Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
My name is Chanel Banger, and I'm currently
recording live at the Becker's Healthcare
Future of Dentistry roundtable.
Currently, I'm sitting down with Troy Beige, the
CEO of 10 Dental. Troy, thank you so
much for joining me today. Yes, Chanel. It's
great to be here. Thanks so much for,
giving me the time to talk with you.
Perfect. Well, to get us started, could you
please introduce yourself and tell us a bit
about your background? Sure. My name is Troy
Beige. I'm the CEO of TEN Dental. We're
a
27 location DSO based out of Nashville
with locations in Nashville,
New York City,
Atlanta,
DC,
and Boston.
Perfect. And what key experiences have shaped your
leadership journey in the dental and DSO industry?
Yeah. Well, I've been in distributed health care
services for over 30 years, so I've had
such a great run with wonderful mentors and
leaders that I've gotten to know over the
years. I only joined dental a little over
a year ago,
and one of the areas that was most
influential in me learning about the industry but
learning about leaders in the industry was spending
time visiting all of our studios
in the 1st month and a half. So
at the time, we had 25 studios, and
so going in, talking with our dentist, our
hygienist,
our studio managers,
and and working with our regional directors and
our chief dental officer to be able to
learn about the industry, but also
learn about how they shaped their leadership and
how I could support them in that. So
it's been wonderful. I've been,
a little over a year now,
and it's a wonderful team and with a
great mission behind what we're trying to do.
Absolutely. And can you maybe tell us a
little bit about your growth strategy at Tend?
Sure. You know, it we're a little different
than most DSOs.
We're very focused on building from the ground
up. So all of our 27
studios
are
ground up start ups. So
we are focused on,
being in urban core, which is very different.
Most of the DSOs have steered away from
urban core. So we think there's an incredible
population there that that benefits from our brand
of dentistry that's very tech enabled.
It's very service and experience oriented.
And it's one where we're trying to do
dental differently. So when you walk into our
studios, it's more like walking into a spa
than walking into a a traditional dentist clinic.
And it's really resonated with the population in
those markets. So we wanna continue to grow
in those markets. Let's say we're focused on
the NFL cities. So, the these these larger
major metro areas, we think there's a lot
of green space in the markets that we're
currently in. And we're gonna continue to be
able to open de novos there. We open
our 28th studio next week in the East
Village in New York City.
Got it. And moving forward, can you talk
about some challenges that dental and DSO leaders
are facing right now? And how are you
addressing them at TEND? Sure. It's a great
question. Look, mine's not gonna differ from what
most would say out there.
We are all dealing with the challenge of
wage inflation,
particularly,
with our our hygienists,
with our front office, teammates,
and then also with our our DAs.
And
that's coupled with
flat to down reimbursement.
And so when you have increasing cost
and flat reimbursement,
those lines
intersect at some point. So we're really figuring
out how do we create the right level
of efficiencies
for our providers?
How do we ensure that we're we're operating
a good cost structure while also doubling down
on the focus for our patients? Now we
improve the care for them. And I'll give
you a great example of one way that
that we found a way to to do
that, to decrease cost while also improving service,
and that's through 3 d printing.
We're currently in a in a pilot with
the SprintRay 3 d printers,
and it's going phenomenally well. All of our
nightguards,
our retainers, we're able to do through there,
some inlays onlays, some crowns, particular emergency crowns.
And it's it's been such a gift for
our patients to be able to get same
day care treatment,
not having to have a temporary crown. So
it improves the service for them, And it's
a significantly
lower cost for us than having to go
to a traditional lab and wait anywhere between
1 3 weeks for the product to come.
So it's a great way where we're able
to use innovation to help us improve the
experience and decrease cost.
Love to hear it. Well, Troy, I wanna
thank you for your time today. But before
I let you go, could you share some
essential qualities or skills emerging leaders should cultivate
in order to be successful in this industry?
Sure. I you know, I'm 54 years old
and so I'm a little old school in
this. But I love Angela Duckworth's work on
grit.
And, I I see leaders,
who excel and wind up having, a lot
of success. They typically
have that quality. And grit isn't just about
working hard. It's not about working long, but
it's this dogged determination that I'm going to
figure out a way to win. I'm gonna
figure out a way to solve the problem
and get a good result. And so,
for for me, that's a quality that I
try to,
exude myself, but it's also one that I
look for in leaders of those who are
gonna figure out the whether they've gotta go
through, around, or over. They're gonna solve whatever
problems in front of them. And that ultimately
is what, you know, changes businesses and and
evolves them into,
into long term sustainable,
companies.
Absolutely. Excellent advice. I wanna thank you once
more for joining me today, Troy, and for
sharing your insights on the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
Thanks so much. It was a pleasure.