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Dentists, Puns, and Money is a podcast focused on two things: The financial topics relevant to dentists leaving clinical practice and the stories and lessons of dentists who have already done so.
1. The stories of dentists who have transitioned from full-time clinical dentistry.
2. The financial topics that are relevant for dentists making that transition.
If you’re a dentist thinking about your exit from clinical, and you’d like to learn from the experiences of other dentists who have made that transition, be sure to subscribe to your favorite podcast app.
Host Shawn Terrell also dives deep into the many financial components of exiting dentistry, including tax reduction strategies and how to live off your assets.
And, we try to keep it light by mixing in a bad joke… or two.
Please note: Dentists, Puns, and Money was previously known as The Practice Growth Podcast until March 2022.
Dentists, puns, and money - ID 5 Transcription
Keywords: dentists, dentistry, implants, clinical dentistry, stress, podcast, deals, stressful, felt, started, office, reduced, burnout, stressed, free, jokes, career, book, wanted, patient.
Welcome to dentists, puns and money. I’m your host ShawnTerrell and my guest in this episode is Dr. Eric block. Dr. Block is a practicing dentist from Acton, Massachusetts, who battled burnout early in his career. Thanks to therapy and other adjustments Dr. Weiss loves his work again. And he's recently written a book called The stress free dentists. We dive into that as well as Dr. Blocks other various ventures within dentistry. As a reminder, our affiliated firm dentist Exit Planning helps dentists nearing clinical retirement, reduce their lifetime tax bill and replace their practice income so they don't have to compromise on the lifestyle they've come to love. If you are interested in financial guidance on your exit from dentistry, schedule an initial consultation with us on our website, which is dentist exit.com And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Eric block.
All right, Dr. Eric block Welcome to dentists puns in money. I am excited to hear your story and thank you
for joining us today. Thanks for having me, Shawn.
Let's start with giving the audience a little context about you and your work in dentistry. Could you share a little bit more about how you've reached
the current point of your career? Yeah, so I'm a full time practicing dentist in Acton Massachusetts with which is about 20 minutes, actually 30 minute I really think that I grew up here. I went to Tulane University undergrad not you know I was going to become a dentist even though my dad was a dentist and I've always been a was always was around dentistry. I actually went to lane to be eventually in the business school. And I sat through you know, statistics and microeconomics and macroeconomics, and I said, but this isn't for me and I ended up choosing psychology as a as a major because I still didn't really know what to do. in maybe psychology maybe physical therapy maybe position and Dentistry was kind of way down on the radar but, um, night I was intoxicated, which a lot of college students tend to do. And I just missed my mouse and I hit my number nine central incisor and I cracked it and a half and it literally walked around that night with half a tooth and felt no pain because I was you know, I had a few drinks to me. To this day. I still can't I have to very slowly drink a bottle of beer because it just like the incident still sticks with me but once you a local dentists the next day and they just really patched me up and I had loved the experience and how they gave me my smile back. I said you know what, maybe dentistry is something I could do. So I started to take all the prereq classes and I took the year off and taught tennis and took the DA GS and physics and and then I applied and got into Nova Southeastern and Fort Lauderdale. And then after that, I graduated in 2002 and then from 2002 to 2004. I did an employment residency at BU, which brought me back to the Boston area. And from there on, I've been a dentist in Acton, Massachusetts, and now I live in practice on the same town. So kind of my story of how I got to where I am.
We'll start with the first few years in clinical practice for you. I know in the biography you sent me ahead of time you you said that stress was a big problem for you. And that sort of led you down a path to helping other dentists with burnout and stress and trying to juggle how hard of a profession clinical dentistry can be. And owning a practice.
Yeah, and Shawn, I actually felt stressed throughout every phase of dentistry. The decision to go to dental school was stressful. Taking the DA T's and getting in was stressful. Of course the four years of dental school extremely stressful, then deciding what to do after dental school was stressful is associated, but you're working under someone else's roof and else's culture and someone else's equipment and supplies was was very challenging for me and then becoming an owner probably the most stressful part of dentistry is actually running your own business. But halfway through my career, I actually thought about leaving dentistry because I was so stressed. I was so nervous. I was so worried about a bad review or getting sued. I actually thought about leaving dentistry and going to law school so I could be the one doing the suing. I wanted to I wanted to flip the script. And but yeah, that was gonna happen because I had any loans and wasn't gonna go back to school at that time. So I I really said to myself that I have to do something because you can't live like this. I literally waited until I retired. I couldn't wait until the weekend so I could decompress from the week. Couldn't wait until five o'clock so I could decompress from the day. It got to the point where I couldn't wait until lunch to get out of there so I could go home or leave the office for an hour to decompress. So I was a psychology major at Tulane. And I always knew that I wanted to go through therapy, and I finally picked up the phone and call a local therapist and started going to therapy and really figured out you know what made me tick Why was the way I was and why I was so stressed and nervous and exhausted. And it took a while but I was able to bounce back. And I actually got to the point now where I love going into work every day I enjoy it. So I she wrote a book called The stress free dentist. And it's just kind of sharing my story of how I was able to be burnout. Because a lot of dentists they have this false belief that there's nothing they can do that it's just a stressful profession and is what it is it's the profession they chose but I wanted to share my story to prove that dental professionals out there that's not true. And life is too short to dread going into work every day. So that's my reasoning behind my book and helping dentists overcome burnout. A lot of interesting stuff there.
