Ed Rabinowitz

“I wanted to be a veterinarian my entire life. I molded my extracurricular activities, job opportunities and observations toward veterinary medicine.” --Charles Dyer, IV, D.D.S., M.S., P.C.

“Lions, and tigers, and bears,” might have been a call for help for Dorothy and her three companions in The Wizard of Oz. But for Charles Dyer, IV, D.D.S., M.S., P.C., a 

In 2013, Dyer was called on to perform work on a white tiger at Houston’s Downtown Aquarium—not your average house call, for sure. And while other oral health practitioners might have passed on the opportunity, Dyer knew he was coming home.

“I wanted to be a veterinarian my entire life,” Dyer says. “I molded my extracurricular activities, job opportunities and observations toward veterinary medicine.”

Life, however, has a way of pointing you in directions you hadn’t originally planned to take. That was the case for Dyer. Today, he finds himself right where he always wanted to be.

Dyer recalls that dentistry wasn’t even on his radar while growing up in Texas. But when it was clear that a career in veterinary medicine wasn’t going to pan out, he found himself in a what-will-I-do-now mode? But he had the benefit of growing up in a household with a father who was a successful pediatric dentist.

“Because my dad was a dentist, I knew a lot about it, and I felt I would be good at it,” Dyer says. “And as soon as I started down that career path I knew it was the right choice. It was what I was supposed to do. Dentistry has provided vast opportunities I don't think I would have otherwise gotten.”

His focus on periodontology and implantology, he says, was a bit serendipitous. He recalls getting exposed to a side of periodontology that most undergrads do not. He saw a side of dentistry that he relished from his father’s practice: community.

“I grew up in a small town and everyone knew my dad,” Dyer recalls. “We went to restaurants and people recognized him, and said, ‘Hi,’ and it was always a sense of family and community. So, I think that was the most significant factor in choosing perio for me.”

Dyer says he was “into reptiles” since he was a child, and one of his hobbies has been herpetology, the study of reptiles. While in dental school, he was introduced to, and became good friends with, a veterinarian who held free reptile clinics at a local pet store. So every Thursday night for about four years, Dyer hung out at the clinic.

“I would just glean information and talk reptiles,” Dyer says. “We became good friends, and still have that friendship today.”

That friendship paid huge dividends five years ago when the veterinarian was performing some restorative work on a tiger. He contacted Dyer to inquire about some of the materials he was using. When Dyer suggested he might want to try some of the materials he himself was using, the veterinarian suggested Dyer come down to the aquarium and do the work himself.

“I was like a kid,” Dyer says. “That was a life-long dream. It changed the course of my life.”

So exhilarating was the experience that Dyer immediately began researching other, similar opportunities. He found the 

Peter Emily International Veterinary Dental Foundation

, whose mission is to provide advanced veterinary dental services for captive exotic animals in the U.S. and abroad.

Dyer checked out the organization and found its application process quite daunting, especially for a non-veterinarian. But he completed the application any way, not thinking it would amount to anything.

“You have to give it a try,” he says.

Dyer was accepted, and it opened up a whole new world for him. Today, he’s a staff practitioner, and sits on the organization’s advisory committee.

“It’s a huge part of my life,” he acknowledges. “It’s nothing I want to let go of.”

Since that day in 2013, Dyer has been on approximately 25 missions to provide dental services to captive exotic animals. He says that in many respects the procedures—restorative work like crowns and fillings&mdash;are the same as working on humans. The obvious difference, of course, is that anatomically, their teeth are much larger.

But there’s a greater challenge. As a periodontist, Dyer works on one species: humans who, beyond having baby teeth and then adult teeth, have one dentition.

“But in the veterinary world you’re working on hundreds of different species that have different dentitions,” Dyer explains. “The work is significantly more challenging in the sense that you have to have a much wider range of knowledge on how the dentitions and teeth are different.”

But performing restorative work on a lion or tiger? Any fears? Dyer says significant precautions are taken at the various sanctuaries to provide more than adequate care and anesthesia, so there’s never been a time where he felt in danger.

What he does feel, however, is a sense of awe and wonder that has never faded.

“I’m working on an animal that, unfortunately, may be extinct at some point in time,” he says. “There are more captive tigers in Texas than there are in the wild. I think the issue is of significant importance to understand that we have an ever-growing problem about captive exotics, how care is provided for them, and the human problem we have created. So there has to be a human answer to solving the problem, and the foundation is one of those solutions.”

