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Hello. This is Ariana Portolatin with the Becker's

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Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled to

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be joined today by John Kaufman, the chief

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marketing officer at Smile Doctors. John, thank you

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so much for being here today. It's great

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to have you. Yeah. Likewise. Fun to be

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here. Thanks.

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Thanks. To start us off, can you introduce

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yourself for our listeners and tell us a

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little bit about your background?

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Yeah. So my name is John Coffin. I'm

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the chief marketing and strategy officer for Smile

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Doctors. I have been in the dental DSO

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space, with multi specialty practices for about ten

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little over ten years now since 2014,

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with three different two, multi specialty, and then

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this is my first, ortho,

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specialty practice.

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Was kind of a tech nerd growing up,

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grew into some marketing stuff, and the rest

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is history.

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Just just really enjoy the opportunity that,

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that dental gives and,

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you know, there's a there's a ton of

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opportunity there.

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Great. Thank you so much for that intro.

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A few more questions that we'll get through

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here.

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Next question. What are you most excited about

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when it comes to dentistry right now? And

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is there anything that makes you nervous about

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the industry?

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It's probably the most often,

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reused response that anybody could possibly give right

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now, so forgive me in advance, but AI

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and automation.

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There's just so much there, and there's there's

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so so much more to go.

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I think that

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whether you're looking at the macro environment, right,

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things that

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you can do as an organization

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to,

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optimize strategy, drive it forward faster,

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whether it's kind of a micro environment. Right?

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Like giving tools to individuals,

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in your support center, in your practices

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to,

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to just do things better and more efficiently.

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Whether it's in patient experience. Right? Everything from

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the videos or the pearls to the world

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to,

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you know, other types of,

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you know, augmentation

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specifically

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for ortho, like a dental monitoring.

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There's there's just

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so much there.

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There's so much unknown.

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I've had the the ability to have some

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really interesting calls with,

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you know, legal counsel and others. And I

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really do kind of go away from those

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calls thinking, wow. We really just don't know

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what is good, what is bad, what's gonna

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be used, what is not gonna be used,

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what's gonna be get us in trouble, what's

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not gonna get us in trouble. And so

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it's a little scary out there right case

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law isn't developed yet you wanna be real

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sensitive obviously in health care to privacy

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and hip related matters.

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But you also wanna create the best patient

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experience

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And,

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that comes with now utilizing,

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you know, AI and automation in a lot

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of different ways. So it both makes me

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very, very excited

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and also slightly terrified.

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Yeah. That's something that I hear a lot

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from DSO leaders and other dental practice owners,

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just the excitement, but also the kind of

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wariness about AI. So I definitely feel you

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there.

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Just a quick follow-up question to one of

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the things you mentioned about everything that AI

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is capable of. Is there anything that AI

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currently cannot do that you would like to

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see happen in the dental field?

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Yeah. I mean, not just the dental field.

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I'd like to wake up in the morning

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and tell it what I want, you know,

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it to do and and replicate me and

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sit on all my calls for me so

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that I can hang on the

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You know, I mean, in in all seriousness,

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I think what it can't do is it

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can't devise strategy.

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Right? It can't devise

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the optimum way to to treat a patient.

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Right? It can be,

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supportive in that mechanism,

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but it just it it can't be that

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mechanism.

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It can't physically touch, talk,

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walk

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into to our practices.

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It can't touch, talk to our patients

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in a way that,

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really gives you the insight and the knowledge

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you need to better serve them or better

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treat them.

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It certainly can't do,

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the clinical

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work, that our providers,

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engage in every day. And so I think

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there's

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far more that it cannot do than what

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it can do, and I think the things

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that it can do

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are pretty limited at the moment. I think

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there's a lot of talk about it. There's

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a lot of talk of of

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what people think it can do. There's a

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lot of advice out there.

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But if you you know, I probably have

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45 different tools that I use on any

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given day just testing and trying. And the

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reality is that if you're really trying to

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get to an outcome and have it do

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it soup to nuts, it's just not there

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yet.

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Okay.

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And are there any other trends or issues

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that you're following in the dental industry this

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year?

