Straight out of dental school, Dr. Ciaran Murphy got a crash course in managing a dental practice. He went to work for a corporate dental practice, Bright Now Dental, and was hired to manage a small three-chair office they had acquired from a retiring dentist. While he only worked there for two years, the experience helped build his confidence as the primary dentist in charge of staff.

Motivated by this experience, in 2007, Dr. Murphy made a significant career move by opening his own practice, Harbor Dental, from scratch with no existing patient base in Fort Collins, Colorado. He secured a 10-year lease, starting with two chairs and a minimal team consisting of a front office person and a dental assistant. He even performed all his own hygiene work.

Over the next ten years, he steadily grew his practice, adding more chairs every six months, outgrowing the original location by 2017. After relocating to a new building and expanding to nine operatories, he quickly started running out of space again. “As I got busier, I realized I was losing grasp of the practice,” Dr. Murphy recalled. “We hired a consultant who helped us clean up some of our systems and get back on track in analyzing our numbers, but then we became stagnant. Every monthly meeting, our numbers were the same. It was frustrating because our meetings were getting less productive.”

Concerned with the plateau, overwhelmed with patient volume, and struggling to manage growth effectively, Dr. Murphy and his wife, Ellie, who helps run the practice, attended an American Academy of Clear Aligners meeting. “Ellie heard Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs speak and told me, ‘The Team Training Institute is so much more than our consultant. We should speak with them,’” Dr. Murphy said. After attending a Team Training Institute fall retreat in 2022, Dr. Murphy joined TTI as a Blue Diamond member.

Pivotal Changes That Overcame Practice Stagnation

In the two years since joining The Team Training Institute (TTI), Dr. Murphy’s practice revenue has grown by 400%. Profits have dramatically increased, and his practice has expanded. For the first time in over 16 years, he was able to take a ten-day vacation to Ireland with his wife, Ellie, and three daughters without worrying about his practice. “Opening a practice from scratch made it difficult to be gone more than a long weekend,” Dr. Murphy said. “Growing my practice and getting it to where I am comfortable in the way my patients are being cared for in my absence has been a big deal. It freed up my time and gives me the ability to do things I want to do. I’m originally from Ireland, moving here when I was eight years old. Every summer, we went back to visit my extended family until I opened my practice. My oldest daughter is 16 years old now. We kept saying we needed to bring our kids to Ireland, and we finally got to do that in July 2024. This is a perfect example of the reason why I put all this time and energy into the practice in the first place.”

Game-Changing Improvements That Tripled The Practice

Dr. Murphy’s practice experienced a dramatic transformation. Key developments in their approach to patient care, management, and practice stability include:

Increasing Preventative Services

The implementation of The Team Training Institute’s Hygiene Explosion system served as a kick starter that quickly improved both patient care and practice revenue.

Before working with TTI, Dr. Murphy’s practice rarely offered sealants and preventative services to adults. Now, they recommend these treatments to every patient with an unsealed tooth, no matter what age who could benefit, resulting in preventative services being provided to over a thousand more patients.

The success of this transformation was largely due to TTI’s thorough educational approach. When Dr.Murphy’s team initially had questions about the effectiveness of these preventative services, TTI Hygiene Coach Theresa came prepared with comprehensive data. “She had statistics and also showed my team how to use the statistics to educate our patients,” Dr. Murphy explained. “Not just to believe these services are good to provide, but here’s why we’re doing it.” This education was crucial because, as Dr. Murphy admitted, “The reality was that I hadn’t been educated fully on them before.” Adding specialized tools helped ensure the hygienists were comfortable with the new procedures.

Dr. Murphy noted that the results have been remarkable. “With this thorough training and knowledge, my entire team embraced the new approach,” Dr.Murphy said. “This was something new that we could do to increase our revenue and, at the same time, take better care of our patients. We didn’t need more patients, we just provided more and better services. It’s amazing how quickly we recouped our investment after completing this crash course.”

Beyond the financial benefits, this transformation empowered Dr. Murphy’s hygiene team by elevating their role to “Patient Advocates,” creating a more fulfilling work environment while simultaneously improving patient care.

