Passion is key to a successful practice.
It’s high time we put a more in-depth spotlight on our amazing clients! Below is the first installment in our Practice Profile series, where we’ll feature interviews with the dentists who inspire us every day.
First up is Dr. Karisha Lynn Madden. We love collaborating with Dr. Madden on her cases. She has an energetic perspective on the dental life, managing a practice, success, and everything that comes with it!
Dr. Madden’s Practice: A Place for Passion and Communication
GD: Tell us about yourself!
Dr. Madden: My practice, Madden Dental, is located in Bellaire, Texas, a neighborhood in the center of Houston. I’m a general dentist, specializing in restoring ‘bad bites’ in a comprehensive fashion. While I specialize in full mouth rehabs and cosmetics, I’m also an expert at composite fillings, laser therapies, implant crowns, Invisalign orthodontics, and single unit crowns. My team is highly trained to support me! My hygienist has a very strong periodontal and preventive program to provide the best foundation for our patient’s teeth.
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GD: What do you love about dentistry?
Dr. Madden: I love helping people more than anything in the world. Because I love to make people smile, it was only natural for me to look into the field of dentistry as a career. Patients often diagnose themselves and tell me what they want, so being able to deliver the artistic skills needed as a dentist to make patients healthier while looking and feeling better about themselves is a wonderful reward. It keeps my passion for dentistry alive.
I love that the field of dentistry is always evolving, because it ensures I’ll never get too comfortable or bored! I want to be known for keeping up with the latest research, techniques, and tools.
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GD: How did you build your team and what tricks do you use for teamwork?
Dr. Madden: I carefully choose my teammates. I hire them because I detect an innate passion and then I invest in their skills. I hold everybody to the highest standards, including myself. Morning meetings and weekly training meetings allow input from each member to review the success of office systems and goals. Goals, Budgets, and Projects are posted throughout the office to encourage the team to work as hard and efficient as possible at all times.
Welcoming feedback from patients is a true test of gauging our success. Continuing education on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis is utilized beyond the state requirements to ensure we deliver the best products and services to each patient at Madden Dental.
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GD: How do you what you do?
Dr. Madden: I’m continuously building a reputation in the Greater Houston area by offering top notch customer service. Keeping the office cleaned and organized allows us to confidently introduce our new patients to the dental family. Creating customized treatment plans for each patient and educating patients about their needs enables us to establish trust. Listening to each patient and allowing for input to guide them with their needs helps me get started with treatment.
The entire team creates value for what we are offering the patient from the minute they walk through the door and sit down in the massage chairs to discussions and pictures during treatment. Our comfortable environment filled with smiles and laughter puts dental patients at ease.
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GD: What kind of training or support did you need to reach your current success?
Dr. Madden: My success early in my career centered on numerous hours of continuing education from top institutions. I carefully picked the people I wanted to train and study with. The first 2 years of owning my own practice, I purposefully studied all aspects of higher level dentistry. Upon completion of many courses, I would return to train my team and implement new systems, products, and guidelines. I established great mentors while attending these courses.
I was then introduced to another higher level dental organization, Clinical Mastery Series, and attended all the workshops they had to offer. Working with CMS and Gold Dust allowed me to confidently introduce the highest level of dentistry and treatment plans to my patients. Gold Dust Dental lab gives me tremendous confidence that I’m delivering the healthiest, functional, and beautiful dentistry to my patients. CMS, with its intimate classrooms and helpful leaders, is the best comprehensive dental training organization in the country.
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GD: What couldn’t you practice without?
Dr. Madden: Camera technology has been a game changer for me and my patients. I have every camera available in the dental market to take professional photos of patients’ faces and smiles. I rely on cameras that take excellent pictures of individual teeth and tooth conditions. Besides keeping records of patients’ oral health, the cameras support my ability to present treatment and educate patients. Like they say: “A picture is worth a thousand words!”
The Dexis CariVu is the most accurate tool I have to diagnose cavities. There is no interpretation needed as we have traditionally had to do with X-rays. The CariVu does not admit radiation but simply admits light which at a certain wavelength is absorbed into the decayed tooth structure, turning the area black. The guessing game is over in dentistry!
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GD: What are some keys to your success?
Dr. Madden: A highly dedicated and highly trained team is the most important component to Madden Dental’s success. With very detailed job descriptions and systems it’s evident that it takes each person in the office to reach a daily or monthly success. Rewarding my team for their successes is very important. It’s also useful to realize that as the dentist, you are just another team member with responsibilities that propel you to success.
Learning how to incorporate communication skills, office systems, and the top dental technologies to offer patients (in an inviting and informative fashion) is a tough thing to do. It needs to be continually evaluated and tweaked. Offering input for team and patients can help guide that.
Effective communication and mastering those skills can begin with how you talk to your teammates. The way you talk to each other within an office is perceived by the patients as how you communicate and treat others. And of course knowing your patients and knowing your products and services to the fullest will allow you to effectively communicate with each individual patient in an individual way. Making our patients feel as though they are very important and their goals are very important makes everyone at Madden Dental satisfied with any outcome.
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GD: What has been great in your practice marketing approach lately?
Dr. Madden: After interviewing over ten online marketing companies that help with custom website development, SEO, and social media marketing, I was able to find a company with superior customer service to help me create a truly unique marketing plan.
Components that have been very successful include a digital patient confirmation system, a beautiful custom website that reflects my style and quality of care, SEO that places my practice on the first page of Houston online searches for dental needs, a Google AdWords campaign, digital online forms that can be filled out anywhere, and social media advertisements that reflect Madden Dental on a continuous basis.
My appointed marketing specialist and I have reached out to the local hot spots and recruited many new patients by attending popular events and local happy hours. Community outreach is maintained and marketed on our social media. It creates office recognition and indicates that we care about our local residents and environment.
We make sure our office is visible and well-manicured for potential patients that drive past. This has been successful in leading them to stop by and ask to become patients.
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GD: What do you love most about Gold Dust?
Dr. Madden: Gold Dust is a part of our effort, just like any other member of the team. We rely on their quality and their artistic skills to provide our patients with the most beautiful and long lasting dental products that the market has to offer. The team at Gold Dust is professional, on time, and consistent with making us happy and therefore successful. Their success rate is higher than other labs, meaning we rarely have to return anything due to non-fit issues. Their products genuinely last without problems for me or the patient. They customize their work to my requirements and desires.
We could not create the same beautiful teeth and smiles without Gold Dust on our team. Gold Dust wants to make their dentists the most successful in the country. While I hold Gold Dust to the highest standards for my patients, Gold Dust also holds me responsible for pursuing education and creating top dental work to maximize the results for patients’ desired outcomes. I respect Gold Dust tremendously.
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GD: What’s your favorite passion outside of dentistry?
Dr. Madden: Artistry drew me to the field of dentistry because I was able to use my artistic skills to help people. I was described in the 2nd grade by my school teacher as a ‘social butterfly.’ Specifically, the teacher said it’s tough because I got my work and assignments completed quickly, but I’d want to spend the remainder of the time socializing and playing with other students! Today, I still love to frequent happy hours, parties, and events.
Besides helping my dental patients, my main passion is to have my family and friends over for dinner. I love to cook and be a party host. If a ‘laugh a day will keep the doctor away,’ then I’ll live forever! I have a beautiful daughter who I take to the fine local parks, Houston zoo, and Houston museums. I also support local professional sporting teams, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, many charitable organizations, and Houston schools.
After taking care of my family, friends, charity, exercising, social life, and dental patients, I don’t have time for anything else!
What’s your favorite part of running a dental practice? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!