June 25, 2025 • 19 mins
Meet Dr. Pounds of Cherry Way Dental—an award-winning dentist, mentor, and mom. With advanced training in bioesthetic and cosmetic dentistry, she’s one of just four Level IV certified dentists in PA. When not creating smiles, she’s exploring nature with her family or mentoring fellow dentists across the region. https://cherrywaydental.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, welcome man. This is the CEO's You Should Know podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hartwell, let's saylo to doctor Rebecca
Pounds of Cherry Wade Dental. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
All right, So tell us everything we need to know
about your practice.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Okay, So we are located in Bridgeville. We recently relocated
from downtown Pittsburgh. We are a general dental practice and
we focus on everything. We do a little bit of
everything in the practice. A couple of the things that
I really like. I like Crown and Bridge, I like Invisiline.
I also do some a lot of cosmetic work as
well as botox in the practice. We also really focus
(00:40):
on the preventative side of dentistry. So we have some
wonderful hygienists and that's usually who you meet on your
new patient appointments, and we just really really take care
of the patient as a whole. We like to really
focus on everything from the gums to the teeth and
preventative care.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, so how long have you been practicing.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So I've been practicing for twenty one years. I graduated
from two in two thousand.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
That were you looking at young.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, thank you, that's a call, definitely a compliment. So
twenty one years I went to dental school at the
University of Maryland and then I moved back to Western
Pennsylvania originally from punk Satani, so missed the area, but
wanted to live closer to the city than when I
grew up, and so I did a residency at Allegheny
General for a year, and then I worked for a
(01:33):
year before buying my practice in when we were downtown
in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Two thousand and six, that's when you started downtown, and
so how has your practice evolved over the years.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So two thousand and six, I bought a practice from
two existing dentists once stayed with me for a few
years until retirement, and then really just kind of growing
the practice. And one of the biggest things, and you know,
I'm happy to share this was one I had my
daughter at in twenty seventeen, and at that point I
was trying to balance practice life home life, and one
(02:08):
of the things I did end up doing was affiliating
with a dental company called Heartland Dental. And it's been
the best thing I've ever done for myself personally and
professionally because it's allowed me to. So they're different than
a lot of other dental service organizations, is what they're called.
In the point that it's still doctor led. The practice
(02:29):
is still run by the doctors who practice there. We
still make our decisions, we still have autonomy in the practice.
We can use whatever products we want, those kind of things. However,
you have the support, so you have the support from
a bigger company. When you need something, you can reach
out to them. They help you with things, but everything
is kind of individually, so they take care.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Of the back end so you can concentrate on what
you do best.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Do you like dentistry? Is that something you always Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I decided in tenth grade I wanted to be a dentist.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Really yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I went to a leadership conference at Robert Morris and
the group the group leader at my table was a dentist,
and I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare,
but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do.
And then when I met this dentist, it really kind
of solidified that decision for me. And then I went
to IUP to undergrad and at IUP, one of my
track coaches I ran track and cross country. There was
(03:25):
actually a dentist in town in Indiana, so I would
spend the summertime with him in his office and just
really found it as a very rewarding opportunity and really
like he was one of my biggest mentors and biggest
push to move forward with with dentistry after college.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You know, it's funny with with dentistry. We all need
a dentist, we all, but I couldn't imagine doing what
you do. That is just an anathema to me. It's
you know, it's something that you know, first of all,
you kind of work upside down and backwards. Sometimes I
don't know how do you do that?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Sometimes my neck and back remind me of that, but
especially as I keep getting older here. But you know,
the biggest thing is just you know, the one making
sure we're trying to sit in an ergonomic position, trying
to take care of our neck and back, you know,
making sure we're I mean, for me, you know, stretches
and massages, chiropractor, those kind of things are important for
(04:25):
me to maintain that because definitely we do work in
some positions and sometimes it's you know, I try to
accommodate the patient and sometimes they can't lean back or
for whatever reason, and so it does kind of always
affect affect our backs as well. But trying to keep
myself healthy so I can do this for for a
lot longer.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So what made you move from downtown to Bridgeville?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So moving from downtown to Bridgeville, it's kind of a
little bit of a complex answer, I would say, but
things really did kind of change after COVID downtown, we
were seeing a lot of we were we were still growing. However,
we kept hearing about the parking situation, and pre COVID,
everybody worked downtown and they walked to us. So that
(05:10):
was one of the things that just really as we
grew and we kind of outgrew our space where we
were downtown. I loved our building, I loved being downtown,
but the need to have more space was the main
reason to parking and parking and parking. So, you know,
as we started to look at that, and we were
kind of seeing our clientele and we were having a
lot of people telling us that, you know, it's not
(05:31):
convenient to come downtown anymore. And I'm paying, you know,
twenty five dollars for parking even our patients now who
are coming a little bit further than downtown to come
see us in Bridgeville. They're like, it's great. I just
put in the parking lot and I walk in the door.
