“The Answers Are in the Data”: How Dr. Aditi Agarwal’s Practice by Numbers Reveals Why Dashboards Transform Struggling Practices Into High-Growth Operations
In this grounded, operator-first conversation, Dr. Agarwal reveals why most practices don’t know their actual metrics (they guess), how tracking just two or three key metrics (hygiene pre-appointment rate, production vs. collection ratio, and marketing cost per booking) can forecast your entire practice’s future and unlock strategic planning, why production numbers lie but collection numbers tell the truth, how insurance companies follow predictable trends that you can get ahead of proactively, and why the real power of Practice by Numbers isn’t just analytics—it’s becoming a completely modular operating system for dental practices.
Most powerfully, she shares her golden nugget: saying yes to hard things, even when they make you uncomfortable, has served her well every time—because that’s how you innovate, grow, and build something meaningful. If you’ve ever wondered why some practices seem to know exactly where their money is going and where to invest next while others are completely lost, how data-driven decisions could transform your practice, or why integrating multiple software tools might be costing you far more than consolidating into one modular platform, this episode will completely reshape how you think about practice management, data literacy, and what it really means to build software by dentists for dentists.
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Key Moments
- 02:38 – Dr. Agarwal’s origin story: 23 years in dentistry, opened startup practice in depressed market in 2010, faced survival mode with low case acceptance mystery
- 05:09 – The data revelation: Husband (engineer Rohit) creates spreadsheets from PMS data; Dr. Agarwal can’t read them; he creates dashboard instead—instant clarity and results
- 08:51 – Key metrics every practice needs: Hygiene pre-appointment rate (forecasts future production), production vs. collection ratio (reveals what you actually collected), marketing cost per booking (ROI attribution)
- 09:00 – Hygiene as crystal ball: Pre-appointment rate tells you what to expect in production six months out; helps forecast staffing, hours, insurance decisions
- 11:15 – Collection vs. production: Production numbers lie; collection numbers tell truth—write-offs and adjustments mask real profitability
- 12:12 – Insurance trends and patterns: Insurance companies follow predictable patterns; tracking them lets you communicate proactively with patients, reducing write-offs and headaches
- 14:04 – Evolution of PBN: Started analytics → COVID forced expansion → customers asked “can you do this?” → now includes forms, consents, reviews, AI receptionist, payments, communications
- 19:52 – Customer-first, modular approach: Only software completely modular; build what you need; grow with practice from startup to skyscraper; owned by dentist so decisions stay customer-focused
- 26:12 – Golden nugget: Say yes to hard things even if uncomfortable; embrace challenges; figure it out as you go—this approach has served her well every time
Episode Summary
Dr. Aditi Agarwal has been in dentistry for 23 years—as a clinician for seven years as an associate, then as a practice owner for 19 years. In 2010, she made the bold (some might say risky) decision to open a startup practice in a depressed market during the height of the financial crisis. She quickly realized what she’d done—huge loan payments, survival mode, bills coming in constantly. But the real mystery was her case acceptance. As an associate, her case acceptance had been strong, but in her own practice, it plummeted. She was frustrated, confused, and wondering what fundamentally had changed about her as a clinician. Every night she’d come home stressed, asking her husband (who’s an engineer) what could be wrong. One night, he said something that changed everything: “With most businesses, usually the answers are in the data.” Dr. Agarwal didn’t understand what he meant—she didn’t see any data. But Rohit suggested looking at reports in her practice management system. He started creating spreadsheets to pull and organize that data.
Beyond those core metrics, Dr. Agarwal emphasizes understanding insurance patterns. Insurance companies follow predictable trends. If you track them over time, you’ll notice patterns—and once you see those patterns, you can get proactive with patients. Instead of being surprised by insurance adjustments, you can communicate with patients beforehand: “Here’s what your insurance likely won’t cover.” This reduces write-offs, reduces frustration, and transforms the entire dynamic. The evolution of PBN shows how customer-driven software should work. COVID forced practices to solve problems creatively—suddenly they needed online forms so patients wouldn’t have to come in early to fill them out, digital consents to minimize touchpoints, ways to request reviews without staff having to ask, payment processing online because gyms were doing it. Customers kept asking “can you also do this?” and the team kept building. Now PBN includes AI receptionist capabilities, communications, appointment reminders, text messaging—essentially everything a practice needs to operate.
