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Episode 175 – Mind-Blowing Shifts to Reimagine the Patient Experience with Paul Vigario

“Creating a really unique, specialized patient experience is a great way to create a competitive-free zone.”
-Paul Vigario

Too many dentists simply go through the paces with running their dental practice. But that’s the problem: if everyone is doing it, you won’t stand out.

But you and your patients deserve better. If you want to know how entrepreneurs like yourself take your office to the next level, this is how: they reimagining the ordinary.

There is no better time than now to reimagine the patient experience.

We want you to build a dental practice that goes to work for you. So if you’re ready to create an awesome practice that shines in the community, join us today as we dive into how you can creating a competitive-free zone by delivering a mind-blowing patient experience, including:

  • Transactional to transformational: how brand helps you with an emotional connection
  • Translating your core values into a spectacular in-office experience
  • What’s the cost of creating a spectacular experience?

Bonus: 3 Questions to ask yourself that could help you use your patient experience to craft the practice of your dreams.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:00
Hi, Dr. Regan, Robertson, CCO productive dentist Academy here and I have a question for you. Are you finding it hard to get your team aligned to your vision, but you know, you deserve growth just like everybody else. That’s why we’ve created the PDA productivity workshop. For nearly 20 years PDA workshops have helped dentists just like you align their teams, get control of scheduling, and create productive practices that they love walking into every day. Just imagine how you will feel when you know your schedule is productive, your systems are humming, and your team is aligned to your vision. It’s simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. We can help visit productive@dentists.com/workshop that’s productive@dentist.com/workshop to secure your seats. Now,

Paul Vigario 0:46
with that Northern Star, you can go from being transactional to transformational, and that is really a profound difference. So creating a very unique and specialized patient experience that has patients raving and telling their friends and getting home and sharing with their spouses and their significant others and anyone who will listen, is a really great way to create a competitive free zone.

Regan 1:20
Welcome to the Everyday Practices Podcast. I’m Regan Robertson, and my co-host Dr. Chad Johnson and I are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical, proven methods you can take right into your own dental practice. If you’re ready to elevate patient care and produce results that are anything but ordinary, buckle up and listen in.

Regan 1:52
Welcome to another episode of Everyday Practices Dental podcast I am your host, as always Reagan Robertson, and I am having a one-on-one interview today that you will not want to miss. It is my absolute honor to introduce Pavel Garrido. He’s an American entrepreneur, innovator, and founder CEO of Surf CT, which is a design, brand, and technology integration company. Today listeners you are going to learn why there is never been a better time to reimagine the patient experience, and let me tell you have a little story before I bring Paul in. Years ago, I was a young struggling graphic designer fresh out of school and I went to a little Italian restaurant and in it was the most beautiful art I have ever seen on the walls, these gigantic canvases. They were ethereal depictions of everyday life, and I couldn’t explain to you why I wasn’t, I just couldn’t take my eyes off of them, and I was pulled into the story. But they used, the artists used a color palette that I had never seen before, depicted for everyday life, and I looked in the corner, and I saw Tom Jensen, kind of scribbled in the corner of these massive pieces, and I quickly went to the Google as we all do, and I said I have to have one of these pieces. Well, they were 15,000 to start, which as a young struggling graphic designer, you know, I did not have the capacity to go buy one of these pieces, but I had my personality. So I found his email, emailed him, told him I was a young struggling artist myself, I so loved his pieces, and I would make him the best chocolate chip cookies he ever had in his life if he would give me a piece of art, and he actually wrote back and he said, “You’re in luck. I love chocolate chip cookies, and I will make you a deal. If you don’t tell my agent.” Long story short, I said “Yes.” I actually drove down to his studio, I got the most beautiful piece of art and what I learned in that little hour of my life was how visionaries come to life, and from my humble opinion, it is the ability to reimagine the ordinary. He actually, for his career, was a Boeing engineer. He designed the concepts that the engineers took and put into reality. So you think of the Dreamliner, you think of all these future planes that are coming out. He was the artist that conceptualized it and he told me, ” Regan, all I do is take traditional everyday scenes and I apply a completely different color palette to it. That’s why it dazzles you and amazes you. It takes something that you see every single day and it puts it in a new perspective for you.” My mind was totally blown, and, Paul, that is exactly how it has been knowing you and knowing Surf CT for the past couple of years that I’ve definitely been honored to understand what your company does. So welcome to our show, and I’m really excited for our conversation, so you can help dentists reimagine the patient experience.

