#902: How to Successfully Expand Your Range of Services

Dental A Team Podcast

Is there a service in the dentistry field you’re interested in learning more about — perhaps enough to add it to your practice? Tiff and Britt dive deep into how to go about expanding services. They give examples, how to tap into your creative side, hurdles that might come up and how to pivot, and more.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:01.134)

Hello Dental A Team listeners, we're back today. You've got Tiff and Britt and I'm using your Britt nickname today. Always, I said Brittany Stone last time and like you mentioned, like it's always a little weird. It's so weird to me when people say, this is Tiffanie. And I'm like, it's Tiff. Tiffanie is like so formal. It makes me sound, it either makes me feel like a child or old. Like there's no in -between. It's not my age right now. Whatever, whatever this in -between stages is Tiff. So Britt.

Welcome back. I'm excited to be here with you today. I think we have a fun topic that is right up your alley. You love the clinical stuff and this one's diving into clinical. How are you this beautiful afternoon? Yeah.

Britt (00:44.197)

different crowds. don't know about you, Brittany or like Brett or if you're Tiffanie or Tiff for me, like it just it depends on what crowds and like kind of like what phase of life did I go by my full name or my short name. So but I'm doing great today. I'm excited to be here. Agreed. I love chatting a variety of things, right? So it's always fun. We love it with clients because you never know what they're gonna throw at us, which just makes our life super fun, which I think we love about it. And I think we've got a fun one for everybody today.

The Dental A Team (00:54.293)

Yes! I agree!

The Dental A Team (01:07.628)

So true.

The Dental A Team (01:13.036)

I agree. I agree. I do love I like have a love hate for it. I should say, right? Like I love being thrown curveballs. But then sometimes I'm like, Whoa, my brain. Like this is a big one or dang, I had 15 curveballs but five with five clients this just today like and sometimes it's exhausting but I do love it. I had a client yesterday. We were talking about

Britt (01:22.03)

That's nice.

The Dental A Team (01:38.528)

something I can't even I told the last podcast I told you I can't remember all that far. But we're talking about something and I was like, gosh, this is actually it was it's a different type of marketing. And it was two days ago. That's why I can't remember. But they're in a space they're in a they're in Texas. And they're in a community in Texas that is it's just oil fields like they're just it's the oil field industry. And

Initially, they're like, how do we stop cancellations? I'm like, fantastic. Like, here's some pieces, here's some things. And then we're like digging through and we're realizing, I'm like, listen, guys, like, let's put these pieces into play for sure. But sometimes you're just in a place that's like, you're going to experience cancellations. These people are getting sent out at midnight for three months to go work in a different oil field. Like they don't have the flexibility. And so it was really cool. And the conversation, the point I say this is like,

I had to really think outside the box and I said, you guys, your marketing, your systems, while I have systems that are tied and true and I know that they work, this is why doing it here is different. I may say this is why Dental A Team is different, because calling further in advance on your confirmations or telling them you're going to charge them or coming up with all of these solutions that work for many practices, let's implement those for sure, but you've got a different

type of community. I think changing your marketing to we're here when you need us, because that's what you're hearing. And more of that like same day, let's get patients in, hey, call us, switching the marketing efforts is going to work in your area. And the reason that was so cool was because it was so drastically different than majority of other clients. And it was really fun to

get that outside the box thinking and like, gosh, okay, let's put our hats on and we brainstorm together and the hygienist in that call was just like, she stood up at the end and she was like, I am so excited for this because at the end of every visit, when I walk them up and I do my NDTR, I tell them, if you need anything else between your appointments, we're here for you, please call. She's like, so this is expanding on that and I was like, you've already been priming your patients for it.

The Dental A Team (03:48.199)

This is exactly what we need to do. But it was so cool, Britt, because that just highlights like the differences and really getting thrown those curve balls and having fun with it and really diving in and figuring out where are you and how can we expand on that. And that's something I think clinically that we want to talk about today even is really how to expand your range of services. And Britt, I know I didn't prep for this piece and I do this to you guys all the time.

