Anne: I am really excited today because I have actually a very dear friend. We've known each other for a long time. We're in the same circles. We do a lot of the same things. And, um, he's from my neck of the woods.
I grew up in Ohio and he's from Kentucky and he is just an amazing young man. He's also. Developed and teaches systems and strategies for treating high fear patients, sometimes affectionately referred to as Dr. Checklist. This lovely dentist speaks across the United States on topics related to systems management, clinical efficiency, dental technology, medical emergencies, treating anxious patients and leadership.
He is also the founder and owner of Streamdent software. Please help me welcome my dear friend. William J. Moorhead, BJ, how are you doing?
William: And it's a pleasure. How are you today?
Anne: I am doing great. I'm doing great. Dr. DMD. I love it. You are something, um, really special, BJ. We've known each other for a long time and I know you have a heart of gold.
And when we started talking about, you know, what would be our topic today? And you told me that you treat high fear patients and it's, it's really part of your expertise and part of your practice, uh, philosophy. I was not surprised at all. You're one of the kindest human beings I've ever met. Always, always just a gentleman and, and.
I don't know you, I, I feel like you've always looked out for the, the little guy or the guy standing in the corner. You just have a heart of gold. And is that where that comes from? Like how you started to get really involved in treating high fear patients? Cause not everybody wants, not everybody has that as their avatar.
How did that all come about BJ?
William: Well, I've always been an anxious patient in a male medical setting to start with, and coming out of dental school, we were in, I've graduated from University of Louisville, and we were given free CE for the first year, and by coincidence, While I was waiting, this was in the years when you took the boards and you had to wait for the results to be able to get your license.
So you're sitting on your rear end all summer long waiting, and they offered a course in hypnosis, and hypnosis for dental use and dentistry. I took the course, played with it a little bit, But that got me interested in the fear angle. We taught patients relaxation techniques back before video was a big thing.
We borrowed some professional cameras and made videos for our patients to watch to learn relaxation techniques. And back 22 years ago when the docs program started, I took their program and did oral sedation for nine years. And then, myself and another dentist here in Kentucky talked a couple of University of Kentucky professors into starting an IV program for general dentists at University of Kentucky.
They ran that program for about a decade and it kind of fizzled, uh, both of the guys that were teaching it retired. And more recently, uh, myself and a Dr. Darren Greenwell here in Kentucky have started another program, uh, for teaching IV sedation.
Anne: Oh my gosh, that's so cool. There's a couple of things that are really cool.
Um, the hypnosis thing is intriguing to me. Okay. Because I, I'm just, you know, all of you listening, I was just hypnotized about a month ago and it was, and I thought that was so woo woo. I was like, okay, well it was part of a coaching program I'm in. Right. So I'm like, ah, all right, I'll, I'll check that box.
And I did it before my retreat and actually, I got to tell you, I like a breakthrough. So I mean, this is, you did this, when was this that you, you did that? I mean, gosh, how many years ago? I can't reveal that
William: information or I would tell my
Anne: age. Well let me just say, it's quite a while back.
William: Let's just say it was in a previous century.
Anne: A previous century, yes. At least 20 years ago. Yeah, at least 20, maybe, maybe 25, right? I know. But I mean, that's so cool that you were so ahead of the Ahead of the curve back then and that actually they were teaching that in dental school, like kudos to Kentucky. I mean, in Louisville, I mean, that's, that is really, really cool.
Um, but I love the fact that I think that so many wonderful things come from our own experiences, right? So you were a fearful patient and so you saw a need. You felt the need and you decided to do something about it and now that you're bringing that back, I love that because that's the future, right?
I've got to
William: tell on myself too. I did the oral sedation thing for years. When I have to have blood drawn or anything IV related, I'm anxious enough that I have them lay me down so they don't have to pick me up. Oh my gosh! I didn't do, I didn't learn IV sedation for probably 8, 10 years because I was anxious about the idea of, of blood, even though I'm a dentist and I'm doing surgery and extracting teeth.
It was, it was a different thing. And, uh, doctors, it's a whole different thing, working on somebody else versus working, being worked on yourself.
Anne: Yeah.
William: It's the analogy of. Receiving the mandibular block versus giving the mandibular block. It's a lot easier on the giving it.
Anne: Oh, my gosh. That's so funny. I would think, you know, I'm a pretty decent patient.
And so it's funny to me that you're saying that. You, you, you don't mind giving the block, but you don't want to receive the block and that I would think all Dennis would be a pretty good patient, but I'm that's a that is a total misnomer and I am totally. Wrong on that. Aren't, aren't I,
William: I had to have some perio surgery last year, some grafts.
