Brett Allen (00:22)

Hi, Brett Allen here, host of the Marketing32 show where I connect with leading dentists, dental influencers, and industry experts to uncover the latest and greatest to help your practice grow and thrive. As you know, this episode is brought to you by our team here at Marketing32. We’re the only dental marketing team that I know of with a performance guarantee that if you’re not growing, you don’t pay. It’s that simple. We do truly invest in those we work with and want to prove that value and impact for the practice. So if you need help with…

Growth, marketing, all the things for new patient acquisition, getting patients back into the chair. Reach out to us at Marketing32. We’ll schedule a quick conversation, see if we’re a great fit to work together, and we’ll go from there. Quick shout out to Dana Johnson. Recently had her on the show, and we’ve got her husband with us today. ⁓

But yeah, check that episode out. We talked all about how to get the most out of your PMS and how to get your team utilizing it to its fullest potential to maximize the efficiency for your practice and patient experience. So check that episode out. Today we’ve got Kevin Henry on the show. With more than 25 years in the dental publishing industry, Kevin is the former group editorial director for Dental Products Report and managing editor for Dental Economics.

Currently, he is the editor in chief for Dr. ByCuspid.com. He has spoken to dental assistants throughout the world, in person, and through the Dental Assistant Nation podcast series, reminding them of the important role they play every day in their practice. He is also certified as a disc trainer, helping dental practices learn how to understand each other better through personality assessments and training. So, Kevin, welcome to show. Excited to have you on.

Kevin Henry (02:04)

Thanks, Brett. appreciate it. And shout out to Dana as well. So I’m glad that we’re all connected here in this kind of Colorado community. It’s very cool.

Brett Allen (02:07)

Hmm.

Yeah, it is. is cool. She’s awesome and excited to talk more about you and your background and how you’ve helped the industry. Yeah. So why don’t you start there? How did you get into dentistry? Give us that background.

Kevin Henry (02:25)

Yeah. Well,

for sure. ⁓ so it was something that obviously was not on the radar. was not, I did not grow up thinking this is what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be a journalist of some kind, but not dentistry was not part of that equation. so it was, as my daughter likes to remind me last century. so back in 1999, ⁓ I was working at a sports public relations, agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I’m

born and raised. so you’ll hear a little y’all every once in a while for me. but you know, ⁓ but, but I was happy sports, you know, and, and in that connection, ⁓ I was, I was doing a lot for small college athletes. I loved what I did. ⁓ my boss walked in one day and told me that they were relocating to Kansas city, to a major sports market, ⁓ invited me to come along. And, but I knew I could not do that because at the time my daughter was three months old and

Brett Allen (02:57)

Yes, I love it.

Kevin Henry (03:21)

the only grandchild and I knew my parents would kill me if I moved their grand daughter away from them. So I left that job and honestly, I needed a job. And, luckily the managing editor position for dental economics was open. ⁓ Lyle, yeah, Lyle Hoyt, who was the publisher of that told me at the very start, he said, we can teach you dentistry. I want you to be a good journalist. And, and I always appreciated him doing that. And all the people along the way that have.

Brett Allen (03:24)

If you,

cool.

Kevin Henry (03:48)

that have helped me with this dental knowledge that I’ve gained over the last 25 plus years.

Brett Allen (03:52)

That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s great. Great. ⁓ So how long has dental economics been around? That’s, that’s, really?

Kevin Henry (03:57)

⁓ more than a hundred years. Yeah. You know, it is the oldest.

Yeah. It’s the oldest publication out there. And it’s something that we, we always joked at dental economics. It’s time that the magazine would go on forever because we know how much business training Dennis need still to this day. And so, yeah, yeah. So dental economics made, made such an impact, not only on me, but so many people while I was there and, still does, it’s great to great to see it still going for sure.

Brett Allen (04:14)

yeah, absolutely.

