00:00:00
00:00:01
Dr. Jeff Horowitz: Expert Advice
36 Plays17 days ago
In this enlightening Dental Fuel episode, Dr. Jeff Horowitz shares his final advice on overcoming fear in dentistry , the importance of intentional practice 🗝, and the incredible power of community and mentorship. Drawing from years of experience, he urges dentists to push through challenges and embrace new techniques with confidence!
Don’t fear the 'dip'! It’s all part of professional growth and expanding your skills. Tune in to hear Dr. Jeff Horowitz’s empowering advice on how to face temporary setbacks head-on and succeed in your practice!
Catch new episodes every Friday!
Key Takeaways:
- Embrace the Dip: Understand that initial setbacks when adopting new techniques or services are normal and necessary for growth.
- Importance of Intentional Practice: Being deliberate and passionate about your practice, coupled with continuous education and mentorship, leads to long-term success.
- Building Confidence: Confidence stems from repeated practice and experience. Seek opportunities to refine your skills in varied settings, such as clinics for underserved populations.
- Handling Patient Perceptions: Patients quickly sense clinicians' confidence. Ensure that your demeanor reassures and comforts them effectively.
- Community and Collaboration: Engage with professional communities, such as "Dentists in the Know," to share knowledge, support, and enhance your professional development.
About the Guest:
Jeff Horowitz is a distinguished dentist based in the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina, with practices in Myrtle Beach and Murrells Inlet. Originally from New Jersey, Jeff moved to South Carolina for dental school and planted his roots there, developing a reputation for his expertise in functional dentistry, specifically focusing on TMJ, airway, and orthodontics. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Charleston’s Dental School and has advanced training from various prestigious institutions, including the Kois Center and the Piper Education and Research Center.
Connect with Dentists in the Know: @dentistsintheknow
Connect with Ignitedds and Dr. David Rice: @ignitedds Free Intro Call
Connect with Tanya Sue Maestas: @tsmaestas.dds
Learn more about 90 Day JumpStart : https://ignitedds.com
Recommended
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. Dental Fuel is brought to you by 90 Day Jumpstart, a program to help you increase production and break free from financial stress.
00:00:25
Speaker
There are so many things in a dental practice that can be scary. Jeff Horowitz talks about overcoming fear and embracing growth in the dental practice. Jeff talks a little bit more about specializing in sleep and TMJ disorders and also talks about some key insight that he'd like to share to fellow listeners. Let's tune in.
00:00:45
Speaker
ah you You have shared some excellent advice with us today, but i I would love if you would share one key advice that either you have received or one key advice that you would like to leave with our listeners just to kind of sit on and think about as they move forward in their practice.
00:01:01
Speaker
Don't be afraid of The Dip, which is another great book. i um The author's name is actually escaping me right now. It's called The Dip. And a lot of dentists practice with fear. They may be passionate about something, but they don't feel like they know enough. Or they've learned a new technique, but they're just not confident enough.
00:01:27
Speaker
or they want to offer this type of service but they don't feel like they have enough of the right team members to to pull it off and so Dennis will not do things because of fear of that dip that when you when you put your feet in and when you start doing anything you know there's always going to be this this period where you're there's going to be the learning curve and you might see a drop in production you might see a drop in productivity you might see frustration you might see um you know uh other financial unforeseen financial problems um but again and i i've used the word intentional uh many times but but i think
00:02:17
Speaker
In dentistry, we let fear dictate a lot of what we do and what we think we're supposed to be doing. Find your passion, get the education, find a good community or mentor, and then don't be afraid of that dip. It will happen. You are going to have struggles. I started a dedicated sleep and TMJ practice, and I could literally spend the next two hours talking with you about how that affected me financially luckily i was in a place where i could do that and accept that dip for the little while knowing that there would be a reward at the end of it and sure enough that's what's happened because i was intentional i'm not just gonna you know jump out because of the debt so um you know follow your passion and and don't be afraid of the debt
00:03:11
Speaker
Fear is definitely very prevalent and in our profession. And I think a lot of it, well, some of it may go back to, you know, that first case that you shared that fear of, you know, I'd like to try to try something new, but what if I get sued? I think that that can be really very challenging for someone to to process and.
