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Rethinking Dental Staffing: People, Technology & Creating Capacity | Cory Pinegar of REACH, Part 1

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

Release Date: 08/24/2026

Part 3 of Systems. Staff. Training. | Your Team Isn’t the Problem. Your Training Might Be.

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

You hired good people. You gave them a job description. Maybe you even told them to “go sit next to Jessica” for a few days. But did you actually train them? In the final episode of our Systems. Staff. Training. series, Dana and Sandy tackle the training gap inside dental practices and why expecting employees to “just know” how to do their jobs can be an expensive mistake. Today’s dental team is expected to do far more than answer phones and schedule appointments. They’re handling insurance conversations, money, patient objections, unscheduled treatment, technology, scheduling,...

AI, Accountability & the Opportunities Hiding in Your Dental Practice | Cory Pinegar of REACH, Part 2

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

Technology can help your dental practice do more—but it shouldn’t replace the human experience that keeps patients coming back. In Part 2 of our conversation with Cory Pinegar, CEO of REACH, Dana Pardue and Sandy Pardue continue the discussion about the future of the dental team, beginning with the balance between automation, AI, and personal connection. Cory explains why technology should amplify good people rather than eliminate them and why some responsibilities are perfect candidates for automation while others still require empathy, communication, and human judgment. The conversation...

Rethinking Dental Staffing: People, Technology & Creating Capacity | Cory Pinegar of REACH, Part 1

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

What if your staffing problem isn’t simply about finding more people? In Part 1 of this special two-part Dental Drill Bits conversation, Dana Pardue and Sandy Pardue sit down with Cory Pinegar, CEO of REACH, to explore how dental practices can rethink staffing, training, technology, and the way work gets done. Cory shares the story behind REACH and explains why practices often have more than a hiring problem. Missed calls, inconsistent follow-up, turnover, limited training, and too many competing responsibilities at the front desk can all create bottlenecks that affect growth and...

Part 2B of Systems. Staff. Training. | What Is Your Staffing Problem Really Costing You?

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

What does your staff really cost your dental practice? The answer goes far beyond payroll. In the Staff portion of our Systems. Staff. Training. series, Sandy and Dana look at staffing as a business investment. Being understaffed can mean missed calls, unfinished follow-up, rushed patient interactions, neglected recall, and opportunities that quietly slip through the cracks. Sometimes what looks like a performance problem is really a capacity problem. This conversation digs into the real ROI of having enough of the right people, why dental experience shouldn't automatically determine who gets...

Part 2A of Systems. Staff. Training. | What Is Your Staffing Problem Really Costing You?

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

Part 1 of Systems. Staff. Training. | The Systems Problem You Didn't Know You Had

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

Every dental practice has systems—whether they're written down or not. In Part One of our special three-part series honoring Dr. Robert Westerman's 90th birthday, Sandy Pardue explores the first leg of Dr. Westerman's timeless philosophy: systems. Many practice owners believe their biggest challenge is finding better employees. But what if the real problem isn't your people at all? What if your practice depends on knowledge that's locked inside one employee's head? In this episode, Sandy explains why documented systems create consistency, reduce stress, simplify training, and protect your...

Sucktember Starts Long Before September

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

September has earned a bad reputation in dentistry, but is “Sucktember” really the problem? In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Sandy and Dana Pardue challenge the idea that a slow September is inevitable. Instead, they look at the systems behind treatment acceptance, unscheduled treatment, and patient follow-up. Many practices are sitting on hundreds of thousands, or even more than a million dollars, in diagnosed treatment that was never scheduled. The patient owns the decision to move forward, but the diagnosing practice still owns the process. That includes clear communication,...

How Your Hiring Process Is Costing You Hygienists

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

Finding a great hygienist is difficult enough in today's market. The last thing your practice needs is a hiring process that unintentionally drives qualified candidates away. In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Sandy and Dana Pardue challenge one of the most common assumptions in dentistry: that the hygienist shortage is the only reason practices can't fill open positions. While the shortage is real, many practices are creating unnecessary barriers through slow decision-making, gatekeepers, personality assessments, and interview processes that put the doctor—the very person candidates...

Are You Teaching Your Team Not to Think?

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

Episode Description Every dental practice wants employees who take ownership, solve problems, and think independently. But what if the biggest obstacle isn't your team—it's the way they're being led? In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue explore the leadership habits that unintentionally create dependent employees. From constant reminders and answering every question to rescuing projects instead of coaching through them, they explain how well-meaning leaders can accidentally train their teams to wait instead of think. Learn how clear expectations, documented...

The Million-Dollar Follow-Up Problem

Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue

Every day, patients leave dental practices knowing they need treatment... yet many never schedule. The result? Health problems worsen, patients disappear, and practices unknowingly leave hundreds of thousands—even millions—of dollars in diagnosed treatment sitting unscheduled. In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue tackle one of the biggest missed opportunities in dentistry: treatment plan follow-up. Dana also shares her personal health journey and why following through on recommended care made all the difference, creating a powerful reminder of what patients...

More Episodes

What if your staffing problem isn’t simply about finding more people?

In Part 1 of this special two-part Dental Drill Bits conversation, Dana Pardue and Sandy Pardue sit down with Cory Pinegar, CEO of REACH, to explore how dental practices can rethink staffing, training, technology, and the way work gets done.

Cory shares the story behind REACH and explains why practices often have more than a hiring problem. Missed calls, inconsistent follow-up, turnover, limited training, and too many competing responsibilities at the front desk can all create bottlenecks that affect growth and profitability.

The conversation also addresses a concern many dental teams have as remote staffing and AI become more common: Is technology here to replace people? Instead, Dana, Sandy, and Cory discuss how the right support can free team members to focus more of their time on patients, relationships, communication, and the work that requires human judgment.

In this episode:
• Why dental practices may need to rethink the traditional staffing model
• The connection between missed opportunities, staffing, and profitability
• Why simply adding another employee may not solve the real problem
• How REACH integrates remote team members into the dental practice
• Why remote team members can participate in morning huddles and practice communication
• How culture fit, communication style, and soft skills influence hiring
• Why AI and outsourcing should support great employees rather than diminish their role
• How creating capacity allows your in-office team to focus on higher-value work
• Why traditional dental training often falls short
• How REACH builds customized, competency-based training around each role

Part 1 lays the foundation for a bigger conversation about how people, systems, and technology can work together inside a modern dental practice.

Part 2 is available now, where we go deeper into AI, the human patient experience, performance tracking, accountability, missed calls, recare, unscheduled treatment, and the opportunities already sitting inside many practices.

Learn more about REACH

Visit getreach.co to learn more and schedule a conversation with a member of the REACH team.

You can also connect directly with Cory Pinegar on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Dental Drill Bits with Dana Pardue and Sandy Pardue brings you practical strategies for building a stronger, more productive and profitable dental practice.

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