Paul Vigario 4:49
Thank you. Wow, that was an amazing introduction, and that’s an amazing story. You know, going from ordinary to extra extraordinary and I will take it to that level, so thank you for that introduction.

Regan 5:02
Yeah, well, let’s talk about what you do and what Surf CT does with doctors. So I think sometimes as dentists, I don’t know if you’d agree with me or not, Paul, but I think we have blinders on, and I think we just sort of trust things that have always existed. So you get your build-out from Henry Schein, for example, right? You’ve got your building design and say, “I’m a dentist that’s going to go in and build a practice.” Why would I question what they had in mind? Wouldn’t I just go through the paces and just do what always has been done?

Paul Vigario 5:30
Well, that’s what so many doctors do is they just go through the paces and do what’s been done, but it’s already been done, and there’s nothing you know, special about it, and, you know, dentistry is an amazing industry. It’s an amazing industry, it’s at about $100 billion right now in the US market, and it’s gonna go to 200 billion in the next four to five years. I mean, that’s a tremendous double in five years. Yeah, it’s gonna double in five years, oral health care in the US market. It’s tremendous. It’s absolutely amazing. I think the NFL is like an $80 billion industry, just to keep it you know. So it’s really, really amazing, but if you’re doing what everybody else is doing, it’s gonna be really hard to stand out, and to shine, and speaking of football in the NFL, people often talk about how, you know, in business, they say, “You know, I want a level playing field,” and I always get a kick out of that, because do you really want a level playing field? Like, is that really what you want, or do you want to be running downhill? You know, screaming, “I’m having a good time,” as you’re going. I want to be running downhill. So, you know, we don’t want a level playing field, you know, it’s a competitive sport, and we want to win. Winning is fun.

Regan 6:41
Let’s talk about the ways that we, that we become competitive because I do implants, you do implants, the doctor down the street does implants, and that’s a really surface-level way of looking at dentistry. I like to put up a huge black screen when I do presentations with the words in white general dentist. How is anyone going to know the difference between me or you if we both have the title of dentist? And I think it comes down to branding part. And I know you and I have a really good relationship with how we view brands, can you tell our listeners how brand plays a part, in your opinion on differentiating yourself from others down the street,

Paul Vigario 7:16
I think brand is important. It’s an emotional connection. It’s you know, a lot of people think brand is like a logo, and the logo is just like a graphic, right? It’s just a graphic and what what comes into that graphic and how your brand stands for something, is how you make your choices day in and day out. I often say that our brand is like a Northern Star. So if you get lost, and you need to make a choice, ask yourself what your brand stands for, what are your values, and that will really help, and essentially, when you start to create that level of alignment with your brand, and with your vision, and with your team, and choices start being made with that Northern Star, you can go from being transactional to transformational, and that is really, really a profound difference. So, creating a very unique and specialized patient experience that has patients raving and telling their friends and getting home and sharing with their spouses and their significant others and anyone who will listen is a really great way to create a competitive free zone, and so yes, there could be three dentists in town and they could all be, you know, you know, selling implants or talking about implants or doing implants, but when you create a brand that stands for something, and you have alignment within your team, and within your practice, and your patients can feel, they can feel that patient experience, and they can share that with the world, well, that’s a transformational experience and at that point, you’re in a competition-free zone. No one around you, per se matters because your brand stands for something. I mean, does. Does Nike really compete against other sneakers? I’m not sure they do.

Regan 9:08
Let’s talk about feeling the patient experience. I like that you hitched it with emotion because there’s a translation. To me that’s very, very vital here. So how do you take that transformation and listeners go back and listen to my episode where Chad and I talk about core values? Because Paul, you just mentioned being the North Star. So understanding your mission and your core values is critical. Step one, how do we take that poll and translate it into actual physical practice design? So I’m here with the Henry Schein blueprint, and I’m looking at it I’m like, Paul, how in the heck do I, how do you make that patient experience feel the way that I want it to feel?

