In this episode of the Stress-Free Dentist Podcast, Dr. Eric Block sits down with Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg — a Cambridge-based dentist and co-founder of FOMO, a workflow and SOP platform built specifically for dental practices. The conversation is a practical masterclass in one of the most overlooked drivers of a stress-free practice: documentation.

Jeff and Eric share how they both went fully out of network — Jeff after years of deliberate pre-planning, Eric after dropping Blue Cross and then Delta within two years of each other — and how the ability to operate without insurance dependence is directly tied to how well your practice runs without you in every conversation.

The episode covers Jeff’s origin story as a solo startup running every job in the practice, why documentation is the only real defence against the “Judy scenario,” how to onboard temps and new hires without throwing them to the wolves, and why SOPs are just as valuable for the dentist in the chair as they are for the front desk. If your team is constantly coming to you for answers that could be written down, this episode is for you.

Key Takeaways

  • Going out of network requires pre-planning — not a letter Jeff spent two years preparing before dropping his last insurance plans. The freedom to treat patients how you want to be treated is the reward. The documentation to support that transition is the prerequisite.
  • Without a second brain, the only options are chaos or a breakdown Jeff ran his startup alone for two weeks — dentist, phone operator, marketer, and insurance coordinator simultaneously. The documentation he built is what saved him. Every practice owner without SOPs is running on borrowed time.
  • The Judy scenario is a ticking clock in every practice The person who holds all the knowledge will eventually leave. When they do, and nothing is written down, the practice stops. Documented workflows mean the torch can always be passed.
  • Onboarding starts before day one Jeff sends short videos to new hires before they start — covering the mission, values, and what the practice does. By the time they walk in, they already feel oriented. That is not normal. It should be.
  • SOPs are for the dentist too — not just the team Eric documents cement steps and bonding sequences he forgets between cases. Jeff edits clinical workflows in real time while patients lean back. Documentation makes procedures faster, more consistent, and genuinely stress-free.

Episode Timestamps

  • 00:00:12 – Welcome, Sponsor Message & Guest Introduction
    • Dr. Eric Block introduces episode 246 and thanks sponsor Ekwa Marketing — book a complimentary meeting at ekwa.com/msm
    • Guest: Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg, co-founder of usefomo.com — a workflow and SOP platform built specifically for dental practices

    Dr. Eric Block: Welcome to the Stress-Free Dentist Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Eric Block. As always, I want to inspire, entertain, and educate you on the best tools and technologies out there. My goal is to help make your practice and career more profitable, efficient, and most importantly, more enjoyable. And check out all of my nonfiction and children’s books on Amazon and check out the stress free dentist.com for any upcoming events. And if you’re feeling you’re a dental professional that’s burnt out, or you just feel stuck or want to get to that next level, visit the International Academy of Dental Life Coaches or www.iadc.com, and we’ll get you matched up with a life coach that understands dentistry. I also wanted to thank our amazing sponsor, Ekwa Marketing. They have helped me and my practice over the years to improve with SEO and website performance. And to find out how you can make your practice dominate in your area, go to www.ekwa.com/msm to book your complimentary meeting. Again, that’s www. ekwa.com/msm.

    Dr. Eric Block: Alright, everyone, welcome back to another episode. And today I am joined by good friend and co-founder of fomo.com. it’s actually usefomo.com. We tried to get fomo, but , we ended up with use fomo, but it all goes to the same place. Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg, welcome to the show.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: Hello. Good to see you.

    Dr. Eric Block: Yeah, so just a quick, backstory about Jeff and I. We had met years ago. we were actually working, in the same office in South Boston, and then we got reacquainted at a retreat that I was running, in Chicago, outside of Chicago a few years ago. And Jeff and I were just talking about the same problems we had, and we have two very different types of offices, and we were just tired of repeating ourselves and training new staff and all the pain that goes along with o with being the owner of a practice. And then we just kept in touch and we wanted to solve a problem. And, that’s where we came up with, fmo, which is all about, you know, documenting and your protocols and standard opper standard operating procedures and just getting everything organized in your office. but Jeff, I just wanted to start with, your origins into dentistry. How did you even decide to become a dentist?

