Compound interest, and how seemingly magical it can grow your investments is nevertheless a challenging thing to trust. When it is explained to us, it makes sense mathematically. When we experience it in our own lives, and start to save money and watch and hope it will grow, it can seem like it isn't "working". We expect to see growth, but often we don't Read More

I have been thinking a lot lately about the financial life cycle of a dental practice. I get to work with many dentists that are newly graduated when I teach financial management at The Pankey Institute. I know from the conversations that the debt of dental school, compounded with trying to buy a practice and make personal choices can seem overwhelming. Read More

For many years when I walked into the operatory in my dental practice, the patient already had topical in place and my job was to get them numb. Over the years, I have learned a better way to build the value of my practice and to build greater relationships with my patients:  I spend a few minutes at the beginning of an appointment to "check-in", and again Read More

How much external marketing you do will depend on your dental practice and the area in which you live. One of my experiences is that no matter how a potential patient hears about you, the first thing they do is go to the internet and look you up. Finding your website used to be a focus for this, but today I am finding that Google reviews have an incredible Read More

Kelly Brady and I were together for the ADA Annual Meeting, and he asked me what one metric I looked at every day in my dental practice. My answer was: Reappointment Rate. This is a simple metric that you can easily calculate on a printout of the day's patients. In this video I discuss how I track it in my practice and why. I also mention a practice Read More

This week I had the opportunity to experience the power of following up with patients, or more directly, the power of relationship. The patient came in with muscle pain and we recommended and made a Quicksplint as both a therapeutic and diagnostic tool. Several days later I sent her a simple text and received a simple reply. After the fact she shared with me Read More

Values are belief systems that guide us silently as we make choices and decisions. Working through a values clarification with your team can be extremely fun and enlightening. Values conflicts are often at the basis of conflict. In this video I will walk you through how to do a values clarification exercise at your next team meeting. Read More

One of the most common questions I get asked is whether we have morning meetings everyday. I have 3 goals for our morning meetings: Quickly review the day before and asked what worked well? Look at the day coming up and see what people need for the day to work well. Get centered energized to work with each other and serve our patients regardless Read More

Several of my core values got challenged this week and it was great learning. It came in the form of a less then stellar review for a recent program I had given at a dental meeting. Whether the review is in this format, or from a patient, the learning is in how it made me feel and how I managed it. The negative self talk, and the fact that it dominated my Read More