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Dr. Adamo Notarantonio: Team Mistake
77 Plays4 months ago
Dr. Adamo emphasizes the importance of patience and taking the time to learn and grow in the dental field. He warns against the pitfalls of comparing yourself to others on social media and stresses the need to focus on personal growth and improvement.
About the Guest:
Adamo Notarantonio is a highly respected figure in the field of dentistry, known for his commitment to comprehensive dental care and education. With a history of working closely with industry-leading institutions and mentors, Adamo has built a robust career characterized by his dedication to continued learning and clinical excellence. He served as a partner in a well-regarded dental practice straight from his residency until recently stepping down to focus more on his educational endeavors, including being faculty at the Koi Center. Renowned for both his surgical and restorative dentistry skills, Adamo is also noted for his significant contributions to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD)
Episode Summary:
In an inquisitive conversation with Tanya Sue Maestas, dentist and educator Adamo Notorantonio shares his valuable insights on building a successful dental team and the impact of continuing education on dental practice. This episode delves into the essentials of teamwork, training, and the significance of systems in the dental office, much like those of McDonald's or Starbucks, which can bring uniformity and efficiency. Tune in to discover Adamo's philosophy on learning, teaching, and finding the right practices that work for both the dentist and the team.
Adamo opens the discussion with an emphasis on the need for a consistent and long-term assistant in dental practice, acknowledging the challenges of turnover and the lack of time for training. He reveals that his practice could have benefited from uniform training across all assistants, an oversight he considers critical to maintaining the flow of work in a dental office. Further in the episode, Adamo advocates for the value of entire teams, including doctors and hygienists, attending Continuing Education (CE) programs together to ensure seamless integration of new knowledge and systems back into the practice.
Key Takeaways:
- Tailoring assistant training to ensure long-term consistency and readiness is key for a successful dental practice.
- Uniformity across training for all dental assistants can prevent workflow disruptions when staff turnover occurs.
- CE programs are more effective when attended by the entire team, fostering unity and collective motivation.
- Exposure to various CE programs allows dental professionals to amalgamate different techniques to find what works best for them individually.
- While new techniques and trends like biomimetic dentistry offer new insights, integrating them with existing practices can provide incremental improvements to procedures.
Connect with Adamo Notarantonio : @adamoelvis
Connect with Ignitedds: @ignitedds
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Learn more about Well Received: wellreceived.com/ignitedds
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Dental Fuel, the podcast that focuses on what no one else is talking about. Mistakes. The dental world is full of before and afters and no one is talking about the middle. Dental Fuel brings you the unspoken in-between. Welcome back to another episode of Dental Fuel. This episode of Dental Fuel is brought to you by Well-Received. Did you know 69% of patients say they would switch providers for a better experience? To level up your practice, you need to ensure your patient experience is better than your competitors. So where do you start? From the very first hello. While received is a 24-7 answering service for dental practices. Their team of professional receptionists are on hand 24-7 to support your callers. That's day and night.
00:00:46
Speaker
365 days a year. Set your practice apart by guaranteeing your patient's calls are answered quickly and by a real person every single time. Ready to level up your patient experience? As a dental fuel listener, you can enjoy an exclusive 50% off your first three months of service. Head to wellreceived.com slash IgniteDDS to get started. Like all great masters, Dr. Adamo knows that building a team is important and the many challenges that come in doing so. In this conversation, we talk about some mistakes that Adamo has made in building his own team. And I'm sure that you're able to get all this done because you have a great team behind you when building a team or when you were when you all were building a team for your office. um What were some mistakes that you made and what were some qualities that you were looking for in team members that you were interviewing?
00:01:40
Speaker
Um, that's a good question. I got, you know, in our practice, we each had our own assistant, right? So I had Monica for five years. And then when Monica left dentistry, I had my Melanie for five or six years. Then we, she went to hygiene school and I've been bouncing around little, I have one consistent now, but I've had two residents for the ACD for the last almost four years. So. They are very differently trained than the rest of the assistants in my office in the sense that they come when I educate. So they know exactly what procedures and how I want to do them because they come to all of my courses with me. um So the other assistants are amazing at what they do.