And, uh, I use the product onset, which is sodium bicarbonate for, uh, buffering the anesthetic and it takes a sting out. And when I went to the periodontist, I took my little onset pen and, and activated it for them so I wouldn't
Anne: feel injection. Gosh. Well, that's typical. That's typical. Let me show you how to do that.
Let me have a mirror while we're doing it so I can watch everything. Oh my gosh. No,
William: no, no, no, no, no.
Anne: You're not going to go that far. You're not going to go that far, but we'll, okay. So why would, why would a general dentist? So you're, you're putting this program together. Why would a general dentist want to add IV sedation to their practice?
William: That's an easy one. Uh, and this is, this just so fits with your angle, uh, with dental entrepreneur, about the future of dentistry. Almost one out of three patients are fearful. So general dentists, which is 95 percent of dentists, are fighting this fear angle all the time. That's problem number one. Problem number two, for patients that really do need to be sedated, they.
There are so few general dentists that do it. So if you want to position your practice for the future of dentistry, it's just a natural. The cases are larger. You're looked at as a leader in, in your area, because when you learn IB sedation, you're going to have. tougher cases, you're going to learn the skills, you're going to go to the CE to you're going to want to you're going, you're going to enjoy it.
It really energizes your practice. Now, yeah, you're gonna work harder, but you're gonna love it.
Anne: Wow. You know, that's so cool because I just, I mean, I was Just practicing up until about a year ago and we did not do general, uh, sedation in the practice. We didn't do IV sedation. We would send our patients to the, I believe we send them to the periodontist and they would do the IV, uh, sedation there.
And then maybe that my boss would go over and do the, the clinical end just very rarely. But that's just, first of all, Inconvenient for the patient. It's a big to-do, to get the schedules together. And I mean, is it that hard? Is it that much more involved, uh, to do sedation dentistry? And why would anybody be afraid of learning about that?
William: Well, it is a 90 to 100 hour course. There's six. The a DA requires a didactic, only the didactic portion be 60 hours of training. Um, and on the. On the, uh, giving end of the course. It's it was really fun when we developed the course initially to develop all that material quickly. Um, but you really do learn when you teach, uh, and then with that, I've, I've dropped the ball and forgotten part of your question.
So we ask if you can remember it.
Anne: Yeah. Well, I'm just saying, why would anybody, you know, want to, why wouldn't they want to get involved? Is it that involved? I mean, why wouldn't they want to take the course? So as you say, 60 hours,
William: it's a big course, uh, our costs for our course for AGD members. Uh, and by the way, if you join the ADD for 500, you save a thousand dollars.
So the course cost is like 12, seven 50. Okay. And then you have to buy some equipment to be able to get into it. Uh, but once you do that, the average case sizes are so much larger. And I don't know if I mentioned, we were talking earlier before the podcast. I don't think I mentioned this, but the average dental patient needs a couple of thousand dollars worth of work for every year they haven't been to the dentist.
Anne: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the other thing is that, that, that, that, The thing that strikes me also is that it's got to be a more relaxed, uh, state when your patients cooperating and not so anxious. I can't even imagine how much easier that would be for me to be able to do, you know, a periodontal treatment. If the patient was sound asleep and not fidgeting or worried, or because I mean, we, that vibe comes off on us.
We can't help it when that person is, you know, uh, jumping and, and very nervous and just to be able to get it all done at one sitting. And I know so many people that don't go to the dentist because they can't be put to sleep because it's not that, it's not that common. Like you were saying, it actually does give you the expert status in your community.
The thought leader status, me status. the person that is forward thinking, um, compared to somebody else down the street that still is doing it the old way. I will, I get, I have some
William: GPs that send me patients for sedation because they can't handle them. And occasionally I'll have a patient come in that has nothing to do with sedation.
And I see another dentist work because of that. I'll often be sitting next to a patient, new patient. That is high fear and talking and we take photos of everything to be able to show them. What's going on. Uh, we have an interview process that I have documented well in stream bed my software product that goes through the chief complaint, the motivating factors, the obstacles and guides the dentist through the process.
process so that you're better able to, uh, motivate the patient to get them healthy. But we'll be sitting and looking at a photo on the screen, an occlusal photo of the arch in, and I have to point out, This work that is really subpar, but I can honestly say to them, I do see some patients that come from Dr so and so, and I want to tell you, he or she does excellent work, but if you've got the environment to where you as the patient can't be able to handle sitting there and be able to cooperate to help them.
They can't give you the quality of work that you want that you need.