What makes PBN different from competitors is that it’s completely modular. You don’t have to buy everything. A startup practice doesn’t need all features, but a multi-location practice does. PBN grows with you. Because Dr. Agarwal has lived through building a practice from ground zero, she understands the journey—and that lived experience is reflected in the product philosophy. The company is also owned and managed by a practicing dentist, not venture capitalists or Wall Street investors. This means product decisions stay customer-focused. Dr. Agarwal still practices two to three days a week (she loves dentistry—it’s her “me time” and chill time), and she stays deeply connected to actual practice pain points. When she talks with customers about features and toggles, it’s not from theory—it’s from lived experience. She ends by sharing her golden nugget: say yes to hard things, even when they make you uncomfortable. Every time she’s embraced a challenge and figured it out along the way, it’s served her well. That philosophy—embracing hard things, saying yes to discomfort, figuring it out as you go—is exactly what created Practice by Numbers and what keeps it customer-focused and innovative.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
- Practice by Numbers: Modular dental practice operating system with analytics, AI receptionist, forms, consents, payments, communications, and review generation
- Dr. Agarwal on LinkedIn: Dr. Agarwal available on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram—responds to DMs
- Marketing 32: Performance-based dental marketing with cost per booking tracking and attribution
- Connor Ludlow / Hello Annie Episode: Previously featured episode on AI receptionist technology
- Dr. Laura Brenner Episode: Previously mentioned episode on dentist burnout and wellbeing
Quotable Moments:
“When you open a startup in a depressed market, you’re like, boy, now what have I gone and done? I have this huge loan that I have to pay, and it becomes a question of survival.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
“With most businesses, usually the answers are in the data. The reports should be there in your practice management system.” – Rohit Agarwal (Dr. Agarwal’s husband)
“I don’t like spreadsheets. After seeing patients all day, I can’t read them. But when he created a dashboard, I looked at it and I was like, wow, this gives me so much insight as to what’s happening.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
“When I took the information from that dashboard and made little tweaks, I saw my productivity increase, patients accept treatment. Everything shifted. From that point, I just started to grow month after month.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
“You don’t need to track 600 KPIs. Every practice should track at least two or three key metrics. Hygiene pre-appointment rate is like a crystal ball—it helps you forecast what you can expect in production six months from now.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
“Production versus collection ratio is really important. You can’t just look at your production numbers and be like, ‘this is great, I did awesome.’ You have to look at collection numbers because that’s what drives the engine.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
“Insurance follows patterns and trends. If you follow an insurance company for a certain amount of time, you’ll realize there are trends. You can get proactive with those trends and communicate with patients beforehand, which reduces write-offs.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
“We’re probably the only software company that is completely modular. You build what you want. You grow with us. As a startup, you don’t need all the features. When you’re a skyscraper, you need everything.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
“The reason for burnout is not the dentistry itself. It’s not having support or systems to help you play the role you were meant to play in dentistry, and absorbing everyone’s frustrations around you.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
“Say yes to hard things, even if they make you uncomfortable. I would take it up as a challenge and say, okay, I’m going to try to do the best I can. And it has served me well every time.” – Dr. Aditi Agarwal
Key Action Items:
- Pull your hygiene pre-appointment rate: Check your PMS right now—what percentage of hygiene patients have their next appointment scheduled before they leave? This is your crystal ball for future production.
- Calculate your production vs. collection ratio: Don’t just look at production numbers; calculate what percentage you’re actually collecting after write-offs and adjustments.
- Audit your insurance patterns: Track your insurance write-offs and adjustments over the past six months—look for patterns and trends.
- Identify your marketing sources: Do you know which marketing channels generate which patients? Track cost per booking for each channel.
- Consolidate your software stack: How many different tools are you paying for? (Forms, consents, reminders, payments, communications, reviews?) PBN or similar modular platforms consolidate these.
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is brought to you by Marketing 32—the only dental marketing team with a performance guarantee where if you’re not growing, you don’t pay. Marketing 32 is truly invested in adding value to your practice and working with doctors they know they can over-deliver for. Marketing 32 helps you build the patient acquisition piece of that vision through strategic online presence, content creation, and growth campaigns. If you need help with marketing and growth, reach out at marketing32.com for a quick 15-minute discovery call to see if it’s a good fit.
