Innovative Strategies for Dental Practice Success: Dr. William Moorhead’s Approach

William Moorhead  00:00 

and just not want to give that up. I’m one that is okay with plodding along slowly and getting momentum until it finally happens and praise the Lord had finally did. 

 

Shawn Zajas  00:12 

The future of dentistry belongs to the innovators. Welcome to innovation in dentistry. I’m your host, Shawn Zajas. And I believe that the future of dentistry is going to be unbelievably great over the next decade in two decades. But the question isn’t that the question is, 

 

00:29 

are you going to be part of what makes dentistry great? 

 

Shawn Zajas  00:42 

Okay, today, I am so excited to have the opportunity to interview Dr. William Morehead. So, before I set you up, Doctor, let me just say thank you so much for letting me interview you today. Certainly. Okay, so as I said, So BJ, you know, innovation in dentistry, it can mean a lot of different things. It could be technological innovation we’re talking about or it could be clinical innovation. But before any of those innovations actually hit the marketplace, they first start in some individual that has some mindset or belief set. That’s like, why why not me? Why can’t I step up, and pioneer positive change. And you are one of those individuals that not only are you a dentist, and that is more than enough, but you just continue to step up, and lead and pioneer positive change. So tell us a little bit about what it is that you’re doing right now. 

 

William Moorhead  01:41 

Right now, I am teaching an IV moderate sedation class to other dentists. And I am offering a product of the cloud based software that gives dental offices checklists for running a dental office, a tremendous Onboarding Tool, tremendous tool for being able to standardize things in airproof. The practice. 

 

Shawn Zajas  02:04 

Okay, so that’s a very entrepreneurial. I don’t know like solution, the value that you’re providing in doing that. Did you like when did you realize like, Hey, I’m not just a dentist. I’m entrepreneurial, and there’s more value that I want to bring the marketplace. 

 

William Moorhead  02:24 

If you look at the concept of checklists, the book Atul Gawande wrote back in the mid nothing was about 05/07 was The Checklist Manifesto. He’s a surgeon, US born in the Northeast us, he was the head of the World Health Organization back 15 years ago. And he applied the concept of aviation, to medicine, and absolutely revolutionize things. For instance, it used to be you would go into the hospital, and you received the standard bracelets identifying yourself. But that bracelet only happened if you were impatient. Nowadays, outpatients receive that same thing. And like I went from my blood test couple months ago for my annual physical, they put on a bracelet that I go up to the lab, they asked me what my name is, my date of birth, they make sure it matches the bracelet and matches all their pay for paperwork. That type of standard operating procedure approach keeps wires from being crossed, bloodwork from being scrambled and errors from being made that could be life threatening. So I got interested in this because I’ve done sedation since 2000. And I trained in IV sedation in 09. And within the first few months of doing the IV sedation, I had a patient in the office that I just met the week before it was a Monday morning, I remember like it was last week. And he had followed all the instructions. This guy was seventy years old, easy health history, nothing complicated. He would come in really in bad pain. His wife made him come in. But he’s a doctor, you just got to help me I can’t deal with this anymore. And he had a mouth full of bad teeth. I think we had to remove six or eight teeth. But he put it off for decades because he was so scared. Anyway, we’re taught with older adults to go low and go slow. Go low with the doses slowly because the typical thing that we use most to sedate for moderate and moderate sedation in dentistry is Midazolam brand name versus and it has a more profound effect on senior adults. So I gave them not two milligrams, but one milligram. I waited not one minute but two, and I’m listening to the pulse oximeter and I’ve done this with oral sedation for nine years before done it with IV sedation for four or five I had months. And I’m used to hearing the the number that beep, go down, beep, beep beep, showing that the breathing is going down and reflex, I tip the head back, like you’re talking basic life support. And I reached for the oxygen, nasal surani and turned it on. It didn’t come on. And we were radios in the office. I radioed my team. And I said, and it wasn’t nice about it. I said somebody didn’t turn on the oxygen get it on now. And I swear it, it seemed like it had to be five minutes was probably 30-45 seconds. And they come back on the radio and they say, Doctor, all the tanks are empty. And worst, all the emergency tanks were empty too. And I did what no one should do during an emergency I panicked. I just lost my wits. And all I did was lash out at my team. worst possible reaction you could have. The hero of the day was my reception, she took me up the hall and she looked me square in the eye and said, Doctor, this is doing no good use lashing out, you know how to handle this, get your act together. And it rattled the cage. And I hadn’t even grabbed the bag mag mass valve to to resuscitate the patient. But we got that we got the reversal agent, the patient was fine. no issues whatsoever was even able to do the appointment. But that was really a wake up call. And so I grew up with OCD parents, I already had a mindset where checklists would work well, and I knew I had to do something different. And I told my team that we were changing the whole way we do things. And that was the birth of the SLP concept to my office. 

