrics, when we're looking at these trends, my goal is to ensure that we're only doing things that are getting the right results. And when we're not getting the results we want, we change the system because it's clearly not working. And when a team knows that that's   what we're looking for. I'm not looking at you that you suck unless you literally refuse to use the system. I'm not looking at you. I'm looking at the system. The system and the results are what we're tackling. We're not tackling people. We're never tackling each other. So   Dana (24:24) Thank   Tiffanie (24:34) Go into it that way. Track those cancellations. Look at the real cost to the business and then look at the systems that you have in place. Are you adding enough value to those appointments through your handoffs, through your treatment planning, through your discussions on why they need to come back and then through your confirmations. Are your confirmations working? we lax it easy asking and are we keeping a good schedule? Huge, huge. You will get back.   what you give. So make sure that what you're giving is freaking excellent. And Dana, thank you so much. That was a wonderful podcast. That was so many amazing nuggets. You guys go back, listen again, take notes. I'm telling you, Dana's brain, I always get something new out of it. Years and years later, consulting side by side, you still just always drop something on me that I'm like, dang, all my practices need to hear that. So Dana, thank you for being here with me today.   Dana (25:29) Yeah, thanks for having me as always.   Tiffanie (25:31) Of course, you know, I'll steal you anytime I can get you. So awesome, everyone. Go listen, take notes, go do the things, start tracking your cancellations, look at those systems and really start seeing the cost and the value that you're perceiving. Okay. Any questions?   Reach out to us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, if you need checkers, if you need more information on any of the things that we talked about, if you're interested in learning how to have someone like Dana give you amazing tips like that all the time, just off the cuff, please reach out. We are here for you guys. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. You can reach us.   on our website www.TheDentalATeam.com. We make it really, really easy for you guys. So reach out to us and drop us a five star review. We want to hear how amazing you thought Dana's nuggets were today. Thank you all. We'll catch you next time.  

Today's case acceptance focus is all about presenting the treatment plan and sequencing. Kiera shares language to use and the kind of confidence to adopt when discussing game plans with patients, and why it will stop objections in their tracks nine times out of ten. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners, this is Kiera and I am so excited to welcome you back to part two of Treatment Planning Masters, increasing that case acceptance, getting you guys into the tactical, but you better believe if you have not listened to part one, get your booties back to part one and go listen, because if you don't fix your mindset, if you don't work on those items, everything I teach you today is going to be a little bit better for you. I promise you it will be a little bit better for you, but the real secret sauce to treatment planning is the words that you speak.   Words create worlds, you guys, and the words you're saying and how you're saying it how you're presenting it and the sequence you're doing is ultimately impacting your yeses, your nos, your full schedules or your not full schedules, helping you realize full case acceptance versus partial case acceptance. It's all within mindset. And I have literally a hundred percent done this for so many offices. So I can sit here confidently telling you, guys, you've got to do that. So if you're new to the podcast, welcome. I promise I don't usually start podcasts out this way. I usually tell you,   I hope you're freaking loving your day today. I hope you're having the best day and I hope you remember we are truly so blessed to work in dentistry. Dental A Team's mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible and we do that through expert consulting for dentists and teams. Honest to goodness, I can say very confidently that Dental A Team consulting is second to none. We are truly experts. We drive production. We drive overhead down. We drive teams to be incredible leaders and we do it in such a freaking fun, positive, easy way.   We help doctors get the lives of their dreams. Yes, you have to show up. I can't just do it for you, but I can promise you that Dental A Team Consultants are truly people that have passion, that have grit, that have solutions. And it is so fun to hear client success story after client success story after client success story, increasing their production to numbers they never thought that they could do, decreasing their overhead, having dream their vacation homes being built when they didn't even know how to take home a paycheck.   Just the life, the business, the teams, team members telling us that we have literally changed their lives, that we've helped them financially, that we've helped them personally, that we've helped them help more patients. This is why Dental A Team exists. This is what our mission is. And I hope that we can help you in your practice. If it ever resonates with you, I hope it does. DM us. We're on Instagram, Dental A Team. Also pop onto our website, TheDentalATeam.com. Click on a call. I'm happy to do a...   a complimentary practice assessment where we actually look at your whole practice and I'll kind of help you see the gaps and our team will help you see where are kind of the areas within your practice that you can exponentially improve. We have six proven areas that we know if you will tackle those six areas, you will truly find success with ease. And it's something where it's not hard. The secret to success is not hard. It's simple little changes, but being consistent and staying accountable. And I think our team does it.   in such a fun way. add the confetti, we add the sprinkles, we make you giggle. I have a client and we are always giggling and we have expanded him to multiple, multiple, multiple growth beyond anything this client could ever could imagine. And we do it with giggles and ease because honestly, business is a fun, it's a fun game if you allow it. So reach out if any of that resonates with you. I'd love to have you be a part of our Dental A Team family. I'd love to help you.   Live the life you deserve and to live the life of your dreams and get there even easier So with that here's part two of case acceptance treatment planning. Like I said, here's a tactical so I've got you're in the right mindset We're not planting weeds in our flower garden. If you have no clue what I'm talking about go listen to part one And if you are ready, you're like, okay care. I've got the mindset. I was practicing it all day yesterday and Like crazy it just happened patients are saying yes to me like Wow   What do you say? next up is going to be, all right, so now a patient has come. I am in the right mindset. This is going to be, doctors, I need you to be freaking comprehensive. Do not use little league words for major league problems. Tell them what's really going on and have confidence and let's use the terms of the great news is we're going to be able to get you healthy. I strongly encourage you doctors to use our NDTR, proven handoff. Tell them the next visit, the date to return, ND.   So next visit, date to return, T is how much time, and R stands for recall being scheduled. If you will follow that, I promise you, you are going to cut down half of the objections that your patients will have, and you're going to actually get them into the right frame of mind. So if you will do that, now treatment coordinators, we pick this up. So first steps first, I'm in the right mindset. Now I'm going to say, my gosh, Sarah, it's so great to see you. Dr. Taylor is absolutely incredible. You are in such good hands with Dr. Taylor. I know Dr. Taylor gave you a treatment plan.   we're going to get that taken care of. Let's get you scheduled. Dr. Taylor is super busy, so let's make sure we get that done. I've got Monday or Wednesday, one o'clock or two o'clock, which works best for you. Now you might be like, Kiera, what the heck? You didn't even present the treatment plan. You are right. Gold star. You figured it out. This is a subtle shift that will help you exponentially. And it's crazy. I just did this with the team and the team was like, are not going to like that. And there was one team member who piped up and was like, I actually do this and it works so well now.   Fun fact that team member is the one who's closing the 30 40 $50,000 cases So, you know just brush my shoulders off this works and this works for very large cases So all your poo pooing. Oh my gosh care. This isn't gonna work. Please I just encourage you you're listening to this and doctors give this to your teams and doctors listen to this as well because Doctors this I think is a little like seat   The secret to your success, one, you gotta be diagnosing as much as we need you to. So if you wanna be producing 100 grand a month, you've got to be diagnosing at least $300,000 a month. So I need you to diagnose, because if you're not diagnosing enough, no matter how great your treatment coordinator is, no matter how much we teach them, we don't have enough to fill your schedule to the schedule you want it to be. So doctors, we need you to diagnose and please do not ever over-diagnose. I know you're ethical. I know you're not looking for treatment that's not necessary.   but I do know that sometimes you might be so busy or sometimes you might be like, I don't really want to talk here. like, gosh, like I told her like the last seven times. Well, guess what? Maybe the eighth time she needs to hear it. Maybe she's ready to hear it. And also doctors work with your hygiene team. So they're teeing it up. You are the second person to tell this, not the first person to tell that doctors that will help you a ton. We have other podcasts on helping hygiene teams, T up treatment. So doctors, if you need that also utilizing AI software can really help you out if you're struggling to diagnose.   I think that these are some great investments that you could make if you're struggling to diagnose. So next thing is treatment coordinators, high five, it's your turn. Doctors done an incredible job. They teed it up. You go to schedule first. I've got Monday or Wednesday and you're like, but Kiera, they're going to be like, well, what does it cost? Well, A, stop thinking that and B, we're going to say amazing, Sarah. I am definitely going to go over that with you. I want to make sure we get you scheduled. That way we get this into Dr. Taylor's schedule because he's so busy.   Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you? And then we'll definitely talk about all that. I want you to be rock solid confident, which works best for you Monday or Wednesday? I've answered their questions. I've told them we're gonna talk about it. But what happens here that I really wanna highlight is you are putting the emphasis on we are doing treatment and the question is not, we doing treatment or are we not doing treatment? AKA when I present a treatment plan to you and I'm focused on that as number one, what I'm telling the patient is treatment is optional if you can afford it.   When I schedule them, what I'm saying is we're doing treatment and the question is, how are we going to pay for this? Those are the things that we have options for, not are we doing treatment or not? Because like I told you on the last podcast, I'm like, I will tell you forever, if a doctor diagnoses it and I believe that they are incredible dentists, my job is to schedule it as a treatment coordinator. No ifs, ands, or buts, I don't care. There are solutions. Remember, Cure is mantra. Everyone says yes, and there is always a solution and we will find it. So, Edify the Doctor.   Schedule first. I promise you if you will just do this one shift in the tactical, this is the 20 % now we're not in the 80 % psychology. We are now in the 20 % tactical. You will start to have more cases to close. 100 % this is going to be for you. So after we do that, then I'm gonna present the treatment plan and there is a sequence to presenting a treatment plan. If you even think about talking about insurance first, it's because you're afraid of numbers. It's because you're afraid that patients are going to say no to you. It's because you think insurance is the most important thing and it's not.   Insurance is just a coupon. Do not crutch on insurance. Stop it, because insurance does not matter unless you make it matter. So I present a treatment plan. I'm like, awesome. So Dr. Taylor, we presented this treatment. This is what we're going to be doing. Here's the total out of pocket for the treatment. This is what our insurance estimated payment is. This will be your total when I see you on Wednesday. Or if your practice does a deposit, it would be like, this is your total.   And today we're going to collect our 10%. So that'll be 421. I can do cash or card, which do you prefer? Do you feel my confidence? Do you feel this is what we're doing? This patient's like, my gosh, this is what I'm doing. I'm not talking this patient into it. The doctor diagnosed it. You're the one who got yourself into this opportunity. And now my job is to help you. If the patient has an objection, remember I said, do not freaking plant weeds in your flower garden. If the patient has an objection of like, hey, like, do have any payment options? They will ask you.   Now I will give you like if you want to have a little bit of a say, you can say, what questions do you have for me? I want you to be rock solid confident moving forward. You can also say, this is the total. Do you have savings or would you like to talk about third party financing? I would strongly encourage you not to use those last two until you try this one for about four weeks until you get like out of your awkwardness because all it is is just uncomfortable and you're so scared these people are gonna break up with you and they're not. They're not, they're just thinking about it.   But Notice I'm like, I've got Monday or Wednesday, which do you prefer? I can do cash or card, which do you prefer? I'm putting my focus on the right question. I'm not saying, do you want to do dentistry today? Yes or no? I'm not saying like, do you have money for this? Because if you don't like, okay, I'm scheduling you. I'm assuming the yes. I'm assuming this patient's going to take on. I am assuming that they are going to do treatment. Why would I assume otherwise? My thoughts create my reality. So why am I even going to think a thought of like,   they might say no. Great, if they say no, it's an opportunity for me. High five. And then I'm going to be silent. And so now objections to me, when I have objections and I promise you I'd give you objection know how today, the objections, because you're like, Kiera, tell us the objections. Like, this is where it's so hard. And I'll tell you, no, no, no. Everything above that will cut most of your objections. I hope you heard that. Everything above that from your psychology to the words you say, to the way you present treatment plans, to the way you schedule.   all of that will actually prevent 90 % of your objections. And then you just got to get good on those 10%. And for me, it's not an objection, it's an opportunity. So again, notice, I'm like, it's not an objection, it's just an opportunity for me. And when I look at an objection, I know that I just need to educate this patient more. They're just unsure. Now there are 10 % of patients, maybe 5%, that truly do need to talk to their spouses. And I'm not here to minimize that, but 95%, that's just to like, push back.   They aren't confident on something and your job is to figure that out. So whatever it is, I've got solutions for spouse, for work, for money, for time, for pain, for overwhelming, for deposit, you name it. I have literally not gotten an objection that someone has given me that I'm like, great, you've stumped me. I don't know what to do. No, there's always a solution and we will find it together. So what we'll do is for this, every objection, we validate them first. So let's say it's like, hey, Kara, I need to talk to my spouse before I can make this decision.   What I'm gonna say is, my gosh, Sarah, absolutely. I 100 % want you to talk to your spouse. I want you to be so confident moving forward. What questions do think your spouse is gonna have? That way I can prep you with those answers before you talk with them. What this does is Sarah is now going to tell me what her real problem is hidden behind the barrier of their spouse. Truth, she's going to. It happens every time. They'll be like, they're gonna be wondering about money or they're gonna be wondering how long will this work or they're gonna be wondering about how much time this will take.   Well, if I've done a really great handoff, it should never be time. It should be, they know when they need to come back and they know what they need to come back for. So then she's just gonna let me know and be like, my gosh, yeah, we can talk about payment options. Like, what were you kind of thinking? What's a ballpark? Do you have savings for this? And then I'm gonna present two options for financing. So care credit, CHERI, Proceed, Sunbit, like you name it. There's a ton of them out there. Whatever works best for your practice. 401k for bigger treatment plans. You can take out lots of different things.   There's so many things you can get a loan from the bank. That's now like, let's just get creative and work together and figure out what solution is gonna work for this patient. But for spouse, that's what I'm gonna say. When it comes to work, I'm gonna be like, my gosh, and notice you have to pay attention to the words I say, because the way I say it will influence it and you'll either get a yes or a no. So if they're like, Kiera, I gotta check my work schedule. I'm like, Sarah, my gosh, of course. Let's pop you in the schedule. I've got you on this date. That way I, Kiera, did see Kiera over here. Truth be told, I will freaking forget about you, because I've got so many patients.   I say, I would hate to forget about you and let you slip through the cracks. So this is just a reminder for me not to let you slip through the cracks. When you get to work, let me know if we need to move it, not a problem. Just give me a quick call. Sarah's like, absolutely. I don't want you to freaking forget about me. I'm so important. That's what Sarah's thinking. But if you say, Sarah, I would hate for you to forget, Sarah's like, I'm not gonna forget. So you've got to be careful of how you do that. So that's how we're gonna get around work. If it's money, we'd hide back to what they value. It will never be cheaper or more predictable than it is today.   Money, there's always a solution. This is how we're gonna get cosmetic function, cost, longevity, all those. can tie it back to any of those things. All of those things are going to help out. And so we just need to make sure that we're tying it back to their motivator. We tie it back to their worth it. We figure out like, all right, let's talk about what are some solutions that you have? What are some things? Again, I don't have to solve all their problems. What solutions do you have? What things can we figure out? Let's find a solution together. So tying it back. Time.   This should be coming through with the handoffs. There should not be an issue with time. It should be two hours. Hey, let's get you scheduled. They know the time if we've got great handoffs. It's very easy and or in scheduling, we've already handled that. So that shouldn't even be an objection for you anymore. Pain, the recovery time. We're honest with them. Like our goal is to not have you in hardly any pain. So most patients experience X, Y, Z. I promise you Dr. Taylor is incredible. I'm going to edify my doctor again. You are in incredible hands.   If I was in your shoes, I would feel very confident moving forward. You might be in a little bit of pain. Great news is our mouths are very fast healers. And so you should be in and out of pain pretty quickly. Being confident. Overwhelming, we've given them too much information. If you present it simply and you are not giving solutions to problems they didn't even think they had, you will not overwhelm your patient. I promise you. Because we keep it simple. We speak in simple terms. We don't have hard jargon for them. We're not speaking in like,   my gosh, and then there's a bone and then doctors, this is for you too. Stop overwhelming your patients with like, okay, and then we can do your bite and then we could do this and like, and then we can do a sinus lift on you. Stop. Make that treatment plan so simple for them so that way they feel confident moving forward. The enemy to execution is overwhelm and confusion. So make it simple so that way they don't feel that way. And same thing for treatment coordinators. And then deposit. This is what it is. I can do cash or card. What do you prefer? And like, I love my credit card at home.   Okay, alligator arms, we can either like you could do Zell, Venmo, like check with your account to see if there's ways that we could fix that. But also on that, be like, no problem. What time do think you'll be home? I'll give you a call and you can just give me that card over the phone. And then mark it down and call them. Every single objection has an answer. It has an answer. You just need to be willing to be scrappy and to find the solution.   So today I've walked you through the tactical of how we present the treatment plan, how we do the sequencing. There's a lot of other layers to this, but hopefully I gave you enough to go get started. And the reality is you might think you're doing this, but I promise you, you're missing something or it's one word you're not saying, or it's one little change. And that's why I love treatment planning because it's so, once you find that one little thing and you track your progress and you look back and you're like, all right, why didn't this one close? What did I say? Review it back, listen to it back.   you will then unlock being able to close every single patient who comes through and it becomes amazing and you'll feel so confident in yourself. So I encourage you to do this. And if you are like, huh, Kiera, I need help. Great. Dental A Team Consulting was built for you. It is a no judgment zone. It's a space where we truly will help you grow. And this is something we are so passionate about helping you become expert treatment planners, treatment presenters, increasing that case acceptance from doctor to team to treatment coordinators to where we truly are able.   to get these patients on our schedule. I'd love to help you and your team out. I'd love our team to be able to help you go to the heights you have and be able to help as many patients as we possibly can because they need your dentistry. They need your help. And I really would love to work with you. So DM us on Instagram, email us Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com. Click on a call. I'd love to chat with you. I'd love to help you, give you some free resources, some free value. We are here to serve you and to make sure that you're able to live the best absolute life you possibly can. And as always, thanks for listening.   and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

Tiff and Dana walk through different dental departments and share ideas many practices have used to keep things green, including reconsidering which items actually need to be disposable, reducing paper, reusing plastic, and more. Episode resources: Sign up for Dental A-Team's Virtual Summit 2025! Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:02) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. I'm so excited to be here with you again. You know that I am just always so happy to bring Dana on the set with us and be here with you. We love sharing our tips. We love sharing our tricks. We love sharing our, I don't know, workout gear with you and all of the pieces and just sharing our lives with you. So we are both so excited to be here today. Dana, thank you for always being on board, for hopping on, for jumping in on any conversation. I know I spin you.   and throw you in some directions that you're not always expecting. So thank you for keeping up with me and knowing how to roll with the punches. How are you on this fine, fine afternoon?   Dana (00:42) Doing good. I'm excited to be here. You know you're right. You keep me on my toes. I never really know what you're going to throw at me, but I leave with a smile on my face and having loved it. So I'm excited to be here too.   The Dental A Team (00:48) That's true.   Perfect.   And now clients and non-clients and listeners here, you guys know that this is truly unscripted from our brains. We come up with topics, but we do riff here and we really pick each other's brains and really come up with solutions for things just the same as we do on your coaching calls. So when you guys bring stuff like this to us clients, this is how we roll. And for anyone who is wondering,   We do have conversations like this outside of the podcast world as well, as consultants are constantly talking to one another about things that we're seeing in practices, things we're experiencing when I need something, maybe I don't have an answer for it. Cause you guys, I know this is going to sound crazy and wild, but we do not know everything. I know it's a shocker. It's a shocker, but combined between all of us, we've got it pretty well handled. So if there's something I don't know,   or have questions on, I definitely, definitely throw it to my ladies and get those answers for you guys. So rest assured everyone, we're constantly collaborating just like we tell you to collaborate and we're constantly growing and learning ourselves. So Dana, thanks for being one of those beautiful ladies behind the scenes for me on so many occasions and I'm excited for today's topic. I...   I just barely prepped you with it, but it sounds like you've recently had a conversation like this with a practice and I'm excited for it. So think it's really something that has been coming around the dental scene for probably the past 10 or more even years, but really strong recently. listeners, we're going to talk today on some eco-friendly dental practice methods. And that doesn't just mean dentistry, but really a lot of the products and just what are we doing?   new out there right now to really go green and a lot of the practices and Dana with your conversation that you've just had with your practice recently I know you've got a lot of hot tips and tricks and there are other practices out there we both talked to as well but what do you have for us today on on that like what eco-friendly things did you guys chat about on that call?   Dana (03:04) Yeah, and I think that it is just coming up with ways any ways that we can reuse, reduce and recycle things right When it comes to eco friendly offices And the biggest thing in dentistry is our disposables, right? So what are the things that we have that are disposables? Can we find a recyclable option? Or that we can reduce the number of disposable items that we're using or eliminate them altogether if it is, you know,   The Dental A Team (03:10) Yeah.   Dana (03:31) I'm all about sanitation, infection control, all of those things. But I think COVID put us in a little bit of like a redundancy mode in some of those areas. And so I feel like in the last 4 years, our disposables have gone up a ton. And our infection control, while those standards are great, I think even above and beyond what is really needed. And so I think it's just finding ways to navigate those things. And we tend to like put plastic over everything and just use   things that aren't super eco-friendly to keep like sanitization standards. And so we don't want to give up on those things, but there are a lot of new products and new technologies and things that we can use that aren't necessarily disposable like we're so used to them being.   The Dental A Team (04:19) Yeah.   Yeah,   I love all of that. I totally agree with you and I hope everyone got the 90s child reference, the late 80s 90s child reference there, reduced, recycle. If everyone could see the commercial and hear the song, I would be even happier right now. I think it needs to come back. I agree. I do love the fact that you mentioned the disposable pieces and like the plastics on everything. And it's funny because I've   Dana (04:32) Did you love it?   The Dental A Team (04:50) I've done it myself and I've watched people put the plastics on and then take the plastics off and then like we're scrubbing everything still and so it's like gosh that's that redundancy space that is it necessary and is it always necessary for every appointment too?   know, because my implant placement appointment or extraction or perio surgery or SRP even is going to be a little messier, we'll say. It's going to look a little different than my limited exam with a PA where I'm not actually infiltrating any tooth structure whatsoever and everything's very clean. So are we taking that into consideration too, which I think leads into exactly where you said like, are we taking inventory of the disposables that we're using? Because do we need to   to   do we need to have disposable air water syringes? Number one, is that completely necessary? And do we need it on both air waters for the limited exam because they're both gonna be removed likely and tossed out after that appointment, especially if you've got.   sterile tech or another dental assistant or anybody coming into the room because they don't know what you touched and so they're going to dispose of anything that's disposable. So I think just taking into consideration too what the next appointment is.   what's actually necessary and only putting out the things that are necessary. for doctors listening, this definitely is an overhead situation. It's going to help supply cost immensely. But for everyone who's listening, this is a reduce, reuse, recycle situation of we've got to save the dang planet, you guys. We've got to do what we can to really make sure that we're not filling those landfills with unnecessary debris and that we're really doing the best that we can for the people that are.   the people that are here.   I think I still see Dana when I go in offices, I still see, you know, those dental assistants running around there. And I was this person, they just grabbed, you know, we've got a filling coming up and I just grab a stack of two by two by two. So just grab a stack or the hygienist, right? Just grab a stack instead of like, how many do I actually need? And my doctor, realistically, we only need two. If I'm cleaning off your instrument, you're passing it, you know, you, you pack the composite in there and I need to clean the instrument off before you pack more composite.   it's not going to take this whole stack. I'm never using all of those. And if I do need more, then I can get more. It's available. And same with hygiene, right? When you're going through and scaling, like you don't need a massive stack in most cases. You probably need two to four, I would assume, to really keep your instruments clean. So even just as simple as that. Now, Dana, I...   On the same subject, right, eco-friendly, what are you seeing practices do within the front office with paper? I know paper's always been a big thing. And then COVID happened. And like, I think we got paper crazy again, which was the exact opposite of what I thought would happen, but we got paper crazy again. And what are you seeing offices do now to try to combat that and switch things back around?   Dana (07:58) Yeah, and I think it is. just going back to making sure that they're doing medical histories, like sending those to patients ahead of time and doing them electronically, doing their consents electronically when patients walk in, you know, using the iPads for new patient information, for treatment planning and presenting. So there's a lot of ways and not only, think that a lot of this is there's kind of like another benefit to it, right? We can switch everything to electronic, which is also going to save us a fair amount of time.   I was just in a practice recently and they were like, Hey, we're clocking a lot of overtime. And I'm like, front office, like, what are we doing with our overtime? And I'm not kidding you. They looked at me and said, well, we spend about two hours at the end of the day shredding. And I was just like, wait, what? So not only right, are we being eco-friendly by eliminating paperwork, we're truly eliminating work from our team two hours every day spent on shredding.   The Dental A Team (08:38) Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. I had an office last week that said the same thing.   Dana (08:54) then we're paying a shredding company to come and take our shreddables too. So it's like you said, it helps with supply costs and it helps with costs and it truly also buys us back time while also serving the environment and being really, you know, as eco-friendly in those instances as possible.   The Dental A Team (08:57) Yeah.   Totally, totally agree. I literally had an office just, I think it was two weeks ago now, Trish and I went to an office and they had a massive shred pile and I was like, what are we shredding? Like, what do we have to shred if we're getting insurance verifications, like download it on the PC and then upload it into the document center, like all these different spaces. So being efficient and being innovative is gonna be huge. How can we reduce the amount of paper that we're using, the amount of ink that we're using, because those ink cartridges, they gotta be thrown.   away somewhere and they have to be picked up like it's this whole process just for ink cartridges. One space I know I work with a lot of teams on is route slips because yes yes yes yes to route slips. I want route slips but it doesn't mean it has to be individually printed every time. I have plenty of practices that do that and prefer it. I'm totally fine with it. I don't care what you guys decide to do but I have a lot of practices actually that pre-print   they'll print what they want a route slip to look like and then laminate it and they fill that out per patient. And so the night before or...   day of whatever, they fill these route slips out just the same as they would have printed them and then they're setting them on the counter. Most of the time it's like patient name, type of appointment and any balance that they might have. And then the back office is then filling out that NDTR space, the next visit date, time, re-care. And so there's really not a whole lot of extra that you need on your route slip. They should be pretty simple. If you've got, I have a lot of practices that have a lot of checklists and check systems on their route slips.   and I'm totally fine if you want them there. Again, I don't have a huge preference, but they're not necessary. I do think if you need an appointment check system, then maybe make a separate sheet that's laminated per appointment that the dental assistant or hygienist can keep and check off for that appointment, especially if you're gonna do the laminated version so the front office doesn't feel like they're filling a ton out as well.   route slips, I agree, any kind of forms or documents that you can automate and make them put them online, make sure all of your stuff is on your website, make sure that the forms are being texted and emailed to your patients prior like this is 2025. remember, gosh, I remember way back in like, how to be like 2009 2010. My doctor that I worked for was like one of the first doctors to he was always he's very innovative. So he's one of the doctors that's always got   the next best tech thing. And I remember way back in 2009, 2010, he came to me and he was like, we're doing a kiosk, Dent, a Dentrix has a kiosk, and everyone's going to check in on this little computer on this little desk in the corner. And it's going to automatically put the paperwork into our system. And it's going to be amazing. And I was like, no, it's not. And it was so clunky, and it was so hard, and so difficult. So   to my men and women of 2025 in the dental industry. If you didn't get to experience the pains of getting to where we are today, and you think today's paperwork is difficult, I have stories to tell you. It was ugly. It was so hard. Everyone hated it. It never transferred. It never uploaded correctly. Patients hated it. It was embarrassing. Oh my gosh, the day and age we live in today of automation just blows my mind. So every time   Dana (12:23) Thanks   The Dental A Team (12:37) I walk into a practice and they're like, it's too hard. I'm like, let me tell you and we get it done. So just go get it done guys. Dana, do you remember that? Were you one of those offices?   Dana (12:47) yeah. Yep. Yeah. And you know, I I'm all about like being on top of tech and being but sometimes I'm like, let's let it work its kinks out. Let's let it work its kinks out before we're like, maybe man number one on it.   The Dental A Team (12:53) Yes.   Yes.   Literally, think yeah,   I think that the the rep just got to him and we were like one of the first I swear and I was like, oh for the love doctor and I'm like 20, you know 20 maybe 23 I guess back 23 24 back then but I'm just like baby I felt like like I don't know how to do this. Like are you kidding me? barely I I   was using dial-up in high school, okay? This kiosk, less than 10 years later, is blowing my mind. I can't, I can't with this kiosk, but today it's much different. So there's everyone, in case anyone wanted to know my age or how much of a...   Grandma, I am when it comes to tech, there's your answers. Dial up and kiosks and it was a pain and today I finally feel confident today with Canva and I've been working on that for I feel like two years. So here we are, here we are. But and then.   Dana (13:54) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (13:57) On the space of eco-friendly, I think those are really, really fantastic ways. I've also heard, I don't have all the stats and the answers on it, but I do know that there's been a lot of research by a lot of doctors on different like vacuum systems for the suctions and different, I know there's a dry and a wet and one or the other, right? They both have their pros and their cons, but making sure those two, if you do find yourself in a situation where you need to replace your system, I know I've got a doctor that's working on that right now.   actually making sure you do your due diligence and research on that because there is a way per the stats at least to save a ton of water with the dry system and so I know even down to those pieces or a lot of the new data you might even know a lot of the more stats or whatever but a lot of the new   compressors and things are more energy efficient and lasting longer. It's kind of like the Energizer Bunny, like the batteries just keep getting better. So I know a lot of those spaces as well, and the hand pieces, electric, you know, motorized and all those different spaces. So there's a ton there. And Dana, what about for, I think hygiene department wise for you, what about the   Like the giveaway bags, all of those pieces, like what are you seeing practices do there?   Dana (15:17) Yeah, I've had a lot of offices either nix the bags all together and just kind of like bundle them or switch to like a paper bag versus a plastic bag. Also to there are a ton of eco friendly home care products coming out and I'm not advocating for them. I think do your research, make sure they meet your standards for your patient. But there's, know, bamboo toothbrushes, there are now recyclable toothpaste containers and you can be a recycling center for them. There are also toothpaste tablets that like you just refill you can just get a sachet.   The Dental A Team (15:25) Yeah.   That's cool.   Dana (15:46) fancy words, Hachet, of the little tablets and you put them in your plastic container. So you just reuse that plastic container over and over again. So there's all kinds of eco-friendly home care products too that you can consider switching to. Just reduce waste, you know, from a patient perspective too. So I think all of those things are worth taking a look at.   The Dental A Team (15:46) I do like that.   Dana (16:08) Again, making sure as long as they meet the standards of your office and what you want your patient to utilize them for, if you can opt for an eco-friendly version and it's something that you're wanting to incorporate more of, I say go for it.   The Dental A Team (16:20) Yeah, I love the toothpaste that you mentioned. know I've seen one of the hygienists that's been in my life. does a lot of, she just does a lot of this stuff and she does a lot of posting about it. And she posts the powder that comes in the little jar, right? Like, gosh, that's brilliant because you like the sachet, right? You're refilling that jar. And so it's a glass jar that you're refilling with the powder and you're just getting your toothbrush wet, dipping it in the powder and then brushing your teeth. And you just think about how many   Dana (16:33) Mm-hmm.   The Dental A Team (16:50) tubes of toothpaste run through your household, just your one household, how many tubes of toothpaste are thrown away on average, right? Probably somewhere between two to six a year, I can imagine, right? At least two to six a year for every household. If you can   teach your patients and educate your patients about products like that, that do work, do your research, right? I don't know which product was, I did not do the research on it, right? I did not buy it, I will do more research, but like do your research like Dana said and advocate for something you believe in, but make sure you're educating your patients too. So maybe you've got those things on hand at the dental practice, maybe those companies have disposable ones that you can give out.   Dana (17:18) you   The Dental A Team (17:38) And I've had a lot of practices too that have done away with like the bags and really they each time just ask the patient like, hey, do you use the disposable toothbrush? A lot of our patients, you guys, we've sold them electric toothbrushes. So a lot of our patients aren't using disposable toothbrushes. And I can tell you, most of the time those disposable toothbrushes are used for the guest bathroom for when somebody comes and forgot their toothbrush, right? That's what I did with them. That's what I do with them. That's where they are.   Dana (17:50) That's for sure.   The Dental A Team (18:06) So making sure we're asking those questions and only giving those things out as necessary because eventually they do go into the landfills and all those spaces. So take a look, look at what you can do, how you can make things a little better. Like can we install, I know in the house I'm like use the fans guys, like don't turn the AC on yet. I know it's.   96 degrees today. I hear you. I'm in Phoenix. I get it. But I'm like, none of the fans in the household are on and we're cranking the AC. Come on, like how can we be how can we be more economic and eco friendly in every aspect. So I think there's a lot of space in it for the dental in the dental practice. And then there's a lot of space for us to really educate our patients on how they can carry that through into their own homes. Yeah, Dana.   What do you think, I'm gonna do this to you again, what do you think are some good actionable items, especially because you just chatted with your own practice that you consult, what do you think are some good action items, some easy things that they can consider either watching or switching out or whatever that they can take away from today's chat?   Dana (19:10) Yeah, I think first thing is just review your disposables, right? Is it necessary to use all of the things that you use? And is there there, you know, one that you can sterilize or you can reuse alternative? Make sure we're looking at just paper waste, right? How much have we shifted or can we shift electronically? It'll just help with efficiency too. So this is a win win on both sides. So take a look at paper use in the practice and then do some research on some eco-friendly products and see if your office is a good fit for them.   The Dental A Team (19:39) I love it. I love it.   Thank you, Dana. Thank you for taking this adventure with me today. I was so happy to hear that you had just had this conversation with a practice recently, so that makes it very simple. So thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you, everyone here for listening. As always, we appreciate, value you. We are here for all of the things and we're here to support you. So drop us a five-star review. Always let us know if there's any topic you wish that we would talk about. Dana and I will get right on it. I promise you that. We need the ideas, you guys. So thank you. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com   Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and we'll catch you next time.  

