#880: What I Wish They Taught in Dental School

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!

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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. [e-mail]. As always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.