Daily Dental Podcast

Dr. Killeen explores how AI is changing the way we earn success. In the past, people could predict which skills would be valuable, master them, and rely on them for years. Today, the pace of change makes that approach less reliable, putting a greater premium on curiosity, adaptability, and the ability to learn quickly. For dentists, clinical expertise remains essential, but long-term success also...

Today, Dr. Killeen explores a learning strategy rooted in an idea from the Roman philosopher Seneca: we learn more deeply when we prepare to teach something to someone else. Research on the Protégé Effect suggests that knowing you will need to explain a concept can push you to study harder, organize your thoughts, and develop a better understanding. Whether you are learning a new clinical procedur...

Dr. Killeen explores how to get more out of AI by treating it as a thinking partner rather than just a tool for proofreading and polishing. By challenging its answers, asking for evidence, and pushing back on its recommendations, you can use AI to identify gaps in your thinking and make better decisions. He applies this approach to building a dental practice operations manual, a task many owners p...

Dr. Killeen explores how practice owners can recognize the blind spots in their leadership and business. He shares two ways to gain a fresh perspective: reading books by leaders outside dentistry and practicing gratitude. Both can help you see your practice differently and recognize things you might otherwise miss. Reading exposes you to new ways of thinking, while gratitude reminds you of the peo...

Dr. Killeen shares lessons from Phil Knight’s  Shoe Dog , the story of Nike’s early years and how the company managed to grow while constantly struggling with cash. He explains why dental practices can face the same problem: record production does not always mean a healthy bank account. New hires, equipment, and additional operatories all require cash before the financial return arrives. The key i...

Dr. Killeen explores how a practice owner's energy affects everything from team morale to decision-making and daily operations. When you're exhausted, overwhelmed, and running on empty, it becomes harder to lead well, have difficult conversations, and make the decisions your practice needs. Taking care of yourself is not a distraction from running your business. It is part of the job. Dr....

Today, Dr. Killeen challenges the common assumption that accepting Medicaid is never worth it for a dental practice. Drawing on his own experience as a Nebraska Medicaid provider, he explains how lower fees can still work within the right business model, especially when a practice is equipped to meet demand that other offices may not be serving. Medicaid is not the right fit for every practice, an...

In this episode, Dr. Killeen discusses what to do when a DSO or private equity group approaches you about buying your dental practice. His advice is to take the call, not necessarily because you want to sell, but because an unsolicited offer can give you valuable insight into what the market thinks your practice is worth. Before that conversation, know your ideal selling price, understand what you...

Dr. Killeen explores a core lesson from Jocko Willink’s  Extreme Ownership : everything that goes wrong in your organization ultimately comes back to leadership. Whether the front desk is missing calls, patients are not being reappointed, or treatment acceptance is low, the real question is what the owner could have done differently to prevent it. Taking ownership is not about blame. It is about r...

Today, Dr. Killeen tackles one of the hardest situations for a practice owner: a long-time team member who was once great but is no longer meeting the standards of the practice. Loyalty matters, but allowing one person to continually fall short can quietly damage the rest of the team and create resentment. The answer starts with an honest conversation, not an immediate firing. Dr. Killeen explains...

Dr. Killeen breaks down a few ideas from Gino Wickman’s Traction  and how they apply to dental practices. Weekly scorecards, quarterly priorities, consistent leadership meetings, and clear ownership can turn goals that live in the owner’s head into a system the whole team can see and follow. The key is making those priorities specific and accountable. It's explained why assigning three clear “...

A useful huddle should quickly answer three questions: Where is the money? Where is the risk? And what is our focus? Dr. Killeen explains why so many dental practice morning huddles become little more than a reading of the schedule. He also explains why the doctor should not be the one running the meeting. When a team leader leads the huddle, the team takes more ownership of the numbers, prioritie...

