Quick Warning: most likely you will see typos and sentences that would not make any sense. Please be patient with me since I refuse to use editors (except spell check) because I don’t want to lose my voice in the filtered/edited text. As many of you know I simply can’t stand still or be in the office for too long. I have a burning desire to visit ALL of our ZenFamily (clients). Therefore the decision to spend 2 weeks in Texas was super simple. I called my friend Andy (Dr. Andy Tran) and asked if it was ok to stay with them for a few days. After hearing a positive yes we were on the road! Linda and Andy's reaction when I called to ask if we can stay with them... Homemade food, 17 hours of drive, one stop in Memphis to sleep and we are in Austin. The first Item on the Agenda Food :) Adam (Zen Sales and Onboarding) was in charge of steak, Andy and Linda Guacamole and I made my signature salad. I’m reminded again why I started Zen and who in the world would’ve thought that I will ever share the meal with friends (who happened to be clients of Zen). Next Day visit to Ikea to help Andy bring countertops. Andy is opening a startup dental practice on February 4th, 2019 and I admire his drive a lot. He has been to more conferences than anybody I know, and I’m not talking about just dental. Andy and Linda (soon to be wife) have been to all dental conferences, Tony Robbins and most likely plenty more that I’m not aware of. After we picked up countertop, we are headed to the office, Apex Dental Studio sign greats us as we are pulling into the parking lot. The brand new building, end cap, perfect location for a dental practice. From the minute we entered the space I can see all the knowledge Andy gathered from conferences, books, seminars - no side cabinets, Tip Out bins, all treatment rooms in one row, and so much more. Super proud of Andy and Linda and I can see you guys are going to achieve great results and be very successful. Humble beginnings of every Dental Startup! Ikea furniture, deliver on the roof of the car and friends are your movers :) From Monday until Friday Adam and I divided responsibilities and were visited by our clients in the area. So many stories to tell about our ZenFamily. Let's get started! Dr. Hector Tijerina took over a failing practice in Austin Texas about a year ago (we discovered during our get together that it actually is 1 year ago). Through tough times, stress and lots of changes he turned the practice around. Now happy and expecting first born dr. Tijerina is smiling and itching for the next thing (common quality among Zen users :). Dr. Hector Carlos Tijerina DDS Randolph Family Dental and Dr. Fortuna Vardeman went through lots of changes and I absolutely admire her resilience. I felt positive energy being in the office and I was happy to see Dr. Vardeman’s brother Carino helping with supplies and other things. At the end of the day dental practice is a Family Business! Dr. Fortuna Vardeman and Carino Excellent Dental Specialist: Dr. Andrew Weber, DDS, and Steve. This is one of our large ZenFamily members in San Antonio with 3 offices. Steve who is in charge of supplies doing an awesome job keeping all 3 locations on track and within budget. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Steve and Dr. Weber on this trip but I was able to show customer service the Zen way and delivered back ordered water order myself - more on this here (Watch Here) Pflugerville Family Dentistry: Dr. Chris Mun and Alaa are awesome. Alaa took over Zen and ordering for a previous person and now is full control. From Tip out Bins (another common element of most successful offices) to verifying orders Alaa is doing a great job. Dr. Chris Mun Lonestar Endodontic Associates: Dr. Raj Shenoy, Angela, and Valencia. I’m simply impressed with their dedication. This is my second visit to the office and every time I go Angela has questions, she is determined and super positive. Honestly, this makes all the difference in the word - Attitude. Super excited to see how Zen can help Lonestar get organized! Dr. Raj Shenoy, Angela, and Valencia AcreWood Dental: Dr. Benjamin Johnson, Allison, Megan, and Kylee. AcreWood Dental was our first stop on Monday and this was supposed to be a routine visit to check and see how things are going. On the first visit we met with Alison (Office manager) and she was happy to show how they “Zen”. I was blown away. They really took the concept to the next level and got extremely organized. After an hour-long meeting, I felt I needed to come back and document the process better because it really challenged how we thought supplies should be organized. More on this we will cover in the case study and video documentary - stay tuned. Allison, DR. Johnson, and Megan Wheeler Pediatric Dentistry: Dr. John Wheeler and Christiana. We had a pretty busy Wednesday and ended up cutting it really close to 5 pm when the office is closing. Through Houston traffic and famous Texas driving, we made it 4:40 only to find that we went to the other location that was closed that day. Adam called back the office and asked to wait for us :) So drove even faster to make it on time and 5:03 we were there. Dr. John Wheeler met us we had a great chat for a few minutes. Super happy to have this office as part of ZenFamily and help them organize inventory between 2 locations. Adam and Dr. Wheeler David Rossen DDS: Brian and Kevin. Kevin (who also runs a very successful dental analytics company divergentdental.com) and I have become really good friends. I always look forward to chatting with Kevin and bounce ideas. This time we didn’t take a picture, but Dental Success Summit is coming in a few weeks and we will have plenty of opportunities