Anne: And that's true. That, that is really true and it's could be so daunting for, um, especially if it's a big case. And I, I could think of so many that they have to come back like eight times, right? I mean, especially, uh, that's a, that's a long time, long time away from work.
You know? I mean, I think everybody would like to wave a magic wand to wake up and it's all over and you go home and Monday you're okay and you're back, you know, you're back if you, if you need to be back at work. Or back to doing your normal things. Um, does that, so like, are you doing, like, would you do top and bottom arch?
How does that work? I'm just
William: curious. I'm in Kentucky where it's rumored that the toothbrush was invented, because any place else it would have been the teeth brush. Yeah. So I, I have to do too many cases that I don't like to do where I have to do full arch extractions or full mouth extractions. I've used Dr.
Jack Turby fills technique is branching technique for making dentures to where I can be able to slam dunk, be able to insert. immediate dentures that I know work from day one. And I've used that technique all the years that I've done sedation. Uh, I can be able to do full arch cases with crown and bridge.
I don't place dental implants, but for sedation implant for implants, sedation, or just a slam dunk.
Anne: Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh. I mean, again, I, I would imagine that that is standard procedure, especially if you're doing, you know, a couple of implants and you'd like to get them done at the same time, but not necessarily because I wonder what the percentages of dentists that actually do IV sedation.
Do you have any idea, like in your area, for instance, you know, in your community, I think in
William: general, Dennis is less than 2%, but I don't, but I'm not certain of that. Well,
Anne: anything less than five or 10 percent is not. Very. I mean, that's low. That is really low. Can we consider the benefits? And
William: a large number of young dentists are learning implants now.
They're learning them in dental school, which is fantastic. Yes, but it's an invasive procedure. And if you want to do it and do it right and be able to make it a profit center, the sedation is just slam dunk.
Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how do you do it safely where you don't put yourself and the patients at risk?
Is it through your course? I mean, I would imagine your course is going to bring you back to dental school and learn a lot of the, um, a lot of things that you, you touched on in dental school. Is that correct?
William: The first weekend of the course, uh, my students will normally say, I feel like I'm back in dental school.
The, the, the real joy of what I hear from our students is. You guys really make it practical. We're both practicing dentists instead of in academics. And so we teach the academic part, I know, just as well as the, the dental, dental school professors. But then we show you step by step. I use the things from my software product from Streamdent.
Uh, and I use other standardized approaches to where it can become a very methodical, automatic process that doesn't, no, no, no stress, no stress for the patient. Okay. No stress for the team. No stress for the dentist.
Anne: Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a wonderful way to practice dentistry, isn't it? Um, and also to grow in your profession.
I do think that is the, the new, you know, something that young dentists need to look at. Do they don't, do they get any of that education in the dental schools at all? I guess they,
William: It's very rare.
Anne: They probably talk, talk about like that's the, the, the one day they get for hygiene, the other, the, the day they get for ortho, the day they get for endo or whatever.
Right. I mean, it's very hard to get all of that curriculum in dental school. And then again, you want to, when you're going to do this and, and commit to it, um, You want to make sure that, you know, that 60 hours is going to come in real handy because you're going to have the confidence. And, and I think that's part of, um, you know, people think how hard it is, but you just, once you commit and they have someone like you to teach and you have a teaching partner, is that right?
For your course, Dr.
William: Darren Greenwell out of Radcliffe, Kentucky.
Anne: Okay.
William: And just to note, it's a 60 hour didactic. But then you also have to have clinical experience with 20 patients. So we bring all the dentists in for a couple of weekends and, uh, have them work. We saw 25 patients this past weekend.
Anne: Wow. And how do you find those patients?
Is it just
William: word of mouth or? We have really been blessed to partner with a, with Cornerstone Dental Seminars out of Louisville. Uh, they, they teach placing dental implants. on charity patients.
Anne: Oh,
William: so, uh, we use their clinic. Some of the time we're sedating their patients that are having implants placed.
Sometimes we're working on other charity patients in in that same clinic.
Anne: Wow. So you're actually doing good while teaching sedation. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Yeah. They used to say, you know, you know, what side of the toothbrush are you using? You know, what side to, to use. And, you know, it's, it's, it's pretty, it's just a gift when you can give that the gift of, Having that kind of intensive work done and knowing that the patient's going to the patient is just got so much has so much confidence in, um, taking that step, making that taking the, the, the, and the courage to actually sit for that appointment, because they know that when they wake up, they're going to be in great shape and they are in good hands.
William: Yes,
Anne: yeah, well, I think you're making a difference in dentistry. I love that. Um, you have come up with this, this course, and this is something you've been doing for a long time. So, it's like, you are, um, you're teaching the, the, uh, teaching the, um. The teachers, right? Or something like that. It would be dentists are always they have to have a little bit of experience before they get to your course.
