Dental Hygiene Hustle - How to Get the Most Out of the Hygiene Chair
Welcome to Dental Unscripted.
Where Mike D'Inzio and Paula
Quinn break down the
practice ownership journey,
one episode at a time.
Starting up,
buying and running a
successful dental practice.
What's going on, guys?
Welcome,
welcome back to another episode of
Dental Unscripted.
My name's Michael D'Incio,
and I got my co-star, Paula Quinn,
on the show.
Hey, what's up, Paula?
Hey, not much.
How's it going?
We're doing another one of these things.
Yeah, it's been a minute.
I know, I know.
It's been a minute,
so hopefully you guys are
still following us.
try to put out as much content as we can,
but it's kind of the busy
season and we're doing the best we can.
But today we got a really
good episode because it's
just Paula and I rapping
today about hygiene and all
things kind of how to grow your practice.
And so we're just going to
talk a lot about like how
to get hygiene departments
to produce more and who
better to have on the topic is Ms.
Paula Quinn.
So we're just going to kind
of get into it.
But
Before we do,
a little housekeeping if you
haven't heard it.
If you're watching this on
Startup Unscripted,
get over to our other
channel called Dental Unscripted.
That goes for the same as
those of you watching on
Acquisition Unscripted.
We're just merging all to
Dental Unscripted.
Yeah, no,
this is going to be the place for
all of our podcasts moving forward.
And the topics are going to
be about startups, about acquisitions,
and also about practice management.
So today's kind of a
practice management topic
of how to grow practice and
get things going.
So let's just kind of get into it.
Do I get to just be the guest?
I just get to sit here and be the guest?
You can be the guest.
Do you have any housekeeping
to add to that?
No, I'm the guest.
Yes, you are the guest.
You know, we were thinking today about,
you know,
topics on how to just grow
practices and a hot topic is hygiene.
And like in a world where
hygienists are just so expensive,
dollar wise, a pretty big range.
Paula,
where do you think the range is on
pay these days for hygienists?
Statewide or just kind of?
Countrywide.
Countrywide.
I mean, it's all over the place.
Why did I say statewide?
Yeah, countrywide.
Yeah, countrywide.
I mean,
I would say it can be as low as forty,
but that's pretty unusual,
especially here in the West.
But I would say that there
are probably some southern
states that it could be lower.
But I would say average we're looking at.
probably forty seven to seventy five.
Yeah.
Northwest and some parts of
California were up in the
seventy mid seventies.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So like in that in that kind
of mindset and also not only pay,
but but also like I know
it's not it's probably not as bad.
But do you remember post
covid when you couldn't literally find
a hygienist anywhere.
Just because you're talking
to hygiene departments and
practice owners all day.
I feel like it's less of a problem,
but it's still a problem.
How would you kind of frame
up the void that they've kind of left us?
You, I can say you guys,
because you're a hygienist.
The void that you guys have left us,
has it rebounded?
Is it worse in some areas?
in the country than others.
Yeah, I think that it's it's worse.
It kind of seems like, in my opinion,
what I've heard,
it's like the higher pay
regions are the hardest ones to find.
Those of us, for instance, Arizona,
that didn't change a lot.
I think it's still fairly easy to find.
You know,
it's almost like the higher they
the higher they got paid,
the more I,
and maybe they did that because
they weren't willing to
work unless they got a lot of money.
I don't know.
It's it,
but that's kind of the trend is
the higher they're paid,
the less you'd be able to
seem to be able to find them.
And then I think it
definitely is area specific, you know,
it's, it's just like any other,
employees though you know
some areas are just harder
to find employees in
general you know if you're
in in a remoter area versus
other areas but um
you know, I don't know, but yes,
the answer is I do think
that it's rebounded a little bit.
I definitely see, I mean,
we had dentists practically in tears,
but I also will say dentists,
a lot of dentists have been
become accustomed to doing
their own hygiene.
I mean,
so I think there's also just less
complaining because it's almost like they,
they found a plan B and,
and kind of just said,
I just got to do this.
Uh,
you know, and we won't get into it on this,
but, you know, even here, you know,
in the state of Arizona,
pass a law where assistance, you know,
can take a certain amount
of hours and do some scaling.
