Team KDA By Debbie L. Sklar with Thomas R. Prendergast, Marketing, Keating Dental Arts

Not all winning teams play under the big stadium lights.

Some players, like those at Keating Dental Arts, compete on a field of occlusion, anatomy and esthetics. On a field where details win games, and where 20,000 other competitors play, Keating Dental Arts has risen above the competition through perseverance, teamwork, and dedication.

At the helm of Keating Dental Arts, one of the fastest growing labs in the nation is Shaun Keating, CDT, who likes to refer to his staff as “Team KDA.”

“I run it like a football team; I have 11 rows set up as benches,” Keating explained in a recent issue of the Journal of Dental Technology of his Irvine, Calif.-based company. “There are five on each side and there’s a team captain, I call them the quarterbacks, on the end of each row. Each team is assigned accordingly as the doctor comes in and the volume of work is assigned. As we grow, we just start a new team.”

As one can see, the 42-year-old Keating is the type of boss who believes in cheering his team of dental experts on day in and day out. And it appears that his leadership has paid off tenfold. With accounts in 47 of 50 states, the United Kingdom, Canada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Keating Dental Arts is no doubt taking the dental world by storm.

In the Beginning

Born the youngest son of a large Irish-Catholic family, Keating and his three brothers and two sisters were raised with the philosophy that success wasn’t about luck, but rather hard work and determination. Keating’s father, a former naval commander, instilled in his children a sense of personal accountability and responsibility to the family.

Due to this heavy influence of teamwork in the home, Keating became involved with sports and other community programs while growing up, playing football, track and gymnastics.

Keating’s older brother, Kevin, was also a gymnast and after he graduated high school went to USC dental school. While Kevin was studying, the younger Keating brother would help him out during the summer making models or pouring impressions.

“My brother used to say to me when I was in high school that he was going to be a dentist and that I could be a dental technician and work for him,” Keating laughed. “By the eleventh grade, he was interning and I was helping him in the summer while I played football. I guess you could say that I got into the industry thanks to my brother, Kevin.”

Truly inspired by his brother’s success in sports and academics, after graduating high school, Keating enrolled in the Huntington College of Dental Technology. After earning his degree, he landed a position at Orange Dental Ceramics, which would later become Glidewell Laboratories.

After serving for more than 17 years at Glidewell, Keating began pursuing his own American Dream. As a result of his perseverance, he founded Keating Dental Arts in 2002 with six people in a small office space in Santa Ana, Calif.

“The fascination in all of this really started with my brother, Kevin who was so smart in high school. He later became the president of the dental school at USC and he just got me so excited about the industry. I was such a jock and he used to have these custom mouth guards made for me when I was playing football. It turned out that I tweaked my back as a running back, but it was OK because I always knew that I had the dental stuff to fall back on.”

Today, employing more than 100 people, Keating Dental Arts operates in a state-of-the-art facility. From humble beginnings, to one of the most talked about laboratories in the country, Keating Dental Arts has one of the highest customer satisfaction rates in the industry and many leading dental professionals use its services regularly.

“I enjoy working with the guys at Keating,” said Dr. Charles Barotz. “Their ability to provide high-quality work, at reasonable fees with quick turnaround truly impresses me. They are truly a pleasure to work with.”

“Originally, I wanted to keep it small, so we could focus on each and every account and provide the best service possible,” Keating explained, “but it kind of took off on its own, and the doctors started pouring in. It’s been like the movie Field of Dreams where they kept saying ‘If you build it, they will come.’ It’s funny because in the beginning, I used to walk around saying that same thing: I built it and they all started coming. We still strive for that small lab mentality, personalization, service, and quality.”

Nordstrom Style

Keating also said the company’s main claim to fame is its attention to service and detail.

“We give the ‘Nordstrom style’ of service where the customer is golden to us,” Keating explained. “We have doctors from all over and they deal with us because we do great work and of course, rave about our customer service.”

Keating said while many laboratories employ good technicians, the customer service areas are not quite in sync with its customers.