In addition to the advanced dental techniques he performs, Dyer holds advanced certification in the Israeli self-defense technique of Krav Maga, and is one of only three instructors in the Houston, Texas-area who teach the technique.

“For me, it’s a sense of self-empowerment,” Dyer says. “And from a teaching perspective, I love to teach.”

Dyer is also a certified scuba diver who has contributed underwater photography to the 

. He’s been scuba diving since age 13 when he and his father took a course together.

“It’s the same connection I have with doing exotic dentistry,” he says. “It’s being part of something bigger than yourself.”

And for Dyer, that’s right where he always wanted to be.

Articles

Five years ago, Charles Dyer, IV, who specializes in periodontology and implantology, filled out an application on a whim, and soon thereafter found himself thrust into a world of performing restorative work on exotic captive animals.

Texas Periodontist Finds Himself Where He Was Meant to Be

Are you able to separate the myth from law when it comes to employee overtime rules?

There are many myths and misunderstandings when it comes to dental practice employees. Part-time vs. full-time; hourly vs. salaried; and exempt vs. non-exempt. It may seem confusing, but if you apply some basic guidelines it can be less confusing than people think. And it can help you avoid getting pinched into paying overtime you hadn’t expected.

 Imagine that a member of your dental practice staff is a salaried employee — they receive a set salary for the 40 hours they work each week.

Now imagine there’s a one-day, off-site practice management workshop you want them to attend, and the workshop is scheduled for four hours on a Saturday morning. The question is, must you now pay that employee four hours of overtime for attending the workshop?

If you answered “No,” you really need to read this article. Even if you answered “Yes,” there’s a lot to be aware of when it comes to dental practice staff and overtime rules.

“Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, you have Federal rules that govern overtime for all 50 states,” explains William Barrett, chief executive officer of 

 a Roseland, NJ-based law firm. “So there is a threshold by which you have to live. But then individual states can impose various rules or regulations as well.”

Dental Employees Overtime - Rule of Thumb

Barrett says there’s a good baseline operating assumption that he subscribes to with all dental practices. Generally in a dental practice, very few employees are exempt from overtime. Meaning that other than the doctors themselves and certain office managers, pretty much everyone has to be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week.

“Certain office managers,” Barrett explains, “if they meet or qualify under the exemption, do not have to be paid overtime.”

That determination, which Barrett says is done on a case-by-case basis, is based on an analysis of their responsibilities at the practice. For example, is the office manager an individual who is intimately familiar with the practice financials? Do they have hiring and firing capabilities, and are actively involved in practice operations? If so, they likely fit into the exception category and do not have to be paid overtime.

However, if the office manager is just the most senior administrative person at the practice, and does not have a hand in running the business operation, they will likely be subject to having to be paid overtime.

The only other exception, Barrett says, is certain hygienist in certain states.

“Depending on where you are, if they have a certain amount of schooling or higher education and training, they could potentially fall into an exception and be exempt from overtime,” Barrett says. “But in most cases they’re not exempt from overtime.”

Back to the aforementioned example of a salaried employee attending an off-site workshop. In this case, the government will take the annual salary and “back into” an hourly rate based on a 40-hour workweek. The dentist, if he or she required the individual to attend the workshop, would then be obligated to pay that individual time and a half based on the calculated hourly wage.

And there’s a pitfall here, Barrett says, that some dentists fall into.

“I’ve had some dentists who are under the impression that if they pay people really well, they can get around [the overtime], but actually you make it worse,” he says. “The government is going to base the time and a half rate off that higher salary.”

It’s no different with bonuses. If a salaried employee receives an annual bonus, and the dentist neglects paying overtime, the government will back into an hourly rate based on calculations including the bonus.

However, what happens when a holiday falls during the week, as it did this past July when Independence Day fell on a Wednesday? If the practice would normally be open, but closes for the holiday and gives everyone eight hours of holiday pay, that might push a worker from their normal 38 hours up to 46. Do they get paid overtime for those extra six hours?

“The answer is no,” Barrett says. “The law states that you get paid overtime only for hours actually worked.”

That last point highlights the importance of keeping a thorough and accurate record of employee time worked. For example, if your employees have a lunch break, do you require them to clock in and clock out when they go on break? That’s important, because while they might have been at the practice 45 hours that week, if five of those hours were spent at lunch, you do not have to pay overtime because those were non-working hours—as long as you have accurate documentation.