Episode Transcript:
Brett Allen (00:23)
Hi, Brett Allen here, host of the Marketing32 show, where I connect with leading dentists, dental influencers, and industry experts to bring you guys the latest and greatest to help your practices to grow and thrive. This episode, as always, is brought to you by our team here at Marketing32. We are the only dental marketing team that I know of with a performance guarantee that if you’re not growing, you don’t pay us. We truly invest in those who trust us, and we only work with those practices that we know we can deliver value for.
with ethical marketing. So if you need help growing your practice, you don’t have a marketing team or want a better marketing team, head over to marketing32.com, set up a discovery call, we’ll have a great conversation, see if it’s a fit. quick shout out to Connor Ludlow. Recently had him on the show. We talked about Hello Annie, their AI receptionist and AI coworker. They’re doing a great big new push push
with their AI coworker to do all kinds of things in the practice for you, make your time more efficient. Check out that episode. Connor’s awesome and really at the forefront of AI and dentistry. So excited to have a new friend on the show, Dr. Aditi Agarwal. She is a practicing dentist, practice owner, and co founder of Practice by Numbers. You guys have probably heard of that software.
She originally built PBN to solve her own operational pain points and now helps practices across the country gain control, improve efficiency, and scale safe sustainability and scale sustainably. A respected speaker and clinician, Dr. Agarwal, brings a grounded operator-first perspective to dental technology, bridging the gap between patient care and performance.
Whether running her Thriving Practice or advising our pract product strategy, she is a true champion of growth-minded system-driven dentistry. Excited to have you on the show, Dr. Aditi.
Thanks for coming on. Yeah. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (02:12)
Thank you so much. Thank you, Brett. Thanks. Excited to be here.
Brett Allen (02:15)
Yeah. I’m excited to go deeper with you and learn more about your story and talk about PBN. I know you guys have made a big impact in the industry, a much needed impact. but before we get into practice by numbers, can you walk us through
I I heard a little bit about it at SCN when we were there together. But tell everybody else your story of like how you got into dentistry and walk us into that of how you started practice by numbers.
DR Aditi Agarwal (02:38)
Well, you know, dentistry has been part of my life since I was eighteen years old. And I I have been in practice for twenty-three years as a general practice clinician as well as an owner for now eighteen, actually nineteen years, as
Brett Allen (02:57)
wow.
DR Aditi Agarwal (02:58)
a practice owner.
And in my early days of practice ownership, you know, we all think that it’s great that we can drill, but who’s gonna pay the bills? That’s when you realize that you need patience and you need to be able to understand your numbers and your what’s happening in your office besides just having patience in your chair.
Brett Allen (03:26)
Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (03:27)
And
I had a long time ago initially when I opened my first startup, this was back in 2010. I had two startup practices. And my first startup in 2010, who opens a startup in a depressed market? First of all, an idiot like me. And then
Brett Allen (03:42)
Yeah. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (03:45)
when you open, you’re like, boy, now what have I gone and done?
Brett Allen (03:50)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (03:50)
I have
this huge loan that you know I have to obviously payment requests are coming through. And you’re
Brett Allen (03:58)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (03:58)
like, how do I make this? these payments? And it’s it’s a it really honestly becomes a question of survival. And at that time you you start to understand or realize you need to start to think outside the box. And
I in my early in my career struggled with low case acceptance. And but I’d already been a practicing dentist in as an associate for seven years prior to opening my startup. And I was like, how is it that I have low case acceptance in my practice? Whereas when I was an associate, that was not the case. I haven’t
Brett Allen (04:34)
interesting.
DR Aditi Agarwal (04:35)
changed. What is what is fundamentally wrong? Something’s not right here.
Brett Allen (04:40)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (04:41)
And you know, as dentists, we tend to put a lot of the blame on ourselves. It is always a me problem, right? We’re perfectionists. We want to see what is it that’s causing this. It’s maybe I don’t know, maybe I’m not explaining it properly, maybe the demographic is not understanding what I’m trying to say. it was
Really I would be very frustrated and I had a two and my son was two and a half year old years old at that time and I had a startup.
Brett Allen (05:06)
Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (05:09)
And so I would come home really late at night and my husband broke who’s an engineer, he I would be like, I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong and he was like, Well, you know, with most businesses usually the answers in data.
I was like, I don’t know what data you’re talking about because I don’t I don’t see
Brett Allen (05:28)
Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (05:31)
I don’t see any data. And he’s like, well, the reports should be there in your practice management system. And I was like, Okay, let’s let’s see what we can we can find. Obviously, it’s like f trying to find a needle in a haystack, trying to go through
Brett Allen (05:46)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (05:47)
reports in a PMS.
