What's New In UK Dentistry with Dr Dan Shaffer [CPD Available]

AUK Dentists: Collect your verifiable CPD for this episode here >>> https://courses.dentistswhoinvest.com/smart-money-members-club

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A drill-free future sounds like marketing hype, until you see the tools that are already changing day-to-day dentistry. Dan joins me for a wide-ranging, practical chat that starts with career reflection and ends with a clear view of where digital dentistry and AI are genuinely useful, where they raise hard questions, and how practice owners can respond without losing the human side of care.

We dig into what happens when you understand both the clinical and laboratory sides of restorative work and why digital workflows make accountability unavoidable. That leads to the uncomfortable truth many dentists share: perfectionism can be built into the job, because “perfect” is not a single standard. It shifts with anatomy, materials, patient expectations, and the judgement calls you can’t reduce to a checklist.

From there, we look at the new wave of dental AI and innovation we’re seeing at shows: Pearl Dental AI as a communication and diagnostic support tool for spotting early caries on radiographs, and Curodont as a peptide-based treatment approach aimed at remineralising suitable early lesions rather than automatically reaching for the handpiece. We also explore “robo reception” systems that can answer calls at scale, handle bookings, and reduce pressure on front-desk teams, while still protecting boundaries around medical advice and safeguarding.

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Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. Investment figures quoted refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results/performance.

Transcript

CPD Link And Member Perks

Dr James 0:00

As ever, you can claim your CPD for this episode within the official Dentists who invest Smart Money Members Club. Smart Money Members Club also includes multiple mini courses and webinar series on finance for dentists, including how to become as tax efficient as possible, as well as understanding investing. All of this content counts as verifiable CPD, and you can download your certificates there and then upon completion of each lesson. In addition to this, we also include a whopping 10% discount on your dental indemnity and a 5% discount on lab bills for dental principals, amongst other perks and discounts for members. Please use the link in the description to claim your verifiable CPD for this episode. Well, this is an episode. Dan, so it's good to have you along because I know that you and I spend a lot of time talking on the phone about this among other things, and it's easy to get a bit romantic about it, I guess, really, because yeah, it's it's just really cool and it's enlightening and it's really powerful as well. And that's very much the theme of this podcast. It's reflections on the journey, I guess, and where it's both got us to. But Dan, I'm just very conscious that this is the first time I believe that you've been on the Dentist Invest podcast. So maybe it might be nice just to do a quick intro and a quick hello for the benefit of the audience.

Dr Dan 1:25

Sure. So talking about experience, I mean, I I feel like I've traveled the length and breadth of dentistry, if you like, over the past 30 years of uh my dental career in a way that I've worked in the community dental services, NHS, private, academia. You know, I've been involved in uh presentations and the business side of dentistry as well as the clinical side of dentistry. And um, yeah, I'm quite contemplative at the moment, uh, this year especially. Uh I'm 50 years old now, so I've hit 50. Uh sorry I didn't invite you to my uh party, James. Uh, you know, but maybe my 51st.

Dr James 2:02

Still in the post. Still in the post.

Seeing Dentistry From The Lab

Dr Dan 2:03

Yeah, still in the post. The invitation got lost. Um and uh, you know, reaching 50 makes you contemplate the past 30 years of career and what's gone well, what's gone badly, um, how you've dealt with things and how you feel about not only the past but also the future, which uh, you know, perhaps we'll get to a little bit later on. But as far as the past go, yeah, I'm very reflective about uh my career, certainly.

Dr James 2:29

And I think it's fair to say you've learned a few things over the years, because one thing that really I found interesting about yourself, Dan, was that you used to be a technician before you were a dentist, right?