there :) Stop for Coffee: Jo’s Coffee located in the heart of Austin - South Congress and is a part of my favorite hotel San Jose, highly recommend to stay here when in Austin. This hotel has an incredible story and you can pick up a lot of inspiration from staying here. As I’m sipping my cortado I had to pinch myself to make sure it’s real life - I get to do what I truly love, meet people I truly admire and build a business that allows me to do all that. I would never imagine this in a million years and I’m super grateful to all ZenFamily (our users) who help us build the company we dream off every day. (Dr. Dave Maloley I thought about you and taking a moment to be grateful :) Breakaway Practice: Meeting with Dr. Scott Leune. Scott and I first met at the Voice of Dentistry 2018 and became good friends. I truly respect Scott for his bold vision and what he has built so far. I have a feeling he has a lot more to accomplish. Dr. Scott Leune Next Level Management: Dr. An Le, Aniket and Joann. Joann was our Person and Office of the Month in January and every time I’m in Dallas it’s a must for me to stop and chat. Joann always has great feedback and new challenges for us. I’m super great to have Next Level as part of ZenFamily and look forward to watching them dominate Dallas as they continue to expand (currently with 7 locations). Joann Nguyen Michael Hardcastle DDS and Andrea. When you meet them in person you will know why I always have a big smile just thinking about this couple. My friend Ashlee calls Michael “Papa bear” for a reason. Caring hug, great dinner and really deep and meaningful conversation with a glass of wine with Michael and Andrea are one of the big reasons why Dallas is special for me. Not to mention t was Michael’s birthday and I had a chance to wish him all the best together with the entire team. Really special moment and I captured most of it just need to edit the video :) Dr. Michael Hardcastle and Andrea Last stop on the trip Heartland Mirror Lake Dentistry with Dr. Jeff Slutskiy. I’m very impressed with what Jeff has accomplished in a short amount of time and I look forward to seeing what’s in the future. I really hope to be the part of their growing organization and I think Jeff can easily be This is all, but it’s not the end. We have many more clients in Texas that we couldn’t visit on this trip but we will be back. Thank you to all for being an inspiration to build Zen! More images that didn't make the cut : Adam introduced us to slow maker to prepare best steak and I made my famous salad :) AcreWood Dental Kylee AcreWood Dental Dr. Johnson Verifying all orders with Megan Sunset on Lake Travis
I’ve been asked this question a lot of times. Every time we onboard and train new dental practice this question comes up “How do I track my free goods?” My concern, they are not FREE!! There is no Santa Claus. There is no Easter Bunny. There is no such thing as FREE DENTAL PRODUCTS! Now here are my top 3 reasons why FREE goods are a bad idea to focus on: Reason 1: Cash is King and Cashflow is the vein system of your Practice! Buying more than you need is killing your cash flow. Can you imagine Starbucks or McDonalds saying “Let’s buy beans on special and we will use it in the next 6 month”? Let’s apply this example to a specific use case, most of the time and for most practices, you need one box of lidocaine (average cost $30/box). But there’s a special, buy three get one free (theoretically making a unit price of $22.50/box – paid for 3 and divide the total by 4 units). All of a sudden your attention is on buying three items because you’re going to get one box for free. See what happens here, you are buying three boxes versus one, therefore, you’re spending extra $60 on buying these two additional boxes. Therefore, you spent a lot more money than you should have. On one item it seems minor, only $60, however, this happens across 3-5 items per order, totaling $250-400 in extra spend per ORDER. 3 Problems arise from this reason: Expired Products: Typically these items are going to be sitting on the shelf and at some point will get expired. Cash should be used on marketing and other revenue producing activities. The business decision that you are making that extra cash flow is going to be sitting on the shelf (in the form of a product) versus producing you the money is terrifying. By the way, as of April 2019, investing an additional $250-$400 a month on Facebook/Instagram marketing can generate significant ROI. You are becoming a warehouse. Some offices are willing to turn an operatory room into storage!!!! Please avoid doing this. Most products can be shipped within 3-7 days. There is absolutely no need to stock items for more than 2-4 weeks. Don’t be in the warehouse/logistics business. Reason 2: Undersupply vs oversupply I remember being a kid. If I have a jar of cookies for the whole day and let’s just say they’re 10 of them, I’m going to eat the whole 10. But if I have a jar with just the one cookie, I’m probably going to get that one cookie carefully throughout the day. You get the idea! It’s the same mentality in a dental practice. If you’re going to put a stack of bibs, all of them at the same time in front of the team (where your daily stock is), most likely you’re going to use a lot more than if you just put 10 a day and you say this is all we’ve got. Or if we have 30 patients on the schedule, we’re going to put 35 on the shelf and that’s all we got. I visit practices weekly and it’s very common to see carpules, burrs, composite tips and all sorts of other things laying around on the floor, behind cabinets, and even in the garbage can. From day one, each practice should establish min use or develop a checklist