DentalTechup is a popular YouTube channel that focuses on dental technology and product reviews. It was started by Dr. Aaron DeForest, who is a dentist himself and understands the challenges faced by private practices in the dental industry. He noticed the landscape of the dental field changing with the emergence of corporate dentistry and large-scale DSOs, which lowered the cost of supplies and outcompeted private practices on advertising budgets and dental technology. To address this challenge, Dr. DeForest started DentalTechup to help dentists determine what software and products they are interested in purchasing. Dr. Aaron DeForest is a visionary who believes that technology is the key to driving progress in the dental industry. He recognized that many dentists were struggling to keep up with the latest technological advances, and that paying for expensive consultants was not a sustainable solution. As a result, he started DentalTechup, a platform that provides dentists with free resources to help them learn about new technology and how to implement it in their practices. This is important because technology has the potential to improve patient care, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. Overall, Dr. DeForest's vision for DentalTechup and Digital DSO is to create a more connected, innovative, and technologically advanced dental industry. By empowering dentists with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world, he is helping to ensure that patients receive the best possible care, and that the dental profession continues to thrive well into the future. According to Dr. Aaron DeForest, a change in industry dynamics is not likely to be initiated by individuals, but rather by companies and their leadership. One specific company that is driving transformation in the dental industry is ZenOne, which supports over a thousand dental offices with its innovative software. We highly recommend watching Dr. Aaron DeForest's video, where he provides insights into the overall mission of ZenOne and shares his initial thoughts about the platform’s benefits: https://youtu.be/CQDnZyVe2u0 Dr. DeForest will be releasing a video in the future that will provide even deeper insights into ZenOne's features about their budget setup options, varying prices, shipping speeds, and QR code tracking. Here are some important main points throughout the video: - ZenOne supports over a thousand dental offices with their software, connecting dentists to multiple vendors, and sharing resources digitally to save them money and make their work more efficient. - ZenOne allows users to set up a budget on their account to control their monthly spending or savings. The platform offers similar products with different prices and shipping speeds, giving users the flexibility to choose what best suits their needs. - The platform also features QR codes to streamline the order process and make it easy to use. - Tiger, the CEO of ZenOne, cares deeply about the user experience and is known for personally visiting clients for hours and days at a time to ensure their needs are met. He is dedicated to providing dentists with innovative solutions that prioritize their interests. He makes sure their needs are met with the software. - Not only does ZenOne show you your budget, but actually how much you saved during the ordering process as well. - Features of the platform include: Dental Catalogs, your inventory, restock inventory, quick order, office supplies, orders, and reports to make ZenOne simple, and easy to use.
LEAN methodology in a dental setting involves implementing effective ways to manage the clinic’s operations and increase overall dental office efficiency. This can encompass things such as streamlining scheduling, minimizing waste, and enhancing communication among patients and staff members. One of the main advantages of LEAN methodology is increased dental office productivity. A Lean Dental Office will have shorter appointments and less downtime for patients, as well as more patients seen per day for dental professionals. A few examples of implementing LEAN in a dental clinic can include: - Adopting a digital appointment system that allows patients to schedule appointments online, reducing the need for phone calls and paperwork. - Implementing a dental inventory management system for monitoring inventory and ordering supplies in a timely manner to decrease waste and save money. - Using an electronic system to track patient information and medical history, which can improve communication among staff members and enhance patient safety. - Scheduling regular staff meetings to discuss and resolve any issues or inefficiencies in the clinic’s operations. - Analyzing data and metrics regularly to identify areas for improvement and make changes to the clinic’s processes. The 90% rule in a lean dental office refers to the concept of identifying and eliminating non-value adding activities to focus on the critical 10% of activities that truly add value to the patient experience. This principle is also based on the idea of “lean thinking.” Therefore, the goal of the 90% rule is to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve the overall quality of care for patients. The first question to start with: what procedures do you perform most frequently? By identifying these procedures, you can begin to implement the 90% rule. By dedicating 90% of your time and resources to these high-value procedures, you can improve efficiency and enhance the patient experience. Where else can the LEAN 90% rule be applied within the dental office? It is worth noting that the LEAN 90% rule is not limited to only one aspect of the clinic, it should be applied to all aspects of the clinic, from patient flow, to communication, inventory, and so on. To apply the LEAN 90% rule for other areas within a dental clinic, the following steps can be taken: 1. Identify and map out the current processes in the clinic: Create a detailed map of each process, including all the steps involved, the time spent on each step, and the people involved. For example, these processes could include but are not limited to scheduling appointments, ordering supplies, or tracking patient information. 2. Identify value-added and non-value added activities: Analyze each step of the process and determine which activities add value to the process and which do not. 3. Measure the performance of these processes: Collect data on how long each process takes, how often it is performed, and how many errors occur. 4. Determine the 90th percentile: Use the data to determine the 90th percentile of the population for each process. For example, if scheduling appointments takes an average of 10 minutes, but the 90th percentile takes 15 minutes, then the process should be designed to handle appointments that take 15 minutes or less. 5. Redesign the process: Once the 90th percentile has been determined, redesign the process to accommodate the majority of cases. This could involve simplifying the process, eliminating unnecessary steps, or automating certain tasks. 6. Monitor the process: After the process has been redesigned, monitor its performance to ensure that it is meeting the needs of the 90th percentile. Regularly collect data and analyze it to identify any areas for improvement. 6. Continuously improve: Continuously look for ways to improve the process and make it more efficient. Empowering Staff Members to Lead LEAN Initiatives Implementing Lean dental practice management system in an organization can be a complex process, and it is crucial to involve staff members in the process. It may take time for Lean to become fully integrated into the company culture, and there may be initial resistance from some employees. To combat this, it is important to keep communication open and gather input and feedback from staff members when identifying and implementing Lean projects. By giving employees a say in the changes that affect them and allowing for a trial period, it can foster greater participation and ownership of the projects. Once the benefits of increased productivity are evident, staff members are likely to become more invested and enthusiastic about Lean principles. Additionally, sharing the benefits with staff members can further incentivize their participation and ideas. The Importance of Establishing a Process It’s important to remember that while achieving great results is important, the methods we use to get there are even more crucial. Leaders who only focus on the numbers without considering the process may end up with manipulated numbers or negative behaviors that harm the customer experience. Some other key things to keep in mind when it comes to process include: - Following the consistently of solving problems on a daily basis; - Making problems visible to everyone; - Encouraging open communication about problems; - Cross-training employees for added flexibility and agility; - Holding daily morning meetings for training, learning, and updates. Continuous Enhancements and Involvement Adopting Lean principles in a dental office can be a never-ending journey of continuous improvement. By constantly examining and evaluating processes, dental clinics can make measurable improvements time and time again. By bringing different teams together and trying new ideas, dental clinics can bring their workflow optimization to a new level. Not only do these changes improve productivity and reduce waste, but they also engage employees and foster creativity, making the process highly rewarding. written by Angie Bachman, Director of Clinical Training at Design Ergonomics
In this vendor spotlight blog post, Jillian sits down with Dr. David Epstein and Jason Epstein to explore the exciting history behind Wonderful Dental as a successful dental company. From pediatric dentistry to the founding of this family business, this conversation covers a wide range of fascinating topics and highlights the impact of Dr. David's legacy on the dental industry. The journey of Wonderful Dental is truly inspiring and sets the stage for future advancements in the field. You can listen to the conversation on our podcast page: or read the transcript below. : I was reading about the background and history of Wonderful Dental but would like to know more about how it started and turned into a successful dental company. Dr. David Epstein: In 2016, after 50 years of practicing pediatric dentistry and 18 years of teaching at the University of Connecticut, I retired. I looked at the future and one of the things I noticed was the negative reaction most kids had to the prophy paste or fluoride varnish used in dentistry. I wanted to create a better product that was better tasting, hypoallergenic and met my requirements for a good preventive product. I worked with chemists to develop flavors and we found a way to incorporate synthetic flavoring to eliminate allergens and make the product taste good. I tested everything on my six grandsons, who are very critical, and when they gave a thumbs up, those were the flavors we went with. I also realized that the cost of doing business in the dental supply industry was very high. So, we started an e-commerce company to minimize overhead costs and save offices money. Joseph helped with marketing and increased sales by 800% in the first six months. Jason joined the company later to handle the technical aspect and make the company a well-oiled functioning entity. At 81 years old, my role in the company is to provide information and create good relationships with our offices. I have met so many nice dentists and pediatric dentists from all over the country, which has been wonderful. The input from Joseph and Jason has made this company successful. They are the nuts and bolts behind the scenes, making everything happen and growing the company. : Well, when we first started, we were operating from a small warehouse located in Connecticut, close to Dr. Epstein's residence. As the company grew, we realized we needed a more technologically advanced warehouse that could receive orders electronically and provide us with real-time visibility. So, we moved to a warehouse in Brooklyn. Today, we have around 40 to 50 warehouses, with our two main locations being in Pennsylvania and Texas. Our goal for this year is to open a third warehouse in California, but we need to ensure we have enough product in our supply chain to fully stock it before the end of the year. : With supplies being limited due to Covid, I feel like manufacturers are still trying to catch up. Have you guys faced any challenges with getting the supplies needed to make your product? I know your products don't have a lot of additives, but I imagine the flavors that make them taste so good for kids might not be easy to get in stock. : Yeah, we're lucky that most dental supplies use bad flavors, but we use good ones and there's plenty of those available. Flavor hasn't been our challenge, but we've faced challenges with lid stock, forming web, and other things. We work closely with our suppliers to give them visibility to our dental inventory demand and try to get ahead of it as much as possible. But it has impacted us a few times over the year where we've run low in stock on certain flavors. But we hope to continue to get ample supply to service all the offices we've grown significantly over the last few years. We're just trying to get ahead of the forecast. : Did you start off with just prophy paste, or did you always offer both prophy paste and fluoride? How did you expand your product offerings and how it helped you become a successful dental company? Dr. David Epstein: Actually, our successful dental company started with varnish. The original varnishes were terrible tasting and unattractive. I switched to varnish in my office after studies showed that it was more effective. We switched to a fluoride varnish that was dark amber in color and almost unpalatable in taste. After using it, parents would ask why their child's teeth were yellow after just getting them cleaned. We worked to improve the flavor of the varnish by masking the taste of the rosin and alcohol. We also improved the prophy paste by eliminating the titanium dioxide that made the paste super sticky and difficult to rinse off. We also removed the fluoride from the prophy paste as it had no significant reduction in decay. Our focus is on eliminating allergens and making products that are patient and office friendly, even if they are not the most visually appealing. : Also, the key to a successful dental practice is time management, and this is