Life truly is a journey and having a clear vision for your Dental Practice is crucial to getting the results you’d like.

As a child, our parents have a vision for us and they usually try to lead us in the “right” direction. They sacrifice for us to go to the “right” schools or give us the opportunities to see where our talents lie with regards to sports, dance, music or extracurricular activities. When we get to high school, they may actually get us involved in which courses or future college tracks we would like to attend. What I am implying is that most of us experience Vision and Goal Setting through others for our lives when we are young.

As an adult and in college, most of us decide which direction our talents and interests take us. When we graduated Dental School, we became seriously and solely responsible for our next career choices. This is the time that your five year vision may have been murky or clear. For most, the first few years out of professional school is spent honing our clinical skills and learning the inner workings of a dental practice.

Being a Practice Owner is another step up the rung of your dental career and a new way of life. NOW is the time to get crystal clear about how you want this business to run. Clinically you will have developed a philosophy of care for your patients and this is your vision for them. In a managerial role, do you have a vision for the Dream Team aka your employees? Are you being the Leader that your team needs and have you shared your Practice vision with them?

Don’t mess up the opportunity to get clear on what you want your Practice to be! You as the owner/leader must communicate your definition of a successful dental experience for your patients, the ideal team culture you desire, and what you deem a fulfilling dental Practice. Once you’ve got the picture in your mind, decide and set up goals and systems to achieve what you want. Find mentors, explore the continuing education circuit for the knowledge you need, and make your business vision a priority.

As I work with fellow dentist owners at all stages in their career, I am struck by the level of complacency that occurs. Somehow, we forget we are running a 100 yard Dash and let up before the finish line! If you are going to be truly successful you need to reach plateaus in your practice life and then re-dream and reset for the next goal.

We as dentists and clinicians learn about new techniques, new materials, and new services for our patients through study. As business owners, there are many rules and regulations we must stay current with and comply to stay within legal boundaries. There is no resting on your laurels if you are a dental practice owner. Nobody said being a successful practice owner was going to be easy, but if you do it right it will be the most fulfilling and rewarding part of life you will have.

The most detrimental Vision Error is to lose focus on your dream or your vision of what success means to you. For some, success  is a monetary goal and for others it is a lifestyle. Being able to financially be secure for retirement, healthy enough to enjoy travel or pursuing your next chapter with choices is a common dream for most of us.

Your Vision is similar to setting out a road map to a destination. If you were to travel by car from Los Angeles and want to arrive in New York, you would plan this journey carefully. There would be many factors to consider such as time, points of interest you may want to experience longer, cuisine choices, and hotel accommodations. You would also choose the people you would like to take with you. Most people plan their next vacation more thoroughly than the journey of their practice life and its success. Avoid the error of not planning and charting out how you will reach your definition of success.

A common vision error later in a dentist’s career life is not visualizing their next chapter. Think through what interests you would like to pursue when you have more time away from the practice. Whether you want to bring in an Associate to purchase or just to give you time out of the office, have you created a Vision for that scenario? Does your practice have curb appeal to attract the best possible dentist to fit into your philosophy of care? Do you have State of the Art equipment so you and the other dentist can provide the services that the public is expecting from their dentists? Visualize the transition process and prepare with strategic planning and expert assistance.

To avoid vision errors, don’t get complacent and fail to grow yourself. Stay in the game and have the intention to complete the race—you want to go out at the top of your game!

Revisit your Vision daily-modify as you reach goals—and then re-dream and create a new Vision!

So you think you need or want a new piece of dental equipment…

As dentists, we love the cool scientific advances that occur in our industry annually. It seems that from the beginning of our careers, new and improved techniques and equipment are evolving. The manufacturers create products to help us diagnosis, perform our procedures more efficiently, get better clinical and long term results, and give our patients a more comfortable experience.

So when your fix and repair bill is getting out of hand, or you are seeing the Patterson repair technician almost weekly, it’s common sense to upgrade your equipment.

OR you may have other reasons why you buy equipment and technology..

Here are just a few reasons:

  1) you want to differentiate your practice in the community-be the first to own and promote it internally and market externally

  2) You’d like to offer more services to your patient base and this allows you to deliver

  3) You’d like to appeal to high-tech clientele who want time efficiency and state of the art treatment

  4) You don’t want to be behind the times-obsolete offices do not appeal to Millennials or future buyers

  5) You believe it will allow you to perform additional billable services that you currently refer out of your office

  6) It will save you time. An example was the change from Halogen to LED curing lights

  7) It will give you better clinical results. Example Diode lasers in your hygiene department

What are some reasons NOT to buy the newest technology or latest and greatest?

• The learning curve-is it steep and how long will it take for you to master the technology? Can you get training in your own office?
• Will your team embrace it? Yes they will IF you invest in their training
• How long has the company/manufacturer been around? What is their customer service like? Do they have loaners if you have a problem? Warranties?
• The expense. How long will it take to earn your investment back? Will you be able to make a profit before you’ve paid off the cost?
• Will you use it? Many times if it is not already set up, or in another room, does it becomes too much bother to get it.
• Can I afford it? Lease, purchase, finance.

The above 6 questions require you to do some Reflection. Only you know if you will implement and integrate it into the flow of your office routines.

Financially, look at what profits you will generate divided by the cost of the investment. How many “X”s will you have to perform to make the monthly payment? Is it do able or will it be a strain?

Just like a new car—we get excited about it, we drive it with a smile on our face, but with equipment—only buy it IF it will make you money. This can be done with saving you time or money, doing and keeping procedures in your office, and less obvious is the marketing value internally. If you do any external marketing, please make sure you highlight the new technology and state the benefit to the patient in your message.

Once it is in your office, there are a few things to do to ensure a successful Return on that Investment (ROI).

  1) Train your team-online or live on how to use it, maintain it, and explain the benefits to the patients.

  2) Set fees-list all the procedures you can do with this equipment/technology and inform your administrative team to bill out accordingly. 

  3) Find opportunities and cases to utilize the equipment.

  4) Track cases-do this from the very start

  5) track your ROI

  6) educate your patients and create a perception of being a state of the art Practice.

  7) Use IT!!