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 basketball 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
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Get registered by going to beckersdental.com
and clicking on the events page.
Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
I'm Mariah Muhammad, writer and moderator with Becker's
Healthcare, and I'm thrilled to have with me
today Cyrus Lee, CEO and executive dental director
at Permanente Dental Associates. Cyrus, welcome back to
the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Very excited to have
you join us today. To get a start,
would you mind please introducing yourself and telling
us a bit about your background?
Yeah. Hello. I'm Raya. First of all, thank
you for having me back again today, and
I'm looking forward to chatting with you,
and our audience today. So, my name is
Cyrus Lee, and I'm the chief executive officer
and executive dental director
of Permanente Dental Associates. We are the dental
group for Kaiser Permanente Dental here in the
Pacific Northwest.
That's specifically Oregon and Southwest Washington.
We provide dental services for over 250,000
Kaiser Permanente
Dental members
out of 21 dental offices.
We are a professional corporation
with most of our dentist clinicians
as shareholders
of our group. So we are
dentist owned and led.
We have about a 150
general dentists, specialists,
denturists. We have a dental therapist and
administrative,
professionals.
I'm really proud that our group, was just
accredited again
by the Accreditation
Association For Ambulatory Healthcare.
We've been continuously accredited since,
1990 and are really proud of that.
Also this year for the 5th consecutive year,
we were named number 1,
in our employee category for Healthiest Employers of
Oregon
as well as 5th consecutive year number 1
for Healthiest
Employers,
Washington.
About a 100 of our dentists are members
of the National
Dental Practice Based Research Network.
This network is a consortium
of participating practices and dental organizations
that investigates,
research questions and shares experiences
and expertise.
This nation's network, it's really an effort to
help, dental professionals directly improve
the efficiency and effectiveness
of dental care.
So essentially, it's it's research done
about and in the real world of daily
dental practice. So that's,
something exciting that a lot of our dentists
have done. Let's see. I've been a practicing
dentist for over 20 years. I'm a native
Oregonian.
But I did spend several years away during
my undergraduate college years.
I graduated dental school at Oregon Health and
Sciences University, then spent a few years in
the US Army where I completed an AEGD
and spent some time overseas.
Then I returned home and have been with
Kaiser Permanente Dental since 2006.
In January 2017,
I opened up,
our Cedar Hills Dental Medical Office, which was,
really a first of its kind,
fully integrated
medical
dental
office. So there were workflows
that,
really traversed,
our patients between the the dental,
visit as part of an overall,
health care touch points. So for example, we
have nurses dedicated
to our dental patients to help them close,
both preventative care
gaps, like vaccinations,
as well as disease management care gaps, like,
blood draws for diabetic patients to monitor their
a one c levels.
At the time, we had a physician right
there on-site, which allowed also those in the
moment collaboration
on, patient care. But more importantly, because we
are in a truly integrated health care delivery
system,
it's really in our people's DNA and in
our culture to take that shared
dentists here at Kaiser Permanente Dental are truly
every bit part of our patient's care team
and there's really no friction at all
as members of our patient's care team from
their dentist, hygienist, primary care physician,
and other specialists in some cases like oncologists,
all all communicate, with each other as part
of a true team service to our patients.
So,
I spent most of my career in the
care delivery operations aspect of Kaiser Permanente Dental.
And then,
for the past 2 years, I've been in
this role as executive sales director and, CEO.
Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving
us that background, and congratulations
on your new awards. That's absolutely amazing. And,
you know, getting those awards must mean that,
you know, you and the organization will be
on the top of your game, in dental.
So I must ask you, what are the
biggest issues you're following in dental this year?
Yeah, Brian. There there really are a lot
of big issues, and I think, we're in
a very dynamic time in dentistry,
certainly over the past few years, and,
and that really hasn't changed in this past
year, really all of health care. And I
think those biggest issues, really all contribute and
are affected by each other. So the ones
that I'm particularly following is around workforce,
technology, care advancements,
practice consolidation.
So first and foremost, workforce.
So,
we all know now that for quite a
while now, there's there aren't enough dental assistants.
There aren't enough dental hygienists.
It remains a big issue for a lot
of dentists for us as well. It was
an issue before the pandemic.
Pandemic made it worse. It remains an issue.
Maybe it's it's gotten a little bit better
over the past year, but it's still still
a big issue.
And I I foresee it, remaining,
a big, big challenge. You know, when you
look at,
enrollment data prior in dental schools and you're
looking at,
those predoctoral dental students and you compare
those numbers with dental hygiene and dental assistant
students, the number of dental students has been
going up. And,
it's projected to continue going up for for
another
few years,
with the opening of new schools and and
increased class sizes.
But meanwhile, the number of, hygiene students and
the number of dental assistant students has has
really not,
been anywhere close to keeping up,
with the number of of dental students. So
so I do see this as an issue
that's,
really gonna have to be
resolved,
in one way or another because you really
have more dentists, competing for fewer staff,
which then
raises the overhead cost of the practices.
It's your classic,
supply and demand.
And so you combine
that increased overhead cost of running a practice
or practices
with reimbursement rates that really aren't keeping up
with those rising,
costs. And then the, you know, then the
financial model, supporting,
dentistry becomes much more stressed
than it's ever been,
which which does have some ramifications.
Then another workforce issue is around dentists themselves,
and that's primarily the cost of dental education.
The amount of debt these graduates are coming
out with is is really, really incredible.
So my background, I I did spend, some
years in the army.
I got an army scholarship.