So that's kind of what the
hygiene profession has pushed to happen,
you know, demanding hygiene.
Let's talk about that.
I mean, I,
the whole point of this episode is,
is exactly what you're,
kind of throwing out there
that dentists have had to
get really creative to fill this void.
And we tell our clients all the time,
if you can't get a hygienist,
then you're stuck in the
chair doing a two hundred,
three hundred dollar PPO
kind of procedure and
instead of doing fifteen
hundred dollar procedures.
And so that just never
that's just never going to
really pencil the way you want it to.
And so
yeah like I of course you
have to do what you got to
do to keep your business
going and we saw a lot of
that in covid with the
doctors doing that but now
that some hydrants have
come back which is a good
thing they've come back um
let's kind of get into like
okay so we can't really
find hygienist and so when
we do find one we pay them
a lot more like you said um
so the supply and demand is
off and if this if the
If the demand's really high
and the supply's really low,
then prices are going to go up,
just like they have in Seattle.
So if prices have gone up,
the only way to combat that
is to produce more, to justify the ROI,
right?
Okay, fee for service.
Unless they're fee for service.
And so that's the big topic for today,
is how to get more out of
your hygiene department
knowing that you're paying in some cases,
seventy dollars an hour or more?
And how do you it used to be
three times their wage, right?
Is that what you used to say?
Yeah, that was the bare minimum.
Three times the wage.
Bare minimum.
So what?
So would it be would we be
lucky to get three times today?
With seventy five dollars an hour?
Well,
with well-trained hygienists
and motivated hygienists,
you should get three times
your wage still.
Still.
Yeah.
Still.
Okay.
There's so many other, I mean,
there's so many other things,
which I guess, you know,
we can get into a minute,
but there's so many other
things that hygienists can
do and bring to the table
besides just the act of scaling,
you know?
Yeah.
That's one piece to the puzzle.
let's get into it what are
the so when you think about
hygienic hygiene and and um
trying to get the most out
of those patients how how
what what do you think the
top things are like where
do we even start this
conversation about getting
more uh dollars per patient
in that chair in the
hygiene chair what where
does your head where does
your head go I mean
I would say first is diagnosing right.
I think with a good perio
program and a good
understanding and a
refresher every once in a while,
sometimes just doing your local,
what you have to do for
your CEs isn't enough.
It's really making sure that
you're diagnosing correctly
the first time.
There's always so much
opportunity and I just see
it over and over again, not happening.
Yeah.
yeah I mean when you say
diagnosing you're talking
to a layman here um I'm
sure the dentists know a
lot more about it but what
when you like what are you
seeing that when you say
that like what are you
seeing in the hygienist
today not diagnosing like
what does that mean yeah
well I wouldn't say it just
today I I think it's you
know historically um
I always, whenever I'm coaching hygienists,
I think it's a very natural
instinct when you're a
caregiver to sort of want
to minimize issues,
not shame the patient and sort of,
you know, usually people,
I feel like usually you go
into certain fields, whether it's,
you know, you ex-banker, you know,
hygiene,
and a lot of the behavior styles
are the same with hygienists and they're
a little bit more reserved.
Um, not all, not all, there's a lot of,
a lot of, you know,
different personality types out there,
but, um,
they don't want to hurt people's
feelings.
They,
they're caregivers cause they want to
give and coddle and, and take care of.
And so when you have that,
it's hard to have the, the,
the person that's okay with
a little bit of
I wouldn't call it confrontation,
but having those hard,
tough conversations,
do you know what I mean?
And so I just find that they
like to gently plant seeds
or they like to avoid,
or if a patient's already
been through something or
even complained about
another office doing something,
they'll retreat and like
not even touch that, you know?
So I feel like,
those can be challenging situations.
And the general personality
of the hygienist doesn't go
with the general,
what kind of the job it's
almost like upfront when
you got to collect the money,
it's like a little bit
harder and that's not usually.
So, I mean,
all you want me to explain what
I mean by dying correctly.
Is I would say most of the
hygienists I talked to
don't even know what forty
three forty six is or that
there's a gingivitis
therapy code out there or
they've heard of it and they tell me, oh,
insurance doesn't pay for that or.