“This is where people get in trouble,” Barrett explains. “If you are audited, the presumption is that whatever the employee says they worked is what the government is going to try to enforce, unless you can show time records to the contrary.”

What are the overtime rules for dental employees? Misunderstandings are common when it comes to making sure that your employees are compensated fairly for the work they perform. Here are some guidelines to help separate the myths from the facts.

The Importance of Understanding Employee Overtime Rules

“You don’t have to be hacked,” Borten says. “You don’t have to be a highly visible target of some international bad guys. [Data breaches] happen at the smallest practice level.” -- Kate Borten, C.I.S.S.P., C.I.S.M.

Once daily may be a good regimen for vitamins or prescription drugs, but not when it comes to checking for data breaches of health information.

Yet, that’s exactly what happened in 2017, when 477 breaches occurred impacting 

Securing patient information is a constant challenge for health-related organizations, and according to Kate Borten, C.I.S.S.P., C.I.S.M., 3M privacy consultant, and founder of 

, an information security and privacy consulting firm for the healthcare industry, that challenge is particularly daunting for dentists.

“[Dental practices] have a significant burden of responsibility with the HIPAA privacy and security regulations, and yet they don’t have the staff and expertise in house,” Borten explains. “It’s a struggle, but I do think dental practices in general should be doing more than they are.”

When thinking about securing patient and employee information against breaches, the first line of defense is often targeted to warding off cyber attacks. But Borten believes that, especially at the small dental practice level, the risk is less from hackers and more from what she calls "inadvertent goofs."

“Cleaners come into a practice at night,” she explains. “They’re not HIPAA business associates, they’re not governed by HIPAA, and they can just rifle through any records left out in paper form.”

And the practice is still on the hook. That’s because there’s a very low bar under HIPAA. It doesn’t matter whether the breach was caused as the result of a lost or stolen laptop, or papers thrown out in the trash that were not shredded. If it contains patient identifiable information, all the other aspects are almost immaterial from the HIPAA perspective.

“You don’t have to be hacked,” Borten says. “You don’t have to be a highly visible target of some international bad guys. It happens at the smallest practice level.”

Borten says that, first and foremost, practices need to designate an employee as the privacy and security person. Who should that be? She recommends someone who understands the responsibilities that accompany the position, and is then provided the training, time and resources to ensure those responsibilities can be fully executed.

Next, develop written policies and procedures—the practical dos and don’ts required of everyone at the practice. Reinforce their importance at weekly or monthly staff meetings.

“Provide reminders about shredding or locking up at night,” Borten says. “Make it clear that it’s important, and not just another government mandate that has to be done.”

Regular Team Dental Meetings are the Cost of a Winning Team

She also recommends developing an end-of-day checklist. For example, if the practice has an end-of-day closing or reconciliation procedure, then add the security and privacy elements to that. Put someone in charge of walking around to confirm that everyone has logged off. Make certain no papers are left out containing patient information.

“Even just a name and a phone number, that’s protected health information,” Borten says.

Are computer screens visible to someone visiting the practice? Borten recommends walking around, checking screen angles, to see if information might be exposed to passersby. Small practices might operate in tight quarters, so if changing the angle or location of a computer screen is not practical, privacy filters for monitors can be helpful as well.

Also, where do you keep your server? If your records are stored on a cloud-based system, that’s a plus. But Borten has seen far too many practices that keep the server in a room that is used for housekeeping supplies.

“There are literally mops and buckets in the same room,” she says. “And the room isn’t locked because the cleaners who come in at night, who are not covered by HIPAA, have full access.”

Any electronic system where patient or employee data is stored should be kept in a room that is properly ventilated, but the doors should be locked. Only a select few people should have the key or combination.

“And that [information] should be documented,” Borten adds. “Very carefully controlled.”

Why? Because data breaches can be extremely costly not just from a monetary perspective, but a reputation one as well. Settlements related to a data breach can result in very high dollar amounts, Borten says. And if your practice is in a highly competitive community, word of a data breach will help prospective patients narrow their choice of practice.

“Harming a practice’s reputation is definitely something that needs to be considered,” Borten says. “You want to send a message to the patients and the community that your practice really does take this seriously. [That your practice] really does care about having good security and privacy for the patients that come to them.”

In any healthcare environment, a major concern for staff and patients alike is the security of protected health information. This data is at risk in both the physical form and the electronic records kept. Organizations must rely not only on technical safeguards, but also on good decision-making by staff.