for Lead Assistant to use when restocking the room with exact QTYs. Reason 3: Most Manufactures also don’t like free goods! During my meetings with manufacturers and distributors, everyone rolls their eyes on free goods. Then I ask “Why are you still doing it” and the answer is “Well, everyone else is doing it”. The point is it’s an old trick of getting people to buy more. At least at Zen, we are approaching it differently. Set a minimum price for the product and let the customer decide how many they need without forcing them into specials and free goods. Many times when you see a product on special or with a free good, you can purchase it at a lower cost per unit if you ask your rep (or ask your supply rep to get manufacture rep involved) or if you are part of the buying group. Conclusion: Above are just my very subjective reasons. However, after visiting 15-25 dental practices that consistently run dental supply budget under 4%, I realized the secret is in buying only what you need! End of Story. “If you look at how to get your practice to 5% overhead on dental supplies or below, it’s not that complicated. 80% of it is managing QTYs and only 20% looking for cheaper alternatives. With a proper inventory system and good discipline, you should be at 5% even using your favorite supplier” – Dr. Benjamin Johnson, AcreWood Dental P.S. If your budget above 6% it might be budget allocation issues. You can check my interview with Jake Conway where we discuss if Implants or Ortho should be in dental supplies or Laboratory. What are your thoughts? Let’s discuss this together!
10 Things Every Assistant Should know about Infection Control: PPEs - 4 items - mask; gloves; goggles; gown Utility Gloves Transport bins - to transport our items from the operatory to the sterilization area in a closed puncture proof, leak-proof container. With a biohazard sticker. Disinfectants - 2 step or 1 step. One step or two-step and are you doing, if you're using a two-step, are you doing the true two steps. Loading Autoclave - Paper down. Plastic up. Dating Indicators on pouches - Loading the autoclave indicators, on pouches, there's external and internal. Then on the wrap, they're on paper and tape, the tape changes to stripe but we also need to put an indicator inside our cassettes. Seven, was the date your items by load date and autoclave if you have more than one. Eight was you need to weekly spore test your autoclave or whatever sterilizer you use. Then always read your IFUs, your infection, we're talking about infection control, your instructions for use on any type of product. Always read. Read. Read. Read. Ten was your annual training. Because things change, just like one of the changes last year was all handpieces that are air driven must be autoclaved, the last tip must be autoclaved between each patient. Tiger: Julie, I really appreciate you sending a text message, “Hey Tiger what did you do in section control with all the zen people?” This is a big subject, a lot of people talk about and you then came up with such a cool title Ten Things That Every Dental Assistant Should Know About in Infection Control. Tiger: I know that our assistants are busy but a lot of them will be able to watch this later. So let's just dive into this. Just I can't even add my two cents into this. This is a new subject for me I'm taking notes. Julie Varney: You can't? You don't know anything about section control Tiger: Literally I'm going to take notes. Julie Varney: You're going to take notes. All right. So first things first, we start with your PPE. [1] Everybody knows about the PPEs but what they sometimes fail to use are everything of them. Right, so sometimes they might not wear goggles, so we should always be wearing our masks, our gloves, our goggles or our face shield and we should always be wearing a gown with our arms covered. So we should not have our arms uncovered. Julie Varney: If you don't want to wear it to the office you could always take your lab coat on and off before you leave the laboratory. But those are the four things that protect us and protect the patient from us. So we definitely should be wearing those. There are other times we should wear them through processing instruments and breaking down and cleaning up a room. So those are our four main PPE items. Julie Varney: Our next thing is [2] utility gloves. So utility gloves are very underutilized in a practice which is according to OSHA is a no-no. We should be using them. So utility gloves should be worn when breaking down and cleaning up a room disinfecting it, when you're transporting your instruments from the operatory to the sterilization area and also they should be worn while you're processing your instruments in the sterilization area. Julie Varney: They need to be leak puncture proof and they need to cover your arms. They do have disposable ones by Halyard I think it is. But you should have a pair kind of everywhere. Where you're going to be using them. Julie Varney: So our next thing that people do not do that should be doing is when you transport your items and your instruments from the operatory to the sterilization area, they need to go in a [3] leak-proof, closed, puncture-proof container. So if you use a cassette system, the cassettes have holes in them so that doesn't classify as a puncture proof leak-proof container. Julie Varney: It has to have a lid or a locking lid. Because the need to transport them so that nothing happens. So if you bump into somebody they're not going to get poked or cut. So we need to make sure that when we transport, you have a bin that keeps those instruments safe from harming others and you're wearing your utility gloves. Tiger: You have to have utility