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
Efficiency vs. Speed: What Actually Keeps You on Schedule
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Slow doesn't mean careful. Fast doesn't mean sloppy. Most dentists think efficiency comes at the cost of quality — but this episode will show you it's actually the key to managing a busy schedule.
The DPH coaches break down how to get through your procedures faster without cutting corners. You'll hear their tips on how to speed up everyday procedures, the three things that let you run a 5-minute exam, and where your day quietly loses the most time.
Topics discussed:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:24) Why efficiency starts with data
(04:46) How to learn from your co-workers
(06:57) Mistakes that cost you time
(09:55) Mastering the juggle of a busy schedule
(11:51) How to shorten your time with patients
(14:44) The debate: watching associates work
(20:15) How fast is fast enough
(24:54) Why you can't skip steps
This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com
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Join Us at our Upcoming Retreat October 2nd and 3rd. Click Here to Register
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There's a difference between being fast and being frantic. And I think a lot of dentists mix those two things up. We think that you can't produce quality if you're going too fast. And I get it. Nobody wants to feel rushed. Nobody wants to cut corners as a dentist. Nobody wants the patient thinking, wow, that felt really careless, that procedure I just got. But taking longer doesn't automatically mean that you're doing better dentistry. It just doesn't. And sometimes it means that your systems, they're not up to speed and you're wasting a lot of time during the procedure. So today we're going to be talking about how to get through your procedures faster so that you can fit more into your day, or maybe just stay on your schedule better and have a little bit more time to take a breath. Now, you are listening to the Dental Practice Heroes podcast, where we help dentists build practices that run smoother, feel less chaotic, and allow the doctor to do great dentistry without feeling like every day is a sprint. I'm your host, Dr. Paul Etchison. I'm a practicing dentist, two-time author, a dental business coach, and the owner of a multi-doctor practice in the south suburbs of Chicago. And if one thing that I've learned from practicing, coaching, and developing doctors is that efficiency, it's not about rushing. It's about having a repeatable way of doing things so that the patient gets a better experience and the doctor gets a better day. Now, today for this conversation, I am joined by my DPH coaches, Dr. Steven Markowitz. He's the owner of six practices in the Boston area,
Fast Versus Frantic Dentistry
Paul Etchisonand Dr. Henry Ernst, the owner of an 18 operatory practice in North Carolina. These guys, they have trained associates, they've built systems, and they've learned firsthand what happens when clinical flow either works beautifully or it completely bogs down the day. All right, let's dive in. So today we're gonna talk about something that comes up and you know, it comes up with associates, but it also comes up with ourselves as the doctors, is we don't want to be in it in a hurry. We don't want to feel like we're on roller skates, but at the same time, there is benefit to us if we can do procedures faster, get through procedures faster, work quicker. And I mean, let's let's face it, the patients don't want to be there either. So there's no harm done. No patient is gonna say, hey, can you slow down a little bit? I really love being here. This feels so yum. So let's go to you, Steve. Is that something that you work on with your associates? Is speed something that's important?