Keeping Patient Data Safe From Physical and Cyber Attacks

“If you’re a dentist in a local community, then reach out to the business community and talk about the importance of appearance, and how that impacts a business." -- Bill Corbett, Jr.

When you think social media or online marketing, the names that most readily come to mind are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and so on. But the name missing from that list is LinkedIn, which is primarily thought of as a business and employment-oriented service used mainly for professional networking.

But it’s much more than that. As of April 2017, LinkedIn claimed more than 

“The number is huge,” says Bill Corbett, Jr., an entrepreneur publicist and president of 

 “It should not be overlooked. When people search with Google, LinkedIn profiles come up. It’s a viable place to be.”

Corbett calls LinkedIn a branding and relationship development tool, and says the LinkedIn profile is where a brand lives.

“If you structure your LinkedIn profile effectively, it may push other people out of the top search rankings,” Corbett says.

What should go into your LinkedIn profile? Corbett notes that most dentists have a specialty, such as teeth whitening, or dental implants, or cosmetics. That specialty should be mentioned several times—in the title, in the summary, and in the experience section. And geographic location is equally important in a profile.

“People don’t want to travel too far to their dentist,” Corbett says. “You may want to say, ‘Our practice serves X, Y and Z communities.’ Because people are going to search for specific geographic areas so they don’t have to travel far.”

Too often, Corbett says, professionals across the board, not just in dentistry, waste a lot of time because they don’t have a strategy for their LinkedIn page. They apply the old approach of set it and forget it. They write a profile, which may or may not be very well done, put it online, and maybe come back once a year to tweak it.

Rather, Corbett believes a LinkedIn profile should be seen as a living thing.

“I’d love to see something new every day,” he says. “Whether that’s sharing an article on dental implants, or the importance of oral health, or information on a new procedure—things that match the dentist’s brand.”

LinkedIn has a publishing platform, a sort of internal blog, where users can write and post their own content. Corbett says an effective strategy should include what will be posted, and how often, as well as the audience.

“If you’re a dentist in a local community, then reach out to the business community and talk about the importance of appearance, and how that impacts a business,” he says.

In addition, many businesses today have corporate wellness programs, and corporate human resource departments may want to communicate with dentists about hygiene and oral health education. Connecting with those departments can facilitate relationships that can grow into excellent referral sources.

“If you go in once a year and do a dental hygiene program, or partner with a company to do something for underprivileged people, now you’re building relationships, and really building a brand,” Corbett says.

LinkedIn, not unlike Facebook and other social media sites, is another piece of real estate on the internet where people can find you and your practice. The eventual goal, Corbett explains, is to drive people back to your practice’s website, because that’s where you close the deal.

“You control content and the look and feel of your website,” he says. “LinkedIn should help educate people about who you are and what you do, but then drive people to your website, because that’s where you have more in-depth information about the practice.”

The LinkedIn profile, therefore, is an individual profile, not an office profile.

“It should talk about you, not the office,” Corbett says. “That’s how people make one-on-one connections.”

To that end, LinkedIn recently added video as an option. Dentists can use this feature to talk about themselves, or a particular procedure in which they specialize. It can help them be clear about who they are, and what they do.

“At the end of the day, video in a profile should answer the question, why should somebody come to my practice versus the one down the street?” Corbett says.

From here, measure the results. Chart how many people have viewed your profile, or how many users have looked at and shared your posts. And as part of a new patient questionnaire, include the question, how did you hear about the practice? Maybe even, are you connected with the dentist on LinkedIn?

“It’s part of the overall processes of the dentist becoming a known entity in their community,” Corbett says. “And that’s probably the number one reason why a dentist should be on LinkedIn, is that it helps their brand grow within their market.”

Leverage Your Most Valuable Dental Practice Assets

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LinkedIn is not a selling tool. Rather, LinkedIn is a branding and relationship development tool that, when used properly, can help grow your dental practice brand within your community, while helping to separate your practice from the surrounding competition.

Leverage LinkedIn to Help Grow Your Practice's Brand

“I never take for granted graduating from dental school. Every day I’m so grateful for what I have, and I want to give to others because I feel like I didn’t get a lot of that growing up. I want to make a change.” -- Janice Doan, D.D.S.

There are many individuals who immigrate to America and become successful dentists. Some received their education and training in their home country, others at U.S. institutions of higher learning.