gloves when you grab the tub with instruments to bring them into sterile. Julie Varney: Yeah. Absolutely, and this is the safest practice for the assistant or the hygienist or whoever's turning over the rooms. Because we don't want to risk any type of injury that's going to get them hurt on the job and that's more paperwork so let's just do things the right way the first way. Tiger: Wow. Okay. Julie Varney: Next is, [4] disinfectant. There are lots and lots of products out there which people don't realize is that there's a one-step or a two-step process. So you need to read the instructions for use on your containers. Because some of the disinfectants that we use to wipe down our rooms are technically a two-step process. But they're being used as a one step. Julie Varney: So a two-step means, if you're using a Cavi-wipe has to be used once to clean and then it has to be used again to disinfect. So if you're using a product that is a two-step you have to use it twice and you have to use more of it. Tiger: So, meaning we wipe up the surface first and then we take another one and we have to wipe up the surface again? Julie Varney: Yeah. Because with a two-step process, you have to pre-clean and disinfect. So if you read the back, whether it's Birex or Cavi wipes, any type of disinfectant that's EPA regulated so we can't use Lysol FYI. Lysol is not EPA regulated or hospital grade. They tell you the instructions for you. Whether you have to pre-clean and then disinfect or if there's one step. So often one by Scican is a one-step process so it saves you time and it saves you money because you're not using as much of the product and it's also healthier for you. Tiger: Do you know what other products are one step? That's probably something I should know. Julie Varney: Yeah, well I believe Cavi wipes has now a one-step process. There are a couple of other products that have converted over to being one step instead of pre-cleaning and disinfecting, they now do both. You just have to read the directions and their set time and all that stuff. Tiger: Like a one or three minutes? Julie Varney: Or on Birex is ten minutes. I think it's ten minutes. Birex. We shouldn't be spraying because then you breathe that all in and we need to make sure that when you're using these products you have all your PPEs on because it's very important that you don't breathe in all those aerosols or all those chemical smells. That's not good for your health either, so we want to make sure we have our PPEs on. Tiger: So you're saying if they're alcohol based don't be smelling? Julie Varney: Well, some of them are alcohol based but you need to make sure you have your mask on and your goggles on. Tiger: Well I've experienced that. In a couple of the offices. I went in and smelled all the alcohol base so we won't talk about it. Julie Varney: Lysol is not utilized. You cannot use Lysol it has to be EPA regulated at a high level. Tiger: What did step one or step two or it's just the nature of the product, one product would be two- step and one product would be one step? Julie Varney: It's just the nature I mean, it's just what the product is made. It's not they're better than any other product. You have to read it, the instructions for you if you're using Birex that's a two-step product you're going to want to make sure that you're doing those two steps so it's very ineffective. You might not be killing everything if you only do it once. When it's a [crosstalk 00:07:43] process. Tiger: Makes sense. Julie Varney: Check your labels, always read your labels on how to use things. Julie Varney: So next is ... I'm going to go over [5] loading the autoclave. This is a big topic. Like paper or plastic. Up or down. So one: always read your manufacturers whether you have a Statim or a Midmark or I think it's called a Tuttnauer the big huge gigantic one. Read how they tell you how to load the autoclave. That is important. Julie Varney: Midmark, I do know, are plastic up and I think the theory behind this, and this is just my theory is because when you put the plastic down and the instruments are maybe a little bit wet, the water's going to pool on the plastic the air can't flow and dry the plastic as much as when it's paper down. The paper gets wet but the air dries the paper. So and the instruments don't sit as much in the plastic so it's always plastic up, paper down for Midmark when loading. Tiger: Paper down. Plastic up. Got it. Julie Varney: I want to make sure that you're not over packing the autoclave because you have to have certain airflow to let everything, one: get sterilized and two: get dry. If everything is compressed it's not going to get the airflow that it needs. So you can either stack them or you can lay them all spread out but you need to make sure that they're not compressed and on top of each other. Tiger: That it? Julie Varney: Okay and that's when things melt. So a lot of people complain that “All my X-Ray rings melted.” Yeah, that's because you probably packed the autoclave and they had no room to breathe or let the heat escape so the heat got trapped and it caused the rings to melt. Tiger: Got it. Julie Varney: Also, on your pouches which people sometimes don't have a tendency to watch. There are indicators that are external and internal. The pouches must have an external and internal indicator so that you can tell that it was properly sterilized. Tiger: Or they have these little dots or something? Julie Varney: Yeah. In the corners, the ones you can kind of peel back and you can feel. But then there are also ones in the corners in the pouches that you can't touch that are in between the plastic. So there's usually, whatever brand you're using, most of