John Meis (00:03.926)
Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of The Double Your Production Podcast. I'm Dr. John Meis here with my partner, Wendy Briggs. Hey Wendy, how you doing?
Wendy Briggs (00:11.506)
I'm doing amazing. I can't wait to dig into our topic today. It's gonna be so good.
John Meis (00:15.554)
I know it really is. And our topic today is training and involving the entire team when we have training, even if that training is specifically for maybe one portion of the practice, why it's important to have the entire team present. So Wendy, you've got a story to start us off with.
Wendy Briggs (00:35.73)
I do. I think sometimes, especially when we begin working with practices, we often begin in hygiene. We often hear from doctors, especially owner doctors, about why they should make the investment to have associate doctors or the doctors attend the day at all. I think they initially assumed that it's just going to be the hygienists that get together and focus on our hygiene explosion content, for example, or our perio, virtual perio workshops.
So about 10 years ago, I was invited by one of the largest group practices in the country to come and meet with their executive team and talk about how we could help their hygienist be more impactful. Right? So they had shared their data with me and we sat at the table and we were trying to, I was walking them through how we work with hygiene teams, how we help them elevate care.
And they asked me a really important question. They said, why do the doctors need to be in the room if this is a hygiene explosion, if we're really working on hygiene systems, that's gonna take a considerable amount for us to, a considerable investment for us to have our doctors in that room. And the answer today is the same as it was then. And that is, as hygienists, our job is to really embrace and support the philosophy, the diagnostic philosophy of our doctors. We're not the ones that can determine what that is.
So when we share the science about why patients in today's world need fluoride or why patients in today's world need sealants, we're sharing the latest research, we're sharing all of that information, but the doctors ultimately get the final say in determining what they want implemented, right? So.
John Meis (05:42.39)
And if they don't hear the latest research, now they don't have the same basis of knowledge on making a decision on some of these diagnostic things. So having them updated is really, really valuable in addition to what you're gonna say.
Wendy Briggs (05:54.702)
Yes, exactly. And I would say the rest of the team as well, you know, assistance, front desk, the entire team needs to be on the same page because if a patient calls back and they're frustrated at why their insurance didn't cover their fluoride, for example, the people on the phone need to understand and have clarity on why it was still necessary or why it was still a good investment for them to have made. So I think as we see practices that make the commitment, and that's why we say everybody needs to be
in the training session together is because the entire team is going to make so much faster progress if we're all on the same page and we all get the opportunity to buy in to elevating patient care in this way.
John Meis (06:35.598)
We talk over and over again about one of the biggest blockages to patients accepting care, particularly if it's pay out of their pocket care, is trust, right? And so if the entire office isn't on board, if the entire office doesn't use the same language, if the entire office doesn't understand the why enough, then the messages that patients will get from different team members will be different. And it's so important that everybody be on the same page with the same language and the same philosophy.
Wendy Briggs (07:05.798)
couldn't agree more. And over the years, you know, this particular group did trust us. They do their best to get doctors in the room. Most of the time there are doctors there, but there are still occasionally teams that are there without their doctor. And their struggles are real. And they often express frustration like we are here without our doctor, this is gonna be really difficult to get her on the same page or to bring him up to speed to everything that they missed in this.
in this experience today. And so it still is something we recommend today. All doctors should be present. Now we're working with more groups and we're hearing from owner doctors a little bit of pushback on why, the associates are questioning why they need to be there. The associates don't necessarily wanna invest a day off on CE that they feel they may feel like doesn't really relate to their role.
John Meis (07:55.566)
Yeah, or a day out of the chair with no productivity to see that it doesn't affect their role. But it affects their role much more dramatically than they understand. So number one is they're going to be, you know, it's con ed, right? So they need to get a certain amount of con ed. Number two, they're going to get an update on the latest science so that they can adjust maybe their treatment philosophies to what the latest science is pretty, is
suggesting. And the last thing is when hygiene and productivity improves, the profitability of the practice improves. And you can say, Oh, I'm not the owner. What do I care about profitability? Well, you ought to you want to care about it a lot. Because all of the new good stuff comes from excess profit, right? Today's profits already spent. So if we want to increase our, you know, we've done some podcasts on technology and the latest technology, if you want to improve the technology in your office.
if you want to improve the systems, if you want to have better training, if you want to have adequate teaming, all those things come from excess profitability. So if we as it if me as an associate can help drive that, I know it's going to benefit me because a good portion of that money is going to be invested back in the in the practice. So even if you're not getting the profits, you're getting the benefit of those profits. And that's why but it's sometimes hard for associate doctors to understand that realize that and
And that's what the reality is. It does benefit you.
Wendy Briggs (09:27.934)
I would say as well, Dr. John, I echo, I agree to everything you just said, really, really good points. I would also suggest that we've been at this long enough that now we actually have doctors that are current members that heard us first years ago in a high-duty explosion when they were an associate in a different practice. And they have made comments to us like, you know, the things that I learned in that session changed my future in dentistry. Because I understood so much more about.
how a team can work together and how teams drive a lot of things. We focus on preventive services in that day, but the structure and the format that we teach about increasing acceptance and driving awareness to care transfers to all services in the practice, much of it which are on the restorative side, which will provide an impact, a pretty big impact to associate doctors. And so it can impact your entire future trajectory as a provider. And I know that might sound a little bit
egotistical for us to say that, but we're saying that because of the comments that we've heard from people who've lived it.
John Meis (10:33.334)
Yep, no doubt. And just like if you're gonna have a new treatment modality, if the doctor goes, takes the course, doesn't bring any team with them, he goes back to try to implement it, it's really tough. Take some of the team with you and they hear the same thing, they have the same understanding of the why, and once they understand the why, they're gonna help you drive it through. So it's no different going either direction. It's important to have the team on board. If we're gonna make big things happen, we have to have the team on board.
Wendy Briggs (11:03.45)
Right. I would also say, you know, that's one of the reasons why we talk about case acceptance and we bring the hygienists in and the rest of the team members in when we're talking about restorative case acceptance as well. One could argue that doesn't directly impact their role. We often believe differently in the hygienist role as specifically, you know, that's one of the three roles of a world-class hygienist is becoming a treatment advocate for patients and really embracing the partnership with your doctors on restorative case acceptance.
as well. But I think the reason we involve the team in the case acceptance workshops that we do is just like we've said, the team will drive it. And the more you have your team aware of your vision, driving you towards those goals, the less stress and less pressures on your shoulders as a doctor. And I would say as the associate doctor as well. So when you have a team driven approach, whether that's preventive services or restorative services, we just see a tremendous advantage.
driving the outcome of all of those things. And I would say, I would argue that the patients are the ones who benefit the most.
John Meis (12:09.602)
course. Yeah. So, pretty simple principle here, but when we're going to create change in the office, get the team together, whether it be hygiene training or case acceptance training or efficient delivery training, whatever it is, get the team on board as the team is on board, drives things to a faster outcome, to a better outcome, and who benefits the most as you said, it's the patient. So, that's what we're at.
All right, so that's it for another episode of the W Production Podcast. Thanks so much for being with us and we'll see you next time.
Wendy Briggs (12:47.591)
Thanks, everybody.