especially important in pediatric practices where children may resist getting fluoride treatments or teeth polishing. Good flavors make these procedures more efficient and save time. Not only do children enjoy these flavors, but they also have other benefits, such as reducing the risk of clogging up the office's plumbing. It is important to advise dental offices to avoid using fluoride varnish, as it can harm the plumbing. Instead, it is recommended that children spit the varnish into a cup and dispose of it in the trash. Over the course of 50 years of practice, the speaker has gained valuable knowledge and ideas that can make things easier for dental offices and help them to be successful. : I was going to ask, what advice do you have for making the dental experience positive for young children, especially in pediatrics? I know some adults are scared of going to the dentist due to negative experiences they had as kids. Dr. David Epstein: This is what inspired me to become a pediatric dentist over 50 years ago. When I was in dental school, I wasn't a fan of going to the dentist and when I walked into the Children's Dental Clinic for the first time, I was scared. I didn't have much experience with children and I was single with no children of my own. But for some reason, kids liked me, and by the end of my senior year, my classmates were sending me difficult kids to treat. It just seemed to click, and I fell in love with pediatric dentistry. I went on to teach at the University of Connecticut for 18 years, but when I retired at 75, I felt it was not appropriate to be in the clinic teaching kids. However, I discovered the internet was a wonderful opportunity to continue teaching and communicating with dentists. : Could you have ever imagined that wonderful would become what it is today when you first started? Dr. David Epstein: Not in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined the need for these kinds of products and the reach I would have with so many offices. I have to credit Joseph for his marketing efforts, as it has touched so many people and created a warm and friendly feeling toward wonderful. The feedback we have received has been fantastic, and it has all been due to our exceptional marketing program. As the business grew, I saw the logistics were beyond my abilities or Joseph's, and that's where Jason filled the gap, completing the triangle and making the company function well. : Your company has received some amazing reviews and what's great is that you offer samples. I know a lot of companies do this, especially with products like Prophy Paste and Varnish. What samples do you have available?" Dr. David Epstein: We offer a sample packet of all of our products on request. Providing samples is a necessary and effective part of our promotion, but it can be quite costly. We try to do it on a selective basis. When offices request samples, we are happy to send them out. As we have partnered with large groups such as Zen, we offer samples to all members of that group. We rely on Zen to connect us with offices and are always happy to send out samples. : One of the goals when starting the company was to make products at a cost that was affordable for dental offices. How do you analyze pricing and ensure that it is optimal and affordable? Dr. David Epstein: It was a real epiphany for us when we realized we could make all these products and save offices money as a successful dental company. We realized we could eliminate major expenses such as advertising in dental journals and reduce the cost of attending meetings and having booths. Once we found out we could reach offices through an e-commerce company, we could pass those savings on to them. We also reduced our packaging cost, which lowered the price of our prophy paste. Offices were surprised that a dental company actually lowered the price of something. I've been practicing for 50 years and I've never seen that happen before. Some companies would push offices to spend more money by offering promotions, but that never sat right with me. Our prices are fair and reasonable, and I think offices appreciate that. : Is there anything you are particularly excited about for Wonderful, for this year 2023? Are there any forecasts or things you're looking forward to continue being a successful dental company? Dr. David Epstein: I am excited about continuing to build relationships with dental offices. Our goal is not just to be a dental supply vendor, but to create a strong bond with offices so that they feel free to contact us with questions. As for new products, we're considering adding more flavors in the future. Our most popular flavor has been marshmallow, and recently, s'mores flavor varnish has received great feedback. We also have a unique prophy paste product for adults, which has been well received. : Historically, marshmallow has been the most popular flavor for paste and varnish. Our s'mores flavor varnish has been a hit. Our adult line of prophy paste, which is 20% coarser than medium, has also taken off as it is more efficient at removing stains while still polishing the enamel. Dr. David Epstein: I have a background in pediatric dentistry and have seen a lot of changes over the years. I learned that coarse paste damaged the enamel, but medium pace was not strong enough to remove stains. That's why we created the adult line of prophy paste, which is 80% less coarse than coarse paste. I believe in always improving and finding better ways to do things. A lot of what I offer to dental offices is based on my personal experiences and lessons learned over the years. : Is there anything else you would like to add as far as advice you would like to give dental offices in regards to saving on dental supplies? : Zen offers great products that save money for dental offices. We are grateful to be a part of Zen as it reaches a wider audience. My advice to dental offices would be to take advantage of buying directly and not just rely on dental supply house catalogs. Investigate better products at better prices through e-commerce companies like Zen. Dr. David Epstein: My advice for a successful dental company would be to consider the quality of products while looking for cost savings. At Zen, we focus on providing the highest quality products and constantly making improvements. In my practice, I always sought the best products for my patients and when starting the company, this was a top priority. We never wanted to compromise the quality of our products for cost savings. The cost savings turned out to be a secondary benefit. Our philosophy has always been to provide the best products. : Thank you for joining me today and for being partners of Zen. Your company brings more than just great products; it brings a positive experience for patients with your flavors. It may seem small, but it makes a big difference in the dental experience. Thank you!
Mary Govoni, CDA, RDH, MBA, Mary Govoni & Associates So much has happened around current state of infection prevention and other areas of health care over the course of the last 3 years. At times the change has been dizzying, confusing and frustrating. Many dental team members are expressing their sentiments about COVID-19 fatigue. The most common comment I hear is “I’m so tired of COVID”, and I am as well. The reality is, however, that the pandemic still isn’t over. On Jan. 31st President Biden disclosed that he will end the national emergency declaration related to COVID-19 on May 11, 2023. Does this mean that the pandemic is over? What, if anything, will be impacted in dental practices relative to COVID-19 guidance and protocols? It is important to note that although the current state of infection prevention is to end the national medical emergency declaration in May 2023, the CDC, and World Health Organization (WHO) may not end the declaration of a global pandemic of COVID-19 if cases are still spreading. This action does, however, indicate that the crisis era of the pandemic is over – not that COVID-19 is gone from our lives. In fact, what the CDC and other public health agencies have stated is that COVID-19 is beginning to enter the endemic stage of the spread of the disease, meaning that it will likely be always present at some level, like influenza. This means that COVID-19, like influenza, will always present some level of risk of transmission in dentistry during aerosol generating procedures (AGP’s). In some states, under this emergency declaration, some dentists and hygienists have been allowed to administer COVID-19 vaccines to patients, which will most likely end. But our IPAC protocols should continue to be followed, until further updates from the CDC. COVID-19 cases continue to spread across the country. New Omicron subvariants have been identified and now make up most of the COVID-19 cases in the U.S. It is important to note that these variants are vaccine evasive, resulting in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals being infected with the virus. The CDC continues to urge health care facilities to follow their guidance for COVID-19, which includes both patient and health care worker protections thanks to current state of infection prevention. These viral outbreaks have been complicated over the last few months by a surge in cases of influenza that is higher than in recent years. In addition, the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has also surged, especially in young children. These viruses, and others, such as measles, can be spread through respiratory secretions, which puts dental professionals at risk of infections during AGP’s. As a reminder, AGP’s are defined by OSHA and the CDC as the use of a high-speed handpiece, air/water syringe, ultrasonic scaler, air polisher and air abrasion. Although the number of cases of COVID-19, Flu, and RSV are now decreasing, the risks of exposure for dental professionals performing AGP’s is still present. To minimize the risk of exposure, dental professionals must still follow CDC and OSHA interim guidance, public health regulations and state dental board rules for infection control and especially for utilizing the correct PPE for these procedures. A recent study conducted at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and published in JAMA Network,, concluded that there was no increased risk for dental practitioners contracting COVID-19 during clinical activities. The article was cited by many groups within dentistry, but the tag line used for the citations did not include one very important conclusion from the study, which was that the study participants were wearing recommended PPE, including N-95 respirators. On the surface, it might appear that the study concluded that the risk to dental professionals was minimal, when in fact it was and is not – for professionals not wearing the correct PPE and for those dental practices that are not continuing to screen patients for respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 and other infectious respiratory viruses. Another issue that has come to light again in dentistry is that of contaminated dental unit water. In 2015 and 2018 outbreaks of bacterial infections in pediatric patients who received pulpotomies in practices in Georgia and California, respectively. These outbreaks drew attention to the need for proper testing and maintenance of dental unit waterlines to prevent infectious disease transmission. In Oct. 2022, the CDC issued a warning through its Health Alert Network (HAN) that another outbreak had been reported. Although it is a common practice in dental facilities to treat the dental unit waterlines with some type of antimicrobial agent, to reduce the formation of biofilm and microbial growth in the waterlines, it is not as common for dental practice to test their water quality for contamination. Testing is the only way for a dental team to know if their dental treatment water meets the CDC guideline of <500CFU/ml. Every practice should have a waterline protocol in place that includes baseline testing of the water that is going into the unit, regular cleaning/maintenance with an antimicrobial agent, shocking the lines to remove residual biofilm and testing. There are readily available resources for dental practices for water testing, both in-office and mail in services. The CDC suggests that testing be performed at least quarterly. Many times, dental team members question the need to follow CDC guidance, since the CDC is not a regulatory agency, such as OSHA. The reality is, however, that most states require compliance with CDC guidelines in their dental rules. And public health departments also require compliance with CDC guidance during current state of infection prevention. Even in our collective state of COVID fatigue, we have the responsibility to protect the health of our patients and of course, ourselves. Viewing CDC guidance as a burden or a nuisance, or simply a recommendation, can distort our thinking, and allow us to forget that responsibility. Patient and health care worker safety is our primary obligation as health care professionals. Having said all that, we must always look at the practical side of compliance with regulations and guidelines. This begins with training of dental team members to understand what is require and why it is so important. According to OSHA and the CDC, new employees must be trained at the start of employment, which is often overlooked, as many dental practices do not have a formal onboarding process for new employees. This is even more critical now due to a shortage of dental health care workers, and especially those with some prior experience in dentistry. If new procedures or products are implemented or introduced into a practice, training must be provided to the team and annual training updates must be provided. Training and retraining of team members, aids in ensuring consistency in how effectively infection prevention protocols are followed, thus increasing both patient and worker safety. Competency evaluations are an excellent tool for assessing the effectiveness of training. This is especially important in the case of new and inexperienced team members, with no dental experience. Can the new employees demonstrate how to appropriately reprocess instruments or turn over treatment rooms, following cleaning and disinfecting protocols? And is there an Infection Control Coordinator appointed in the practice that can monitor that protocols are followed? A discussion of current state of infection prevention and its effect on dental practices would not be complete without addressing the issue of the financial impact on the practice. Additional PPE, which has increased in price during the pandemic, is a key factor. This leads some team members to consider how to cut costs with respect to infection control, such as reusing disposable items and some PPE – like face masks. There are many areas where cost-savings can be implemented in dental practice, but cutting back on, or cutting corners is a slippery and dangers path for dental professionals. Think of your safety, that of your patients and family members and strive to always do the right thing. 