The Stories of Thriving Practice Owners: Dr. Beth Bowen

Hey, dental associates and new practice owners. Welcome to the Associates on Fire podcast. Powered by Practice cfo. This is the podcast that teaches you what you never learned in dental school, the financial side of dentistry. We cover topics from planning for ownership, buying a practice, to student loans, taxes, and all things financial for the hungry to learn Dental Associate. So let's light it up.

Welcome back, everyone, to the Associates on Fire podcast. My name is Drew Phillips, and I'll be the host of today's episode. For those who haven't had a chance to check out our Associates on Fire program yet, I'm a CPA and CFO advisor at Practice CFO and one of the instructors in our Associates on Fire program. Be sure to check us out@asschoolsonfire.com Today's episode is a continuation of our Experience Practice Owner series, which is all about the stories and lessons of successful practice owners across the country. Today's guest hails all the way from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Dr. Beth Bowen. Beth is a proud graduate of the University of Tennessee Health Science center, where she was designated as the top student in prosthodontics, operative dentistry, and periodontology. Among other awards, she was the recipient of the esteemed Academy of Operative Dentistry Award, the Sydney S. Friedman Periodontology Award, the Best of the Best prosthodontic Award, and the American association of Women Dentist Award. Following her dental school experience, she pursued and graduated from the prestigious Koi center program, where she continues to study alongside some of the best and brightest dentists in the country every year. She ultimately settled in Northwest Arkansas where she opened the Beth Bowen Dental Studio, a dental practice dedicated to holistic and comprehensive dentistry. I'm excited that we all get to learn more about Beth and her practice today. So without any further ado, it's my pleasure to introduce Dr. Beth Bowen. Welcome, Beth.

Hi. Thanks for having me, Beth.

So let's, let's jump right in. You have an excellent dental practice. What are a few key things that you feel that have led to your practice's success and help set you apart from the pack?

I think that ultimately what we pride ourselves in at our practice is individualized care. So, you know, there are plenty of dental practices out there. You can, you know, know, go get a filling or go get a crown or go get a mouthful of veneers, a lot of places. But when our patients come into our office, we genuinely spend the time to get to know them. They get to know us. And so we, we value that time with our patients in, you know, getting to know about their life. And their family and their jobs, not just, you know, work on their teeth and send them home, which I think has really made us successful because people feel valued.

So you spoke a lot about the patient experience piece and then some about the comprehensive element. So what are, what are some things that you did? And I mentioned the Koi center program and a few other things. What are, what are some things that you did post education, maybe part of your associateship that you felt geared you up to, to have this style of practice?

Yeah, I think, you know, you'll talk to. Anybody who's been to the Koi center will probably say the same thing, but it really teaches you how to look at someone's mouth and very quickly and predictably assess what's going on. So, you know, John loves to break it down into systems and risk factors. And in doing that and in teaching the staff about risk factors, it's, It's. He makes it so simple. You know, you can look at somebody who comes in with a toothache and really quickly understand, do I need to be talking to this person about, you know, investing in this tooth and saving this tooth, or do I need to be talking to this person about, you know, are we headed toward dentures in the next five years? And I think that's something that dental school. You just don't have the volume of patients to get that experience. But once you see, you know, hundreds and thousands of mouths, you can kind of start to see patterns emerge. And, and people value your honesty. You know, you don't want to tell a person, hey, let's spend 3, $4,000 on this tooth if every tooth in their head needs that amount of work and they can't afford that. So that would be, I think, the biggest.

Just a value piece of going to the Koi Center. And I will, I will recommend it to everyone I know until the day I die, because there's just no other curriculum out there that I've found that can easily and predictably help you treatment plan.

And so when financial pieces become part of the sort of the limitation, in order to prescribe the comprehensive treatment that you otherwise would like to maybe talk a little bit about how, you know, what your processes are to assess that sort of on the front end so that, you know, you know what your limitations are.

