Episode 805: Office Autopsy: PRF Powerhouse

 The popular office autopsy is back! In this episode, Kiera talks about a practice that worked with DAT to implement PRF (platelet-rich fibrin) into its toolbox. Not only did the therapy service massively increase this office’s production, but the team stayed consistent and focused for a majority of 2023 to make sure the information and procedure was the best it could be for patients. 

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:01.046)

Hello Dental Lane Team listeners, this is Kira and welcome to Dental Lane Team's podcast. I hope you guys are having an awesome day today. I hope you guys are just enjoying your time. I feel like you guys are just remembering that we are truly in the greatest industry that we could ever be a part of. Dentistry guys, how fun is that we get to be here? I hope you guys are loving it. I hope that you are just having a good time. Truly, truly, I hope you just remember that you are getting to live your dream of a life. Remember when this reality that you have today,

used to just be a dream and a wish and now you actually get to live it. Like just remember that for a second. On all those hard days, remember like, this is what we signed up for. This is what we wanted it to be. This is what we wanted for all those hard times. So just remember that and enjoy it. And I just wanna say thank you guys all for being our Dental 18 family. I love this podcast family so much. I enjoy my time, I get to share with you. So today, let's kick it off. If you guys have yet to leave us that five star review, please go do so. That just helps us stay as the top.

dental podcast and it helps serve more people. You guys know our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So today you guys, I wanted to do a little office autopsy. I love a good office autopsy. And these ones I'm gonna call are the PRF powerhouse. All right, so this practice, I'm not gonna share exact numbers. I believe that every practice should be allowed to have their own numbers stay confidential to them. So these are some PRF powerhouses.

but there's five offices in this practice. They have incredible team, incredible systems. I've coached them for years and we decided we wanted to add in PRF. Now, if you guys don't know what PRF is or PRP, platelet rich fibrin, is really, really incredible. It's something that I used in the practice when I was there and I loved it because you can do like minimally invasive gum crafting. You can add it to all of your extractions. You can do it for your implants and it really does help.

that site become incredible. So just to give you guys like my little testimonial of Keira Densa, we're going to be pro something. I'm going to be pro membership plans and PRF. Like that's always going to be what I will recommend a hundred percent. And so with that, what PRF does is we actually had a patient and when I was in practice and it was incredible because we did a minimally invasive gum grafting, meaning they had recession and so we flapped it. The hygienist cleaned it. We used a doxycycline.

Kiera Dent (02:25.542)

slurry. You guys, you go to dental school for this, not me. I'll just kind of tell you the general gist of it. What you do is you actually draw blood and then you use a centrifuge and you separate the red and white blood cells and then you use that white blood cell to make the PRF better. And like you use that as like those white blood cells, the little PRF portion of it. We use those to make basically like the body's neo sporn. It's super awesome. And

Kiera Dent (03:01.366)

All right, so he added that part. So what I usually do when I'm describing PRF and explaining PRF to people is, if you guys are watching.

All right, there we go. If you guys for on this, so the way I like to describe it to patients is you guys these pilot pens, you know, the jelly ones. What I do is honestly, if you guys are watching this, there's this top portion of the pen that's kind of like a cream yellowish color that literally looks just like PRF. And so what they do is they take that top portion. So if you guys are imagining those black jelly pens with kind of the like white yellowish, almost like goop at the top of the gel that literally looks like PRF. And so the black portion of the ink

is usually red when we're doing actual PRF. And then the top portion is the white blood cells because we've separated them out. So I use a pen all the time when I'm explaining PRF to patients. And it's such a great tool for you guys. So if you wanna use it by all means, definitely take it, it's super helpful. And then explaining it as the body's neosporum. So I'm obsessed with this. What we did is that patient, like I was saying, we flapped it because she had a recession. We then took this PRF portion and you can either use it as like a plug. So if it's like in a cylinder,

shape or you can flatten it and make it like a membrane almost. They're super handy. You can cut it up. You can put it in your bone grafting. What we did was we actually made it into a flap and then placed it on that patient. What was so cool is she had actually gone to another doctor and had done like the roof of the mouth grafting. I'm not here to say one was right or wrong. I just thought it was really awesome to see the PRF grafting versus the gum.

like the roof of the mouth grafting on a patient because it was on the same side, we did the top, they did the bottom. And when she came back, it was so incredible to see this patient have healthy, rich tissue. It was pink, it was puffy. It looked just like natural gum as opposed to having that more rigid roof of the mouth gum feel. And that's like literally when I became a believer in PRF. And so...

