Let your inner voice have complete freedom. Allow others to know everything you’re thinking.

From a patient that I saw yesterday for a consultation:

I’m with a new dentist now. I left my previous dentist because one day when she was drilling my tooth and you could smell that tooth dust smell she told her assistant that that was the smell of money.

Action: When referring a patient to a specialist, and the specialist’s office says that they are booking 2 months down the road, get on the phone personally and demand to know how many hours per week the specialist works. Something like this is particularly effective: “Two months!? How many days a week do you work? One??”

This scores your office lots of fuck you points and pretty much guarantees that if you try to refer other patients in the future they’ll probably have to wait even longer. Why not teach the specialist “a lesson” by not referring any further patients to them.

Action: You know the excess pieces of composite resin that you remove while grossly shaping the filling prior to curing it? Well why not save those pieces under a dark dappen dish to use on your next patient that needs a filling.

This will actually be your next patient because all of your patients these days seem to need pit and fissure fillings for some reason. Could that reason have anything to do with the fact that you’re planning on putting your practice up for sale soon and want to show prospective purchasers high production numbers?

I’ve worked for people, under people, with people, and been in charge of people. I’ve also read lots of resumes and CVs.

Isn’t it funny how some people think that a fancy job title makes them more important? I’ve actually used this point to my advantage when hiring. There is a surplus of dental auxiliaries looking for jobs with fancy “management” titles. So much so that the best staff I’ve ever found, who are a pleasure to work with and who do an effective job, are the ones who appreciate the job for what it is and not what it’s called.
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Action: Assign a supervisory staff member (usually the hygiene or treatment co-ordinator or office manager) to dispense minute quantities of prophy paste to hygienists when they are ready to polish.

This ensures that you save money because the hygienists are not wasting prophy paste.