Yeah, I think one thing we do, you know, I tell people, I can make you a fantastic denture, or, you know, we can do an amazing full mouth rehab. But what I kind of expect from my patients and what I tell them on the front end is that, you know, there's, there's no one right way to do things. And a lot of it depends on the patient's goals. You know, do they want to keep the teeth that they have, do they, you know, want something different? And in knowing what their goals are, what is realistic for their time and their budget, then we can come up with a plan. You know, nothing is free, so probably can't come up with a free plan, but we can definitely find something that's long lasting and gets them to a spot of health, like within the confines of, of their budget or their time. You know, maybe, maybe the limiting factor is time. And then, you know, in being honest with them, I ask them to be honest with me. You know, if I, if I tell you that it's going to cost X number of dollars and this much time to do this treatment plan and that's not suitable for your life, I expect them to be honest with me because then we can kind of figure out where is that happy ground with, you know, with their mouth.

In order to be able to have this comprehensive element to your treatment planning style, Right. There has to be additional services that you probably needed continuing education for. So what are, what are some services that you've brought in maybe subsequent to being a practice owner or through your associate PDF period, that, that you're now able to give to your patients?

Yeah, so we do quite a bit of Invisalign, so orthodontics, whether that's to, you know, help correct a bite issue or if it just is going to kind of set us up to have a more predictable aesthetic result, if that's their goal. And we also do place quite a few implants in house. So, you know, if, realistically, if they don't need like a super complex grafting or advanced surgery, then we're able to do that in house, which, you know, most dentists are control freaks. So if you're a control freak, we can, we can really start with what we want the end result to be and say, okay, we need these implants here, put them exactly where we want them and get the exact prosthetic result.

That we want in your particular area. Beth, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. What is the patient demographics generally like for you and how does that translate into the type of treatment that your office subscribes to?

I would say we live in it in a, probably the most affluent area in Arkansas.

Northwest Arkansas is the home to several Fortune 500 companies like Walmart, JB Hunt, which is a transportation logistics company, Tyson Foods. So, you know, Realistically, we do have a lot of white collar employees, but I would, I would call our area very.

Upper middle class. You do have some people that work blue collar jobs and you know, earn an honest living. And then you have maybe more than other areas in Arkansas, but certainly not a lot in comparison to the rest of the country, some incredibly wealthy people.

So at the end of the day, it's just kind of, you know, people are not struggling to pay their bills, but they're also not flying around on private planes.

Right.

Be a good description.

No, that's a good, that's a great assessment. And then so my assessment of just you saying that, I'd imagine that you, you probably do take insurances. Is, is that fair to say?

Yeah, we take, we're, we're contracted with three currently and are in the process of, of dropping one. But yes, we certainly.

The insurance that the university carries for their employees and then also that Walmart, Tyson and JB Hunt carry, we are contracted with those companies.

On the surface, three insurance companies wouldn't sound like a whole lot, but I mean, does that make up a significant portion of your patient?

I would say it's probably about 60% of our patients. And then the, the rest are either, you know, cash pay patients or they're with a different insurance carrier that our, our policy is we will do the legwork for them. We file the policy.

And try to try to make it as convenient as possible for those patients. We just don't accept the contracted rates.

Let's talk about some marketing concepts and how you've. Because I've, I've noticed through looking at your Instagram, looking at your website, I felt like you've done a really great job of tying in sort of this one vision, which is this comprehensive element to your practice, but then giving the sort of aesthetic look digital online that would draw that type of patient into your office. And so just, you know, give our listeners an idea of where you started in the marketing process and how you've arrived where, where you are today.

Sure. So it's actually not that interesting. It started with me during, during COVID and all the shutdowns that everybody went through. You know, it provided a lot of time to kind of think and you know, what my husband and I kind of wanted our life to look like, which did not include me continuing on in my associateship. So honestly, the, the first step was I bought my name as my domain name because I thought, okay, well, when I, you know, leave this other practice, I want people to find me. So it was bare bones. Me and Squarespace. Not at all. You know, I'm a dentist, I'm not a graphic designer. But it was really just more out of necessity. I need people to be able to go to their computer, type in my name and find me. So we started with that and then same with the Instagram. The Instagram is just me. It's not a, it's not.

Oh, really?

Yeah, it's okay.

I would not have thought that. That's really interesting.

