Episode 200 – Looking Back & Looking Ahead: Dedication to Patient Care

“Show up every day and realize we’re all humans first, trying to get it right. There’s no need to make people feel awful.” ~Dr. Victoria Peterson

To celebrate the 200th episode of Everyday Practices Podcast, co-hosts Regan Robertson and Dr. Chad Johnson welcome Productive Dentist Academy co-founders Dr. Bruce B. Baird and Dr. Victoria Peterson to honor them, the PDA mission and their visionary leadership with a conversation about what they’ve learned in their journey as dental entrepreneurs, but also what they currently see happening in healthcare, and what they expect to see in the future.

In their illustrious careers, they’ve witnessed quite a lot, but their passion remains as strong as ever as they discuss current trends in dentistry, dedication to patient care, how the profession is changing and what those changes could mean for everyone practicing today.

As you listen to this podcast, think about:

• How do you treat your team day to day?
• Which technologies have changed the way you practice dentistry for the better?
• How do you think dentistry will change during your career, and in what ways can you respond to these changes?

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:01
Hi, Doctor, Regan Robertson, CCO of 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 productivedentist.com/workshop that’s productivedentist.com/workshop to secure your seats now.

Dr. Bruce Baird 0:47
But I think everybody wants, wants to be loved, and wants to be taken care of, and wants to have a great place to work and I think culture and the branding of your practice is probably something that the problems are going to be there, but that doesn’t mean they’re insurmountable. Those things can be handled very easily with culture and, you know, and good leadership.

Regan 1:18
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 1:51
Welcome to the 200th episode of Everyday Practices Dental podcast I’m here with my faithful co-host Dr. Chad Johnson. Chad, how are you doing today?

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:00
I’m doing well. Do you want to know what my favorite number is?

Regan 2:09
No

Dr. Chad Johnson 2.09
17 , but don’t wish it was 200. 200 episodes and Victoria, you and I started it off and then Regan coasted in and here we are 200 episodes and we have two special guests with us today. Victoria Pearson and Bruce Baird. Dr. Bruce Baird, how’re you doing today?

Dr. Bruce Baird 2:26
I’m doing fantastic. Thanks, guys.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:29
Excellent, and Victoria, how are you today?

Victoria Peterson 2:32
Well, I’m doing great and little known fact Chad, if you added up my age and Bruce is age, you would get 200.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:42
Did you have to add the 17 in there with it to make

Victoria Peterson 2:46
I’m only 52 of those years.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:55
Well, Regan today we have our special guests. What’s our topic? What are we wanting to discuss for the listeners today?

Regan 3:02
A really special treat to honor the co-founders of Productive Dentist Academy. The reason that the podcast exists in the first place, because we wouldn’t even be here you and I had we not both intersected with Productive Dentist Academy joined the mission and the force and go forward. So I thought it would be really exciting to you know, put two wildly successful entrepreneurs who have navigated every storm imaginable in dentistry, who are consistently visionary towards the future and just sit down with both of you and have a conversation about your journey thus far and what you’ve learned along the way and where you see us going in the future. So let’s, let’s rally let’s give a call to action to our upcoming dentists because there’s a lot of exciting things happening in healthcare.

Dr. Chad Johnson 3:52
Yes, there is, first Bruce tell us what challenges do you see in healthcare.

Dr. Bruce Baird 3:57
that we’re facing? Well, I think it’s the same challenges that we’ve had for a lot longer than most people realize. I mean, it’s keeping teams, you know, on board, you know, because there’s just things have changed and personalities, and just the way that they grew up is different, and they’re looking for different things but I think everybody wants, wants to be loved and wants to be taken care of and wants to have a great place to work and I think culture, and the branding of your practice is probably something that the problems are going to be there, but that doesn’t mean they’re insurmountable. Those things can be handled very easily with culture, and, you know, and good leadership.

