Unlocking Your Team’s Potential for a Streamlined Dental Practice

As a dentist, you are ultimately the one who decides how many cases your practice can take on. 

It makes sense that your capacity to carry out treatments determines how many patients you can see, but there could be other issues slowing down progress. Understanding these issues and giving more responsibility to team members can help you reduce the impact of this bottleneck.

Recognize the bottleneck behaviors.

The first step for dentists to relieve bottlenecks is to identify the behaviors that contribute to them. There are a variety of common signs you can watch for that will highlight inefficiencies in how you run your practice.

Take some time to evaluate your daily routine. Are you spending your time on tasks that call for skills only you possess? Or are you also picking up responsibilities that your team is more than capable of handling?

Micromanaging is a perfect example of how dentists can spend time that would be better spent elsewhere. Trusting your team to handle their daily tasks without ongoing direct oversight is key to making the best use of your time.

Does every single decision have to go through you? While this isn’t always a bad thing, it does require your team to wait for your reply. Refusing to delegate certain tasks altogether is another major issue. What some might call perfectionism could actually be hindering your practice by limiting the benefits your team has to offer.

Delegate with clear expectations.

Delegation is an important aspect of running any kind of business. However, many dentists struggle to apply this principle to their practices. Alongside the tendency to take too much upon themselves, dentists can also face a variety of general management challenges.

The key to effective delegation is to be clear and specific. Both daily tasks and requirements for individual treatments should be clearly assigned to team members. They should also have clear guidelines regarding how and when to complete those tasks. This eliminates any confusion that could lead to potential oversights.

Your team will also appreciate the structure that clear expectations deliver. It builds trust between you and your team, as well as between individual team members. Everyone can carry out their roles confidently knowing that the team is functioning as intended and the practice is running smoothly.

Invest in training and cross-training.

Another potential source of inefficiency comes from tasks that your team could potentially handle if they had the proper training.

Expanding the capabilities of your team members with additional training will let them handle some tasks that are currently your responsibility. It also builds up their confidence and boosts employee engagement. Your team will be able to do more, and they’ll feel a sense of career progression from that.

This also goes for roles between different members of your team. You should, ideally, have multiple individuals trained on the same tasks whenever possible. This redundancy provides greater flexibility and reduces dependence on one person.

Orthodontic continuing education (CE) courses are a great example. Your team can build the necessary skills to support a wider range of treatments and play a more active role in practice growth. Orthodontic CE courses could be an excellent option to invest in your team.

Empower team members to make decisions.

As a dentist, you are your practice’s primary decision-maker. That’s all well and good for the big decisions, but handling every choice yourself can quickly lead to burnout. Instead, try setting appropriate boundaries that allow your team members to solve problems without your constant oversight.

There are certainly cases where your team should come to you with a decision, and finding the right balance can be a challenge. However, it is highly rewarding. Your team will be able to work more efficiently, resolving minor issues quicker and handling daily workflows more smoothly.

As a result, you’ll be able to see more patients because you aren’t committing so much time and effort to day-to-day tasks. Your patients will also benefit from your practice being more efficient, as they’ll receive communication, results, billing, and other important details in a consistent and timely manner.

Trust your team to grow your practice.

Your team is your most valuable asset, so make full use of it. That often means taking a step back and allowing them to take on more responsibilities. You can ensure they have the knowledge and skills they need by providing them with proper training. Browse the American Orthodontic Society’s courses today to find a variety of opportunities to develop your team.