That's a big compliment. I will say. I, I, I'm very lucky. I have, I'm not afraid to ask my family members for help. So I actually have a cousin whose job is social media management. So she is incredibly helpful. She'll say like, hey, you need to, you know, do this thing, or like, here's a, a practical way to execute that. So she's incredibly helpful. And then, you know, from there once we kind of just had a place where people could find us. We've tried to improve. We have a couple of photographers that we've worked with to come in and, you know, get nice pictures of our office. We've worked with another local company, just our revamped website launched on New Year's Eve actually.

Oh, really?

Yeah. So we worked with a, a new company to kind of, you know, make it professional, not just, you know, made by Beth.

And well, it looks great. The, the end result does.

Yeah, they, so they, they did a fabulous job. And then honestly, the, I think the most impactful thing we've done with our marketing is there, there is a new daily newsletter in our area called NWA Daily that through some acquaintances, mutual connections, when they launched, I reached out to the owners of this daily newsletter and said, like, hey, I'm a startup, you're a startup. I feel like this could be a mutually beneficial relationship. And so that was incredibly helpful to get on the ground floor with them. And it's become insanely popular so fast. And that gets our name out every week just so people are getting repetition of seeing, you know, Beth Bow and Diddle's studio just to have in the back of their mind if they do need a dentist or you know, their friend is asking about it, they're getting access to that and being directed to our website every week.

And maybe I should ask this in the beginning, but did you start your practice from scratch or did you buy an existing practice?

No, I started from scratch.

So over the past, probably my, I will say my goal was always to do a startup. I just, I, I don't know why Maybe that makes me crazy, but I always liked the idea of from square one, starting with my culture, my vision. Not really. I've always called it picking your own stress. So not inheriting someone else's stress, but.

Kind of making those pinch points where I was more comfortable. So about four plus years ago.

My husband and I looked at he's who is not, he's not a dentist, but he is a business person. So that's incredibly helpful. We looked at purchasing some property and then instead I got pregnant. So had a couple of babies and kind of put that on the back burner and during that time spoke to a couple of older dentists in the area. But you know, I would say prior to the pandemic it, dentistry was, was like really fun and pretty low stress. So there weren't a ton of people looking to retire.

So then when, you know, Covid happened and the shutdown, I just kind of had to say, okay, we're all in to this, you know, idea of a startup.

You may not, and I don't know this offhand, and you may not either, but do you, do you know offhand roughly how many dental practices, private ones are in your area or around your area?

Oh no. I'd be lying if I said I, I there, there are a lot but our, our population.

Several years ago they came up with this statistic that our population was growing like by 33 or 34 people a day.

Wow.

And I think that's probably continued. I don't know what the most recent numbers are. So there are a lot of dentists. But there, it's also a growing area.

Really curious to hear the evolution of the dynamics of your practice in each sort of stage of the startup process. Right. First you got to hire your first team member, you got to get your first patient in the door. Kind of walk us through from start to finish what that looked like for you.

Yeah. So.

I think going back, you know, kind of in the timeline, how I would have preferred to do it and how it happened were probably not the same. But I think a lot of people, you know, when they're doing a startup, they kind of have this year long process. And.

When I decided to leave my associateship, we kind of decided the owner felt it was best for me to not continue working. So within a week of when I, you know, let him know the news, it was like pretty quick. I'm not on the schedule anymore, so which was a little bit, I'm not a, I'm a pretty risk averse person. So that was a Little bit scary, but I think it also, it, you know, this is a process that could take a year, 18 months, two years. And it really kind of lit a fire. Like this is do or die. So that would have been like in late May, early June of 2020, we found a space pretty quickly, had.

The designer come up and look at it, like within a week he was, you know, this is the wall color. Put this on the floors. Here's your furniture. So that.

Was he diddle specific that the contractor?

No, he was not. It's actually. This is just a childhood friend that I grew up with. His dad is a dentist. His dad was actually my first boss right out of dental school. So incredibly familiar with, you know, I didn't have to spend time explaining like, oh, this surface needs to be wiped down. And, you know, he knows all of those things. But again, just somebody who knew me and I kind of said, this is what I want the field to be. This is my. You know, I always say, I may not know what I want, but I know what I don't want. Right. So I was incredibly lucky to have Jonathan because he could very, very quickly make those decisions. We spent about two months renovating, installing equipment. You know, I was probably the only person in the country buying equipment in the summer of 2020. So that was, that was super helpful. And then we saw our first patients on August 12th. So in that kind of two month period.