  • 00:02:43 – Jeff’s Path Into Dentistry
    • Jeff’s entire family is in dentistry — both parents, a sister, and a brother. He spent years resisting the path before having an epiphany while sitting the MCATs
    • Graduated Tufts 2012, went straight into private practice associating — no residency. Got the bug to own his own practice around 7–8 years in

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: So, my entire family’s in dentistry, so both my parents are dentists. My sister’s a dentist. my brother is a dental office manager. So we don’t have a ton of creativity as far as that’s concerned in our family. But for a long time, I kept trying to push away the assumption that I would becoming a dentist. I’m the youngest of my family as well. and you know, I always knew I was going to go into the healing arts. That’s why I always thought of it in my brain. I knew I was gonna help people, heal in some way. and I always resisted it also because I saw my family struggle with all of the operations of dentistry, if I’m being very honest with you. I mean, that’s actually the biggest thing. All the HR nightmares, the fires putting out, that was the stuff I didn’t want.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: And so for a long time when I was younger, I was like, I don’t, I just don’t want that. but I really enjoyed the field of dentistry. Like I grew up in the field of dentistry, and so as much as I kept trying to look around, I kept seeing I actually really like it. So I kind of had a epiphany moment actually while I was taking the MCATs. I had the epiphany moment. I’m like, I don’t want to do this, I would rather go into dental. So I actually applied to dental schools without really telling anyone in my family until I got in for the most part. And, yeah. And so it’s kind of been a good journey ever since.

    Dr. Eric Block: So you were going to apply to medical school, changed your mind? Yeah.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: I didn’t even send the applications out. I was like, Nope. I remember, I was, I was looking at a histology slide on the MCATs of a geral cell, and I was like, what the hell am I doing here? I’m like, this is absolutely ridiculous. This is not what I wanted. And, yeah, and I, yeah, I stuck on the dental path ever since.

    Dr. Eric Block: And where’d you go to dental school?

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: Tufts? I went to school, Tufts graduated in class of 2012

    Dr. Eric Block: And after Did you do a residency, A-G-P-R-A-E-G-D?

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: No, I went straight into, private practice, associating, with different offices.

    Dr. Eric Block: And how long did you associate until you opened up your own practice?

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: So, I probably, excuse me, got the bug around seven years in, but didn’t start actually making it a thing until, eight years in, something like that. So it took me a little bit of time to start figuring out what I might want and, going out there

    Dr. Eric Block: Now, did associating the other offices, did that help you kind of mold your philosophy and style of dentistry?

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: Absolutely, in every possible way. you know, finding the right mentors is huge, and sometimes mentors can be bad, and those are also a great learning opportunity. and so I was taking notes furiously no matter which kind of office I was in. And also learning about myself, like, because I didn’t take through the residency, I gave myself years to find myself to figure out what my brand actually is. and so it gave me a great opportunity to do that.

    Dr. Eric Block: Yeah, I was similar. I associated for many years in different offices and they were very different. And I kind of pick and chose what I liked and what I didn’t like and took those, to create my own style. And your, you type of practice you are, outside of Boston, your practice is different than mine. we’re both private dentists. can you explain your practice, how many chairs, what kind of technology do you have?

