Many dental practice owners are ‘sitting on vital data they are not collecting and acting on’.
This was the take-home message from Benjamin Bilderback of Dandy, who was among the speakers at the first Dentist Times Owners Club event of the year, held yesterday in St Albans.
He was joined on stage by Robert Glenning of Peninsula Dental, which uses Dandy’s digital dental lab across its six practices.
Bilderback said: “There is so much information we hold that we are now able to expose and that can drive towards better decision-making.
“As practice owners you are under increasing pressure, with more locations, more patients, and more providers. But, at the same time, you have got to preserve clinical excellence always.
“When you are being pulled in two different directions it’s about having a centrally-led business – a foundation to grow from based on partnerships, data visibility, infrastructure, and centralised systems and practices.
“It’s about leading from the front, but having the data at the back end to support that.”
When you are being pulled in two different directions it’s about having a centrally-led business – a foundation to grow from based on partnerships, data visibility, infrastructure, and centralised systems and practice
Dandy, headline sponsor of yesterday’s event, offers dentists an AI-driven full-service dental lab to unite scanning technology, on-demand clinical expertise, and advanced manufacturing in one integrated system.
But Glenning warned that, to implement technology in the most-meaningful way, practice owners need to tread carefully.
He told delegates: “It is very difficult to get dentists to change their habits or to get associates to move to a consolidated position.
“Every dentist has their favourite laboratory and it is very hard to change their perspective. I have six practices and find trying to keep associates engaged and motivated and to modify their behaviour can be hard.
“We hold one-to-one sessions monthly with each associate looking at KPIs and try to get the message across that technology can help them work better. It can help them look after their patients better, have more confidence in their work, and ultimately make more money.
“Standardisation is critical. We had multiple associates and multiple labs and if you have a single point it is easier. But you must have confidence in that single point and prove it is cost effective and of quality.
“We view the analytics data a lot. To make is work in the best way, it’s about slowing down to speed up.”
The next Dentist Times Owners Club event will be held at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield on 17 September.
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