📍 If dentistry feels heavier than it used to, it's not because you forgot how to lead. It's because the industry you learn to lead in no longer exists. And in 2026, dental leaders are being asked to run businesses that are more complex, more visible, more emotionally demanding, and more system dependent than ever before.

The problem is not that dentistry is broken. The problem is that leadership has not been clearly defined for the environment that we are now in. Welcome back to no Silver Spoons. I am Sarah Beth Herman, and over the last two episodes we've talked about burnout and the front desk crisis because those are the pain points dental leaders are facing most immediately.

Today we're zooming out. We're talking about the larger shift happening in dentistry in 2026. Why things feel harder, why what used to work feels less effective, and what leaders need to rethink if they want to build offices that last without losing their patients, their people, or themselves. This episode is about perspective preparation and leadership maturity.

For a long time, dentistry was relatively insulated. Practices grew through reputation and referrals and patients, trusted providers. By default, marketing was simple. You just had an ad in the yellow pages, and when I first started in dentistry, that's what we did..  Competition was quieter. Leadership was relationship based and experience driven. And offices. They ran on memory, loyalty, tenure, and personality. Doctors just simply led clinically office managers held the office together.

Teams learned by watching and doing, and there was less documentation, fewer systems, and more reliance on. That's how we've always done it. And for a long time that really did work. But the container dentistry operated in has changed several major changes, hit dentistry all at the same time. Insurance became more complex and less transparent.

Patients became consumers, not just patients. And online reviews became decision makers. Technology advanced faster than training, staffing, shortages, exposed, fragile systems, and now AI and automation are part of everyday conversations. Dentistry did not gradually transition into this. It was pushed into it, and leaders are feeling the pressure of managing people, technology, finances, culture, and the patient experience , and all at once simultaneously,, this pressure is intense.

Yeah, I've had conversations just in this last week of people telling me about several different technology systems they have that are ai, and when they name the names of the company, they're literally using five different companies that do the exact same thing and they don't even know it. The pressure is insane.

You go to a convention and you hear about one thing, and then you go back home and you talk to a neighboring dentist and they're talking about something that sounded just like that, but might be better. And now before we know what we're paying $5,000 a month in just technology that no one really knows if there's supposed to use, it's just the sales pitch was so good.

How could it be bad? Here is the core shift that dental leaders need to understand , and while there's a lot of noise going on, let's start here. Dentistry has moved from personality based leadership. To systems based leadership. That does not mean people matter less. It means people need better support.

And in 2026, leadership is less about being the hero and more about being the architect. Architects design structures that hold weight. So if that's true, which it is, then transitioning that to leadership means our leaders now must design workflows. Communication paths, training systems, accountability structures, support layers, and without everything living in one person's head.

And I think that we've gone away from that because dentistry 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, it could live in our minds. This shift feels uncomfortable and a lot of that is because we've never done it before. Those leaders who built success through grit and memory. Or thinking, I remember it and I'm needed here.

And if you do that, you're gonna replace me. And I'm not replaceable. But let me remind you that evolution is not failure. It is wisdom. Hard work has always been part of dentistry. The long days, the mental focus, the emotional care that has not changed. What has changed is the hard work without structure that now leads to that burnout word.

Resentment, turnover, inconsistency, and this year, effort without systems is actually a liability for you. Leaders who try to outwork broken systems eventually exhaust themselves and their team's leadership. It now requires design, not endurance. I wanna talk about AI for a minute. I just briefly touched on it, but I know it's lingering.

I know that it's stressing you out. AI is not replacing dental teams, but it is changing expectations and I want you to be very cautious when you decide to implement anything AI related. Now, there is a time and a place for ai, but sometimes the place we put ai, it's not the time and it's not the place.

Patients are expecting faster communication. They are expecting clearer information, and they are expecting a smoother process, and technology can help with efficiency, but what it can't do is it can't replace tone, empathy, judgment and leadership presence. When we hand off AI to just do these things that very much so are dependent on people right now because we think it's smarter, we think it can handle it without us actually testing it.

We hit a brick wall, and I cannot tell you the number of dental practices that I speak with on a weekly basis who have tried AI for insurance, eligibility verification, or dental billing, and it is a colossal mess. I can tell you firsthand, I have partnered with nearly every single AI established technology company for billing and eligibility, and not one of them.

