075: Automation in Dentistry

In this episode of No Silver Spoons, hosted by Sarah Beth Herman and sponsored by Dentistry Support, we delve into how automation is revolutionizing the dental industry in 2025. The discussion highlights the benefits of AI-powered recruitment, on-demand staffing apps, and various automated systems for daily operations, patient follow-ups, and insurance verifications. Sarah Beth emphasizes that automation enhances rather than replaces the human workforce, enhancing efficiency, reducing errors, and improving the patient experience. The episode includes a special ‘automation readiness checklist’ to help dental practices evaluate their current systems and identify areas for improvement.

Chapters

• 2:05 Enhancing People, Not Replacing Them
• 3:01 The Hiring Crisis in Dental Offices
• 8:04 Operational Automation: Daily Tasks Simplified
• 11:16 Automation Readiness Checklist (7 Key Questions)
• 12:58 How to Talk Automation With Your Team
• 15:26 Our Favorite Takeaways ("That’s Good" Moment)

Transcript

  📍  Hey friends. Welcome back to another episode of No Silver Spoons, sponsored by Dentistry Support. I'm your host, Sarah Beth Herman, and today we are unpacking something that's no longer the future. It's actually here and it's real, and it's changing the way we run dental practices.

Because dentistry holds such a place in my heart, I love to bring episodes forward that teach you things about dental. So if you're in dentistry, you found the perfect episode for you today. It's 2025, and we are changing the ways that we run dental practices. I wanna talk about automation. I've talked about ai.

I've talked about automation, but there are some specific things I wanna get into, like how automation is actually reshaping hiring. It's reshaping outsourcing in dental practices, and whether you're a practice owner, an office manager, or a team member, wondering what this means for your role. I want you to feel equipped and inspired today because automation doesn't mean replacing people, and I think that's a common misconception.

In my opinion, automation means that it enhances our people. It means that we give them tools to do more of what they love and less of what they don't. And I think it's okay to work in a job or in an industry where you don't exactly love every single thing that you do, but you do have a passion for the industry.

And I think that if we're the best leaders we can possibly be, we take a step back and we evaluate our team members and we give them the tasks they're the best at, the ones they love the most, and the things that they don't love as much or they're not as good at. We save those for other things, other people or automation.

What we are really wanting to highlight today is that automation can be your ally, especially in a fast moving, high pressured world of dentistry. The reality is no silver spoon was handed to you.

You've worked hard for everything, and now it's time to let smarter systems work for you so you can reclaim your peace and your efficiency. And in the dental practice, ever since I can remember, it's always been recited that it's about the patient experience. And I think when we're forced to do things that we don't really love, tasks that we're not passionate about, we actually get away from the end goal, which is to deliver a incredible patient experience.

Let's start with hiring. I hear it consistently from dentists and office managers , and those in charge of the hiring process. I can't find good help. I can't find a great employee. It takes too long to hire someone qualified. Guess what? Automation is actually flipping that narrative. AI powered recruitment platforms can now screen resumes, match personality traits to job descriptions, and actually filter out candidates based on clinical certifications.

It cuts the processes in half and it reduces the cost of hiring mistakes. Now think about this, instead of sifting through 100 resumes, your system gives you your top five. Those top five are already vetted for culture fit, skill, match, and availability. You just show up to interview and decide who aligns with your vision.

There are on-demand staffing apps that are also on the rise platforms like Mayday or Temp Me. They allow you to fill short term, even long term roles with just a few clicks. This is huge. When you need same day hygiene coverage, same day front office coverage, or just same day help in assisting with the procedure.

These tools are not just for DSOs anymore. Solo or privately owned practices are jumping in on all of this, and there's something really important. Automation in hiring doesn't take away your leadership. In fact, I believe that it elevates it. Now you can spend more time pouring into your team and creating workplace culture that people actually want to be a part of.

It's not about shortcuts. It's about putting your energy where it matters most. And I think it's really important for you to take a step back and think about how you're hiring if you're still doing the same thing, like posting it on Craigslist or. Posting something on Facebook and trying to reshare it and reshare it some more, or going to the most popular Facebook group and saying, Hey, anybody looking for someone?

Or, Hey, I'm looking for someone paying X dollar amount to X dollar amount, or We are a family run practice, or family focused family first. If you're using all of these trigger words, if you're using all of these same methodologies, you're behind the mark. I want you to start thinking like the business owner you are, and don't think that just because I'm talking automation or I'm talking about different applications, that it doesn't apply to you because you only hire two or three people a year, or you only have five employees.