  • 00:06:29 – Jeff’s Practice — Startup, 4 Chairs, Fully Digital
    • Started in Cambridge (Central Square) with just 2 chairs — bought used equipment but no patients from the previous dentist. He calls it "a startup with a leg up"
    • Expanded to 4 chairs after two years and made a deliberate decision to stop there. Fully digital, paperless, heavy Invisalign focus, lots of photography

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: Yeah, sure. so I did a startup. So that was my, the kind of my story. And so about six plus years ago, I started up in a small area. It only had two chairs. it’s in the heart of Cambridge and Central Square, two chair. I ended up purchasing the equipment from a former dentist that was used to be in that space, but none of their patients, nothing else. And that way it was, I always kind of call it a startup with a leg up. So I was able to actually utilize things as a seed equipment and then I could grow from there and upgrade my equipment. but I did it knowing that I had the ability to expand. but I made the decision for myself to only expand to four chairs, and that’s exactly what I have now.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: So we went through the expansion phase after about two years. And, yeah, I, you know, for me, technology’s awesome, but it has to make sense practically for me. So I’m a big workflow person. I wanna make sure that everything that I have around me supports who I am, supports my team. And so, you know, a lot of the physical equipment that we have is used to reflect that. So as an example, I do a lot of Invisalign in my office. And so, that is an important factor. I primarily do it for functional reasons, not just for aesthetic reasons, although that’s obviously another aspect of what I do. so we have the latest iTero as an example, as that’s the scanner of choice that we have, because that is the one that, Invisalign works through. so there’s definitely some, you know, a lot of clear aligner therapy that happened in my office.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: But honestly, I don’t do anything surgical. so I don’t do any extractions, any implant placements. I restore, I do full mouth, reconstruction in a lot of other ways from a pros perspective, but I am a general dentist. and so, yeah, so there’s just a lot of stuff regarding that. I think photos are everything. So I do a lot of photography in my office. That’s a big factor across the board. and I have a fully digital office for the most part, so there’s no lab work, but also there’s no physical paper really. So it’s a kind of a paperless office as well, kind of front to back.

  • 00:08:41 – Going Out of Network — Two Dentists, One Decision
    • Jeff pre-planned his insurance exit for two years before executing. His philosophy: if you cannot grow by adding chairs or locations, the next growth phase is to drop insurance
    • Eric dropped Blue Cross (20% of practice) four years ago, then Delta (50%) three years ago. Growth by reduction — seeing fewer patients at full fees, never been happier

    Dr. Eric Block: And you also, like myself, I, two years ago when fully outta network, you did something similar.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: Yeah, that’s exactly right. So, I would say I kind of always knew I was never going to take over Cambridge. That wasn’t my plan. I don’t wanna have offices everywhere. I always wanted to kind of be small but mighty. That’s kind of how I thought about it. But if you can’t grow from a square footage perspective or from a multi-office perspective, the next growth phase is to actually take off insurances. So you’re able to see more patients as well. and so I started, when I started up, I only was in network with two insurances, and then I, paired that down. I would say about four years in, I want to say is when the actual moment happened, which means I was pre-planning for that about two years before that. So there’s a lot of pre-planning work that had to go to make it smooth for me, for my anxiety to make sure everything just went nicely, so I could be fully organized about it. That’s how long it took me.

    Dr. Eric Block: Yeah, we saw that we could do it after COVID, we had to, because we had such a capacity issue. And we, went out of network with some of our smaller, plans, and then we saw we could do it successfully, built up great relationships with patients, they stayed. And then four years ago we dropped Blue Cross, which was 20% of our practice. Then three years ago was Delta, which was 50% of our practice. And I have never been happier. and you know, like you kind of, you mentioned it’s, it’s growth by reduction. It’s Yeah. You know, if you’re physically not able to add more chairs or more patients, then go outta network. And that’s, that’s, that’s a solution.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: And there was a lot of reasons behind my journey. but I think for me, the most important thing was I now have the freedom to really treat my patients how I want to be treated. And that was a big shift of thought. when I first initially, my biggest, argument against it almost made me feel like I was greedy. I was like, no, you have to stay in network. But then I kept realizing all the battles we were having nonstop, partly with patients ’cause of misinformation, partly with insurances, partly in-house. We were just trying to figure out how we can get better for the patient. And we just consistently felt like insurance was putting us as a sacrificial lamb in between the patient care, and that’s not how it should happen. And so, yeah, so once I kind of realized that no, I actually can control the fees in my own office, I actually very clearly say this out loud to my patients, to my team.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: I have no plans on being the most expensive dentist in all of Cambridge. I actually like being mid-range. I’m fine with that. I’m very content with that. And I like to have the freedom to be able to do a pro bono case, which you’re not allowed to do as an example with insurance. It’s, and so if you’re in network with insurance, you’re not allowed to do officially pro bono cases in your own office, which is absolutely wild. I bet. Just one example of these weird, like shackles that are put on us, when all we wanna do is just good dentistry.

