Hey there, dental professionals and industry enthusiasts.
Picture this. It's October, and you're in the
middle of one of the most transformative
experiences of your career. You're at the Becker's
fall future of dentistry roundtable in the vibrant
city of Chicago, fresh off an incredible 3
days at the Hyatt Regency. Imagine yourself inspired
and invigorated after attending captivating keynote sessions by
none other than the legendary boxing world champion
and CEO, Lila Elite, and the extraordinary professional
player, Caitlin Clark. See yourself engaged in lively
discussions, exchanging ideas, and collecting a stack of
business cards from fellow dental experts and potential
partners. You've networked with over 350
attendees and learned from more than 80 speakers
who are at the forefront of dental innovation.
You sat in on educational
sessions exploring topics that elevate dental care as
a critical element of whole person health. You've
witnessed firsthand how digital technology is revolutionizing
patient outcomes
and how both large DSOs and independent practices
are flourishing.
Get ready to transform your career and don't
miss out on this incredible opportunity. The Becker's
fall future of dentistry roundtable is from October
30th to November 1, 2024.
Get registered by going to beckersdental.com
and clicking on the events page.
Hello. This is Cameron Cortejano with the Becker's
Dental and DSO review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by Emily
Lautron,
chief executive officer at Sea Breeze Dental.
Doctor Emily, thank you so much for being
here today.
Thank you so much for having me, and
thank you so much for creating this platform
so we can come on and share our
stories and insight.
To start us off, can you just introduce
yourself and and give us a little bit
about your background in the in the dental
field?
Yes. So, you know, I'm originally from Vietnam,
and I actually came to the US as
a refugee back in 1981.
Overcame challenges, language barrier, financial,
challenges.
I've been very blessed, got help from the
government, and got grants and scholarships. So I
I did my undergrad at UC Riverside and
my dental school at, UCLA School of Dentistry.
So I graduated back in 1993.
And,
I
was an associate for a couple years,
tried to learn a lot of things,
worked for some,
back then we call chain, right, offices and
and learn
learn some of those business modalities.
So I bought my first practice in 1997.
And then shortly after that,
in 1999,
bought the the second one. And over the
years, I bought
8 practices, so 8 practice acquisitions.
And, at one point, I had 3 dental
offices, and this is back in the early
2000. So,
for a woman
solo,
running 3 separate corporations
is not a very common thing, you know,
together with raising the family and 3 kids
and all that. And about
5 years ago,
I started this journey where I wanted to
help other colleagues,
grow their business because, you know, it sometimes
it doesn't matter how many offices you have.
It's really the systems that need to be
in there and the correct leadership,
and you just replicate that.
So,
I actually help dentist and team grow to
increase
net profit
and have less stress.
And I do this in, there's a the
little, video interview that I have on my,
on one of the page online.
You can go to coach, roi.com,
coachroi.com,
and watch the videos and then connect with
me. I would love to do that for
everybody.
Great. Thanks for that introduction.
What are some of the biggest issues
that you're currently following in the dental industry
in 2024?
You know, they're obviously, they're different
issues, and some people see it as issues.
Some people may see it as an opportunity
to grow.
I,
for for me and what I see a
lot of people is is struggling to get
the staff engagement.
So whether you don't have enough staff or
you do have enough staff and and they're
not engaged, they, they're distracted. Right? They're looking
for something else.
They they want certain things that maybe you
as a as a business owner because I'm
a I'm a clinician. You know, I own
I work in my dental offices, and I
run the dental offices. You know, whether or
not you can meet their expectations,
that sometimes is a a challenge because we
I think, nowadays, a lot of us have
an office with multiple generations
of staff,
and to be able to connect with all
of them correctly and to work with all
of them and get them to work as
a team could be a challenge. The staff
engagement
is a challenge, making sure everybody's on the
boat on the same page.
They're all excited to work.
And and for me,
as a coach, it's always about raising the
ambition,
helping them realize that they they do have
the important job in the office. Each one
of them is important. And how would they
contribute to that so as a as a
unit, we can serve the patients and, be
a staple in the community?
I think the,
the other issue,
and it's not,
how do we say this?
It's not exactly in the office only, is
social media
distraction. I think there are a lot of
people
out there on the social media
circle that,
have discussions or opinions,
that are not verified, put it that way.
And so I would be very cautious
about my staff, about my associate doctors, listening
to somebody and coming back and and questioning
or asking me these concerns. And so I
think as a leader,
it's very important
to establish,
you know, the values of the office,
to set the expectation, to let everybody know
that we're doing certain things because of whatever
way,
of the values we have or the goals
we have, and making sure that people understand
that first and commit to that first before
they go and listen to to outsiders.
Yeah. Definitely. I think that staff recruiting and
retention and building culture at dental practices
has been a challenge for
a lot of dentists and DSOs and and
practices,
over the past couple of months years. But
I think that viewpoint that you have that,
you know, it it can be a challenge
sometimes, but it's also a great opportunity is
is a good approach to take.
