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Office Visit: Hometown Doc is Moving on Up by Kyle Patton, associate editor

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Nestled in the borough of Berks County, Pennsylvania, Dr. Jeffrey Grove's practice brings superb quality dentistry to the fine folks of Wyomissing, population 10,461. We caught up with Dr. Grove in the middle of one of the biggest transitions of his career, as he and his team are expanding to a new location and completely rebranding themselves. Check out how this hometown doc has kept the small town charm, and tradition of family dentistry, while offering his patients the latest in dental procedures and technologies.

Dentistry runs in your family—is that what inspired your career decision?
Dr. Grove: I admire my dad very much as a person. As a successful dentist, he was able to serve his community, patients, family and team. The profession also afforded him the time to be an available and caring husband and father.

Can you tell me a little about the influence of your father?
Dr. Grove: He has a very generous and caring spirit. He's never been caught up in the "rat race" aspect of society. He gives without expectation of return. He treats patients honestly and with compassion. He excels at consistent "bread and butter" dentistry.


Tell me a little about your practice.
Dr. Grove: We're a very busy practice. We foster and perpetuate a culture that is "constantly becoming." That means we're improving all the time, we are continuously investing in our patient experience, and our customer service processes. We have a very open and spacious reception room and our eight chairs are almost constantly occupied with patients. We're open four evenings a week and almost every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. We are trying to maximize our space as we are in too small of a box!

Our new building (currently under construction) will provide us with 18 operatories (total space of 9,100 sq. ft.) and 4,000 sq. ft. of purely admin, training and staff space . . . upstairs! No phones ringing downstairs and (admin) will be upstairs in a dedicated "call center." Only a focus on the patient downstairs and a complete focus on their experience.

How is it laid out? What is the workflow like?
Describe a typical day.
Dr. Grove: Currently, very traditional layout. In our new location, very different! A typical day has two doctors on the floor running two treatment rooms each with an excellent team of both traditional and expanded-function assistants serving the needs of the patients receiving care. We run five hygiene rooms almost all the time for those doctors to supervise.


What is your practice philosophy?
Dr. Grove: We follow our core values and consider ourselves servants of our patients, of our community and of each other. We have a culture that encourages leadership and creative (and independent) problem solving. We rely on fantastic team leaders and managers to oversee systems and processes to ensure that we are turning out consistently happy patients and high-quality dental solutions.

Do you have partners or associates?
Dr. Grove: Yes, I have three associates. I call them "non-equity partners." We work very well together and feed off of each other's strengths and weaknesses. I rely on these partners to be great clinical leaders when they are "on deck."

How do you set your practice apart from others?
Dr. Grove: I empower my team to be at their best. I have hired and promoted people who are smarter than me in certain areas of the business. I have a focused process on making our practice a phenomenal place to work. I focus on recruiting the best possible people, even if it costs a bit more. Your team is everything! I pay them generously and have developed a very fair and rewarding incentive structure that ensures that my best performers "get what they deserve." We track lots of data and stats so that we can make wise investments and wise decisions that benefit our patients, team, and larger community.

I see your office offers pediatric dentistry. Has that been advantageous for you?
Dr. Grove: We treat children but we need to build and improve in this area. I am currently looking to hire—for our new building—either a pediatric dentist or a general dentist who wants to focus specifically on our little smiles. I want a team just to focus on our kids. There is a big need in our community for high-quality, high-value care for children. Look for improvements if you do a one-year follow up in Dentaltown for 2016!

What are your favorite marketing techniques? How do you get the word out about your practice?
Dr. Grove: We are planning a much larger marketing initiative in 2015. We can't unleash it fully until we get into our new space. We are averaging 100 new patients per month almost exclusively by our in-house patient referral program. We thank our current patients for referring their friends and family by sending them a note and a gift card. We also let our reputation do our marketing, at least while we are in our smaller office!

We've done direct mail. We also do a lot of work in our community in terms of service and "giving back" initiatives. We use a great system called "call tracker" to monitor our incoming calls and our phone process. This helps us capture a very high percentage of calls and convert those calls into happy new patients. We have multiple phone numbers and those numbers are attached to different marketing pieces and initiatives (including web and social media) so that we can track the return on our marketing investments by seeing how many calls are generated by a particular marketing piece.