Brett Allen (05:49)
Mm-hmm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (05:49)
And so Roet at the time said, Okay, well let me see what I can do for you. So he started with creating spreadsheets and to help me look at what was going on in my practice. And I I’m a visual person, I don’t like spreadsheets. And I told Roet, I said, What is this? I don’t I I I can’t read this. And I was like, and after seeing patients all day.
You come home and you’re like looking at spreadsheets. I think I was getting all googly eyed. I said, This this gotta be a better way. And he was like, Okay, I think I can make a a graph, right? Or dashboard. And I think that’s when he first created my first dashboard. And I looked at that and I was like, Wow, okay, you know, this gives me
Brett Allen (06:35)
Is helpful, yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (06:37)
so much insight as to what’s happening. And then when
I took the information from that dashboard and tweaked. It wasn’t it wasn’t even making big changes, making little changes in my office. I saw my productivity increase. I saw my patients, you
Brett Allen (06:52)
Mm-hmm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (06:53)
know, accept treatment. Everything shifted. And honestly, s from that point, I I just started to grow month after month. And I was like, this is this is really powerful. And
I think for
Brett Allen (07:06)
Just just seeing the
numbers helped you. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (07:08)
Yeah, yeah.
And then I think for a year Roet would do this just to help me out. And then he realized, well, we were looking for, you know, taking it, look looking for taking things to the next level, more
Brett Allen (07:21)
Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (07:22)
numbers, more analytics, more deeper dive. And we found that there really wasn’t anything in dentistry. And he was like, Well,
Brett Allen (07:28)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (07:29)
maybe i I can just build this and I was like, Okay, we’re gonna do this and
Honestly, Brewitt then decided to quit his job and
Brett Allen (07:39)
well.
DR Aditi Agarwal (07:39)
we used an an auditory in my office and we put a desk and a chair there and he started developing practice by numbers in my office.
Brett Allen (07:51)
That’s awesome.
DR Aditi Agarwal (07:52)
yeah, and it was in an in an unused auditory when finally I had to be like, I need an auditory, I need a chair.
Brett Allen (08:00)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (08:01)
you need to find your own space because we grew. And
Brett Allen (08:04)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (08:06)
that’s how Practice by Numbers came
Brett Allen (08:07)
That’s awesome.
DR Aditi Agarwal (08:08)
about, really.
Brett Allen (08:10)
I love I love founder stories and how entrepreneurs find a problem to solve and they fix it and then they’re like, Well, there’s a bigger opportunity here to help others with this. yeah, necessity is the mother of invention, right? It’s like if there’s a need,
DR Aditi Agarwal (08:23)
It sure is.
Brett Allen (08:24)
we can we can figure this out. So you guys found a need in the industry to get the the metrics, the analytics for the practice. And now in the ear
You guys have come a long way and I wanna get I wanna I wanna talk about that and what you guys are capable of doing now with PBN.
But
DR Aditi Agarwal (08:37)
Mm.
Brett Allen (08:38)
talk to us about the early days. Like what what was it in the in the beginning? What were the key things for you that when you saw these metrics, what metrics were those that really kinda helped drive the growth for the practice? Or what ’cause I know you track a lot of things now, but
DR Aditi Agarwal (08:51)
Absolutely. We
yeah, over six hundred KPIs that are completely
Brett Allen (08:55)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (08:56)
customizable. So it’s a lot of data. But you know,
Brett Allen (08:59)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (09:00)
I think every office should track at least two or three. You don’t need six hundred, honestly. You just need to just
Brett Allen (09:06)
Right, there’s key metrics, yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (09:08)
key metrics, honestly. You need to understand and know your hygiene preappointment rate because hygiene is a driver for your
Brett Allen (09:16)
Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (09:17)
for any practice and it’s like a crystal ball. It really helps you see what you can expect in terms of production from hygiene six months from now. That helps you plan. You can then plan for okay, if I meet you know your bills. You know how much your rent’s gonna be. And you’re like you can then plan for, okay, I need to make up
If this much is what I can expect from hygiene in six months, I know how much I need to do in actual dentistry to make up the amount that I need,
Brett Allen (09:46)
Forecast it, yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (09:47)
yeah, forecasting. And then also it helps to understand your patient pool, right? Do they value the care that you are giving?