 

Shawn Zajas  06:48 

I was gonna say so you’re talking about checklists. But beyond what someone might think of as a checklist as like a to do list, you’re really talking about a high level systems and high level processes, like you said, the standards of procedures. You know, the irony here is that when I looked at DSOs, and I was trying to figure out why is it that DSOs are emerging. And this is like 12 years ago, in dentistry at the same exact time, when most corporate expressions in commerce were on the decline. You have Kmart on the decline, you have, you know, just different big type stores on the decline and everything was moving toward bespoke offerings, you know, bespoke coffee shops were on the rise. And I’m like, why is it that in dentistry, instead of the the general, independent practice being able to thrive, all of a sudden, this corporate expression was able to show up. And I realized it was because of a lack of systems, a lack of processes where there could be competitive. So the big fortune 500 guys were like, hey, a dentistry is making tons of money. There’s a lot of money to be had here and be dentists don’t know how to manage their practice that well. So here we can slide in with a different competitive advantage. So you realize, Wow, we need to level up the checklist, we need to level up the SOPs. But what made it so that 

 

William Moorhead  08:15 

private dentists don’t have to give up to the corporation’s, they can incorporate the same systems. So I created a class. The trouble with systems is, it’s typically this great big notebook that you’re paging through things. And because it’s cumbersome, you get it out only when you’re first starting. But then you put it away. And if you need it, you have to dust it off. And it doesn’t keep current. So I wanted a different approach. I created software where we could do a cloud based where it was easy, easily customizable, a relational database where if you change something one place, the system recognizes if it’s 20 or 40, other places and offers a change. It’s what builds on itself, and finally made it easy. 

 

Shawn Zajas  09:02 

Okay, so BJ, this is where I have to stop you because you’re a dentist, you’re not someone that is trained to see where there could be a need and go let me create software. 

 

William Moorhead  09:15 

So I didn’t write the software. I wrote the content. Okay. 

 

Shawn Zajas  09:19 

No, no, but still, so So back up a little bit. Was this the first time that you you read something and said, let me not only implement it in my practice, but create something where I can lead the industry? And was it was it the first time or was it something that I the last few decades, you’ve done multiple times? 

 

William Moorhead  09:37 

I started out in my office thinking I was going to create something for my office. I started out with Excel with checkmarks on how to set up for the basic procedure. And we had a Word document that was 100 pages long maybe that had every procedure that we do and what we get out with hyperlinks to where you could get at it, but someone looked at it and said, you know, there’s a better way to do that. And so initially, we created an HTML website that was not customizable, but it was really easy to access and, and then then then the ball started rolling in all the pieces started coming together. 

 

Shawn Zajas  10:17 

Now, at this time again, this is outside of what I would say, a dentist core competencies are, were you I don’t know nervous that that you either invest time, resources, energy and it wouldn’t pan out. Was it just becoming like a fun side hobby for you? Like what what are you going through as, as like you said, the pieces are coming together, were you excited knowing that this could be a business of its own 

 

William Moorhead  10:43 

when it finally occurred, but my internal inset initially was do it for ourselves, to help us airproof The Office and not have that potential calamity plus have the advantage of being more efficient to where profits would rise and and naturally happen. 

 

Shawn Zajas  11:03 

Now, how long ago was this, like timewise is this like five years ago is this 10 years ago, 

 

William Moorhead  11:07 

started in 2010. That event that I told you about was oh nine. And so we started the Word and Excel thing in 09 and then went from there. 

 

Shawn Zajas  11:18 

Now, as a dentist, you said you’ve been practicing for quite a long time was the business side of dentistry initially, like in the first decade, a challenge for you? 

