December 29, 2025 • 27 mins
Struggling to hit production goals despite a packed schedule? In this episode, we get into the root issue of why your production is falling short and the mistakes you probably don't know you're making. Learn which appointments are practice killers, when block scheduling doesn't work, and how to design a schedule that can hit $1,200 per hour!
Topics discussed:
- Why you’re busy but underproducing
- How to implement block scheduling
- Who shouldn’t use block scheduling and what to do instead
- The bottlenecks in your day that keep production low
- How to train your team to schedule patients
- Small changes that improve the flow of your day
- Procedure time benchmarks
This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Paul Etchison (00:56):
If your schedule feels full, but you're still
looking up at the end of the daywondering, why didn't we produce
more?
Well, you're not alone.
A lot of owners are stuck inthis sneaky trap where the day
is packed with activity, but notwith the right dentistry.
Choppy procedures, crazy hygieneschedules, low value visits,
eating up prime time slots, andcancellations that blow holes
(01:19):
into your perfect day.
And then you're left feelinglike you worked hard and you
have nothing to show for it.
Today, we're gonna break downhow to fix that.
Not by rushing, not by cramming,but by designing a schedule that
actually produces what you needit to produce.
In this episode, we're breakingdown the real mechanics of a
productive schedule, how the DPHblock scheduling system should
(01:40):
be the foundation of allscheduling, why you should never
do just one filling, how you cancontrol the flow and hygiene,
and how you can tighten up theoperatory efficiency without
rushing through your patientcare.
Now you are listening to theDental Practice Heroes Podcast,
the show for practice owners whowant to work fewer clinical
days, increase profits, andbuild a team-driven practice
(02:03):
that runs without you being thebottleneck.
I'm your host, Dr.
Paul Etchison, the author of twobooks on dental practice
management, a dental coach, andthe owner of a nearly six
million dollar practice in thesouth suburbs of Chicago.
And today I'm joined again by mytwo DPH coaches, Dr.
Henry Ernst, who owns an 18-oppractice in the Carolinas and
has built it to where he onlypractices two days a week, and
(02:25):
Dr.
Steve Markowitz, a multipracticeowner with six practices in the
Boston area, who practices justone day a week.
These are the guys who live theDPH style and have helped dozens
of dentists do the same.
Are you ready?
All right, let's jump in.
Hey everybody, welcome back tothe podcast.
We're so happy you're sharingsome time of your day with us.
(02:47):
We got Henry and Steve, the DPHcoaches, here, and we're gonna
take apart how do we get ourschedule to be more productive?
Because it's one of thosethings, there's a lot of ways to
do this.
There is no one way.
And I can think of maybe likeone or two ways that it makes a
huge, huge difference that weteach to all of our coaching
clients, but there's so manylittle ones that just add up and
(03:08):
make such a big difference.
And I'll just start off bysaying when we're talking about
making our schedule moreproductive, start with a
baseline.
Start with what are youproducing per hour?
Dollar per hour is the greatequalizer, adjusted production,
dollars per hour.
What are you actually bringingin revenue-wise to this office
if you collected 100% of it?
I think we all need to startwith that.
(03:29):
And I tell you, if you get tothe point where, which I think
you should be as an owner doc,$1,200 an hour, I mean, you're
getting to a point where I thinkevery minute's$20, it becomes a
lot where every minute matters,can cost quite a bit.
So pass it into you.
I'll go to you first, Henry.
We are big on associate-drivenpractices, all of us here.
So we want to make our schedulesproductive.
(03:50):
We want to make our associatesproductive.
How do we make it productive?
Give us some advice.
SPEAKER_01 (03:54):
Well, the first thing, number one, the hallmark
of making the schedule efficientis block scheduling.
And I know we are huge with thatover here at DPH.
Blocking out your schedule.
The worst schedule you couldever see is I call it a choppy
schedule, where there's a wholebunch of like 40-minute
procedures, filling, filling,one extract.
That's the worst, mostunproductive day.
So it's gonna get more into theweeds here, but we can talk more
(04:16):
in depth.
But blocking your schedule isreally important.
That's typically where you havemaybe two blocks in your
schedule in the morning, andthese are for high productive
procedures, crown, multiplecrowns, a root canal crown, high
product.
This way they're reserved.
It's like first class.
We're reserving those firstclass procedures for there.
I'll throw in one or one thingelse besides blocking is
fillings.
(04:37):
And I'm grateful to you, Paul.
I learned this from you yearsago where I became the
pseudo-specialist, and all of asudden I would see like the one
filling on your schedule.
It's a practice killer.
One filling.
If you're in hygiene in ourpractice, we try to get one or
two fillings, we try to do it inthe chair while they're there.
We treatment planted in thechair.
Assist uh hygienists can numbthem.
Doctors come in there, knocksout a filling.
(04:58):
Yes.
If they decide that they don'twant to do it that day, then we
don't treat them, we don't pushthem.
We don't even put them on thefollow-up list.
We'll get you on the nextgo-round in hygiene.
So we don't really do the one totwo filling visits in our
schedule.
Paul Etchison (05:10):
Yeah, we do the same thing.
We get them on the next hygienego-round.
Or if you get that one fillingin your schedule, just walk in
the room and look the patient inthe eye and say, Hey, you feel
like doing this today?
And when they say no, be like,get out of here.
Let's go.
I don't want to do it either.
SPEAKER_01 (05:22):
The joke that we always tell our patients is, you
know how when you go to the getsome automotive um maintenance
and you need an oil change andthey're like, Oh, you need the
filter change.
And you just say, okay, just doit.
And they give you that magicallittle sticker in the corner of
your core that says, You're gooduntil this many miles, right?
I want the patients to leave andbe good.
I don't want you to haveanything outstanding.
So let's just get her done.
So blocking out the schedule,that's the hallmark.
(05:44):
That's number one.
Get rid of the one-two fillingson your schedule.
The with the blocking out, it'llalso get rid of all these
choppy, non-productive things,denture adjustments and stuff
like that.
And on the back end here,policies.
What are your policies?
What makes a patient no-show onyou and stuff like that?
Because that's a practicekiller, too.
I know that's a whole notherdiscussion, but those are the
first things that came into mymind.
Paul Etchison (06:05):
Yeah, I think we look at these no-show policies
and then we say, what is thepolicy that's gonna make people
show up?
How do we get people to show up?
And I asked the coaching clientthis recently.
I said, what is a reasonableamount for somebody calling to
cancel their today appointmentthat you think your front desk
should be able to save?
And they said, Man, reasonable?
About 25%.
I said, Well, that's probablythe wrong place to look at
fixing this policy.
(06:26):
It's got to be more upstream.
But you're right.
I think the saving the majorblocks, having the blocks for
the big procedures, we've got tosave big procedures.
