Dental Practice Heroes
Where dentists learn how to cut clinical days while increasing profits - without sacrificing patient care, cutting corners, or cranking volume. We teach you how to grow a scalable practice through communication, leadership, and effective management.
Hosted by Dr. Paul Etchison, author of two books on dental practice management, dental coach, and owner of a $6M collections group practice in the south suburbs of Chicago, we provide actionable advice for practice owners who want to intentionally create more time to enjoy their families, wealth, and deep personal fulfillment.
If you want to build a scalable practice framework that no longer stresses, drains, or relies on you for every little thing, we will teach you how and share stories of other dentists who have done it!
Dental Practice Heroes
5 Reasons Why You Aren't Growing as Fast as you Could
Is your dental practice feeling more like a slog than a sprint? Join Dr. Paul Etchison as he unveils the secrets to shedding that metaphorical "backpack of bricks" holding you back from achieving rapid growth. We'll reveal how to attract the right number of new patients by honing your online presence with top-notch website design and glowing reviews. Master the art of brand identity communication, whether you aim to be the go-to family-friendly practice or cater to high-end adult services. And don't underestimate the power of phone interactions—your team's ability to make a stellar first impression could be the game-changer.
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Take Control of Your Practice and Your Life
I help dentists create thriving practices that make more money, require less of their time, and empower their teams to run the office seamlessly—so they can focus on what matters most.
Join the DPH Hero Collective and get the tools, training, and support you need to transform your practice:
- Comprehensive Training: Boost profit, efficiency, and team engagement.
- Live Monthly Webinars: Learn proven strategies for scaling your practice.
- Live Q&A Sessions: Get personalized help when you need it most.
- Supportive Community: Connect with practice owners on the same journey.
- Editable Systems & Protocols: Standardize your operations effortlessly.
Ready to build a practice that works for you? Visit www.DPHPod.com to learn more.
Have you ever wondered if your practice could be growing faster than it is, or are you ever fearful that you may be doing something to harm the growth without even knowing it? That is what we're talking about today. I'm going to share with you five reasons why your practice may not be growing and what you, as the owner, can do about it. You are listening to Dental Practice Heroes, where we help you create and scale your dental practice so that you are no longer tied to the chair. Hi, I'm Dr Paul Etcheson, author of two books on dental practice management, dental coach and owner of a $6 million group practice in the suburbs of Chicago. I want to teach you how to grow and systematize your dental practice so you can spend less time practicing and more time enjoying a life that you love. Let's get started. Hey everyone, welcome back to Dental Practice Heroes. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week. Maybe you took it off, maybe you took a vacation, maybe you worked. Either way, all good. I hope you all had some turkey. Thanksgiving is by far my most favorite holiday and I just think there's something magical about taking turkey and potatoes and stuffing and gravy and just mixing them all together and eating them like that. That just creates an absolutely delectable experience. This year we went to my in-laws, which is usual for us, and I got to meet a new boyfriend who came a little later because he ran the Chicago Turkey Trot that day. Now, me personally, I love doing weights. I don't understand running. Running is like what we did in gym class Once a year when we ran the mile and everybody tried to like figure out a way out of it. Like you hid or like you cross the cones or something like that. Nobody wanted to do it, it sucked. And then like playing sports my whole life when we ran. That was when we got in trouble. Like when you're screwing around in practice and the coach is like run a few laps. Or if, like the whole team's like not performing, you know, the coach is like, hey, you guys want a lollygag. Like that Guess what we're doing suicides. Which is like when you run and touch the cone or touch the line. You go back and forth, back and forth. It's not a pleasurable experience, it's miserable. So that is my association with running. So why anyone would choose to run under their own volition, I have no idea. I don't understand it. But the reason that I share this story about somebody running the turkey trot is that I think practice ownership is a lot like a marathon. We train for it and then we perform it on the days that we're seeing patients, but essentially, many of us are trying to run this entire race with a backpack full of bricks. We're putting in just as much energy, if not more energy, than others, and we're not getting the same results. And this is what you might be doing in your practice right now and wondering why you aren't growing as fast as you could. So today I want to share with you five reasons that your practice may not be growing, and these are things I all see with my coaching clients. So let's get into it All right.