Why would they even be talking insurance?
That's what's always fascinating to me.
You really want to go down
that rabbit hole?
I mean,
maybe you've got doctors on the
other end of this thinking, you know,
I mean,
it is part of the conversation
that a lot of offices,
by the leadership of the dentist,
they allow their team to
really have the insurance
company dictate what they
tell the patient.
Well, I know when I, when I, I know,
I know it's like,
I'm opening up a can of worms,
but I have an answer.
For,
for those of you that aren't watching
online,
it is classic right now that Paula
is talking to us.
Hold up your right hand real quick,
please.
No, your left hand.
Now don't switch what's in your hand.
What did you do?
You just had a flasher.
Yes, you did it.
She literally has a flosser in her hand.
I was flossing.
You couldn't be more cliche right now.
But anyway.
Anyway.
Yeah.
So, like, again, I don't know.
I mean,
we're talking about diagnosing correctly.
That kind of to me means
that they don't have the
insurance company telling
them what to diagnose.
Wait.
They shouldn't be diagnosing
based on the insurance company's stuff.
Well, what I find happens is, you know,
this isn't meant to be bad,
so sorry if your name is Mary Sue,
whatever.
You know,
Mary Sue up front will submit and either,
yes, it can be...
They can use an alternative code.
It can be what I want to say.
Gosh, I have a lot.
Stephanie's going to be so
disappointed if she's
watching this right now.
They can downgrade.
Sorry.
There's a lot of things that
happen with like, for instance,
we'll just give the forty three forty six,
for example.
There's a lot.
There's three or four
different scenarios that
can happen with a forty three forty six.
So I imagine Mary Sue says, Paula,
don't use that code again.
It didn't get paid.
And it just confused the patient and dah,
dah, dah, dah.
Or they just downgraded it anyways.
We might as well submit a one on one zero,
which is an adult pro fee.
And then that's in the hygiene mind now.
Um, so, you know,
if you're not set up for
success from front all the
way to the back, then sometimes, you know,
submitting certain,
especially different codes
that we're not used to can fail you.
So whenever I'm going in,
I'm really arming, not just the hygienist,
but the practice with how
do we do this and how do we
do it successfully?
But I do agree with you, Michael, it,
you know, the coding.
the coding is only to submit
to insurance what's really
happening in the chair is
are a couple different
things and so we've got to
talk I'll try not to get
over educate here but we've
got to talk in the
patient's language and when
a patient comes in and we
code them a prophy okay so
think about this you come
in with gingivitis pretty
bad and I do a prophy
you leave and it's covered
at a hundred percent and
then I put you on three
months you're gonna say why
and I'm gonna say well you
know you have gingivitis
you're gonna say yeah but
my insurance covers every
six months I'll be back
then you don't get the gist
of what just happened there
um so I like to I call it
call a spade a spade and
make sure the patient fully
understands whether it
hurts in their pocketbook
whether it hurts by having
to come back in four to six
weeks for an additional now pro fee,
I want the patient to be
educated in that.
And if the insurance denies
it or downgrades it or
there's a copay with it, well, I mean,
you waited two years to
come in or you don't floss.
Yeah.
or you're not, you know, it's, it's really,
you have to diagnose what you see.
If we went to a medical doctor,
they wouldn't diagnose
something completely
different because insurance
wasn't going to pay.
They would say, Hey, Paula, you, whatever,
you need to be treated for this.
It's, it's, this is what it is.
It doesn't matter.
Now the front office has to be armed with
the knowledge so they can
help explain that to a
patient because we never
want to do something
without patient's knowledge
and understanding and
agreeing to treatment,
but it shouldn't change the
diagnosis in the back.
So long, long story short,
what I see often is we are
doing bloody proffes.
We're giving away perio.
We're giving away gingivitis
and we're coding a prophy.
And so
It's bogging down our chair.
It's bogging down our time.
The office now who's already
limping along because
they're getting reimbursed
crap for a pro fee is now
getting reimbursed crap for
a free gingivitis therapy.
You know what I mean?
