In Dental Fuel episode 2, Dr. Mennito talks about how financial mistakes can be big and how he moves the focus to keep the patient at the forefront of his mind!
Dr. Tony Mennito. Dr. Anthony Mennito (Tony) is a private practice dentist as well as an adjunct faculty member at the MUSC College of Dental Medicine in Charleston, South Carolina.
His dental practice, Expertise Dental, focuses on using technology to comprehensively care for his patients while helping to enhance the esthetics of their smiles.
He is an experienced user on digital systems made by Planmeca, Dentsply Sirona, 3Shape, and iTero and is heavily reliant on digital design and 3D printing for treatment planning complex cases.
He lectures nationally and internationally and currently has 21 published papers on the topics of digital dentistry and dental materials.
🎙️ Listen to Dental Fuel Episode 2 on Apple Podcasts
Dental Fuel Episode 2: Financial Mistake Transcript
In our last episode, Dr. Mennito talked about how he grew from a clinical mistake.
In this episode, he shares how financial mistakes are big and how he moves the focus to keep the patient at the forefront of his mind.
Dr. Tanya Sue Maestas
What has been one of the biggest business or financial mistakes that you have encountered?
Dr. Tony Mennito
So I’ve actually been really fortunate in my own career.
First of all, I’m an associate so maybe that’s the biggest financial mistake I’ve made is not buying a practice.
Because as an associate, you know there’s less potential for income and not having that practice that you can grow and having that asset I guess on your books.
But as an associate, you’re basically paid on production, and I’ve never paid attention to my production so maybe that’s it maybe that’s my biggest financial mistake.
Because a lot of people will talk about setting goals, “I want to produce this much per day”, you know, or “this much per month” or whatever, and I’ve never done that honestly.
And that probably makes a lot of people cringe because I know that’s kind of in vogue to set those goals and try to hit those numbers, but I’ve never done that I’ve always just tried to, and this may sound corny, but I always just try to focus on doing the best that I can and not trying to speed through procedures, right.
And so maybe that’s it maybe I haven’t been focused enough on my production but just focus more on doing good dentistry. And it’s for the very reason that I stated earlier in that if things don’t turn out well, it’s hard for me, it’s really hard for me to stomach that.
So I think I found the sweet spot of you know, I’m okay if I make a little less money but I sleep well at night because I know that the dentistry that I do is my very best and I’ve not cut any corners and I’m you know doing the very best I can.
So I don’t know if that’s the answer you were looking for, but I think that’s probably the best one that I’ve come up with for that question.
Dr. Tanya Sue Maestas
I think that’s a valid answer.
You know, as they say, if you take care of your patients and take care of your community, the money will come and will follow.
And I think that taking care of your dentistry and making sure what you’re putting forward is the best that you can put kind of goes along the same lines as well too.
Dr. Tony Mennito
I’m a big believer in that and I honestly wish someone had shared that with me, when I was a younger dentist. I think I probably would have had less sleepless nights. If I you know, maybe focus a little bit more on, you know, making sure that every T was crossed and I was dotted in every procedure.
But I think that’s great advice for all dentists but especially for younger dentists because lord knows younger dentists graduate nowadays with a lot of debt. They have that number you know and always in the front of their mind that they need to hit but I truly believe if you do good work, you’ll be fine financially and you’ll sleep well at night and you’ll have a great reputation as a clinician who really cares for their patients.
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