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This is Riz Hatton with the
Becker's Dental Pothe. So podcast,

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I'm thrilled to be joined
today by Bernice Ky,

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owner of Wrigley Dental. Bernice,
thank you so much for being here today.

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Thank you. Thanks for having me.

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Just to start us off here,

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could you introduce yourself and
tell us a bit about your background?

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Yeah, so I am Dr. Bernice Polski.

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I am from Chicago and my
practice is in Chicago.

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I went to Marquette University, uh,

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for undergrad and dental school
and graduated in oh nine.

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Did a GPR residency in Chicago and then

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worked for various offices.

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I was doing a lot of moonlighting
during the residency.

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Then I worked for several
different types of practices. Uh,

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one practice I stayed for
for a couple of years was,

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I called it like an everything
practice, so they did fee for service,

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we're part of all insurances,
did Medicaid, so kind of,

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kind of got the gamut of everything and
then realized what I kind of wanted as

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my own. And I ended up buying, uh,

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an existing office in a really
amazing neighborhood in Chicago

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and opened in 2012

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and kind of took a, a deep
dive in into general dentistry,

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and I've been practicing since.

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Fantastic. 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 a big part of it
is the, the labor market.

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The staff pay has skyrocketed,

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especially here in Chicago since
Covid and just seeing where it's

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going. Um, that's a one
huge part of it. Also,

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just the conglomeration of
corporations buying off dental,

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dental offices and just the DSO private
equity spaces. Very interesting.

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And following, following
both of those things.

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Very interesting. So looking
towards the future of dentistry,

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what are you most excited about
and what makes you nervous?

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I would say what makes me most
excited about is dentistry in

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general.

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There's so much that we're learning about
the connection between the mouth and

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systemic health,

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and that we're able to
make such a big impact on a

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person's health working through
the mouth. And I, that's,

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that's what excites me the most in
dentistry is just learning more about the

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total impact that we can
have on a, on a human body.

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As far as what makes me nervous,

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I would say the, the workforce. Um,

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I am seeing a change in the,

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especially since Covid, the, the
type of staff that we're attracting,

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but the ones that aren't
coming back to the workforce,

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I think there's a lot of flexibility
in working from home and other types of

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career paths out there right now,

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especially for the new
members of the workforce.

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And I think it's becoming
more challenging to,

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to have that within dentistry, because
in dentistry we're very hands-on.

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We can't have people
work from home usually,

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and there's a lot of people
that want more vacation,

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more pay, um, and I think it's
becoming really challenging to,

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to acclimate the new people coming
from into the, into the workforce.

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And I think that's becoming, it's,

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and it makes me a little
nervous as far as where,

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where we're headed with
the amount of staff or the,

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the types of staff that, that
we need, especially in a,

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in a busy urban city.

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Interesting. And so do you see
these workforce challenges, um,

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getting better or worse
over the next five years?

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No,

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right now they're just very challenging
because there's a huge jump that I've

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seen in pay for hygiene, for
assistant, for, for, for office staff,

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for actually every position.

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There's been a substantial
increase in pay,

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and I feel that the,

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the workers are becoming more
demanding that they want more pay,

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they want more flexibility
in their, in their jobs.

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They want more vacation time,
they wanna work less. Um,

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and I'm seeing so many
different trends that they're,

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there's a lot of almost like threatening
to leave unless they get what they

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want. And I'm,

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I'm very interested to see where it's
going in the next couple years because

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it's already at a, at a very high
price, especially, I mean, we're,

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I'm talking about in the city in
Chicago, so we're at, you know,

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some hygienists are getting paid
50 plus dollars an hour and,

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and the front and back staff are
getting paid 30 plus dollars an hour,

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and this is almost double what we
were seeing when I first entered the

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workforce. So it's, it's
not necessarily worse or,

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or better if this really depends on the
revenue that's coming in that affects

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us,

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but I think it's just interesting to see
what's going on and it does make me a

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little nervous to, uh,
to see this trajectory.

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Fascinating. Thank you.

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So 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 a big part is to understand the
business of dentistry and how to manage

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employees and how to
manage a dental office.

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And I think it's a new terrain
that we're dealing with.

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So with this newer workforce
coming into the market,

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we need to figure out how to manage them.

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And it's something that we're
not taught in dental school.

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We're not taught to be a business owner.

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We're not taught to be even a business
leader. We're taught to do dentistry.

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And so in order to be a, an
effective healthcare leader,

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I think we really need to have more
of this business background education.

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Interesting. And Bernice, thank you so
much for your fascinating insights today.

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

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Thank you. Thank you very much.