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Hello. This is Ariana Portallatin with the Becker's

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Dental and DSO review podcast.

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I'm thrilled to be joined today by Amanda

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Tebby, the chief operations officer at SOH Dental.

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Amanda, thank you so much for being here

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today. It's great to have you on our

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podcast.

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Thank you. Happy to be here. Yes. Of

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course. To start us off, can you introduce

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yourself or our listeners and tell us a

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little bit about your background?

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Yeah. Absolutely.

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Hello, everybody. My name is Amanda Tebbe. I'm

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the chief operations officer at Sodental, also known

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as SOH Dental. I oversee the field and

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the support operations team along with managing

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the company's strategic initiatives. Sodental is a DSO

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that's been in business since about 2018.

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We have about 40 locations across 11 states,

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with a mix of GP as well as

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specialty types of offices. We do about 80,000,000

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in revenue per year.

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Prior to prior to So, I actually worked

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as the director of ops services at Heartland

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Dental for about three years. Prior to that,

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I started my career after college

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at Patterson Technology Center, which I worked at

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for about six years in an array of

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different leadership roles,

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in different departments ranging from software development to

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call center management. That's a little bit about

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me.

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Great. Thank you so much for that. Great

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to hear about your your previous experience there.

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First question here for you. What are some

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of the biggest issues that you're following in

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the dental industry this year?

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I'm sure I'm not unique in my responses

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to this question, but something that is always

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on my mind operationally is staffing shortages,

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especially in the hygiene and deep dental assistant

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roles.

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We've been lucky enough at So Dental to

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have really great retention for these roles, but

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I'm always looking to ensure we're staying on

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top of hiring

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and what's kind of trending, not only for

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these roles within our company data, but even

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comparing it outside,

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and just trends in general,

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within the industry.

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Really looking at what does retention look like,

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what is salary trend showing us, bonus programs,

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is their comp in line with market,

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and then just offering some flexibility,

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at the offices where it's possible. I think

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just really understanding what the employees are are

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wanting or what will continue to,

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keep job satisfaction up will help with retention

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there, which is just super important for our

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day to day business.

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I also think

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affordability

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of patient care and the insurance coverage gaps

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is key just in the dental market in

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general and then payer reimbursement trends along with,

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just payer

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payer issues in general and, is it an

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extremely important issue

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and something I'm constantly keeping my eye on,

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because

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it drives a lot of overall trends within

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the market.

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Interesting. Yeah. I know you talked about the,

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retention rate at Sodental. What do you think

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has led to that being successful at your

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organization?

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I think it's really it's really great culture,

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so I think that is extremely important,

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and not necessarily micromanaging

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or

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treating every office and situation

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as a cookie cutter approach. I I I

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do think every office is unique in that,

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but our retention are very impressive. We've had

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a lot of success in all roles. They're

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very much of amazing doctor as well as

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team as well as corporate retention overall. But

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I think in general, that has to do

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with leadership and culture.

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Okay. Great.

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And next question for you here. What are

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you most excited about when it comes to

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dentistry right now, and what makes you nervous?

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I'm most excited about, you know, the buzzword

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AI,

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and just new technology

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overall and how how that can improve the

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efficiency of our supported dental offices.

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I think it's easy for the team to

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get bogged down with the busy task oriented

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things that really just take away from them

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focusing on the patient experience at the offices.

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I feel AI can eliminate some of that

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busy work and really improve patient care and

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their overall experience at the dentist.

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I also feel like

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AI will help us,

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with centralizing

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centralizing

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things

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such as office AR, call center,

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just missed opportunities,

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insurance verification,

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and just so much more even on the

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compliance and the data side that we have

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even yet to see. I'm just excited to

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see really what's what's to come on this

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and then how it will impact the industry

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overall.

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I feel it is very easy to get

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excited about technology, but it I think the

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key is also making sure that there's an

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ROI,

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and it's actually adding to the business.

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It can really be an added expense if

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you don't evaluate it and really look at

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it,

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as to what what is it doing to

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the bottom line and is the team looking

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at it as a value add.

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I'm really most nervous that we ensure that

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the culture that we ensure our culture and

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teams feel good about the centralization

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efforts

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that we've been implementing,

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and they see it as a value add

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and and just not a replacement factor or

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more work in general. I I feel we're

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here to support them. And at Sodental, we

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are a people first company, so we want

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we wanna ensure that doesn't change.

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Some great points that you mentioned there. Thank

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you so much. Last question for you here.

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What will the most effective health care leaders

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need to be successful in the next two

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to three years?

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I think a big component of success is

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to focus on the team's culture and the

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people side to support the overall retention number.

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I think good retention solves a lot of

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issues, especially operational issues for most for most

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health care leaders in general.

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At so we we have a we have

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a culture and communications working group that meets

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regularly.

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It is a mix of just all different

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departments and voices within the company. I feel

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like this working group is focused on just

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creating initiatives that continue to support the retention,

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making the company a great place to work

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for the teams.

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It can be really anywhere from training, education,

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employee benefits,

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recognition efforts,

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mentoring, and building mentor mentor platforms, and just

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growing employees

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and building bench, not necessarily so focused on

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hiring from the outside, but also growing from

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the inside, which I think, again, makes people

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feel good about where they work. And and

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personal growth is important to a lot of

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people, especially high performers and and retaining those

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high performers.

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So I feel like at at so we

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truly believe that the saying culture eats strategy

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for breakfast is is absolutely true.

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I also think that the most effective health

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care leaders will need to focus on same

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office

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growth and really making sure that you're not

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only focused on acquiring offices or buying them,

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but that you can actually grow them and

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scale them after acquisition.

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It's not just about

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the maintaining

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what you bought, but it's act it's it's

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it's really building on top of that. I

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feel like there's diamonds really in everyone's backyard,

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and And I think the key is focusing

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on each office and what each office needs.

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It's not cookie cutter. It's really focused on

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creative thinking. I and I think just building

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our operational

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be able to create,

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amazing problem solving

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abilities

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as well as, just kind of seeing

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creative opportunities to solve issues that come with

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their day to day.

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Great. Well, thank you so much. That's all

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I have for you today, Amanda. Thanks for

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joining us. It's been a pleasure speaking with

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you, and I'm looking forward to connecting with

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you again in the future.

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Absolutely. Thank you. Have a great day. You

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too. Bye bye. Bye.