SPEAKER_02It has to be. Because like what you just said, people don't want to be there in the first place. So a part of a high-quality patient experience is to make it as efficient as possible. So when we are talking about delivering the best care, how can we do it in the highest quality way, but also in the most efficient way? So when we start to talk about any procedure, we are looking for efficiencies with our doctors. And that starts with timing yourself. That starts with are we starting on time? That starts with how are we having conversations and how are we walking patients through there, what the expectations can be. There are so many ways for us to find ways to be efficient. But I think the first thing, and I was listening to us talk this morning, one of our previous episodes, I was listening to it because we're that awesome. And you like to point you like to point me as the numbers guy,
Measure Time And Start On Time
SPEAKER_02but we need data to have really understand like how quickly or not quickly are we doing things, or when are we actually starting things? It's not a bad thing to time yourself. When you're first starting, or you have a doctor that's first starting with you, and they say they want an hour for a procedure, give them an hour and 15 or an hour and a half. But as they get going and they get comfortable and start to understand where things are in the office, then I want them to start timing themselves. And I also want you to time yourself so you can show them what's possible. There'll be many times where I'll go into a room with a new doctor and I'll say, I'm gonna do this crown. I want you to start the clock. And I'm gonna leave when I'm done. And I want you to see, not because like I'm some magical dentist, because I need you to see what's possible. And I need you to also see that I'm still having conversation with the patient. I'm still trying to give them a good experience, and I'm trying to be as efficient as possible because that's what's the best thing for them. When in turn, I get to help more people and it turns out helping me too. What do you think a lot of people are doing that's slowing them down? Not starting on time. Appointment starts at nine, but the drill doesn't start spinning until like 9.24. And then now they don't even stand a chance of finishing within that time frame uh because they got themselves a 24-minute delay.
Henry ErnstMm-hmm. Henry, what are what are your thoughts? Well, I think you can look at it from two points of view. When I first started as an associate, I was in an office where I was the only guy there. So we didn't have others to lean on and stuff like that. And there's also the point of view when you're in, I think it's fortunate, when you're in a multi-doctor group, right? So let's take the single doc and a practice all by themselves, maybe the younger doctor. Gosh, I'm I started in 2005 and I started watching videos on crown preps, like how people do crown preps more efficiently. I always like to use the word efficiently. People start to get nervous when we use the words faster or quicker, right? It's not about being faster, it's just being more efficient, doing a really good job, but efficient. And I think you mentioned this really well on a group that we had yesterday. Paul was telling a story about how, hey, I walked into an associateship and I told him I'm really good. And the doctor asked, How long does it take you to do an MO? And Paul said, Oh, 30 minutes for the pre-just to prep it. Just a prep. Yeah. And so everything is relative, right? Young doc Paul thought that was really badass.
Paul EtchisonWhich I thought they were gonna be like, wow, that's amazing.
Henry ErnstHow where did you go to school? They trained you so well. So that doctor in that own mind thinks that's fine, right? So it's hard when you're a when you're a younger doctor and you don't have others in the office, right? You gotta just maybe have friends, and this is gonna lean into the multi-doctor thing. And this is what we do. I'll tell docs, I'll say, I'm not God's gifted dentistry,
Learn Efficiency By Watching Others
Henry Ernstbut I can do a crown prep very efficiently and really good, and just put on some gloves and just be my assistant, right? Just watch. And no, lots of times a newer doc, the patient doesn't have to know you're the doctor. They just think you're an assistant, which is okay, right? So just watch procedures. You'll learn tips from a doc that's been doing it 15, 20 years. And you don't have to do it exactly like they do, but maybe you'll take like little tips. One thing that I learned from watching videos, when I grab one burr, it's like a sparrow diamond burr, and I just go right through the context. Boom. Then I just grab another burr, and that's the only burr I use. I go all, I do, you know, and I've just developed my own routine and it works well. Yeah. In multi-doctor offices, just have find other docs, watch them, get little tips from each one. In our practice, we have videos because I've learned over the years the things that stumble doctors that are consistent. Not enough uh closal space on crown preps happens all the time. I actually did a video on that, and I have it in our library for doctors to look at. This is how you do this, right? And another one, you made a great point, Steve. We don't get started on time. Multi-doctor or single doctor office, we get behind. And what bogs us down? Hygiene checks. And I've seen you do this too, Paul. Is I made a video one time, just a random recall visit, put my phone in the corner, did the exam, established camaraderie. I think it was like three minutes. At the end, I asked the patient, I said, listen, I was recording, I didn't get your face, but are you okay with us sharing this for educational purposes? And other docs can see it is okay, and it is a thing. You can do a great, efficient exam in less than five minutes, and you're off to the next thing. So I think it's it's important to always use your resources, which younger doctors feel like like Paul, he knew everything. He was gonna do that 30-minute MO on number 30, and he thought that was awesome.
