Robots, Revenue & Risk: The Implant Edge That Scales Without You (E.152)

What This Episode Reveals

“You’re not selling implants. You’re selling surgical certainty and that’s what drives practice valuation.”
– Victoria Peterson

In this episode, Dr. Jon Ehlers shares how implant robotics creates predictable workflows, empowers younger associates, and drives practice scalability. Discover how this technology positions your practice for growth and prepares you for a seamless transition out of the operatory.

What You Will Learn

✔ Why robotics is becoming the new standard of care for implants.
✔ How to scale implant dentistry beyond the owner’s chair.
✔ The marketing advantage of tech-forward practices.
✔ How robotics reduces clinical risk and drives valuation.
✔ Steps to align your team with advanced technology adoption.

If This Sounds Familiar

• You’re doing most of the high-value procedures yourself.
• Your associates lack confidence placing implants.
• You’re unsure how to transition out of the operatory without losing revenue.

This episode gives you the roadmap to surgical consistency, scalability, and future-proofing your business.

Scale Beyond Yourself

Adopt precision systems for predictable results.
Empower associates to deliver confidently.
Build a practice that runs without you in the chair.

Ready to align your team and systems for growth?

Learn more at the Clinical Calibration Institute

 

 

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:29] Victoria Peterson: Robots, revenue and risk. Oh my. Jonathan, welcome to the show.

[00:00:36] Dr. John Elhers: Pleasure with you, Vicki, and good seeing you.

[00:00:38] Victoria Peterson: Good seeing you too. Hey, today I wanna talk about Implant Edge. There are a lot of doctors who do implants, and you have taken it to the edge. You were one of the first adopters of yummy robotics, and you also recently partnered in a joint venture with your practice.

[00:00:58] Victoria Peterson: So in terms of [00:01:00] tying together technology. And value, you know, does this make your practice more investible? I couldn’t think of a, a better, a better person to give us living, breathing, real time thoughts about how robotics and technologies help with investment value. So I’m gonna let you just pick up the ball and start out with whatever is top of mind for you on that topic.

[00:01:27] Dr. John Elhers: Well, very good. No, I, I, I totally agree that, you know, when you’re looking at, especially if you’re looking at transacting, I think, um, the number one thing that they’re looking for is predictability. You know, certainty with the revenues that your practice is generating. And technology’s been that piece for us because.

[00:01:46] Dr. John Elhers: You know, whether it’s cone beam ct, so you’re, you’re as part of a comprehensive diagnosis. That was early on with the technology that we were adopting. And as we tie that into robotics, robotics is the, in my opinion, is the next [00:02:00] standard of care that’s coming with implants. I’ve talked about this before.

[00:02:04] Dr. John Elhers: Um, you know, 20 years ago, a cone beam CT was a nice tool. You know, for precision of implant placement today, that’s standard of care. And, and so I saw that with the, uh, robotic implant placement and speci specifically, uh, yomi. That today. It’s a nice tool, but I think tomorrow it will be the standard of care.

[00:02:29] Dr. John Elhers: And, and so, you know, when I’m thinking of partnering and when I’m, if I try to put myself in the, in the, you know, an investor’s perspective, I want that practice that. When they’re placing implants, their failure rates are down. Their precision for restorations, their, their, the appointment times it takes to restore an implant are down.

[00:02:49] Dr. John Elhers: All those things lead to more profitability. And so I think my investment in robotic implant placements, um, led to that very nice segue [00:03:00] into transacting and, and being profitable.

[00:03:03] Victoria Peterson: I love it. Now, you know, some look at the expense of, and I think is Ru, is Joni like cornered the market? Is there even a competitor to that?

[00:03:13] Dr. John Elhers: Yeah, there really isn’t. You know, there, there are, there are, um, there are guidance, you know, functionalities out there. But in terms of truly haptic. Feedback robotically guided placement. Yomi is the only one on the F-D-A-F-D-A cleared, uh, in the country. So, um, yeah, it’s, it’s kind of a league of its own.

[00:03:36] Victoria Peterson: It was really interesting. Uh. In September last year when we launched our clinical Calibration Institute live programming, and we had ybi there and we have you on the younger end, and we have Bruce, who literally, I, I bet he was like in shop class milling his own implants. In the beginning he, he invented early implant [00:04:00] systems, right?

