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This is Riz Hatton with the
Becker's Dental Po Soul Podcast.

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I'm thrilled to be joined
today by Dr. Richard Hewitt,

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c e o of Beachside Dental
Consultants. Dr. Hewitt,

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thank you so much for being here today.

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It's a pleasure to be
with you, Riz. Thank you.

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Now,

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could you start off by just introducing
yourself and telling us a bit about your

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background?

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Sure. So, uh, after graduating
from dental school, uh,

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of which my senior year, the, uh,

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prime interest rate was
18 and half percent. Uh,

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I actually had a direct commission into
the Air Force for three years following

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graduation. So my first assignment
assignments were in, uh,

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a one year in Korea, and
then two years Arizona.

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After I separated from
the Air Force, I had a,

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started a scratch practice in my
hometown in, uh, southern Maine,

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and did that for nine years
before moving to Florida and, uh,

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buying an established practice there.

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So I practiced in Florida from 94 to 2008,

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and I continued on practicing. However,

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I started my consulting company right
around that time and started, uh,

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doing that as an addition
to, uh, part-time,

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um, clinical dental work.

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And I found that I really
enjoyed that advising people, uh,

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mainly on the operations of
their practice. From then on,

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I moved on to doing other, uh,

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similar type of work,

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and recently I was named Chief
Development Officer for Val,

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which is an AI assisted software firm, uh,

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startup firm that we're
working with right now.

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Fantastic, thank you. So my
first question for you is,

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what are the biggest issues
you're following in dental today?

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Okay, so there are several, uh,
and they're all related in a sense.

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Um, I mean the, the workforce,

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the dental workforce is changing very
rapidly as it is for other types of,

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of jobs, but mainly in dental field. Uh,

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you have a large amount of young
dentists that are going, uh,

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not traditional.

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The traditional track was to go
into something like the military or

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government work at first
or, or private practice.

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And what you're seeing now
is an increasingly a larger
amount graduation up to

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about 30% that are trying out
the DSO world Dental Service

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organizations.

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And most of them are starting their
career working for one of those firms.

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And those can be found around the
country. And in some areas of the country,

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uh, such as Arizona and Florida and Texas,

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there are more DSOs than
there are in other states.

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So depending on where you graduate and
depending on where you set up practice,

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a lot of practitioners
are doing that. The, uh,

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the other item is, you know,

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you're seeing a lot more
technology and also including, uh,

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the type of AI that I'm working on,

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but you see a lot of technology in
terms of delivering dental care.

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Uh, digital scanning, uh,

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digital radiographs have been around
since the early two thousands,

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and that that has progressed
to a digital workforce,

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a dig digital, uh, work
environment. And, uh,

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so that has also had
an intense pressure on

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changing the delivery of care.

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Interesting. Thank you.

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So what are you most excited about and
what makes you nervous when thinking

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about dental?

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I think I'm excited as far as technology's
concerned and how it's gonna change

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dentistry,

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dentistry changed a lot when
I was practicing full-time and

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most of the, most of the, uh,
improvements made my life easier,

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whether it was impressions,
materials, et cetera. Uh,

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all that stuff really helped in making,
you know, the practice of dentistry,

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uh, uh, more pleasurable to do and
less stressful for the patient.

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However, I think, I think, uh,
part of it makes me excited.

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Another part makes me nervous is the
amount of technology and the cost of it is

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getting to the point where
your average practitioner,

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solo practitioner can't
keep up with it. Uh,

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the cost is the technology costs
are too much for one dentist to

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bear. So you, you,

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you're getting a natural
congregation of consolidation of

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practices only because one dentist
can't afford to purchase all

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these, uh, high tech items. So
you're seeing that part. Uh,

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the part that makes me
nervous is the workforce. Uh,

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we're living in a post covid
world. We have fully, uh,

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9% of the dental hygienist workforce
that never came back to work

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after covid. And a lot of
those, uh, mostly women,

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a lot of those were in the retirement
age bracket anyway, but, uh,

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a lot of them were either scared or
just said it wasn't worth it anymore,

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or thinking about retiring
anyway. And with the new,

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with the rules and the, and the, uh,

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the danger of acquiring the covid virus,

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a lot of them just decided
to either switch, uh,

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careers or retire at that
point. So that workforce, uh,

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problem has not, um,
really solved itself. Uh,

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they most states, uh,

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in most areas of the
country are needing, uh,

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uh, you know, dental positions are
open, whether it's the dentist,

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the dental hygienists, the dental
assistants, front office people.

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And we're also competing in a
world where because of inflation,

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a lot of other people have moved on to
other careers which offer either higher

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pay or more benefits.

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Interesting.

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So what will the most effective healthcare
leaders need to be successful in the

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next two to three years?

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I think that if you wanna be a
healthcare leader, especially, well,

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you have healthcare leaders and
then you have healthcare managers,

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and those necessarily don't, those
could be two different types of people.

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Healthcare leaders will have to balance
the managing of dental practices

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and also directing where,

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where healthcare needs
to be more effective. Uh,

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so your healthcare leaders
could be anybody from, uh,

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people that work in large DSOs,

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people that work in organized dentistry
like the American Bell Association

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Academy, the general dentistry, or also,

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you know, anybody that's
in, in, in the industry.

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So if you have companies, the
companies themselves that are,

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are traditional healthcare, uh,

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dental industry leaders such
as the dental supply companies,

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equipment manufacturing,

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they will also have to
look at what's the most

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ideal way to deliver their products, uh,

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to guide people and to more efficient,

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because the cost of healthcare has gone
up, it's gone up on the medical side,

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and it will definitely go up on
the dental side and has gone up

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just post covid only because
of the amount of, of, uh,

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inflation that we see. And also just
the cost of business has gone out.

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Cost of supplies, all sorts
of other cost of benefits,

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cost of wages, all those will have to
be managed in the next couple of years.

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Fascinating. Well, Dr. Hewitt,

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thank you so much for your insights today
and I look forward to connecting with

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you again in the future.

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Thank you, Riz. I appreciate our.