You know, I think words started to get out. I was no longer at the other office.

You know, is that my own office now? And so just as people reached out to me, there were a handful of people that, you know, maybe they're my friends or they'd been patients for a long time. And I said like, hey, we're gonna need some people in the first couple of weeks just to help us work out the kinks, you know, you may come and we don't know how this is gonna go. So I was, I was really lucky to have a lot of people that were game for that and just kind of said like, okay, yeah, sign us up, we'll be the, we'll be the guinea pigs. And, and that kind of helped ease us into it in the very beginning. And then at that time, it was just myself and one assistant.

So you really reached out to all of your network and you really bootstrapped this, it sounds like from, you know, from the ground up, which is really cool to hear. Did you, did you, did you take out a startup practice loan to help finance part of the operation? Or did you guys Finance it individually. How did that, how did that work?

We, we didn't again, probably not what I would recommend.

We didn't. Banks were very cautious about startups in 2020.

All types, but particularly you know, dental practices. Dental practices had just been shut down. People weren't really sure what was going to happen. So no, we.

Completely financed it ourselves.

My husband and I, which again is incredibly scary when you are risk averse.

I was gonna say.

Yeah, but you know, it was what needed to be done and then a couple of months in ended up, you know, working with the bank to get a line of credit like for working capital and things like that which allowed us to, to you know, hire more people.

We now have two hygienists so they, that kind of came later but it really did teach us to be incredibly lean and.

You know, really pay attention in the beginning.

It's a lot easier to get a sort of again, comprehensive grasp of your financial, of the financial inner workings of a dental practice when you start from scratch as opposed to coming into sort of a, a mega shop. Right. So I, I, I can, I could definitely get what you're saying there and, and then staying lean on top of that. Right because you know that cash flows are, are, are tight and, and so it instills really strong operating overhead spending practices right from the, from the very beginning which is a, a quality that will always benefit you across the long run. Was there anything that sort of helped to, from a patient flow perspective? I know we talked about the marketing components, we talked about you know, some people finding you that during your associateships and family members. But was there any one piece that sort of hyper accelerated? Maybe it was Google Reviews or, or something like more local community driven that to help you really accelerate.

Like in terms of growth and growth.

Yeah, absolutely.

Honestly I think just word of mouth. So again the NWA Daily was super helpful but I think we're just now starting to see more of our return on investment with that as they've grown. But yeah, word of mouth, I'm not particularly great at promoting myself but I mean, you know, you have to really humble yourself when you're in a startup. So just asking people, you know, other moms at daycare or people at church or you know, asking patients that we felt had a great experience like hey, if you have any family or friends, anybody looking for a dentist, let us know, please give them, you know, send them our way. And that honestly I think has been.

The way we've gotten more fantastic patients than anything else. We kind of joke and say like oh well, so and so referred that person. They've got to be great. And it truly has worked out that way. Nice people. No nice people. Quality people. No quality people. And so, you know, getting just a handful of those people in the door and then they send you like minded.

People, given your clinical, your dental school, your clinical experience, have very little doubt that that was any part of the, you know, difficulties that you were struggling with. You pick up any practice advisors from like more of the operational business side of the, of, of the equation during this process and, and what were some things that they may have given you?

So I really didn't again, I'm obviously very reliant on just my network of people that I know. So I actually grew up in a family. My parents owned a small business my whole life. Oh my.

When I was maybe four, I think 14, maybe 15, I did all of my dad's payroll and bookkeeping for his business. So. And then my first job kind of, you know, other than babysitting was I worked for an optometrist, scheduling on a, on a paper schedule, answering the phones, filing, insurance. So I really credit my parents for.