Regan 4:46
Now, Bruce, this is really interesting that you said you said people want to be loved and they want to be taken care of and I have pored through at this point 1000s of Google reviews of different dental practices across the United States and what I mean time and again is that the there is a drastic lack of the dentistry that is performed, expressed in those reviews. What is predominantly expressed is how people felt during the examination being in the practice how the team made them feel and I’m wondering what they’re like in your journey of going through dentists to multifaceted entrepreneur with their significant milestone in your life or a turning point from the early leaders that kind of set your stage for success and understanding that caring about people and loving people is actually the key to success?

Dr. Bruce Baird 5:40
Well, it’s a great question and I’ve talked about it and in years past, but I’ve always said I was the worst boss, I didn’t really want, when I had pressure of debt, and the pressures of being new in practice, and all the things and feeling like it was all on my shoulders. Yeah, it was kind of a, you know, butthead and my team, you know, I joke that everybody in Granbury, Texas about 6000, having worked for me, or another, but I think, you know, God having a sense of humor gate, given me four daughters, and I had to learn to speak a different language and then I started, and it wasn’t just that, but it was seeing the response of that. For me, it was immediate feedback, people started listening to me, they started coming up and, and taking some of the load off and being vulnerable was something that I had never wanted to be, being the son of a marine aviator, you know, you just don’t want to be vulnerable and when I started learning my employees names and that they had kids and that they had a life besides, you know, you know, me being a butthead to them all day long that I saw everything start to change and so was it an epiphany, I don’t think it was a single day that it happened but it was over a period of a period of failing on my part, but not stopping and finally, I heard this yesterday, I came with it today, too, is it’s, it’s kind of like, you know, winners are just losers who didn’t quit And you know, and a lot of people say, “Oh, I’m just not a good boss.” Well, if I say I can’t, then I must, you know, and that’s, that’s just been my philosophy. If I have trouble with something, the only thing I’m really having trouble with now is I say, I can’t hit my seven iron, and I still and hit it and it’s just trouble on the golf course. But other than that, in life, and in the practice of dentistry, having a team that loves you, and me, loving my team, truly loving them, changes everything and people go, you know, “They’re just my team, or I wish I could get somebody to come in here and do this or do that.” Now, they’re never going to do that for you, you know, until till you change that, that perspective, or that thought process and, you know, even though I put the handpiece down now, I stood up there and get hugs at the office and it’s, it’s the brightest part of my week when I dropped by there, just to say that everybody really makes me feel good. And you know, it’s, it’s, it’s just a great opportunity for the team. So,

Dr. Chad Johnson 8:33
Thanks. Victoria, how does that resonate with you?

Victoria Peterson 8:36
100%. You know, Bruce started his career as a clinical dentist. I started mine as a hygienist and I remember waiting for my boards, there’s always that awkward space where you graduate, but you’ve got to work a summer, waiting on your board. So I drove 55 miles one way. So 110 miles round trip, five days a week to work as a dental assistant, I think I made 150 bucks a week. So now this, I’ll let you figure out what year that was, that was the day before yesterday, right. And it was for a very progressive office, they had the old reel-to-reel computer mainframes in a back room, so that the dentist could talk to his son at Georgetown dental school through Plato, it was the precursor to the internet. This room, about the size of you know, 10 by 10 room, freezing to keep that going and the only thing it did was it ran our schedule. It ran the schedule, and we could type messages back and forth to Georgetown University. So I loved being in a progressive office like that and the doctors were very hostile. Like I’m not even exaggerating, and it was back in the days of the amalgam and they had, they were very fast, you know, everything like this. So I had never really been an assistant, I had only been a Hygiene student and every day he threw instruments at me and every day, he would yell at me and then his son graduated Georgetown and came to work and so the privileged prince was in the office and one day this, this little kid was turning purple than green, and I’m writing post it notes like, “He’s gonna throw up, turn down the nitrous, I think we need to turn down the nitrous,” and he was like, “I’m the doctor.” Right? Yeah, no, of course, the kid tosses, Froot Loops, and all of its brilliant and rainbow color and back then we had carpet in the operator and he just slammed on his instruments and said, “I can’t believe you let that kid get sick, get down on the carpet with a spoon, and clean it all up,” and I thought, as a professional, right, as a dental hygienist and a professional, I’m going to expect more from my boss when I get out there and so from the beginning, I began interviewing, who will I work for? And if I’m in a culture like that, how can I impact and change the culture? And later he found out that I had never been an assistant before kind of apologized, but you know, there’s just this piece of, of, like Bruce said, show up every day and know that we’re all just first time humans trying to get it right. You know, you there’s no need to to make people feel awful, to, that’s not, that’s not the route to peak performance. So that could have been a job where I could have accepted a job as a hygienist and continued working there and moved to Jacksonville but that totally shut me down and said, but here’s the strongest piece of advice, my dad, I sit down, this job’s horrible, I’m gonna quit, I’m gonna come back and work in the gas station with you and absolutely not. He goes, make your first job, your worst job, eat the spinach on your plate first and everything that comes after that will be better and I’ll say 40 years in this field, that’s a worst job I’ve ever had because I learned that I was worth more and I think that people learn to speak up for what they’re worth, and demand more of their doctors. Then, like Bruce says, they’ll have a wake up call, and things can get better.