That’s important. It’s important for you to
Brett Allen (09:58)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (10:00)
understand your demographic. It’s important for you to understand if they are able to place value in the care that they’re giving because they want to come back. Right. So
Brett Allen (10:10)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (10:11)
those are really important key factors of understanding. And these metrics will give you an idea. Also, it’ll help you understand if I have a
ver almost full schedule six months from now in hygiene, how am I going to accommodate my new patients? So
Brett Allen (10:28)
Hm, yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (10:29)
I need to plan for staffing. I need to plan for extended hours or cut hours or cut insurances.
Brett Allen (10:36)
Right.
DR Aditi Agarwal (10:37)
There’s so many things that I need that I could plan for beforehand if I had just that knowledge.
Brett Allen (10:45)
Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (10:45)
And
so honestly, hygiene pre-appointment rate for me is one of the most important markers of that any practice and every practice should follow because they all have it. They all have a hygiene
Brett Allen (10:57)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (10:59)
apartment. Whether they do their own hygiene, it doesn’t matter, or you have hygienists doing their hygiene. So that
Brett Allen (11:03)
Right. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (11:06)
part doesn’t make a difference. The fact is that you have hygiene. And
Of course, you know, one of the biggest metrics your production versus collection ratio,
Brett Allen (11:15)
Yeah, yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (11:17)
right? It’s really important to understand not just what you’re producing, but actually what you’re collecting at the end of the day. Because it doesn’t what drives the engine in an office is the collection. That’s
Brett Allen (11:31)
Mm-hmm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (11:31)
the driver. So you can’t you you
You can’t just be at the end of the day after you do your production or do your dentistry and look at your production numbers. You can’t be like, this is great. I did awesome. And then you realize that you’ve you know you have to have a bunch of write-offs and adjustments. So really what the
Brett Allen (11:50)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (11:52)
number you have to look at is the collection number. So it’s that is one of the other key numbers that’s that’s super, super important. in
Brett Allen (12:00)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (12:02)
and then if you are an insurance-based practice, it’s really important to understand how insurance is affecting your numbers.
Brett Allen (12:12)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (12:13)
Because it does. There is a huge play of insurance in on your numbers, but a lot of people just don’t
Brett Allen (12:20)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (12:22)
understand the nuances and the breakdowns and how you know their patterns actually.
Trends and patterns that insurance companies kind of, I wouldn’t say follow is not the right word, but it actually it just happens. If you follow, actually, if you follow the insurance company for a certain amount of time, you will realize
Brett Allen (12:42)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (12:43)
that there are trends that come about. And then you can get proactive with those trends and how do you say it, be able to communicate
that.
with your patients beforehand. That reduces
Brett Allen (12:55)
Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (12:56)
insurance write-offs. It reduces insurance adjustments. It reduces so many headaches. But again, you have to understand those nuances can only be seen in the numbers.
Brett Allen (13:10)
In the numbers, yeah. Yeah. I’m I’m glad you guys created this thing. and another thing that I love that you track, this is one of the most important metrics that I we track with our clients, is cost per booking. You
DR Aditi Agarwal (13:23)
Mm-hmm.
Brett Allen (13:24)
you you track marketing channels through to patients generated or production generated, which
DR Aditi Agarwal (13:29)
Yes. Yes.
Brett Allen (13:31)
is so huge. We we do that too at Marking 32, but there’s such a need for that because most when I talk with dentists.
most of the time they don’t know, well, I’m spending this much on marketing, but I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know what I’m getting for it. And I’m just trusting and hoping that it’s working for me. Or maybe they do know, but they’re not able to actually attribute properly, like, okay, well, if this marketing dollar generated this patient, then I should obviously spend more of this. And so yeah, I love that you guys do that.
what are what are some other Yeah. And I know you guys are yeah, you guys are on top of that. Yeah,
DR Aditi Agarwal (14:04)
Yes, that was really important to me. Where where are we getting? Yes.
Brett Allen (14:12)
that and that’s great. I and you’ve come out with so many more features in the platform now. I mean, I didn’t realize this, but now you’re into calling. you you have VoIP as part of it, you do text messaging, you you’ve really become a a a big integral part for the practice, not just the analytics of tracking metrics, but
Now you do so much more. Tell us more about all the other things that you guys do.
DR Aditi Agarwal (14:34)
Absolutely, you know, it’s funny when we started in analytics and obviously in when COVID hit nobody was analyzing anything anymore. But what we needed was we needed help as providers in at the front desk. And I myself needed help as provider as a provider it f with my front desk because at that time there were we had
Five or six different systems. You know, I was using one system for forms, I was using one system for reminders, and of course we have the PMS, and we have so many different and one system for payments. And
Brett Allen (15:12)
Right.