You know, they never, they didn't shield us from small business life. It was, you know, just how we grew up and I, they really instilled a lot of just fantastic values as far as, you know, hard work, what it means to run a business, that sort of thing from a young age. And then my husband also grew up in a family that owned several small businesses. His grandfather was a car dealer, his dad was a home builder. You know, lots of, lots of different things. And, and he still works for a family company. So kind of the ins and outs of business have always been a part of my life which is I think unique for a dentist. Most dentists are kind of flying blind. Yeah. So that I'm, I'm very thankful for that and know, have a, there were times, you know, I'd come home and ask my husband like oh, I mean what do you think about this? And you know, he has a vast body of experience or the same with my mom or my dad, like say this is kind, this is what the bank's saying. And my dad's like oh that's, you know, yes, you can do that. Or and then I should add my brother and sister in law are both tax attorneys, so. So I'm kind of the only health care oriented person. But then when you do start a business that's, that's much to my benefit. You know, I'm not Asking a, a surgeon how to do my taxes. I'm, you know, I've got these tax attorneys on call. So it's, it's really, I mean it's been incredibly helpful and it's.

You know, I'm, I'm very fortunate. It's, it's a privilege that not a lot of people have.

That's really, that's really special. And then what about like scaling from an equipment standpoint too, you know, which is such a hard part early on because you people want to build out the entire space and get sex Operatories day one. How did you approach that part?

Yeah, so we actually have four operatories that at least the space that I'm in. And then there's, there's actually a dentist in the other half of the space who owns the building.

And we have first write a refusal on purchasing, you know, if and when he retires. So for ops, thank goodness is not, you know, it's not too much to equip. We did.

Purchase and equip all four operatories, but you know, we didn't, we didn't do anything fancy. I think the interesting thing is, you know, we did not spend an arm and a leg equipping it. And patients still walk in and they're like, oh my gosh, it looks fantastic.

Because I mean, you know, we do have nice equipment, but it's not a fifteen thousand dollar chair or anything like that.

So, so you, you equipped four operatories and to start with, and that, that's gotten you thus far. Do you have any plans for expansion? What about the, the dentist next door that, that owns the other half of the building. I'm assuming he's still PR or she is still practicing. Is there, is there aspirations to combine locations at some point?

So he is still practicing. He's phenomenal. It's kind of weird. The, the girls on my side, the staff we always talk about. Dr. Grace is his name. And you know, Dr. Grace's schedule is like life goals. He works three days a week, six hours a day, like has a fantastic time doing it. Super low stress. So, you know, I, I hope that one day I can be like Dr. Grayson and just work because it's fun. But I mean, I think ultimately, you know, when he does decide to scale back or retire, we'll certainly purchase the building from him like we planned and at that point probably expand.

You know, I don't know that we would fill all eight ops. The building is 3,000 square feet. We occupy half. It's, you know, mirror images.

So you Know, we've kind of kicked around ideas about, for example, there's not. I kind of share an office, which is also the break room. Kind of just our.

Common staff space. So, you know, realistically, part of that would probably be to give the staff a break room that they don't have to, you know, sit down and stare at me. So. But we would ultimately.

Take over. I think two or three more ops would be the. Would be the goal whenever that. Whenever that time comes.

Whenever he decides he's ready.

Yeah, whenever he decides he's ready. So I don't, you know, if I. This is pure speculation, but if I were guessing, you know, I don't think that'll be in the next three years. I think that'll probably be in the. More in the next, like, seven or eight years for him. He's in phenomenal shape. And like I said, it loves it. So there's not really a rush. But it is nice to kind of have that.

Knowing that that's there in the future. We're not going to have to go out and find a bigger space or, you know, renovate an entire new building. Build a new building from the ground up. It's. It's kind of nice. And just knowing that one day it's just going to be there.

No, that's great. And, you know, building ownership, being in your future is. Is wonderful. Part of your financial independence goals as well. So. And then just, you know, kind of taking a step back, you know. What, what drew you to Arkansas? Are you originally from. From there? Is there a particular part of that area that. That interested you, that. That drew you there?

Yeah, I'm actually from northeast Arkansas, so reasonably close to Memphis, the Delta, Mississippi Delta. My parents still live there. My brother still lives there. It's a great place. But I went to the University of Arkansas for college, and I love this area. I feel like the university brings a lot of diversity and culture to northwest Arkansas. There's a lot of, you know, outdoor activities. There are mountains. So I just. I love this part of the state. And when I.

I practiced in Jonesboro for three years after dental school, and then when I had the opportunity, kind of knowing that wasn't my forever job, that wasn't my forever home, and so then when I had the opportunity to move to northwest Arkansas, I took that.

