Do you want to serve your patients better, but don't feel you have the time? One solution is to create a practice within your practice. To help you get started, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Brent Bush from The Pankey Institute to share his journey and experiences that changed his practice. You can slow down and still get busy! To hear how you can be a better dentist for your patients — no matter where you are — listen to Episode 668 of The Best Practices Show!
Episode Resources:
Main Takeaways:
You can't afford not to do CE.
Go and seek the people who will help you.
Do the legwork of going to CE and workshops.
Choose to do the work that brings you the most joy.
Bring your team along with you on your learning journey.
Block out time to help your team implement your learnings.
Quotes:
“I had another dental school buddy, David Hedgecoe, in Fayetteville. He was one of those practices where I was like, ‘How is he so busy? What is he doing differently than I'm doing? I feel like I'm so busy, and I'm going to burn out here. Why is he so busy doing cool stuff?’ I was busy and good. But, oh, boy, it was hard. And no joy, really, after you do your thousandth MOD. So, I realized that there was more to [dentistry], and I asked Todd [Davis], ‘What do I do?’ He said, ‘Well, you need to go learn.’ And so, I started to get on the CE train and do some workshops and seminars, and I hit it hard. That's that thing where if you are going to bet on anybody, bet on yourself. I invested a bunch of money and a bunch of time — I didn't think twice about it — to go learn how to be a better dentist for my patients.” (7:52—8:50)
“I think as a young dentist out there — and I was this way too. I'm no different than you are. If you're the young one out there listening, I'm no different than you are. I just saw that there is a different way and maybe a more comprehensive way. To me, [having a practice within your practice] meant that there's the everyday, bread and butter, do the fillings and crowns, but there's also this niche that you can work for yourself, whether it's orthodontics, or placing implants — for me, I became the bite guy — where you have an interest that inherently shows up, and you do more of it. The more you do it, the more it shows up, and you don't really need to even market it anymore, where people refer you for that reason, they refer their friends for that reason. So, you become maybe a second opinion person, and things like that. It becomes this little thing where you have these moments in your schedule, daily or weekly, where you set aside time to focus on what you really, really like to do.” (9:08—10:09)
“[As you become known for something, it becomes less about insurance] because patients become more and more invested and interested in the best thing for themselves. I don't think those two things are congruent, that you can give the patient what's best for them, and at the same time have somebody else tell you how much you should charge for that.” (10:36—10:53)
“You go to these CE classes, and you hear people talk, and that's all they do all day long — it's just this big dentistry, full-mouth cases. And it's not that. We don't have these people show up and say, ‘I want this. Here's my money.’ You need to walk them through the process of their dental journey themselves, find out how aware they are of what they have going on with their mouth and their dental health. And then, as you educate them, they become more engaged. As they become more engaged, then you have a patient who wants the best for themselves.” (12:15—12:51)
“The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. The more I knew, the more fun it became and the more I enjoyed dentistry, this second career, if you will.” (13:18—13:27)
“It's funny how you meet these great people, and they're there to help you. You have to go to these places [like Spear and Pankey]. You have to get yourself out there. You can't just look at things online. You have to get out there, and meet the people, and experience it for yourself to see what you really want to do and know how much they want to help you. These older dentists want to be your mentor. They want to help you.” (14:50—15:14)
“Having done this side of it for 10 years now, the real joy in it is to see somebody else grow. I heard Gary [DeWood] say when I was in Arizona one time, he was talking to another person who had been around him a lot. He said, ‘One of the real joys is for you to become bigger and better than me at doing what we do.’ I thought, ‘Wow. From Gary DeWood, that's crazy.’ . . . But you don't get to meet them if you just hover around the office, and stay there, and watch things online. I think when you look for things online, you find what you want. But when you go to a workshop, you find what you want, but you also find things that you didn't know you needed, which are relationships, community, more knowledge, and the chance to ask questions to professors or whoever is leading it. It's special. A lot of times, I hear, ‘It's so expensive. I can't afford to do that.’ I say, ‘You can't afford to not do it, really.’” (16:01—16:59)
“When you schedule out a two-hour appointment and you charge for that about the same that you would charge for a few fillings and you get paid for that, it’s an aha moment like, ‘Wow, this practice philosophy, as far as a business sense, can work.’ So, that's, on the practice management side, an eye-opener like, ‘Oh. I did this, and it worked.’ So, it's feasible and viable to build your practice within the practice around your time, your expertise, and your talent.” (18:19—19:01)