[00:04:00] Victoria Peterson: And so I heard Bruce going, I ain’t no way you need a robot man. I just like, he’s so precise himself. And then I got a surgical guide and it got better. And, but then he got on the robot and he is like, oh, I can break this thing, right? I’m gonna, I’m gonna tilt it. I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna try to go punch through a little deeper what happens, because I think that’s the magic of the robot is that.

[00:04:27] Victoria Peterson: When you’re learning implants, or even for your first thousand implants, you’ve got an idea of where it’s going, and then you’ve got your hand-eye coordination, a wet environment, and a patient who’s alive and moving to deal with, so, so what happens with the robot?

[00:04:43] Dr. John Elhers: Yeah, that’s a great point because I think even anyone that’s placed at an implant can attest to this.

[00:04:51] Dr. John Elhers: You have a sight line in the mouth that you think is nailed perfect, and then once you get your post-op, you radiograph or you go to restore it, you’re like, [00:05:00] oh, the screw axis is a little bit to the lingual. Or, you know, I’m not exactly parallel or perpendicular to the plane of occlusion. And, and so what I, what I’ve seen is as I’m using yomi more and more like the sight lines.

[00:05:15] Dr. John Elhers: Are different. I mean, truly I had, I had to double and triple check the Yomi software because I’m like, that cannot be right. There’s no way. That’s exactly where it needs to go for the perfect restoration. And sure enough, uh, once, once I, I evaluate everything and I see where Yomis placing that. Um, it, it changes your opinion of it.

[00:05:35] Dr. John Elhers: So it, it is truly, it’s amazing how not only does it, I think not only does it give you the confidence that your, your precision is where it needs to be, but it also trains you to look from different angles and it, it made me a better implant surgeon from using yomi on a daily basis.

[00:05:53] Victoria Peterson: Did it change how you like the predictability of your res restoration and the final product?

[00:05:59] Victoria Peterson: Did that. [00:06:00] Save any time, make it easier, anything like that.

[00:06:04] Dr. John Elhers: So I think the, the one thing that I always said is, you know, good is okay, but if you have the ability to be perfect, why not do that? You know, and so Yomi Yomi is that for me, um, I’m, I’ve been placed in implants for 10 years. Um, you know, 99% of the time you place that implant, it integrates.

[00:06:26] Dr. John Elhers: You can put a restoration on it, but how many times do you go back and say, you know what, it could have been a little bit better. Uh, you know, I, I could have, I could have reduced a cantilever, uh, food, you know, food traps based on where your implants are placed in the site. Um, and so that is what I mean by, you know, the, the precision that Yomi brings whenever you’re, where you’re screwing that restoration and it’s, it’s right.

[00:06:49] Dr. John Elhers: In the middle of your restoration, you don’t have the food traps, all those things that from a restorative dentist standpoint, um, it makes, it makes your re restoration process [00:07:00] much, much easier.

[00:07:01] Victoria Peterson: I love it. Now, are you the primary surgeon and implant placer? Placer? That’s not the for implant

[00:07:10] Dr. John Elhers: surgeon. Yeah.

[00:07:11] Dr. John Elhers: Implantologist. Is that the, is that the part I like that, uh, yes. Yeah. In my office, um, I, I do, I, I place, I do all the surgeries. We do the restorations as well, you know, and I, I think what, uh, and we’ve talked about this a little bit with associates and younger dentists, you know, as, as an owner, doctor.

[00:07:31] Dr. John Elhers: Especially when you’re talking about, um, transacting and, and looking into the future of your practice. You know, there will be a time when you, you decide to step away from the clinical part of your practice. And, and Yomi I think is a great tool to where you have that young dentist that maybe is a little leery about placing an implant or, you know, if it’s not a perfectly healed molar site that’s, you know, a mile wide, um, they don’t wanna do it.

[00:07:59] Dr. John Elhers: And, and so [00:08:00] Yomi,

[00:08:00] Victoria Peterson: don’t we come along like one every 10 or 20 times? Yeah.

