A Well Run Orthodontist Practice

My dentist had been getting on me from when I was in my early thirties to get my teeth fixed.  One of the burdens of being an entrepreneur is the pressure manifests itself in multiple ways.  I am a teeth grinder and when I am under pressure, it clearly is reflected in my teeth.  Since I have had multiple high-pressure situations over the years, my teeth had reached a state where they required attention.  As my dentist put it
“you can either fix it now or fix it in the form of losing your teeth”.  He recommended Dr. Arnstine and so finally in 2005 I went to Dr. Arnstine to get my teeth fixed.  Two years later, my braces finally came off.  Over the course of those two years, I went to Dr. Arnstine’s office multiple times.  Even after those two years, I have had to go sporadically into his office to replace a retainer, fix permanent lower braces, etc.  See below the beautiful work that Dr. Arnstine and his team did.

This past week I had to go in because I had knocked off several pieces of my permanent lower braces.  I went  into a full waiting room as usual.  What wasn’t usual was that I had to wait a half an hour to get in.  Now, if this was a typical doctor’s office, I wouldn’t have been alarmed, but this was very unusual for this practice.  Normally, I am right in after about 5 minutes.  They had apologized for the delay because there were several emergency situations.  So when you are used to a well oiled machine, it is strange when it doesn’t happen. 

Dr. Arnstine was acutely aware of the delay.  In fact, he knew exactly how long I had been waiting and again apologized.  His normal average wait time he told me is 7 minutes and he routinely picks up patients because of how well he runs his practice.  So here is my observations on why Dr. Arnstine’s practice is so successful.

1. Every patient movement is tracked.  When I arrived into the waiting room, it is noted.  Without data, you can’t know how you are performing.  He had the systems to support the data and he had metrics with which to measure their performance. 
2. The Arnstine “team” knows exactly each their role.  Further, on any given patient, Dr. Arnstine may give instructions on the fly and everyone knows what they are to do.
3. Dr. Arnstine gives his “team” full responsibility.  He wasn’t constantly looking over their shoulder.  He wasn’t micro-managing. 
4. Dr. Arnstine maximized his time.  How could one guy see so many patients?  There are I think 5 or 6 chairs all served by one orthodontist. 
5. He was flexible.  One time during my tenure with my braces, the wire broke out and was exposed.  It was very painful as it rubbed against my cheek.  Dr. Arnstine saw me in his house and yanked the wire out in his bathroom.  That meant a lot to me.  Especially when a big football game was on. 
6. He and the team were enthusiastic and upbeat.  it is bad enough wearing braces, but you can’t make it worse by a bad attitude.  Everything in the place was upbeat and comfortable from the music piped in to the goodies routinely out. 
7. The results were what was measured.  Dr. Arnstine treated me even after the expected time for the overall treatment had lapsed because his standard was what my teeth looked like and not what the time spent was. 

I applaud businesses like this and it seems like they are rarer and rarer.  If you are looking for a good orthodontist, you would be well-served to go to Dr Arnstine.  You can find him here.  This is an unpaid announcement.