And another way of saying whatyou said about those little
procedures is a productiveschedule needs to limit.
And you're like, don't do dentaldent adjustments.
A bunch of people listening arelike, well, what am I supposed
to do?
It's not about not doing it,it's limiting the amount of low
(06:47):
production procedures that youallow to get on your schedule
each day.
So I think those are huge aswell.
Steve, what pops in your mindwhen we're talking about
tactical ways we can make ourschedules more productive?
SPEAKER_02 (06:58):
I would love for everyone to block schedule, but
not everyone is there yet.
Paul Etchison (07:03):
But why not?
Can't everybody be there?
This is non-negotiable for meand my clients.
SPEAKER_02 (07:07):
Everyone with a dental license should be able to
get there.
But if you're not booked out fora week or two, and if you're not
able to produce over$600 net anhour, you're just pushing out
dentistry.
That doesn't help anyone.
So there's you're gonna haveholes in your schedule, or
you're gonna be doing three-hourcrowns or whatever.
So I think everyone should bedoing log scheduling.
(07:29):
But before that, for me, Paul,what you were saying, you need
to know your data, your hourlyproduction.
And if you're able to get over$600 an hour net, that tells me
that you can create value inexplaining dentistry.
You create urgency, and patientswant to do it.
And now we need a strategy tomaximize our ability to help as
(07:50):
many people as possible.
And that's what block schedulingdoes.
But we need to make sure that wehave enough of a runway of
patience to allow us to blockschedule predictably moving
forward.
And for me, that that thresholdis$600 net an hour.
Before that, it may not beproductive, but what I tell
patients to do is take theirpatience, put it on in your
(08:11):
hand, and throw a heaping pileof poo against the wall and see
what happens and learn how to beefficient because you're not
you're not there yet.
What so once we get there, nowwe can block schedule and we
need to stay consistent for it.
And where I see the nextchallenge is now I had someone
who knows who cancels two daysbefore.
(08:32):
So I have this production block,and what do I do with it?
And this came up actually thismorning.
I was interviewing for a managerposition in one of our offices,
and I was just asking, I wantedto know where she is now, they
don't do block scheduling.
So it was more you have anopening, and you're the doctor's
is sharing with you that they'vebeen they're unhappy with how
(08:53):
full their schedule is.
What do you do?
And I I actually loved I lovedher answer.
The answer was the first thingI'm gonna do is I'm gonna look
at today's schedule and I'mgonna see if there's anyone who
needs dentistry who can benefitfrom already being in the
office.
The second is I'm gonna look atpatients who need follow-ups,
(10:34):
who may be on the schedule acouple days out, have deliveries
that are already back, and getthem in to open up the next
couple days.
And then after that, I'm gonnamake sure we have our follow-up
list, whatever you want to callit, 222 is what we use in our
office.
I'm gonna have our follow-uplist and we're gonna get a hot
list from the doctors ofpatients that we know want to be
(10:55):
seen sooner.
And she went through all that,and I'm like, that's gold.
And then what we need to makesure is we're following up with
that as part of our huddle inthe morning, as part of our
meeting with the doctors, sothat we're all communicating
where we want things to go whenmaybe things don't go exactly
how we planned.
Did you hire this person?
I don't make that decision, anduh, I think she did a great job.
Paul Etchison (11:20):
I feel like you have a very political answer.
Like you make a greatpolitician.
Like you never I bait you, andsometimes you don't go there.
SPEAKER_02 (11:26):
I am very independent.
Look at me, straight down themiddle.
There's some I'm Chris Rock.
There's some stuff I'm on theleft about, and there's some
stuff I'm on the right about.
SPEAKER_01 (11:34):
Markowitz 2028.
I can see it now.
SPEAKER_02 (11:37):
Yeah, Henry, you'll you'll run with me, dude?
Paul Etchison (11:39):
Markowitz earns.
unknown (11:40):
Yeah.
Paul Etchison (11:41):
There we go.
That's what I need.
He'll help you with the redstates.
All right.
So uh so you know, one thingthat pops in my mind is that
we're talking a lot about blockscheduling, and and you're
right, Steve.
Like there needs to be somelevel of demand that comes with
that.
But you know, how do you getthrough procedures faster?
And people say, I don't want torush through my procedures.
I don't want to hurry.
And I think if you watched mepractice, you would see I'm not
(12:03):
in a hurry.
You would just see it's veryefficient.
Like my assistant and I arealways doing something.
And I think take your assistantdancing.
You and your assistant, you'regonna go dancing.
And what I mean by that isyou're gonna sit down in the
chair and you're gonna pretendyou're going through procedure
and you're just gonna say, whatdo we do here?
Well, why don't we try I passthis under my other arm?
Or why don't you hand thismirror to me this way?
(12:24):
Well, about when I reach backfor this, you're doing this.
Find something to do at everymoment.
Now, we're talking about shavingoff seconds to a minute from
every procedure, but I thinkreally when you get this down
and you get in the flow, youreally do shave off a lot of
time and you make it a lot moreenjoyable to do dentistry.
I mean, it's I would hate likemy endo procedure with my
(12:45):
assistant is so spot on that wedon't have to communicate
anything.
When I've got to dry and operatecanals with a new assistant that
doesn't know our order and Ihave to tell them every next
step, I think it adds 20, 30minutes to the procedure.
And it just sucks.
So that's one thing that I thinkwe got to sit down, we've got to
do this with our assistants.
(13:05):
It's fun, it shouldn't besomething that they take
offensively, and I think it's aneasy thing to do.
The other thing I think about isyou've got to get out of
hygiene.
Get out of hygiene.
I get it.
I love talking with my patients.
Okay, well, then you can'tcomplain about the results when
you're spending 40 minutes everyhour in hygiene.
You're going to get the resultsthat come with spending 40
minutes an hour in hygiene.
(13:26):
You've got to get out ofhygiene.
And I'm not saying don't providea great experience.
You should, but be reasonable.
And one thing I always give mymy assistants have a Dr.
Kennedy.
Dr.
Kennedy gives us a call.
Doc, Dr.
Kennedy's on the phone.
That means get your ass up.
Dr.
Kennedy's not really on thephone.
We just we got this tip from aDr.
Kennedy before.
And it's also for those patientsthat just keep you in there
(13:49):
talking.
My assistants know, hey, doc,Dr.
Kennedy's on the phone.
SPEAKER_02 (13:52):
I also think the doctors themselves sometimes
overexplain things because theythink that if they talk more,
then the patient in the hygieneroom will finally understand it.
So one thing that I'm working oncurrently with my doctors is if
the patient isn't ready to askquestions and they need a ton of
(14:13):
work, I can't force them.
If someone needs all their teethout and they're not ready to do
it, maybe this is controversial,but this is how I practice and
screw you if you disagree.