00:03:29
Speaker
just to wrap your mind over something so large that could happen to you and to your practice. And I think that that can be ah really ah a hard pill to swallow when when that does happen. um so and And for me, you know personally, just as ah as a new dentist who's learning every day, learning new techniques, it can be hard to implement those new techniques that you learn at a CE course, because what if you're not ready?
00:03:51
Speaker
and that sense of comparison that you compare yourself to, to, you know, Joe Schmoe on the internet who's posting all these beautiful cases, and you know that your hand skills just aren't there yet. I think that dentistry can be a really hard place sometimes.
00:04:04
Speaker
It is, and and I agree with that, but you know it's interesting. i I do a lot of expert witness work here in South Carolina, always always on the side of the dentist, by the way, um on the defense. And you know sometimes I have to say, you know you're going to be best to settle this case, and and many times I will go to bat with everything I've got.
00:04:28
Speaker
um But there's really you know a couple of reasons that people get sued and and we shouldn't practice for fear of being sued you know it because it can happen regardless of how good you are and it doesn't matter who you are what your name is you know that there are two primary reasons that people get sued bad intent or bad result.
00:04:52
Speaker
Anyone can have a bad result like that can just happen sometimes and it does and regardless of who you are or how well you're trained, you know, there might be a settlement on that and let it go, you know, if your intentions were good.
00:05:07
Speaker
Those are the doctors that typically the settlements are lower you know those are the cases that can always be argued the settlements are lower many times dismissed it's if your intent is good and your follow through is good the bad result thing.
00:05:24
Speaker
it Bad things happen to good people all the time and we can't control that. Those things are out of our control. Just be good. you know Whatever it is you decide to do, just do it with good intention and um and don't let that that lawsuit thing you know weigh you down. Do you have any advice for dentists who have maybe a little bit of lack of self-confidence in themselves and maybe how they could get better with that?
00:05:54
Speaker
Uh, yeah, that's really I'm sure there's a look for it. Yeah. Yeah there there really is but it's such an interesting question because patients sense confidence Right away and not just from the doctor from the assistant as well Uh from the hygienist it you know when when a patient gets in front of somebody clinical who's going to be doing touching Any part of their body or having any impact on their health, you know, there's this immediate ah Need to be comforted by this person's expertise or care, right? Yep, and You know it if we are easily allowing patients to feel that we're not confident in ourselves then um unfortunately, you know
00:06:46
Speaker
that that can create a really tough situation and and the only way to gain more confidence is to do proceed do more of the procedures and whether it be on a typodont or whether it be um you know you you work in a ah in a clinic you may be a you know there are many clinics for for underserved populations where you can go and offer a great service to the community and get a lot better at many of these procedures. But but that's where confidence comes from. It's you know getting the right education, but it's also you know it's also just doing that procedure enough times that that you've seen the outcomes. you know And that's the only place confidence can really come from.
00:07:38
Speaker
Great advice, Jeff, and and and very well said. and It's always a ah joy and privilege for me to have the opportunity to speak with you. But before we wrap things up, I would like to talk a little bit about Denison to know how you got involved with Dinks and what it is exactly.
00:07:53
Speaker
So um I appreciate you bringing that up. I didn't realize we were going to speak about that. But you know Chad de Planis and I, Dr. Chad de Planis, we were both doing a lot of lecturing um before COVID hit. And um COVID then hit, and we're just like, what do we do with ourselves now? How do we get good information out there? And And so my idea was to create just a weekly podcast or or a webcast. It was, you know, I said, let's start a Facebook group. Let's have, you know, let's have a glass of wine. You know, we're all shut ins right now. Anyway, let's have a glass of wine. Let's get really great information out there. Honest vetted information.
