Establish your Dental Philosophy

There are many kinds of dental professionals around the world, running their practice differently than the next. Before you can start building a high-performing dental practice with a powerful team, you have to first look inside yourself as a healthcare professional. What philosophy are you going to practice as a dentist?

Ask yourself what you will stand for and who you will serve during your career. If you want to establish trust with your patients and team members, you have to be honest and ethical in everything you do. Keeping the Hippocratic oath and promise of ethical standards in the back of your mind will help you provide the best type of care you can for your patients.

1. Carefully select your dream team and empower them

To carefully select your dream team, you need to focus on each step of your hiring process. A key phrase I always try and remember when I’m building a team is from a book called Good to Great by Jim Collins. The phrase says, “Get the right people on the bus, in the right seat.” 

Every member of your team-the dental hygienists, dental assistants, and the front office needs to be carefully selected. Once they are selected, they need to be placed in the right spot to be the most effective. This will ensure the right people are doing the correct job and your team can perform at a high level.

There are 3 parts to the hiring process that have become my best practices for building a dream team:

1. Screen the candidate & hold a basic interview about attitudes and goals for their career.
2. Bring them into the practice and have them spend a day assisting the team and experiencing a normal workday.
3. Have the team take the candidate out to lunch and spend time with them away from the office. If the team concurs, then HIRE THEM!

The importance of these steps underlines a fundamental principle of building your Dream Team; as a dentist, you shouldn’t have the only say in who gets hired. Your team will be working with this candidate 24/7 and should get to spend some time with them as well. Your team might be able to pick up on subtle nuances easier than you can and their input should be highly valued. You can learn more about the importance of employee value here.

This hiring strategy will build trust in your team and remind them that they can be successful when they work together. Don’t cut corners and do it right. This is the first step in building a high-performing team. 

2. Communication

Communication is a critical component of building a high-performing team. This starts with the meetings you hold in and out of the office and the way you structure your workday. 

Daily Morning Meeting

A daily morning meeting creates a rhythm that centers the team before the day gets busy. Hosting this meeting at the same time every day establishes predictability and gives staff the opportunity to discuss the schedule, patient needs, and any updates that will shape the workday.

Team Lunches & One-on-One Conversations

Regularly scheduled team lunches—whether with hygienists, assistants, or the business team—can open communication channels that aren’t always accessible during the workday. These gatherings allow leaders to better understand team challenges and hear insights from those who spend the most time interacting directly with patients.

Executive Training and Coaching

While some practices hesitate to invest in training, the long-term value often outweighs the cost. Practices that bring in coaching or consulting support—such as quarterly coaching sessions or ongoing leadership and marketing calls—equip their teams with tools to be more effective, confident, and patient-focused.

Cultivating Appreciation

Appreciation is a powerful communication tool. Recognizing team contributions—large and small—creates a culture of engagement, trust, and motivation. Just as an assist matters as much as the player who scores, every behind-the-scenes action within a dental practice contributes to the overall patient experience.

3. Invest in technology to create a better experience

Technology is your friend, not your enemy when it comes to running your dental practice successfully. Dentists have a plethora of technological advancements that have helped them give their patients the best care possible. A few of the most critical were high-quality digital cameras, DigiDoc intraoral cameras in each room, Isolite Bite Blocks, Onset Buffering of the local anesthesia, and patient engagement software to help with scheduling, appointment reminders, and billing.

Before you begin taking bitewings and probing, sit down with each of your patients and ask them some questions about their dental goals for their health, teeth, and smile. Many people come to a dentist before a big event like a wedding or graduation and want to look their best. Continue building their trust and thank them for visiting your practice.

Quality relationship time with your patients and using efficient technology is an investment of money and time. However, the trade-off is having satisfied patients leave your practice, pay with appreciation, send their friends, and give your business a Five Star review. Reviews say a lot about you and your practice and 95% of people still check reviews before doing business and making a purchase.

4. Continuing education

Continuing education is like lighting a fire; the more you build and tend your education, the stronger and brighter it becomes. Even while I was busy running my dental practice, I took time to further my team’s and my education. We did monthly lunches and learns, read motivational books together, and set educational goals, committing to at least 100 hours of continuing education every year. I further invested in the team for their personal and professional growth through the Dale Carnegie Organization.

Another place to gain valuable education is the Pankey Institute in Key Biscayne, Florida. The Pankey Institute is one of the top dental education institutes in the world and provides high-level education for dentists and teams who want to further their knowledge concerning dentistry. 

This technique extends to your team as well and you should always be looking for opportunities to provide more training and coaching to your team. 

5. Level of Patient Care

A Pankey-trained dentist is one that focuses on balance in your life and helping patients value and seek optimal, comprehensive care. This philosophy stems from Dr. L.D.Pankey, whom the institute honors his efforts to teach about the importance of creating a patient-centered level of care.

But what does it mean to create a patient-centered care level? It means providing care that is in your patient’s best interest. Your professional actions and the way you run your practice should be focused on your patient’s well-being and their dental health. It might be tempting to cut corners or save money in certain areas but this can be at the expense of your patient. 

This idea goes back to my first secret of building a high-performing team; establish your dental philosophy. Your patients don’t know how to fix their dental health and are coming to you with trust and concern. Building a high-performing team means ensuring your patients are taken care of and business is built on trust.

Conclusion

If you’re just beginning your journey as a dentist and you’re unsure of where to start, begin by investing in tools to run your office more smoothly and give your team a better way to communicate with one another and your patients. Weave’s all-in-one communication platform can save your team time during the day. To check out a free Weave demo, click here. 

These five secrets to building a high-performing team have carried me through my dental career and given me meaningful relationships and years of success. As a dental expert, you will have to determine what type of practice you want to run and what type of dentist you want to be. A high-performing dental team will not only relieve stress from your plate and attract new customers, but it will create a better experience that your patients will want to come back to time and time again.

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