Paul EtchisonThere's a lot of things that we do speed-wise, and we're talking about getting through procedures faster, but we completely neglect the whole idea of things that we do that cost us a lot of time down the line. Like you mentioned, the occlusal clearance. Like if you don't have occlusal clearance, maybe you might have to do like a reduction coping when it comes to actional lab, or you might have to remill it, or it might break in the future because it's thin, or you might lose a temporary, or you're so scared to reduce like your final restoration that you leave it high and you've got a bunch of post-op visits. I mean, that cost you a ton of time. And it's somewhat intangible to the sense that it's not part of that first appointment. It's later on down the line. But shit, I mean, that can really bog up your schedule down the line. I remember one thing that I did that the late Bruce Baird taught me was to tell people that no matter how my feeling was, tell them it was close to the nerve and it's gonna be sensitive. And it's that's just the way it's gonna be. Because I was getting a lot of post-ops with it's kind of cold sensitive, it's kind of this. And I think part of that was technique. Part of it was I didn't learn until about three years out of school that I'm supposed to you're supposed to evaporate the solvent and the bond. I don't know how I got through dental school and didn't know that, you know. But it was one day I was showing somebody x-rays. I'm like, why is my margin so like open looking? Like, how do I get in? They're like, oh, are you thinning out your bond? I'm like, thin out. What do you mean? Thin it out. What does that even mean? I mean, that's embarrassing as hell. But I did three years of dentistry like that as a private practicer with a busy office. I probably did like 4,000 fillings.
SPEAKER_02Do you know how fast you would have been filling when it got done if you
Stop Multitasking Mid Procedure
SPEAKER_02had thinned out the bond? Like that, you could have been done in 28 and a half minutes. Totally.
Paul EtchisonSo much bond in my way. I'm like, I can't put the bond is in the way.
Henry ErnstWe're at 30 minutes of him still drilling, Steve. Oh, yeah. We're not even talking about bonding. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't even started to fill yet. But you know what? I did get better, guys. And I would say the juggling, too, is the other thing that came into my mind too. Is I I always teach in our office, I love for an associate to just follow me around for like an hour or two because I've got three or four routing slips, I've got a hygiene slip, and so there's an art to this if you're not used to it. Like, okay, I got a patient in room number one who I have to do a crown for. I'm gonna numb them up. I'm gonna do the post-op in room number two, I'm gonna go knock out two hygiene checks, then I'm coming back to do the crown prep. Or maybe by that time I got another slip, I'm numbing. So there's an art to this, and you just have to, it takes a while. I feel like it takes a good four or five months for a new associate in a busy office to learn the juggle.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I dude, I love that you brought that up. I think if I could take back my answer to you, Paul, of like where people lose time, it's time management. Like they they don't either complete one task before they move on to the next, or they they like go do something else at the worst possible time. And now they're just like running around in a circle and nothing's getting done and they're behind. Or they they're and then when they're behind, that feels stressful. So they're like, well, you know, instead of an hour and a half, I really should get two hours for that. And then they are able to run on time, but they're so inefficient that they are frustrated with their schedule or their production or how many patients they saw. So I am going to re-answer that question and agree with Henry and say, if you could figure out that art of time management, of when do I get up? When do I finish this? How do I take a seven-minute exam and turn it into a four-minute exam? That will create so much time for you. And then you can start to work on like, all right, how do I become more efficient with my filling procedure so I can be fast like Paul?
Paul EtchisonYeah. You know, I I'm curious because I'm sure you've really nailed this, Steve, being the numbers guy and the data man that you are. Yep. When you take a seven-minute exam and you make it four minutes, most listeners are thinking, Dr. Steve is probably just using better words, better ways to communicate. But what they don't realize is Dr. Steve is just talking very fast. Like it wasn't you just it was more about words per minute for you than it was.