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:31
You know, it’s cool. I just am, I just finished a book last night called “Humbled” and even above it, it’s not the subtitle of the book, above the book, it’s got a five star rating, and it’s just shows two of the stars lit up and it’s cool that it’s talking about humility, and how even the Bible talks about being sober-minded. You know, not having this superficial, lonely opinion, you have yourself, “Well, I’m just the worst,” but a write opinion about yourself, you know, not too high, not too low. Just right. You are human, and you’re only so good and what what, Bruce, what you said and Victoria, you said, the harmony between the two was having a humble attitude and I feel like, you know, I’m learning that more and more just even as my bit my third office that I had opened, did it succeed. that was a good, humbling experience and I almost think that was a turning point for me to realize I’m like, I’ve been a lot more humble after that. And it’s a good thing. It’s not a bad humble like sometimes, you know, you tail between the legs kind of stuff. Fine. Fair enough. But this, this has been a good thing for me.

Victoria Peterson 13:42
Well, I think with all the consolidation in dentistry, and the focus on numbers and metrics and management, I think it’s all about the people and people are starting to come around to it’s all about people. It’s all about the patients that you know, and taking great care of people.

Dr. Chad Johnson 14:00
Right.

Regan 14:01
So what are some of the on that on that note, as Dentistry has evolved over the last 30 plus years, what are some of the innovations that you have seen that have made, what you would consider a significant impact in our industry?

Dr. Bruce Baird 14:17
Oh, wow, like the high-speed handpiece now.

Victoria Peterson 14:21
I was gonna say belt driven, my hair used to get you know, I had a manual chair with the old belt driven so your hair and get caught in no gloves.

Dr. Chad Johnson 14:33
Bruce, did you ever use belt-driven?

Dr. Bruce Baird 14:35
No, I didn’t. We have high-speed, high-speed handpieces even with fiber optics back in 1976. They were new and they would burn out about every, you know, two months, but it still was a lot better than chisel and, and so that was better But yeah, there’s been so much technology. There’s actually you know from CBC T to implants. I mean, I started placing implants in 1984, that field has just exploded with all types of opinions and thoughts about what’s the right way of doing things or what’s the wrong way. Now you have printing technology, you have scanning, you have, I mean, and the technology just keeps getting better and better and I think it’s even on a faster, it’s on a faster turn now than it was probably from 1980s to about 90 things were, yeah, they were advancing and you know, we’re learning a lot of new things. But all of a sudden, the technology has just blown up, AI is going to change the way we, we look at diagnosis and treatment planning, it doesn’t mean a machine’s going to do it. It just means a machine’s gonna look at it the 50,000x rays and say, this is like that and this is what we recommend and what’s interesting is insurance companies. You guys all know, I love insurance companies, that they’re gonna require you to do a crown and then they’re gonna do or whatever unless you have a backup from AI. So, yeah, things are changing rapidly. As far as college.

