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New Beginnings in Dentistry w/ Dr. Sampada Deshpande
27 Plays10 months ago
Welcome back to Season 2 of New Dentists on the Block!
In this episode, Dr. Sampada Deshpande shares her journey as a foreign-trained dentist and her decision to pursue a general practice residency (GPR) to specialize in treating patients with special healthcare needs. She discusses her unique model of portable dentistry, where she brings dental care to seniors and individuals with disabilities in their own homes or assisted living centers. Sampada also talks about her role as a product manager for Samsomile and her dedication to helping dental professionals streamline insurance verification processes. She emphasizes the importance of thinking outside the box and finding unique ways to serve patients in the dental profession.
About The Guest:
Sampada Deshpande is a foreign-trained dentist who completed her dental school in India before pursuing her DDS at the University of Washington. She has a passion for treating patients with special healthcare needs and has dedicated her career to providing dental care to seniors and individuals with disabilities. Sampada offers portable dentistry, where she brings her dental equipment to assisted living centers and patients' homes to provide comfortable and convenient dental care. She also works as a product manager for Samsung Smile, an automated insurance verification solution.
Key Takeaways
- Sampada Deshpande pursued a general practice residency (GPR) to specialize in treating patients with special healthcare needs.
- Portable dentistry allows Sampada to provide dental care to seniors and individuals with disabilities in their own homes or assisted living centers.
- Sampada's role as a product manager for Samsung Smile involves streamlining insurance verification processes for dental professionals.
- Thinking outside the box and finding unique ways to serve patients is crucial in the dental profession.
Connect with Sampada Deshpande on IG: @dr.desphande
Connect with New Dentist Business Club: @newdentistbusinessclub
Learn more about Samsosmile: @samsosmile
Connect with New Dentists on the Block: @newdentistsontheblock
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Full video on Youtube
Swing by Peyruis | https://soundcloud.com/peyruis Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
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Transcript
Season 2 Introduction & Focus
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to New Dentists on the Block, a podcast featuring new dentists sharing their experiences in the world of dentistry. Successes, challenges, and life in between.
00:00:15
Speaker
navigating dentistry together one experience at a time. Happy New Year and welcome to Season 2 of New Dentists on
Meet Dr. Sampana Deshpande
00:00:23
Speaker
the Block. In this first episode of Season 2, we have Dr. Sampara Deshpande, a dentist from the Bay Area, California. We talk about how Sampara decided to return to dental school and complete a GPR, her role in portable dentistry, her new business study club, and what her future looks like in private practice. Let's get into today's episode.
00:00:41
Speaker
Sampana Deshpande. Welcome to New Dennis on the Block. How are you doing today?
00:00:47
Speaker
I'm doing very well, Tanya. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. I'm so excited to finally connect with you. And we are celebrating a new year and a new start with New Dennis on the Block. So I'm excited to have you as our first guest for 2024, which is another exciting year for us in the profession and for our lives. But how have you been and how are you doing today?
00:01:14
Speaker
Well, everything has been great so far. I'm doing well today. This morning was a little bit busy. I had a lot of meetings scheduled back to back, but I'm happy that I get to end the morning with you and with this wonderful episode that we're going to publish.
00:01:33
Speaker
I'm very excited to have our conversation with you today. Oh, me too. Most importantly, I'm excited to connect with you. But of course, I want to share your story with our listeners. And I think that we can all gain a lot of different pearls from all of our journey and struggles and different things that we all pick up along the way during our paths and in our roles in dentistry. But Sampada, please tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.
Why Return for General Practice Residency?
00:01:56
Speaker
Sure. Well, I am a foreign trained dentist and I initially went to dental school in India. I was born and raised in the Middle East. So Dubai is still home for me in a lot of ways. That's where I grew up. After finishing dental school in India, that was about the year 2013. I went and did my dental school at University of Washington out in Seattle. I did the two and a half year
00:02:25
Speaker
accelerated program that allows us to become licensed in the US and get a DDS. So I did that, and that was about the year 2018 when I finished. And I have been practicing ever since then. I've practiced for a few years in Seattle. I moved to the Bay Area in California about two years ago.