  • 00:12:02 – Why Workflows Matter — Jeff’s Origin Story
    • Jeff ran his startup alone for the first two weeks — he was the dentist, the phone operator, the insurance coordinator, the marketer, and the front desk all at once
    • The early lesson: without a documented second brain, the only options are total disorganisation or a full mental breakdown. Clear decision trees saved his practice

    Dr. Eric Block: And you mentioned you’re, you’re big on workflows. yeah, tell me, exactly what you meant by that.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: So as a startup, I also, I should also mention I’m the office manager of my office too. So we’re very small as I was mentioning. And so I had to learn very quickly how to do all the different types of jobs. When I started, I only, I was by myself actually for the first two weeks. I, the ads were out, but I wasn’t getting any nibbles. I ended up having an on the job trained dental assistant as my first employee. And it was kind of us running around and I had phones next to my patient’s ear while I was doing a cleaning. I was also taking the phones, like, it was like one of those kind of moments where I was trying to do all of the things. I was the one submitting insurance claims. I was the one trying to get, reimbursements for patients, putting in the arguments and the, and the requests.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: I was trying to figure out, you know, all that stuff, pre estimates, you name it, ar trying to get the money back from the patient because we misquoted or something along those lines. I was also in charge of marketing, also in charge of all the other stuff. So there’s a lot of different hats I was con constantly wearing. And I learned very quickly that if I wasn’t going to be able to be organized, I would fail, like, or have a full mental breakdown. It was really one of those, you know, one of those two things. And so, early on I had to realize that I had to have a good set of decision. Trees. I can’t keep it all in my brain, so I need to have like a second brain. I need to have another external thing I could feed information into and then use it as reference for myself.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: and it was not a legal reason to have like a manual. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about like having a moment where you’re like, wait a minute, how do I run end of month? How do I run end of year? That only happens once a month, once a year. But like, just the small logistics of it. And, you know, I thankfully also had a lot of great mentors through this entire process. Colleagues, people I could ask, but that’s not everything. And you have the information once, but it doesn’t always sink in. All the nuances don’t always sink in. and so, you know, that was an important thing. And then once I started delegating, I need to be able to express those words clearly rather than, oh, just come find me when you have run into this issue.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: That was another huge issue. I’m supposed to be seeing patients, I’m supposed to be handling this. I’m supposed to be overseeing hiring. so there’s a lot of things that go on. And so I again, learned very quickly that I needed to stay organized. And thankfully, organization is one of my biggest strengths. but it’s still even for me, a you know, a constant challenge. And so I utilize technology to help me out in a lot of ways. but, yeah, having clear documentation was everything. In fact, I often get complimented by my team, by people that are interviewing at the, at the office that there’s, you know, everything just seems very clean and clear, and that’s a big compliment to me.

    Dr. Eric Block: So you initially started out, it was, it was really just you were doing everything. And how big is your staff now?

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: So I currently have, I currently have five in-person team members, and I have four remote team members.

  • 00:15:26 – How Workflows Are Used With the Team — The Spring Clean
    • Jeff has a documented annual spring cleaning: half-day shutdown, the team walks the office with fresh eyes as if they were a new patient or a prospective hire
    • Workflows make teams proactive, not reactive. Instead of responding when someone complains the office is dirty — they have a scheduled, consistent process that prevents it

    Dr. Eric Block: And how do you use workflows and documented policies and protocols, with your team?