Kiera and Britt continue their conversation from episode 958, Hiring Hygienists in Today's Economy, by discussing the shifting landscape of hygiene. This includes the pros and cons of assisted hygiene, shortened appointments, practices without hygienists, and more. Episode resources: Sign up for Dental A-Team's Virtual Summit 2025! Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.73) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and the one and only Brittany Stone coming back for part two of our hygiene conversation. welcome back. How are you?   Britt (00:09.332) It's always fun when you start off with my full name, so I'm like, alright, let's go!   Kiera Dent (00:12.304) It is funny. You do range from Britney, Britt, like no BS Britt to B. B has recently come in. How do you feel about just B? I hope it comes across as like nice, but then I realized like, B could be taken wrong. So I never say the, hey B.   Britt (00:28.75) You're not the only one. I'm fine with it because it's easy and I'm like shoot you grew up with the initials BS like what are you gonna do?   Kiera Dent (00:37.904) Well, I never want to like sometimes when I call you and I'm like, hey B and I'm like, I hope it lands as like, like love. Yeah. Yeah. It's not meant for any other letters. But Britt and I, if you didn't listen to our other podcasts, Britt and I were chatting shop about how to hide like hire hygienists in today's economy. And with Britt bringing a hygiene perspective, if you don't know, Britt used to be hygienist.   Britt (00:46.83) It's Brett. stands for Brett.   Britt (00:52.748) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (01:07.3) Great. How long has it been since you graduated from a hygiene school? Let's just give people your scene.   Britt (01:10.05) Kiera.   You're gonna age me a little bit here.   Kiera Dent (01:16.162) Okay, don't feel age. The only reason I asked for it, so before you answer, just know my reasoning so you don't have to answer. I was just thinking because I wanted people to know you've been in the field for like enough time to give weight to your answers. But maybe we don't need to do that. Maybe it's been there for longer than five years. Shut, I didn't even know. All right, well, you have been in it for a long time.   Britt (01:31.512) That's fine. Eighteen, Kiera, eighteen.   Britt (01:40.378) I'll say this, was a young graduate from high school, so I'll give you that. That pushed me a year ahead, but 07 is when I graduated, so this year we'll make it 18.   Kiera Dent (01:49.111) No way.   Kiera Dent (01:52.996) Dang girl, I didn't even know. Okay, so Britt really has a lot of weight and you did hygiene for, and then Britt went from hygiene to then office management of a pretty large DSO and then came consulting and now does consulting and operations. So.   Britt (02:06.38) Yeah, I did full-time hygiene for a decade. So I'm like a solid, five full-time, full-time, 40 hours for a decade.   Kiera Dent (02:09.21) Did you really?   Wow. Man, I really like there's some moments that I just see you as a hygienist. Like I can just picture you walking up with your like, it's not a swagger, but you have a can't that you definitely walk. And I can see you walking up, getting your patient. Hey B, how's your swagger? But.   Britt (02:28.11) You can call it swagger, I'll take swagger. don't know what else to   Kiera Dent (02:35.736) Yeah, so I'm like, just, could imagine you being a hygienist sometimes, but then you're like, Britt the consultant, Britt operations, Britt, my yin and yang. So anyway, well, that's fun. That's a fun. Okay. So to give Britt credit, she did hygiene for a decade. I won't say anything about loops, Britt. We will not discuss that on this episode. We will.   Britt (02:56.238) I mean, I just changed myself a little bit. you know, we talk about it. I would have to know if I was a full-time clinical, for sure.   Kiera Dent (03:01.752) Of course. Yeah, of course. I know you would. You don't, you stay very current. I do appreciate that you stay very current with hygiene. You attend hygiene CE all the time. So what we were talking about in the last episode that this would be part two of was we talked about kind of like, do we, how do we work with the compensation pieces of hygiene? And then talking about it from a business standpoint and a doctor standpoint and a hygienist standpoint.   and really bringing those two perspectives to the table, which is what the podcast has been built to do is bring different perspectives. And something I just want to reiterate today, if you missed the last one is that the things Britt and I talk about today are going to be perspectives and never meant to weaponize. So doctors, can't weaponize it against hygienists and hygienists, can't weaponize it against doctors. And so really just setting the stage today of let's have an open conversation around where are we at the dynamics. there's no.   there's no like hiding the fact that it has been hard to hire hygienists since COVID. It's it we thought that it would probably be four years, maybe five years before the hygiene shortage caught up. I still think it's in like massive catch up time, then you tack in inflation on it. So raise like the amount people are coming out asking from school, but I, I mean, I don't really want to ask, but I am going to ask I'm sure hygiene has been like   attempting field to go back into. I'm like, you work at Dental A Team but you've got hygiene over there. And it just keeps like getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I think if I was in your shoes, I might just contemplate it here and there, especially on days when it maybe isn't your favorite day at Dental A Team, which is hopefully like one and every moon. I know what happens. We just had it like a week ago.   Britt (04:31.822) Everybody's got a day there right like it happens but I Mean here's the I I love hygiene and I left it loving it so like that's the thing is I and I'm like I still go back I still double from time to time, but I'm going back full-time I The things that are appealing right hygienist know what do I love? It's like   Pretty predictable, right? Like you got a job, 100 % predictable, but my hours I'm gonna work, I know my schedule. If I can get the doctor to work with me, I can manage running on time. like, and then when I'm done at the end of the day, I go home and I don't have to take it. Like there's nothing for me to do outside of the office other than like learning stuff, but there's nothing to do outside. like, those are the, we know that those are the perks of hygiene.   Kiera Dent (05:02.692) That does fit you so much, Britt. The stability, the...   Britt (05:29.23) and that's part of why I loved it is because of those reasons. Do I debate going back? I don't know. I enjoy what I do now. It's different, right? Like you grow and you morph into different things and it's fun to take the next step. And can I go back to it? Sure. Would it be different? 100%.   Kiera Dent (05:47.888) Hahaha   fair. I was just curious because I mean, like I know I've looked at what I want to go back into management, what I want to go run a regional, what I want to run a DSO. And for me, there was like a lot of fun in it. There's a lot of fun in being in a system. But I think I agree with you. I feel like I have morphed and evolved into things that I really enjoy. Like I really enjoy the creativity aspect. Do I sometimes wish, Britt, like sometimes I do miss the like, go in, just like you know your day.   You don't have to like be thinking and creating nonstop and you leave at the end of the day and like, we're done, we're done versus here. Ideas will continue to, I mean, I saw you last night. You're building a whole spreadsheet, which is fun, but it never shuts off unlike at the dental office. So different, different times. But what we were wanting to chat about is we talked about compensation on the last one. And now it's coming into how can offices kind of like did a really great job of like paying your junior.   Britt (06:33.269) Yeah, yeah.   Kiera Dent (06:46.692) like fresh out of school and it's based on skill set, not based on longevity or tenure. Then we morphed into talking about what do we do for base versus commission if offices can't afford it and different ways to navigate that. And so I wanted to just kind of finish up that conversation with a few other ideas of what's hygiene's take as a landscape of assisted hygiene and shortened appointments. Because as we were discussing on the last episode,   it's kind of coming to this like necessity and survival mode for practices of like, hey, we're like running such a high number up for hygienists. So what this is truly called is innovation and things are changing and shifting and adapting due to the nature of lower reimbursement rates of insurance, inflation has come up, there's a hygiene crunch. So hygienists are coming up as a higher paid profession than what they were even four or five years ago. And so it's kind of like, well, what do we do?   what about assisted hygiene? What about shortened appointments so that way we can have more appointments? And again, I'm not here to advocate for it. I'm just saying like, this is the reality of what doctors are thinking of. And it's the thinking of this. They're also thinking of do I bring a doctor and instead of hiring a hygienist, they're thinking of do I do a hygiene less practice? So I'm just curious, let's talk assisted hygiene first, give me kind of a hygiene perspective on because I don't I don't know how it feels as a hygienist. So you get to speak, I know every hygienist is different, but like just what you hear from colleagues in your perspective.   Britt (07:59.361) Huh.   Britt (08:06.85) heterogeneous is different and I feel like it's a it's one of those polarizing things that I think there's people that love it and either you love it or you're not really a fan of it I feel like so that's like the that's the I don't see a lot of in between or it's like sure I'll do it for a little while while we hire like even I would do it maybe for a little bit while we hire someone but it's it's not my jam I can't say that I love it when it comes to   Kiera Dent (08:31.738) Tell me why, why don't you like it? Like what is it about assisted hygiene just from a hygienist perspective that's almost like a grind for you that you're like, I'll do it for a little bit. Cause I hear that all the time, like I'll do it for little bit. Like what is it from a hygienist perspective that makes that a bit trickier?   Britt (08:46.446) I think the piece that makes it tricky is like you're just, I don't know, probably part of why we get into what we do is like the one-on-one with patients and interacting with them and being able to ensure like from kind of beginning to end, right? The team has an impact, but I'm...   I'm giving them a good experience from beginning to end that doesn't feel rushed, that doesn't feel jumbled. And so I think that's for me personally, and I think some other hygienists, it feels like, great, I'm popping in, I'm in their mouth pretty much the whole time that I'm in there, and then I'm popping out and going on to the next one. I don't think it has to be exactly like that, but I think that's how it can feel from the hygiene side. I think having a really good assistant can make it much more doable. I think how you schedule it, how stack that.   Assisted hygienist can definitely make a difference on how much time you've got to interact. like, do hygienists, we like a little bit of control. I don't know, probably. And so it's just like, I know I've reviewed the things. I think that's probably the difference between hygienist and doctor is I'm not leaving it to an assistant to review medical history or ask the questions or hear what's going on and gathering it. Like I get to do that from beginning to end when I'm.   Kiera Dent (09:41.411) Yeah.   Britt (10:00.332) So it's just a little different when you've got the assisted hygiene in there.   Kiera Dent (10:03.834) So, and I'm also curious, like, I've never really scaled teeth for real. I mean, I kinda, in Utah, as an assistant, I was supposed to be able to profite, and I'm like, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. There was one time I pretended to scale because my hygienist was late, so I just like, I didn't even actually really touch their teeth. just, you know, like, did a little tap, tap, tap, waiting for this dang hygienist to come, and I was like, yeah, we'll just like get started. I didn't do a darn thing. So I don't actually know what it feels like to scale that much. I'm curious, like, on a body.   Britt (10:18.744) you   Kiera Dent (10:33.622) Does it like hurt your hands? Does it, is it exhausting to just go because you don't really get any break or reprieve? You're just going nonstop. I'm just curious or to like the ultrasonics and things like that now help that make it easier for you. I don't really know the mechanics of that.   Britt (10:48.994) So yeah, scaling time, like absolutely. Does technology help? Yes, I'm a big fan. I will say it. Polish first. Polish first. If you're not polishing first, you're spending a lot of time on stuff that you don't have to be spending time on. And I'm a big fan of ultrasonic or piezo. I will use it on pretty much everyone. Like even my kids because they got a lot of plaque and I can polish and I can get a lot done with that that doesn't sound or feel the same as scaling. And so I'm a big fan of it.   Kiera Dent (11:06.117) Mm-hmm.   Britt (11:18.636) And then so like So there's a lot you can do to help minimize it But that's the piece of doing assisted hygiene usually it's if I've got an assistant if they can polish right they're doing They're doing all the easy stuff and so it is me just doing what's the stuff that I only I can do? Pia's own hand skill, right? And so like it's more of that every day and it does hygienist need dentist hygienist assistance, right? We all need to take care of our bodies because it's   It is a more physically taxing job than people think that it is. And so taking care of yourself, making sure you're doing some stretches. And so, yeah, it is a little bit more physically taxing to do assistive tithing, but it's a lot better than it used to be because we got a lot better tools than we used to have.   Kiera Dent (12:02.607) Right. Okay. So that actually helps. And so I'm curious, like, let's just throw out a scenario. And Britt, this week, I mean, we talked to offices about this in our consulting where, so let's say a hygienist, I'm going to use really easy numbers because I don't want to get wild. Let's say a hygienist is $30 an hour, which some of you are laughing at me. I know that's not even in the realm of your hygienist. I'm very aware of this. I also don't want to throw ranges out there intentionally on the. Exactly. There's also a reason I'm not throwing high ranges out there because I don't want to set standards that are not.   Britt (12:24.366) a bit apathetic.   Kiera Dent (12:31.056) Realistic for your area. I feel like 30 is a safe number for me So if I'm hiring a hygienist at 30 and I bring on another hygienist for 30 That would be $60 an hour that I'm paying of compensation for it Well in this area if my hygienist is 30 odds are I could probably get an assistant for between like 17 to 20 realistically if my hygienist is only at 30 I think that that's like a fair number probably more like 15 in that area, but let's say you're there at 20 just for easy math I've got $30 for hygiene. I've got $20 for an assistant   I actually have $10 of extra, if you're following my math, $10 of extra that's not being paid. Britt, what are your thoughts of if an office takes that $10 and even if they pay a hygienist say 35 an hour during assisted hygiene time versus just 30, does that actually make any difference for a hygienist? I know some can do more. Some it's gonna be like, you're paid 30, now I'm paying you 40 during your assisted hygiene days. Tell me like how that is from an office standpoint.   because there's obviously different compensation amounts we're going to be doing. And from a hygienist standpoint, does that feel better? Does that make it easier? Is that like, sure, I'll take on a couple assisted hygiene days. I'm always pro don't run assisted hygiene every single day. I think that does burn your hygienist out. Usually if I recommend it, it's either for a day or a half a day for a hygienist, but trying to make it, but like, is that necessary, Britt, from your perspective from hygiene?   Britt (13:50.786) mean, yes, some degree of compensation difference 100 % if you're running assisted hygiene. I know on the last episode we talked about a base plus commission. I like that even for assisted hygiene because, if we're doing assisted hygiene, we should be producing more. And so again, I do like that model because it naturally adjusts things and compensates accordingly. So yes, I do think there should be some sort of compensation that's more on those days. And I do like it when it's   Kiera Dent (14:01.775) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (14:11.972) Mm-hmm.   Britt (14:20.494) Base Plus Commission. Now I've got some, I've had one client where it's nice when you have a group of hygienists. I do love an office with a few. And they did, they rotated an assisted hygiene day through all of them. And they were like fighting over who got the assisted hygiene day. Like they wanted it, right? Like, and it's because yeah, they make more on those days and they were compensated based on their production was a part of it. And so they loved having those days to get a little bit more of a boost. And it was almost like   Kiera Dent (14:34.743) They do!   Britt (14:46.862) when we don't need it anymore what's going to happen because they all like getting that little bit of extra income coming from.   Kiera Dent (14:53.368) And so how do you even win over a team to do it? Because I agree, and I actually hear that more than I hear the opposite. I hear more hygienists actually enjoy it more than they thought they would. I hear a lot of them figure it out, especially when that's not my everyday. think if they had to do it every day, it'd be a little bit more taxing. But think about it. You've got four hygienists. We add an extra column of hygiene four days a week. We've literally brought in a whole extra hygienist without bringing a hygienist on. So I think it's a very creative way to do it. But how do I even like?   package this, you know I look at in sales terms, like how do I even like convince a team that this is a great idea to trial it out rather than just the resistance of hygienist saying no, just like you said, no, I want my patient care. I want to own over this. Like I want A to Z. I hear all the time we're going to have the patient care. It's going to be disrupted. And I'm like, well, it can be, or it could actually be more awesome. How do you win a team over to even be open to trying it?   Britt (15:47.084) Yeah, I think it depends on the office scenario, right? Like what's the reason, what's the why that we're doing it? And I'm a big fan of like, hey, let's try it first, right? Like I'm not saying you have to do it forever. I'm not saying you have to do it every day, but like, let's try it and let's figure out a system that feels comfortable and meets our like standard of care that we want to provide. So let's start easy, let's work through it, let's train up an assistant. do think.   Cystid Hygiene needs one of your best assistants to be helping in Cystid Hygiene to make it run smooth and give those patients that great experience. And so let's work through the system and see how it goes. like, yeah, it's going to be compensated. If I've got a hygienist who's a gunner and likes to run and does not like to stop, then that's usually my first one. Then I'm like, great, let's team up. Let's get that figured out and see how it goes first. And then word can kind of spread because usually they'll do really well.   Kiera Dent (16:14.681) I agree.   Kiera Dent (16:34.448) Hmm.   Britt (16:42.062) And so yeah, sometimes it's a personality thing, right? Some will love it, some will struggle a little bit. Sometimes there's people that like are gonna be your ones to help you figure it out. And some are like, well, once I see someone else do it and like, oh, that's not so bad. All right, then I'll go ahead and do it. So I think depending on the reason why, I think trying it first, I agree with you, not an everyday thing. It can even be like start with half a day and see how it goes and just start to figure out to find the rhythm of it.   Because I think when you find the rhythm of it and you're like, yeah, that works really well, then it's like, OK, like we can do more of this. And I think it can run.   Kiera Dent (17:18.276) And I'm really grateful that you shared about the office that you have, that they all want it and they enjoy it because I think that that actually can be the reality of what can happen from it. And I'm really big when you roll it out, agreed. Having not a great assistant really will actually make this harder. So do not go and hire a brand new fresh off the street assistant that does not know what they're doing, can't take great x-rays, can't move through because hygienist having someone that they trust that they can lean on, that they know is going to do a great job.   If they can polish, that's a great way for them to be able to use it. And then really also another big piece are no new patients, no SRP, no perio maintenance put in that. It's really just pro fees because that's gonna make it so much cleaner for them to be able to run this effectively. And you're running it on the half an hour. And then doctors, you have to be very strategic when you go in for exams. And doctors, you cannot be late on assisted hygiene because that will throw your whole hygiene. Like it's a domino and it will be good part.   Britt (18:12.302) That's the quickest way to take your hygienist off when you're asking them to do assisted hygiene. 100%. That's the way. That's the way to do it.   Kiera Dent (18:15.44) And that's not like, we'll be there, we'll be there. It's like, you've got to get up and jump. But that's also with hygienists too, making sure that we're giving our doctors enough time. Like I try to ask hygienists to give a 30 minute window of exam time where a doctor could come in. So that way doctors can find the end time of prep, come and get their exams done and keep everybody on schedule. So hygienists plug there, try really hard because I know there's some hygienists who love to alert right at the end of the appointment. And then they're fresh when doctor doesn't come in.   Well, like let's notify when they could come in. Like let's take our x-rays the first 15 minutes and then try to get doctors out at that. I try to have them out. Please do.   Britt (18:51.934) I'll one-up you a little bit on that as soon as diagnostics are done. As soon as my diagnostics are done and they've got x-rays, they've got period charting photos, I'm letting them know. Come at any time. I'm happy to have you. And of course, there's a bunch of plaque that's gonna make it more difficult once I've got that done, but I'm gonna notify them. at any time.   Kiera Dent (19:04.856) Yes.   Kiera Dent (19:12.536) And then doctors, I try to have you out at the quarter to the hour, meaning like you're not walking into the exam, you're walking out of the exam. So that allows hygienists to polish floss, wrap up, get everything done, get the patient out, flip the room and get their next patient back on time. So I think that that's something that before I maybe rolled out assisted hygiene doctors, I might take that on with the hygiene team. Like let's get really good on our exams. Let's calibrate those exams up so they can be more efficient. Let's do the, I have a better.   I haven't told you my new acronym. It's not iCrap. So if you've been listening to me, I have a new one. It's called iCreep. So it's iCreep when you come in that's introduction, compliment, recap, and then a personal note. And if hygienist can get really good at that handoff when doctors come in or assistance, and then doctors are really good on their NDTR, so wrapping up your treatment plans, that's gonna really help that synergy. And then also maybe doing what would doctor do to diagnose and to help tee up treatment. I think that that can just...   Again, we're all working together to make those exams as efficient as possible while also giving the best patient care. But I creep, that's my new one. It's not I, Sierra. It is, I creep. Someone was like, creep, and I was like, amazing. I wish it could be CPR. I've been working to figure out different letter and words. So to be determined, but okay, let's like, go ahead.   Britt (20:16.11) It's a step better. It's a step better than the last one.   Britt (20:28.014) Real quick, one more thing on the exams, because with a really good assistant on exams, the other thing I think about, and that for me as a hygienist I care about as well, is making sure treatment is teed up really well.   Kiera Dent (20:40.675) of greed.   Britt (20:41.59) Patients aren't having to repeat themselves and get frustrated and then not wanting to get treatment done just because they feel like they're not being listened to. So that communication piece and having an assistant who's really strong who can relay that information to doctor if they're the ones that are going to be in there for the exam and make sure that it's teed up really well for the doctor and they can speak to it is huge because that's, I don't want to, you know, rob Peter to pay Paul, right? I don't want to.   have not so great exams and not close as much treatment by adding an assisted hygiene, I'd rather leave it and get really good exams and really good case acceptance. Overall as a business, that's gonna help me a little bit more. So just making sure that again, that assistance key, really quality exams for your patients, even though you're working assisted hygiene, make sure that experience is stellar and 100 % can be done. It just takes a really good team to work together with a hygienist and assistant.   Kiera Dent (21:35.0) Yeah, that's a great point because you can have forms where the hygienist can document it in there because people are in opposite rooms. But getting a good role and a good synergy is going to make this so much better for setting this up for success. And I think the answer is I actually don't think hygienists hate assisted hygiene as much. think it's there's quite a few little like tick boxes that if you can check them off, have a good assistant have good exams.   have doctors in and out on time, have the assistant really, really solid with being able to tee up the treatment and close the cases, have someone that has a similar vibe to the hygiene team that cares about these patients a ton. I think if you can check those boxes, and then you also compensate higher. There's so many little pieces that everybody's super excited about to do it, but I think if you're missing any of those six, it does not feel as good to try. okay.   Britt (22:14.701) Mm-hmm.   Britt (22:24.022) Yeah, and patients are used to working with two people, right? So that's even, it's like, yeah, it's one more person in the mix, but on the doctor's side, there's two of you. So having an assistant with hygiene, isn't that big of a deal? Seeing the same two faces every time, like they'll be fine with it. Cause I know that can be a concern. I'm like, they're used to having two people on the doctor's side.   Kiera Dent (22:41.104) I see the same. I'm like, just because we're not used to it doesn't mean it's odd for the patient. I tell doctors when you're onboarding an associate, I'm like, you can assist each other. And I know that feels weird to you, to the patient, they're used to someone else in there. To hygienist, they're used to people switching rooms. it's not something, if we're not weird about it, your patient won't be weird about it. But I think we feel very awkward because we feel uncomfortable. But just not projecting that onto your patient. Cause I don't think it's as much as you might think it is. So, okay,   Britt (23:10.316) And ender fun for assisted hygiene, I always have someone to pair your chart for me. So I'll take that as a win.   Kiera Dent (23:15.28) True, that is a big win. mean, truth, you're not having to call for it. Okay, the hot topic of shorter appointment times. I'm talking, I've heard 50 minute appointments, 45 minute appointments. Is this doable, Britt? And I think I'm gonna know your answer, I also, like come from both, come from hygiene, Britt, and operations, Britt. Bring both of those Brits to the table and you answer. I'm curious.   Britt (23:40.11) And I'll say this, I have worked in offices with all of the above, right? So I've done all of the above.   Kiera Dent (23:44.42) came. Her bigade you guys have idea. Good thing we plugged that at the beginning.   Britt (23:49.038) So all are doable. I think there's a couple of things that make a difference when it comes to shortening appointments, depending on what type of experience you want them to have, right? That's an important part to consider for doctors. Depending on our pay or mix, what we need to do in order to the business running, that's something to consider. And then also how efficient we are.   Kiera Dent (24:11.376) true.   Britt (24:17.07) as a team and like doctor doing exams, right? That's an important piece of it. And then another one is our patient base slash how good are we at keeping them healthy and not giving ourselves a lot of work every single time our patients come in. If you know what I'm saying, those bloody profusers, they're a lot of work. So if I'm treating period appropriately, I'm educating my patients, they're coming in regularly.   Kiera Dent (24:30.85) you   Kiera Dent (24:36.089) I do.   Britt (24:42.734) We all know those are patients that are a lot easier to see and more efficient most of the time. And yeah, there's gonna be even working on shorter appointment times, there's gonna be some. Like you know that person that's like an advanced period patient and I'm like, I cannot in my right moral standing do that in 45 minutes, it's gonna be an hour. There's gotta be some of that liberty where needed.   Kiera Dent (25:03.888) Yeah, I agree. So I think the hard thing of switching appointment times is I do think it becomes an all model because for me to shift it, it feels like a daunting project to shift from 60 minutes to 45 minutes. Now I'm moving everything up. My exam times don't hit at the same time anymore. Things just are moving all around. that's a huge jump.   Britt (25:18.99) Mm-hmm.   Britt (25:29.804) And 60 to 45 is a big jump. I wouldn't go that far if we're going to play around with times. Maybe you could go from 60 to 50. Most offices are running on 10 minute increments. So you can make that shift. And it's just you've got to be really on point to run that efficiently, because the quality's still got to be there. It's just we've got to be able to run really efficiently.   Kiera Dent (25:45.208) I agree.   Britt (25:57.944) And I'll add this, and depending on what I was expected within that appointment as well, right? If we want the hygienist to be super comprehensive, we want them to get scans done, we want them to collect a lot of information for us, like, I map it out, right? That takes me two minutes, that takes me three minutes. Like, what's reasonable in an appointment for us to get done by the minute mapped out and then make your decision?   Kiera Dent (26:11.002) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (26:19.652) I think that that's a wise and don't go for your fastest hygienist and don't go for your slowest hygienist. Let's find that middle ground of what's reasonable between the two because you do have some. mean, Britt and I, can even hear in our, the way we talk, we've got different tempos. mean, but you can guess who's a little bit faster and who's a little bit slower between me and Britt. And sometimes it's really good. Like Britt slowing me down and me speeding her up. And I think Britt and I would both agree that a happy medium between the two of us is the right spot to be, which is usually where we end just in   Britt (26:33.752) huh.   Britt (26:41.87) Mm-hmm.   Britt (26:48.814) Yeah. And a team working together really well, right? Especially when I was working on 45 and 50 minutes. I mean, we had a fantastic clinical coordinator, right? So if my next patient was here and there was a room to be had even for a few minutes to get x-rays done, and someone was available, they were getting those x-rays done and getting it started. So it's a different tempo and pace you run on. And it does take full team support. It's not going to be like, oh, well, they're early. Oh, they're here. We have space to see them.   Kiera Dent (26:49.561) in decisions.   Britt (27:18.058) start getting them taken care of so that it helps your team members out and we get them out as efficiently as possible.   Kiera Dent (27:24.464) So that's a good point because then it becomes, it's not just the hygienist. Cause I think 60 minutes is kind of like hygiene does their own thing. We want them to do everything on shorter appointment times. We are trying to get more, more bodies in and out. But I did the math and it's like, if I'm going from 60 to 50, I'm getting 10 extra minutes per appointment. That's going to give me 80 minutes in a day, but that's not enough for me to get two extra appointments unless I do a 50 minute plus an additional like 30 minute. And so I would ask the question, Britt, and I don't know if   Britt (27:32.897) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (27:53.36) you run the numbers or not on it. I mean, I haven't, so that's why I'm asking. But if I've got a hygiene team that does take ortho scans for us when we do ortho, I've got a hygiene team who's taking CBCTs for implants and we're teeing it up for all on X cases. If they're looking for sleep and we're doing snore tests on them, does it really make sense to get me one more hygiene patient for hygiene? Or does it make sense to look to optimize the additional services? Now I get like, we might be trying to get   because I'm like, well, what's the reason we're doing it? If we're trying to shorten the appointment times because we have too many patients, maybe it's worth looking at our fees. But if we're trying to get more patients in to optimize our hygienist pay, to be able to pay them and compensate for the amount of production they're doing. And I know a lot of offices don't pay hygienists for those scans. Like if you do a night guard scan or you do an ortho scan, it goes to the doctor, which I understand because the doctor is going to need to do a lot. But I'm just curious, like to me, it makes a little bit more sense, possibly.   If my hygienist have 60 minutes, I'm already there, why don't I try to optimize and maximize that appointment, paying them maybe a little bit of these scans that I want to be done so that way they can hit their production number, but it benefits the office on a bigger scale. What are your thoughts on that, Britt?   Britt (29:05.61) where I think it comes back to what type of experience, what type of office, what's your vision. It comes back to ultimately write any business. It comes back to the volume value question. By cutting time, we're choosing volume. By using that time better, we're choosing value.   Kiera Dent (29:20.208) Mm-hmm.   Britt (29:26.318) It's going to be a personal preference. I'm not going to say there's a right or wrong answer in that because there's a lot of factors depending on kind of what your payer mix is like. I definitely have some areas that even for me, I tried to move that culture of the area, if I tried to move that patient at the speed that I need for a 45 minute appointment, they are not going to love it. Even though I might be the most pleasant human being they've ever interacted with because the pace that they run is a little bit slower, right? And so...   Kiera Dent (29:50.916) Yeah.   Britt (29:56.334) right when I was running 45 minutes, we were right outside of DC. Those people don't want to be there that long. Right. And they were, you know, demographic was easy for us to run them through. And so they didn't mind the fast pace and we still connected, but we were able to run like that. So I think it comes back to overall experience on what you want to have. and there's no right or wrong, but I love making more use of the time we have, which is where I think hygienist functioning to the   the height of their capability, right? If you can use laser and that's something your office wants to bring in, great. That's something that can be an adjunct service that adds to the production. You know, what can you do for the patient? I think not only on the hygiene side, but that's where I think it really is a team to where what can I do in scans, in pictures, in educating patients about treatment options, talking to them about what do they really value? What do they really want? Are there cosmetic things that they're looking for?   Kiera Dent (30:29.232) Mm-hmm.   Britt (30:53.24) There's a lot you can do and I think that's for hygienists to realize if we do well overall, right, everybody wins. So when we're able to get where we need to production collection wise as an office overall, it makes it easier for us to say, yeah, that time is useful. We're making good use of it on the hygiene side. Let's keep our appointments at 60 minutes. Or if it's like, hey, we're not, we either need to do that and get things up or.   we're going to have to evaluate and make some decisions because sometimes there's just business decisions that need to be made and we need to figure out how to adapt and innovate.   Kiera Dent (31:28.324) Yeah, right. That was such an insightful piece. And as you were talking, I just thought, I hope offices are listening because I think that this is just a really good, like, this is where we, have to get into the, are we doing this? What are additional pieces rather than just the like quick surface level decision? Because I think there's so many pieces below it. Like you said, demographics, DC, 45 minutes makes a ton of sense. Those people are faster in and out. They're younger population. Like it's an easier model to roll that.   Britt (31:56.268) Mm-hmm.   Kiera Dent (31:56.396) versus maybe let's say some areas in Arizona, like you might not have a same, you might have it like in Scottsdale Tempe, but if we're going a little further out to maybe some of those senior centers, that's not an ideal model for maybe an older population base. So really like you said, and I think like volume versus value, and I don't think it's the value that we're bringing to the patient. It's the value of are we doing ortho? Are we adding these adjunct services to it? You obviously add value to your patients, but are we doing a lot of people?   or are we doing less people but more extensive? That's gonna be a clinical or a business decision and also a clinical decision and also a cultural decision of what you ultimately want your practice to be. But I get it, you gotta make these decisions, you gotta make the business run. I would just caution, don't make the quick decision because I think there's multi-layers below each of them to really consider. So hygiene Britt, thanks for coming today. Any last thoughts you've got as we wrap up? Assisted hygiene, shorter appointments, I think they are really good perspectives to bring.   Britt (32:55.822) I think my last thing I like that you said, right, don't make the quick decision, evaluate it. And I think even hygienist, right, it's easy for us as team members, I do the same thing, right? I can see my world and what it's gonna impact for me, but I understand there's more behind it than just my view. And so really taking a good look overall and seeing what's gonna be the best decision. And yeah, how we're functioning now might make us think that we need to make this decision, but maybe we can keep running and function a little different to where we don't have to make that change.   Kiera Dent (33:25.52) I think it's a really good perspective. if you guys are in this debacle, we're speaking to your souls. This is what we love to do with our practices is really weigh the pros and cons and help the office make the best decision for their practice, not just a decision and really thinking through the, all the different pieces and then executing and getting your whole team on board, helping the team see the pieces so you can really be successful. So reach out if we can help. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com thanks for being with me today. I appreciate it.   Britt (33:53.196) Yeah, thanks for having me.   Kiera Dent (33:54.648) Of course, and for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.    

