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Ep. 50: Everyday Oral Surgery x Between Two Teeth: Navigating Challenges and Origins (Part 4)
42 Plays1 year ago
In the final installment of our collaborative series with Everyday Oral Surgery and Between Two Teeth, we tackle tough topics head-on. From handling bad clinical outcomes to navigating regulatory issues, we provide insights and guidance for dental professionals facing adversity.
Bobby shares his experiences as a state board member, shedding light on regulatory challenges. Additionally, we explore the genesis of Between Two Teeth and its mission to empower dental professionals. Tune in for #DentalChallenges, #RegulatoryInsights, and #PodcastOrigins. Subscribe now for illuminating discussions and invaluable takeaways!
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Transcript
Introduction and Focus on Oral Maxillofacial Surgery
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey there, guys. Between two teeth, we usually don't talk about teeth, but today you're in for a special treat. We're talking about teeth. We're talking about oral max spatial surgery and periodontics with our good friend from the podcast, Everyday Oral Surgery,
Building a Positive Practice Culture
00:00:14
Speaker
Dr. Grant Stuckey. Please give a listen. But I'm working on it. Yeah, and also to pick, you are working on it, and you're the man. Yeah, you are working on it. I love it.
00:00:24
Speaker
Now I was just gonna say to piggyback off your other very initial comment the stuff made about not speaking poorly about colleagues just I mean I would piggyback on that and say that I have never grown a practice at all by Saying any bad things about anybody and it's the total reverse like it always grows more when I say, you know I'm sure this was a complicated scenario dark, you know, this is dr. Jones who does these
00:00:53
Speaker
implants is so experienced and so I know if it went bad in his hands and there's difficulty, it probably would have been the same in my hands. I'm constantly doing stuff like that because I feel like it always comes back in a good way to me when I uplift other people in patient size and it's always bad. No matter how much you think you're doing something good for the patient when you start dogging on other providers and I can't believe they did this,
00:01:19
Speaker
It just is a bad feeling that is generated and also a patient. Maybe you'll gain one patient and they'll be like, oh yeah, yeah, that's what's wrong. I want you to do this doctor. But everyone sees what you're doing at some point and it's just not good.
Encouraging Collaboration and Communication
00:01:36
Speaker
Let's be positive folks. Rising water lifts all boats and one of the blessings for me as a state board regulator is that by necessity I have to interact with all different types of stakeholders and
00:01:52
Speaker
just everybody. And if you are stuck on an island by yourself, whether you're in just a private practice and you're all alone or you just don't get out there and talk to others, you're just not going to grow and you're not going to grow better together to Grant's point.
00:02:13
Speaker
All about learning from each other, growing, doing what's best for our patients and just dropping. I think that you gotta get past the pride of the mentality of competition. I think once you lose all that, it just only benefits your practice, your work, your learning, your patience. Ego, ego, ego. I was surprised in my MBA how much time
00:02:36
Speaker
During the MBA program, we actually spent on things like ego and effectiveness and soft skills. Back to the point of, because you're asking somebody, can I come in and watch you? You come in hot. That's probably not going to work as opposed to figuring out a nuance of what works well. What's going to roll off your tongue as you talk to someone?
00:03:02
Speaker
That's why we talk a lot and give continuing education CE courses because so much of patient care is communication. Steph and I both did integrated medicine fellowships for the University of Arizona School of Medicine a couple of years back. And they really push things for communication. Good communication is actually good medicine.
00:03:29
Speaker
you're getting a patient on board from a regulatory lens, you know, oh gosh, how many state board cases do I see that are a result of poor communication?
Learning from Failures and Mentorship
00:03:42
Speaker
we all have bad outcomes. And if you haven't had a bad outcome, you haven't practiced long enough, because you'll get them. And figuring out, OK, nuance-wise, how do I get out of a bad outcome? And that's where inter-professionally with Steph and myself, Perio, OMS, we've bailed each other out of various scenarios. That's really nice to have. I've had Steph do some things with soft tissue and even just suturing, where I'm like, can you
00:04:12
Speaker
Please help me out here. But also just how you communicate what's gonna happen. It's so key.
00:04:22
Speaker
Do you have any comment about that, Steph? You look like you're ready to say something. No, no, I love what you're talking about with the communication is key, not only with our patients, our referrals between providers as what our topic is today. And yeah, I mean, yeah, you've bailed me out of a ton of stuff. Well, not a ton, but you know.
00:04:43
Speaker
And what I mean just but I mean you're new I mean I have I I am coming from the perspective of a new doc and I I'm it is great pride for me that as a new doc I've been able to Teach anything to someone
Impact of Technology in Dentistry
00:04:58
Speaker
who's experienced. Yeah, you know when you first came into practice You're like do not do CBC T's on all dental implants
00:05:06
Speaker
And at the time I wasn't. And I had a CBCT machine, you know, long time ago. I was the first person kind of in the North Texas area that had one. I was trying to be overly mindful of, I'm not gonna be the guy that has the hammer and everything's a nail.