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I think issue is probably one of them.

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I I have been paying attention to some

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of the negativity around,

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you know, the private equity,

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involvement

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in DSO or in health care.

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And, I mean, sure, I've been in, you

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know, all my entire dental career has been

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backed by,

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private equity. But, you know, before that, when

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I wasn't in dental, you know, I was

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I was a small business leader or, you

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know, part of another company.

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I I just think that that negativity

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around,

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private equity is is largely unfounded.

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I I can tell you that,

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some of the tools,

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some of the support, some of the flexibility

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that and and some of the compliance, some

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of the oversight.

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A lot of the things that you really

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don't have oversight to or checks and balances

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for when you're independent or you're an individual,

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You have in the private equity universe.

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And

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I don't think there's anything different between a

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private equity group who's looking to, you know,

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profit or make money

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than, you know, the individual running their own

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their own practice. I think they're there to

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make money as well.

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And so I I'm I'm not loving the

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negative trends on that. I have had nothing

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but kind of incredible relationships with our sponsorship

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teams,

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in the private equity world. I think they

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bring incredible insights,

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allow us to partner with sister,

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you know, sister organizations that kind of teach

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us things that we didn't necessarily know or

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or are in a vertical that we could

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apply something that they're using to ours. So

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I don't love that trend.

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I think it's, I think it's being misused.

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And,

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that that is, that's something I'm I'm keeping

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my,

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my ear on.

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Okay. Yeah. What do you think started that?

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Is it just the few bad apples in

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the industry, or is it just a lot

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of misinformation?

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Yeah. I I think it's just like anything.

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Right? There are bad apples everywhere.

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Right? In every industry, in every organization,

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both operators,

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actors, and, you know, sponsors that, you know,

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don't do the right things for the right

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reasons.

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And,

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yeah, I I think that, you know, like

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many things, a few bad actors can color,

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color the whole paper,

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red. And I think we have to be

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really, really careful about that because I think

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the heading in the opposite direction

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not only provides less opportunities for patient care

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simply just due to the fact that whether

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it's dental school or,

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or residency

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or opening your own practice has just become

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so financially expensive,

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and prohibited for many people,

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that I think it it it can be

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a negative towards,

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patients, providers, and all around care. So, yeah,

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few bad apples, you know,

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not good.

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Yeah. Yeah. Well, nice to hear, your thoughts

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on private equity. They're super interesting.

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Last question here. What will the most effective

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health care leaders need to be successful in

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the next two to three years?

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So hopefully my father-in-law isn't listening to this.

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He was,

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a a pretty senior executive in in a

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large corporation,

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in marketing, actually, similar to me.

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And we've had conversations around, you know, what

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it was ten years ago even and and

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what these roles are today are just completely

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different.

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You need, in my opinion, a just a

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different level of talent in certain key areas

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and a certain level of experience.

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I don't think that's age

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defining. I think it's kind of age agnostic,

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but I do think it's it's

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making sure that

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whatever the

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the talent or the specialty of the individual

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that they're, you know, top in their field.

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And

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I think that's hard in dental. Right? When

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you look

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at technologists that are being hired for 50,

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a $100,000,000

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to go to these organizations,

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how do you keep up with that,

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you know, in the, frankly, not the sexiest

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industry in the world. Right? Dental is not

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what you, you know, you grow up as

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an eight year old.

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You know, you don't say equally I wanna

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be an astronaut and a and a dental,

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you know, marketer. I'm sure there are some

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that say I wanna be a dentist and

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that's great.

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But, you know, a lot of us do

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fall into this,

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this field and and love it. But I

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think

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we've gotta

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gotta pay attention to,

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getting the top talent we possibly can.

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I think that is going to drive the

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industry forward

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more than almost,

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almost anything.

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Great.

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Well, that is all I have for you

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today, John. Thank you so much for joining

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us on our podcast. It's been a great

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pleasure speaking with you and looking forward to

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connecting with you again.

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Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks.

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Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye bye.

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00:10:14,208 --> 00:10:15,268
Thank you. Bye.