And what I'm thinking about
here is like the doctors
are always saying to us, well,
the insurance company is the problem.
They're not paying us enough money.
Damn, damn it, Paula,
the hygienist is costing me
seventy five dollars.
I should just do my own hygiene.
And what I just heard you
say was that the front
office kind of slap is
slapping the hygienist hands.
The doctor's not stepping in and saying,
no, we're diagnosing what it is.
nancy joe or whatever you
said mary sue at the front
quit dictating back to us
as clinicians so in a lot
of ways it's a leadership
issue by the doctor not
stepping in and saying hey
it's not always mary joe or
whatever's fault because
sometimes the hygienists
just don't want to have
those difficult conversations
So we can't blame,
I'm saying sometimes when I
hear those myths,
I know that's coming from
the front because the
hygienists have no idea if
a claim got paid or not.
Now there's a whole nother
problem where hygienists,
whether it's because, like I said,
it's their personality,
it's the difficult conversation,
whether they're just not fully
And I know they're educated
because they have hygiene degrees.
But for instance,
the forty three forty six, you know,
unless you just graduated
in the last few years,
isn't isn't common knowledge.
So it's understanding, number one,
the code is out there.
Number two, what constitutes using that?
And number three,
how do we explain that to our patients?
And even help our front office, like, Hey,
it doesn't matter.
This is what it is.
This is what we're doing.
So yes.
And then it's a leadership.
If the doctor, you know, sometimes they,
well,
what I've seen a lot of times is
they don't even look at the gums.
They just trust the hygienist and they,
so they're trusting their team, you know,
and they should, but
at the end of the day,
we can all look at a perio
charting and if there's no
bleeding points,
someone probably isn't marking it.
And if there's.
Thirty percent of the mouth or more,
we can all look at it and say, OK,
this is no longer a prophy.
You say.
I hear you talk about
statistics and you know,
I don't know the clinical
part that like you do and all of that,
but I do know numbers and
I think,
and I do a lot of practice
analysis with our buyers
and I see a lot of, not even,
I see a lot of ten to
fifteen percent perio in
practices and that's low.
And you've taught me and the
industry says that thirty
percent is probably
probably perio above the age of what,
thirty, thirty, thirty, fifty percent,
fifty percent of the
population over the age thirty.
Has period or has kind of a
has perio happening, like maybe not.
You don't have kind of perio,
you have perio or you don't have perio.
I see.
So gum disease can incorporate gingivitis,
but periodontal disease is actually,
it's affecting the bone and
the surrounding structures,
your periodontium.
So that's whether you have
it on one tooth or one area
or entire mouth,
you have periodontal disease.
It's target,
it's certain bacteria that cause it.
Well, before we pivot away from diagnosing,
unless we just want to keep going here,
but-
We do see a lot of forty
nine tens maintenance
versus full blown scaling and root plan.
And I hear you say a lot of
times that people go into
like this maintenance phase
when they shouldn't be just
sitting in maintenance the whole time.
OK,
so you can't get to a forty nine ten
without having perio treatment.
But what I say,
what you heard me say is
sometimes offices will have
high perio percentages
because whoever was there
before or historically,
they had this and then the
patient goes into a maintenance,
a forty nine ten.
But there's no new perio coming through.
So they'll have like a
thirty percent perio
because they have so many
forty nine tens.
But then when you look at
the actual active periotherapy,
forty three, forty one or forty three,
forty two,
those will be super low because
no one's still diagnosing.
But then doc or everyone's like, oh,
we've got a thirty percent, you know,
perio in our practice.
It's like if you figure if
fifty percent over the age
thirty have periodontal
disease and you're getting
twenty new patients on.
realistically,
ten of those should be put
into active perio.
At minimum, they have gingivitis.
I know it.
I've done this for lots and lots of years.
And what hygienists,
I don't know if they forget or they,
again, are scared.
When it's on your watch, okay,
let me rewind to when I was
a younger hygienist.
It wasn't until someone gave
me permission to
that people go back into
active perio that I was the
same way because I thought
I failed my patient.
I did perio therapy.
They came every three months.
A year later, two years later, I was like,
oh my goodness,
this patient still has perio.
What's going on?