And I think most people would agree that in a vacuum dentistry in and of itself is a fairly stressful career compared to some other careers that are out there. Curious and this is you know, we're kind of teetering on a on a topic that can be sensitive to some people but as much as you're willing to share what did you learn from going through therapy about yourself and how to handle
dentistry? Yeah, I learned a lot and we dug in deep man, we went in deep into my childhood and really, you know what, it was all in my noggin. And what I found out I was doing was I was for sure putting way too much pressure on myself to be perfect. Trying to be everything to everyone was saying yes to everyone else, which a lot of times was saying no to myself. I was reading cases that were out of my comfort zone because I didn't want to tell patients no I didn't want to tell staff members. No. I was so afraid of getting into difficult confrontational conversation. I was just saying yes to everyone. And I was internalizing that a lot and because I really felt like I was I was saying no to myself. I learned that I you know, I really had to take care of myself before I could take care of others and a lot of times that means saying no have to treat every case or every patient. But the other thing that I really learned is that no I have a podcast and I speak I'm actually quite introverted and the profession was exhausting to me. You know, we go from room to room to room. And we always have to put on this happy face to the patient and give them this great patient experience. And you know, meanwhile, I just got done with an exhausting procedure or I have a patient that's crying in my chair because I just told him that they have to have their tooth extracted it's mentally and physically exhausting. Then I have to jump into the hygiene room and give that patient my A game and then go into another room. It's just that constant. interaction was really wearing me down. And I thought there was something wrong with me. And I would get home and I was just being so exhausted and I wouldn't have any energy for my wife and my kids. But I was able to understand that it's okay, to not be perfect. No one's gonna be perfect not to put too much pressure on myself. Not say yes to everyone and everything. And also understanding that, like I said, there's nothing wrong with me. This is just the way I'm wired. This is who I am. So those are some really major breakthroughs for me that helps me get less stressed.
What was that transformation like? Because I'm sure you know, you're discovering some of those things along the way but it's not a snap your fingers thing and then you know, that you're all stressed out. And then the next day Oh, I just got to say no more and it happens overnight. So I guess how long did that transformation take? And I guess what were some of the things that you learned through the transformation?
It probably took years. And it's not something that happens overnight. I think it's also very important to reach out to peers. You know, a lot of dentists are solo practitioners. They're in their own little bubble, and they don't have anyone to engage with. So it's so important to to reach out to other dental professionals because we get each other we know what we're going through. We live these parallel lives and it's so important to share your mistakes and failures and successes. Or the thing that really helped me was I reduced physical pain, to having physical pain can be extremely emotionally draining. So I had shoulder surgery about 10 years ago because I was having tremendous shoulder pain and dentistry, you know, back neck pain, shoulder pain, it's a wrist pain, it's so common, and if you're in pain, you're not happy, you know, Pain is pain, and it ended up changing how I worked. I actually stands now for all my procedures, and actually removed all the operatory chairs, my operatory stool. I have a stand up desk in my back office. I'm constantly stretching. I'm constantly doing yoga, like sun salutations in my back office, and I hang from a bar and not in a bar but a hang like like like a bar. All these things that I did in changing how I work. Let's use an isolation device. At work which is me with my left arm is my retracting arm so helps retract the cheek the lips, the tongue, so all these things have greatly reduced my my physical pain and they're it reduced a lot of emotional pain as well.
So interesting because, you know, I started in my career kind of cutting my teeth on intended selling disability insurance to dentists and that was always one of the big things that dentists wanted insurance for and that insurance companies would be on the lookout for was any pre existing condition with the back or the neck or the hands. So here you kind of talk about how you experienced that and then also some of the proactive steps that you've taken to help yourself there. It is really interesting to hear in practice. You wrote the book, the stress free dentist, and then you kind of touched on a little bit too, but I would imagine that you know, technology has been really helpful, the last. It's always evolving but like the last five or 10 years, there's this huge prevalence of dental Facebook groups where other dentists, as you mentioned, can sort of commiserate and talk to each other and support each other and kind of deal with some of the things that everyone is dealing with out there. You also have a couple of Facebook groups that you're involved with as well. Could you share a little bit more there?