DR Aditi Agarwal (15:13)
trying to find people at that time, especially staff.
Who would be like, okay, I can do this with all these five different systems at one going at one time and stay sane. It wasn’t working out so well. Nobody wanted
Brett Allen (15:26)
Yeah
DR Aditi Agarwal (15:28)
to be in a dental office for any longer than they had to when they were wearing all that P you know, the protective equipment, the PPE,
Brett Allen (15:37)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (15:38)
and sitting up front and trying to manage
these five thousand things at the same time. And I don’t blame them. There was a lot of frustration. And
Brett Allen (15:47)
Yeah, there’s there are a lot of tools
that practices bolt together and use for different things.
DR Aditi Agarwal (15:52)
It’s true. And I I mean I went through that myself. And so again, one time I come home, and you know, obviously, when your staff is frustrated, they they project that onto you, and you want to help them, you want to solve the problem, and you’re like, how can I make their life easy? I don’t I don’t need one more person to quit, to be honest, you know, I
Brett Allen (16:16)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (16:17)
need them.
how do I make their work more you know e flow easier with their workflow easier and again I come home and I have this conversation with Rohit and I was like what can you automate? What can we
What can we join together? What can we automate? What can we, you know, and I think we were starting to get this push, not he obviously he was getting push from me, but also from other people who were using PBN for just analytics. And they were like, Well, is there a way we can start to do more? And so he was like, Okay, let’s see what I can do. And then we started with, you know.
creating the f online forms so that the patients didn’t have to come. Nobody wanted to come to the office 15 minutes earlier to fill out forms or, you know, sit on a tablet to fill out forms. Let’s find a way so that we can send it to them electronically so they can do this in a HIPAA compliant way. And you know
Create how do we we started with the forms, then next thing we went to was con consents, informed consents. You know, again, I wanted ways where we could do this without decreasing the number of touch points in the office. And
Brett Allen (17:31)
Mm, yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (17:32)
so that people were more again, COVID kind of pushed us into this, right? Creating these protocols where they could do these things in
the comfort of their own devices and that way we’re not we’re decreasing touch points. And
Brett Allen (17:46)
Right.
DR Aditi Agarwal (17:47)
so we started with forms, we went to inform consent, review generation. and again nobody
Brett Allen (17:52)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (17:55)
wanted to ask for reviews. Staff don’t doesn’t want to ask for reviews. That’s okay. Now we have we can text the patients. Then we start exactly
Brett Allen (18:00)
We can text our patients and ask yeah, automate that with the appointment.
DR Aditi Agarwal (18:05)
exactly then
added on communications. It was just a cascade. Once we had the forms and consents, then we were like, okay, we need to find ways to communicate where we don’t again decreasing touch points. Let’s find a way where we can communicate with our patients without constantly having to pick up the phone. where can it go, you know, now we have
Brett Allen (18:25)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (18:29)
emails, we have all these kind of technologies. Where where can we not you where can we utilize that?
And then I think a couple years down the road we was like I was like wouldn’t it be nice I’m so fed up of chasing people for their unpaid balances. And I was like, wouldn’t
Brett Allen (18:45)
yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (18:46)
it be nice to have a more convenient actually this happened for one of my kids. I think I had to pay for their tennis lessons or something. And I was at
the gym and they said, Well, we don’t have any kind of you know weight for you to pay at the gym. And they were like, Well, you just have to go online and pay for it. I was like, I was like, huh,
Brett Allen (19:08)
Pay for it online. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (19:11)
okay. If my gym can do it, I was like, then Roth was like
Brett Allen (19:14)
Yeah. Yeah, that’s
right. You guys are in payment processing now. You’re in you have and you have AI, right? You have AI AI receptionist now. Like you guys are going crazy. You got all kinds of stuff built into this thing.
DR Aditi Agarwal (19:22)
Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. We do.
Well, we just you know, I think as we have evolved, you know, it there’s a
Brett Allen (19:35)
There there’s a need. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (19:37)
need. There really is. I think it’s more so much the our population, the demographic that I serve, and also just our customers. The more evolved PBN got, the more
you know, people started asking, wouldn’t it be nice? Can
Brett Allen (19:52)
Right. Can you do this? Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (19:54)
you do this? Can you do that? It wasn’t just about me anymore. It was about all the practices out there that we were serving that had their own pain points and would bring their own pain points to PBN and say, Hey, do
Brett Allen (20:07)
Right.
