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Dental Bun Podcast
Embrace the sassy, classy and messy bits of dentistry with the perfect blend of life and work wisdom.
Dental Bun Podcast
Independent Dental Hygiene Practice
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If you’ve ever thought, “I love hygiene, but I can’t do one more day of being micromanaged,” this conversation is for you. We sit down with Shade, an RDHAP in Southern California, to get honest about what it takes to build an independent dental hygiene practice that actually works, clinically and financially. The goal isn’t to bash dentistry, it’s to prove something bigger: hygienists can expand access to preventive care while building careers with real autonomy.
We walk through the practical realities of independent practice and mobile dental hygiene, including treating seniors, homebound patients, people with disabilities, and anyone who struggles to get care in a traditional office. Shade breaks down California’s RDHAP requirements, the dental shortage area designation process, and why state-by-state rules (hello, Colorado) change the entire startup timeline. We also talk about the non-negotiables: collaborative agreements with dentists, clear patient communication about exams, and documentation.
Then we go where most trainings don’t: money and systems. We dig into fee-for-service dental hygiene, why insurance reimbursements can undercut your work, and how superbills and reimbursement forms can let patients use benefits without letting payers set your price. We also cover equipment that stays portable, marketing that drives steady bookings (website SEO, Google visibility, community outreach), and why partnering with other hygienists under one roof can be a smart way to grow without losing your freedom.
If you’re ready to map out your next move, subscribe, share this with a hygienist friend, and leave a review so more clinicians can find it. What would your ideal independent schedule look like?
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Why Independent Hygiene Matters
SPEAKER_00I met Shade at ADHJ in California this past, was that November? And we talked for a little bit, and she let me know that that is one of her passions, to be able to encourage and elevate other clinicians to do what she currently is doing. Own her own cell hygiene practice and thrive in that. And also to motivate all of us to be able to think what could be if we just looked at all the logistics and go, okay, is this something that I want to do? And so that's why we collaborated and said, hey, I think this would be a wonderful thing to just open that can of worms for people to start thinking and going, this could be something that I actually want to do. So without further ado, I'm gonna pass it over to Shade so we can get started.
SPEAKER_01What's up, everybody? Good evening. Thanks for joining us. I'm Shade. If you don't already know me, some of you already do. I'm an RDHAP here in Southern California. Um, and yeah, just like she was saying, I met her last year at ADHA. And you know what, guys? It's 2026. Every year it seems like there's something new that's coming up and against hygiene. But I really want to give you guys encouragement that that this is this is what growing pains change like, right? This is when a profession is evolving. It doesn't mean we're ending or dying. Dental hygiene is not going anywhere because there's always going to be a need for it. But in the future, I do think it's going to look quite different. I've done a lot of research on how nurse practitioners had evolved to become the independent practitioners they are today. And I do see that for a future for hygienists. So be positive, stay optimistic, and get involved. That's uh one of the most important things I can tell you is to get involved with legislator and owning your profession. This is no one's gonna do it for you, right? And I feel like I have to say these things because a lot of people, you know, they join associations and they're like, well, now what? What are they gonna do? They're not gonna do anything. A lot of them are just doing the same things they've always done. A lot of them are a lot older than us and they they're not sure what to do. So if you see something that needs to be done, sign up and do it. Let's make it happen. We can only do it if we work together. I just hope I just wanted to kind of get that spiel out of the way because I know it can be very discouraging when you hear about assistance or you hear about dentists, but you know what? At the end of the day, they still cannot do what we can do. Patients are still asking for us, and hygiene is just a wonderful, amazing thing. And I'm just so happy and excited to be a part of this community. And I'm so glad that you guys, you know, are tuning in and finding out like, well, what does this look like? So I'm just gonna give you just a little quick spin of my office. So here's my room. This is my room. I built it, you know. I have a lot of pride in it. I I put my wall up, I put these stripes up. Here's some of the most important things in my room. These are the things that allow me to work as an independent hygienist. So things are different in every state, but every state could take notes, right? So I'm here in California and sorry, I am hot, I am sweating up in here. Here in the state of California to work as a registered dental hygienist, an alternative practice, you do need to get an extra license. That's right. We got two of them to work here. We got a regular license and we have an AP license that we have to keep up to date every two years, and that's all right. I'll do anything besides work for a dentist. Okay, so if I gotta get two, if I have to get three licenses, I'm gonna do what I need to do to not be stuck being held hostage in an office all day. But anyway, so you need to at least have you need to have a bachelor's or equivalent,
Growing Pains And A Bigger Future
SPEAKER_01you need to have so many hours. I want to say it was when I did mine, and it's been quite a few years already. It was at least it was like 6,000 hours. It was equivalent to three, three years plus as a hygienist. So you've already had to be working as a hygienist, to be licensed as a hygienist, to you could simultaneously if getting your bachelor's and wanting to finish the AP program, you could also do it simultaneously, but you had to finish your bachelor's before applying for the AP. So you had to finish it to be able to turn in your license information on time. And that's it. Obviously, staying up to date with your CEs. That's all it takes here in the state of California. Salon, someone's asking me this is your suite a salon. So what I'll do is I will keep questions towards towards the end, if that's okay. This is a salon. I own the building, and then the the spaces will obviously I lease from a leasing agent, and then this is my office. Okay. If you guys we can walk and talk, and I can keep it moving. But yeah, so here in the state of California, you do have those, you just have need those requirements before becoming an RDHAP. You do take one more test, you're gonna take a law and ethic test, you get passed, and now once you get licensed, you can start working. Most RDHAPs start off mobile. I'm still mobile. The goal and the key to this license is to help those in need. We help people that have disabilities, seniors, people with strokes. We're going to live senior homes, living centers, we go to schools, we help people even that have an anxiety to go to the dentist. Everybody needs help. Okay, so everybody can benefit from a hygienist. And that's where we usually work and start off. Now, if you guys want to