And for me,
the thought of having,
barely a 6 figure debt load coming out
was unfathomable. So that's that's why I looked
into a military scholarship, which I still think
is a great way to go. It was
such a valuable experience both clinically and non
clinically.
But these days, you know, I I think
graduates looking at
being barely in 6 figures in the debt,
like, being, like, a 100,000 in debt. That
that's nothing compared to
what a lot of these newer dentists are
facing.
And so,
those folks, they're borrowing $500,000
or more
for their education. So there's some really big
implications to having
that type of debt burden and and the
financial,
pressures
practicing. So,
so that's the workforce piece.
Also tracking, I think,
technology as well as care advancement.
So,
technological advancements, they're really rapidly changing the landscape
of, dental care from, digital scanner scanners and
3 d printing to advancements
in artificial intelligence,
and really staying abreast of these innovations and
incorporating them effectively into practice is,
both a really exciting opportunity, and and it
can be a challenge. Just this, you know,
past couple of years, we've seen progressive incorporation
of generative
AI, artificial intelligence, or augmented intelligence.
I think we all know,
now that a couple of initial areas is,
augmenting a clinician's radiographic exam, but,
I'm really looking forward to the opportunities of
of ambient listening technology
combined with AI to
describe chart notes, for our clinicians.
Patient education and communication is another area that
I could see
really productive use of this technology.
And then on the payer side, of course,
the, utilization
claims,
review.
In terms of care advancement, you know, since
I'm with Kaiser Permanente, that's all medical dental
integration is a big one,
for us.
You know,
the valve was separated from the rest of
the body,
in terms of education
and and training and, therefore, the entire
health care infrastructure.
But that's
really not how our bodies work, and we've
known this for
at least a quarter of a century
with the 2000 Surgeon General's report on on
oral health.
So here at KP Dental, we've been, you
know, doing things around
putting the the mouth back in the body,
medical dental integration.
We've been doing things for decades.
Talked about opening the first,
truly integrated medical,
dental office and
team. I think the challenges in health care
are so big that I don't think we
I I don't think we have any choice
but to, you know, break down the historical,
silos. So our approach here, because we have
an integrated health care system, is to really
leverage our dental visit as an additional touch
point,
in the health care system.
Dental for
many healthy patients,
might be their only regular touch point,
of the health care system. So,
really, our thought is how can we
work as an extension
of primary care and and reach,
all of the patients that we have that
shared responsibility
for. And I think that just, elevates our
profession as an integrated part of the health
care team.
And then the last piece was,
consolidation and and
the employment model of dentists as opposed to
practice owners.
So
I think when you look at some of
those,
dynamics, challenges, and,
issues,
workforce,
increased overhead costs,
decline the flat reimbursement and,
debt burden for for new dentists and
capital investments
needed for all this
awesome clinical technology,
I think it does make it more and
more difficult
for individual dentists to operate a practice.
And I think over the past few years,
with the influx of private equity money into
the dental space,
and a number of dentists looking for a
practice exit strategy being presented with incredible offers
and and just incredible, valuation.
We've we've seen some shifts,
movement,
towards an employed
model. So
I do think we'll continue to see more
existing and and more new dentists,
looking at an employed model,
as opposed to a practice ownership model. I
just think there's more interest in income security
in light of of some of those, financial
dynamics
and challenges
being a business owner.
As well as, you know, it might be
appealing to,
have a
a less stressful
work environment and better work life balance and
not having to manage
the business.
So I do think with more dentists seeing,
an employed model as viable and maybe even
attractive, I think the consolidation of practices will
likely continue a bit in dentistry. It,
appears to slow down a bit over this
past year, but, I don't think it's,
I don't think it's gonna gonna stop.
Yeah. Yeah. You made some really good points
there. I think workforce specifically is definitely a
trending topic. And I think every time I
kinda talk to the executives, they kinda say
the exact same things about, you know, it's
really causing a lot of stress on a
lot of different areas in the workforce.
Very quickly, Cyrus, if you could give me
a couple points on what do you think
the most effective health care leaders need in
order to be
in the next 2 to 3 years?
What what would you say?
Yeah, Mariah. I think,
you know, just with the with the significant,
shifts
in the in the landscape,
I I do think adaptability
and and innovation
is is really, really important and the ability
to to adjust to new realities and and
the fact that the, the truth of
today may not be the truth of tomorrow.
So, whether that's, technological
advancements, workforce challenges, financial shifts, you name it.
I I also think that, focusing on patients,
continuing to focus on patients is key.
I I always like to think that if
you're doing the right things the right way,
it's it's easier for everything else to fall
into place. But as a leader, I think
at the end of the day, the most
effective health care leaders
are really gonna need to be able to
motivate their people,
because there's only so much an individual leader
can do. It's really about being
that force multiplier and, moving everyone
in an organization
in that same direction to be adaptable and
innovative and focusing on patients.
You know, the old saying many hands make
light work. So so, yeah, I would say
if I had to pick only 1,
I I would say,
being an effective motivator of of people so
that
everyone
can,
be adaptable
and innovative,
focus on patients.
I think that's really the, the single key
for health care leaders,
to be successful in what I think is
a really, really
exciting time for Danesh.
Yeah. Yeah. I completely agree. And thank you
so much for those final thoughts, Cyrus. This
has definitely been an informative discussion. So I
wanna thank you so much for coming on
Becker's HealthCare, and I look forward to connect
connecting with you again soon.
Thank you so much, Mariah. You have a
great day. You too.