Great people

In my last post I made mention of another remodel of our existing dental practice. This would be the third in the last 20 years. The last was a significant acquisition of new space. We had a great contractor who had a very detail oriented working for him crew Who paid attention to all the details. This time not only do we need this great contractor but I am working with a phenomenal architect who has no ties to any dental supply company. While dental supply companies offer design they are not architects. In my opinion they are solely looking to sell equipment that will go into that new space. Case in point. 2 and one half years ago I made a substantial investment in new technology for my practice. I received a phone call today and an email stating that a PC had to be replaced without it the imaging capturing device is worthless. I am leaving manufacturers names out of it. Also sales companies out of this. I might throw the name out there in the coming months. Now we barely receive phone calls back. Why? Easy we already spent the money. Unless your spending more money they do not have the time of day to speak to you. There are exceptions to this they are just far and few between. To me those are the great people to do business with. Our contractor is the exception. He could give classes to all the salesman in the world on how to treat and act with your client base.

Fifth Grade

When I was in fifth grade we had to pick a person in history who had made an impact on the field of business. My pick was Henry Ford I was fascinated with the man. Weird I know! We give him credit for developing mass manufacturing concepts. That's a given.
But, the biggest take away is the concept that he employed is surrounding ourselves with great people. Seek counsel from those smarter than us. Know the importance of delegating and not micromanaging your team. We have to let people excel and fly. We need to steer when necessary. We need to listen to what our team has to say. The greatest leaders surround themselves with incredible advisors. They challenge others. Ford once had a mechanic tell him that something was impossible to manufacture. Ford said keep trying and eventually you will figure it out.
My point here is hire great people. Train them and let them excel. Don't hold them back. Make sure you are having fun.
Recently I have been exploring making changes to my existing working space. Maybe moving to a different suite. Maybe remodeling what I am currently in. I am great full for surrounding myself with great people because I have gained invaluable insight into many areas of design principle and lease negotiations. My advice less headaches when we work with experts in their field.
As I digress into many areas in my writing today. The underlying message is to become a great leader and thinker like Ford. We need to keep surrounding ourselves with talented people and never accept that something can not be done.
Continuing to invest in ourselves and practice allows us to provide the best patient care possible.
Remember to take care of ourselves. Get outside and enjoy the fresh air like you did as a kid. At least the kids I grew up with we were always outside. Have tons of fun and bring out the fifth grader in you. It will help you make an impact each every day.

Yelp it

The old adage of bad news travels fast is history. All news travels fast these days. It is what we do with the news that matters. I was going through our yelp reviews a few months ago and. Something I have not done in the past. I read this disparaging review and I was like f____ this. Then I read some incredible reviews.
The poor review really upset me. I was mad. Why? We have satisfaction score of 97-98% on Demand force and solution reach. Companies that we use for patient communication/marketing. I spoke to some friends in the industry who said yeah spend some money with Yelp and positive reviews will appear more. I said to myself wait this is an opportunity to really shine. I like the adage lets turn lemons into lemonade.
I decided I am going to embrace yelp, I am going to ad photos of our office. I am going to spend advertising dollars. I am going to ask patients to review us. This has led to increased brand awareness. Increase in new patients locating us. And an increase of positive Yelp reviews.
It is so important to embrace social media. If you do a great case post it to your patients and friends.
Important news to share post it. Take advantage of this affordable advertising medium. Before they Yelp you.

Five years later

Its hard to believe that almost 5 years ago I never used NuCalm. Then again only one Dr. had used it. How did we practice with out it? Not everybody needs NuCalm. Its fun when patients request it. And for those new patients whom have avoided dental treatment for years. They are eager to try it. Lets just say we have many relaxed patients in our practice. Personally I NuCalm 1-3 times a week. It helps me recharge and refocus. Last fall I had lower back surgery. I really believe that NuCalm has helped me recover and feel better. Five years ago we didn't know what we didn't know. I encourage you to go to their website NuCalm.com and read up on all the roads NuCalm is traveling on.
What is wonderful? It is very easy to implement in practice. 3 minutes and the patient begins to experience relaxation. Our practice has  patients who regularly come in just to NuCalm. Sometimes I think they want the NuCalm more than the cleaning.
Maria was in this morning and she had high anxiety. I explained the procedure and she elected the NuCalm. She was almost fully asleep when I gave her the injection. She was so thankful when we were all done with the crown prep today. We often hear wow that went fast. That is because there seems to be a loss of time.
One thing is for sure as a provider if NuCalm your procedures area quicker and faster who thought at the Age of 53 I would say I am quicker and faster than at 43. Life is good!

I had a feeling.

This last weekend my main house a/c blew while we entertained 30 high school theatre department teenagers in our home. Thank goodness they were so wrapped up in thermselves that they did not notice. On Sunday I called a local HVAC company with 110 years of expierience out to my home. My regular guy was out of town and would not be back for a couple days. I was told the diagnosis was a grounded compressor. Okay whatever that is. Long story did not make sense to fix but to get a new one. I couldn't believe a 10 year old unit with a life expectancy of 15-20 was dead. Well the owner of the company came by the next day. Actually the 3rd or fourth generation owner. He proceeded to tell me everything that was wrong and what needed to be fixed in my mechanical room. Which is interesting because it had passed inspection twice. Red flag went up at this point. So I let him do his thing and that night he sent me his estimate over $4500.00 for new A/C plus if I wanted the extras another $900.00. I said thank you widdled him down and told him I would get back with him the next day. In the mean time my guy came out the following evening and diagnosed the problem and fixed it for $100.00 Turns out that it was the capacitor that had gone bad. Which is the item I had told the tech from the other company to check in the first place. I was pissed off aggravated etc., I was asking myself was this just an incompetent technician or was this a upsell. I live in a modest home about ten years old. I don't know.
           I called the owner today and calmly told him how I felt what I thought etc. He genuinely and humbly listened and told me what he was going to do. I wished him good luck with his family business. I reminded him that this business has survived 110 years because of great customer service and taking care of the customer. That its not about how much you sell. What I have seen is if you take care of people honestly and ethically. Your business will do extremely well.
           The feeling I had was a gut feeling, that came to me. Its important to listen to those silent clues. Call it intuition. We are not beholden to what others tell us. If a patient seeks a second opinion I encourage it.
           The next cast party the house will be cooler.  They won't notice.

Guided Implant Surgery

First let me say I am four years overdue in writing my blog. I wasn't missed.
To say I am busy is an understatement.
2 years ago this October I attended my first implant training seminar in Jamaica. The course was given by Dr. Michael Schulman the founder of ADIS Island Implants. We had five attendees and we place fifty implants in four days. Needless to say it was an educational experience. We did not use CBCT or any guided surgery this was all done the "old fashioned way"
The reality is in todays modern dental practice. It is recommended by this author and many leading clinicians around the globe to place implants using surgical guides. In my opinion not to so is a disservice to our patients. Being able to pre-plan your surgery using virtual software allows the day of implant placement go very smoothly. All of our cases in my office: Chicagodentistry are surgically guided. If your planning to have implants placed find out of your dentist is using guided surgery.
I would like to thank Dr. Schulman for helping me along this path.
Till next time.
LK