SPEAKER_02That is correct. But I do have, I like I love, I do have this trick. When I have time, I will use open questions. And when I don't have time, I will use closing questions. So, for example, if I know I need to go, I'll say, Do you have any questions? No. Okay, great. I'll see you later. If I know I do have time, I will say, I know I said a lot to you. What kind of questions do you have? And that is again, if I'm asking them for a question, and if I ask that second way, I'm gonna get something, then we're now, I have another 30 seconds or
Faster Exams With Better Questions
SPEAKER_02a minute. So I have to know my internal clock, and because that will help me navigate what kind of questions that I'm asking patients.
Henry ErnstWith the associates that are starting in a new office or, you know, the recall patients, there should be three things. Number one is let's say you're going into a patient's room, hygiene patient, you've met them before. Number one, just simple question. Hey, so how's it going? Anything new or exciting going on? Simple, you're establishing karate. Maybe you're putting on the gloves while you're saying that. Oh, my daughter's wedding or something like that. Okay, little, that's your schmoozing, right? The quick periodic exam schmoozing. Number two is you're doing your exam. Always, always, always get credit for what you're doing. At the end, always say, Oh, I'm gonna do the oral cancer check now. Let me look underneath your tongue, blah, blah, blah. Right. Because I get, believe it or not, I get patients that come after they've had an exam, say, I want to see Dr. Ernst also. Because he does that oral cancer check thing. Yeah. And I tell my associates, I'm like, listen, you do it, get credit for what you're doing. So at the end, hey, I don't see anything new. Let's say they do hypothetically have three things treatment plan, they just haven't done it. Pick one thing. You know, so in the beginning, anything new or exciting going on? After you're looked, you made sure you got credit for your oral cancer check. I don't see anything new. You know, we've had this tooth number three treatment plan. Maybe the picture's on the wall. I really suggest let's get something done about it. It's been treatment planned for a while. And you've got one thing treatment plan, you've got one thing that you got a chance to do. That probably took less, that one exam took less than five minutes. And it was camaraderie, it was thorough. You got credit for all the stuff that you did, and you're out of the room and you're on to being on time, like Steve says.
Paul EtchisonThere's so many little things that we can do. And I think us, we just kind of lose track of it sometimes because it's just you learn it over time and you just don't realize you're doing it. But I mean, you're speaking about the juggling of managing a schedule. I remember my associate, and I wish it was more okay to look over the shoulder of your associate. Why isn't it? I don't know. I think for the patient, it just feels like it's dental school. Like, what's wrong with my my person? I just shaking his head, he doesn't agree. And I want to hear about this in a second. But I remember asking my assistant, my personal assistant that was working with a new associate, like, just disbelief, like watching how long she could prep a crown. Like I asked my assistant, I'm like, you worked with her. Like, what is she doing? Like, I don't think I could do that if I wanted to. Is it like a light body massage with the burr? Like, get the diamond burr, but it's just like it's not even sharp. You're just dinking the tooth to just vibrate. I don't know, what are you doing? And she said that she would like pick up her chamfer burn, reduction burn, she would go and she would do part of like, you know, the facial or the lingual, and then she would pick up some the football and do some more occlusal. And then she would pick up the slow speed, the round burr and do some decay removal. It was like you mentioned people starting one thing, not finishing it, and moving on to the next thing. Like when you got that shamfer burn, do your axial reduction, get your margin straight. Don't do anything else until it's done. Like I wouldn't, I always tell my associates, like, your occlusal reduction is done at the beginning. Like, don't do a little bit and then come look at it and do some more. Like, make sure you get more than enough and you're done. You don't have to ever go back to that. So that's what popped in my head. Steve, it's okay for you to look over the shoulders of your associates. A thousand percent.