Dr Dan 2:39

Oh, so that's not strictly true. So I am I do have a dual qualification, so I have a BDS for dentistry and an RDT for uh being a technician. But it's really funny because I was teaching down in Guy's Hospital for six years as a clinical tutor. I was teaching fourth and fifth year dental students how to make dentures removable prosthetics on floor 21 of Guy's Tower, for those of you that know it, which is a fantastic place uh to work and uh to interact with the most incredibly intelligent uh dental students, far more intelligent than I am, and the kind of questions they come up with. I think you learn more from your students than uh you know you learn from the books, certainly. Um but it was really interesting because I was involved on the lab side of dentistry. So whilst I was teaching at Guise, I um started to apply some lab work to Guise, um, thinking that it would be a straightforward uh business idea to do that. Uh I was also working in a laboratory in Hertfordshire as well at the time. So I was part-time teaching and part-time in the lab. And this was a time when the technician's register was still open. And what that meant was that because I was spending so much time in the laboratory and because uh I'd increased my knowledge of the technical size quite considerably, I was grandfathered onto the register. And what that meant was that um I became a technician uh by default, and uh I found it really interesting meeting lots of other techs. Techs are a separate side of the industry that dentists don't really understand properly, I feel. And techs feel that. Um tax, you mean lab techs? Techs, technicians, yeah, lab techs.

Dr James 4:21

Never heard them refer to as tax, just wanted to confirm that. But yeah, okay.

Digital Workflows And Owning Mistakes

Dr Dan 4:25

Yeah, so techs, lab techs, uh technicians. They sit behind their desks all day long making stuff and you know, sending it out to the dentist. The dentist receives it in a package and they open it and they say, right, well, that's great, let's fit it. And they don't think necessarily about all the work that goes on behind it. Lab technicians uh find it quite difficult a lot of the time to communicate well with dentists, and and that can be a little bit um disheartening for technicians, I think, is that there's a break. Now, for myself, I started doing a lot of digital dentistry, and of course, delivering the clinical dentistry and being the technician as well doesn't leave you anywhere to hide. You know, you can't turn around as the dentist and blame the technician and say, right, well, this crown doesn't fit, must be your fault. And the technician turns around and says, Well, you didn't take a very good impression or scan, and it's your fault. When you're both, there's nowhere to hide, and that really enhanced the um the continuity through the case and the workflow for me, because it it gave me the opportunity to examine every stage of the process and it improved my dentistry, no end. Not only that, but also the digital integration of having a scanner and seeing your preps up on screen. Um, you might gather I love doing crowns, I love doing bridge work, I love restorative dentistry, and so examining really up close and zooming in on you know, up to a few microns uh, you know, of accuracy, really enhanced dentistry, and doing it the way that I did it. And I felt that that was a real milestone. If you, you know, we were talking about contemplating uh careers at the beginning, and really there's certain milestones in your career as a dentist, um, uh and also, you know, as a lab technician and also you know, as a dental professional professional complimentary to dentistry, but digital integration was certainly one of those moments for me which changed dentistry for me forever.

Dr James 6:20

I bet your preps are pretty good.

Dr Dan 6:23

Well, they've got better. And and then it's disheartening as well.

Dr James 6:27

You don't have to be humble here. You don't have to be humble here. If you're prep if your preps are good, your preps are good, it's fine. You're you're allowed to say it.

Dr Dan 6:32

Listen, okay, I won't put you on the spotlight, but uh when you No, I mean, true, truth be known, James, it's a re it's a really good point. I mean, my preps aren't perfect, and and in fact, if you talk about um, you know, contemplating and reflecting on 30 years in dentistry, uh there's only a handful of times, maybe twice or three times in my career of 30 years where I've been happy with the dentistry that I've done. That I've found that it's what I would say approaching perfect, which is a really weird idea because it means that every single other of those 5,000 crowns or 10,000, I don't know how many crowns I've made, you know, they're not perfect, they're not exactly what I would want them to be. The fitting of the veneers, you know, there's just a touch out there, or I would have loved to bring the angle in slightly, or the colours ever so slightly, you know. And and what that means is that you gather this um sentiment towards yourself when you're a dentist, which is quite a common idea in dentistry, that you never quite reach that level of perfection and you're always seeking it. It's weird.