That’s awesome. So in that realm of being editor-in-chief there, what transition happened for you to get more focused on working with dental assistants and being an advocate for their role?

Kevin Henry (04:35)

Yeah. You know, it was, it

was while it was the dental economics, uh, and I was there for 13 years. I loved it. And to be honest with you, the only reason that I ever left is because I met Dana and dental economics would not let me work remotely. We wanted to move to Colorado and they said, no, you’ve got to be in office. This was 2011. Uh, and, and, uh, unfortunately I left dental products report allowed me to work remotely. Uh, so we moved to Colorado and unfortunately,

You know, for me, I left D but very fortunately found Dana anyway. Uh, but while I was at dental economics, I realized that we had dental economics for the dentists. had RDH magazine, which is the powerhouse and hygiene for the hygienists, but there was nothing out there for the assistants really. And so I started at the time, this crazy thing called an E newsletter, uh, you know, which was still a new concept back in the day, but

Brett Allen (05:08)

Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Kevin Henry (05:30)

we, we reached out to more than 28,000 assistants every month with a dental assisting digest. And from that, the bill, the Oregon bill association reached out and said, you know, honestly, there’s not that many people speaking to dental assistance. Would you be interested in coming to our meeting and, leading some classes and was honored to do that back in 2005. And I haven’t stopped since then. you know, whether it’s a podcast, whether it’s speaking at Chicago midwinter, Henman.

here at the Rocky Mountain Dental Convention, wherever it might be, I’m always honored to speak to the dental assistants because there’s still not that many of us out there who focus on them and what they need to know to have a great career.

Brett Allen (06:09)

Yeah, that’s awesome. So are you going to Rocky Mountain this year? You’re speaking, okay.

Kevin Henry (06:12)

Yeah, I’m speaking this year at Rocky mountain. We’re actually, yeah.

So we’re launching, something different for dental assistance this year. And this will be the first time it is. ⁓ I don’t know if you know the concept of a Jeffersonian dinner. ⁓ I’ve learned about this. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of it or not. ⁓ So Thomas Jefferson, whenever he was, ⁓ you know, working his way up to being president, he would invite eight different people over to his house.

Brett Allen (06:29)

No, I haven’t. What is that?

Kevin Henry (06:41)

from different backgrounds and he would sit them around the table and he would ask them one question and each one had to go around the table and give their own answer to it. And they could learn from each other’s answers, but there was no interrupting. There was no disagreements. Everybody got their opinion. And so we’re going to do, yeah, I, I, the more I read about it, I’m fascinated with it. And, and the, the great folks at RMDC are going to work with me on that format for dental assistance.

Brett Allen (06:49)

cool.

I love that.

⁓ cool.

Kevin Henry (07:09)

yeah. So we’re going to see dental assistants in a round table. There’s going to be one question asked. They’re going to talk to each other. We’re going to learn from each other table wise, gather all the information and then put out a report to them on so that they remember after the convention, what they talked about, what their pain points were and what can be done about it moving forward in 2026. So I’m super excited.

Brett Allen (07:30)

That’s really cool, I love that. So will that be like all the dental assistants at the conference are invited to this session type thing? Yeah.

Kevin Henry (07:32)

Thank you. Appreciate it.

They’re invited, you know, and we’re going to stuff

as many of them in a room as we can there at the Colorado convention center. you know, and I’m excited because, ⁓ the folks at RMDC were willing to take a chance on it. And now the folks at the Connecticut state dental meeting will be doing it. I’ll be doing it at Florida next year. ⁓ so that I think people see the value in not only somebody lecturing to dental assistants, but also

Brett Allen (07:43)

that’s cool.

Kevin Henry (08:02)

dental assistants sitting around and talking to each other and learning from each other because they just don’t do that as much as they should. So I’m super excited that we can do this.

Brett Allen (08:08)

Hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. Oftentimes it’s a solo dental assistant in the practice. They don’t have another hygienist that’s like them, like you often get. And so that’ll be good. That’ll be good. Do you, do you have any idea what that question will be?