I realized that but my brain just is like ping, ping, ping, ping, and I just go for it. So before we even get into like the super doctor clinical stuff, I know that you as a practicing hygienist before you were all into the state you guys, if I need any information on what the dental industry is doing and what's progressing, I know Britt's my girl. So she I know that you have always been so invested in that and I would love to pick your brain right now on.

Britt (04:34.747)

Thank

The Dental A Team (04:44.87)

Before we talk about doctor clinical, hygiene clinical, and how did you as a clinician or as being over the clinicians as a manager, how did you help hygiene to expand their services?

Britt (04:59.291)

Yeah, so I mean, it's always fun. Doctor can do a lot more than the rest of the team, right? So when we get there, there's a lot more options. And for hygienist and even assistants, right? It's gonna be a little bit of like, what can you do within your state, right? That you're under your license, under your scope of practice that you can do. I'd say number one, be aware of that. And even if you want to be able to do more in your state, even I would say encourage you to like.

be involved if you want to, you know, you can give anesthesia now and that's something that hygienists want, you want to be able to do one day, be involved with your local associations and things and help move those things forward. Cause it'll help to expand and just make you a, like a more advanced clinician in the end of it. So that's my like one plug is like, cause I know every state's going to be a little bit different and then know what you can or can't do and explore it. And at the end of the day, hygienists and doctors, right? Whatever

and assistance, whatever we see that's gonna be a benefit to our patients, kind of like to what you were talking about, custom fit it, but what are the advancements? What are the new things? What can we do that would be beneficial to our patients and in line with our standard of care or something we might wanna evaluate and adding to our standard of care? What is there number one and just get familiar with it.

and then see if it's something that you want to be able to add to your practice. know I'm a big laser fan from like back in the beginning when I first got out of school, because it's something we could do in Arizona. I'm a big believer in it for those who can do it. If you're not doing it, it might be something worth considering and starting to look into to see if it'll benefit your patients. I love it. I know these days a lot of hygienists like Airway, Myofunctional are big things that are coming out now that can be super beneficial. And a lot of people are learning that.

Even things like for assistance, right? Being able to learn to do things that like maybe your doctor is doing now, but you could do. Those are also things that are expanding. Maybe it's not a new procedure for our practice, but you, it's expanding you and what procedures you can do, which is gonna help the practice overall. So I think just look, be aware of what's out there. Read your articles, be a part of groups, go to your CEs and just be aware of what.

Britt (07:14.477)

exists so then you can determine what might be good. And I think for doctors, doctors are they've got a lot on their shoulders and they're they learn a lot and they're exposed to a lot. But team members bring stuff up to doctors all the time that they haven't heard about or they didn't know their team would be interested in doing and you can help to kind of have the practice progress and expand things.

The Dental A Team (07:36.275)

I totally agree. I love all of that. I may you're gonna say laser, I think laser is huge. I think it's a giant benefit. And I think that got really hyped when it you know, first started and then people are like, I don't know. And I think it's something that kind of has fallen off. So I, I surely encourage hygienists to go do that. But something else that you mentioned was the like my functional space, the airway, the sleep apnea, those spaces, and I actually worked with a client over the summer.

who had a really fantastic, thriving sleep department. And she did it, it's taken years to get there and she's done it. They've got the systems and processes, everything's written down, write it down. But the interesting piece to me about it was that the doctor barely touched that department. She had a hygienist that loved it, that just saw the need. She, from a personal level, she connected with it.

Britt (08:09.317)

Thank

Britt (08:26.171)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (08:34.826)

She loved it, she wanted it to do well, and the doctor handed it over to her. So she had a hygienist that went and learned all of this stuff down to the medical billing. Like she's processing the claims for that department. So one of her top hygienists in her practice actually is now running her sleep department. And so expanding her range of services, and I'm not saying go pull a hygienist to start a sleep department. I'm saying look for the things that interest you guys and see how can you expand on that, even if it's something

you're already doing, how can you do more of that? I think is what Britt's saying, but watching them thrive in that personally, like she was so happy and she loves hygiene. She still does like a day or two of hygiene a month because she loves hygiene, but she was genuinely lit up talking to me about the sleep department. And so it expanded the services of the practice, but it expanded the services for her and the impact she can potentially make.

