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935: Unapologetically Pursuing Excellence: An Interview With Dr. Pamela Maragliano – Dr. Pamela Maragliano

Are you unhappy with your practice and feeling stuck? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Pamela Maragliano, chief editor of Dental Economics, to inspire you with her journey to pursue excellence with confidence. Stop compromising your values to make others happy! To learn how to build your ideal vision, team, and practice, listen to Episode 935 of The Best Practices Show!

 

Learn More About Dr. Maragliano:

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More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:

Main Takeaways:

  • Don't compromise your values — especially for a team that doesn't care.
  • Create a mission and a vision for your practice to attract your people.
  • If you're not happy with your practice, do something about it!
  • Stop wasting time with negative people or energy suckers.
  • Always keep looking for the right team members.
  • Be open and enjoy the ride for your career.

Quotes:

“I'm a private practice owner. I have two associates in my practice, but I'm the only owner. Small practice, four operatories. I think a lot of us feel threatened by DSOs. If a DSO is scooping up a practice down the street or opening up a new location somewhere, I think that there's this concern like, ‘They're coming up and eating up all the dental practices and patients.’ I don't think that's the case. However, I do think that we're going to see more polarization in dentistry where there are the PPO style practices or maybe some of the practices that DSOs fall into, and then there are going to be the more boutique, individualized treatment plan kind of practices. The ones that are in the middle that are trying to do both of them are probably going to get a little bit lost, and I think they're going to struggle the most. So, I think that unapologetically deciding how you want to practice — because both models actually can be quite successful, quite lucrative, and quite satisfying — it just depends on how you want to do it. But I feel like if you're trying to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, you're going to get lost, and I think your patients are going to get confused.” (11:10—12:26) Dr. Maragliano

“Basically, what I did was made everybody else comfortable at the cost of my comfort and my value system. So, it was sort of like the asylum was run by the inmates, where if I wanted to bring something new in, it was like, ‘No, no, no. This is how we've always done it.’ I just let it happen that way, and I didn't think things were going the way they should go. I always felt like a loser when I'd meet every year with my accountant because my practice wasn't growing the way that I'd want it to. And look, we're all overachievers. We wouldn't have gone to dental school if we didn't have an expectation of putting in effort and time and seeing the results on the other end of it. So, here I am spending all this time on my practice and not really enjoying it. I didn't really enjoy my team. I felt like I was frustrated, and I didn't see my practice growing. But I went into it with the best of intentions and expectations.” (13:12—14:16) Dr. Maragliano

“It took the pandemic for me to have some time off where I could reflect on my practice. I realized I was not happy. I realized that what I got into and what was the actual reality of my practice — they really weren't aligned at all. So, it took that level of frustration and that amount of time for me to finally do something about it.” (14:29—14:53) Dr. Maragliano

“If you can wake up every day and look forward to seeing the people that you're with — and obviously, not every day is rainbows and unicorns. But I feel like, for the most part, if I wake up every single day and I'm happy to spend my day where I'm spending it, I think that's a win. I can say that that's where I'm at, at this point.” (15:42—15:59) Dr. Maragliano

“It was interesting that my team was so disengaged. I would have meetings. We'd meet on Zoom, and my office manager and I would tell my hygienist and my assistants about what we were doing and some of the new protocols that we were putting together. People would show up in the meeting with their bathing suit on, one would be talking about their cat, and one would be home but scrubbing their credit cards, like their credit card is going to have COVID-19. COVID-19 is going to jump into their wallet or something. I'm just like, oh my gosh. Here we are educating people, educating ourselves, and I'm here trying to get protocols going with people who just don't care. I was like, ‘You know what? If you don't care, I don't care. And I care, so it isn't going to work anymore.’” (16:54—17:45) Dr. Maragliano

“I know it sounds kind of trivial or not necessary, but I created a mission and a vision for my practice. A mission is something you can share with your patients, hang in your waiting room, [or put on your] website. The vision is an internal document that your team needs to see. I can tell you that it was vulnerable. It was hard. I really wanted to write what was in my heart about what I wanted my practice to look like. I didn't care who I hired as long as they valued the same things I valued. So, I have them look at it. I have them read it. I look at their face while they're reading it. Are they rolling their eyes, or are they grinning and nodding? Having people with shared values is everything. Wasting your time with the negative people or the people who are just a warm body — they’ve got to go.” (20:56—21:46) Dr. Maragliano

“You’ve got to put a little love into it. You’ve got to love what you do. You’ve got to love who you work with. You’ve got to love your role. You've got to love your patients. Love on them. If you don't put a little love into what you do, it's just mechanical and it sucks.” (24:22—24:36) Dr. Maragliano

“I don't think assistants are just spit suckers and operatory cleaners. Same thing with hygienists. If you're just seeing patients every six months and you're just accepting inflammation, disease, and whatever, it's not good for the business, it's not good for the patient, it's not good for your restorative outcomes — it’s not good for anybody. So, we really need to be better and not just accept some of the things that have become acceptable in dentistry. One of the big ones is inflammation. We just sort of, ‘Everybody bleeds a little bit. Brush and floss. See you in six months. Bye.’ That's not what we should be doing. We are healthcare providers. Would your doctor be happy if you touched your leg and it spontaneously bled? And they're like, ‘It's not that much bleeding, so come back when your leg is about to fall off.’ Nobody does that. Yet, we do that in dentistry. I think we can and should be better.” (26:01—27:01) Dr. Maragliano

“Don't give up [on finding the right people] because it's so costly, whether it's emotionally costly or financially costly, to have the wrong people in place. But it's so abundantly special to have the right people in your office every single day and people who help one another, people who aren't too smug to roll up their sleeves. One of the things that I say is I've cleaned the bathroom probably more than everybody combined. So, there's really no job that everybody shouldn't be okay doing. Like, there are some that are not the best. But I feel like we all work together. If somebody needs help, even me, I would help them. It's one of those things that you have to be part of the team. You have to always be looking for the right people to join you.” (30:43—31:40) Dr. Maragliano

“At the end of the day, we have to love what we do. We have to enjoy what we do. If you're stressed or unhappy, there's no way you're doing your best work.” (37:59—38:08) Dr. Maragliano

“Enjoy the ride for your career. You think you go into dentistry to sit in the same chair for the next 35 years, and the same four walls. Dentistry offers a lot of opportunities that might spark a passion in you that you didn't even know existed. So, be open to it.” (38:44—39:07) Dr. Maragliano

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:00 Dr. Maragliano’s background.

6:02 Challenges in transitioning from hygienist, to prosthodontist, to practice owner.

7:43 Dr. Maragliano’s treatment style philosophy.

10:27 The current state and trends in dentistry.

12:31 Don't compromise your values.

16:00 Figure out your non-negotiables.

18:48 Find the right people and create a mission.

21:47 Values, explained.

27:02 Don't stop looking.

31:41 Have a ride-or-die in your office.

35:35 Have people you trust and give them autonomy.

38:10 Final thoughts.

40:12 More about Dr. Maragliano and how to get in touch.  

Dr. Pamela Maragliano Bio:

Dr. Pamela Maragliano, DMD, is the chief editor of Dental Economics. Based in Salem, Massachusetts, Dr. Maragliano began her clinical career as a dental hygienist. She went on to attend Tufts University School of Dental Medicine where she earned her doctorate in dental medicine. She then attended the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Dental Medicine, where she became board-certified in prosthodontics. Dr. Maragliano owns a private practice, Salem Dental Arts, and lectures on a variety of clinical topics. 
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