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 Cameron Cortejano with the Becker's
Dental and DSO review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
Jason Genta, who is vice president of clinical
operations at Smile Brands. Doctor Genta, thank you
so much for being here today.
Cameron, thanks for having me.
To start us off today, can you introduce
yourself and and tell us a little bit,
about your background?
Yeah. Of course. As you mentioned, my name
is doctor Jason Genta, and I am the
vice president of clinical
operation for Smile Brands. Smile Brands is
an organization
with nearly 700 dental offices, and we have
over 2,000
providers,
with our doctors and our hygienists.
My role with the organization
is really around
the growth of our providers.
So anything clinical initiatives
focused, whether it be technology,
supplies,
or or any new research
or CE.
Those kind of all fall into my wheelhouse.
And
like I said, I'm just really I'm excited
about being able to to grow our providers
and help them help more patients.
Great. Thanks for that.
The kind of first question today is what
are some of the biggest issues
that you are following in the dental industry
so far this year?
So
dental is in a an interesting place because
our patients
need our care, and as as the the
population ages,
that's only going to increase.
Unfortunately,
what we saw out of the pandemic
was,
a condensation
of the workforce, and and we saw a
lot of
our our
workforce,
specifically the hygienists,
leave the market. Now we are seeing some
of those people come back,
but not at the same levels that they
left. I I think I saw a statistic
where
nearly 8% of our hygienists workforce left.
Now
about 4% of them have come back, but
that still leaves
a severe shortage of of hygienists.
What that leads to is
increased
competition
within our our offices,
and there's just there's more demand for hygienists
but less of them to hire. So that
makes it really, really difficult.
And
what the result of that is
it makes it harder for our patients to
get in. They have to work, wait
longer to get in. We're not able to
to
provide care to as many patients,
and it it has a an impact
on our providers because they're they're working with
less team members and our patients as well.
You know, it's similar with our dentist. You
know, there there is a need for dentists.
Now it it's not as exacerbated
as it is
with the hygiene world, but
dentists are also are in need and then
team members as well, whether it's assistants or
front office staff. There's really a a shortage
of of people.
And,
we need
people. We need great people to to help
our patients, and that's just really been a
challenge. Now
we've
like I said, I I think it is
getting better, but I think we're gonna feel
the the results of that for
for the next year or 2 or maybe
more.
Yeah. Staffing has obviously,
been a huge impact
on the industry and all these staffing shortages.
You you did touch on right at the
end that you think it's gonna get better,
coming up. Are there any, I guess, strategies
or anything that,
DSOs or
individual practices can kinda use
to kinda help alleviate those staffing shortages, or
is it kinda just,
we need to wait for more hygienists to
join the workforce?
So I always joke that
the best way to
to recruit people is to not have to
recruit them at all and to retain your
your current team members. So
really focusing in on whether it's your your
single office culture or your DSO culture as
a whole,
we have to be,
an an organization
that people wanna work for.
And so it's really important to keep our
current staff to make sure that they're happy,
to make sure that they can grow in
their careers,
they feel fulfilled.
That's really going to be a key aspect
to
to,
making sure that we can take care of
our patients. Now I think there's a waterfall
effect with that and that if we can
create a good culture and create an environment
where our current team members want to work
for,
that
word spreads. And then, you know, when we
do have to go out and recruit,
people know that we're an organization that people
like to work for, and it makes it
a little bit easier to to recruit.
But
if we are down team members
and whether it be
we're in a a very competitive market or
we're in a rural market,
we have to start thinking outside the box,
in in how we can work
and and treat patients with less.
Technology is a good way to do that.
How can we utilize and leverage technology
to take the place of of the missing
team members?
So how do we make the lives of
our current team members easier
and and take some of the tasks
that they usually have to do?
And, you know, ways we can do that
is with AI,
and,
you know, different technologies like scanning.
So that way, our our team members are
not having to do as much.
Got it. That makes sense.
