Successfully Incorporating New Things

It’s dental conference season! If you are like many dental professionals, you come back from seminars with an overwhelming amount of ideas and excitement. Yet, it is difficult to decide what to implement and even more difficult to decide how to implement. Dr. Kuba and Bethany jump into several tips in today’s episode to help you successfully incorporate new things. Whether it is a new product, new equipment, new technology, or new systems, today’s episode will support you in building a plan for implementation. Good luck! 

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Transcript

0:00 — Lady, you are a nut. What? You withhold information right and left.

0:07 — Act like you're this open book and I just like had to get this nugget out of you that I don't even know why it occurred to you to say it. You weren't going to share it.

0:15 — What our listeners need to know.

0:18 — Okay. Tell them keeping that information to yourself.

0:21 — Like [laughter] I I'm not sure of your motives at this point, but I [laughter] friends I've got you. She's not going to

0:30 — help you. She's keeping information to herself. She just happens to mention that Dr. Jones,

0:37 — the Dr. Jones is going to be at the leadership summit. Yes, he is. He's coming.

0:43 — You got me so excited and then I was like, the hell's wrong with you? Why wouldn't you share that?

0:50 — And the crazy thing is, and again, this will put some people to shame that are still sitting on the fence that I people are going to think that I just invited him. Come on, Dad. Join the the summit.

1:00 — No, he bought a ticket to the summit. He is going to be in the summit via ticket path. Not even because he knows the person leading it. So that's in true Dr.

1:11 — Jones fashion. If you want to meet the man Dr. Jones, then if you've not met him, like he is precious online and then

1:20 — wait till you see him. Like he's just preciousness walking around. like you could not be.

1:29 — Yep. [music] And you were going to keep that nugget to yourself. [laughter] Good grief.

1:34 — Oh, so sorry. But thanks [music] for spilling the beans. So, Friday, I got y'all.

1:39 — Friday, September 18th, meet the man leadership summit. What's up, lady? Hey, how's it going?

1:47 — It's going feel like it's been a little bit since I've seen you. I know. Why? We got to quit doing this.

1:52 — Going on these stretches of life of like Wait, [laughter] what? Let's Let's paint a real clear picture here. Our stretches of like two weeks.

2:01 — I think this time it was like three or four, was it?

2:03 — Yeah, cuz last week was your last week would have been like two or three weeks and then you weren't able to meet up.

2:10 — And anyway, Oh, yeah. I guess it was. Gosh. Yeah. What's wrong with us?

2:17 — It's called life.

2:19 — Make it stop. [laughter] Um, okay. So, I got a I got a topic here. It's kind of boring more or less, but I think I think should be very useful.

2:27 — Okay, let's do it.

2:29 — Um, because I feel like now more than ever, like new things. I feel like there was a time earlier on in my career where, and maybe it was just cuz it was

2:37 — pediatrics and there wasn't that many new things coming out.

2:42 — Yeah. And now I feel like between software and AI notes and

2:51 — lasers getting updated like all of these things that it's like how do you uh implement

2:58 — new things? I think we've talked about this briefly in podcasts a while back, but I think it's fresh on my mind because

3:06 — um had a kid about two weeks ago and I think the kid's like 9 years old and already has um ates [clears throat]

3:14 — starting between 8 and 9. And I know for most people it's not a big deal. I'm just like I mean that to me would be devastating if I had cavities between my teeth

3:22 — cuz I just know like at 9 if we already have to do composits then what's the trajectory of those teeth? Um, so I just

3:29 — find it devastating. Um, and I was thinking like what it what are our conservative options here? Would we do

3:36 — Icon? Oh, wait a minute. There's Curidant that I keep reading about and hearing about that apparently has been all a buzz in the pediatric journals,

3:43 — but I still have been like, uh, I don't know. My hesitation is incorporating

3:50 — something that like all the steps to incorporate. So, we're about to get into that. So anyway, I asked my associate and I said, "Hey, in the practice you

3:58 — were in before, did you ever use Curidon?" And he said, "No." And I said, "Okay." And he said, "We did have a rep

4:05 — come to the office and talk about it, but ultimately the doc decided not to move forward." And I said, "Well, were you okay with that decision or did you

4:14 — like it?" He's like, "I honestly don't remember." He's like, "I think I remember going, we both thought it was a good product in theory." And I said,

4:21 — "Okay, I think my guess is what probably happened, and it's it's similar to what um why I haven't incorporated it thus

4:29 — far." I I tend to be one too when a product is more on the newer side, and whether it's

4:37 — truly newer or just newer to my sphere, like maybe it's been out there for 20 years and I just didn't know, right? Um

4:43 — but if it's a newer product, I tend to be like, "Uh, I don't know about this." like I I just want I want somebody else

4:51 — to be the guinea pigs before I try it out in my office. Um anyway, so I was like what are the

4:58 — all the things that could limit be the be the roadblock to incorporating something that you want to incorporate in your practice? And so I just thought

5:06 — this for very practical purposes if it helps anybody out there just making sure and honestly even for team members. I

5:14 — think this is a good one for team members going well doc took us to the Southwest Dental Conference this weekend and I saw this great product and now she's saying no.