00:02:32
Speaker
but they don't know my style and my what I like and what I actually do. So I think, especially with the photos, right? So I think um in terms of mistakes, I wouldn't say i I've made too many mistakes in training. I just I needed to find someone that was going to stay with me long-term consistent because if if I get an assistant for two months, A, it's not long enough for them to understand what I'm trying to do or how I want them to do it. And to recycle turnover is hard for me. I don't have the time to sit and train because my practice is nuts and then I'm gone. So, you know, yeah, I wouldn't say I feel like I've done too many training mistakes. i just
00:03:23
Speaker
As I got busier, I don't have the time. um And, you know, I guess I could go back and say, I wish my team and my partner and my associates and everybody over the years, we should have made a training system for anybody. So any assistant could go into my room. The mistake was I only trained one. So when they're gone, I'm screwed. um So that that's a problem. You should, you know, when you design something that is replaceable once you leave, that's not good. you want You want the machine to flow, like McDonald's will flow in any state because it's a system or Starbucks, the same thing. And we don't usually treat dental offices like that. And we should, because if the doctor retires or the assistant leaves or the hygienist leaves, if everyone knows the system, anyone anybody could step in. So I think that would, looking back at your question again now as I talk, I think the mistake is,
00:04:21
Speaker
not uniformity across assistants. I train mine one way, my partner trains her another way, my associate trains, there's another way. And then when they come in the room and they don't even know like what material I want, they should know what we what everybody does and we don't have that. Yeah, super insightful. I think, you know, systems are what makes dental offices slow. So that's really interesting. But yes, I think that, you know, I think it's fine to have your style and if you have several assistants or several doctors, that's okay. But perhaps there would be value in in training them to each of the practitioner's style so that way they can step in and you can continue to have that ah group dynamic and that group flow and in the practice.
00:05:00
Speaker
for sure Do you encourage dentists to take their team members to um different c programs in the same way that you have? um So mine are a little different because I'm the educator, right? And they come and they see what we do. So I think they get more excited. like at the documentation stuff because they know what I'm taking. Why are you taking so many photos while you weren't doing a class four composite? And then they see it on the screen and they're like, Oh my God, I got your camera ready. Let's take photos of this. This is going to be a great case. So I think that excitement is fine. um But I do think it's
00:05:35
Speaker
I think it's critical for entire teams to take CE together. I think doctors, if you're a multi-doctor office, I think you should go to the same CE at the same time. Because if one comes back and says, hey, we should buy a perioscope. And one's like, what are you talking about? I don't even know are what you're talking about. And then you show, no, that's dumb. But if you're both in the same room and you both see it and you both get wowed, you're both gonna go back and implement it to the team. And I think teams should go together too. um i don't know of
00:06:08
Speaker
of that many team building things because I'm not in that world. But I'm sure there are a lot of them. But I think that if you're going to send, like you shouldn't do what I do, you shouldn't take send one assistant, you should send them all and they should all go together. Because if they come back as a group, then they're going to work hard to want to implement that back into practice and you don't have to worry about it. So you tell them, you come up with the system, this is what we're going to follow, and they have it. Same thing with hygienists. We sent all our hygienists out to the core center. They took the hygiene course there. When they came back, everybody was gung-ho on the same page. And now the system and the wheel revolves a lot smoother than it did when only one went and came back and mentioned the word CTX4. And the other five are like, what are you talking about? But when they all go and they know it, um
00:06:53
Speaker
they all can implement it together. So I think it's critical for, I mean, I'm a CE junkie, teaching and taking, but I think if you're gonna do it, you people need to go together. Can we talk a little bit about COIS and the training that they have for clinicians, but also for the team members? You mentioned a little bit about, there's um some training for hygienists, but what else is there? So there's an adjunct course taught taught by Doug Thompson for hygienists. It's not part of the COIS curriculum per se. Um, but he has a, it's a two day or I believe, and he's very into, um, the science, the like saliva tests and all sorts of stuff. And, um, it's really my my girls loved it. They, um, they thought it was amazing. Um, and they all came back really motivated. So, uh, he does a great job. Uh, again, my whole, my whole team went. So I know firsthand how excited they were when they got back to implement that, you know, John
00:07:52
Speaker
curriculum, in my opinion, is a post grad or post, yeah, post grad residency for like every aspect of dentistry. I mean, he covers occlusion, treatment planning, ah materials, perio. I mean, it's just, it's everything you would encounter on a patient from the second they walk in the door to the second they leave. um It's pretty, it's impressive. It's really impressive. What will you be teaching? And it's all science-driven. What will you be teaching? course yeah Yeah, I'll be doing the biomechanics course, a section of the biomechanics course, which is on ah shade matching and photography. Oh, cool, cool, cool. Adama, you took um one of the biomimetic master course classes, right? I did. What did you think of that? What do you think of biomimetics?
