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This is Riz Hatton with the Becker's. Stenzel Plasty is so podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Lisa Ward,
vice President of communications at the Association of Dental Support
Organizations. Lisa, thank you so much for being here today.
Oh, well thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you.
As I'm, as am I,
could you start off by introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your
background?
Absolutely. Um, Lisa Ward,
I am the Vice President Communications for the Association of Dental Support
Organizations. I've been with, uh, a DS O for about a year.
And prior to joining a D S O I was associate executive director for
the North Carolina Dental Society,
and then other forays into dentistry include
my time at Delta Dental of Kansas.
I was their Vice President of Communications for about seven years,
and then when I was first outta college,
I worked for the California Association of Periodontists.
Fascinating. Thank you for sharing. My first question for you is,
what are the biggest issues you're following in dental today?
I think the biggest issue that we are all concerned about is the current
workforce shortages, particularly for dental hygienists and dental assistance.
Without these auxiliary team members,
our dentist can't provide care to the number of patients that truly
need it.
So we're working very hard to address these issues on a number of fronts.
Interesting. And are there any other issues, uh,
that you feel are really important to the industry right now?
Well, I think that the,
the DSO model or the dental support organization model is really
growing,
and I think it's fast becoming a preferred model for practice,
particularly among the graduates, you know, who are contemplating their,
their futures. According to the Association for Dental Educators,
in 20, 20, 30% of soon to be graduates,
were planning to work for a dso.
So that's really exciting for us because we think it's a,
a wonderful model both for dentists and for patients.
Fascinating. Thank you for sharing.
My next question for you is what are you most excited about and what makes you
nervous when you look towards the future of dentistry?
Well, I'm excited about, about a lot of things. Um,
one thing in particular is that I believe that different stakeholder
organizations within dentistry are really coming together.
A DSO is working closely with the American Dental Association,
with, uh, the American Student Dental Association,
with the Dental Hygienist Association,
the Dental Assisting National Board,
and many others to really unify dentistry.
We understand how important it is for us all to work together
to elevate the profession. And then another exciting initiative,
it works, not an initiative. I'd say it's more of a trend,
is the growing awareness of the importance of oral health to overall
health. And we see more and more,
uh, the,
the people who work in the dental profession are integrating medical with dental
because of the strong connections between the two.
Interesting.
And could you speak to what that integration between medical and dental looks
like? What would a future medical,
dental integrated office per se look like in the future?
Well, we actually have some in integrated offices at this point,
and in many cases it's doing very basic assessments
of the patient's dental health, taking their blood pressure,
taking the complete history.
In some cases it might be checking their saliva through a
salivary diagnostic tool,
which can indicate a number of systemic health issues.
And if those are detected,
the dental office can refer to the patient's physician or in some
cases they're even co uh, co-located with medical professionals.
And so in that case,
if you can identify a medical problem that the patient might not be
aware of, you can help their overall health.
And there's also just conditions within the mouth itself that
can point to other conditions in the body.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Is there anything that makes you nervous when you look towards the future?
Uh, I don't know if I would say I'm nervous about it. It was, uh,
the workforce issues that we talked about earlier. Uh,
there are some very severe shortages in the profession,
which ultimately could impact patient care.
And because oral health is so important,
we at the a dsso and I know our other stakeholder organizations
would agree that we need to work together to address these shortages.
And then in combination with that,
we have some initiatives on the horizon that we will help. Um,
dental professionals, particularly dentists and dental hygienists,
have more licensure mobility right now. State regulations
can really create barriers to mobility,
and today's generation is more mobile than ever,
and the regulations can prevent these dental professionals from moving
from state to state and some, in some cases,
practicing in areas where there are real dental shortages and the patients need
care. So we're working hard to overcome those barriers.
Thank you. My next, my next question for you is,
what will the most effective healthcare leaders need to be successful in the
next two to three years?
I think that healthcare leaders need to continue to be innovative.
They need to be looking ahead to the next
technology, uh,
emerging technology to help diagnose conditions earlier,
which will lead to earlier treatment,
which will be more cost effective for the patients. Uh,
I think that healthcare professionals and leaders
will need to be very tuned into consumerism and following
what consumers want.
I think the world of healthcare is changing and
the real leaders will be able to understand what consumers need and want
and be able to respond to those demands.
Fantastic. Well, Lisa,
thank you so much for your time and those insights today.
I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.
Well, thank you. It was my pleasure.