I felt like I can't tell them.
They've been doing exactly what I said.
And now they have active perio again.
Somebody has to say, it's okay.
It happens.
It's not you.
It is the mouth.
It's so it's the, it's the environment.
It's the oral habits and
it's just part of nature.
You've got pockets in there
that never really healed
those bacteria or,
and the patient never stays
on the exact ninety days on,
on the clock.
It's like saying you're a
gym trainer and you come to
me for your fitness and I
put you on a program and nothing,
you don't get the results you want.
Well, the other,
however many days you're on your own,
you're eating whatever, you're not,
you know what I mean?
I can't just because I see
you every six months, every three months,
I'm not responsible for you
or your mouth or what happened.
Okay.
So on that and that,
so you're saying someone, again,
I don't want to cover
things that our audience already knows,
but if you go into a forty nine ten,
there's never a situation
where they would need
scaling and replanting again.
I would almost say there's
always a situation they
would need it again.
That's what I'm, that's where I was going.
I would say I would be
shocked if you did
periotherapy once in a
lifetime on a patient.
Yeah.
So that's the point is you,
you see these huge forty
nine ten maintenances and
you see very little SRPs and your SRPs,
the
the big dollars let's talk
about dollars guys we're
talking about how to get
more out of your your
freaking hygiene chair
those dollars are a lot
bigger on the srp than pro
fees and maintenance both
bigger and so okay so if we
got a lot of maintenance
and we've got a lot of pro
fees and we got very little
srps there's two buckets
that feed the srp the new
patient like you said
and some people that need to,
to jump from maintenance back over.
And I, um, I think it's really good.
I think it's really good
that you were vulnerable there and said,
Hey, look, the first, whatever, ten,
fifteen years of being a hygienist,
you needed that permission.
And it sounds like you have
to be that coach sometimes
with these hygienists on
giving them that same permission because,
um,
yeah yeah I think that's
good I think that's good
and and with that too we we
talked about the forty
three forty six you know
there's there's other
coding that comes with
perio to that you know we
we don't have to get into
it today but there are
other you know even your
exam code looks different
and and doctors aren't
using that exam code for
perio that gets them more
money so there's a lot
there's a lot being missed I feel um
In that in that whole
situation of diagnosing
right the first time,
not worrying about planting
that seed and then properly
coding all of that stuff.
So you're getting more bang for your buck.
You're doing the work.
You're doing it.
Get paid for it.
Yeah.
And it's not doing the
patient any good to sugarcoat it.
You have diabetes, you have diabetes,
you have some other disease, you have it.
Medical doctors never do it.
Oh, you know, you got a little,
got a little diabetes, you know, or.
You got stage one cancer.
It's fine.
Figure it out.
Yeah.
We'll see you back in six months.
Yeah.
Let's watch it.
Let's see if it goes to stage two.
Let's just watch phase one cancer.
Yeah.
It's really just clinically
calling out what you see.
Whenever I do the coaching program,
this is what I say to every hygienist.
I don't know if they listen to me or not.
This is what I say.
If they were free...
And it was your own mouth or
your spouse's mouth or your
parents' mouth.
It was free.
Didn't have to worry about insurance.
How would you treat them?
What treatment would you do for them?
What would you say?
What would you tell your partner?
What would you tell your parent?
Would you tell them that
they have parents?
Of course you would.
You'd say, I'm going to do...
I'm going to do a periotherapy on you.
You've got periodontal disease.
We don't get you back every month.
That's right.
Yeah.
What are you going to say?
We talked over.
I said, in fact, we talked about someone,
you know,
that has perio and it's a hard
conversation.
And, um, they're hygienists as a friend.
That's totally different.
They were in my chair.
I wouldn't have a problem.
You wouldn't have a problem
because you got the loops
on your doctor at that point.
Okay.
What are some other things
that you think we're thirty
minutes in and we had a
diagnosing conversation?
Well, I think that's important,
but I'm sure you have
fifteen other things that you could add.
It's kind of how these episodes go.
We get into it and next thing you know,
we're out of time.
But if you had to choose one other thing,
what would it be that would
Yeah,
just one that would drive more
revenue into that chair
that could offset this
seventy dollar wage that
we're paying for a whole column.