SPEAKER_02So I remember the first all the first all-in X case that I did, I had the lab come in and they did the conversion, and I had this guy sit over my shoulder and literally tell me every single thing to do. And that gave me confidence. And the patient, when we were like, I had her back for the follow-up the next day or two days after, and she was like, I was so glad that guy was there. And actually, I know you know what you're doing, but it made me feel that much more confident that I was doing the right thing.
Paul EtchisonHow did you explain that to the patient?
SPEAKER_02I said, Rich is here from the lab. He helps us get this as perfect as we can for you, and uh, he's gonna be walking us through the procedure and making sure that we get we take the best care of you.
Coaching Associates Without Undermining Them
Henry ErnstSo, in this circumstance, this is a really specialized procedure, right? Yeah. I think Paul and I, when we were talking about this yesterday, let's talk about everyday bread and butter things that every dentist should do. So a crown. Now, do you feel comfortable, newer associate in your office, standing behind them and watching them do a crown or maybe even a handful of fillings?
SPEAKER_02No, I assist them. I assist them. So when you said you, they assist you, I'll assist them too. I'm gonna put on gloves.
Henry ErnstThat would make me so nervous. Now, does the doctor because I kind of look at it at a different point of view, so I disagree with you. I feel like that feels like I don't trust you. I'm gonna watch you and I'm gonna make you feel nervous. I mean That's how I feel. I mean I could see how a younger dentist would feel intimidated and and don't even have this job. So I mean, the way that we do it is we have the most experienced assistant, like my person that I really trust that's been working up for years, you're gonna have them for the first month or so, and maybe indefinitely. That person is our eyes and ears because they know what good dentistry should look like, they know what they should be doing and not be doing. So I feel like it's maybe it's a little sneaky, but that's our way of having an experience.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that's great. And we do that as well. If someone is coming to me and saying, I want to be faster, or I want to see more patients, or I want to make more money, I'm gonna say, is it okay if I actually see what you're doing? I'm not going in there, I'm not showing up. I have done this and it's I I've learned. I'm not just showing up in an office, putting my gloves on, and just walking in. We're gonna have a conversation and I'm gonna say, Do you want me to do this? And if they say yes, then I'm gonna walk in. If they say no, they're like, all right, how do you want me to help?
Paul EtchisonYeah.
SPEAKER_02Most of the doctors that I work with have enough trust in me that I'm not there to belittle them in any way. I'm just there to they ask for the help. This is how I can best see what's happening. So let's talk it out.
Paul EtchisonI don't feel like they're asking for help most in most of my cases. It's me noticing that. And I think if any associate's gonna come to me and say, I want to make more money, they're gonna say, Well, I don't want to see any more patients and uh I don't want to be any faster. I don't want to work for myself. I just want to make more money and not have to do anything else. I want to lose weight, but I don't want to diet or exercise.
SPEAKER_02Okay, then you don't really want to lose weight.
Henry ErnstNo, I do. Yeah, of course. So how they want a special Ozempic shot for a dentist.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, these conversations cannot just happen in a in a vacuum. We need to take a step back and look at our patient flow, look at our numbers, talk to the to our doctors and fully appreciate what motivates them. And if we can align on how they want to take care of their patients and go through the day, and they can understand that two-hour crown may not be as helpful as an hour and 15-minute crown, and they truly believe that, then let's get that. If that's their really their goal, then I know how to get them to do that. And I can do it from care side, I can do it from talking to them through it at their lunch. But in my experience, when I see it and I can see where there are clearly are opportunities, we get there faster. So the question is, do you want to get there faster or do you want to take have it learn on your own? And all the mistakes that I made that took me 15 years, I get to share with you over the shoulder in an hour and 50 minutes. Which we which would you prefer?
Paul EtchisonDo you think there's a like a maximum limit? I truly believe there is a limit to how fast people can go. Yes. And I think it's different for everybody. And and what what has brought this made me realize this is my wife cannot listen to an audiobook at the speed that I listen to it. It like she's just like, this is like baffling to me. She just doesn't understand it. And I think that's it's like that to some extent for people prepping teeth. Like, I can prep faster because I mean there might be some correlation with my audiobook speed. And speed is doctors. This might be a study to explore. I'm thinking there might be further research needed.