them, I believe, I've never seen one without, have an internal and external. Tiger: Got it. Julie Varney: When you're using cassettes because they're wrapped in a blue paper with tape, you need to use an internal indicator strip and put it inside the cassette. Because the paper and the tape only have external. Tiger: Okay. Wow. This is a lot of information. Julie Varney: These are the most things I see are done wrong. Tiger: Okay. I'm ready for the next one. Julie Varney: The next one. We need to be weekly checking for [6] testing our autoclave for Spor Testing. It's not okay to not do this. Because Tiger: What is it called? Julie Varney: ... if it's killing everything it needs to kill and if it's properly functioning. Tiger: Spore checking? Julie Varney: Spore testing yup. Tiger: Spore testing. Julie Varney: Yeah you could automate that on your system. But it's very important that you do it if you have more than one autoclave or sterilizer, that you are numbering them because the next thing is all your items that come out of these sterilizers need to be dated. Cycle dated. If you have more than one autoclave, which autoclave they came out of. Julie Varney: Because, if something fails, we have to have a record of instruments that maybe were processed before or after. Because all of the instruments that come out need to be date stamped, cycle stamped and they're only good, they say the recommended, for six months. Julie Varney: So if they sit in the drawer for two years, it's highly unlikely they're still sterile. You might want to redo them. Tiger: Wow. Okay. Got it. Julie Varney: All right. My number nine was always read your instructions for you. Always on everything. If you don't know about the product. Read it. Tiger: Read instructions? Did you say number nine? Julie Varney: Number nine. Read your instructions. Tiger: Number seven? Julie Varney: Number seven? Number seven was the date of the item. Julie Varney: Wait, you missed it? Wait no, eight was, monitor your autoclave. Tiger: Yup. Julie Varney: Seven was, date your items. I mixed them up. I read it wrong. We'll recap them all at the end. Tiger: Yup. We will. We will. Okay. Julie Varney: And then. [9] Number ten is annual training. You should be getting training once a year in your OSHA and your infection control standards. Do the full office. Three, four hours going through all your processes, checking everything, your eyewash stations, your fire extinguishers, your emergency evacuation plans, your emergency plans. These things should be trained and checked once a year. Tiger: Okay. So, how do people go about them? So let you say I'm in the office, I know I haven't done these in a while, what do I do? Call somebody? Because I don't want to call somebody and somebody reports me that I haven't done that in a while, so what's the right way to do it? Julie Varney: Usually you only get reported if someone complains but there are tons of people to reach out to but you can do in office training that is three or four hours. Some people have CEs they can give. Sometimes, myself, I'm going to tomorrow. I have a four-hour infection control training and OSHA, it'll be fun. But it should be customized to your office. It also should provide CE because 90 percent of the licenses out there need CEs. I know if you're a lead assistant you need two CE a year infect control. Julie Varney: But also if you don't know there's https://www.osap.org/, you can reach out to for $150 dollars a year, you can get a membership to OSAP that has all this information about infection control on it. Right at your fingertips, download form, figure it out, they have it all right there for you. Julie Varney: They promote the safest dental visit. When you send the file off an email, I will give you a code Tiger so that they can get 50 percent off their yearly membership to this organization. Tiger: Fantastic. Julie Varney: I know. But there's no reason why any dental assistant out there should not know the proper way. Because there's so much information out there and so much free information out there that they should know the proper ways. Tiger: Right. So, do people really need to pay for OSHA inspections? Is it somebody that has to be certified who does the training or it can be anybody? Julie Varney: Well, there's credentialing. I mean people have credentials in this stuff. I don't think there's a certification in OSHA but there's a lot of experts out there and I would definitely do your research before you hire somebody to come in. Because if they tell you wrong and then you're doing it wrong, there's a lot of fines behind this stuff. Julie Varney: So really, if you hire somebody to come into the office, there's Dr. Kathleen Schrubbe, she's right there in Illinois. She does a lot of infection control in OSHA, and stuff like that. Linda Harvey, she does all the HIPAA, she's very good at that stuff so there's a lot of experts out there and you want to go with that just not winging it. Julie Varney: I know HIPAA but I'm not an expert in it, I could do a yearly training to update you on it but if you're just starting off the bat, I will funnel you to Linda because she's an expert in the HIPAA. Tiger: You got it. All right. So let's do a recap. Julie Varney: All right. So, number one was your PPEs. 10 Things Every Assistant Should know about Infection Control: PPEs - 4 items - mask; gloves; goggles; gown Utility Gloves Transport bins - to transport our items from the operatory to the sterilization area in a closed puncture proof, leak-proof container. With a biohazard sticker. Disinfectants - 2 step or 1 step. One step or two-step and are you doing, if you're using a two-step, are you doing the true two steps. Loading