Brews and Tiny Teeth, The Unfiltered Pediatric Dentistry Podcast

A lot of money is wasted in our profession on marketing that doesn't produce a high return on investment. Practice owners need to learn to market smarter, not harder.  In today's episode, Minal Sampat joins us to discuss creative and affordable ways to market and grow a pediatric dental practice. Minal is an RDH and worked for 10 years in a pediatric dental office. She is a national speaker and marketing strategist, along with author of Why Your Marketing is Killing Your Business.   Some of the topics we discuss: - Making your website better than your competition - Better dentist bios - Internal referrals and community outreach - Facebook vs Instagram and how the algorithms have changed - Hiring help to develop Tiktok videos Minal's website and more information about her can be found at https://minalsampat.com/

Dr. Justin Stevens is a pediatric dentist and practice owner in Bozeman, Montana. His wife, Joni, is also a pediatric dentist. Together they acquired a practice and have grown it to the point of constructing a brand new 10-op building. I invited Dr. Stevens to be on the podcast after spending some time in Bozeman after my annual September elk hunt. Montana is a beautiful state and I wanted to learn more about what the pediatric dentistry scene is like out there. Dr. Stevens is also an advocate for using a Solea hard tissue laser. He and his wife have two of them in their practice. We discuss the efficiency of lasers, reducing chair time with less local anesthesia, how to complete specific preps such as class II's and SSC preps, and also how the cost breakdown is more achievable than you may think. This was a great discussion for any pediatric dentist interested in practicing in Montana, building a practice from ground-up construction, or anyone interested in investing in a hard-tissue laser.  https://gvpediatricdentistry.com/

Dr. Yoshita Patel is a pediatric dentist and the owner of Viera Pediatric Dentistry on the east coast of Florida. She has grown a relationship-based FFS practice and has had a ton of success in her community. Her 700+ 5 star reviews speak to that. You can tell by the way she talks about her practice that Dr. Patel emphasizes the patient experience and relationships she has with her patients and families. In this episode we review: - How a FFS office can grow just as quickly as a PPO office - Giving back to your community can accelerate a FFS office - Dental insurance challenges and how to overcome them in a FFS office - Focus on the relationships, and the numbers/money will come - When looking at a start-up, determine your goals and what YOU want, and then structure the practice and your mission statement around that - Implementing tongue and lip ties into your practice, and understanding the struggles that new mothers face

As the two year anniversary of opening my practice approaches, I thought it would be a fun exercise to go over my profit-and-loss statement from the last 12 months and breakdown my expenses. The average overhead in pediatric dentistry is around 50%, but I think we can do better.  I've been able to run a very low overhead, lean office by keeping my expenses in check and doing many services myself. In this episode, I review some of the following that allow me to keep a sub-30% overhead: - How to calculate a true overhead (what do I include and what do I take out). - How being rural keeps my rent, staff salaries, and advertising budgets low - Bringing in more revenue is an easy way to lower overhead that doesn't involve cutting costs - Save money by doing your own bookkeeping, website, marketing, payroll, etc. - Where to shop for dental supplies, and why the big suppliers can eat into your profits. I hope you enjoy this deep dive into practice numbers. Cheers!

Dr. Tim Richardson is guest who has been on the podcast in the past, and it was a pleasure to host him again. He is the founder of Acorn Kids Pediatric Dentistry in the Salem, Oregon area. He currently has six offices, eleven dentists, and a wealth of knowledge on growing and operating new pediatric dental practices.  Today we talk about bringing on an associate. When is the right time? How do you know it's a good fit? Where do you find good associates? Should you offer them equity? What's a competitive compensation package? How do you make the administrative process go smoothly? All details that we discuss in today's episode.  Dr. Richardson and I also discuss listening to Ben Nemtin as the keynote speaker at AAPD San Diego. Dr. Richardson was inspired by his message to live without regrets and to create a bucket list, and he was actually able to convince Ben to give a virtual presentation to his practice. Dr. Richardson is hosting the event through his foundation, Acorn Kids International. Listeners of the podcast are able to join Ben's presentation for free, but donations to the foundation are welcomed, and proceeds go to support children in poverty in Kenya. I'm excited for both myself and my team to tune into this event so that I can help them grow both professionally and personally, inside and outside of the office.  If you are interested in tuning in to this presentation, email Dr. Richardson at timrichardsondds@gmail.com. The event is October 25th and 2:30 PST. 

With oral boards coming up next week, I thought it would be a good idea for an episode to go through my notes and pull out 50 random fun facts that could potentially be helpful on the exam. Some of them may be relevant, and some may not. I also included some tips and things to keep in mind during the actual exam itself that could be good to know to help us better prepare. Good luck to my colleagues taking the test, and here's to having a cold adult beverage next week when everything is over. Happy studying!

Dr. Mikaela Hazard is an Iowa-trained endodontist. She practices in Fargo, North Dakota and frequently treats pediatric patients. She joins us today to give an update (and a bit of an oral boards review) on permanent vital and non-vital pulpal therapies. Some of the things we discuss: - When do you stay out of the pulp vs completing a coronal pulpotomy? - What is the consensus on using sodium hypochlorite to clean pulp chambers in permanent teeth? - What bioceramics are endodontists using right now? - How do you complete an apical barrier/plug in a necrotic, immature tooth? - What are the key steps to success in regendo procedures?

In response to the recent popular episode with Dr. Roy Shelburne, I decided to reach out directly to my local state Medicaid office to talk to somebody about how criminal medicaid cases are handled. Although I wasn't able to convince any members of the department to join me on the podcast directly, I was able to take and share notes from the conversation. There was a lot of listener feedback with confusion about how a dentist could end up in prison over simple billing and coding errors. I was able to shed a lot of light on that in my conversation with the Medicaid auditor.  I also give my thoughts on a recent Medicaid fraud/kickback scheme involving the indictment of two individuals at a Texas pediatric dental office involving 6 million dollars worth of fraudulent and criminal dental billing to Medicaid (allegedly). 

Shawn Johnson is the vice president of business development at Treloar and Heisel, a premier provider of financial and insurance services to dental and medical professionals. He joins us to discuss topics relating to protecting both your practice and yourself. We walk through different stages in the career path of a typical pediatric dentist and review what systems and insurances should be in place to protect yourself from all of the curveballs life throws at us. Some of the topics include: - What to look for in a disability policy, and how much coverage should you have? - When is a term life policy appropriate compared to a whole life? - Why pediatric dentists need a higher level of coverage with the trend for in-office general anesthesia. - What are the components of a business owner's protection policy? - Finding a balance between keeping an emergency fund vs having business interruption and overhead coverage.

Dr. David Knight is a pediatric dentist and the owner of Knight Pediatric Dentistry in Woodbury, Minnesota. He opened his practice almost three years ago, shortly before the COVID shutdown caused him to close his doors for a period of time. David and his wife also had their first baby during this time period. Now three years later, his practice is thriving and booking out for months.  When Dr. Knight opened his office, he initially did not see Medicaid, given that Minnesota had some of the lowest reimbursements in the country. With Minnesota recently overhauling their Medicaid program and increasing rates, Dr. Knight discusses why he added Medicaid to his practice and how it has added tremendous growth in terms of new patient numbers and collections.