This is Riz Hatton with the Becker's Dental Past Soul Podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by Dr.
Brett Gilbert of King Endodontics and US Endo partners. Dr.
Gilbert, thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you for inviting me. So.
To start us off here,
could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?
Yes, um, so I'm Dr. Brett Gilbert. I'm a board certified endodontist.
I've been in private practice for 20 years now,
which is really incredible to think about. And yeah,
I have a keen interest in all things related to our specialty,
which is very near and dear to my heart.
I think that endodontics is an incredible space to be in, uh,
where we're able to really help patients get out of pain and save their teeth
and often be a very integral part of the dental team.
So I trained at the University of Maryland for both my undergrad, my dental,
and my Endodonic residency.
And then I've been in practice here in the Chicago suburbs, like I said,
for 20 years.
And I also teach at the University of Illinois in Chicago at the dental
department of the partner of Endodontics. And so I have a,
a great background in education,
being a lecturer and having an opportunity to lecture around the world and more
recently to be able to partner with an entity like US Endo Partners,
which has allowed me to truly develop some incredible relationships with my
colleagues in a way that's very unique to anything I knew before.
And so I feel like with the,
the colleagues that I'm associated with and the private practice and the
education,
I just feel really lucky that I feel that I'm really in the flow of where our
specialty is, where it's headed.
And there's been some incredible developments in technology and really some more
sophistication to the root canal process.
So how that fits in with the overall dentistry and treatment plans has also been
really exciting because endodontics ultimately you make a call on one
specific tooth and an entire treatment plan might change.
So I'm really excited to be an endodontist. I love what I do,
and it's just great to be able to share some of this information and education
with your audience.
Thank you so much for that introduction.
It sounds like you're really passionate about endodontics.
What made you choose this specialty over others?
You know, it's a, it's a great question. I was,
I was the son of a general dentist, so I always, as a kid, always said,
if you ask me at age six or beyond, what are you gonna be when you grow up?
And I would always say, I want to be a dentist like my dad.
And ultimately when I got into dental school, I started to see how much,
how much really variation there was in what a general dentist did.
And I started to realize that I might have a mine that's more focused on one
specific area. And so I told my dad this,
and he sent me to all of his specialty friends.
I went to ortho and oral surgery, perio, peto.
But I gotta tell you, when I went to the endodontist, I just was,
it was like I was struck by lightning. I think the technology drew me in.
I think the idea of saving the teeth and working in this very intricate
blind space somehow just felt very exciting to me. And to be honest with you,
from that moment that I was there visiting with the endodontist,
I never looked back.
I just knew in my heart that this was the area I wanted to practice.
And so it's been a quite a joy actually to start in that way and
then have the opportunity to learn from so many experts and mentors.
So I really did a full scale review of them all.
And the honest truth is Endo just absolutely struck me like lightning and I,
I think I'm still buzzing from it.
Well, that's fantastic to hear. Glad you got to find,
find your passion and work in that field.
So my first question for you is,
what are the biggest issues you're following in dental today? Well.
I think quite honestly,
the biggest issue that I am concerned with is the mental,
emotional health of the dentist.
I think that we learn an awful lot in school about the clinical aspects of
dentistry, the, the science behind it, you know, the technical skills.
But I don't think we learn an awful lot about management of ourselves.
And I think that what we see in dentistry is a lot of stress, uh,
related to performance, related to finances, related to, you know,
growing your practice or even finding your place where you can practice and feel
fulfilled. And I think ultimately, as practitioners,
without a lot of education on emotional intelligence and stress
management, what happens is, is we actually absorb, because we're so empathetic,
we absorb a lot of the energy and the really the anxieties of those
around us.
And then we couple it with all of the things that come with being just a dental
practitioner.
And so I think one of my biggest issues that I'm following is just the potential
that dentists are not feeling fulfilled and, you know,
the emotional quality of their life is unfortunately not as positive as it could
be. So one thing I'd like to see, and,
and one thing that I'm really working on myself is trying to share a path for
dentists to really start to learn a little bit more about how to take care of
themselves. You know, the proverbial concept that, you know,
when you can't help others when you're empty,
meaning you have to fill your own cup first before you can fill everyone else's
cup.