Autoclave - Paper down. Plastic up. Dating Indicators on pouches - Loading the autoclave indicators, on pouches, there's external and internal. Then on the wrap, they're on paper and tape, the tape changes to stripe but we also need to put an indicator inside our cassettes. Seven, was the date your items by load date and autoclave if you have more than one. Eight was you need to weekly spore test your autoclave or whatever sterilizer you use. Then always read your IFUs, your infection, we're talking about infection control, your instructions for use on any type of product. Always read. Read. Read. Read. Ten was your annual training. Because things change, just like one of the changes last year was all handpieces that are air driven must be autoclaved, the last tip must be autoclaved between each patient. Julie Varney: Once a week yeah. Then always read your IFUs, your infection, we're talking about infection control, your instructions for use on any type of product. Always read. Read. Read. Read. Okay. Then ten was your annual training. Because things change, just like one of the changes last year was all handpieces that are air driven must be autoclaved, the last tip must be autoclaved between each patient. So your hygiene close feeds that people technically did not do that, they would wipe them down with a Cavi wipe or some type of disinfectant. They now have to be removed and autoclaved between each patient. Just like your high speeds. Tiger: So what's the instrument? Julie Varney: Your air driven motors. Your high-speed handpieces, your low-speed handpieces. The high speed always had to be autoclaved but the low speed now also is regulated to be autoclaved between each patient. Tiger: We'll put that as the bonus section. Julie Varney: Yeah. Put that in the bonus section. But if any assistant has any questions you can feel free to reach out to me. Like I said, join OSAP there's a ton of resources out there. There are checklists, there's protocol on that website. For $150 bucks a year, your whole office can know how to do everything. Tiger: Right. As a closing note, I'm still trying to wrap my head around how much dental assistants should know. Julie Varney: They should know as much as they could possibly know right? Tiger: Right? Just between this stuff here that we covered. My notes here, you can see how many notes I took. Julie Varney: You took a lot of notes. Tiger: And order supplies, and turn over the rooms, and assist the doctors Julie Varney: On fire that little Tiger: And then we probably didn't even scratch the surface of really going into the OSHA and all that stuff. Julie Varney: No, these are just ten common things that I see that are done wrong or done maybe half -done at times. That shouldn't be. It's really important that we stick to a good solid infection control plan because it only protects not ourselves, but our patients and we don't want to be on the news for improper stuff and we don't want to be closed down or end up in jail. Or hurt someone. That's the biggest thing. Who wants to hurt somebody and they end up with some infectious disease. Tiger: Exactly. Awesome these are really cool. Ten actionable steps that any office can use. I love that, it's tightly packed and that in the notes I'll make a note on how people can reach out to you. Julie Varney: Yeah. Absolutely. Like I said we'll send them a code to get the credit for CEzoom for watching the webinar. I'll send you a code for the OSAP for them to get 50 percent off of the membership if anyone wants to sign up. Tiger: That's awesome. Julie Varney: Get all the resources and we hope to see you at that, the annual conference which we will be talking about infection control on there. So they'll learn more about that and the whole process. Julie Varney: Like I said it's just scraping the surface but if you don't know when you need to ask and if the older generation of assistants hasn't had any training we need to get some training too because we teach the younger generation the wrong way and it's not okay. CODE: darocks50 to use with OSPA.org
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W1d0kHNAHA[/embedyt] Welcome to another webinar/interview with CEO of Studio Dental Lowell Caulder. We discuss how to match Physical space to their Virtual Space in Zen, How to get entire team compliance, and in case of turn around how to onboard new team members on Zen within minutes. Lowell explains their hiring process, books that helped him to become the Please Enjoy! Conversation Notes and Recommendations: 1. Image of the storage with E1/E2/E3/E4 Also an image of their Zen Setup with Storages 2. Book recomendation: -Be the Boss Everyone wants to work for -Mastering Rockefeler Habits - Dare to Lead 3. Software Recomendation: - https://bonus.ly/ - Slack
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ2Iw1HYmpc[/embedyt] Warning: uncensored interview A good friend of mine Dr. Bryan Stimmler and I seat down for a casual conversation at Bryan's home in Brooklyn NY. You can give it a listen or watch full length. We go in different directions, discuss dentistry, everything around dentistry and much more. Hope you enjoy it! Tiger
We are excited to bring you this new episode from the Zen & Work podcast archives! In this episode, Tiger Safarov, Founder of Zen Supplies, and Dr. Andy Tran (Apex Dental Studio) talk with Dr. Mohiuddin, an owner, and doctor at the Chicago based practice Dentologie. Listen along as they discuss User (ie. patient) Experience, dental school, and the importance of having a long-term vision for your practice. Thanks for tuning in! Check out the Dentologie page for a look at professional dental care re-imagined for the millennial generation.