Is that correct? I mean, do you would you like to have like, new grads here or would you like that has a little experience? We're in we're in our
William: 1st class now, and of the class, 2 of them have practiced less than 10 years.
Anne: Okay. Okay. But that's, and
William: they placed dental implants. So it's a natural.
Anne: Yes. It's a natural, it's a natural and, and just to have you be their teacher, I think it would be so, so great.
So I know that you've got some patients you've, you've been that, that guy that, um, that dentist and people come from all over when they hear that you are highly, um, highly expert at, um, Treating the fearful patient, you can tell their, your story to them, which probably makes them feel a little better.
Like, gosh, if, if, if Dr. Morehead was a little nervous and he's a practicing dentist, I guess I got to just step up and I'll be okay. But what happens if you've got a patient say, I'm just going to say, you got a patient happens to be their birthday and somebody gave them a gift. Of a dental exam, dental x rays.
And, um, maybe their first procedure, uh, to them. What would you do when you walk in the room, um, BJ to, to calm that patient down?
William: Well, I want to put them at ease and by coincidence, I have a very unique happy birthday. I'm allowed to tell that one of my patients is Nick or is George Clooney's mom. I got to do a full mouth rehab on her like 17 years ago.
Uh, and. Okay. When we did the entire, finished the entire, it was a full mouth rehab.
Anne: This is Rosemary Clooney?
William: This is, uh, no, Rosemary was George's, was George's aunt.
Anne: Oh, that's right, that's right. I love that because you don't, yeah.
William: Okay. I love it. Uh, so after we finished Nina's entire case, I wanted to do something special for my team.
Uh, they live about 45 minutes away from my practice. It's not unusual for people to drive an hour or so to me because there's, there's not many sedation dentists in this area. And, uh, so Nina comes in and I, when we finished everything, I said, I want to do something special for my team. And there is the Rosemary Clooney Museum in the town where Nick and Dina, George's parents, live.
I asked if, after I take them to a little bistro to eat, if Nick and Dina would give us a personal tour of the Rosemary Clooney Museum. And they did.
Anne: Awww.
William: I have for years, using the checklist approach with Streamdent, I have hired a high school student to come in the office after school, They use checklists, and they restock, they sterilize, and they, uh, set up, leave things in packages, but they set up for the next day's procedures.
Anne: Okay.
William: By coincidence, that day, my dental assistant, part time, the high school student, turned 18. And George's dad at the end of the tour sang this version of happy birthday that I'm going to share with you that I that I have a number of times walked into a an operatory and sung to a patient and perfect would be the new patient that came in and they're all anxious.
But the, the, the birthday song goes like this. For today is your birthday, that's what I've been told. What a wonderful birthday, you're one more year old. On your cake, there'll be candles all lighted for you, and the whole world is singing, happy birthday to you.
Anne: Oh, I love, thank you for singing that to our audience today, because what our audience may not know is that I would say for the past five years on my birthday, I get a phone call from you and you sing that birthday song to me.
And it always makes me smile from ear to ear. And I've saved the first one BJ, uh, just so that I can, I can hear it. I know it's so beautiful. Oh gosh. You're just one of them, you know, again, Back to the beginning of this podcast, you're one of the most amazing guys. I know in dentistry, you've got a kind heart.
And I love that you're doing something to change the world of dentistry and, and, and, and actually promote the future of dentistry. So tell us where, where do they find your course? Cause I know that a lot of people that are listening, say they might want to put this into their, Again, it's a practice builder, a profit center, and it would pay for itself, honestly, in the first, you know, one or two times of the patients that you see, because again, the cases are big.
So where do they find you and where they find your course information?
William: The website is IV sedation training for dentists. com IV sedation training for dentists. com.
Anne: Okay. Well, we'll have that in the show notes.
William: And my software product is Streamdent, uh, like Streamline Dentistry, and that's streamdent. com.
And my phone number is 502 509 8333. 1 5, 7, 0. That's a Google Voice number that rings to my office and my, uh, cell phone for after hours. Uh, and my email is dr dot m like Dr. Moorhead, dr dot [email protected].
Anne: Oh, okay.
William: S-T-R-E-A-M-D-E-N-T.
Anne: Well, that is good to know. We will be in touch with you and I'm hoping that we will be able to find more dentists dive in, dive deeper into this program and this protocol to help people that are fearful of dentists to get the care they need.
So thank you so much for doing this for us today and for being on our podcast today, BJ.