00:02:50
Speaker
and decided to go back to school for a general practice residency. This is something we can definitely touch upon.
Understanding Portable Dentistry
00:02:58
Speaker
But it really was because I became very interested in treating patients with special health care needs and decided that a GPR is the way to go to learn about that. And currently I do a couple of things.
00:03:12
Speaker
One is I offer portable dentistry where I go to assisted living centers or homes of patients with special health care needs with all of my dental equipment and take care of them there in the comfort of their own homes or rooms. Most of my patients are seniors or patients with special health care needs. So I see a lot of different kinds of people with different medical complications.
00:03:39
Speaker
And it's truly one of the most rewarding ways to practice, I have found. The other thing that I do is I work as a product manager for a product called Samsung Smile, which is an automated insurance verification solution. We have installed this solution in dental schools, in dental groups. Some of them are bigger groups with 10, 15 multiple practices.
00:04:06
Speaker
And some are private practices. So a single office also uses our product. And that takes up about half of my week. It's pretty busy. But yeah, that's a little bit about me. Ooh, I love it. And I have a lot of questions already. Tell me, for you, how was it to make that decision to go back to school and complete a GPR? It was a little bit challenging.
00:04:34
Speaker
Back in 2021, when I started considering it, I felt like I had a lot of personal mental roadblocks stopping me from going back into a GPR.
Balancing Multiple Roles and Impact of GPR
00:04:50
Speaker
I remember talking with my husband and telling him, you know what, maybe when I start my own practice, I could just hire somebody else who has done a GPR and knows how to treat patients with special health care needs or understand the medical complications.
00:05:04
Speaker
And he was like, Hmm, but shouldn't that really come from the owner of the practice who has a good understanding of everything that can go wrong or who kind of sets the tone? Um, it's not that we can't hire people who are more specialized than us, but really for us to have the basics and the foundation down is sometimes so critical, especially in healthcare and having, having been,
00:05:33
Speaker
having me now on the other side, I realized that going for a GPR was pretty much the most important decision I made in my clinical career. It's also a, I also received that as advice from a few mentors of mine when I was in dental school. But you know how it is when you're given advice, sometimes you're just not ready to accept it. And you're just not ready to make the move. So looking back, if I had finished a GPR right out of dental school,
00:06:03
Speaker
That would have been perfect, but I'm so happy to have done it this way. That's awesome. And based on the experience that you had there, was that what influenced you to kind of pivot the way that you practice and now are practicing in this unique model? Yes, I really wanted to be able to utilize my skill set to its maximum capacity after finishing a GPR. I had the opportunity to go back and do a regular associateship
00:06:34
Speaker
at a brick and mortar facility. And that is something I will still continue to do when I start my own practice next year. I would like to have a brick and mortar space where I can see patients of all ages. But offering portable dentistry fulfills a very important goal because not a lot of dentists are doing the service. And there's lots of patients who simply cannot access a dental office, even if it is just across the street.
00:07:04
Speaker
And that could be because of their disabilities. It could be because of them having to rely on someone to drive them. It could be very inconvenient for someone in a wheelchair or someone, for example, I saw a patient who had ALS. It's just not possible for somebody in that situation to really get out of their house, go into a van and then come and see the dentist. Most of our dental offices are not even
00:07:33
Speaker
adaptable to those kinds of wheelchairs. It's very hard for them to come in and out. So for me to be able to do that, I just love it. It's really, really fun. We have a great team. I have a lot of help from dental assistants who, you know, drag all of our equipment from one place to the other. You need a lot of support for that. But it definitely influenced the work I do today.
00:07:59
Speaker
So tell me a little bit about what your week looks like. On a regular basis, are you practicing every day? Do you rotate through different sites? We'll start there and then I'll follow up with more questions.
Wellness and Procedures in Portable Dentistry
00:08:10
Speaker
Okay. So my week, Mondays and Tuesdays, I try to dedicate myself completely to Samsung Smile. It requires a lot of work from my end.