So I started the stress free dentistry Facebook group as well or a place for dental professionals to go. And there's so many groups out there that are great. There's you know, there's so many ways to engage now that we have the digital digital world and the post COVID world so many more people are on Zoom and just it's just so much easier to engage. Also very involved with I love dentistry, and it's just such a great way to get out there. And like I said, to not just talk about, you know, successes but also failures and mistakes and good advice.
Shifting gears a little bit. Now, one of your other projects that you have outside of clinical dentistry is a website that you created a couple years ago called deals for dentists. What is that and how does it help the dental industry
so actually you can see behind me the I have a podcast as well. So associated with the website. So actually, during the quarantine literally said to myself, I can't just my office was shut down and said I can't just sit here and eat my kids leftover diner nuggets, I got to do something. So I had this idea for a website and it was wanted to bring the trade show price directly to the dental office or any new customer offer that a company had. New accounts special such as with implants. Get you know by 20 implants get a free surgical kit type of thing. I wanted to reach out to as many companies as possible to display their new accounts specials. And then I reached out to a lot of dentists. And my goal is to connect the two connect dentists to a new customer offers are out there and kind of see what companies are across the country. And from there I was having such great conversations with both dentists and companies hear their stories and how they got into dentistry and how they helped dentists. I said you know what, this could be a podcast. So that's where the podcast came from. And I think we just launched our 100 and fifth episode and we're getting about over 1000 downloads a month. And that's kind of where the podcast came from. And I just love hearing people's stories and how they got into dentistry and how they help other dentists. One of the
worries or complaints that I hear from private practice dentists a lot is how you know the economies of scale in corporate dentistry. What corporate dentistry is such an advantage so deals for dentists Is that another way to sort of maybe get a little bit more purchasing power for the end have more independent dentists that are out there. Is that how it works or am I totally missing missing the mark?
It's, you're right on and it's you know we're never going to be able to compete with purchasing power of a you know, like a large DSO but it used to have wrapped I would call it a local rep of a dental company such as an implant company. Say hey, what kind of you know New Account special Can you give me and usually there was a discount or usually there was some kind of package deal I could get. I started doing it just Jon's just implants and calling other companies and they wanted to categorize it and make it organized and show dentists you know all across the country that you have to do is ask and I wanted to make it as parents so that dentists could see what kind of specials are out there and you don't have to wait until the trade show. That's a way that a lot of dentists used to shop it was they would wait until the local trade show and then get the trade you know the trade show discount. And I wanted to bring that directly to the dentist office, especially nowadays since kind of trade shows are not what they used to be. I wanted to bring that discount right to the dental office.
What's the response been in the marketplace? I know you're only a couple years in but what sort of feedback have you received
it's been great because it's a way for not only for dentists to go to see to get some discounts but it creates awareness for companies. It helps companies that are starting up, create that brand awareness helps dentists see what other companies are out there and what kind of offers are out there because you know, Dennis, right now especially need to save as much money as possible and try to make as much revenue as possible. So it's just a way to help and get discounts and see what companies are out there. So interesting.
Another benefit of technology is just in the last five years, you know, everything in my industry used to be so gee, you know, geographic specific, like I wouldn't really work with dentists outside of Central Iowa or Iowa, sort of in general. But now for me it's become sort of a national or even a global marketplace in some instances. And you know what you were kind of talking about with trade show was, you know, dentists might go to the one that's in their state or you know, one state over Chicago are the big ones that are out there, but you know, they couldn't put all the trade shows all over the country. So I think you know, getting the best deals that are available out geographic limitations is a really cool deal.
Yeah, so the Yankee den Alton, that's a big one here in New England. And dentists would just wait. You know, they'd wait until you know the Yankee dental and other shopping for, you know, for most of the year, and that one weekend, but those big conferences aren't what they used to be. And I just didn't want them to start to wait and to develop the deals immediately.
like to spend a few minutes kind of on your career as an author, obviously, you wrote the stress free dentists that we've talked about, but you also wrote the stress free.
Was it stress free implants? Stress free dental implants. How
did those two books differ are the same, maybe go a little deeper there.