 

William Moorhead  11:30 

Always, I don’t think any dentist comes out of dental school where they know what they’re doing with the business side. I have a father that is a retired banker that had he just really wasn’t nepotism, he offered me a job when I was 15. In the bank when he was president, but fine print, I had to work all summer as an intern with no salary to be able to get that job. But I learned some basic principles there to where I felt comfortable with bookkeeping and that kind of stuff. When I started practice, it was before computers were in dental offices. And I started out I had put that bank, small community bank on an off premise system where some of the work was sent to a bureau and they processed the checks and created statements. So I started out doing the same thing in my office before there were computers. And then five, six years later, when the first PCs were coming out, that’s that’s what I was doing. 

 

Shawn Zajas  12:34 

So it sounds like you are very much a self learner, like you said, you’re reading this book. And all of a sudden, you see, well, here’s an example of some some model that revolutionized an industry. And you’re like, Why Why not in my practice? Why not in dentistry? Now, it was just a common thing. 

 

William Moorhead  12:52 

Actually, I did it backwards. I started creating the checklists had not ever read The Checklist Manifesto, which did, it’s so much better had it way too complicated and unusable. Well, not as usable as it should be. And then read The Checklist Manifesto. And, oh, that’s it, and then went back and redid things. 

 

Shawn Zajas  13:12 

But I think that’s actually brilliant. I love that example. Because I always tell people like it’s almost better to launch, and then learn, then try to do all the prep work. And try to be 99% prepared, and then launch your thing because it’s actually hard to learn in just the land of theory. Here you are, 

 

William Moorhead  13:32 

we hold ourselves back if we wait until we’ve got it perfect to be able to do it. 

 

Shawn Zajas  13:36 

So did you like when did you connect those dots? Has that just always been you? You just knew Hey, step out, learn not a big deal. No fear around that. 

 

William Moorhead  13:45 

I won’t say that. Because, well, let’s take it back to childhood. I was playing piano at age six. But when my dad took me out to the yard and through softball to me to let me try something or took me golfing for the first time if I wasn’t instantly good at those things that gave up quickly. So there’s no rhyme or reason for that, fortunately. 

 

Shawn Zajas  14:10 

But I think what I found is that people that typically, like when it doesn’t work out the first time, it’s because there’s a certain level of excellence they have in so many areas. I have a daughter like that. So that when there’s an area where there’s not immediate excellence, sometimes it’s like, it’s harder because you’re already known for being great at other things like were you great at piano, we’re probably not you had to start somewhere. Right. 

 

William Moorhead  14:31 

I was great at piano and I couldn’t I had a gentleman I knew there was a professor at a university near here that told someone that I could have been a concert pianist, that’s one of the best compliments I’ve ever had in music. 

 

Shawn Zajas  14:47 

So So BJ Do you feel like that musician that artists that I’m good with my hands? did that translate to clinically I’m I’m good with my hands like was there any translation there or am I just reaching? 

 

William Moorhead  15:01 

no doubt about it. I am not ambidextrous, but I have some ability to be able to go back and forth. The musician side, gave the art side to where I liked. I like both the science and the art of dentistry. So I was a natural fit. I wanted to be a dentist when I was in middle school. Don’t tell me how I wanted to I just wanted to from that far back. 

 

Shawn Zajas  15:24 

I think that’s crazy uncommon to have something that you want that stays the same year after year after year. So when you finally have the option to pursue a career, you’re still like, yeah, dentistry. Do you remember some you know, in the first five years, what some of those I would say, like, less than obvious moments in dentistry where you’re like, wow, I wasn’t expecting dentistry to be like this. Do you remember any of those? 

 

William Moorhead  15:51 

When I started practice, interest rates were 18%. And I started a scratch practice, which was, is definitely unusual nowadays, and was not that common back then as well. So I did about everything that you could do wrong. And I came, I told you, I have parents that are both. I had no chance they are so OCD. I mean, when I was growing up, you could go in the basement of a house and eat off the floor. That’s how OCD they were. And so, wow, I fit in dentistry well, because there’s so many analyticals that are dentists. I also went to dental school, when everything was negative reinforcement. And it held me back so badly because it took me decades to get past and realize that it’s not all about me, these people around me that are working for me are important. And if I don’t treat them, right, they don’t stay. And like I said it helped. It helped me back so badly. If I could give anything besides what I teach on the IV sedation side, and the and the SOP side to a dentist will be the ability to look at themselves inside and ask, are you happy with yourself? Are you treating the people around you? Right? Because you cannot succeed in a profession. Unless you have those skills. Even if you’re not a people person, you’ve got to care about the people around you. 