What was the, what was your associateship like? Was it a private practice that you worked in?

Yes. Yeah. So I've actually done two associateships, one in Jonesboro.

Working in. There were two doctors that owned three different Practices.

Which was great experience because, you know, from day one I was like, you know, the baby doctor having to run a practice, you know, but they were always a phone call away and just like really phenomenal people. And then the associateship I had in Fayetteville was like a small, I would call maybe a small group practice. It initially was one doctor who hired me and then not too long after I started, he hired another doctor. So really high volume, you know, three doctors, five hygienists.

You know, definitely volume based practice.

So sort of a, you got kind of a nice split. The one of them was more, you know, maybe detail oriented, comprehensive in nature. Got some really good probably treatment planning work with the, with the owning dentist. And then the other one was more volume based, learning how to work chairs and, and to pick up those, those aspects as well.

Yes. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a, that's a good description. And also kind of just in terms of owners slash bosses, the first group of doctors I worked for were like I said, one has a, has, you know, adult children. So, you know, they were the kind of people you can say like, oh my gosh, like this is what's going on and, and they have the life experience. Okay, this is how you handle that. This is what you say, like you're stressing out about something that's really not a big deal.

And then the second practice, the doctor was a little bit younger. So.

You know, he was also like learning and growing at the same time, which meant kind of constant change, but also exposure to, you know, a lot of things because he was still kind of trying to find his, you know, like, place and what he really wanted to do. So it, you know, constantly brought new things to the practice.

Have you taken anything away from like the culture of the office in terms of like how the staff were treated, benefits that they were given, just sort of overall and, and compare that to what you're actually doing now. Are there any things that transferred over?

I think in that respect I, I give the most.

I get credit, I guess, to. There was a female orthodontist that actually worked for in dental school. I assisted for her. And more than anything, I try to emulate her practice.

Just in terms of how she treated the staff.

Benefits that she offered. The, you know, loyalty that she gave to her staff.

I think really stuck with me as a, you know, young person, a dental student at the time. But that, that has always been kind of my goal and what I saw as how I wanted to treat my staff.

What were some Things specifically that, that she did that that you really enjoyed.

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is valuing the staff as a person. I think when you're a business owner and you're trying to juggle a thousand balls, it's really easy to.

Expect your employees to have the same.

Engagement maybe in your practice when in reality they, they are people with lives. And so, you know, maybe they don't want to stay and work late because you have this opportunity to make however much more money. You know, maybe they want to go to their kids ball game. And so I think she, she always did an excellent job of, you know, they were people first. And the practice might be my first priority, but you know, to my employees it is a job and they, they want to be able to go and it's a job that allows them to live their life. And so I always want that for them. And then the other thing that she said that I'll never forget, she said, you know, you will have times when you've answered the same question 99 times and you want to scream, but you have to respond in a way that makes them want to ask you the hundredth time.

That's really, I actually really like that.

Yeah. And I, and I think that stuck with me because, I mean, goodness knows I've lost my temper. I've said things I wish I could take back. I mean, probably more so when I was younger.

But at the end of the day, you know, it's kind of like your kids. You have to establish a relationship with them that it doesn't matter what they come and tell you, that you don't absolutely lose it. And so that's something that I've just always thought about over the years when, you know, when there are problems or, or things that come up, I would much rather be a boss that they feel comfortable coming to and talking about, talking about various things than someone that they try to hide things from or that they're worried about what my reaction will be.

And you know, it's hard in a small business to, to be this great clinician and then on the other side of the coin be this inspiring sort of boss and, and owner and, and you know, it's, but the, the best practices have both, you know, and then something that I've, in this conversation I picked up from you, you value both. And I think that that's going to go a long way for not only where your practice is now, but in, in the evolution of it going forward as well. With that being said, you know, what is, what is next for, for Beth Bowen. And in the, in the Bowen Dental studio, What is your 2022 and 2023 goals?

Yeah, so.

Our biggest goals, we kind of sat down as a practice, obviously growth and we have a pretty significant.

We'Re hoping for about 20% growth this year. And as I, I told the staff, I think the interesting thing is I sit down and I look at those numbers and I, I really think it can happen and I think they believe it can happen.