00:08:23
Speaker
because we're still growing, even though our product launched in Jan, I like to maintain relationships with all of our customers, all of our offices. And I think they like it too. They like being in touch with me and making sure all issues are getting ironed out and everything is going smoothly. So Mondays and Tuesdays go towards Sam's Smile. Wednesdays, I am writing a book
00:08:49
Speaker
This is one of my projects. I attended the IDL event earlier this week. I know you were a participant in the Institute. Also, such an excellent opportunity from the ADA. But, Wednesdays actually go towards writing my book, which is on special care dentistry to help general dentists with little to no training in special care to start seeing these patients in their office.
00:09:17
Speaker
And Thursdays and Fridays are when I am clinical and I start seeing patients for portable dentistry. You could do portable dentistry the whole week if you wanted to, but it can be really hard on your body if you're not taking care of your body very well. So doing a lot of yoga, seeing a massage therapist probably once a month.
00:09:41
Speaker
These things are pretty important. Dentists should be doing this anyway. If you're doing portable dentistry, you should be very particular about it.
00:09:49
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Yes. Mental wellness is important. Physical wellness is even just as important, if not maybe more, depending on where you are. But the way that you feel physically can really determine the longevity of how long you practice. So really taking care of yourself. And that's something that I haven't done a good job of myself, but going regularly. I go every blue moon.
00:10:11
Speaker
But my back definitely starts to let up from time to time But going in and and the same way, you know, we give the analogies to our patients Teeth sometimes can be like ours our bodies can be like ours as well, too We got to give them maintenance if we want them to keep working. So yes, very insightful What are the typical procedures that you? That you complete on your thirties and some Fridays when you are seeing when you are giving clinical care? Yeah
00:10:39
Speaker
The most common procedures are hygiene, extractions, dentures and partials, and crowns or fillings. So it's very similar to what you would do in a regular practice, but because most of my patients, I would say 70% of them are above the age of 70, I do a lot of SDF, hygiene, extractions, and dentures, partials. This is a predominant part, and I should say,
00:11:10
Speaker
I think it's fairly obvious, but for your listeners who have never heard of anyone doing portable dentistry, most of the dentistry is doing standing up. So imagine trying to do a crown prep when you're standing up. It can be very tricky and difficult for your back. Of course, a lot of wheelchairs now can move in a variety of ways. Wheelchairs have really, really advanced over the years, but
00:11:38
Speaker
It's just a different form of practicing. Yeah, and definitely different, but such a great service that you're providing to your community and to the patients, especially those who have mobility issues who can't go out and see somebody. Can you tell me a little bit about the setup that you carry around with you? Yes, we primarily work with a company called Aseptiko. I think it's very well known. And if you imagine when you go to the airport, you have these
00:12:08
Speaker
You carry a bag that has wheels on it, right? So imagine something like that. But when you open the bag, out comes the suction or the air water syringe or a compressor. And it's just really fun. If you're seeing maybe four or five patients in the day, we try to carry all the equipment that we will need for those four or five patients that we have.
00:12:34
Speaker
five sets of exam instruments, cleaning, restorative, whatever is needed. We always try to carry extra because remember we are traveling to see these patients and maybe the second appointment would not be for a month or so. And it's not very easy for the patient to come see us, we have to go see them. So the focus is on trying to really help that patient as much as possible in that one visit.
00:13:02
Speaker
so that we minimize redos or trying to go back and finishing things. So we do carry some extra material just in case we need it. What do you do about sterilization? Sterilization is done at the end of the day. So our assistants are trained on keeping all of our equipment separately. If it's clean versus dirty, they will always separate everything
00:13:31
Speaker
We have a small office out in Sacramento. I'm in the Bay Area, but my team outside of helping me, they travel with other dentists all over California. And after the days over in the Bay Area, they'll go back to Sacramento, which is about two hours from here. They have longer days than I do. So they work really, really hard. They're a great team. And when they go back to their Sacramento office, it's about maybe a
00:14:01
Speaker
800 square foot space. It's very small. It just has basically sterilization and they will clean the instruments and get ready for the next day. Very good. Yeah. Are you comfortable talking a little bit about how billing works?
Billing and Future Plans
00:14:16
Speaker
Uh, sure. Sure. So a lot of our patients are FIFA service mainly because they are beyond the age where they would be working for an employer and be getting employer benefits.