venture off and open your own practice like me, you have to for now, and these are other things I'm looking into, but for now, you have to work in a designated area. And what that means, I'm just making sure if I'm reading it. Okay, good. So, in order for your area to be designated, and here's my address on the map, and it has that nice green check next to dental shortage. Took me a year and a half to get this area designated, but it doesn't mean that I'm working in an area where there's a bunch of tumbleweeds or something. It just means there's a shortage of dentists in this area that are that are willing to provide preventative care services to the to the community. There's just not enough of them. And how I was able to find out that information is calling these offices directly, acting like a patient and being like, oh, do you take Medi-Cal? Do you take Medi-Cal? And a lot of them, no, no, no, pushing out people for months. I've gathered that information and presented it to the board in an Excel spreadsheet, showing them, look at this huge gap. This is a desert. Not a little, well, it is a desert. I'm in Southern California, let's be real. But it's a desert because it's a desert because there's a lack of dentists that are willing to help those who need it the most. They're here, they're just not willing to see these people. And so that's what opens up the need for a dental hygienist and alternative practice. So once your area is verified and cleared, you can check the website to see if it's cleared, and then you send it to the board and they will give you the green light if you could even open in that area. So that, and that's something that I wanted to do. I wanted to work, I seen the need. There's a need everywhere. So that tells me almost everywhere needs to be designated. There's a shortage, right? If there's a shortage, then open up every space for hygienists to work and open their own practice if they want to do that. So that's what it takes here in the state of California. In Colorado, you do not have those hurdles. You guys can get started right away, okay? You guys got that golden key. You don't have to be doing all these extra things, going back to school two more times. You don't have to do none of that. You're a hygienist, you're already skilled, licensed, professional. Put it this way think about estheticians, which actually I'm in the process of becoming an esthetician because I actually have an esthetician room right over here. It's a little messy right now because I have all this dental stuff and I'm organizing, but I have an esthetician room, and then and this room, this room has a head spa, and it's and it's for I have the girl that rents it, she is actually a massage therapist and a cosmetologist. And so this room, she's able to provide her services. This office is um um, I'm trying to think of the word, but basically, before I took over this office, it it was zoned for beauty and hair. And so that's why we're able to have multiple different kinds of um people that could provide services in here. So that's what I want to do because I see that she didn't have to do any extra things. She didn't, she just was able to go to school, open her practice. She's able to provide facials to people. There's no dermatologist hanging around her, right? So, anyway, hygienists could do the same. It's just proving that and showing the need for that. I'm in my second hygiene room. These girls are into, I don't know what's the theme. They they want it to be kind of like this Tuscany Italian theme. It's whatever they want to do. I'm nobody's boss. So here in the state of California, as an RDHAP, you can work independently. You do not need to be a W9 um unless you want to. If you want to keep working, you can keep working, you can work on the side, you can do whatever you want with that extra license. I like to be 1099 when I go and I make contracts with places because I like to itemize everything when I do my taxes. So I prefer 1099, but that's for another day. Anyway, I leave space to these four hygienists. They do what they want in this room. Because I'm not their boss, there is no W-2 involved. They come and go as they please, they make their own schedule. I do provide obviously the room for them. I provide the equipment for them, the lights, I pay for Netflix, things like that. But they're their own boss, they make their own schedule. And that's kind of the direction of hygiene, right? You should be able to provide these services to the people that need it most. So I want to make sure that I'm um jumping in and I'm
RDHAP Requirements And Office Setup
SPEAKER_01answering because I know that we did have a lot of questions. Let me go get the list. I had printed it and then I looked.
SPEAKER_00I love it. Well, while you're looking at the list, I have a little bit of the list here. Um, because I think there were some Colorado specific questions. So I want to make sure that while you're looking for that, if I need to answer that or if you're you know what?
SPEAKER_01And I had printed it, but then I left. I had to drop off my kids, you guys. I am a mom, like you, some of you as well. Like, you know, these kids run me ragged, but that's why I really enjoy being an AP because I have the flexibility. So definitely, I don't know. I have the list up. I'll start going through it. And um at the end, when you guys have the questions, go ahead and put it in there. And if I don't answer it, you guys can reach me afterwards. You know, on my my inbox is always open to anybody anytime. I'm always up, so around the clock. Okay, so should all patients have a dental exam once a year? Yes, they should. So let's go through that. In order for me to work the way I do, I do have to have a relationship with a general dentist. And that relationship requires me to send my patients to them for restorative care and checkups, right? So the patient should be going to see the dentist at least every 18 months. That is the the that is um part of the contract. Now, I'm gonna be honest because that's how I am, and I'm very transparent. If I have a 90-year-old patient that I'm seeing that's homebound, I'm verbally give letting her know, hey, you know, I'm just letting you know I am your hygienist. I'm here to provide all the preventative care services to you. This doesn't take the place of a dentist or getting checkups or getting any restorative care. Just so you know, I'm covering myself by letting them know she's 90. She, I don't even know if she heard it, but I am letting her know that. Do you think she's seeing the dentist? So I think a lot of these rules they are for you to understand and to encompass for everybody to know how you're supposed to be working as a hygienist. But I'm telling you, that 90-year-old, she's not gonna see him ever again. Okay, she's homebound, that's why she's there and they have dementia. I'm there to make her comfortable and make her feel human again. But yes, that is part of our license. And so I do have a form, I keep it on me. And that is that is part of it, is that you are sending these patients to the dentist for their restorative care, for their checkups. Can we take x-rays here? Yes, we can. I don't usually, if I don't really need to, I'm not doing it. I don't want to do anything extra if I don't have to. If I have to do it or if I feel like somebody needs it, I'm gonna do it. But a lot of my patients, I'm sending them to the dentist for their checkup, for their x-rays, for restorative care. They come right back to me so that I can expedite their appointment and do what I do love best. And what I do best is do the hygiene and do their cleanings. That's what I do most of the time. Okay, let's make sure.