All have interesting stories to tell. But none may be as unique as that of 

, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam at age 11.

That’s because Doan—together with her mother, 6-year-old sister, and 1-year-old brother—spent time in a concentration camp after getting caught trying to escape their home country following the Vietnam war.

“I remember I was always hungry,” Doan recalls. “My mother had to share her milk between me and my brother. And even though she tried to find food, like rice, to hold me over, her focus was more on my brother because he was a lot younger. It was very hard.”

Doan, who was eventually released from the concentration camp and sent to live with her grandparents in Saigon, made it to the U.S. thanks to legislation sponsoring the entry of people who assisted the U.S. government during the war. Arriving in San Francisco, she recalls, was a major culture shock.

“In Vietnam I was in a shelter,” Doan explains. “I wasn’t aware of different ethnicities, different cultures. I didn’t know there 

She was an 11-year old thinking she was going on a big family trip, because that’s what her mother told her. Encountering her first Caucasian and African-American while walking through San Francisco airport was eye opening.

“I thought I was in a different universe,” Doan says. And then she stepped outside. “It was June, so it was not cold. But for me it was freezing. I was a little girl wearing such a huge jacket that you couldn’t even see me.”

Individuals pursue a career in dentistry for a variety of reasons. For some, they watched a parent build a successful career in the field; for others, a positive experience at a young age drew them to the craft. Doan wasn’t so fortunate.

While living with her grandparents in Saigon, around age 5 or 6, her grandfather, who was not a dentist, began removing Doan’s baby teeth using a pair of old pliers.

“He was holding me really tight, trying to keep my mouth open,” she recalls. “I was trying to get away and screaming at the top of my lungs. It was such a traumatic experience that it was forever implanted in my mind.”

Not only did Doan want to avoid a repeat experience at all costs, she wanted to make certain others would never face the same trauma. She would go on to complete her Doctor of Dental Science degree from the University of Southern California, and currently practices with her sister, Justene, and sister’s husband Roger Tran. And she never forgot that first dental experience.

“I help my patients gain confidence through dentistry with beautiful smiles so they can live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life,” Doan says. “I listen to what my patients want, and based on that I come up with a plan to help them achieve they smiles they’ve always wanted.”

And her reach goes far beyond the scope of current patients.

Doan and her sister Justene recently published a book called “

”, which, among other things, looks to dispel the myth that plastic surgery is the best way to rejuvenate one’s face. The book was written, Doan explains, to help answer the many questions patients had about how they needed to care for their teeth as they aged.

“We also decided to write it because at that point we wanted to reach more people within our community,” Doan says. “We were seeing patients a lot in our practice, but I felt like we weren’t helping as many people as we wanted to. So we wanted to reach out to a wider audience”

Doan does a lot of reaching. She is active with many organizations, including the USC Mobile Clinic, which delivers services and education to underserved communities; the USC Special Patients Clinic, which provides services to medically compromised, disabled and elderly patients; and the 

 program, a local arm of the American Dental Association’s national program that provides free oral health services to underserved children.

“I never take for granted coming to America,” Doan says. “I never take for granted graduating from dental school. Every day I’m so grateful for what I have, and I want to give to others because I feel like I didn’t get a lot of that growing up. I want to make a change.”

And that extends beyond dentistry. Doan is also passionate about helping others succeed in life. She, along with her sister and brother-in-law, are active with the 

, and look to help others succeed in starting their own business.

Maintaining an active lifestyle requires keeping a sound body and mind, and Doan works hard with a personal trainer every day. She rises at 5:30 a.m., gets to the gym and begins her regimen. She says it’s her outlet, and that staying physically fit allows her to accomplish what she wants to mentally.

It also helps her keep up with her 4-year-old son Jake.

“He is the most active boy you’ve ever seen,” Doan says. “He always keeps me on the go. But now that I’ve been training I have much more energy to keep up with him.”

That’s part of Doan’s life story, but what she especially looks forward to is hearing her patients’ life stories.

“Hearing other people winning in life makes it rewarding for me because I feel like I was able to be part of their journey,” Doan says. “And the more that people succeed, it makes me happy.”

Janice Doan's story is unique. She has spent time in a Vietnam concentration camp, fled to America, learned English, and together with her sister and brother-in-law, established a thriving 7-figure dental practice in Southern California. And her focus is to help others succeed and be able to experience many of the things she was unable to.

