Cold Flu + Covid Season
I think half my staff is out sick. I don’t know how many front desk members wincing at the sign of blood while poking the suction tip to patient lips this week. This is the point of whatever warm body I can field at this point. The good news, this too shall pass. If you […]
I’m A Maybe Dentist
There once lived a Chinese farmer with immaculate teeth. He raised a stallion that provided tremendous help and labor around the farm. One early morning, entering the stable, he finds the gate to his stallions stable swung wide open. Losing his prized stallion. The village quickly learns of our farmers’ loss and tells him ‘We […]
Dentistry Has Never Been Better 2021 Edition
The day before New Years Eve. All I can think of is how much has changed. As we try to social distance away from the start of the pandemic, it’s becoming more evident this is transitioning to an endemic. Dealing with the symptoms and living with this like we do the flu. We slowly trade […]
The Seasonality Of A Dentist
The Fourth Turning. A book by William Strauss and Neil Howe is quite the slog to read through for me. Overcoming my inability to read faster than most 3rd graders, it enlightens our societal want to think we age in linear terms. Reconsider. Nature is quite cyclical. Days are diurnal, morning and night. Woman’s period. […]
The Digital Dental Touchpoint
I never thought teledentistry could work. But I see where it now has merits. I feel like it was made especially for patients exhibiting kung fu kicking perio breath. All kidding aside, Zoom meetings has its place. I’ve used it for my initial interviews with prospective staff candidates. Saving me so much time, saving the […]
What I Learned From A Billionaire Dentist
I met a billionaire. More specifically, billionaire skateboarding celebrity dentist Jon Marashi. OOOOOhhh. First time I’d ever been in a room with a known billionaire. Working on A-listers like Matt Damon, Tom Hanks and rock singer Pink.Courtesy Instagram @DrJonMarashi And you know how it made me feel? Like I was in the room with any […]
The 3rd Thankful Edition
I believe this is my third Thanksgiving edition of whatever this blog writing has become. Sometimes part dad joke parodies, sometimes serious warnings of the macroeconomics moving like incipient caries attacking our dentistry. Time flies when you’re doing something you enjoy. So as you’re winding down into your tryptophan induced coma today let me seed […]
Sham Surgeries
‘Internal Mammary Artery Ligation’ could be still used today if it weren’t for an astute surgeon, Leonard Cobb. Before the 1960’s, if you complained about chest pain caused by heart disease, a course of action to relieve the symptoms was ligation surgery. Essentially closing a main artery near the heart and shunting more blood flow, […]
Jealous Of My Associate
It’s been decided, you’re going to improve the number of Google Reviews you have. It’s sickening seeing your link wallowing at the bottom of the pit in google search and maps. You’re committed to not being put in the back of the alphabetical line just because your last name just so happen to start with […]
Dalgona Squid Game For Staff Bonuses
I watched Squid Game of Netflix fame a few weeks ago. A gruesome mixture of candyland meets hunger games. No spoiler alerts in this episode but if you do watch it, don’t expect Mr. Mint or Gramma Nut to make it out of this one. What I really saw deeply embedded in the show was […]
Depth Perception Is A Lie Compared To Reality
“The reality of doing the right thing matters more than the perception of doing the right thing.” -Elon Musk Yesterday, my favorite entrepreneur laid down this dime of a quote at the CodeCon Conference. That’s how much of a nerd I am. Listening to coding conference interviews. Anyways. I wanted to dive deeper to what […]
It’s Deltas Fault
Economists expected 750,000 jobs to be added last month. We only got 235,000. Who are these economists? Because they weren’t even in the same galaxy with their estimate. What’s scary is these are so called ‘experts’. But when the experts are off by more than 60% in their guess of where we should be, it […]
Sick of Covid
Sick and tired of being sick and tired. 530 days since lockdown, and the world is in as much disarray as when it all started. I’m pretty sure you and I are suffering from the ONE-NINE fatigue. Code for the covid. It’s mind boggling to think at the beginning nobody wanted to wear masks and […]