So that is, that's our big goal for this year.

And taking on some more full mouth rehab cases. We have quite a few kind of in process right now, which is great because the staff is becoming a lot more comfortable with the, you know, multiple appointments and communicating with the patients about it.

So we would like to do more of that.

And then our, our reward if we meet that goal is that we, we're going to take a trip in November. So they're all super excited about that and I feel like it's going to happen.

I have, have no doubt that it is going to happen. So to reach that 20 growth goal this year, what are some things that you guys on a more fundamental level have, have going to do? I know that full mouth rehab and some case acceptance around, around that is going to be super helpful in, in getting to that goal. But what are, what are some things that are going to help you get to that 20% growth?

Yeah. One thing that we have just practically speaking started working on is that we do have an iTero. We use it for restorative, we use it for Invisalign. But one of our big goals as an office is that the hygienists are learning how to use it.

So we have always very heavily relied on our assistants who are amazing.

And so now the assistants, you know, the hygienists want to do their part. They really enjoy showing people, you know, like their predicted outcomes with Invisalign. But they are working on becoming more independent so that even if an assistant's busy and can't come help them out, they can do all of that with the patient. So monitoring where, you know, what would your aesthetic outcome be with Invisalign? Those sorts of things.

And that's, that is our immediate goal that we started working on the first week of January.

So does everybody in your office get scanned with Itero?

Not right now, but we are, we are working toward that. So that's a big piece of.

You know, having the hygienist be able to do it. You know, the assistants could do it in three minutes with their eyes closed. And so really making that part of our.

New patient appointment.

We'Re hoping that every patient will be scanned and then the second piece, which will probably come later in the years. We do have a CBCT in our office and so, you know, utilizing it more. And then, you know, for me, you know, what I told them is that I need, I'm still very slow in looking at and analyzing everything that's a part of that. So that's my goal is that, you know, if they take on the responsibility of, you know, we are going to be more comfortable taking these, not just when someone says they're already committed to an implant, you know, being more proactive. And then also, you know, my own ability to quickly analyze it the way we do a lot of other things.

That's, that's wonderful. And then what about some technology adoption that, that would help promote the end result that the, that the patient can see. Right, like maybe like a virtual smile type of software. Are there any things that you guys are doing on that front?

No, we actually.

We got pretty serious about purchasing a digital smile design software last year and then again back to like running lean, decided it wasn't in the budget. But that is something that we, you know, I would love to have and that the, the staff has said it's pretty high on their wish list.

Because we are, we are still old fashioned. You know, I wax everything up by hand.

Oh, you do. Wow.

So, you know, being able to do that really quickly and showing the patients is something we would love to implement and that I'm hoping, I'm hoping will happen, you know, mid year.

And then besides cbct, Sarek. What about, what about Sarek for, for the practice? Is that something that you're considering in the future?

Maybe. I, I will be honest. I, I have some PTSD from an office milling unit that was, you know, maybe a little bit old. The technology is a lot better now.

But, and, and a lot of the staff also kind of has that just, you know, maybe not, not quite at the level of restoration that we, we think is appropriate to put in somebody's mouth.

That's a really nice way of saying that. Yeah.

So we.

You know, transitioning from that so software system to the iTero, I think restored everyone's mind, included our, our faith in those types of units, but we're still not quite ready to, to do that. And I'll be honest, I have a fabulous lab in Arkansas and I have a fantastic lab in Texas that I'm not A lab tech. I, I'm. That is not my skill set.

I'm not entirely sure that I want to devote the time that it would take to be really fantastic at it. And at the end of the day, we want our patients to have excellence.

So that's not something that we've taken on now. But I do think that everybody's a little bit more open minded to it after having.

Sort of a renewed experience with ITERO and NCBCT and everything that's.

User friendly, has phenomenal restorations, that sort of thing.

So, Beth, when you guys are looking, you know, taking this, your practice, which is comprehensive in nature, and then, you know, applying that to the scheduling realm, which is its own beast, what do you guys do in your office? Especially for some of the bigger cases that you guys have, how much time are you allotting to those patients? And then what's the, what is sort of the flow of that, that visit look like in the progression to case acceptance ultimately?

