Transcript
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. Dental Fuel is brought to you by Doctors Disability Specialists, a team dedicated to helping dentists and physicians with disability insurance, life insurance, and comprehensive business planning.
Speaker: Dental assistants are a huge part of the dental team. Rhonda Holman, Roxar dental assistant, talks about a team mistake that she was a part of and how it helped build her and her team members. I want to transition back to talking about working in a team. Aside from, you know, the the court incident, are there any mistakes that you all made as a team or mistakes that are commonly made with a dentist and their, you know, dental assistants and dental hygienists? Everyone together as a team that you see is a common theme in dentistry.
Speaker: Well, it always comes down to communication. Of course. Oh my gosh. She said what? Who's she? She isn't Betty, but oh, Betty said not to do that. Well, why would Betty say not to do that? And so it's just awful communication. That's why I think huddles are huge. Like at the morning meeting, like I know who has pending treatment.
Speaker: I know who can maybe go from hygiene to come straight to operative and have that filling done. If I have an opening, like there's, there's no guessing. And, and, and that is, oh man, communication's hard. And because we're so wrapped up in our own patients, like we live in that schedule. We're busy. Like I have a 15 minute window here and our appointment here. Like I don't have any wiggle room and things get dropped along the way. Like I'll, I've had a dentist come to me like, where'd you, where's that PA? I'm like, what PA?
Speaker: the PA I told you to take in three, like an hour ago, I'm like, a patient's gone and I did not take the PA. And so could my dentist not have said that and maybe thought she wanted a PA post -operative after we cemented the crown? Or maybe I misunderstood it and took a PA on the wrong patient. Like just being clear, Bob in op three needs a bite wing after we glue this crown on. Can you do that? Yes or no?
Speaker: Like, and it just takes out so much of the drama that seems to accumulate when you don't have good communication skills. How do we build better communicators? Ooh. Well, it's like Dr. Rice is saying, it starts with treating the human aspect of it. Like, if we look at each other, like, I have empathy for you, sympathy. I have an understanding of where you're coming from, where your state of mind is, what your priorities are.
Speaker: And it comes down to, like, respect. I mean, you have to know somebody to really respect them. I mean, I'm actually really loyal to, like, titles, you know, being the military background. Like, you call me, you know, if there's an officer, I'm going to respect you regardless of who you are. I don't, I mean, you could be, like, a really bad guy, but I'm going to respect you because of the position that you hold. But in the civilian sector, I don't see that as much. So the whole respect is earned, but you have to know someone
Speaker: on a human level to really develop that. It's hard. But you know, there's certain things like dental assistants, I'm constantly telling you, it's always doctor. I don't care if you say call me Tanya, I'm like, Dr. Tanya, doctor, you know, it's always in front of a patient. I
Speaker: It's not a performance, okay? I don't put on, well, maybe it is. It's a very professional performance. Yeah, I think that you're showing respect. Respect is due to you as an assistant. Respect is due to me as a doctor, and I think that it's great to show that example to your patients as well, too. And it shows that kind of camaraderie and that team that you have. A team, yeah, because we're a unit. We work as one, and, you know, we all win.
Speaker: as strong as your weakest link, I remember working for an oral surgeon in the military. And, you know, sometimes oral surgeons are oral surgeons because their chair side manner isn't really for non -sedated patients. And I remember he would get so frustrated because he could not communicate well. He just held out his hand expecting me to know what to put into it.
Speaker: and he would never tell me what he wanted. And at that point in my career, I didn't know why I was doing it. I was just taught how to do it, which is what all the schools tell you. This is how you do it. And he got so mad one day, he threw a pencil at one of the assistants, and the lead snapped off into her arm. And he had to deal with that.
Speaker: like the aggression that never could have happened like that that lady she left the dental assistant career field after she got out of the military just that one incident from that one oral surgeon completely ruined her
Speaker: idea of what dentistry should be like. Because she worked for this really mean guy who had horrible communicating skills. And yeah, why would you like it? Gosh, what a poor experience I feel for her. And I mean, I understand where she's coming from. And I've had patience. How long is the podcast? We've got time still. I've got stories where I worked for this dentist. It was a small town, so he was the only one to pick from. So it wasn't a supply and demand issue. He was it.
Speaker: And he was an okay clinician. Looking back, I didn't really know what I was looking at, but now I look back at the bite wings and stuff and I think about how his actual work was. And I would have patience because he was so mean. And they would say, you know, he's really mean, but he must be really good.
Speaker: Because in their head, somehow, there was a psychology glitch that if you're really mean, that means you're good. Because if you weren't that good, nobody would come to you because you're mean. And so I would have people ask me when he would leave the room, how I was doing? Are you okay? Because he was so aggressive and mean and blunt. And it was just such an awkward situation. And I don't want a dental system to ever go through that ever again. How uncomfortable for everyone and how unfortunate, really.
Speaker: Well, you know, the times are changing though. I mean, that practice would never fly in today's climate. Absolutely not. Yeah. I mean, if you're a mean guy and I'm paying you to do my restorative dentistry, I won't go back to you. You're, he was mean to the patients and to the staff at the team. It was awful. Gosh, that's unfortunate. That's so sad, but you're right. It wouldn't fly in this day and age. And you know, if you're out there and you're mean to your team, fix it. Yeah. It's a you problem, not a them problem. That's right. You're the leader.
Speaker: Be sure to tune in next time where Rhonda will share some advice for Dennis and for Dental Assistants. You can find Rhonda on TikTok at the underscore airway underscore champion. You can also find her and the advice she gives to Dental Assistants on Instagram at Ignite Dental Assistants. You can follow IgniteDDS at IgniteDDS and you can find me on Instagram at tsmyestus .dds. Be sure to check out our sponsor, Doctors Disability Specialists.
