How much does it cost, Doc?

How often have you heard this question?  Does it still strike fear in your heart, or do you simply launch into your practiced, rehearsed strategy for dealing with it effectively?  I’m not going to get into how to do that – in his venue you have heard me preach systemization time and again. Without it any practice is doomed to repeat the same mistakes and cover the same lost ground crossing their fingers hoping for ‘better’ patients!

This day I’ll cover how often it is asked of me. Many dentists who consult with us have a set idea of what they want to accomplish. It usually boils down to ‘higher case values with less chair time’ or a rendition thereof. ‘I’ve got all of that other stuff covered – just show my front desk girl how to close more cases.’ Get…

Tour De Dentistry

As Lance Armstrong bombed on the Tour de France, he said the following:

“Sometimes you’re the hammer, sometimes the nail. Today I was the nail.”

In practice management – leadership, or the lack thereof, makes the difference between the dentist being the hammer or the nail. If team members tell you when and how they are working rather than the other way around you are the nail. If they make the decisions on dress codes, makeup, surfing the web during work hours, and personal phone calls and emails – you’re the nail.

We often say that a ‘wrong’ hire on the front end costs a practice 6 figures annually. Allowing a practice to run itself costs you much more than that. It sets the tone, ruins new employees in a matter of weeks, and establishes conduct that can frequently never be changed….

Dental Credit – Has the World Gone Crazy?

I was speaking to a couple the other day at the marina – showing off their new speedboat. I estimate it cost a minimum of 25 grand – and it was shorter than my car. Plus – it has a life use of approx. 2 months a year in our climate. The husband proudly told me of the great credit deal he got on his new rig – only X $ bi-weekly!  

This is the same couple who asked me about dental implants a few months ago, knowing that I work in this field exclusively. I provided all the appropriate answers – ranging from implants being the standard of care today up to and including potential costs for same. He has a flipper on his maxillary central incisor, and it drives him crazy. He was told by his GP he…

Theft = Termination – Even in Dentistry

On a recent post I mentioned ‘hour padding’ – and received a number of emails from dentists around this issue. This has to be one of the most common examples of employer abuse in dentistry.  Few practices use time-clocks because of the optics, and the submission of hours worked is largely done on the honour system.  Guess what?  Some folks have no honour.

We were called in to work with a client, and the first thing we do is disregard almost everything we have been told by the dentist. With a completely open mind, we interview each employee off-site and conduct numerous job shadowing sessions. What we see and what we have been told initially is usually significantly off base. In this incident we found an admin employee who had been coming in on the one day the practice was…