Victoria Peterson 16:19
I would agree with the technology. I’d also piggyback that dentistry is outpacing so many other healthcare sectors, because of things like the HIV outcome outbreak in the 80s. So you became far more blood-borne pathogen and airborne pathogen ready in the 80s and 90s. So when COVID hit, it’s ironic that Dentistry was shut down and yet were the most prepared healthcare for providers to handle patients who had COVID. Having nitrous chasers and all the precautions that we have in the office for clean air and HEPA filters and airborne blood-borne pathogens, we should have been the last one that they shut down. So I think, I think the technology is, is truly what’s continuing to innovate it and the other piece that really changed Bruce, remember were a general dentist didn’t do prosthetics at all and probably eight root canals took eight visits, prosthetics would take a year and a half. Now we can do same-day smile, we can do a two-week turnaround, we can print and your temporaries look better. Yeah, your temporaries today look better than the finished product of the 90s.

Dr. Bruce Baird 17:45
Not in two weeks, you can put them in 22 minutes. So that’s that’s what really, you just shake your head and go, “Oh, my gosh.”

Victoria Peterson 17:53
I hope the speed of change also keeps it affordable. Right and, and opening up credit to patients so more people can take advantage of it.

Dr. Bruce Baird 18:02
I agree, 100%.

Regan 18:04
One of the things that I love about both of you so much is your dedication to patient care and you’ve always placed such priority on comprehensive care. What are, in our times today, because we can get we can get caught up in the in the insurance debate and healthcare in general tends to be very polarizing, what is the guiding right now for patient patients when it comes to patient care, because I know myself, going through an independent medical practice, I am renewed with enthusiasm and excitement and I’m back in the mindset of anything is possible for my health, anything can happen. What do you see happening in dentistry right now, that can be that our dentists can use, you know, and really fuel that conversation and help patients feel the same way?

Dr. Bruce Baird 18:55
Well, I mean, I personally think it’s probably two things. One is the oral-systemic connection and the other is, is using risk factors to actually help patients understand that they do have a problem and these problems can be life-threatening or life-changing and we can back it with you know, you don’t, you don’t have to back it with all the research articles for most patients, unless they’re an engineer, but for most if they trust you, and you’re you’re very well versed in all of these areas, they’re going to trust you they’re going to listen carefully. When you make recommendations. it’s not going to be, “Oh, he’s just trying to sell me another crown, he’s trying to help me because if I don’t get this taken care of, I have an increased risk of stroke or heart attack or whatever that is,” and when people realize, I always joke, it’s not my problem, you know, and I go into the exam am honestly knowing it’s not my problem with this patient has, but it is my problem if I don’t tell them that they have a problem. When I, when I had all the education, all the training, gone to all the courses, and refused because I’m scared or embarrassed or are not a good communicator to tell them what really is going on. And so that’s really the thing that I’m excited about is what Productive Dentist Academy does and what, you know, what we probably teach is, “Hey, you know, we’re we’re gonna give you the tools to be able to be honest, without, and you know, because it’s not a good feeling when people leave and you know, you should have told them this or you shouldn’t, and you don’t, for whatever reason, and and so we’re just committed to always.” Now I think, Victoria, who is bringing up the ADA code of ethics, I mean, we’re supposed to tell them what’s going on and I’ve always told them, when I first started doing it, it was really uncomfortable, because I just wasn’t well versed at it. But again, you know, failure, you know, failures, just a learning experience. And so that’s probably the thing I’m most excited is that not only can we help patients by giving them a beautiful smile, but we may be able to save their lives.

Dr. Chad Johnson 21:24
Victoria.