Paul Vigario 9:43
Well, let’s start with you know what happens when a patient walks into your practice. You know, 90%, if not 95% of the layouts or designs that we initially see, have all these chairs lined up against the wall and it looks like you’ve arrived you know at the DMV, right? It looks like you’ve arrived at the DMV, so they’re all lined up against the wall and then there’s this, like, circular front desk that, you know, has been circular since the 1980s, and we’re in 2023, you know, just so, you know, anyone forgot and, you know, how does that make you feel, you know, you get there, and it’s kind of got to you versus us with the front desk activity there. Or at least you know, that the physical positioning of the front desk, and then you’ve got the DMV, like seating and then and so, so many often cases, you’ve got three or four, you know, seats at the front desk, and that’s really, you know, putting all your business on display. You have got the phone ringing, you have people trying to connect with the insurance company, check in checkout, and right away, you know, it’s tough to create a feeling there. You know, there’s going to be a feeling of I need to survive the day for your team who has to work at your front desk. Also I often told, you know, I’ll often tell doctors, go to your front desk and hang out there for like, 30 minutes to an hour, and they go up there for five minutes, and they are like, “I can’t I have to like run in the back.” I said, “So why put them in that position where the phones are ringing?” There’s this competition for attention, but no one can get the attention. No one person or one thing is really getting the attention that it deserves, right? If you’re you’ve been waiting for the insurance company, and they finally pick up you want to give that attention, but now somebody walks in. And you know, what are you doing. So there’s really a lot of drama, created in that physical space. And taking that design and looking at it with what’s possible in 2023 is paradigm-shifting, it’s an absolute paradigm-shift, and it puts your practice in a position to win your patients in a position to win. And you can create more of a lounge-like feel. When you walk in, you can have a little kiosk with a hostess, he or she can, you know, really take care of the patient, welcome, welcome them, greet them, and that business activity could be somewhere where it belongs, you know, in a business unit and a business office, and those people could be focused and you’re taking them out of survival mode, and putting them into productivity mode. So suddenly, the patients are coming in, they’ve got a paradigm shift on what that feels like, they have a feeling, there’s a hostess that is taking great care of them. The business unit is doing what it should be doing, business, and suddenly, that could be tied, that vision could be tied to a brand that starts to create feelings. And I always say that humans, you know, we’re all like chasing feelings. If you think about it, like we’re, we’re all chasing feelings, Hey, how are you? What are you doing this weekend? You know, hey, I just went to Disney, you know, that’s a you’re chasing, you’re just chasing, we’re all chasing feelings. Whether it’s like going out to dinner or, or watching a movie or, or going to Disney or you know, we’re chasing feelings. So why not create the best possible feelings in your practice and designing offices the same way they had been designed for the last 30 years, isn’t a way to create a competition-free zone. You know, it’s, it’s just not.

Regan 13:17
You said paradigm shift a couple of times. I think it’s a generational shift that you’re actually meeting which I don’t think I have thought of before. But really, when you think about the needs of each generation, each generation has something that they pin that value on. So boomers, value being individuals, they were raised during that post World War Two era. So everything was about capturing that feeling and really holding that proud, but we know Millennials value experience, that is the number one thing Millennials value is experience. Gen Z, which is quickly coming up as well, they value that social justice elements. So not only do they want their teeth taken care of, they want to know how you’re actually making the community a better place, and what I see you doing in that, what you just explained there is you’re shifting, it is a paradigm shift. But I think it’s a paradigm shift to meet the generational needs, that perhaps some of these larger corporate entities have not, even I, don’t know that their eyes are even on it yet. So they’re designing as if we are serving boomers when actually we’re shifting into serving millennials and soon to be Gen Z’s as well.

Paul Vigario 14:26
I completely agree. I think that’s accurate and I also think that what’s going on with the design is the technology’s pressure on the design, right? Or the technologies involved, you know, evolving the design. So technology inspires design and design inspires technology, right? So just you know, 10 years ago, if you’re going through a toll, there’d be this toll gate that would come down and you would you know, stay there and eventually make it through and you know, pay your toll right, and then somewhere around five, six years ago, there’s this like EZ Pass thing that comes out and you’ve got some lanes that you pay, and you’ve got some lanes that you’re neat, and an EZ Pass.