personally on on the community. So I love that you said that. That highlights a piece that I want to make sure we talked about was what interests you. So hygienists, RDAs, FDs, dental assistants, doctors, associates, all of you guys. What interests you? Like what do you look at and you're like, gosh, that would be cool. But maybe you're afraid to step your foot into and dip that toe in and kind of test the waters or you're like, gosh, it just seems so hard or whatever.

reason why aren't you doing it? What interests you? I've had a lot of practices this year that I that were like, gosh, I need to expand services. One PPL reimbursements suck you guys we know that and when you can expand services, you can do higher value things like obviously it makes the production the collections easier. So I had a lot of practices this year that were like, I can't and don't want to drop insurances, but how do I make more? So one space I had them evaluate

was to because most people don't put it in their system. I hope you are track, truly track what you're referring out and how many of those things you're referring out. So root canals, perio procedures, implants, oral surgery procedures. I love all of my specialists. I love you. But really if there's something in there for my dentists and FDs and RDAs and all of you guys, like, is there something

The Dental A Team (11:00.851)

that you enjoy and you want to learn more about, look at what you're referring out. Kavya, I had an office Brit, she was like, I refer out a ton of root canals. I wanna do root canals in office. And I said, okay, we can do that. We can pull root canals back in office. There's courses all over the place that you can go get refreshers on. There's an hour -end course I know of that's fantastic. You can do this. She's like, okay.

I said, let's sit on this. Like, let's think about the work it's going to take and let's evaluate how many root canals you're going to do. I talked to her on our next two week call two weeks later. She was like, Tiff, I hate root canals. I was like, yeah, I didn't think you liked them, but I needed to go. We needed to go with it for a second. She's like, I don't want to do root canals. I send them out because I hate them. Cool. Then let's not do root canals. Let's look at the other pieces. So caveat is don't pull things in just to expand services, just to offer more, just to make more money. If you hate doing something, don't do it.

Do more of what you love. So we're evaluating here to look at what interests you and how can we do more of it? Are there things, Britt, you mentioned, you mentioned, right, you talked about, right, getting the things that the hygienist can do and within your state it's different, especially when it comes to FDAS, RDAs, dental assistants. It's all over the place, you guys. In Arizona, like, we don't get any special acknowledgement, we just.

do everything and you either know or you don't know and you learn it. So, Wild Wild West out here, California, Colorado, like they're Colorado's placing fillings, right? Like that's cool, Tennessee, they're placing fillings, they're like a provider. Here, I actually don't know anymore what that is. I mean, I know what is fine.

Britt (12:44.057)

It depends. There's some places where it's rural and even hygienists can place fillings if they get certification for it. So sometimes there's some if it's an area in need. that's where it's like, know what's going on in your state.

The Dental A Team (12:50.182)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (13:00.246)

Exactly, exactly. And to speak to that point, like once you do know, Britt, like you said, for those spaces, hygienists, for sure. But then you guys, my RDAs, my FDs, my dental assistants that are listening, I know what it's like to feel like such a big important piece of that appointment and feel like, gosh, I really helped this patient or I really helped my doctor. Go figure out what you can do. And where can you expand so that your

expanding your range of services because that adds value in. Britt, I'm sure you've seen it too. You've got practices too, or have worked with practices too, who have these expanded functions that they're able to do in hygiene and or assisting side. And what has that done when they take on those pieces and the support team will call them, right? The support team is like, no, like I can do this. Let me do it. What does that do for the doctors? What have you seen for the doctors? Like what are they available to do them?

Britt (13:57.371)

Yeah, I want to say first, even for my assistant, I'm a big believer in anyone within a dental office. This is your profession. Like you are a professional. So by expanding your skills, you are just expanding yourself as a professional and what you can do. like, I want to throw that in. Number one is like, I hope you all view yourselves that way. That's how I view all of you because it's true. You have amazing skills. You do amazing things every day. And by working to like the highest level of your ability,

taking on those things, learning them from your doctor, getting the trust from your doctor where you're able to go and do it on your own, frees the doctor up to be able to do more of the things that only they can do. I always say doctors are our ultimate limiting factor, right? How many doctors do we have in the practice? How many of the rest of the team do we have? It's usually at least two to one, if not three to one when it comes to doctrine, we're pulling them in a million different directions. So the more we can do,

I'll tell you for hygiene, I'm like great when my assistants can do a lot, that means my exams are going to be more on time. So it helps a lot. We can fit in more patients for treatment because we can utilize our assistants and be able to take care of more patients throughout the day. And you guys know, like doctors do a great job of knowing our patients and building that relationship.

