Dental Practice Heroes Newsletter
Dr. Etchison will share tips, strategies, and give a summary of the DPH content and upcoming events for the month.
What Actually Keeps Patients Coming Back
You can spend thousands on marketing, but if the experience inside your practice is not dialed in, it will not matter.
Patients might come because of your marketing, but they stay because of how you make them feel. Most practices never step back and ask what it is actually like to be a patient in...
Apr 29, 2026
growth
marketing
patient experience
practice management
How to Get Clear Answers in Your Practice
Most team debates do not need a big meeting. They need a simple experiment.
A lot of practice owners waste time arguing about things nobody has real data on. Do unconfirmed patients actually show up? Are online scheduling patients more likely to no-show? Is one front desk team member better at ge...
Apr 27, 2026
data
decision making
front desk
systems
The Real Reason Your Front Desk Team Is Overwhelmed
Most front desk workers are not overwhelmed by patient volume. They are overwhelmed by repetition. If your front desk feels slammed, weak systems and unclear conversations are probably turning simple tasks into repeat work.
A few patterns that usually point to this:
ā€¢ Patients cancel because expe...
Apr 21, 2026
efficiency
front desk
systems
team training
Fix the System Behind Your Schedule
Most dentists are not struggling with effort. They are struggling with structure.
If your day feels chaotic, the problem is usually not how busy you are.Ā Most of the time, the problem is the system behind the schedule. It can be weak scheduling rules, under-diagnosis, low case acceptance, or a te...
Apr 17, 2026
case acceptance
efficiency
scheduling
systems
Fix This Before You Expand
You do not have a space problem. You probably have an efficiency problem.
Before you add more space, more ops, or another associate, look at your production per hour. If you are below $650 per hour, there is usually still a lot of opportunity in your current setup.
A few places to look first:
ā€¢ B...
Apr 15, 2026
block scheduling
efficiency
practice growth
profitability
How to Build Trust Before You Diagnose
If your case acceptance is low, the problem is probably not your diagnosis.
Most dentists assume that if the treatment plan is correct, the patient will say yes. That is not how it works. Patients say yes when they trust you, and that trust is built before you ever talk about dentistry.
Here is a...
Apr 10, 2026
case acceptance
patient communication
practice growth
trust
How to Define What Good Looks Like
Your team is not the problem. Your lack of clarity probably is.
In this episode, I break down a simple exercise I did with my team that created instant clarity around what we value and what we do not. Once we put those standards into words, a lot of the issues owners complain about became much ea...
Apr 08, 2026
communication
culture building
team culture
team performance
The Shift From Filing to Planning
If you are making good money in your practice but still feel like too much of it is disappearing, your CPA might be part of the problem. A lot of dentists treat taxes like a once-a-year event. You send in your numbers, get your return, write a painful check, and move on.
In our latest episode, I ...
Apr 03, 2026
finance
practice management
profitability
taxes
What Patients Remember Most
Most dentists think patients are judging the dentistry itself. In reality, what patients remember most is how the experience begins and how it ends.
In this episode, I break down something that affects case acceptance, referrals, and patient loyalty more than most dentists realize. You can be hig...
Mar 31, 2026
What Actually Makes Your Day Flow
A lot of dentists think they have a scheduling problem when what they really have is an efficiency problem.
In our latest episode, I am joined by Dr. Aaron Nicholas to talk about something I see all the time. You can have a packed day, good treatment acceptance, and plenty of patients, but if eve...
Mar 26, 2026
efficiency
productivity
scheduling
Building a Practice That Runs Without You
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You are in the middle of a normal workday and somehow everything still ends up on your desk. The front needs a decision, a team member has a question, someone wants time off, something nee...
Mar 25, 2026
dental leadership
dental systems
leadership team
The Number That Changes Everything
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You just finished a long clinical day and you are exhausted. You were moving nonstop, running two columns, and it felt like y...
Mar 20, 2026
dental-practice-growth
dental-production
dollar-per-hour
practice-efficiency