Rubber Ducks aren’t actually made of rubber. They’re plastic. Though we don’t even think about it. Rubber allows our practices to function. It’s the elastic in our mask earloops, in our gloves, O-rings for your handpiece, air-water gaskets, hoses, colored bands to identify tools, the small cute organizer in cassettes, prophy cups, toothbrush handles, isolation […]
20 Second Light Cure
It’s the hardest idealization in life. The experience of waiting for the last beep on my assistant’s light cure unit. What gives? It’s only 20 seconds. And yet, I feel eternity ticking away. My impatience throwing internal temper tantrums with every filling. A wave of dread washes over me realizing the contact is slightly open […]
The Hygiene Vacuum
This will be the greatest vacuum made since Hoover and Dyson reinvented it. We’re talking about the labor shortage that is in full bloom. It will take years if my theory stands correct. This is all conjecture of course. When we all disappeared in lock down, a paradigm shift occurred in a lot of individuals. […]
A Dental Practice Full Of Life
Last week, I completely changed my life. I picked up a brand new puppy. Mochi Butt. For someone who loves to travel, enjoys solitude and doing the unknown on a whim. This is quite the root I’m planting. My younger self would decry such responsibility. I enjoy my freedom too much. But alas, a change […]
The Psychoactive Drug I Use
12 years old. Staring at the vanilla bean speckled fissured white ceiling panels. My acidic and sugar poison of choice were chips and gummies while playing Half Life 2 into the wee hours every night. Occlusals for #18 and #19 here I go. It wasn’t even the needle or drilling that bothered me. Nah… My […]
How Banks Influence Our Independence
After a hard day’s work, and your staff have collected all the insurance checks and cash payments, someone runs all that money over to your local bank to make a deposit don’t they. What you understand is that the number ‘saved’ up in your bank gets added up and that the money is being held […]
How Dentistry Is Going To Replace Me
What would it take for a robot dentist to replace us? I’m serious. 100 years ago you didn’t have digital scanners, mill machines or even composite fillings. To think 100+ years from now. The landscape of dentistry will look vastly different. Rotten egg gagging Polysulfide impression was your go to in the 1920’s. Before then, […]
Another InFlation Warning
In Iceland last week, it cost me 2,500 Icelandic Krona for my delicious soup and sandwich. The equivalent of $20 US Dollars. I had to ask, why are there so many zero’s attached to foreign currencies in comparison to the US’s. Control the narrative, control the story… They’re going to tell you this is just […]
Paying Dental Staff Is Going To Get Inflated
Repercussions from the pandemic will continue for years like a spring rebounding back and forth. There is a shortage of workers. Front staff, Hygienists, Assistants and even skilled Dentists. Emphasis on skilled, plenty of schlub dentists… but none of my readers here, we’re thrivers 😉 What I’m seeing in the macroeconomic scheme (fiscal money printing, […]
Google Is Coming For All Your Dental Traffic
Google is coming for all your online traffic. And soon for all your insurance reimbursement checks. Now the Big G is guaranteeing those seeking your dental services will always have a great experience. Let’s see how. Check out this search. I one finger punch ‘Real Estate Agent’ to the Google god and receive this peculiar […]
Advocacy Isn’t Nagging
Nobody ever wants that constant nag in their life. A pull that incessantly snatches at the shoulder of your mind. Tugging to get more attention. Ignoring the nag simply puts another ‘hey we’ve missed you and would like your undivided attention’ voicemail recordings to your memory bank. I think it’s important in our line of […]
Network In Full Dental Effect
Like sneezing inside your mask. It sucks like losing a crown to your assistants high speed suction. Can’t stop it, you just gotta let nature take its course and endure the glaring afterwards as you get treated like a leper. Unfortunately society has become a battleground of germaphobes vs super immunes. Everything has gotten so […]
Hard Money Is Good For Dentistry
Smushing down this shiny gold bridge, I watch the contrast of creamy gooey cement push out the margins making the most perfect cake piping edge. As I was plopping this bridge into place. I couldn’t help to think, this person is receiving a bit of the world’s supply of gold to their mouth. A natural […]
