Hello. This is Ariana Porto Latin with the
Becker's Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled
to be joined today by doctor Nick White
of Blake Mary Pediatric Dentistry in Florida. Doctor
White, thank you so much for being here
today.
Oh, thank you for having me.
Yes. Definitely.
To start us off, can you introduce yourself
for our listeners and tell us a little
bit about your background?
Sure. My name is Nick White. I'm the
owner of Lake Mary Pediatric Dentistry and Winter
Park Pediatric Dentistry here in, Orlando, Florida.
I've been in private practice for,
twenty twenty years now.
Graduate of University of Florida Dental School and
the University of Florida, pediatric program, and also
served,
on the Florida Board of Dentistry.
Great. Thank you so much for sharing a
little bit,
about yourself there. First question here, what are
some of the biggest issues that you're following
in the dental industry this year?
This year, still,
I I think a lot of docs are
still dealing with staff, staff shortages,
trying to find,
good quality,
assistance.
Hygiene battles have have been waging where,
dentists are kind of outbidding and bidding for
great hygienists. So if anybody's looking for those,
it it sometimes can be quite difficult.
And, you know, everybody's been making, making rounds
to try and address that shortage, but it's
still an ongoing
problem.
We've also got,
you know, obviously, a big push for AI
and new technology in dentistry right now,
which is making significant gains through private practice
and DSOs,
alike. And it's, I think, a a kind
of a tall task for a lot of
people to navigate their way and
find which programs, which, options for those really
work best for their practice and for their,
practice philosophy.
And, you know, aside from that, there's different
landscapes that are changing as far as licensure
and,
obviously, compacts and and things like that for
interstate mobility for doctors and,
concepts of minimally invasive care versus traditional care
and those sorts of things. So there's quite
a bit actually going on in dentistry right
now.
Yeah. Definitely agree with you there. There's so
much going on right now, and I I
know staffing in particular is such a critical
issue facing the industry. So I did wanna
discuss that and go a little bit deeper.
Can you give us a little bit more
insight as to how staffing shortages are
affecting the Florida
region, your practice in particular? Has there been
anything that you've done differently at your practice
to try to recruit
more staff members?
We, you know, we've always we've always taken
pride in really treating our staff very well,
whether it's through pay, whether it's through bonuses,
whether it's through, just fun stuff that we
do, in the office. You know, we have
staff outings that we like to do. We
take them to obviously, I'm lucky because I
live in Orlando. So we have, amazing theme
parks that we'll have some staff training days
at to to go have some fun, but
also pay attention to how certain theme parks
interact with their customers and try and bring
some of those concepts back to the office.
Making sure the staff, you know,
get, get in and out on time,
you know, have a have a a a
set lunchtime. We're not keeping them over,
way past their their lunch hour, way past
the end of the day hour. You know,
a lot of my staff have families of
their own and kids that they need to
get to. So we we really take great
pride in being a family oriented office and
really making the staff feel like they're part
of our our extended family.
That's always helped.
And then, obviously,
it gets more competitive with,
so many offices kind of fighting for a
short number of staff that,
it's really we've really seen a significant increase
in Florida as far as pay scale goes
for both assistants and hygienists.
Super interesting what you mentioned there, particularly about
the the theme parks. I know that's definitely
a perk of being in Florida. Definitely can't
do that here in Chicago where I'm based
on, but that would be great.
Can you tell me a little bit more
about that? I'd love to hear, like, what
theme parks are you going to, how often,
and what have you really taken as far
as customer service at, those theme parks?
Well, you know, Florida, obviously, we're blessed with
two I mean, three really significant theme parks,
but I think the two main ones, obviously,
Disney and Universal.
So we we've made a point. We've pretty
much visited every,
Disney and Universal Park with the staff, usually
twice a year,
once in the spring, once in the fall.
And
it's not just to go have fun. Believe
me, we do go in there and have
fun and and have a great time on
on one of these days, but we also
have specific instructions for them when they get
to the park. And it's, paying attention to,
you know, what do they notice when the
staff is interacting with,
some of the the customers or or park
guests, and how do they
deal with,
somebody who's upset? How do they make somebody
smile? How do they go out of their
way to help,
engage those those,
park guests, and how can we do that
back in our office? And we've had some
really, really
great feedback from parents as well, but also
when the staff comes back and we sit
down and we kind of discuss what we
saw and what we learned from from those.
And we've been able to implement,
several of those kind of strategies in in
our practice, and it's really paid off.
Yes. Super interesting,
just those tips there. I'm sure other dental
practice owners, no matter where they are, can
try to implement something very similar with staff
outings and kind of
really
seeing what different businesses and different industries are
doing as far as customer service and take
those lessons back to the practice. So thank
you so much for sharing that.
Next question here. What are you most excited
about when it comes to dentistry right now,
and is there anything that makes you nervous
about the industry?
You know, I'm I I like to see
what I'm really excited about, I like to
see a lot of the interdisciplinary
approaches now where we're working a lot more
closely with some of our medical colleagues,
specifically,
you know, in in my field with pedo
and, ortho,
a lot more
ENT,
and airway breathing,
modalities and and,
concepts,
getting kids, you know, through these these, into
these visits with ENTs and and looking and
establishing these airways a lot, lot sooner than
what we used to do.
And, you know, I am excited about some
of the AI and the diagnostic tools, that
come along with that.
With a caveat to that because I still
think there's a a very strong focus for
hands on, approach. You know? The the AI
stuff is great, and it does help. It's
a tool. It's one of your tools. But
I still think there's a a significant
need for hands on,
hands in the mouth, hands on the patient,
type of communication and and observation
to,
be combined with some of that new technology
to help with your diagnosis and your treatment
plans.
Great. Thank you for for sharing your thoughts
there. Last question for you here. What will
the most effective health care leaders need to
be successful in the next two to three
years?
They they need to be very
adaptable
to changing landscapes. So
landscapes are changing left and right, back and
forth all the time. You know, we've seen
in the last few years a significant
increase in,
DSO consolidation
from private practices going in with DSOs to
DSOs consolidating with each other. And then we've
seen a slowdown on some of that now.
And I think we're kind of in one
of those ebbs and flows where I think
we might start to see a big,
tick up
with more consolidation here in the future.
And I think,
the the new health care health care leaders
or or health care providers,
really have to be
willing to learn new techniques, but also not
give up on the tried and true methods
of what dentistry has done in the past.
You know, there's a a big push for
some of the minimally invasive,
treatment modalities, but we need to make sure
these minimally invasive are not just,
making life easier for the for the doctor.
We wanna do what's best for our patients,
and sometimes the old tried and true methods
really work better,
for those things. So making sure dentists are
are not just relying on what's easiest for
them, what's really gonna be best for their
patients.
Well, thank you for sharing that. Well, that's
all I have for you today, doctor Wade.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
It was a great conversation.
Definitely great to hear about what you're doing
at your practice and the trends and issues
that you're following in the industry. So it's
been a pleasure speaking with you, and I
look forward to connecting with you again in
the future. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you for having me.