Dr James 7:38

I I find that about dentistry as well. In fact, that was one of the things that frustrated me slightly about it was it's just so hard to do it perfectly, and what is perfect, your version of perfect, is not necessarily somebody else's version of perfect as well. In dentistry, I once heard dentistry described as an art loosely bound by the rules of science, and I thought that was really cool. That actually made me rethink dentistry. I was like, okay, my goal is to less be scientific about it, although obviously those parameters guide my judgment, but more to express myself and also craft and mold what the textbook would say to the desires of the patient and the individual in front of me. And I I always remember one a clinician once they were like, Um, Jim, you know, I can't, you know, I remember I was like fresh out of uni, not to go on a tangent, but I'm sharing this stuff because it's valuable, right? Uh, I remember when I came out of uni, and like uni wants you to think in protocols, right? Like, do this, then you do this. Then if the BPE is three, you do this, or you do this, right? Or the BPE is four, whatever, right? There's like that uh the the period guidance that's out there, right? That guides people on those sorts of things. And that's just an example, but there's loads of protocols, and uni wants you to think it's wants you to think a lot more along those lines, not 100%, but a lot more along those lines, and then in the real world, it's just not like that. And I always remember I had this clinician, this mentor, and he said to me, he was like, James, you're letting you, you know, and the people who are listening to this podcast can't see what I'm doing, but he he pointed to his head and he's like, You're letting this govern your dentistry, whereas in reality it does come from here, but it also comes from here. And he pointed to his chest as in referring to his heart, and I that made me rethink. I was like, Oh, that's sometimes why, even though I'm following the protocol, the patient doesn't feel heard or uh things are not going quite right. It's because I'm not tailoring it to the person who's in front of me. And when you start thinking like that a lot more, I find it very empowering for your dentistry. So maybe you find that as well.

Perfectionism And The Dentist Mindset

Dr Dan 9:42

Yeah, so that's subjective thought instead of being completely objective. That is what being a dentist is all about. You know, you can follow a diagnostic pathway where you're trying to put things together in a base, uh, in a what quite a wide base, and narrowing and home into a diagnosis, and then offer the treatments that are going to solve that problem or you know, fill the hole, or or you know, fill the gap, or you know, whatever it is you're trying to achieve. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of emotional uh factors as well that are a little bit more etheral and need to be involved. And so you're absolutely right. It's not just a science, you can't be binary about it, it's either right or wrong. There's no absolute necessarily. There's anecdotal evidence uh to bring into play, there's peer-reviewed evidence as well, and then that helps, but you've still got to use your brain as a dentist. And this is, I think, uh, you know, it's a really interesting time at the moment with AI and you know artificial intelligence coming into decision making and and uh healthcare in general, but particularly in dentistry, we're thinking about the impact it's gonna have over many years into the future, not only on workforces, but on workflows and the way that we do things. Now, how is it that we're going to uh give over that subjective kind of thinking to AI in in a lot of ways to help us? And we're going to get rid of that from our head, and we're just going to let AI do that for us. And I'll give you an example. What about autonomous cars? I mean, you know, we've got to program them with a morality idea that, you know, let's say, for instance, the car's driving along and it ends up with a choice of either uh knocking over a single person uh who is relatively young, you know, let's say a child, uh, or it plows into a crowd of adults. You know, how does the autonomous car come to a decision which situation is the preferable one? And you know, it is it's a very weird thing. And then we've got to think behind that. Where's the responsibility with that decision? Is it with the car itself? Is it with the driver? Is it with the software programmer? Is it with the people who own the AI? And so these kind of decisions and subjective thinking are going to come into dentistry. No doubt we're going to use these aids, and we've got to think about the kind of impact that will have. And I'm privileged in a way to have been around before AI has come because I think it's going to complicate things. I don't think it's necessarily going to make things easier all the time. I think it's going to bring an extra layer of complication.