[00:08:04] Dr. John Elhers: Yeah. Don’t, don’t bake on those. If you’re, you know, if you’re, if you’re willing to place number 30 implants, uh, you’re not gonna place very many implants if that’s all you’re gonna do in the year. But, um, but no, I think Yomi provides that confidence that even as young clinicians and our associates in our practice, it’ll give them that ability to start placing and, and grow their, their surgical skill.

[00:08:28] Victoria Peterson: And you know, as you’re, we were talking before we came on air about attracting an associate, I think you ought to really put that front and center, that joining our team will put you through a one year implant residency. Like where in the world would they, you know. Get this type of, you are such a mentor.

[00:08:49] Victoria Peterson: I wanna bring that up because, um, it can be discouraging when owners think about associates. All we ever hear are the war stories, but I’ve met your associate. Erin [00:09:00] is amazing. She Oh, she is talk. So talk to us about your relationship with a, it’s a little off the, the subject of robots, but this is robots, revenue and risk.

[00:09:12] Victoria Peterson: Oh my. So, uh, and it is about. How tech forward companies are in the future and the future is the associates. So what’s your philosophy of integration across providers and how you elevate your associates through technology?

[00:09:30] Dr. John Elhers: I think, you know, if you, when you’re marketing as a technology, forward practice and yomi in particular, um, you’re gonna get a, a clientele, patients that are wanting that level of care, you know, and I think it’s, it’s important, and we, we’ve talked many times about this.

[00:09:46] Dr. John Elhers: You’re not just sending out a flyer that says, I need a dental patient. You know, I, I need a patient that’s. You know, has no, nothing going on. And they just need a, a pro a prophy, you know, we’re, we’re trying to attract [00:10:00] patients that have concerns that we want to, you know, Bruce always says, I market to train wrecks.

[00:10:06] Dr. John Elhers: You know, I, I never, he told, he said that at PBA, that always resonated with me because that’s what we like to do. And now Aaron, my associate. She’s not heavy into implants, but what, what marketing for, you know, technology, forward practice, yomi, robotics, that’s bring, that brings, that brings the patients in that are expecting high quality work, that know they have issues and they want us to take care of ’em.

[00:10:32] Dr. John Elhers: And so, um, that all ties together. Absolutely.

[00:10:37] Victoria Peterson: I would imagine that even if they’re coming in for an implant consult, you immediately see some aesthetic concerns.

[00:10:45] Dr. John Elhers: Absolutely. Yeah. You know, that’s the thing. Or, or, you know, we, we address their perio status. You know, a patient wants a single implant. Like it’s, it’s about the comprehensive diagnosis and, and that’s where having your team and, and calibrating everyone on that mission as [00:11:00] a practice, um, is so important.

[00:11:01] Dr. John Elhers: Whether or not. Erin’s doing implants. She’s, she’s diagnosing perio, she’s doing full mouth rehabs with crown and bridge. Um, she’s doing aesthetic cases, you know, and I think it’s, it’s all part of a, a larger office vision of comprehensive care, you know, in diagnosis.

[00:11:20] Victoria Peterson: And I think, uh, you know, when we first, when PDA first embarked on clinical calibration, I mean, we’ve been doing it.

[00:11:30] Victoria Peterson: For our clients only for, you know, like 10 years or more. And Bruce and I just kind of finally came to this place as like, you know, this is really great that we’ve helped, you know, a couple dozen practices this year, but the state of dental education, like I think, I think all doctors are taught to identify like that tooth could use a crown.

[00:11:53] Victoria Peterson: Or that clearly looks like as an endo, but to put it all together, what we [00:12:00] discovered is that you’re a great example of this is that there’s a diagnostic continuum. There’s the how did you get here? You know? That’s right. What was your medical history, your dental history, your risk factors, like you have a patchwork quilt inside your mouth?

[00:12:16] Victoria Peterson: And for me as a hygienist, I’ll say that whenever I saw a patient that had, you know, like jacked up dental work, the first thing I thought was that person is very dedicated to their health. Like they have endured a lot of dentistry. By a lot of different practitioners trying to find the answer, right? So most people think they have a low dental iq.