Why are we not putting smaller practices? Or locally owned practices or mom and pop practices in the same caliber that we are. DSOs.

It's not just hiring, though. Automation is deeply embedded in daily operations Now. Appointment scheduling, automated billing and claims streamlined. Patient follow-up texts and recall reminders. It's all scheduled with ai. Even insurance eligibility Verification is now run with Realtime integrations.

Now, I could do an entire podcast episode on literally just insurance eligibility verification with Realtime integrations. I have a lot of mixed reviews on that. I think there are some areas where it's okay to have, but it is never the only solution. But it is happening and it is something people are using, and it's important for you to know both the risks and the rewards of some of these things.

I think that there are certain ways that you do need that human touch, but I think there is something beneficial to understanding how you can use automations to help move things along faster. At the end of the day, all of this gives your team their time back. Your front desk isn't chained to the phone.

They're connecting with patients. Your billing team isn't chasing down claims. They're auditing reports and they're improving collections at dentistry support. We see this every day. Our clients come to us overwhelmed. Their aging is hundreds of thousands of dollars over 30 days when we believe that you shouldn't even have one claim aging over 30 days.

But with the right systems in place, they walk into a peaceful and efficient office. It's a complete shift in how you work. Now, I'm not saying that you're going to all of a sudden install or sign up for or get implemented some automation, and then now your day is just perfect. There is a lead time, there is an onboarding timeline.

There is integration steps that you need to take to make sure that it works well for you. But what most of our offices discover is that these small automations add up to big gains. You're improving morale. The patient experience is so much better. Your profitability is actually jaw dropping because you're not sitting here in a space where you're wondering if the checks are coming in.

You're checking the mail to see what money is on its way. You actually know everything ahead of time. When your team sees that automation means fewer mistakes, fewer overtime, hours, more clarity, their resistance actually fade. But I think a lot of automation comes down to how you are integrating this with your team.

How are you setting good expectations? What does your team feel about automation? Do they think their job is threatened or do they understand that implementing this now means a different and brighter future clarity and calm always replaces chaos.

People always ask me now, is your team outsourced? No. All of our team is hired, trained, and paid directly through our company. We don't outsource to anyone else.  They're all in house. When your dental practice makes that conscious choice to choose to outsource in the age of automation.

It's about collaborating with experts who are powered by automation. Now there are many different tools that we use at dentistry support, but our number one service that is outsourced is actually dental billing.

Our team here at Dentistry Support doesn't just file claims. We actually analyze patterns. We audit AR reports. We run real time reports. We actually have collaborative reports that we use between us and our dental practices so they can see our work in real time. We are spotting issues long before they even become problems.

And when you outsource to people who align with your culture, it doesn't feel like outsourcing. It actually just feels like adding teammates who just happen to work remotely. Outsourcing also lets your in-house team do more meaningful work. You're not paying someone $25 an hour to print EOBs, to research claims, to send claims.

 You're actually paying your team to build relationships, to handle treatment coordination, to grow your business. To scale your business With smart outsourcing, you gain a partner that scales with you. You get support when you need it most. And access to expertise without the heavy overhead. It's about removing bottlenecks, not people, and setting your office up to be lean, responsive, and resilient.

And when I say those words, if you don't know how your office is running, lean, how your office is running responsive. Or how your office is running. Resilient. Start there. Start asking those really good questions about how you're doing those three things right now. And if you need answers to that, it's your sign to schedule a call to learn more about how you can partner with people to help you get there.

In this episode, I wanted to provide something different, something that you could actually take with you. So if you wanna pause this episode at any time when I'm getting ready to go through this next part, feel free to do so. You can also check the show notes because this will be listed there.

What I'm talking about is an automation readiness checklist. I'm gonna go through a series of seven questions. You can pause after each one to write them down, or again, check the show notes. Question number one, are your current systems cloud-based and accessible remotely? Question number two, do you have appointment and recall automation in place?

Question number three, are your hiring processes digital or are you still using manual methods? Number four, is your insurance eligibility process manual or automated? Number five, can your team track their metrics in real time? Number six. Do you have a clear process for outsourcing tasks? And number seven, are you using a communication platform like Instant Messaging or Slack?

If you said no to more than three of these, it's time for an upgrade. And don't worry, this isn't a judgment zone. I'm not upset with you that you haven't gotten there, and I don't think that you are wrong for answering no to any of these. This is just a great benchmark for you. Every no on that list is actually a window of opportunity for you and your dental practice.