So that's been a plus for a lot of our
patients who have followed us from from our downtown up location.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Now, your original practic location was called was on Cherryway.
That's that's how you got the name.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yes, that's how we have the name. I mean, it
would be nice if we could get the little road
around the building to be Cherryway or something and.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You just call it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean, I guess we could. I don't know if
I get in trouble for putting a little sign there
or not, but I thought that we bought a little
cherry tree that's in our waiting room. So that's it.
We're trying to at least keep keep up with the
name somehow.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
But doctor Rebecca, it's always it's easier to get forgiveness
than permissions. Yeah, OK, what you need to do? All right,
So tell me about your team?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
My team? Okay, So we have a wonderful team there.
I do have another dentist, doctor Courtney Marchant, who joined
me last summer. She's absolutely wonderful. We really make a
great a great team of dentists. And then we have
four hygienists right now that work with us, and again,
like I said, they are all absolutely wonderful. They're typically
(06:49):
who you'll see for all of the hygiene visits, the
cleanings and those kind of things. And you know, I
every single one of them are wonderful. I would each
of them, would let them do whatever they needed to
do clean my teeth. So you know, we have a
lot of times people are so are very preferential to
which hygenis they see. But if, like I said, if
someone was out, I tell people, they're all great. You're
(07:11):
in great hands with our hygienis. We have our assistants
that you know, their top notch as well. They help
us as the doctors every day in and out making
sure that we're taking good care of our patients. And
then our front our front desk team, you know, they
they're the ones that handle all the insurances, all the
financial questions, all of that and kind of really take
(07:32):
that off of off of our hands to have to
deal with us the doctors.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
How has dentistry evolved since you've started in two thousand
and six. How has that changed?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So dentistry has really changed from a technological standpoint, at
least for me. From what you know, we used to
take the goopy impressions and for crowns or even for
anything that we were doing. Now we have a scanner,
so we have a three D scanner that we send
for all our crowns. We we actually have this really
cool product we've been using the practice for about a
(08:02):
year and a half two years now called curedon. It's
a hydroxy appetite. It can actually remineralize and regenerate decay
if it has not broken through the enamel. Really yeah,
it's it's pretty cool. It's I actually used it on
my own tooth. I will say one tooth that I
was like, it was a little suspicious in that spot,
so and saw a change on the X ray within
six months. So it's been that's been actually something that's
(08:24):
been really cool that I've that's only been in the
last couple of years. We are using AI in our
practice now.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So you just can't drop it not explain you.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So how do you use AI for dentist on our radiographs?