Steph is the founder of Empowered Roots Nutrition and a Nutrition and Dietetic Technician, Registered (NDTR), with a bachelor's degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. She is set to complete her master's degree this spring, making her eligible to sit for the Registered Dietitian credentialing exam. With more than 10 years of experience in the field of nutrition, Steph has spent most of her career in adult and pediatric acute care settings. She has worked with a wide range of conditions, from infant nutrition to chronic kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes, and more. Steph is passionate about making authentic connections, no matter the setting. Her approach to nutrition is functional and integrative, focusing on addressing the root cause of health concerns while bridging the gap between conventional and unconventional medicine. Steph's primary interests lie in women's health and gut health, though she also appreciates the variety of cases she encounters, thanks to her extensive experience in the field. Recently, she left her corporate job of nine years to pursue private practice. She currently works as an NDTR and nutrition assistant, supporting administrative tasks and developing nutrition programs. Additionally, she is starting her own private practice to focus on delivering high-quality care with a “quality over quantity” approach. Outside of her work, Steph enjoys astrology, exploring the outdoors, creating art, cooking, traveling, and discovering new cuisines as a self-proclaimed “foodie." She is also dedicated to her own holistic practices and lifelong learning. She believes in living a balanced life and embodies the same principles she shares with her clients. Although her business is still in development, you can expect to work with her as early as this summer. Stay tuned for updates by following her on Instagram at @empoweredrootsnutrition. In this episode we talk about: Give me the slashes Hows your dash going?! Fuck rules. Burn it all down Radical ownership Knowing your worth Tin foil hat time. You don't have to go to college Small business vs school loans Neighborhood cats + skateboarding dogs Endometriosis excision surgery Learn more about working with me  Shop my masterclasses (learn more in 60-90 minutes than years of dr appointments) Follow me on IG Follow Empowered Mind + Body on IG  Follow Steph on IG 

Happy New Year! Instead of setting resolutions to start off 2025, Kiera tries a different route: identity changes. What fights can you stop starting in your personal or professional life in order to become the best person, the best dental hygienist, the best doctor, the best _______ you can be in the new year? Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Join Dental A-Team Consulting Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.878) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy 2025. I feel so honored to be with you on New Year's Day today. I mean, I'm calling 2025 the year to thrive and no longer survive. Like, let's get real. Let's get on this. Let's stop surviving and let's start thriving. And so to kick off New Year's today, I was thinking about it. And usually on New Year's around this time, we're all setting our goals. We're setting our resolutions.   And I actually want to give you a different spin. Are you open for it? Like, let's start 2025 on a different note. And that is maybe instead of setting resolutions, let's set identity changes this year. Resolutions are fighting. Let's change that verbiage and change how we think about that. I'm so excited. I love this podcast. I love all of you. And I was thinking about resolutions and resolutions are like,   you know, I want to lose weight or I want to be this leader or I want my practice to be there. And I think resolutions are different than goals and changing an identity is actually the fastest way to do it. One of my favorite quotes of all time is the need to stay like the greatest, like the greatest driver within the human being is the need to stay consistent with who we believe we are, not who we actually are, but who we believe. And so changing identity,   is actually the fastest way to grow and to evolve and to hit the goals and to hit the resolutions. It's not just setting a resolution like up like a sticky note on a wall. Like I want to be this. Okay, great. But if we don't believe we are so like there was an example and they said like, I don't know if I can stop smoking. I've been a smoker. I am a smoker. You know, I'm gonna try really hard. Well, in their mind, they're still a smoker. So trying to put it up there, I'm gonna stop smoking is actually fighting against who they believe they are.   And that's a fight rather than a flow versus saying like, I'm not a smoker. Like I'm an identity. I don't smoke. I'm not a smoker for me. I've never smoked in my life. I'm not a smoker. That wouldn't even be a thing. Like, but I take it on of I'm not a smoker. And so oftentimes I love the book by James Clear, Atomic Habits. There were things I liked about things I didn't like about it. The overall piece that I really, really loved though, was when he talks about sometimes getting to these resolutions means we need to start thinking as that person.   Kiera Dent (02:20.942) So if maybe today I don't feel like I'm not a smoker and I'm trying to get there, it would be like, what does a person who doesn't smoke do? And we start to act like them. And I have a really great example of my mom. My mom, she went and met with her doctor and her doctor said, you've got to start having more exercise in your life. You're not getting enough steps. You're not having any of these things and you need to start hitting 10,000 steps a day. Well, my mom, I was watching her and her and I started doing it. I had like, I'm just...   I enjoy a good challenge. And so when we were in Tokyo, I got several days in a row of hitting over 10,000 steps and there was a badge of hitting 30 days in a row. And so I was like, sweet, I'm going to hit 30 days. Like I'm to hit 10,000 steps. Like we're just going to do it. And my mom was doing it. I'm like the doctor told her she needed to do this. And it was really interesting. I remember meeting up with my mom one day and she's like, Kiera, how are your steps? And I was like, great. I've got like this, I did this earlier today. I set up my schedule. Like I went for my walk or whatever it was.   I was like, well, you know, maybe I'll get it tonight. Maybe I won't. And in that moment, I thought like, my mom has this is just like a hope and a wish rather than an identity. And not to say I was better than her. It was just for me, I had already decided like, this is what I do. This is who I am. And I'm going to hit this like, period. I don't care what I've got to do. If I've got to walk at midnight, I'll do that. In airports, I'm like rolling my suitcase up and down and walking just because it was something I was committed to. I remember my mom and I were talking and I said, mom,   Like I pulled James, James Clear into the equation. said, mom, like, what would a healthy person do that would hit their steps every day? And I said, maybe just consider that. And so my mom started actually asking herself the question. She's like, well, like, what would a healthy person do? They would start taking a walk on their lunch break. And I was so proud of my mom. My mom started taking walks on her lunch break. And then my mom said, like, a healthy person would get up in the morning and they'd go for a walk before they'd go to work. So my mom started getting up and going for a walk at work or before work.   And then my mom, was interesting. I was listening to her and she's like, you know, I've already been prepping like it's going to be winter time and it's going to be like rainy and snowy. And she's like, I don't like the cold. And so she's like, what would a healthy person do with that? They would go walk at the mall and they would plan their schedule to be able to go do that. And I was so proud of my mom because she went from someone who was like, maybe I'll get this AKA setting a resolution to this is who I am. This is my identity. I am this healthy person.   Kiera Dent (04:42.466) but she had to get there by thinking of herself as this other person. What would this person do? And so when we're looking at our businesses and we're looking at our goals and we're looking at the things we want to do, what would a doctor who produces 3 million a year do? What would a CEO who owns a $3 million business, what would they do? What would an office manager who runs a $2.5 million practice, what would they do? How would they start their day? What things would they actually work on? What things would they delegate? What things would they not do?   What things would they, how would they present their cases? How would they close their cases? How would they follow up with their cases? If it was a hygienist who produced 3.3 times their pay, what would that hygienist do? They would be looking at their schedule every single day. They would be checking for comp exams and for x-rays when their x-rays are due. They would be looking for fluoride and adjunct services, sealants. They would be tracking their metrics. They would be tracking their numbers. They would be adding these things to their patient schedules because they're obsessed about their patients and want their patients to thrive.   What would a dental assistant do that could add same day treatment every single day? They'd be prepping their schedule. They would be talking to the treatment coordinators of how do we up our, how do we talk to the patients about this? They would be figuring it out. They would be looking at their schedule all the time. They'd be talking to the patients. They'd be helping the patients realize this is better for them and they don't have to come back for multiple visits. What would a biller do that has 98 % collections? And they don't spend all day doing it. They would be   prioritizing their time, they'd be doing their insurance verification in batches. They would be calling patients instead of sending statements. They'd be proactive with that. They'd be collecting balances when the patients are in the chair. They'd be working their 90, 60, 30 days. They would be having set aside time. They would have a schedule set up to where they actually followed through on this. They would not make excuses for it. And they would own their results. And I think if we think this way and we change our identities, and again, maybe we're not there today,   But as we're setting these resolutions, what would someone who has great family work-life balance do? Well, they would set up their date nights for their spouse. They would set up their kid time. Those would be the first things. They would have their work schedule in there. If they know that they only want to work four days a week, they then build a schedule with block scheduling. And they start to realize that they might add additional treatment in, higher dollar treatment, whether it's cosmetic or implants or sleep or different things like that. They would look at it.   Kiera Dent (07:06.06) A CEO of a practice would be looking at their numbers every single day, if not weekly. The reality is you've got to know your numbers forwards and backwards. They would love numbers and obsess about numbers. They would love to solve puzzles and crack codes. They would make sure that they empower their team to make decisions and that they're focusing on the top pieces. They would hold their team accountable. They would have agreements. They would make sure that this team is actually operating at the highest level. And if they don't know how to do it, they would hire people to help train their team to do it.   a doctor who's producing three million. They're confident with their presentations. They aren't afraid to tell patients what they need. They're very good with their case acceptance. They're really good with their handoffs. They're really good with their comprehensive diagnosis. If they're not good with that, they would put in AI, so Pearl or Overjet, to use on their x-rays to make it easier for them. But they would actually get confident presenting treatment. Now, what does a confident dentist who presents treatment look like? They go in, they have a great rapport with the patient.   And if this isn't you, I have some doctors and we change their names. So we have like Dr. Marvelous or we have the confident guy or like whatever it is for you. I don't care. Choose your name. But that person walks in and they're confident with the patient and they would have a rapport with the patient and then they would ask the patient, I lean you back in? And they would say yes. And they would say perfect. Can I do a comprehensive exam? And the patient would say yes. they're   the patient up to say yes to them and they show them healthy teeth and not healthy teeth and they're able to go through a comprehensive exam with them and show them what they need to do. They're not using little league words and major league situations. They're being honest with the patient of what they need and they're being confident with their diagnosis and what that patient needs. They're using our perfect NDTR handoff of the next visit, the date to return, the time needed for the appointment, making sure their re-care is scheduled for every single patient and they consistently do that and if they forget they   tie a string of floss around their finger or they have this little sticky note underneath the patient's chair. I literally have doctors do this when they're so committed to doing it, but they hold it consistent. They review their cases with their treatment coordinators every single week. Where did I crush it? Where could I improve? They record themselves. Don't worry, you keep it HIPAA compliant, but they record themselves and they actually watch back their treatment cases to see what did I say? What did I miss? How could I say this better? They tee it up with their hygienist. They do what would doctor do with their hygiene team? And they say,   Kiera Dent (09:24.472) All right, this is how we diagnose it. This is how we preheat the oven with our hygienist. They help their hygienist and they do CE with their hygienist about perio and how we treat our patients that way. They work with their whole team and they do whatever it is, full team handoffs or morning huddles or case acceptance, but they're doing those items. But what they're really doing is they're picking the one, two or three items that are actually going to move their practice forward the most with the least amount of effort and the greatest amount of gain. And they're really great at prioritizing.   And what I'm doing is I'm describing to you doctors that I work with. I'm describing office managers that I work with, hygienists that I work with, people within our consulting company that are doing this ridiculously well. I'm telling you literally, these are what these people do. A successful CEO, they block themselves. They have at least two to four hours every single week dedicated to working on the business. And they're doing it within working hours for two reasons. One, they believe in a healthy work-life balance.   And two, they know that if they put it during production time, they're actually going to use that time productively because they know if they're producing 500 or 750 or a thousand or $5,000 per hour, if they block those two hours, they need to ensure that those two hours are giving them at least, let's say they're at 500 an hour, at least $1,000 of benefit. If they're at $5,000 an hour, it's at least $10,000 of value in those two hours. You instantly start to think about yourself differently, but notice.   Well, what we've done is we've changed your identity. We've asked the questions of what would this type of a doctor do? What would this type of a CEO do? What would this type of an office manager do? And then we start to become that person. And we stopped fighting against, I hope and wish that I'll become this person. Instead, we started to be like my mom. My mom does not miss her 10,000 steps anymore because what my mom is, is someone who consistently hits 10,000 steps every day. Rain or shine, good health, bad health, whatever it is, because my mom is so committed.   to being that person, just like the person who's not a smoker. And they've taken on that identity of I don't smoke. That's a person and it's crazy because we can't change that. And it's like the fastest way to change is to become and to change our identity. And the way we change our identity is start to ask, what would we do in this instance? And so for you, would think, look at your goals and ask yourself, what do we want to achieve as a practice? Hopefully you've set them up. If not, or if you have, come join us January 31st.   Kiera Dent (11:48.814) We are actually doing thriving in 2025 with maximum momentum and I would love to have you there. It's a Friday. It's going to be a couple hours for you guys. Don't even stress about it. Two hours. So from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Pacific time. Come join us. I would love you. Let's get that thriving in 2025 and we're gonna help you actually set your goals for this year. We're gonna help you actually build the momentum with you and your team. And as you're building this, as you're crafting it, ask yourself,   Who do I need to become to make these goals a reality? Who we are today, we need to rise above. think about like as gross as it is snakes. Snakes slough off their old skin. They outgrow it. They literally slough it off and leave it behind and they emerge and grow into the next version that they need to be. Penguins literally molt off their feathers and evolve. And it's for us, what do we need to shed off? What do we need to let go of? What favorite excuse do we need to have?   What do we need? What identity do we need to take on to become the person who rises up, who gets bigger shoulders to carry a larger practice? Meaning we become better leaders, we delegate better, we own these things. And if you need mentors or you need guides, that's why I'm so excited to, to bring together people within consulting. Sometimes we just need to see other people to see how to do it. We need someone to model after. and so if you've got a great mentor, amazing. If you've got a great idea of who you want to be amazing. If you don't,   Amazing. Let's give you some people reach out anytime. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. But join us for for our thriving in 2025. Maximize momentum and let's maximize let's help you. But right now on New Year's Day, I want you to decide who are you going to be in 2025 to truly thrive and then think of what does that person do and maybe even list the attributes of that person list the things that they don't do. What are the things that they're not doing to make sure that they're thriving?   And then let's not set resolutions, but let's actually achieve goals. Let's actually achieve dreams. Let's actually live the life that we were destined to live. Let's stop managing our circumstances and start creating our lives. Let's start becoming creators rather than managers. Let's start being who we were meant to be and not have it be a hope and a wish, but a true resolution, a true identity shift to be that person. And I promise you, you will thrive in 2025.   Kiera Dent (14:09.368) Some of you may be looking back and thinking 2024 was not the best year for me. Reach out, let's thrive and not just survive. I would love to help you. I would love to be here. I will be here on the podcast with you. And I would love to help you one-on-one or in a group setting or in person or virtual, whatever it is, but commit to yourself. Let's thrive in 2025 and this is who you will be. And then commit to doing whatever it takes to get there. Rain, shine, good weather, bad weather.   you've got it, you don't have it, but you become that person to where when we are celebrating 2026, you look back and say, I became who I was destined to be. I achieved the goals that I set out because I changed the identity of who I was to who I want to be. And I promise you this year will be much different. Cheers to 2025. I'm committing to thriving in 2025. And I hope you're along with me. If you are, send me an email. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. at TheDentalATeam.com. Kiera, I am thriving in 2025. You can even send me   who you're gonna be, your attributes. I will be your accountability buddy for you. But when we write it, we commit. When we think about it, it's a wish. When we write it, it's possible. And when we schedule it, it becomes real. So whatever you've gotta do to get this schedule, then to become this person, I implore you to do so. You deserve it. Your patients need you. Your team needs you. You need this for you. You need this. And I just say, play full out.   Give yourself everything that you're destined to have and let's freaking thrive in 2025. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Summary In this episode of NDTR Spotlight, host Marie-Laurene interviews Ashley Sannitti, a dietetic technician who shares her journey from discovering the NDTR credential to navigating remote education and internships. Ashley discusses her experiences in finding her first job, her current roles as a lifestyle coordinator and personal chef, and the importance of personalization in meal prep. She offers valuable advice for aspiring NDTRs, insights into remote work, and strategies for job applications, all while emphasizing the significance of keeping an open mind in the evolving field of nutrition. Make sure to follow Ashley Instagram @nurturing_plates/ Website: https://www.nurturingplates.com Takeaways: Ashley found the NDTR credential while working as a waitress. Choosing a remote program allowed Ashley flexibility in her education. Networking helped Ashley secure her internship placements. Ashley faced challenges in defining her role as an NDTR during her internship. It took Ashley about six months to find her first NDTR job. Her current role as a lifestyle coordinator is completely remote. Ashley started her personal chef business to help others with meal prep. Personalization is key in Ashley's meal prep services. Ashley emphasizes the importance of being open to various job opportunities. She aims to specialize in women's health and follow clients through their pregnancy. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to NDTR Journey 01:31 Discovering the NDTR Credential 02:57 Choosing Remote Education 05:05 Navigating Internships and Preceptors 07:03 Finding the First NDTR Job 09:11 Current Roles and Responsibilities 10:57 The Personal Chef Venture 13:07 Personalization in Meal Prep 14:59 Overcoming Challenges in Meal Prep 17:13 Advice for Aspiring NDTRs 18:53 Remote Work Insights 21:10 Job Application Strategies 23:00 Future Aspirations and Goals --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