Practicing Dentistry Is Hard
30 hours into first person view drone simulations. If you don’t know what an FPV drone is, imagine being a falcon you fully control. Dive bombing on command, banking to the right and pulling a barrel road right above your dental practice. That’s the ability you have with these drone technologies. The only issue flying […]
The Future Data Driven Dental Practice in the 2020’s
A decade of networking. The 2010’s was the development and dominance of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat and Tik Tok. Think of any social media platform with millions of users. The network effect is in play. Meaning the more people on a platform, the more utility and value you derive from it. Remember sneaking […]
My Worst Day As A Dentist
Here is one of my worst days I’ve endured in a long time. Sigh… I don’t even know where to begin. It’s stretched me to the point that I feel like the DDS behind my name actually stands for Doctor of Dumb Stupidity. I had to use another patient’s wax rim on my new patient […]
Covid On Dentists, A One Year Review
Quarantine. Pandemic. The Unknown. A dentites review, one year later. I remember being ordered to go home that day. ‘We’re shutting it down, and we can’t do anything about it…’ my partner muttered. It seemed surreal seeing highways devoid of traffic at peak hours. The costco checkout line appeared similar to entry to kickoff Sunday […]
A Forced Jet Lag Of Stress This Week
Rough composite against buccal mucosa. That’s what I felt like Monday morning. Why did I have such a terrible night’s sleep might you ask? Well the day before, I was only forced to an annual hour jet lag ritual called Daylight Savings Time. It’s so insidious. Why the heck do we even do this! It […]
Get Patients To Say No To You
NO I mean it, NO N O How two little letters make you feel so powerful. At the age of two, you’d tell mom NOoooo, giving the cheek to the spoon full of soggy spinach cream casserole. No is empowering. No is firm. No is short. No is direct. No puts you in […]
The Friction Of Dental Practice
Boy is it winter here! Anything above zero degrees is considered a heat wave. Getting back to above freezing is a distant memory and when it does happen again, you can bet on your frozen fingers I’ll be wearing shorts and a t-shirt. The air is so dry here, as soon as I walk on […]
The Cards Are Stacked Against New Dentist
When the cards are stacked against you… Stepping onto the podium, shaking with the right, grabbing the DDS diploma with the left. I don’t remember much from graduation day. I do remember how little I knew about dentistry though. I could tell ya with one hand how many root canals and extractions I had done […]
My Biggest Complaint During An Interview Campaign
I’ve been set on a search for a talented dentist to join a transitioning team. Every time I put out my hand in the grab bag of available searching dentists, I’m shocked by what I find. The oozing of loathsomeness just for the fact you possess an opportunity and position they have yet to work […]
I F*cking Hate Dental Insurance (A Change)
I loved playing video games!!! I’d sit in my hutch, sprawled all over my old school grey Nintendo. I could sit there for hours, trying to level up Mario, prevent the little doggy from laughing at me in Duck Hunt or race another lap in Al Unser Jr. But to say I was any good […]
Chess and Teeth
I was a chess phenom back in the day. I went into my first elementary tournament in the fifth grade. My sweaty palms, moppy hair and thirst to take other players chess pieces was unrelenting. I remember being so nervous sitting across a total stranger. My opponent, a stout 7th grader glared me down ready […]
I Wish My Dental Staff Were More Prepared
How quickly will you break off any resolutions? Maybe you’ve already broken all of them this year. If you’ve broken them all, then it’s not necessary to read any further. But I want to have my assistant have the perfect day, where each setup is perfectly laid from left to right, never exiting the room […]
Dental Insurance Has Boiled Us All
Congrats, in 2021, all your patients with insurance will be receiving a $10,000 annual maximum!!! They can now afford to replace that missin #9. Put the crown on that broken #29. Or even just getting all the cavities filled from a few years of neglect. And yet, here we are with insurance annual maximum benefits […]
