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This is Riz Hatton with the Becker's.
Stenzel Plasty is so podcast.

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I'm thrilled today to
be joined by Lisa Ward,

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vice President of communications at
the Association of Dental Support

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Organizations. Lisa, thank you
so much for being here today.

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Oh, well thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to talk to you.

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As I'm, as am I,

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could you start off by introducing
yourself and telling us a bit about your

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background?

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Absolutely. Um, Lisa Ward,

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I am the Vice President Communications
for the Association of Dental Support

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Organizations. I've been with,
uh, a DS O for about a year.

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And prior to joining a D S O I was
associate executive director for

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the North Carolina Dental Society,

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and then other forays
into dentistry include

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my time at Delta Dental of Kansas.

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I was their Vice President of
Communications for about seven years,

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and then when I was first outta college,

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I worked for the California
Association of Periodontists.

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Fascinating. Thank you for sharing.
My first question for you is,

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what are the biggest issues
you're following in dental today?

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I think the biggest issue that we are
all concerned about is the current

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workforce shortages, particularly for
dental hygienists and dental assistance.

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Without these auxiliary team members,

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our dentist can't provide care to
the number of patients that truly

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need it.

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So we're working very hard to address
these issues on a number of fronts.

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Interesting. And are there
any other issues, uh,

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that you feel are really important
to the industry right now?

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Well, I think that the,

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the DSO model or the dental support
organization model is really

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growing,

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and I think it's fast becoming
a preferred model for practice,

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particularly among the graduates, you
know, who are contemplating their,

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their futures. According to the
Association for Dental Educators,

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in 20, 20, 30% of soon to be graduates,

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were planning to work for a dso.

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So that's really exciting for
us because we think it's a,

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a wonderful model both for
dentists and for patients.

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Fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

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My next question for you is what are you
most excited about and what makes you

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nervous when you look towards
the future of dentistry?

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Well, I'm excited about,
about a lot of things. Um,

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one thing in particular is that I
believe that different stakeholder

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organizations within dentistry
are really coming together.

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A DSO is working closely with
the American Dental Association,

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with, uh, the American
Student Dental Association,

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with the Dental Hygienist Association,

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the Dental Assisting National Board,

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and many others to really unify dentistry.

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We understand how important it
is for us all to work together

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to elevate the profession. And
then another exciting initiative,

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it works, not an initiative.
I'd say it's more of a trend,

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is the growing awareness of the
importance of oral health to overall

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health. And we see more and more,

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uh, the,

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the people who work in
the dental profession are
integrating medical with dental

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because of the strong
connections between the two.

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Interesting.

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And could you speak to what
that integration between
medical and dental looks

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like? What would a future medical,

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dental integrated office per
se look like in the future?

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Well, we actually have some in
integrated offices at this point,

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and in many cases it's
doing very basic assessments

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of the patient's dental health,
taking their blood pressure,

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taking the complete history.

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In some cases it might be
checking their saliva through a

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salivary diagnostic tool,

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which can indicate a number
of systemic health issues.

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And if those are detected,

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the dental office can refer to
the patient's physician or in some

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cases they're even co uh, co-located
with medical professionals.

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And so in that case,

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if you can identify a medical
problem that the patient might not be

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aware of, you can help
their overall health.

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And there's also just conditions
within the mouth itself that

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can point to other conditions in the body.

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Very interesting. Thank you.

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Is there anything that makes you nervous
when you look towards the future?

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Uh, I don't know if I would say
I'm nervous about it. It was, uh,

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the workforce issues that
we talked about earlier. Uh,

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there are some very severe
shortages in the profession,

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which ultimately could
impact patient care.

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And because oral health is so important,

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we at the a dsso and I know our
other stakeholder organizations

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would agree that we need to work
together to address these shortages.

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And then in combination with that,

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we have some initiatives on the
horizon that we will help. Um,

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dental professionals, particularly
dentists and dental hygienists,

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have more licensure mobility
right now. State regulations

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can really create barriers to mobility,

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and today's generation
is more mobile than ever,

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and the regulations can prevent these
dental professionals from moving

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from state to state and
some, in some cases,

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practicing in areas where there are real
dental shortages and the patients need

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care. So we're working hard
to overcome those barriers.

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Thank you. My next, my
next question for you is,

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what will the most effective healthcare
leaders need to be successful in the

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next two to three years?

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I think that healthcare leaders
need to continue to be innovative.

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They need to be looking ahead to the next

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technology, uh,

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emerging technology to help
diagnose conditions earlier,

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which will lead to earlier treatment,

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which will be more cost
effective for the patients. Uh,

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I think that healthcare
professionals and leaders

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will need to be very tuned
into consumerism and following

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what consumers want.

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I think the world of
healthcare is changing and

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the real leaders will be able to
understand what consumers need and want

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and be able to respond to those demands.

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Fantastic. Well, Lisa,

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thank you so much for your
time and those insights today.

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I look forward to connecting
with you again in the future.

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Well, thank you. It was my pleasure.