So we have the program and it basically it will.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Wait a minute radiographs X ray X rays on our
X rays.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Okay, so when we take the full series X rays
or your bite wings at your cleaning appointment, AI will
show you areas of suspicion. Now, obviously we need to
diagnose that, we need to confirm what we're seeing. But
it's a really great tool to kind of really show us,
show us things. And you know a lot of dentists
(09:06):
have been a little bit leery of that, like, oh,
it's going to tell me how to diagnose, it's going
to tell me what to do. It just actually makes
our job easier. Just like OLI AI. I'm actually in
the program I'm using, I'm beta testing right now with them,
a notes program so that basically I, you know, can
record the conversation either with the patient or even myself
(09:28):
if I have a new patient. A lot of times
I'll just record and put in for what my findings were,
and it generates a note for me based on the
specifications that I put in there. So it's making making
life a lot easier with all the AI.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Well, ain't you fancy? Yeah, so yeah, So it's evolved
quite a bit that it's.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Evolved quite a bit, yes, from a handwritten chart and
hand dipping X rays in the process, or the young
assistants don't even know half the stuff that we used
to use twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So has it gotten easier or harder because there's more
things that you have to know about.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You have to stay up to date with the with
the advances in dentistry. But if you stay up to
date with it, I think it has made it easier
to help us practice.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
All Right, how many people ask you the question? Four
out of five dentists who allow their patients to recommend
try dent Where do you fall on that spectrum?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Iche tried it? So I guess that's I guess that's
the right answer. And biggest thing is, you know, obviously
if it's sugar free. So that's the that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
That's what I was leading to. It's like so much
of our food that we consume is now it's it's
it's there's so much sugar in our in our food.
So is that increase the amount of decay that you're seeing.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The sugars in the food and then the acidity of food.
So we have a lot of these energy drinks now
and the and people drink a lot of coffee, a
lot of tea.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
You know, let me hide my cup of coffee.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I'm sorry, but the sugars in the acidity. So I
think that's a lot of times people don't even think
about the acidity of things that we're drinking. Even we
have a chart in our office of the waters, and
even some waters are not neutral that they have some
depending on and I'm not going to be able to
name them off off hand right now, but there are
(11:22):
some that are really acidic waters, and then some basic water.
So those are some of the things out there that
that you don't even think about. You think you're just
drinking water, but right there's some the preservatives and stuff
they put into them.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Are you talking about public water or or bottled water
or both?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Well, I was talking about bottled water. I don't know
if I want to get into the whole public water debate.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, saying that there are bottled waters that may not
be as healthy for your teeth as we would think.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Would think, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
When I get back, I have to find that that
a sheet and.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Get it to you, you please, please? All right, So
what else is you know, when it comes to food
and what do you recommend, Like, what are.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Some of the things you want to have, you know,
obviously a healthy die and I know everything kind of yeah,
you have to have everything in moderation. You know. If
you'd walk into our break room, you you would find
some snacks and there you wouldn't expect that the dental office,
you know, and people always bring us goodies, send us
good ease, but that's in moderation, you know. But fruits
and vegetables things like that that you can that help
(12:24):
to actually even when you're eating, it can help to
the saliva, stimulate the saliva and get the plaque off
your teeth. Really making sure you're you know, with the
acidic foods, a lot of times people don't realize they
think I should brush my teeth right away. You kind
of want to let that acids kind of settle for
about thirty minutes and then brush your teeth or like
rinse with some water afterwards. So if you have a
(12:44):
really acidic drink or food, making sure drinking with water
afterwards will help get some of that acid off of
the teeth as well.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
So what are you community minded? Do you have any
are you involvement with anything as far as a nonprofit
or something thing like that.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So I before my before having my daughter, I was
really involved in a lot of things. But right now
that in school things, I'm involved a lot of things
at school. But one of the things we do sponsor
every year is the for the Jesse Games through Catholic Charities.
(13:21):
That is something that has been near and dear to
my heart. And then you know, like I said, we
do get involved with some different community things as you know,
as they come up now kind of in a different community,
you know, kind of learning about that and what you know,
what kind of goes on in the Bridgeville area as well.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
So well, speaking of Bridgeville, how has the Bridgeville area
have When did you move to Bridgeville? And have they
have they have they embraced your your practice.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
We moved in at the end of April. We were
in two days before we lost power for six days
with the storm on that second on that second day
that we were in the office. However, you know, we
have really you know, we have continued to see patients
from the practice downtown, but as well as new patients
in the area. A lot of times people will come
(14:11):
in and they'll tell us that they were watching the
construction and that they couldn't wait until we came moved in.
So we've been really and everybody's been very very friendly,
very very nice. Even the area where the office is,
when you walk around to the to the different stores,
different places, everybody's very very friendly. And you know, we're
we're neighbors with clearview, so we've made a good relationship
(14:32):
with them. I was joking with the ladies earlier, I said,
I think they're atm is one of our best marketing tools.
