The Top 10 Steps To Becoming a Successful Associate

Thomas Snyder, DMD, MBA

10 steps that you should consider taking to ensure you will have a productive and successful relationship with your employer.

Many of you are now considering becoming an associate. Some of you will be on a "partner track," others may consider purchasing the practice of your new employer in a few years. Below are 10 steps that you should consider taking to ensure you will have a productive and successful relationship with your employer.

1. Reactivate Patients
Busy practices that may be the right fit for you to join usually have a patient retention problem. We recommend that a patient reactivation program be implemented to coincide with your joining the practice. This allows the practice to reactivate patients that have not been seen on a regular basis in hygiene. This is often the case in practices that have more than enough patients; however, there is not enough capacity for one doctor to handle the entire patient base. Your joining the practice is the perfect opportunity to solve that problem.

When patients are reactivated, we recommend that they be scheduled for a hygiene appointment with the associate. The hygiene appointment is probably the most nonthreatening appointment in the dental practice, making it the ideal way for you, the associate, to get to know several of the patients. It also allows patients an opportunity to get to know you, and hopefully you will form a long-term dentist/patient bond with all of them!

That being said, we do not recommend that you always see the patient as a hygiene patient. Rather, once you’ve completed their reactivation recare appointment, future recare appointments should be scheduled with the practice’s hygienists. We also suggest that your employer schedule you for no more than four reactivation patients a day so that you have time to perform other clinical procedures. The number of scheduled hygiene reactivation patients per day is directly related to the number of patients that can be reactivated.

2. Determine Your Clinical Supply Requirements
For those of you who are graduating this year or are completing your residency program, your first real job in a private practice may hold some surprises for you. Therefore, it’s important that you sit down with your employer and head assistant to determine what clinical supplies you may need that may not be readily available in the practice. Rather than join a practice and be unable to perform at the level you feel you’re capable of because you do not have specific supplies, instruments, or burs, for that matter, discuss what you need up front. If your employer does not agree with your requests, now is the time to discuss it before you begin treating patients.

3. Determine Realistic Time Units
Many associates are scheduled with the identical time units as their employer. This is totally unrealistic, particularly if you are a recent graduate. Therefore, you should carefully review your time unit allocations. If you are uncomfortable with them, add more units. You do not want to keep your patients waiting unnecessarily because you’ve underestimated your time requirements.

4. "Over-the-Shoulder" Training
As new practitioners, you need to continue your clinical learning process. We recommend that "over-the-shoulder" training be implemented in the practice, if not on a weekly basis, at least on a bi-weekly basis. By serving as the "dental assistant" for more complicated or clinical procedures that you are unfamiliar with, you, as the associate, will learn from your employer and gain confidence and experience to perform them yourself one day.

5. Assess Your Strengths and Weaknesses
As a recent graduate, obviously, there are certain clinical procedures you are more adept at performing. We recommend that you analyze your employer’s production report to determine those services that are being referred to area specialists. Usually, at the top of this list is endodontics. So, if you’ve had limited experience in endo, we suggest that your employer enroll you in an endo clinical program. There are a multitude of clinical programs available encompassing all facets of dentistry. The important thing is to be realistic in your clinical self-assessment and make sure that what you learn can contribute to the practice’s growth as well as your own.

6. Schedule Weekly Meetings
It is important for the employer to serve as your "mentor," particularly during the first six-to-12-months of your affiliation. This frequent communication can prevent problems from occurring, particularly in the early phase of your employment. These meetings should be scheduled for one hour and the topics of discussion should include treatment planning, case presentations, challenging cases, and scheduling problems.

7. Schedule Monthly Meetings
Monthly meetings should be held to review the business aspects of the practice. You should review your production reports, collection reports, accounts receivable reports (if applicable) as well as other reports that may be relevant. The employer gets the opportunity here to begin coaching you in developing analytical skills that are needed to become a successful manager.

8. Get to Know Your Practice’s Software Program
We recommend that you become familiar with various features so that you are able to run specific management reports, understand scheduling, etc. Developing this skill becomes more important if you assume ownership or become a partner. This allows you to become more involved in the overall management process of the practice. For example, running a detailed production report shows you how you are spending your time in various clinical areas. Running an incomplete dentistry report may give you insight into how successful you have been with your case presentation skills.

9. Request an Experienced Assistant
Chances are that you have not had the opportunity to spend many hours with a chair side dental assistant in dental school or sometimes in a residency program. It is critical for you to work with an experienced assistant, particularly during the first three-to-six months of your employment. You can learn a great deal from an experienced assistant. Learning clinical routines, instrument transfer, as well as practice record keeping protocol are all important to your success.

10. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing
It goes without saying that if you join a busy practice, you may believe there will always be an infinite supply of patients. We often find that the new associate fails to engage in any meaningful marketing activities. To avoid this problem, get involved in activities that can generate new patient referrals. Whether it’s coaching sports teams, joining community service clubs, or participating in church and civic activities, these opportunities place you in a position to meet many new people who may become future patients as well as increase your profile in the community. In summary, there are many practical tasks you can accomplish, particularly in the early stages of your employment. There is usually extra down time for you to follow these ten steps, so become a proactive participant and the outcome will be a successful associateship!