SPEAKER_00Can you pop in there real quick? So, anyone here in Colorado, so full disclosure, we have a couple of Colorado hygienists on here that actually do own their own practice. And I'm in the works of, you know, opening my own practice. This is a new splash, not everyone knows yet. But in our state, we don't have red tape like Shrube does in California. We can see our patients if they have not had an exam. You can recommend them to go have it, but you can't force them to. We don't have to do that prior to seeing them because we are allowed to do a dental hygiene exam. And then we also are able to diagnose perio here, and we're also able to diagnose um, well, we don't technically diagnose, we uh let them know that there are things that need to be viewed as caries so that they go and see their dentists. So each of us, yes, like Mary is saying that Mary is talking about we have a collaborative agreement with the dentist. So we do work with the dentist and they know what we're doing in the space. We recommend that they go see for an exam, but that is on them.
SPEAKER_01I would agree, yeah, too. Same thing. My dentist, if my patient already has their own dentist, if they're already going somewhere else, they're not obligated to follow up with my referring dentist. It's just something that we have that collaborative relationship and it lets them know. And if anything, it streamlines the relationship because if anything, all these patients that I've already talked to and let them know if I've seen something, I've educated them on it, they're gonna go do it, right? And so this is freeze time for the dentist. They're doing more things that they need to do, like restorative care. That's what they do best. And then it lets me do what I do. But yeah, that's one of the things is we do have to have a referring dentist on file. I have multiple, I actually have three, and they're all really chill. They they're not worried about what I'm doing early on. Like um, the way we work collaboratively is you are you are making your dental hygiene comprehension evaluation, as you know, because we don't diagnose. So, okay. But anyway, that's what we do. We make our recommendations and then we render the service and keeping your patient's notes, it that's the most important part. I have teledentics, and that's where I keep all my notes. If I needed to collaborate and communicate with my dentist, that's where it would be within my my notes, which is legal, legally bind information, and that's safe in um the computer. And that program, the teledentics, is probably the most affordable for uh a mobile or portable independent hygienist like myself. It's about $160, $140 to $160 a month. But you know what? If I do two cleanings, I cover that, right? So um, yes, those are the those are the the stipulations with working by yourself independently is you do have to have that relationship. Okay, equipment. People want to know about my equipment. Like I bought my aceptico when I first got it online at aseptico.com. It was six thousand dollars. It was a great investment, it works really well. And then I bought these. I bought this. This is a universal, it's a beauty chair. The reason why I didn't buy a gentle dental chair is I want everything to be mobile and portable. I do not need to have all this extra plumbing. We're hygienists, and that's one thing I'm going to tell you so that you could be successful, whatever state that you're in. Do not think that you're gonna run your business like a dental office. This is where, like a lot of hygienists, they get stuck and they get frozen. They're like, oh my god, okay, I need to buy this, I need to buy this x-ray machine and all these things. No, you don't. You're not doing all that, okay? You're doing cleanings, okay. This is the things that we need. Okay, we need our bib, we need our mask, we need our my favorite set. I have a lot of instruments. Maybe I'll turn it around so I can show you. You need this, you you just need your your setup, okay? You need your setup. So I have a lot of sets, maybe six to ten sets of my favorite instruments. You need a portable unit. This one is a flat top one, and this one I just kind of have it so you can see. I have it set up, but this is all you need. You you do need your eye goggles. You want to make sure to protect the patient. Some people, believe it or not, they're they're not, they don't put the the goggles. And the thing is, that's probably the most important thing. We're not doing extractions, we're not pulling teeth, but we are we need to protect the eyes.
Dental Shortage Areas And State Differences
SPEAKER_01If anything, we don't want nothing to fall, right? So that's what you need. You need your your suctions, you need your slow speed. I have a portable one too. You need whatever you need to be a hygienist. Now, what I would say was really hard for me starting off is it's like, okay, I got this license, I got this independence. Now what? What do I do with all this? And the first thing is you need to run a business, you need to have your EIN, you or you you need to be set up as a sole proprietor, you need to open up a business account, you need to have a Square account. You think about the steps that you're taking to do business. So I have my compliance forms, and the thing that I think that helped me a lot, and it took a few years, is why am I trying to take insurance? Like, why? Why am I trying to take insurance? So here's some things with the insurance. Yes, we can take the insurance. Is there a lot of hurdles and headaches with it? Yes, there is. Some of the insurances they don't even know what the heck is a hygienist trying to process a claim, right? So they a lot of times they want to decline us or they don't want to pay us for our service. So I, everybody, I am mostly fee for service. Okay. It took me a lot of years to work out the kinks, but this is the best way to do your business. These people go get their eyelashes done, they go next door to my girl, they go get facials, they pay $164 for her fruit fee facial. So they can pay for their cleaning. I educate them enough, I encourage them why this is my fee because I'm a specialist. I'm giving them a specialized treatment, I'm giving them specialized care. Hypothetically, okay, if my cleaning is $125 and say I uh they say, Will you take my insurance? It's Aetna. And I'm like, you know, us hygienists, we're very timid, we're passive, and everybody thinks we're Mother Teresa. So we're supposed to be like, Yes, yes, okay. Uh, I'll do it, I'll do it for zero free free. No, we're not doing it for free. Okay. So do I take your insurance? And or starting off, I'd be like, okay, yeah, I'll take it. Here I am filling out, uh, making sure that he he's not giving me his correct number. You need to know his card number, his social. Sometimes you need to have it, his birthday. So here I am just trying to sweat, making sure I'm getting all the right information. I have a PPO. Okay, yeah, for sure. I want to take the PPO. Okay, I I'm processing the claim. I have to make sure I call Aetna. I'm out of network with all these insurances, mind you. Because if you're in network, then you are subjected to whatever the low fee they want to give you for the cleaning. It could be $13, it could be $40. Are you in business to do that? I'm gonna tell you, you have to change your mind. You're a business person now. So you you can't you can't run a business like that. No, no, no. So now, if someone's like, oh, okay, I have Aetna, I have a PPO, because before I turned in that claim, my fee was $125. You know what they gave me? They sent me a check for $45. That didn't cover my anything that I set up for for that day. So now this is what I do, and I'm gonna share it with you guys. First, you