5:23 — Why bother? You know why am I trying or why? And I think just kind of that global how do you make sure you don't

5:30 — fall into a rut cuz you're scared of all of these steps. So I thought if we could just talk about all of the steps like things that I think about that if we

5:38 — were to implement this new product, new technology, new software, new sensor, new whatever it may be. I think there's

5:45 — a lot of things that we have to consider that on the surface it might be like what's the big deal? Just switch a route to that. And I think for a practice

5:53 — owner, there's a lot that we have to think about other than just cost, right?

5:58 — Like the cost is a big one, right? But then after you can get past that to go, this is an investment to better my patient care.

6:06 — Mhm.

6:07 — So what am I doing? And I just thought it would be nice to kind of just talk about like some of the checklist things.

6:12 — A good topic because it applies to so many things like you said new even a new product that we want to recommend. Are

6:19 — we bringing that in house? Are we selling that? Is there sales tax that we need to worry about? Do we need to report that to the CPA? I mean like even

6:27 — something as simple as that is there's a lot of steps involved and I know I have experienced with teams that they're

6:35 — really excited about something they'll come away from a conference or something like that and they're really excited about implementing something and then it takes a long time like steps are

6:44 — happening to incorporate something new but they wanted to be able to come back and use that within a couple weeks and it's like oh no we've got to get the

6:52 — product in we've got to create a code for it we've got figure out who are we recommending it to, which patient is a

6:59 — good candidate for that, how are we recommending it, what are we saying about this product or technique or whatever. So, there's just a lot of

7:06 — steps of implementation which I know can be frustrating to team members, but also sometimes to doctors, too. And sometimes doctors are just like, okay, now I'm

7:14 — tired of it and I don't really want to do it anymore. And so it it's a great topic to tackle which is where so I guess if you if you're a doc trying to incorporate

7:23 — something then my suggestion is as we're talking about some of the things to think about is who can you get on your team to help you because that's kind of

7:31 — the point is it's not just as simple as buying the curon and bringing it into my practice like I wish it was that simple and something that's that simple that a

7:40 — product like curidont that's not going to require at least I don't think is it going to require a special chiterator is it going to require to be refrigerated.

7:48 — Is it going to have like let's assume it just comes in a bottle and I need to dispense it and place it. Um how

7:57 — that if it that that's not at all in comparison to switching your Dentric old school to Drix Ascend, right?

8:06 — You know what I mean? Like there. So who can you get to help you come up with all of this? And then if you're a team member, just the recognition to go, there is a lot to do.

8:16 — And then how can you help your doc? If you were the one who was like, I really want to incorporate this product and if we bought it today, we would get a deal

8:24 — and I already talked to the sales guy and he said he would throw this in and throw this and this in. Why aren't you handing over your credit card, Doc? Most

8:31 — likely it's Doc is going, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." And they're thinking about all these things. So if you could even come at it as Doc is going to think about these

8:39 — things. What can I do to help? Yes, I've gotten the cost down. Good job.

8:45 — That always for me, if my team can be like, "Dude, if we purchase this today, I talked to the guy and he's going to throw in this and throw in this

8:53 — and like lower your cost to this. This is the the deal at the meeting." I mean, that already makes me feel so much better, right?

9:01 — But then I'm like, "Do we really need this? Do my patients really need this? how, you know, is the is this evidence-based for if it's a

9:10 — product? Um, I I remember back, I mean, this was years ago, over 10 years ago, 12 years ago, and um when I incorporated

9:19 — Water Llays into my practice, and at that time, I don't even know what all is out there now, but you had waterlays plus had just come out relatively

9:27 — recently, and then Solea was just hitting the market. And then there's the Walker Walk um something, I'm forgetting the name. Light walker. Yeah.

9:36 — And so those were the three that I was looking at and I ended up going with the water lace plus because that's what my buddy used. And so to me I'm like I

9:44 — needed somebody who was going to be able to as I'm going for a pediatric specific

9:52 — setting, right?

9:53 — What and so if if that's what she uses, then that's what I'm going to use. It's why I picked Dentrics. It's cuz that's the practice that I had been in was a

10:01 — Dentric practice. At that time we didn't have all these choices either, right? It was Drix, Eaglesoft, Open Dentl, and maybe one other. It wasn't a lot, but to me it was like, okay, the people that

10:09 — are going to help me figure out how to build this or how to set this up are all Dentric people, so that's what I'm going with. That's how I narrowed down like,

10:17 — okay, then stick to Henry Shine when I was like, well, which vendor am I going with? Cuz again, at that time, there weren't so many options like there are now. So then I think like if you if I

10:26 — was doing it now, like how um analysis paralysis would hit me.