1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – COVID Data Tracker https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home (Accessed 1/31/23) 2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – COVID-19 Variants https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/index.html?s_cid=11720:covid%2019%20variants%20of%20concern:sem.ga:p:RG:GM:gen:PTN:FY22 (Accessed 1/31/23) 3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Interim Guidance for Healthcare Personnel - Potential Exposure at Work – updated 9/23/22 https://www.google.com/search?q=cdc+guidance+for+healthcare+workers&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS1016US1016&oq=CDC+guidance&aqs=chrome.2.69i59j69i57j35i39j0i512l4j69i60.4783j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 (Accessed 1/31/23) 4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Infection Control Guidance – updated 9/23/22 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/infection-control-recommendations.html (Accessed 1/31/23) 5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Flu Activity & Surveillance Data https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivitysurv.htm (Accessed 1/31/23) 6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html (Accessed 1/31/23) 7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - The National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) https://www.cdc.gov/surveillance/nrevss/index.html (Accessed 1/31/23) 8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Infection Control Guidance – updated 9/23/22 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/infection-control-recommendations.html (Accessed 1/31/23) 9. Harvard School of Dental Medicine – Study Shows Dental Practitioners Did Not Face and Increased Risk of Contracting COVID-19 During Clinical Activities https://hsdm.harvard.edu/news/study-shows-dental-practitioners-did-not-face-increased-risk-contracting-covid-19-during#:~:text=Study%20Shows%20Dental%20Practitioners%20Did,Harvard%20School%20of%20Dental%20Medicine (Accessed 1/31/23) 10. Jama Network – Evaluation fo Comprehensive COVID-19 Testing Program Outcomes in a US Dental Clinical Care Academic Setting, Dec. 13, 2022 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2799439 (Acessed 1/31/23) 11. Mycobacterium abscessus Infections Among Patients of a Pediatric Dentistry Practice — Georgia, 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2016;65:355–356. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6513a5 (Accessed 1/31/23) 12. Hatzenbuehler LA, Tobin-D’Angelo M, Drenzek C, et al. Pediatric Dental Clinic-Associated Outbreak of Mycobacterium abscessus Infection. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2017 Sep 1;6(3):e116-e122. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28903524/ 13. CDC Health Alert Network - Outbreaks of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Infections Highlight Importance of Maintaining and Monitoring Dental Waterlines https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2022/han00478.asp (Accessed 1/31/23) 14. CDC Division of Oral Health – Dental Unit Water Quality https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/faqs/dental-unit-water-quality.html (Accessed 1/31/23)
With the global economy battling the post-COVID era and a current inflationary wave, the dental industry has faced its own challenges such as increased operating costs and a high employee turnover. During the pandemic, dental offices had to spend more money to ensure the safety of both their staff and patients. This included purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE) at a historical high price and implementing new protocols for cleaning and disinfection. However, it seems that the costs are returning to the pre-covid prices and we hope that this trend continues. In this article, we would like to share some insights on managing costs of dental supplies we've gathered from talking to ZenSupplies key vendors, DC Dental and DDS Dental, about the trends and statistics for 2022 and 2023. They shared some interesting data with us and gave us a sneak peek into the areas of potential savings. Kara Moran, Director of Marketing at DC Dental: In 2022, the dental supply industry saw a resurgence as dental offices reopened and looked for ways to operate efficiently. To achieve this, many practices took advantage of discounts and promotions offered by manufacturers. The top 10 products in the market included: Lidocaine HCl 2% w/EPI 1:100 50/Bx Septocaine (Articaine HCl 4%) w/Epi 1:100K 50/Bx Cook-Waite Lidocaine HCL 2% 1:100M 50/Bx Orabloc Articaine 4% w/EPI 1:100k 50/Bx Saliva Ejector 100/Pk White Saliva Ejector 100/Pk Clear W/Blue Chlorhexidine Gluconate 0.12% Oral Rinse Essentials PF Ultra Nitrile Exam Gloves Blue Small 300/Bx 0.9% Sodium Chloride Irrigation 1000 ml Essentials PF Ultra Nitrile Exam Gloves Blue M 300/Bx These products were in high demand as dental offices sought to return to their normal operations. As the market for gloves returns to pre-COVID prices, we at DC Dental are excited to announce a variety of promotions and discounts on our top-selling products that help managing costs of dental supplies. Our current bestseller is the Essentials PF Ultra Nitrile glove, which is now available at $14.95 per box of 300 - a significant reduction from its previous price of $65 per box. Additionally, we will be offering flash sale promotions throughout the year, including discounts on the Essential PF Ultra Gloves, bringing the net price down to $11.96 per box of 300. We are also thrilled to announce our partnership with Dash Medical Gloves, with the next flash sale, ‘Love Your Glove’, featuring Alasta Shimmer Pink, taking place on February 13th and offering a Buy 7 Get 3 Free promotion. Furthermore, our weekly flash sales will include a wide range of products such as instruments, gloves, masks, wipes, composites, bond, and handpieces. Additionally, we are excited to introduce and recommend Tanigo, a novel product that stands out in the market. Tanigo is a single-use HVE Suction-Mirror head that combines the functions of HVE suction, dental mirror, and retraction dental functions all in one device. Its compatibility with existing HVE valves and tubing eliminates the need for additional adapters or parts, making it a convenient and smart HVE suction system. Furthermore, Tanigo's 8 suction intakes surrounding a 50-degree angled anti-fog mirror enable proper aerosol reduction during dental procedures, ensuring a continuous clear mirror and minimizing liquid accumulation in the patient's mouth. In terms of cost-saving strategies for dental offices for 2023, we highly recommend taking advantage of manufacturer promotions, which can offer discounts of up to 40% off regular prices. Dinesh A. Sakhrani, Co-founder of DDS Dental: As we reflect on the year 2022, it is evident that the fields of cosmetic dentistry and preventatives have undergone a process of normalization. Additionally, we have noticed a stabilization in the pricing of infection control products. Still, the margins for DDS have experienced a significant decline. This is because we have implemented strategies to offer more competitive prices to our members on various platforms as well as DSO members. Also, we have experienced a significant loss in freight, both in terms of incoming deliveries and outbound shipments. In order to address this issue, we are currently in the process of upgrading our shipping criteria, with the goal of ensuring that our clients receive their products in a timely manner. We work closely with manufacturers to ensure timely delivery of backordered items too. We recognize that certain products may be at risk of being out of stock, but by basing our inventory management on usage patterns, we are able to anticipate and mitigate these potential shortages. Our dedicated team is solely focused on expediting products and we maintain frequent communication with manufacturers to secure estimated arrival dates. Additionally, we utilize overnight shipping to receive products as soon as possible and minimize delays in fulfilling orders. Despite incurring significant freight loss fees, we are committed to doing our part in these challenging times to ensure timely delivery of products to our clients. We believe that when offices come to realize that they may be overpaying for products, they will begin to explore options with smaller providers. Clients can start partnering with DDS to identify cost-saving opportunities within the products they currently use. Together, we can work towards lowering prices through Contract pricing, even for clients with a limited number of offices. DDS can negotiate on behalf of our clients by highlighting the value they bring to manufacturers. It is important to plan ahead when managing costs of dental supplies and to keep a one-month inventory on hand to prevent last-minute rush orders. By taking a few extra days to find the best deal, offices can often achieve a savings of 10-12%, which can make a significant impact on overall costs. To further assist new offices, we recommend offering a glove trial to test out a healthier and cost-effective option, providing free freight for orders over $50, and conducting price comparisons to ensure the best deals are being secured.
In this article we will provide you with valuable information and research on why having an inventory management and procurement software system is so important and beneficial to you and your practice. 1. Efficient Inventory Management Managing dental inventory can be a challenge, and errors can lead to overspending or stock shortages. A good inventory management software can help dental practices track inventory levels, set reorder points, and generate automated reorder requests, ensuring that the practice has the right supplies when they need them. Business News Daily wrote an in depth article on just this topic alone: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10613-effective-inventory-management.html. They list the many different types of inventory and how this is a crucial piece to your business’s profitability. Even though this system can take up more of your time and require extra planning, the outcome and profits will reflect on the extra time you took to have this system in place. 2. Streamlined Procurement Process Procurement involves the process of purchasing goods or services. An inventory management software can help streamline the procurement process by automating the creation of purchase orders, tracking orders, and generating invoices. This will save time and reduce errors, allowing dental practices to focus on providing quality patient care. Zen Supplies offers a step by step guide to lower supplies overhead: https://www.zensupplies.com/blog/why-choose-advanced-setup-with-zen-subscription/. They achieve this in three different phases. Building a reliable ordering process, negotiating better pricing, and details and measuring supplies on a daily basis and also by procedures. Once these phases have been completed you can successfully manage the software going forward. 3. Cost Savings With an inventory management software, dental practices can avoid overstocking items and prevent stockouts, which can lead to the loss of business. By having accurate inventory levels, practices can avoid unnecessary expenses and reduce inventory carrying costs. We found that conducted a study on this area of expertise along with a checklist provided that you can follow to save on costs: https://dentalblog.3m.com/dental/save-money-in-dental-practice/. The list includes reducing stock choices and material variants to reduce confusion of multiple items, choose high quality materials that will have a long lasting outcome, efficiently plan patient appointments and chairtime turnaround, and so much more! When you are able to see what your budget is each month you can plan ahead easier knowing what you can order in the upcoming months. If you are spending without paying attention, you won't be able to keep track of the promos vendors may run, over stocking too much on a certain item(s) and they end up expiring. You will always end up over budget. Having a dental software system in place helps save on not only costs, but the hassle of trying to keep track of it all too. 4. Regulatory Compliance Dental practices are required to comply with various regulations that govern the storage, handling, and disposal of medical supplies. An inventory management software can help practices maintain compliance by tracking expiration dates, monitoring the condition of the supplies, and generating reports for audits. Ohio Dental Regulatory covered this area by providing examples of different guides you should follow and have posted somewhere in your office to keep track of everything: https://www.oda.org/member-center/resource-library/regulatory-compliance-guide/. Examples of this include, but are not limited to infection control and hazard communication, mandatory reporting, patient privacy and record protocols, X-ray rules, and so much more. Using a software system where this can all remain in one place instead of a bunch of binders or printed off sheets, will help you and your office remain organized. 5. Improved Patient Care Effective inventory management and procurement processes ensure that dental practices have the necessary supplies to provide quality patient care. With inventory management software, practices can keep track of their supplies, order items efficiently, and reduce the risk of running out of important supplies during patient procedures. This will lead to improved patient satisfaction and trust in the practice. Zen Supplies wrote an article about how dental clinics can enhance the customer experience: https://www.zensupplies.com/blog/how-dental-clinics-can-enhance-the-customer-experience-best-practices-from-zensupplies/. At the end of the day, it’s all about the patient experience. You want to be sure that each patient has a positive memorable experience in order for them to not only return to your office, but to feel comfortable while they are there too. They wrote about how an exceptional service is not a one-time event: it is an ongoing effort to consistently exceed customer expectations.This means going above and beyond the standard expectations of a dental visit, and actively seeking out ways to improve the overall experience for patients. In conclusion, all of these steps are essential and important to get started with your inventory management and procurement software. You can’t have one without the other, and each step intertwines with another. They all have similarities and an end goal. To save you time, money, keep track of everything in one place, and improve on your patient care. Links: Efficient inventory management-https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10613-effective-inventory-management.html Streamline procurement process-https://www.zensupplies.com/blog/why-choose-advanced-setup-with-zen-subscription/ Cost savings- https://dentalblog.3m.com/dental/save-money-in-dental-practice/ Regulatory Compliance- https://www.oda.org/member-center/resource-library/regulatory-compliance-guide/ Improved Patient Care-