[00:12:41] Victoria Peterson: I think those are the ones, they’re the most educated. ’cause they went through it and we didn’t really push, you know, you could have any philosophy you wanted, but with Clinical Calibration Institute we’re like, no, we work with people who wanna do comprehensive care because it just seems [00:13:00] to solve so many.

[00:13:02] Victoria Peterson: Team issues, diagnostic issues, case acceptance issues like when, you know, my focus is on how did you get here? How do I help you be healthier long term, and now what’s the best restoration that’ll last the rest of your life potentially.

[00:13:20] Dr. John Elhers: Yeah.

[00:13:21] Victoria Peterson: How can you even think back to a time you didn’t think that way?

[00:13:25] Victoria Peterson: I mean, can you, is there a

[00:13:28] Dr. John Elhers: Yeah, I’ve always, I think. I, I’ve always tried to put it together, as in, in the early on. It wasn’t that I was thinking comprehensively, it was conscious based. You know, it’s like I, whatever I’m gonna do for this patient, if it doesn’t last them. Maybe I put unreasonable expectations on myself.

[00:13:50] Dr. John Elhers: ’cause you know, it’s like we, we’ll do the perfect restoration and the patient will go home and smoke and chew, chew nuts and break thing. You know, that happens. [00:14:00] But before I really learned about comprehensive diagnosis, I was about. Finding the restoration that is going to last for that patient that’s gonna give them the function that they need.

[00:14:11] Dr. John Elhers: And, and I think that was kind of like the, the groundwork for, for falling into PEA and, and comprehensive diagnosis and putting that part into it. Um, but the main thing is, you know, we’re, we’re not just fixing that tooth for today. We’re fixing it for tomorrow and the next day. And, and, uh, and so that, that’s how I think I got started with it.

[00:14:32] Victoria Peterson: I love it. And. I know you’re a hygienist, you go even beyond that, right? With their head and neck exams. Oral cancer exams, you know, all of that. It’s just more than, more than teeth.

[00:14:46] Dr. John Elhers: Well, you know, I think every, we have, it’s such a blessing for our, our field because every day, um. Article after article is showing nothing but the continued correlation between [00:15:00] oral health and systemic health.

[00:15:01] Dr. John Elhers: You know, it’s like, it’s not just a sales pitch for dentistry. It’s, you know, we’re, every single day we’re, we’re getting that, you know, justification of, yeah, this is why your gum should not be bleeding. It’s because it leads to so many other, you know, comorbidities that we have the ability to fix.

[00:15:20] Victoria Peterson: So, uh, I love this.

[00:15:22] Victoria Peterson: I wanna talk to you about 15 different topics other than robotics because you have so much insight in all of this. Um, there’s a Facebook thread that I’m in right now, uh, um, in fact, I think. Did Ken Cooch start that or, um, anyway, it’s about ortho and it’s about early intervention and expansion and not taking out free molars.

[00:15:47] Victoria Peterson: And our good friend Chris Duvall weighed in, who is a high level hygienist, teaches ozone therapy and all of that. I had no, I’ve known. Gosh, I’ve known Chris for [00:16:00] almost 25, 30 years. I had no idea that the health issue she’s going through and that she talks about like AFib and sleep apnea, snoring, her posture, uh, you know, she’s in her.

[00:16:15] Victoria Peterson: She’s, she’s collecting social security now. Not really. You know, we, we start, you see little people and they’re bending over and for her it started when she was 19 years old and they extracted her premolars to make more room for ortho. And even back then she was like, I don’t think this is such a good idea.

[00:16:32] Victoria Peterson: And it had this, so she’s watched as a practitioner for 50 years the impact on her body. So I love that you brought out like conscious. Conscious diagnostics, like what is the impact of this decision?

[00:16:48] Dr. John Elhers: That’s so true, and I, I love that modern orthodontics, if that’s even, you know, an applicable term. I feel like we’re going away from, let’s, let’s find the quickest [00:17:00] way to align your teeth.

[00:17:01] Dr. John Elhers: You know, let’s, that’s not the answer. The answer is, you know, like you said, expansion. Airway control, all those things. You know, like the kids, there’s a whole, there’s a several generations where they’re walking around literally with, you know, uh, they’ve had all their, their bi, their bicuspids removed, and all of a sudden now they have less teeth, they’ve got a constricted bite, and they’re still crowded because those cases always need revision.

