- This is the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, created
by the team of Becker's Healthcare,
a multimedia company devoted to the people
who power us healthcare.
Four new 15 minute episodes are released daily containing
industry news analysis and thought leadership.
From powerful healthcare decision makers Support our show
by leaving it a five star rating and review on Apple Podcast
or other platforms you use.
It's a chance to tell us what you like about the show
and act on your feedback.
Thanks for listening. Now here's the episode.
- This is Grace Link paler
with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast,
and we are live at the business
and operations of ASCs in the Future of Dentistry table.
I'm joined right now by Bradley Dykstra, who is a dentist
and an MBA, um,
and he is the CEO of my Smiles Dental group.
So Bradley, thanks so much for joining me
and I'd love to have you start off by taking a moment
to introduce yourself and telling us a
little bit more about your background.
- Alright, so yeah, my name is Brad Destra
and I grew up on a farm in western Michigan.
So I come from very humble beginnings.
I graduated from dental school, university
of Michigan in 1978,
and so I've been in dentistry for 45 years.
When I got out of dental school,
I started my own practice from scratch
and we stayed a solo practice until
2012 when we added a second practice.
And then in about 2016 we added our third practice.
Then we officially formed A DSO
and since then we've acquired several more practices.
So now we're at seven locations
and we did three records integrations into that.
And I have not worked chairside for a couple years,
but I'm still leader of the management team
and kind of the, the visionary of the company.
- Wonderful. Well, thank you
for sharing a little bit more about what you do.
Um, and I'd love to start our discussion today with
what are the biggest issues you're currently
following in the dental space?
- The things I'm following are the things I actually,
one I'm really interested in and one I don't like.
So the one I don't care for
but have to follow is the dental workforce.
I think in the whole country it's bad,
not just in dental, but everywhere.
But no, we have to pay a lot of attention to that, a lot
of attention to maintaining our current employees,
trying to elevate them, bring them along.
But the part that's really excited that I follow
that we're big into is the newer technologies
that we have, especially AI for radiographs, um,
chat bots for responding to questions.
There's a lot of technology that we love,
but we only use it if it improves the patient experience
or improves the experience for our great team members.
So anything that technology can do
that's mundane on the human part, if we can get
that done automated, that gives our great people more time
to spend with our great patients.
- 100%. Um, and my next question for you is kind of twofold.
So first, what are you most excited about
in dentistry right now?
And then second, what makes you the most nervous?
- Mm-Hmm, . I'm gonna go back to sort
of the same two things that we talked about,
but no, um, what I'm most excited about is the way
technology continues to advance,
not only in the real world, but in the dental world too.
I've always been a very early adopter
of new technologies once I saw what it could do.
And so I cannot hardly wait to see what else comes out,
but I don't think we'll quite have a IB dentists yet.
Um, so no, that, that's, that's what I'm excited about.
Um, I still really, we're focused on serving our patients
and what we really try
and do is sort of our mission statement is
to help people get overall better overall health
by improving their oral health.
So that's our great mission.
What I am concerned about is, again, the continued workforce
shortage and also insurance reimbursements tend to be more
and more of a problem and I think
that's becoming more widespread
and I see the dental team member
maybe stabilizing, maybe starting to improve,
but that's still a concern.
Reimbursements are probably the biggest concern.
- 100%. And my final question for you today is
what will the most effective healthcare leaders need
to be successful in the next two to three years?
- Oh, number one, a very, very positive attitude.
They have to have a good, strong vision
that they're enabled, that they have to be able
to let their team members know
and understand so they know where they're going.
Um, so they have to stay positive, be a visionary,
try and keep people on board and,
and just really pay attention to culture
and improve culture as much as we can.
- Well, thank you so much
for joining me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
Again, we are live at the business
and operations of ASCs in the Future
of Dentistry Roundtable. Thanks so much.
- Thank you, grace. - It's so important
for leaders at the top of organizations to keep learning,
stay sharp, grow their networks,
help our audience better do this in a more simplified,
personalized, and meaningful way.
Becker's Healthcare has launched my BHC,
it's your trusted Becker's healthcare experience
and more with content, connections, events
and learning opportunities.
Join the community free
of charge@www.my dot becker's hospital review.com
and we'll see you there.