00:05:21
Speaker
And so I kinda underutilized it because I didn't wanna overcharge patients. And I really wasn't smart about it. And you came in, you're like, why are we not doing CBCTs on all the implants? I'm like, oh my gosh, that's actually, we shouldn't be. And this is just a different training modality. So I'm from a school of digital guided, dynamic guided navigation. And you need not only DICOMs for that, but you also need STLs. And so introducing intraoral scanners
00:05:50
Speaker
trying to figure out how to print more stuff. And a lot of that stuff's great, and a lot of that stuff just drives me to all groups. And I'm like, OK, but are we a better practice because of that? Are we able to get better patient care because of that? We are a more complete practice because of it. And what happens is the patient can choose a lot of different options. And we like to think that we can provide more of those options under one roof in a very highly specialized way.
Importance of Shadowing and Sharing Knowledge
00:06:20
Speaker
Yeah and it's it's a satisfaction you know learning new things and different techniques and improving your skill set. Who doesn't want to do that? If you don't want to do that turn off the podcast because
00:06:35
Speaker
Bob's asked people to turn off this podcast about five times. I do want to learn. Keep the podcast rolling. Okay, that's a more, that's a clear and kind, better way of saying keep it going if you want to learn. But you know, some people, I think here's the challenge. When you've been in practice for a while, sometimes you lose that drive to learn.
00:07:00
Speaker
I loved doing my MBA especially because it was healthcare management and leadership because I learned a new language. I learned a way. I loved operations management as a course. You just you have a different language in a different lens at which you see everything. When I did the integrated medicine fellowship, I looked at every single interaction that I do in a very different, different way.
00:07:30
Speaker
Yes, and I hear you on that. And speaking of interactions, if you're a resident listening to this and you're in your final years and you're looking for jobs and maybe it will be with a corporate structure, maybe it'll be in a private practice, one of the things that you can do is wherever you end up, I get to know the more experienced surgeons in the area.
00:07:54
Speaker
uh whether it is a periodontist or oral surgeon because what's what it's gonna do it's gonna find someone to cover for you if you're ever out of the office it's the the uh the trick to fall into and i i've definitely fell into
Supportive Relationships with Competitors
00:08:08
Speaker
this is
00:08:09
Speaker
you're in school for so long and it's painful. And when you finally get out, you're like, okay, freedom. I'm never gonna be under someone's thumb again. I'm gonna call the shots. I'm finally the expert. Patients are going to flock. I know the world has been waiting for me. I just need to just get out there and then the world will see what they've been missing. And? Yeah, it's not like that. It's not like that. It's an expectation management.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, it really is. And you are you're going to you're going to learn much quicker if you have the more experienced surgeons in the area, even if they're your direct competition, if they help you. And by the way, they do want to help if you can reach out, Grant, like kind of like you were talking to. I love that you said that, you know, we've done like extended mission trip work out of the country.
00:09:04
Speaker
and our, quote, competitors actually cover our practice. And they're like, you know, they've actually made some really nice comments to us to say, we love that you're doing what you're doing. And it is so nice for us to have that level of support. You know, it just gives me goosebumps just thinking about that because, you know, your competitors, we're all in the same game.
00:09:34
Speaker
We're trying to help patients and it makes our lives easier knowing that they're there.
Goal of the Podcast: Knowledge Sharing
00:09:39
Speaker
And of course it's reciprocated. Well said. Oh, thanks. Yeah. I hopefully, hopefully we've touched on some important points here. I think, you know, reach across the aisle, be kind when you're doing it, try to learn from each other. You know, one thing too, cause I honestly, I love shadowing and like just, just last week I was shadowing a surgeon who's just a year out of school.
00:10:04
Speaker
Um, but I learned so much from him just seeing him for a couple hours. He's an oral surgeon, but I think, um, that's how I learned is seeing what people do and kind of getting into it. And I, anytime anyone asks me, I have, I work with occasionally GPs and orthodontists and endo, and they'll ask me, Hey, do you mind if I shadow and watch and see what you're doing?
00:10:26
Speaker
And I'll always totally man, check it out because I know, you know, these people, a lot of them is just to get information and just to see what does Dr. Stuckey do and what can I refer to him? And I think we need to drop the mentality of like, you know, people are stealing our secrets and learning all this stuff and let's share. I mean, that's the whole goal of this podcast. Honestly, if I've given every secret, I think I have in this podcast because I want people to learn and
Respecting Dental Specializations
00:10:54
Speaker
grow.
00:10:55
Speaker
But let's let people learn from us and keep constantly trying to learn from other people. And I will just say when I shadow a periodontist, I didn't do that to steal all their secrets.
00:11:08
Speaker
and do everything because I think the oral surgeon, the Renaissance oral surgery man thinks in his mind, I can't do any procedure, right? Like that's what Bob's thinking right now. Renaissance. I love it. I'm going to call myself that from now on as I enter the patient room. I'm the Renaissance. I like the Renaissance. Wow. Yeah, but no, right? Like we think as an oral surgeon, I think in my mind, there's nothing that periodontist does that I can't do, right?