Something that I'm curious to get your thoughts
on,
are what are some of the things that
you're most excited about,
in dentistry right now, and
what are some things in the industry that
are potentially
making you a little bit weary and nervous?
The staffing situation may always make me nervous,
but we've we've covered that enough. So I'll
I'll kind of move on from that. But
technology both excites me and makes me nervous,
and I'll I'll explain why. I I think
we're entering a golden age of technology
where,
dentistry
as we know it is is really going
to change and change for the better.
You know, things like intraoral scanners, AI technology,
the ability to
treatment plan digitally, the digital workflow.
It's really, really exciting, and we can do
a lot with it and make a better
experience for our patients
and our our providers.
Now the reason it makes me nervous
is
it's also very expensive.
And,
I I think
we have to make sure that when we
do invest in technology,
it's going to be used.
And so you have to have a strategy
in place where you're you're not just buying
the technology.
You're training on how to use it. You're
training on the workflow.
So that way that the technology can really
be used to the fullest.
I I think
if you're able to train and you're able
to support it,
technology is a really, really exciting way for
us to help our patients in the future.
Yeah. I think that that's been a huge
thing throughout the industry in the past
couple of
months years with all this new tech and
AI is, like,
it's one thing for
your practice or your DSO to have this
technology,
But it's it's really a whole another ballgame
when it comes to implementing it effectively and
and making sure that
team members, dentists, hygienists, assistants,
front office staff
are able to use it, effectively,
efficiently, so they're really getting the most out
of it. Because like you said, it is
expensive, so you don't wanna be buying all
this new tech and then not really getting
all the benefits out of it.
Yeah. And that's,
honestly, that's where I spend a a large
majority of my time in my day to
day is
with our clinical initiative.
How do we make sure that
people are trained up? And it it's not
just our providers. Everyone needs to be trained
on it. And then, you know, as as
we talk about
staffing and we talk about turnover,
you know,
you you might go and train an office
on a specific technology
or or workflow,
and then you turn 2 people over in
3 months from now.
How do you go you have to have
a system and a process in place to
go back and train those new people
or the the technology and that workflow will
will go to waste. So
it's it has to always be top of
mind. And,
you know, the other part about technology,
when you have
people from different generations
and and, you know, in a typical dental
office,
you can have a a 20 year old
and you can have a 65 year old,
and they have very, very different
exposure to technology,
how do we make sure that everyone understands
how to use it and to work well
together?
That that's
going to be a key in the next
5 to 10 years
as we
integrate more technologies into our dental offices.
Yeah. Absolutely. I definitely agree,
with that, especially bridging the gap between generations
when it comes to tech.
As we move into the last question for
today,
what will the most
effective health care leaders need in your opinion,
in order to be successful,
over the next 2 to 3 years?
DSOs right now, there there's more and more
DSOs growing.
And,
you know, from an option standpoint,
our providers
and really all of our team members have
more options
for where they wanna work than ever before.
And we're we're in a time in in
our history where
our our workforce is more mobile.
They're they're more likely to move. You know,
gone are the days where you you choose
a job
and and stay there for 40 years. Now
my goal is to create an organization where
people do wanna work for 40 years, And
I think that would be my my
my recommendation
to to all,
you know, health care leaders out there that
we have to really focus on our culture
and we have to build
organizations
where people wanna work for us.
And they see a pathway for growth.
They see opportunity
for mentorship,
and we're providing value to them. And and
they see
where they're at, and they can see a
career path
that meets their needs not just now, but
in the future.
And so we
we have to really, really focus in
on that part of our of our organization
if we wanna see the growth and and
we wanna see the business outcomes that we're
hoping to achieve.
Yeah. Definitely. Those are some great points.
Well, I wanna thank you for joining us
today, doctor Jinza, and thank you for sharing
your valuable expertise and insights into the dental
industry.
It's been a pleasure speaking with you today,
and I look forward to connecting with you
again, in the future.
Same. Cameron, thanks so much for the time.
I I really appreciate it.