 

Shawn Zajas  17:27 

Now I can understand like growing up with such clear principles, expectations, cleanliness, that going into dentistry, you probably also had very rigid expectations of those around you. Was it something that you had to grow into where you’re like, I just need to also know when to to give grace to some extent to to nurture those around me that maybe aren’t at the same level of excellence? 

 

William Moorhead  17:57 

That’s absolutely right. And it took me way too long. I’m thankful that God had patience with me. I’m also thankful that some loved ones around me had patients with me. 

 

Shawn Zajas  18:09 

Yeah, I mean, it sounds like a lot of your team has had had a lot of patients. So what was like a mindset that you feel like you needed to adopt now since 2009, when all of a sudden the light bulb comes on and you’re like, Man, this checklist idea could really change our practice. From from then till now, where again, this has been to market for a long time where people can can utilize this. What was the mindset you had to adopt in order to get to where you’re at today? 

 

William Moorhead  18:40 

I didn’t take the typical with the software stuff. I didn’t take the typical entrepreneur get investors kind of thing. I kept working on it. I started building it during the great recession when I didn’t have a patient in the chair I would go work on the SOPs and same thing even with with COVID that the product was principally belt but I felt a I have had a number of ways that we could be able to adapt and change and improve things. So I am thankful that I use my time well I don’t sit around and watch TV a whole lot I find things to be able to be productive 

 

Shawn Zajas  19:19 

was there a time as you’re bringing this to market and launching that you just kind of like I don’t know question whether it was ever going to work like you know I don’t want to say like a dark night of the soul doesn’t have to be that bad but just something where you’re like I don’t think this is going to work was there ever a moment when things look kind of darker bleak? 

 

William Moorhead  19:38 

Yes, and I’m just not wanting to give that up I’m one that is okay with plodding along slowly and getting momentum until it finally happens and praise the Lord it finally did. 

 

Shawn Zajas  19:53 

Because I think there’s so many I think there’s so many listeners BJ that that’s the reason why they don’t start some thing is there’s, there’s just that what if it doesn’t work? Or what if I look foolish to other people because I’m trying something publicly and 

 

William Moorhead  20:09 

both what if it does work? If you don’t give it a chance, you never know 

 

Shawn Zajas  20:15 

what there you go, that’s, that’s a mindset that’s gold. What it does, I love that. 

 

William Moorhead  20:21 

When I teach IV sedation and I’m a partner with a another dentist, we created a company to teach moderate IV sedation. We’re based in Kentucky, but I had created all of these systems on how to be able to do moderate sedation safely. And one of the compliments that we get is, you finally have made it really practical. So we teach the science side that you have to but since we’re not nearly rubber, certain academics, were able to help those dentists that learn under us a very practical approach to where it can be easy to put together and follow things that I’ve already pre built to where you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. 

 

Shawn Zajas  20:58 

I mean, that’s amazing. So when did you become an educator? Because I’m guessing you were clinical dentists for some time, and then all of a sudden, you realize, Wow, I have the ability to educate, teach and lead. When did that happen? 

 

William Moorhead  21:11 

The last 10 years that I’ve been speaking, when I was president of the State Dental Association, I enjoyed being able to speak to my State Dental Association, and motivate and get things done. And that’s when the speaker bug kind of did me and then went from there. 

 

Shawn Zajas  21:32 

I can’t put my finger on you, because I didn’t know you were the president before was the the state association and Kentucky 

 

William Moorhead  21:39 

State Association. That’s been about a decade ago. That was an awesome year, a lot of work but an awesome year. 

 

Shawn Zajas  21:46 

So So even that, I’m just saying like, as you’re evaluating things, you’re plugging along. When did that become on your radar? That that’s something that you could possibly do. 

 

William Moorhead  21:56 

If you would have told me 25 years ago that I would ever aspire to do any of that stuff. I would have laughed you out of the room. But I’m thankful that the doors opened at the right time, and I was willing to walk through them. 

 

Shawn Zajas  22:13 

Would you seem very ready to walk through doors? That’s something I’m picking up? Because it seems like a lot of it seems like the opportunities that present themselves you aren’t afraid to, to explore? 

 

William Moorhead  22:26 

Well, of course. 

 

Shawn Zajas  22:31 

So a non athletic endeavor, is that correct? That would be accurate. And you’ve stayed in the industry in dental, right? 

