Last Updated: July 30, 2028 by happypractice

Having a healthy dental community that’s engaged & collaborates well is the key to same-store growth and patient care excellence.

People who feel safe, seen and valued will go the extra mile for you and the practice.

You must focus on creating health, happy dental community if you'd like to achieve your growth goals in 2025. . (Culture is an overused buzzword that has lost its impact.)

You need community because incivility is still high. 

According to the ADA Health Policy Institute, a toxic workplace is the top reason dental hygienists leave a practice and the third reason for dental assistants.

Let’s break down what happens when toxic leaders or team members aren’t addressed. Your good people leave and other people, like potential and current clients, notice.

You face reputational damage that will negatively impact your ability to hire knowledgeable, experienced talent, if you’re a branded DSO. Word will get out; dental is a small community.

You face dealing with toxic micro cultures that drain your internal resources and reduce efficiency if you’re non-branded DSO that focuses on doctor autonomy. Your COO and HR should be attending to growth, not managing conflicts.

Staff burnout is real.

When you lose people because your community is not healthy, the costs, known and hidden, are very high. Production goes down while team member stress goes up.

48% of workers decrease their work efforts when dealing with incivility according to Harvard Business Review.

Highly stressed teams are 35% more likely to develop serious illness according to a study in Management Science. Being short-staffed can be a crippling burden.

Ask yourself as you plan for 2025:

How do we know our community is healthy?
Are our people dealing with incivility?
Are we addressing that in the most efficient way?
Do we have a conflict management system?

When you invest in developing a happy, affirming and safe community, the return is 20 fold in retention, satisfaction and productivity. Not to mention the recruitment, onboarding and opportunity cost savings.