Sandy Pardue, Consultant/Classic Practice Resources
Sandy Pardue, Consultant/Classic Practice Resources
Sandy Pardue of Classic Practice Resources & Dana Pardue discuss issues facing the dental practice owner of today.
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Sandy Pardue
Sandy Pardue

Stop Expecting Your Dental Team to “Just Know”

Stop Expecting Your Dental Team to “Just Know”

8/19/2026 3:42:00 PM   |   Comments: 0   |   Views: 37
There is a phrase I think we need to retire in dental practices:

“They should know this.”

She should know how to answer the phone.

He should know how to schedule correctly.

She should know how to talk to a patient about money.

They should know how to handle an objection.

But here is the question we don't ask often enough:

How are they supposed to know?

If we never taught it, practiced it, reinforced it and gave the employee a clear standard to follow, we may not have a performance problem. We may have a training problem.

And those are two very different things.

Today's Dental Jobs Require More Skill

Think about everything we expect from someone working at the front desk today.

They need excellent phone skills. They need to understand insurance. They need to comfortably discuss money. They need to manage a productive schedule, respond to patient objections, follow up on unscheduled treatment, reactivate patients and use increasingly sophisticated technology.

At the same time, they have to know when technology and automation are appropriate and when a patient needs an actual human being.

That's not an entry-level list of expectations. It's a sophisticated position requiring a significant combination of technical knowledge, communication skills and judgment.

The same applies throughout the practice.

Hygienists need to communicate effectively with patients about what comes next and support the doctor's recommendations. Dental assistants need to know how to properly wrap up an appointment and hand the patient off to the administrative team. The front office needs to know how to continue that experience through checkout.

These may seem like small things, but small things are often what patients remember.

And consistency doesn't happen by accident.

“Go Sit Next to Jessica” Is Not a Training Program

Here's something we see all the time.

A new employee arrives for her first day, and someone says:

“Go sit next to Jessica.”

Jessica is experienced. She's also answering phones, checking out patients, dealing with insurance and trying to get through a busy day.

The new employee watches.

And we call that training.

Shadowing can absolutely be part of getting familiar with a position, but it shouldn't be the training program.

When we rely entirely on one employee to train the next, we take all of the tribal knowledge we've allowed to develop in the practice and pass it directly to another generation of employees.

Jessica's great habits get passed along.

So do Jessica's bad habits.

Her shortcuts get passed along. Her version of the system gets passed along. Sometimes even her frustrations and opinions about the practice get passed along.

It's like the childhood game of telephone. By the time the message reaches the last person, it may look very different from where it started.

Training should create a common starting line.

Training Needs a System

Every practice should have written protocols employees can reference.

There should be clear responsibilities and checklists. Employees should know not only what they're responsible for doing but also the practice's standard for how it should be done.

Then they need opportunities to practice.

One of the most underutilized training opportunities in a dental practice is the team meeting.

Doctors frequently tell me they aren't sure what to do during staff meetings. Use some of that time to practice.

Role-play a new patient phone call.

Practice handling a patient objection.

Walk through how an assistant escorts a patient to the front desk.

Practice the handoff.

Practice checkout.

Practice how the team greets patients and how they say goodbye.

It may feel awkward at first. Do it anyway.

You don't become comfortable with difficult conversations by reading about them once. You become comfortable by practicing them until the words and process become familiar.

Teach it. Train it. Practice it. Then practice it again.

The Skills Gap Doesn't Have Its Own Line on Your P&L

You won't find a line on your financial statement labeled “skills gap.”

But that doesn't mean it isn't costing you money.

It may show up in patient retention.

It may appear in new patients who call but never schedule.

It may show up in broken appointments, unscheduled treatment, poor handoffs or patients who simply don't feel a connection with your practice.

I worked in a practice that did no traditional marketing, consistently attracted at least 65 new patients per month and maintained an 83% patient retention rate.

Relationships were a major reason why.

Patients noticed how organized the practice was. They noticed the team. They noticed the human touch points.

Training isn't just an HR activity. It directly influences the patient experience.

Be Careful With Continuing Education Overload

Dentistry has no shortage of continuing education, and that is a wonderful thing.

But more education doesn't automatically create a better-trained team.

One problem we see is practices jumping from one philosophy to another.

A doctor attends a course and comes back excited about a new way to confirm appointments.

The team changes its process.

A few months later, the doctor attends another seminar and hears a different philosophy.

Everything changes again.

Then another speaker has another idea.

Eventually, employees aren't sure which system they're supposed to follow.

Think of your systems like a great recipe. Once you've found the recipe that consistently produces the result you want, you don't change the ingredients every time you cook it.

That doesn't mean you stop learning. It means you become more intentional about what you learn and implement.

Before registering your team for the next course, ask:

Does this reinforce who we want to be as a practice?

Does it support our existing systems?

Does it reinforce the patient experience we're trying to create?

Does it address an actual skills gap?

And are we willing to implement and reinforce what our team learns when we get home?

Training should support where the practice is going.

If accountability is important to you, but your managers have never been taught how to manage performance, there's a disconnect.

If growth is your goal, but your team doesn't know how to convert new patient calls or follow up on unscheduled treatment, there's a disconnect.

Start with the outcome. Then identify the skills your people need to get you there.

You May Already Have the Right Person

One of the things I hear from doctors is:

“I'll get help once I have the right team.”

But have you trained the team you already have?

Sometimes that employee you've labeled “mediocre” is a diamond in the rough.

I've seen employees completely transform once someone finally gave them the tools, expectations and training they needed.

One person in particular always comes to mind.

She had spent years as a dental assistant and had no administrative experience. Initially, she wasn't particularly receptive to outside help. In fact, when we first met, she made it pretty clear she didn't think the practice needed help at all.

Over time, she saw what better systems could do.

Eventually, the doctor considered moving her into the office manager position.

We took a chance.

She studied. She learned insurance. She learned the administrative side of the practice. She learned to monitor statistics. She called constantly with questions because she was excited about what she was learning.

She became an outstanding office manager.

The ability was there.

Training helped uncover it.

Give Your People the Opportunity to Get Better

Systems give your people structure.

Staffing gives you the people and capacity to get the work done.

Training gives those people the skills and confidence to execute.

If training is the leg that's wobbling in your practice right now, don't keep telling your team they need to get better.

Don't assume they should already know.

And don't simply tell the newest employee to go sit next to Jessica.

Give people clear systems. Give them written protocols. Give them opportunities to practice. Choose continuing education that supports your practice philosophy and then reinforce what they learn when they return.

Most importantly, give your people the opportunity to show you what they can do when they have the right tools.

That's what real training looks like.
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