Why hire a dental consultant?

As a dental practice owner Dentists must wear two hats. The clinician and the business owner. Being a clinician is relatively easy compared to being a business owner because that is what you have trained to do and most Dentists will agree that most of the stress comes from the business side of the practice.

Dentists are well trained in all clinical aspects of the business however do not get any training on being a business owner therefore dealing with HR and business relations can be difficult if you are not naturally inclined to understand this role.

Let’s look at 5 questions Dentists should ask themselves when managing the business aspects of their dental practice.

1. Are you taking your business owner role as seriously as your clinician role?

Dentists go to school because they want to be a dentist, and they need to do this to become qualified. There are laws requiring qualifications to acquire a dental license because otherwise, people would get hurt.

There are no similar requirements to opening a business. You don’t need business qualifications to open a dental practice—because if you fail at that, you are the only one that gets hurt in the end.

It’s natural that most dentists don’t understand the business side quite as thoroughly as the clinical side. Typically, most dentists’ business education is limited to what they will read or learn from other business professionals.

That’s not enough!

Reading articles is great, but you need structure, front office systems, and the ability to troubleshoot and fix issues when something is not working well. There’s a lot that goes into doing that successfully, including finances, HR, billing, case acceptance, marketing, and more, and it’s just about impossible to learn solely from reading articles or having some casual conversation.

If you are having a hard time achieving your vision in your dental practice and maintaining a healthy profit margin, full schedule, team training or systems implementation then you need to do some serious learning and implement a cohesive management system. And of course, I do think DDI is the best at it and the results speak for themselves. Click here to request a free consultation.

2. Do you expect clinical solutions to solve management problems?

Dentists tend to have a blind spot in the business of dentistry and that leads them to fall back on things they’re comfortable with. And what are they comfortable with? Dentistry.

So, they tend to think that they need to take implant courses or buy a new CEREC machine or start offering sleep apnea treatment or Invisalign or Botox. They expand their delivery skillset to increase production and profitability.

Expanding your clinical skillset is always beneficial but they don’t sell themselves. You won’t magically start seeing more new patients or be able to get these larger cases accepted simply because you offer them.

You need a solid foundation before you start adding to it.

3. Are you neglecting proper organizational structure?

Many dentists try to increase production by adding more producers. We often see a dentist with a full-time associate and multiple hygienists and assistants…but only a couple of dental office administrators.

Not to mention, the administrators usually don’t have clearly defined duties. They’re just doing “front desk” work—a bit of scheduling, a bit of insurance billing, a bit of answering the phones, a bit of recall, etc.

It’s not surprising that production doesn’t increase enough even though they feel “too busy” all the time. They are understaffed in a crucial area of the business; dental office administrators also need structure and clearly defined roles so they can use their time efficiently instead of constantly trying to catch up.

4. Are you looking at your numbers?

Which key performance indicators are you tracking? And how often do you look at them?

Keeping track of the important numbers and reviewing them on a weekly basis is vital. It shows you when something is wrong before it turns into something larger and allows you to ensure you reach your monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals in real-time.

It is important to constantly monitor all aspects of your practice so you can make changes quickly when required. If you need help finding solutions to monitor results click here to request a free consultation.

5. Are you providing adequate team training?

Your team is the face of your business. It’s important that they are competent at what they do and know exactly how you want your practice to operate.

It’s tough to train your staff when you don’t have materials to train them on and you don’t know how things should be done properly yourself. How can you teach someone to answer the phones effectively to schedule new patients if you can’t do it yourself? Same for designing the schedule or getting treatment accepted.

So again, the first step is taking that business owner role seriously and getting the information you need. Dental Dynamic Institute is focused on training teams and implementing protocols that will help the clinic run smoothly and efficiently. Just like you were given tools in dentistry to create a perfectly fitting crown, we give you the tools to operate a successful practice. Click here to request a free consultation.

And for staff training, we can provide training for every team member in your practice, including complete front office systems with forms and policies you can implement immediately.

Feel free to call or email us if you have any questions at (403)404-9600/(403)399-7322 info@dentaldymanicinstitute.ca.