Happy Halloween! In this episode, Kiera lists four “tricks” in dental practices that might scare a practice owner off, and gives advice on how to turn them into treats. Leaking revenue A team that doesn't care about company goals Untapped potential holding you back Low case acceptance and high overhead Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:01.09) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and happy Halloween -y. man, I love Halloween. This year, I'm so excited. We have some really, really, really special neighbors and they have two kids and they have definitely allowed us to be a part of their family. And so they're now six -year -old son. They have a six -year -old and a two -year -old. Their six -year -old plans our Halloween costumes for us. If you know anything about Kiera Dent or if you don't, my mom was very much not.   pro having her kids trick or treat. My mom is very, very, very conventional and she did not want to teach her children. She felt like trick or treating was slightly like begging and she did not want her children to be that way. And so I do not, I do not endorse that nor agree with that. And my mom has since changed, but that was her beliefs as a young mom. so trick or treating, she had us go what's called pick a treat where we would actually take treats to our friends instead of trick or treating. And so   Actually last year, 2023 was the first time that Kiera Dent actually went trick or treating. And it was with this family that takes us with us. Last year we were Incredibles. And this year he has given, this little boy has given all of us the assignment of something from Toy Story. He plans every one of us who we're going to be. So this year I get to be Little Bo Peep. My husband's Woody. Don't worry. We'll definitely post up some pictures for you guys, but happy Halloween. I hope you have the best time. I hope it's fun, but.   What I wanted to do today is one, thank you guys for being a part of our podcast family. But two, remind you, please share this podcast with someone fun. Today's gonna be a fun one. These are things that should scare you as a dental practice owner. Our goal is to help you learn to overcome them and running practice does not need to be scary. So come and join our consulting with us. There's no tricks, just treats for you guys. And I'm gonna give you guys four little things that probably do scare you as practice owners and ways to overcome them.   We're going to do a little trick or treating here where I might trick, I might treat. Of course I'm going to treat guys. Here we go. but please share this podcast with those around you. And thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team podcast family. If I could give you a giant hug right now and just tell you how much I love and appreciate you for who you are and the special things that you bring to dentistry and to this world. And, just you being here, no matter what you do or don't do is a huge blessing to those around you and in my life as well, even though I might not know you personally.   Kiera Dent (02:26.07) I feel you, I feel your energy and I'm so grateful for you. just share this with someone that you feel could use that huge giant hug of love and appreciation and probably just like some fun and some support. with that, right. Number one possible scary thing in a practice is revenue leaks in your practice. So what are some of those things that are leaking out revenue that if we just were able to patch up that hole might actually be able to help you. So things such as inefficient scheduling, billing errors, uncollected payments.   So I want you guys to look at your practices and see where are our revenue leaks. I think this could be a really fun almost scavenger hunt for you and your team to think about like, where are all the ways that we might be losing money on imperfect handoffs, on not billing out all the procedures that we do, on not having the correct dollar amounts attached to those. Keir Dents practice definitely sent out a $0 crown. We billed it straight to insurance. You better believe they were so happy to send me the EOB on that. That is a revenue leak in our practice. so,   on our inefficient scheduling? Have you built in the block schedules? Have you created a perfect day schedule? Are we working and role playing on how we can get people perfectly in there? Are we looking for same day treatment opportunities? That's a huge revenue leak within your practice. Looking for those same days, you get raving fans out of it and you're also able to help a ton of people with it. So can we actually help you guys close up that revenue leak and make it even better? What about the billing errors? Like I mentioned, attaching the correct things to our procedures so we get our money in within those.   20 to 30 days the first time and we're not having to rebuild or reattaching like setting up a process and a policy that we all follow every single time. Make that quick checklist, have it in the notes. We just grab it and go and everybody's there with it. It makes it so much easier. Uncollected payments, I can't tell you how many offices just let patients leave without stopping at the front desk or getting credit cards on file so that way we can bill these patients very quickly and collect. It's so easy. You guys, I have all of my stuff on autopay. I go to the therapist, I credit card on file, click, paid, done.   At my chiropractor same thing at my therapist my my physical therapist same thing at my gym person All these quick ways like you guys we live in a world of credit cards on file. We have Apple pay We have all these different pieces. Can we do that there? And what are the revenue leaks within your practice? Those are just some to get your your mind spurring But really look at that because that could be very scary in a practice. You're doing the work Let's make sure you're getting paid for it. Like I said, no tricks just treats. It does not need to be scary   Kiera Dent (04:50.132) Number two, your team not caring about your company goals. Well, that can feel scary because doctors can feel like, I'm rowing this boat all by myself and it can feel awful. And so let's get your team to care about the goals. How can this help give them a better life? How can this help them help more patients? How can we get them on board and excited? I have an office right now and we're rolling out sleep in their practice and I cannot wait. We're making it all fun. They're going to get like part of the bonus and the rewards of helping more patients not die from sleep.   That's incredible. That's such a fun way to do it. And so looking for ways, people don't care about things that they're not passionate about. No surprise, right? Like that's a very easy thing. Kiera, give us some wisdom here. But I think sometimes simplicity and remembering what we already know is half the point of learning. And a lot of times learning is just remembering what we already know. And so getting our team, like what inspires them? Why do we want to hit these goals? How many patients do we want to serve together as a team? And oftentimes if your team doesn't care about the goals,   guess what, they might not be your right team. You want people that are obsessed about hitting these goals. You want people that are excited about building this practice. It's gonna serve so many patients. And so you also, as the owner and the leader, need to feel that way about it. Oftentimes when teens don't care about goals, it's because the owner doesn't actually care. And I say that with love and a huge giant hug and no judgment, because sometimes it's hard to stay motivated as owners. Sometimes we need someone to pick us up.   You guys, am so appreciative over these last couple of months. I've had some personal things in my life and so grateful for the coaches in my life that literally have like lifted me up with love and support and helped me figure out what is my vision? What is my path? I have probably five really strong people in my life and I'm so grateful. I happily pay them. so, I could not do this without all five of them. And just so thankful that I have that support system around me because   A lot of times it is hard to keep trying to figure it out on your own day in and day out. And so really being able to have that from your team and have that support is something absolutely magical. All right, number three is untapped potential losing you money. So things like, could we do some CE within our practice? Could we do helping a lot of our team start like learning to scan or taking impressions, or could we add Invisalign or could we add sleep to our practice?   Kiera Dent (07:09.886) Or what other things are untapped potential within every team member? Could we do better with our treatment plan acceptance? Can we do better with how we schedule our practice? But what is this untapped potential? If I was looking at your practice today, what I think that your practice is a brand new baby, like in the life cycle of a business. Is it maybe a toddler? Is it maybe like a teenager? Is it a young adult? Is it like in its prime? Is it a dying practice, like getting a little bit older to retirement? Or is it on its way to death?   There's untapped potential within all of those lifespans. And so what's our way that we're able to find that untapped potential because there's so much opportunity. I have offices right now that are, we've just added very simple things to the practice and we've been able to take them from a $2 million practice to a $4 million practice just by adding in some untapped potential with them. Are there untapped potential within like the operatories in the space within your practice?   Is there untapped potential around your hygienist being able to offer fluoride to every patient or fluoride therapy where it's toothpaste and fluoride treatments? Is there untapped potential with us scanning for night guards? Is there untapped potential with us looking for same day treatment opportunities? These are fun little things that could be spooky and scary, but if we look at them, make them fun. Now, I'm gonna put a huge like asterisk caveat with this.   We do not wanna add all these things at the exact same time because that is very scary and daunting for our team, but we can brainstorm and like throw everything on a board and then pick the thing that's the easiest, least amount of effort with the greatest impact. And that's what we wanna go implement and execute on our practice. right, number four of things that are scary, no tricks, just treats today, of low case acceptance and high overhead. So kind of technically two in one.   So low case acceptance, that can feel really scary. It can make doctors feel like patients don't like me. It can make treatment coordinators feel like, we're just not closing cases. Case acceptance to me just tells a story. One, are we doing incredible with how we're presenting treatment? Doctors, are you using that NDTR next visit date, time, the re -care, there we go. Are you doing that and putting the bow on every single treatment plan that you're giving?   Kiera Dent (09:20.032) Are you diagnosing with confidence? Are we doing quadrant dentistry rather than solo tooth dentistry? Are you confident on how you're presenting it to the patient? Are you possibly planting weeds in your flower garden by giving them obstacles as opposed to opportunities without realizing it? After doctors give this the most amazing confident treatment plan, they put the bow of NDTR on it. Team members, are we all taking that perfect hand off, scheduling them first and then having our team present the treatment plans and the finance?   Are we leading with insurance? Because if you better believe if I'm any part of your life, you will never lead with insurance. You will always lead with what we need to do. And then we will help the patient say yes to the treatment. Low case acceptance to me tells what are the doctors confident in, what's the treatment coordinator confident in, and where are awesome opportunities to grow. I love case acceptance. I'm obsessed with it. I'm obsessed with helping offices. I have literally taken a practice from 9 million.   to over 40 million just by working with them on case acceptance. I kid you not, there's multiple practices in it. They are incredible. And we just work on case acceptance over and over and over over over and over and over and over over again, because we know that that's what's gonna help more patients have a happier life. So when I look at this, I love it. It tells me what is that treatment coordinator afraid of? What does that treatment coordinator need to break through? What does that doctor need to break through? I can look to see the type of treatment plans just by looking at your case acceptance.   And so looking at this and how can we boost it? Now, if it's too high, I know we are actually not diagnosing enough. If it's too low, I know we're not closing and it's a happy medium. If you're presenting implants and high cases, it should be a little bit lower. If we're doing a single tooth dentistry and general dentistry more so, you should have a much higher case acceptance. So looking at that, because that can feel very eerie in a practice of like, what are we doing wrong? Oftentimes it's not what are we doing wrong? It's what are we saying? That's actually not helping us get to our case acceptance that we want.   So play the game, have fun with it because that case acceptance fills the schedule. Now if our schedule is too full and we're not hitting our goals, let's look to see what are we diagnosing doctors? Let's see, are we truly diagnosing full comprehensive care or are we diagnosing what we think they want? No, those are questions for you to answer that can feel spooky and eerie, but they do not need to be. Just be confident, the patient's there. It's not your fault they're there. It's not your fault that they have this treatment. It didn't get there overnight and now you have the amazing opportunity to educate them.   Kiera Dent (11:40.93) help them get healthy again and become like so fulfilled by having that confident smile again. And then that in turn can also reduce your overhead. Looking at our P &L consistently, making sure that we're not overpaying for things that we don't need, but also making sure that our revenue we're producing what we need to be producing for our practice. These are things that I am obsessed with. I love them. It doesn't need to be spooky for you. It really just needs to be fun for you. And so that's why at this Halloweeny time,   No tricks, just treat. And within our consulting, we have our online version and we also have our in -person version and both of them give you a way for these spooky things to actually be done with ease. So I'd love for you guys to come try it out. Like, what's it gonna hurt you to come and be a part of a community of people of like -minded dentists, to have consultants at your fingertips that literally will give you the answers to all these spooky things and also get your team on board with you.   to come and either be in person and meet us. We're literally getting ready to have our doctors in person together and work on your business from the minds of brilliant people to be able to lift you and your practice to the highest heights that are out of this world, to be able to have consistent accountability in your practice of people that hold you to a higher standard and grow you. Come join us and be a part of it. I'd love for you to come try it out. Running a practice truly does not need to be scary. So come try us. I'd love to have you.   No tricks, just treats for all of you. You guys, I am obsessed with dentistry. I'm obsessed with helping you guys have the life that you deserve to live and that you're worthy to live and that you have every capacity to have. I'm obsessed with getting your team on board with you. So come try us out. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com or just go to TheDentalATeam.com. Book a call with us. You guys, it's not scary. We literally like meet you with open arms and a huge hug. And we're there, whether you are on the top of your game or you are at the bottom of your game, anywhere in between.   We're there for you and I can't wait for you guys. end of year. It's a great time for you to be looking at these things, to make decisions, to make sure that next year that you are successful without knowing that it's maybe going to happen or not, but being confident that it will happen for you. Now is the time for you to take action, to not have it be scary and to have the best, best life that you could ever imagine. Reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