Dentist Survives Concentration Camp, Helps Others Write Life Stories

“If I can make a retainer out of a paperclip, I can teach [staff] to do anything in dentistry." - Amanda Sheehan, D.D.S.

Amanda Sheehan’s first experience with a retainer was a little different than that of most adolescents.

“I was around 12 or 13, and I didn’t have straight teeth, which was something that bothered me,” Sheehan recalls. And my friends were starting to get braces at the time and had retainers. So I said, I’ll make my own retainer.”

And she did—out of paperclips. She bent them into the shape of a retainer and wore them when she got home from school.

Sheehan would eventually get a more traditional set of braces and accompanying retainer, but her initiative was part of a developing interest in the medical field, and a personality that liked to take things apart and put them back together again. And when a female dentist visited her high school class on Career Day and delivered the message, “If you want to be a doctor and you want to have a family, then you want to be a dentist,” that set things in motion.

“It was a natural fit from the beginning,” says Sheehan, who today is the lead dentist at 

Sheehan’s approach to dentistry is simple. She recognizes that the oral cavity is the gateway to her patients’ health. As such, her philosophy when treating patients is to treat the person, not just their teeth.

“We want to make sure we’re not missing anything that can be potentially harmful to them,” she explains. “Someone may have diabetes, or heart disease, or sleep apnea—all of these we’re screening and looking for because they’re life threatening.”

That’s the culture Sheehan has cultivated at her practice. It starts with a conversation—what are the patient’s hopes? What do they want to accomplish? Sheehan then aligns that from a medical standpoint for what can realistically be achieved. Her entire dental team, she says, has the same mentality.

“If I can make a retainer out of a paperclip, I can teach [staff] to do anything in dentistry,” Sheehan says. “But you can’t teach people skills. Everyone here knows how to comfort people. Knows how to be empathetic and sympathetic. And knows that the patient always comes first, above anything else.”

It’s the same on the patient side of the ledger. Sheehan explains that from the start she has “only included patients that have the right attitude and fit our culture and personality.” That means bringing in patients who understand what she and her staff are trying to accomplish.

At least once each year, sometimes more frequently, Sheehan travels to the Dominican Republic and other locations where much of the population lacks access to, or the ability to obtain, quality dental care. It started during her second year in dental school, and opened her eyes to the problems that exist for children who have never seen a dentist.

“The whole reason I went into dentistry was to help people,” says Sheehan, emotion in her voice. “It makes me feel fortunate because we have so many opportunities here that other people don’t. I’m able to donate my time, and time is free. I’m able to go down there and really impact their lives.”

The experience has carried over to her Michigan practice.

“If somebody really needs something and they can’t afford it, I just take care of it,” Sheehan says. “I don’t want them to get sick from having an abscess, or anything that could be potentially harmful to their health.”

As a fringe benefit, Sheehan met her husband during one of her early trips to the Dominican. Her soon-to-be husband, originally from Germany, was on vacation when Sheehan was finishing five days of work. They met one evening at a club at the hotel the day before she was scheduled to leave.

“I always say fate brought us together,” Sheehan says. “It was my good karma. I put such good faith in what I was doing, and that’s why I met my husband.”

True to her philosophy of treating the person, not just their teeth, Sheehan has demonstrated a relentless dedication to remaining on the cutting edge of dental care practices. She is a member of all five major dental associations, and continuously strives to be completely up-to-date on new developments in dentistry, specifically in dental implants and prosthetics. She calls it being comprehensive.

“I want to be able to treat the patient from start to finish,” she explains.

If Sheehan sends a patient elsewhere for related dental work, she then has to rely on someone who may not always “see what the end game is” for the patient. Sheehan already has a vision of what she and the patient want to accomplish, which is why she has invested time learning surgery, and learning restorative.

“I know what I’m trying to achieve,” she says. “When you get too many people involved, sometimes they don’t see the vision. If I was already getting a patient numb to extract an infected tooth, why wouldn’t I already just finish the procedure for them? Why am I going to make them wait and go somewhere else to have it done, or make them susceptible to getting another shot? Nobody likes that.”

Sheehan laughs when asked how she likes to spend her time away from dentistry, because “my life is immersed in dentistry almost full time.” During a normal week she practices Tuesday through Thursday, then hits the road on Friday and Saturday to teach implants to other doctors, or take partake of a continuing education class.

“I’m usually home on Sunday,” she says. That means catching up with her husband, niece and nephew, and sleep.