Tiger, some few words about the situation in France… I saw your new services on the website: it's a very good solution. Congratulation !! I don’t know if this document can bring something to your project but it is my way to keep the contact and help : it is essential for me. Take care Tiger Saturday March 13 : Diner with friends at home. As the Prime Minister are announcing a 2 weeks confinement, my friends arrive at home one after the other. Dentists, traders, physiotherapists and parents: we are all affected by this announcement. Tonight, we are already illegal, but let's take advantage of this last moment together in pulpit and bone. Sunday March 14 : My dentist friends provide a responsible guard and welcome 14 people with their usual equipment (surgical masks and gowns). 10 days later… Relieved, we were not positive and no one was infected. Today, we are starting our second week of confinement. For the majority, French people are at home !! A small part remains outside, in front of the infected : the carers. Hospitals are seeing an exponential increase in the number of patients and the first caregiver deaths are recorded. While the tsunami is expected for the next few weeks, the hospitals are gradually organizing themselves materially. In town, general practitioners, nurses and dentists continue to provide emergencies under difficult conditions. and my friends dentists then? During the first week, they no longer had masks to handle emergencies. I managed to find some masks but not enough to work in suitable conditions. This week, the clinics are closed. The SAMU (emergency regulation service) contacts dentists to go to their office to receive patients a day or two for a week. The precursor wants that they must go to the council (Ordre des Medecins) of the order to recover masks FFP2 (the only ones which block the virus. The SMALL stock of surgical masks of the 176 dentists of my city were given to the hospitals. Suppliers no longer deliver and only the government delivers the material. A the start of the epidemy, they have sold matérials with a high price. For example, the price of a FFP2 was 9€ (incrédible). In a second time, Governement regulated prices and now suppliers deliver all except (mask, gloves and other disposable equipment) In the meantime, many dentists have been contaminated because the precautions had not been taken. I wanted to write these few lines to you to share our situation and that you can take advantage of this experience. By sharing, we will be able to work effectively together. “We are stronger together than we are alone” Walter Payton
St. Clair & Massey Orthodontic Partnership is a well-established orthodontic practice that has been serving the community for many years. Recently, the practice has focused on improving its dental inventory organization and implementing ZenSupplies with impressive results. This case study explores the strategies and practices that have been used by this dental practice, and the impact they have had on the overall operation and success of the office. To learn all the details of the dental inventory management process, we have interviewed Carina Sauceda, an experienced dental assistant at St. Clair & Massey Orthodontic Partnership who has a wealth of knowledge of the latest techniques and technologies in the industry. Whether you have an organized inventory management system in place or are just starting out, Carina's insights are sure to provide valuable information and inspiration! Carina says: "Ortho is very Unique when it comes to inventory. We have so many products! The way I organized inventory before using Zen was through a spreadsheet I created in Excel. I had two different spreadsheets. The difference between the two was that one was organized by vendors I had to personally contact by phone, and the other was organized by products I received from one representative, mainly all of our disposables. The spreadsheets contained the item number, the item description, the supplier, and the quantity to order of every item needed for the clinic and our lab. The challenges I faced were that I didn't have a laptop that I could carry around between offices to use digitally. I had to print two sets of the two spreadsheets, which were about seven to nine pages long. What frustrated me the most before starting Zen Supplies was the high volume of representatives calling about sales and having to do price comparisons myself. However, the amount of time spent taking inventory hasn't changed much with or without Zen; it still takes me about two hours per office to do a full inventory check. The order process was faster with Zen, because most products are ordered through it. Some items, like our bands, are easier to order through the website. Placing orders takes about 30 minutes. The challenges I faced while implementing Zen included getting everyone on the same page and understanding my thinking process. I had to move things around and find homes for items that were in multiple locations. Our assistants had a mindset of filling every empty corner with as many items as possible. With the support of the lead assistant, I was able to move items around with different limitations per office due to the amount of storage. This helped me with inventory because I was going to three different areas to count how many of an item we had and then figure out how many to order. I also had to think about how much of an item had to be in the sterilization room for immediate back-up and move as much as possible into the main storage area. For example, how many Caviwipes do you need to keep in the sterilization room to avoid going into the storage for a week with six chairs? We were keeping 15-20 Caviwipes in the sterilization room per office at a time, which was the "fill up every corner as much as possible" concept. With this being said, in our main storage, we would have maybe 5-10 Caviwipes and I would order more because I didn't think we had enough. We realized we only needed 6 Caviwipes for 6 chairs in the sterilization room per week! Having a small amount in the sterilization and everything else in the main storage area cut down the amount I needed to order because we had more than enough and started seeing a decrease in budget because I realized I was ordering way too much. With all this being said, my best advice would be to limit homes for an item to 2 locations. Firstly, things that need to be restocked chairside in the sterilization room can be designated as a quick, one-week stock area. Only items that are restocked weekly should be kept in this area. Secondly, while room limitations may be an issue, proper organization can make it possible to have a main storage area. To make this more efficient, items should be restocked chairside daily and sterilization room items should be restocked weekly with just enough items to get through the week. This will limit the number of times assistants need to enter the main storage area. However, it's important to note that there is no surefire way to completely eliminate stress during onboarding as it is a new and unfamiliar process. But the outcome of a well-organized and efficient inventory system is worth the stress. I was stressed when I started, but I already had all the items and item numbers on a spreadsheet. So, if you don't have that yet, that is where your main stress will be. Some items may be missed and you won't know until you run out, and then realize they were never entered into Zen. But, the Zen team is super helpful and will assist in getting things organized. As for now, my inventory process is as follows: I like working closely with 1-2 people, as too many hands in the pot can get messy. I order once a month and select one date that works for me, ordering on that date every month. I have one assistant who restocks the chairside units and sterilization room in both offices with enough items for a week, a day or two before I do my full inventory. This way, I know she has pulled everything needed from the main storage areas and I'll have an accurate inventory check. If someone is not doing this before going to do the full inventory check, then you are most likely going to have to place orders more often and at random. I do everything with an iPad and carry it between offices. I check everything in and put it away when it arrives and ask for the estimated time of arrival for items that haven't arrived, to see if I need an alternative solution. I do a full inventory check and place orders once a month. I do this to spend less time ordering and inventorying, and I am available to do more things. This also goes for assistants, they are restocking less as well. To wrap it up, a few tips for other ortho offices: - Find a supportive partner/s. - Ask the doctors why you have two of the same concept products and, if they say there is no reason, order just one. - Organize things in a way that even a new person can find the product, not just you. - LABEL EVERYTHING - Explain why you are moving things, as most people don't like change. - Keep products in their original packaging, as this helps visually see how much you have and how much you need to order. Some products can be condensed into a small container, and you may be tempted to over-order this product. - Try new products by ordering a small amount (1 or 2) and trying them out. Sometimes, they work better and are more convenient than what you have been using before."
Staying informed and up-to-date on the latest news and developments in the dental industry is essential for us. One way to do this is by listening to the Compliance Divas podcasts that focus on important topics such as dental infection prevention and control. These podcasts provide valuable information and insights on how to maintain a safe and compliant dental practice software by following dental infection control protocols. In this article, we will share one of their top podcasts that covers the topic of infection statistics and control at the beginning of 2023. You can listen to it here: Here are the main thoughts and important statistics discussed in the episode: "As the new year begins, we are reminded of the ongoing challenges in infection prevention and control. These challenges have been exacerbated by the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus. In this episode, the Divas delve into some of the most pressing issues related to infection prevention and control, including the impact of these new variants and the measures that can be taken to mitigate their spread. As we move forward in the new year, it is crucial that we remain vigilant and proactive in our efforts to prevent the spread of infection and protect public health. The CDC reports that seasonal influenza activity is declining in most areas, but 61 pediatric deaths have been reported this season. Overall, there have been 20 million illnesses, 210,000 hospitalizations, and 13,000 deaths from the flu. The new Omicron sub-variant, XBB 1.5, is a concern as it is more infectious and evasive to vaccines. The CDC estimates that 40% of confirmed COVID cases are from this strain, so be aware of symptoms such as sore throat, hoarseness, cough, fatigue, nasal congestion, runny nose, headache, and muscle aches. The number of invasive group A strep infections, primarily in children, is increasing. These infections can lead to severe conditions such as necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating disease), toxic shock syndrome, and cellulitis. Historically, strep was considered a minor illness treated with antibiotics, but now dental practices must take precautions to prevent spread of the disease by refusing treatment for children with symptoms despite having PPE on dental professionals. The recent study by Harvard School of Dental Medicine titled "Dentists and Covid Risks: No Increased Risk for Dental Practitioners During Clinical Activities" has been widely cited by various organizations such as the American Dental Association and American Hygienist Association. However, it is important to note that the study's conclusion that there is no increased risk for dental practitioners during clinical activities is misleading. The study found no cases of Covid among dental students at Harvard due to the use of N95 respirators and other appropriate personal protective equipment. The study also did not have a control group for comparison. Therefore, it is important to read the study in its entirety and not rely solely on the headline before drawing conclusions. Therefore, it is crucial to wear the appropriate PPE to protect from various respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19. Standard precautions should always be followed and using N 95 respirators should not be dismissed. Resources: CDC Flu Activity and Surveillance - https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivitysurv.htm CDC Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html CDC Covid Data Tracker https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home CDC COVID-19 Variant Information https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/index.html?s_cid=11720:variants%20of%20covid%20virus:sem.ga:p:RG:GM:gen:PTN:FY22 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1774326/11993585-86-updates-on-infection-control-covid-19-sub-variants-rsv-influenza-and-more "