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: how don’t I, so it’s literally every single pathway of potential issues. We have some type of workflow. so just as an example with the team, you know, we have, we have an entire aspect. I’m just gonna, you know, we’re in the springtime, so I’ll just kind of mention one particular workflow that we have. We have an annual established spring cleaning. So once a year we’ve shut down for half day. and we actually kind of do, we grab pens and paper, we leave the office just really right outside, and then we walk in with fresh eyes. So we kinda look at the office from a bunch of different ways as if we were a new patient or a prospective interviewee and just things that are out of place, things that we put out on the shelf for a long time, thinking someone would take care of it, no one did. just a lot of these like little things, but you’re trying to have like a different mindset in it. Just these random, like, yeah, we clean all the time, but like these random cobweb in a corner and stuff like that. So we find that having an established process as opposed to when someone complains, oh, the office was dirty, that’s when we went into overdrive. So as opposed to be reactive, we’re trying to be proactive. So workflow allows us to be proactive and then enjoy the space for stuff like that.

  • 00:16:55 – Onboarding New Staff — Setting Expectations Before Day One
    • Jeff sends new hires a series of short videos before they even start — covering the mission, values, north star, and what the practice does, so they walk in already oriented
    • The biggest failure in onboarding: not being clear from the start about what is expected and where to find answers before coming to the owner

    Dr. Eric Block: What about new staff and onboarding new staff? ’cause I know it’s, it’s been such an issue after COVID still is a major issue finding and keeping and retaining staff.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: Yeah. No, I think if I can point, one thing that most owners managers kind of fail at is not a not being clear from the get go about what’s expected. And then also where are your resources before coming to me. Because, you know, we hire people because hopefully they have really good common sense, but unfortunately, common sense only works when you actually have good resources accordingly, right? And we want them to be able to ask questions. Of course, that’s, that’s fantastic if they ask questions. However, if these are low hanging fruit that’s easily documented that they can search for easily, that is everything. And so in fact, what I do, a lot of onboarding stuff before they even start, they’re already given like just a snippet of a bunch of little videos so they know what they’re about to walk into. What’s our mission?

  • 00:18:02 – 90-Day Onboarding Protocol & the Temp Hygienist Test
    • Jeff has a full position-specific 90-day protocol: what is expected in the first 3 days, first 3 weeks, and first 3 months — different for each role
    • Eric’s hygiene SOP folder means a temp hygienist never gets thrown to the wolves — policies on periodontal referrals, SRP, and procedures are all documented and ready

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: What’s our value? What do we stand by? What’s our north star as we’re making every decision, where are we headed? what do we do at the office? I’ve actually worked at other offices before where I was a temp dentist as well. At one point I had no idea what the office, you know, does. And so if a patient needed an implant, I don’t know if they do implants there. So just as an example. So I had to keep going back and forth to the office manager, well, what do you do? And you know, the answer usually was, just, come find me. Well, that’s not helpful when I’m in the moment or when I’m preparing for to talk to a patient. But having a clear sense of what happens before they even get there is huge. and then once they’ve begun within their 90 days, I have an entire kind of program I put them in, which again, is all in our pathway, our workflow, a reference document of what’s to be expected for three days, for the first three days, what are we expecting of you? what should you be working towards your first three weeks? What should we be expecting of you and what the first three months? And so we actually have a entire protocol and a workflow guided per type of position. So I’m able to actually explain, it’s obviously gonna be different from an assistant versus a hygienist versus, someone who works at the front desk, insurance coordinator, whatever it might be. But again, the better I can about explaining it, the easier their process will be.