00:11:36
Speaker
And I think that's sometimes faulty thinking that we have to do everything the other person does. And I think it's good to shadow just to be like, Oh my gosh, that is cool. I like how they do crown lengthening. I respect that. I'm not going to do that, but at least I know how they do it. And I'm going to refer for that reason.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, you shouldn't do everything. I love what you're saying because yeah, have the confidence that it took you years to do what you're doing and someone shadowing you one day. It's just not going to be enough for them to start doing exactly what you do to the level that you do it.
00:12:12
Speaker
And so I love that comment. And what I would say, and I'll put my regulatory hat back on again, you know, there are negative outcomes that are happening from people who are not trained appropriately, who are not taking factors in, you know, I loved a dental implant conference I went to before. It's like, hey, do one miracle at a time. Well, I had this patient and they were a smoker and
00:12:40
Speaker
diabetic and cardiovascular disease and did XYZ all at once and oh it didn't work oh that's a surprise no it's not a surprise at all you should have seen it coming and unfortunately you learn so much
00:12:55
Speaker
through seeing things fail. Failure is a tremendous teacher. I've learned very little from success. But having that, truly, if you can put the patient outcome as paramount, figure out the financials. Because if there's a disproportionality in finances, then that kind of messes the situation up.
00:13:24
Speaker
But Grant, you've done a lot for our specialty, for the profession, based on a lot of the conversations you're having.
Mental Health in Dentistry
00:13:33
Speaker
Who would have an oral surgeon and a period honest on the same podcast? Thanks for having us Grant. Thanks for having us. Hopefully you don't feel as though you've been had.
00:13:45
Speaker
No, it's been awesome. This is an important conversation. It really is an important conversation. Yeah. And we got to keep it going. And we're going to push to try to be better. And as soon as you think you've got the world figured out, you're done.
00:13:59
Speaker
because the world keeps evolving and things are changing and what got you here won't get you there. Terrific book, by the way. It's a hard book if you ever want to pull that one up, but I'm interested in being effective and having fun. You got to have fun as well. We like to have fun. Yes. Your analogy is likened to that of marriage or parenting. Bob, I feel like
00:14:29
Speaker
The person who's been a parent for one day feels like they got it all down. And me, I've been a parent for 16 years. And every year goes by, I feel like I know less. I'm just like, how do I parent these kids? This is crazy. But no, I think the more experience you have, the more failures you go through and the more you start being, okay, I can see how.
00:14:52
Speaker
I need to learn more about this topic or be more careful in this setting and all that type of stuff comes with experience. Yeah. And I think Grant, you know, we are in a well-being and mental health crisis in the U.S. and in the profession of dentistry, you know, Steph, as I said, is an ADA Wellness Ambassador. I'm with the ADA on the Dental Team Wellness Advisory Committee.
00:15:17
Speaker
In Texas here, we actually changed our licensure regulations to get away from have you ever had to get help for mental health or substance use disorder things, because those questions were stigmatizing and prevented people from getting help that they needed. And there's so many important things. And failure, you're going to fail. And if you're listening to this and you're a resident, OK, yeah, you failed a bunch in residency. To Steph's point, you come out.
00:15:48
Speaker
you're going to fail a lot and you are well served to have mentors, friends, other people who can bail you out. You're going to want a safety net and you're going to want a safety net that, that bails you out clinically. You're going to want a safety net that bails you out mentally as well. I am, I am successful because of my failures.
00:16:14
Speaker
it's made me so much more successful. And they could have, I've had several that certainly could have destroyed me, but they made me better. Bob McNeil quote for the day. There we go, we've had several. And if you don't wanna hear that quote, you know what they should do, Grant, they should turn off the podcast. Turn it off.
00:16:38
Speaker
Well, stop turning it off, people. Yeah, exactly. Well, we love what you're doing, man, and it is such a privilege for us. Thanks so much for having us. We don't get invited many places. He loves saying that. I do say that. We keep getting invited. We don't get invited back many places, though. That's where Grant's different needs. We'll get invited once.
00:16:56
Speaker
Me and my wife are always saying that, you know, like, how come no one ever invites our family over for dinners on Sundays? There's eight of us. We don't get invited in many places. Big family. Yeah. Well, thanks for what you're doing. Anything else you need to ask us or have we filled the... No, the only question is, will you do another podcast with me someday?
00:17:21
Speaker
We love what you're doing. What's your answer, Steph? For what? Well, he just asked a question. Are we ever going to do a book? Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, I thought that was in the ether. Of course. Yes. Oh, my goodness. OK, good. Absolutely. You're doing important things. And, you know, none of us that are content creators know really someone. What's the impact we're making?
00:17:45
Speaker
And if you change one person's life, if you change one resident's life, is that important? You know, I think we all want to make a difference in this world and just keep doing what you're doing. Yeah. I mean, to what Grant was saying earlier, I mean, if you think that you're only affecting you, the people you train as well are going to be affected by the choices you make today.
Conclusion and Future Collaborations
00:18:12
Speaker
I love that. Well, you guys are awesome. Thank you for taking the time this morning to do this. And let's come up with some more content, more topics, and hit it again. Let's do it. All right. Have a good day. Thank you, guys. All right. You too. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thanks, listeners.