Regan 15:12
Pass it everyday, just so you’re aware.

Paul Vigario 15:14
Yeah, well, yeah, well, today, there’s no like two lines anymore. Today, it’s just, you know, everybody through and if you don’t have it, we’ll take a picture of your plate, and we’ll send it to you in the mail. So it’s, it’s very, very different, you know, and that was in the span of the last 10 years how that really evolved. But yeah, there are 1000s of new practices are still being built with that, with that, you know, tone coming down and that’s no way to create an amazing experience or an amazing feeling and that’s the first impression, that’s the practice’s first impression. So then you’ve got the rest of the practice just the way it’s laid out. It’s not designed or they’re not designed to take full advantage of the frictionless technologies that are available, because today, you can’t go through a toll without paying because they’re gonna get your play, they’re gonna take care of it. There’s frictionless technologies, and these technologies exist. But if your practice is being designed the way it was 20, 30 years ago, even 10 years ago, you’re not going to be able to take full advantage of that frictionless technology which essentially creates automation, and allows us to anticipate what the patient will want and how to make the patient feel special, and if you start to connect these dots together, and you can get the design, right, you can get the technology, right, you can capture the doctor’s vision, you can anticipate what’s going to come next, automate that and really create a great experience, connect that to a brand, you start to create automation in practice, and that’s, that’s a game changer for doctors and for entrepreneurs, and for private practice owners. You know, a practice that you build that works for you, versus the traditional model, which has been a practice that you build that you have to work in, that’s, a game changer.

Regan 17:07
Let’s talk a minute about what’s possible regarding technology. Two things happen to me in the past week, and one of the injustices that I see, for doctors and for myself, for anyone that’s passionate about whatever industry you happen to be in is ignorance. I really get disappointed if I find out that something has existed and I didn’t even know it was possible, and I’m like, ‘Well, where have I been all of these years? Like what this has been a thing the entire time? But there’s only so many hours a day, there’s only so many conferences I can attend. You know what we need Paul, we need it South by Southwest for doctors. Let’s pin that here. We’re going to talk about that, I think we need something that talks about what’s really cool and upcoming and for me, one of my friends texted me the other day, and he figured out how to do his entire gaming setup completely wireless and he was so proud of it and that same day, I got a text from my husband, who was showing me this monitor and had like a really nice frame around it. So it looked like a piece of art as opposed to a monitor, and he’s like, “Look how cool this is.” And I was like, “Well, I have to have this. We have to have this in our home now from now on.” Yes, what you’re pointing to on your screen, we have to have that from now on that is slick and that is cool. What is, telling me a little bit like I’m a visual learner, what is possible today in these dental practices that helps take that experience for me? Like I get a little bit scared. Think about all the way that our monitors are set up today or the way that the experience is it’s a clinical setting, and it makes me feel a little bit maybe just a little bit apprehension to, for example, something like that’s a beautiful framed piece of art. Now I’m in a whole different environment, what is the visual of that look like? And what’s possible, Paul, for a dental practice?

Paul Vigario 18:53
What’s possible for a practice today and 2023, is to start looking at the practice as three different sections of the practice. You’ve got this, this lounge-like area, that could be very much, you know, accommodating for new patients and really designed to take some of that pressure off of seeing a dental chair and going right to an operatory. So when we’re looking at the design, we create this, this almost like storefront look to the practice, almost like a Tesla showroom, where that’s the showroom. Then you’ve got a business section of the practice where, you know, real business activity happens from you know, making phone calls to, you know, processing claims to doing all of the business aspects of the practice, and then you’ve got the clinical component of the practice. So so often we work with plastic surgeons, you know, you’ll meet a plastic surgeon, you’ll talk about the procedures but you’re doing so in a very calming and relaxing environment. If you choose to move forward, when you come back, you may go to the hospital, you may go to a surgery center, you may go to a more sterile clinical environment. Traditional dentistry has put you in a waiting room, and they’ll call you up and you go straight to a clinical environment and then there’s conversation there about whether you want to move forward or not with, kinda creating, like a level of anxiety, right? Yes. Whereas it would make you wait, and I’m gonna put you in this high-anxiety environment. And now we can do is really understand these different patient tracks and these different patient journeys. And design a practice that has the new patient journey has the existing patient journey has the business journey has, you know, the, like all the different journeys that a patient can go through, so that they can go through the practice and feel like they’re progressing through their journey in a very, very comfortable way, right. So it’s just it’s so different. It’s so different, and I really think technology has elevated the design, and I think that when design and technology are thought of together, not as an afterthought, I think you know, magic starts to happen there.