And what Dennis typically do is they fill everyone else's cup and they leave
theirs empty. So, um,
this is a big issue because I think that when a dentist walks into the operatory
to treat a patient and they feel good about themselves and they're working on
themselves and they're doing things to support their emotional and mental health
as well as their physical health,
I think that translates into the best patient treatment. And unfortunately,
when it's the opposite,
when a doctor walks into the room and they're carrying quite a heavy load of
emotions and stress and anxiety, then unfortunately, I don't think,
think that's a win for the patient.
So that's something that I take very near and dear to heart,
and it's something that I try to utilize my social media channels and my
educational opportunities to not just educate on the dental part,
but on the human part and about how we as dentists can take better care of
ourselves.
That's very interesting. Thank you for sharing. Sort of going off of that,
what are you most excited about and what makes you nervous in terms of
dentistry?
Well, I think something to be super excited about is the technology.
I think it's,
it is pretty amazing over 20 years in my career to see some of the
advances and what it means for efficiency, what it means for, you know,
really providing patients with expert care. Uh,
the ability to even collaborate is so much easier now with some of the
technologies, certainly in imaging and in endodontics.
There's just a litany of amazing advanced breakthroughs that we've seen.
So I'm very, very excited about that. I think what makes me nervous,
quite honestly, deals with the next generation, you know, the,
the generation of students that are coming out of school with just such an
almost unimaginable debt load in order to get that degree.
And then ultimately not finding a lot of opportunities that are, you know,
really lucrative enough to get them out of that deep financial hole. So, um,
in the same way that I'd love to see more education on self mastery
and emotional intelligence and stress management,
I'd also like to see the same thing with financial management,
because I know in my own generation,
we really had very little education on the business side of dentistry and had
even less on financial management and how to, you know,
really allow yourself to grow in a way where financially you'll wind up in a
health healthy spot.
So whereas I'm super excited about the technology and where things are headed in
patient treatment, I am concerned about that,
that younger generation and how they're gonna be able to manage this tremendous
financial burden that quite honestly, many of us in, in our, you know, in the,
the midst of our careers now, really never had to quite deal with.
Fascinating. And as we talk about this next generation,
what will the most effective healthcare leaders need to be successful in the
next two to three years?
So I think what will make healthcare leaders most effective and successful is
th many of the things we've discussed. You know, number one,
recognizing that we have stress not just in our offices anymore, right? And,
and not just in our homes, but society in general. You know, we're all under,
in some senses the threat of violence, you know,
that comes into our communities, you know, in a moment's notice. Um,
we're all dealing with some certain financial situations and economical
situations.
So I think having some effective way that one can go to the,
go into themself, right?
To find a quiet space daily and just sit and be with yourself and be
comfortable with that. And maybe do some breathing, maybe, you know,
listen to some relaxing music, but dedicating some time to themselves. So,
you know,
that comes back to what I was describing with the emotional mastery and self
mastery is, you know,
investing your own healing potential that we give to others.
Investing some of that back into yourself so that you always know that you're
filling your cup. I think that is about as important as anything.
The other thing is the business part of dentistry. We're seeing, obviously,
you know, this is a podcast related to DSOs and DSOs, you know, have, you know,
been around for a long time,
but it's clear that there's an acceleration in their growth. It's clear that,
you know, um, venture capitalism and,
and the economy in general is looking to invest in this profession in
dentistry. So I think the, the effect,
the most effective dental and healthcare leaders will be those that have enough
business acumen to understand what they are valued for and act,
you know, that meaning yourself as a clinician,
that meaning any practice that you might own.
And being able to understand how practices are evaluated,
understand what makes one practice more valuable than another,
and recognizing that you know,
who you partner your practice with ultimately is such a big decision.
And what my experience has been is you wanna look for good human beings.
So number one, being a good human being yourself, taking care of yourself.
And with that,
being able to recognize other good human beings and then connecting that to a
business acumen that allows you to, number one,
make a great decision as far as who you want to associate with business.
But then also being one that can help to guide not only the commercial side of
dentistry, but also this investment side. You know, being able to be, uh,
a leader that can articulate the needs of the clinicians,
which always have the patient in mind first.
And recognizing that we wanna always be patient-centric more than
business-centric. But I think we have to be able to recognize the difference.
And I think that that comes with investment in self and investment in business
and financial knowledge.
And that's something that for many of us as dentists is new and it's not easy,
but I think the investment in both will pay massive dividends to the next
generation of leaders.
Fantastic. Well, Dr. Gilbert,
thank you so much for your fascinating insights today.
I really look forward to connecting with you again in the future.
Thank you so much.
My pleasure to be here and sending best wishes to everyone that hears this.