“We on the other hand, grasp everything that comes in, every adjustment, every remake – we have our hand on our customer’s pulse,” he explained.

Communication is important to Keating, they want to know when things are going well as well as when things aren’t going so well.

“We don’t want to be in touch with you every couple of months; we want to talk with you every couple of weeks. Is there anything going on? Do you need supplies? We have four people that are just directly related to customer service and it’s important that they work in conjunction with the five people we have as technical advisors,” Keating said, as reported by the Journal of Dental Technology.

Moving on Up

With this positive attitude and strong sense of work ethic, it wasn’t long before Keating outgrew the 2,000-square-foot laboratory and into a larger, 31,000-square-foot space complete with an in-laboratory operatory in 2005. These days the family owned company is earning about $1 million a month in sales.

But of course, there were challenges of owning a business that Keating faced, and some were more difficult than others.

“I thought it was all really cool, but then I found out what it was like to do payroll,” he laughed. “The biggest challenge was figuring out the Workman’s Comp and in general, the administration stuff since I never had to do those things before – I became a man who wore a lot of hats. Even to this day, that’s the hardest part – keeping it all together. I’m good at what I do: managing people, working with doctors, making teeth, but now I have all the other things, too.”

The Best of the Best

In order to compete among the best of the best, Keating knew he had to offer not only great Nordstrom-like service, but also state-of-the-art products.

So, sparing no expense when it came to the quality of its restorations Keating Dental Arts acquired the best equipment in the business. From the ergonomically designed workbenches and handpieces, to the laser welder and induction casting system, the evidence of Keating’s dedication to producing quality work is seen throughout his facility.

“By giving the technicians the best possible equipment, it allows them to take pride in the work that they do, and it shows in the quality of the final restoration,” Keating added.

As for the fully functional dental operatory, it helps educate doctors and technicians in an intimate environment about the process of restorative dentistry.

“I believe that this comprehensive outlook of the relationship between doctor and laboratory fosters greater understanding of the patient and the doctor, and gives technicians a more balanced approach to the work they perform,” he explained.

Likewise, the doctor being able to view the technician at work lets the office provide more of the things that help the technician create a brilliant restoration. From seeing both sides of the equation, doctor and technician can practice better dentistry, which benefits the patient, and ultimately the practice and the laboratory. This comprehensive approach to understanding how and why restorative dentistry changes lives is exactly the approach Keating Dental Arts takes that makes doctors happy with the work that it produces.

Keating Dental Arts also uses time-tested products that are clinically proven in order to get the best results from its technicians. For example, rather than follow everyone else’s lead on product marketing, Keating Dental Arts decided to focus on its ability to produce restorations in just five business days.

“The idea behind this was that if a doctor could shrink the window between temporization and the final restoration, he would be able to increase patient acceptance of cases, see more patients in less time, and be more profitable as a result,” Keating said.

Sometimes, doctors don’t realize that getting a restoration back in one business week improves the consistency of the work, Keating explained.

“Each day that passes means teeth can move, and the longer the time between impression and final setting, the higher the chances are for problems. Our five business day turnaround not only improves efficiency and profitability, it helps improve the consistency and fit of our work.”

Besides Keating, he also has a team of technical advisors whose sole job is to review cases and call about any technical issues that may arise during any stage of production. Well-versed in all areas of restorative dentistry, these technical advisors let doctors know the best materials appropriate for each case. If there is a need for special requirements and considerations for the future such as partials or smile makeovers, the technical advisors can help produce a treatment plan that lets the dentist confidently approach the patient with definitive options, timelines, costs and steps, making it easier to accept treatment.

Awards, Awards ...

The promise of a high quality restoration in five business days appears to have worked. Keating Dental Arts was voted second in “Crown and Bridge” and third in “Veneer and High Esthetics” for dental laboratories in the 2005 Townie Choice Awards. The truly impressive part is that Keating Dental Arts not only placed in the top three dental laboratories in the world, but it placed higher than laboratories that spend millions of dollars a year in marketing and advertising and who have been in business for decades.