10:31 — Oh, yeah. now. And uh anyway, so I think um having somebody there to help you

10:39 — figure out all of these details. Any Oh, I was talking about the I plus. So I I end up going with I plus and it was such

10:46 — a to-do about first of all how how to even figure out how to use the technology, which kids to try it out on,

10:53 — which procedures to try it out on, and then what are we telling the parents? How are we describing it to the

11:01 — kid? How are we billing this out? What are my notes need to look like? What is the compliance behind? Wait, I got to

11:08 — log what with the state board. Wait, I got to put up what kind of signage I've got to have a laser safety officer.

11:13 — Like, it was just a lot maintenance maintenance on it. A lot of that.

11:19 — Well, then you had my associate who joined me a couple years later. Uh, and um, you know, it was all just ready to go. Well, he ended up um throughout his

11:28 — years, he ended up being a uh instructor for lasers with pediatric dentistry and all

11:35 — of that. And I kept telling him, I said, "You you only had to master the the

11:42 — procedure side of it." And I had already gone to all the courses and I had already got so I basically handed you two or three manuals and then your

11:51 — generation, y'all are good at looking up YouTube stuff and you were able to piece it together. Not that it was that easy.

11:55 — He did a lot of work to really understand the physics and understand all of that. But he it was pretty well handed to him on a tray to be like, you don't have to worry

12:04 — about the billing. You don't have to worry about the maintenance. You don't have to worry about training the team.

12:07 — You don't have to worry about the laser safety, any of that. You didn't have to do any of that. All you had to do was learn how to what settings to use and

12:15 — what procedures to use those settings on. Everything else had already been taken care of. So now that you are um

12:23 — working working for the company, I mean like he was just kind of a contractor to they they were like, "Hey, you want to come help us um educate and be our

12:32 — pediatric kind of guy?" And I said, "You have to have components that help the team." Yes.

12:38 — And I don't think he really got that because he had never had to go through that journey. Mhm.

12:45 — And so I'm like, here you're trying to talk pediatric dentist X in California that this is lasers is going to be a game changer for them and you're

12:53 — teaching them how to cut the tooth, cut the tissue, what settings to use, and all of that. That's great. That is

13:01 — literally only 50% of the battle, maybe even 30%. Like that's not the full battle. They're not going to not purchase it because they don't feel

13:10 — comfortable using the equipment. they're not going to purchase it because it costs a ton of money. And then the thought of figuring out, wait a minute,

13:18 — I'm responsible for all of this when I get back to my office. Like, I don't have time for that. Yeah.

13:22 — And so, that is the leap between if you're trying to if this company's trying to help get you to help them sell this pro this piece of equipment, you've

13:31 — got to talk to all of the barriers and y'all are assuming the barrier is the financial. Mhm.

13:38 — But people coming in to be trained on it already know what the financials are going to be. You can Google that piece of information. So now they're coming to

13:45 — go, is this worth the investment? Can I learn this technology? Yeah.

13:51 — And then the ones that like love the technology and figure out how to use it and they're still holding back, you're assuming it's financial,

13:59 — right? I mean, that may be a part of it, but I would bet money that it's not just because now they're going, "Well, how do I get my staff here?

14:07 — How do you mean I got to be the one to hook this up? I've got to be the one to learn how to purge this. I've got to be the one to learn to change the tips.

14:14 — I've got to I've got to I've got to never mind. I'm good. I'm going to stick to my hand piece and call it a day." Um, so I would say for like say an endo

14:22 — office or a pererryio office ones that are really incorporating lasers worldwide like those are the front runners

14:30 — the front runners who are using laser technology. It's because I my opinion it's completely my opinion but I'm like their offices are like them and like two or three staff members.

14:41 — Yeah.

14:42 — And in endo I don't know 10 patients a day, six perio two or three. I I don't know. Sorry guys if I'm offending you. I

14:50 — don't know. That's just what I think in if you're a small single doc and your procedures are like surgical in nature. There's only so many you can do.

14:57 — It's a slower pace.

14:59 — So you maybe have more time to figure out how to incorporate and you're only training two or three people to do this with you.

15:06 — Staff size sometimes.

15:08 — So y'all can all like kind of banter together and go, "Okay, you figure out what it's going to cost and this is what we're going to say about this procedure.

15:15 — Okay, that's what we're going to do." You've got a pediatric team, a general dental team of 20 people, 15 people, 10 people. That's a lot of people that have

15:22 — to be all on the same page and knowing about how to talk about the technology and making sure that everybody is

15:29 — getting all parts of it. Um anyway, so back to like curidont even something as as simp as quote simple as that. I

15:38 — turned to my associate that day and I was like, "Okay, I bet you anything your dog probably thought it would be a good product, but then probably got a lot of

15:46 — bogged down and going,"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what patience? What what protocol? What what are we charging for this? Is

15:54 — insurance going to pay for it? If it doesn't work, are we back to a composite? Is the parent going to be mad at me? Like what how are we navigating all of that?" And so I was like, let's

16:02 — sit and talk about that because if we're thinking about incorporating uh Kurdon, I can tell you one of the main reasons I haven't done so is one in my mind it was

16:10 — a relatively new product and two just the thought alone of going wait a minute who is going to be an SDF person who is

16:19 — going to be a curant person who is going to be a reman pro person who is going to be an icon who is going to be a composite. My brain hurts never mind.