Um but so someone comes in andthey need all their teeth out,
and they know they need alltheir teeth out, but that's a
big decision for them andthey're just not ready to hear
it.
I'll start to pick up signs, andI will not spend the next 20
(14:37):
minutes trying to convince themthat they want their teeth out.
What I'll do is I'll stop andI'll say, I know I'm throwing a
lot at you.
I just want to make sure I'mtaking the best care of you the
way you want to be treated.
If you're not ready to moveforward, I totally get it.
I'm gonna put everything in thetreatment plan.
I'm gonna have the girls upfront present that so you know
what to move forward, what thenext steps will look like.
If you're not gonna do anythingright now, what I want you to
(14:59):
know is I would look for anyswelling, any pain on biting,
anything like that you'reexperiencing.
Please let me know and we'll wewant to make sure we're here to
help you.
And I don't go on more thanthat.
I need them to be ready to bepart of the solution because it
ain't my problem, it's theirs.
And I think sometimes asdoctors, we see this disease and
(15:20):
we're so focused in on wantingto show them that this is a
disease and I need to help youwith it, that they don't, their
patients aren't ready to hearit, that we lose sight and we
just spent 20 minutes trying toconvince someone that doesn't
want to hear what we have tosay.
So sometimes understand wherethe patient is and then stop
there.
It's okay.
SPEAKER_01 (15:40):
I had a few points.
So, number one is getting out ofhygiene.
There's nothing wrong with justtelling the patient, listen, you
have a complicated situation.
Why don't you come back,schedule some time with me when
we have time, and we'll talkabout it, right?
I think that's always a goodone.
I'm gonna disagree with youhere, Paul.
One thing that I always say is Inever want verbal communication
with a patient.
What I mean by that is if I'mdrilling on a tooth and I'm
(16:03):
clean, I don't want somebodywalking into the room and
saying, Doctor, I'm ready foryou in room four.
I think that's the worst shityou can do.
Because if I'm a patient getgetting my tooth drilled on,
right?
Paul Etchison (16:12):
This is during the conversation, is what I'm
mentioning, but Dr.
Kennedy.
SPEAKER_01 (16:15):
Even still, even still, like yeah, I know I'm
poking holes in it.
We have our assistants standoutside and stare me down.
That's the sign to say, get thehell out of the room, stop
chit-chatting.
A couple of other things that Iwas writing down as you guys
were talking.
I had a conversation with one ofthe mastermind people in our
meeting, and they hated everytime somebody said faster.
I never say faster, moreefficient.
(16:35):
We want our procedures moreefficient.
When your associate doctors,again, we we grow
associate-driven practices here.
When your associate knows whatthe goal is, our associates are
tiered, right?
So some of our associates are atthe 850 an hour mark, some at
the starting level are at the550 mark.
When the associate knows whattheir strike zone is, it leads
them to better decisions.
(16:56):
So if I'm gonna treatment plantextraction, it's gonna be 350
and it's gonna take me an hour.
Hey, doc, maybe that's not inyour strike zone, right?
So it's good for that.
Other interesting exercises, wehad a doctor that was having
trouble with production, and acouple of us over a couple of
beers were going.
This is the nerdy things that wedo over a couple of beers, where
we're going over what's youroverhead?
What's your overhead per hour?
(17:17):
What's your overhead per share?
Dorks! Yeah, that's us.
That's where I've gotten to inthis life.
Jeez.
So this doctor was talking abouthow her associate does a
three-hour crown appointment,and this is non-ceric kind of
visit.
This is impression, makingattempt, and then they come back
for another hour.
And we did the math, and everytime this doctor did one of
those, she's losing like acouple hundred bucks every time.
(17:39):
So it's always good to lookabout, and I was discussing, I
said, listen, we gotta be moreefficient, not fast.
The last point that I wanted tomake is with we were talking
about limiting thenon-productive procedures or the
very low productive procedures.
You gotta train your admin teamto take control of the
conversations.
So, for example, we're open onSaturdays and we have a policy,
(18:00):
we don't do any dentaladjustments on Saturdays.
So when somebody calls, theadmin team doesn't say we don't
do dental adjustments onSaturdays.
No, we say, we don't have thatstay.
We have Monday, we have Tuesday,we have this time.
Take control of theconversation, right?
And that goes with a lot ofdifferent things.
You also have to train yourstaff to do what we refer to as
(18:21):
smart scheduling because you gotthe block scheduling.
And as Steve mentioned,sometimes you're not ready for
that.
And I agree with that, becauseif you have block scheduling,
you're not busy enough, you'lljust have holes in your
schedule.
So, in lieu of that, you have todo smart scheduling.
And we teach this to the peoplethat are in their younger
infancy of their practice.
You should never schedulefillings next to each other.
Doctor can't be in two places atonce.
(18:41):
I know some people have FTAs, soyou maybe could do a little bit
of commingling there a littlebit, but we never do.
If you have people come backfrom the lab for crowns, no
crown seats next to each other,no non-productive procedures
next to each other, like nodenture adjustments next to each
other.
You just have to train yourstaff.
But make sure this is part ofphone scheduling and phone
training, but always takecontrol of the conversation.
(19:03):
Always tell them we don't havethat time.
How about this time?
Give them two options.
Paul Etchison (19:09):
Yeah, I always tell my team, I'm like, I'm not
an octopus.
Like, what the hell is this?
Like, I can't do this.
All great points.
Do you guys know how manytickles it takes to make an
octopus laugh?
Ten.
Seven.
It is it is ten.
You're supposed to say eight.
It's tentacles.
Ten tackles.
SPEAKER_01 (19:29):
Ten tickles.
unknown (19:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (19:33):
This is the kind of stuff you get with balls
coaching.
You just get learn, you learnhow to do high-quality jokes.
How many patients have did yougive that one to?
Paul Etchison (19:40):
Oh, I give it to people all the time.
One of my favorite ones is doyou know why uh Ariel the
Mermaid wears seashells?
She outgrew her B shells.
SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
I love that one.
Anyway, this is why you want tocome and hang out with us in a
mastermind meeting and have acouple of beers and you listen
to this kind of conversation.
Paul Etchison (19:59):
That's true.
So I'm I'm thinking of themastermind weekend, and we were
outside, me and another member,and we were talking about this
exact same thing as like how heover talks in the operatory.
And I said, Well, what are youtalking about?
He's like, I know I'm overtalking it.
And he said, Sometimes I'm justwaiting for a reaction from the
patient.
And the thing is, is you talkedabout this, Henry.
He's like, we got to takecontrol of the conversation.
(20:19):
If you're waiting for a reactionfor the patient, don't keep
talking.
Ask for a reaction.
Stop and say, Hey, Mr.
Jones, I know I just wentthrough a lot of stuff.
How are you feeling about allthis?