Regan 21:04
My brain, your brain, I’m assuming here, goes into the abundance, you stay in that anything is possible environment. Do you have to have a limitless budget to get a great patient experience? Because that’s where my pessimistic mind is like, oh my gosh, how much do I have to change everything in the practice? Is this gonna cost me a million dollars? Do you? Is it Can you meet me where I’m at? I guess is what I’m asking regardless, like maybe I haven’t been in practice that’s already existing right now.

Paul Vigario 21:29
Yeah, absolutely. We so often meet so many clients where they’re at and when we connect with them, we actually show them how this all works, and the reality is, if you’re building a new practice, it’s actually more affordable to build it like this, because you don’t have that front desk. Right. So right away, you’re eliminating this monstrosity, you’re getting more square footage for what you actually need to use it for, and even the efficiencies of what’s the most expensive thing in any business, which is human capital, right? Human resources. And putting two or three people at the front and survivability mode, is a very expensive way to run a business just okay, not to one not to run a business that’s focused, and winning. So we’re actually, doctors are really,really shocked when they see that after they’ve connected with us, it’s actually more affordable to build new I have a doctor in Chicago who’s building a practice, he had a $4 million dollar budget, and that was a very, very big budget, and he was shocked that after talking to the industry, you know, they were at 4.8, because you know, they wanted to build the big waiting room and the big front desk. Sure all these chairs that no one’s ever going to show up and say, “Hey, that’s a so and so chair.” Patients don’t know what kind of chair they’re sitting in. So when he connected with us, and he was told, he was like, “hey, you know, they’re, they’re pretty expensive.” But he connected with us, because he wanted to say like, how much more expensive could this guy and we actually showed him what was possible. His practice came way down about 33% less. He was able to build a practice for, right, and how does that work? Right? We focus the nice finishes on that storefront side, on that new patient side. On the business side, we went with like university finishes, right? Like, yes, like very, like, you know, clean but nothing fancy, because it’s business, right? It’s like place you work, and on the clinical side, we weren’t very sterile. We didn’t have to use the, you know, the fancy, you know, Brazilian walnut wood.

Regan 23:32
Yes, I know exactly what you mean.

Paul Vigario 23:33
Yeah. So we weren’t very sterile. So he got a beautiful, pace it up, patient-facing, you know, practice that is attracting patients is making them feel amazing, and he got a very productive business unit that requires less people and there’s way less drama and they’re more focused and he got the clinical space in sterile look that he really want. And if you think about it, when you go to like a Four Seasons, right, you walk in the lobby is gorgeous, you feel like you’ve arrived, you’ve been on a long flight, this is what you’re paying for, right, like you show up, this is awesome. By the time you make it up to your room, it’s nice, but it’s not that different. The rooms aren’t that different than like a Marriott, Courtyard Marriott. They’re just different, right? So, when I say that the industry is at 100 billion, and it’s gonna go to 200 billion, it’s definitely gonna go to 200 billion, but whose stock is that? Is that going to be your stock? Is that the practices stock that’s rising? Or is that the industry stock that’s rising? And that really depends on you know, who you connect with and who your circle is, and awareness, right, awareness of what’s possible. So we love connecting with doctors. We’ve done over 12,000 private practices. We’ve been doing this for 22 years as a team and what’s really magical is when we connect, we just show them, what’s possible, right? I was speaking with a doctor recently and he said, “Hey, I’ve been talking to all my friends. So I kind of know what’s possible.” And I said, “Well, all your friends are in the same, you know, they’re in the same, you know, pool, right? I know, you kind of know that chocolates possible, you kind of know that. Yeah, maybe chocolate and vanilla swirl, but we’re Baskin Robbins, we’ve got all the different flavors. And he was like “That, that was funny.” But when we started to show him, and really kind of peel back, you know, you’ll peel back the curtains, suddenly, it was like, whoa, so I can, I can build this really beautiful, I can kind of have this business section just be what it’s there for business. And I can have clinical be less fancy, but just super sterile, which is really what I need. Yeah. So he’s got a plus finishes on the front of the practice, he’s got, you know, see in the business, because you don’t need anything too fancy to work. On the, you know, on the sterile side, he’s got the best technology, because he was able to focus on that versus what happens now where you want to build this, but someone comes in and says that you can’t afford that. So you got to go from an A to a B minus or a C for the whole practice. That’s just not the way it has to be done. So it’s actually more, to answer your question, it is, it is more cost-effective, and in so many times more affordable to connect with us and just understand what the possibilities are, because when you have choice, you can choose what’s going to work best for you, versus having, you know, the industry tell you, and they’re telling the same thing to everybody. So it becomes pretty hard to compete when everybody’s, you know, playing on a level playing field. So