Emotion Behind Clinical Logic

AI Ethics And Future Dentistry

Dr James 12:09

You know, something really interesting in what you're saying, and I don't want to go on too much of a tangent on this podcast, but I do want to quickly drop this in. I once read something in a book, and the book was called Seeking Wisdom from Charles Darwin to Charlie Munker. Okay. And it the book's not really about anything in particular, it's just about it's divided into chapters, or no, it's divided into subjects, rather, because there's no continuity, there's no timeline per se. And it's like, here's some wisdom on money, here's some wisdom on science, here's some wisdom on romance, like all sorts of things. A bit like The Almanac by Naval Ravacant, and there was this one thing in it, and it was like um people try to, it was something along the lines of the guy put it way more eloquently than I'm about to put it, right? But he was like, people think that logic and emotional thinking are actually two separate things, but actually logic is governed by emotion, and here's why. Because if you think about it, if you get out of bed, right, and the logical you think to yourself, I want to be healthy, but the logical choice is to go to the gym, right? That's still an emotional decision because you're going there because you want to feel good and live long. So it actually comes from your emotions in a roundabout way. Even if you want to do really well on the math test, the most logical thing of all time, you want to do well because emotionally it makes you feel good in your life and it enhances your job prospects, right? So, really, really, really weirdly, if you actually go one layer deeper on the logic of humans, uh, it actually is always grounded in emotion. And I just find that really cool because I used to think they were the separate, like two separate things. Uh, but he was he was like, That was that's why your version of logic will inherently never be the same as the next person's, right? It's actually not possible, you know. And um, it comes back to the car thing as well. That's logic, but it's actually grounded in the emotion of humans, right? Because it's reasoning to itself what is the lesser of two evils in this situation? Ideally, it doesn't have to make that choice, but if it does in a split second, what does it do? Right, but it's still based on minimizing the net negative emotional impact of its actions on humans, its logic is still an emotional outcome. Anyway, not to go on a tangent, I just find that really cool and relevant to what you were saying. Seeking wisdom from Charlie Dar Charles Darwin to Charles Munger, very good book. Anyway, um, but yeah, just to bring this conversation back to dentistry, AI and Dentistry, you and I go to a lot of dental shows. Uh, and we've certainly we do we've ramped that up in 2026 because yeah, I mean, I get with the I guess your conventional conferences uh that are not conferences, expos really. The the conventional ones are trade exhibitions, yeah. Trade exhibition is probably the best term, right? For the way that that's conventionally done, is in you've got a big old room full of tradespeople. Uh let's just say the footfall isn't where it used to be conventionally. Will that improve? Will it diminish? Who knows? But that's just kind of the trend that we've observed over the last few years, especially post-COVID. But UK dentists, Dennist Who Invest now has an official platform where you can learn about finance and obtain UK compliant, verifiable CVD at the same time. The only platform that exists on which you can do both. The Smart Money Members Club has hundreds of hours of mini courses, webinar series, and live day recordings on all things finance or tax efficiency for UK dentists. 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Dr Dan 16:59

Yeah, I would I I'm actually sorry to interrupt you. I'm quite surprised that the footfall has uh seemed to diminish at shows because I thought that people would crave after the pandemic and COVID and you know everything that went down. And and I know we're still not quite in a place to process all of that, even now. You know, it's still going to be a number of years before we can reflect on that time in our lives and how it affected us and the world and you know, everything to do with the dentistry, of course, because it's still quite, you know, we're still quite emotional about it. Um, but you would have expected the footfall to increase as people crave that personal interaction, but yet the bigger trade shows they seem to have seen, and this is what people are reporting to uh to me certainly when we discuss it, is that they don't seem to have as many people there, and they don't seem to have as many people who are going to want to interact with the trade from a dentist's point of view or or a decision maker's point of view within practices, and that's an interesting trend.

Dr James 18:01

Yeah, who knows? Some sort of uh what what's the word I'm looking for? Sociology study to uh waiting to happen there. But I I get what you're saying. Hey, logic based on emotion, again, there we go. Yeah, logically it would do this, but yeah, emotionally for some reason it's not happening. But anyway, where I was going with that is um, you know, I have some thoughts on some of the there is still some very avant-garde stuff at those shows, right? And I have some thoughts on some of the coolest stuff that I've seen, particularly at the most recent one that you and I went to. Well, what I want to know is for the benefit of the audience, what cool stuff have you seen at the shows that you think is going to shake up dentistry?