As people come up to get their money out of
the machine, they see the dental office and they stop
in to make an appointment.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yes, that's it. That's funny. And the visibility is incredible
compared to something downtown.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I never had a sign downtown. Yeah, I mean it
was we were in a building, and you know, people
heard about us. I mean, I think people are still
hearing about us word of mouth, but you know, downtown
that was the main way heard about us, word of
mouth and no sign.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I know, you've made the transition from downtown to Bridgeville
and you've you know, you've taken on an additional dentist
that last year, so things are growing, But what's what's
your vision for the future for for Cherry Wade Dentel.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
So for Cherryway, I continue to continue to grow. I
mean one of the ideas of the practice and having
the number of operatories and we doubled in size, is
to be able to bring on more providers and provide
additional care for for the community. I don't see myself
going anywhere for a long time, so I plan to
(15:38):
be here, you know, to take care of the patients.
But I'm also growing my practice as well in things
that I'm doing. I mean, it's been one of the
things I do also is I'm a regional doctor mentor
for this for the company I was telling you about,
and so we do workshops in our office. I'm continuing
to grow my continued education. That's something that's always been
near and dear to my heart. So really growing the
(16:01):
practice and growing the providers that we have in our practice,
so whether it's the doctor that's here now or additional
doctors that we bring on down the road, as far
as the hygienist too, like, We're always continuing to grow,
and I think that that's where I see the practice
going and being able to provide care for the community.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Once you became a dentist, like you said, you were
in tenth grade when you decided that you are going
to become a dentist. But being a dentist is only
half of what you do. It's a business as well.
How do you balance that?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So that's sometimes the difficult part of it. And when
I owned and I was the sole owner, was the
hardest part for me, because you so, it's having a
good team around you. So having a good manager, having
good administrative team members that can help with a lot
of that stuff that you can trust, and making sure
(16:58):
that they're helping with those things. But then also keep
pulse on all the numbers in the practice and looking
at the numbers, looking at the P and L on
a monthly basis, and those kind of things, and just really,
I mean, the other part of it is building the
relationships with the patients, and I mean and the team members,
but really for patients, like for me's, I enjoy coming
to work because I enjoy the interactions I have with
(17:19):
my patients. I mean, dentistry is part of it, but
I also like the relationships that I build with the patients.
You know, sometimes you go to a specialist and you
see them one time. Like for us, I'm seeing these
patients every six months. I joke with new patients a
lot of times if they have a decent amount of
work when they're done, I'm like, no, I'm only going
to see you every six months. I'm used to seeing
you like every couple weeks or so. But you get
to know people really well and you get to know
(17:40):
them personally, and that's really been a big part of
that too, is building those relationships, which then I help
then I think helps the business as well.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So what do you enjoy most about your job?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I think really it's again the patient interaction, but helping
patients get better dental care and better in a better
place with their with their oral hygiene, and understanding what
they need to do to get better, and you know,
not you know, everybody's going to be different, everybody's going
to have different goals, but it's understanding their goal and
helping them achieve that goal with with what they.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Want with their teeth And what do you have coming up?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
We have an Invision Line open house on July twenty second,
and we'll be putting out some information, probably on our
social media and then we have our website Cherrywaydental dot com.
That will be something. We typically have an invision line
open house once or twice a year. It just if
you want it. If you're interested in visi line, we
get you in. We kind of take a look, do
a consult, see if you're a good candidate. That's usually
(18:42):
the day we offer the biggest special of the year
that we're going to offer on it and go from there.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And if somebody wants more information on either the practice
of Cherryway Dental or the open house, where do they go?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
So they can go to our website Cherrywaydental dot com
and and submit a request there for want of us
to call. They can also you know, I know we
talked about that earlier. People really call, but for one two,
two six, one twenty five hundreds our phone number if
anybody wants to call, it's the easiest way to kind
of talk through that with someone. And then we do
(19:15):
have some social media pages. We have Facebook. That mostly
is the one I use, so I try to showing
my age by saying Facebook. But I haven't become a
TikTok dentist yet. There are some TikTok dentists out there.