get their consent, and I hope this covers some of the questions. I'll go back in it, but I feel like this is very important and successful for business. First, you get their signature, they give you consent to clean their kid today. That is the biggest thing. I have it, I have uh liability insurance, I have malpractice insurance. You're gonna need to carry that um when you're working on people, okay? Um, and then you know, you have an intake form. You want to know what, you know, what the heck do they got going on? I'm gonna be honest. If you come in my door and you said that you had some kind of surgery not so long ago, you're limping, you have chest pain, you get guess what? I'm gonna send you to the medical school. I'm gonna send you to the dental school. And it's just a nice way. Like you want to like let them know you know what? Um, here at my office, I might not have all the things that you you were. Crier, so I'd like you to be in a space that would be a little bit uh more accommodating for you, right? That's what you need to do. You have to set yourself up for success. So you have someone coming in here, hobbling, holding on to their chest, they got some medical issues, you might need to send them somewhere where they could get a little bit more specialized care. After you do that, and they do say, like, oh, I have Aetna PPO, I let them know. I don't memorize all the fees all the time, but I'm starting to get used to it. What I do is now I'm going to, instead of me turning this in, I'm gonna give it to them. I'm gonna give them the reimbursement form. I've also created a super bill, which I think it's at home, but I can share it with anybody who wants to see what it looks like. But anyway, what I did is I created a super bill. I put in the the service that I did, the code number that I did, I give them the reimbursement form and they send it to their insurance. And I let them know that the fee that they might get back may not be the same uh amount that my service was, but that is my fee. And if they're okay with that, we can get we could get started. So that's what I let them know. I go, hey, you know what? I know my fee might be a little bit different from the amount that you're gonna get back, but that is my fee. Would you still like to continue today? And if they don't want to do it, most of the time they I have no problem. Everybody's like, I'll pay $125, I'll pay $145. I have no problem. I pay, I charge up to $250, whatever. They want to pay it because they already went to the dentist. The dentist hit them over the head with these astronomical prices, and then I let them know what's included. I give them a new toothbrush, uh, you know, I give them a goodie bag, I'll do fluoride if they need it. I'm gonna do any of the little extras just to really build in the experience. So um, that's how I feel like mostly of a lot of my success is collecting the finances up front. Do not let these insurances boggle you down because they will halt you right in your tracks because you're gonna feel like lost and you're gonna, it's gonna take you six to eight weeks to get paid, and then you're gonna get a denial letter in the mail, and you're like, is this worth it? It is worth it, but it is worth it if you do um business correctly. And I'd say beef for service. There's so many cash patients, they're willing to pay. I'm gonna tell you a quick story. I had a patient um not so long ago, but this guy, he's an he he's um on the reserve, he's an Indian, right? He went to the dentist, and I don't know, they're charging him maybe $1,500, $1,600 for his cleaning. He did need a little bit of a more detailed cleaning, you guys. He looks like three or fours, you know. He needed a good cleaning, he was like 32 years old. You know, he didn't have no mobility, but he had a lot of heavy calculus. He's a uh tobacco chewer, smoker. Um, so um he found me. One of his friends, somebody told me, I do get a lot of my patients that way. Uh, a lot of word of mouth, a lot of people find me. I come down here and I'm just about to tell him, you know, I'm thinking in my head because I do have a set kind of like a flexible, like uh a rate for like, okay, if I'm gonna do a deep cleaning today, at least it's gonna be around 350. Or I'm thinking in my head. So after doing his evaluation, doing his probing, I'm about to tell him the kind of cleaning that I'm feeling that he needs. I'm about to tell him the price, my price range. And he says, Can you take $700? Will you take that? Oh, yes, I can take $700. That I will definitely do this. I will do this deal for you, you know, because $1,500 that was a lot of money for him. I am talking about finances a little bit so that you guys can understand this is a business, right? You need to get paid. So there you go. One person, $700. I would have to work eight hours somewhere plus a day and a half to make $700 in an hour. Okay. So there is a lot of money to be made. You have the flexibility, you have the overhead. So a lot of my overhead is, and let me know if I'm going off. I want to make sure that I'm kind of you know staying in it. You know, you're doing good.
SPEAKER_00I think there's a I I know we're trying to pack in a lot in an hour and trying to hit a lot of the questions.
SPEAKER_01This is why dentists write us off a lot of the time. I learned, I couldn't believe how much of hygiene was written off. And I'm like, oh my god, I did that service and you you guys didn't get paid for it. Like that makes me feel bad. But you know, the thing is, is that we're we're not even trained to learn the dental the business side of dentistry, and so it really always puts us in this awkward position. Like, well, I'm am I here just to be a clinician? But you should understand numbers because, well, one, obviously, like patients, it is a business, especially if you want to go out on your own and start making making money. You you do have to really understand that it is a business, and you can be both. You can be an ethical, great clinician, and you can also get paid for the service that you rendered. That's just the name of the game. And once you understand what that's like and how much that you should be charging, it's great business. It's a wonderful business. So that's why the dentist sometimes I don't even know if they really understand because they're busy writing us off. They're like, oh, it was only $45. You see, because at Edna only paid $45. Uh, I got paid $125 that day, so I don't know what he's talking about. But anyway, so that is a huge big thing. Is you get into business, you have your license, you have your malpractice now, you have
Collaborative Dentists Charting And X-Rays