16:27 — Forget Kerod.

16:28 — Yeah. So, but am I serving my patients best if there's a product out there that could that that that there is a

16:35 — candidate for that that's going to respond better and have a better outcome than if we went with SDF, Reman Pro,

16:43 — Icon, whatever. Like, am I serving my patients the best with letting me dig my heels in cuz I don't want to go through

16:51 — all of that. So, I was like, "Okay, let's start talking about this." Like, what what are our steps? So, what do we need to do if we're thinking about incorporating this product?

16:59 — Because you too, is it just me? Are you reading all over the pediatric stuff like your is is becoming more and more incorporated.

17:07 — He's like, "Yes, I am." I'm like, "Okay, then what are we doing to incorporate it here?" And so, um, anyway, I'll pause there.

17:14 — Can you tell me what thoughts you have on I mean, so to me, you're you're hitting the nail on the head that we often don't do it because of the complexity of it.

17:23 — don't bring in something new or we delay bringing something in new due to the complexity. So to me it really is more

17:30 — than just purchasing the product or fig figuring out where you're going to purchase the product from. It's also what's our implementation plan on this?

17:38 — And I can't tell you how many times I've sat with clients that have made a leap on a laser, for example, but because they never put the work in an

17:47 — implementation plan in place, they're not maximizing that laser. they're not using it near as much as they thought that they were going to. And often times

17:55 — that that's a breakdown in the implementation plan afterwards. And so even down to I'm now remembering and

18:03 — it's probably still a popular product out there cuz we we tried it out years ago. It was called POV1 and it was like iodine something

18:12 — something and it could have been our answer to um for the people that didn't want fluoride and then you would give these packets for the parents to take

18:20 — home and they would apply it themselves and something I can't remember. And I remember my my hesitation on that was wait a minute. So then who are we

18:29 — deciding? Are we letting go of varnish and anything fluoride related and we're turning into an office that or is this just for those people or is this like what are the differences in the product?

18:40 — what is the you know evidence show of like so anyway at that time we decided to incorporate it but then what I found

18:48 — was a year later we threw away a whole case that we weren't like it we were all gung-ho about it like for 2 months 3

18:55 — months and then it sat on the shelves and none of us like you got busy and then and then if you have staff turnover or a new associate and it's like

19:04 — whatever I'm just like well that was literally $800 in the trash a waste. Yeah, because we weren't using it. And so it's like why did we buy it

19:13 — to begin with? Well, it was to help a subset of patients and then we dropped the ball. We didn't utilize it there or whenever I have to end up throwing away

19:21 — like, you know, a stance rinse. Why am I throwing that away? It's a great product for a lot of our patients, but that tells me that we are not, we get busy

19:29 — and we forget to mention that we've got this great rinse that could help with all that gingivitis we're seeing.

19:34 — Exactly. Um, so how do you keep up with and you've got to have all the buy in [clears throat] and then is that just easier if I have fewer products to talk

19:42 — about and fewer options, but then you go back to again, but am I doing a great service to my patients?

19:48 — Exactly. And I think part of the formula is we sometimes will get extra motivated like coming away from a conference is a

19:55 — perfect example. We come away ex extra motivated and want to incorporate two, three, four new things. And I feel like

20:02 — that's when we shoot ourselves in the foot. So my rule of thumb is even in consulting as I'm trying to bring in new

20:10 — systems, new strategies, it is one or two things at a time and that's it. And sometimes that can be frustrating for my clients cuz they're like, I got a list of 15 problems that I need your help

20:19 — solving and we're just doing one or two at a time. Um or we're incorporating something new in the practice, you know,

20:26 — just one thing at a time. But we our brains can only process so many new products or systems or things. So to me, rule number one would be narrow it down.

20:37 — If you're coming away from a conference and you've got three or four things that you're really excited about, put it in order of your priority and go, okay, what's the most important thing?

20:48 — Dedicate the next couple months to just that one thing. Then you can kind of move on once we've gotten a rhythm down with that one thing. The other mistake

20:57 — that I see a lot of offices make is they only will educate one or two team members on it. So they're like, "Okay,

21:05 — curant for example, um, let's let's bring that in." So that's really only the only people that are really going to be talking about that are our doctors and our hygienist.

21:14 — Um, so let's just make sure they get to meet with the rep when she comes out and they get the information on that. Heck no. those business team members also

21:23 — need to know about it because they're going to have parents asking them questions after the doctor has talked about it. And if that business team member doesn't know or can't answer

21:30 — their questions, now the confidence is shaken in that in that parent. Um I the perfect example of this. I had a pediatric client of mine that uh pulled

21:39 — in cured on about a year ago and uh happened to overhear a business

21:46 — team member saying to a parent because the uh dentist had recommended curidont

21:53 — and the business team member was like yeah it doesn't make a lot of sense to me because if it ends up in a filling

22:02 — situation anyway then it's like you've kind of spent this money on cure it on and now you're going to have to spend this money on Oh my god. Like talk about the the

22:11 — sabotage, the sabotur, whatever we talked about. Yeah.