Kiera Dent (05:02.066)

Offices who use PRF, like I said, it's like the body's neospore and it calls all the white blood cells there, heals that area. So when you use it on implants or extractions, truly we've seen less healing time, less pain meds, like they're not having to prescribe anything, very minimal dry sockets, and it just is something so truly incredible for your patients. And so this office that I was telling you for our office autopsy, I've been coaching them for so long. And when I first met them, we were working on making operations manuals.

and getting all the practices systematized. We had five of them and we built a leadership team with them and we've coached all of their treatment coordinators and helped them become really, really incredible treatment coordinators and helped the doctors and worked with handoffs and mad kudos to the owners of these practices because they just love their team and they're super invested in the team and they pay for coaching for their team and their team really takes it on and it's fun to kind of rotate through all the different practices and show them really how to consult.

listen back to their treatment plans, we've helped them overcome, you know, like how we think about insurance and how we think about the different parts of a treatment plan. And just like mass kudos to this practice. They've done incredible work over the, gosh, I think we've been together three, almost four years now. And I just really love that they take things on, they implement and they stay consistent. So if we're looking at why did this practice become so successful, yes, they are the PRF powerhouse, that's the office autopsy I wanna dive into today.

But I think a lot of it has to deal with the leadership. The leaders stay consistent. If we're going to implement something, we stay committed and we implement that. If the leaders say we're going to try something different, we're going to do it. They listen to the podcast, they implement ideas from it, they listen to books, they're super, super focused on improving people, like improving their lifestyle, improving their financial style. Like they just are really committed to making sure that their team members are the best people that they could ever be.

So we decided this year we were gonna implement PRF into the practices. And I think mad kudos to them because what they decided to do was they had me come on and actually teach all the doctors and all the treatment coordinators really what is PRF, how do we use it, why do I love it, how do I explain it to patients so that way they could overcome that fear. Because I mean, we're going from a extraction that's been, you know, two, $300 to an extraction that now could possibly be upwards of 700 depending upon how much you choose to charge for PRF.

Kiera Dent (07:22.274)

but the benefits of it are so great. Like you get such a better healing, such a better site. If you ever want to have that site for implants, I think PRF is the greatest thing. Like you guys, I'm not clinical, so I'm not here to tell you all the benefits. You can go learn about it, but the startup cost of PRF in your practice is very inexpensive. You do need to get your team trained on phlebotomy, and you do need to also have them trained on being able to, like you got to get the centrifuge in your practice. But truly when I'm looking at ROI of a cost of something to implement into my practice, better patient results.

very, very minimal startup costs, like truly a centrifuge and getting the vials and the butterfly needles. It's very, very minimal and it's not hard for your patients. And it really only adds about 10 minutes to your procedure time. So I think about, and just to give you guys an idea, if you do it on say a hygiene patient, it was oftentimes about between five and 700 for the first initial site and then about 200 per each additional site. And there are insurance codes for it.

Sometimes insurance covers, sometimes it doesn't. You can add it to all of your extraction sites. But really, I mean, you think about increasing the transaction amount per patient by adding something super, super valuable. Now, some of you might be sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, Keira, we're just adding money to it. And I would say, absolutely not. We're adding such a huge benefit. Think back in the day when buildups probably weren't a huge part of Crown Preps. And now we know you can't really do a Crown Prep without a buildup for that tooth to be strong structurally.

And so I think about that, like, why would we ever go back? We know that typically composite is better than amalgam. We know that adding PRF to an extraction is less healing time, better results. Why would we not do that? And so for you guys just to think about that and to look at all these different things and see, oh my gosh, this is what we could be doing? It really is magical for your patients. And so this office, it was fun. We got everybody together. We did about a one hour kickoff. They asked me all their questions, all their concerns. The biggest concern was they thought that it would work.

but what are patients going to say and what are patients going to think when we're adding this on? And so we're just working through that mindset. And I told them, you know, if I had a broken leg and someone could splint it up with wood and bandages, that used to be the best protocol. But now we know that there's better ways, there's better casts, there's better options for it. Same thing with a lot of medicine. It used to be one way. I mean, think about it. They probably used to give us like vitamin C when we're super, super sick, but now we know that antibiotics could be better for us or...