But all right, what's the website again, cherrywaddental dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. You good
luck with your practice.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
As always, this has been the CEO's usually no podcast
showcasing businesses that are driving our regional economy, part of
iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Heartwell,
thank you so much for listening.
Hey, welcome man. This is the CEO's You Should Know podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hartwell, let's saylo to doctor Rebecca
Pounds of Cherry Wade Dental. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
All right, So tell us everything we need to know
about your practice.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Okay, So we are located in Bridgeville. We recently relocated
from downtown Pittsburgh. We are a general dental practice and
we focus on everything. We do a little bit of
everything in the practice. A couple of the things that
I really like. I like Crown and Bridge, I like Invisiline.
I also do some a lot of cosmetic work as
well as botox in the practice. We also really focus
(00:40):
on the preventative side of dentistry. So we have some
wonderful hygienists and that's usually who you meet on your
new patient appointments, and we just really really take care
of the patient as a whole. We like to really
focus on everything from the gums to the teeth and
preventative care.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, so how long have you been practicing.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So I've been practicing for twenty one years. I graduated
from two in two thousand.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
That were you looking at young.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, thank you, that's a call, definitely a compliment. So
twenty one years I went to dental school at the
University of Maryland and then I moved back to Western
Pennsylvania originally from punk Satani, so missed the area, but
wanted to live closer to the city than when I
grew up, and so I did a residency at Allegheny
General for a year, and then I worked for a
(01:33):
year before buying my practice in when we were downtown
in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Two thousand and six, that's when you started downtown, and
so how has your practice evolved over the years.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So two thousand and six, I bought a practice from
two existing dentists once stayed with me for a few
years until retirement, and then really just kind of growing
the practice. And one of the biggest things, and you know,
I'm happy to share this was one I had my
daughter at in twenty seventeen, and at that point I
was trying to balance practice life home life, and one
(02:08):
of the things I did end up doing was affiliating
with a dental company called Heartland Dental. And it's been
the best thing I've ever done for myself personally and
professionally because it's allowed me to. So they're different than
a lot of other dental service organizations, is what they're called.
In the point that it's still doctor led. The practice
(02:29):
is still run by the doctors who practice there. We
still make our decisions, we still have autonomy in the practice.
We can use whatever products we want, those kind of things. However,
you have the support, so you have the support from
a bigger company. When you need something, you can reach
out to them. They help you with things, but everything
is kind of individually, so they take care.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Of the back end so you can concentrate on what
you do best.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Do you like dentistry? Is that something you always Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I decided in tenth grade I wanted to be a dentist.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Really yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I went to a leadership conference at Robert Morris and
the group the group leader at my table was a dentist,
and I knew I wanted to do something in healthcare,
but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do.
And then when I met this dentist, it really kind
of solidified that decision for me. And then I went
to IUP to undergrad and at IUP, one of my
track coaches I ran track and cross country. There was
(03:25):
actually a dentist in town in Indiana, so I would
spend the summertime with him in his office and just
really found it as a very rewarding opportunity and really
like he was one of my biggest mentors and biggest
push to move forward with with dentistry after college.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You know, it's funny with with dentistry. We all need
a dentist, we all, but I couldn't imagine doing what
you do. That is just an anathema to me. It's
you know, it's something that you know, first of all,
you kind of work upside down and backwards. Sometimes I
don't know how do you do that?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Sometimes my neck and back remind me of that, but
especially as I keep getting older here. But you know,
the biggest thing is just you know, the one making
sure we're trying to sit in an ergonomic position, trying
to take care of our neck and back, you know,
making sure we're I mean, for me, you know, stretches
and massages, chiropractor, those kind of things are important for
(04:25):
me to maintain that because definitely we do work in
some positions and sometimes it's you know, I try to
accommodate the patient and sometimes they can't lean back or
for whatever reason, and so it does kind of always
affect affect our backs as well. But trying to keep
myself healthy so I can do this for for a
lot longer.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So what made you move from downtown to Bridgeville?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So moving from downtown to Bridgeville, it's kind of a
little bit of a complex answer, I would say, but
things really did kind of change after COVID downtown, we
were seeing a lot of we were we were still growing. However,
we kept hearing about the parking situation, and pre COVID,
everybody worked downtown and they walked to us. So that
(05:10):
was one of the things that just really as we
grew and we kind of outgrew our space where we
were downtown. I loved our building, I loved being downtown,
but the need to have more space was the main
reason to parking and parking and parking. So, you know,
as we started to look at that, and we were
kind of seeing our clientele and we were having a
lot of people telling us that, you know, it's not
(05:31):
convenient to come downtown anymore. And I'm paying, you know,
twenty five dollars for parking even our patients now who
are coming a little bit further than downtown to come
see us in Bridgeville. They're like, it's great. I just
put in the parking lot and I walk in the door.