Victoria Peterson 21:24
Yeah, I love that and this is a trend that will probably take 10 years to fully form. You know, I’m always five to 10 years out, but I see the seeds of it today. So building on the oral systemic. Yeah, you know, I’m going to always be a hygienist at heart. I love being an entrepreneur. I love building businesses, because a profitable thriving business gives you the opportunity to take great care of people. That’s always going to be my mantra but I love how many hygienist are going back and getting their certification as Nutritionist and Functional health coaches and things like that. I see doctors who are getting your Vedic certifications, they’re becoming naturopaths are they’re bringing naturopath into their practice because when you really start focusing on airway issues, you get into myofascial and cranial sacral work and you realize, you know, it was insurance companies in the 1950s that cut the head off from the rest of the body and so it was an arbitrary financial decision, that that the mouth did not impact the whole body, but like your partner, Jeff, Bruce, I remember when Dr. Bruce was working with my mom on her headaches and hurt her splint, he’s doing muscle testing, the same fascia that connects your TMJ to your head to your neck runs all the way down. So if you’re not spinal aligned, and you lock in somebody’s bite, they’re going to have a back that hurts the rest of their life. We’re really getting beyond even oral systemic into functional medicine, and oh boy, for doctors who are breaking their backs, turning a handpiece, like give focus on people being healthy and these connections between medical and dental, the electronic patient record bridges are being built right now. So medical is coming into dental. Do you guys get that like dental is kind of finally. Finally they’re coming in like a cyborg to take us over? So better? No, no. and position yourself into a strong play because you know, the Kaiser permanent DS and all of this like, Well, Jesus is like outside insurance and fee for service and people pay for this stuff. So

Regan 23:49
I just thought you meant they just get to communicate and share information easier.

Victoria Peterson 23:55
And that’s where I’d love it to stay. And that’s why I say but capitalism gets in there everywhere. So I would just say, man be on the leading edge and think this is a person sitting in front of me and Chad, you know better than I do, I don’t know any of this stuff. I just read about it but you know, there’s tongue mapping and there’s just different things that will point you to every organ in your body and that sort of stuff is now starting to mainstream. It doesn’t seem like reading Tarot cards anymore and I wish we had more, I hope AI is going to come in and help with that, like ophthalmology can read your eyes and talk about stroke wrist and things like that. We’re going to have tools like that for the, for the oral cavity.

Dr. Chad Johnson 24:44
Well, Victoria, you mentioned it and Bruce, you certainly know it firsthand, but I thought of airway when you asked it Regan. You know, airways changed a lot and that has to do again with the systemic issue but even on a on a smaller level, though it has systemic ramifications. I think of it as the microbiome ecology balance, not just killing germs, because that was kind of the old school but like that, that we’re talking about an ecological balance of a good bacteria and bad bacteria in your mouth for two main reasons periodontal health and caries risk. So, you know, Bruce, you turned me on to using the the CTS carry-free products, and that’s been a game changer but then even personally getting my airway addressed even though I’m mild, OSA, I sleep better. And then I’ve been doing mouth taping, I mean, like stuff that. I don’t know, I just wouldn’t have seen coming and Regan, we talked about that a few episodes ago, but I thought, well, you know, why wait until it’s pathological? Let’s, let’s do it, where I’m improving my health just because I want an improved health.

Regan 25:54
Out of my skin, I could jump out of my skin I cannot believe and to Bruce and Victoria, this is nothing new to you. You both have been innovators and I’ve only been in the industry about 12 years. But to be speaking next week in Houston down at an airway summit for dentists so that they can learn how to you know, bring it into the practice. So they can be preventative, I think is something that helps us bring that balance back, Victoria that you were talking about, you know, my doctor has said to me, and Bruce, this, this goes to you saying, we’ve got to be brave about telling people what we see. They said, “Would you like us to tell you what we see now so that you can prevent what’s going to pretty much happen in the future or do you want to wait until the event happens and then we deal with the ramifications of that? What would you prefer?”

Dr. Bruce Baird 26:46
Yeah, perfect. Right. I love it. I love it. That’s, that is the story. You know, hey, it’s not my problem, but I’m sure when I help you if you really want to be out.

Regan 27:02
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 at productivedentist.com and don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from Productive Dentist Academy at productivedentist.com/podcasts See you next week.