22:14 — And again, it was just because the business team member didn't fully understand that that business team member had not been incorporated into

22:22 — the trainings or conversations. And while the dentist tried to do some educating, it just wasn't enough for the

22:31 — And so that business team member really sabotaged that situation. And also now the parent is mistrusting of

22:40 — the dentist, which that to me is a much bigger problem cuz even if you don't buy into it, that's a huge problem right there.

22:47 — But then now, yes, you've basically picked the parent against the dentist.

22:50 — Like if you don't understand it, shut your mouth and ask your questions later because clearly your dentist recommended for a reason. So then it goes back to do you not trust your own dentist that you work for? Then why do you work there?

23:00 — Yeah.

23:00 — Um so full team needs to be educated on anything. Even if it's a business system change

23:08 — that don't assume that the clinical team doesn't need to know about that. Um, and so to me, you got to tackle one thing at

23:16 — a time, and you've got to have the full team at least aware. That doesn't need to mean they need to be involved in it.

23:23 — They need to be aware of what's changing or what's uh coming into play. And then you've got to have a buddy in the

23:30 — system. So, I think, you know, for a dentist to launch every change in their practice and to be the one that's, you know, doing all the steps to implement

23:39 — this, it's just not going to happen. So, you got to have somebody on your team that can help go, okay, we're bringing in Curidot. Let's make a list of all the

23:47 — things that we feel like we're going to need to do to adequately bring this new product into our practice. And okay, now we've got a list of everything we need to do to bring it into the practice.

23:58 — Okay, now how are we training the team on this? Okay, who's tackling the insurance code for this? Okay, who's

24:05 — tackling the price? who's and you're dividing out that list into bite-size, manageable pieces while also setting a

24:15 — timeline for completing that. Because if we're just like, "Oh, here's our list and here's, you know, this person A, B, and C is doing, you know, 1 2 3." Great.

24:24 — But now, what's our timeline? When do we want to have this completed by? and what communication needs to happen between

24:32 — the four of us as we implement each of or take care of each of these steps. Are we meeting weekly about this? Are we just meeting about it in a month which

24:40 — is our due date? So, there's just got to be a plan that a plan. Yes.

24:46 — Um so, some of the things I think that uh we were my associate and I were talking about like one of the things if

24:53 — we did decide to incorporate Kurdon, how much are we charging for it?

24:56 — Yeah. Well, that's not just me going, "Well, let's see. The bottle cost me a hundred bucks, so I will charge, you

25:03 — know, 50 bucks a a tooth." I mean, we we need to look into that. Is there a code for it? Does insurance pay it? If But we

25:11 — did, my billing person and I were just going over SDS SDF again because we've changed our protocols so many times at how we want to build that sucker out.

25:19 — Um, don't worry, you got an email on that. So, you can uh when you get a chance for I I email Avalanche youu. So,

25:27 — when you see that, that's we have some changes on how we want to bill out SDF.

25:31 — But, a lot of the changes came from when we first started doing it years ago.

25:36 — Insurance wasn't covering it, but now insurance is covering it. And so, then do you bill blah blah blah blah? And so the change that we made the

25:44 — other day, um, that's in the email. Then my billing person just replied to just me and she's like, "Why are we doing this though?" Which I had I had put in

25:51 — the email why we're doing it, but she still was like, "But what's the big deal?" Well, I guess when we were charging per quadrant because we didn't

25:58 — want to nickel and dime a parent, like if the Legion was between S&T, we had a quadrant fee when we've been doing it for so many

26:06 — years that way. And then it came to our attention that many insurancees are paying for it now, but you got to bill it per tooth. It can't be per quadrant.

26:14 — Okay. But it still feels nickel and dimey to me. Well, her point was when we decided to go per tooth, we dropped the fee quite a bit to make it more

26:23 — um more similar to a quadrant, right?

26:25 — Right. Well, I forgot that. So then I was like, well, maybe we could have left it. Anyway, we went back and forth on it. And um her point was I was like,

26:34 — "Okay, well, what what insurance is paying for it, but things that I hadn't thought to ask about before." And then now, but now we've got some objective

26:41 — data to help us guide us on what we should charge for it.

26:46 — Um because a lot of that too, it depends on what area you're in and it depends on, you know, for for Curidon apparently you have to etch and scrub and do well.

26:56 — Okay, that's a whole different beast than SDF, right? It's a completely different process. So if I'm going to have to do all of that, that's a lot of chair time.

27:03 — So I can't just charge 20 bucks for a cured thing. So but goes back to the point of then am I going to have team members that are like, well, their insurance would have covered this.

27:12 — Exactly. If you had filled it. Mhm.

27:14 — We even had that. I remember in when I was first out of residency and there were people that didn't um

27:22 — didn't want like the e-lasty sealant cuz I was like this doesn't go that deep.

27:26 — Let's just kind of open it up and put a sealant on it thinking that I was doing the right thing for that tooth. Well, that's not covered, but cuz it's a baby tooth, but a filling would be covered.