Regan 26:43
Okay, you blew my mind, because I realized in that little story about Tom Jensen that I told that you were actually you didn’t know that I was going to tell that story. You were doing what Tom Jensen did for art, you literally are taking and looking at the practice strategically, and you’re applying a strategy of the Four Seasons and putting it into dentistry, and you know, what at Productive Dentist Academy always say, work smarter, not harder, which I think is a bit of cliche, but you have actually done that and applied it to the patient experience.

Paul Vigario 27:14
Yeah, yeah, the patient experience, I even think the team experience too, and yes, the team together because, you know, when you’re being productive at work, and you feel like you’re gaining traction, it feels good to be on the team and when you’re put in an environment where you just gotta survive, the really good players are going to leave because they want to win and the players that are so so, they’re gonna get pretty good at surviving, and that’s not you know, what you want. Because at that point, you’re, again, you’re building a practice to work in it, right? And we want you to build a practice that goes to work for you, and goes to work for your patients and for your team, right, and just creates this awesome environment and this awesome feeling, and then you take that feeling, and you connect it to your brand. And now you’ve got something that really shines in the community. So we love what we do, it’s really fun, but it’s really fun to you know, when it’s done, and to see it through the eyes of the doctor and in the eyes of the team and watch them win. So

Regan 28:11
Paul what is the best way for someone to evaluate their own practice and be able to take the steps necessary to reimagine their own patient experience?

Paul Vigario 28:21
Well, it really is a matter of taking inventory of where you started as a practitioner and where you are today, right? And I always tell doctors, if you can have anything, forget what people have told you forget what the industry has told you, if you could have anything at all, if anything was possible, what would that be? And we get all different answers, but what’s really great about living in 2023, is the technologies that are available, and the automations that are available. We could create that outcome for our doctors, and that is tremendous. Some doctors want to just practice more clinically and not be part of the business, others want to be more on the business side and not that clinical, some want to open up offices all around the country, some want to spend more time at home with their families, or golf more and I think the best way to take an inventory of where you are, is to ask yourself those three questions. Where did I start? Where am I today? And if anything was possible, if anything was possible, what would I want? Because if you’re totally great with all those three things, right, you don’t have to change a thing, but if there’s anything there that is resonating for you, we should have a conversation because we’re not going to come at this from an industry perspective, we’re going to come at this from 20 years of experience, two decades, 12,000 practices, and really show you how to achieve that, that transformational growth, the thing that you want most that you didn’t think was possible, we’ll show you how to do it and when I talk with actors, and they’re like, “That sounds great.” Well, then I’ll lead them to our Instagram, I’ll say, “Well check out our Instagram,” because, you know, by the way, its SurfCTCom. So all one word, but I say, “Check out our Instagram,” because you just see story after story after story of transformational growth, and here’s the part that’s really interesting is, it’s different for all our clients, right some clients want to travel the world and be in different countries, others want to spend time with their family, others want to be more entrepreneurial, others want to launch an education program, or, or be more clinical, and it’s really, really different, but we’re not a transactional company, we’re a transformational company, and taking all these pieces, it’s not about computers. It’s not even just about design, it’s about what happens when all of these pieces, and all these parts come together. As we say everything is connected, and that spills over into your life and elevates, elevates your life and those around you, your family, your team, your patients, is why it’s so amazing, but taking inventory is a matter of seeing where you are today and anything was possible where you’d want to be, and then reaching out and just having a conversation.