And see where they're at,because the solution is to see
where they're at, address theirobjections.
It's not to keep talking overand just get deeper and deeper
and they're just watching themspace out.
(20:40):
You've got to ask.
There's nothing wrong withasking.
And this is like a thing withphone skills.
Man, you want to you want tohear a phone conversation get
bad.
Let the patient lead the wholeentire conversation and you
watch all the differentdirections that will go in.
But it's all leading.
People want to be led.
People don't want to, they don'twant to take control.
They're in a very weirdenvironment where they're
vulnerable.
They don't know what's what'sgoing on, they don't know half
(21:03):
about dentistry.
They want to be led by somebodywho knows what they're doing and
has their best interests inmind.
Amen.
SPEAKER_02 (21:09):
I think part of what these doctors need to do is just
if at any point they feel likethey're talking too much, it's
time for a question.
Question times with Paul.
Paul Etchison (21:19):
So all great stuff.
I want to rewind a little bitbecause we're talking about
efficiency.
Mahenry mentioned not fasterefficient.
There's a lot of situationswhere we could be more efficient
in our operatory setup.
And I see this a lot.
Every operator is set up in adifferent way.
Why do we do that?
Why can't we standardize wherethings are so you can go in any
operator?
(21:39):
Why can't we buy an excess ofinventory, not to the point that
it's wasteful, but that sothings we use all the time are
in the rooms?
Why can't we buy, you know, anissue that comes up with me is
bite blocks.
We did this with bite blocks.
We just never had a bite block.
That sounds super corporate,Paul.
unknown (21:58):
Right.
Paul Etchison (21:58):
I mean, we did this with bite blocks.
We never had a bite block.
And I'm like, why are there nobite blocks in the room?
So we bought so many that therecould never be a room without a
bite block in the door.
And then we still had the issue.
So then we had to take thehandpiece out and we had to
drill the numbers into them.
This is op one, this is op two.
It better go back to the rightplace.
And because the thing is.
Is you think it doesn't meananything.
I mean, you know, when yourassistant leaves the room and
(22:20):
you're sitting there in silencewith your patient, it might be
30 seconds, but it feels likefive minutes and you're just
like looking down the hallwaylike, damn it, what oh God.
Like I have to speak to thisperson.
I don't want to.
All these minutes add up.
There's so many opportunities.
So when you're going throughyour day, look for the
opportunities of inefficiency.
Look for the points in your daywhere you lose time, where you
(22:40):
could have been doing something.
I'm not saying burn all daylong, but to some extent, stop
wasting time.
SPEAKER_02 (22:46):
And I think to add to that, we also need to make
sure we're we're all beingproactive and actually meeting
with our treatment coordinatoror meeting with our manager to
know who to fill in the schedulewith if things don't go the way
we want them to.
I think the biggest take home iswe can build this perfect
schedule, but it never reallyworks out that way.
(23:06):
And if there are changes intoday, tomorrow, or the next
day's schedule, I would love forour the person responsible to be
as proactive as possible and getmy input.
So if I have people that I thinkI need to call, or if I have
there's someone that needs athat needs an adjustment or
whatever, like let's make surewe have a couple minutes a day
before the day starts or at theend of the day to look forward
(23:27):
to the schedule of the next dayso I we can be proactive and not
have any surprises.
Paul Etchison (23:32):
I think what would be useful is let's close
out this episode, but I wouldlove just to, I'm just gonna
shoot out a few procedures andI'd like to hear from both of
you.
Just what is the time you shouldbe done with this?
And if so a listener says, I'mnot, I need to change something.
Not like Mario Andretti, but I'msaying, like, you know, what's
reasonable.
Sitting down to prep a crown toget to the impression part.
(23:52):
So the complete crown is preppedbuildups in everything.
Steve, how long should that takea doctor?
SPEAKER_02 (23:57):
You better be done prepping that tooth if it starts
at 8 o'clock by 8 30, 30minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (24:03):
Henry?
I would say 15 to 25 minutes.
I'll bury a hair.
Paul Etchison (24:08):
I was gonna say 30 minutes.
I think it should be faster, but30 is like, dude.
Like I think you could do fasterbut 30.
I'm like, dude, what are youdoing?
SPEAKER_01 (24:15):
Look at it from the patient's point of view.
I removed the wisdom tooth lastweek and it took me two minutes,
and the patient's like, I paidyou$450 for that.
And I said, Yes, because I knowhow to do it that quickly.
If you want me to screw aroundwith it, I can charge you more,
but I don't think you'd likethat.
Paul Etchison (24:27):
Yeah.
Well, it's the thing, yeah,totally.
It's like the Pablo Picassothing.
Like, that only took you twominutes.
It took me my whole career tolearn how to do that.
My whole career.
All right, class two filling.
One single class two, prep it.
Not fill, just prep.
Henry?
I'll say five to ten.
I say five.
I think five.
Yes.
Okay.
Surgical extraction.
(24:48):
Routine, maybe bust it off.
More of a challenge.
Surgical extraction, if youcan't do it in this time, you
need to get better at yourextractions.
SPEAKER_02 (24:55):
With suture and back up, ten minutes.
Paul Etchison (24:57):
Ten minutes?
Steven?
Twenty minutes.
I'd say ten minutes.
I've worked with people, they'relike, I want to produce twelve
hundred dollars an hour.
Here's a hundred and twentydollar simple extraction.
I'm gonna put it on my schedulefor an hour.
That math doesn't work.
Hell.
Okay.
Any other procedures you canthink of?
Go ahead, Steve.
I can see your lips are moving.
SPEAKER_02 (25:15):
You know, it does work if you have two crowns
before it for an hour and ahalf.
True.
There are still things that weneed to do to help our patients.
We need to do the simpleextraction work.
I need to do the occlusal belt.
We just have to do it if there'sno one else in our office to do
it.
It's just making sure thatthere's enough of the other
things to offset and we'rescheduling in a way that allows
(25:36):
us to still hit our goals,whatever that might be.
Paul Etchison (25:38):
True.
And that's the whole ideabehind, you know, coming full
circle here (25:41):
block scheduling.
We're front-loading high profitprocedures to take away the
sting of the low profitprocedures.
So I think that's a good placeto put a period on this
conversation.
If you need help working yourblock schedule, figuring out how
to do all this stuff, reach outto us at Dental Practice Heroes.
We'll have a free strategy callwith you.
And I assure you, like when I'mworking with coaching clients,
(26:03):
this is one of the first thingswe're working on is developing a
schedule.
Because when you get an idealblock schedule that hits your
dollar per hour goal, that isthe foundation of a well-run
practice.
Is you see visually what youneed to do.
Now you just got to fill allthose little targets you put on
the schedule.
Now there's a lot of things todo to fill the targets.