Speaker 1:Number one you haven't figured out how to get the proper number of new patients to grow. Now we all know that doctors need a certain amount of new patients to be busy on the doctor side, and that a certain amount of our existing patients are going to, unfortunately, die or just move away. So we need to make sure we are getting enough new patients and really just trying to get as many as we possibly can. So ask yourself, as the owner why would a new patient come to your office, why would they choose you?
Speaker 1:In the proverbial tender of of dentists that is the internet, why would anyone look at your website or your Google listing and swipe right? Do you have quality pictures on your site or do you just have a bunch of stock BS? Do you have like a nice, clean, pristine look, or is it something really generic? You got to look at your site and see if there's something that you can do to improve the chances that a patient may choose you. It might be a cool video. It could be that your website just doesn't say who you are and chances are you don't know who you are. You haven't really thought about your brand. Are you like high tech, high touch? Are you like convenient? Are you like a family dentist? Do you see kids? Are you more like high end, like for adults? Like what? What are you going for and how does your website project that to future patients?
Speaker 1:So, and maybe you need to focus on your reviews, maybe you need to look at your reviews and say, well, this might be why somebody may not be choosing me. I don't have enough, or I've got a lot of bad ones, or maybe there's something going on that you need to address. I mean, if you get enough reviews about someone at your front desk being rude, maybe someone at your front desk is rude. Yes, most normal patients don't complain. It's like you know. Usually it's those crazies, but they're the ones that are crazy enough to complain. So if they're complaining about something, chances are a lot of your normal patients have felt it too. They just didn't want to tell you about it. So look around, see what needs some help. But you've got to solve the new patient problem If you want to grow your practice. It is just fundamental. So make sure you look at that. And lastly, you know the last hurdle that a new patient has to get over is they have to call your practice.
Speaker 1:Listen to your phone calls. Can't tell you how many people are like oh, I don't know, we're good on the phone. Have you listened to your calls? No, listen to your calls. You will tell me I can't tell you how many times, over and over again oh, we're good, no, we're good on the phone. And then we listened to phone calls. It is never, not one single time, have I worked with a client and we have listened to phone calls and we've said cool, I'm glad that's under control and there's no room for improvement, not once. I hate saying like all or never, but it is never. It has never, ever, ever happened. All right, so listen to your phone calls, which, by the way, all these things are things that we work on in our coaching, and if you're interested in working less days and making more money and wanna learn how to do it, check out our coaching packages at dphpodcom.
Speaker 1:Okay, number two you don't have any space for new patients, and I see this a lot. We don't block schedule, we don't need to. We're doing just fine. We just need to get more new patients. Well, when you prioritize recall over new patients by allowing your patients to schedule their recall six months in advance, you're going to run out of room to see new patients. Then your new patient volume decreases and then you're like, oh no, we need more new patients, but we can't acquire them. When you really just need to expand capacity, I'm not saying don't let your recall patients schedule their next visit in six months. Okay, so that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying make sure that you're blocking out for new patients so it does hold space for the proper amount of new patients, so that you can always see a predictable amount of new patients to keep your practice growing.
Speaker 1:And when you recall, you know when you run out of room for recall, your hygienist is going to complain why are we not taking care of our existing patients? We need to. We can't be so focused on new patients that we don't take care of our existing patients. Well, they are correct. They are right too. But to take care of your existing patients. If you can't find anywhere to put them in six months future because you're blocking out for other appointments, the answer is not to get rid of those appointments, it's to expand your capacity by adding more hours or adding more hygienists, not by getting rid of the space that's going to be occupied by new patients when you get further ahead in the schedule. So make sure you're blocking out time for new patients and hence I mean this is a whole other topic but the SRPs, the three-month recalls, in the future as well. But we're not going to go down that rabbit hole. That's just a whole other thing with block scheduling, all right.
Speaker 1:Reason number three, which follows the previous one you aren't adding another hygienist when you should because your new patient flow is weak and you don't think you can keep them busy. Now if you're block scheduling and you're holding space for new patients, srps, three-month recalls and such, it becomes very easy for you to tell what your capacity is. But the thing is is, if you're not intentional about that, it's a little harder to figure out. You're kind of just guessing and everybody's looking for these magic numbers. Well, how many? How many active patients, how many? This, that dude? Screw all that. If you hold space, you can see it.
