After completing dental school, Dr. Kevin Bowcutt dreamed of buying into a practice in central Texas. But after several bad experiences working as an associate, his hopes were dashed until he landed at a practice just north of Austin, in the town of Cedar Park. Dr. Jordan, the owner of the practice, had built the practice from scratch and was extremely well-known and respected. “I was scrambling to find whatever I could,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “I lucked into this opportunity and purchased the practice in 2015, which was their best year. I felt like it was a blessing.”

Performing general dentistry to middle-class, blue-collar patients, the practice had one doctor, three hygienists, a couple of assistants, and two front-office individuals who’d worked at the practice for 35 years. “They knew all the patients,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “It was always my goal to keep them around. One is still here, the other is retired."

But by 2019, the practice felt stagnant. The production number hadn’t changed much, and the office wasn’t progressing. New patient numbers were dwindling. “Everybody was kind of in a rut,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “I love being a dentist. I plan on working at it forever and don’t have any type of plans to do something else. I enjoy what I do. But even I was not loving it. I’d hit a little bit of a wall so I started to look to see if there was something out there that could help when I came across Dr. John Meis’ book: The Ultimate Guide To Doubling & Tripling Your Dental Practice Production: How To Build An Unstoppable Dentist Practice With The Freedom To Enjoy It!”

Dr. Bowcutt read the book and tried to implement some of the ideas with his team, but it wasn’t sticking. In February 2020, pre-COVID-19, Dr. Bowcutt went to New Orleans to meet with The Team Training Institute’s founders, Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs. He’d always been extremely hesitant about working with consultants, however, he decided to join The Team Training Institute.

“I was reluctant because part of my experience as an associate was working with another consulting company and it just didn’t jive and did not feel comfortable to me,” he said. “The other consulting company felt like it was very high-pressure sales, and it just didn’t fit my philosophy and how I wanted to treat and take care of my patients. Finally, I decided I needed a little bit of help because what I was trying to implement wasn’t working out and we weren’t moving forward. I felt like we were all up against that wall... in our philosophy, in our patient care, in our enjoyment. All around there was just a kind of suffering. We went straight into the Blue Diamond program at the end of February 2020 or early March, and then the world changed. ”At first, he was still a bit hesitant. COVID also forced his office to be shut down for nearly two months. In-person training such as The Team Training Institute Summit was canceled.

“A lot of it was new, so I still was a little gun shy and didn’t really implement things off the get-go as fast as possible,” Dr. Bowcutt confessed. “The first year they didn’t have the Summit. We did the Summit in 2021 in Dallas, Texas, which was extremely good. I really started to feel like we were starting to move things forward at that point in time. Having everybody there in Dallas gave us a feel for what it could be like. I also think maybe our path was a little bit different because it was COVID when I joined. Getting through COVID and implementing all the changes for that—having TTI was a huge asset during that time. That first year, we still produced more than I’d ever produced. I don’t think that would have been possible without The Team Training Institute. The same thing last year in 2021, it was a record year by far. And this year we’re on track to increase again. We’re changing and feeling much more confident.”

Since joining The Team Training Institute, his profit has more than doubled and revenue is up by 62.5%. New patient numbers have doubled without doing any advertising outside of SEO and his website. He also feels good that he’s increased employee compensation by 20%. The office is fun and exciting again too. In addition to no longer feeling stagnant, he feels the number one thing The Team Training Institute has brought to the table is better patient care. “We are offering better patient care,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “I feel like we are doing all we can preventative-wise to help patients out. We’re offering what they want and need. We’re offering them options and letting them know what’s going on with their dental health.”

Here are the top strategies that Dr. Bowcutt feels have made the biggest impact on his practice:

Hygiene Explosion and Perio Explosion Training

Dr. Bowcutt’s practice philosophy is about doing what’s best for the patient. And through his work with TTI, he discovered that his patient care could improve. His fluoride acceptance was five percent before Hygiene Explosion training. Now it’s in the ninetieth percentile. Before training, his office was averaging four sealants per month for the entire office. Now they are doing hundreds of sealants every month.

“I realized that even by my philosophy, we weren’t really optimizing any type of production,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “We weren’t taking advantage of fluoride or sealants or anything like that. I had tried some of this previously, but it just hadn’t taken. After having Hygiene Explosion training with TTI Coach Paige, we really took off immediately.”

On average, his production has increased by 43.33% per month. In 2022, he has hit back-to-back record months with one month hitting a 65% increase and the next an 85% increase. “We’re just hitting on all cylinders right now,” Dr. Bowcutt said.

Win-Win Incentives

At first, Dr. Bowcutt did experience some growing pains, however, he believes this worked out for the best. “I had hygienists quit on me, which has been a blessing in disguise,” he said. “Without The Team Training Institute, I probably would have had even more team members leave. Now everyone is on board, and I feel that more and more they are enjoying what they’re doing. They feel much more confident in their ability to talk to and treat our patients. And they like the extra benefits too.”

One of those extra benefits has come in the form of increased income and extra incentives based on production. “Our production numbers have gone through the roof compared to what we did before,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “And I think one of the neat things about that is, my staff’s compensation before TTI and what their compensation is now. On average, everybody has increased their take-home pay by about twenty percent. I’m thrilled with that.”