“I’m totally blown away by this,” Keating shared. “If you asked me three years ago where I imagined this company would be I don’t think I would have said people will consider us to be one of the top three laboratories in America. It’s really a great feeling to be honored this way.”

More Praise

All of that plus a significant amount of praise coming from a loyal band of dentists who recommend the laboratory to other dentists at meetings and on the Dentaltown.com message board – an outlet that gives doctors and industry professionals from all over the world a forum to freely exchange thoughts and ideas spanning the breadth of the dental industry – have added to the popularity of Keating Dental Arts.

“If you follow Dentaltown at all you know what a great guy Shaun is, but let me tell you that he has surrounded himself with the best of the best people to help him, starting with his beautiful wife Shannon. Trust me, these are the type of people that you will want to do business with and gladly recommend to our fellow colleagues,” said John P. Goodman, DDS who has a practice in Kansas City, Mo.

Referrals such as Goodman’s have indeed been a large part of Keating’s success. Since Keating Dental Arts inception, more than $1 million in sales was generated through referrals by other doctors. Again, much of this can be attributed to the company’s presence on the Dentaltown.com message boards.

“I’m simply amazed at how positive the reaction has been on the street,” he said. “These doctors have responded in ways I never even dreamed they would. It is overwhelming sometimes how excited and how passionate they are about wanting to work with us. Any new doctor that tries us, we give them the best experience possible.”

Teamwork is Key

As for his often mind-boggling success, Keating said, “You’re only as strong as your weakest link, and I’ve surrounded myself with some of the best players in the industry.”

His dream he said is to continue adding technicians and dentists to his roster until the laboratory is earning about $1 million a week. He expects to hit that within the next five years thanks in large part to his team of technicians, office staff and others who make it possible to run such a fast-growing laboratory.

“The key to the growth is the strength of each player on the team; I couldn’t have done any of this without them. I never take anything for granted. This could all be gone in an instant and I don’t forget that. I’ll never be fat and happy really until the day I die,” he told the Journal of Dental Technology. “You just keep pushing it and pushing it. There’s hundreds of thousands of doctors out there. I’m just looking for 2,000 who want to be part of the team, who want to do good work at a good price. I’ll relax a little more then.”

The Future

Just like its early beginnings which were born out of drive and determination, the future too looks like it should be a bright one for Keating Dental Arts.

Its founder is planning to further educate dentists by offering technical programs and other types of classes for doctors and technicians to earn Continuing Education credits.

“CE is a huge part of the next expansion phase,” Keating said. “We recognize the value that continuing education is not only for the doctor, but especially his staff. Most importantly, our technicians benefit greatly by learning new techniques and procedures, allowing them to create better restorations. We hope to begin a consistent offering of continuing education featuring some of the best speakers in the industry.”

Keating also credits the Age of Technology to his continued accomplishments. With CAD/CAM restorations becoming commonplace in offices and at laboratories, many are starting to realize that technology is becoming an integral part of any laboratory or practice. Thanks to e-mail, digital cameras, and shade taking systems the communications between a laboratory and a dentist is immediate and more accurate than ever before, he said.

“Technology and the Internet have helped. Every day, I receive e-mails from doctors with photos of their patients, asking for advice on how to restore, or suggest the correct shade to match,” he shared. “The use of the Internet and technology has really improved the communications between the dentist and the laboratory. It’s made it a lot easier for us to specialize in functional esthetics and for the doctor to specialize in providing comprehensive care.”

But in the end, Keating paints a vision of the future that gives his team something to strive for; it’s that winning team approach that keeps Keating Dental Arts in the public eye.

“I’ve never been much of a tyrant,” Keating said, “as long as you provide for your players and give them something to believe in, they’ll give back to you tenfold. We’re in this together, and we want to win. I don’t want to be the biggest – I just want to be the best.”

For more information on Keating Dental Arts and its services, please call toll-free 1-800-433-9833.