SPEAKER_02Definitely want to see that correlation. But dude, you're never gonna be as fast as Hussein Bolt.
Paul EtchisonIf I believed in it, my mom says I could do anything. She couldn't do it. With a special chain, maybe.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's true. You can you can do anything. But like there's just capacity. There's in all of our abilities. Yes. Like, no matter how good some dentists may be, they will never be as fast as you are, Paul. Just not gonna happen. It doesn't make them bad. It's just that's what that's how fast their capabilities will take them. So it's not it's not saying can we do this in 45 minutes? It's can we not do this in two hours? Because that's not a patient experience. So the goal shouldn't be let's do, let's see how we can get everyone to 45 minutes. I think a crown, anything more than an hour and a half for a single crown, I believe, after your first year of practice in dentistry, is not a great patient experience. Be more specific. Like the whole appointment? The entire appointment. If appointment starts at nine, they should leave by 10 30.
Henry ErnstNot milling. Oh, I don't know about milling. That yeah, just year old.
Realistic Time Limits For Crown Preps
Henry ErnstLet's do apples to apples. Let's talk about just the patient's already numb, just the drilling. Yeah. How, what's your take on that? Just the drilling, nothing else.
SPEAKER_02I Think just the drilling should go 30. Yeah, I mean, if it's 30 minutes, what are you doing for the rest of the hour and a half? So I think in that first year, if you're able to stop drilling under 45 minutes, we have another 45 minutes to make a temp, take an impression, and have the patient leave or scan or whatever you're doing. What do you think, Henry?
Henry ErnstI think shoot for 10. Anything over 30, what were you doing? I think starting dentist, experienced dentist, starting dentist, 30. I think 30 is just maximum, in my opinion. Or else you're just, what are you doing? Right. Yeah. I would say experience 10 to 15. And that's efficient. It's not fast. But we made the great point before is it's about not making the mistakes that you're gonna make that are gonna cost us not today, but tomorrow, a week, a month from now. So I had an associate, and this it's an interesting story. I'll make it quick. I had an associate, this is right after COVID, and the poor guy, he was a super nice guy, he could not do a second molar crown on lower second molars. I had to tell him that, listen, you're not allowed to do second molar crowns anymore. He just could not do them. Like you can't turn left. Exactly. And so I even so kind of what Steve was talking about, I tried to be uh respectful and I said, listen, I just did a second molar crown. I want you to come in and just look at it. It's done. I want you to look at it, what it should look like. And you know, it's hard to see. So we took an interall camera and we looked around, like, and I told him afterwards, I see, this is the reduction. This is what you need. Not in front of the patient. I told the patient, listen, my associate here just wants to see something. Are you okay being a model for us? Oh, yeah, sure. And he just looked and I didn't say anything in front. And then we left, I said, This is how it should look. Do you understand that? And eventually it didn't end well because I had to dismiss him. He just, poor guy. He went through dental school. I won't say the dental school, but he didn't do very many crowns in dental school, and his hands were just not great. So we just had to dismiss him. The patients were telling me the experience was kind of like they felt like they were in school. So that didn't end on a good note, but it's just an example of I tried to show the mistakes. Because if we can get somebody from like what did he do that was about working? Like what was the bad part?
Paul EtchisonWhat was bad?
Henry ErnstOh man, they had some of them, he couldn't like patients. We were patients were coming back and crown seats, there were like two or three crown seats because they just didn't sit. Most of the time it wasn't enough adjustment. They would adjust them and then they'd have a hole in it. Then they had to go back and take a new, you know. So
When Skills Gaps Hurt The Practice
Henry Ernstit was just a nightmare. He was a really nice guy. I just had to say it's not just not working out. I can't have the goodwill of this practice have your name on it anymore. So, but the point is, I tried.