Eight hours.
Like what's the what's
what's another thing?
A little nugget.
Well, I'm going to I'm going to name it,
too,
but I'm not going to talk about the
second one.
I just I just want to say
don't underestimate.
patient experience and
creating value and that
whole relationship.
Just don't underestimate it.
It's probably one of the biggest things.
However,
it's a slower moving needle
because it's not direct money.
It's kind of like just
something that organically
happens based on how you
treat patients and how that
whole experience looks.
But for time's sake,
When we're talking about ROI
and the hygiene department
and getting more out of it and stuff,
I would go to adjunctive
services because that's an
immediate direct reflection
on what happens to the
production for the day.
Yeah.
What's that mean, adjunctive services?
Adjunctive, additional services.
I'm from Ohio.
You say adjunctive services.
I probably didn't even say it right.
I'm from Indiana.
Well, it's as simple and as complicated.
The simple is fluoride, sealants,
irrigation,
depending on the treatment you're doing.
It could be incorporating
lasers into your practice
for gum tissue laser, for hygiene,
a dial laser,
and as big and complicated
as clear liner therapy, night guards,
and things like that.
We're educated and skilled
to assist and discuss all
of these things.
you know,
if clear aligners aren't a big
part of your practice,
that might be a little scarier.
And, you know, of course,
I always cover that in my program.
And then there's direct, you know,
if you sign up with a clear aligner,
there are typically some
training that comes from
those particular companies.
But, you know,
so that might need a little bit,
but just adding, you know, fluoride,
just adding,
if it's even adult tooth that
doesn't have any decay, no signs of
issues uh whipping out a
couple c I can whip out a
sealant in you know two
minutes as long as it takes
to put some etch on rinse
it and put a curing light
on you know sealants I
always wondered like why
why is why are sealants so
um focused on in pediatric
dentistry we have a lot of
pedo clients but then
Because they're not covered, Michael.
They're not covered by insurance.
That's why.
It's always surprising that
a hygienist to date, my entire life,
me personally,
has never brought up a
sealant as an adult.
Not one time.
And I haven't had too many
cavities in my life.
So it's kind of surprising
that there's options that
providers are not having that discussion.
So that's your answer.
It's mostly if I talk to an office,
they'll say, well,
adult sealants aren't
covered by insurance.
Now, if you break it down again,
getting all hygiene and
technical as a hygienist,
we never want to be the
decision maker in that
because if there is stain
or some kind of bacteria
down there and they say,
if you put a sealant over it,
you could seal the cavity.
And however,
most sealants today have a
fluoride releasing component to it.
that they've done studies
where it actually can stop
that growth and be good for the tooth.
So I think, again, it's education,
it's leadership, it's the doctor,
it's the owner, the dentist,
the doctor doing some research,
incorporating it into their
practice and stating, hey,
let's all be in tune and aware of this.
I would say,
if not a hundred percent of
hygienists are gonna want
okay of the doctor before
placing it but we won't get
into when I like the exams
but if you get in early
enough please don't please
I won't I won't but if but
if the doctor comes in
early enough we have time
especially on an adult to
do a couple sealants now
children and tongues and the
Suction can be a little bit
tricky doing by yourself or
in a matter of a couple minutes,
but an adult can typically
keep their mouth open.
They can even help you suction.
You can whip out a sealant
if you've got some extra time,
especially on those adult
pro fees that are pretty slam dunk.
We usually don't need a full hour.
And if the tray is ready,
and that's the other reason
why it doesn't happen.
It's insurance doesn't cover it.
It's they're afraid to do it
unless they get the okay by the doctor.
And the last thing is
they're not set up for success.
So if I got to go get a tray
and etch and sealant,
and I'm asking the assistant,
I just lost my five minute opportunity.
But what a simple thing for
a business owner.
Oh yeah.
And they're like,
I wish I had this for Bonnie,
but an adult sealant probably pays, I'm,
I'm totally guessing fee
for service is probably so,
seventy bucks.
But what, I guess,
I guess that's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying is like, what,
like folks, if you're listening,
in my opinion,
a lot of this is leadership.
