#910: How To Turn 4 Dental Practice Tricks Into Treats!

Dental A Team Podcast

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.

1. Leaking revenue

2. A team that doesn’t care about company goals

3. Untapped potential holding you back

4. Low case acceptance and high overhead

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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. [e-mail]. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.