Paul EtchisonYeah, right. You know, I remember I had a coaching client and I was helping him with his molar endo, and he had busted a file in one, and every other canal was way short. And I said, All right, let's go through step by step. So we went through step by step. I said, Okay, you you access the tooth. Yes. Okay, you do your decay removal. Yeah. I'm like, what do you mean? Oh yeah. He's like, I don't know if I do that. I'm like, okay, all right, anyway, what do you do next? I just start doing the endo. I'm like, no, well, what do you do? Like, I said, like, look, you're short and you busted some files. Walk me through getting your lengths. And I'm like, what about your apex locator? Oh, I don't use one. Well, how do you get your lengths? You take x-rays? Okay, that probably takes a long time. No, I just kind of feel it. And I'm just like, okay, dude, like the problem, he wants help with the obturation because he's feeling like it's short, but the problem is, dude, like you moved forward. You didn't finish the step before it. You can't skip the steps. So I I think that's that's a good lesson, I think, for everybody. And I think that it came up a few times. Finish what you start completely, put a period on it, then move on.
SPEAKER_02And do the same thing every time, too. If this is the best way for you to do a root canal on a molar, do that. If this is the best way for you to do a crown, do a crown. So do it that way. Use your same birds. Have a system and put it on repeat, and you'll be able to be more efficient for sure.
Paul EtchisonOne of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that efficiency, it's not about rushing. Efficiency is really just about knowing where you are in the procedure at that
Systems, Friction Removal, And Next Steps
Paul Etchisonmoment and what is the step that comes next. It's a lot about starting on time. It's having that sequence, just having a sequence at all that you trust that you know that works. And it's always about finishing that step. Finish what you're doing before jumping on to something else. And let's not forget about just removing all the little points of friction that make the dentistry and the procedures feel harder than they need to be. I know there is a ton of them in your day. And I promise you, if you focus on these things, things are a lot more fun because they're moving along. I can tell you, nothing drives me more crazy than when I would be working with someone who wasn't my assistant that wasn't up to speed with how we were doing things. And those procedures just felt so slow. And it's not because that assistant wasn't capable, it's just because we never worked on it. And since we never worked on it, that process had way too much friction. So here's what I want to remember from this episode. First, take the time to time yourself. You can't improve what you're not measuring. You need to be measuring how long it's taking you to do procedures. Second, build a repeatable system for your procedures, the same sequence, the same burrs, the same flow. And third, don't confuse quality with slowness. Just because you take your time and you go really slow, it doesn't mean that your process or your clinical excellence is any better. I mean, the patients just want it to be done right. They have no idea how long things are supposed to take. But I promise you something, they don't want to be there any longer than they need to be. And finally, if you got associates, don't just pray and hope they get faster. You've got to teach them, you got to coach them, you got to show them what's possible, and you got to help them build the habits that make dentistry easier. I mean, if you become more efficient, if you and your team and your office and and just maybe you just as a provider become more efficient, everybody wins. Nobody loses. The patient has a better experience, the assistant has a better day, the schedule runs smoother, and the doctor gets to stop feeling like they're always behind. Now, if this episode made you realize that your clinical flow through your day, maybe your associate training, maybe your scheduling systems could be tighter. That is exactly the kind of thing that we help dentists work through. We help them install it into their practice. We have the exact systems, we know how to put them into your practice so that they work and they stick and the team buys into them. So head over to dentalpracticeheroes.com slash strategy and schedule a free strategy call with me. You will talk directly to me, and you're never going to guess it, listener. You're not gonna believe it. I sound exactly the same on the phone as I sound here on the podcast. See for yourself, dentalpracticeheroes.com slash strategy. And if you like these practical episodes where we break down the real stuff that makes a dental practice run better, do me a favor and leave a five star review. It really helps more dentists find the show. And I promise you, we really appreciate you doing it. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. We will talk to you next time.