 

William Moorhead  22:38 

Yes. Yes. Love it. 

 

Shawn Zajas  22:42 

So do you again, I could be wrong. Have you already published a book? 

 

William Moorhead  22:46 

No. And that’s one thing that so far I haven’t really embraced i I’ve written some articles. But it’s not something that that makes me feel terribly fulfilled. I do that like, when we put the IV sedation class together, it requires 60 hours of didactic training to teach a moderate IV sedation class and I have the we put together 32 hours that we do on Zoom, we do two weekends, where there’s a total of four, eight hour days that we present before we bring the class together in Louisville to do live stuff, and I really enjoyed getting all those PowerPoints together and looking at all the journal articles that I could all the things that I had been taught when I did IV sedation and being able to call us that stuff. That was fine. But sitting down to write a book, or even an article is cumbersome for me. Maybe Maybe I need a ghostwriter. 

 

Shawn Zajas  23:46 

You know, that’s not a bad idea. Because there’s definitely a book at least maybe even two books in you from everything that you’re saying. Just even your your journey. I feel like it’s so unorthodox. Now, from your perspective, as an educator and as a consultant. What do you feel like is some of the mindsets you see that limit the students that you have that are coming along that maybe, you know, they’re just not as experienced? Like, are there any common mindsets that you see that are holding them back? 

 

William Moorhead  24:14 

Oh, answer the question two ways. For the dentists that that enroll in our IV classes. where they’re going, they’re putting out the funds to be able to do an advanced training like that. They’ve already stepped up, they are already upper tier top 5% that want to make their practice, really go because IV sedation is probably the most valuable way that you can increase your practice. On the flip side to get dentists to use standard operating procedures. The checklist approach is much harder because we have in mind in dentistry, that well we’ve got it all up here. So why do we need to bother with those checklists? But the dentists don’t realize that the people that we hire are often high school graduates, some college, not too many that have college degrees, but we expect them to think on a doctoral level. But we don’t want to give them the resources to do that. By being able to use the checklist standard operating procedure approach, you can be able to simplify it so much that it becomes practical for someone that doesn’t have that advanced degree, to be able to think, in an advanced degrees fate. For instance, one of the things that I have, in my dental software are in when we’re seeing a new patient. Nowadays, medical histories have gotten really complex. It’s not unusual to have patients come in several times a week, there have 10-15, medicines, polypharmacy, all kinds of medical things going on. And what typically happens is the dental assistant seats the patient emergency visit, comprehensive exam, we they see the patient, they take a blood pressure, they go through the list of yes knows that the patient’s marked on their medical history and write down the medications that the patient takes, then the dentist comes in. And for typical situation is going to spend two or three minutes going through that and putting the pieces together. And but it can be six, eight minutes or worse. I have some patients that come in from the VA that it can take 15 minutes to decipher it all. So I took the questions that all dentists know up here that we’re going to ask when a patient has diabetes, when they have high blood pressure, etc. And I wrote them down. And then the dental assistant, the hygienist can ask those questions, put that information on the practice management system. And voila, all of it’s done before the dentist comes in. So it’s the same amount of time. But if it’s the ability to be able to delegate, and my team feels empowered, they really feel good that they can be able to do that kind of stuff. 

 

Shawn Zajas  27:17 

Okay, so just to clarify, so the checklist system of yours that is a software, it’s the software is one of the same with the checklist. It’s not like you could receive a training on this checklist way of processes without using the software they’re wondering, 

 

William Moorhead  27:35 

that’s not right, you can if a doctor is motivated and wants to do it on their own, I can teach them how to do that when I do presentations at State Dental meetings, study clubs, whatever, I show both ways. And I’m very careful in a dental association type of setting not to make a commercial. So I show them exactly what steps you’ve got to go through to do a checklist. And then I say if you don’t want to do it, shoot me an email. And let me show you another way. 

 

Shawn Zajas  28:07 

Okay, okay, so the software can just help elevate. Using this, it’s just going to make it so much simpler to implement in your product.  

 

William Moorhead  28:15 

Because most dentists are not going to take the time, they don’t have the time. I don’t want to take the time to be able to build it from the ground up. But you can do it either way. 

