The Real Dr. Park Blog - Helping Dentists Become Practice Owners

My blog is the go-to resource for dentists seeking more than just a career as an associate. Offering tips on clinical autonomy, building equity, and stepping confidently into practice ownership.

Blog By:
Dr_David_Park

I think a lot of dental offices struggle not because they lack systems, but because they have too many things to keep track of. When your clinic is overloaded with processes, tools, and habits, it can feel chaotic and the reality is, most of it doesn’t actually move the needle.

In my experience, if you’re not actively subtracting outdated or unnecessary things from your practice, your clinic ends up bogged down and inefficient. At my practices, we call this process “trimming the fat.” It’s all about cutting out anything that slows down your team, wastes time, or doesn’t directly improve patient care.

Trimming the fat isn’t just about equipment either. It’s processes, training documents, scheduling steps, automation gaps, or old habits that no longer make sense. Over time, even small inefficiencies stack up and create what I like to think of as “stimulus overload”: too many moving parts, too much noise, and too many dental cooks in the kitchen.

I’ve learned that being intentional about subtraction is just as important as adding new tools or systems. In fact, when you trim ruthlessly and then add back only the few things that are actually necessary, your clinic becomes leaner, faster, and more effective — for both your team and your patients.

Some practical examples of what we’ve trimmed in our clinics include:

    
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  Eliminating equipment that’s rarely used or unnecessary, like clunky cassettes or slow-speed handpieces, saves space, reduces inventory, and cuts sterilization time.

      
    
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  Automating repetitive tasks, such as birthday or appointment reminder messages, to free up staff for more meaningful patient interactions.

      
    
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  Streamlining training documents and scheduling procedures to remove redundant steps that don’t add value.

      
    
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  Reviewing old protocols and removing steps that no longer make sense in light of new technology or workflow improvements.

      

The principle is simple: every tool, process, or habit in your practice should either save time, reduce cost, or improve patient care. If it doesn’t, it’s just adding clutter.

I’d love to hear from others here: what have you cut from your practice that made a meaningful difference? Are there systems or tools you wish you could remove, but haven’t yet?

For those interested, I go deeper into this concept in my video, where I break down the steps we use to keep our clinics lean, efficient, and ready for the future.

"Subtracting is Equally Important TO YOUR SYSTEMS"