    Dr. Eric Block: Yeah. So for example, we have a whole like hygiene, category of mm-hmm . standard operating procedures and protocols, and everything’s documented, which is really helpful for like a temp hygienist. So yes, temp hygienist comes in, they’re not just gonna be like thrown to the wolves. They, we have a protocol on when to refer to the periodontist, the name of our periodontist when they’re here. Yeah. what are our policies on scaling and root planning? everything is documented. and temps love it because yeah. You know, a lot of offices they go to, there’s, they’re just given nothing. And guess what, maybe this temp really liked my office and maybe they’re gonna stay, maybe they wanna come back and work for us more or on a full-time basis.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: Yeah. No, I think I do, I do something very similar with temps as well. I think, and partly because I was a temp dentist at 1.2, like I have a soft spot for anyone who’s coming into a fresh space for them. And there’s an entire culture where everyone kind of is, you know, moving with the flow, but they feel like they’re odd man out. So I always like to make sure there’s a nice roadmap for everybody, but it automatically creates trust and safety. And those are two of the most important things that people look for when they’re actually trying to find the right job for themselves. Or just a steady temp. You’re like, you know what? I like this office. If there’s an issue, they know they could come speak to you. If there’s an issue, they know they can find their resources. So, yeah, I think that’s fantastic that you’re doing that.

  • 00:20:55 – The Judy Scenario — When One Person Holds All the Knowledge
    • Eric’s rule: the "Judy scenario" — if the one person who knows everything gets sick or retires, the practice stops. Everything must be documented so the torch can be passed
    • Jeff found that documentation freed up his time almost immediately — suddenly he could take a lunch break, go for a walk, see more patients, without being inundated by questions

    Dr. Eric Block: And we have a, I have everything from, you know, when you, the first person to come in, how to turn on the compressor, the lights, the wifi. Yeah. to, you know, how do we 3D print a model to how do I want my room set up for a, an implant or a composite filling? I have everything documented so that, you know, don’t come and ask me. Go, yeah, we have everything in fomo now go look at fomo, and don’t bother your teammate because, we, I call this the Judy scenario. My mom’s name is Judy. And let’s say Judy, is, you know, on the phone and someone calls and they ask, how much is bleaching? And Judy doesn’t know. And then she’s gotta stop Mike and ask Mike. And now we have two patients on hold. If they don’t know the answer and they don’t have a place to easily find the answers, it’s so inefficient. And it’s like a thousand paper cuts. These little things just, build up over time. And it, cause it causes frustration, stress, and ultimately causes, costs, money

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: And burnout. Like, I mean, I, there’s been days before I had a lot of better documentation where my entire day was just answering questions about the minutiae that could so easily be resolved by being clear and thinking things in advance. And so, and laying them all out on paper. And I immediately saw my time, my free time increase just by doing this. I mean, I feel like that’s, that’s not often said, like, the creation of these documents are meant to free you up. And it’s nice. I didn’t actually know what to do with all of my free time. At one point I was like, oh, I could see more patients. I could actually go for a walk at lunch wild. I can actually do something at lunch as opposed to like, you know, be inundated with more stuff. So, it really is really helpful to have that.

    Dr. Eric Block: Yeah. And the other scenario is, you know, what if Judy was the be all know all staff member , which often happens, you know, they’re the legacy employee. They’ve got everything in their head and then they retire, they get sick, and they’re not in that day. And then you can’t get certain things done. And the goal with, for me to having standard operating procedures and everything documented is so the next person can just, that torch is passed and the next person can just pick up because everything’s written down in very simple steps.

