Hello. This is Arianna Porto Latin with the
Backers Dental and DSO Review podcast. I'm thrilled
to be joined today by doctor Shilpi Priyadarshini,
the regional managing director at Jefferson Dental and
Orthodontics. Doctor Shilpi, thank you so much for
being here today.
Thank you, Arianna, for having me. Yes. Of
course. To start us off, can you introduce
yourself and tell us a little bit about
your background?
Of course.
Arianna, my name is doctor Shopi Priyadarshini,
and I have the longest
last name in the planet. So I go
by doctor Shofy. I did my master's in
health administration and policy from San Diego State
University,
and then moved on to do my DDS
program from University of California, San Francisco.
I worked in the capacity of the regional
managing director at Jefferson Dental and Orthodontics.
Jefferson Ariana has been my first job. I
started here as a dental associate, and in
the last 10 years, I grew to understand
the business aspect of the DSO. My responsibilities
in the organization
revolve around doctor mentorship,
supporting operational teams closely,
maintaining quality of care and everything, everything that
I could do that can lead to a
successful running of the dental practice.
Great. Thank you so much for that. It's
great to hear about, your extensive experience with
Jefferson Dental.
Our first question here, what are some of
the biggest issues that you're following in the
dental industry this year?
That's, that's a great question. I get that
asked a lot.
Ariana, to be honest, the issues and challenges
in our industry have always remained the same.
The intensity might change depending on the economic
climate,
but if if I have to choose the
2 most important
challenges,
the first one would be patient acceptance
and winning the trust of the patient
to accept the care beyond their chief complaint.
Artificial
intelligence,
patient presentation tools like intraoral
scanners,
orthodontic simulators,
Overjet,
as well as the provider confidence
in holding the conversation
are real big keys to
success. There are a lot of other factors
like financial options and the overall patient experience
and the patient journey. That I would say
is the biggest
challenge
that our industry always faces.
The second thing I would say is dentistry
is recession proof, but are we inflation proof?
Having a strong financing option
that is able to cater to a range
of patients
and and the different credit history that might
come with with our patient population is the
need of the hour.
So
a patient might have the willingness to take
care
of the prescribed treatment,
but if they're not able to afford it,
that can be a biggest barrier.
So having good financial options with flexibilities,
with payment plans, with low insurance
sorry. Low interest rates
could be very beneficial for the success of
the practice.
Okay. Great. Great insight there. Thank you for
sharing that. I'm also curious. What are you
most excited about when it comes to dentistry
right now, and what makes you nervous?
Okay.
Dentistry is exciting. Right? It's always exciting. It's
it's it's my passion. But
what am I most excited about is
artificial intelligence in all the fields of dentistry.
I feel in the current world of digital
and social media awareness,
any product that catches attention has been tried
and tested.
So, basically, they're gonna bring in value to
the table. But the question here is,
how is that integrated
in the organization?
So say we integrated
our organization
and which we did with Itero intraoral scanners
and Overjet, which is artificial intelligence and X-ray
analysis.
If the clinical team on the feed, if
they do not feel bought into the technology,
it is not going to contribute to the
organization in its full capacity.
That's what makes me nervous. So
what I'm excited about and what I'm nervous
about is basically similar.
The short walk from integration of these amazing
technologies
to the execution
in the field among every team member is
going to be the most important work.
The second thing, Ariana, I'm very excited about
is
the renewed sense of eagerness the young graduates
are showing towards mentorship.
Knowledge is power, and learning can never stop
for a clinician.
What, however, makes me a little nervous is
the expectation of some young doctors for mentorship
to be an extension of dental school.
School teaches us what I call the word
of dentistry, but the actual spirit of dentistry
is learned after school, and this is a
journey every successful clinician completes.
Alright. Awesome.
Last question here. What will the most effective
health care leaders need to be successful in
the next 2 to 3 years?
This is the easiest question, Ariana. Super simple.
Keeping an open mind towards advancement in dentistry,
including AI. Right? If I haven't said it
before, AI is
that is necessary. Let me explain myself a
bit here.
The field should be the last place for
any budget cuts. When team members experience the
brunt of budget cuts, it makes them nervous
and they start questioning their long term sustainability
in the organization.
That can lead to turnover,
which is devastating for any organization
or company.
Instead, we could go for small cuts, spread
them across all departments. That can lead to
a huge cumulative positive impact on the P
and L while maintaining a very healthy environment
at the field, which I call is the
war zone.
Very interesting. Thank you so much. Well, those
are all our questions. So thank you so
much for joining for joining us today, Doctor.
Shilpi. It's been a pleasure speaking with you
today, and I look forward to connecting with
you again in the future.
Thank you, Arianna. Thank you so much.