Get Ready to Take Your Practice to the Next Level

Episode #384 with Dr. Leonard Hess

Are you ready for your practice to work for you, and not you working for your practice? If you are, it’s time to take your practice to the next level! And to guide you through this process, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Leonard Hess from The Dawson Academy to share the best advice for being in the top 10% — not just in production, but also in quality of life. To learn how to take your practice to the next level with The Dawson Academy, listen to Episode 384 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Be a physician of the masticatory system, not a tooth mechanic.

Stop comparing yourself to what you see on social media.

Don't be pressured to do treatment that you're not ready to do.

Never attach your self-worth to your case acceptance rate.

Predictability is important for overall practice health.

Become the go-to dentist within your community.

Be in the top 10% for quality of life, not just for production.

Quotes:

“There are different ways that you could be in the top 10%. You can be in the top 10% for production, which is nice. But I want to be in the top 10% for net income. There are a lot of people out there producing $1 million a year, yet they're dragging home $180,000 or $200,000 a year because their overhead is 80%, 85%. It’s not uncommon that we’re running into dentists that have overhead pushing 85%. And, boy, I'll tell you what, dentistry is really hard work. And if you're working that hard only to be making $0.15 or $0.20 on the dollar, then there are things that have to change.” (4:49—5:22)

“There are a lot of foundational skills that we weren't really taught in dental school that we need to learn if we want to put ourselves in that top 10%.” (6:16—6:25)

“Dental school, it’s a hard process. It’s difficult. But it really only prepares us to be minimally competent. Dental school prepares you to pass a board examination, which is an examination of minimal competency: can you do an MO on tooth number 12? Can you scale and root plane? Can you set some denture teeth? Can you do an endo access on a fake tooth? Can you do a crown prep on a single tooth? That's what it prepares us for. And then, when we get out in the real world, the challenges that we face are far beyond bacteria.” (7:28—8:01)

“When you think about it, in the world, who makes the most money? Who are the most successful people, if we want to look at money? It’s people that can solve the biggest problems. And what we want to do is we want to be able to set you up to become a problem-solver within your community. When somebody has a problem that's beyond normal and ordinary, we want you to be the go-to dentist in that community, and those people will start coming to you. But there's a lot that you need to learn to become that problem-solver. And if you commit yourself to that journey, the money is going to start beating down your door. And the next thing you know, you're going to have to see less patients. You can work less days. Your production per hour is going to start to go up. And dentistry is going to start to become fun again.” (8:34—9:16)

“A lack of predictability, I predict that you're going to have a very rough road ahead of you. You're not going to enjoy dentistry as much as you could. Because when it’s predictable, also, not only is it profitable, but that's how your patients are happy. And when your patients are happy, they start going out in the community and start talking, and you build your reputation that way.” (9:46—10:07)

“To be a very effective dentist, you need to stop being a tooth mechanic and you need to start being a physician of the masticatory system. And so, what you need to understand is you need to gain the perspective that teeth are functioning within a system. And that system is made up of the joints, the muscles of mastication, the back teeth, the front teeth. And those four components, they all need to be working in harmony with each other if we’re going to expect our patients to have long-term success.” (13:29—13:57)

“Dentists are caught in the middle of this trap that's based on bacteria. But most of our patients’ problems are caused by function. Well, guess what? Guess what insurance doesn't pay for. Insurance doesn't pay for restoring a worn tooth. Insurance doesn't pay for helping people that are having temporomandibular joint problems. Insurance doesn't pay for helping people that are having occluso-muscular problems. And then, a lot of these people that are having all these problems, the reality is that their teeth need to be fixed because the function is not correct. And if the function is not correct, then we start to see that trickle-down effect into everything else.” (14:52—15:29)

“Here’s the problem with social media. The problem with social media is comparison. And comparison is always a cancer. Dr. Dawson used to always say that the enemy of contentment is comparison. So, what we’re always doing is we’re always looking at somebody else’s highlight reel and trying to apply that to our real life. No one’s ever looking at behind-the-scenes. Nobody’s ever posting when a case went sideways, and they're back in their office and they're in tears, or they can't even think straight because they're so upset or confused, or their patient’s frustrated. Everybody’s posting their highlight reels. And that's not real.” (19:13—19:52)

“The other thing that I'm really concerned about that I see in some younger dentists today is that I see young dentists seeing what's being posted on social media and they think, ‘Oh. Well, there's something wrong with me,’ or, ‘I'm not good enough.’ And that's a bad place to be. I think it’s driving a lot of dentists sometimes to make treatment plans or to force patients into treatment that may not be the best thing for that patient.” (20:26—20:49)

