Dr. Andrew Turchin had a thriving practice in New York for 13 years, yet he decided to completely change things and follow his passion. He had always loved skiing and realized that he would be happier in a place where he could ski. He uprooted his successful and established practice and moved to Aspen, CO. He was not only following his passions, but he learned more about life and dentistry. 

His success stems from focusing on the things that make him successful and staying within his zone of genius. He works with restorations and porcelain and even has a 100% happiness guarantee. He makes sure that his patients love their new smiles before he moves forward and puts special emphasis on listening and communication. He talks about having the confidence to do the big cases, how to present to a patient, how to use checklists for predictable outcomes, and he shares a lot of knowledge and encouragement.  

You can find Dr. Andrew Turchin here: 

Dr. Andrew Turchin 

Dr. Andrew Turchin on Facebook 

Show Notes 

[03:23] Dr. Turchin had a thriving practice in New York, but he loved to ski, and he wanted to follow his passion. 

[04:02] Looking back at himself even his 12-year-old self knew that he should live in a ski town. 

[04:14] After having a practice in New York City for 13 years, it was time for him to live the dream and move to Aspen. 

[04:56] He sees patients from all over the world in his Aspen office. 

[05:43] The CE journey and doing large cases comes down to confidence. Usually people gain knowledge knowledge knowledge and don't have experience. 

[06:47] Dr. Turchin is the only dentist that Kirk knows of who has 100% money back guarantee. 

[07:12] Studying natural beautiful smiles is one of the keys. It comes down to having the confidence and doing things with your parents. 

[09:42] Making everything simple with systems and checklists helps add to the predictability of the case. 

[10:42] Checklist are great because they give you a way to do things and then you can refine the checklist as time goes on. 

[11:30] A big case checklists. First the assistant makes the patient comfortable with blankets and lip balm etc. Then there's the clinical protocol checklist.  

[13:23] Andrew sometimes lets his team learn by mistakes. 

[14:07] The higher people pay, the higher their expectations and they need to be met in every single way. 

[16:02] Have a good process of how you present options.  

[16:29] Dr. Turchin does general dentistry three days a week and does big cases maybe two days a week. 

[17:23] Issues can be fixed, maintained or nothing can be done. 

[19:27] In Aspen, Andrew is one of six dentists and he sees emergencies frequently. A lot of these are broken veneers, and he gets to see a lot of dentistry that he had never seen before. 

[20:07] Complex dentistry should be done at a high level or it shouldn't be done at all. 

[20:37] Dentist actually have the opportunity to try on their veneers. They should do the temporaries correctly. provisionals should be a trial smile. 

[22:03] The trial smile and dual blueprint method. It's important to know where teeth belong in the face.  

[23:42] The first appointment is the trial smile. Then it is time for the I love my smile appointment. 

[25:45] It takes less than 10 minutes to put natural translucency and texture in a trial smile, so that the patient can truly evaluate whether veneers will look like. 

[27:01] The I love your smile guaranteed. If they don't love it, he will either refine it or redo it or pay for them to have a redone elsewhere. 

[29:52] The difference between confidence and ego. Ego is more like a false confidence. These people would be less likely to look at their own work critically. 

[30:24] People with egos and very delicate feelings. 

[31:43] All dentist should know and understand natural tooth form. This is one of Andrew's coaching points for young dentist. 

[33:12] Dentist should look at people's mouth when they speak to them. 

[33:52] Andrew has developed a grading system for confidence. Dentists rate themselves in eight different categories. This is a fast way to find out where he can help these people. 

[36:48] The importance of young dentists choosing how they want to practice and living their dreams. 

[37:31] Your zone of genius is the part of your life that you love so much that it actually gives you energy. 

[41:43] Listen to your 13-year-old self and do what you want. You can practice the type of dentistry you want. 

[42:20] There is a trend with super dentists, but you might want to look at your zone of genius instead. 

[43:52] Doing limited amounts of procedures can be a great way to move forward. Successful people limit their scope. 

[45:51] Confidence can be dynamic. Everyone loses it but the trick is to get back. 

[47:11] The importance of learning to communicate and listen to your patient. Emotional IQ is super important. 

Links and Resources: 

The Checklist Manifesto 

The Power of a Smile TED Talk 

The Hidden Power of Smiling TED Talk 

The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level