And I think it always comes
back to leadership.
And
the doctors don't want to
have hard conversations
with hygienists and, and you know, I said,
they're smart.
Yeah.
Well,
but you're the business owner and you're,
you're the business owners
are telling me that damn
Delta dental for not doing
all this things.
But, but the truth is,
is we're not talking to our
patients about the things that they need.
And,
And the other thing that I would, a setup,
get three setups every day
and just have it ready.
Like just build that in.
Like what is so, that's easy.
Just do that.
And then, and then, and then it's,
I guess the other thing is, is like,
I'm wondering, do, do hygienists,
if they sold a sealant,
does that production go to
them if they sold ortho?
They sold ortho.
Does that go to them?
Usually if they scan,
if they start and scan,
not the full amount.
I mean,
I think you should definitely track.
Usually we create either
there's a scan code.
or there's photo codes,
there's codes you can use,
or you could make up an
initial conversation code.
And so as a hygienist,
you could put that code in
and then as the patient
journey through the practice,
if doc goes and enrolls that,
then you would know that it
started with a hygienist
and there could definitely be a piece.
I mean,
you wouldn't probably get all the
credit because you're,
obviously like you're not
doing half the work, but absolutely.
I think,
especially when you scan a patient
and you identify
malocclusion and then
you're talking to the
patient and the doctor
comes up and you're like,
here's your softball, um, you know,
Paula did a hundred percent.
It should,
there should be some sort of
split there of what
production counts toward
the hygiene team and what, you know,
Well, I guess I'm thinking like in,
in normal business terms, right?
Like I forget dentistry,
just forget it for a minute.
Okay.
When, when you're in the business world,
you, you pay who,
who gets paid the most in
any company it's people.
And then,
and then who of all the people
make the most sales salespeople.
Why?
Because it's hard to do that.
And that skill set's difficult.
So like, to me, if I'm a dentist,
I'm going to try to get,
most dentists aren't great salespeople,
quite frankly.
If I have a hygienist,
the best salespeople in
dentistry are the hygienists.
There's no question about it.
If I'm a dentist,
I'm trying to figure out
how to compensate them for
their efforts and making
that really easy because
compensation talks, money talks.
And I know there's a lot of
hygienists out there that don't want to,
be a salesperson,
but it's not sales if
someone needs something and
if it helps them and if
it's better for that patient.
And I'm just like sitting
here disappointed that
never once in my entire
relationship with Dennis
has anybody talked to me
about sealants and I would
have paid for it and I
would have paid for it.
And so is it sales?
Is it sales?
If you're just simply telling me that, hey,
this is an option and then
I get to choose if I want to pay for it.
I mean, that's not sales.
Sales is like almost trying
to push something that
maybe someone doesn't want
or trying to convince them
that sales really this is just education.
So if you're educating me
that there's options out
there and I get to say yes or no,
no pressure.
Cool.
But like you guys, ladies, dentists,
business owners.
figure out a way to
compensate your sales
people and give them credit
where credit's due because
you probably were not going
to sell that ortho case you
probably were not going to
sell that sealant so make
it easy make the systems
simple I also just think as
you know if high
you know, one,
this is totally off the subject,
but I'm going to go here anyways.
I wish hygienists were paid on production.
I wish that we were paid
like associates because I
guarantee a lot more of us
would be looking for those
things like sealants, Invisalign,
fluoride, lasers, or clear liners,
any of that,
because our wage would be banked on that.
And
And quite frankly, we're producers.
We should be treated like producers.
But somewhere along the line,
we just got this astronomical wage,
whether we're doing
trophies all day long or
we're a rock star,
co-diagnosing with our dentist,
doing wellness scans and, you know,
constantly looking at that stuff.
And it creates a... Oh, you know,
any hygienist out there is
going to kill me who hears me.
It creates a...
a comfort or I was going to say lazy,
but I wouldn't call it lazy.
I don't think any hygienists are lazy,
but it's contentment.
And it's kind of like I get
paid whether I do a pro fee,
whether I do for, you know,
it's all the same.
So why?
Why kill myself in that hour?