New Trade Show Trends

Treating Early Caries Without Drilling

Dr Dan 18:36

Do you know? I love I I'm not uh part of the decrease football, I'm part of the increase in football because I absolutely love shows. I love uh, you know, talking to reps, I love talking to companies, I love talking to dentists, I love talking to nurses, TCOs, PMs, you know, you name it, I'll talk till I'm you know, till I'm asleep, really. And and until when I go home sometimes, my wife says, Dad, can you just stop talking quite as much? You know, it's getting a bit annoying, you know. Let me get a word in edgeways. Um, and I know when we get on a call, Jays, we talk for hours. Um, but in these shows, I talk to everyone and I go around and I have a look at the products and services that are on offer, and I've particularly noticed an increase in uh AI-based products. But not only that, but also innovations in healthcare. One of the most exciting things I think I've come across is uh from a company called Vivardis, uh, and it's a product called Curidon. And on the surface, it doesn't look that exciting. What it is, is a peptide, which is um a molecule that can remineralize carrier's lesions. And what they can what it can do is it can get rid of the need to fill that cavity, basically, as long as you spot the caries early enough, and you know, there's certain uses, but in a lot of situations, this product is revolutionizing dental care. And so, what you can do is you can identify caries. Now, there's another product called Pearl Dental AI. I don't know if you've uh come across it at all, but Pearl is an AI helping tool that uh looks at x-rays and identifies early caries on x-rays, and then gives you a coloured blob where the caries is so that you can show the patient. Now, think of it in terms of a patient from a patient point of view. You come into a practice, you uh, you know, have x-rays taken, and in an old-fashioned sense, we'd kind of look at these little x-rays and we think, right, okay, well, is it caries? Isn't it caries? Not really sure. Maybe I'll, you know, maybe it's a filling, maybe I'll drill to see if it needs a filling, and then I'll put an amalgam or or a composite in there, you know, whatever material I want to use. And then maybe 10 years later, we'll replace the filling with a bigger filling, and then 10 years after that, maybe it'll become a crown, and that used to be the way to do things. Now, what you can do is you can identify it with a digital x-ray. You can then use Pearl Dental AI to, you know, communicate that to the patient exactly what the issue is, because as they say, a picture paints a thousand words, you know, it doesn't really need much explanation. And then you can say, well, we would have used to fill that, and that would have cost you £100 or you know how much it is. We can do it uh in a really modern way where we can remineralize and stop that decay and turn back the clock on this decay and keep it stable into the future for a very quick procedure that doesn't involve drilling, doesn't involve anesthetic or injections, doesn't involve an hour in the chair, and you can go off happy at the end of the visit. Now, think about it, that's changed the face of modern dentistry and healthcare. It's an amazing idea that there are things still happening now that are changing dentistry without even looking at robotic dentists and you know AI solutions. And and that to me, changing that workflow entirely and having a different option, opening up the options for patients with technology, with biotech as well, is just an amazing achievement. So I I was quite impressed with um uh Vivardis Curidon and uh Pearl Dental AI. To me, that was a really uh you. A good use of clever science.

Dr James 22:04

I actually have met that chap as well. Um interestingly, and I remember I said to him, I was like, Oh, it's a preventative measure, right? And he was like, No, James, it's actually a treatment. Yes, that's correct. Prevention, obviously, prevents the point the disease developing, right? But what prevention, what a preventative method suggests is that when disease has actually arisen, you can't use a prevention because it's already happened, right? Correct. And he's like, No, James, this is specifically a treatment.

Dr Dan 22:45

Uh this is a treatment instead of a filling, yeah.

Dr James 22:48

I'm really glad that you called me out on that, right? Because I uh my my conventional dental brand just assumed that you needed to do a fill-in whenever carries uh uh arises. Uh with the case. Yeah, we see tell me this.