What do you think is the biggest problem dentists face today?
Dr. Grove: Dentists, in general, are not embracing the permanent changes to our industry. They are not being creative. They're not aligning themselves with the best coaches and taking advice to help them remain relevant. Many are surviving, but few are thriving. To do that, one has to step out of old patterns and try new things. You have to trim the fat and remove unengaged team members. You have to listen to your patients and make adjustments to your practice based on what the patients want and need from dentistry. Dentists are not adding value to their service repertoire. They are not over-delivering or exceeding expectations. They are not investing enough money into training their team. Rapid change does, and will cause, some chaos and frustration. The process will "chew some people up and spit them out." I've seen that happen. But if you realize that every frustration leads to a breakthrough, you will come out on top and in better shape every time.

What is the greatest advancement of change you have seen during your tenure as a dentist?
Dr. Grove: A change in the expectations and needs of our patients. They need more convenience and value. They need "going to the dentist" to be easier for them in every way. Time, money, anxiety, understanding of options, etc.


What would you like to see dentistry look like as a profession in the next five to 10 years?
Dr. Grove: Practices that focus tirelessly on growth, change, innovation and improvement will have great success and relevancy for a long time. The small "mom and pop" shops that want to keep doing things (especially in terms of running the business/treating people/treating staff) the way they have done them for the past 20 years, will suffer and will likely get swallowed up by the more progressive (larger "group"/multiple doctor) practices and the dental support organizations that are looking to scoop up these smaller practices.

Who are some of your mentors?
Dr. Grove: Jay Geier of The Scheduling Institute, Don Barden at DDS financial, Dr. David Ahearn, Design Ergonomics, my 5X "mastermind group" colleagues, the doctors of PAGD's Peak I study club, Dr. Joe Passaro and Dr. Woody Wooddell at the Chesapeake Dental Education Center, Dr. Howard Farran (Dentaltown founder), Dr. Vincent Monticciolo who founded the non-profit "Dentistry from the Heart" organization, to name a few.

What is your favorite procedure?
Dr. Grove: Adult crown and bridge and implant dentistry.



Describe your most successful or rewarding experience in your professional life.
Dr. Grove: Being the owner of our fantastic practice, I have seen many lives changed such as those of our patients, our team and many in our community. We are known as a very generous office. If you choose to be a generous office, start by hosting a "Dentistry from the Heart" event. You will get addicted to giving! We give tens of thousands of dollars back to our community in the form of services and cash. We are generous with our team! Changing their lives and their family's lives is so rewarding. Our patients are satisfied and well taken care of. Every satisfied patient is a reward!

What do you like to do when you are not working? (Tell me about your family, hobbies, community life, etc.)
Dr. Grove: I love my wife and children. My wife and I met in college and she's been my biggest supporter ever since. We've been married for 12 years. We have Brady (9), Anna (7), and Tyler (6). I love to travel with them because I have a great time. My vacations are actually relaxing (because) I know the practice is well taken care of! I enjoy reading, I love music and I love to entertain family and friends. I am passionate about people and I enjoy working with community leaders to improve the quality of lives. I love working to improve our business and traveling to visit and learn from other 5X offices.

Are you an active Townie on Dentaltown.com. How did you learn about Dentaltown?
Dr. Grove: I want to be more active. I love Dentaltown and I have been a huge fan since the first time I heard Dr. Farran speak.

What has Dentaltown done for your professional life? For your social life? What is your favorite feature?
Dr. Grove: Dr. Farran's editorial first gave me a clue about what I needed to do as the leader of my practice. He said (at the end of 2012) that we needed to learn to answer our phones correctly going into 2013 and he recommended Jay Geier's Scheduling Institute (big winner in Townie Choice awards) as a starting point. Being one of SI's clients changed my life in so many ways. Dr. Farran led me there, so he is responsible for changing my life, my family's life, and the lives of all those my practice serves . . . and that list is growing rapidly! That's why I consider him a great mentor.


Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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