[00:17:29] Dr. John Elhers: I mean, I, I don’t, I haven’t seen a single one that’s still per in a perfect alignment. And, and so, um, now, you know, we’re partnering with orthodontists that yes, early inter, inter, early intervention phase one expansion, um, therapies. I mean, that, that is, it’s so important and, and I agree with you. I think it’s, it’s the airway that’s the issue, you know, and it, it can, it can totally affect people long term as well.

[00:17:56] Victoria Peterson: Um, how did you get your hygiene team on board of. [00:18:00] Expanding their mindset into the, because when you look at a comprehensive exam code, it covers a lot. There’s caries, perio, airway function, aesthetics, you know, all endo, all of it is there and you know, somehow you gotta accomplish that in six minutes or less.

[00:18:22] Victoria Peterson: How did you, how’d you get your hygienist on board with expanding their continuing education beyond perio or beyond traditional pro fees?

[00:18:31] Dr. John Elhers: It started with, they, they had a, I gotta say they had a good foundation. You know, they were, you know, our little town in, in rural Missouri, uh, we have a no hygiene program and.

[00:18:43] Dr. John Elhers: Those, those graduates come out with the idea that, you know, we’re, we’re going to treat periodontal disease. Like yes, it is in fact a disease that needs to be treated. Not everybody gets a prophy, you know, and so whenever they’re coming to my practice applying for a job. [00:19:00]That’s a great foundation, you know, and, and it had, I didn’t really inherit hygienist from an old, an older practitioner that I bought a practice from.

[00:19:08] Dr. John Elhers: You know, I, my practice was a startup, and so we had that philosophy, philosophy from day one, you know? Right. Like, as a hygienist, you’re not just, you know, humming teeth, you’re, you’re, you’re gonna treat. Disease, you know, and so we had that mindset from the get go and, and then we’ve, in one shape or form, we’ve been in coaching since I’ve owned a practice, you know, coaching and, you know, keeping your team accountable.

[00:19:34] Dr. John Elhers: Um, there was, there was a period of time where we didn’t, we were not in coaching and I could see a change. It’s like having that, that third party voice in the background just saying, let’s, let’s hit our metrics, let’s make sure we’re focusing on the things that need to be done. Because I think it’s easy to fall out of alignment if you’re not having that, that voice.

[00:19:55] Dr. John Elhers: So, so that’s part of it. I think it’s just we, we constantly are coached and [00:20:00] it, uh, it keeps us focused.

[00:20:03] Victoria Peterson: Let’s, let’s pivot this back to practice value and overhead and profits and things like that. You know, uh, the two things, if you. You know, listen to naysayers. It’s hard to get. Associates and hygienists are ridiculous.

[00:20:17] Victoria Peterson: There’s their salaries are through the roof and, and I see it on the message board. It’s like, oh my God, I gotta pay my hygienists 60 bucks an hour. And it’s like, well, then they would have to produce 180 an hour, and if you gave them perio therapies and all of these service mixes, they’d be producing 300.

[00:20:34] Victoria Peterson: So what’s. What’s the problem with the hygienist making 125 grand a year if she’s bringing in 300, 3 50? Like any other provider? Absolutely. Associates. Do you guys, what about,

[00:20:48] Dr. John Elhers: oh yeah. No, we, I think the, the first thing and, and with our, with our organization that we’ve partnered with, um, it was a, it was a great way to approach that conversation.[00:21:00]

[00:21:00] Dr. John Elhers: You know, when you have a. A person, you know, a hygienist come up to you and say, I want a raise. You know the question, I think the answer is, or we pose the question back to them, like, how, how can we, how can we get you to earn that? And, and that, that, that question is okay, um, how can we justify the cost?

[00:21:21] Dr. John Elhers: And it’s really not even a cost, it’s, it’s. Giving them the tools like we talked about, whether it’s per, you know, we’re using per protect or laser, you know, laser assisted, uh, bacterial reduction, tho, those type of things. And, and so I look at it as I. It’s an opportunity like, you know, we, we made a pivot from paying a hygienist on an hourly basis to pay them off of net production.

