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
is from October 30th to November 1, 2024.
Get registered by going to beckersdental.com
and clicking on the events page.
Hello. This is Arianna Portolatin with the Becker's
Dental and DSO Review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by Tori
Lynch, a dental operations specialist in Texas. Tori,
thank you so much for being here today.
Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to
be a part of this and share my
knowledge.
Yeah. Definitely.
To start us off, can you introduce yourself
and tell us a little bit about your
background?
Absolutely. So I'm Tori Lynch. I have more
than a decade of experience on the business
and operations side of dentistry.
I've worked in corporate groups, practices,
private, so solo,
proprietary
doctors, as well as specialists.
So I've been able to see all ranges
of of our industry, as well as how
it's continuing to to evolve, as well as
change. And and some aspects are great, and
and some aspects I would like for it
to be, tweaked a little bit. So I
I know that we're gonna talk about those
things, later in our conversation.
Yes. Definitely. And I'm excited to to dive
into that with you. So thank you so
much for kicking us off here.
First question here. What are some of the
biggest issues that you're following in the dental
industry this year?
Yeah. So,
technology integrations,
not only as it relates to cloud, but
how we're also integrating third party vendors,
retaining talent. So,
it's no surprise to anyone that since what's
2020,
there's been a number of people that have
decided to leave health care just in general.
And so we've been,
put in a position
where
us being able to retain top talent and
or keep people interested
is not where it was in 2019, 2018,
or even, what, 20, 15.
What we're seeing is
we have to now be more creative
in how we are approaching people and being
willing to bring people on board that may
not have dental experience,
but they are quick learners.
Also, when as it relates to standard of
care, there's no surprise here that you could
line up 100 dentists and ask them about
something, and they're all you're probably gonna at
least come back with over
92 different responses.
And so, us finding ways, especially when you're
thinking about, group practices,
how do we go about making sure that
all of the doctors have very similar treatment
philosophy? Because, as you know, in group practices,
one doctor may diagnose, another doctor may actually
do the treatment. And how do we make
sure that we're maintaining
being very close, especially about being an operations
person,
concerned about inflation. Right? We hear that
word a lot now,
but it but how our operating costs have
inflated, and how does that then,
prohibit us for us to be able to
keep top talent? So what are some of
the incentives that we can put in place
in order to keep our team members engaged
and loving what we do? Because we do
a marvelous thing being able to help patients
and help their old cavity and connecting that
to their body.
So dentistry is a very fun field. It's
a difficult field,
but when we're working to make sure that
we're doing everything that we can, and then
competing with rising cough,
those things can be can be somewhat tricky
for us to be able to pull off
and, execute that well consistently.
Yeah. Thank you so much for that. I'm
also curious,
what are you most excited about when it
comes to dentistry right now, and is there
anything that makes you nervous about the industry?
I am really excited about the emergence
of women leaders in dentistry.
And so,
throughout my career, it's been predominantly male,
male driven. It's still very male driven, but,
but being able to go to some of
these conferences
and being able to speak to other women
that are leading groups that have a desire
to be the next Heartland. Those things are
very, very exciting, and it's very, very encouraging.
As we get more people at the table,
that does create opportunity for innovation. It creates
opportunities for just rough innovation. I'm really, really
excited to see where that goes and how
that starts to shift the way that we
approach our patients in dentistry.
As it relates to what makes me nervous,
consolidation.
Some consolidation
is good,
but consolidation
in general,
if it's not done with care and if
it's not done strategically,
can have a lot
of adverse impact to,
to the populations that you're serving.
Okay. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit
about, I know you're based in Texas, what
the consolidation has really looked like in that
state?
So in Texas, there are tons of DSOs
that are that are popping up.
Texas is really just I know Texas is
a huge state,
but Texas in general is a place that
people love to go to to create business
and to create innovation. So,
when it comes to consolidation,
it's a it's a good and a bad
thing. It's a good thing because some of
these groups that are that are popping up
out of out of nowhere, they don't have
a lot of systems in place, and so
patients are having a really bad experience. So
then they're going to coming to us. Right?
And so when they're coming to us, we
now have to reset
the experience that they had in that other
location, or perhaps they went to 2 or
3,
different,
locations.
And then they come to us, and so
we have to course correct,
their experience.
So when it comes to consolidation, it also
makes it somewhat competitive too. Right? Because,
when you are a larger group, you tend
to have a larger marketing budget, and so
we find ourselves having to compete
with
with those types of dollars.
And so in private practice, we don't always
have
the marketing spend,
to be able to compete with some of
these much larger groups.
Okay. Great. Yeah. Thank you for diving in
a little bit deeper in that. Last question
here. What will the most effective health care
leaders need to be successful in the next
question here. What will the most effective health
care leaders need to be successful
in the next 2 to 3 years? Yeah.
I think this is a great question. And
this is a question that I tend to
hear at a lot of conferences and and
on podcasts. And I agree with the legacy
DSO,
podcast, and I agree with the legacy DSO,
CEOs and what they're saying.
We have to be very clear on what
the vision is,
identify 2 or 3 goals that we're gonna
get
laser focused on, and making sure that we
execute it before we go to another thing.
Too often what happens is that we participate
in conferences, and we are listening to different
podcasts, and then we try to use that
information and develop something new, and then our
strategies are always evolving and changing. The vision
is going from one thing to the next.
And so we have to get laser focused
on what it is we're looking to accomplish,
have true metrics that are associated with it,
and then measure the consistency
in our
execution. Well, thank you for joining us today,
Tori. It's been a pleasure speaking with you,
and I look forward to connecting with you
again in the future.
Thank you for having me.