Regan 31:06
Listeners, even if you’re driving in the car right now pull over, I want you to pull over right now pick up a pen, open up your phone and get to your notepad and I want you to write this down. If anything was possible, how would your dream, practice feel? And underline feel because anything is possible. And Paul, thank you so much for taking time out of your day and sharing with all of us how you’ve been reimagining the way that dentistry is practiced and some tips that can help others get into that transformation, out of transactional and into transformation.

Paul Vigario 31:44
Thank you. You’re welcome. Have a great day.

Regan 31:48
Thank you for listening to another episode of Everyday Practices Podcast. Chad and I are here every week, Thanks to our community of listeners just like you and we’d love your help. It would mean the world if you can help spread the word by sharing this episode with a fellow dentist and leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share? Or feedback on how we can make this podcast even more awesome. Drop us an email at podcast@productivedentist.com And don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from Productive Dentist Academy at productivedentists.com/podcasts See you next week.

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Self Reflection & the Dental Practice, Part 1 (E.239)

“There is nothing more heartbreaking than to witness somebody get...

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Handling Difficult Patient Encounters (E.265)

“Get rid of the need to be right.” ~Dr. Paul Etchison Ever had a...

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Preparing for the Sale of Your Dental Practice (E.142)

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I’ve Arrived: From $100 in the Bank to Generational Wealth in Less Than 3 Years.

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This privacy notice discloses our privacy practices and the use of Google Analytics 4(GA4), an analytic advertising feature. This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this website and the GA4 platform. It will notify you of the following:

  1. What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the website and GA4 platform, how it is used, and with whom it may be shared.
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We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

While Productive Dentist Academy is the primary data controller, Google, in the context of providing Google Analytics service, acts as a data processor. We use Google Analytics 4, a widely recognized web analytics service provided by Google, Inc., to track user interactions and gather data for advertising purposes. As a third-party vendor, Google Analytics operates independently and maintains its own privacy policy, which can be found at https://policies.google.com/privacy. We carefully select our third-party vendors for their commitment to user privacy and adherence to data protection standards. As part of our ongoing commitment to your privacy, we implement measures to ensure that services like GA4 comply with our high standards of data protection.

GA4 collects certain personally identifiable information from you as you interact with our website. This information includes but is not limited to your device ID, IP address, and geographic location. The information collected through GA4 is used to analyze user behavior, optimize our website’s performance, and tailor our content to better serve your needs. This data is compiled and anonymized, ensuring that it cannot be linked back to individual users.

Please note that GA4 may share the information collected with Google and other third-party service providers to enable data processing and reporting on website usage. However, we will not sell, rent, or share your information, especially your personally identifiable information, with any third party outside of our organization.

Your Access to and Control Over Information

You have certain rights regarding the data collected by GA4. You have the right to do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:

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In addition to opting out of any future communications from us at any time, you may also opt out of the GA4 feature if you so choose. You can opt out of the GA4 Advertising Features we use through Ads Settings, Ad Settings for mobile apps, or through the NAI’s. This link points to Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs for the web https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/ 

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We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline. GA4 also follows industry best practices to protect your data both online and offline.

To ensure data protection while we are using GA4, we are implementing additional security measures that include and are not limited to:

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Wherever we collect sensitive information (such as credit card data), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for “https” at the beginning of the address of the Web page.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

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By using our website and consenting to the use of GA4, you acknowledge and agree to the data collection and processing practices described in this notice. For more information about GA4 and its privacy practices, please review Google’s Privacy Policy on this link https://policies.google.com/privacy.

If you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact us immediately.

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Entering this site or the links accessible through this site, you agree to be bound by this agreement. The information and the resources contained on and accessible through this site are made available by Productive Dentist Academy and/or its suppliers and vendors, and are subject to your agreement to their terms and conditions.

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All rights reserved, Productive Dentist Academy makes this website available to all users for the sole purpose of providing educational information on health-related issues.

The accuracy of website, information, and resources identified are not warranted or guaranteed, or intended to be a substitute for professional health advice, to contradict health advice given, or for health care of any kind.

Your use of this website indicates your agreement to be bound by the Terms of Use and you expressly agree to be bound to the foregoing terms and conditions.

