Episode 222 – Charting New Territories, Part 1

“Everyone was very proud of our office before, but there’s a renewed sense of pride for what we have now, and how it’s different from most of the offices in our area.” ~Dr. Clint Euse

In this first part of a two-part conversation, Everyday Practices Dental Podcast hosts Regan Robertson and Dr. Chad Johnson are joined by Dr. Clint Euse, dentist, co-owner and co-operator of Advanced Dentistry by Design in Carson City, Nevada. With a team of four dentists, including Dr. Euse and his wife and business partner Dr. Kelly Euse, at the helm, Advanced Dentistry by Design is not your average dental practice. Drs. Clint and Kelly Euse recently doubled their space from 5,000 to about 10,000 square feet, and expanded their operatories from 10 to 19. 

Along with this massive expansion project, Dr. Euse implemented important new technologies from CAD/CAM to YOMI to 3D Printing. He also talks about how his team rallied together to embrace this huge change with pride and excitement. If you’ve ever had an interest in growing your practice, this three-part series is sure to inform and entertain. 

As you listen to this episode, think about the following questions:

• What factors might drive you to consider expanding your own practice, and what challenges might you face during your project?
• How does technology impact quality dentistry, and what role does it play in attracting and retaining patients?
• How can team morale be managed and maintained during periods of change and high stress?
• How does the physical space of a dental practice influence patient perceptions and satisfaction, and what steps can you take to create a positive patient experience?

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. Client Euse 0:47
We got you know, the poster boards of the of the expansion that we put around the office so they can show patients and so they were involved with you know, oh yeah, this is where you are now is what’s gonna look like. So, you know, I don’t know if we have a good team. I mean, they, I think saw the, you know, kind of a vision of where we were going and you know, just excited to kind of take it to that next level.

Regan 1:10
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 1:42
Welcome to another episode of Everyday Practices Dental Podcast. I am your host, Regan Robertson here with the effervescent, Dr. Chad Johnson, who is not dentisting today. Welcome, Chad.

Dr. Chad Johnson 1:53
I am not, I’m doing fine. How are you doing?

Regan 1:57
Well, I’m here with you and our very special guest. So you know the answer is. I’m amazing. That’s my answer there.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:03
The man of the West, Clint Euse. Clint, how are you doing today man? .

Dr. Client Euse 2:10
Yes. The man of the West haa, I have not been called that before but yah the man of the West?

Regan 2:20
That is your superhero name?

Dr. Client Euse 2:20
Yeah. Okay. I’ll go with it. I’ll go with it. Yeah, no, it’s good to be with you guys. I’m excited to you know, I always, I always like hanging out you guys.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:29
Well, it’s been a while since we had you on the podcast and also, for those who aren’t aware of, you know, like, kind of your background, where are you and tell us kind of about your practice just in general? I mean, yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Client Euse 2:45
Yeah. So we practice out of Carson City, Nevada. You know, so we’re kind, we’re close to Tahoe. Not we’re kind of Northern Nevada to that and not down by Vegas, want to make sure that’s clear. Right. And so yeah, we’ve got a we’ve got a larger practice. We, there’s four of us for dentists into practice. So myself and my wife, Kelly, we own the practice and then we have two associates. One being was my previous partner. So he’s it was actually his practice first, ended up buying him out a couple years ago and then he’s still with practice and then we have a somewhat new associate, Dr. Matt, he’s been with us for about a year and a half. So yeah, we have just recently expanded, we went from, I don’t know, 5000 square feet to about 10,000 square feet kind of doubled the ops and just just actually got done with that project recently. So it’s a general practice really guy. I think technology-driven. We do a ton of like CAD/CAM. We’re just starting to bring in like 3d printing all sorts of cool stuff. You only YOMI, robots for implant placements and but really, our bread and butter for the last call it probably, you know, 15, 20 years has really been more in the CAD CAM side of things. Awesome. Very cool.

Regan 3:55
How many? So how many of you said you doubled ops? How many Ops is that because I’m closing my eyes with you and I’m taking a journey virtually through your office?

Dr. Client Euse 4:02
So we went from we went from 10 Ops to 19. Ops.