00:14:31
Speaker
So a lot of the payments get routed through a power of attorney. Some patients are their own power of attorney, so they will be able to take care of financing by themselves. Most of them, however, will have a son or a daughter or a family member who helps them with that. So we usually do the treatment planning, discuss it with the POA, and then the POA takes care of financing.
00:14:59
Speaker
We also take benefits from Medicare. Not all of Medicare will cover dental benefits. For some patients, it does have a few dental benefits. For some, it does not. But we are contracted with a few of those plans. So when a patient does have Medicare, you're able to take care of that. A third option is
00:15:22
Speaker
I'm not sure if in your state they have PACE programs. Do they have PACE programs? I'm not familiar. Can you tell me a little bit more? So PACE programs are a government sponsored entity. Okay. And it's mostly for our senior citizens. Okay. And in those PACE facilities, if a senior citizen is a part of that facility, they get lots of other benefits apart from dental.
00:15:49
Speaker
There's medical, they have lots of other physiotherapy, things like that. All of these services get covered. So we do work with those PACE facilities also. So every maybe once or twice a month, I will make a visit to a PACE facility where I'll see maybe eight patients and do lots of different treatments for them. So we do have individual contracts with some of these PACE facilities all over the state.
00:16:17
Speaker
That is another way our financing works. Do you handle all of the billing or do you have an office manager that takes care of that for you? We have a practice manager who takes care of that, yes. Okay, very cool. As you transitioned, you mentioned at the beginning that you're building a practice, is that right? Yes, I haven't started building it yet. We are only just negotiating the lease.
00:16:45
Speaker
but the plan for it is to be open next year. Yeah. Exciting. Well, that's very exciting. But as you transition into building up a practice that has its walls, how do you foresee yourself, if you foresee yourself, continuing to incorporate some of this portable dentistry? Yeah, I would like to continue doing portable dentistry one day a week, one or two days a week.
00:17:15
Speaker
Because more than that, it just becomes really hard for our bodies. That's a personal decision for me. I know other dentists who do it all week long and that's amazing. But I would like to dedicate 75% of the week to working in a brick and mortar space.
00:17:34
Speaker
because I still wanna be able to see other patients also. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. That definitely makes sense. Yeah. Yes, I have heard, portable dentistry for me is a little bit newer in the sense that I knew it's existed, but I've heard of a few more podcasts of others who are doing it more on the regularly.
Community Engagement and Patient Base
00:17:53
Speaker
And it's just so insightful and I think that it's just so rewarding in many ways and very challenging in other ways as well too.
00:18:00
Speaker
But definitely for our listeners who are listening if you guys would like more information there are a ton of dentists who are doing this and some people do do this every day and Hopefully I'll find others who are doing community care in this way and bring it on to the podcast this year so we can have conversations about how they build up their practice and I Know that I listened to another podcast and I forgot who exactly does this but I know that they say that they're able to build up their patient base through word-of-mouth and
00:18:28
Speaker
Would you agree that that is some way that others have reached out to you to also receive care? Yes, 100%. A lot of it happens through word of mouth. Another way to really market your services is to visit assisted living centers in your zip code or in the 10, 15 mile radius around where you want to practice and speak to the memory care directors or the residential directors in those facilities
00:18:56
Speaker
asking them if they have any other dentist offering the service. And if not, would they like to have you as the primary dentist serving that facility? It's a huge, huge help. And not just for dentists, but really for all healthcare professionals to be able to provide services to these patients in the comfort of their own rooms. It really goes above and beyond.
00:19:23
Speaker
And it reduces their costs significantly because the cost of transporting a patient to another facility, bringing them back, the convenience of trying to schedule things with the power of attorney, it can be so complicated. And most assisted living facilities are also very, very bareboned. They're running on fewer people to manage so many more patients. So any help they can get would be appreciated.
00:19:52
Speaker
Did you find when you were first starting reaching out to some of the assisted living homes that they were very receptive or were there a few that had some roadblocks or red tape that didn't allow you to maybe see some of their patients in their assisted living facilities? Most of them are actually very, very nice and welcoming. We do have some pamphlets, some marketing pamphlets that give kind of a basic of what we offer, how to schedule patients with us.
