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In this podcast episode, I continue my discussion with Dr. Heath Brantley from “Wendall Family Dentistry.” 

If you haven’t listened to Part One of this interview, “The Importance of Connecting With Patients and Giving Them Hope with Dr. Heath Brantley" - you can listen to the full episode right here. 

In Part 2 of our discussion, we talk about:

    
• The many benefits of oral sedation
    
• The importance of continuing education and why technology should be the focus of your next CE
    
• The different ways you can use CEREC in your practice
    
• Why you should build a practice based around YOU
    
• Planning your vision for the future and how to prioritize your short-term, medium-term and long-term goals
    
• The process of hiring a full-time associate
    
• How to plan ahead and why you should take time to re-evaluate yourself

To listen to Part Two, click on the podcast player below:

Here's a more detailed overview of our discussion

Benefits of Oral Sedation

Heath will be attending my “Oral Sedation in the Dental Practice” course, where he’ll learn the necessary science, pharmacology, and procedures for safely administering oral sedation in his practice.

He hopes that by completing the course, he can start offering oral sedation as a service for his patients. Oral sedation is not only good for the patient, but it’s also good for the dentist.

Why?

Well, if you have a patient who is nervous or even frightened of the dentist (which is relatively common), oral sedation can help to relax them, and it makes your job a lot easier too. After all, how many times have you needed to take a short break because a case was mentally challenging or difficult?

Oral sedation takes away the stress, and it’s a worthwhile service to implement into your practice.

Continuing Education & CEREC Technology

CE (Continuing Education) is a vital part of the dental profession, and I was interested in finding out what type of CE Heath focused on in recent months.

He said that a lot of his CE concentrates on technology such as the CEREC machine. Heath uses CEREC for a long list of things including crowns, restorations, veneers, bridges, full mouth impressions, partial impressions as well as implant planning and implant restorations.

When CEREC owners ask me, “What CE should I do?” I almost always tell them to take CE around technology because it’s always growing.

“Technology is a platform for practice growth, and that’s what CEREC is” – Tarun Agarwal

Making your own decisions

Many practice owners doubt themselves and their own decisions. They wake up in the morning and think, “Did I make the right decision?” and Heath’s advice to people in that position is to TRUST your vision.

                         

I agree with Heath because one of the most common mistakes we make as dental practice owners is that we listen to the wrong people. What I mean by this is that we tend to take other people’s opinions too seriously. Sometimes our team members opinions mean more to us than our own, but you have to remember to build a practice around YOU.

It’s okay to listen to others and take their advice when needed, but it’s important to follow your dreams and goals and make your own decisions. Take the lead – it’s YOUR practice!

Planning your Vision for the Future

Everyone has a vision for the future. Whether you want to be ten times richer or married in the next five years, we all have goals and things that we want to achieve.

Heath expressed his concern that his vision for the future was too narrow. He has achieved his vision in less time than he predicted and now he faces the challenge of having to look into the future and think about what he wants the next five, ten or twenty years to look like.

In the beginning, your short-term goals are about survival and economics, and that takes up 80% of your thoughts. Medium term goals are about creating flexibility and diversity, taking up 10% of your energy. Long-term goals are about freedom, and this should take up the remaining 10% of your time.

However, Heath is now in a position where his short-term survival goals should take just 25% of his thoughts and energy. 60% should be divided across his medium-term goals, and the rest should be invested in thinking about long-term goals.

The Associate Process

Before deciding to hire a full-time associate, Heath experimented with temps. He would ask a temp to come into the practice to work and carry out hygiene procedures such as teeth cleaning and fillings etc., which allowed Heath to concentrate on things like root canals, crowns, and implants.

Experimenting in this way allowed Heath to discover the cost of opportunity. He now has a full-time associate and his practice is doing better than ever.

Heath’s Advice for Success

One of the main issues that Heath recognizes amongst the dentist community is the fact that many people don’t spend enough time thinking about their vision. They don’t plan ahead of time, which means they’re often left unprepared and unequipped to handle life’s unexpected events.

His advice to other dentists who find themselves in a similar position is to take the time to review yourself and ask yourself the critical question:

“Where do you want to go and how are the things you’re doing now going to help you get there?”

It’s an intriguing question and one that we all need to ask ourselves whether that’s quarterly or yearly.

If you’d like to get in touch with Heath and learn about Laser Dentistry, you can contact him via his website www.brantleydds.com.

To watch the video of our interview, hit play below:


This article originally appeared on T-BoneSpeaks.com.