You need more new patients, youmight need to diagnose more, you
(26:24):
might need better caseacceptance.
A lot goes into that.
But ultimately, if you can filla well designed block schedule,
everything else will work out.
So thank you so much forlistening today.
Please reach out to us,dentalpracticeherous.com, set up
a free strategy call, and we'lltalk to you next time.
If your schedule feels full, but you're still
looking up at the end of the daywondering, why didn't we produce
more?
Well, you're not alone.
A lot of owners are stuck inthis sneaky trap where the day
is packed with activity, but notwith the right dentistry.
Choppy procedures, crazy hygieneschedules, low value visits,
eating up prime time slots, andcancellations that blow holes
(01:19):
into your perfect day.
And then you're left feelinglike you worked hard and you
have nothing to show for it.
Today, we're gonna break downhow to fix that.
Not by rushing, not by cramming,but by designing a schedule that
actually produces what you needit to produce.
In this episode, we're breakingdown the real mechanics of a
productive schedule, how the DPHblock scheduling system should
(01:40):
be the foundation of allscheduling, why you should never
do just one filling, how you cancontrol the flow and hygiene,
and how you can tighten up theoperatory efficiency without
rushing through your patientcare.
Now you are listening to theDental Practice Heroes Podcast,
the show for practice owners whowant to work fewer clinical
days, increase profits, andbuild a team-driven practice
(02:03):
that runs without you being thebottleneck.
I'm your host, Dr.
Paul Etchison, the author of twobooks on dental practice
management, a dental coach, andthe owner of a nearly six
million dollar practice in thesouth suburbs of Chicago.
And today I'm joined again by mytwo DPH coaches, Dr.
Henry Ernst, who owns an 18-oppractice in the Carolinas and
has built it to where he onlypractices two days a week, and
(02:25):
Dr.
Steve Markowitz, a multipracticeowner with six practices in the
Boston area, who practices justone day a week.
These are the guys who live theDPH style and have helped dozens
of dentists do the same.
Are you ready?
All right, let's jump in.
Hey everybody, welcome back tothe podcast.
We're so happy you're sharingsome time of your day with us.
(02:47):
We got Henry and Steve, the DPHcoaches, here, and we're gonna
take apart how do we get ourschedule to be more productive?
Because it's one of thosethings, there's a lot of ways to
do this.
There is no one way.
And I can think of maybe likeone or two ways that it makes a
huge, huge difference that weteach to all of our coaching
clients, but there's so manylittle ones that just add up and
(03:08):
make such a big difference.
And I'll just start off bysaying when we're talking about
making our schedule moreproductive, start with a
baseline.
Start with what are youproducing per hour?
Dollar per hour is the greatequalizer, adjusted production,
dollars per hour.
What are you actually bringingin revenue-wise to this office
if you collected 100% of it?
I think we all need to startwith that.
(03:29):
And I tell you, if you get tothe point where, which I think
you should be as an owner doc,$1,200 an hour, I mean, you're
getting to a point where I thinkevery minute's$20, it becomes a
lot where every minute matters,can cost quite a bit.
So pass it into you.
I'll go to you first, Henry.
We are big on associate-drivenpractices, all of us here.
So we want to make our schedulesproductive.
(03:50):
We want to make our associatesproductive.
How do we make it productive?
Give us some advice.
SPEAKER_01 (03:54):
Well, the first thing, number one, the hallmark
of making the schedule efficientis block scheduling.
And I know we are huge with thatover here at DPH.
Blocking out your schedule.
The worst schedule you couldever see is I call it a choppy
schedule, where there's a wholebunch of like 40-minute
procedures, filling, filling,one extract.
That's the worst, mostunproductive day.
So it's gonna get more into theweeds here, but we can talk more
(04:16):
in depth.
But blocking your schedule isreally important.
That's typically where you havemaybe two blocks in your
schedule in the morning, andthese are for high productive
procedures, crown, multiplecrowns, a root canal crown, high
product.
This way they're reserved.
It's like first class.
We're reserving those firstclass procedures for there.
I'll throw in one or one thingelse besides blocking is
fillings.
(04:37):
And I'm grateful to you, Paul.
I learned this from you yearsago where I became the
pseudo-specialist, and all of asudden I would see like the one
filling on your schedule.
It's a practice killer.
One filling.
If you're in hygiene in ourpractice, we try to get one or
two fillings, we try to do it inthe chair while they're there.
We treatment planted in thechair.
Assist uh hygienists can numbthem.
Doctors come in there, knocksout a filling.
(04:58):
Yes.
If they decide that they don'twant to do it that day, then we
don't treat them, we don't pushthem.
We don't even put them on thefollow-up list.
We'll get you on the nextgo-round in hygiene.
So we don't really do the one totwo filling visits in our
schedule.
Paul Etchison (05:10):
Yeah, we do the same thing.
We get them on the next hygienego-round.
Or if you get that one fillingin your schedule, just walk in
the room and look the patient inthe eye and say, Hey, you feel
like doing this today?
And when they say no, be like,get out of here.
Let's go.
I don't want to do it either.
SPEAKER_01 (05:22):
The joke that we always tell our patients is, you
know how when you go to the getsome automotive um maintenance
and you need an oil change andthey're like, Oh, you need the
filter change.
And you just say, okay, just doit.
And they give you that magicallittle sticker in the corner of
your core that says, You're gooduntil this many miles, right?
I want the patients to leave andbe good.
I don't want you to haveanything outstanding.
So let's just get her done.
So blocking out the schedule,that's the hallmark.
(05:44):
That's number one.
Get rid of the one-two fillingson your schedule.
The with the blocking out, it'llalso get rid of all these
choppy, non-productive things,denture adjustments and stuff
like that.
And on the back end here,policies.
What are your policies?
What makes a patient no-show onyou and stuff like that?
Because that's a practicekiller, too.
I know that's a whole notherdiscussion, but those are the
first things that came into mymind.
Paul Etchison (06:05):
Yeah, I think we look at these no-show policies
and then we say, what is thepolicy that's gonna make people
show up?
How do we get people to show up?
And I asked the coaching clientthis recently.
I said, what is a reasonableamount for somebody calling to
cancel their today appointmentthat you think your front desk
should be able to save?
And they said, Man, reasonable?
About 25%.
I said, Well, that's probablythe wrong place to look at
fixing this policy.
(06:26):
It's got to be more upstream.
But you're right.
I think the saving the majorblocks, having the blocks for
the big procedures, we've got tosave big procedures.
And another way of saying whatyou said about those little
procedures is a productiveschedule needs to limit.
And you're like, don't do dentaldent adjustments.
A bunch of people listening arelike, well, what am I supposed
to do?
It's not about not doing it,it's limiting the amount of low
(06:47):
production procedures that youallow to get on your schedule
each day.
