Mark Rubino

🦷 April’s Dental Market Check: It’s Getting a Bit Wobbly Just read through the latest dental survey and yep — the cracks are showing. 📉 Patient volume dropped -6.7% year-over-year — way worse than the -2 to -3% we've all kind of gotten used to. Future bookings are cooling off, and dentists aren’t exactly sprinting to restock their shelves either. 😬 Confidence is down. And when dentists start feeling uneasy, labs are usually the first ones to feel the ripple. Consumables, exam bookings — all trending soft. 🛠️ That said, implants, aligners, and big equipment somehow stayed on track. Not thriving, but not falling apart either. Might be one last breath before more belt-tightening kicks in. 🎯 Tariffs are rearing their ugly head again. China-based products could bring pain if policies don’t shift — and it won’t hit everyone equally. Some companies are more exposed than others. ⚡ Bottom line: It’s not doom and gloom yet, but it is a warning shot. If you’re running a lab or supporting one, this is your nudge to tighten up, reevaluate your partners, and make sure the companies you buy from actually show up when the market doesn’t. Because in shaky markets, you either become someone’s safety net — or their cautionary tale. #DentalIndustry #DentalLabs #NowakDental #NoFluffJustFacts #DownToBusiness #JeansAndRevenue #ConsumablesAndCommonSense

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Excellent panel discussion at Transform Dental Sleep. Dave Federici DMD discusses the value of education and preparing for success. Max Kerr advises on the importance of investing in your team. And Dr. John Carollo advocates mentorship as a key success factor, and the importance of mentally transitioning from being a dentist to #sleepmedicine.

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After many years in the dental industry, I reflect on some lessons learned. No particular order... Let me know what you think! Leadership Lessons Learned, Part 1 How to start building towards new goals, working in a new Leadership role? - Build trust with your team. Create a space where honesty flourishes. "This is a no BS, angst-free zone." - Be transparent about your vision. Clearly communicate what needs to be achieved. "Our stakeholders expect us to create this." - Clearly establish the goals and encourage every team member to challenge and contribute their ideas on how to reach them. "Yes, I am your leader, and I believe in what I just shared with you, but that does not mean I am right! I encourage you to challenge the goals and contribute your input and insights. If you do not do it here, our stakeholders, peers, and customers will do it later." - Ensure alignment among the team. Make sure everybody is on the same page. "This is where we are heading together, our train will leave the station now." - Be tough on potential distractors. "If you want to be on this train, you need to collaborate with everyone to reach our destination. If you disagree, get off the train now. There's no harm in that, but please do not remain if your intention is to derail us. We will not tolerate that!"

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DSO Market Analysis Hi to my fellow industry watchers - I want to call attention to a really good piece found in the March edition of Dentistry Today. Samantha Strain offered insight in what sellers should consider when preparing for a DSO transaction. She is spot on. Financial performance and Quality of Earnings is a must, but she also cites that operational efficiency can significantly enhance valuation. DENTALEZ believes that to our core, and our mission reflects how our products support improved efficiency. This article is a quick must read. Thank you, Samantha, for laying out the road so clearly for dental practices which may eventually want to sell. #dentistrytoday #dentalindustry #dso

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Full Episode Alert! We had the honor of hosting Mike Wright Wright on the DentMent Podcast! In this episode, we dive into a range of important topics in dentistry, including scaling your dental business and key factors to consider when expanding your practice. Whether you’re looking to multiply your locations or maximize your growth, this conversation is packed with valuable insights. Don’t miss it—tune in now! #DentMent #Podcast #DentalBusiness #PracticeGrowth #Entrepreneurship https://lnkd.in/g9jctpTH

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If you want to succeed in dental marketing, treat your operations as an essential extension of your marketing efforts. It’s not just about getting people to notice you—it’s about converting that interest into actual patient care by making sure your operational systems are just as efficient as your marketing campaigns. This comprehensive approach focusing on cost per lead, cost per schedule, the hand off to operation side (with cost per shown) and the customer per visit spend shows how CMOs in this space can be realistic about what really matters when it comes to unlocking that next level of sustainable growth.  Thank you to Ryan Torresan - an expert at scaling dentist practices - for joining us on this weeks episode of All Dots Connected.  I found this deep dive to be very insightful and hope you all will too. More deep dives coming soon so be sure to follow us. Full episode here: https://lnkd.in/g4g-augm

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Most dental groups never get past 3 locations. Is it a lack of talent? Ambition? Nope -- it's because they don't adjust their business accordingly. At 2 or 3 practices, life feels good: → Lean team → Strong margins → Healthy cash flow Tack on a few more locations, and everything changes. The responsibilities on leadership stack exponentially, and it gets out of hand quickly. Now you're building an ORGANIZATION. And that means you need people. HR. Operations. Finance. Marketing. You can't do it all at scale. And real talent for those roles costs real money. 🔸 A lot of groups try to scale without making those hires. 🔸 They keep it founder-reliant. 🔸 They duct tape problems. 🔸 Margins shrink. Chaos spikes. And growth flatlines. You have two real options: 1️⃣ Stay small and stay elite—run a boutique, profitable group. 2️⃣ Go big—but scale intentionally, with the right infrastructure and people in place. I’ve lived both sides of this. What worked at 2 practices won't work at 9. #dentalceo #dentaladvice #dentalbusiness #dentalpractice #dentist #dentistry #dentalgroup

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Recently I have seen several patients who have been told that they received PRP eye drops. Many of these drops have not been PRP. In the old days we would use a regular centrifuge and then extract some PRP - highly inefficient, required a sterile hood, and gave us a poor yield. We now have great technologies that are self contained and produce a high concentration of PRP. Yes the technology is more expensive than a regular centrifuge and you pay for each extraction kit. But every other specialty does PRP in this way. Pure PRP is a highly concentrated therapeutic treatment. Receiving serum that has been diluted with a percentage of balanced salt solution is not PRP but diluted serum. This is not therapeutic. I am now microneedling PRP to the meibomian glands and the lacrimal gland. Patients can now get eye drops and microneedling at the same time. Here is a lecture I gave on PRP eye drops https://lnkd.in/exEpcH2r

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