The Dental A Team (14:59.439)

Yes.

Britt (15:13.603)

hygiene assistant front desk, like you guys know those patients. So you also help to give them a great experience that you're there with them through most of that appointment. You're taking care of a good part of that appointment. Doctor gets to come in and do the part that they need to do. And then you take care of the rest of it. And I have seen for assistance, right? It's performing to the extent that you can on a lot of those things I talked about.

But I also have assistants who are helping to like manage team, manage supplies, find, you know, better prices for things. They're learning to design crowns or learning to mill crowns. is so much that you can learn to do. But like I said, just builds you up as a professional and makes it so we can take care of more patients within our office.

The Dental A Team (15:59.5)

I love that. I love all of that. think one thing I didn't even think about that you mentioned was like learning how to do the crowns or learning how to do the 3D machines or the impressions or the scans that you need to send things out. Like that's, that's a space I didn't even think of. And I love that you said that.

Britt (16:10.055)

Thank

Britt (16:17.5)

3D printers, right? Some of them, like, they're printing out, you know?

The Dental A Team (16:18.982)

Yes.

Britt (16:22.511)

retainers, or they're printing out dentures and all that stuff. And there's some cool, there's a lot of cool stuff that are advances if your office has it that like, if they do, or if you're looking into it, those are the things that the team helps drive the doctor so much because the doctor can't do everything right again, they're one person, even if we've got multiple doctors compared to how many team members we have. But if a doctor has a team member that's like, I'm here with you, I'm here to learn it with you, let's do it.

doctor is going to be a lot more confident to say all right let's do it and it helps everybody.

The Dental A Team (16:58.052)

I totally agree. I did a podcast not long ago with the dentist on here. Dave Mogadam you guys can search for it somewhere and they might put them in notes, whatever. But he spoke on that about some advanced courses that he's taken this year, that he actually took some of his dental assisting team with him so that they could learn that stuff because he doesn't. He loves it. He gosh, this man is creative. Like he would sit all day. he has a 3d printer at home.

that he plays with that he makes toys with. He brought me a toy like the next day at the office, he brought me a little toy and made me this little octopus thing. But I was like, my gosh, he loves the creative side. But he sees the value in allowing his team to have a part to play in that and allowing his team to learn it. And I don't think you always have to go to the courses. A lot of those places will send somebody out to your practice too. But the value in that is huge. And now he's been able actually, I just talked to him today and he

Britt (17:25.435)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (17:53.894)

had his first sedation day. And so he's been able to like implement other bigger, broader things into his practice to add value to expanding his range of services because his dental assisting team has been able to take things on like that. So I love that you said that. Now within the doctor space, I think it's super important, you guys, I'm gonna go back to the beginning on what interests you. What are you sending out that maybe you could keep in house if it interests you?

And why aren't you doing it? That's my biggest question. If it interests you, why aren't you doing it? Overcome that fear, overcome that hurdle, and go for it. I think right now is the perfect time, maybe even a little bit late, to choose your CE for 2025. Like, choose your CE whatever year you're listening to this in. Make sure next year your CE is already chosen by...

October. Know what you want next year to look like. And if you don't know, that's okay, like it'll it'll come. That's fine. But plan that out. Because one of the biggest hurdles that I hear from doctors, and the reason they're not expanding services, or they're not doing the thing they truly want to do is time, time, and money. And I have a doctor, we're working on next for next year, reducing the number of days it should take to hit his minimum goal, because he wants to do so much CE and his issue is time.

and being able to provide financially for his team. So taking off time at the office and seeing the impact that that has on his team, we've got to like, finagle some workarounds and some goals so that we can still pay the team, whatever, right? But that hurdle, we're working through it. So if you know what your hurdles are, what's holding you back from doing the thing that you truly want to do, now you can plan a workaround. Okay, great. If that's the hurdle,

How do we get you more time? And you get into this space, think, Britt, I know I get in this space and you help pull me out where it's just like, I can't see outside of the problem because I'm so in the problem. it is just like, sometimes I'm just like, no, it just sucks. And you're like, okay, it sucks today. We'll come back tomorrow. It's fine. And you navigate that really well with me. So kudos and thank you.