Is there a service in the dentistry field you're interested in learning more about — perhaps enough to add it to your practice? Tiff and Britt dive deep into how to go about expanding services. They give examples, how to tap into your creative side, hurdles that might come up and how to pivot, and more. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.134) Hello Dental A Team listeners, we're back today. You've got Tiff and Britt and I'm using your Britt nickname today. Always, I said Brittany Stone last time and like you mentioned, like it's always a little weird. It's so weird to me when people say, this is Tiffanie. And I'm like, it's Tiff. Tiffanie is like so formal. It makes me sound, it either makes me feel like a child or old. Like there's no in -between. It's not my age right now. Whatever, whatever this in -between stages is Tiff. So Britt.   Welcome back. I'm excited to be here with you today. I think we have a fun topic that is right up your alley. You love the clinical stuff and this one's diving into clinical. How are you this beautiful afternoon? Yeah.   Britt (00:44.197) different crowds. don't know about you, Brittany or like Brett or if you're Tiffanie or Tiff for me, like it just it depends on what crowds and like kind of like what phase of life did I go by my full name or my short name. So but I'm doing great today. I'm excited to be here. Agreed. I love chatting a variety of things, right? So it's always fun. We love it with clients because you never know what they're gonna throw at us, which just makes our life super fun, which I think we love about it. And I think we've got a fun one for everybody today.   The Dental A Team (00:54.293) Yes! I agree!   The Dental A Team (01:07.628) So true.   The Dental A Team (01:13.036) I agree. I agree. I do love I like have a love hate for it. I should say, right? Like I love being thrown curveballs. But then sometimes I'm like, Whoa, my brain. Like this is a big one or dang, I had 15 curveballs but five with five clients this just today like and sometimes it's exhausting but I do love it. I had a client yesterday. We were talking about   Britt (01:22.03) That's nice.   The Dental A Team (01:38.528) something I can't even I told the last podcast I told you I can't remember all that far. But we're talking about something and I was like, gosh, this is actually it was it's a different type of marketing. And it was two days ago. That's why I can't remember. But they're in a space they're in a they're in Texas. And they're in a community in Texas that is it's just oil fields like they're just it's the oil field industry. And   Initially, they're like, how do we stop cancellations? I'm like, fantastic. Like, here's some pieces, here's some things. And then we're like digging through and we're realizing, I'm like, listen, guys, like, let's put these pieces into play for sure. But sometimes you're just in a place that's like, you're going to experience cancellations. These people are getting sent out at midnight for three months to go work in a different oil field. Like they don't have the flexibility. And so it was really cool. And the conversation, the point I say this is like,   I had to really think outside the box and I said, you guys, your marketing, your systems, while I have systems that are tied and true and I know that they work, this is why doing it here is different. I may say this is why Dental A Team is different, because calling further in advance on your confirmations or telling them you're going to charge them or coming up with all of these solutions that work for many practices, let's implement those for sure, but you've got a different   type of community. I think changing your marketing to we're here when you need us, because that's what you're hearing. And more of that like same day, let's get patients in, hey, call us, switching the marketing efforts is going to work in your area. And the reason that was so cool was because it was so drastically different than majority of other clients. And it was really fun to   get that outside the box thinking and like, gosh, okay, let's put our hats on and we brainstorm together and the hygienist in that call was just like, she stood up at the end and she was like, I am so excited for this because at the end of every visit, when I walk them up and I do my NDTR, I tell them, if you need anything else between your appointments, we're here for you, please call. She's like, so this is expanding on that and I was like, you've already been priming your patients for it.   The Dental A Team (03:48.199) This is exactly what we need to do. But it was so cool, Britt, because that just highlights like the differences and really getting thrown those curve balls and having fun with it and really diving in and figuring out where are you and how can we expand on that. And that's something I think clinically that we want to talk about today even is really how to expand your range of services. And Britt, I know I didn't prep for this piece and I do this to you guys all the time.   I realized that but my brain just is like ping, ping, ping, ping, and I just go for it. So before we even get into like the super doctor clinical stuff, I know that you as a practicing hygienist before you were all into the state you guys, if I need any information on what the dental industry is doing and what's progressing, I know Britt's my girl. So she I know that you have always been so invested in that and I would love to pick your brain right now on.   Britt (04:34.747) Thank   The Dental A Team (04:44.87) Before we talk about doctor clinical, hygiene clinical, and how did you as a clinician or as being over the clinicians as a manager, how did you help hygiene to expand their services?   Britt (04:59.291) Yeah, so I mean, it's always fun. Doctor can do a lot more than the rest of the team, right? So when we get there, there's a lot more options. And for hygienist and even assistants, right? It's gonna be a little bit of like, what can you do within your state, right? That you're under your license, under your scope of practice that you can do. I'd say number one, be aware of that. And even if you want to be able to do more in your state, even I would say encourage you to like.   be involved if you want to, you know, you can give anesthesia now and that's something that hygienists want, you want to be able to do one day, be involved with your local associations and things and help move those things forward. Cause it'll help to expand and just make you a, like a more advanced clinician in the end of it. So that's my like one plug is like, cause I know every state's going to be a little bit different and then know what you can or can't do and explore it. And at the end of the day, hygienists and doctors, right? Whatever   and assistance, whatever we see that's gonna be a benefit to our patients, kind of like to what you were talking about, custom fit it, but what are the advancements? What are the new things? What can we do that would be beneficial to our patients and in line with our standard of care or something we might wanna evaluate and adding to our standard of care? What is there number one and just get familiar with it.   and then see if it's something that you want to be able to add to your practice. know I'm a big laser fan from like back in the beginning when I first got out of school, because it's something we could do in Arizona. I'm a big believer in it for those who can do it. If you're not doing it, it might be something worth considering and starting to look into to see if it'll benefit your patients. I love it. I know these days a lot of hygienists like Airway, Myofunctional are big things that are coming out now that can be super beneficial. And a lot of people are learning that.   Even things like for assistance, right? Being able to learn to do things that like maybe your doctor is doing now, but you could do. Those are also things that are expanding. Maybe it's not a new procedure for our practice, but you, it's expanding you and what procedures you can do, which is gonna help the practice overall. So I think just look, be aware of what's out there. Read your articles, be a part of groups, go to your CEs and just be aware of what.   Britt (07:14.477) exists so then you can determine what might be good. And I think for doctors, doctors are they've got a lot on their shoulders and they're they learn a lot and they're exposed to a lot. But team members bring stuff up to doctors all the time that they haven't heard about or they didn't know their team would be interested in doing and you can help to kind of have the practice progress and expand things.   The Dental A Team (07:36.275) I totally agree. I love all of that. I may you're gonna say laser, I think laser is huge. I think it's a giant benefit. And I think that got really hyped when it you know, first started and then people are like, I don't know. And I think it's something that kind of has fallen off. So I, I surely encourage hygienists to go do that. But something else that you mentioned was the like my functional space, the airway, the sleep apnea, those spaces, and I actually worked with a client over the summer.   who had a really fantastic, thriving sleep department. And she did it, it's taken years to get there and she's done it. They've got the systems and processes, everything's written down, write it down. But the interesting piece to me about it was that the doctor barely touched that department. She had a hygienist that loved it, that just saw the need. She, from a personal level, she connected with it.   Britt (08:09.317) Thank   Britt (08:26.171) Thank you.   The Dental A Team (08:34.826) She loved it, she wanted it to do well, and the doctor handed it over to her. So she had a hygienist that went and learned all of this stuff down to the medical billing. Like she's processing the claims for that department. So one of her top hygienists in her practice actually is now running her sleep department. And so expanding her range of services, and I'm not saying go pull a hygienist to start a sleep department. I'm saying look for the things that interest you guys and see how can you expand on that, even if it's something   you're already doing, how can you do more of that? I think is what Britt's saying, but watching them thrive in that personally, like she was so happy and she loves hygiene. She still does like a day or two of hygiene a month because she loves hygiene, but she was genuinely lit up talking to me about the sleep department. And so it expanded the services of the practice, but it expanded the services for her and the impact she can potentially make.   personally on on the community. So I love that you said that. That highlights a piece that I want to make sure we talked about was what interests you. So hygienists, RDAs, FDs, dental assistants, doctors, associates, all of you guys. What interests you? Like what do you look at and you're like, gosh, that would be cool. But maybe you're afraid to step your foot into and dip that toe in and kind of test the waters or you're like, gosh, it just seems so hard or whatever.   reason why aren't you doing it? What interests you? I've had a lot of practices this year that I that were like, gosh, I need to expand services. One PPL reimbursements suck you guys we know that and when you can expand services, you can do higher value things like obviously it makes the production the collections easier. So I had a lot of practices this year that were like, I can't and don't want to drop insurances, but how do I make more? So one space I had them evaluate   was to because most people don't put it in their system. I hope you are track, truly track what you're referring out and how many of those things you're referring out. So root canals, perio procedures, implants, oral surgery procedures. I love all of my specialists. I love you. But really if there's something in there for my dentists and FDs and RDAs and all of you guys, like, is there something   The Dental A Team (11:00.851) that you enjoy and you want to learn more about, look at what you're referring out. Kavya, I had an office Brit, she was like, I refer out a ton of root canals. I wanna do root canals in office. And I said, okay, we can do that. We can pull root canals back in office. There's courses all over the place that you can go get refreshers on. There's an hour -end course I know of that's fantastic. You can do this. She's like, okay.   I said, let's sit on this. Like, let's think about the work it's going to take and let's evaluate how many root canals you're going to do. I talked to her on our next two week call two weeks later. She was like, Tiff, I hate root canals. I was like, yeah, I didn't think you liked them, but I needed to go. We needed to go with it for a second. She's like, I don't want to do root canals. I send them out because I hate them. Cool. Then let's not do root canals. Let's look at the other pieces. So caveat is don't pull things in just to expand services, just to offer more, just to make more money. If you hate doing something, don't do it.   Do more of what you love. So we're evaluating here to look at what interests you and how can we do more of it? Are there things, Britt, you mentioned, you mentioned, right, you talked about, right, getting the things that the hygienist can do and within your state it's different, especially when it comes to FDAS, RDAs, dental assistants. It's all over the place, you guys. In Arizona, like, we don't get any special acknowledgement, we just.   do everything and you either know or you don't know and you learn it. So, Wild Wild West out here, California, Colorado, like they're Colorado's placing fillings, right? Like that's cool, Tennessee, they're placing fillings, they're like a provider. Here, I actually don't know anymore what that is. I mean, I know what is fine.   Britt (12:44.057) It depends. There's some places where it's rural and even hygienists can place fillings if they get certification for it. So sometimes there's some if it's an area in need. that's where it's like, know what's going on in your state.   The Dental A Team (12:50.182) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (13:00.246) Exactly, exactly. And to speak to that point, like once you do know, Britt, like you said, for those spaces, hygienists, for sure. But then you guys, my RDAs, my FDs, my dental assistants that are listening, I know what it's like to feel like such a big important piece of that appointment and feel like, gosh, I really helped this patient or I really helped my doctor. Go figure out what you can do. And where can you expand so that your   expanding your range of services because that adds value in. Britt, I'm sure you've seen it too. You've got practices too, or have worked with practices too, who have these expanded functions that they're able to do in hygiene and or assisting side. And what has that done when they take on those pieces and the support team will call them, right? The support team is like, no, like I can do this. Let me do it. What does that do for the doctors? What have you seen for the doctors? Like what are they available to do them?   Britt (13:57.371) Yeah, I want to say first, even for my assistant, I'm a big believer in anyone within a dental office. This is your profession. Like you are a professional. So by expanding your skills, you are just expanding yourself as a professional and what you can do. like, I want to throw that in. Number one is like, I hope you all view yourselves that way. That's how I view all of you because it's true. You have amazing skills. You do amazing things every day. And by working to like the highest level of your ability,   taking on those things, learning them from your doctor, getting the trust from your doctor where you're able to go and do it on your own, frees the doctor up to be able to do more of the things that only they can do. I always say doctors are our ultimate limiting factor, right? How many doctors do we have in the practice? How many of the rest of the team do we have? It's usually at least two to one, if not three to one when it comes to doctrine, we're pulling them in a million different directions. So the more we can do,   I'll tell you for hygiene, I'm like great when my assistants can do a lot, that means my exams are going to be more on time. So it helps a lot. We can fit in more patients for treatment because we can utilize our assistants and be able to take care of more patients throughout the day. And you guys know, like doctors do a great job of knowing our patients and building that relationship.   The Dental A Team (14:59.439) Yes.   Britt (15:13.603) hygiene assistant front desk, like you guys know those patients. So you also help to give them a great experience that you're there with them through most of that appointment. You're taking care of a good part of that appointment. Doctor gets to come in and do the part that they need to do. And then you take care of the rest of it. And I have seen for assistance, right? It's performing to the extent that you can on a lot of those things I talked about.   But I also have assistants who are helping to like manage team, manage supplies, find, you know, better prices for things. They're learning to design crowns or learning to mill crowns. is so much that you can learn to do. But like I said, just builds you up as a professional and makes it so we can take care of more patients within our office.   The Dental A Team (15:59.5) I love that. I love all of that. think one thing I didn't even think about that you mentioned was like learning how to do the crowns or learning how to do the 3D machines or the impressions or the scans that you need to send things out. Like that's, that's a space I didn't even think of. And I love that you said that.   Britt (16:10.055) Thank   Britt (16:17.5) 3D printers, right? Some of them, like, they're printing out, you know?   The Dental A Team (16:18.982) Yes.   Britt (16:22.511) retainers, or they're printing out dentures and all that stuff. And there's some cool, there's a lot of cool stuff that are advances if your office has it that like, if they do, or if you're looking into it, those are the things that the team helps drive the doctor so much because the doctor can't do everything right again, they're one person, even if we've got multiple doctors compared to how many team members we have. But if a doctor has a team member that's like, I'm here with you, I'm here to learn it with you, let's do it.   doctor is going to be a lot more confident to say all right let's do it and it helps everybody.   The Dental A Team (16:58.052) I totally agree. I did a podcast not long ago with the dentist on here. Dave Mogadam you guys can search for it somewhere and they might put them in notes, whatever. But he spoke on that about some advanced courses that he's taken this year, that he actually took some of his dental assisting team with him so that they could learn that stuff because he doesn't. He loves it. He gosh, this man is creative. Like he would sit all day. he has a 3d printer at home.   that he plays with that he makes toys with. He brought me a toy like the next day at the office, he brought me a little toy and made me this little octopus thing. But I was like, my gosh, he loves the creative side. But he sees the value in allowing his team to have a part to play in that and allowing his team to learn it. And I don't think you always have to go to the courses. A lot of those places will send somebody out to your practice too. But the value in that is huge. And now he's been able actually, I just talked to him today and he   Britt (17:25.435) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (17:53.894) had his first sedation day. And so he's been able to like implement other bigger, broader things into his practice to add value to expanding his range of services because his dental assisting team has been able to take things on like that. So I love that you said that. Now within the doctor space, I think it's super important, you guys, I'm gonna go back to the beginning on what interests you. What are you sending out that maybe you could keep in house if it interests you?   And why aren't you doing it? That's my biggest question. If it interests you, why aren't you doing it? Overcome that fear, overcome that hurdle, and go for it. I think right now is the perfect time, maybe even a little bit late, to choose your CE for 2025. Like, choose your CE whatever year you're listening to this in. Make sure next year your CE is already chosen by...   October. Know what you want next year to look like. And if you don't know, that's okay, like it'll it'll come. That's fine. But plan that out. Because one of the biggest hurdles that I hear from doctors, and the reason they're not expanding services, or they're not doing the thing they truly want to do is time, time, and money. And I have a doctor, we're working on next for next year, reducing the number of days it should take to hit his minimum goal, because he wants to do so much CE and his issue is time.   and being able to provide financially for his team. So taking off time at the office and seeing the impact that that has on his team, we've got to like, finagle some workarounds and some goals so that we can still pay the team, whatever, right? But that hurdle, we're working through it. So if you know what your hurdles are, what's holding you back from doing the thing that you truly want to do, now you can plan a workaround. Okay, great. If that's the hurdle,   How do we get you more time? And you get into this space, think, Britt, I know I get in this space and you help pull me out where it's just like, I can't see outside of the problem because I'm so in the problem. it is just like, sometimes I'm just like, no, it just sucks. And you're like, okay, it sucks today. We'll come back tomorrow. It's fine. And you navigate that really well with me. So kudos and thank you.   The Dental A Team (20:08.871) But sometimes that's the space I think that we get into with expanding services too. Like, gosh, yeah, that would be cool Tiff, but like, how am I supposed to do that? Brett, I have no time. And so, Brett, think something that we do really well is taking our doctors from that space. Like, where is it that you want to go? And this is, want to go, I want to do the service. And then we work backwards and say, cool, this is the path that's going to get you there. What are the hurdles that are going to come up that we can anticipate?   not all of them are anticipated, right? But what can we anticipate within this path? What hurdles may come that we can have a pivot ready for so we can work around it. And if it's the time or the money, fan -freaking -tastic, it's October and we're planning for next year. Guess what, guys? We can do anything with your goals. We just add it into your goals and we make the magic happen. that's the easy space of it. But what interests you? Why aren't you doing it? What are you sending out?   What are things that your support team can help with and do they want to? And then choose your CE for next year. Those are my biggest points. And Brit, for someone that's just like on the edge of their seat, gosh, this Brit and Tiff, are freaking amazing. And you've got me pumped up and ready to go. But they're like, ha. And then two weeks later, they forgot about this. What do you suggest for them? Like, how do they stay motivated in this space of potential busy and chaos? And I'm not ready to look at that. What would you say to your client?   today to keep that motivation.   Britt (21:39.163) Yeah, I think that right thoughts not written down or put into motion get lost, right? And so we've got to do something to where either   It's maybe going on a whiteboard in your office. So you see it there regularly and you know that that's something you want to work towards. Maybe it's like looking up the course and when's the next date and putting that up somewhere so that you know that that's what you're working towards or having some sort of accountability buddy. I think if you're normal, we all get to those spots where it's like, I can't see past my nose right now and I need someone to help me see past my nose and we've got to step away or get someone from an outside perspective to pull us out of it.   thing with treatment and so it's like make it something that's gonna put into motion. Don't make it just a thought, write it down somewhere, schedule the event, pick what you want to go to, something to move forward and you know what doctors? Go into a course about it.   It still doesn't tie you to anything right now. Like, so if you're like, hey, I'm interested in it, but like, my gosh, it seems like such a big thing to tackle. Start with one thing. Start with one thing and see if you're as interested as you are. And I say the same thing to...   I'll just add one last thing to sometimes it's the market we're in that's also going to drive you right. I've got some docs who are in areas where we may not have a lot of specialty around. And so they're like, my gosh, I feel for my patients. I want to be able to do more for them, but I don't know.   Britt (23:09.231) This is where Tiff and I are coaching you. Take the push, go take a course on it and just start to explore it and you get exposed to people who have done it. You can do whatever you want. Like at the end of the day, if you really want to do it, you can. And sometimes it's just explore it first, take the first step and that's all you need to do right now. And then take the next step.   The Dental A Team (23:28.787) Yeah, one step at a time. I love that. I love the whiteboard idea. Alright guys, I hope you feel motivated. I hope you feel powerful. I hope you feel excited to go find something. It doesn't have to be grandiose. It doesn't have to be something big. But go find something that excites you that you can learn or you can add and you can expand what you're offering in the next year. Go do it.   Drop us a review below five stars are always appreciated. Let us know what you decide I want to know what you guys are doing too because Britt I don't know about you but that's where a lot of our Knowledge base comes from is picking the brains of the people we work with so share that breadth of knowledge Leave us a review Reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com we want to hear from you guys And if you need help working that backwards like if you're like gosh, I just can't see through it you guys We have coaches too. I have a coach that helps me   work through things in my life that helps me work through my health and fitness and mindful journey like all of those pieces. We all have coaches and we are here for you for those types of things. That's what we love. That's where our passion lies. And I want you guys to understand if you need it or if you just need a little smidgen of direction, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. are here to help you guys. And I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day.  

The road to reconciliation is filled with bumps and turns along the way. This week, as Canada recognizes the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Rosanna speaks with three women who's journeys are helping to show us a way forward.

Kiera joins Haley Schultz on The Dental Download podcast to talk about maximizing associate dentistry. They discuss how to go about learning about numbers, overhead, meeting cadence, leadership and more, as well as the Dental A-Team's educational resource for new dental school grads. Episode resources: Listen and subscribe to The Dental Download podcast Listen to episode 654, Behind the Curtain of Dentistry Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.91) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I am so excited because I actually did an amazing podcast with Haley from Dental Download, and it was all about associates, and I really feel like you guys are going to love it. And so I wanted to actually do a crossover episode on our podcast, so I really hope you guys enjoy. It was all about associates, getting you guys a ton of perks, coming out of school. I think it's great for you guys, and I hope you really enjoy it.    Haley Schultz  All right, hello, everyone. Welcome back for another episode. I know last time I had you on, we talked a lot about kind of the business side of dentistry and a lot of what you do with improving practices. But today I thought we could talk more about kind of advice for people that are going in as associates. So maybe they're not owners yet, but how can they maximize that time to kind of be prepared for ownership? So I'd love kind of your opinion. So if someone is going in as an associate for their first time at an office,   Kiera Dent (01:20.878) Thank you.   Kiera Dent (01:33.806) Thank you.   Haley Schultz (01:39.466) What are some things that they can do or maybe what should they be trying to learn from the owner to get themselves prepared for ownership down the line?   Hey, I'm so glad you asked this question because I did work at Midwestern University's dental college for three years in Arizona and I just want to like plant a seed and then I'll answer your question. So planting the seed is I've talked to so many owner doctors. I know the students and I feel like sometimes what students do because they're in such a learning phase, right? I worked with hundreds of them and so many of them told me Kiera.   I know you told me this before, but I really wish I would have just taken the plunge into ownership. Initially, I was so afraid to do it, but really like an associateship is, it is beautiful, but I think it's kind of like dental school, right? You're D1, D2, D3, D4. It's almost like you guys have this path of D1, two, three, four, associateship, and then I'll become ready for it, or even residency associateship, then I'm ready for ownership. And I think it's similar. I mean, we don't have children. You can use this example. I've heard it many times of...   You're never really ready when you get married. You're never really ready for children, but you jump in and you know you're going to be able to figure it out and we learn it along the way. So I just want to plant a seed. Um, almost every single owner I've ever talked to asking about their associate path. They all have told me, I wish I would have just straight on into ownership. So I'm just going to plant some seeds out there. It does not mean you need to do it because I know it can feel scary, but maybe just like percolate on that a little bit. So if you do elect to, cause I think most people go into associateship cause you feel like.   I'm not prepared. And I want to say that most dental students, I'm saying most, you know yourself, so go for it what it is. But most dental students are actually more prepared than they think they are. You don't have as much like quote unquote, real life experience. And so I think the, the part that feels daunting is you don't really know how to like run a team. You don't know how to do the billing aspect of it. You don't know how it's, it's the nuances of running a business. But what I want to let you know is most associates in that they're super proactive, just like some of those students in school.   Kiera Dent (03:38.094) owning a business is still gonna feel very daunting when you do get to that point. So just throwing those ideas out there, like the pieces you don't know about ownership that you're scared about, it's gonna hit you when you do buy the practice regardless. So, but if I was saying like, okay, I know I wanna go into an associateship, I know I wanna go in and I wanna own, basically I'm gonna take this time as like my mini residency in business. That's how I would treat this as an associate of.   But that doesn't mean you're, I mean, cause you're also trying to learn like, Oh, I got to get my hand skills up and I've got to get my speed up and I've got to figure out how to work with an assistant. I think there's that piece that is beautiful that an associateship does allow you to do. But on the flip side of that, if you're going to go be an associate, I would definitely go learn all the billing and all the front office and go sit with the biller and say, Hey, I'm Haley. I have no clue what I'm doing here. I want to learn how to submit claims and just sit with them. They'll laugh at you. They'll giggle with you and be like, I have no idea what I'm doing.   teach me how to do this, and then you actually submit claims. You actually call on the insurance plans. You actually answer the phone and schedule a patient. You actually go through and you present a treatment plan with the treatment coordinator. You listen to them. Listening and observing is different than doing. And so I really would just take it as like, that's my mini residency because the business aspect is going to be the part that's going to rock your world of managing the team, of reading the books, getting the PNL.   I would talk to your owner doctor and say, hey, I'm super intrigued by business. Can you teach me? Like, I want to see how you look at your P &L. How do you talk to your bookkeeper? They might be willing to share. And if they're not, then hey, rock on. Come talk to me and I'll show you how to do a P &L. But really, I think that that's the pieces that are going to maximize you. You've got to learn the numbered aspects of the KPIs, the overhead, the bookkeeping, financial, the legal aspect. Like, that's the whole business side. And then the flip side is the billing, the office management.   how we run our meetings, what's the cadence. Those are, I think are the two pieces in addition to getting your hand skills up that really is, I think a great way for you to maximize your associateship if you elect to go that route. But remember sitting in someone's house, like think of us growing up in our parents homes. We lived in a home. We saw our parents pay the mortgage. We saw them pay the bills. So we saw it, but until you have that ownership piece on you, it is a magnitude that I don't think there's really a way to prepare you. You like,   Kiera Dent (05:55.662) It's up to here at your neck of like, oh my gosh, I have so much debt. And so just realizing that I haven't found a great simulator to prepare you for real life, just like our parents couldn't prepare us for marriage. Like we watch our parents with marriage. We watch tons of people with it, but living a day in and day out, I think there is an element that really you just have to jump in and then gain the mental stamina and grit. I think is the best advice of how can I manage those emotions, master my emotions to ride the tidal waves of life and not get thrown off.   Yeah, that's great insight. And I'm curious in terms of if you do work with doctors right out of school that are going into ownership, are you working with many people right when they are getting started on they just bought their practice from ground zero or are you mostly having clients come in years into ownership and like, okay, we need to turn things around, we're struggling with this?   Yeah. So, Haley, I'm glad you asked and you actually inspired me on our last podcast. I realized our consulting company didn't really have something that I felt was affordable for new grads. And I felt like that was just a zone. And we know my model is I just want to serve and help as many dentists as we possibly can to like love life and enjoy the aspects. So we actually just created a part of our consulting that is way more budget friendly, but gives the foundations.   of the practice, it's more of a kind of like there is some DIY, but also you get massive access to the consultants. It is more in a group setting mastermind style. So you're learning from other doctors. You can ask your questions. We almost walk you through, not almost, we do. We walk you through like the 12 systems of how to set up your practice based on the months of the year to like get you in this good place. But it's way, way, way more budget friendly because I can do it on more of a math scale. And then when you're ready, you can add on calls and whatnot, because I just noticed that was a gap.   And I feel like it's a gap in a lot of consulting because it's like kind of like financial advisors and me and Ryan Isaac, like we talk about this all the time. Like dentists, when you get out of school, you need a financial advisor to make these decisions, but financial advisors usually don't take you until you're making over a million. Well, same thing with consultants. Like we don't want to deal with they, you don't have the money. That just seems ludicrous to me. Cause then like you said, you're in hot water and now we're trying to bail you out of it. So, um, I'm actually really excited. We have.   Kiera Dent (08:11.118) quite a few new like brand new doctors in there. We've got some existing doctors too, because I didn't want to just like only have newbie docs. Like we do have some advanced doctors. So, and it's just been really, really fun to see it evolve, but the doctors are loving it because it's doctor and team. And we'll talk about it more at the end, but truly any person who comes from this podcast, just mention it. You guys are getting 25 % off your monthly fee for life because I want students to feel confident owning practices.   I want you to feel like you've got resources of a consultant on demand basically, because you're going to have a ton of questions. I know what you're going to go through. And I just saw that was a gap. So, math kudos to you of just planting the seed. And then our team went to work and we built a product that is beyond beautiful. And you get nine hours of consultant access per week or per month, excuse me, which right now most clients are only getting an hour and a half of time from a consultant. So we tried to just like...   maximize it. Yes, it's in a group setting, but I believe that there's a massive, massive, massive advancement. Think about in class, students raise their hand and they ask questions that you never would have thought of, but you at least get the answer to it, similar to our consulting, and you still can have access to answer all your questions. I just thought that that was a gap, so we decided to roll that out, and so 100%. Then there's also a lot of clients that when you're going to buy a practice, I think this is really important to note.   you usually see the cost of the practice and so you go to the bank to get that. And I recommended for years, ask for a little, like I'm talking 50 to 100K more of working capital if you can. And that's what you invest in CE and consulting and equipment because that's going to propel your business forward. It's not the actual line item of my practices as much. Tack it on and say, I'm hiring a consultant or convince the practice you're buying to hire a consultant. So it goes into the roll up fee.   Those are the things to do so that way you have the funds available when you really need the help the most.   Haley Schultz (10:07.85) That's awesome that you created that program. That's exactly like there was definitely a need for it. So I'm excited to know that that's available now for people. But when it comes to again, an associate perspective, and I mean, it can just be anything you're seeing with your clients for if they need to increase production, if that's one of their problems that maybe they're not producing enough. Do you feel like the time needs to be   Yeah.   Haley Schultz (10:31.082) towards clinical skills, actual CE, or is a lot of time it more communication skills that people need to really increase that production.   Hmm. I think that there's gosh like like tenfold I think there's a lot of things that can go into it and so I'll just kind of like hit the high points number one I think given a lengthy amount of time Students and new doctors tend to take that amount of time. So my biggest piece is timing yourself There's these cool little blocks on Amazon and you can get your assistant to do it where you can like wipe it and it can be clean But you can actually flip the timer once you walk into the operatory and see how long it's taking you to actually prep the crown. I   in addition to going and getting the exams and see how long your exams are taking you and just start timing yourself. It's kind of like when we train for like marathons or you're training for your race times. And if we're not tracking our metrics, you're actually not able to improve that. So I found like one of the biggest pieces of increasing production is just being able to shave off one, two, three, four minutes. That's going to radically help you. If you can shave five or 10 minutes for every procedure in a day, you're actually opening up space to add in one or two more procedures.   and you're getting that dollar per hour production up. That's also gonna track you in on your dollar per hour for production. And so, not on the, don't get wild on me. Let's not go for our gross. Let's go for our true like office fees of like what the insurance will pay you. So go off that number. But when you actually start tracking what your dollar per hour is, most associate doctors come out and they're producing about 500 per hour. So like trying to get us into that $4 ,000 a day.   But if you can get that up to even $600 an hour or up to $700 an hour and you productively schedule your day, that radically will increase that production. And so, and then also having confidence in yourself and pushing yourself, like you're going to get into a bind. And that's where I think communication skills come into play. If you know, I can push myself on my procedures and I can get my hand skills faster. I just need to have the word ninja skills to communicate to a patient in case something goes awry. Guys, it's dentistry. You are a real life artist working in someone's mouth.   Kiera Dent (12:34.83) own that and be okay with him. Be like, you know what? Things just didn't quite go as planned. Push the next patient down. You learn, but don't get scared of that because you're learning. It's like a child who falls off a bike. They're not, they need to get back on that bike and keep riding. Same thing with you. So I really feel like tracking your production per hour, timing yourself and making sure it's there. And then figuring out like what takes you a long time. Is it the crown prep? Is it because you're not using your assistants and so many associates right out of school don't use their assistants. Like I am an assistant.   Let me help you. Let me hand you the instruments because it's crazy. We think like, I'll just grab it. It's faster. No, if you can keep your hands right in the mouth and you've got a really good assistant that constantly is sending it to you and they're right there, your production is going to go up exponentially because, and then also have your assistant. Like I recommend associates going into a practice and find the most seasoned assistant and ask them like, Hey, when do I need to go to an exam? Like almost have them guide you.   of when you need to be leaving the room. Cause that assistant knows your most optimal time. Like get out of here. I'm going to take an X -ray and then get back in here in five minutes. And we're going to keep rocking and rolling. So I oftentimes, my opinion is when associates go work for practices to give that associate the most seasoned assistant. I know the doctor never wants to give their perfect assistant up, but that assistant is going to force an associate to move faster, show you how to really get the rope. So I think there's like multifaceted. Usually it's not CE right out of school. You might be struggling with like,   sensitivity on that, just get your owner doctor to come in and assist you, or you go assist your owner doctor and figure out like, how do they actually put the band then? How do they cure? When are they doing these things and pay attention to almost their efficiency flow? And I think if associates will also do that, like, I know it sounds weird to go assist them, but you're watching to see how quickly they move and when do they go do the exams? And I think you working with your owner doctor a little bit more can really increase that production up for you. So tracking your numbers.   figuring out how much time it really does take you, shaving it off one or two minutes every time to just get it a little bit more efficient, seeing that owner doctor and then getting those beautiful communication skills with your patient of like, it was a day today and this is just real life dentistry and real life and thank you for waiting. Never apologize. I think a good phrase is like, thank you so much for waiting. I really appreciate it and let's get rocking and rolling. Don't be like, I'm so sorry, I'm so, cause you put yourself in a wrong phase.   Kiera Dent (14:55.566) Thank you so much for waiting. Let's get rocking and rolling. I always give my best patient care to every patient and then figure out where you went awry that day and make it better the next day is what I'd recommend.   I love all those tips. And when it comes to communication skills in terms of like case acceptance, I know a lot of offices now have treatment coordinators anyways, so the doctors aren't so much like selling treatment anymore in a lot of cases, but at the end of the day, like the patients want to ask the doctor questions. So what are some things that you recommend people kind of hone in on when it comes to discussing treatment with patients?   Mm -hmm.   Kiera Dent (15:32.59) This will be my favorite thing that I'll ever give everyone. Doctors, remember you are selling treatment and they're buying your confidence. So many doctors push off like, oh, it's a TC. And the TC's are like, no, no, no, you T for me. You've got to get this T'd up for me and you're confident. And you've helped this patient realize this is what they need. So a lot of doctors feel bad because they don't want to give bad news. And I'm like, you're not giving bad news. You're just educating them what the state of the mouth is in. That patient, they made choices.   they chose to drink the diet sodas, they chose to like sip on this, like those are choices they made. Educate them and then always end it with like, and the great news is we're going to be able to get you healthy, I'm here for you. And then this is what I say of your best case acceptance tip and I call it NDTR is my perfect handoff. And I think in my, what I love and associates love this is it kind of gives you a framework of how do I do my exam? So I recommend comprehensive exam, walk them through it.   tell them everything that's going on and then you do NDTR. You can remember New Dentist, Tough Road, Newter, Nevada Dentist, Totally Rock. Like I've heard all the things, Never Date the Rookie. Like however you want to remember this, I don't care. But someone says Newter and that just makes me giggle. But it's next visit, the date to return, how much time is needed and make sure their re -care is scheduled. So at the end of it, and I call like putting a bow on your treatment plan package.   And so it's like, all right, Haley, I want to get you back. Like the great news is we're going to be able to get you healthy. And I'm excited to get your mouth healthy and clean again. So I want to see you back in about two weeks. We're going to get started on the upper right. We're going to get, take care of that crown and that root canal for you. It's going to take me about two hours for that. And I want to make sure you've got your cleaning scheduled. What questions do you have for me? Um, I want to make sure you're super confident. I didn't ask, do you have questions? I told them what needs to happen. They're super clear because oftentimes patients feel like.   Well, where are we starting? And a lot of new grads, especially really get funky on their, on their exam. Cause like in school, someone else does it. They bring them back. Like they have to come back. They're here for like 500 hours. Cause you guys have to get all the checks on it. And so in private practice, they have to know where you're starting. You have to know where you're starting and you'll get faster at that. So worst case scenarios, you just start in the upper right. Always like, okay, I go up for right. Like that's always my go -to until I get better at like where my chief concern is. But it's, I want to see you back in about two weeks.   Kiera Dent (17:52.654) Or if you know your schedule is wide open, I want to see you back in about a week. It's going to take me two hours for this. Please don't underestimate or overestimate. Like let's try and get that dialed in. This is where you also time yourself. So you're more confident on giving that timing. But if you will do that pretty bow and your team takes that up and they use that perfect bow, your treatment coordinator now can say, all right, Haley, let's get you scheduled. You're going to come back with Dr. Schultz. She's incredible. She wants you back in one week. So I'm going to schedule you on Wednesday at this time. She needs two hours for the crown, the root canal.   and then they'll go over the finances. Doctors, you are convincing this patient, they're buying your confidence. That's what they're buying. They're not buying the crown, they're not buying the root canal. And I do think you having that confidence and not like, well, you know, you kind of had this. And I'll say a lot of females tend to be a little more passive on their diagnosing. And I just want to give the female doctors the bike, girls, like we can do this and you are totally capable and like, don't feel bad about it. Cause I think we have these empathetic hearts.   Go in and diagnose confidently because they're buying your confidence is what they're buying. And looking at you, are you the person who can truly make my mouth healthy again? That's what I'm buying. And I'm looking at you of like, are you sure? And the more confident you doctors are, men have it too, don't worry. But I just watch it and Haley, you're a female, so I think I'm talking more to you than anyone else. But like truly, I hope that all doctors have the confidence in themselves. Another question is like, hey, how long have you been practicing dentistry? Four years.   You guys have been practicing for four years. Don't tell them you're brand new out of school. Like they don't need to know that move along. It's fine. In a year, you're going to look back at your treatment and be like, wow, that was terrible. It was the best you did at that time. And you're always going to judge yourself as you move on. And that's how you make yourself better. So like, don't feel bad about it. You can always fix it and you move on and you just make it better and better and better every single day.   That was good advice as well. And before we wrap up, I know you've already given us like so many great pearls, but I like to give people a chance for just like any closing thoughts in terms of advice for dentists that are just getting started.   Kiera Dent (19:53.934) when you have way more skills than you think you do. And I think like having that confidence within you, you went to a great school and you're going to make mistakes. And I remember, so I started with a dental, a dentist, she was straight out of school and we started our first practice and we took our practice from 500 ,000 to 2 .4 million in nine months as a brand new grad. So I like to paint that story, not that you need to do that, but I love to hear what's possible because then you can expand what's possible for you. And I remember there was one night we were sitting there and she,   bombed a root canal. Like I'm telling you, it was a bomb. Like we broke off a file. Like it was awful. And I remember we were sitting there at the end of the day and I said, you're better than this. And I remember she was like, wow, you're like cut throat when she's down. But I think it was one of the best things I ever said because she is better than that. And she knew she's better than that. And so because like she made that one mistake, she could have let that haunt her or she can make it like make her better. And so you will make mistakes. And that's part of being a dentist.   but it's how quickly can you recover from that mistake and make it better and realizing nothing is permanent in dentistry. Like everything can be fixed, everything can be resolved. Like most of the time we're probably not gonna kill a patient. So our risk isn't super high. And I just really wanna give you that vote of confidence that you are well -trained, you are going to learn, you are going to make mistakes and that's part of the journey, but the faster you can learn from that mistake and do better and be better.   the better you're going to be for those patients. And to me, I feel like as a dentist, this isn't about you. It's about you being the best for your patients and giving them the best clinical care. And when you remove yourself from it and your ego and realize I got to be the best for this patient, it gives you that motivation to rise up, to do the best treatment plans, to give them the confidence of when they need to come back, to realize like, if they don't come to me and I know I'm a good dentist, they're going to go to someone else who might not be as good of a dentist. And I owe it to my patients to be giving them the best dentistry possible.   We only have our 32, which most of us only have 28 teeth. We get one set and you as a dentist, I want you to take that on and realize you are the best for those patients. Rise up to the level you're capable of and believe in yourself more than you give yourself credit. Cause gosh, I've seen a lot of rough dentistry and most students coming out of school are not that way. You've been trained, grow, evolve and realize you've got so much potential in you. Don't give up. Even when you have that bad case, do better, be better and come in tomorrow and be better.   Haley Schultz Thank you so much and thank you again for your time today.   Kiera Dent Of course, thank you. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