 

Shawn Zajas  28:24 

So if I went, if I’m a dentist, and I’m hearing this right now, I’m thinking okay, BJ, like you, you must understand, I go to lots of conferences, I learned lots of different things. And I go back to my practice, and I try to implement them. And I 

 

William Moorhead  28:38 

How often do you implement That’s the trouble most of us, if you don’t implement promptly, you forget about it and never happens. 

 

Shawn Zajas  28:48 

So is that the primary thing? Is it just promptly like what did? What have you learned and how you can implement change in your practice? Because it sounds like you have a lot of leadership techniques, that maybe maybe you just take it for granted and don’t realize what you’ve learned. But enacting change in an office is a challenge. And it seems like it’s something you’re really good at BJ. 

 

William Moorhead  29:08 

I’m thankful that I’m good at it. But I had plenty of time to learn because I goofed it up many times before that. 

 

Shawn Zajas  29:16 

So I’m just saying, so one of the main things if I’m hearing this, what would you say would be either a hurdle I could expect when trying to implement this in my practice. Like, like, what are some of the common struggles that practices have as they’re trying to raise, you know, or get compliance with their whole team to follow this process?  

 

William Moorhead  29:35 

The team has to see that there’s something in it for them, because if they have, likewise, always been doing it the same way, and they feel like they’re doing it, okay, because they’ve never done it any other way, then there’s always that resistance to change. So if you give them some incentive, to be able to change whether it’s monetary praise is a bit One point, because if you can be able to catch your team member doing something right and praise them, it’s huge. I like the carrot approach much better than the stick approach. Being able to be taking an approach of punishing someone for not doing it is not productive. So catch them doing something right. With the the beauty of the checklist approach is that when the let’s say, for instance, this is written in for both the business office side, which the DSOs have done an excellent job as well. And I’ve rented them for the clinical side. But like when a dental office, you go in an office in, there’s an office that I have in Fresno, California, that uses my software. And when I went into their office, to interview him and get testimonials, the dental assistant said, I’ve got four doctors and each of them do everything different. But every time we use the SOPs, we’re ready every time and it makes us look good. Now that’s incentive. But you got to start you got to start, you got to be willing to start with the change first, and see a little bit past. But we’ve always done it that way. 

 

Shawn Zajas  31:17 

I think that’s great that you even said it that way. Because I feel like so many dentists want to differentiate, and they want to be different, but then they end up just doing what every other practice is doing. And I’m not talking about systems, I’m just talking about, like marketing, ways in which they could stand out. And it’s like both, it’s challenging. It takes courage to try something new, or it takes courage to really pioneer and that seems like something that you just have built in. Because there’s, I would say it’s so uncommon BJ for dentists to even get the open doors that you have, and, and walk through them with the confidence that you have with the I don’t know, almost like, I don’t wanna say certainty, because there’s no certainty. But you’ve done such a great job of actually, like getting things off the ground that work, whether that’s your consulting company, or whether it is the software. And I just want to commend you for that, like I knew the struggle, when it comes to creating change when it comes to creating a company and a software solution, just managing all those pieces. I know 

 

William Moorhead  32:28 

perhaps there’s perhaps it’s just stubbornness of not being willing to give up. 

 

Shawn Zajas  32:35 

I think resilience and grit is probably a huge part of it. But also, there’s just so much uncertainty whenever you starting endeavor. And it doesn’t seem like you entertain that a lot. It doesn’t seem like you meditate on or focus on what could go wrong. Or what if this fails, it seems like you almost have the blinders on. And you’re like, it’s gonna work. And I’m just gonna keep at it until it works. 

 

William Moorhead  32:59 

After a divorce 11 years ago, in a really bad depression for a year because didn’t want it and didn’t expect it. I stopped reading, I stopped watching TV news. If I keep up with current events, but I read them. I started reading positive books to uplift me and my whole mindset changed. I’m not thankful that that divorce happened. But I’m thankful that I was able to learn and change from what happened with it. 

 

Shawn Zajas  33:29 

BJ that that’s amazing, because I was talking about how bad things happen, like traumas tragedies that we don’t want. And in the midst of those, if we really like search deep, you can find gold that can really help transform your life, and bring it so it goes from a tragedy to triumph. And divorce is terrible. You know, it just it’s like a bomb that goes off. And it’s really hard to pick back up the pieces. And a lot of people end up having that be a reason why they can’t attain the life that they want. 