SPEAKER_01your um, you know, you you go to your city, you make sure that you can work in that area, you get your city license, you make sure you're zoned. If you want to work in an office like mine that's designated for beauty, I can have a nurse in here. This office is zoned for multiple professions. If you want an office like that, you can so gladly do it, uh, especially in Colorado here. You know, I have to do all these other hoops and pay all these extra things, but I did make it happen. Okay, so let me make sure I go back to the list here. Otherwise, I don't know, I might go on a tangent on something that I found it wasn't. And you know, just leaving off on that, um, and a lot of people ask, like, oh, do you make the same or do you make like why why when I could just go clock in? I'm gonna tell you guys, like the first few years, yeah, I made about the same as I would, but a few things take into take this number into account, right? So if I go to the mobile home and say my rate is 250, right? For me to go to you, bring everything to you, and clean your teeth and everything, say just hypothetically, that's my rate. It's 200, it's 250. And then I get there, and then someone else is like, Well, I want I want my husband's teeth clean, you know, he's in a bed too. If I see three people, I already made over 700. So that happens sometimes. And I now have contracts with senior livings. I show up, I see three or four people. I made my 800, 900, maybe even a thousand dollars, and I'm done for the day, right? I had time to go do yoga, I had time to pick up my kids. It's not just about, you know, um, even you know, the financials, it's my freedom. For me, I I like the flexibility. I usually work 11 to 3. Those are the tower, those are the times I take a uh, I usually take lunch around two o'clock. I go pick up my my high schooler, and then I do homeschool my per my she's about to be in second grade, but I homeschool too just because she's a little hyperactive. Okay, so I was sick of running around, getting to pick her up. I was like, you know what, we're gonna homeschool. She's a little special, you know. It's okay. But the thing is, is I have to be present in my children's life, and there's no amount of money um that you can pay me in an office to give me this freedom. It's priceless. Being able to go on vacation, I I don't know, maybe some of you follow me. I took my husband to Lisbon for his birthday. We spent six days. I'm not putting no time in, no one's out telling me when I'm gonna show up, when I'm coming back. I come back when I want to. So the most important thing too is like for me to get out there, how do I find patience? Right? You're like, how do I find patience? A lot of people do find me. I am blessed enough to have a husband that is a graphic designer and he also is a web builder. He did build my website and he built it very, very well with these SEOs. Like, I pee, I have find people emailing me around the clock. So I am very a lot of people find me off of my website and then they message me, send me a message, they book it. I do have a booking fee. It's $10. They book it, they come in. Otherwise, that's my time. I come down. So I work by appointment only. That's how I'm able to do it. I put my schedule, I block my time, people see the slot and they do it, and that's it. That's how it goes. And then I do I'm very, very active in my community. I go to community centers, I go to I go to the pregnancy resource center, I go to high schools, I go to colleges, I go to alcohol anonymous homes. I am everywhere. And it's a good thing, you know. I'm bringing them toothbrushes, I'm just spreading the word about hygiene. A lot of people didn't even know. I have a patient, I don't even know how she found me. I have a patient from Germany. I don't know, she typed in independent hygienists and she was like, Yeah, I knew you guys had these here. I wanted to see you all my teeth clean like by a hygienist, and I don't like the dentist down the street. I had um a blind lady from Canada. She came in, she was visiting her son because he's having his resident at Loma Linda, and she's all hygienists are independent in Canada. I've always had my teeth clean. So these people, they're gonna find you and they they want to be seen, right? So it's it's having that availability. But those were some of the questions, like, well, how do you find patients? I am out in my community. So that and that's how a lot of people come in. They find me. Yeah, and so and then real quickly, and because you guys are in Colorado, you guys can do teeth whitening. A lot of people come in. So in the state of California, you cannot do teeth whitening as a dental hygienist, but you can be a business owner and you can partner with uh teeth whitening tech, or you can I can talk to you later and give you the legal setup on how to legally do it in the state of California. But in Colorado, you don't need to do that extra hoop as well. Now, because I have a separate entity business that I am collaborating with that does teeth whitening, all these people that come in that need teeth whitening, guess what they need? A cleaning. They need a cleaning. That's right, everybody needs a cleaning, so they get sent right over to my to my chair. Everybody and their mom, everybody's getting clean. Then they can go back.
SPEAKER_00I just love the like double, I call it a double dip, but it really is savvy business mindset. There's so many adjunct therapies that can happen within all of our states that create income. And really, when you own your own business, you can be so super creative. Like, I mean, it's amazing how Sade has a you know a building and she has built these individual rooms to be able to offset costs and of course increase her income without having extra responsibilities because the other hygienists are their own their that's their company that they're running.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So speaking of that, now I'm in the third hygiene room. So yes, we have three hygiene rooms and they all have their own style. This girl, she's very cutesy girl. She loves purple. I did provide the chair, and obviously I provide the equipment, but she does her own colors, she loves everything purple. She also really loves showing her patients their their mouth on a 75-inch screen TV. Hey, to each his own. I was gonna give her my other TV, but she's like, no, I want this TV. And that's the great thing about hygiene. Look at all of our rooms are so separate. Nobody's the boss, nobody's telling anybody nothing. You come in, this is your space, you do what you want. So that's another thing that I would say is that you need to partner up. We're stronger together. Why are you going out doing everything on your own? And then she's going out doing everything on your own when you can be together under the same roof. You know, we're a sisterhood and brotherhood. Okay, there's a few of us, right? Uh, the some voice, yes, though they are part of the two. But I just want you to know it's you do so much better. We're together. You know, I'm already 39, okay. I can't believe it. But some of these girls are quite a bit younger than me and they've got lots of energy, and there's just enough plaque to go around. Some of my patients I've seen for many years, they want to come at 7 a.m. I'm done with that. Okay, I need to have my coffee, I need to go for a quick walk. And you know what? I text my girls. I have my group group text. I go, hey, who wants to see George? Yeah, he pays 140 or whatever, you know. Who wants to see him? Somebody's on it. They want to get it because they want to come early, they want to be here from 7, 8, 9. They want to make their quick 600. They want to be done with the day. There's one girl I see her here at 7 p.m. That is her prerogative. She likes to help people that come from after work. So that's the thing. You can work with how you want, when you want. That's that's it. It's the freedom. So if the best thing I could tell you, if you want to know when you're what is this business all about? What do what when you're in Colorado? Well, what's the difference? Well, you're not sitting there for eight hours, somebody micromanaging you, unless you love it, unless you just want to do that. Me personally, I don't. Oh, I honestly I just want to be on the beach. I, you know what, there's just enough plaque to go around. I say that all the time. What do I look like cleaning a hundred teeth all the time? No, I just need to see three or four patients and I'm done. You know, once you figure out what's your worth and how much you want to make in a day, you can calculate that. You have someone, you put them on the schedule, 250, 250, that's 500. I do a perio maintenance, another 130, whatever. I I'm okay with that. I don't need to make if I was uh when I was younger, a little bit more