A video chat with Linda Miles; pros & cons of building your own practice

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

DrBicuspid.com is proud to announce "15 Minutes to Excellence," our new online video chat series featuring some of the leading practice management consultants in dentistry today.

In the first installment of this new educational series, I talked with Linda Miles, founder of Linda Miles & Associates (now Miles Global) and a popular international lecturer and author who has been involved in consulting for three decades and has worked with more than 1,000 dental practices.

Linda shared her thoughts on three of the biggest issues that keep dentists up at night, especially in today's economy: decision-making, profitability, and team harmony. Click here to watch the first episode of "15 Minutes to Excellence," or go to excellence.drbicuspid.com.

In a related story, we spoke with Dr. Rhonda Savage. From her beginnings as a dental assistant fresh out of high school in Ketchikan, AK, Dr. Savage has become a force to be reckoned with in the dental industry. After building and selling two successful dental practices, she has spent the last six years at the helm of Miles Global. Read her secrets to success in this latest Leaders in Dentistry feature.

And when Julia Hoang, DDS, graduated from dental school in 2007, she set a goal of taking over a practice within five years. But after trying unsuccessfully to buy the practice where she had been an associate for almost five years, she decided to take a leap of faith and open her own from scratch. While Dr. Hoang cautions that the process is not for the faint of heart, she also affirms that it offers a number of advantages and much personal gratification. Read more.

Finally, alcohol consumption causes approximately 20,000 cancer deaths in the U.S. annually, especially oral cavity cancer in men and breast cancer in women, according to a new study in the American Journal of Public Health. Even moderate drinkers who consume 1.5 drinks daily or fewer accounted for 30% of alcohol-caused cancer deaths.