Today I seat down with Santosh Patel, President of Complete Specialty Solutions. We talk about early days and how Santosh had to take PTO days to visit dental conferences and meet people at the Starbucks to save money on fancy dinners. With support of his and the family he decided to go all in and pursue the journey against his own doubts of being an entrepreneur. We cover so many things, how AI dental platform, like Overjet and Pearl and true AI applications in dentistry that will revolutionize the industry just like CEREC and digital scanners did back in the days. We discuss leadership traits, biggest cause of specialists burn out, leading by guilt vs fear, and seeing how dentistry will go through next economical challenges as it always does. And we finish our conversation with Santosh’s best advice for life and parenting: “You are never going to be perfect, your kids are never going to be perfect, just accept it and enjoy the life” [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYo_rCxf_rc[/embedyt] 3:45 - Starting Complete Specialty Solutions 7:45 - Push back from the Industry 8:00 - a case for building internal software platform 12:00 - Genesis of the idea for the business “Why dental industry didn’t have in house specialty services” 13:50 - Most Specialist coming out of Residency with a tremendous debt 16:35 - “I never had entrepreneurial bone in my body” 17:25 - The concept of changing lanes 19:00 - Dentist take all this debt, get excited about future, build the practice and open the door. And the number of patients is not there. Then they start to question 21:20 - hitting the bottom. It’s always the payroll question 24:26 - Push back and misconceptions early on 30:10 - Constant chicken and the egg problem and to tackle it 37:50 - Larges cause for specialist burn out 46:40 - Employee Retention is a huge issue in dental practices 47:40 - AI in Dentistry - Overjet and Pearl 49:00 - How to apply AI platform to identify hidden revenue with your current patient base 51:45 - AI will change the industry, same scanner and Cerec changed dentistry back in the day 53:00 - Favorite thing about running Complete Speciality Solutions 59:50 - Unique Leadership traits 1:03:45 - Dentistry will always bounce back from any challenge About Pearl: https://www.hellopearl.com/ About Overjet: https://www.overjet.ai/ To learn more about Complete Specialty Solutions: Complete Specialty Solutions provides in-house specialty solutions to general dentist offices through our unique combination of clinical, business and operational support delivered as an integrated and turn-key solution. Our highly experienced team has activated and scaled in-house specialty solutions across all major specialties (oral surgery, orthodontics, periodontics, endodontics, and pedo) in both solo office and large DSO operations during the past eight years. http://www.completespecialty.com/
We love it when our friends in the industry share something interesting with our members. Today, our friend Dr. Gina Dorfman, CEO of Yapi Dental and a successful dentist, shares with us the myths about scheduling appointments online. Let's get right into it: Online dental platform appointment scheduling is growing in popularity with dental patients. In contrast to phone bookings, online scheduling is more convenient for patients and saves time for the dental front office team. Many dentists are afraid to switch because of common myths and misconceptions regarding digital scheduling systems. Your fears may include worrying about insurance incompatibility and patients messing up your well-organized schedule. You may also think that a phone call is more intimate and personalized for the patient. In reality, scheduling by phone is more time-consuming and more frustrating for both the patient and the dental office team. There are so many reasons you shouldn't be afraid of online appointment bookings. It is a transition that usually requires a time investment to customize your dental office systems but later pays dividends in increased dental office systems efficiency and happier patients. Here, we dispel the misconceptions surrounding online booking. Myth #1: Patients Prefer Phone Bookings Picture this: It is 4 p.m. at your dental practice with one more hour left in the workday. Your final patients have all arrived (some early, some late). They are waiting patiently to check in, but there is a problem. Both of your front office team members took calls just before the last patients of the day arrived. Both calls are to schedule appointments. Your patient care coordinators don't want to put the phone patients on hold and risk upsetting them, yet these appointments are complex and take time to figure out. Now, you are running behind, your dental hygienist keeps popping in to see if her patient is ready to be seated, the patients in front of you are getting impatient, and all of your team members are stressed out. You might even not get done on time and go home late. Having a customizable real-time online scheduling system in your practice can take a lot of stress off the front office team and create a better patient experience. The number one myth about online scheduling is that patients prefer phone bookings. It is an understandable assumption and may depend on the average age of your patients. Those with older patients assume they enjoy the familiar and personalized experience of talking to a person on the phone. Yet even older patients get annoyed when they hear, "Can I put you on hold". Other than the very elderly patient, most adults are familiar with the Internet and comfortable scheduling appointments online. Plus, millennials and younger generations prefer it. Your dental team may need convincing to change up their usual workflow willingly. Over time, however, the team members will recognize how much less stressful their jobs become. They will have more time to manage patients in the office and answer phone calls related to more complicated issues. Patients that do call the office won't be put on hold. Your dental front office team will be on the phone less. Consequently, they can focus on other tasks without being interrupted. Everyone wins! Myth #2: Online Bookings Will Mess Up Your Schedule Every dental team operates differently. Some prefer to handle complex restorative cases during the morning and new patients in the afternoon. Others prefer the complete opposite approach. They all have in common the need for a customizable system of online scheduling. One of your chief concerns about online scheduling is that patients will mess up the schedule. Your dental front dental office systems team is highly knowledgeable about your practice's specific ins and outs. They know exactly how to categorize the appointment and where it should fit into the schedule. On the other hand, patients don't know how long their visits should be, what time of day, and which operatory to schedule them. But don't worry, your schedule is not as complicated as you think. Any reliable scheduling software will allow you to customize the appointment offerings and create required dropdowns to categorize patient appointments. What about insurance? It's easy to set up your scheduling software to request and require insurance information before booking. If you don't take a patient's insurance, they won't be able to schedule. Myth #3: Patients Will Cancel Last-Minute More Often If patients don't establish a relationship with your practice through a personal phone call, will they be more likely to keep the appointment? Diving deeper, it is clear that this isn't the case. A phone call isn't significantly more personal than an online system. The conversation probably doesn't last more than 7 minutes, and the new patient does not see a human face. In fact, a phone call can be a potential turn-off if the call goes to voicemail, a patient waits on hold for a long time, or the scheduling coordinator feels rushed. Established patients have already developed a relationship with your practice. A patient who books an appointment over the phone thus isn't held more accountable than a patient who books online. It is more likely that the patient's stress level at the time of booking will impact whether they become a no-show or not. Over the phone, they have to choose between a few options offered by the scheduling coordinator while considering their availability and other commitments. They often have to call during the workday when they are busy and trying to multi-task. It is a recipe for scheduling at the wrong time, forgetting to write the date down, or becoming frustrated and deciding they might not like the practice. Online scheduling allows patients to schedule at a convenient time, and they can easily access their calendar and consider the best day and time. This environment is more likely to lead to a kept appointment. A bonus is that some digital systems like Smart Fill from YAPI can help you fill last-minute cancellations. Patients are more likely to cancel if they wait for an appointment for a long time as the urgency passes. Thus, a system that allows patients to request to be notified when an earlier or more convenient time becomes available, such as Smart Fill, will help keep your appointment book full even when last-minute cancellations come up. You have enough things to worry about at your dental practice. Remove scheduling from your list of problems while simultaneously increasing the profitability of your practice. Online scheduling equals fewer cancellations, a fuller schedule, happier patients, and relaxed team members. Modern patients expect you to have a digital presence. They will be delighted when they go to your website or their favorite review site and find an online scheduling system; no waiting on hold, no rushed conversations, no scheduling mistakes. When they visit your practice, they will find your staff welcoming and available to help them. Invest in an online scheduling system, and life will be a lot easier for everyone. About the Author For almost two decades, Dr. Gina Dorfman has continually proved herself to be an innovative leader in the field of dentistry. As a dentist, practice owner, and entrepreneur, Dr. Dorfman has had the opportunity to engage with dental professionals across the country to help them grow and thrive. Dr. Dorfman completed her dental training at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry in 2000 and shortly after started her practice near Los Angeles, California. While starting a practice in a saturated market came with its challenges, the practice grew tremendously over the years, expanding to several locations. Because of her experience running multiple practices and leading a big team, Dr. Dorfman developed a unique insight into how efficient practices organize and operate and how dental teams can work together to overcome obstacles and reach their goals. A recognized speaker and author, Dr. Dorfman is regularly invited to teach other dentists across the country. Dr. Dorfman is also a frequent contributor to several industry publications and blogs. She is also the Behind the Smiles Podcast host, which features the most disruptive and influential dental community members moving dentistry forward. Her passion for creating systems and leveraging technology to streamline practice operations eventually led her to co-found YAPI, a practice automation software, where she serves as the company's CEO.
When we hear the word systems, we instantly think of a machine, or a computer program, where everything MUST be black and white. We think redundancy. Ultimately, we think of the dreaded word...CHANGE. Yup, that's the dreaded word we hear all too often!! CHANGE. Instantly our minds go to “She isn’t going to like the new way. What do I do if they won’t change? What if they leave because of all of the change?” So, how do we set up dental inventory system to positivity impact the overall flow of the dental office systems, AND keep our team happy. These are ALL valid concerns. Especially during this time. It is so scary to think about losing a star team member, or having to hire another team member, while trying to open AND follow all the new guidelines. Setting up systems initially CAN cause some fuss in the office. So let's talk about how to minimize the effects of the change by creating systems. Set up regular team meetings with your team, (At LEAST once a month). IF this is your first time having regular meetings, feel free to schedule one every 2-3 weeks. *Remember, people will own what they help create. So lets involve them!! Keep open communication with your team about what is up and coming, and how they can play a role. *Remember, people like to be in the KNOW, and they like to HELP. Find those team players and maximize on their strengths! Set up consistency and stick to it! …What do you want your office to look like? What does success look like in your office? What do you want your culture to look and feel like? Come up with a plan-(I would like to have a morning huddle EVERY morning by the end of next week.) What is that going to look like? Explain the “Why”. What would we like to accomplish, and Why? What will we discuss? *Morning huddles are important to touch on all the “other” stuff other than the patient's treatment. Talk about additional opportunities for that day, celebrate birthdays, HIGHLIGHT who in your office has done a positive action! Set deadlines for implementation. Setting a deadline is important for clarity. When the team knows changes are coming, they want to know WHEN. Remember-systems are able to be improved and changed anytime! Get feedback from your team on what they like, and what they would like to change regarding the system. Be open with your team. Barriers create miscommunication and misunderstanding, along with CONFUSION. No one wants to show up everyday confused and worried! Creating systems in the office will ultimately lead to personal accountability. No more will your team wonder, what should I do here? What am I responsible for at the end of the day? With a few simple steps and ultimately implementation, systems will lead to positive changes amongst your team. This can build rapport within the office and cut out blame within the team. Your TEAM is the most important thing you have! Without open communication, trust, and accountability, your team is only a group of individuals. Create your systems, your CULTURE, and the flow you have always wanted in your office! YOU are ultimately the LEADER! ~Kellie Black, RDH Disclaimer: This article is the sole opinion and research of the writer and doesn’t reflect the opinions of ZenSupplies.
