Stop Looking for Better Hygienists. Build a Better Hygiene Department Instead.

Welcome to another episode of the Private Practice Playbook. Today´s conversation with Jaclyn Dunn focuses on a hard truth facing private dental practice owners: the perfect hygiene team isn't coming. Instead of waiting for the "right" team before making improvements, practices should prioritize building intentional systems that ensure consistency, accountability, and quality patient care — regardless of staffing challenges. One concept discussed was the tendency to delay growth initiatives in hopes of future stability, when in reality, progress is made by taking action with the resources at hand. The discussion explored how even average team members can excel within strong systems, while talented individuals will struggle if processes are lacking. Several points were raised, including the dangers of waiting for ideal conditions, the critical role of systems over individual talent, and why accountability should be a celebrated component of every high-performing hygiene department. If today's conversation got you thinking differently about your hygiene department, imagine what could happen if you applied that same systems-based approach across your entire practice. That's exactly what we help private practice owners do every day at Practice Growth Institute. Visit mypgi.com to schedule a discovery call. We'll learn more about your practice, where you want to go, and help you determine the program that best fits your goals. Timestamps: 00:00 Challenges in dental practice staffing 06:02 Addressing Hygiene Staffing Challenges 09:28 Never a perfect time for kids 13:50 New clinicians gaining confidence 15:58 Importance of patient retention 19:29 Challenges in hiring staff 22:27 Importance of communication in dentistry 25:04 Building a resilient hygiene department 30:51 Cost of inconsistency in practices 33:08 Importance of Effective Training 37:35 Importance of consistent patient communication 40:20 Improving patient care and retention 43:25 Improving team consistency and patient care 45:08 Building adaptable, resilient teams Quotes, Hooks, & Timestamps: "5 or 10 years ago, it was not uncommon to walk into an office where the entire team was, you know, was filled with full-time hygienists who had been there for at least a couple years, if not more." — Jaclyn [00:05:17 → 00:05:28] "I think the conversation just has to change instead of it being, you know, how do we get back to the way things used to be, right? How do we get back there? I think it's like we got to start thinking about how do we build a hygiene department that performs well and that works in today's market, in today's environment, because, you know, Today's environment is kind of sticking around and it's, it's not going to be gone tomorrow. So, we've got to figure out how to thrive in it." — Jaclyn [00:06:48 → 00:07:15] The broken system or the less than ideal system, it wins. And that's probably like the simplest way to put it. — Jaclyn [00:11:57 → 00:12:02] "If they actually have someone like coaching them and giving them feedback, they're really encouraged to keep improving and like rise to the occasion. Instead of like just feeling like they're surviving every single day, like, oh, thank God I got through today. Right." — Jaclyn [00:14:57 → 00:15:11] "Being an excellent, really talented clinician doesn't automatically mean that someone is comfortable having those hard conversations, telling a patient that they have periodontal disease and that they're going to need to come back for multiple visits or invest more than they initially thought they were gonna need to." — Jacyn [00:23:03 → 00:23:23] "It's all of those hundreds of small moments that happen every single day and they really compound, you know?" — Jaclyn [00:31:45 → 00:31:52] "So one of the things that I appreciate most about our hygiene trainings is that each training builds on the last. So we're not just, you know, like dropping information on a practice and keeping our fingers crossed, hoping that it sticks. We're helping them actually implement and then reinforcing it and then building on it." — Jaclyn [00:34:02 → 00:34:21] "Patients shouldn't receive like 4 different messages depending on which chair they're sitting in the office. We don't wanna create people who, again, it's like we don't want robots. We want people that are on the same page because being on the same page creates alignment." — Jaclyn [00:38:00 → 00:38:14] "If a patient saw every, not just hygienist, but provider in this practice over the next month, would they receive the same Would they hear the same message? Would they get the same recommendations? Would they receive the, the same philosophy? Would they leave feeling like the visit was like they got value, like they had a relationship with us, they understood why they needed to come back or why they needed to get the treatment that was recommended?" — Jaclyn [00:43:29 → 00:43:59]