Consistency of Care

Dr. Murphy brought on Dr. Clark Cranfill just as he joined The Team Training Institute. Dr. Cranfill started one day per week, eventually transitioning to full time. Following Dr. John Meis’ guidance, Dr.Murphy prioritized diagnostic consistency to ensure patients viewed both dentists as equal providers.

“Dr. John’s advice has paid off in dividends,” Dr. Murphy said. “We regularly review cases together to align our treatment approaches and have extended this training to staff during morning huddles. We examine cases to ensure everyone understands our diagnostic rationale and spend a lot of time on our training and skills. This has really helped deliver a consistent feeling to the way we care for our patients.”

Dr. Murphy followed TTI’s counterintuitive approach to integrating a new dentist: “Dr. John told me not to worry about taking a hit when I brought on an associate. He said to build their schedule before my schedule, which was the complete opposite mindset I had.” Rather than making Dr. Cranfill “work his way up,” Dr. Murphy ensured he had a busy schedule from the start, recognizing that, “if they’re working, they’re getting a percentage, and we’re getting a percentage.”

This approach reduced the pressure Dr. Murphy was feeling while maintaining quality care. “Once the other doctor came on full time, just knowing that I could take a little step back in the number of patients I see without sacrificing the same level of service reduced my stress, ”Dr. Murphy confided. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so making the investment in the training has given me more confidence in the team and other doctors when I’m out of the office.”

Creating An Abundance of New Patients

The practice now receives detailed, personalized Google reviews that specifically mention team members by name. “We always aim for a good patient experience, but as I got stretched thin, it was harder and harder to do,” Dr. Murphy said. “As soon as we got busier, my mindset was that we were going to lose ground, but I’ve discovered through TTI that growth doesn’t have to be a compromise. If you have a grand vision for your office and what you want it to be, you can keep that vision of care and quality no matter how much you grow.”

Dr. Murphy’s success has been so substantial that their TTI business coach Karleen advised them to reduce their marketing expenditure since they were receiving more new patients than they could handle. “It’s a good problem to have,” Dr. Murphy reflected. “When we first started this process, it took a bit of trust. It’s a risk I took, and it’s paid off well. I also believe Dr. Cranfill is extremely happy and feels his job is rewarding.”

Restructuring the Patient Experience

Dr. Murphy improved his practice’s new patient experience through a consistent, streamlined approach. “We specified a way to treat our new patients from the first phone call to how they get their paperwork and how they return it to us,” he explained.

The practice is also actively focused on providing same-day treatment. Despite current space limitations, Dr. Murphy is optimistic about their upcoming expansion. “Once the new space is fully open, I expect same-day treatment is going to escalate.”

Improving Case Acceptance

Rather than overwhelming patients with comprehensive treatment plans, they now focus on priorities. “We’ve switched to phase treatment,” Dr. Murphy explained.  We present and give them cost estimates for their most important visit. This approach has reduced patients feeling overwhelmed and simplified the scheduling process.”

Dr. Murphy attributes these improvements to The TeamTraining Institute’s coaching, noting that implementation is easier because, “The team knows that it’s not just coming from me, it’s coming from the coaches.”

Simplifying 15-Page Policies to 2-Page Systems

Dr. Murphy transformed his approach to office policies, developing more effective streamlined policies that evolve with their needs. Previously, the comprehensive policies in place (including new patient exams, scheduling, financial, and X-ray policies) were often overwhelming documents, 15 pages long for one policy.

A key improvement was condensing these policies to make them usable and accessible. “We streamlined our policies down into two to three pages—just the meat and potatoes of what we need,” he said.

More importantly, Dr. Murphy shifted his team’s perspective on policies and implemented a collaborative approach to managing them. “Rather than rigid rules, they now view them as just tools,” he explained. “If the team feels like the policies are not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, or we need to change them, we bring that up at our team meetings.”

This created an ongoing improvement process where policies are regularly reviewed and updated. “You don’t create a policy and then just stick it in a binder,” he explained. “Instead, policies are now viewed as dynamic tools to be worked with and improved upon. As the practice changes, policies change.”

