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
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who are at the forefront of dental innovation.
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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.
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Hello. This is Arianna Portolaaten with the Becker's
Dental and DSO Review
podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined today by
doctor Marlon Brown of the Gateway Dental and
Implant Center. Doctor Brown, thank you so much
for being here today.
Thanks for having me. Yes.
To start us off with, can you introduce
yourself and tell us a little bit about
your background?
Sure. Sure. As you said,
my name is, Marlon Brown.
And,
I guess a brief
overview would be that I finished dental school
in 1995 from Hickory Medical College
and
moved back to Atlanta, which is where I
went to undergrad at Morehouse College. I grew
up in in Atlanta area,
joined a large group practice for about a
year,
and then I had an opportunity to buy
into a
private practice and bought in and practiced there
for about,
two and a half years.
Then
my wife was having some health complications
while she was pregnant with our son, and
it was suggested by the cardiologist and the
iris OBGYN
that
we move to a dry climate.
At the time, I was looking at some
opportunities with US Public Health Service as a
commission officer,
took a visit out to Nevada
and we decided to
move out there and try that out
and we basically moved to
Northern Nevada Lake Tahoe area and I was
commissioned officer with the public health service Indian
health service division,
where I ran the Dell program on a
couple of native American reservations.
Did that for
20 years
and retired in 2018.
Moved back to the Atlanta area
where an old business partner
discussed opening a practice, and we built a
practice that's
about
40 miles 45 miles northeast of Atlanta,
20 miles from University of Georgia in Athens.
We built a practice from the ground up
starting in 2019,
and when we were ready to open in
February of 2020,
everything shut down because of the pandemic, so
we did not open until about 7 months
later, that's the end of July.
Okay. Wow.
Awesome. So, thank you for that. And what
are some of the biggest issues that you're
following in the dental industry, currently?
So the biggest issues that I'm following right
now
is
the
staffing
and having competent
staffing
along with technology.
Those are the biggest things that I'm following
right now. The advent of
AI
and the introduction
of digital cameras
and
3 d printing. So those are the things
that I'm looking at right now.
Okay. Yeah. I know you mentioned,
staffing was a a big issue you're following.
How was that
opening up your practice,
in COVID when the staffing shortages were kind
of exacerbated?
Well, originally, when we decided to build the
practice, my intention was to maybe work 2
days,
3 days a week and hire
an associate
and have them
work essentially full time, 5 days a week.
And,
of course, that did not happen.
So started out, I when we opened, it
was myself,
and
my wife helped out at the front because
the person that we hired towards the front
had
by the time we were ready to open,
she was expecting, so she was had to
go on maternity leave.
And so was my wife, an assistant. My
wife did the front desk, and
I did everything
from hygiene to
the typical
general dentist procedure.
And that went on for about a year
and a half while we looked for
a hygienist
and as we go to practice.
So it took us about
2 years to get somewhat stable as far
as the hygienist is concerned, so essentially the
latter end of 2022,
and
during that time, of course, there was a
lot of
change with
individuals.
We had individuals who were
previously in the
dental field, whether it be hygienist or dental
assistant or front desk, and they would lay
it off for
other jobs that they had.
And
as things started to settle down
and some people were hired back by the
places where they were,
and some people decided to go home,
whether it was work from home or because
of child care issues, things of that nature,
decided it was better
to stay at home.
Mhmm.
And next question here. What are you most
excited about when it comes to dentistry right
now?
Technology.
So technology
is
making
it where a lot more things can be
done in house with 3 d printing,
intraoral scanners,
CVCT
imaging.
Those are making things
a lot more accessible
in terms of reducing the amount of time
for care
and not having to rely on
labs in a in a certain certain manner.
Mhmm. Yeah.
Is there anything that makes you nervous about
the dental industry right now?
The advent of AI, it has its good
points and bad points as
they've been
pretty sure everyone in some form of fashion
was affected last week by the
outage
of the
software system update that
kind of crippled the airline industry and a
number of other
a number of other industries.
So and with the advent of AI, making
sure that there is still control of what
it is that we're doing from a
hands
on or a human touch standpoint.
Right. Are you using AI currently at your
practice?
I'm looking into using it.
Have not implemented it yet, but it is
something that I do I actually do plan
on using a lot.
Okay. Interesting. So,
yep, one one thing that I found
is
that
younger
the internet or
other forms of digital communication
or working around work around with computers,
they have a more difficult time than
someone who's been around for a number of
years where everything is going to charge to
that nature.
So if there is an outage knowing how
to actually
navigate around not having a computer system where
you still use paper to
write down what it is that you're doing
so that once
things get that up and running, you can
transfer that transfer that back into your software
system, into your
electronic help record.
Mhmm. Yeah.
And, last question here. What will the most
effective health care leaders need to be successful
in the next 2 to 3 years?
The embracing of technology.
Things are changing so fast
that you're going to have to be up
to date on the new utilization of technology
that's gonna help make practices more efficient
and potentially make it where your staff can
be smaller,
where a lot of things on the front
end can be done,
with
software. Obviously, again, making sure that you're able
to
have a a human touch on that as
well.
But, I think that will make things more
efficient from a from a scheduling standpoint,
from management of time,
and being able to
do things more efficiently. One thing that I
have invested in is
a laser, which
is soft tissue and hard tissue lasers.
I
think it is
right to be able to implement that
to have a level of service that we
utilize locations that have a fewer needles or
just an aversion to the sound of the
drill.
And
I think it won't be
a strong
addition to
to a practice.
Granted, the initial outlay is pretty expensive,
but the long term
return on investment,
I think, is it
it it said. Great. Well, thank you so
much for joining us today, doctor Brown. It's
been a pleasure speaking with you, and I
look forward to connecting with you again in
the future.
Absolutely. Thanks so much. Thanks. Have a great
day.