Today, Dr. Killeen explores James Clear’s idea of habit stacking and why it can make new systems much easier for dental teams to follow. The problem with most new systems is not that people do not care. It is that they are trying to remember a new behavior in the middle of an already busy day. The solution is to attach the new behavior to something the team already does automatically. “When X happ...

Dr. Killeen tackles a common question from practice owners: when is it time to hire an associate? He explains why the answer has less to do with increasing production and more to do with capacity. An associate makes sense when your hygiene schedule is booked, your own schedule is consistently full, new patients are being pushed out, and you are regularly running out of time. Before hiring, you als...

In today's episode, Dr. Killeen explores the four most expensive words in dentistry: “Let’s get you scheduled.” Once a patient leaves the operatory, motivation can fade quickly, along with the treatment. He explains why same-day treatment can be one of the biggest opportunities for a practice to improve case acceptance and make better use of existing chair time. Making it work takes more than...

Dr. Killeen walks through one of the most common questions practice owners face: whether to drop an insurance plan. Instead of making the decision out of frustration, he explains why it is important to look at the actual numbers, including the plan’s share of collections, fee differences, active patients, and how much patient attrition to expect. He also emphasizes the importance of what happens t...

Dr. Killeen pulls several lessons from Bob Iger’s  The Ride of a Lifetime  and applies them directly to dental practice leadership. From the importance of optimism and clear priorities to repairing relationships before asking for something, Iger’s approach offers practical lessons for leading a team. He also explores the role of courage and decency in leadership. Great leaders are willing to take...

Dr. Killeen shares the story of how Home Depot changed the hardware business by collapsing a complicated, multi-step process into one simple customer experience. He draws a parallel to dentistry, where new technology and smarter systems can turn procedures that once required multiple visits into a much simpler experience for the patient. The opportunity is not just about convenience. Removing step...

The Hawthorne Effect is a simple idea that can make a major difference: you cannot improve what you do not track. Looking back at his (Dr. Killeen's) own goals, he found that the ones he actually accomplished were the ones he deliberately measured, while the ones he simply hoped to achieve were much easier to lose sight of. This is especially important in a dental practice, where small problem...

In this episode, Dr. Killeen uses an endurance racing lesson to explore why trying to change everything at once rarely works. You can start fast with a new system or idea, but if you burn through your energy and your team cannot sustain it, the change usually fades back to the way things were. Real change happens through repetition and patience. Instead of introducing five new systems at once, pic...

Dr. Killeen shares two stories that illustrate the difference between simply doing the work and understanding what you are building. Whether it is a cathedral or a dental practice, the bigger vision matters, but so does the discipline of laying one brick at a time. For practice owners, systemizing a practice can feel overwhelming, especially when you expect big changes to happen overnight. Dr. Kil...

Dr. Killeen explores the idea that being willing to be wrong can be a powerful advantage. Dentists and practice owners are used to being the person with the right answer, but what works in one practice may not work in another. Experience can create useful patterns, but it can also make us too confident in assumptions that have not been tested in our own practice. The goal is not to prove that your...

Today, Dr. Killeen explores several patterns commonly found in unhappy people and how those same habits can show up in dental practice owners. From choosing comfort over truth and avoiding situations that challenge our self-worth to resenting others’ success and confusing busyness with real progress, these patterns can quietly hold us back. Instead of looking for these traits in your team or the p...

In today's episode, Dr. Killeen runs a thought experiment around, what would happen if you hired a world-class CEO to run your dental practice? What would they change? What risks would they take? As Dr. Killeen ponders this philosophical question, he will take you through the thought-experiment and help you realize that these decisions are one you can make in your own practice as well.

Dr. Killeen explores the idea that the value of a company is the sum of the problems it solves. In dentistry, that goes far beyond fixing teeth. Helping an anxious patient feel comfortable, finding an appointment time that works for a busy parent, or helping a team member handle a difficult situation are all problems worth solving. It is easy to focus on production, new patients, and other numbers...