So that's been a plus for a lot of our
patients who have followed us from from our downtown up location.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Now, your original practic location was called was on Cherryway.
That's that's how you got the name.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yes, that's how we have the name. I mean, it
would be nice if we could get the little road
around the building to be Cherryway or something and.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You just call it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean, I guess we could. I don't know if
I get in trouble for putting a little sign there
or not, but I thought that we bought a little
cherry tree that's in our waiting room. So that's it.
We're trying to at least keep keep up with the
name somehow.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
But doctor Rebecca, it's always it's easier to get forgiveness
than permissions. Yeah, OK, what you need to do? All right,
So tell me about your team?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
My team? Okay, So we have a wonderful team there.
I do have another dentist, doctor Courtney Marchant, who joined
me last summer. She's absolutely wonderful. We really make a
great a great team of dentists. And then we have
four hygienists right now that work with us, and again,
like I said, they are all absolutely wonderful. They're typically
(06:49):
who you'll see for all of the hygiene visits, the
cleanings and those kind of things. And you know, I
every single one of them are wonderful. I would each
of them, would let them do whatever they needed to
do clean my teeth. So you know, we have a
lot of times people are so are very preferential to
which hygenis they see. But if, like I said, if
someone was out, I tell people, they're all great. You're
(07:11):
in great hands with our hygienis. We have our assistants
that you know, their top notch as well. They help
us as the doctors every day in and out making
sure that we're taking good care of our patients. And
then our front our front desk team, you know, they
they're the ones that handle all the insurances, all the
financial questions, all of that and kind of really take
(07:32):
that off of off of our hands to have to
deal with us the doctors.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
How has dentistry evolved since you've started in two thousand
and six. How has that changed?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So dentistry has really changed from a technological standpoint, at
least for me. From what you know, we used to
take the goopy impressions and for crowns or even for
anything that we were doing. Now we have a scanner,
so we have a three D scanner that we send
for all our crowns. We we actually have this really
cool product we've been using the practice for about a
(08:02):
year and a half two years now called curedon. It's
a hydroxy appetite. It can actually remineralize and regenerate decay
if it has not broken through the enamel. Really yeah,
it's it's pretty cool. It's I actually used it on
my own tooth. I will say one tooth that I
was like, it was a little suspicious in that spot,
so and saw a change on the X ray within
six months. So it's been that's been actually something that's
(08:24):
been really cool that I've that's only been in the
last couple of years. We are using AI in our
practice now.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So you just can't drop it not explain you.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So how do you use AI for dentist on our radiographs?
So we have the program and it basically it will.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Wait a minute radiographs X ray X rays on our
X rays.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Okay, so when we take the full series X rays
or your bite wings at your cleaning appointment, AI will
show you areas of suspicion. Now, obviously we need to
diagnose that, we need to confirm what we're seeing. But
it's a really great tool to kind of really show us,
show us things. And you know a lot of dentists
(09:06):
have been a little bit leery of that, like, oh,
it's going to tell me how to diagnose, it's going
to tell me what to do. It just actually makes
our job easier. Just like OLI AI. I'm actually in
the program I'm using, I'm beta testing right now with them,
a notes program so that basically I, you know, can
record the conversation either with the patient or even myself
(09:28):
if I have a new patient. A lot of times
I'll just record and put in for what my findings were,
and it generates a note for me based on the
specifications that I put in there. So it's making making
life a lot easier with all the AI.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Well, ain't you fancy? Yeah, so yeah, So it's evolved
quite a bit that it's.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Evolved quite a bit, yes, from a handwritten chart and
hand dipping X rays in the process, or the young
assistants don't even know half the stuff that we used
to use twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So has it gotten easier or harder because there's more
things that you have to know about.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You have to stay up to date with the with
the advances in dentistry. But if you stay up to
date with it, I think it has made it easier
to help us practice.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
All Right, how many people ask you the question? Four
out of five dentists who allow their patients to recommend
try dent Where do you fall on that spectrum?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Iche tried it? So I guess that's I guess that's
the right answer. And biggest thing is, you know, obviously
if it's sugar free. So that's the that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
That's what I was leading to. It's like so much
of our food that we consume is now it's it's
it's there's so much sugar in our in our food.