DR Aditi Agarwal (20:08)
you think you can do this? And the I think one of the key parts of how PBN is different is, you know, I think
We always have been customer first, right? It’s always been very important to understand what is the pain point, how can we solve it the best. As a dentist,
Brett Allen (20:25)
Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (20:28)
I’ve very intimately know the pain points. And as I speak to other c colleagues, and as as I think they realize that it is managed and owned by a dentist, they also that the trust factor.
honestly has been wonderful because we can have an open conversation with the dentists out there who are using us and say, Hey, what is your pain point? Is this better? Is this does this if we toggle it to the right, is that gonna make your life better? Is we if we toggle it to the left, is that gonna make your life better, right? Even simple things like
Brett Allen (21:01)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (21:03)
that. We’ve always been like, you tell us what you want and we will make it for you.
And I think that’s
Brett Allen (21:09)
Yeah, I love that.
DR Aditi Agarwal (21:10)
where we we s we stand apart.
Brett Allen (21:13)
Well, yeah.
And you’ve created a great software, a great team around that, letting the customer drive where the company goes. You guys, if you if you’re bolting together all these different tools for review generation, for AI call receptionists, for billing and payments, for appointment reminders, for texting your patient. Like there’s so many different tools out there that that have have done a good job for the industry, but
If you were to start looking at the monthly payment of all these different SaaS companies and softwares that you’re paying, you could probably consolidate it with a tool like PBN, and save
DR Aditi Agarwal (21:46)
Well.
Brett Allen (21:46)
considerably and then have it all in one place. Yeah. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (21:50)
Absolutely, absolutely. That
was and has been our vision. It’s always been, you know, optimization, automation, and making things easier, right? Both for
Brett Allen (21:57)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (22:00)
the user, for the patients, and also for the dentists
Brett Allen (22:02)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (22:04)
who and I think we’re probably the only software company that is completely modular. So you build what you build what you want. You we
Brett Allen (22:13)
so you just turn features on and off, you don’t have to have all of it
there. Yeah. That’s nice.
DR Aditi Agarwal (22:16)
No, no. We have
we have pieces of the puzzle and you we basically we grow with you, right? As a startup
Brett Allen (22:24)
Right.
DR Aditi Agarwal (22:24)
practice, I don’t need all the features, which is fine, right?
Brett Allen (22:27)
Mm, yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (22:28)
And again, I have lived through this myself. So I understand that i at ground zero you really don’t need everything. But when you’re a skyscraper, you need everything. So it it
Brett Allen (22:37)
Right. Yeah. Well that’s great.
DR Aditi Agarwal (22:43)
Yeah, so we’re we’re completely modular, which I’m honestly very, very thrilled about and very proud of.
Brett Allen (22:49)
That’s awesome. I we’re about out of time. I wanna go deeper on two things. Wha one, like what’s it like working with your husband, like a husband wife team? We see this a lot in dentistry where the where one of the spouse members is the office manager, one’s the dentist. what’s it like on the software side when you’ve got are are you still practicing in clinic? Are you kind of removed from that now? Okay. And what’s yeah, what’s that like managing two separate Yeah, you like a lot of things? Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (23:09)
I am. No, I am. I love teeth, I guess.
I I am. I still practice typically two to three days a week. Two days a week for sure. Sometimes
Brett Allen (23:22)
Okay.
DR Aditi Agarwal (23:23)
three. Summer I’ve been giving all my associates time off. So and I’ve been practicing a lot more. I to be honest, I love dentistry.
Brett Allen (23:31)
Enjoy
Janistry. Well, that’s great.
DR Aditi Agarwal (23:32)
I do,
I do. It’s it’s my it’s my me time and it’s my chill time to be honest.
Brett Allen (23:39)
but that’s good.
DR Aditi Agarwal (23:40)
yeah, I know. People think it’s crazy, but I really I I
Brett Allen (23:44)
I think no,
I think that’s great. There you know, there’s a lot of talk of burnout in the industry and you hear that, but there are still a lot of dentists who just enjoy the work of being with patients and doing dentistry.
DR Aditi Agarwal (23:57)
Yeah, yeah. I mean there is burnout, but I think the reasons for burnout is not the dentistry.