Every 3rd Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time, the Dental A-Team hosts a free webinar on what should've been taught in dental school, but probably wasn't. Topics can include how to make your practice run smoother, how to think about DSOs, life as an associate, and more! Episode resources: Reach out to Kiera Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00.722) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome. Welcome to the show. I hope you guys are having such an incredible day I hope that you love the fact that you get to work in dentistry and I know sometimes we can forget how great our life is I know sometimes we can get caught up in the minutia of the patients the schedule the turnover That sometimes we forget and I have this cute little quote right here. So if you guys are watching, I have an office who gave this to me They know I usually leave them with a good quote and it says now and then   It's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. And so today I hope that you pause in your pursuit of greatness and remember to just be happy, to be happy for the life that you're living, whether it's where you want it to be or whether it's not where you want it to be, to be happy that you're alive and that you have more days that you get to choose what you want to do. I was sitting on a plane flying and I sat next to a man and it was his birthday. And if I remember right, he was turning 90 and I said,   what does someone at 90 wish for on their birthday? And he said, I wish for more birthdays. And I've thought about that a lot of, I be like, if I was 90 and my wish would be to be wishing for more birthdays, what would I, what would I be thinking about today? What would I be wishing when I turned 90 and wishing for more birthdays? Would I have wished that I would do today? And I think one of the biggest things I've come to is to just enjoy.   to enjoy the life I'm living, I think there's so much of this like hustle mentality and you look on social media and we often feel like we're not doing enough or that we're not being enough or that all these things and I'm like, since when has that become culture? I was at another conference and they said that one of the greatest problems that our society is facing right now is social media and all the quote unquote criticism or people's opinions and that's preventing people from trying and.   from living their life. And I thought about that a lot that, you know, is this something that we are doing to ourselves? Is this something that we could possibly, possibly, you know, work through? And I just think maybe instead of being so afraid and maybe instead of always on the pursuit and looking at what if we changed it and we enjoyed it? What if we did things just because we enjoy that? And this is something where I'm speaking more to myself than probably any of you have.   Kiera Dent (02:21.836) I don't always have to be productive. And I think half of the game of life is to learn to love the life we're living and to really be content in that life that we're living. And so for each of you today, again, I hope that you pause in your pursuit of whatever you're pursuing and remember just to be happy today and to give yourself that great gift. As always, you guys, I hope that you just know how much I love you on our podcast family and thank you for making this podcast an incredible podcast. Thank you for making us one of the top dental podcasts out there.   your reviews of the podcast, you sharing it, you tagging us, you sending in feedback of what topics you want me to speak about and our team to speak about at Hello @ The Dental A Team .com really helps us make sure that we're relevant for you because at the end of the day, this podcast is not for me. I love the podcast. I enjoy podcasting with you, but at the end of the day, this podcast was made for you to give you the shortcuts to success, to give you a community of people, to help you feel like you're not alone, to give you the tactical practical tips.   of what you could and should be doing. And I hope that you're taking that on. I also believe in our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And that might seem like a, like a funny mission for people, but I believe that there's so much good in this world. I believe that dentistry is incredible. I believe that working in a dental practice and giving people the confidence of their smiles and their being able to give them their, their lives back is something that we, we are so blessed to work in this industry. And   I just hope today that you remember that and just know I'm grateful for you and to continue to please share this podcast, to leave the reviews, to let me know things that we can do to make this even better and more of a great resource for you. I always want to remind you all to go onto our website, TheDentalATeam.com and click on our podcast tab. There are hundreds, literally almost thousands of episodes for you built for you and your team, built for the tactical practical for you to share with your team.   to give you the resources, any topic that you could ever imagine. I guarantee you we have a podcast on it. So go check those out. And if you ever need any help, always reach out. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. I'm always here to help you support you because I want you to succeed radically and just enjoy the life that you've been blessed with. So today I wanted to quickly, there was a question that came up of what they should have taught you in dental school. And it's funny to me because I actually did my story, my journey, if you're new to the podcast, welcome.   Kiera Dent (04:42.01) I actually was a dental assistant and then I became a treatment coordinator and a scheduler and a biller and an office manager. And then I actually worked at a dental college at Midwestern University in Arizona while my husband attended pharmacy school. And when I was there, I remember I got the job and people asked me, Kiera why are you wanting to leave clinical practice and go into this education? And there was two reasons, but in my interview, what I said was reason number one is,   I wanted to have a bigger impact and I knew I could not have that impact sitting in a clinical setting because I wanted to impact and inspire future dentists of how great this profession is. So that was my motivating reason. And I hadn't even thought about it until I was asked the question because my number one reason I was trying to get the job was because I wanted a discount on my husband's tuition. But I remember when I had my last day at my dental office. This is a little personal for me. I was working as a dental assistant and   I remember I was curling my hair and I had the thought, Kiera you're probably not going to be in clinical dentistry again. And I wasn't, I was front office. And then I went into the dental college and I am so thankful that I worked there because one, I got to see what it's like for dentists and new dentists coming into the field of what your education's like. And mad kudos to Midwestern university in Arizona. Kudos to Dr. Gilpatrick and Dr. Brad Smith and Dr. Polito and Dr.   so many Dr. Kramer and there were so many doctors that I worked with that truly are just incredible people. Like I have so many fun memories. I had such a good time. I decided to prank the dental students. I would make them like, my gosh, the things that I did at that dental college, I am so happy that they let me just be who I am and have fun with the holidays and make dental school fun for them. But what I really saw was one,   There's so much clinical, there's so much of you learning how to do your .O .D .s and drop the box and get the perfect contacts that I think that there was so much about owning a practice that was maybe left and how to manage a team because you're such great clinicians and you love to be clinicians. And so I actually went and helped one of the students start her practice and I was a practice owner with her in Colorado. And we took our first practice from 500 ,000 to 2 .4 million in nine months and opened our second location.   Kiera Dent (06:56.21) And if you think that that was a smooth, easy path, well, you should have known that both of us were basically on divorce row. I was on suicide's door. Like it was not a pretty scene and success oftentimes can come, but at what expense? so looking back at that, that's actually why I started the consulting company. Cause I thought if I could help her grow, what about all these other students that I know? And so shout out to all my Midwestern students. but I think a lot of things that they maybe should have taught you in dental school. This is not going to be a whole summary because at the end of the day,   This is just a small piece, but I do want to let you know that we have monthly webinars to teach you a lot of these topics. And they're free. They're free CE. We call them Thirsty Thursday. It's on the third Thursday. So it's easy for you to remember. It's for those who are thirsty for more. And we do it on the third Thursday. And it is at 4 .30 PM Pacific time, 7 .30 Eastern. Free CE for you about things that you guys can learn and things that they should have taught you in dental school or things that they should teach you in a practice or.   how you can make your practice run easier. And we have amazing guests that I vetted. We teach you a lot of content, but really wanting that to come for you guys. but a few things that I feel if I were to be able to talk to my students right now from Midwestern that I love so much of what did they not teach you in dental schools? Number one, you're probably more prepared than you think you are. And that's not going for every student. I know there were some students who needed it, but as I watched people become practice owners,   Generally speaking, the students are actually pretty darn well prepared. And no matter how much more preparing you do, and no matter how much we do of this or that, you're probably still going to have, you're going to have concerns. And I remember when me and that student, opened our practice and we were producing like crazy mistakes happened, things happened. We didn't know what we were doing. I felt like we were two girls playing house and had no clue what we were doing. But I think isn't that life. Remember the first day you joined dental school or the first time you went to   your first day working in a practice or your first day working on a live patient versus the Dexter. I think none of us feel prepared. And I think that that is good because it keeps us safe, but also I think it might keep us too safe. And so I wish that in dental school, our students would have learned that like, you're more prepared than you think you are at least at Midwestern. Now know that there's some colleges that maybe aren't as strong, but, you're probably more prepared than you think you are. And the other one is if you want to open a practice,   Kiera Dent (09:12.224) open a practice. know there's a lot of commentary about DSOs and should we still open it and private practice and at the end of the day, I think that itch will never leave you. So if you have the itch to open a practice and to own, you probably are in the right shoes and to go for it. And I'm not saying to just haphazardly do it. That's why there's consultants. That's why there's coaches. That's why I'm obsessed with what we do because I wanted all of my students to have a resource in the industry where they could count on me. They could trust me to vet people.   to lead them through it, to have no judgment, to answer the questions of what is a PNL or what are KPIs or what are all these things that I feel like I should know but I don't know. Let's stop shoulding on ourselves and let's just ask the questions and let's get the resources. But truly I wish that they would have taught you that you can own a practice and every doctor I've talked to for the most part, I'd say 90 % of them say, I wish I would have opened a practice sooner because I was more ready than I thought I was.   Now on the flip side, I would also say I want you to learn a lot about your front office. I want you to learn the billing because I think that that's where doctors actually have a lot of worry and a lot of problems. And so that's actually why I created the virtual academy within Demilay team where I have literally CE courses for office management and billing. And they're not long, but taking the time just to understand and to get a lay of the land. So when you do have a team, you can truly help them. You know how to check and make sure your finances are correct.   you know how to bill so that way you're never worried about your finances. And I wish that they would have told you that in dental school. Like, here's some pieces, here's some resources, learn this piece. Also the difference between cashflow and profitability and like what it is and how like it doesn't matter what you're producing, it matters what you're taking home. That's the biggest ticket because that's ultimately what like that's what we're working for. And   I wish that there would have been some more conversation on that. And then I really truly wish in dental school, they would have taught the students to take their third and fourth years and treat them like mini resonancies, get the reps in, learn to get your speed up, learn to get your injections where they don't hurt, learn those things of the bedside manners and take the feedback from your professors. The girl that I worked with, she had done, gosh, I'm probably making this up, but over 200 crowns. And she practiced, people were like, there's no way.   Kiera Dent (11:26.284) She was practicing, practicing on type it on. She was doing the reps and getting the reps and people were like, how did you guys hit the ground running from day one? Well, once she's an incredible dentist, like mad kudos to her, but two, she put the time in and the reps and she literally treated her third and fourth year as a mini residency and just did the reps and did the pieces to get herself the confidence. going into private practice, she was there. I also wish that they would have taught you guys to be confident in your exams. I love NDTR. If you're a podcast listener, phenomenal. If you're new to it, welcome.   NDTR is my favorite exams, especially for new doctors. Cause it gives you kind of like a mental process of what to follow. Now you can think of the acronym as neuter. You can think of it as never date the rookie. You can think of it new dentist, tough road. You can think of it as Nevada dentist, totally rock. I don't care how you remember this acronym, but it's the next visit, the date to return, how much time is needed. And then is there recare scheduled for them? And what that does is it helps dentists to really get into those minds of how to do the exam effectively for patients to know exactly what do need to come back   When do I need to come back? And how much time is this going to take? Because what you've done is you've just eliminated the three biggest objections that patients have when saying yes or no to treatment. And I really just think that those are some pieces that I feel like the profitability of the cashflow, how to run a business, knowing the front office and the billing, and then also like how to do really effective and efficient exams. Those are things that I think in dental school would have been so helpful for you to learn. I wish they would have done like a cost analysis for you of   as an associate, if you're taking an in an associate ship, how do you know what you're going to be making? Like, I don't care if it's 30 % across the board. What does that look like and what is their production and what's 30 % of a hundred thousand dollar a month practice versus maybe 25 % of a $450 ,000 a month practice? And how many new patients are you getting and how to like vet those associate ships a little bit better to know financially what's going to make sense for you? What are the best opportunities for you? What is the mentorship piece?   What's the line between being humble and confident versus cocky and prideful? Those are things that I feel as new dentists coming into the scene really can benefit you. And this is what I'm obsessed with doing webinars on for you guys and doing resources for you and creating the podcast. And then also coaching. I coach a lot of new doctors as soon as they bought practices or even as associates of how they can actually increase their production and how they can be stronger leaders as doctors. And I think that those would be a few things   Kiera Dent (13:49.294) maybe could have been taught in dental school for you. Of course, there's like a myriad of other things, but those are just some tips of the iceberg. So always, always, always, I try to create free resources for students, those who are on a budget, doctors who are on a budget. know buying a practice is expensive. We were, I called my doctor 2 .5. As I watched that spine, it's 2 .5. And you can guess that was maybe a magic number of how much we were in the hole. And I think about that. It's okay. The money will come if you're a good dentist.   The money will come, like constantly improve your skillset. I also wish I would have taught you guys how to do implants. Like implants are the day and the age of today. Sleep apnea, how to like adjust your bites, things like that, that I think you guys just struggle with when you're first out of school. But really building that confidence in you. And I just want to let you know that you are truly more prepared than you think you are. And I'm saying that for like 90%. Some of you still need the help, all right? But most of you are truly doing.   a work than you think you are. And so please join us. Thursday, Thursday is the third Thursday of every month at 4 .30 PM Pacific, 7 .30 Eastern. I'd love to have you there. You get free CE and also topics like this, topics where we help you. You can always submit in topics you'd love us to do the CE on. Hello @ TheDentalATeam .com. You're also welcome to reach out and ask these things, but truly my obsession is helping you be confident in who you   confident in running a business, confident in knowing the numbers, confident in running a team with strong leadership and giving you that peace of mind and letting you know that you're doing a better job than you think you are. So that's kind of my tips for you guys. I know there's plenty others. If you have some things that you wish that they would have taught you in dental school, please email me. I'd love to know from dentists and different perspectives. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. As always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

Tiff and Dana lay out the most critical piece when it comes to communicating with patients during treatment planning: Focus on the patient's health, not money or insurance. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.506) All right. Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so happy to have you back here with Dana and I, my most prized possession when it comes to recording podcasts. I truly love our time together and getting this time in when we're recording is one of the only times that we get to spend so much time together. So I love it. Thank you, Dana, for being here with me today. It's super special. And thank you, you guys. You have been like celebrating me today and   you, just had your celebration and it's huge. And it's so funny that there's so many of us right now at this time within this company. and so many years have gone by that we've all just spent so much amazing time together. And when I podcast with you, it just reminds me how much I appreciate having you here on our team. and a part of our community, I think our team is incredibly valuable and incredibly important. So Dana, thank you for being here with me today and congratulations to you. I'm celebrating you today.   You have been with us now for three years. That is huge. That is incredible accomplishment. And it's just a testament to the amazing opportunities that you've provided to so many of your clients. You've worked with a lot of people over those three years and just helped them grow so much. So Dana, hats off to you. Thank you for being here today and congratulations on your three years. How are you today?   Dana (01:28.703) Thanks for such a warm welcome. You always make me smile in these introductions, so I appreciate that from you. I'm doing good and I, you know, get to celebrate you today too and I think that like I'm just so glad that I've been able to be a part of your seven -year journey with DAT.   The Dental A Team (01:32.533) Good.   The Dental A Team (01:45.654) Thank you, thank you. I am happy to have you here. And I'm excited to talk about today's topic. We've talked a lot about relationship building with our patients and within our team and the effects, the positive and negative effects that communication can have on one another. And today, I really, really wanted to look at that communication as far as treatment planning goes. How does it look from the treatment planning standpoint and really how that relationship affects the way that we think as well.   And Dana, I know you work with a lot of clients constantly and I know we work on handoffs and all of those pieces and treatment planning and we have systems and steps and processes. And sometimes I know when we were prepping for this, I talked about a client that I wanted to speak on and I, and sometimes we just get to watch it land for them. And it was really close. We're on a video call and I was talking about NDTR, which all of our listeners should know what NDTR is. If you don't go find a podcast, we'll talk about it again in the future. I'm sure.   We're doing NDTR, we're doing all of the pieces and I started reviewing treatment planning processes as far as problem solution problem, which is a system that I think we all implement with our practices, but it's something that I thought a couple of years ago just made so much sense and makes such a difference when it comes to really speaking to the patient about the issue rather than the solution. It's very easy for us to get caught up   treatment planning a crown, treatment planning a filling, treatment planning an implant, which is something that's outside of our bodies. It's unrelatable. It's not ours. It's not, it's like where I'm buying a tube of lipstick. It's not mine. And I can make the choice emotionally to disconnect from that tube of lipstick, right? In the moment I'm like, this is the color I need. It's going to change my life. I'm going to look so much better. But by the time I get to the front of the store, most of the time I've emotionally disconnected from the result and I'm ready to put the tube of lipstick back.   and not purchase it. So when I'm thinking about treatment planning, all of these solutions, treatment planning, the crown, there's not an emotional connection to that. And this is a space, unlike the lipstick, this is a space where you really need to be emotionally connected to that purchase because it's for your health. And when patients are treatment plans and we're not keeping that in mind, we're not keeping that emotional piece at the forefront of our minds and keeping that as an important factor,   The Dental A Team (04:08.81) I truly think we're doing them a disservice. If I can do everything I can to ensure my patient is healthier when they leave my practice than when they walked in, I know I've done a dang good job today. We buy things on an emotional standpoint, like emotions. You know, I taught something the other day that was like, here I am saying like, I'm not going to buy anything. I'm saving all my money. I'm not buying anything. And then there's a 50 % off discount. And I'm like, I have to buy that. That's an emotional purchase.   everything is based off of emotions. So when I had this conversation with this doctor and I'm like, we're focused in on the problem. I'm not selling you a crown. I'm selling you a fix to your broken tooth, to your decayed tooth, to your infection. I'm selling a healthier tooth, not a crown. Her eyes just like blew up. But she was just like, my gosh. And this is a doctor who's really struggling.   treatment planning and treatment planning definitively because she feels like her patient base can't afford it or she feels like she's just after money and like all of those negative self -talk things that everyone in dentistry feels she's overloaded with them constantly and when I took it and said you're not are not selling a crown I'm not asking you for a thousand dollars for a crown or two thousand dollars in California I'm asking you to let me fix your tooth   She was like, my gosh, I'm so excited to go implement this because this is a game changer for me. You just changed how I feel about treatment planning and Dana, I think a lot of our clients feel that way. think dentistry in general, we feel really like we're taking advantage of people and the perception of dentistry infiltrates our minds and we become that. And we are so scared to help   that we hold back a lot, especially when we're not towards the end of the year and we're like, there are benefits. We start holding back from telling people the truth about what they need. And that's doing people a disservice. Dana, I know I've got my story and I know you've got a million stories of clients that you've worked with as well. But how do you see in your world as a consultant that focus on the problem rather than the solution?   The Dental A Team (06:24.063) really comes into play and helps benefit your practices that you're working with all the   Dana (06:29.939) Yeah. And I think it's focusing on the problem and solution and then ideal outcomes too. Like you as a practitioner know and team members too. So this is for TUP too for treatment when it comes to like ideal treatment planning is you know what will also give the best result for the patient as far as longevity, as far as function, as far as, and patients don't know what they don't know. And so it is challenging yourself to not just look at problem cause solution, but ideal solution, best   The Dental A Team (07:00.322) Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. And I love that you said they don't know what they don't know. And, they truly don't. Our jobs are to inform patients of what's wrong and that we can fix it. Or if we can't fix it, someone we know can, we can refer them somewhere else. And our jobs are, are to find those issues, celebrate the win, celebrate the healthy, find the issues that they're having and ensure that they know the path to success for a healthier   and a healthier version of themselves. That gets lost a lot of times. And honestly, Dana, I think it's really easy to lose it, like to lose that focus when we are focused on goals. You know, we're focused on the production and the collection and the treatment plan case acceptance and these black and white non -emotional results are the focus that we're looking at. But we have to remember that there are systems and underlying pieces that get us to those   And when we lose that piece of what we're working on, that's where I think we get lost in the minutia. So some of the pieces that really, really, really helped my doctor stay focused on that problem to my two favorite solutions to that is to forget everything, you know, about finances and cost. Don't think about their insurance. Don't think about their social standing or what you think they have in the bank account or what you think that   patient base can or cannot afford. I know in my practice years ago, I had a man come in who looked like he walked straight in off the street. He looked like this man has no money. We diagnosed him all kinds of treatment. He had got like $40 ,000 worth of treatment that he needed, but we did our due diligence and we said, this is what you need. This is our best place to start to get you out of pain, to get you moving towards healthy. The next day.   this man walked in with a grocery bag, okay, a grocery bag from like Safeway or Fry's or Kroger or wherever, a grocery bag full of cash to pay for his whole treatment. He'd just been waiting for the right place to invest that money and he decided that he was the right place. But had we gone off of our initial gut feeling of what this man could or could not afford, we may not have diagnosed everything that he needed. Or we may have said, you know what, this is a lot, let's start here. And only   The Dental A Team (09:26.593) treatment plan five grand and left the other pieces to piece no later. So when we can forget the money aspects of it, insurance and cost aside and really just focus on the patient's health, I think that makes a huge determining factor. Like cancer patients or Dana, you've been through this. Like what if your doctor didn't tell you everything or tell you every option that you had to get healthy because they felt   this is a more expensive route, you should go through this one because it's more affordable. You're not gonna get potentially the results you want or it might take longer, but this is the more affordable path rather than this one over here that's gonna cost you more. From your experiences, things fly in my mind, but what would that have been like for you as a patient not being able to make the decision for yourself because somebody made it for you ahead of   Dana (10:20.169) Yeah, I think it would have been really obviously frustrating, right? Frustrating, I would have probably lost trust. And I probably would have gone somewhere else in that instance. And I think sometimes what is the eye opening, I just talked to a doctor about this the other day, he's been doing some more like larger cosmetic cases, and he's been getting really excited. And, and we were just talking about how it used to be like, okay, well, what are my options? And it's it's bonding, right in those front teeth. And then, so we were just talking about how ideally, right, when it even comes to finances,   some things that we do to protect patients finances or we think that that's what we're doing, right? Well, if I am rebonding you every six months and I have just done those veneers from the beginning, it's actually like sometimes an aha moment and that what we think is financially best for the patient when we make that decision truly isn't. And in the long run, they spend more money on the bond and bond and bond and bond than they would have just spent on the veneers and crowns had we started from the beginning with   The Dental A Team (11:19.356) Yes, I totally agree. I love that. Or the bridge, the bridge, the bridge when the other two teeth were fine or maybe just needed fillings and they could have done an implant and making sure that they have those choices. And I think that's the next step in the process for getting the money. Forget the finances. You have options. Okay, doctors, like you have options. You don't need to worry about them. Your team knows them. Your patients will find them out. So forget the money.   Doesn't matter what the cost is and forget the insurance. You need to think about what's best for your patients. Give them the options. Here's the caveat to options guys. I have worked for doctors. I have worked with doctors. Dana has worked for and with doctors that give way too many options. This is just the case because you guys are in a world where you're making decisions for people. You're truly making decisions for people and a dentist beside   might make a different choice in that same decision, they might have a different opinion. That's just the facts of dentistry and that's okay. That's okay. What do you think is going to be best? When we give a patient too many options, it's confusing. When things are confusing and there's not a clear path, we lose trust. So then all of a sudden we're like, well, if I need all of these things, do I really need any of them? Or is it okay? Because this just sounds like everything that could happen.   to my tooth, you're trying to do something on it. So we lose trust in them. So our hard fast like standby is two options are always best. Three is the most. And three is like, you could do nothing. You could do an implant, or you could do a bridge, or do nothing, do multiple implants and a denture. Like that's my three options in most cases.   Dana, how do you run that with your practices that you work with when it comes to options? Do you to do two? I like two because it's like chocolate vanilla juice. That's very easy. But I am, you know, I'll go up to three. But how do you feel that benefits your clients when they start utilizing a similar structure?   Dana (13:25.577) Yeah, I agree with you. I'm like a two, three person, like, let's go in with ideal, right? We've got one backup plan. Because two, like when we give too many choices, patients will always default to the easy one. When they're confused, when they don't trust, when they don't understand, like they will always default to what is easiest. Now for every patient, that's going to be different as far as it is it easiest financially? Is it easiest time? Is it easiest to understand? Right? But they're going to go into default mode, and they're just going to pick the thing that they   The Dental A Team (13:48.09) Thank you.   Dana (13:54.119) understand or fits best in their budget or whatever is easy for them at the moment. And so I think understanding that, that like when we overwhelm with choices, patient is always going to default to something that is easy and that's typically not what gets them the best result or is ideal.   The Dental A Team (14:11.29) Yeah, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. I love everything you just said. You're 100 % on track. We as human beings are going to choose the easiest route. I think dentistry, like dental professionals, we think the easiest route is whatever is going to last the longest. So you're going to get longevity out of it. But honestly, as a consumer, sometimes the easiest route is whatever is going to get me the results I need right now, because I don't have time or finances in my mind to think about   future. So I'll deal with it when it comes back up again. But for right now, this is the option I'm going to choose to handle it today. So I totally I do that. Like I have done that in my life. I do that. That's why there's credit card debt. You guys. That's why there's debt in this country, because it's easier to choose that in this moment to satisfy whatever need emotional or physical we're looking at. And we're not thinking about the longevity and what that's going to look like in the future. Nobody looks   Purchase on a credit card that I know I don't know a single human being that looks at the purchase on a credit card and thinks Okay Well if I spend this $500 for this thing on my credit card by the time I pay it off It would have cost me then by then it's gonna cost me 700 no one thinks about that in our minds It's just 500, but that's not the case. We're getting the added, you know percentages They're not thinking if I do a filling today at $300 it's gonna cost me   potentially six months even as soon as six months, it's going to cost me in whatever time period it looks like another two grand on top of that 300 to get the crown or five grand for an implant of the extraction and an implant and an implant crown. They're not thinking that. So if we're not saying it to them in ways that make sense and like Dana said, making it easy for them, we're doing them a disservice. And the reason I say   is to express the reason like Dana and I speak like this is to express the importance of understanding. And that's part of that relationship building we talked about. It's not fair for patients to leave confused, in my opinion. And we have the opportunity, the space and the knowledge and the education to make it really simple for them. A lot of doctors will argue and say, I mean, they need to know everything.   The Dental A Team (16:34.219) And I agree, I think they do need to know everything. That's where the options come into play, but they are not capable of making the choices and the decisions that you've been trained to make. It is your responsibility to make sure that we're looking at what is the most important thing, what is the most important factor for this patient and what's gonna be the best for them short term and long term and give them those options.   Money aside, insurance aside, like delete all of that, forget all of it, focus on what's best for the patient and the patient's health, and then give them the options that they deserve. Again, we like two to three because it cuts down the confusion and makes things super easy for them. In my opinion, this is really, really, how you treatment plan for patient needs.   on the flip side of that transferring to your front office and your treatment coordinators and making sure that they understand going back to that problem, right? That problem cause solution, problem solution, problem, like sandwich it. Make sure that the person who's reviewing the financial aspects knows why the patient needs that treatment as well. Cause they're now selling a crown, but they're not, they're still selling the solution to the problem. And I want you guys talking about the problem.   because that's the emotional piece that patients need to connect to to understand how important it is that they get healthy. It's not to get them to where they say yes every time. Like they're still not gonna say yes every time, but you've done your due diligence to ensure that they are tied to their health, not just tied to purchasing something from you. I've heard dentists and I think it's amazing say all the time, even if you don't get it done here, I don't care.   I just want you to get it done. want you to be healthier. And that to me is caring. That's the relationship. That's the piece. And that's when patients are like, okay, maybe I should believe you. Like maybe, maybe I should go get a second opinion or maybe I should believe like that's pretty ballsy to say something like that. Like maybe I should invest in this. But those are those pieces you guys where they've deleted and removed some financial aspects and focused in on that patient's health.   The Dental A Team (18:48.455) So here's your tips for today, actionable pieces that you can take away. Always transfer the reason, the why. Transfer the problem to the patient and to the next person. Focus your treatment planning chair side with your patient and financials on the actual problem and tell them you've got the solution for that. So we're focusing on the problem and we're giving them the solution. Always, always, always.   forget the cost, forget the insurance, forget the money, and put the patient's needs and health at the forefront of everything you do. I think if you can implement those three things right away, or one of those three things right away, you're gonna see a change. And I hope it helps you feel better about your position and helps you feel more purposeful in what you're providing your dental patients across the country. So Dana.   How excited are you for these doctors to implement these pieces? We've seen it. We've seen it work. We've seen it work with hundreds of practices, just in our own consulting separately, and then also our group consulting. We see it work constantly. How excited are you for our listeners today to get this bundle of information, go implement it, and completely change how they think?   Dana (20:03.343) I am so excited because I really feel like this is a game changer and a final piece I just wanted to say as far as like building confidence in doing this. If you go to like anywhere as a consumer and you go to the electronic counter, right? And you ask, Hey, what is the best X, Y, or Z? Right? You are expecting them to tell you.   better or best, not just okay or good or will do. And so if your expectations on your interactions with people in any service industry or what they're going to recommend is better best, hold yourself to that same standard.   The Dental A Team (20:38.533) That was beautiful. Hey guys, and on that, we are wrapping up. are closing with that, Dana. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you listeners for being here. As always, reach out to us. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are happy to help work through this. Again, we have systems for it. We can pop them over to you. We do have group coaching, group coaching and consulting that work on this kind of stuff constantly together. So if you're interested in any of that, please don't hesitate to reach out. We are here to help everyone.   in the best ways that we know how to. Thank you and we'll talk with you soon.  

