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Hello. This is Ariana Portelatin 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 Mark Sinciprano, the co

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CEO at Max Surgical Specialty Management. Mark, thank

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you so much for being here again today.

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It's great to have you back. My pleasure.

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Thanks for having me. To start us off,

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can you introduce yourself for our listeners and

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tell us a little bit about your background?

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Sure. Absolutely. My name is Mark San Soprano.

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I'm currently the co CEO of Max Surgical

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Specialty Management.

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Started my career in consumer products, many moons

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ago.

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Have worked in hospitality

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with a couple of restaurant companies

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and, have worked for a few different health

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care organizations,

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in dental. So I worked for Aspen Dental,

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and

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led marketing and a number of other functions

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over there. Had the pleasure of helping start

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up Guardian Dentistry Partners,

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which is a support organization,

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mainly in about 12 or 13 states now.

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And now I'm,

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at MAX helping support surgeons in the Northeast.

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Great. Thank you so much. Great to hear

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about your extensive background here.

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First question here. What are some of the

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biggest issues that you're following in the dental

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industry this year?

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Yeah. I think they're,

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the issues are not,

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a surprise to anybody. I think talent acquisition

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continues to be an issue. I think the

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other one is the, general state of the

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consumer and the patients and their ability to,

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take on the care that they need.

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Okay. Great. Is there been anything different that

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you've been doing at MAX to help with

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talent acquisition this year?

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Yeah. For sure.

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I think everybody is probably

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focusing on this and doing the same things.

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You have to build a really strong recruitment

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function,

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and make sure that you have,

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you know, a culture at your company that's

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attractive

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because the,

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you know, I don't wanna call it war

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for talent, but there's definitely limited resources out

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there, and they have to really buy into

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who you are as a company, what you

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stand for if they're going to join. And

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then the other thing is,

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kind of on the flip side. If you

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make sure that your culture truly is

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solid, then you can hopefully have a better

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retention

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rate, which hopefully then will prevent your needing

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to recruit as much.

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Yes. Definitely. That makes a lot of sense.

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Also curious, 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's making you nervous about

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the industry?

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Yeah. I think I think, honestly, when you,

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look at any of the the, surveys that

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have come out or any of the the

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analytics

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in the industry,

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I think the,

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the patient counts haven't been quite as strong

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for for general dentistry.

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And I think folks are working really hard

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to create a a great patient experience so

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the patients feel comfortable coming in and accepting

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their care. And that,

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that challenge,

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for the patients to be able to come

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in and get the care they need finds

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its way eventually even into some of the

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specialties as well. And, you know, all all

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of the the

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strong DSOs

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that support,

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dentists in the industry

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all really want the same thing, which is

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the patients to get the care that they

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need and to truly,

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take care of their oral health. So,

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you hate to see folks having to put

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off care.

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So that's probably something that that's, concerning, and,

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hopefully, it will it will come back and

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the consumer will feel better about their their

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status.

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Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.

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I know your company works closely with general

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dentists as well. Obviously, oral surgery is a

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big referral based specialty as well.

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Have you spoken with any general dentists or

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any of your colleagues even, and and other

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DSOs

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about what has caused patients to put off

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care?

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Yeah. I think it's probably

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part financial, and it's also,

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part,

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anxiety.

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Generally, when the world

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seems like it's a little bit of a

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scarier place,

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one of the things that,

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unfortunately, tends to drop to the bottom of

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the to do list is to make it

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to the dentist. Yeah. I think

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it's not, for most people, it's not, something

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that you look forward to. Some do, but

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most don't.

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Yeah. Yeah. Saw a good I just saw

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a good stat too, and I think it

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was put out by the ADA,

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that

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still to this day, I think it's somewhere

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in the neighborhood of fifty percent or north

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of fifty percent of,

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US,

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adults haven't made it to the dentist in

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the past twelve months. So that's that's a

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sign of the times.

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Yeah. Definitely. That makes a lot of sense.

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And was there anything that was exciting about

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the industry so far?

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That's always exciting. I mean, helping,

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you know, at max right now, helping oral

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surgeons

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to unlock their

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real true potential and and to help them

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support them in the right way with the

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right culture, preserve their identity

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while putting in really strong,

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systems

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and support processes so they could do what

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they do best is is always fun. And

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I and I know it's,

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well appreciated when, you know, when surgeons partner

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with an organization, it's the right organization, it's

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the right partnership, you just watch them thrive.

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Right? They do what they do best. They

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they get a spring back in their step.

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They're rejuvenated, whatever expression you wanna use, and

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we see that at max. And it's and

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it's fun. It makes you feel good that

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you're doing the right thing.

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Yeah. Is there anything that you're looking ahead

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to as far as the oral surgery field,

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any trends that you're following right now?

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Yeah. Of course. Technology. I think we're all

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looking at, how we can use technology as

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an enabler for better performance,

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whether it's in marketing

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or it's in operations.

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AI has found its way into almost every

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crack and crevice of the business now. So

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we look at that, and we evaluate what's

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really gonna help the surgeons

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to deliver the best patient experience.

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And those are the ones that make the

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list.

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Or if it's greater efficiencies for the surgeons,

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those make the list too. So we we

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take them on, we evaluate them, and we

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figure out what,

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what's really gonna work, and then we pilot

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test it.

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Great. Thank you for sharing that. Last question

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here. What will the most effective health care

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leaders need to be successful in the next

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two to three years?

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Probably not different than what's helped them all

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along is an ability to listen and to

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understand the needs of their,

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dentists, the needs of their surgeons.

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The surgeons first of all, the patients are

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the ones who really are the the singular

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most important,

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person in all of this, then it's the

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surgeons and the teams. Right? So the people

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who could take care of the patients. So,

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similarly,

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what are their needs?

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How can you help them? Because technology will

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always continue to evolve, and it will continue

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to accelerate too. But you have to be

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an organization that that truly has your ear

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to the ground and truly make sure that

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you have a purpose. You know, our purpose

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at MAX is and everybody, every one of

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our support team members can quote it. It's

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to passionately support and serve our surgeons and

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teams and their delivery of the optimal patient

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experience each and every time.

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And if you if you stick to that

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purpose and if you always make sure

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that your,

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ears to the ground and you always make

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sure that

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you are listening to what your surgeons need

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and the team members need and you're working

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hard,

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with all, of your heart and soul to

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make that happen to meet those needs, then

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then, generally, I think you'll be okay. So

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I don't think it's any different the next

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couple of years, what it takes to be

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a great leader in in health care.

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Same formula.

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Yes. Yeah.

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Well, that is all I have for you

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today, Mark. Thank you so much for joining

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us today. It's been a pleasure speaking with

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you and looking forward to connecting with you

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again in the future.

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Yeah. My pleasure. Good to see you. Good

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to see you. Thank you so much, and

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you have a great day. Bye. Bye bye.