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Hello. This is Ariana Porto Latin with the

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Becker's Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled

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to be joined today by doctor Nick White

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of Blake Mary Pediatric Dentistry in Florida. Doctor

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White, thank you so much for being here

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today.

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Oh, thank you for having me.

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Yes. Definitely.

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To start us off, can you introduce yourself

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for our listeners and tell us a little

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bit about your background?

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Sure. My name is Nick White. I'm the

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owner of Lake Mary Pediatric Dentistry and Winter

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Park Pediatric Dentistry here in, Orlando, Florida.

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I've been in private practice for,

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twenty twenty years now.

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Graduate of University of Florida Dental School and

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the University of Florida, pediatric program, and also

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served,

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on the Florida Board of Dentistry.

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Great. Thank you so much for sharing a

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little bit,

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about yourself there. First question here, what are

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some of the biggest issues that you're following

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in the dental industry this year?

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This year, still,

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I I think a lot of docs are

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still dealing with staff, staff shortages,

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trying to find,

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good quality,

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assistance.

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Hygiene battles have have been waging where,

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dentists are kind of outbidding and bidding for

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great hygienists. So if anybody's looking for those,

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it it sometimes can be quite difficult.

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And, you know, everybody's been making, making rounds

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to try and address that shortage, but it's

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still an ongoing

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problem.

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We've also got,

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you know, obviously, a big push for AI

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and new technology in dentistry right now,

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which is making significant gains through private practice

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and DSOs,

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alike. And it's, I think, a a kind

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of a tall task for a lot of

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people to navigate their way and

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find which programs, which, options for those really

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work best for their practice and for their,

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practice philosophy.

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And, you know, aside from that, there's different

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landscapes that are changing as far as licensure

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and,

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obviously, compacts and and things like that for

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interstate mobility for doctors and,

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concepts of minimally invasive care versus traditional care

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and those sorts of things. So there's quite

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a bit actually going on in dentistry right

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now.

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Yeah. Definitely agree with you there. There's so

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much going on right now, and I I

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know staffing in particular is such a critical

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issue facing the industry. So I did wanna

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discuss that and go a little bit deeper.

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Can you give us a little bit more

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insight as to how staffing shortages are

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affecting the Florida

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region, your practice in particular? Has there been

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anything that you've done differently at your practice

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to try to recruit

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more staff members?

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We, you know, we've always we've always taken

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pride in really treating our staff very well,

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whether it's through pay, whether it's through bonuses,

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whether it's through, just fun stuff that we

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do, in the office. You know, we have

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staff outings that we like to do. We

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take them to obviously, I'm lucky because I

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live in Orlando. So we have, amazing theme

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parks that we'll have some staff training days

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at to to go have some fun, but

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also pay attention to how certain theme parks

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interact with their customers and try and bring

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some of those concepts back to the office.

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Making sure the staff, you know,

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get, get in and out on time,

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you know, have a have a a a

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set lunchtime. We're not keeping them over,

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way past their their lunch hour, way past

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the end of the day hour. You know,

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a lot of my staff have families of

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their own and kids that they need to

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get to. So we we really take great

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pride in being a family oriented office and

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really making the staff feel like they're part

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of our our extended family.

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That's always helped.

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And then, obviously,

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it gets more competitive with,

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so many offices kind of fighting for a

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short number of staff that,

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it's really we've really seen a significant increase

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in Florida as far as pay scale goes

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for both assistants and hygienists.

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Super interesting what you mentioned there, particularly about

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the the theme parks. I know that's definitely

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a perk of being in Florida. Definitely can't

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do that here in Chicago where I'm based

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on, but that would be great.

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Can you tell me a little bit more

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about that? I'd love to hear, like, what

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theme parks are you going to, how often,

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and what have you really taken as far

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as customer service at, those theme parks?

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Well, you know, Florida, obviously, we're blessed with

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two I mean, three really significant theme parks,

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but I think the two main ones, obviously,

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Disney and Universal.