00:20:22
Speaker
And I will often go and visit these facilities on days that I'm not seeing my patients. Some of the newer facilities just to introduce myself to them and let them know that this is a service we provide and that they will be getting a call from our practice manager to give them more details. Most of them are super, super nice and very appreciative of the care that we provide.
00:20:44
Speaker
Well, that's wonderful. I'm so glad that we were able to talk about that because it's such a cool way to practice and, you know, it's just really wonderful. And so hopefully others who maybe are looking for a different way to practice dentistry, maybe will be inspired to also take on some portable dentistry and help out their community.
Business Study Club for Dentists
00:21:03
Speaker
Samba, I want to pivot a little bit and I would love to talk a little bit about the business study club that you host and you've had for a few years now. But talk to us a little bit about how that came about and what you all do with the study club. Sure. Well, after I graduated in 2018, I think it was about maybe six or seven months after that that I realized I wanted to have my own practice one day. And with that realization,
00:21:32
Speaker
I did not really have any other resources apart from my own motivation of where to start learning about all of this. Because running a business is very different from being an associate or being kind of told what to do, or if you work in community health, things are so streamlined and so systematic that you know your place, you know your place in the world. But when you're starting your own, it can be really, really difficult to get those resources going.
00:22:01
Speaker
So a couple of my classmates from University of Washington and I got together in my apartment building in a conference room that we had. And we just started talking about our goals. It used to be very, very simplistic. We would meet every other weekend and just share information that, oh, I spoke to this accountant. This is what they do. Or I spoke to this lawyer. And these are the kind of services he offers. This is how they help with liability.
00:22:32
Speaker
or business licenses, things like that. But it was really during the pandemic in 2020 that everything was shut down and we realized, hey, we all still want to have our own practices. So let's make this more organized and let's invite speakers who have more expertise in certain subjects and let's bring them to our clubs that they can educate all of us.
00:23:02
Speaker
Once we started doing that, our club started gaining a little bit traction and attention from dentists who are not just in Seattle. They were all over. Because remember in 2020, we were having all of this virtual CE just being bombarded so much. And it was great. I loved it. There really was nothing else to do.
00:23:27
Speaker
Just getting all of this clinical education online was so amazing. And we kind of got swept into that. A lot of other dentists reached out to us from outside of Seattle that, hey, can you make this virtual so that we can join? We are willing to pay a fee if there's like AGDCE or there's some kind of CE being given for our time. And so we just decided, you know what, let's build this into a nonprofit, make it very systematic.
00:23:57
Speaker
and apply for AGD CE. So we actually became official probably towards, yeah, towards the middle of 2020. We applied for nonprofit status, got that. We started getting some membership fees from each of our existing members and new members, and that helped us pay for AGD CE. And they're still AGDP certified.
00:24:24
Speaker
That's been a great, great benefit because it's a nice little perk to have even personally to be able to attend these meetings once a month. And it's been fantastic. I'm so happy with how it's progressed. We will sometimes, we have seen members who started at the beginning just as fresh grads who now have their own practices and they're still members. So it's been great to see that journey.
00:24:52
Speaker
What a great way to grow as a community. And, you know, 2020 was such a scary time because we really didn't know what was going on. But so many great ideas and projects came out of 2020. And so this is just one prime example of something that can happen when we have time on our hands, right? But I'm so glad that you continued the Business Study Club. If our listeners are interested in the Business Study Club, how can they get more information?
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah, so we have a Instagram handle, which is simply called New Dentist Business Club. And we have our email address, which is new.dentist.business at gmail.com. We are currently running a promotion, actually. So our regular annual membership fees are about $100 for the whole year, where you get more than 12 hours of CE, which is very, very cost effective. If you think about
00:25:48
Speaker
all of the other forms of CE that you can get. But currently until the 7th of December, we are doing a $50 off. And I know when this episode comes out, it is going to be next year. But if attendees or if listeners still want to get access to that discount, just reach out to us and let us know you heard about us on New Dennis on the Block, and you would like to avail that discount, we will try to make it work for you.