hustler, but I'm hustling enough. These girls pay me the lease, they come and go, they do what they want, they hustle, they make their own money. I make mine. We're good. I'm comfortable. You know what I'm saying? So um teamwork is so important. Uh, you we should be having hygiene only practices, like everywhere that you can. If you can exercise your rights, you need to do it. And that's why I do it. This anyway, this is our like little snack area. I need to put better snacks in here for my girlies. Um, and then here is the sterilization area. There's our sterilizing stuff, so lots of stuff to do. Mind you, like we moved in last year. I built this from the ground up. Uh, when I first started off on my first um office, you know, I invested like uh $10,000, $15,000 to get it going. Um, because it was a it was a whole room. I I did invest in this building, $50,000. I'm gonna be honest, but you can start slow. You start small, okay? You get your little portable unit, you get all the instruments that you want. You don't need to go big overnight. You know, you start small, you get the small room, you get the small room. My first room, I think my my lease was like 600 bucks. So, you know, I could pay that. I did two two cleanings, three cleanings, I already paid it. The rest of the the money for the month was mine. So then then I got a bigger space, and then I moved to this space. I did this for for the if you think about it, at the end of the day, I could have stayed three doors down in my little bubble by myself. It was a $900 lease. I just have to worry about myself. But you know, when these hygienists started coming at me, like, well, where do we go? Where do we work? What should we do? And I'm like, you know what? I already have everything. I already designated the area, I already have the internet, the music, or everything you need. Why don't we just work together? You know? So I invested in them. I did this for the profession. I can just be sitting, I can be doing what I want. But I did this because uh we need it. We we we just need you guys to do this. Like, I don't want this profession. Like, do you know why I do this? Because I had a patient, I have patients that come in. I had a patient that came in. She just went to the dentist and she came in to do a whitening, and the technician's like, oh, maybe you should see hygienists. There's like a lot of black calculus. Sends her to my chair, and I'm taking intraorals. I do have an intraoral, I do love, I love the intraoral, so I do use my intraoral camera a lot. Um, I do have a sensor, I do take x-rays, like I said, if need be, but I'm just letting you know. So, anyway, I'm taking these pictures and then I'm showing her all this black calculus, and she's like, My dentist just cleaned my teeth two weeks ago. How did he miss all that? And I'm not saying that hygienists don't miss stuff. I'm just saying that's why, oh my god, I was like, thank God I'm here, and I have the autonomy to be able to render the service to someone who needed it. How long is she gonna walk around with that black calculus? She just saw the dentist. So that's what I mean, guys. Every time someone says, Thank you so much, you did such an amazing job. It's like that's why we do it. So we have to, you know, use um, we have to exercise our rights because people need it. They're out there walking around with black calculus, just seeing the dentist. What the heck? So, anyway, that's why. That's why I do what I do because these patients, they're just so happy after they see me, you know, and and my girls, they get to shine and look, put that little fake olive tree in the room. That's what makes me shine. Letting them do these things like that. And I just was saying thank you so much for the the pioneers in Colorado that you guys are doing it and had these practices. Me, I just I'm here to like light a fire. That's what I do. I'll light a fire under you and get you moving, get you going, and let you know that you can do it. I'm here to encourage and inspire you. Um, it I don't care where you're at, you know, especially okay, someone I just want to answer New York, you know. Um, that's very new. And I'm so glad you guys are gonna be portable, mobile, and you will have um the same thing. You will work with the dentist, you'll have a collaborative relationship. Here's
Pricing Insurance Pushback And Getting Paid
SPEAKER_01the states, Washington is portable and they're collaborative. Oregon, you can have a brick and mortar and you could be portable. California, you could be portable, brick and mortar. Believe it or not, Arizona, that you can be a brick and mortar, but you have to own your business with the dentist percentage, but you can be brick and mortar. New Mexico, you can be brick and mortal, brick and mortar, and you could be portable, and you do have that collaborative relationship. You know, Colorado is number one. I don't know why you guys, I'm very excited. Come on, you guys, you guys can do this. You guys should be the hype man, you know. So, anyway, you know, thank God for Colorado, you guys killing it over there, but let's go, come on, get it, let's go. Um, and then and then Maine, Maine can do it too. They're over there doing it too. But the thing is is to share the information. What is the point of the of the profession if you're not gonna share it? Let me tell you why. Because if you're not gonna share the information, and of course, if you have your tidbits, you want to share this is you, this is your style. The thing is, it's collaborative. Think about the dentist, you know what I mean? Like you see them, they're doing this together, they're doing that. Hygienist, you have to be together. We stand united because if not, the profession, they think, ah, these little girls, they just want to do whatever. This is a hobby. This is not a hobby, this is my business. I uh, you know what? I uh I barely cleared for the first time over 200,000. So this is not a little business, okay? So they'll probably be kind of sad if they see my accounts. But the point is this is that you can do it, you can be successful, you can share information, uh, you can partner up, you can have a great, fulfilled life is short. Get out there, live your best life. Um, and um, you know, hygiene can shine, but we shine together. That's what I took from the nurse practitioners. They fought really, really hard and they did it unified.
SPEAKER_00So the first questions from Mary where did you send the information that there was a shortage, the state board of dentistry or somewhere else?
SPEAKER_01So I sent it to my the dental board of California. I sent it to the Dental Hygiene Board of California. That's where I sent it. And then you can find the information. Actually, if you guys want to email me more easier um uh afterwards, is there a way to send everybody my email?
SPEAKER_00Or I'm gonna do a formal contact information sheet to everyone that's here so that you guys can ask questions to whomever you want, so that you're more than welcome to inbox me about all things Colorado. Because if I don't know the answer to that, I definitely have the resources to be able to get you the answer. And then if obviously Shaw Day is there for any California questions. This is meant to be very transparent, very open. Like we are here to uplift you to be able to take those next steps if that's what you want to do. So you don't feel alone, you don't feel scared, and of course, have someone to reach out with questions. Opening a business is is scary. There's no guarantee of success, but just knowing that there's someone to turn to and ask questions, that's what we're here for. I I saw in the chat a couple of the independent hygienists that are on here kind of collaborating already. Please do reach out.
