Five weeks in a busy general practice

Every dental assistant remembers their clinicals. Mine included a five-week stretch in a general practice office, and one day there has stayed with me ever since.

Right before that rotation, I had been with an endodontist I really liked. He was relaxed and patient, and he backed his staff. A small part of me hoped he would hire me full time once I finished school. So walking into a busy general practice took some adjusting.

The office was newer and looked polished. There were more team members and more patients than I was used to, and the doctor ran a tight schedule where everyone moved quickly. I was ready for the pace. I was not ready for the tension.

The day the tension filled the room

We had a crown prep on the schedule that day. As an intern, my job was mostly to watch and stay out of the way. The doctor was hurrying from one patient to the next and was short with the team. He stayed polite in front of patients, but you could feel what sat underneath it.

No one on the team said a word about it. Everyone kept their heads down and kept working.

A mocha I didn't order

At lunch, the office manager walked in with coffee for the entire team. She handed me a cup, smiled, and said she didn't know what I drank, but I seemed like a mocha person. Then she explained that most days were not like this one. The doctor felt bad about how he had treated everyone, and the coffee was his way of apologizing.

There were a lot of thoughts running through my head when she handed me that cup. The first one was simple: I didn't drink coffee. I also wasn't about to be rude to the woman who had just bought me a drink, so I drank every sip. That mocha turned out to be the start of a long and happy relationship with coffee.

The second thought took longer to work out. Why did the office manager deliver the apology instead of the doctor? I assumed he was too busy and didn't give it much more thought.

What I finally understood twenty years later

The answer came twenty years later, when I told the mocha story to another dental professional. She said it's actually very common for the office manager to carry things on the doctor's behalf. The office manager sees everything. They are the bridge between the doctor and the team, and they keep everyone moving so the practice can keep running. That landed with me in a way I didn't expect.

Looking back, I have no idea what that doctor was dealing with that day. Maybe it was a hard case, a business problem, or something personal, or some mix of all three. Whatever it was, it moved through the entire office. In a small practice where everyone works shoulder to shoulder, the team really does become something close to family. What the doctor feels, everybody feels.

Sitting on the other side of that weight

After assisting, I spent fifteen years in corporate finance. Eventually I started Keystone Advisors, a fractional CFO firm for independently owned dental practices. That afternoon in the general practice comes to mind more often than you might expect. It's also the story I tell whenever someone asks when I started drinking coffee.

Today I sit on the other side of what that doctor was carrying. I help practice owners understand their numbers, make better decisions, and carry less of the weight on their own. To me, that's what real dental practice support looks like. I also work alongside the rest of the team, including office managers, who already see everything and are doing their best with what they have.

If you own a practice and you're carrying more than you'd like, you don't have to carry it by yourself. Book a call with me and let's talk about what's on your plate.

About the author

Melissa Leavitt, Certified Management Accountant (CMA) | Founder & Dental CFO, Keystone Advisors

Melissa Leavitt is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and the founder of Keystone Advisors, a fractional CFO firm for independent dental practices. She started her career chairside as a dental assistant, then spent 15 years in corporate finance, 10 of them in healthcare, including health insurance and workers' compensation. That background lets her see a practice from three angles: the chair, the payer's side, and the books. Read Melissa's full author page

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only. It isn't tax, legal, or investment advice, and reading it doesn't create a client relationship with Keystone Advisors. Every practice is different. Talk with a qualified professional about your situation before acting on anything here.