 

William Moorhead  34:04 

Whether whether it’s divorce, or it’s lose a loved one to death or some other tragic event. We all have things that don’t go right. And if you can take, take the bad things and find something good from them. It always works out. That’s what maturity means. And fortunately most of us do mature and doctors that are there watching this. You wouldn’t have graduated dental school unless you already were excelling. You have it in you and if you haven’t already allowed it to express itself. It’s going to happen just opened the door. 

 

Shawn Zajas  34:43 

I love that because that’s exactly my message is that I think dentistry. I know it’s going to be great feature in the next 10 years. My whole challenge to everyone listening is are they going to be part of what makes it great? Are they just going to be on the sideline and watch as other people step up as other people innovate? as other people come up with software solutions that make a difference in dentistry, like you have, as other people end up educating, and I’m not saying everyone can create a software or that everyone should educate, but people can hear between the lines of what we’re saying, what it is in the back of their head that they keep putting on the backburner, or they keep making excuses for and it’s like, just just stop like, this is your time. You can do it. I’m super curious about your perspective. On the next like five years in dentistry? Like what what in what ways do you feel? I don’t know. Either. Different forces are going to shape the future of dentistry. I’m just curious, because I feel like you have a probably a pretty good pulse on what’s happening. 

 

William Moorhead  35:47 

I think artificial intelligence is going to be big, as long as we don’t get lazy and get dependent on it. Because it’s a tool that will help give us information more quickly. But we can’t just automatically, I mean, software, any software has bugs in it. I mean, back in the 1960s, when they promised what computers were going to do, and it’s going to make us so much more productive. And what wound up happening is of all the productivity we gained out of it, we wound up putting just as much effort into keeping up with the bugs, and the spam and the dishonest stuff that goes on, to be able to keep up the viruses in the like just to be able to keep things running. Artificial Intelligence may have the same issues we’ll see. But it’s got some some exciting promise there. Likewise, to do just with the private side of dentistry versus the DSL side. I keep hearing from any dentists that works for DSL, I want my own practice. The ABA predicts that 20 years from now 60% of practice, practices will still be private practice. And so if there’s the dream and you’re young dentist, don’t give up on it. There’s so much there for all of us. 

 

Shawn Zajas  37:16 

Okay, so if I am a young dentist right now, I’m thinking, Okay, this guy started his own scratch practice. He’s literally just like, learned through trying so many different areas like I would love for you to be a mentor to be a coach to be a consultant. How do people get a hold of you? Where do you want them to go? 

 

William Moorhead  37:38 

You can find me software businesses stream dent.com Like streamline dentistry stream dent.com. My email is Dr dot m. At stream dental comm if you want to really make your practice Excel and do the IV sedation thing, there are a number of great programs in the country. We offer $1,000 discount for add members. And we’re we’re a newer program, we don’t have the long waiting list that most groups do. That’s IV sedation training for dentists.com. 

 

Shawn Zajas  38:18 

Okay, so BJ, here it is. Here’s the last question. So you’re walking down the street, and you see a 18 year old BJ in the distance. Wow. And you have a moment to just communicate one sentiment with him. What do you share? 

 

William Moorhead  38:35 

Do everything that you can overcome the negativity, see the positivity and the potential negative for one. 

 

Shawn Zajas  38:44 

Okay, I have absolutely loved that. I feel like that’s the perfect like, bow to this gift that you’ve given to all of our listeners. You know, true learning really doesn’t take place in the boardroom or in the land of theory. It just takes place when you’re out there and you’re not afraid to just move forward and try things and that is my encouragement. To all the listeners. BJ it has been such an honor and so easy to just honor you as an innovator as someone that is pioneering positive change in dentistry. I really I love what you’re doing. And I love that you have such an approach of just kind of fearlessness like you don’t, you don’t make the uncertainty become something that that’s daunting, or that intimidates you, you find a way to just focus on the benefit of what what could happen and what will happen if you stay at it. I think it’s such a great mindset that I even need to embrace in a greater way. So thank you for inspiring me. And just thank you for letting me interview you today. 

 

William Moorhead  39:45 

Thank you and thank you for what you’re doing because this is a tremendous gift to demonstrate and a tremendous inspiration so keep it up. 

 

Shawn Zajas  39:52 

Thank you BJ. Thanks for listening. And be sure to follow so you never miss an episode. To learn more about what’s going Learn in dentistry check out innovation in dentistry.com