So I think those are huge aswell.
Steve, what pops in your mindwhen we're talking about
tactical ways we can make ourschedules more productive?
SPEAKER_02 (06:58):
I would love for everyone to block schedule, but
not everyone is there yet.
Paul Etchison (07:03):
But why not?
Can't everybody be there?
This is non-negotiable for meand my clients.
SPEAKER_02 (07:07):
Everyone with a dental license should be able to
get there.
But if you're not booked out fora week or two, and if you're not
able to produce over$600 net anhour, you're just pushing out
dentistry.
That doesn't help anyone.
So there's you're gonna haveholes in your schedule, or
you're gonna be doing three-hourcrowns or whatever.
So I think everyone should bedoing log scheduling.
(07:29):
But before that, for me, Paul,what you were saying, you need
to know your data, your hourlyproduction.
And if you're able to get over$600 an hour net, that tells me
that you can create value inexplaining dentistry.
You create urgency, and patientswant to do it.
And now we need a strategy tomaximize our ability to help as
(07:50):
many people as possible.
And that's what block schedulingdoes.
But we need to make sure that wehave enough of a runway of
patience to allow us to blockschedule predictably moving
forward.
And for me, that that thresholdis$600 net an hour.
Before that, it may not beproductive, but what I tell
patients to do is take theirpatience, put it on in your
(08:11):
hand, and throw a heaping pileof poo against the wall and see
what happens and learn how to beefficient because you're not
you're not there yet.
What so once we get there, nowwe can block schedule and we
need to stay consistent for it.
And where I see the nextchallenge is now I had someone
who knows who cancels two daysbefore.
(08:32):
So I have this production block,and what do I do with it?
And this came up actually thismorning.
I was interviewing for a managerposition in one of our offices,
and I was just asking, I wantedto know where she is now, they
don't do block scheduling.
So it was more you have anopening, and you're the doctor's
is sharing with you that they'vebeen they're unhappy with how
(08:53):
full their schedule is.
What do you do?
And I I actually loved I lovedher answer.
The answer was the first thingI'm gonna do is I'm gonna look
at today's schedule and I'mgonna see if there's anyone who
needs dentistry who can benefitfrom already being in the
office.
The second is I'm gonna look atpatients who need follow-ups,
(10:34):
who may be on the schedule acouple days out, have deliveries
that are already back, and getthem in to open up the next
couple days.
And then after that, I'm gonnamake sure we have our follow-up
list, whatever you want to callit, 222 is what we use in our
office.
I'm gonna have our follow-uplist and we're gonna get a hot
list from the doctors ofpatients that we know want to be
(10:55):
seen sooner.
And she went through all that,and I'm like, that's gold.
And then what we need to makesure is we're following up with
that as part of our huddle inthe morning, as part of our
meeting with the doctors, sothat we're all communicating
where we want things to go whenmaybe things don't go exactly
how we planned.
Did you hire this person?
I don't make that decision, anduh, I think she did a great job.
Paul Etchison (11:20):
I feel like you have a very political answer.
Like you make a greatpolitician.
Like you never I bait you, andsometimes you don't go there.
SPEAKER_02 (11:26):
I am very independent.
Look at me, straight down themiddle.
There's some I'm Chris Rock.
There's some stuff I'm on theleft about, and there's some
stuff I'm on the right about.
SPEAKER_01 (11:34):
Markowitz 2028.
I can see it now.
SPEAKER_02 (11:37):
Yeah, Henry, you'll you'll run with me, dude?
Paul Etchison (11:39):
Markowitz earns.
unknown (11:40):
Yeah.
Paul Etchison (11:41):
There we go.
That's what I need.
He'll help you with the redstates.
All right.
So uh so you know, one thingthat pops in my mind is that
we're talking a lot about blockscheduling, and and you're
right, Steve.
Like there needs to be somelevel of demand that comes with
that.
But you know, how do you getthrough procedures faster?
And people say, I don't want torush through my procedures.
I don't want to hurry.
And I think if you watched mepractice, you would see I'm not
(12:03):
in a hurry.
You would just see it's veryefficient.
Like my assistant and I arealways doing something.
And I think take your assistantdancing.
You and your assistant, you'regonna go dancing.
And what I mean by that isyou're gonna sit down in the
chair and you're gonna pretendyou're going through procedure
and you're just gonna say, whatdo we do here?
Well, why don't we try I passthis under my other arm?
Or why don't you hand thismirror to me this way?
(12:24):
Well, about when I reach backfor this, you're doing this.
Find something to do at everymoment.
Now, we're talking about shavingoff seconds to a minute from
every procedure, but I thinkreally when you get this down
and you get in the flow, youreally do shave off a lot of
time and you make it a lot moreenjoyable to do dentistry.
I mean, it's I would hate likemy endo procedure with my
(12:45):
assistant is so spot on that wedon't have to communicate
anything.
When I've got to dry and operatecanals with a new assistant that
doesn't know our order and Ihave to tell them every next
step, I think it adds 20, 30minutes to the procedure.
And it just sucks.
So that's one thing that I thinkwe got to sit down, we've got to
do this with our assistants.
(13:05):
It's fun, it shouldn't besomething that they take
offensively, and I think it's aneasy thing to do.
The other thing I think about isyou've got to get out of
hygiene.
Get out of hygiene.
I get it.
I love talking with my patients.
Okay, well, then you can'tcomplain about the results when
you're spending 40 minutes everyhour in hygiene.
You're going to get the resultsthat come with spending 40
minutes an hour in hygiene.
(13:26):
You've got to get out ofhygiene.
And I'm not saying don't providea great experience.
You should, but be reasonable.
And one thing I always give mymy assistants have a Dr.
Kennedy.
Dr.
Kennedy gives us a call.
Doc, Dr.
Kennedy's on the phone.
That means get your ass up.
Dr.
Kennedy's not really on thephone.
We just we got this tip from aDr.
Kennedy before.
And it's also for those patientsthat just keep you in there
(13:49):
talking.
My assistants know, hey, doc,Dr.
Kennedy's on the phone.
SPEAKER_02 (13:52):
I also think the doctors themselves sometimes
overexplain things because theythink that if they talk more,
then the patient in the hygieneroom will finally understand it.
So one thing that I'm working oncurrently with my doctors is if
the patient isn't ready to askquestions and they need a ton of
(14:13):
work, I can't force them.
If someone needs all their teethout and they're not ready to do
it, maybe this is controversial,but this is how I practice and
screw you if you disagree.
Um but so someone comes in andthey need all their teeth out,
and they know they need alltheir teeth out, but that's a
big decision for them andthey're just not ready to hear
it.
I'll start to pick up signs, andI will not spend the next 20
(14:37):
minutes trying to convince themthat they want their teeth out.
