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. 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.
Speaker: In our last conversation with Dr. Mark Hyman, he reminds us of the importance of remembering that our dental careers are a marathon, not a sprint. Dentistry has high rates of burnout and mental health issues, and it's important to have work -life balance. Let's listen in to his expert advice.
Speaker: You've shared some, you know, amazing insights and knowledge and I'd like to close out a little bit with some more wisdom and advice that you have to share, you know, with me and with our listeners today here at Dental Fuel. It's my privilege, Dr. Tanishua. I so appreciate what you're doing. And being a young leader, there's just some dynamite, young thought leaders in dentistry. It warms my heart where there was a season, I wonder what's going to happen to my blessed profession. I can just look at folks like yourself and Dr. Ashley Clark and Dr. Kelly Tanner and Kerry Weber from Jamison and Sable Muntin, Dr. Sable Muntin, and just go, man, the future's so bright, you got to wear shades. What I would say to anybody young, Dr. Tiny Sue, is this is not a sprint, it's a marathon. You have got to protect yourself and your family.
Speaker: It's just dentistry and it is such a fabulous profession. You get to make a profound difference in people's lives. And few, very few of the patients die when we're working on them. It's really a pretty cool gig. But it is a marathon and I don't want people to burn out. Historically, dentists had been among the lead leaguers, league leaders in alcoholism, drug, divorce, suicide. Because so many women are in dentistry now, that's dropped a whole lot.
Speaker: But I think a lot of that was because people didn't have balance in their life. My time at the Panky Institute really pushed me for the concept of have balance in your work and your play and your love and your worship to achieve happiness. And then it took it a step forward to really get to know your patient, really get to know yourself what your temperament is, really get to know your work.
Speaker: So you work towards being a master dentist, and then apply all the knowledge together. So this takes time. I was a CE junkie. I went to at least 100 hours of new education. Every year, I got my fellowship at the Academy of General Dentistry. I got my master's at the Academy of General Dentistry. I went to the Panky and Student Key Biscayne, Florida, and studied under Dr. Irwin Becker and Company. Dr. Leanne Brady now is the chair of education and CEO of Panky. Leanne Brady is my hero.
Speaker: What a magnificent master aesthetic, restorative dentist, and educator, and even a better person. So I talked about this as a marathon, not a sprint. I talked about the concept of out -listening the competition, going through that list of Dr. Mark's 10 questions.
Speaker: Who can I thank for referring you? How can I help you? Tell me more. How does it make you feel? What's your last dentist tell you? Why now? What are your goals? Do you have a budget? Who else is part of the decision maker? When do you want to be finished? Going through the what key questions, open -ended listening with no distractions.
Speaker: you just will be amazed what can happen when you shut up and listen. Dr. Tony Hsu, have you so heard that statistic, how soon a physician interrupts a patient during a new patient visit? I have not. I think it's either seven or every seven, the first within a seven or 11 seconds a physician interrupts their patient. Instead of saying, tell me about yourself, how can I help you? In your own words, why are you here?
Speaker: and listen intently. Another piece of advice that I try to teach my students at UNC is you don't have to answer a question with an answer. So much of us in our educational process has been, Dr. Tanya, so I give you a question, you give me an answer, you get the A, let's move on. Where I love my students to answer a question with another question. When you don't know what to say, the great stalk Answer of all time is, you know, that's a good question. It's not, but it gives you a chance to think. To think, yep. So Dr. Tanishew, that's a good question. Tell me more. What are you thinking here? What did your last dentist tell you? How did you that make you feel when he said you needed a crown? Crowns are expensive. A thing I teach my students at UNC is to answer not being smart with people. Saying, compared to what? A crown's expensive. It's an investment.
Speaker: If you use our partners, our financial partners care credit, particularly when a patient's sitting there holding a cup of Starbucks, I'll say, is it important that you keep your teeth essentially for a cup of Starbucks a day for a year for about three or $4 a day, you can keep that tooth. Give me a number Dr. Tanyasu, tell me a number that's comfortable for you and your family and we'll see if we can make that work. Well, $1 ,500 for crown buildup, that's just a lot of money.
Speaker: It's an investment. And if that crack continues through the tooth, into the nerve of the tooth, then you get a $1 ,200 root canal on top of that. How would that make you feel? If the crack goes through the roots and I've got a pull at bone graft that extracted custom abutment, custom implant crown, your 1 ,500 just became 6 ,000. How did that work for your family budget?
Speaker: So I want my students to be confident in listening and not answering, if they can keep asking questions, particularly whipping out your DigiDoc, putting a big color photo in front of your patient and saying, how can I help you? Tell me what you see. I love doing that with a photo. Do you see this line? Patients will say, what is that?
Speaker: The temptation go, well, that's a vertical crack through the tooth. And I want to young dentists to not do that. I want you to say, do you see that line? What is it? What do you think it is? Is that cancer? No. Is that a crack? How can I help you? You're telling me my tooth cracked. Sir, yes, how can I help you? You know, in a business negotiation, the first one to speak loses.
Speaker: but You say, well, what do I need? I'll say, well, buddy, what do you want? Do you want to avoid a slow, painful root canal? Oh God, I don't want one of them. How would you feel if the tooth split the rest of the way through and I had to pull it and God, I'm not going to lose a tooth. Then would you like gold or white? You like mornings or afternoons. I love given choices of two yeses. And particularly if it's in the morning.
Speaker: I look at the page and say, we just had a change in our schedule, wouldn't you? And you look at the assistant, she knows you're not getting lunch. We're setting out for turkey sandwiches. I'm going to prep it right then. Dr. Tanisou, on average, my team added $2 ,000 every day I worked, just in stuff laying around, just in inefficiencies and opportunity because we were turned on and fired up and prepared. And it just made it a joy.
Speaker: Thank you so much, Mark, for sharing your story. And I really hope that our listeners will reach out to you and and seek you out at their next conference, where hopefully you'll be a speaker there. And if our listeners would like to reach out and connect with you, what's the best way? Sure. I've got my speaking website, which is drmarkspeaks .com.
Speaker: You can email me through the website. I used to give out my cell phone. My wife didn't like that. So I've done a little less of that. But you know if someone's part of the dental fuel family, they can get in touch with you and you can get me their number. And I'm pleased to give someone a call if they want to have a one -on -one conversation.
Speaker: You know, for my time inside of dentistry, my time at Panky going through Spear Education, transformed my life. Studying with the Dale Carnegie organization outside of dentistry transformed my life. Meeting these national speakers and becoming buds with them and having the privilege of the podium, it really was an unbelievable change in my life. And I just, in closing, would tell people to be fired up about the future truly the future of dentistry it is so bright you gotta wear shades there's not a man or woman part of this podcast that can't be part of something special you just have to start right here right now
Speaker: Thank you for your beautiful message, Mark. And thank you so much for taking time out of your day to speak with me and to speak with our listeners. I truly appreciate it. And i I look forward to the opportunity that I will have to meet you in in person more formally. And I know that hopefully that'll happen this fall. It'll be my privilege. Just good luck everybody and appreciate the amazing work you're doing and ah go Tar Heels. Thanks, Mark. You have a great afternoon. Thank you very much.
Speaker: Thank you for tuning in to our conversation with Dr. Mark Hyman. Be sure to keep an eye out for Dr. Mark Hyman at the next dental conference that you attend. If you'd like to learn more about Dr. Mark Hyman, you can visit his website, drmarkspeaks .com. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, at DentalFuel, and at IgniteDDS. Thank you for taking time to listen to this episode and we hope that you'll join us for another guest. 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.
