Should We Pay Employees to Show Up?
Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue
Release Date: 09/22/2026
How Much Dental Production Is Sitting in Your Unscheduled Treatment Report?
Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue
Could your dental practice be sitting on thousands of dollars in unscheduled treatment? As 2026 comes to a close, dental practices are focused on production goals, patient scheduling, and preparing for 2027. But before looking for new patients or cutting expenses, what if some of your biggest opportunities are already sitting in your practice management software? In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Dana Pardue and dental practice management consultant Sandy Pardue discuss how to uncover missed production opportunities, reconnect with patients who haven't scheduled recommended treatment, and...
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Who’s More Important in a Dental Practice: Front Office or Clinical Team?
Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue
A Dentaltown post started a bigger conversation: A dentist wanted to bring back a former dental assistant, but a current front office employee didn’t want her back. Then someone argued that the assistant was more important because she directly contributed to production. So, who is more valuable to the practice? In this episode, Dana and Sandy talk about what really makes someone valuable to a dental practice, what to consider before bringing back a former employee, and why front office vs. back office conflict is often a symptom of a bigger issue. They also discuss why patients can feel...
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Will AI & AEO Recommend Your Dental Practice?
Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue
AI is changing how patients search for dentists, but simply creating more content isn't enough. As AI-generated content floods the internet, credibility, expertise, and proof may matter more than ever. In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Dana Pardue and Sandy Pardue welcome Grace Rizza, founder and CEO of Identity Dental Marketing, back to the show for a conversation about how AI is changing dental marketing, search visibility, content creation, and the way patients discover and evaluate dental practices. Grace explains why using AI effectively isn't as simple as asking ChatGPT to write a...
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Should We Pay Employees to Show Up?
Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue
What if employees got a bonus simply for showing up? In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Dana and Sandy tackle a surprisingly controversial question: Should reliable attendance be rewarded, or is showing up on time simply part of the job? Sandy shares an attendance incentive she has used in dental practices for years involving ping-pong balls, cash rewards, and one simple qualification: reliability. But the conversation goes much deeper than bonuses. Because an attendance incentive won't fix a practice that hasn't clearly defined its expectations. Dana and Sandy discuss the importance of...
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The Right Patients, the Right Marketing | Grace Rizza
Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue
Getting more dental leads isn't always the answer. The real goal is attracting the right patients and giving them a reason to choose your practice. In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Dana Pardue and Sandy Pardue welcome Grace Rizza, founder and CEO of Identity Dental Marketing, for a conversation about what dental marketing looks like as AI, automation, Google Ads, Meta advertising, and patient expectations continue to change. Grace explains why effective marketing can't be one-size-fits-all. A startup practice looking for patient volume needs a very different strategy than a...
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The Employee Costing Your Dental Practice Its Best People
Dental Drill Bits with Sandy Pardue and Dana Pardue
Every dental practice has probably had one. They’re great at their job. Patients love them. They’ve been there forever. Maybe they even make the doctor’s life easier. But behind the scenes, they gossip, intimidate coworkers, ignore rules, create drama, or make new employees feel like they’ll never quite belong. In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Dana Pardue and Sandy Pardue tackle a difficult question: What is that “indispensable” employee actually costing your practice? Dana and Sandy discuss why practice owners often tolerate bad behavior from high performers, how resentment...
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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,...
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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...
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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
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...
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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...
info_outlineWhat if employees got a bonus simply for showing up?
In this episode of Dental Drill Bits, Dana and Sandy tackle a surprisingly controversial question: Should reliable attendance be rewarded, or is showing up on time simply part of the job?
Sandy shares an attendance incentive she has used in dental practices for years involving ping-pong balls, cash rewards, and one simple qualification: reliability. But the conversation goes much deeper than bonuses.
Because an attendance incentive won't fix a practice that hasn't clearly defined its expectations.
Dana and Sandy discuss the importance of work-hour policies, PTO and time-off procedures, defining what "on time" actually means, and creating a culture where team members understand that their presence matters. They also explore when occasional absences become an attendance problem and why the behavior of leaders and long-term employees can quickly influence the rest of the team.
In This Episode:
- Sandy’s ping-pong attendance incentive and why it works
- PTO, attendance problems, and clear policies
- How workplace culture affects reliability
- Why rewards should never replace accountability
Key Takeaways:
The goal isn't perfect attendance at all costs. It's reliability.
Employees need to know what's expected, how to request time off, what "on time" means, and how to communicate when life happens.
And while you're addressing the employee you can't count on, don't forget to recognize the ones you can.
You can't hold people accountable for a standard you haven't clearly defined or trained.
📲 Join the Conversation!
Would you offer an attendance incentive in your practice?
Or do you believe showing up reliably is simply part of the job?
Join the conversation in the Dental Drill Bits Facebook Group. We'd love to hear what's working in your practice and may feature your experience in a future episode.