00:26:19
Speaker
Awesome. Just for our listeners and Sampra is so wonderful and this is such a great way to, you know, gain the knowledge that you need if you are interested in building a business. There are a lot of great places where you can get information. This is just one other resource that you can add to, you know, ways that you can gain information and build a community to support you and watch you and others grow into building the practice of your dreams.
00:26:44
Speaker
Yes, in your eye, you know, you're doing so much and I'm so excited to see, you know, what the future holds for you.
Future Aspirations and Creative Advice
00:26:51
Speaker
But where do you see yourself in the next five to 10 years? Oh my gosh. Well, I really hope to have started my practice in the five to 10 years. And I do anticipate actually having more than one at some point in different parts of
00:27:13
Speaker
California or different parts of the country. I do hope that that comes true. But I really feel like the model of portable dentistry along with a regular brick and mortar practice offers something slightly different to patients. It kind of offers them the complete package. And having a practice that is very, very comfortable in offering comprehensive dentistry to patients with special health care needs is something that might set us apart.
00:27:41
Speaker
So I hope to inspire more dentists and students to consider this kind of work because it can really make a big difference in your offering something unique that not many other people can offer. And I think that's where I really see myself. I hope to leave a legacy or some kind of inspiration for everybody else to do.
00:28:06
Speaker
Just to think outside of the box and to think of different ways in which we can serve our communities better. You will and you are definitely leaving a legacy. Thank you for all that you do. If you had to give a piece of advice to our listeners, what would that piece of advice be? I think it would just be to think outside the box. Definitely. It's a piece of advice that my father gives me every couple of years, I would say.
00:28:35
Speaker
always, always tells me to think outside the box. It's really funny how before we go into dental school, most of us have these really big, crazy dreams. And somehow after we graduate, most of us choose one to two ways of life. And we think that, OK, it's either this or this or this. And I can't really do a lot of other things.
00:29:01
Speaker
But the truth is that the world is really our oyster. And you can do so much as a dentist. You can be involved in organized dentistry. There are so many opportunities for us to take and make use of. And seeing typical, seeing patients with commercial insurances is not the only way to practice. It's one way to practice.
00:29:30
Speaker
but there's so many other patients who don't have insurance. So there's so many other patients who still have teeth and need dental care. So think about everybody and how you can serve them. And there's just multiple, multiple ways of doing things and don't feel limited is what I would advise.
00:29:51
Speaker
Yeah, so many in our profession are either looking for a different way to practice dentistry or aren't content with the current way that they practice dentistry and feel like maybe the profession isn't really for them. But that's such great advice. Think outside of the box. Find a way that it'll fit for you. Find a different path that maybe you can find that joy again. And I agree. I think that as pre-dentals, all of us want to strive to get into dental school and become dentists so that we can help others or whatever that dream and aspiration we had.
00:30:20
Speaker
Uh, back then, I think that we just need to kind of have that refresher so that way we can rejuvenate ourselves with some motivation to continue to provide care in whatever aspect that may be in the profession. Yes. Any last thoughts for our listeners today? Uh, no, I had a wonderful time sharing my story with you Tanya. It was so nice to see you again.
00:30:44
Speaker
And I just wish everyone all the very best. Please reach out to me if there's any questions. I can be reached on Instagram or directly on my website. It's available in my bio. And you will have that when the podcast goes out. Yes, it'll all be in the show notes. So please reach out. We're here to help. And we hope that 2024 is the best year for you as a professional, as a person. And if we can do anything to help you in your journey in dentistry, please reach out.
00:31:15
Speaker
Thank you so much for your time. Thanks for tuning into this episode of New Dentists on the Block. If you would like to connect with Dr. Deshpande, you can find her on Instagram at dr.deshpande. You can also learn more about her new dentist business club on Instagram at New Dentist Business Club. And you can learn more about her business at Samsung Smile. If you would like to connect with New Dentists on the Block, you can find us on Instagram at NewDentistsOnTheBlock.
00:31:40
Speaker
And you can also connect with me at tsmayestas.dds. Be sure to tune in to future episodes of New Dentists on the Block. Let's make 2024 a great year.