Dr Dan 23:01

Does that only work whenever it's like early incipient carries or so I I'm not gonna go into the whole clinical thing on the on this uh podcast and you know the exact science behind it because it's absolutely fascinating and it's a very long story, and I wouldn't like to leave the information incomplete, but there are certain clinical circumstances that you would use it and certain that you weren't. I'd just like to pick up something you said, um, which was about the prevention idea. If you look at the alternative and you said, right, on my X-rays, I've got early caries on my bite wings, what are my options? Well, it's either to take a drill or and to fill it, you know, and and if it's early, that's a shame because then it's destructive, it's not conservative enough. So what you would do is, you know, uh floss in uh you know high fluoride toothpaste, dura fat or whatever, and uh, you know, do those kind of preventative methods to stop that lesion progressing. But this is a very different thing, it's actually a curative, it's a restorative option. So you're absolutely right to point out that difference.

AI Phone Systems For Practices

Dr James 23:58

Yeah, I'm I'm glad that guy pointed it out to me. But yeah, on other developments um that I've seen, I saw really cool one the other day, and it is basically a plug-in for it's a third-party plug-in for dentally, it's AI driven. What happens is if your AI is now at this level, okay, that if you're a receptionist, there's different packages you can go for, but what it is in essence is an AI method to answer the phones in your practice, right? And I would have been like, hmm, but is it gonna be like a voicemail machine? Is it gonna be any good? The guide demoed it in front of me, and it's literally like speaking to a human. It's a little weird, to be honest with you, you know, that it's at that level, that it can do that. Um, but it's a leveraged way of answering the phone, right? Because previously, if you had one receptionist and you had 50 calls coming in, you could only work through the them at that rate that the receptionist could. Whereas this phone system can answer 50 calls simultaneously, it can remove appointments from your schedule, it can add appointments to your schedule, it can change the length. If there's anything that comes up that is a bit of an unusual request, it will basically let you know on the software that they have and get you to ring them back whenever the time is right. If it goes down the route that the patient needs some medical advice, it'll tell them to ring the hospital. So it's not given, it's not AI giving medical advice over the phone. Um it is incredible, you know. And basically you can either it can either run in your practice overnight when the receptionist isn't there, when they aren't there, or you can the the next tier is you can have it running during the day where it basically handles all of your calls, okay? And if the patient, for whatever reason, wants to speak to a human as well, they can just they that's built into the system too.

Dr Dan 25:50

Um I think I think I counted at the recent exhibition there were uh was it a couple of hundred, two, three hundred exhibitors there, you know, it was a big exhibition, and um I think I counted about five AI solutions that did that kind of thing. Some of them did something ever so slightly different, or the other, but they were they were kind of under the broad category robo reception, is what they call it. And then some of them would uh, you know, uh you could plug in, you know, a lead generation. So you I mean it was crazy how far some of these things go, is that they can actually put meta ads out there to attract patients for you, and then bring them in, give them the phone call, track the uh patient journey across a management system of whatever kind, interface with your dental software, do appointment booking, do sales. You know, say we've got you know, phone someone and say, listen, we've got this special um, you know, thing with whitening, it's only 300 pounds, you know. Come and uh, you know, would you like to book an appointment? Uh, you know, it's incredible what they can do. And and then they can analyze your appointment summaries from your dental software, and then they can give you pointers as to, you know, red, uh, orange, and green, which people to phone, how to book people in. There's an amazing amount of AI and loosely cool, and I don't know if it's the right term or not, robo reception. Now, one of the things that uh was interesting with those kind of products is that receptionists are a bit worried, they're scared that they're gonna lose their jobs. And I think this is across the board with AI, people are quite fearful about what happens to the workforce. Dentists, even though there's dental robots starting in in China but not commercially available, I think we're a long way off from people trusting robots to do the procedures just yet, especially when people are conscious. If you're unconscious in a heart operation, perhaps that's a bit easier. But with conscious patients in dentistry, I don't think we're going to see it anytime soon. Um, with uh robo reception, perhaps a bit of a threat to receptionist jobs and changing the face of it, it actually frees up a lot of time for the receptionist to do the personal interaction and interface with patients. And that enhances the patient journey within your practice. So, you know, it will enhance the reputation your practice has with your patients and the level of emotional connection they feel with you, so they buy into your practice a lot more. So it's actually probably a positive to free up the receptionist time. As far as nurses go as well, it doesn't seem that AI and digital solutions have really, you know, threatened uh their jobs at all. Same with hygienists, uh, same with uh, you know, practice managers and also um you know TCOs, um you know, treatment coordinators, because having a human doing those jobs means that people like it, they want to have a chat with a human.