[00:21:47] Dr. John Elhers: And that’s been a game changer for our practice, uh, because a hygienist now look at, they approach that as a provider. You know, it’s, it’s like whenever they have their patient. They are, they are gonna do the [00:22:00] comprehensive evaluation. They are going, you know, get bleeding on probing because, you know, number one, they’re gonna, that’s, that’s what’s best for the patient.

[00:22:07] Dr. John Elhers: But number two, they’re gonna get compensated for that production. And so, yeah, the question’s not, oh man, we have to pay our hygienist. This is, let’s, let’s educate them, let’s empower them to where they, they’re going to produce that’s gonna justify that cost. And so that, that’s how we’ve approached it and it’s worked pretty well.

[00:22:28] Victoria Peterson: I. Anything else you’d like to share? Just in this, I, I kind of tangent, tangentially brought in several topics beyond the robotics, but you are a very tech forward, a very leadership forward, a very mentorship forward, um, practitioner. And I would, I would have a conversation with you every day. Uh, ’cause I learned so much from you.

[00:22:53] Victoria Peterson: What advice would you give listeners that are maybe just. Dipping their toes into [00:23:00] integrating these types of technologies. And you know, how, how do you justify the cost? How do you think about it before you even make the purchase?

[00:23:09] Dr. John Elhers: So I talk to doctors all the time about Yomi and. I always, I always ha I ask them to, don’t look at the relative cost of your production today.

[00:23:21] Dr. John Elhers: Try to forecast, try to forecast what you’re gonna be like in two years. You know, what, how, how this could potentially transform your practice. So say you’re placing 50 implants a year right now, you know, don’t run an ROI calculator on 50 implants a year. Yeah. Let’s, let’s say, you know, let’s look at co a nice comprehensive marketing program.

[00:23:43] Dr. John Elhers: Let’s look at your goals. Are you wanting to maybe go into full arch? Are you thinking about, you know, maybe expanding your overdenture, you know, treatment, philosophy, um, those kind of things. And so when you, when you apply that, um, it makes the investment [00:24:00]way worth it. And, and again, I look at it as, you know, obviously dollars and cents play a role.

[00:24:08] Dr. John Elhers: I look at it as I want to have the absolute best way to provide implant implantology for my patients. And so if I can use a system that provides real-time feedback, haptic feedback, um, you know, precision, uh. Expediency, you know, less invasive. These are all the things that, again, sales sounds very sales pitchy, but truly I believe these things, it’s why I invested in Yomi.

[00:24:35] Dr. John Elhers: It’s why I still talk to dentist all the time about yomi. Those are the things that, um, as far as advice, I would say, evaluate all that. Before you just say no to it. You know, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s easy to say no to a big investment like that, but at the same time it can really open doors for your practice.

[00:24:53] Dr. John Elhers: And I, you know, I’m three years in and I do not regret a second of it.

[00:24:58] Victoria Peterson: I love it. Uh, you mentioned [00:25:00]marketing. How big a role does that play in.

[00:25:04] Dr. John Elhers: Marketing is everything, you know, ’cause uh, I mean, yes, the internet’s out there, but if patients don’t know about you, you can have every, every tool in, in the, in the box.

[00:25:14] Dr. John Elhers: But if, if patients don’t know about it, um, they’re not gonna come see you. So, you know, marketing is, is a large portion of education and, and just, uh, awareness for the, for your demographics.

[00:25:26] Victoria Peterson: There. I know there’s no silver bullet with marketing. I’ve been a dental marketer for 15, 20 years or more. So what have been some of the best layers or some of the things that attract this type of patient?

[00:25:40] Victoria Peterson: And again, I think I’m glad you mentioned that you’re in rural Missouri. Yeah. What, what’s your closest big town?

[00:25:47] Dr. John Elhers: Kansas City, um, is about an hour and a half, so yeah.

[00:25:53] Victoria Peterson: And how far, how far do patients drive to come and see you? Are they

[00:25:58] Dr. John Elhers: Yeah, I, [00:26:00] so I think, you know, when you’re, we kind of divide our marketing up, you know, we have our, your general dentistry patients that come in and, and that, that’s, that’s your, you know, relatively close, relatively close for us is 15, 20 miles a hump.