SPEAKER_01That's what we should be doing. That's what this was for tonight, really. Because if you didn't know that there was an independent person, you know how many times people even write me from different states and they're like, oh, I didn't even know this was going on, or I didn't even know there was a person that was doing this for 10 years in my state. I'm like, oh, okay, so now you guys can connect, right? Um, so and there is no silly questions. Uh, I'm an open book. I'm any question, go ahead and ask me. They can, if they want to unmute, if anybody wants to put their hands up, or I just want to make sure, or if you still have to. Well, let me make sure that we answer these questions in the things. Got you.
SPEAKER_00I would I like how to yell at Lacey a little bit because we're doing just like I'm 53. If it is it too late, girl, it's never too late for nothing. Never. Like, come on. Um, you're 53. You're younger than JLo. Yeah, I mean, look at JLo. She's shaking everywhere. Okay, so Stefani and all of them. It is not too late. You have to decide how you want to make your exit from your career. And if that's as a business owner and you make it successful, guess what? You get to sell that to someone else that has that dream. So age does not matter. All right, next one. Does Colorado require a bachelor's degree? No, we do not. If you are a hygienist, you're a hygienist and you're able to go on your way. Is your practice fee for service, which you did answer that already only, or do you use your NPI for Medicaid insurance companies?
SPEAKER_01I do. I use an NPI. I do have I do take the Medi-Cal, but I'm gonna tell you that's a very, very long process. And I can break that down another day. But um, basically, it it does take a long time to get paid from them. But those are the only patients that I do. I do take their, like I I don't charge them the first visit. So, um, but their second visit, right. Their cleaning is out of the out of the covered and that's where they can pay. They can't pay for the first one if it's covered benefit, but if it falls out of it, out of this, out of the routine. And there's somebody you have to check their insurance. You have to check uh ahead of time because they could have gone somewhere and then the dentist already charged it out. So Medi-Cal patients, we do have to treat a little bit different. And yes, I do take them. And yes, I you do have to provide your MPI, but I'm I'm mostly fee for service. And then I give I give the reimbursement forms to everybody who has insurance.
SPEAKER_00So these next two questions, I think these are Colorado girlies because you guys have a very different process in California. So the two questions are how do you discuss bone loss with patients without x-rays? And then how are you doing SRP if you are not doing x-rays? So from the Colorado side, we are taking x-rays in our practice because they can come to us without permission. Like we can see someone straight off the street and they go, Hey, I want to see a hygienist. You need x-ray capability, you need all those things to provide care in the state of Colorado. We are, we would be practicing blind. I'm assuming Shade gets those from the dentists that are referring to her. So those are already done for you in the chart. They're already done.
SPEAKER_01And to be honest, I'm gonna be honest, like I see people, if you take my patient that he has head surgery, brain damage, he's not getting x-rays. There's a lot of patients they're not getting x-rays. You can still clean their teeth. You're you're you have to just work and you have to have an open mind, especially when you're working in some of these communities, that you're gonna be flexible. It's not to be in the office where, oh, here, where's my x-rays? I cannot see nothing. You're gonna clean their teeth. That's what you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00I want to preface. We all have the ability to do whatever business model works best for how you want to render care. I think it's very foreign for someone who owns a practice and they're like, How are you like, what do you mean you don't have x-rays?
SPEAKER_01Well, they're getting I do, and I do. I have I take them if I need them. I take them case by case. I'm telling you, I see autistic people. You just have to be more flexible when you're own boss. And I I have the right to be able to do the cleaning and send him to do the x-rays elsewhere. It's not you're not that blind, especially if you've been a hygiene for a long time. But if it is like a heavy SRP case, do what you gotta do. You could do it.
SPEAKER_00Mary, she says, How many patients do you typically see per day? Um, I'm five to two.
SPEAKER_01So I don't usually see more than four to five max. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And then what software and business software do you use? I know I have four million questions. You're so cute, Mary.
SPEAKER_01Teledentix. I use teledentics, and that's where I do my probing, that's where I do my patient notes, that's where I was processing claims, but now my patients do it for themselves. But that's where all my patient notes, that's where everything is secure. If you're starting off and you don't have time for telegendics, you should get an a little accordion and kind of do like paper charts. Um, and it has to be in a safe place, but I do have teledentics, and that is my software that encompasses everything. It is the cloud base that is the protection for the patient.
SPEAKER_00And just so you guys know, I started looking at software. Um, software is really interesting. There are some software companies that will not work with a hygienist, it's very, very odd.
SPEAKER_01And teledentics will give you $60 off if you use my name. I partnered with them. Um and it's about $140 to $160 a month, but you can get $60 off using my full name. And you can email me about that too. What does your tax situation look like?
SPEAKER_00I'm not sure what that really means.
SPEAKER_01I'm itemized, so because I'm not a W-2 employee, I can write off and I do write off everything. I'm itemized because I'm an I'm a business owner. Um, that's how I do my taxes. Um it's independent, and when I work places, do a little gigs, it's a $10.99. But my taxes come out really great. I could sit down. My mom is an accountant. Um, she does help me with those things. I mean, if anybody has more of those kind of questions, but it it it's just it's wonderful. You you just balance things, and I have the right to balance it the way I want. I can show this amount if I need to, or show this amount if I need to. So it's great.
SPEAKER_00I think Sahara came in late. You did answer this. She did say, Do we need to have a teeth whitening license in California?
SPEAKER_01You we could talk later, but you can partner with a separate entity business. You you're you don't have a license. Okay, whitening is free for everybody to do, right? It was already passed by law. That's why everybody and their mom does it at the at the malls and everywhere. It was deemed safe by the law that anybody can do it. Why they will not remove it off of your license so that you can do it too, that's the dental board, and that has to do with money. So that's something that we still need to continue to fight for. But in the meantime, it is a completely separate entity business separated from yourself completely. I cannot stress that enough. It is a separate business that you can work collaboratively with. And you can, if you want further details, you can call me or email and text me, and I can give you the full breakdown so you could do it legally. Work legally with the with the whitening business.