00:08:47
Speaker
Um, okay. So I think you put me on the spot, but, uh, the elements are awesome people. I know them very well. Uh, that's who I studied under. They are pillars of knowledge in bonding. They know a lot. Um, I took that course with my resident Devin who really wanted to take it. It was during COVID. So I had a lot of time on my hand because otherwise I wouldn't have read a hundred articles. I'm not going to lie to anybody. But I'll say this and and listen, I'm a straight shooter and I'm honest That was a problem to us. Sorry. That was a solution to a problem I never had I don't get sensitivity and I don't have a problem with D bonds. So
00:09:33
Speaker
Did I apply everything that they said and change my whole world? I did not. Did I take certain things that they do that I thought were awesome and could supplement what I've been doing to improve it? I did. So I think all education is good. I think it's foolish to say that you're going to implement everything you learn in one curriculum because that's just not true. Okay. I mean, I've taken a million composite courses and my composite technique is a combination of all of them. And it's not the right one. it just It's what works well with me. So what I got out of my biomimetic was a couple of things that I didn't. I was like, wow, that's awesome. I never did that. I'm going to add that to my already successful bonding.
00:10:16
Speaker
So maybe my bonding is gonna get even better, which is the goal. And the way I bond might not be the same as the next person because it's what works in my hands. The same way I like a certain composite for aesthetics and maybe somebody hates that and they have the right to because maybe it just doesn't feel good in their hands. So I think all CE is amazing. I think you should go out of the box and take things that you didn't think that you were gonna like but because you might implement one or two things that'll make you improve. But again, I think it's foolish to say, oh, if you don't do it this way, then you're not bonding because I mean, I have veneers in for over 20 years and I didn't know what the hell I was doing back then. I didn't rubber damn. I barely knew what the product was and they're still in the mouth. So I couldn't have been that bad or the technique couldn't have been that bad because I i mean, I probably was that bad, but the material can't be that bad or the way I was taught to do it because
00:11:14
Speaker
otherwise my veneers would have popped out. Yeah, everything would be falling out. Yeah, that's my take on that. and I'm with you. You know, I'm a CE junkie. I think that, and you know, if I could do a CE every week, I probably wouldn't. If I could, that's where I would be. But I think that it's it's so interesting. Dentistry is so funny to me in that things become like popular and hot, almost like fashion, you know? So Coase is really popular right now. and And I mean, it should be. It's an excellent place ah to get your education. But that's like, that's the place to go right now. in biomimetics, you know, I feel like especially during COVID time, and that was very, very hot. I think it still is. And people are are really talking about it. But things just become kind of hot sometimes. And there's a lot of discussion and a lot of talk about it. And and then it kind of like ebbs in, in waves, it comes and goes. And so that's just really interesting. So I was just curious what your thoughts, thoughts were there.
00:12:04
Speaker
I hope that cleared it up. It was, yeah, no, great, great. Are you ready to level up your patient experience? Be sure to visit wellreceived.com slash IgniteDDS to find out how you can master patient communication and offer exceptional service 24 seven, 365 days a year while getting valuable time back to focus on growing your practice. Our conversation with Adamo is quickly closing. Be sure to tune in next time where Adamo shares some expert advice.