Regan 4:07
Yes. Okay, that gives me a really good, I think, I think, Doctor. Well, it’s Dr. Jeff Brewski. Now, but I think down in Granberry, they’ve got 18 Ops. So that doesn’t make good sense of your size. I’m trying to picture 10,000 square feet, like what does that feel like?

Dr. Client Euse 4:21
That’s why I built it with 19 because I wanted one more OP than Brewski and so I was like, You know what, let’s, let’s go, let’s go 19 this time,

Regan 4:28
it goes all the way to 11.

Dr. Client Euse 4:32
So yeah, so it too, so it’s going to be actually 17 like general ops and then two of them are going to be, well actually are like surgical suites search for tailor needs. tailored. Yes. Yes.

Regan 4:45
Does the YOMI stay stationary? Is that or is it, is it like a, Is it like a cow? Is it a computer on wheels that goes around? Like how does it work?

Dr. Client Euse 4:53
It can you can move it around from off the up. It’s a little bit it’s kind of big and cumbersome to be moving around. So how we’re going to do it, is we just just building out a dedicated Op just for for that if we need to move it, we can but really, I just want one big off that we can that we can just keep it just a little Yomi, Yomi room, YOMI home. So

Regan 5:12
YOMI home.

Dr. Client Euse 5:13
Yeah.

Dr. Chad Johnson 5:14
All right, so fill me in. How much are you doing clinically because I can’t imagine that, that it’s changed much? I know you and Kelly were splitting it, you know, like kind of a shift. Is that still the case? I mean, what’s it look like, administrative for you versus clinical?

Dr. Client Euse 5:35
Yeah, yeah. So clinicals, two days a week and then Kelly, same, she goes two days a week and we kind of did that intentionally just we have two boys that are just like their buddies, a lot of busy stuff going on. and so, so, so she does, Kelly goes Monday and Thursday, and then I do Tuesday, Wednesday, your, your clinically and then you know, I would say, I probably have Mondays are kind of my administrative day, I’d say I probably have a good half day of stuff on Mondays just to always kind of take care of running the business and so that really hasn’t changed, you know, with the expansion. I was doing two days before the expansion. You know, I think part of the reason for the expansion, you know, was to not necessarily cut back, you know, but one is to, to, we’ve had a ton of growth, but we had a lot of people moving to the area we couldn’t get people in, in a reasonable amount of time. You know, we have a, we have a lot of Californians coming in,  we’re right on the border of Nevada and California and so, you know, we couldn’t get people in.

Regan 6:32
Do you think that that started around COVID time when the great moves were happening because I know like Idaho exploded so people from the coast started moving inland a bit, do you think that’s when that’s, that change started or did you?

Dr. Client Euse 6:44
Yeah, that’s sort of, like accelerated big time is that there was I mean, it was happening anyway but like, after that, it was just like mass influx of people. So which is great for business and so we kind of saw a need that we needed to expand the facility to do that and so it didn’t really change things clinically for me, you know, I think we’re just going to do is open up just some more opportunity for my procedure mix, you know, things like the YOMI doing the kind of some all on x cases, those things that that I couldn’t do, just because we were so busy, I was busy doing general dentistry, and I was looking to looking do you know, some a little bit different than that, but really couldn’t make that transition because we just didn’t have that, that that, what do we do with our patients if we’re not able to see them?

Regan 7:27
So, so how long did this transition take to do the build-out?

Dr. Client Euse 7:33
It was like, construction it was about a year? Well, maybe yeah, for about a year that from that, you know, obviously, it’s a, it was a two-year project from, from kind of inception with planning and we had a, we had a tenant that was in the building that still had like a, I bought the building a couple of years ago and so there was a tenant in there that had like three years left on their lease and so we had to relocate them to a new space and that took a lot of time and so it was probably a two-year, it was probably a two-year project.

Regan 7:57
So was there anything that you that you wish you, that you wish you knew about it that you could have gone back was anything like frustrating to you that you went “Oh, shoot, like, when you learned along the way that’s a big build-out?” And I imagine there’s some things that have cropped up during two years?

