Every week, I have an opportunity to work with a new dentist and his/her clinical teams (like the amazing Collins Dental Group pictured here). I am committed to extending the knowledge and expertise I’ve gained over the years and improve each team’s efficiency and productivity. Bottom line, I make practices more profitable.
My name is Angie Bachman, the Lead Clinical Consultant with Reboot Training – Practice Productivity Solutions from Design Ergonomics. I’m a dental assistant. Back in 1992, I was trained on the job. A small pup then, I fell in love with the associate dentist. Wait! Wrong story. I was a mere 18 years old and wanted to make money while going to college. My boss at that time was a 6’8” ex NFL player who liked to work standing up – I needed a step stool to assist this gentle giant. Anyways, I was hooked. Growing up in a small, blue collar town in Northeast Ohio, I recognized this was a drill’em and fill’em kind of dental practice. 8 years later, this bread and butter girl wanted to learn how to make a meal.
Opportunity struck one day while I was presenting anterior veneers to a patient. The patient, a corporate account manager with Nextel Communications, was impressed with my ability to convincingly close the sale and asked me if I would consider a career change. Without ever owning a cell phone, I landed a corporate sales executive position at Nextel. It was a colossal increase in salary, but walkie-talkies? While I loved the bigger bank account, I knew I had not yet found the perfect fit for me. After two years of sales experience in the competitive wireless industry under my belt, I was ready to pursue a sales position in dentistry. I needed to get back there. It didn’t take long before I accepted a position with Practiceworks, Trophy RGP and Softdent (now Carestream). The dentists I called on couldn’t afford sensors. They didn’t think digital x-ray was the way of the future. Boy, were they wrong! Still, I knew there was something missing in my career path. The desire to make a difference was strong. How could I package my dental background and sales experience and become a more integral part of a dental practice? Consulting! Despite the fact that I am clinically trained, my knowledge of the business is comprehensive. My clinical training spans further than chairside assisting. Over the course of 27 years, I’ve learned so much, taking on roles as Dental Assistant, Sales Executive, Consultant, Director of Operations and Practice Administrator.
In 2006, I met Dr. David Ahearn at a dental convention. After hearing him speak, I wanted to learn more. In 2011, I accepted a sales position at Ergonomic Products, the equipment manufacturing arm of Dr. Ahearn’s organization. It was the start of something incredible! Dr. A (as we call him) opened my eyes to the future of dentistry; one that is more efficient, discards outdated ways of doing things and absolutely does not include nonsense. I didn’t know much about Lean Manufacturing principles, but I would soon realize that these principles can help streamline every aspect of a business – and improve your life!
Over time, conversations with doctors turned into deep business relationships. My job selling equipment grew into a desire to implement the systems behind it. Fortunately, that desire found the perfect outlet with the launch of Reboot Training – Practice Productivity Solutions. Developed with guidance from Erica St Pierre, Director of Clinical Education, and Dr. David Ahearn, practicing dentist, owner of Design Ergonomics and Ergonomic Products and author of the Guide To Maximizing Productivity, Reboot Training is a “hands-onsite” difference maker. It’s more than teaching smart systems – we actually get to implement them so that doctor’s don’t have to wait for the training to “sink in” (or get ignored, like is so often the case). It’s up and running when I walk out the door.
One of Dr. Leif Loberg’s team streamlines sterilization with new cassettes
It doesn’t stop there. A good day is finding myself in a city where the closest Starbucks is 75 miles away, and I meet a practice who is overwhelmed with clutter and chaos. Reboot Training allows me to walk into a dental practice and facilitate a clinical training, address inefficiencies, and make the entire back of the house run smoother. Their bad days just became my best day. I work with teams implementing hands-on solutions to maximize the efficiency of all their clinical systems. It’s like Christmas morning! Inevitably, I get asked my favorite question, “Where have you been the last 20 years?”
Today, my name is Angie Bachman, proud Clinical Coach and new Web Czaritza for Design Ergonomics, Ergonomic Products and Reboot Training. Expect great things from me because I’ve probably seen it all. If not, I’ll learn something. You can find me all across North America. As I experience new practices, new dentists, new faces and new cities, follow me and try to keep up! Everyone knows Dentistry is always changing; but, instead, I like to call it growing. It is my job to prepare you and your practice for growth.
As Albert Einstein said, “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”
You will learn something from me, I promise.
