The Productive Dentist Podcast

Today we're talking about the 4th risk factor – aesthetic risk. I don't know if this has ever happened to you but I've had a few patients who have been very difficult to match when putting in crowns or other aesthetic work. I call patients "high aesthetic risk" if, when they smile, they show lots of teeth and gums so a slight discoloration in dental work is very noticeable and exact shades can be...

We're continuing today with risk factors that I talk with patients about so that they understand it's their problem and not mine. Today we're going to talk about functional risks such as clenching and grinding. When I ask dentists how many of their patients should be wearing guards the answers usually vary from everyone to 90%. This makes sense given the amount of stress people are under these day...

Biomechanical risk is more than just decay. A lot of us think that we first check for perio, then decay. I also look for acidity or erosion. Erosion can absolutely destroy a person's dentition. When I see signs of erosion on an adult I start thinking about sleep apnea. If I see signs of acidity in younger persons, it can be an early sign of bulimia. Erosion can also be a result of medications or e...

How I think about risk factors changed my attitude towards dentistry. Knowing patient risks are not my fault lowered my stress and improved my love of what I do. Now, when I go through a patient's mouth, I look for periodontal risk, decay risk, functional risk, aesthetic risk, physiological risk, etc. We'll cover all these risk factors in the next few podcasts, but let's look at periodontal risk t...

I had an epiphany during the first conference I went to about risk factors. Up until that point, I'd spent my career redoing dentistry that failed that I thought was my fault. After all, in dental school, they taught if my margins were good and I was perfect, then my dentistry would last. When, really, the dentistry was failing because of the different behaviors and risk factors of the individual...

I used to tell my kids to walk with a sense of purpose when they were dilly dallying. Come on; this is an intentional activity. Dentistry, too, is an intentional activity: I'm walking into work, I've looked at my schedule, I know what's coming. Dentistry is a stressful career. While I know how to handle stress, I'd rather lower stress and increase productivity. Today we're going to talk about what...

Today's episode comes from Bora Bora…so excuse any boat noises you might hear. I think lifestyle has a lot to do with dentistry. If you don't have the funds to be able to do your bucket list items, then really what are you doing? In my career, when I focused on good communication skills and great patient care, the money took care of itself. But really, when you're productive it allows you to make...

Using CAD/CAM and CEREC is an opportunity to change how you practice. I personally have a mouth full of dentistry. So the question for me has always been what type of material do I want in my mouth? But we'll circle back to this later. So how do we do we schedule CAD/CAM and CEREC with our patients? About two and a half years ago, I trained my team start doing the design work. And they love it! It...

Today we're going to talk about something that is super important to me: delegation. Delegation is the process of working with people and getting them to do things they really want to do so we as doctors don't have to do everything ourselves. Some people call me a "master delegator" and I think that's a super important part of productive leadership. Anything I can delegate to my team, I do. The ke...

The first 15 years of my practice, my team hated coming to work. I was the worst boss on the planet. But I wanted a practice I could be proud of and share with other dentists, so I had to change the way I related to my team. When I was in the army, I was fortunate enough to have a great leader setting an example for me. He was right there in the trenches with us. But I forgot all of this when I we...

Long-term dental success starts with staying on time and on schedule so you are able to predictably produce numbers per hour. We've worked with thousands of dentists and helped them understand the concepts we teach about scheduling at Productive Dentist Academy. The problem for many is that scheduling to productivity is 180 degrees from what they've been taught. But it's all about productivity per...

Of all the things we teach at Productive Dentist Academy, scheduling is one of the most complicated. It's the one thing that costs dental practices more in long-term revenue than anything else. First off, what I teach is scheduling to productivity not time. If you're taught anything in dental school about scheduling, it's about "perfect day" scheduling. Numerous consultants across the country teac...

Let me ask you a question: are you the hurricane in your office? As the leader of your dental practice, you set the tone of the practice and the team. Believe me, your team doesn't show up everyday trying to tick you off; they really want to do a good job. So, what's going on? In today's episode, Dr. Baird talks about taking personal inventory as a dentist and a leader. Are you micromanaging? Are...

There's a conflict in your practice. It's a conflict between your administrative office and your treatment coordinators. What happens when your team is at odds what happens to your productivity? It's pretty obvious that productivity goes down. So what causes this? It's about communication skills; its about how the front and back offices communicate. In today's episode, Dr. Baird talks about how he...

What happens when your hygienist, or assistant, or front office staff does something you don't like? Or what about when a patient comes in and complains about an issue? Those situations create stress points in your practice. Just about every dentist could tell you stress within your practice causes productivity to go down. So how to we fix that? Well, let's start with these questions:   How much d...

Meet Dr. Bruce B. Baird. A pioneer in dental implants, scheduling, leadership, and practice management, Dr. Baird shares his journey from young army doctor to one of America's most productive dentists as well as the struggles and lightbulb moments in in his career that made him the successful, profitable, productive dentist he is today.