All materials on this website, including the site’s design, layout, and organization, are owned and copyrighted by Productive Dentist Academy, or its suppliers or vendors, and are protected by U.S. and international copyrights.

Material on this site may be used for personal use only. Commercial use of any sort is strictly prohibited.

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This site may not be used as a supplement or alternative for health care, and is not intended and does not warrant or guarantee the quality or quantity of any services of any of the advertisers identified; further, the information provided is merely for educational purposes, and its accuracy is not guaranteed. Do not use this site as a substitute for health care. Please consult with your doctor or other health care provider regarding any health questions you may have. This site may not be used for health diagnosis or treatment. Do not use this site to disregard any health advice, nor to delay seeking health advice, because of something you read or see in this site.

You understand and agree that neither Productive Dentist Academy nor its suppliers or vendors or linked domain names are responsible or liable for any claim, loss, or damage of any kind, directly or indirectly resulting from your use of this site or the information or the resources contained on or accessible through it.

Productive Dentist Academy expressly disclaims any implied warranty or representation about the information or accuracy, relevance, completeness, timeliness or appropriateness for any particular purpose of any kind. Your use of this site is also subject to all additional disclaimers that may appear throughout the site.

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This site also includes links to other internet sites created and maintained by Productive Dentist Academy’s suppliers, vendors, affiliates, or subscribers. Be aware that Productive Dentist Academy does not control, makes no guarantees about, and disclaims any express or implied representations or warranties about the accuracy, relevance, completeness, timeliness or appropriateness for a particular purpose of the information or the resources contained on these or any other internet sites.

Further, the inclusion of these links is merely for your convenience and is not intended and does not reflect Productive Dentist Academy’s opinion on the accuracy or the importance of these other sites; further, Productive Dentist Academy does not endorse in any manner any of the views expressed in, or products or services offered by these other sites. All information in any site by Productive Dentist Academy, or associated or linked site, is extracted, read, used, or relied upon by you at your own risk.

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Productive Dentist Academy and its suppliers and vendors disclaim all express or implied representations or warranties regarding the information, services, products, materials, and any other resources contained on or accessible through this site, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. All information provided by Productive Dentist Academy is made available “as is” and “as available” without warranty of any kind, or any express or implied promise, including, by way of example, its continuing availability.

Limitation of Liability
With respect to products, goods, or services purchased from any entity identified, listed, named or contacted through Productive Dentist Academy’s website, or any links to Productive Dentist Academy’s website, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Productive Dentist Academy or its suppliers or vendors be liable for any direct, indirect, special, punitive, incidental, exemplary, contractual, or consequential damages, or any damages whatsoever of any kind, resulting from any loss, which by way of example, includes loss of use, loss of data, loss of profits, business interruption, litigation, or any other pecuniary loss, whether based on breach of contract, tort (including negligence), product liability, or otherwise, arising out of or in any way connected with the use or performance of this site, with the delay or inability to use this site, or with the provision of or failure to make available any information, services, products, materials, or other resources contained on or accessible through this site, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

You acknowledge and agree that the limitations set forth above are elements of this agreement, and that this site would not be provided to you absent such limitations.

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You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Productive Dentist Academy and its suppliers and vendors from any liability, loss, claim, and expense (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) related to your violation of this agreement or use of this site in any manner. Your use of this site shall constitute your acceptance of the terms of this Agreement, as revised and modified, if any, each time you access this site. Productive Dentist Academy may modify this agreement at any time, and such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified agreement.

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Productive Dentist Academy’s failure to insist upon strict enforcement of any provision(s) of this agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right.

This agreement and the resolution of any dispute related to this agreement or this site shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Washington, without giving effect to any principles or conflicts of law. Any legal action or proceeding between Productive Dentist Academy or its links, suppliers or vendors and you related to this agreement or this site shall be brought exclusively in a state or federal court of competent jurisdiction sitting in Skagit County, Washington.

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All materials on this website, including the site’s design, layout, and organization, are owned and copyrighted by Productive Dentist Academy or its suppliers or vendors, and are protected by U.S. and international copyrights.

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This site contains links to other sites. Productive Dentist Academy is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites that are linked to us.

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Should you have any questions or concerns regarding Productive Dentist Academy’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, please contact us.

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