The Dental A Team (20:08.871)

But sometimes that's the space I think that we get into with expanding services too. Like, gosh, yeah, that would be cool Tiff, but like, how am I supposed to do that? Brett, I have no time. And so, Brett, think something that we do really well is taking our doctors from that space. Like, where is it that you want to go? And this is, want to go, I want to do the service. And then we work backwards and say, cool, this is the path that's going to get you there. What are the hurdles that are going to come up that we can anticipate?

not all of them are anticipated, right? But what can we anticipate within this path? What hurdles may come that we can have a pivot ready for so we can work around it. And if it's the time or the money, fan -freaking -tastic, it's October and we're planning for next year. Guess what, guys? We can do anything with your goals. We just add it into your goals and we make the magic happen. that's the easy space of it. But what interests you? Why aren't you doing it? What are you sending out?

What are things that your support team can help with and do they want to? And then choose your CE for next year. Those are my biggest points. And Brit, for someone that's just like on the edge of their seat, gosh, this Brit and Tiff, are freaking amazing. And you've got me pumped up and ready to go. But they're like, ha. And then two weeks later, they forgot about this. What do you suggest for them? Like, how do they stay motivated in this space of potential busy and chaos? And I'm not ready to look at that. What would you say to your client?

today to keep that motivation.

Britt (21:39.163)

Yeah, I think that right thoughts not written down or put into motion get lost, right? And so we've got to do something to where either

It's maybe going on a whiteboard in your office. So you see it there regularly and you know that that's something you want to work towards. Maybe it's like looking up the course and when's the next date and putting that up somewhere so that you know that that's what you're working towards or having some sort of accountability buddy. I think if you're normal, we all get to those spots where it's like, I can't see past my nose right now and I need someone to help me see past my nose and we've got to step away or get someone from an outside perspective to pull us out of it.

thing with treatment and so it's like make it something that's gonna put into motion. Don't make it just a thought, write it down somewhere, schedule the event, pick what you want to go to, something to move forward and you know what doctors? Go into a course about it.

It still doesn't tie you to anything right now. Like, so if you're like, hey, I'm interested in it, but like, my gosh, it seems like such a big thing to tackle. Start with one thing. Start with one thing and see if you're as interested as you are. And I say the same thing to...

I'll just add one last thing to sometimes it's the market we're in that's also going to drive you right. I've got some docs who are in areas where we may not have a lot of specialty around. And so they're like, my gosh, I feel for my patients. I want to be able to do more for them, but I don't know.

Britt (23:09.231)

This is where Tiff and I are coaching you. Take the push, go take a course on it and just start to explore it and you get exposed to people who have done it. You can do whatever you want. Like at the end of the day, if you really want to do it, you can. And sometimes it's just explore it first, take the first step and that's all you need to do right now. And then take the next step.

The Dental A Team (23:28.787)

Yeah, one step at a time. I love that. I love the whiteboard idea. Alright guys, I hope you feel motivated. I hope you feel powerful. I hope you feel excited to go find something. It doesn't have to be grandiose. It doesn't have to be something big. But go find something that excites you that you can learn or you can add and you can expand what you're offering in the next year. Go do it.

Drop us a review below five stars are always appreciated. Let us know what you decide I want to know what you guys are doing too because Britt I don't know about you but that's where a lot of our Knowledge base comes from is picking the brains of the people we work with so share that breadth of knowledge Leave us a review Reach out. [e-mail] we want to hear from you guys And if you need help working that backwards like if you're like gosh, I just can't see through it you guys We have coaches too. I have a coach that helps me

work through things in my life that helps me work through my health and fitness and mindful journey like all of those pieces. We all have coaches and we are here for you for those types of things. That's what we love. That's where our passion lies. And I want you guys to understand if you need it or if you just need a little smidgen of direction, reach out. [e-mail]. are here to help you guys. And I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day.