But then you have the other
end of the stick where
these doctors are already
paying us fifty to seventy
five and now they have to
incentivize on top of it because
the only way to get us to
talk about a sealant is to
pay me extra for it or I'm
not going to do it.
So it's kind of a shame the
way the industry fell and
the way we do this.
And I told you in the past,
the way we paid our hygienist,
they own the business, you know,
and there's something to be
said for that because I
could get her on the show
one day and that I never
met a more motivated
hygienist in my life that
made hundred fifty thousand
because she knew what she
needed to do to run her business.
So, you know, it's it's it's a fine line.
We are health care providers.
We hundred percent want to
take care of our patients
and do what's right for them.
And we want to, you know,
walk with caution and not feel salesy,
but it's, but it also is a business.
And like you said,
if it's something that I need,
it's not selling.
It's, it's, it's something I need.
It's,
I don't understand why we're afraid
to talk about it.
It's almost supervised
neglect when we don't talk
to you about a ceiling.
No, that that's where I was going to go.
I was going to go where I
was going to go there and
kind of end the program on that.
And that is, and that is like,
like in all the practices
that you and I have coached
over the last whatever
years I can't think of one
client that was salesy and
aggressive and did some
it'll never happen yeah and
and so I just this word of
sales is ridiculous to me
because I know what sales
is and what we're talking about here
is supervised neglect.
It's not sales telling me
that there's a sealant option.
That's not sales.
It's an option.
Like now, yeah,
you feel kind of cheated now.
You're like, wait a minute.
I real quick story.
I always tell when I'm teaching, it's like,
I always,
it drives me crazy when I go and
like drop my car off and
they do some stuff to it
and I get it back and they're like,
you know, filter it's, it's red.
And I'm like, why didn't you,
call me and tell me I would
have changed the filter you
know and then you have the
other people that are like
yeah and they were trying
to sell me a filter you
know so it's I don't know
it's hard but I yeah I
don't think I'd ever met a
dentist or a hygienist that
I would ever constitute as
too aggressive in this in
the enrollment or sales
category and I think if
they two-folded it they
would still be uh safe um
and again there's lots of
like instagram videos of like dentist
like the funny comedians
making fun of dentists
about pushing dentistry.
I don't think there's ever
been an Instagram video or
comedian on a hygienist
selling me on a sealant.
Like, come on,
what are we even talking about here?
So I just think it's really interesting.
And that idea of running a
hygiene department off a percentage,
this isn't a new concept.
You did it twenty years ago.
I'm just kind of surprised
why we haven't adopted a
more sophisticated way of doing this.
And unfortunately,
people have gotten complacent.
So at the end of the day,
there's lots of things that
we didn't even probably
touch half of what you were
prepared for today.
But it's almost, yeah,
there's room for a part two.
Folks that are listening,
it's not Delta Dental's fault.
They definitely have a part of this.
It's not.
It sounds like... I'd be careful there.
Well,
but my point to that is we just
uncovered forty minutes of
all the things that you
could do to offset stupid
Delta Dental's fees.
And I could say that at
least eighty percent of our
our clients today,
even the ones that you coach, you,
it takes so much effort to
turn this mentality around
just to get the whole ship.
And if the doctors just really push this,
in fact, Paula,
if you could think of the
clients that were totally
on board with what you were
telling the hygiene team
and the doctor went in and said,
we're doing this now, did those,
did that hygiene team turn
it around quick?
and then the doctors are
like guys paula just left
she talked about a lot of
crazy things like sealants
how do you how do you feel
about that do you get the
same results you're shaking
your hand no so again
leadership just believe in
what you're doing
and drive it and and and
guess what the team will
follow um so I guess with
that with that let's sign
off on this bad boy but I
appreciate your brain paula
and this topic and maybe we
do do a part two um
anything else to add before
we shut this you know you
better not get me started I
mean I like that my my
brain is all over the place
but yeah no it's good we'll
we'll uh maybe do a part
two at some time nope I
think it was great
All right, guys.
Well,
another episode of Dental Unscripted.
Thanks for having me on.
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah.
Thanks for having me on.
Get out of here.
All right, guys.
Talk to you later.
All right.
Bye.
Thanks for listening.
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