  • 00:23:28 – Start With Your Pain Points — Not Everything at Once
    • Jeff’s advice: documentation is a living system, not a one-time project. Keep asking "what is my biggest pain point?" and document that one thing. Then the next one.
    • He has a literal document in FOMO for how to dismiss a patient properly — a letter template, the rules for his state, the exact steps. Those small thorns become non-events.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: That’s exactly right. And I saw so many different offices not crash and burn. ’cause we, you know, I do believe that our field is very resilient. It’s more that everything just stopped to a halt, and then all of the higher ups were just so stressed. And it was clearly such a challenge. I to go with what your line of thought was, where, you know, one aspect is retirement and stuff like that. I’ve, I’ve seen cases before where people have, you know, they are ahead of the curve in the sense that they’re going to see coaches and consultants and they’re trying to just get better, right? They’re not thinking about it from a reactive per perspective. They’re thinking proactive. They hire a coach, they hire a consultant, they come in, they recommend a bunch of things. Everyone’s in agreement, they stick with them for a few number, you know, number of months and everything’s humming along, everything’s going well, and then they leave.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: But there’s no real aftercare. And so what usually happens that I’ve seen, at least in a few offices that I’ve worked in that have had this is someone leaves within the first six months, and these are people that got handheld information. They were handholding all this information. They were integral for the actual creation of a system. And now a new person needs to learn. So a new person comes on, okay, teach me, well, the person just left who had to actually, you had to learn from, but if there was some type of aftercare of documentation that could help onboard a person for this particular system, that’s another huge aspect as well.

    Dr. Eric Block: Yeah. And I think a few things for people that feel like this is overwhelming, to start documenting everything I recommend, just start simple. Start with maybe the three, you know, one, two or three biggest things that cause you stress and maybe it’s, you know, your staff doesn’t know how you like to set up for a crown. You know, put everything on a, on your cart and take a picture of it and document exactly what you need and boom, it’s, it’s, and put it in the bank and it’s there. just the other day we changed our policy on getting patients set up for home sleep studies for sleep apnea. Nice. I updated that. I re documented it. So again, staff’s not coming to me. They’re going to look at fomo. but if you’re feeling like this sounds overwhelming, start very slow. Start very simple and start with your biggest stresses or what we call pain points

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: A hundred percent. I mean, this was not created overnight, not just fomo, which also wasn’t created overnight as you know. But from my own experience, creating documents are not created overnight. They are constant reflections of what is my biggest pain point? What is my biggest pain point? What’s keeping me up at night? More times than not, it has more to do with onboarding, hiring, HR management, how to have really tough conversations with patients or other people. I actually have a literal reference document in my, in my, in my FOMO specifically that just teaches me how to dismiss a patient properly. Just that alone. And so when things happen, when, you know, things are actually moving fast and we need to get a letter out. I have a letter on standby. I have how to properly send it.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: What are my rules and restrictions for my individual state? It’s these little thorns that happen throughout the entire process that it almost blindsides you. Now, obviously, you’re not gonna know everything that could potentially happen to you, but you need a living, breathing system that you can add more into, subtract, edit, change, that kind of stuff is, takes a really, it can seem very overwhelming, like you were saying Eric, but like, if you just follow it one step at a time and just keep asking what’s the biggest pain point and just pivot from there. It is huge.

  • 00:27:26 – SOPs for the Dentist Too — Cement Steps, Crown Workflows, Autopilot
    • Eric uses SOPs for himself — cement steps and bonding agents he forgets between cases. Instead of Googling mid-procedure, the SOP is right there.
    • Jeff edits workflows in real time with patients leaning back — adjusting setting times, materials, steps while the procedure is happening. Like editing a recipe while cooking.