So is that increase the amount of decay that you're seeing.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The sugars in the food and then the acidity of food.
So we have a lot of these energy drinks now
and the and people drink a lot of coffee, a
lot of tea.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
You know, let me hide my cup of coffee.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I'm sorry, but the sugars in the acidity. So I
think that's a lot of times people don't even think
about the acidity of things that we're drinking. Even we
have a chart in our office of the waters, and
even some waters are not neutral that they have some
depending on and I'm not going to be able to
name them off off hand right now, but there are
(11:22):
some that are really acidic waters, and then some basic water.
So those are some of the things out there that
that you don't even think about. You think you're just
drinking water, but right there's some the preservatives and stuff
they put into them.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Are you talking about public water or or bottled water
or both?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Well, I was talking about bottled water. I don't know
if I want to get into the whole public water debate.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, saying that there are bottled waters that may not
be as healthy for your teeth as we would think.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Would think, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
When I get back, I have to find that that
a sheet and.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Get it to you, you please, please? All right, So
what else is you know, when it comes to food
and what do you recommend, Like, what are.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Some of the things you want to have, you know,
obviously a healthy die and I know everything kind of yeah,
you have to have everything in moderation. You know. If
you'd walk into our break room, you you would find
some snacks and there you wouldn't expect that the dental office,
you know, and people always bring us goodies, send us
good ease, but that's in moderation, you know. But fruits
and vegetables things like that that you can that help
(12:24):
to actually even when you're eating, it can help to
the saliva, stimulate the saliva and get the plaque off
your teeth. Really making sure you're you know, with the
acidic foods, a lot of times people don't realize they
think I should brush my teeth right away. You kind
of want to let that acids kind of settle for
about thirty minutes and then brush your teeth or like
rinse with some water afterwards. So if you have a
(12:44):
really acidic drink or food, making sure drinking with water
afterwards will help get some of that acid off of
the teeth as well.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
So what are you community minded? Do you have any
are you involvement with anything as far as a nonprofit
or something thing like that.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So I before my before having my daughter, I was
really involved in a lot of things. But right now
that in school things, I'm involved a lot of things
at school. But one of the things we do sponsor
every year is the for the Jesse Games through Catholic Charities.
(13:21):
That is something that has been near and dear to
my heart. And then you know, like I said, we
do get involved with some different community things as you know,
as they come up now kind of in a different community,
you know, kind of learning about that and what you know,
what kind of goes on in the Bridgeville area as well.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
So well, speaking of Bridgeville, how has the Bridgeville area
have When did you move to Bridgeville? And have they
have they have they embraced your your practice.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
We moved in at the end of April. We were
in two days before we lost power for six days
with the storm on that second on that second day
that we were in the office. However, you know, we
have really you know, we have continued to see patients
from the practice downtown, but as well as new patients
in the area. A lot of times people will come
(14:11):
in and they'll tell us that they were watching the
construction and that they couldn't wait until we came moved in.
So we've been really and everybody's been very very friendly,
very very nice. Even the area where the office is,
when you walk around to the to the different stores,
different places, everybody's very very friendly. And you know, we're
we're neighbors with clearview, so we've made a good relationship
(14:32):
with them. I was joking with the ladies earlier, I said,
I think they're atm is one of our best marketing tools.