So I think the biggest in terms of scheduling, everyone in our office has PDA training, so everyone has the block scheduling mindset. But I think to actually make it successful.

Everybody in our office understands what everything on the schedule means. You know, are we evaluating Invisalign that might be? You know, I pop into a room for five minutes, which is different than we have to remove attachments, which takes longer versus how much time does it take for a crown or how much time does it take for scaling. So I know in a lot of offices it's really easy for everyone to stay in their own lane and under. You know, the hygienist understands this is what it takes for my hygiene procedures and the assistant understands this is what, you know, the doctor spends doing a crown. But really in our office, everybody understands every bit of the schedule. So when they go and we do block out our schedule so that we have allotted time for new patients or for emergencies or, you know, major procedures or deliveries, you know, so forth and so on. But everyone.

Presents treatment to the patients and everyone.

Understands what they're scheduling a procedure next to which I think is important because they can look at the schedule and say, oh, that's not going to work because here's three fillings. You know, that Dr. B is going to be in that room for an hour.

And that type of scheduling practice, you typically could be more productive, but it takes a lot more methodical sort of planning. And so what do you guys do from the planning aspects to do that type of scheduling?

So we, we do, like I said, we Block out the schedule about. The hygiene schedule is blocked out for about eight months, and then the doctor schedule for about two months. And so that allows, you know, when, when they do see a, you know, oh, this is going to be a big surgery that we, we really need all day.

They can go out in the schedule, you know, kind of past where we have deliveries or, you know, whatever it is, and take, take that block of time and then indicate that nothing else is to be scheduled that day. And I, I mean, I have to say I'm. I'm very spoiled because it takes, I think it takes everyone, even doctors, a long time to realize kind of how that like, matrix all comes together. And I'm lucky that.

I mean, I have an incredible staff who's very smart and they, and they get it. They know that if they schedule appropriately, none of us are going to be stressed out. And so, I mean, I think too, that's the, the beauty of it is that we're all very invested in, you know, making each day productive, but not in a way that we, we all hate our lives at the end of the day.

Right. Did your staff come with some, like, previous dental experience or like some quality dental experience?

Yes. So.

I want to say one of my hygienists has been a hygienist for maybe 13 or 14 years. Another.

It'S more like seven years, but she was in a pharmaceutical sales position before, which is also fantastic.

And then.

I have one assistant that's probably been in the dental field about six years. She's, she's the, the person. She was my first, first employee and she's been with me that whole time, so that's also super helpful. And then I have a.

One assistant that's got maybe three or four years experience, but it's just.

Just crazy smart. And I'll be honest, I didn't have to, you know, I, I had, I feel like I've not had to do much in the way of training because they've made my job very easy.

That's really special and unique. That's, that's cool.

It is. And I don't know, I don't know how I got so lucky, but.

But they really, they really have been like, phenomenal. And it doesn't take a lot of explaining for them to grasp the concept.

Well, Beth, I've really enjoyed our time together today. Is there any inspiring or words of advice that you have for, you know, our listeners that potentially would like to own a practice or take your route, which was to do a startup?

Yeah, I mean, I think I'm. I'm such a big believer that you kind of pick your own path in life. And so owning a practice is not easy by any means. But, you know, like I said earlier, you really pick your stress. And so if it's more stressful, you know, going to work and chasing somebody else's dream, it. Anybody can be a practice owner. You know, you do need the support system in your life and the people in your life that.

Can help you when you have questions or. Or need support.

But it's. It's by far the most rewarding thing I've done in my 11 years of dentistry, because I. I really get to go to work every day and pursue my dream. And for a long time, I was going to work and pursuing somebody else's dream. So I think that is. That would be my biggest piece of advice, is that, you know, if you want to do it and you have that goal, I mean, you absolutely should do it, and it's so much more rewarding than.

You know, than just punching a clock.

I couldn't agree more. It's your dream, and you have to build it to the way that you want it to come to fruition. And that's something that Beth is clearly laid out for us today on this podcast, and something that we all should take note of, that's for sure. Well, Beth, again, it was such a pleasure to have you today, and thanks for. For joining us on the show.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I enjoyed it.