What I'll do is I'll stop andI'll say, I know I'm throwing a
lot at you.
I just want to make sure I'mtaking the best care of you the
way you want to be treated.
If you're not ready to moveforward, I totally get it.
I'm gonna put everything in thetreatment plan.
I'm gonna have the girls upfront present that so you know
what to move forward, what thenext steps will look like.
If you're not gonna do anythingright now, what I want you to
(14:59):
know is I would look for anyswelling, any pain on biting,
anything like that you'reexperiencing.
Please let me know and we'll wewant to make sure we're here to
help you.
And I don't go on more thanthat.
I need them to be ready to bepart of the solution because it
ain't my problem, it's theirs.
And I think sometimes asdoctors, we see this disease and
(15:20):
we're so focused in on wantingto show them that this is a
disease and I need to help youwith it, that they don't, their
patients aren't ready to hearit, that we lose sight and we
just spent 20 minutes trying toconvince someone that doesn't
want to hear what we have tosay.
So sometimes understand wherethe patient is and then stop
there.
It's okay.
SPEAKER_01 (15:40):
I had a few points.
So, number one is getting out ofhygiene.
There's nothing wrong with justtelling the patient, listen, you
have a complicated situation.
Why don't you come back,schedule some time with me when
we have time, and we'll talkabout it, right?
I think that's always a goodone.
I'm gonna disagree with youhere, Paul.
One thing that I always say is Inever want verbal communication
with a patient.
What I mean by that is if I'mdrilling on a tooth and I'm
(16:03):
clean, I don't want somebodywalking into the room and
saying, Doctor, I'm ready foryou in room four.
I think that's the worst shityou can do.
Because if I'm a patient getgetting my tooth drilled on,
right?
Paul Etchison (16:12):
This is during the conversation, is what I'm
mentioning, but Dr.
Kennedy.
SPEAKER_01 (16:15):
Even still, even still, like yeah, I know I'm
poking holes in it.
We have our assistants standoutside and stare me down.
That's the sign to say, get thehell out of the room, stop
chit-chatting.
A couple of other things that Iwas writing down as you guys
were talking.
I had a conversation with one ofthe mastermind people in our
meeting, and they hated everytime somebody said faster.
I never say faster, moreefficient.
(16:35):
We want our procedures moreefficient.
When your associate doctors,again, we we grow
associate-driven practices here.
When your associate knows whatthe goal is, our associates are
tiered, right?
So some of our associates are atthe 850 an hour mark, some at
the starting level are at the550 mark.
When the associate knows whattheir strike zone is, it leads
them to better decisions.
(16:56):
So if I'm gonna treatment plantextraction, it's gonna be 350
and it's gonna take me an hour.
Hey, doc, maybe that's not inyour strike zone, right?
So it's good for that.
Other interesting exercises, wehad a doctor that was having
trouble with production, and acouple of us over a couple of
beers were going.
This is the nerdy things that wedo over a couple of beers, where
we're going over what's youroverhead?
What's your overhead per hour?
(17:17):
What's your overhead per share?
Dorks! Yeah, that's us.
That's where I've gotten to inthis life.
Jeez.
So this doctor was talking abouthow her associate does a
three-hour crown appointment,and this is non-ceric kind of
visit.
This is impression, makingattempt, and then they come back
for another hour.
And we did the math, and everytime this doctor did one of
those, she's losing like acouple hundred bucks every time.
(17:39):
So it's always good to lookabout, and I was discussing, I
said, listen, we gotta be moreefficient, not fast.
The last point that I wanted tomake is with we were talking
about limiting thenon-productive procedures or the
very low productive procedures.
You gotta train your admin teamto take control of the
conversations.
So, for example, we're open onSaturdays and we have a policy,
(18:00):
we don't do any dentaladjustments on Saturdays.
So when somebody calls, theadmin team doesn't say we don't
do dental adjustments onSaturdays.
No, we say, we don't have thatstay.
We have Monday, we have Tuesday,we have this time.
Take control of theconversation, right?
And that goes with a lot ofdifferent things.
You also have to train yourstaff to do what we refer to as
(18:21):
smart scheduling because you gotthe block scheduling.
And as Steve mentioned,sometimes you're not ready for
that.
And I agree with that, becauseif you have block scheduling,
you're not busy enough, you'lljust have holes in your
schedule.
So, in lieu of that, you have todo smart scheduling.
And we teach this to the peoplethat are in their younger
infancy of their practice.
You should never schedulefillings next to each other.
Doctor can't be in two places atonce.
(18:41):
I know some people have FTAs, soyou maybe could do a little bit
of commingling there a littlebit, but we never do.
If you have people come backfrom the lab for crowns, no
crown seats next to each other,no non-productive procedures
next to each other, like nodenture adjustments next to each
other.
You just have to train yourstaff.
But make sure this is part ofphone scheduling and phone
training, but always takecontrol of the conversation.
(19:03):
Always tell them we don't havethat time.
How about this time?
Give them two options.
Paul Etchison (19:09):
Yeah, I always tell my team, I'm like, I'm not
an octopus.
Like, what the hell is this?
Like, I can't do this.
All great points.
Do you guys know how manytickles it takes to make an
octopus laugh?
Ten.
Seven.
It is it is ten.
You're supposed to say eight.
It's tentacles.
Ten tackles.
SPEAKER_01 (19:29):
Ten tickles.
unknown (19:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (19:33):
This is the kind of stuff you get with balls
coaching.
You just get learn, you learnhow to do high-quality jokes.
How many patients have did yougive that one to?
Paul Etchison (19:40):
Oh, I give it to people all the time.
One of my favorite ones is doyou know why uh Ariel the
Mermaid wears seashells?
She outgrew her B shells.
SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
I love that one.
Anyway, this is why you want tocome and hang out with us in a
mastermind meeting and have acouple of beers and you listen
to this kind of conversation.
Paul Etchison (19:59):
That's true.
So I'm I'm thinking of themastermind weekend, and we were
outside, me and another member,and we were talking about this
exact same thing as like how heover talks in the operatory.
And I said, Well, what are youtalking about?
He's like, I know I'm overtalking it.
And he said, Sometimes I'm justwaiting for a reaction from the
patient.
And the thing is, is you talkedabout this, Henry.
He's like, we got to takecontrol of the conversation.
(20:19):
If you're waiting for a reactionfor the patient, don't keep
talking.
Ask for a reaction.
Stop and say, Hey, Mr.
Jones, I know I just wentthrough a lot of stuff.
How are you feeling about allthis?
And see where they're at,because the solution is to see
where they're at, address theirobjections.
It's not to keep talking overand just get deeper and deeper
and they're just watching themspace out.
(20:40):
You've got to ask.
There's nothing wrong withasking.
And this is like a thing withphone skills.
Man, you want to you want tohear a phone conversation get
bad.