The Team Training Institute has brought the fun and excitement back to his practice. He is learning ways to keep the excitement going, too. Last year, he set a team goal for the year with an extra incentive if they hit it. “My team loves the training and the benefits we’ve introduced,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “I told them if we hit our goal, I’d give them an extra $1500 bonus towards CE training so they could travel and pick where they wanted to go. We ended up exceeding our goal, so I gave them $2000 a person. One person went to Chicago, others are going to Florida, and another one is doing a humanitarian aid mission with that money. This year, I took everyone to Cornado for The Team Training Institute Summit and that was an amazing experience. The fun and excitement are definitely back.”

Case Acceptance Training

Since doing the Case Acceptance training, Dr. Bowcutt is doing bigger cases and more same-day dentistry. The case acceptance rate has increased by approximately 30% since completing the training. Between the Hygiene Explosion training, Perio Explosion training, and Case Acceptance, he and his team have learned how to talk to patients better, explain what they are seeing, and explain their concerns.

“We did the Case Acceptance workshop last October, and that’s been a game changer for us,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “Having the team on board and having them help co-diagnose has certainly helped our production. We did same-day dentistry before but we weren’t focusing on it. Now we are. This goes back to better patient care, just being able to take care of it right then and there so they don’t have to take more time off of work or reschedule.”

Better Systems

The systems he’s put in place allow him to focus on patients and patient care while trusting his team to take care of everything else. “A lot of that is due to the trust I have for my team, but also the systems that I now have in place,” Dr. Bowcutt said.

One system that has made a huge impact is TTI’s hygiene reappointment system. This has helped him go from having holes in his schedule to having hygiene booked solid three months out. His team has increased from 60% reappointment to 95% reappointment.

“Before we joined TTI, our reappointments were fairly low,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “So, this system has been a game changer in getting patients in the chair and keeping the chair full. Before I’d have a lot of cancellations, and a lot of no-shows, and then our schedule had holes in it. Now there’s no place to put anybody. Our schedule is completely full. The system of hygiene reappointment has been huge. Focusing on that has made a huge impact.”

Team Leaders

Prior to The Team Training Institute, Dr. Bowcutt had an office manager, Debbie, who has been with the office for 35+ years. He did not have team leaders and now he does. Dr. Bowcutt can now rely more heavily on his office manager, the front office, and assistant team leads. “Debbie had taken care of concerns and helped with hiring and whatnot, as needed,” Dr. Bowcutt said. “Since joining The Team Training Institute, I rely more heavily on Debbie and my team leads. I expect more out of them and for them to take control of any concerns and things that need to be implemented. The systems help them keep track of all that and have been extremely beneficial, but also The Team Training Institute has given Debbie and my team leaders more tools and better training. They’re better prepared to help lead the office and implement what’s being taught and picked up from The Team Training Institute. Their confidence has improved. This also helps them lead the team because they are able to say this isn’t just coming from Dr. Bowcutt and the office manager, it’s coming from industry leaders who have ‘been there, done that.’ I now have an office where I get to focus on being the dentist and offering the best quality care that I can. That is my focus. It’s not the details. I don’t really know what’s going on upfront. I let them handle that and I truly feel like I don’t take work home with me, or if I do, it’s not all that often. I get to just focus on what I can do as a dentist, and I let them control the business and help make sure that we’re implementing what The Team Training Institute teaches us.”

Become a Better Leader

Frustration isn’t much of a concern anymore for Dr. Bowcutt or his team. Having moved on, he’s now able to focus on his other primary goal with The Team Training Institute, to become a better leader. “I feel more confident in being able to lead my team,” he said. “There’s more clarity in what I can do in the practice and what the potential next steps are from seeing other doctors at retreats and learning about their experience. I feel like I have a better idea for the future, what options I have, and what’s possible.”

Since his practice is at full capacity and he currently is the only dentist at his practice, he’s contemplating his options and what he wants his next step to be. “I don’t really have any place to put new patients right now,” he laughed. “Hygiene is booked three months out, and that was with adding an extra day of hygiene per week. I’m trying to decide if I add another day to my schedule or do I bring on an associate. I truly haven’t decided. But we are dealing with capacity issues right now by adding an extra day of hygiene. I’m grateful for the practice I have and for the fact that I can focus my mental energy and efforts on my patients.”

Even with being the only dentist at his office, he’s still been able to take more time off than he ever had before. “I took off extra time, more so than I normally do,” he said. “I haven’t done that in the past. Unfortunately, not being tiger-proof, there was a hit in production, but I didn’t really care. This was family time. That was the priority and what was important to me. Even with time off, we still hit 33% more than what used to be an average month for us. Before The Team Training Institute, that would have been a record month for us. TTI has helped me to enjoy what I’m doing more. Before, I was in a rut and things were stagnant. I wasn’t enjoying my career. With TTI, it’s been easy to implement new things and bring systems in. Trying to do it on my own was not working but having someone else—my TTI coaches Sherri and Paige who have been there and done that— having them help to bring me along has been a huge asset and made it easier to implement those systems and training. It has brought a lot of enjoyment and excitement to my career and about the future of the practice and where it’s headed.”