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So we we've made a point. We've pretty

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much visited every,

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Disney and Universal Park with the staff, usually

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twice a year,

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once in the spring, once in the fall.

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And

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it's not just to go have fun. Believe

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me, we do go in there and have

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fun and and have a great time on

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on one of these days, but we also

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have specific instructions for them when they get

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to the park. And it's, paying attention to,

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you know, what do they notice when the

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staff is interacting with,

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some of the the customers or or park

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guests, and how do they

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deal with,

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somebody who's upset? How do they make somebody

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smile? How do they go out of their

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way to help,

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engage those those,

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park guests, and how can we do that

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back in our office? And we've had some

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really, really

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great feedback from parents as well, but also

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when the staff comes back and we sit

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down and we kind of discuss what we

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saw and what we learned from from those.

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And we've been able to implement,

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several of those kind of strategies in in

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our practice, and it's really paid off.

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Yes. Super interesting,

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just those tips there. I'm sure other dental

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practice owners, no matter where they are, can

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try to implement something very similar with staff

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outings and kind of

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really

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seeing what different businesses and different industries are

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doing as far as customer service and take

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those lessons back to the practice. So thank

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you so much for sharing that.

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Next question here. What are you most excited

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about when it comes to dentistry right now,

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and is there anything that makes you nervous

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about the industry?

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You know, I'm I I like to see

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what I'm really excited about, I like to

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see a lot of the interdisciplinary

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approaches now where we're working a lot more

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closely with some of our medical colleagues,

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specifically,

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you know, in in my field with pedo

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and, ortho,

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a lot more

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ENT,

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and airway breathing,

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modalities and and,

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concepts,

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getting kids, you know, through these these, into

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these visits with ENTs and and looking and

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establishing these airways a lot, lot sooner than

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what we used to do.

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And, you know, I am excited about some

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of the AI and the diagnostic tools, that

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come along with that.

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With a caveat to that because I still

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think there's a a very strong focus for

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hands on, approach. You know? The the AI

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stuff is great, and it does help. It's

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a tool. It's one of your tools. But

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I still think there's a a significant

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need for hands on,

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hands in the mouth, hands on the patient,

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type of communication and and observation

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to,

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be combined with some of that new technology

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to help with your diagnosis and your treatment

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plans.

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Great. Thank you for for sharing your thoughts

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there. Last question for you here. What will

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the most effective health care leaders need to

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be successful in the next two to three

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years?

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They they need to be very

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adaptable

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to changing landscapes. So

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landscapes are changing left and right, back and

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forth all the time. You know, we've seen

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in the last few years a significant

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increase in,

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DSO consolidation

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from private practices going in with DSOs to

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DSOs consolidating with each other. And then we've

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seen a slowdown on some of that now.

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And I think we're kind of in one

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of those ebbs and flows where I think

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we might start to see a big,

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tick up

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with more consolidation here in the future.

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And I think,

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the the new health care health care leaders

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or or health care providers,

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really have to be

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willing to learn new techniques, but also not

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give up on the tried and true methods

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of what dentistry has done in the past.

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You know, there's a a big push for

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some of the minimally invasive,

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treatment modalities, but we need to make sure

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these minimally invasive are not just,

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making life easier for the for the doctor.

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We wanna do what's best for our patients,

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and sometimes the old tried and true methods

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really work better,

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for those things. So making sure dentists are

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are not just relying on what's easiest for

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them, what's really gonna be best for their

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patients.

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Well, thank you for sharing that. Well, that's

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all I have for you today, doctor Wade.

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Thank you so much for joining us today.

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It was a great conversation.

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Definitely great to hear about what you're doing

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at your practice and the trends and issues

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that you're following in the industry. So it's

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been a pleasure speaking with you, and I

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look forward to connecting with you again in

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the future. Thank you.

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Yeah. Thank you for having me.