Let the patient lead the wholeentire conversation and you
watch all the differentdirections that will go in.
But it's all leading.
People want to be led.
People don't want to, they don'twant to take control.
They're in a very weirdenvironment where they're
vulnerable.
They don't know what's what'sgoing on, they don't know half
(21:03):
about dentistry.
They want to be led by somebodywho knows what they're doing and
has their best interests inmind.
Amen.
SPEAKER_02 (21:09):
I think part of what these doctors need to do is just
if at any point they feel likethey're talking too much, it's
time for a question.
Question times with Paul.
Paul Etchison (21:19):
So all great stuff.
I want to rewind a little bitbecause we're talking about
efficiency.
Mahenry mentioned not fasterefficient.
There's a lot of situationswhere we could be more efficient
in our operatory setup.
And I see this a lot.
Every operator is set up in adifferent way.
Why do we do that?
Why can't we standardize wherethings are so you can go in any
operator?
(21:39):
Why can't we buy an excess ofinventory, not to the point that
it's wasteful, but that sothings we use all the time are
in the rooms?
Why can't we buy, you know, anissue that comes up with me is
bite blocks.
We did this with bite blocks.
We just never had a bite block.
That sounds super corporate,Paul.
unknown (21:58):
Right.
Paul Etchison (21:58):
I mean, we did this with bite blocks.
We never had a bite block.
And I'm like, why are there nobite blocks in the room?
So we bought so many that therecould never be a room without a
bite block in the door.
And then we still had the issue.
So then we had to take thehandpiece out and we had to
drill the numbers into them.
This is op one, this is op two.
It better go back to the rightplace.
And because the thing is.
Is you think it doesn't meananything.
I mean, you know, when yourassistant leaves the room and
(22:20):
you're sitting there in silencewith your patient, it might be
30 seconds, but it feels likefive minutes and you're just
like looking down the hallwaylike, damn it, what oh God.
Like I have to speak to thisperson.
I don't want to.
All these minutes add up.
There's so many opportunities.
So when you're going throughyour day, look for the
opportunities of inefficiency.
Look for the points in your daywhere you lose time, where you
(22:40):
could have been doing something.
I'm not saying burn all daylong, but to some extent, stop
wasting time.
SPEAKER_02 (22:46):
And I think to add to that, we also need to make
sure we're we're all beingproactive and actually meeting
with our treatment coordinatoror meeting with our manager to
know who to fill in the schedulewith if things don't go the way
we want them to.
I think the biggest take home iswe can build this perfect
schedule, but it never reallyworks out that way.
(23:06):
And if there are changes intoday, tomorrow, or the next
day's schedule, I would love forour the person responsible to be
as proactive as possible and getmy input.
So if I have people that I thinkI need to call, or if I have
there's someone that needs athat needs an adjustment or
whatever, like let's make surewe have a couple minutes a day
before the day starts or at theend of the day to look forward
(23:27):
to the schedule of the next dayso I we can be proactive and not
have any surprises.
Paul Etchison (23:32):
I think what would be useful is let's close
out this episode, but I wouldlove just to, I'm just gonna
shoot out a few procedures andI'd like to hear from both of
you.
Just what is the time you shouldbe done with this?
And if so a listener says, I'mnot, I need to change something.
Not like Mario Andretti, but I'msaying, like, you know, what's
reasonable.
Sitting down to prep a crown toget to the impression part.
(23:52):
So the complete crown is preppedbuildups in everything.
Steve, how long should that takea doctor?
SPEAKER_02 (23:57):
You better be done prepping that tooth if it starts
at 8 o'clock by 8 30, 30minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (24:03):
Henry?
I would say 15 to 25 minutes.
I'll bury a hair.
Paul Etchison (24:08):
I was gonna say 30 minutes.
I think it should be faster, but30 is like, dude.
Like I think you could do fasterbut 30.
I'm like, dude, what are youdoing?
SPEAKER_01 (24:15):
Look at it from the patient's point of view.
I removed the wisdom tooth lastweek and it took me two minutes,
and the patient's like, I paidyou$450 for that.
And I said, Yes, because I knowhow to do it that quickly.
If you want me to screw aroundwith it, I can charge you more,
but I don't think you'd likethat.
Paul Etchison (24:27):
Yeah.
Well, it's the thing, yeah,totally.
It's like the Pablo Picassothing.
Like, that only took you twominutes.
It took me my whole career tolearn how to do that.
My whole career.
All right, class two filling.
One single class two, prep it.
Not fill, just prep.
Henry?
I'll say five to ten.
I say five.
I think five.
Yes.
Okay.
Surgical extraction.
(24:48):
Routine, maybe bust it off.
More of a challenge.
Surgical extraction, if youcan't do it in this time, you
need to get better at yourextractions.
SPEAKER_02 (24:55):
With suture and back up, ten minutes.
Paul Etchison (24:57):
Ten minutes?
Steven?
Twenty minutes.
I'd say ten minutes.
I've worked with people, they'relike, I want to produce twelve
hundred dollars an hour.
Here's a hundred and twentydollar simple extraction.
I'm gonna put it on my schedulefor an hour.
That math doesn't work.
Hell.
Okay.
Any other procedures you canthink of?
Go ahead, Steve.
I can see your lips are moving.
SPEAKER_02 (25:15):
You know, it does work if you have two crowns
before it for an hour and ahalf.
True.
There are still things that weneed to do to help our patients.
We need to do the simpleextraction work.
I need to do the occlusal belt.
We just have to do it if there'sno one else in our office to do
it.
It's just making sure thatthere's enough of the other
things to offset and we'rescheduling in a way that allows
(25:36):
us to still hit our goals,whatever that might be.
Paul Etchison (25:38):
True.
And that's the whole ideabehind, you know, coming full
circle here (25:41):
block scheduling.
We're front-loading high profitprocedures to take away the
sting of the low profitprocedures.
So I think that's a good placeto put a period on this
conversation.
If you need help working yourblock schedule, figuring out how
to do all this stuff, reach outto us at Dental Practice Heroes.
We'll have a free strategy callwith you.
And I assure you, like when I'mworking with coaching clients,
(26:03):
this is one of the first thingswe're working on is developing a
schedule.
Because when you get an idealblock schedule that hits your
dollar per hour goal, that isthe foundation of a well-run
practice.
Is you see visually what youneed to do.
Now you just got to fill allthose little targets you put on
the schedule.
Now there's a lot of things todo to fill the targets.
You need more new patients, youmight need to diagnose more, you
(26:24):
might need better caseacceptance.
A lot goes into that.
But ultimately, if you can filla well designed block schedule,
everything else will work out.
So thank you so much forlistening today.
Please reach out to us,dentalpracticeherous.com, set up
a free strategy call, and we'lltalk to you next time.
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