When we started Zen back in 2016 it was a simple onboarding process that included - distributors, navigating Zen and pretty much that's all. Then we started going to our client's practices to learn and observe and we realized our offices are busy. Rarely we get someone excited over "Let's rebuild your dental inventory", and it's more "Wow you guys do that for us?". One of the first "Aha" moments was when I visited Bright Smile Dental - Dr. Rami Salloum when he said, "Tiger, you have so many offices, why don't you give us a template and we can build from there..." This was the beginning of us trying to push the envelope. What else can we do for our practices? Can we share more of what we've learned from our visits? Can we help organize physical space? As a result, 2 important elements were added: We share all of our knowledge through Dental Inventory Makeover Webinars (link to the most recent) where we break down entire process with forms and checklists to encourage our members (and pretty much anyone who is interested) to take full control of their inventory We introduced additional setup plans. Some offices wanted to get basic training. However, lately, a lot more practices ask for either advanced training or even for Dental Inventory Makeover. So more on this below So What Zen Setup Plans are there? Standard Setup Is for practices that need help building virtual inventory and getting comfortable using Zen dental software on a daily basis. We designed this plan for teams who feel more comfortable around computers and need Zen Instructor just to help review all the features and how to navigate the system. This plan includes: Distributors Setup Building Virtual Inventory Assign products to a template; identifying duplicate products in inventory; review of missing products in virtual inventory 1 HR Training 3 Follow-Ups on the 1st of each month Standard Setup Investment: $399/1st location/one time Advanced Setup Is for Teams that need to take their inventory control to the next level or start from complete scratch and customize to their unique environment. Advanced Setup is for practices that need a custom design of the storage space, help with analyzing floor plan and help to select the right storage solutions. Our Zen Instructors will be able to handle the entire process of customization from start to finish as well get the entire team comfortable using Zen and take full advantage of the system. This plan includes: Distributors Setup FaceTime Call with one of our Dental Inventory Experts Help to prepare an order to purchase storage units (we call them Tipout Bins) Help to allocate products to the right bins 1 HR Training 1 30 Min Training 2 3 Follow-Ups on the 1st of each month More on this here [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8oMEnRU-vo[/embedyt] Advanced Setup Investment: $799/1st location/one time Dental Inventory Makeover Is designed for practices that require on-site help from one of our Zen Instructors to completely revamp the entire process from physical storages, getting read off old and expired products to designing new storages. Our DIM plan includes all travel expenses as well as expenses required to purchase and install new storage units. DIM is truly transformational for many practices and a guaranteed way to get your practice organized and under 5% overhead goal. This plan includes: Distributors Setup FaceTime Call with one of our Dental Inventory Experts Help to prepare an order to purchase storage units (we call them Tipout Bins) 1-2 Days On-Site Visit to work on inventory; storages; help count inventory and simply get the entire team excited about the process. 30 Min Training 2 3 Follow-Ups on the 1st of each month More on this here: [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arj9O9XBoPQ[/embedyt] and here [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tBCVE7ZxYA[/embedyt] Dental Inventory Makeover Investment: $4,999/location/one time - includes travel expenses and the cost of purchasing storage units. Pretty much all-in cost. I truly think these 3 plans are designed to provide the best value to our practices and anybody who is looking to get full control over the ordering and supplies management. We look forward to seeing you soon and let me know what do you think of new setup plans? Tiger CEO ZenSupplies.com
Welcome to our first webinar on Dental Inventory Makeover process. In this 30 minute video we break down the process into 5 major steps: Organizing Physical Space How to Implement Dental Inventory Controls Ordering Process How to Control your Budget How to Negotiate Prices Hope you find it productive and something you can implement right away. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMlRKkiTlw[/embedyt] Resources mentioned during the webinar: TipOut Bins: Zen Recommended Assembly Are Free Goods really FREE? CheckLists and Budget Tracker
This is a crosspost from a recent interview, where Dr. Gina Dorfman interviewed Tiger Safarov on the Power of Organization and Inventory Control. Listen on: Stitcher iTunes Podcast Episode Info Dr. Gina Dorfman sits down with Tiger Safarov, founder of Zen Supplies. They talk about a wide range of hot topics in dentistry from dental inventory management to motivating and complementing your team. It's an episode packed with tips and topics about technology that you don't want to miss. Dr. Dorfman: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Behind The Smiles. I'm here today with my good friend Tiger Safarov. Tiger is the founder and the CEO of ZenSupplies. Tiger, welcome to the show. How are you today? Tiger: Fantastic. Thank you, Gina, for having me. Dr. Dorfman: I'm excited to have you here today because everyone talks about saving money on supplies, and I think that your company began with, wanted to get a little bit perspective of what your company does and how did you end up with that? Tiger: Sure. I always talk about how it started. The whole premise of Zen started out of curiosity. I was walking in a hallway by the dental practice, and I saw a dental assistant using a sticky note, and just writing down the things that they need to buy on a piece of paper. My curiosity was always through the roof. I stopped and I asked him, "What are you doing?" His name is Justino, he is the lead assistant at the practice. Tiger: He said, "Tiger, I'm just sticking order." I started looking and he was writing down gloves, three boxes, and three boxes of pouches. And then the funny thing, he had a phone and an Apple Watch. It was 2015. Then he takes a picture of it and texts it to the rep. I'm like, well, it's a little bit of technology here. But then he's like, "Please confirm when you receive it." I'm like, "How long would it take you to get the confirmation?" He said, "I don't know, he may never text me back." I thought, just out of that simple thing I said, what if we build something a lot easier to use where it's all in one place, you just click and submit it? Little did I know that now we have to deal with 250 distributors; 500,000 products; about the 1000 manufacturers. Three years ago, I didn't have a clue that it's going to be that big of the problem to solve. When we started out, it was funny. We started writing code, December 2015, I'd say right after Thanksgiving, November. We were launching the beta version by April. We spent December, January, February, March, four months writing the beta. Dr. Dorfman: That's incredible. Tiger: It was super-fast, and I was so proud of it. Again, I had no clue. I have no software background. I knew a little bit about technology. And then in April 2016, I'm at that same dental office with the same dental assistant and we're going to the dental inventory page with about 700 products, and you know this spinning wheel, and it's like spinning and spinning, spinning and spinning. I grabbed Justino by the arm and said, "All right, let's go grab a coffee at Starbucks." Came back, it was still loading. So that's how we started. It's a blessing that I had no idea about dentistry because if I would know how much it would take, and if I would listen to a couple of other people out there that say two dentists can't agree on a single composite, I probably would never start. Another thing is people ask me, some of our really expert Zen members, I call them Zen masters, they call me and they say, why do you charge so little? You should charge more. I have other people that are like, "Oh, I don't think we're going to use it." I'm going to tie it back into the concept that we haven't even scratched the surface of what the Zen should be because we're still learning. We're three years into this and we're still learning. Oh, lidocaine is equal to bupivacaine and whatever the names are. We're still building the system, where it's as simple as you go to search and type gauze and who would know that it's actually two by two? All these things that make sense for dental assistants and dental professionals, like dentists, and hygienists, they don't make sense for software. That's where we come in, and we try to understand, okay, if you're searching for gauze, and I have 1500 hits a month on my search for gauze. All right, let's take a look at what that means. I think we're just getting started. That's why I look at it as a project. I look at it as an experience. We started with long onboarding and It's a long process to onboard an office and get them started. Then we said, you know what, people don't have time for that. Maybe we should automate that and we automated the whole thing and with very little human touch onboarding. And then we learned that it’s not going to work; therefore, we're slowly coming back to it that and realized people do need the training to learn the basics of inventory. We usually start with, do you guys need an inventory management system? I've never had an office say no. Everybody's using three methods. Tags with rubber bands Spreadsheets where you can manually manage products and orders Nothing – is the most popular method These are the three most popular methods of managing inventory. So, then we start and we say, "All right, what would work best for you?" And then we schedule the training. We verify all the distributors, people connect all of their current vendors to Zen, and then we start analyzing and say, okay, so you're buying this from this company, this from that company, maybe you should look at all the other companies available. The biggest thing we discuss with new practices is how to get off of the next day delivery. And the idea behind is you managing inventory and not running out of items. Believe it or not, the number one reason why some of the big three names are the big three names is they master their logistics. It's just Susan at the dental practice, don't want to get yelled by the doctor that she's out of the product, so she's going to go in one of the big three websites or call the rep and place an order for the lidocaine so it's there tomorrow. We start that discussion saying, "All right, how do we get you to two or three-day delivery because that's where you can save money, and buying the same products from other vendors." Then we go into deeper training. Lately, I've been going to offices and simply throwing shit away. The first thing we do is we buy foldable tables at the Wal-Mart, bring them to the office and unload each individual room these tables, and we go through every storage, closet, drawer, everything. Believe it or not, every single office that says: “Tiger, I don't have a single expired product”, we end up throwing about a full construction bag full of expired products and just old stuff they never use. Dr. Dorfman: I believe that because I've been ... You know what, I always, my claim to fame, I'm a very organized person. I have a very organized office. In fact, everyone who comes into my office, they say three things. Wow., it's very clean. Wow, it's very organized and wow, it's very efficient. Where have you been before? But in my office, my clean, organized, efficient office, we always throw things away because dental supplies expire because a lot of times you get them close to the expiration date. Actually, I want to mention something. There are some websites that are selling inexpensive supplies. I think you can buy supplies on eBay probably. There's Net32, there are some other companies. The problem is that you need to get a big order to get a discount. And then a lot of them are close to the expiration date. So, now you have a lot of well-priced shit that's close to the expiration date and you don't have enough time to use it up or even determine whether you want too much. How do you determine if you want too much? I interrupted you, but I believe I heard they call you Mary Kondo of dental? Tiger: The Russian version. I should come up with some funny words like, you know how she speaks Japanese, right? I watch a couple of Netflix because when people started calling me that I didn't know what they were talking about. And then I watched a couple of them and she talks total Japanese and nobody cares. I think I should go into the offices and just speak Russian, and then have a translator next to me and translate it into English. I think that will spice it up a little bit. But you're touching on something very, very important. I think a lot of people don't realize that number one, there's nothing free. People are buying free goods and specials. So, people are literally buying free goods. That's the concept just doesn't fit in my head. And then the second part is, people, waste their time chasing deals, going to eBay and going to Amazon, when the best part of ... To take a step back, the best part of running Zen, I have right now about 350 offices across the country. I can study them all. I see everything that people buy. I see the distributors and all of the transactions and I see what makes an office 3.8% overhead. And I have offices with five and I have seven and 10 % overhead on supplies. I can tell you, putting everything I've got. If I would lose all of it tomorrow, I can put my name on it, that the biggest problem that offices make is they're buying too much stuff. An example I always use is this. Let's use lidocaine. Most likely people that are listening today on March 2019, paying for lidocaine about $27. If you pay more, you have a problem. But on average, people are paying $27 for a box of lidocaine Imagine, you go on eBay and you buy it for 24, a great deal. You save $3, right? The problem is most of the offices when they go on eBay, they buy three boxes versus one. Now, you've wasted $48, 24 by two, $48. Their $48, yes, they're going to use it at some point when it gets expired, they don't even know. But in reality, they needed one box. None of my offices that are running supplies budgets under 3.8% will ever buy specials and free goods. They can use their big three, it's totally fine. It's just the problem is that 80% of the savings come from quantities and only 20% comes from price. That equation is reversed right now in dental that we're trying to bring it back into quantity versus price. Dr. Dorfman: I think that for ... We're talking about cash flow here. There are so many things that we can invest in, besides lidocaine and gauze and in order to save money on buying in quantity. Especially for startups, every single startup essentially is a no brainer for a startup, because starting with a system, and in the startup cash flows is a big deal. The lidocaine that you're injecting today, you're not going to get that money from insurance for six to eight weeks. That's in money investing. If you are buying lidocaine to last you till October, you might save $7, but that's a lot of money invested into lidocaine that could be going towards paying off your student loans or your other loans, right? Tiger: Yes, these are two such important things. If we get to leadership, we'll talk about it. When we demo the product there are usually two excuses I have from doctors when we get to this free goods and cheaper prices, people say number one "Well, I'm going to use it anyway, so I have cash available. Why don't I do that, and I just buy all the supplies and they keep them there. It doesn't cost me anything to keep them in the practice.” But the opportunity cost of lost cash? Right now, everybody talks about Facebook being one of the greatest platforms to advertise. 