The 5 Bottlenecks for Dentists in Digital Smile Design

Episode #399 with Dr. Christian Coachman

Before you buy great equipment, you need to build great systems. And to help you achieve that, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Christian Coachman, founder and CEO of Digital Smile Design, to give you solutions to five bottlenecks in digital smile design that is holding you back. Just having a scanner won't make you a digital dentist! If you don't know how to use it, or don't have a system in place for it, your fancy equipment will gather dust in the corner. For the best advice on improving patient care through digital technology, listen to Episode 399 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Create and implement great systems.

Have a vision for you and your team.

Learn how to prioritize processes.

Understand the importance of human resources.

Be disciplined in sticking to your routine.

Overcome the “gray zone.”

Quotes:

“The future belongs to comprehensive clinics. It’s not dental offices anymore, but comprehensive clinics. It’s beautiful, it’s powerful, it’s life-changing, and it is a beautiful story that patients love to hear. When a patient understands what it means going to a real comprehensive clinic, there's no way back. They don't want to go back to a “normal” dental office. So, the future of high-end dentistry belongs to the ones embracing this new concept of comprehensive care that goes beyond just the teeth and really takes care of the human being, as a whole.” (11:14—11:52)

“The first huge thing, probably the major one we didn't learn in school is how to create systems. Building systems is the number-one bottleneck. We learned that the scanner does a great job, so we go and buy the scanner. And then, the scanner is in the corner, underutilized. Why? Because we didn't build a system to fit the scanner in to make the scanner the most powerful tool possible. So, we don't get the return on investment. Frustration, etc. And many times, when we have challenges in front of us, we end up going to the old way of doing things and we underutilize, or we let the new idea fade.” (15:16—16:06)

“The dental industry and the dental clinics all over the world, these people know how to build systems. They don't know how to treat patients; they don't know how to do dentistry — but they know how to build systems. So, dental office owners, we need to learn how to build systems before we buy fancy equipment.” (16:39—16:59)

“Everything that we do well, unconsciously, we created a system. But it can take years, because through the struggles and mistakes, we make decisions. And if we decide that we want to do this, and we do it over, and over, and over again, without even thinking, it becomes a smart system because that's the only way for us to do it well and repeat over and over and make money out of it. So, many things in our offices are already a decent system, just because we do it so much, and over and over again. Now, the trick is to find a shortcut to build a system faster, or to think about it and speed up the process of building a system.” (17:10—17:54)

“[Systems] need to be documented. It needs to be agreed on. It needs to be brainstormed with the team. Everybody needs to say, ‘This is what we need to do, exactly like that.’ It needs to be revisited from time to time to be repolished, refined, and improved.” (19:13—19:28)

“Only after you build a system do you ask yourself, ‘What kind of investments do I need? What do I need to buy? How am I going to fit these new ideas inside my system?’ And when you do investments after you have a system, you get much better return on your investment, on whatever you're buying to fit the system, and not the opposite like we usually do. We buy stuff, and then we try to figure out how to make something work with that. Every equipment that we buy is just a piece of the system. It’s not the whole system.” (19:53—20:25)

“If you're too busy working, you don't have time to make money, they say. So, you need to separate your work, two-thirds doing things and producing, and maybe one-third strategizing, rethinking, writing things down, thinking about how your team is acting on all these fronts, prioritizing and tackling, what are the things that I need to create a smart system first, and then just put some time together and think. If it’s an hour a day, a day a week, a few days a month, you need to step back and look at the big picture. You need to give some air to your brain. And that's when the best ideas come.” (20:47—21:31)

“The second bottleneck that is holding dental clinic owners [back] is the lack of vision, clear vision, basically asking yourself, ‘Where do I want to be in five years?’ But not superficially; really deep diving into your vision and understanding exactly where you want to be. It’s like drawing your dream in detail, writing down your dreams in detail and building this ideal place that you want to be professionally. Regardless of where you are right now, regardless of how successful you are right now, we can always be somewhere in five years. It doesn't mean that we’re going to be obsessed with being there, because we know that 99.9% of the time, we’re not going to get there exactly. But the fact of building a vision helps us to clean the pollution of information around us.” (22:04—23:00)

“Modern dentistry doesn't exist without a team. Modern dentistry is a team sport, more and more than ever. Traditionally, dentists learned how to do things almost alone, and we were not taught to be team builders and team leaders. And unfortunately, with the amount of competition and the amount of information and the amount of things that we need to control today to have a high-end comprehensive clinic, not a little dental office in the corner doing quadrant dentistry, a comprehensive, modern clinic requires a team. So, we need to become team leaders, team builders. And there's no way we can build a team without having a vision that inspires the team.” (24:36—25:30)

“If your vision is not bringing some clear benefits for your team, there's no team.” (25:57—26:02)