Work 100% of the time, not one of them have accuracy 100% of the time. Not one of them knows the little nuances and the changes and the things that should be paid attention to. For the most efficient billing, the most seamless patient experience, the smoothest process, the clearest bit of information, the faster communication, they just don't support it.

Human support matters now. More than ever and offices that will thrive are the ones that are using technology to support humans, not to replace them. This isn't a podcast episode to say that AI doesn't work or that it won't work or that it needs to replace humans? No. I think there is a time and a place for it, and I think there are ways it can support us.

But I think that relying on it 100% and omitting the human aspect is where we're starting to go wrong, and I'm seeing more and more issues with this. In 2026, I see leaders struggling with three main areas, and I want you to watch out for these in your own dental practice or in your own business if it's not in dental.

Number one is decision fatigue. Too many decisions live in too few heads. We don't need so many decisions to make. We need to understand where the area of opportunity is and what the opportunity is that needs to fill the area. Two emotional load leaders absorbing stress from patients, teams and finances without the support that will get them through that.

And number three, identity shift. Letting go of how it used to be while still honoring experience. This is not a leadership failure. It is a signal that leadership has to evolve. The dental leaders who feel steady right now are not doing more. They're doing things differently. They're documenting instead of remembering, they're delegating, instead of absorbing, they're training instead of assuming.

They're supporting instead of controlling. They understand that culture does not come from chaos. They understand that culture comes from clarity. When you want to scale your practice, it's not hiring more bodies or paying a higher wage to someone. It's establishing clarity in the standard operating procedures of your practice and understanding where you want to invest your money in a key mathematical equation you could simply run is this.

If you have a team member in your dental practice and they're making $20 an hour and you do the quick math of $20 an hour times 2080, which 2080 hours is full-time, right? We're paying someone roughly $41,000 a year. Now, if that $41,000 a year employee has no responsibility for increasing revenue in the practice.

But all they're doing is something that has to do with getting information from insurance companies, which doesn't generate revenue. For the practice, then you're effectively losing $41,000 a year. Let's say now, for example, you brought in human support, like dentistry support and perhaps that service cost you anywhere from 20,000 to $30,000 a year. Flat rate. No itemized charges, no different charges for different types of verification, just a flat rate.

And that old employee, the previous one who was being paid $41,000 a year. To do insurance verifications is now in charge of growing your schedule, and their goal is that they have to add $10,000 a month in added revenue. So now that $41,000 a year employee is worth $120,000 a year, effectively paying for the additional support you have and also growing the practice.

You see, it's not about. Hiring more people, paying more people, all these other things. It's about doing things differently. It's about looking at it differently. How is the team you have contributing to a return on investment? This is why dentistry support exists. We're not a trend, we're not a shortcut, but we are a strategic response to where dentistry is going.

We support dental practices and dental billing, insurance eligibility phones, medical billing for dental. We do real training with real humans, real accountability real systems. Because leadership works best when leaders are not buried in admin and our support. It allows doctors to doctor, managers to manage.

And teams to breathe. It's not about replacing people, it's about building offices that can last. Here's a question that I want you to sit with. Is the way we are operating sustainable for the humans inside the office? If the answer is no, the solution is not pressure.

The solution is redesigned. There's a quote actually  it says, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems in 2026. Systems are not optional. They are leadership. And if you wanna prepare your office for the future without losing your values, start here.

Audit where decisions live. Document what only one person knows. Reduce emotional overload, add support, intentionally lead with clarity, not fear. Dentistry is still very meaningful work, but it requires modern leadership. All right, let's pause here for our, that's good moment. In every episode here at No Silver Spoons, we always go over our, that's good moment where we recap the highlighted parts, the most important things we want you to take away from this episode and bring into your week.

The three things I want you to carry with you from this episode are that number one, dentistry has changed, and that does not mean you failed. It means leadership must evolve. Systems are not gold. They are compassionate. They protect people and culture and consistency. And number three, sustainability is the new success metric.

If your office cannot sustain the humans inside of it, something needs to change. If this episode helped you see the bigger picture more clearly,  resources, and more context for today's conversation in the show notes. And if you're interested in being a guest on No Silver Spoons, you'll find that information there as well.

Be sure to check back for bonus episodes and if this podcast has been helpful to you or your team, please rate, review and share it. That support helps this message. Reach leaders who care deeply about doing this work. Well, you can also find us on several social media platforms. We love supporting you and your team, and we are always sharing leadership conversations that matter.

I'll catch 📍 you on the next episode.