250 bucks can bring you; I don't know how many new patients, but at least one. What's that one new patient will be worth for the practice? Probably a lot more than you saving all that money. That whole concept that people have of like, no, I would much rather put money, literally park dollar bills on the shelf and wait until it's being used is ridiculous. I think the second one I hear from people saying, "Well, who cares if my assistant is spending two hours in ordering? Going from website to website trying to find a deal? She is on payroll anyway.” What about patient recalls? What about doing things that ... I'm sure you guys automate, but it's a human touch picking up the phone and say, "Hey, we haven't seen you in six months. Would you rather do that?" Or have your assistant be on the phone to try to save you $2 in a box of lidocaine? That's just ridiculous. Dr. Dorfman: Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree with you. The same thing with next day delivery, we need next day delivery, because we're running out of stuff. But the company that I order with, and you know I have a long history with this company. I buy so much that I'm actually getting a really good deal, which is why I was asking you, can I still order from them through you? Which is really cool, because you can keep your vendor, but there's a charge for that next day delivery. But the reason why it needs to be placed is that the assistant doesn't want to be yelled at for running out or being low on something. A lot of times because we don't have a good inventory system, like in my office, nowadays, they're building those tilt out bins or whatever. But in my office, you have cabinets and closets, and you just have boxes sitting in closets. You don't know what's in there. Tiger: Right. Dr. Dorfman: I think that the ability to really monitor your inventory, and ... Zen allows budgeting, is that correct? Dr. Dorfman: How does that work? Tiger: It's funny. When people tell me, "Can you get me to 5%?" I usually say, "I can get you to 5% next month." They say, "It’s impossible, I’m at 10%." I hope people know what we're talking about, it's the collections multiplied by your overhead goal on dental supplies, usually 5% or 10%, that should be a budget. First of all, 80% of the offices that do a demo in supplies don't even know how to set up a budget. Literally, people don't know that you take these two numbers, collections for the last month multiplied by the percentage where you want to be, that's your budget. People don't know. Second is, people would say, "Well, how long would it take me to get to my budget?" I say, "Next month." Because you set the budget, and build Zen properly, which we train people to do, your assistant is not allowed to spend more than you allocate per month. Now, if she spends more, that means you approved it because we have an approval process within Zen. She sends an order for approval, and if it's over the budget, she can't even send it for approval, she needs to adjust or he needs to adjust the quantities. I tell people, next month you're going to be at 5%. As simple as that. Budgeting is really cool. A lot of people love it. Dr. Dorfman: I love that. You actually go into offices, you help them clean up and you help them implement the system because you have trainers, I'm sure. I bet when you go to offices, you can really quickly spot some differences between the offices that are very successful and the offices that are not. Tell me about it. What are some of the differences? Tiger: Can I show you one? This is my favorite. This is literally my favorite subject. Check this out. I hope you can see it. Right? Dr. Dorfman: That's really cool. Can you describe it for the listeners? Tiger: Yep. For Listeners, especially doctors, if you're the ones taking the trash out, if you're the ones that don't mind taking a broom and cleaning up the place and turning over the rooms and helping you assistants, you're the type of person I want to work with. I'll be honest. I have an office that I just went to ... Again, it's so cool, we have ... Can I tell you very quick the craziest thing about running Zen? Dr. Dorfman: Yes, please. Please do. Tiger: I rarely pay for hotels. Most of the time, I stay at my clients' houses. As weird as it sounds, I rarely stay at the hotels. Every time I go on travel, it's like, "Whoa, Tiger, can you stay at my couch? I got a room for you." The number of times I've stayed at people's living rooms, it's insane. It's like a long night conversation is fun. It's really awesome. We get to connect at a very different level. And then I always, on my flight back, I'm taking notes in my journal, and I say, what makes so special about this doctor or the practice? If I go and I combine all of my notes together, it's usually bowling down to a couple of things. Number one, my most successful offices, the doctor never walks through the back door. It's paramount how much a doctor walking through the main door means to the practice. Number one, that means he or she is on time. Number two, they get to see everything within a practice the same eyes as the patients. Amount of times the offices that I went to that have very poor leadership, I go in and the garbage can in the front is full, there's no water. There's a sign that says, we have coffee and cookies and usually, it's empty, it's crickets. Doctor’s ability to go through the front door means a lot. Then the second part which is also equally important is, when they go through the front door, they can see the reaction of the person that greets the patients. If the doctor walks in and he is a little grumpy and stuff like that, that affects that person right away. If they come in ... Usually, I can tell you. My top doctors are all these cheerleaders. They come in and they're like, "Megan, how are you doing today?" That's how they come in, full of energy, or some of them come in and bring the Starbucks to their team members. Imagine $7 spent on Starbucks for two cups of coffee for your front desk per day will probably lead to a lot of recalls and reactivations. It's just my experience. I might be totally off on that, but that's just my experience. Dr. Dorfman: I don't want to interrupt, but you're absolutely right. I always hear team members say, not always, but a lot of times I hear team members talking about feeling underappreciated. The doctor always thinks well, they want a huge raise, they want this. A lot of times, it's really the small things, just letting them on a daily basis know they matter, that they're important, and then that we're thinking about them. That's what that appreciation is, letting people know that you're thinking about them, right? Tiger: Yep. Part of when I visit the offices, as crazy as it sounds, is I pick up on dynamics pretty quickly. And then I always remind doctors, especially when I do these inventory makeover projects, "You know what, there's going to be one big challenge for you is not to say anything." When we start working with your team, especially a dental assistant and hygienists, where they're going to take a lead on reorganizing the rooms, agreeing on how we're going to do things, they're going to decide what's going to go in the treatment room, not you. You can have a say "Look, ideally for me as a doctor, I would love to have a set of burs 557 as an emergency and things like that. But that's on you to decide whatever we need, whatever you think is going to be an urgency, and that's it.” Not even like ... You could check at the end and say, "Yeah, great job. I'm proud of you." But not even being the process. There are so many people that we start, and I say, "All right, Stacy, what do you think?" She will say, "Well, I think we should do it." And the doctor will interrupt right on the spot and start saying what needs to be done. I'm burning inside. I will be the one saying timeout, timeout, let's go grab a coffee. I will grab a doctor and say, "That's got to change." Which is really hard. Dr. Dorfman: It is hard, but you're absolutely right. First of all, people support what they help create. If the dental assistant takes leadership on creating this inventory system and deciding what goes in the rooms, if she really owns that project, then she's going to continue to run with it. For us doctors, we're practice owners, we're doctors, we're decision makers. We make decisions and we expect people to implement those decisions, and then they don't. As soon as we walk away, things started to tank because they were never part of the original decision because the flow doesn't make sense to them. It's really those who are carrying on the responsibility that should be implementing. Also, because I can see how it can be demoralizing to employees when the doctor is constantly talking over them or, sending direction down the stream so to say. I think when they allow them to own a project they really build them up and help them become more self-sufficient and independent and take pride in that work. I love what you said about walking through the front door. It's funny because yes, you're on time, and yes, you're raising the energy of the team. I always say the CEO is the chief energizing officer. You know what, I remember we once had a meeting at my dental office. It was one of those ... I'm not a touchy-feely type of person, I don't like those touchy-feely meetings. But it was one of those meetings where we started off with everyone having to say something nice about someone else in the room. What they appreciate about that person. One of my hygienists said she was talking about Ken. She said, "What I really appreciate about Ken is when he walks in, he comes out to every single one of us, says, hello, addresses us by name, asks how we're doing, what kind of day we're having." For me, it was the biggest aha moment because I am the one, I'm coming in, I'm all about business and have a ton of things to take care of. Hearing that from my team ... This is so small, you just walk through the front door, and you say hi to everyone. That was a big game changer for me. That was okay, I have to adopt. I might not be that person, but I have to become this person if I want to be a good leader. Tiger: Yep. Can we talk about it for a second just to hopefully help your listeners? There are two things in this example that you gave. The big part of it is understanding your personality. I also don't like when doctors don't have that within them, it just not in their DNA to smile or to appreciate their team members. That's totally fine. You happen to have an office, you can't just sell it, this is your practice, you want to grow it, I get it. Be self-aware, understand you can't do it but appoint somebody in your office. Like you have Ken, come in and do it. There's got to be someone that's going to do that front door experience, and run it and then come back to you and say, "Look, I think we're doing great." Then you can put a checkbox in your checklist for a day and say, done. Be self-aware, appoint somebody to do that. That can be your office manager, the cheerleader can get it done for you. If you're a startup and you don't have somebody, well, suck it up for a little bit until you have an office manager and do it. I don't have anything else to say. Dr. Dorfman: Yeah, that's absolute, that's very true. Often, it's Ken who would come up and point something that I overlooked. Maybe like the magazines are not looking that great. If you can't do it, if it's not one of your strength, you definitely need to have that person in your office who is going to do that. So, excellent point. What are some of the other things? Because you said that earlier like a fly on the wall in the office because you're coming in from the outside and being a CEO of your own company, you know how things are supposed to run. You see things from the side and you work closely with the team and with the doctor. You probably see a lot of things. Let's talk about some of the other things. Tiger: I think my other thing is a little bit of what we talked earlier, is understanding, which is the hardest, is knowing what you're good at, what you strong at and what you're not and not try to fake it. I have seen doctors that it's just not in their DNA to take the garbage out. But they will show it and prove it to everybody. When they do it, it comes out a little fake. They will come back and say, "Look at me, I just took the trash out." That's wrong, in my opinion. It's better to say, "Look, I don't even know where the garbage can is. I don't know what I would do without my team. I so appreciate what you do." Being real, I think is very very important. Authentic, exactly. A lot of people is just absolutely not there. I think another part about delegation vs. Abdication. Doctors are good at abdication, but not at delegation. I've seen this many, many times. All right, we're setting up an inventory management system. Assistants have no clue what that is, and what would that involve? The doctor is like, "All right, Stacy, you're in charge. Bye." And then I'm trying to schedule a follow up in two months with a doctor, they have no clue what's going on. The right way of doing things is probably and actually picked it up from again, one of my offices at Zen that went from 10% to 5% in one month, is they pick a project for a quarter. Every quarter, they have a project. For quarter four, there was an inventory project for them. I got lucky, they picked us to be their provider. So, the whole team, top to bottom was involved just on inventory. The way they did it is doctors involved checking all the products, understanding how the flow works, working with the team, understanding how the flow works within their specific office and only then delegating to the whole team saying, "All right, we've tried all this, this is what's going to work. And then on top of it, every Friday, Every week, they check in. " And say, "Okay, so we put this system in place, how's it working?" Somebody comes in like Amber she'll say, "Well, I don't like that it's this and that." She goes like, "All right, note taken." The biggest part is nobody says, well, you just didn't think about this. They're like, taking notes. And then Susan comes in and she's a hygienist and she is like a doctor, are you out of your mind? I don't have toothbrushes." The team is taken notes down, no conversations about, no Susan you just didn't look at this cabinet. No, they just write it down. And then they go back with their original three or four people team and discuss and say what did the process feel? Go back change, adjust. Monday on the morning huddle, roll out the next one. Speaking about the morning huddles, I would say 10% out of 100 will have a morning huddle. How's that possible? Dr. Dorfman: Blows my mind away. You're starting a fresh day. You got to have a quick powwow just decided how this day's going to go. Tiger: You know what I learned; this is a fundamental thing every office should implement. I really think that every single dental office should have, call it a social media coordinator or call it a patient heart coordinator. What that person does is for every morning huddle, they would sit down and look at the schedule for the upcoming day. This heart social media coordinator would look at the patient schedule for the next day. Then she goes on social media, literally, that's what she does, during the day, on the phone, all day long. Looking at all these patients on social media; Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and probably less Twitter but Facebook and Instagram, the biggest one and look what's going on. And then in the morning huddle, and the next day, they give an update for every patient, and write them the chart notes and say, "All right, little Jackson has a birthday today. Our Lily had a soccer tournament yesterday and her son won." Imagine those little things they put in a schedule. Now, the doctor goes in into each treatment room and start the conversation with like, "Hey, did Johnny win the tournament last night?" That will change the whole freaking thing for everybody. That's what