But she still finds time to encourage others, such as a young woman Sheehan would love to see attend dental school because of how much she has to offer patients.

“That’s what is most rewarding, being able to show people that dentistry is so amazing,” Sheehan says. “And how you can come to work, really enjoy what you’re doing, and be able to help people.”

Amanda Sheehan, D.D.S., likes fixing things. She also likes seeing the results of her work. In medicine, she says, physicians may hand out a prescription or recommend a treatment regimen, but don't necessarily see the immediate gratification of what they done to help them. Her comprehensive approach, therefore, is to treat patients from start to finish.

Dedication Helps Michigan Dentist Treat People, Not Teeth

	Naomi Cooper of Minoa Marketing offers advice for dental practices to capitalize on what works and identify areas for growth in their business.

Are you getting the most out of your dental practice? Are you leveraging its assets to the fullest potential?

Chances are the answer to both questions is “No,” and there are many reasons why.

“The foremost reason is that dentists go to dental school, they don’t go to business school,” says Naomi Cooper, president of 

, a Los Angeles, California-based dental/medical marketing and social media consulting firm. “They may be maximizing their clinical skills, because that’s what they were taught.”

And yet, Cooper points out, most dental schools have no more than one semester on business.

“The reality is there are very few D.D.S./M.B.A.’s out there, yet the dentist is supposed to be the CEO of a million dollar-ish business,” she says.

So, let’s start leveraging those resources.

Cooper says the first step, perhaps even the pre-requisite 

 the first step, is to have a practice assessment done by an unbiased third party. Because any person, even someone with exceptional business acumen and training, is not capable of assessing their own business objectively.

“I couldn’t assess my business objectively, and this is what I do for a living is assess businesses,” she says.

That third party opinion should also come from someone who knows the dental business. Many business consultants understand business in general, but they don’t know the first thing about running a dental practice. An experienced dental consultant will not only help you understand how your practice is doing compared to five years ago, they’ll help you benchmark yourself against other practices.

And if you’ve been working with a consultant for the last 10 years and have hit a plateau, maybe it’s time to get another opinion.

“Because even a consultant can end up being too close,” Cooper says.

Cooper believes that a practice’s existing patient base is its most important asset. However, it’s also the most underappreciated and underused. She explains that dentists are often looking for that unicorn patient who wants a $30,000 full mouth reconstruction. But the reality is those are often current patients who are just waiting to have their eyes opened.

“You have to look at your patients with a fresh eye,” Cooper says. “You maybe thinking, well, that restoration has held up pretty good for the last 20 years, because you’re diagnosing the pocketbook rather than the patient. It’s important to look at existing patients as part of production potential.”

In other words, even though the restoration may be holding up, it’s not a functional outcome many years later.

Next is the front desk. Cooper says the person sitting there too often is someone’s sister’s uncle’s cousin who needed a job and was willing to work for minimum wage. And then after 20 years becomes office manager.

“I see a lot of people who conflate someone answering the phones with someone being the heart and soul of the practice,” Cooper says. “And the office manager for a dental practice should be someone with true business acumen, hopefully with experience running a dental practice.”

It’s important that the front desk and/or office manager is an individual who can fill in the gaps; who compliments the dentist in terms of having some of the skills the dentist may lack, such as case acceptance or people skills. And, Cooper adds, the front desk receptionist should be “the nicest human being you know.”

Does your practice have a cohesive brand? Does the name on the practice door signify what the practice is all about? Or is it as generic as California Dental Care? And does that brand appear on signage, business cards, letterhead and the practice website?

“Knowing your brand is really important,” Cooper says.

And speaking of websites, Cooper says a critical asset for dental practices is an excellent website that is mobile friendly. She states that 60 to 80 percent of web traffic today is on mobile devices. So if your website is not mobile friendly, it will not be seen by 60 to 80 percent of your existing patients.

“Not to mention that Google will basically not show your practice if you do not have a mobile friendly website because of its 

Lastly, maximize patient review, whether they’re placed on Google, Yelp or Health Grades.

“Today, people care much more about the opinion of the masses,” Cooper explains. “And if they see you have 40 positive reviews, they’re much more likely to trust those than when someone says, ‘Go to this doctor.’”

There are many reasons why Minoa Marketing's Naomi Cooper believes better than 90 percent of dental practices do not effectively leverage their assets. After all, dentists go to dental school, not business school. But it's not too late to better understand how to take advantage of the human and physical resources at your fingertips.

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