Kevin Henry (08:20)

Yeah, thank you. appreciate it.

I do. I’ve already got 10 asks. I’ve already got 10 and, and I’m going to tell you, we’re going to lead off now. Wait a minute. Let me make sure I’ve got this right before I say it, because, this is, this is a good lead question. And I think it’s good for pretty much anybody to be honest with you. So are you more concerned today about your health, your career, or your relationships?

Brett Allen (08:27)

Okay.

Interesting, okay.

Kevin Henry (08:46)

So

we’re going to start off with that one and then we’re going to dive into more dental focused questions, but that’s at least going to be the warmup question. And again, everybody gets a chance to talk. There’s no wrong answer. ⁓ But, but I think health is one of the big things I hear from dental assistants, you know, with ergonomics and some of the pain that they take home. So I have a feeling that between that and the relationships in the practice, those are going to be two of the biggest answers whenever I ask that question.

Brett Allen (08:58)

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, we’re having ⁓ Stephanie Botts on the show ⁓ coming up. And so we’ll talk all about posture and ergonomics and everything with her. But yeah, that’s cool. yeah, hitting on the big three, health, wealth, and relationships, right? Everything kind of boils down into that. That’ll be good. I wish I could be there for the conversation.

Kevin Henry (09:21)

Love her.

He’s fantastic.

Well, the good thing is Dana is going to be there. We’re going to have it. I’m going to try to record some pieces of it to not only show to meeting players in the future, but also to use with dental assistant nation and what we’re doing over there to try to empower dental assistants. So I’m very excited about it. It’s going to be great. Thanks.

Brett Allen (09:54)

That’s

cool. Yeah, want to, I mean, we both are in the Denver area, the greater Denver area. I’m in Evergreen, Europe and Boulder. ⁓ I want to go to Rocky Mountain, but there’s really no ticket just to come as like an attendee. It’s weird. Like it’s one of those conferences where they don’t just let anybody in. Yeah.

Kevin Henry (10:09)

Yeah.

Yeah, I wish they would

because it’s certainly something you know, maybe you could sign up as a scout. You know, you could say you’re gonna have some kind of you’re a scout for your podcast. Yeah.

Brett Allen (10:20)

That’s, maybe I will do that. Maybe I’ll try

that angle, see if they’ll let me get in. Because I certainly know tons of people in the industry and it would be great to rub shoulders and network and see everybody again, reconnect. It’s a big event.

Kevin Henry (10:36)

And

it is, and it’s one that, you know, the more I go to it, you see Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas. I mean, it really is a regional event more than just Denver. And so I’m, I’m excited to see what bill assistance bring from other States as well.

Brett Allen (10:47)

Yeah.

Cool, cool. So in your experience working with dental assistants or ⁓ being in that space more so than most, ⁓ what’s kind of the biggest pain point or headache or challenge that they’re experiencing and what can we tell our listeners if they’re assistants or if they’re docs to help in that way?

Kevin Henry (11:12)

I would say the two biggest ones that dental assistants face every day are a lack of pay and a lack of respect. there, you don’t know how many times that I’ve heard from others in the dental practice, as well as from assistants whenever they introduced themselves. I was speaking to Houston not long ago and this dental assistant came up and she said, hi, my name’s Mindy and I’m just the dental assistant in the practice. Just, and, the, ⁓

Brett Allen (11:18)

Mm.

just the dental assistant. Yeah.

Kevin Henry (11:40)

The just word is something I hear so often from dental assistants that they, they don’t feel like that they’re really part of the team. They feel like they’re kind of out in this other world. Like you said a minute ago, so many of them are solo DAs and there’s not really a national dental association. Colorado doesn’t have a state dental assistant association. Yeah. So there’s not a lot of support out there. So

Brett Allen (11:43)

Hmm.