SPEAKER_00In the state of Colorado, we don't have to do all that. If you want to whiten teeth, whiten them teeth. Um, it's just trying to find a um a company that will sell you the equipment. Colorado Dental Hygiene Association is a super great resource. They actually have an independent hygiene tab that we are um adding to the list of companies that are hygiene friendly so that you can go immediately to them and not have to go through any red tape or have a dentist on your account just because they want a dentist on your account. Some companies have um uh sped up to the times and others have not. I feel like our money is green like everyone else, and I don't see why they wouldn't want it, but I guess if they don't want it, we want to make sure that we give it to the people that do want it. This is a fun one because I want to know this too. What are the hardest parts of your job? You know what?
SPEAKER_01Life, I you know what, it's not hard. Choose your hard. Working for a dentist is hard. Uh, you know, calling patients and and following up, yeah, it's a little hard to be on your own, but choose your hard. No, no, I love it. I I can't complain. There, you know, there's times like I had to email my patient. Oh, okay, uh, we need to reschedule you. It's not hard to me because when I had to work for a dentist that was micromanaging and asked me silly questions. Oh, did do you did you probe? If you ask me a some silly question one more time, oh, did you know that this doesn't go in the in the autoclave? Like, like before I even did it, I'm like, you know, I would have been a hygienist for 10 years at the time. No, that's hard. I cannot, I cannot do it. No, no, it's not hard. It's not hard for me to work independent. It's not hard. I I love it, but I guess I have to strategize and I have to have a
Marketing Patient Flow And Colorado Event
SPEAKER_01business plan every every month, but that's exciting to me. I think it comes from my mom, the business side, the money. Like, I like to see um, you know, I usually be I do 10k to 15k a month. So, no, I I love it.
SPEAKER_00So, I did want to let everyone know, I am hosting an in-person event here in Colorado. It's gonna be in Parker, Colorado. Sade is actually coming to Colorado. I'm excited, and we're gonna she's going to talk with us for three hours. We're gonna talk about business. We are gonna get into the meat of everything. You're gonna come back out with a blueprint. What also you're gonna have is I'm gonna have a panel of independent hygienists that are gonna be there to be able to talk about their journey, answer questions, and then I just added a marketing expert. Some of them you might even follow her, the relaxed hygienist. She actually lives here. Her and her husband have a marketing company, but for Sade, what was the one marketing thing that you're like, this one worked?
SPEAKER_01This worked for me. I would say, well, as soon as he made my website, because if you if you're a hygienist and you're trying to get out there, but there's not a website for a patient to find you. I I checked the analytics on my website and he he gives me like monthly stats, and I'm like, oh wow. Um, I would say having someone build it. So I was thankful to have him build me a really great website that's user-friendly and allows people to book with me immediately. You know what I mean? That's the difference of someone coming in or not. It he made it so user-friendly. They click, they add their in my chair the next day. So that um social media, I get a lot of people off of Instagram, believe it or not, a lot of those Gen Zs, they probably liked something they saw and they come see me. Just getting out there see, but I do think you do have to, you have to be out a little bit more. You have to have a website. Yelp is uh so so you know, you can have some really strange people that are on Yelp, but I prefer uh Google. Google's really good if you you have a brick and mortar or uh or you're okay with using if you're portable and you're okay with putting your uh address or if you have a business suite address, then Google is great at funneling people to your website. Yeah, I think you need to have a website as a as a if you have a business, you have to have a website.
SPEAKER_00Yep, that's perfect. So I did put the link in the chat. Um, the event in Parker, Colorado is August 22nd. It is a nominal fee of $115, and we are only taking 30 people. I want it small, I want it interactive, I want everyone to be able to have their questions answered. I want people to be able to be inspired. I'm also going to have specific vendors there that work with hygienist to increase our adjunct therapy offerings. So I'm trying to get people that experts. Shade has her expertise. I've got the panelists there, the independent practice owners that are going to share their expertise. I've got marketing expertise, and then we have vendors that work with hygienists that will allow us to open an account, and those services are things that we can charge our patients to increase our value to our patient. When it comes to like dental things, I'm ready to fight.
SPEAKER_01Like when it comes to legislate it, I will be on the phone. Uh, if I have to fight with the dentist, I will do it. I'm here for you. I'm ready to support you.
SPEAKER_00I hope to fill the room with the 30 seats that are there and um, you know, and just inspire everyone to be able to take a chance on themselves because that's what it is. You're taking a chance on you, and who knows, maybe there's a partner or a buddy that is like, hey, I want to take a chance together. So let's do this. Thank you guys so much for coming tonight. Any anything else that you want to say, Shadave?
SPEAKER_01Well, I just want to tell, I just want to remind you, amazing hygienists, that you guys are all amazing. Obviously, I have to be biased because I love hygienists. I love working with them, I love collaborating with them. You guys are amazing. You're you're already halfway there. You can do anything you put your mind to. I just want you to know you can ask me anything, and there is no bad question, there's no wrong question. I am your friend, I am your sister. You can reach out to me for anything. I just want you to know you have that support team. That's it, really. I just hope that you left encouraged and inspired. And I'm sorry if I didn't answer every question. I will go on a tangent, but but you can reach me personally, and that way I can give you the one-on-one and we can talk exclusively. You guys are amazing. Hygienis are really uh every uh hygienic me are is just such a cool person. So, you know what, you guys, thank you so much for spending this evening with me. I hope I got you got to see a little bit, it was just a snippet, but um, I will see you in Colorado. We can spend a little bit more time there, and then if you're in Cali, come see me.
SPEAKER_00Come check out my place. Yeah, I need you come down there to check out your place and you know, go to the beach for a little bit. Yeah, yep.
SPEAKER_01And when your girl gets back, if anybody wants facials, we're gonna be doing it all over here. You know, my West Coast girls, they know how we roll over here. So um, yeah. Well, thank you guys so much.