Brett Allen (24:02)
There’s something else going on. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (24:04)
Mm-hmm. It’s it’s the
reason for burnout, honestly, and I mean we could do a whole different talk about this.
Brett Allen (24:11)
Sure. I know. We’re probably out of time.
DR Aditi Agarwal (24:13)
Yes, but I’ll try to sum it up. The reason for burnout is not having support or systems to help you play your role that you were meant to play in dentistry.
Brett Allen (24:24)
Mm-hmm. Mm.
DR Aditi Agarwal (24:27)
One, and second is
really absorbing everybody’s frustrations around you, including your patience. You know
Brett Allen (24:35)
yeah, internalizing them.
DR Aditi Agarwal (24:36)
yes, and internalizing that. And so it’s really important, and I know I’m going to sound a little different here, but really grounding as a dentist, grounding yourself in whatever makes gives you joy, whether it is your whether it’s no, no, whether
Brett Allen (24:50)
Right. And maybe that’s not in the chair. Maybe that’s not in clinic.
DR Aditi Agarwal (24:55)
it’s sports or it’s
Brett Allen (24:57)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (24:57)
Hanging out
with your pets or you know, your kids or w whatever truly gives you joy and not being afraid to lay boundaries, not just with your family, but your staff and your patience. Patience.
Brett Allen (25:12)
Mm. Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (25:14)
People forget to lay boundaries with their patience. And I am guilty of that. And I think once I started to say, enough,
Brett Allen (25:23)
Yeah.
DR Aditi Agarwal (25:23)
you know.
That that is not okay. There is it.
Brett Allen (25:26)
Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe we should do a whole nother episode on on burnout. I think there’s a lot of
value that you could you could talk about for that. we we did an episode with Laura and Dr. Laura Brenner. Do you know her? She’s phenomenal. She’s great. She’s
DR Aditi Agarwal (25:36)
Mm-hmm. Yes. She’s amazing.
Brett Allen (25:40)
Yeah. So, you know, it dentistry’s not for everyone, especially clinical dentistry and in chair dentistry. And like you said, Aditi, like find your place in the practice, or maybe it’s even out of the practice and you’re just owner.
Right. So what
whatever that
DR Aditi Agarwal (25:54)
Absolutely.
Brett Allen (25:54)
looks like for you, that’s I think important. Well, this has been an awesome conversation. we always close
DR Aditi Agarwal (25:59)
Thank you.
Brett Allen (26:00)
the the episode with the golden nugget. What’s that one bit of advice that you could share with our listeners that would help them have that epiphany of what what’s that one principle that could really impact them and help them see things differently?
DR Aditi Agarwal (26:12)
Honestly, it’s been for me. It’s been saying yes to hard things. Even if I
Brett Allen (26:17)
okay.
DR Aditi Agarwal (26:17)
didn’t if I knew that they would make me uncomfortable, I would say I would always take it up as a challenge and say, okay, at least I’m going to try to do the best I can. And it has served me well every time.
Brett Allen (26:32)
I love that. Embracing the challenges. Don’t
DR Aditi Agarwal (26:34)
Yes.
Brett Allen (26:35)
don’t don’t be afraid to say yes to something and figure it out.
DR Aditi Agarwal (26:38)
Yes.
Brett Allen (26:39)
Yeah. I love that. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Aditi, for coming on the show. Great conversation.
DR Aditi Agarwal (26:44)
Thank you for having me.
Brett Allen (26:45)
If if people want to learn more about Practice by Numbers or even if they want to reach out to you to connect with you, where do we send them?
DR Aditi Agarwal (26:52)
Absolutely. There are you know, you can always email us at www.pro or our websites www.practicnumbers.com and you can reach
Brett Allen (27:02)
Practice numbers next.
DR Aditi Agarwal (27:02)
out, yes, practic practicenumbers.com and you can reach out to me at ad.agaball. That’s my first name dot last name at practicnumbers.com. I’m also obviously available on LinkedIn and Facebooks and Instagram, so DM me.
Brett Allen (27:18)
Okay.
DR Aditi Agarwal (27:19)
I always respond.
Brett Allen (27:21)
Awesome. Well we’ll put that in the show notes. Thank you again for the great conversation. Thanks for coming on the show.
DR Aditi Agarwal (27:26)
Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Brett Allen (27:27)
All right, everybody, till next time on the Marking thirty two show. Have a great rest of your day, great rest of your week. Take care.