Oh, the stress free dentist was my first book and that's just really all about my story of how I overcame burnout and the stress free dental implants which I just wrote in 2022. That came out in July and both of them are available on Amazon or you can go to the stress free dentist.com and get the links to buy those books. Stress free dental implants was all about my journey with dental implants because I've been doing implants you know, both place and restorative for 20 years. And initially they were one of the most stressful procedures I did. And a lot of that was because I was planning on to D technology and I was free handing my surgeries. I started to reinvigorate my implant journey by going 3d. And now I place all my implants surgically guided, and I actually 3d print my own guides. And that has extremely reduced the amount of stress to the point where plants are now one of the most enjoyable procedures I do all day. And also, this technology that we have a cone beam in our office will actually plan the case right in front of the patient and they are totally wowed by the technology. So typically they will sign up for treatment. That also gives me a way to see if it's a case that I actually want to get involved with. I see that case in 3d and plan the implant. And I say that this may not be a case that is in my comfort zone, in which case I'll refer to a colleague. So that has reduced a lot of stress for me as well whereas planning on 2d technology, a lot of the times I would just hope and pray that there was enough bone or I had my drill in the right position. So this was just all about my kind of my journey and how created implants to be one of the most financially rewarding but also one of the most enjoyable procedures I do in my general practice. It's great and you're working on a children's book as well. So you really like to write actually enjoy it and I was by no means a writer I was like a C plus student in high school and English and writing were not one of my strong students for sure. I just the more I do it, the better you get at it. It's like a muscle. You know, the more you do something, you get better and you just keep doing it. And I write articles and blogs and I'm on my bashing my third book called The stress free entrepreneur. And I'm actually writing a children's book. You just get better at it and when I write, it's like hours could go by and I kind of been in the zone writing so it's actually relaxing for me. It's something I really enjoy doing.
The opposite of me. I wrote a book and I did not enjoy the process that much and I'm an English major. That was one of the majors I had in college. So I like to read I'm just really slow at it and that makes it kind of stressful for me, I guess. There's so many different things you're involved in outside of clinical dentistry. How do you juggle it all? And I know you're also a father as well.
Yeah, I have two kids and seven and nine year olds. And I actually find that having all these other things going on. You can call them side gigs or whatever you want to call them. Just being an entrepreneur in general has really helped me within my office and clinical dentistry. I feel like if I didn't have these other things going on, then we'll just be thinking about the office, the office, the office, the office. And now like for example, yesterday, I had a few cancellations in my schedule, and I was like cool, I'll go work on some other things. So I squeezed it all in you know, a lot of times it's in between patients. Or like today I have the day off on my clinical practice and I'm just working on podcasts and finishing up with a book and I have a live Facebook coming up returning emails so I just I fit it all in but like we were chatting about earlier I enjoy doing it so it doesn't feel like work to me it just feels like you know I'm very busy. But I enjoy doing it all and I just make it all fit ball squeezes in and still have time at you know at the at five o'clock to go help you know coach my kids soccer team, so it all works out.
Awesome. As we start to wrap up here, is there anything I haven't hit on that you think would be important to convey to the audience?
The name of the podcast is dentists puns, and money. You have a good dental pun joke that you'd like to share.
Yeah, whenever I have kids and even sometimes adults, like to crack jokes, and a good one that I like to say is why did the banana go to the hospital? No, no, it's going well. Sorry,
I jumped over here. Why did the banana go to the hospital? wasn't feeling well.
Very good. Why did the bite of the cookie go to the doctor? Don't know why the cookie went to the doctor feeling crummy these are these are just these are gems that if you don't get to get anything from this podcast, couple these jokes use on kids they love it. They love little jokes
and smile. A little bit more to I think we all need to hear that sometimes
have mastered the dad jokes and tell jokes. The two of those combined I get a lot of eye rolling but it's you know,
fun. It's a great Venn diagram dad jokes and dental jokes right yeah, they overlap pretty much. Yeah, they overlap quite a bit. Eric, for people that are listening that are interested in reaching out to you about the stress free dentist or deals for dentists.com What's the best way to connect and get in touch?
So you can email me info at the stress free dentist.com And you can join us on a stress free dentistry
Facebook group. That is Dr. Eric block stress free dentist and founder of deals for dentists.com. Dr. Eric, thank you for sharing your story, your expertise and for being a guest on dentists ponds and money.
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Thanks for listening and following along. Are you a dentist nearing your retirement from clinical or have you already hung up your handpiece? Would you like to learn more about ways to reduce your taxes and generate income from your assets in retirement? Our affiliated firm dentist Exit Planning might be able to help you with those two things. Schedule an initial consultation with us on our website. Our web address is dentist exit.com There's no obligation for your initial consultation again schedule that initial consultation at dentist exit.com. As for our disclosure, Dentist Exit Planning and Terrell advisors is a registered investment advisor. The information presented should not be interpreted or construed as investment, legal tax financial planning or wealth management advice. It does not substitute for personalized investment or financial planning from dentists to Exit Planning or Terrell advisors. This podcast conveys the views and opinions of Sean Terrell and his guests and the information herein should not be considered a solicitation to engage in a particular investment or financial planning strategy. information presented is for educational purposes only and past performance is not indicative of future results.