The most successful dental practices in 2025 are not the ones with the biggest budget. They're the ones who are willing to audit their dental practice, honestly, and pivot quickly and implement strategically. And when you start using automation in layers, it builds momentum fast. Let's clear something up.

Bringing in automation doesn't mean pushing people out. Your team needs to know this. They need to trust you when you share this with them. Automation is a support system, not a replacement system. The key to success is transparency and training. When your team understands the why behind the automation, they lean in instead of pulling away.

Now, before you go any further in considering any of this, I want to help you set the stage, an appropriate stage for your team. One where your team truly understands that this is meant to grow and scale the business and improve the patient experience, not one that is a threat to them, because automation can really feel like a threat to team members who are used to the way things have always been done.

Show your team how these tools will make their job easier, give them ownership. Train them on new technology and invite their feedback with my team. Whenever we're implementing a new software, a new system, any process that is new, I always want their feedback. But a key component to asking for feedback from your team is to understand how to analyze that feedback and teach your team how to give you thoughtful feedback.

Some of you might be thinking, well, my team does give me feedback, and most of the time it's something negative because they don't like change. When my team approaches me with something negative or positive, I always tell them that if they'd like to seek change by what they're giving me, they need to offer me two solutions, and one solution has to be free.

It can't cost the business anything if the second solution does cost the business something. This teaches your team to look at things from multiple vantage points. So that we're not just trying to throw things at the wall and somehow make something stick, but we don't know if it's gonna work and somebody's just gonna be upset.

Anyways, I want you to think and recognize that these tools are for the better when you seek their feedback, even if it's good or bad. This is creating that culture of innovation that we all crave and desire for our businesses. Think of automation, like giving your team a better toolkit. A carpenter with a power drill isn't less valuable than one with a screwdriver.

They're just more efficient. When your team has better tools, they are more confident, more engaged, and more effective, and that translates into better care for your patients. In every episode. One of my favorite things to do is our, that's good moment where I basically recap different parts of this episode that were my favorite.

Things that I wanted you to remember, things I don't want you to forget that I'd like for you to take with you and figure out how you can implement. And the first thing I want to say is automation doesn't replace your team. It reveals your team's potential. And that's the methodology that needs to be behind your every thought when it comes to implementation.

You are not building a robotic practice, and I don't expect you to. You are building a smarter, more efficient one where people thrive because technology works with them, not against them. If you want more information on this, I want you to check out our free training page over@dentistrysupport.com.  There are so many different posts in there, but every episode we record here on the podcast actually has a corresponding free training page that you can visit.

It. We have digital downloads, videos, quick tools that can help your office get started. Your journey toward automation doesn't have to be confusing, and it doesn't have to feel like it's all technology because some automation comes in the form of other people working on things behind the scenes. You have to remember that automation doesn't have patients walking in the door.

When you work with teams that are working elsewhere or remotely, they also are not distracted by patients in the office. But everyone, no matter what they're doing, the end goal is to grow your practice, give the patient a better experience, and ultimately reveal the incredible potential.

Everyone on the team actually has.

Your journey in automation should feel like a relief. And these pages in our free training are filled with answers to questions you didn't even know to ask. So we're here to walk that journey with you. Before we wrap up this episode, I want to share how we do this all at dentistry support. We have hired well over 600 employees over the last 11 years supporting tons of practices all over the United States with services and eligibility verification, dental billing, virtual phone systems, credentialing, hiring tools for dental office managers, digital downloads, virtual training events.

Speaking engagements and podcasting. We are not just about technology, but it does help us advance much faster. We are more about people first, and our team of dental experts blends human support with smart automation to give your office its time back, the experience back to the patient. If you're listening and thinking, I want that.

I want someone to help me do this because I know we need it, but I just can't execute right now. I can't figure out how to make my team do that. I want you to check the show notes. There is a link to schedule a Calendly call with us. We'll walk you through step by step what it looks like to work with our team and yours.

And remember, this isn't about being perfect. It's about being prepared, and we are here to prepare you. As always, we drop new episodes every Monday, so hit subscribe and share this with a fellow dental friend who might also be drowning in the day to day. Help them see that there is a better way. Until next time, thank you for being part of this community.

I am Sarah Beth Herman, and this is No Silver Spoons sponsored by Dentistry Support.  📍 I'll see you on the next episode.