Yes. Yes. Because,
you know, if you have certain challenges, you
can just say, okay. I'm just gonna solve
this and get on with life. Or you
can say,
what can I build from this?
Right?
And and help,
you know, everybody elevate
their thinking and their performance because,
you know, you could you could be that
leader and you're all the way up in
the front and then your staff are following
you, and they don't quite understand why we
why we're doing certain things. And so the
engagement
is is very, very important.
And, you know, with some time for the
staff to understand the basic business,
that would explain why we work certain hours
or why we cross train or why
the the why sometime in the head of
the staff, if you don't
fulfill that and answer that,
sometimes is a cause of that disengagement,
or, you know, they they jump ship and
they go somewhere else. Will it be somebody
is a lot clearer in explaining and and
fulfilling what they want? So I think nowadays
running
a DSO,
one office, multiple offices, whatever it is, you
have to know some psychology,
And, that become very, very, very important because
understanding who you serve and who you work
with, it will help you
really connect with them and get them to
perform to the level that you want them
to.
Yeah. I think that's a a great mindset
to have. Like you said, even if if
it's a DSO, if it's a multi practice
group, or if it's just a single practice,
I think that can be applied to kinda
whatever setting,
you're in. Right. Right. Right. Because the DSO
to me,
is just a business model.
It's not, you know, it's not a different
thing. It it's a business model, and if
you understand how to run business, you're just
gonna go and apply it to multiples, you
know, multiple locations.
Obviously, the mindset has to be a little
different. You know, because, you know, when I
have multiple offices,
that's how I'm thinking. And when I'm talking
to a doctor who have only one office
and trying to get to the second one,
but haven't really quite get the control of
the first one,
getting the second one is just gonna be
more challenging, and and you're just asking for,
you know,
more challenges yourself.
But when you understand the the business principles
behind things and you understand how to connect
to people and how to train your staff
or get somebody to come and train your
staff and make sure your staff are all
on the same,
on on the same level,
it would make, you know, growing a whole
lot easier and faster.
Yeah. That makes sense.
Something that I'm curious,
to get your thoughts on are
what what are some things that you're most
excited about when it comes to dentistry,
right now, and what are some things that
maybe make you a little bit nervous?
Well, you know, I think the most exciting
things in dentistry,
right now is obviously
the technology
and, specifically
AI.
I think it it helps
it helps you grow faster.
So for example, I just started,
working with a company,
that I met when I attended the,
Digital Dental
Society meeting in Berlin,
a couple weeks ago.
And,
it's it's the app where, you can just
take a picture of a patient on your
phone, and 30 seconds later, it shows you
the, after. Right? A better smile. And a
lot of the smile that is created by
AI,
it gives the patient it's a fuller smile.
So even if you have straight teeth but
you have previous ortho, you know, you you'll
be able to see the difference. My point
here is
it's fast, it's quick, and it's for the
patient. Right? Any of the dentists,
because I was showing to a couple of
my dentist friends, of course, they wanna they
wanna make it perfect, but the the understanding
is no. This is AI.
From all the data out there, AI is
pulling this so that the smile may not
look perfect as you would design it on
the computer, on the digital smile. But this
is just for the patient. This is just
for the patient to see and and and
for them to go, yes. I do want
to have that done.
So and that's just one little example. The
the other one that I use in my
office,
I use DTX.
So it it does have that AI cap
capability
of helping you diagnosing,
similar to Perb
and,
you know, overjet.
The the point
the point is to use it, right, and
how you use it.
My, associate one of my associate is my
daughter who just graduated a year ago, and
I love to use that as a as
a backup, right, to check. So so I
tell her, you know, you do your diagnosis,
and then I do want you to go
look at all these little blue boxes and
make sure that you're not missing any one
of them. But I think for anybody who's
growing multiple practices and and getting young associates,
it's, I think, it's
almost mandatory to have a tool like that
because it help your associate grow confidence. Right?
I don't want the associate to go look
at the blue boxes first and then diagnose.
I want them to diagnose and go back
and look at the blue boxes or the
little marks, whichever system that you're using,
and it help them build a confidence,
and it help teach them at the same
time. And then you can review that with
the associate and make sure that that they
understand whatever they're looking at and what they
need to address.
So I think everybody need to
get on the train, right, and get into
technology,
using AI.
The the the other part, which I know
a lot of us have in our office,
is a digital scanner.
There's nothing wrong with using impression if that's
what you love, but
the the current technology now
is a scanner.
I work with the, the DEXIS scanner
because I I've had DEXIS digital X-ray for
since 2007.
So, I used that particular scanner.
And,
you know, for a for a new grad,
and I'll go back to my daughter,
I think the first day she
went to work with me,
I just told her, okay, she'll use the
scanner and scan. And she picked it up
really fast. I think she got a chance
to scan a few times at school.
But, you know, technology is what makes it
easier and faster. And
if you have a staff
with some older people and some younger people,
you know, get the younger one excited first,
and then they can train the older one.
You know? Don't don't all of a sudden
say, everybody gotta do this now, and then
you unnecessarily
just are the ones that are not quite
ready.