“It's funny because you come back [from CE] and you are so energized. You're so ready to go, and [your team is] like — they didn't have the same experience that you did. You get back, and you're like, ‘All right, this is what we're going to do. We're going to change this, and we're going to buy this, and we're going to use this, and you're going to take pictures just like I learned how to, but I didn't teach you how to.’ And so, here is the bump in the road, that they didn't have the same experience you did. Imagine going to the Grand Canyon. You go out there, and I look at a postcard of it. You come back from the Grand Canyon. I see the postcard, and I'm like, ‘Wow, that looks cool.’ And you're like, ‘No, you don't know. It was super cool. I saw it. I saw the sunrise.’ I just have a postcard. Like, that's their perspective of my trip to learn more. They didn't experience it. So, you double down, and you take them out there, and they get to experience it also.” (21:35—22:33)
“We block time on our schedule to learn how to implement what we just learned, what I just learned. That's a key thing. Like, you're in control of your schedule, no matter what. You can do whatever you want to do with your schedule. You can work on Saturdays if you want to. You can work till 7:00 or 8:00 at night if you want to. But if you set aside time to train your staff, and get on the same page, and make sure everybody knows what's going on and technically can do it, can take photos the way they need to be taken, it's huge. It's a game-changer to have your staff on board with what's going on. So, you’ve got to invest the time in your office with your staff.” (23:03—23:47)
“If you can carve out an hour a week and designate that [time] to somebody that I know you saw during the week before that needs special attention, just one hour, and talk to them — don't even put gloves on — that's the best way to start.” (25:59—26:20)
“Our new patients were scheduled in hygiene for the hour. So, they got their teeth cleaned, and we would do the 10-minute new patient exam within that hour. We're like, ‘Well, that's not enough,’ so we did an hour and 10. We thought, ‘Well, let's give it 10 minutes extra. Well, that's not enough. So, then, we bring them in 30 minutes before their cleaning. And they all got cleanings. So, we bring them in 30 minutes beforehand to get them in a separate room. Now, we've transitioned to an hour-and-a-half, new patient exam. Photo is uploaded so they can see them right there, and we talk to them for a good 30 minutes, trying to find out where they're at, what their goals are. And that's my first question, ‘How can I help you best as your dentist? What do you want from your dentist?’ It's amazing what people will tell you if you've given them the opportunity to tell you.” (26:25—27:24)
“Take an hour, find a patient that you see something that you want to address with them, or maybe they're going down a bad path and they don't know it, or maybe they do know it and you don't have time. Take that hour and talk to them. Get them back, talk to them, take some photos. Get a camera, for sure. If you don't have a camera, get a camera and use it. Show the patients their pictures. It's unbelievable. That's the first step, is for a patient to see their own mouth. That's a game-changer.” (27:27—27:58)
“I've done a talk that's titled “Slow Down to Get Busy”. It's a matter of understanding and helping the patient understand where they are — and you cannot do that in hygiene. Anything more than three or four minutes of a conversation needs to happen in your own chair at a different time.” (28:29—28:48)
“Don't be afraid to go learn more, to go approach an older dentist that you look up to and ask them for help. It may be an instance in time — one of the most impactful dentists that I've been in touch with, I was with him for five days at Pankey, and that's it. He said some things to me that opened my eyes. So, you don't know how long you need to be in their life, if you will, for them to have an impact on you. And so, you’ve got to get yourself out there. Then, when you get back to the practice, take your time to implement what you just learned, and lean on somebody for help.” (29:15—29:57)
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
2:07 Dr. Bush’s background.
3:34 The study club that changed Dr. Bush’s practice.
7:17 Gain a new set of eyes.
8:51 A practice within your practice, explained.
12:56 Seek people who will help you.
17:35 Put your flag in the ground.
19:02 Choose the work that brings you joy.
21:14 Bring your team along on the journey.
24:08 The future for Dr. Bush.
25:28 How to start having a practice within your practice.
28:04 Take time to talk to patients.
28:57 Last thoughts.
31:03 More about Dr. Bush’s study club and how to get in touch.
Dr. Brent Bush Bio:
Dr. Brent Bush graduated from UNC School of Dentistry in 1998. He is a member of the American Dental Association, North Carolina Dental Society, and is a past president of the Wilmington Tri-County Dental Society. He was born and raised in California and moved to North Carolina to attend dental school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In his spare time, he enjoys family, friends, and triathlons — including completing two Ironman triathlons. He has three boys, who keep him busy with their baseball and swimming schedules. You will also find his photography decorating the office.