00:08:38
Speaker
And ah chats like I'm in and I was like, you know, let's call it something in the know. Dennis in the know chats like what about dinks? I said, No, we can't call it dinks. Dinks stands for double income, no kids. And Chad's like, you're friggin old. Nobody is going to know what that is. He's like, what is that an 80s reference? So like, yeah, it's an 80s reference. um But it's making a resurgence. But he's like, trust me, everyone we talked to, no one's going to know that he's like, let's call it dinks. I'm like, you know what?
00:09:06
Speaker
I'm going to go with it. So um we did that. We um we started doing broadcasts. We enjoyed it. We started bringing on great people from the community like you to talk to and say, you know, hey, what are you doing? How are you dealing with this? and um It quickly became a ah you know quite a social community. um yeah I had a great friend, Dr. Jennifer Bell, who I had known through the AGD. We were both very active in that organization. ah She was vice president of North Carolina, the year I was president of South Carolina. And honestly, there is nobody
00:09:43
Speaker
that understands what's going on legislatively and no one that I would want fighting for me in dentistry more than Jennifer Bell. I said, listen, this is a talented, brilliant clinician who is very active in, you know, in in organized dentistry. We have got to bring her on and let her showcase what's going on in in dental news in, in you know,
00:10:11
Speaker
in the ada and the agd and all of organized industry and and i think it'll be a good chemistry cuz she's a lot of fun and and um and the the chemistry was just automatic and um you know we grew to podcast and facebook and insta and all that fun stuff now and you know something i never thought i would be involved in but um You know, it it goes back to what you said earlier, it's it's about the community and and getting to know people like you and and like David and and just amazing people who just want to do good by by the profession that's been so good to them. The chemistry is just phenomenal with 23 and you Jeff, JB and Chad are just wonderful people and um you know, you you guys have a special place in my heart and I'm i'm so glad that we have had the opportunity to
00:10:59
Speaker
just get closer to this last year or so, or these last few months, and I look forward to what the next few months bring. ah But Jeff, if our listeners would like to connect with you, what's the best way? Probably simplest is my email, J, and then my last name, Horowitz, H-O-R-O-W-I-T-Z, dmd at gmail.com. And I highly encourage you all to connect with Jeff, but also connect with Dinks,
00:11:26
Speaker
If you haven't tuned into the conversations on Wednesday night, I highly encourage you to do so. It's an hour of camaraderie. You get the news. um You get in the no you know. If there's something that's going on that you don't know that you need to do, I highly encourage you just to tune in because you will be in the know and you'll need you'll find out what you need to know so you can go ahead and do it. And so they're just a lot of fun.
00:11:48
Speaker
And I also encourage you all to seek out Jeff at a local conference. I know that he speaks at some conferences. And so if you're interested in learning any of the topics that Jeff brought up, ah especially sleep and airway, I would seek him out at your next conference. You may find him there speaking on that. And he has a lot of energy and a lot of knowledge to share.
00:12:07
Speaker
That's so nice of you to say. And thank you for having me on. And it's always so great to get to hang out with you. And I as well, have I've really enjoyed getting to know you and it's been amazing getting to work with you and um wish you all the luck with this because it's an amazing platform.
00:12:23
Speaker
Well, I appreciate that, Jeff. Jeff, thank you so much for your time today and to our listeners. We'll catch you all next time. We hope you have enjoyed our conversation with Dr. Jeff Horowitz. Be sure to tune in to Dennis in the Know every Wednesday evening live on YouTube. You can also check them out on Instagram at dennisintheknow.
00:12:42
Speaker
You can also find Jeff on Instagram at Dr. Jeff H. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at IgniteDDS and at Dental Fuel. Be sure to tune in next time where we'll have another guest here at Dental Fuel. If you're looking to grow your practice and need some help along the way, be sure to check out 90 Day Jumpstart. You can start for free by contacting Dr. David Rice. Check out the link to his Calendly in the show notes.