As people come up to get their money out of
the machine, they see the dental office and they stop
in to make an appointment.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yes, that's it. That's funny. And the visibility is incredible
compared to something downtown.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I never had a sign downtown. Yeah, I mean it
was we were in a building, and you know, people
heard about us. I mean, I think people are still
hearing about us word of mouth, but you know, downtown
that was the main way heard about us, word of
mouth and no sign.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
I know, you've made the transition from downtown to Bridgeville
and you've you know, you've taken on an additional dentist
that last year, so things are growing, But what's what's
your vision for the future for for Cherry Wade Dentel.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
So for Cherryway, I continue to continue to grow. I
mean one of the ideas of the practice and having
the number of operatories and we doubled in size, is
to be able to bring on more providers and provide
additional care for for the community. I don't see myself
going anywhere for a long time, so I plan to
(15:38):
be here, you know, to take care of the patients.
But I'm also growing my practice as well in things
that I'm doing. I mean, it's been one of the
things I do also is I'm a regional doctor mentor
for this for the company I was telling you about,
and so we do workshops in our office. I'm continuing
to grow my continued education. That's something that's always been
near and dear to my heart. So really growing the
(16:01):
practice and growing the providers that we have in our practice,
so whether it's the doctor that's here now or additional
doctors that we bring on down the road, as far
as the hygienist too, like, We're always continuing to grow,
and I think that that's where I see the practice
going and being able to provide care for the community.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Once you became a dentist, like you said, you were
in tenth grade when you decided that you are going
to become a dentist. But being a dentist is only
half of what you do. It's a business as well.
How do you balance that?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
So that's sometimes the difficult part of it. And when
I owned and I was the sole owner, was the
hardest part for me, because you so, it's having a
good team around you. So having a good manager, having
good administrative team members that can help with a lot
of that stuff that you can trust, and making sure
(16:58):
that they're helping with those things. But then also keep
pulse on all the numbers in the practice and looking
at the numbers, looking at the P and L on
a monthly basis, and those kind of things, and just really,
I mean, the other part of it is building the
relationships with the patients, and I mean and the team members,
but really for patients, like for me's, I enjoy coming
to work because I enjoy the interactions I have with
(17:19):
my patients. I mean, dentistry is part of it, but
I also like the relationships that I build with the patients.
You know, sometimes you go to a specialist and you
see them one time. Like for us, I'm seeing these
patients every six months. I joke with new patients a
lot of times if they have a decent amount of
work when they're done, I'm like, no, I'm only going
to see you every six months. I'm used to seeing
you like every couple weeks or so. But you get
to know people really well and you get to know
(17:40):
them personally, and that's really been a big part of
that too, is building those relationships, which then I help
then I think helps the business as well.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
So what do you enjoy most about your job?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I think really it's again the patient interaction, but helping
patients get better dental care and better in a better
place with their with their oral hygiene, and understanding what
they need to do to get better, and you know,
not you know, everybody's going to be different, everybody's going
to have different goals, but it's understanding their goal and
helping them achieve that goal with with what they.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Want with their teeth And what do you have coming up?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
We have an Invision Line open house on July twenty second,
and we'll be putting out some information, probably on our
social media and then we have our website Cherrywaydental dot com.
That will be something. We typically have an invision line
open house once or twice a year. It just if
you want it. If you're interested in visi line, we
get you in. We kind of take a look, do
a consult, see if you're a good candidate. That's usually
(18:42):
the day we offer the biggest special of the year
that we're going to offer on it and go from there.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And if somebody wants more information on either the practice
of Cherryway Dental or the open house, where do they go?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
So they can go to our website Cherrywaydental dot com
and and submit a request there for want of us
to call. They can also you know, I know we
talked about that earlier. People really call, but for one two,
two six, one twenty five hundreds our phone number if
anybody wants to call, it's the easiest way to kind
of talk through that with someone. And then we do
(19:15):
have some social media pages. We have Facebook. That mostly
is the one I use, so I try to showing
my age by saying Facebook. But I haven't become a
TikTok dentist yet. There are some TikTok dentists out there.
But all right, what's the website again, cherrywaddental dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. You good
luck with your practice.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
As always, this has been the CEO's usually no podcast
showcasing businesses that are driving our regional economy, part of
iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Heartwell,
thank you so much for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.