Dr James 28:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. And uh that's an important thing to mention because the the the guys did highlight that to me as well. They were like, this enables the receptionist to be stuck on the phone less and takes the pressure off them in its present form, so actually it's a win for everybody. But yeah, certainly something to chew on. And you know, it's interesting to talk about tech advancements and dentistry and where things are going. And I'm very conscious we wanted to keep this podcast to about the 40-45-minute mark, and we're just coming up to that now. Dan, one thing I did want to ask you about, but maybe we'll have to save you, save this podcast, save this uh conversation for a subsequent podcast or a further podcast, is your journey as a practice owner and the lessons that you've learned uh over the years because I know you've had a practice for how long?

Retirement Myths And Long Horizons

Dr Dan 29:32

So I started off uh when I was uh a young dentist with a domiciliary practice, was the first thing that I explored. So I love doing domiciliary care around nursing homes and residential facilities, people in their own houses. So I did that for about five years whilst I was working in the community dental services and teaching, and then um a bricks and mortar kind of practice. I walked into a laboratory one day with a clinical dental technician working there, and and uh that was probably uh about 2006, about 20 years ago now. And I started off in a practice thinking, you know, I like the look of this. How about I do some dentistry here? And he was a clinical dental technician, so he did the dentures, I did the dentistry. I started off with a laptop and two patients and built it on the back of the uh, you know, the denture patients that were there. I would do the extractions, he'd do the dentures, I'd do the fillings and crowns, he'd do, you know, the dentures, etc. And um, so that was about 20 years and it organically grew into a digital restorative practice. And uh nowadays I've got uh two associates, I've got a most fantastic team who uh look after me. Um I I think another turning point for me was a nurse turned around to me one day and said, Dan, why are you touching the computer to book appointments for patients? Why are you turning around in your chair? You're you're discussing things with patients, you're not good at that job. When you book appointments, you double book them, or you don't book enough time, or you're not aware of what's going on in the other surgery, or you know, the scanner's gonna be used by someone else and you can't book in a scanning appointment then. And so I said, okay, well, I'm gonna leave alone the appointment booking. I'm gonna what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna look at each team member's strengths, and I'm gonna utilize that team member to their strengths. And I think that's when it really changed, and dentistry and practice ownership became a lot easier, is when I realized what I was good at I would do, and what I wasn't that good at, I would allocate to the person who was best at that job. And that happened quite a long, long time ago for me now. But that's really a turning point in uh the practice ownership and my practice journey because when you've got an organically growing practice over a long time period, you don't really have a plan and an aim in mind. And I think a lot of uh people that set up a squatch, you know, uh, you know, a fresh practice from nothing, um, they find this as well, is that you you need to stay focused on your aims and objectives and direction because you're never quite sure where the end of your practice owning journey is going to come. Um, you know, so you know, I'm I'm very happy working as a dentist. I love dentistry. I wake up excited nearly every day to be uh, you know, doing dentistry and talking about dentistry and interacting with people in dentistry. But you need to have quite early on some kind of aim aim and objective for, and some people call it an exit strategy. I don't know if that's an acceptable term or not, James, but it's kind of sometimes sometimes it's uh transitional phase as well. So it's not necessarily an exit because I think when the, you know, I'm in the autumn years of my career now, I'm I've just hit 50, I've got loads of years left, I'm not dead yet, and I'm not even retiring yet. Uh, you know, but let's say I've got 10 years or 15 years to still be a dentist until I get a little bit old and tired. I don't really want to give it up completely. And when I come to hand over the reins of my own practice to a new owner, I won't just walk away and leave dentistry. It's not going to be a hard stop, a hard exit. I'm still going to want to make stuff. I'm still going to want to interact with patients. I'm still going to be wanting to be involved with organizing, you know, practice stuff and talking about the medico-legal aspects maybe, or you know, whatever other branch of or the tech, whatever other branch of my career I want to follow. It doesn't just stop dead. That entrepreneurial kind of wish and need and want doesn't just die. It's you know something that's going to continue. So we've got to try and think how that's going to play out over the next 10 and 15, maybe 20 years.