“There are so many people out there that are getting their teeth ripped out of their head for no good reason besides that some dentists want to make more money, or they want to over-treatment plan for people. And I have young dentists coming up to me basically saying that in so many words, that they feel pressured to do treatment that they're not ready to do, or, ‘This might not be the right thing for the patient, but I feel like it’s the thing that I'm supposed to do based on what I'm seeing on social media.’ I'm really concerned about it.” (21:13—21:40)

“People will choose to do the treatment if they see value in it. If they start to value their long-term health, if that starts to become more important than what insurance will pay for, insurance doesn't matter anymore. But what you have to do is you have to slow down enough to be able to connect with people at a higher level. You've got to be able to slow down enough to do a complete examination that may take you 60 minutes instead of six minutes. But that's where case acceptance really starts for all of these patients, is expressing concern.” (26:19—26:51)

“A lot of times, you're going to overwhelm your patients. They're going to be given a choice that they’ve never been handed before. A lot of times, patients are also dealing with shame because they know, deep down, that they’ve neglected themselves, or they’ve made a series of bad decisions when they were younger that may have gotten to a point to where they're a little bit ashamed of the situation they got themselves into. But that's where we've got to start to become very compassionate people and just love and support our patients and understand.” (26:53—27:22)

“Early on, you're going to get rejected a lot. You're going to have a lot of people that say no. But the most important advice I can give a young dentist is that you don't attach your self-worth and your well-being or whether or not you're good enough to the decision of other people. Because a lot of times, people say no right now, but they're not saying no to you. They're just saying no because, ‘I can't do this right now.’ Well, maybe I need to make a couple better choices in my life to be able to have the finances to take care of myself correctly.” (27:28—28:01)

“You gain confidence by educating yourself, and by applying it, and also being not afraid to make a mistake.” (29:35—29:42)

“We always have to remember that big things have small beginnings. Everybody starts somewhere, and you've just got to love yourself.” (32:37—32:44)

“I see a lot of dentists that are punishing themselves for things they’ve done in the past or wishing they could've done better and letting that sabotage the future. One of the great quotes, and I don't know who said this, but I stole it from somebody, is that the keys to the past do not unlock doors to the future. You've got to let it go. Don't let your future continuously be sabotaged by what's occurred in the past. And a lot of that is who you hang out with.” (34:26—34:56)

“The biggest key in dentistry is you need to have a nice practice. It doesn't have to be a Taj Mahal. What helps is treating people the way you'd want to be treated, is treating people with respect, integrity, honesty. And if you treat people that way, people are going to come throw money at you. But I know a lot of dentists that build multimillion-dollar offices and they're still struggling. Because patients don't make decisions based on the car you're driving or how your practice looks; they make a decision based on how they feel about you.” (36:13—36:47)

“You need to catch these people early, because every 50-year-old train wreck started off as a 22-year-old that was just starting to show early signs and symptoms of what they were going to end up with 30 years down the road. And what an amazing privilege that we can stop or get in and cut that off right before it gets going.” (39:59—40:21)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:26 Dr. Hess’s background.

3:21 Be in the top 10% for quality of life.

6:25 The growth opportunities in becoming a problem-solver.

9:26 Predictability is important for practice health.

10:09 What dentists seek at Dawson.

12:54 Lessons you will learn at Dawson.

15:32 Don't cherry-pick or piecemeal what you apply.

17:36 The problem with social media.

22:45 Advice for dental students.

24:42 Don't tie case acceptance to self-worth.

28:33 Develop clinical confidence.

30:56 It takes time to become an overnight success.

33:24 Be around the best people.

35:44 Treat people with respect, integrity, and honesty.

36:47 Most patients have been undertreated over their life.

38:16 Catch high-risk patients early.

41:26 Why you need The Dawson Academy.

43:49 Last thoughts on taking your practice to the next level.  

44:53 The Dawson Academy and Dr. Hess’s contact information.

Reach Out to Dr. Hess:

Dr. Hess’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leonard.hess.7

Dr. Hess’s social media: @drlennyhess

The Dawson Academy website: https://thedawsonacademy.com/

Dr. Leonard Hess Bio:

Dr. Leonard Hess, D.D.S., is a Co-Clinical Director at The Dawson Academy, joining the Dawson faculty in 2009. He owns Union County Center for Comprehensive Dentistry in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he practices full-time in addition to teaching continuing education courses. He is a member of the editorial board for Inside Dentistry and has had over 17 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. He is also a member of the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry, AACD, ADA, AES, and NCDS.

Dr. Hess began teaching continuing education courses in 2005, and the topics include occlusion, smile design, treatment planning, preparation design, and practice integration of complete dentistry. He’s taught full-day continuing education courses at the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry’s national meeting, The Greater New York Dental Meeting, AACD National Meeting, Pacific Dental Conference, Ontario Dental Association meeting, and The Yankee Dental Conference. Dr. Hess also has taught courses in Japan, Germany, Poland, China, and Canada.