27:35 — Can't you just fill it? Yeah.

27:36 — Okay. So, you understand I got to drill into the tooth now. Yeah, that's fine. Is it covered? Okay. Do that instead. Mhm.

27:42 — Oh, so same thing here where you're going to run into all of that. So, one was how much to charge. I think you mentioned this already, but insurance

27:49 — codes like is there a code already? What code do we bill it under? what narrative do we need to send? Like what what is all of that?

27:57 — And do we have the code set up in our system? Because a lot of times people will only set up the codes that they're using on a regular basis. So the co code

28:05 — may already be in your practice management software, but you don't have the fee in there of course you there's all these settings for each code like do

28:13 — I bill this to automatically build this to insurance? What provider does it default to? So even beyond the code, setting up the code properly too.

28:22 — Yes. Yes. Exactly. Um the consent form. Mhm. Who's writing that now?

28:28 — And I think my associate I was like, "Okay, so we got to come up with a consent form." And he like typed whatever. And he's like, "Oh, look, Kurdant already has a consent form." I was like, "Okay, great. Like we'll need

28:36 — to read that, but that's great. That's one more thing we can check off." Um and then when are we going to when are we going to train the whole team on the verbiage for it?

28:45 — Yeah.

28:46 — Then we were like, "Okay, well, we probably need to reach out and have a rep come talk to us first." Yeah.

28:50 — So, I think that's where we are in the process. I was like, "Okay, before we do anything else, like let's get the rep in." But then he was looking online like, "How do you apply it and stuff

28:58 — like that?" So, luckily there's a lot of information online that we can do, but it's it still takes time to do it.

29:05 — Um, you said this already, but who's a candidate? Mhm.

29:08 — So I think even the kid that I was thinking about the lesions between 8 and N uh a colleague of mine who is the expert on kuridant as far as I'm

29:16 — concerned she wrote like the main article on it for the TDA journal um a couple years ago and she I remember her going it's not a substitute for SDF.

29:27 — There's like certain parameters of what you use it for. And of course I can't remember any of that. I'm like I don't know. I just know that there was stuff and I didn't want to deal with it. Um,

29:35 — so I'm thinking this lesion between 8 and 9. And so I send it to her and she's like, "Oh no, this is beyond curedon at this point." I was like, "Okay." So I I need to figure out who the candidate is.

29:44 — Like what lesions do qualify for this?

29:46 — And then go back and forth between, "Okay, but is this like in my own mind I'm like, "Okay, if it's got to be where it's not past the deej,

29:53 — right, then I still don't think I would want that on a primary tooth because I could do SDF."

30:03 — Yeah. That'd be a lot quicker and easier on the patient than doing all the etching, scrubbing.

30:08 — And again, I'm talking without even knowing any of that. The rep has not come in yet. So, if I'm wrong on this, people give me a little leeway here. I'm just thinking out loud of what I would imagine.

30:18 — You're thinking of systematically how do I pick who's a candidate, who's not, who's not, and then again, you have to

30:26 — be able to determine that as a clinician. And then your team's got to be able to communicate that. And we've got to be uh calibrated. Myself and my

30:35 — associate kind of have to be like if he's recommending cure for everything and I'm only recommending SDF for everything, but you saw Billy and I saw Bobby and their brothers and mom's like wait a minute.

30:43 — So we've all got to be calibrated on all of this.

30:46 — Um so then the protocols for using it, taking care of it, back to again, can it just sit on the shelf? Do I need to refrigerate it? Does it have to be in a

30:54 — dark box? Is it light sensitive? Like all of those things like that we've got to kind of look at the parameters of how do we keep you know, does it require a

31:02 — special brush? Does it require a special etch tip?

31:05 — And then once you know those, where are we storing it? Where are we keeping it? What are we ordering to support that?

31:11 — Um, creating our templates for our chart notes. Yeah.

31:14 — So, um, anyway, I think that's where we are in the process of going, okay, it's been on the market long enough now that

31:21 — I don't feel like a guinea pig. Um, I think yes.

31:26 — Okay. I would say I guess my probably the client I've had that's been using it the longest is probably two and a half years. Okay?

31:34 — You know, so it's like the good news is I have plenty of my clients who are slow to pull that put to pull triggers on new

31:42 — things because they don't want to be the guinea pig. They're like there's going to be your first adopters out there that will use this product, test it out, you

31:49 — know, figure out the objections and all of that. let them go figure it out and then you're coming behind and you have a lot of people then to connect with that

31:56 — are using it and doing it. But again, who are those people? You know, what colleague do you want to talk to that's

32:04 — implemented it? Do you trust their decision-m and their implementation style? And so even picking your the

32:11 — front runners that went and adopted it quickly enough picking those carefully and how do we pick the ones that we're going to talk to and um it's a lot.

32:20 — Yeah.

