Hello. This is Arianna Portolatin with the Becker's
Dental and DSO Review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
Barry Lyon, the dental director for Main Street
Children's Dentistry and Orthodontics and the chief clinical
auditor for Dental Care Alliance. Doctor Lyon, thank
you so much for being here today. It's
great to have you. Oh, thank you, Ariane.
It's my pleasure.
Yes. To start us off, can you introduce
yourself for our listeners and tell us a
little bit about your background as well?
Sure. I'd be happy to. I'm a pediatric
dentist.
I reside in Baltimore, Maryland.
I had a, very nice pedo ortho practice
in a suburb of Baltimore that I affiliated
with Dental Care Alliance in 2010
and became a, dental director for them at
that time.
Prior to my affiliating with Dental Care Alliance,
I was very active in organized dentistry.
I was
president of a couple
of professional societies.
I taught at the University of Maryland in
post grad pediatric dentistry for nine years,
and I spent eight years on the Maryland
State Board of Dental Examiners and served as
president of the dental board in 02/2005.
At one point, I was also
a a lobbyist for the Association of Dental
Support Organizations when there was legislation
introduced in Maryland to, regulate,
dental support organizations.
Currently,
my role with Dental Care Alliance, as you
said, is a dental director for the Maryland
Main Street offices, which are
pediatric dentistry and orthodontic offices.
And, again, I also serve as a chief
clinical auditor
for Dental Care Alliance. So I'm, again, very
happy to be with you. My, my experience
in dentistry was, quite a journey from beginning
to end.
Yes. Thank you for, for sharing a little
bit of your background there. Great to hear
about your extensive experience in dentistry as well.
First question for you here, what are some
of the biggest issues you're following in the
dental industry this year?
Well, I guess, I I respond to that
with a rhetorical question, Ariane, is how much
time do you have? Because I think there's
there are quite a few
issues
affecting dentistry. And quite honestly,
I think since other than the pandemic in
2020, I don't think dentistry has faced,
the number of significant issues it's currently facing.
I mean, we're talking about
still the lingering effects of the pandemic.
We're talking about tariffs
and
inflation affecting the practice of dentistry and the
support from dental support organizations.
We're talking about the cost of operating dental
practices now. We're looking at the prospect of
cuts in Medicaid funding,
the elimination of fluoride from public water supplies,
leading to a public health crisis.
We're looking at the reduction in the ability
of prospective dental students for obtaining
loans, federal loans for dental school.
And, we're still as I said, we're still
dealing with the effects of the pandemic, and
the dental workforce,
unfortunately, is declining and providing a huge challenge
for any practicing dentist or DSO to be
able to properly support their practices.
So there's really,
no shortage of things we could talk about
on today's podcast.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely a lot to dig into
there, and I'm sure we'll get into that
with the next question as well. So, I
was interested to know, what are you most
excited about when it comes to dentistry right
now, and what part of dentistry is making
you nervous?
Well, I think the biggest thing that makes
me nervous right now and again, there really
are a number of different things, but I
think the first thing that comes to my
mind,
are the proposed tariffs and the tariffs that
we're currently facing.
Dental
offices and DSOs
are very dependent on
supplies and materials coming from outside of this
country. The majority of of supplies,
that dental offices and DSOs,
obtain,
about 75% of them come from outside The
United States.
We're talking about countries like China, Germany, Poland,
Mexico,
Italy, France and even Japan.
We depend upon those countries for the majority
of our supply. So
as tariffs are affecting these countries, obviously, the
cost of these supplies are going to increase,
and it's going to make it very difficult
for practicing dentists and DSOs
to be able to adequately support their practices
because the cost of running their practices
is going to be increasing.
So this creates an awful lot of added
stress that dentists normally face in the course
of the day
because they're looking at what the impact of
these tariffs are going to have on running
their practices.
The other part of that is that tariffs
are inflationary.
And when
prices go up as they have,
then we're looking at consumers looking at how
much they're spending
their available dollars.
And again, this is something that could certainly
affect
dentists and DSOs. I mean, the cost of
living went up 2.7%
in July.
And as it increases,
along with,
employment rates decreasing,
it doesn't look good for the economy, which
ultimately is going to affect every health care
provider, including dentists, in the country.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. A lot of good points
that you make there.
With all of that in mind,
what, just to look at some more of
the the positive things, what are you most
excited about when it comes to dentistry right
now?
Well, I think that, dentistry as a science
is involving
and, in very sophisticated ways.
I you know, they used to be I
remember when dentists were called molar mechanics,
and that's because all we
did was drill, fill, and repair.
But dentistry has evolved significantly and quite and
we are definitely not molar mechanics any longer.
I mean, we're looking at a lot of
scientific advances over the next ten to fifteen
years that are going to radically change the
way dentists
practice dentistry.
We're looking at using regenerative dentistry,
increases
in imaging techniques that are going
to make diagnosing dental disease that much more
precise.
We're looking at advances in dental education and
technology influencing that. That's going to be able
to train
dental students better than they were trained in
the past.
So there
is a lot to look forward to in
terms of advancing science, advancing technology.
The problem is that, you know, this
the the challenges that dentists are facing between
now and then
are are going to be
quite possibly significant.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And, overall, you know, with
everything that you mentioned,
are you optimistic about the industry
undergone recessions,
dentistry
has been one of those industries that survived
better than most.
So I I I I I, again, I
realize the challenges that we're facing,
but I also feel that the strength of
dentistry is in its people
and the fact that we have some very,
very, very smart people
running DSOs.
We have some very, very smart people educating
dental students, and we have some very, very
motivated
and highly intelligent dentists that are practicing.
Putting all those three things together, I think
there's a very good chance that dentistry is
gonna weather this storm that we're currently facing
and continue to show that it is a
very resilient,
profession.
Okay. Great.
Last question for you here. What will the
most effective health care leaders need to be
successful in the next two to three years?
Well, I think that's a great question. I
think they need to take a very, very
strong look at what's happening now
and prepare themselves
for
what we can expect over the next year
or so.
I think it requires vision on the top
of dental leaders to understand what's happening. And
I also think it's very important for dental
leaders to understand
who they are dealing with, the generation that
they're dealing with. You know, the leaders in
dentistry
may not be the same generation as those
entering the profession and those that are currently
in the profession. And I think to be
able to better
recruit and retain dentists, I think it's important
that dental leaders
understand the generation that they're dealing with and
adjust the way they do things accordingly.
Alright. Well, that is all I have for
you today, doctor Lyon. Thank you so much
for joining us. Been a pleasure speaking with
you, and I'm looking forward to connecting with
you again in the future. Thank you so
much.
You're very welcome. Thank you.