Dr. Client Euse 8:13
Yeah, you know, I mean, it’s just, you know, with construction, especially kind of post-COVID, you know, me, I knew that we were going to have some issues, it took a lot longer than then, than we thought it would just because of the call, but you know, supply chain issues and even just in this area, it’s hard to find, you know, the subcontractors and things and so I think I’m not quite sure I just knew what I was getting into, you know, from a, from a timeframe and how much time it actually took to complete the project and how much time it took on my end to actually execute the project. So, you know, I think, looking back now, it would just be a little bit of shift in the mindset of like, “Alright, like, you need to know what you’re getting into here,” because it was a, it was a big project.

Regan 8:53
I’m glad you said that, because that’s typically what I hear when anyone does a remodel just even either in a business or in a home. It tends to take longer than anticipated. I’ve only built one house not with my hands, but through a contractor and I, yeah, I think I don’t know what the proper term is. Well, actually I do they call them Karens and I think that’s offensive to say that I definitely, you know, if they weren’t on the site, and I was you know, driving by I was like, “Where are you?” So I would call it a lot. I was like, this work and they were like, “We were building other homes too, Regan,” and I was like, “But did we not agree on this, this date?” You know, and so I learned a lot about what happens when the kitchen fixtures don’t come in or the lumber is on backorder whatever.

Dr. Client Euse 9:33
Yeah, or the yeah, I think the guys that were supposed to be the drywall. They just didn’t show up like three weeks. You know, we just it was like, “Where are they?” and we would call and they’d be like, “Oh, no, we’ll be there tomorrow.”

Regan 9:43
And then would they come tomorrow?

Dr. Clint Euse
And then then like it was like seriously so but yeah, it’s just like you have no control over some of those things and I’m a person who likes to like be in control. I like to know what’s going on. I like things to be on schedule. So I think yeah, just kind of that like mindset of like, you know what, there’s some things you just can’t use can’t control So

Dr. Chad Johnson 10:00
building this office, what are what’s one or two examples of little fun additions, and it could be little or big or whatever that you added in that were like almost perks or, like a special bonus to you that was just different. I don’t care if it’s a rounded wall, or you put in an extra plumbing of something or another, but there has to have been one or two things that make you go, you know what, let’s splurge and do it that way and it’ll make me feel good.

Dr. Client Euse 10:28
Yeah, I would say, well, one thing for sure is we put in a whole like digital lab area and so we have, we now have like, one spot where we have all of our, you know, all of our, our milling machines, where we have all the, you know, the 3d printers, the glazing, ovens, the, you know, all of the all the technology is now like in one spot, and it’s right outside of my office, you know. So I basically just walked two feet, you know, and can go in there and kind of play with all the stuff that I like to do. So that was a huge win, that was, yeah. We build a huge, like a huge team, like a kind of our team, kind of our, I guess, our team room, that’s, you know, this is gigantic, you know, it’s we have a lot of space in there. I kind of, kind of did it for one for the team and two for maybe some future, you know, kind of over-the-shoulder courses and things that I might do in the office, you know, where we have, you know, TVs on the walls, and I lost everything, there’s so many being TVs in that place, you know, I went crazy on TVs, we have like three TVs in the waiting room, we’ve got TVs all over the place and so you walk in, and there’s all I don’t know, I, so that’s, that’s cool, you know, but I would say, the surgical suites, you know, that have kind of a dedicated place for doing like sedation and the Yomi and those things, I would say, the technology you know, kind of our technology room and, and like at a team area would be the big ones.

Dr. Chad Johnson 11:47
Very cool.

Regan 11:48
This is like a, like a Ferrari dealership, to me in my head. If you’ve I mean, if you’re a dentist, that’s never seen one of the if you don’t have one yet, it would be a mission. If I was a dentist, it would be a mission to have a digital lab like that. I’ve seen them, they’re amazing. I would just go hang out in there to watch what’s going on. I think that’s incredible and I didn’t know that you were planning on doing like over-the-shoulder type, or at least planning for that so that you’ll have the space for that, that sounds fun.

Dr. Client Euse 12:15
Yeah, yeah. Well, we’ll see what that kind of turns into but we’re all gonna have the space to do it before and now we do and so I think as time goes on, you know, that would be something that I would like to do and I just wanted to make sure we had the, like the option to do that. So

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:26
You are like this name, Tahoe and teeth. Right there.