Developing A Management Team

Strategically building a management team has helped to distribute responsibilities and take weight off Dr. Murphy’s shoulders. When Dr. Cranfill joined full time, it provided significant relief after Dr. Murphy had been “burning the candle at both ends” with three to four hygiene exams hourly on top of his regular schedule. While now the practice faces space constraints (which he calls “not bad problems to have”), there is a plan in place to work through these challenges.

A new office manager has been crucial in reducing the workload for both Dr. Murphy and his wife, Ellie, who had stepped into managing the practice after their first office manager retired and subsequent hires didn’t work out. “Our new office manager has great skill sets and communicates well with the team,” Dr. Murphy said. “She’s helping us implement our vision of what we want to do with the practice so we can focus more on ownership and the big picture.” The transition is already showing benefits: “She just ran the last team meeting while I just sat back, looked at the agenda and said, ‘Looks great. I love it. Let’s go.’”

They’ve also established hygiene and clinical team leads. “The leads catch mistakes before they happen, help develop systems and guide the process so everyone knows what they should be doing,” Dr. Murphy said. “On the business side, bringing on another full-time dentist changed our numbers quite a bit.”

Addressing Operational Vulnerabilities

A critical issue was the lack of redundancy. With only one doctor, there was no backup plan if something were to happen to Dr. Murphy. This created significant personal stress as he realized the practice would be severely impacted should he face any health or personal issues.  

“I have colleagues that have had things happen to them with no backup plan, so when I first heard the tiger-proofing lecture from Dr.John, it hit home with me,” Dr. Murphy said. “I knew we needed to urgently pursue this.  We are still discussing our full tiger-proofing options, but adding another provider to my practice has been huge. I feel much better knowing that if I broke my leg tomorrow, at least the practice would still run.”

Focusing on Profitability

Increased profitability provided Dr. Murphy with the ability to choose the direction he wants to take his practice, ultimately deciding to expand. Executive GPS with Dr. John gave Dr. Murphy the confidence and peace of mind to move forward with his expansion, knowing his numbers backed up his plan.

“The practice is definitely more profitable,” Dr. Murphy said. "We're reinvesting in an expansion with confidence it will pay off. Dr. John's Executive GPS program helped by analyzing numbers and making projections, confirming the expansion's viability instead of it being a blind shot in the dark. This process has also made me more alert to opportunities for growth, whether through expansion or a secondary location. I now feel less intimidated and much more prepared to pursue such opportunities when they arise."

Big Growth

“From 2021 to the end of 2023, we more than tripled, ”Dr. Murphy said. “In 2024, we grew another 50%. Obviously, having a new full-time provider helps a lot, but The Team Training Institute has fast-tracked our growth. I feel less intimidated about expansion after seeing other practices and networking with successful dentists at TTI quarterly events that have done this. I also like that I get to do it the way I want. It’s not like I must keep going and open six practices, but if I wanted to, I now see that I could—that it’s an achievable goal.”

Transitioning From Dentist To CEO

Dr. Murphy has shifted his mindset from being the dentist, who is solely responsible for all the income, to sharing responsibilities as the CEO of a dental practice. “TTI made me rethink how I operate my practice,” Dr. Murphy said. “Dr. John taught me to adopt a CEO mindset instead of just thinking as a dentist. By growing the practice and bringing in other providers, you can create a sustainable revenue stream that continues even when you reduce your own patient care hours. This approach allows you to maintain your practice vision and culture while growing, without solely relying on your own chair time for income. It's a future opportunity I hadn't considered before, where I can potentially cut back on direct patient care without sacrificing revenue.”

“It’s comforting to have TTI in my back pocket to help us grow.”

No matter what stage of your career you are in, there is something TTI can provide. "Since starting with TTI, I've already progressed through different phases of growth,” Dr. Murphy said. “They offer various programs, including ones for team members, which adapt to our evolving needs. Knowing I have TTI’s support as we grow is reassuring. Before, I struggled with how to expand and transition to new stages, despite understanding the numbers. TTI has been an invaluable asset. My only regret is not finding them sooner."