I've learned from Gary Takacs, they do that in their practice is for every patient, they have a person that checks everything, birthdays and what's going on in their life and this and that. Sometimes they'll tell the doctor and say, look, in this room, we have a person that needs a little bit of pep talk for 10 or 15 minutes, just sit down and listen, something big happened or horrible happened in their life. That's the biggest thing. You can talk about it during the morning huddle for five, 10 minutes. Dr. Dorfman: Absolutely. You can really change someone's experience by ... First of all, I think a lot of our patients feel like a number. They come in and it's especially apparent when I think dentists are better when you go to a medical office, it's like okay, sign your name. Then they got that peel off sticker. Sometimes I have offices always ask us why don't you have a kiosk? Because we want you to talk to your patients. Human interaction, it's so important. We like our social media, we like our mobile devices, the convenience, the iPads, all that stuff, but nothing- Tiger: The convenience of everybody putting their entire life on this thing. Everybody put so much information. It's insane how much you can know about the person right before their appointment. I love this, I go and see my clients, I don't remember their names sometimes. Not like, but spouses and their kids, I would look it up on Facebook, come back and say, how's JC doing? Things like that? It's so easy. Dr. Dorfman: I know. It's great. Very good tip. When you travel to those offices, and you started this conversation, do you sometimes get a little bit of a push back from the team? Like they're not comfortable with technology? Because I know this is something that we experience. What's your take on this, and how do you overcome some of those challenges? Tiger: I think the blessing is that A, I'm an immigrant, I can play a dumb card for a little bit when I start. The second is, I had a blessing early in my life. I was a lab instructor at one of the colleges for underserved and minorities. It helped me a lot to understand the process, how to get people to even learn how to use computers and things like that the first time in their life. Looking back now, that it's such a huge experience for me, I would go in and I would start ... Usually, I get an excuse of, “Oh, Tiger technology is not my thing. “ Or “At my age, technology is not my thing. That's okay, let's start somewhere. Did you have Facebook?” People say, "Oh, yeah, of course." "Do you post things on Facebook?" "Oh, yeah, I do." "Well, it's just like Facebook. It's easy. You will be able to post things. Zen's plays just the same way." Then we will do some jokes and I let them play a little bit and click some buttons, something easier, and then people break through and they get comfortable. I think the other thing is, I think I do more than, that my job, I feel like it's being the cheerleader for them. When I do trainings, I'm this sunshine pumper, sitting and saying, "All right, Susan, you're doing awesome." The biggest thing I've learned is, I always say, and it's natural now. I think it's always been naturally is I say, "You know what Susan? Where you started, and where you at now is incredible. I'm so proud of you for what you've accomplished. I know we have a lot more to do. But just that one little step that you have done is huge. I'm super proud of you. Let's keep it up to the same way." And then I can feel they're slowly getting to where we need to go. I think that's how we do it. Dr. Dorfman: I love what you said there because I think ... This is sometimes a reservation that I hear. Someone's age is going to prevent from using technology. One example I can give, my mother in law is 70 years old. She still works, she's a bookkeeper. She's on Facebook. She is using Gusto for payroll. She's using QuickBooks for ... She does online banking, she shops online. It used to be my thing, now my mother-in-law, I get all those packages delivered to my house because we have someone at the house all the time. If she can do all that online and she's 70 years old, and then what's going to prevent someone to order supplies online? She buys things on Amazon; she buys things from Nordstrom, why not. As long as you really take the time with them and help them. She's still a little terrified of Dropbox somehow because she's used to a paper filing system. When I moved everything to ... She's a bookkeeper in my practice and she's working for YAPI as well and Dropbox somehow is a little terrifying because we just moved last year. She's getting there. You really just say, okay, see, you're doing it, you're doing fine. You're just doing fine. Tiger: I think it's the attitude. Dr. Dorfman: Exactly. I think you get what you expect, right? Tiger: Mm-hmm (affirmative) It's a similar example. I love your example. I would say something similar. I say, "Yeah, I understand what you're talking about. My grandfather, 95, had the same problem before using Skype and now he uses Skype every day." Dr. Dorfman: Yeah, that's right. She's using Skype, she has a smartphone. I don't really see that as a factor there. When you go to those offices, and you're working with assistants, are there any aha moments that they experience that, okay, maybe this is really a better way of doing things? Tiger: It's a great question. I think we both have aha moments. For some reason, people say a dental office is a dental office, what are you going to see in another dental office? Every time I go to an office, I have this aha moment that A, I don't know anything. I literally have to learn things again. And B is, I watch how people have aha moments, and to me, it's interesting. I say, "Oh, maybe we should say it this way, or maybe we should rephrase certain things and use it differently." I think the biggest thing is that people have aha moment is when they truly understand that we try to save them time, that becomes a huge factor for many, many offices. Our biggest thing is at the end of the day, I sell time. I don't sell anything else. People buy products from other distributors, what they're paying a subscription for is for the time. I remember one of the comments that I got, the whole team was sitting and tearing up a little bit, had some tears when an assistant called me. They have 26 offices and she's been running supplies for one of the largest offices. She said, before Zen, she would stay two hours after work to get everything ready and organized for the next day. Now, it's 15 minutes. She says: “I can go home and see my kids and spend time with my family. Thank you guys so much." That's the greatest comment that we ever get. Saving money, it's fine, but when you can provide that to the team members, I think that's the biggest thing for us. Dr. Dorfman: Absolutely. I can relate because, with our software, yes, it's convenient. Yes, you don't have to buy the toner and the paper, and yes, the patients like it. All those are great things, but when you realize that a typical dental office going paperless, the front office will save 600 hours a year just on scanning, filing, shredding, data entry, that's huge. What can you get done in 600 hours? We don't realize that but when we ... This is like one doctor, two hygienists working four, five days a week. That's a lot of time. When you give people the time back that they can do more things and take better care of patients, that's really important ... Because we're all so busy. Everyone is so busy. In a typical dental office, I feel like a lot of things are not getting done especially at the front office because there's always something happening. The front office is answering phones, and people coming in and people leaving and they need appointments scheduled. In the back, the assistants are running from room to room to room. Only when you have an opening in the schedule, is when you can actually sit down and start going through catalogs and finding supplies. That's actually the reason why a lot of times they run out, is because there's never an ordering time on the schedule. It's always like, whenever I have time. Tiger: Exactly. Dr. Dorfman: They don't have an opportunity to do a full inventory and they have things hidden in closets that they cannot see in plain view. I really think that this is the biggest value there. What's in the future? What are you dreaming about? Tiger: My dream is this, I really want to get Zen to the point where you have a package show up every two weeks and you're under 4% and we're spot on what you need. That's all. Dr. Dorfman: I love that. Tiger: That's a total Zen for me. Nobody runs out of products anymore. It's done. Nobody needs this whole price ... To me, right now the whole industry is going through so much commotion about this whole pricing and distributors and big three being sued by the government and all that stuff. To me, it's unnecessary for the teams because the patients are number one, and they're stressed already enough. Why put the team through all of that? It should be super easy. It should be a couple of clicks to set it up, get everything, put it in the software and then done. Dr. Dorfman: I love that. Let's talk. I see you have a couple of meetings coming up where you are planning to speak. Tell me about that. Where are we going to see them? Tiger: One thing when I travel and go to the offices, I hear doctors getting excited about their Cs. I hear hygienists being sad about their Cs. I feel like my poor dental assistants are left out, and they're sitting in the room like, it would be cool if we would have some kind of conference to go. But I don't think there is one. I've been thinking about it since we started. Tiger: It took me probably a year to really realize something important. For ZenSupplies our end user is an assistant and most of the time, not the doctor. Then I thought, okay, we need to organize our own event where we get the chance to get all of our assistants together and give them the platform to learn more, become better, really encourage to step out of the comfort zone and go for more. Tiger: We finally, this year, partnering up with some people that we're going to help bring that to real life, and that's actually, it's going to be Dental Assistant Conference- Dr. Dorfman: National Conference. Tiger: National Conference for Excellence. The acronym is DANCE. We talked about everybody loves to DANCE. I didn't come up with this, I work with a couple of incredible people. One of them is Julie Varney. She's putting it all together and we're fortunate to be part of it. I'll be speaking at that event primarily about the organization, what that organization of when you can deep really brief. I’ll be talking about how does it feel when everything is organized and it sits in the right place. It's that feeling when you organize your pantry. Everything is in the right place. I'll talk about that, but primarily, my main focus right now is getting that conference to life and we're super excited to do that. Dr. Dorfman: This is wonderful because there is a conference for office managers. I've been to that conference multiple times and it's always this really fun event filled with so much energy and the office managers who attend the conference really love being a part of it. They love being a part of an organization that really connects them, that provides them learning opportunities. They recognize those who achieved a lot in the field of front office management. Of course, the dentist we have ... Are you going to be at the Dental Success Institute in Scottsdale? Tiger: Can't wait. Dr. Dorfman: Yes, that's going to be so much fun. Between the voices of dentistry and the dental town coming up, we're going to be at the dental town next week and DSI and practice on fire, there are so many wonderful events where people really organize in communities. I'm not aware of anything like that for dental assistants. For me, when I first started my practice, it was always my goal to bring the assistant up to not only be a patient advocate or someone who is holding a suction all day but really someone who owns her space. Who is productive, who is proud of her accomplishments, who is- Tiger: And confident. Dr. Dorfman: And confident, exactly. Who are continuously learning? I've used every possible opportunity to help my assistants really learn as much as possible. Whether it means that we have small meetings in the office where I personally teach them. Whether I get the videos, bring them to conferences. I think for them to have this kind of conference where they can learn and organize and work together and really be a part of something bigger than themselves. I think that's wonderful. Kudos to Julie, I'm glad that you are part of this. Tiger: Yeah, it's October 18- 19th, dentalassistantconference.com. I think the best part about this conference is that nobody's trying to make money off of it. People are really putting it together for having it. I think that's always the best part. I love when people do things for a greater good than just putting money in their pocket. Dr. Dorfman: Absolutely. Any other advice before ... We are almost coming on time. I can't believe how fast that went. You talk so fast and I talk so fast, and we still fill out an hour. But anything else in closing that you'd like to? Tiger: I'd like to ask you a question. Dr. Dorfman: Okay. Tiger: What do you think in a dental technology horizon in the next two years, what do you think that technology is going? Dr. Dorfman: I think there's going to be a lot of automation. I think we're going to see some bots that are helping connect our patients with the dental team that are going to provide some information when the office is closed. Because we are getting to a point where we have more and more millennials sent to the dental office and they're going to, whether it's patients or as employees or doctors. There are more and more millennial doctors entering into practice. The doctors want to streamline things. For patients, I think it's really important that they get answers to their questions when they have those questions. They want to be able to connect with the office through websites, through Facebook, through any other venue. I think that being accessible and being available to those patients, and being reachable in a way that the patients want to reach us is where it's all going. Of course, on a business side, we're seeing a lot of DSOs are growing and they're leveraging technology and they're leveraging their buying power. For private practices, it's going to be incredibly important to be streamlined and to budget well and to really leverage technology in their own way to run practices better. Tiger: Interesting. Yeah, I think I agree with you, it's automation. The coolest thing is just as a final thought that I just had is, every single private practice, and I think you and I are in the forefront of helping private practice just to continue to stay private and not go into the DSO route, which is nothing bad. But I think there's so much beauty of owning the practice and being the 100% sole owner. I think it's being adaptable to the new technology. The offices that I see that that doesn't sit on the rear end and say, well, I'm just going to hold my breath and hope I'm going to retire soon. These days are over. The sooner people jump into the new things and new technology, that will allow them to stay ahead of the curve and not go in the DSO route and continue being successful solo owners. Dr. Dorfman: Absolutely. I 100% wholeheartedly agree with you there. Wow, that was a fun discussion, and I am so glad that you were able ... I know you're busy and you're traveling a lot. I thank you for taking the time to spend with us, with our listeners. We will put the link to ZenSupplies website on the show notes. Tiger: Thank you. Dr. Dorfman: I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Dental Success Summit. Tiger: And a link to the conference too. Dr. Dorfman: And the conference, absolutely. Absolutely, thank you for the reminder. I'll see you at the DSI, and have a good rest of your week. Tiger: Thank you. It's been an honor to be on your show. Thank you so much. Dr. Dorfman: Thank you.