    Dr. Eric Block: Yeah. And I, another example, I got tired of, you know, telling staff what to do when they don’t have a patient, assistance or hygienists. So now we have a documented checklist of all the things that they can be doing and, you know, they, we print it up and they check off what they’ve done and they hand it back in and it’s, but it’s all in there. And then SOPs are great for me, as the dentist because there’s some cements or bonding agents that I always forget the steps. and, you know, instead of like googling it, I have an SOP for those and, as a young dentist, to have a workflow for how you do a crown or composite, and it’s all documented. Not only is it great for your assistant that maybe you’re trying to train and they’re new, or you have some, a different assistant with you that day, but it’s great for you because when you create these workflows, your brain goes on autopilot procedures get more consistent and more efficient. And guess who’s gonna understand that? The patient, they’re gonna be like, wow, that was fast. Yeah. and it’s just, it makes it just your day in and day out life so much less stressful. Yeah.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: And thanks for mentioning that. I, another example comes to mind. So, I just went to Spear recently as well, back, in Arizona. And one of the things that gets me all the time is we see these either great posts online or we take a great course that inspires us and we have a whole new step-by-step sheet that kind of te teaches us how to do something. But it’s either a screenshot or some notes that we take down on our phone. We’re not really sure where it is. So I input everything into FMO as a text document, and then what hap what I do after that. I have a checklist in the behind me. And as I’m prepping, as I’m doing my thing, like, all right, what’s the next step? What’s the next step? And I’m noticing, you know what, this workflow isn’t exactly how I would like to do it, so let me edit it and I’m editing it in real time with the patient, lean back while I’m waiting for a material to set.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: I’m real quickly being like, you know what? My setting time, I want to be a little bit lower than that. So we’re not gonna do four minutes, we’re gonna do two and a half minutes. I find that this material, it just, these real time stuff actually, needs editing and needs adjusting. And, I cook a lot. I bake a lot. So for me, it’s kind of the same thing with a recipe. I’m like, while I’m doing it, I’m like, you know what? I don’t like using this. Let me just switch it up. And so, having something that is malleable I think is really important too.

    Dr. Eric Block: That’s a great comparison. ’cause it’s like I could, I compare having SOPs to like, you know, baking a chocolate chip muffin. Yeah. there’s steps you go from A to B2C to D and that’s how I do my dentistry. I typically go through each step. I don’t go backwards and it, my assistants know, you know, they can anticipate my moves. They know what instruments I like what materials I like. and it just makes everything so much, quicker and less stressful. Yeah. just wanted to wrap up with, this was awesome by the way, thanks for sharing your, how you do things, and your story. just wanted to wrap up with the final question. What advice would you give to the young dentists out there that may be struggling?

  • 00:30:44 – Closing Advice & FOMO.com
    • Jeff’s best advice: have a life outside dentistry. His best ideas — including the startup and FOMO itself — came from outside the operatory. You need a release valve.
    • Eric adds: keep positive people around you who challenge you in a good way. Check out usefomo.com — first month free, built by dentists for dentists.

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: I really, I really find the best advice I’ve ever received, but it’s so important is have a life outside of dentistry. I know they may be struggling in dentistry and you’re like, you’d think double down in dentistry is the appropriate way to go. But my best ideas came outside of dentistry. My best ideas, the reason I doing a startup came outside of dentistry. The reason I do everything came outside of dentistry. The reason I, you have to be able to come home to something that’s not dentistry in order to oftentimes feel fulfilled. And so it’s advice I used to give for people that are in dental schools. I used to be a mentor for, dental students while they’re, while they’re doing their thing and have a lifeline outside because if something were to happen or you realize this is, you know, too stressful or whatever, you wanna be able to, you know, release that tension somewhere else, and have a be able to have conversations with people that have nothing to do with debt dentistry. And, I think that would be the best advice to give.

    Dr. Eric Block: That’s awesome. Great stuff, man. And I just wanna piggyback on that, just to keep positive people around you. Yes. Negative people will just tear you down. So keep a positive group of peers around you, whether they’re in dentistry or not, people that challenge you, but in a positive way. Absolutely. So everyone go out, check out, use fomo.com. We got the name FOMO as a combo of Words of Workflow plus fomo. ’cause you know, fear of Missing Out is something awesome that’s out there. And that’s what FOMO is. you get your first month free. and we hope you love it and hope we just, our goal is to make, your lives and practices easier because it’s, it’s made our practices and careers and lives easier. So Dr. Jeff Greenberg, thanks so much for joining us. Thank

    Dr. Jeffrey Greenberg: You so much Dr. Block. Appreciate

    Dr. Eric Block: It. Thanks again for listening to the Stress-Free Dentist Podcast. And don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at info at the stress free dentist.com. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe on your favorite platform and leave us a review. Until the next episode. I’m Dr. Eric Block the Stress-Free Dentist.

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