I was speaking to a doctor over lunch today and we were laying out a game plan of what to do, when to do it, and prioritizing the list. This dentist has been a client off and on for 15-20 years and I assume that this just never came up. He has two practices and I was creating this list and the first thing I listed was to “begin with the end in ...

There is a duality in every successful dental practice. This sweet spot involves culture and systems. Here are the definitions: • Culture is the way of life of a group of people: the behaviors, beliefs, and values they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one ...

This is an excerpt from a report that I wrote about a doctor’s office I visited not too long ago. It is a message that all of us need to consider. Culture is the sum total of leadership and systems reflected in the way the office is managed. An esprit-de-corps exists in every office, like it or not. Whether it is complacency, outright ...

Deep inside each of us there resides a list. A “to-do” list that is unique to each of us. In a way this accumulation of tasks almost feels like it defines us as a human being. What’s weird is that dentists seem to have created additional subliminal lists and unless we can check them off we feel like failures. While varied, most dentists have ...

I would have to say that there are many things I like about the Fourth of July, but my favorite is eating desserts. We generally have a hundred or so assorted adults and kids over for the Fourth of July celebration. While we supply all of the meat, a lot of the guests bring side dishes and desserts. If I have not said this before, my wife is an ...

When most of us think of the word “outsourcing” we see automobiles being built in Mexico, or crown and bridge work done in China or the Philippines. What I am seeing in Dentistry is a small, slow transition to “outsourcing” certain jobs in the dental office. Things like someone to pay your bills, collect your overdue accounts, or factor or ...

I am sure there has never been a recent graduate who just received their diploma from Dental School who was joyously jumping up and down with the vision of becoming “average”. If you want to take a glimpse into the future, you need only look at your history or past. I thought it would be fun to make a short list of the Dental School myths we ...

One of the most surprising results of speaking, writing a blog, or writing books, is that you get a lot of feedback. When it comes to The Super General Dental Practice, many mature practices see the benchmarks I have set as difficult at best, but for many impossible. I don’t agree, but I would like to put this in perspective. While we have many ...

Asking the right questions will always be the first step in improving your practice. Often times we tend to major on the problems that we judge most pressing. The problem with this is that we nearly always are trying to put out “smoke” instead of the actual “fire”. When I speak with doctors, the norm is that they explain something as a ...

A couple of months ago, I spoke with probably one of the best clinical doctors I know. You would think that at his age and high level of clinical excellence he would have the “business of Dentistry” all figured out. That was the furthest thing from the truth: Even the “Great” struggle. Below you will find a few pages of the email I sent ...