Conference Invite And Ticket Giveaway

Dr James 33:39

Well, I think this is something that bugs me a little bit about the concept of retirement that we're told that there's this finish line and that we're supposed to look forward to it and work our whole life towards it and just be happy. And the two big flaws of that is number one, you might never get there because literally no one knows how long we're going to live. So there needs to be some balance with focusing on the future, it needs to be balanced with enjoying the present to a degree. Obviously, if you take that to an extreme, it's just complete hedonism. That's not good either. Um, so you've got to think about that. So that's definitely my philosophy. And then the other side of things is it's like, okay, cool. Yeah, yeah, we may not get there. And two, when we do get there, I would challenge the fact that a lot of people just want to sit around and not do anything all day long. I'd really like to I've been there, I've been there where I've been waiting for things for a month, and I learned I feel lucky because I learned that lesson in my early 30s, right? Rather than waiting until I was 50 and kidding myself that I was going to get there. Because there's been times where I'm like, my best course of action in business right now is in action where I just have to wait. But I was like, this is killing me, like this is literally killing me. So I stopped looking forward to that moment and gave myself permission, important word, an operative word, permission to enjoy the here and I a lot more, plus also do cool things for the future as well. Have fun, is what I'm saying. But yeah, anyway, Dan, I mean one thing just that to worth mentioning as we wrap this podcast up is that you and I got to know each other for various things over the years, and one of those things is the Business of Dentistry Conference, in which we share a lot of the stuff that we're talking about today in way more detail, and also there'll be a huge opportunity to network with a lot of the more avant-garde service providers to dentistry uh that are coming out over the next few years. It's literally called the business of dentistry, it's exactly what it says in the tin, it's where people come to level themselves up, both mentally and a mindset point of view, but also their businesses and finances as well. So I'd be stunned if anybody in that room didn't come away with something that enables them to do that on that day and really in the right circumstances in the right set, and you can make way more progress in one day than you might otherwise have been able to make in a year or two. And that's definitely the theme of the day.

Dr Dan 35:50

That's yeah, and that's not that's not to underestimate the community that's grown up around the conference of the business of dentistry. I mean, it seems to be that it's a whole organization and a movement that's gained momentum on its own, uh, you know, the website, learning platform, you know, all kinds of other stuff going on. Um, but you're absolutely right. I mean, the focus of the day, I'm really looking forward to uh the conference of the business of dentistry because it gives me a chance to uh talk to so many people. And you know, hopefully my wife won't tell me that I talk too much when I get home because I'll be able to talk to a load of people when I'm there in the day. And a lot of the time it's about the networking aspect. And and I love, and I know you love uh networking as well, just you know, talking to lots and lots of different people, you know, absorbing ideas, exchanging ideas, and and you know, that's really it's uh it's a hotbed for that kind of thing. Um so valuable, so valuable.

Dr James 36:43

So that's on the 9th of May, that's in Birmingham at the East Side Rooms uh in Birmingham. And yeah, run it's a day event conference we were talking about just a second ago. And interestingly, we're gonna be not we're gonna be announcing a competition on tickets on that next week. So keep your eyes peeled to the Dennis who invest audience for that one, where we're gonna be giving away four free tickets, which is flipping awesome. Looking forward to that. Hope everybody has an absolutely amazing day. Whenever you listen to this podcast, whenever it hits the airwaves, we're currently shooting on a Friday. So if you hear it on a Friday, have a great weekend. If you don't hear it on a Friday, have a flipping smashing week ahead. But whatever happens to you, I'm looking forward to the next episode already. Dan, we need to do a follow up, we need to book it in, we need to make it happen. So let's make that one official very soon. In the meantime, much love, peace out, and see you all soon.