How Curve Dental helped build this pediatric practice

March 25, 2016

Dr. James Thomas, DDS, MS, of Bellevue, Wash., explains how using Curve Dental practice management software has helped his practice work more efficiently, thrive.

Dr. James Thomas, DDS, MS, has built his pediatric dental business, Everyone By One, into two growing locations with plans for more expansion. He considers himself a “very systematic pediatric dental provider” and often uses the word systems because he believes that is what makes dentists great.

As with most pediatric dental providers, he sees a higher volume of patients than most general practitioners.

“The attention span’s of our young clients require that all the attention is given to the patient, so when I looked to find a software I needed something that had a short learning ‘curve’ for new employees,” the dentist from Bellevue, Wash., said.

Why did you choose Curve Dental software?

I came to the conclusion that mobility and cloud-based computing was pivotal to the infrastructure I was trying to build. Curve gives me the flexibility to build a business and clinical platform for success.

What do you like best about the product?

I like that I can go to any computer, anywhere in the world, and have access to Curve Dental. This allows me the flexibility to achieve the work/life balance that I was looking for. We all have different practice visions. Mine from start up until now was to get all administrative duties out of the clinical office.

Dentistry is not an administrative service, it’s a clinical service. I believe that all dentists are well-intentioned but some don’t live up to their potential because the administrative portion of our profession interferes with great clinicians and good customer service.
With Curve fully in the cloud I have managed to build an administrative business center that geographically is two hours away from our closest location. This business center functions to do every administrative piece for every location we currently have. To date, out of everything I’ve systematically created for my brand, the business office is by far my best achievement in my career. Without Curve in the cloud, running smoothly every day, making updates in real time, making partnerships with leading dental vendors, none of my vision would have become a reality.

I also enjoy the relationship I have with Curve Dental. That relationship is not built on problem-solving the software, the relationship is built on taking this software platform to the next level. I am in constant contact with Curve, giving them real-time feedback on what could be improved, what is working very well and what I’d like to see in the future. To my surprise, these updates have come much quicker than I would’ve expected.

What have been some of your improvements to your day-to-day operations as a result of using Curve Hero?

My team works very hard. We see on average between 75 and 95 children every day. We track everything from the patient’s arrival time, to when this patient is seated in the chair, and when they exit the office. My clients value the efficiencies in my office and they don’t feel rushed. Knowing that I’m working with children ages one to 14, systems are pivotal to achieve customer service and client satisfaction.

We as a team, get every chart (and treatment plan) completed before the patient exits the chair. We have built systems to ensure that every employee goes to lunch on time and understands how to use Curve efficiently. My team walks out the door five minutes following the conclusion of our last patient. There is no paper anywhere in the office, and I have a computer software that wipes every computer clean every three days. This all is possible because of Curve Dental. Why? The software is simple to use, easy to train new employees on, it is comprehensive and most importantly it is in the cloud.

I must add one business perk that comes with Curve Dental, which I have been using for almost four years now. Before I took my practice fully to the cloud, I was spending about $35,000 a year on computer hardware and software that was in a constant state of repair due to overheating servers, network malfunctions or generally just old technology. The dental IT loved me before I met Curve Dental simply because there was always a problem to be fixed. It was so frustrating! So being the systematic provider that I am, I designed a system fully in the cloud and Curve was the obvious choice. I simply use infrastructure that has the sole purpose to connect to Curve Dental. Following the implementation, I currently spend less then $3,000 a year on IT hardware, software and service. In terms of return on investment you can’t get much better than that!

Would you recommend this product to your colleagues?

If they want a product that just works, and works well, then Curve Dental is the way to go. I would go as far to say, “if a young pediatric dentist makes a decision to use any other software other than Curve Dental, they have made a grave mistake.” The main goal of software is to make your life easier and less expensive. I think Curve Dental far exceeds these goals and is continually striving to improve their product.