32:21 — It's a lot. And that's not to I think you said this at the beginning. We've got to be careful too to not let all of that stifle us to where we never move

32:30 — forward on anything. That's not what we're advocating at all. We're saying absolutely adopt new things, incorporate new ideas

32:38 — and techniques and tools into your practice, but actually make it worth the investment of time to to truly implement

32:47 — something. You've got to put in the leg work ahead of time and then the teamwork to make sure that everybody's comfortable with this whatever you're

32:56 — wanting to incorporate so that you get your return on that investment. And even if it's like you said the $800 box of

33:03 — product that ended up going to waste for you guys, that's still $800 that even though it's not going to tank

33:11 — the practice, it's an investment of time and energy that you made into that product that never And I think where I get frustrated with

33:18 — that is I think I could have gone either way on that product, but I think it was the hygiene team that was like this is great. This is really going to help. And I'm like, where were y'all then? like

33:26 — where are we all in helping promote this product and helping us remind that we have this product. Um whether that's

33:33 — fair or not, but I just, you know, I I think I think those are kind of my takeaways on this. I think I'm one who comes back from meetings or things and

33:40 — I'm like super gung-ho about something, but I know myself enough now and then I give it like even like 5 days later I'm like, "Wait, what was that again? What

33:48 — was I so excited about? Why was I excited about it?" And so like 5 days later if it's still like on my mind and it still doesn't seem stale. Yeah,

33:56 — then I will move forward. I think the other big thing is to your point, this is not to discourage people, but it's

34:03 — more to do the opposite actually cuz there are a lot of great things out there that are trying to meet the needs of your patient base and trying to

34:11 — figure out if you find a product that you're like my patients could benefit from this then then then you you need to put in the leg work. But I think a lot

34:19 — of times where the the naivveness of going, "Oh yeah, we're just going to buy it and implement it and then it sits on the shelf and then we get bitter about it." That's when it's like, "Okay, well,

34:27 — let's not do that again." Was that POV1 or whatever it was? Like why did why did we all think that we wanted it and then

34:34 — why didn't we want it and and didn't gain traction? And it it wasn't one of those things that it truly was. Like by the time we thought we had the verbiage,

34:42 — we thought we had the coding, we thought we had everything, but at the end of the day, our patients just weren't going to do all those steps. Yeah. And it was like, okay, well, we tried.

34:51 — It was a valiant, wellthoughtout effort. But at the end of the day, our patients, there weren't enough

34:58 — that were like so anti- fluoride and were willing to do the steps of that product at home. Right.

35:04 — Great. But we tried. So, I think that's got to be the thing is just not getting discouraged, I think is one takeaway.

35:10 — Two, um, big takeaway is is get your team on board to help you.

35:17 — Yes. Get find find your right-hand person that's going to help you implement whatever that this is, but then also don't forget your whole team

35:25 — needs to be gung-ho about this. Even if it's not quote unquote their department, doesn't matter. Make sure that they're

35:32 — all on the same page and don't do it alone.

35:38 — Just to complete all those steps to think through everything. You want a highly detailed person sitting beside you at least asking the questions even if they don't know how to solve the

35:46 — problem. They're like with the you know what we've been talking about with Curidon. It's like somebody's got to be going what's the code and do we happen

35:56 — to know what's it going to cost? You got to have somebody curion curious enough that's walking beside you on it to ask all the questions that need to be solved.

36:03 — Might you put together a playbook item for these things to think about? Absolutely.

36:07 — And like how do you assign and divide up? Um and then back to like the team member. I I think the other thing that would help is if you are looking forward

36:16 — to um introducing this to your practice.

36:21 — Hopefully you're not one that just kind of I guess to me why why do you want to incorporate into your practice? Do you think it's going to build production? Do

36:29 — you think it's really for the health of your patients? Like and then communicating that to your team. So to me like this this female this u

36:37 — receptionist business office person who was like well I don't understand the cure at all. Why would you spend on this? That to me I started going okay

36:44 — did did she not understand why this was better?

36:47 — Right. And so have, you know, like getting feedback from your team is kind of the point. It's like, hey, we want to incorporate this laser. Oh my god, I

36:56 — heard that's a lot of work. It is a lot of work, but y'all tell me, you know, our patients have been asking for this, this, this. What is the number one

37:04 — thing? Like if it was your kid, would you want your kid to have 8 N drilled into or would you want something preventive? And if you've got a person that's like, well, I wouldn't care.

37:11 — Well, I had to have fillings in my eight and nine when I was 8 years old. Then maybe this person is not the right one for your team. if her philosophies don't align. And and I get that's a whole

37:20 — another can of worms to go, well, who at least she can build, you know, like where am I going to find another person that aligns our

37:27 — philosophies and shows up to work and knows how to build. Like what a different [laughter] point is that but you know what I mean? Like that at

37:35 — that point then it's like really sitting down with the person and going, "Okay, I heard you say this. Tell you tell me why you think I want to incorporate carrot

37:43 — because clearly I've left you out of that conversation and I need to get you up to speed on why we had that. Right.

37:49 — Um yeah and and I would say if there is a failure in the launch of whatever either you've got a team member like that

37:56 — that's commented and said something you know counterproductive or you've got product that went to waste it every new

38:06 — thing that you try to incorporate isn't always going to be successful. You could have the best right-hand person have thought through all the implementation

38:14 — plan and it still it doesn't catch fire in your practice. The the parents don't like it or they you know would prefer something else and and it may not work.