[00:26:16] Dr. John Elhers: Some it’s like five miles, uh, two miles. Um, but then like our bigger implant cases, they come from hours away. Wow. And so I think that’s, that’s another, that’s a good point you ta you’re talking about is, you know, the more specific your service gets. So say you wanna market all in four, all in X, um, I think your, your radius grows.

[00:26:38] Dr. John Elhers: ’cause number one, you know, you, we may not have the volume of patients needing that service in the small radius that we’re working in. So we market, we mark it all over. Um. And because of that, we get patients from, you know, we had a patient from two and a half hours away, or we had a patient from, from Texas, her, her grand, her mom is a patient of ours [00:27:00] and she saw our Yomi ad and she literally called us up and said, Hey, I’m gonna be visiting my mom.

[00:27:05] Dr. John Elhers: My dentist told me I needed an implant. Can I get it done at your office? And we’re like, absolutely. So, um, you’ll be surprised that

[00:27:14] Victoria Peterson: this is gonna be like, wait a minute, you got a patient from Texas, you took.

[00:27:18] Dr. John Elhers: I know we, I told her, we’re gonna put you in all of our ads because like, we’re that good that patients are coming all the way from Texas to see us.

[00:27:26] Dr. John Elhers: I’m joking, but, but it’s, um, yeah. You, I think be, be ready for patients that are willing to drive hours to see you if, number one, you provide them the service that they need, and number two, you can, you can educate them to say, you know, we’re worth driving that far. And that’s what marketing is all about.

[00:27:47] Victoria Peterson: I know our sister company, the Phoenix Dental Agency, like they, that’s really what they specialize on is from the inside out.

[00:27:54] Victoria Peterson: Let’s take care of all the internal systems and the internal marketing. Make sure people are rescheduling and [00:28:00] staying on the books and building that nucleus. But then let’s own your street. Let’s own your block. Let’s own your town. Let’s own your county. I was gonna say then you own your state, but you’re like, nah, I’m just gonna, I’m gonna dominate globally.

[00:28:16] Victoria Peterson: Yeah, good point. That. 80% of your patients may not drive 50 miles or more, but those who do are gonna make up a significant portion of revenue in this type of practice.

[00:28:28] Dr. John Elhers: Absolutely.

[00:28:29] Victoria Peterson: I think that’s why people get a little scared of focusing in too much on implants. But it seems like, and we’ll wrap up on this point ’cause it brings back to, you know, future value is that you have, I’ve just.

[00:28:43] Victoria Peterson: So admired you and, um, really wanna point out how strategic you’ve been in your career. Uh, I still term you as a young doctor, you know, like you’re under 50, you’re young, uh, but you’ve been very strategic. Like, I’m, I’m starting this, but I’m [00:29:00] don’t wanna do it alone. And as I grow and here’s what it’s gonna be.

[00:29:04] Victoria Peterson: And marketing and team development and technology and patient care and patient finance. It all seems to have been going down the tracks congruently and consistently. I haven’t seen you make a lot of start stops. Start stops.

[00:29:24] Dr. John Elhers: I,

[00:29:24] Victoria Peterson: what’s the secret to that?

[00:29:28] Dr. John Elhers: I think I’ve, I’ve always just had in mind that you know the things you do today.

[00:29:34] Dr. John Elhers: Will drastically affect what you do. What happens five, 10 years from now? You know? So like what I’m doing now with partnering and, um, you know, growing the practice, making the investments in technology. It’s, it is for today, but it’s also to put the practice in the best position whenever I’m ready to hang it up.

[00:29:54] Dr. John Elhers: You know, whether that’s, I don’t know, seven years, 15 years, it’s hard to say, but I [00:30:00] wanna, I want to have, I want to have done everything I can to position myself for success and, and that, that goes all the way back from when I started the practice. Um, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s. Investing in your team?

[00:30:13] Dr. John Elhers: Investing in the coaching to where they have the tools to where if I need, need to go. You know, like last year my, my son’s a year old. I took two weeks off for paternity leave and I had no stress because my team is that good. And it’s, and, and I like to say that they’re, they’re that good naturally, but also they’ve been coached well.