Kiera Dent (09:45.026)

different things could be better for us and be a better treatment. And so just helping people realize that now the standard of care is PRF. They use it in so many other medical procedures. I mean, you guys, I went through IVF. I've shared that story a little bit and now they're doing PRF into ovaries to try and help stimulate more, more like better growth for those eggs.

I have yet to try that. The thought of sticking PRF up into my ovaries does not sound appealing. I would much rather do it in the mouth. But I use PRF injections in my knee and my hip and it helped tremendously. And so it's just something that's used in other industries and now we get to use it and bring it into dentistry. And so for us to realize that this really is a better benefit for our patients and how to explain it. So this office did a really good job of kicking it off.

But then what I love is we made it into a fun competition. We made it into like, how many of these do we think we could do over the next month? What are the objections? What are the things that we're concerned about doing? And then we met back a month later. And I love that this office, whatever we implement, I don't care who you are, if you're a doctor, if you're a team member, if we say we're going to do something, this practice executes on it. And I would say mad kudos because really, it depends on the leaders. Every single practice, every single team, it depends on the leaders. And if the leaders say,

we're going to do this or we're not going to do this, your team's going to follow your direction. And so, so many offices I consult, the leaders aren't bought into it. They're like, you know, I know we're busy. We don't have to do it. No, these leaders said, we are doing this. We are going for it. We know it's gonna be a struggle. So that's our only focus for this next month. And I think that that's the second thing I'd like to highlight of this practice is, one, they stay consistent, but two, they're also really good at being laser focused and mastering a skill before they go on to the next thing. So many offices that I've consulted,

It's almost like we've got the shiny object syndrome and we hear something on a podcast so we want to implement that and then we want to implement this. There's no way to really gain traction and become a master of it because we're constantly switching direction and this practice is very different. They say we are dedicated to this and we are going to master this and we're going to get it really solid. So for about, gosh, we probably did it for about eight months in the course of 2023. They did.

Kiera Dent (11:58.114)

full focus on PRF. Like we just did it, we did it on blood draws, we did it on same days, we were tracking the numbers, we were setting up fun competitions for the teams to just see. And again, not a competition to add more to the patients, but just because it's something new. And whenever we have something new into the practice, I found that it's really fun to make a competition to see because you've been diagnosing with one toolbox and now we've added another tool. Well, we're probably gonna go back to what we already know versus using that new tool.

and that new tool is super, super beneficial. So it was amazing to see the dentists get super on board, the front office gets super on board, the dental assistants, the hygienists get really on board because they started to see the benefits of PRF. And I will tell you that there were multiple millions added to their production over the course of these few months in five practices. Now again, we have five practices, so that's very simple to do. But what I say is mad kudos to these practices because I think so often we don't realize

we can increase the dollar amount per procedure by doing a better service for our patients. And so for them, there are no extractions and no implants that go without PRF. And they just made that a standard and an expectation of their practice. And they're able to see the results of not a lot of extra dentistry, but their production went up, their overhead went down, and their patient satisfaction and happiness increased. And to me, that's the triangle of a win. Like no extra time, better dentistry and better patient experience.

That's what I'm looking for when I look to add new things to our practice. And so I just feel if you, one, haven't looked into PRF, definitely something to add onto your 2024 goal board to look at it and how could you implement it into your practice. Because honestly, the PRF powerhouse of this practice office autopsy, I was just blown away at how much better these patients were doing, how much less chair time they were having of dry sockets and patients coming back in pain or needing to prescribe pain medications. Now they're rarely even prescribing pain medications.

And the fact that all of their doctors and all of their team got on board with this, I just say is such a testament to great leadership, staying consistent and staying laser focused to where we master a skill before we move on. And they are gonna change to 2024, they'll add something in because now this is routine, this is something that they're going to do. They're not gonna stop tracking the stats because we don't wanna lose the momentum we've built, but they are going to be able to move on. But they spent, like I said, eight, nine months and I won't share all their exact numbers because that's.