38:24 — Okay. If something doesn't work, are we taking the time to stop and dissolve the you

38:32 — okay inactivate the code? We're we're done with that. We're taking it off of our uh wall. we had all this information about curidon. Okay, it's going away.

38:41 — You know what I mean? So, it's like we've got to dissolve that effort back and then reassess. Okay, what why wasn't that successful? What can we learn from

38:49 — this? Um, which again sounds cumbersome, but it's like, okay, if the investment didn't work, let's at least take the

38:56 — time to figure out why. So that way we know for next time if there's another great product or software or something to say, okay, this one didn't work. I

39:05 — don't want to just assume nothing's going to work, but what were the takeaways? If we haven't spent the time to figure out why it didn't work, then you could potentially make the same

39:14 — mistake again. And and there may be a reason that you're like, "Oh, if we had just tweaked this

39:20 — now, you know, either the software meets it or our team is different or whatever it could be, but if you haven't taken the time to figure out why it didn't

39:28 — work, Yeah. Exactly.

39:31 — you could shoot yourself in the foot again." Yeah. So, I would say I would reiterate what you've said. Key takeaways, don't be discouraged. Go continue to look for

39:39 — things to do. Do it in little bits at a time. Don't get too much going at the same time. Get your right-hand person

39:46 — that's going to help you. Um, and then, um, evaluate. And may I add, when you say the right-hand person that's going to help you, this

39:54 — may be one where you where I do feel like I used to tend to lean on one person.

40:00 — Yeah. And I I think bringing throwing it out to the team because you never know and and that one other person may not be

40:08 — able to do a lot for you, but if you're like, "Hey, I know there's a consent form somewhere online. Can you print that?" Right?

40:14 — And then can you go find like um whatever YouTube videos you can find on this and put put those links together.

40:22 — Maybe that's that one person's only contribution.

40:24 — Absolutely. But at least they're involved now and it's one less step that you and right-hand person have to do.

40:31 — But it's again helping you get team members to buy in rather than always feeling like, oh well, I'm never involved in that anyway. She doesn't

40:39 — care for my opinion or I'm not going to, you know, this is their little project.

40:43 — They want to and no wonder it didn't catch fire throughout the office. So, I think um communication is what you were saying. And I feel like that's one area

40:50 — where I feel like I got a lot more success once I got better at it cuz I really stunk at it for years. Yeah.

40:57 — I didn't communicate because I was just in my head trying to do all of that. And um I think I missed out on number one

41:04 — having the help, but also the buyin from people. And you know, you may just have some people that are like, "No, I'm I'm good. Y'all just tell me when we're

41:11 — ready to launch and tell me what I need to do." But um there are plenty of people too that are like at least I was asked at least I was asked to see if I wanted

41:20 — to weigh in on this and what I thought about this or like one of my team members is not super um she's just we we

41:28 — call her our little cat. We don't we don't disturb her. She's you know she's

41:34 — our she's she knows what she wants is doing her role and leave her alone. let her do

41:43 — her thing, right? But I think even if I throw out there and I say, "What do you think about this? Did you have any offices or

41:50 — do you have any of your friends? Can you ask your friends if they use it?" I mean, that alone, boom, there's her buy in. Yep.

41:58 — And so, you know, one that I would think that she would rather be left alone, but the fact that I paused enough to say, "Well, your opinion does matter." Yes.

42:06 — And where's your expertise on this and do you care? And a lot of times, the majority of the time, her answer is, "I don't care. I'll just do whatever you tell me to do. Okay, great. Thank you.

42:14 — Yeah, but she at least got the opportunity. Yes.

42:16 — To jump in and say something. And I think you will be surprised at how many team members want to take part in it in

42:24 — some even in some small way. Not all. I don't think we should have to expect every team member, but I think if we cast the net out, we'll be surprised at

42:32 — how many people want a little piece of it or have an opinion or or even now like with all these um modules like Canva and other things that

42:39 — people love. There's some people that just love doing it. So now those have become my go-to people. Which one of you wants to create this flyer for Yes.

42:46 — Kerodon or whatever it is, you know, like who wants to create the flyer? Oh, I'll do that.

42:50 — So, she was happy to not have to do any of the research, not have to look at the code, not do any of that, but she's like, yes, I would love to make you a flyer. Well, thank you.

42:58 — Perfect. Because we need that. Yeah. I yeah, I hope this especially because I know Southwest Dental Conference is

43:04 — happening this weekend and um I know we're heading into fall which is often lots of different dental conferences and

43:12 — so to me hopefully this is encouraging to go yes go tackle some new things but do it in a way that helps you be successful with those changes. Thanks

43:21 — for joining the conversation today. We hope that you are comforted in knowing that you are not alone, [music] but we also hope that you're walking away with

43:29 — some really great tips and tricks to try in your practice.

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43:53 — As always, please [music] know that we are rooting for you today as you manage your dental drama.