Right. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah

Kevin Henry (12:06)

The thing that I try to get across to dental assistants is that we’ve got to form communities, you know, talk to each other, learn from each other. And that’s one of things I try to do with dental system nation, but we’ve also got to encourage these conversations to happen, you know, in Boulder and, you know, in Greeley and grand junction, you know, everywhere we need to have dental assistants talking to each other, learning tips from each other, understanding how technology works, teaching each other.

That’s really an important thing to me is how do we form these relationships and how do they pay off in the long run to not only make sure the dental assistant get his or her answer questions answered, but also they stay excited. They stay connected. They stay a part of this industry because we know how important it is to keep team members together right now. And the more that we do to have them not only understand their role, but how important it is. I think it’s more critical today than it’s ever been.

Brett Allen (12:54)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, ⁓ I had Tia Hunter on the show a while back. She actually introduced us. She’s a big advocate for the dental assistant, wrote a book, something, Becoming a Rockstar Dental Assistant or something. I can’t remember the title. ⁓ But yeah, it seems like it’s one of those roles that kind of is in the shadows and they don’t get, they don’t, like you said, maybe even the self-image of their role on the team is lacking.

Kevin Henry (13:05)

love her. Yes. Yes.

Well,

you know, and when you talk to Dana about the practice management system, you know, and in dentrics or anything else, there’s so often the dental assistant doesn’t have a column. You can’t really track what he or she makes as a financial impact to the bottom line of the practice. And one thing that I always encourage my assistants to do is this time of year, as we start the year is really make that list of everything you do every day.

Brett Allen (13:29)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kevin Henry (13:54)

To impact the practice, even as menial as it may be, as taking out the trash or whatever it is, it’s still something that you do that the practice needs you to do. And yeah. And it’s important for them to have that list and to remind themselves that they matter. They make a difference. And then also to have that conversation with the dentist and to the dentists out there. I encourage you this time of year.

Brett Allen (13:59)

Mm-hmm. Prepping the op or whatever, yeah.

Kevin Henry (14:18)

sit down with your team and talk to them about their goals for the upcoming year. How can you be a part of that? How can you support them and their learning process? Because I will tell you, so many assistants have ideas, they have goals, they have this vision of where they want to be whenever, you know, a year from now comes, but they don’t feel like that anybody cares or they don’t feel like that they’ll be heard even if they share it. So

I always encourage my assistants talk to your dentist. See if you can just get a few minutes, not to demand a raise, but just to talk about your goals for the year and how you all can work together on that. And I always encourage the dentist to do the same thing with their, their assistance and other team members as well.

Brett Allen (14:51)

Yeah.

Yeah, that’s good. That’s great advice. Communication and listening and understanding everybody on the team, giving everybody equal opportunity to contribute to the vision or play out the vision, right? Well, let’s kind of segue into, you mentioned in your bio your background with the disk assessment, that personality assessment. ⁓ I took the disk assessment, it was like,

Kevin Henry (15:10)

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Brett Allen (15:23)

It was one of the first, if not the first, I can’t remember. I’ve done a few of them, but so enlightening when you do a personality assessment and then seeing it with other team members too, because we, for a long time, a part of our hiring process was to do the disk assessment. We should probably go back to that and do that again. But ⁓ yeah, I think in this concept of communication and understanding everybody on the team and

Kevin Henry (15:33)

Yes.

Brett Allen (15:50)

doctor to dental assistant communication. Like having that disc assessment and doing those together as a team really helps you start to see everybody and understand where their strengths are, where their weaknesses are, where yours are, and how they all mesh together.

Kevin Henry (16:09)

I was working with a dental practice in Oregon.

