Building Dental Teams of the Future

May 28, 2024 When Steve Jobs was dying it’s said that when asked what the greatest thing he built was, he answered ‘the team at Apple’. Not the Mac or iPhone, but his team that would keep building after he was gone. 

In dentistry, are we building clinical teams for the long haul? Teams that will reflect dentistry of 2024 and beyond?  For too long Dentistry has been stuck in the dark ages and it’s easy to say we just fix and clean teeth. 

Now that the dentistry movement has gained real traction will we be part of it or will we hold it back? Are we creating teams that aspire to be more and carry on legacies? Will they be health advocates and dental tech wizards that grow practices and perpetuate the right patient care ideals long after we are gone? 

Or will we stifle teams by not providing opportunities to be clinical leaders, not using the latest technology or products and not allowing them to be whole health providers? 

Eventually dentists retire, practice managers take on different roles or clinicians move away and practice elsewhere. Were teams prepared and trained to be better providers than we are today? Whether we’re around or not, it's our responsibility now to give dental teams the tools to thrive not just today but in the unpredictable future. 

Start with the basics:

> Mentorship for growth and clinical leadership within the practice.

> Incorporate new technology into patient care: scanners, artificial intelligence, phone systems.

> Review current products and see what updated ones are available.

> Listen to team feedback and try new approaches the team is interested in where reasonable. Steve Jobs also said, “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”