Focusing on relationship-building with your patients is a surprisingly effective way to establish long-term success in the practice. Tiff and Dana discuss why these relationships are such difference-makers, the two methods most critical to creating connection, and how to start implementing that success today. Episode resources: Reach out to Tiff and Dana Tune Into DAT's Monthly Webinar Practice Momentum Group Consulting Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Become Dental A-Team Platinum! Review the podcast Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:01.71) Hello everyone. I'm so excited to be here today. Dana, thank you for being here. You completely rearranged your schedule for me today. Moving all things around, I know you had kid stuff going on. It's kind of the beginning of the school year for us here on the West Coast. I know East Coasters, you guys have a different timeframe that you work with, but here in Arizona, we start really early and my kids been in school for almost a week now. Dana, I know your kids are in school and you've got all this stuff happening. So thank you so much. How are you today? I know you rushed.   to get here with me and we rescheduled it and all the pieces to fit my schedule. So thank you. How are you doing today? How are the kids? Are they ready for school?   Dana (00:39.79) Doing good, I'm doing good. Thank you so much for being willing and flexible. I know you know all about this time of year. Kids are doing good. I think it's mixed here in my house. I've got some that are ready to see their friends get back to more of like the social aspects of school and then I more focused more on the learning aspects and not super excited to get back.   The Dental A Team (00:54.953) Absolutely.   The Dental A Team (00:59.533) You've a mixed bag over there. You've got so many personalities in your household. You probably pretty well fit every every genre you possibly could on most things in life. So I love that Brody is like whatever. He's like whatever. He's been super proactive because he's a junior this year and he's got to start thinking about college and he's being super proactive. So I'm a mom that's like cool. Take care of that. Tell   tell me what I have to do later. So I'm in the lucky stages of life and praying for you over there with all your littles. Good luck. Today, I really thought it would be fun for us to chat about relationship building and what that looks like in the dental practice and how that can positively affect long term success in general. I know we've chatted about this before and you and I had a good conversation about it a couple weeks ago.   But really looking at all of the pieces that encompass what a good relationship looks like within the dental practice. I think for us in the dental world, it's hard to differentiate health from, you know, relationship and mixing those two things can be a little bit difficult because we want to stay professional. I want to stay super like, you know, I kind of think it's a little cold or icy or medically, right? We want to be seen as a medical professionals that we   So it kind of can be difficult to mix those two things together, but I really wanted to chat about how that positively affects long -term success in the dental practice. So I think, Dana, from my perspective, I think relationships affect long -term success in general. And I think in the dental practice, our patients are really looking for that. I think in the dental world, you know, we're not really seen as the medical professionals all the time. We're not always seen as the same space as your PCPs and your pediatricians and all of   primary care physicians are seen. We're looked at in a different realm and I think we need to remember that. We need to take that to heart and we need to see what we can do with that information. It's very easy for that medical side to gain new patients and to gain recurring patients because there's just not a lot of places for them to go and they follow their insurance. But in dental, people are looking to understand. They're looking to feel seen and feel heard. So I think that relationship aspect makes a huge difference. Dana?   The Dental A Team (03:21.604) I know you've got a ton of clients that you work with all the time on things just like this. A lot of the systems that you work on with practices are wrapped around the idea of relationship building. What are some of the key tips and takeaways I think that you've been working on recently with some of your clients that have really turned the corner for them on that relationship piece?   Dana (03:43.32) Yeah, and I think that that's truly what makes dentistry unique in the medical profession is the relationships that we get to build because not only do we get to see them multiple times in a year, oftentimes it's for decades and it's that relationship piece I think that keeps patients coming back and they send their family and then you end up having generations all in one practice, which I think it is just highlighting that to teams that this is really a special unique place where we get to take care of our patients but also build   relationships with them. And so I think it is something in the health industry that's super unique to dentistry. I think other professions see them maybe when something is wrong or, you know, once a year or for a short term. And we get to see them again throughout decades of their lives. And so it is truly unique and I think it has to be purposeful. And so that's really what I highlight with teams. is finding those systems and finding those ways to make building that relationship purposeful in a practice.   you know, adding personal pieces to the handoff, making sure that we're asking personal questions as we seat the patient, making sure that there's a spot in our software system to put notes about patients and the things that we learn so that we don't forget to touch base on it when we see them again, because we've got lots of patients and we always want to make it seem as if we remember the last time you were here, we're just jumping off from where we left off with you. So it is one, getting team members to understand that that's what sets you apart. All the   really focus on the big things. It's the practices that well, that focus on the little things and relationship building is one of those things that is a big thing, but little things that we do make the magic there.   The Dental A Team (05:24.378) Yeah, I totally agree. I love that. I love that you said the word purposeful. think that's huge. And I think getting the team buying in on that is something that we overlook and allow that to be overshadowed by other pieces and other like busyness within the dental practice. And really it's just all of those busy things, all of the things that we don't have time to get done in a day, all of the things that we're complaining about or saying we need help with, those are distractions from the ultimate goal.   And I think we get lost in that. So I love that you said purposeful. And I think to me, when I look at my practices and just Dental A Team practices in general, and the practices that are really thriving in this purposeful space of building that relationship and maintaining and keeping that relationship, they also have happier team members. Because I know for me, one of my favorite pieces of my entire day was when a patient walked in the door and we could have a conversation. took me out of   and put me in this like social aspect that didn't require my team members to fulfill and satisfy that social piece for me. I was really able to just be like, my gosh, Ms. Newman, I'm so excited to see you today. Tell me about your grandkids. What Lego set did you buy? I know you had a birthday, whatever it was. Like I would recall these things and it was fun for me to know my patients. And it made me feel like I was making a bigger impact on the people that were coming to our practice than if I were sitting in a position where   I couldn't do that or at a practice where they didn't allow it. So I think purposeful was like such a perfect word for you to use because not only are you putting purpose behind what you're doing with a relationship, but you're making people feel as though they have purpose in their positions and in their jobs and in what they're providing. So purpose was absolutely perfect. I think that flows into retention too, right? When we have a purpose and we have a place to be and we understand.   the impact that we're making on a community, we're much more likely to stay where we're at. With that comes the other side that you talked about, the systems behind it that make it purposeful, that keep those lines very clear and keep it very clear as to what your objective is. Because I can sit and chat with a patient all day long, but still not accomplish what I set out to as far as my job. So,   The Dental A Team (07:42.227) You noted some awesome things, making sure that the notes are in there, making sure we're asking personal questions. And I think to make it easy on people, because we definitely overcomplicate it, we could give some recommendations or some examples of things that just make it really easy. And I usually I tell practices and I know you work on this too with your practices, Dana, to look for three non dental questions that you can ask. I have to remind people Dana, you probably   go through this too, I have to remind people that you don't have to have 20 different options or 21 options of three different questions because you're asking each person as if it's a new conversation because to them, they've not had this conversation yet with you today. So my clients oftentimes get caught up in the minutia of trying to make things harder than they need to be. So that three question thing can kind of stump them. I tell practices, just make sure   Whatever information you gather from your patient, you're then passing off to your doctor because when it becomes repetitive is when your three questions are the same as your doctor's three questions. Your doctor comes in the room, you don't share your information and they're like, are you going back to work today? And that's what you just asked. So have variations for sure, but have at least three non -dental questions that you can ask your patient when they walk in. Have a really solid   from you to your doctor or the next team member that's gonna be working with them. Oftentimes we'll have patients that have exam and x -rays or fillings or whatever on doctor side and they're with a dental assistant first and our dental assistant knows their entire weekend plans and then hygiene comes in, grabs the patient and the patient has to repeat themselves and have that conversation. So even if you're passing off to another team member and maybe not you're providing doctor.   still have that handoff ready to go with that personal information, that personal touch. I think that was brilliant, Dana. And I think that's something that oftentimes we're missing. So keep that going. What are some non dental questions? Like I think there's some easy ones, right? What are you doing this weekend? I say it's Wednesday. When it's Wednesday, it's like, we can ask about last weekend or next weekend, which way are we going to go? So there's last weekend, next weekend, are you going back to work? Any fun vacations coming   The Dental A Team (09:57.449) What are some other good questions, Dana, that you've heard that are easily transferred in a personal   Dana (10:03.374) Yeah, I mean, one thing I always like to say is what have you been doing with your free time? Right? Like just a general question. Done anything fun or been to any new restaurants lately, right? Anything that you can ask as far as like, what do people do day to day? That's just an easy open space for them to start opening up.   The Dental A Team (10:20.785) I love that. And that kind of takes you into like the hobbies section as well. Right? I know, Brody and I got our cleanings at one of my practices I was just at in North Carolina. And this was his first time having his cleaning there and the first his first time really meeting the specific hygienist. He's a new team member to that practice. And Brody, I when I got back from consulting that day, he says, my gosh, I didn't know the hygienist Justin.   that he did rock climbing. And I'm like, that's a random conversation for you to have. He's like, Yeah, he asked me if I want to go rock climbing with him. And I'm like, What are you talking about? But he asked Brody that question, like, what do do in your free time? Like, what do you like to do? You know, what do you like to do for fun? I think is what he asked Brody. And so Brody starts talking about what he likes to do for fun, and they get on rock climbing. And I'm like, that was I told Brody in that moment, I was like, that was brilliant. Because this guy has no relationship to you at all. He has relationship with   no relationship to Brody, but Brody was bought in. Brody felt like he could go rock climbing with this hygienist, right? And I was like, gosh, you don't have to invite your patients to a rock climbing, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying it was very easy for him to find a space to have a solid conversation with Brody the entire duration of that appointment. They talked about rock climbing, they talked about mountain biking, they talked about all of the pieces that go into those types of hobbies for the whole appointment, and Brody was amped up and excited. And this is a 16 year old.   Not super easy to get a 16 year old amped up and excited about anything. So I felt like, gosh, that's one of those easy questions that you ask. Like, what do you do in your spare time? What have you been doing? I love the new restaurant question. gets you invested and involved in your community. And it allows people to give you a recommendation. We love as human beings sharing the things that we know. We love telling people what we know. We love giving them advice. We unsolicited or solicited. And we love telling people the things that we enjoy.   So when you ask a question like that, even the hobbies question, right? Dana can really spur some new activities in your community you didn't know about, or just conversation in general. Now, when we see this with practices, and Dana, I agree or disagree, when we see this with practices, I really see, like I said, the team unify. I see the team just excited to have a purpose individually and as a unit, but I see doctors more excited. I see practices more excited, and I see   The Dental A Team (12:42.923) the goals we're aiming to hit are a little bit easier because we're in that relationship space and we're having more fun getting to know each other than driving towards goals. So the goals actually come more naturally. Dana, do you see that as well? And what do you feel like are a couple of systems? We talked about the questions and we talked about making the notes in the system of those questions, passing it off. What are some systems really that you feel like solidify and dive into?   that space where it's like these goals are easy to meet because we're doing these things.   Dana (13:15.342) Yeah, and I think that it's easy as we're getting to know our patients to get to know each other. So if we say, Hey, Mr. Smith shared this new restaurant, it's great for the doctor to jump in and say, my gosh, I love Italian food. Do you? Right. And it's a three way engaged conversation. So we start to get to know our team members while we're engaging and getting to know our patients. You asked about systems specifically, and I do feel like morning huddle is a really good space here to kind of add on to those things when we're bringing personal pieces about our patients to morning huddle to make sure that team members   hitting on that. Hey, don't forget, know, Mrs. Jones just had a baby, right? Don't forget to touch on that or hey, it is Bob's birthday, right? So just making sure that when we bring those things up, it gets us excited for the day. And so I think that that's a really good system that ties that in. I think if you have something that you do to celebrate patients birthdays, where it comes to like sending out cards or sending out little video messages from the team or posting on social media, those pieces are systems that   us engage with our patients, get to know our patients, build relationships, but it also gets our team excited. And when we're excited about taking care of patients, when we're excited about building relationships and getting to know them, it for sure makes hitting goals easier because we know why we're there.   The Dental A Team (14:30.518) Yeah, I totally agree. I love that. I love that. So I think key takeaways, things that we can really look at for implementation wise that make this easy, you guys, because like we said at the beginning, the relationships really are the key to long term success, I think in anything that you do. Solid relationships are a solid foundation. So I think some key takeaways, gosh, guys, morning huddles is   the best place to start at the start of your day. So I think really just make sure that you're all unified as a team. You all have the same goals. You all are looking for the same things and you're sharing information about your patients that you guys may know. Two, make sure everybody is just like ready to go and you're armed with three non -dental questions and a system for passing off that information. I think if you do those three things, you're gonna see things really spear and change in your practice. Doctors, if you're not getting those handoffs from your support team,   or support team if your doctors aren't hearing the handoffs, okay, if it's a two way street there. If we're not able to accomplish those handoffs, break and say, hey, let's tackle this. We've got to make sure that this works. This is a huge piece of what we're trying to accomplish. And I want to make sure that our patients feel seen and feel heard as well as our team. So make sure that you really break your perfect handoff. We've talked about it before, and this is not NDTR. This is something completely different. But your perfect handoff is really going to have   that personal touch you're going to introduce, whether the doctor or a team member has met them before or not, you're introducing them to the room, not necessarily just the person. So make sure they're introduced to that party because you've been having this little dinner party without them. You've got to invite them in there. So make sure that there's an introduction. Make sure we're complimenting something. We're bringing that vibe up. We're saying something is fantastic. I like to get it towards them, so if you can. And we're recapping what we did, which is also   your time to co -diagnose and we're passing off something personal. And that personal piece comes from the conversation that you've had. So like Dana said, this is the restaurant that they recommended. This is the vacation they just had. They love going to the Bahamas. They just had a grand baby. There are so many things. They just had a baby. There's so many things that you guys can pass off to make a lasting impression where the patient feels heard by you, feels remembered and feels seen.   The Dental A Team (16:42.797) And it makes it that much easier not only to retain that patient, but to diagnose and get the case acceptance that you're looking for on those pieces. So if you don't implement anything else, I would implement at least three non -dental questions and a handoff. Morning huddle is strongly advised. For my ladies and gents who are sitting front row, front lines of the dental practice, you're the people when they walk in, make sure you've got some solid systems for acknowledging your patients when they walk in. How are you gonna know who they   I can't tell you enough, I don't know how to say this gently. I hate when I'm in a practice and I hear somebody say, what was your last name? Or who are you? Or what's your name? Like just make an educated guess. Just like you can ask, but guys, it's just not that hard. I used to look at the schedule, I was that position, and I used to look at the schedule and I'd evaluate. I'm like, all right, I've got four people, six people coming in at 10 a Four out of the six are male.   This is a female walking in, one of my females, age range, I don't know, 60 plus, the other one, 22. How old does she look? I'm gonna use deductive reasoning to figure out who the patient is that's walking through the door. And I cannot tell you how many times my patients walking through that door were like, Tiff, how do you do it? How do you always know who I am? And a couple of times I'd be like, I'm not gonna lie, I'm really good at deductive reasoning, and you're the only man coming in right now.   and they would laugh. They're like, that's brilliant. And I'm like, but I really do care. And I really do know who you are, right? But use your deductive reasoning skills, you guys figure it out and be more invested in the patients and that relationship than you are to whatever it is that's distracting you. So pass off that information, make sure you've got a solid system for handoffs. Make sure you've got three non dental questions, get your morning huddle going if it's not.   And ladies and gents on the front lines and that front facing, make sure you've got some really good systems up there to be present, to be with your patients and be super aware. Dana, can you think of anything else that we may have missed or something you want to dive in further on that has come up in practices recently? I feel like this is pretty dang solid right now, but what else do you have, if anything?   Dana (18:56.951) I think we hit it from a lot of different angles and I think just jump in and get started and make sure that patients always know that you're the top priority when they walk in the door.   The Dental A Team (19:06.459) I love that. I totally agree. I totally agree. You guys, we do this with practices all the time. We have group coaching that people are eating up this information right now. These are the systems that we're teaching in our group coaching courses and our online platforms. So reach out to us. Let us know how we can help. If you want ideas, if you need questions, you need whatever, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. You know, we're always open and willing to help. And remember it's typically consultants   Dental A Team professionals always on the other side answering those questions. If it's something that our admin team doesn't know, it comes straight to us. So please reach out, drop us a five star review so we know that this was beneficial for you. And guys, we can't wait to catch you next time. Bye. 

