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 chose to be joined today by doctor
Desmond Brown, vice president of oral and maxillofacial
surgery support services
at Aspen Dental. Doctor Brown, thank you so
much for being here today. Thank you for
having me. To start us off today, can
you introduce yourself and tell us a little
bit about your background?
Sure. So
as you mentioned, I am the vice president
of oral and maxillofacial
surgery support services.
In conjunction, I'm also a surgeon at the
ClearChoice
Dental Implant Center in Indianapolis,
and I'm also an attending
faculty professor at Indiana University,
oral and macular facial surgery program,
where I mostly oversee,
oral and macular facial surgery residents.
Awesome. Thanks for that.
The first question today today is what are
some of the biggest issues that you are
currently following,
in the dental industry this year?
So, Cameron, as you know, dentistry
is a very stressful field,
whether you are a
general dentist or a specialist,
especially an oral surgeon.
There is tremendous debt for a general dentist
that can be anywhere from
graduating with
350,000
to $550,000
in debt. If you're an oral surgeon with
the additional,
years of education, that can easily
range from 550
to $850,000.
I'm also
you know, common issues that I'm also following
are, you know, the cost of starting a
new practice.
When you get out with the tremendous debt,
there are so many things that you have
to take into consideration,
running a business, managing compliance,
managing multiple employees.
So,
basically,
looking at the overall,
perspective of things, there are a number of
things that graduating
dentists, oral surgeon, specialists in general have to
face when they graduate.
Definitely.
With
that
high
amount of debt coming out for,
many dentists, do you think and and also,
like you mentioned, the high cost of just
opening and running a a practice,
do you think that
because
a lot of students and dentists are coming
out with so much debt that that is
kind of pushing them away from from owning
their own practices and kind of moving them
towards maybe being an associate dentist at,
someone else's practice or or maybe partnering with
the DSO or something like that?
Absolutely, Cameron. I think that
based on everything I just mentioned,
starting out a new practice is something that
is overwhelming.
And most of the dentists that graduate
currently are looking for mentorship. They're looking for
support,
whether that is, you know,
managing patients,
managing the back path, doing the compliance issues.
So
as a young graduate,
I would think that the
one of the wisest not the only thing,
but one of the things that you could
do that could really help yourself is to
join one of these many,
dental support organizations
that exist now.
Got it. That makes sense.
Something that I'm curious to get your thoughts
about are what,
are you most excited about when it comes
to dentistry
right now, and what are some things
that are potentially making you a little bit
concerned or nervous?
Well,
that was a good segue into
why DSOs are
a very good option now. I'm excited that,
you know, I do work for Aspen. However,
there are multiple,
dental support organizations and management support organizations that
can come in
and help not only new graduates, but, actually,
dentists and oral surgeons who have been practicing
for years. So
the same support that Aspen Dental provides, there
are many other organizations that can come in
and take over
and just to make the practice feel as
if, hey, my main goal here is to
concentrate
on the patients and taking care of the
patients and not having to be
a business person at the same time.
Yeah. Absolutely.
When it comes to a dentist, like, partnering
with a DSO,
what from from a dentist or a surgeon
perspective, what should they kinda be looking for
in that company or in that DSO,
to make sure that, you know, they're the
right fit,
and and it makes sense for both the
dentist and the DSO?
Loaded question.
It would it depends on where you are
in your career.
If you are just starting,
I think mentorship
is significantly important.
When you got it from dental school, there's
a lot that you do not know.
You probably know the theory.
You are going from seeing,
you know, 2 patients for the entire day
in a dental clinic to
potentially
seeing 8 to 10 patients a day, you
have a very finite amount of time
to build a relationship and build a rapport
with the patient.
So
partnering with an organization
that can help you not only
to
better your,
you know, patient facing experience, but also
looking for a company that can also
or an organization,
for that matter, that can help you on
the backside, how to manage the lab, how
to manage your office manager, how to manage
your front desk person.
For a
person who is senior,
who has been working for a long time,
there's a lot of issues that have to
do with compliance and
having
HR and all the legal stuff. So
if, personally, I would look for an organization
that has all that stuff together, has everything
that
well, there's never everything, but the most important
things that will help you to be successful.
Got it. Thanks for that.
And then just our last question today,
In your view, what will the most effective
health care leaders need in order to be
successful,
over the next 2 to 3 years?
I believe,
finding balance.
You know, it's a very
popular
saying, work life balance,
and, basically,
finding balance between,
being a good dentist, a good health care
professional,
and doing what is, you know,
good or best for the patients, but, also,
obviously, what's gonna work for you that's gonna
give you longevity.
I also think,
staying abreast with innovation
and technology
Just like every other sector,
currently out there,
technology and innovation is rapidly increasing. There are
things that
when I was in dental school
20 years ago,
there are things that are not available now,
things that can make patient care so much
better, delivering up,
you know, products such as I'll give you
an example.
If you're in a
or a master of facial surgery practice,
having a CBCT scan or things that you'd
have to send a patient to the hospital
for having in house
digital printers,
having an in house lab.
So
if you want for a health care profession,
in my opinion,
to be successful,
there's couple of buckets that you have to
hit. As I said, finding that balance and,
again, staying abreast with innovation and technology.
Definitely. That makes a ton of sense.
Especially, I feel like dentistry,
the tech and AI has
really improved and and advanced a lot even
within the last couple months to even, you
know, a couple years. So
definitely makes sense to to be on top
of that.
And you mentioned AI. I mean, there is
multiple,
companies know that,
you know, we're all human. And if you
are
maybe on your 8th patient
of the day,
you may miss something on a X-ray that
an AI
program that can easily pick up and, you
know, even to have you double check on
yourself. So, again, yes, that's that's also a
very important one.
Yeah. Absolutely.
Well, I wanna thank you for joining us
today, doctor Brown, and and sharing your valuable
expertise and insights into the dental space and
in dentistry.
It's been a pleasure speaking with you today,
and I look forward to connecting with you
again in the future sometime.
Thank you, Cameron. Glad to be here. Appreciate
the invite.