Zen Implementation at the Endo practice, 3 secrets every practice needs to know to successfully onboard. Interview with Meghan, Lead Dental Assistant at Alexandria Endodontic Once in a while, we get a chance to onboard a practice where we learn more from the team than they do from us. Alexandria Endo was that exception and it all comes down to the team. Having a strong team can solve any issues. In this short interview I asked Meghan: To walk us through the entire process, what was the first reaction when Meghan saw the system and what was the team’s reaction? To go over implementation steps and 3 secrets every practice needs to: Leadership Skills needed to be Lead Dental Assistant (Positivity, Patience, How to asses the skills of your team and delegate new project (even how to communicate with each team member) As much as you put into it, you will get much more back Bonus: Who Zen Is perfect for and what practices shouldn't be using Zen What would Meghan recommend to a practice that is looking to onboard with Zen and what she would do differently 2 time around? Hope you find this valuable and till next time! Tiger ZenSupplies.com
Instagram influencer Dr. Patrick Anghel DDS (@pat.the.dentist) and I seat down on Sunday night for a great conversation on life, dentistry, student debt, books to read and so much more. I promise there will be take #2 with Pat since we still need to talk about how he monetized his Insta as a side hustle and CryptoCurrency in dentistry. Books discussed during the interview: Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki The Pillars of Dental Success by Dr. Mark Costes (absolute MUST read) How to win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Harry Potter Books by J.K. Rowling Hope you all enjoy it and let me know your thoughts! Tiger Insta: @tiger.safarov
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeOh9tEiJ8I[/embedyt] This is one of my favorite with one and only Michael Lomoton. His background is in biomedical engineering, but his passion is in dentistry. A few years ago Michael decided to step in and help his wife, Dr. Kathrina Agatep, DDS to run a practice in San Diego. We tour a recently renovated office and talk dental shop, from numbers to what it's like to be a dental spouse. You can check out the practice here: https://dentaldesignsd.com/ Read more about Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellomotan/
We recently completed a Dental Inventory Makeover in Baltimore and wanted to share with you what does the process involves. It's a lot of fun for us and we hope you get excited so one day we meet you in person at your dental practice. Please enjoy! [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tBCVE7ZxYA[/embedyt]
The first-ever National Conference for Dental Assistants in the US has been a great success. More than 100 people in attendance; great speakers; dinners; awards; and so much more was packed in a 2-day event. Thank you all who attended and look to seeing you next year. For more information: website: dentalassistantconference.com Instagram: instagram.com/dentalassistantconference/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/dentalassistantconference/ [gallery size="full" columns="2" ids="https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5064-e1572190140292.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5065.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5062-e1572190125794.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5056-e1572190105382.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5051.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5050.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/C0AEDE90-EF33-4BFD-8A3A-BBB5B9756800.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5133.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5132.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5131.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5130.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5129.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5128.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5127.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5126.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5125-1.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5124.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5122-1.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5121.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5120.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5067.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5125.jpg|,https://www.zensupplies.com/app/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5122-2.jpg|"]
[embed]https://www.slideshare.net/TigerSafarov/why-is-4-dental-supplies-overhead-impossible-or-is-it-180509514[/embed] Last week I was invited to talk at the Vivid Dental Progression Conference organized by a good friend of mine Daniel Johnson, Founder/CEO of Lucent Spot Marketing and he is also Director of Marketing for an emerging group in Texas, AcreWood Dental Care. It was exciting to finally share what we've learned at ZenSupplies in the last 3 years, but also challenging. The challenging part is to put it all together in a cohesive approach that makes sense. Most dental practice when hearing" Ohh, your overhead is too high. You need to work on your supplies" do not even know where to start. Should I negotiate with my rep, go to cheaper places, or what else? So I wanted to put a few slides together where we can at least show the path to where to start, how to approach it, how long will it take and what are the critical parts of each phase (yes there are 3 phases to lowering your overhead). My goal for the talk was to bring as much VALUE as possible and not Sell ZEN. I thought if I could have at least one person go back on Monday morning and say "Overhead is the choice" and I'm in control, and most importantly I know what are the steps - then I accomplished my goal. Ok, what I didn't expect was what happened after my presentation. Again, my goal wasn't to sell Zen at all (see slide 4), so after my presentation, Dr. Benjamin Johnson presented steps on how to scale from 1- to 3 or more locations and what are the critical elements of scaling. As you can imagine, supplies were one of the elements and followed by a live demo done by Dr. Johnson. What can be more exciting to watch your product being presented by one of the best clients of Zen! Enough of the humblebrag, let's get to the actual presentation! Hope you enjoy it!