Speaker 1:When you look at the schedule you can tell I need more space for recall so you can add another hygienist when you run out of space for recall in six months because you're holding that space for other things, you're holding the space for new patients, for SRPs, and if your new patient flow is consistent because you've been intentional about it, it's where you want it. You know that the new hygienist is going to be busy within a recall cycle or two and that is going to contribute to the growth of the practice. And this is that point where so many dentists they get stuck in that solo phase. Maybe it's 700K to 1.2 million and there's no next step in sight. They just haven't set up the systems to set up the practice to reach the capacity and force the growth. So think about it this way. I want you to say if you can get a hygienist where 50% of their time is booked, I think there is nothing wrong with that. Give them a recall cycle or two and they will be busy, they will eventually be completely full and your patient base will be a net positive as well, because your practice is growing.
Speaker 1:But you're going to say, etch, I hear you, I love it, I want to do it, but man, it is so hard to find a hygienist. Well, and I'm going to ask you well, do you want to grow? Yes, but we can't find a hygienist. They're just want, they want too much money. So many offices are just unwilling to pay higher hygiene wages right now. But they fail to realize that this is literally like the bottleneck that is keeping them from growing. It doesn't make sense for doctors to be doing hygiene. I don't care what you say, I will die on that hill. Stop doing that crap. Get a hygienist. Figure out a way to make it happen. I don't care if you have to drive to the parking lot of your local hygiene schools and sit out there with a set of binoculars and hand out flowers and candy. Maybe. Don't do that, but figure out a way to find a hygienist. It is the bottleneck in your growth. There's no way around it. You can't grow unless you're developing your hygiene program. All right.
Speaker 1:Reason number four you are too busy doing dentistry. You haven't made the doctor's side efficient enough and you spend all your time doing dentistry and you need to be spending time growing the business and working on the systems and those leadership teams that were building your practice. That free you from the practice. They free you from the chains of the practice. I have yet to have a coaching client that wasn't able to get down to three days a week of clinical and making the same money, if not more, so that they would have time to work on the business. So I know you can do this.
Speaker 1:There is so much inefficiency in our lack of scheduling protocols, as well as the way we utilize our team, how we maximize case acceptance, same day dentistry, how fast we do procedures. I know that you are inefficient in your delivery of care and if you don't want to improve that well, you're gonna have to put in the extra time and work on your business. You gotta come in on another day. So I would just suggest that you just get a little bit more efficient and do the same, if not more dentistry in less time. But hey, that's up to you. Ultimately, the point is, if you're not spending the time working on the business, your practice will not grow as fast.
Speaker 1:And lastly, the last reason you have LBS. And I'm not talking about the abbreviation for pounds, which I don't even know where that abbreviation comes from. I'm sure it's English Weights and and measures. So it makes complete sense and there's really probably a logical explanation. But I'm going to have to look that up after I get done recording this. But you have LBS, you have leaky bucket syndrome.
Speaker 1:You aren't focusing on your reappoint as well as making sure that you're doing everything you can to make sure that your patients show up for their appointments everything you can to make sure that your patients show up for their appointments. Look at your reappoint rate, look at your cancellation rate and do everything in your power to maximize your return on those systems. You need to explain to your patients why they need to keep their appointments. Don't let them off the hook too easy when they're trying to cancel. And you've got to have those policies and stick to them. You got to pre-collect for bigger appointments. Make sure you're always telling the patient what the next appointment is and making sure that you book it Every single patient you check out in that practice. Look at the family. Make sure that every single one of them has an appointment Things like that.
Speaker 1:If you don't keep your existing patients in your system, you will always have room in hygiene for recall and hence you will never reach capacity and hence you will never expand capacity and hence you will never reach that level of what I'm starting to term the hero practice, which is one in which your EBITDA allows you to work the amount of clinical days that you choose and want. So you see how this is all related the new patient acquisition systems and attracting new patients, holding space for new patients to drive capacity. Using that capacity to add hygienists and expand capacity. Focusing on working on your business, to maximize the systems that get you there, that allow you to be efficient, so that you can get the capacity faster and you don't have a bunch of inefficiency in your schedule from cancellations and reschedules.
Speaker 1:So take a peek at your practice today and do some thinking. What is one thing that you can improve on this month? Also, if you need someone to help you through it, reach out to us at dentalpracticeheroescom or dphpodcom. Thank you everyone. Have an amazing week. And next episode we're gonna be talking about bonus systems and why they work, why they don't, and what you should be looking at in your practice to see if your bonus system is effective and how to fix it when maybe you have to take it away. All right, we will talk to you next time.