[00:30:37] Dr. John Elhers: Um, they have, they have a vision of the practice that we have. We set goals for ourselves. If you don’t set goals, you’re not, you’re, there’s nothing to achieve if you don’t have a goal. And so, um, that’s, that’s where I see myself and I, I want, I just want to have this practice live on well, well beyond my practice stays, you know, so that’s, that’s, you just gotta keep that in perspective as [00:31:00] you’re, as you’re growing.

[00:31:02] Victoria Peterson: I think that’s so healthy. Uh, you know, um, I think your generation is really setting the stage for doing it well. A lot of baby boomer docs have just waited until the year they wanna sell, thinking. It’s like putting your home up, uh, for sale and that, you know, a year from now I’ll retire. But that’s not really how it works.

[00:31:22] Victoria Peterson: If you wanna optimize the value along the way, uh, as well as the value, when you leverage l.

[00:31:29] Dr. John Elhers: That’s right. Yeah. Every, every year you hang on beyond your peak. You’re, you’re literally watching your practice, uh, fall in value. You know, and it’s, you know, again, I don’t want, I don’t want to, it’s not for everybody.

[00:31:42] Dr. John Elhers: You know, some, some, some guys just, they literally wanna practice until they physically can’t. And that was never the goal of mine. You know, my goal is the legacy that I wanna leave is a legacy that, um, is, is beyond dentistry in a way. Um, but more [00:32:00] importantly is. Tiger Family Dental. That’s why I didn’t name my practice Jonathan Aler.

[00:32:05] Dr. John Elhers: I named it not a, something that the community can remember and when I’m done practicing 20, 30 years from now, my, my prayer is that Tiger Family Dental will still be here, still be providing. Um, the best dentistry possible and, and it’s gonna be the next technology. We’re gonna be, you know, like, it’s, can you imagine what the dentistry’s gonna look like 20 years from now?

[00:32:27] Dr. John Elhers: I always just, I had a, I had a shadower and, uh, he, he’s a, he’s an undergrad, you know, and you know, I just, I, I stopped and I thought, I’m like, whenever that guy is a dentist, you know, 15, 20 years from now, it’s like, I bet we won’t even real, we won’t even be able to. You know, tell the professions it’s gonna be so, so crazy how we’re, how we’re evolving so fast with, uh, technology.

[00:32:50] Dr. John Elhers: But, um, it’s exciting though too. That’s why I’m always trying to adopt new things.

[00:32:56] Victoria Peterson: Well, thank you for being here today. Thank you also for being on [00:33:00] faculty with the Clinical Calibration Institute. Uh, I know you love hanging out on our mastermind groups on Monday nights with the younger doctors and those new in the Journey.

[00:33:10] Victoria Peterson: You also are part of our Lamba Dental Study Club, uh, where you get together and just nerd out on all the next level stuff. And, you know, just sitting there listening to you guys, you, I don’t know what’s coming up, but. You, you all blow my mind. You’re like, oh yeah, there’s this thing where we can regenerate a tooth butt, or we could go in and dissolve the wisdom teeth before they even form, and why wouldn’t you do that instead of extract and Jackson Bean talking about, you know, zero depth.

[00:33:40] Victoria Peterson: Implant adhesion. We were talking the other day and he’s now doing something with Argonne Gas and in titanium and uh, you wait till the next Lamba Mastermind. That’s right. That’s right. It’s just mind blowing stuff. And um. I, I think that’s what I love about our faculty is that you cut across all [00:34:00] continuums.

[00:34:00] Victoria Peterson: There’s no camps of like siloed philosophy. You’re like, Nope, I took that one and that one and that one and that one. And I’m a diplomat here and a fellow, they’re like, you just are, are such passionate learners.

[00:34:15] Dr. John Elhers: Yes, absolutely. No, it’s, it’s great. And the, the more you’re around successful people that are willing to, you know, learn, um, it just, it naturally brings you up as well.

[00:34:25] Dr. John Elhers: So that, that’s a, that’s the beauty of, of being in that position too.

[00:34:29] Victoria Peterson: I love it. Well, again, thank you so much Jonathan, for being here. We appreciate you so much. Appreciate

[00:34:35] Dr. John Elhers: Thank you. But it was good seeing you. Appreciate it.