“Every time you buy new equipment, every time you bring a new technique, what is in it for your team? And sometimes, we forget. It’s, ‘We need to do it like this! I'm the boss! We need to do it like this.’ And what I learned is that, at the end of the day, the doctor thinks they are the boss, but they're not. The boss is the team. They, at the end, even unconsciously, dictate everything that happens in the office. So, the only way is to really have a vision that inspires, but have a vision that generates real benefits to everybody around you.” (26:20—27:01)

“The third bottleneck is prioritization. So, since every good dentist is passionate about dentistry, we become impulsive on everything we see, and we just want to do it. We want to do everything. And I know because I'm a passionate dentist. My whole life, I was a passionate technician dentist. And that's beautiful. That's the beautiful thing about good dentists; they are so passionate about what they do. The little downside about being so passionate about something is that you lose a little bit of the pragmatic prioritization process.” (27:16—27:54)

“The number-one problem of dentists is that they depend, every dollar [they make, on] their hands. And the fact is that we are not trained to handle human resources. And I see that so many times, super smart dentists getting mad at the assistant like, ‘Give me this! I'm going to do it myself.’ And you are stuck forever to do it yourself. So, the art of human resources, that's amazing. That's bottleneck number four.” (34:39—35:09)

“The [fifth] bottleneck is having the strength, the resilience of sticking with your plan and telling yourself, ‘If this is the best way to do this, I will not let the old way win. I'm going to stick to my plan and I'm going to insist until this becomes so natural for me and my team that it’s going to become a routine.’ Because only when something becomes a routine is when we become good, and we make money out of it.” (46:29—47:03)

“[The “gray zone”] is where 99.9% of dentists are with digital dentistry. They're all in the gray zone. Meaning, they are not there yet. They didn't create complete systems. They didn't have complete routines. They bought some stuff; they don't know exactly how to use it. They're learning bits and pieces. They say, ‘I'm a digital dentist, Christian. I bought a scanner.’ And I say, ‘Unfortunately, not. You just have a scanner.’ A digital dentist is the one that overcame the gray zone and has systems and processes in place. And these systems and processes are so embedded in their brains and the team’s brains that it became a routine. So, when your assistant comes in and says, ‘Doctor, should I do an alginate, or should I scan this patient?’ this is a demonstration that you're still in the gray zone, that you're still in the middle of the journey.” (49:07—50:06)

“There are a couple of different strategies to make us stick with a routine that we know is going to be best, long-term, for us. One of them is to be surrounded by a few people that are a pain in the neck — with good intentions. Because most people want to be nice to you. Some people are like you, and that's good for some things. But it’s bad for the things that you don't like because they also don't like them.” (50:29—50:58)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

2:59 Dr. Coachman’s background.

7:35 Dr. Coachman’s “why” around dentistry.

10:26 The bottleneck for dentists in digital smile design.

15:07 Bottleneck 1) Lack of systems.

17:00 Why you need systems.

19:02 Documenting systems.

20:25 How to put systems in place.

21:45 Bottleneck 2) Lack of vision.

24:14 Sharing your vision with your team.

27:12 Bottleneck 3) Prioritization.  

29:40 Determining your most important priority.

33:07 Bottleneck 4) Handling human resources.

35:10 Lessons learned.

37:53 Hiring challenges and trends across the globe.

41:51 We need people more than ever.

43:41 Now is the greatest time to be a dentist.

46:14 Bottleneck 5) Discipline for routine.

47:03 The “gray zone,” and how to overcome it.

50:06 Strategies for sticking to routines.

52:01 Momentum: the end of the gray zone.

54:01 The future of dentistry.

57:36 Last thoughts on the bottlenecks for dentists.

59:14 How to get involved with DSD Residency.

1:01:30 Digital Smile Design website information.  

Reach Out to Dr. Coachman:

Dr. Coachman’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christiancoachman

Dr. Coachman’s social media: @chriscoachman

Resources:

Digital Smile Design website: https://digitalsmiledesign.com/

Dr. Christian Coachman Bio:

Combining his advanced skills, experience, and technology solutions, Dr. Christian Coachman pioneered the Digital Smile Design methodology and founded Digital Smile Design company (DSD). Since its inception, thousands of dentists worldwide have attended DSD courses and workshops, such as the renowned DSD Residency program.

Dr. Coachman is the developer of worldwide, well-known concepts such as the Digital Smile Design, the Pink Hybrid Implant Restoration, the Digital Planning Center, Emotional Dentistry, Interdisciplinary Treatment Simulation, and Digital Smile Donator.

He regularly consults for dental industry companies, developing products, implementing concepts, and marketing strategies, such as the Facially Driven Digital Orthodontic Workflow developed in collaboration with Invisalign, Align Technology.

He has lectured and published internationally in the fields of esthetic and digital dentistry, dental photography, oral rehabilitation, dental ceramics, implants, and communication strategies and marketing in dentistry.