At a recent seminar on growing business practices, one particularly meaningful session started with the speaker asking people to stand if their business has lasted 1 to 5 years. After that group sat down, next, the 5- to 10-year group was asked to rise. When recognizing people in the 10- to 15-year category, I looked around to see very few in that category standing in this large room. I was surprised and humbled, and also very proud that after 1½ decades, I was still standing — both literally and figuratively.
With the ever-changing business climate we are currently living in, it is often difficult to keep track of all of the details needed to keep your business in the public eye while staying laser-focused on expansion and growth. While general dentists and specialists alike need to concentrate on all of the technology and techniques that lead to better patient care, you also must remember, and already may be painfully aware, of the vital importance of understanding how to keep your business side booming. From social media to networking with colleagues, to methods for hiring and retaining employees who will have your back and your practice’s best interests in their minds, both entrepreneurs and dentists have to find a work-life balance between our personal and business lives.
In our upcoming issues, my column will offer tips on how to be a successful entrepreneur while being a caring business owner and running a profitable business! As a woman entrepreneur, I understand the frustrations and triumphs of tackling the world of business with all of its complexities and the competition of others who are also chasing success. It’s a massively competitive world we are living in!
This issue’s articles address cutting-edge topics and treatment. Our cover story, by Dr. Mark T. Murphy and Len Liptak, illustrates the benefits of the ProSomnus [PH], a precision, next-generation OAT device that uses more comfortable, stronger, and more biocompatible materials and enables optimized device designs. See the spirit of collaboration that led to the development of this FDA cleared, PDAC-approved sleep device. In our CE article, Dr. Daniel E. Taché shares his case report of a patient who suffered from epileptic seizures, severe jaw pain upon awakening, teeth grinding, and SRBD. An intraoral airway device changed her life. The author sums up, “there is a bi-directional relationship between pediatric sleep problems and epilepsy, that an unaddressed SRBD is a risk factor for refractory pediatric epilepsy.”
Read his discussion of this innovative treatment when anti-epileptic drugs were insufficient. Our Expert View, provided by Drs. Michael S. Simmons and Colin M. Shapiro, shows how a health profession-guided process to recognizing SRBD will help identify the more complex sleep disorder cases and direct patients to the expert sleep physicians/expert sleep dentists in a timely fashion. They recognize that in the case of sleep health, dentists can play a big role in solutions for their patients. They quote Albert Einstein as saying, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” We hope that through articles such as these, we shine a light on new concepts and new solutions for this “brave new world” of sleep dentistry.
Through my future columns, I hope to connect with you not just as dental specialists, but business people and entrepreneurs. At Dental Sleep Practice, we care about your stress AND success, and the often challenging and even painful journey to achieving your goals. After 15 years, I’m still standing – proud of the hard work that it took to get here, proud of my amazing, unwavering team that constantly has my back, and looking forward to all of the exhilaration of embracing and conquering business speed bumps and hurdles, while still learning with every step. I’m still standing. My goal is for you all to stand with me in the coming years, with our fierce entrepreneurial spirits — tackling life, propelling us upward, and pushing us forward to unlimited success in both your business and personal aspirations!
Watch Lisa Moler interview dentists who have built a lasting, successful business on DocTalk Dental!