And one of the things I love to do is have the entire practice, take the disc test. And then we reveal where everybody is, you know, D I S C, you know, wherever they fit. And I remember this hygienist in Oregon pointed at the dentist and she said, that’s why you act that way. And I mean, it was like this light bulb went off that she realized that, that he wasn’t being this, you know,

Brett Allen (16:18)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kevin Henry (16:33)

Overdemanding ogre or anything else, but that’s his personality was that he wanted to be kept up with everything. He wanted to be in charge. He was that strong D. And I think whenever we kind of peel back the onion a little bit and we realize who each other is and why we act the way that we do, makes such a difference when we talk to each other, when we listen to that other person, as well as what we share, you know, I mean, and even in our personal lives too, Dana and I are.

complete opposites on the disc scale. She’s a strong D. I’m a very quiet S. Yeah. And so we’ve had to learn a lot of times how we even communicate here in the house because of that, because what she needs to hear is certainly different than what I need to hear as well.

Brett Allen (17:05)

really?

and

Yeah, yeah, there’s a yin and yang that happens with every relationship. There’s the, yeah, how you interact. So are you involved with working with practices to do those types of assessments and assistance? that?

Kevin Henry (17:26)

Yeah, and.

I

do. Yeah. I love with the entire team. I love to go in there and we do the disc test to start. Everybody gets their own assessment, but then we kind of wait and have a big reveal on where everybody fits on the wheel. And people start all of a sudden realizing, you and I think the same way. Oh, you and I think differently. And all of a sudden you can see the, the picture they’ve got of that other person change.

Brett Allen (17:39)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kevin Henry (17:56)

And

it’s something I really love that unveil day. And then we talk about, okay, so your boss is the complete opposite of the, even the personality, what does it mean? You know, so I love those moments and those teaching moments, whenever we really get to understand why that other person is who they are.

Brett Allen (18:06)

Yeah.

Yeah, that’s really cool. Yeah, Tony Robbins, I think. Did he start the disk assessment or did he kind of like take it and really run with it? I don’t know.

Kevin Henry (18:21)

I know. I

think he was the guy that really pushed it into the mainstream. Absolutely. Yeah.

Brett Allen (18:26)

Okay,

because that was the first version I took of it was his version of the assessment. But I know there’s, there’s many free versions out there you can, you can do and, ⁓ and, and do it online. Yeah.

Kevin Henry (18:37)

For sure. And, and

yeah, and that’s something that I always say, you know, just dip your toe in the water. See if, see if there’s something of interest there. And then obviously if you want to expand, happy to help with that. But I think the more that we know about each other, you know, before we were recording this, you and I were talking about what styles we were, you know, and I think it helps just to know what that other person is, just so you can have conversations and kind of keep things rolling as well.

Brett Allen (18:55)

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely understanding. I think that’s a skill that’s lacking that we all have to grow in as we, know, someday when I grew up, ⁓ it’s like, I, I just remember when I first took it and how, and then my wife took it and team members took it. was like, Whoa, this is like really interesting how it just opens your eyes to what, know, as, as a kid, you just think everybody’s how you are. And you kind of like, it’s like a weakness. And so you.

You relate to others how you want to be related to, and not everybody processes the world the same way that you do. And yeah, yeah.

Kevin Henry (19:40)

Yeah.

And how many times have you thought, gosh, wouldn’t it be great if everybody thought like me and, and the, it’s not really great whenever you think about it, because we need all these different opinions and viewpoints and everything else coming at us to shape us and help us know, you know, kind of what the right path is a lot of times.

Brett Allen (19:44)

Right.

⁓

Yeah, for sure. So talking about dental assistants again, what’s one facet of that role ⁓ that just really lights your fire and that you just love? Like what is it about the dental assistant that you gravitated towards?

Kevin Henry (20:16)

You know, I’ll be honest, I grew up a Chicago Cubs fan. Uh, you know, don’t tell my friends with the Rockies that now, but I grew up Cubs fan and I’ve always cheered for the underdog. And to me, that’s what drew me to the assistance is that so often they’re kind of the underdogs out there. They’re doing the job they’re doing, they’re doing what they need to do, but there’s just not a lot of spotlight that gets shined on them. And so I think.

