Hi, I’m Melissa.
Before I was a Dental CFO, I was a dental assistant still in school, five weeks into my clinical rotation at a busy general practice. I remember the tension that day. The doctor was short with the staff, polite with patients, moving fast between rooms. Nobody said anything. Everyone just kept moving.
At lunch, the office manager brought me a coffee I hadn’t asked for, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her no, even though I’d never drank coffee before in my life. She told me the doctor wanted to apologize for how the day had gone. I didn’t think much of it at the time. After twenty years, and copious amounts of caffeine, I was able to understand what I’d actually witnessed. In a small practice, everybody works closely enough to feel what the owner is carrying, even when nobody says a word out loud.
I spent the next fifteen years in corporate finance, ten of those years were in healthcare, including health insurance and workers’ compensation. I’m a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and a member of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Now I sit on the other side of it. I’m passionate about helping practice owners understand their numbers, make decisions with actual confidence, and carry less of that weight alone. Not instead of their team, alongside them, including the office managers and staff who are already holding a lot together.
In a small practice, everybody works closely enough to feel what the owner is carrying, even when nobody says a word out loud.
Ready to see what this looks like for your practice?