Dr. Client Euse 12:33
Man, a man of the West, what did you call me? The man of the West?

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:37
Yes, that’s right. That’s right,

Dr. Client Euse 12:39
Man of the West, Tahoe, and teeth

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:41
Yes, the Tahoe and Teeth conference

Dr. Client Euse 12:42
Thank you for these. Thank you for these ideas, Chad. This is this is this is gold.

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:48
Yeah. Hey, hey, Clint. You’re welcome. You’re welcome. Yeah, thank you.

Regan 12:52
I was just sliding into one thing that I read about Clint which was, which was he is a member of the Elite Spear Institute Faculty Club, which helps provide advanced education around cosmetic and complex restorative dentistry, but now we’ve got tooth and

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:10
Tahoe, and teeth

Dr. Clint Euse 13:11
Tahoe and teeth

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:11
You know, it just makes it plain just makes it plain, you know, simple to the point. I like it, you know?

Regan 13:20
So, like, it is approachable to the average man.

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:22
I mean, Pascal Manya would be proud of that title. He would just be like, you know, “The essence of simplicity is important.” So, Clint, what did your team think of this change? Like, how’s that changed their dynamic in their outlook, or did it? I mean, you know, like, what’s going on with the team’s headspace?

Dr. Client Euse 13:45
Yeah, well, the team was awesome, one is that like, this was, this was like, no small task, like we had, like, shut down our waiting room, like six weeks, you know, because that got, that got completely redone. So they, we had a temporary space and I mean, it was, it was a whole deal. So like, my team definitely sacrificed and got on board with what we were doing, which was awesome. You know, I mean, I think they saw the vision, I mean, the reception area has completely changed. It’s like four times bigger than it was as a lot more like natural light. You know, and so they were super excited about things like that. You know, that I mean, this is gonna sound silly, but we in the in that like, the break room is that we put into, like big bathrooms, you know, that are not like stalls. They’re like individual, you know, Florida Sealy like bathrooms and like so we have a huge team. So the team was like, super excited about the little things like, like having their own bathroom. You I think it’s cool. That was cool to see because everyone’s super proud of like, what we did is that you can just feel you know, because our existing area that all got redone with you know, new paint carpet flooring use the whole office now has like a brand new feel to it. You know, and so I hear the conversations when I’m walking by hygiene or I see people kind of giving tours in the office and, you know, I think that everyone was very proud of our office before, you know, but there’s kind of a renewed sense of pride for, like, what we have and how it’s different than I think most of the offices in our area. So it’s cool, it’s fun to see,

Dr. Chad Johnson 15:06
That is cool.

Regan 15:07
How did you communicate this with your team, like when it was in its inception? How did you get like, excited by and for them, I mean, the bathroom was, was a good one, that it is the little things, you know, we spend so much time in the office. So those little things really do matter.

Dr. Client Euse 15:25
Um, you know, I think the buy in was just, they probably, they probably just felt like kind of the, the excitement on our end, you know, and then once, once we got plans, once we got things, you know, started to get together, and we shared all that with the team and we’ve kind of walked through and, and we spent, I don’t know, a morning kind of walking through, like, this is what the reception areas going to look like and we’re blown out this wall, and we’re doing this and you know, and so I think they, they felt like they were part of the process, not just kind of like, having no clue what, what the end result was going to be like and then we got, you know, the poster boards of the, of the expansion that we put around the office so they can show patients and so they were involved with, you know, oh, yeah, this is where you are now is what’s gonna look like. So, you know, I don’t know if we have a good team. I mean, they, they, I think saw the, you know, kind of the vision of where we were going and you know, just excited to kind of take it to that next level.

Regan 16:10
So, you’ve been open, fully open with the expansion complete? Did you say for three months? Is that how long?

Dr. Client Euse 16:16
Well, so we had we did it in phases. So we had some operatories, like, like seven of the new ops were done in like phase one and so we were able to use those probably back in October and then the reception area just got finished up, basically persevere. Well, this probably middle December is when we actually start using it but yeah, so really, that the entire from, you know, having everything go and spend, I don’t know a month that we’ve been that we’ve been really rocking and rolling in the new space.

Regan 16:46
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 productivedentist.com/podcasts See you next week.