Top 3 Dentalish Things For Dentist In 2021
It’s a sad day for any New Year’s revelers. At least we won’t’ have to see too many dorky New Year’s Eve glasses at Times Square tonight. Remember, we won’t have a convenient place to put two eye holes until 2030. So long 2020, besides the obvious craziness, there were so many great things that […]
Cookies and Cavities
Sometimes I think dentists generally are some sort of version of a cookie. I’m totally an oatmeal chocolate chip. Soft on the inside, crisp on the outside edge, semi-sweet when you really get to know me. So today, in light of Christmas, I’m going to indulge with my own inner cookie-monster and dive deep on […]
The Cryptocurrency Tokenization of Dental Practices
In today’s episode I make a granddaddy announcement in the direction Infinite Dental is heading in 2021. But first let’s talk about Chuck E Cheese. Because who doesn’t love that greasy flattened pizza they serve. And god I loved that place as a kid. I’d get so excited when my friend was hosting their birthday […]
Broken Finger…I’m Still Drilling
I was just going after their flag in football. And if you know me well, highly competitive when it comes to sports. Diving horizontally, Superman style, thinking I’d make the spectacular grab mid-air at the running backs flapping yellow flagl. The realization that I had a handful of white cotton t-shirt as my opponent ran […]
Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Dentistry
Money is a touchy subject. Throwing that notion out like a drunken midnight Amazon purchase of a pink blow-up unicorn costume that seemed like the greatest idea of all time… don’t ask. It’s touchy because we associate emotion and feeling to a wrinkly green piece of paper. And for those who Venmo, it’s a trusted […]
Stop Pursuing Happiness, It’s Not What It Seems
I’m going to admit, I used to be one that really pushed a mantra that seems to be very prevalent with ‘woke’ culture and millennials. I fed into the belief that we should always ‘pursue happiness’ with all our energies. Doing anything else but pursuing happiness left me with a bunch of empty calories and […]
How I’m Retiring At 50 From Dentistry, NOT FIRE
I want to be able to retire by age 50. And it’s not because I hate what I’m doing. On the contrary. I just want to see if I can do it. And I’m going to break down my plan to do it. It will take a bit of grit, good old fashioned hard work […]
This Is About Electing
So why every Thursday, I wake up at 8, fix the last egg and brown the end of the butt end of a loaf of toast… and is that grammatically correct even??? Prolly not. Sit down on my computer and bang on the keys for a good two hours. Sometimes I utilize an outline, other […]
Investment In Associates Is Difficult [Part II]
Remember everyone buying Bitcoin in December 2017 when it was worth over $20,000? Remember the frenzied buying into the dot com bubble in the late 90’s into the 2000’s? Remember buying any type of property or housing before 2008? Hey it was an investment! Or at least everyone and their uncle’s mom knew it was […]
A Car That Changed My Dentistry
Either you can let the stink of stagnation and change paralyze you into submission. Or you can embrace the eventuality of change. Let the breath of fresh newness take away the stench of stale oldness. Yeaaa, I’m selling my car today. Cars are such a weird thing. As a society, we’ve humanized the damn things. […]
My Hygienist: I Want A Raise
I want a raise. I would like a raise. Could I see a bump in what I’m making? Whether posed as a soft spoken question or demand, they make any owner push against the chair a little firmer. Just thinking about it makes an eye twitch, the knot of hard decisions forming in your throat […]
Financial Warfare Teaches Us With $5/Gal Gas
While global powers play out the greatest game of financial chicken, we are no longer spectators, but strapped on a collision course for hardship. I don’t want to be the scare mongering freakazoid dentist. I already do that to my patients. But this needs to be put into perspective. Russia invading Ukraine, truly a sad […]
Increasing Fee Schedules In Light Of Inflation
Fee schedule. Synonymous with gut punch. How patients react whenever you tell them the price of a crown. Whenever I broach the subject… for you endo nerds… is like dumping a whole carp of hypo in your mouth. Such a distaste. Any consultant can tell you could produce more by telling you to raise your […]