I think I and I've learned that over
the years because I used to be I
used to want everybody to do the same
thing. Everybody needs to be able to do
that. But now as I'm getting older and
a little bit wiser,
it's more I wanna I want to maximize
each person's natural talent. Right? If this person
is a little geeky, yeah, give them all
the high-tech stuff. Get them comfortable with that
first. If the person is a little bit,
you know, not as as tech savvy, which
is me,
give them the time. You know, let them
slowly
take that learning curve themselves. So technology,
especially AI, is something that I think everybody
should have in the office.
If if you're not the sharpest one as
far as the technology,
which is, again, me,
get somebody who is that person, and that's
the person
to show that technology show off that technology
to your patients. Right? So in this case,
it would be my daughter.
The what makes me nervous is
I mentioned this a little bit
earlier.
I think what I see the the
the social media
as a distraction,
to especially a lot of the younger doctors,
I think that is something that I'm concerned
with, and I think
that's why you need to,
more than ever,
the marketing term is protect your herd,
which mean to make sure that your followers,
in this case, your team,
understand exactly what your goals are, what your
values are, and what are the steps to
get to those goals and for them to
understand that first.
On the external side,
you know, protecting your herd would be your
patients,
making sure that the patient
once again, understand the value of your practice.
Right? And, for them to understand, you know,
you love to grow through referral. So they
so they can go, and if somebody say,
who would you recommend? They can say, hey.
I'd like to go to doctor Emily
because she's fast, or I would like to
go to doctor Emily because she's funny or
she's weird, whatever it is. But they have
something that they follow you for a particular
reason.
And I think that is one thing that
is very important when you if you don't
create an image,
a reputation for yourself,
or I call that authority positioning,
somebody will create that for you. Right? Somebody
is gonna start a rumor or something about
you. You might as well just just start
your own and say what you stand for
and make sure that that's how people understand
you. So I think to make sure that
you use social media to your advantage
is to be very proactive and to make
sure that everybody in the office,
on the same page, understanding the values, understand
why we do what we do.
Yeah. I think those are all some some
great points and insights and especially how, like,
the AI and also social media, they they
both have their pros and cons, and it's
kinda,
important to figure out
how to use it to the best,
of your abilities and maximize
its usage.
Yep.
What will the most effective health care leaders
need
in order to be successful within the next
2 to 3 years, do you think?
Well, you know, as a,
as a dentist of of, more than 30
years and, as a
high performance coach and business consultant,
what I what I see on a daily
is a lot of
the health care leaders.
Sometimes we
lack a little leadership skill.
Just because we are the one that own
the one practice or the multiple practices or
we're the one that deal
with the,
you know, with the investors,
it doesn't mean that we have the
the leadership skill that is necessary.
Right? So
for me, what's most effective
is for the leaders
to be a learner.
And
what I mean by that is to understand
where you are
and to always be improving.
Some of the things that I I see
all the time is, number 1, is courage.
Making sure
that you establish your mission and you communicate
with your team, like I said earlier.
You you may be dealing with multigenerational
staff in your office, and let's say you're
30 years old or maybe 40 years old.
You know, there's there's a little bit of,
intimidation when you're trying to talk to somebody
older, or maybe that's just me because I'm
Asian. You know? Or maybe you're talking to
a younger,
staff, and they're talking back to you to
you because that's their generation kind of thing.
So to have that courage to to keep
your foot down, to to have some balls,
and,
to let them know this is this is
your goal, your agenda,
your your rules, your system, but to say
that in a sympathetic way to to to
make sure you connect with them and and
get your points across.
So I think being courageous is very important.
I think having
great energy
is is important. I I hear all the
time people getting burned out.
That's
to me, it's almost like a choice. It
you you won't be burned out even if
you have multiple offices.
If you have a team to support you,
if you,
if you get expert to help you figure
out a way, because you cannot be the
one doing everything. You cannot be the one
knowing everything. And I've seen a lot of
dentists,
you know, owner dentists, CEOs, a lot of
time we because we grow from one
workstation to multiple, and we're used to doing
a bunch of things,
we're not embracing that we we need to
delegate and we need to preserve that energy.
Because for somebody who runs multiple offices, I
bet you anything that that person have higher
energy than somebody who's complaining
and running one office. And it all has
to do with your your lifestyle, how you
take care of yourself, you're taking breaks, You
you make sure you nourish your mind,
and, and you make sure that you have
fun while you while you go on. So,
yeah, I think leadership skill is
extremely important and, you know, just those are
the two examples to have courage and to
have more energy.
Yeah. Absolutely.
Well, thank you for joining us today, doctor
Latron, and thank you for sharing your valuable
expertise
and insights.
It's been a pleasure speaking with you, and
I look forward to connecting with you again
in the future.
Well, thank you again so much for, for
having me, and I would love to connect
to all the listeners.
Go check out, coach ROI.com,
and,
you know, maybe we can have a virtual
meet, and, I can help you solve some
problems. Thank you so much again for having
me.