Mark is back on the podcast to update the NDTR audience on how is reaching ambitious goals which including opening a private practice as a RD and getting a terminal degree. Summary In this episode, host Marie Lorraine interviews Mark, a former NDTR who has transitioned to become a registered dietitian. Mark shares his experience of obtaining the NDTR credential and how it has impacted his career. He discusses the benefits of having the NDTR credential during his dietetic internship and how it prepared him for his role as a dietitian. Mark also talks about his current work as a dietitian, his private practice, and his plans for pursuing a master's degree in sports nutrition and doctorate degrees in health science and occupational therapy. Throughout the conversation, Mark emphasizes the importance of faith and spirituality in his practice and encourages NDTRs to trust in God's guidance. Takeaways Obtaining the NDTR credential before becoming a dietitian provides valuable patient care experience and responsibility that complements the role of a registered dietitian. The knowledge gained from the NDTR exam is beneficial for the RD exam, particularly in areas such as food science and medical nutrition therapy. Having multiple certifications and credentials can expand and build upon each other, providing a broader skillset and making you stand out in the field. Advocacy for NDTRs is important, and dietitians can support and validate the role of NDTRs by offering opportunities for mentorship and collaboration. Incorporating faith and spirituality into nutrition practice can provide a deeper understanding of the connection between physical and spiritual well-being. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 02:21 Transitioning from NDTR to Dietitian 03:23 Current Work as a Dietitian 04:20 Benefits of NDTR Credential 05:12 Comparison of NDTR and RD Exams 06:49 Importance of Food Service Knowledge 08:31 Utilizing Assessment Skills as an NDTR 09:06 Building Confidence as an NDTR 10:26 Advocating for NDTRs 12:18 Incorporating Faith into Nutrition Practice 16:22 Starting a Private Practice 19:59 Licensure as a Dietitian 25:29 Benefits of Multiple Certifications 29:07 Future Plans: Pursuing Doctorate Degrees 36:08 Transitioning to a New Doctorate Program 42:34 Advice for NDTRs --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

Climbing to Success as a Diet Technician In this episode, host Marie-Lorraine interviews Kelly Homer, a Director of Nutritional Services and an NDTR. Kelly shares her journey of discovering the NDTR credential and her decision to pursue a career in food service rather than becoming an RDN. She discusses her experience passing the NDTR exam and her decision to attend culinary school. Kelly also talks about her role as a director of nutritional services and the challenges and rewards of managing a food service department. She shares her passion for food and her side hustle as a cake business owner. Kelly offers advice for aspiring NDTRs and discusses the future of the NDTR credential. #NutritionCareer #NDTRSuccess #NutritionAdvocacy #WeightLossPrograms #LongTermCareNutrition #CareerTransition #NutritionEducation #CertificationGoals #NDTRCommunity#careergrowth #careergrowth --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

In this Spotlight, Ivan, a director of dietary specialty and food service, shares his journey from being a chef to becoming an NDTR. He discusses the importance of food service in long-term care facilities and the challenges of bringing culinary skills to the field of dietetics. Ivan emphasizes the significance of quality and cost in food service and the need for passion and high standards in the kitchen. He also highlights the importance of feedback and continuous improvement in providing nutritious and delicious meals to residents. Overall, Ivan's story showcases the unique perspective and expertise that a culinary background can bring to the field of dietetics. Takeaways Food service plays a crucial role in long-term care facilities, and the director of dietary oversees not only the quality of food but also the overall care and well-being of residents. Culinary skills and a passion for food can greatly enhance the role of an NDTR in food service, allowing for the creation of nutritious and delicious meals. Balancing quality and cost is essential in food service, and sourcing fresh, locally grown ingredients can greatly improve the taste and nutritional value of meals. Setting high standards and holding staff accountable are key to creating a culture of pride and passion in the kitchen, resulting in improved food quality and resident satisfaction. Regular feedback from residents and continuous improvement are essential in providing the best possible dining experience and meeting the unique dietary needs of each individual. "Chef to Director: Navigating the Transition with NDTR Expertise" "Rising to the Challenge: The Journey of a Chef Turned Food Service Director NDTR" "Kitchen Skills to Leadership Roles: Spotlight on NDTRs in Food Service" "Culinary Creativity Meets Management Mastery: The NDTR's Path to Food Service Director" "From Cooking to Coordination: Insights from a Chef-Turned-NDTR Food Service Director" #ChefToNDTR #FoodServiceDirector #NutritionCareerPath #ChefLife #NutritionDirector #CulinaryNutrition #NDTRSuccessStory #FoodServiceNutrition #HealthAndHospitality #NutritionInFoodService --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

Welcome back to another week of the RD2BE Podcast! This week, Melissa highlighted Ericha Grace MS, NDTR. Ericha is a nutrition and dietetics technician, registered and regulatory scientist where she provides business support and nutrition labeling expertise for a variety of brands in the food industry. Ericha shares her story and highlights the diverse pathways you can take within the dietetics profession. Note: opinions expressed by the guest are solely their own and do not represent that views or opinions of their employer

In this conversation, Angela Schiz, an NDTR with over 20 years of experience, shares her journey and success in the field. She discusses her transition from nursing to nutrition, her work in creating and successful weight loss programs, and her experience in long-term care. Angela emphasizes the importance of proving oneself as an NDTR and advocating for the credential. She encourages NDTRs to enhance their careers through education and certifications. Angela also highlights the future outlook for NDTRs and the need for continued advocacy. Takeaways Prove yourself as an NDTR by showcasing your skills and expertise in the field. Don't be afraid to apply for jobs that require a registered dietitian credential. NDTRs can still be considered for these positions. Enhance your career as an NDTR by pursuing additional education and certifications. Advocate for the NDTR credential and highlight the unique skills and qualifications that NDTRs bring to the field. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

We are excited to continue featuring influential NDTRs and RDNs that are paving the way for increasing awareness and resources in dietetics. This week we sat down with Marie Lorraine Johnson, MS, RDN, LD, CPT, former NDTR, to share her story and why she founded The NDTR Spotlight. The NDTR Spotlight aims to... 1. "Inspire students to enter the field of dietetics." 2. "Highlight Diet Technicians contributions to this field." 3. "Inspire current NDTR's to know their value so they can make valuable changes in the lives of their patients and clients." For more information, visit their website here: https://upgrading.ndtrspotlight.com/

Happy 2024! RD2BE took a little break to recharge and we are excited to kick off the new year introducing a well underrepresented group of dietetics, Nutrition and Dietetics Technicians, Registered (NDTRs)! We are also introducing a new podcast co-host, Melissa Shaban, NDTR, who is also an RD2BE and currently a graduate student. In this episode, we highlight NDTRs, specifically Sami Hupp, who has painted a well defined career path in the dietetics field. Learn more about what all this credential has to offer!

When Mr. Divabetic's arch-nemesis baking sensation Renata Whisk calls, offering a chance to participate in the Visions of Vanilla baking competition, he can't refuse. After all, it's an invitation to compete against culinary giants Best-Selling Cookbook Author Lily Frost, Green Thumb Gourment, Hazel Honeywell, and the Cannoli Countess and, most importantly, a chance to pay back his debt owed to his mother.  But before Max's hands touch flour, he discovers the dead body of the Vanilla King of Madagascar lying in a bed of roses. As luck has it, Max is the last person to see the Vanilla King alive. Rumors start swirling about Max's past involvement in legendary TV Chef Sweet Sally Buttercup's untimely demise. To prove his innocence, he enlists his team, USA Today's best-selling author Tonya Kappes, health educator MaryAnn Nicolay MEd, NDTR, and his mother, Mama Rose Marie. But when another baker's dead body is found near Max's station, even his mother tastes a recipe for disaster. Could he be ladling out something lethal?  Now, armed with only Renata Whisk's Puffed Pastry recipe, a rolling pin, and his team's expertise in solving murders and dispersing diabetes health information, Max has no choice but to solve the mystery or at least die trying. To win the Visions Of Vanilla grand prize, it will be a fight to the death. Co-Starring Lorraine Brooks, Catherine Schuller, Dave Jones, Seveda Williams, and Amparo Peterkin. Script Editor Wendy Radford. Producer, Leisa Chester Weir. Music from the Broadway Cast albums of Anything Goes courtesy of SONY Music.

For Olaide Owokoniran the NDTR was a second chance when it looked like she had no other options. Listen to learn how a graduate school and dietitian intern graduate benefited from the obtaining the NDTR credential. _____________________________Show you support for what we do____________________________ 1. Subscribe to the podcast 2. Like and Comment 3. Shop NDTR Merch https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/ 4. Visit us in podcast form and leave a review. ____________________________BING NDTR SPOTLIGHT___________________________________ Current NDTRs: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBOZP5ryfmMpWZ39OD6jNZ2I1RLKCvLI9 NDTR Topics: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBOZP5ryfmMoZ3PviCVCk0xWlVg9SKh4e Former NDTRs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBOZP5ryfmMoOlQkuRd995mwKrfBcrjAr _________________________________Find us on Social Media_____________________________ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ndtr-spotlight/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ndtrspotlight Website: http://ndtrspotlight.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

With a few simple swaps, you can help live your best life while managing your diabetes. Our experts offer straightforward, simple, and fun swap ideas for drinks, medications, self-care, and fashion. Plus, we share style tips and words of inspiration to help you maintain a healthy habit. Developing these habits isn't always easy. Adapting to a new routine can be tricky, and it's often tempting to want to return to old ways if we don't see immediate results. One of the biggest mistakes people make when forming a new habit is taking on too much too quickly.  Focus on what's working in your diabetes self-care plan before overhauling diabetes management. Instead of decluttering the entire house, why not focus on one room or closet? Why not focus on the calories you drink rather than everything you eat?  If you want to eat healthier, try replacing one dessert daily with a piece of fruit rather than cutting out sugar completely. If you're going to get into hiking, start with a walk at lunchtime. Setting small goals you can achieve will help keep you motivated along the way. Guests include Catherine Schuller, Poet Lorraine Brooks, Patricia Addie-Gentle RD, CDCES, MaryAnn Horst Nicolay, MEd, NDTR, and MamaRose Marie. Hosted by Mr. Divabetic. Please feel free to call-in comments at 1-347-215-8551. Diva TalkRadio's signature show is one you want to hear live every month. Subscribe to the Diva TalkRadio channel and download podcasts on iTunes and Spotify, and yes, it's all free.

Carmen J. Baldwin interest in becoming a Nutritionist, Diet Technician Registered (NDTR) was sparked when she saw Diet Technicians hard at work at a Women's Infant and Children (WIC) Clinic. Baldwin has a undeniable talent to build rapport in unfamiliar settings and simplify complicated nutrition messaging. She enhanced this talent by getting a degree in Health Communications. Her skills landed her a job working as a NDTR for an insurance company and a spot on the Board Advisor for the Milwaukee Area Technically College Dietetics Technicians. She, like many NDTR's worth spotlighting, is an active member in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Listen and be inspired by Carmen's Career story. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

Conversation 287:  The Story, Journey and Passion of Annika Weeks, NDTR Today's conversation with Annika Weeks, a Nutrition and Dietetics Technician, Registered who while studying nutrition in college was faced with her own health issues and had to make a decision about her future. She fell in love with being a Nutrition and Dietetics Technician, Registered. She saw a need for credible health resources and a patient and as a professional, found a love for copywriting and the rest is history. She calls herself a digital diet tech and has created her own business focused on copywriting services and nourishing your niche.  Please enjoy my conversation with Anni. Connect with Anni: Website www.anniweeks.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/annikaweeks/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/anniweeksnutrition/ www.anneelizabethrd.com Copyright © 2023 AEHC & OPI Song: One Of These Days Artist: The Gemini www.thegeminimusic.com Music used by permission. All rights received. © ASCAP OrtmanMusic --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anneelizabethrd/message

The creation of NDTR day didn't happen on its own. Bekah Blank NDTR, a member of the Academy, shares some behind the scenes about the creation of this day. Bekah also shares how being a academy member as a Diet Technician helped her with the creation of her first job post gradation. If you want to hear more about her career tune into this episode: https://youtu.be/RMwIOI1mfxg _______________________________Show you support for what we do_____________________________ 1. Subscribe to the podcast 2. Like and Comment 3. Shop NDTR Merch https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

After not getting into a Dietetic Internship Christopher Mills MPH, NDTR, CSCS thought his nutrition career was over. However, in 2010 he was offered a second opportunity through the NDTR credential. He soon rejoined the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as credentialed professional and his career took off. The networking and resources from the Academy helped him dive into sports nutrition, allowed him to become the recipient of the 2021 Recognized Nutrition and Dietetics Technician of the Year Award with the Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and helped him find he current position as a Lecturer at University of Arizona: School of Nutritional Sciences & Wellness. Show your support for this podcast!  1. Subscribe to the podcast   2. Leave a Review   3. Shop NDTR Merch https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ndtrspotlight/support

Ericha Grace MS, NDTR holds the position, NDTR Chair for the Pennsylvania Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics. In this role she uses her voice in mighty ways to represent and speak for NDTRs. Tune in to hear what she has been doing to support the Diet Technicians of Pennsylvania, and why she thinks NDTRs should join the Academy. Outside of her position Ericha works as a Nutrition Scientist. To hear about her career check out her spotlight: https://youtu.be/6ETgFic6bR4 Join the Academy: https://www.eatrightpro.org/member-types-and-benefits _______________________________ Show you support for what we do_____________________________ 1. Subscribe to the podcast 2. Like and Comment 3. Shop NDTR Merch https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/ 4. Visit us in podcast form and leave a review. Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ndtr-spotlight/id1546906433 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7E3GTuCE5RBTYInUhZc21x?si=a2d2a8ee1d604665 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ndtrspotlight/support

On the surface long term care may not be the most exciting position for a NDTR. However, it can lead to wonderful career of flexibility and growth. E. Marsha Reeves is an example of all you can do in this niche. As a clinical NDTR Marsha monitored her own patients and did tube feeds, and now as a Food Service director Marsha ensures her kitchen is running smoothy and that residents are feed. Listen to hear the details of her story. Details that are sure to inspire you. Shop Merch: https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/ Find us online: ndtrspotlight.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ndtrspotlight/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ndtrspotlight/support

In this Spotlight, we sat down with a CEU's expert and the founder of Continuing Education 360 Dr Carol Jong. Continuing Education 360 is an online platform founded by like minded nutrition professionals with the mission to provide diet technicians the ability to get CEUs anytime anywhere! Make sure to listen for a discount code that Continuing Education provided for the NDTR spotlight audience. Visit Continuing Education 360: https://www.dietitian360.com/ Shop Merch: https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/ Find us online: ndtrspotlight.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Convenience stores serve many communities and can often be a key source of food for families. Consumer insights show that shoppers are looking for foods that taste great and are also convenient and affordable. By leveraging nutrition experts in strategy, policy, innovations and communications, C-stores can make a positive impact on the food environment. Offering a variety of choices that include healthier options while keeping flavor as a priority is one key strategy that is generating results.    Tune into this episode with LeeAnn Kindness MS, NDTR to learn about: Why C-stores can and should offer better-for-you options How C-stores are leveraging nutrition experts to combine science and insights to make progress in the food environment How consumer insights are driving product innovation and food policy How food policy and nutrition strategy play a role in C-stores product mix and menu development How food policy relates to product development, innovation, reformulation and discontinuations How C-stores can help make the healthier choices easier – choices that are convenient, tasty and affordable The role of the nutrition expert in communicating effectively both internally and externally The importance of nutrition messaging – communications, claims, label laws/regulatory, point of purchase Trends in the retail setting including rising food costs, food deserts and more Advice for nutrition professionals interested in retail career opportunities How “leaning into” taste is a key strategy and that slow reductions in ingredients such as sodium or sugar can net big results Wawa's “Good to Choose” initiative focused on balanced choices, clean choices, sustainable choices Full shownotes and resources at: https://soundbitesrd.com/226  

Have you thought of taking a step away from your career to enjoy being a mom? It can be very scary to step away from the work force. Misha is at the end being a stay at home mother and wife. In this podcast Misha shares how being a NDTR helped her as a mother and how becoming a mother is changing her career path for the better. Enjoyed this interview? Make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it! Follow us instagram @ndtrspotlight Sign up for emails to get NDTR spotlight interviews! Go to https://ndtrspotlight.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

As we gather for the second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we find out where we are on the journey and hear from people walking the reconciliation talk. Each year, the Yellowhead Institute writes a report on how many of the TRC's 94 Calls to Action have been completed. Eva Jewell is the research director at the Yellowhead Institute and co-author of the report. Find out why she says Canada is way behind on the reconciliation journey and why September 30th is more than just another stat holiday. Kayla Littlepoplar is the first ever official Indigenous Youth Leader at BGC Canada (formerly Boys and Girls Club). The teen from Sweetgrass First Nation has been sharing Indigenous culture and language with kids in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. But this new national platform means the 17-year-old leader-in-the-making will reach even more people. And Indigenous people from coast to coast tell us what they'll be doing on September 30th, what the NDTR means to them, and how they think non-Indigenous people can contribute to a better shared future.

Are you a "perfectionist" who is exhausted and tired of hustling for your worth? Or perhaps you have entered perfectionism recovery but remain in a long term battle with compulsive perfectionistic striving? Either way, this podcast is just the ticket for you! Take a listen to Lexi Giblin, PhD, Maggie Ritnour, LMHC, LCAT, ATR-BC, RYT, CEDS and Noni Vaughn-Pollard, NDTR, MHC-LP chat about the difference between perfectionism and excellence, the importance of celebrating achievements, and shame as the birthplace of perfectionism. Lexi, Maddie and Noni look through a radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT) lens to shed light on the topic. Along the way, you will get the inside scoop on the origin story of the Opal mascot: The Owl. To find Noni and Maggie, go to: Roots Art Therapy at https://www.rootsarttherapy.nyc/ Connect with Opal:  www.opalfoodandbody.com Thank you to our team... Editing by David Bazzi Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/

Start your private practice now! Why wait? Brianna Cannova, NDTR, CPT did not wait, she began her private practice while she was still a student! Listen to the interview as Brianna shares how she took the plunge to started her private practice and gained her first few clients. Enjoyed this interview? Make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it! Follow us instagram @ndtrspotlight Sign up for emails to get NDTR spotlight interviews! Go to https://ndtrspotlight.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Find us online: ndtrspotlight.com It is time NDTR audience to sit down with a nutritionist. Gintare takes the time to explain how her own health journey inspired her to begin to help other people. Gintara took the time to dive into research and learn how ketogenic/low carb diet can benefit in improving health outs come for people in London, Englands. Let's put aside our pride and learn from a friend who shares the same passion we for Nutrition. Find Gintara online at https://www.ketogenic-wellness.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Dialing in your nutrition can be extremely challenging for a tactical athlete, especially for a wildland firefighter during the fire season - The lunches absolutely suck, MRE's are probably nutritionally devoid, and you oftentimes find yourself eating a bunch of gas station food like a raccoon eating out of a dumpster... That's why we have Michelle Yurick on the show today to talk about nutrition, needed improvements, and some simple life hacks to get more quality in your diet while on the road.Michelle Yurick is a Dietician, NDTR, and former Zig Zag Hotshot. She currently lives in Ohio and is working for an arborist outfit to keep her saw skills sharp, and keep that outdoor career alive...Here is a little more about Michelle:"I'm an adventurer, part-time nomad, former wildland firefighter, registered dietetic technician, current tree-climber-in-training, coffee addict, and occasionally I write things.I have a B.S. degree - My formal education is in the nutrition field, which has come in handy multiple times, including being a sort of health "guru" throughout several seasons in wildland fire.I live an unconventional life. I drive a blue VW van with boards, boats, and bikes stacked on top. I've been all over the U.S., calling many different states "home" for short periods of time. I've been north of our borders as well as south, and I've even been across the pond to Africa. The people, along with the different cultures and experiences have helped shape me into the person I am today.I'm passionate about health and nutrition, holistic wellness, fitness and human performance, protecting and accessing public lands, anything dealing with wildland fire...and finding the best local coffee shops wherever I happen to be..."You can find Michelle at the following:@wondering.nutritionist on InstagramHave a nutrition-related question? Get in touch! myurick6@gmail.comBe sure to hit her up and ask all about the life hacks we talked about on the show today!Stay safe, stay savage...Enjoy!..........................Updates!We launched a Patreon!!! If you guys would like to support us, head over to our Patreon Page!https://www.patreon.com/theanchorpointpodcast..........................Sponsors:The Anchor Point Podcast is supported by the following wonderful folks...Mystery RanchNeed badass packs? Then look no further than Mystery Ranch!https://www.mysteryranch.comHotshot BreweryWanna pick up our Anchor Point Podcast merch or need killer coffee? Hit up Hotshot Brewery!!!https://www.hotshotbrewing.comNot sponsors of The Anchor Point Podcast, but great organizations:The Wildland Firefighter FoundationAnd, as always, please consider supporting this great nonprofit organization - The Wildland Firefighter Foundation!https://wffoundation.orgThe Smokey GenerationWanna get some history and knowledge on Wildland Fire? Hit up The Smokey Generation!http://wildfire-experience.org

Shop Merch: Shop Merch: https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/ Find us online: ndtrspotlight.com Let's have the conversation about the name- NDTR. Not many people know what a NDTR is but the term nutritionist is widespread. What if we shift our approach. Instead of trying to educate people on what a NDTR is, can we call ourselves nutritionist... then once they see progress with working with a NDTR, they will understand the value of how a NDTR education sets us NDTR's apart. Think about it! Enjoyed this interview? Make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it! Follow us instagram @ndtrspotlight Sign up for emails to get NDTR spotlight interviews! Go to https://ndtrspotlight.com​​​​​ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Shop Merch: Shop Merch: https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.c... Find us online: ndtrspotlight.com Almarie hit the ground running as a NDTR, landing a job in school nutrition. In one year she build 7 school gardens. She then took time working in the Food service as a purchasing manager. Throughout her 6 years as working as a NDTR Almarie never let herself settle she is constantly pushed herself to grow. Becoming a better, leader, communicator, organizer and nutrition professional. She is now on her way to start her paid dietetic internship in Puerto Rico, with the goal to combine her passions of gardening and nutrition as her career in nutrition continues. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Shop Merch: Shop Merch: https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/all Find us online: ndtrspotlight.com Can you do everything you want to do as an NDTR? This is a question most NDTR's have to ask when deciding to stay a NDTR or continuing on to becoming a RDN. The answer for Natalie Rose was simple... it was yes. She could work in food service, she could start and run a successful consultation business for two years, she could relocate to an area with trees and mountains, she could work in a clinical setting, she could start a podcast, and open a full time private practice. If you are wondering if the NDTR credential is enough for you give the spotlight a listen and hear how it has been more than enough for Natalie Rose! Follow Natalie Rose Online @ Instagram: www.instagram.com/natalierose_ndtr Website: www.imagenfocus.com Facebook: fb.me/Image N Focus --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

2023 will be the first year where NDTR's will have their own day in National Nutrition Month to celebrate. When the news was released it was greeted with joy and a little skepticism. So we reached out to the Academy to ask some questions. Was this going to be the only recognition NDTR's get? Or was this the first of many steps to begin giving proper recognition to NDTR's? Lori Wright Academy Spokes person sat down with me and addressed these questions. https://www.eatrightpro.org/media/meet-our-spokespeople/spokespeople/lauri-wright-phd-rdn-ld --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Show off your NDTR credential. Shop Merch: https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/all If you are a NDTR you most likely heard or had experiencing interning or spending a day at a WIC Clinic. It is a very common job prospect, and because of this it can have a stigma of being an "easy" and not an exciting job. However, NDTR spotlight has had the privilege of spotlighting a few NDTR's who have had spent some time working at WIC. In this episode we highlight two former NDTR's who share their experience. To hear more of their story check out their full spotlights Mariah's: http://ndtrspotlight.com/?p=771 Amanda: http://ndtrspotlight.com/?p=747 If you are considering working at WIC check out these other NDTR's who have worked there. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBOZP5ryfmMpSM6NPJh549SdCOsLgAyZk --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

It is National Nutrition month! There are countless ways to celebrate; for NDTR's that including speaking up to the lack of representation NDTR's often seen this month. Our voice was heard, but the Merch didn't change... so we have solutions for you. Shop NDTR Merch https://ndtr-spotlight.myspreadshop.com/all - to support this podcast You can also find NDTR merch DiettechCentral.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

This podcast has made it! I am so excited to announce that this episode features Lori Klein, the only NDTR who spoke at FNCE 2021! Lori is an extremely accomplished NDTR. Entering the field of Dietetics to complement her career in yoga. Lori has gained her Bachelors of Science, MPH and is currently pursing her EDd or doctorate in Education. She currently works as an adjust professor and is a daily example to so many students of the value of the NDTR credential. Give the podcast a listen to learn more about her experience talking at FNCE. Find Lori Online: @simplifywellness https://www.facebook.com/simplifywellness/ Enjoyed this interview? Make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it! Follow us instagram @ndtrspotlight Sign up for emails to get NDTR spotlight interviews! Go to https://ndtrspotlight.com​​​​​ Do you know a former or current NDTR who you think should be spotlighted? Head over to https://ndtrspotlight.com/contact-us​ to fill out a referral form, and we will reach out to them! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

DISCLAIMER "Opinions expressed by the guest are solely their own and do not express the views or opinions of their employer. An internship is what lead Ericha to find a hidden path in the NDTR world. Her senior year of undergraduate school she had the opportunity to intern at Campbell Soup. Her role involved helping the company implement the new food label changes that were put out by the FDA in 2016. As a result she found that she loved to work in the food industry. Today Ericha has worked on hundreds of products making sure the health claims and nutrition facts on each product are true and can trusted by consumers. Outside of her full time job Ericha holds the position, NDTR Chair for the Pennsylvania Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics and has used her voice in mighty ways to represent and speak for NDTR's If you are feeling stuck and limited, only thinking you can work in: community, clinical or foodservice, Ericha has highlighted another job category; the food industry. Another space where NDTR's can do impactful, purposeful work. Enjoyed this interview? Make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it! Follow us instagram @ndtrspotlight Sign up for emails to get NDTR spotlight interviews! Go to https://ndtrspotlight.com​​​​​ Do you know a former or current NDTR who you think should be spotlighted? Head over to https://ndtrspotlight.com/contact-us​ to fill out a referral form, and we will reach out to them! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Mariah also known as @onesassyavocado on Instagram put her RDN goals on hold to take time to get married after completing her BS in Nutrition. The time to celebrate life's treasures was well worth. Not only has she become an RDN but she gained valuable experience as an NDTR at WIC which counted as hours in her internship program, provided time to build valuable relationship, and allowed her to land a job as an NDTR working in clinical prior to passing her RDN exam. Enjoyed this interview? Make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it! Follow us instagram @ndtrspotlight Sign up for emails to get NDTR spotlight interviews! Go to https://ndtrspotlight.com​​​​​ Do you know a former or current NDTR who you think should be spotlighted? Head over to https://ndtrspotlight.com/contact-us​ to fill out a referral form, and we will reach out to them! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Amanda took one of the few days she had off from her Dietetic Internship to chat about starting her career at WIC as a NDTR. Since the start of her career Amanda has been excelling. Shortly after starting at WIC she earned her CLC credential, began mentoring nutrition students and got accepted into the very competitive WIC Dietetic Internship. Amanda shares the ins and outs of how she got the job right after graduating, the countless benefits that come with working at WIC, and her future goals. Find Amanda Online @ Insta: @true_roots_of_nutrition Facebook: True Roots of Nutrition Enjoyed this interview? Make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it! Follow us instagram @ndtrspotlight Sign up for emails to get NDTR spotlight interviews! Go to https://ndtrspotlight.com Do you know a former or current NDTR who you think should be spotlighted? Head over to https://ndtrspotlight.com/contact-us to fill out a referral form, and we will reach out to them! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support

Mariah worked in foodservice at her college for four years as an undergraduate student. Staying committed to one job allowed her to be in the right place at the right time with the right relationships. Her senior year the RD internship was not a plausible idea; however, the NDTR route was, and she had been working along side one for the past 4 years. The NDTR who was there was moving away and there was a job opportunity waiting for her. She passed her exam and has worked the past 4 years as a NDTR. In this time she has almost completed her MS for free, was published, had opportunities to speak and won the Outstanding Young Diet Technician award for the state of Georgia through the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Mariah, shares how working as a NDTR has not only made her an extremely strong candidate for any dietetic internship, but has allowed her to become financial stable, grow and foster strong relationships in this field and granted her opportunities that she would not have had if she had went straight for her RDN. She is an outstanding example of why you should not rush any goal, but allow roots to grow leading to wonderful fruit. Enjoyed this interview? Make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it! Follow us instagram @ndtrspotlight Sign up for emails to get NDTR spotlight interviews! Go to https://ndtrspotlight.com​​​​​ Do you know a former or current NDTR who you think should be spotlighted? Head over to https://ndtrspotlight.com/contact-us​ to fill out a referral form, and we will reach out to them! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marie-johnson82/support