Brett Allen (20:23)

Hahaha

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kevin Henry (20:41)

The more that we, you know, going back to touch on this a little bit, the more that we understand what each other does in the practice, I mean, really does. And the more that you can understand how much the patients trust your dental assistant, then maybe you may not even realize, you know, there are so many times that I’ve been in a practice and, know, I’ve been there observing or working with a team or whatever it might be in the doc leaves the room and the patient will turn to the assistant and say, do I really need that crown?

Brett Allen (20:57)

Hmm.

Kevin Henry (21:08)

Is this really necessary? And it’s up to that assistant to close that case at that point. And I think that we don’t realize so often in the practice how much that the patient sees the assistant as an equal and somebody that they can really talk to and ask these questions. So that’s one of the things that I love is the patient assistant interaction, as well as just how they can drive the conversation so much exactly the way that

Brett Allen (21:29)

Yeah.

Kevin Henry (21:34)

that hopefully they’ve been trained to do as well as what is best for the patient.

Brett Allen (21:38)

Yeah, I love that you mentioned that made me think of my dental assistant at my dentist. I actually go up to I drive. make the drive up to Boulder. Dr. Alman, Dan Alman, a family Alman family dental in Boulder. I’m doing sure smile aligners with them. ⁓ He’s a he’s a client of ours and we’re doing their marketing. And Aaron is the dental assistant there. Quick shout out to Aaron. And I’ll never forget how she just made the place feel like home.

Kevin Henry (21:46)

Nice.

Brett Allen (22:07)

super personable, just smiling, just the conversation was great. It’s like, when we talk about marketing, a lot of dentists think marketing is what brings the new patient in the door. And it is. There’s branding and awareness that helps bring that new patient in. But everything else beyond that initial booking of the appointment to when they show up, the conversations, the experience, the smells, the financing options, the case presentation, all of that is marketing too.

And the assistant is a big, you touched on it, they’re a big part of that patient experience.

Kevin Henry (22:42)

They are. And, and, I’m glad you mentioned that because I think there’s such a misnomer out there so many times about marketing and what that really means and having everybody on your team understand his or her role and the impact that that role has, I think is such a key point that’s overlooked in so many dental practices today.

Brett Allen (23:00)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. For sure. Yeah, we could talk all about marketing. We could talk all about that. But that’s not… ⁓ This particular episode, we won’t go there. ⁓ Yeah, so we’re almost out of time. Conversations always fly. ⁓ So I always close with just this one question. What’s that one golden nugget, ⁓ that epiphany? If we could have our listeners understand this, it would have this ripple effect.

Kevin Henry (23:15)

Absolutely.

Brett Allen (23:27)

for their practice, for their lives, what is that?

Kevin Henry (23:29)

I would say understand how valuable every member of your team is understand and embrace the differences that you have in your practice as well. ⁓ so often we have those moments that we kind of roll our eyes or we, know, even though we’ve got that mask on, we can still tell a lot by the eyes. And, and I think it’s important for us to not just roll the eyes or shrug or sigh or whatever it might be, but to really understand not only who you’re working with, but

Brett Allen (23:46)

Yeah.

Kevin Henry (23:56)

the impact that that person has on the business overall. And I think if you could do that, it would elevate the role of dental assistants as well as everybody else on the team.

Brett Allen (24:04)

Love that. Yeah. At the end of the day, it’s all, we’re all people and we’re all just on this big marble floating in space together. And so we’ve got to, we’ve got to make the most of it. And if you, yeah, I love that. Well, that’s a great way to end it. Thank you so much, Kevin. I think you highlighted this important role in dentistry well today. And I think there’s a lot of value in this episode. So thank you for coming on the show.

Kevin Henry (24:08)

Yeah.

We did.

Absolutely, Brad. Thanks for having me on, man. I enjoyed it.

Brett Allen (24:31)

Alright everybody, until next time on the Marking32 show, have an awesome day and have an awesome 2026. Take care.