Kiera Dent (14:22.422)

That's confidential to that practice and I just respect offices. But to think that much better patient care, and yes, there's still objections, yes, there are still things, but a lot of it was mindset and realizing this really is the better procedure, this really is the better case, let's make sure that we're doing the best for our patients. And so for you guys today with this office autopsy is one, look to see how they better maximize and utilize their time doing dentistry. Also look to see how they consistently implemented something, trained their team.

trained their doctors, dealt with the objections, came back and shared the success stories they were all having with each other. And then they went for the next round and the next round and the next round. And each person took it on individually. Each doctor took it on as their own individual mission to figure out how can I present this to patients so they wanna accept it. We see the results, we know it's a better offer. And so how can we do this? And then it was no, there was no negotiation around it. If we're doing an extraction, we do PRF with it.

If we're doing an implant, we do PRF with it. So it's more like an SRP is always done with a six week fine scale. When we're doing all these other procedures, they come bundled together and it was just beautiful to watch this practice. One, yeah, it's really fun for me as a consultant to see incredible numbers. Like, of course I love numbers, but what I love more than numbers is better patient care and better team like comradery where we bonded together, we did something that's really going to make a difference for our practice and our patients and we're able to do it as a team.

So guys, go try it out. Number one, get PRF. Number two, I love that they used me as a consultant to help their team with those objections. Sometimes as owners, it's really, really hard to roll something out to your team. Sometimes it's hard to tell them like, hey, let's get on board with this. And you don't know how the team's gonna perceive it. Are they going to think that you just care about money? Are they going to think that you're just trying to add something on? Are they going to think this is too hard? And sometimes that outside resource, even for my own team, I use this, can really help your team get a better buy-in to it.

And so I want you guys just to try it out. If we can help you get team bought into it, if it's PRF amazing, if it's adding an ortho or adding Botox or getting everybody on board for having great handoffs or improving our morning huddle, whatever it is, be laser focused in on it. But mad kudos to these practices, like massive kudos to the leadership of these practices. I learned so much from them just by consulting them that I just wanted to share with you how brilliant was it that they added one service.

Kiera Dent (16:46.142)

in 2023, they super, super laser focused in on it. Every call I was talking about it with all their treatment coordinators and all their doctors. We were tracking the stats consistently. We were looking to see what's going right, what's not going right. We're getting patient testimonials so we could share with the other offices and the great success of that was magic. And so mad kudos to them. I hope you guys listen in. I hope you can see how you can add different things to your practice, but I love that they got their team.

fought into it, even though they didn't want to necessarily do it, they used a coach to help them because they don't know how to present that treatment plan. That's not their will house. That's my will house. That's the consultant's will house. It's not their will house of how to know what, like how scary that can be to try and offer that as a treatment plan. But I do. And our team knows how to do that. And so giving them a coach that's just like them, that has closer proximity to them, that really can help understand that. Me understanding it from

You know, the doctor's side, I'm not a doctor. I went to all the courses for PRF and I learned how to do it and I practice on myself. And so helping them understand how I presented that to patients chair side and how the doctor that I worked with presented it chair side and taking different things for testimonials and the mindset behind it really gave those doctors a huge confidence. So mad kudos to them. I hope you guys enjoyed this office autopsy. I would say look though, look to see how can you add.

a greater service with less dentistry, more ease for you, and to do it with your whole team bought into it. And if we can help you guys do this, I'd love for you to be my next office autopsy, where we help your practice grow and evolve in such a simple way. Become the PRF powerhouse. Look into it if you've never looked into it. I've given you guys some great verbiage of how to explain it, but it's something really, really beautiful and masterful and very simple to incorporate. So go try it out. And like I said, if we can help you and you wanna get your team bought into things or you don't know how,

realize that's very normal. It's very normal for owners not to be able to get their team bot in because you're the one constantly telling things, just like my mom used to tell me things. And then I would go to school and I'd be like, Oh my gosh, mom, my best friend told me this. And she's like, Kara, I've been telling you that for the last two years. Glad Jenna was able to get through to you. But the reality is sometimes we just need an external source that we're more connected to, that we have closer proximity to, that we feel like we can connect to.

Kiera Dent (19:02.402)

to really see those results and changes you're looking for. So I would love to help you guys out with that. Email us, hello at thed And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental League Team podcast.