It's one of the older interviews (from 2017) but still holds so much value. If you haven't watched, listened, please invest 22 min of your life to hear this. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxtUxIRSrtY[/embedyt] I will do injustice trying to write a short bio on my friend Dr. Dave Maloley, DDS. Just give it a listen. Recording in Vail, Colorado with Dr. Dave Maloley. Born in Omaha, Nebraska growing up in a very hard working family and not knowing anything except books. The first book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, helped Dr. Dave to push himself to a dental school, spend time in Europe and learned what’s possible. A true story of someone finding a journey and turning life around. Find Dr. Dave Maloley, DDS on inst: @relentlessdentistcoaching relentlessdentist.com __
Lowering overhead on dental supplies is a process. At Zen we approach it based on 3 Phases: Phase 1 is building a reliable ordering process Phase 2 is negotiating better pricing Phase 3 details and measuring supplies on a daily basis and by procedures Every office has its own goal and not all offices are ready to go through all 3 phases. However, every office at the sign up should consider Advanced Setup. So let's review our entire Process Start to Finish! Let's start! Step 1: First step either you choose Advanced or DIM setup, you will need to send us pictures of your practice and a floor plan. In order to understand and see what is really happening, we will start with images. Most images we receive look something like this: [URIS id=2453] Step 2: Next step - Facetime call to have a walkthrough and get familiar with space. We use this call to get a feel of the office and truly understand the needs of the practice. We will also review some of the "Inspiration Images" of what we've done in the past with our practices. Some practices like the open feel, no doors, all products exposed. Some practices would like to have the main storage area to keep all supplies so the patients can't see it. [URIS id=2462] Step 3: Design of the custom solution just for your practice. We will take 3-5 days to review what we discussed and offer a solution that will meet your needs; will include all materials/storage bins you need to purchase, and installation instructions. [URIS id=2476] Step 4: Once storage units and containers arrive at the practice, you will need to install and go through all the products you currently have in the practice. You can either do it on the weekend or during the day and close for a day. We will guide you on what needs to be done during the day and will even be available for a facetime call if any questions arise during the day. Once you are done and completed it would look something like this: [URIS id=2488] Step 5: Once space is organized and we have lean inventory; we can now focus on connecting physical space to Zen virtual space. During the training, we will discuss how to set up Zen that matches storage areas, mobile carts and any other areas within an office that we need to track and control supplies (Ex: Implants; Bone/Membrane; etc). We will provide checklists and diagram on how to fill tip out bins with supplies. [URIS id=2496]
(This letter was adjusted for public view, therefore financial and personal information has been removed) Dear ZenFamily, A few weeks ago I had a feeling this could be something serious, but honestly, I couldn’t even foresee the magnitude of the COVID19 virus. First and foremost, we hope that you are all safe and protect yourself during these tough times! My team and I got together over the weekend to plan “what could happen” since the last thing I want is to sit by the sidelines and watch how this unfolds. My message to the team was, “What can we do to help our offices to go through tough times? What is our unique position or what value can we bring?” As a small business that is fully funded by our user’s subscriptions (please see "Our Zen" section for more info on how are we bootstrapping), we are too concerned about what can happen, what if…. and so much more... So we had 2 choices: Think from a scarcity mindset of fear and uncertainty, with what could happen, etc… Think and ACT from a positive mindset. From a place of love and empathy :) If you know me and our team at Zen, we only operate from a positive mindset, so the answer is naturally - think and ACT WITH POSITIVE MINDSET. I truly believe we can get through this together. As a small business working with other small businesses we can help and bring value to each other. And, If the virus brings us down, at least we all go down together! Therefore, we decided to change attitudes, priorities, and think as we are in your shoes. Here is what we are planning to do in the next 2 weeks: We introduce the COVID-19 Resource Page that is available on top of the screen when you log in to Zen. The purpose of the page is: Provide most accurate/up to date information on product availability/ distributors limitations and provide easy access to add these products to the shopping cart Provide Access to Educational material, live webinars on subjects related to COVID19 virus and how to manage all infection control related issues Build a library of Trusted Sources of information related to COVID-19 and current developments. Lower Monthly SUBSCRIPTIONS to $****/month. As a small business, we know managing cash will be tough and if your current subscription is higher than $****/month we will apply promo codes starting Tuesday 3/17. We will bring it back once things settle. We will be shifting our limited resources from currently nonessential tasks (example updating free goods/manual client prices/nonessential distributors tracking numbers and ETAs) to researching distributors and providing the most accurate information that has high demand products in stock. Also, our team will be able to create new accounts for you with vendors if you never worked with them. Customer Support will continue working uninterrupted, Anastasia, Karina, and Iryna will be answering chats and phone calls. Anything related to orders/products/ where to source products in high demand you can chat/call and ask our team. Our Infrustruce is reliable and we do not expect any interruptions. All of our servers are located on AWS (amazon web services) and as long as AWS is working we should be able to operate as well :) We are planning to shift few things around to try to lower our infrastructure cost for the time being, but none of it should affect your experience using Zen. Price Comparison and Checkout Page optimization for product availability and shipping/delivery times. The last one is sort of strange, and I hope this doesn’t come off the wrong way. If any of your offices are being shut down (or if it becomes required) and you have time to help us, we have work to do during this time (and it’s all online/remote): Sales Demo - we would love your help with getting new people on board Help us with Dental Catalogs by reviewing products Help with weekly brainstorming sessions What else can we do together? Please send me any ideas you might have and I promise to execute on them! Sincerely and with you through tough times, Tiger and Zen Team CEO, ZenSupplies Inc.