The High Performing Dental Team

Hey there, I’m Dayna Johnson . . . dental practice management expert, certified Dentrix trainer and founder of Novonee, revolutionizing the dental industry through innovation and strategic leadership. It wasn’t long ago that I lived in your shoes navigating the daily challenges of managing a dental practice with the hopes and dreams of having a productive schedule, money in the bank, and getting home on time to my sweet daughter. After 25 years working in the dental practice and 17 years as a certified Dentrix trainer, I found my life’s work helping dental teams 1:1 optimizing their systems and software. If you are looking to create the thriving dental practice you have always dreamed of and empower your high performing dental team, you are in the right place. Let’s get started!

The High Performing Dental Team is a education podcast hosted by Dayna Johnson, with 223 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Dayna Johnson hosts The High Performing Dental Team, a education show with 223 episodes published.

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  The High Performing Dental Team

  #224 End of Year Benfits

  Sep 14, 202615 min

  Use It or Lose It: How to Find Unscheduled Treatment in Dentrix Before Year-End September is the time to start mining for gold in Dentrix, because your patients may have unused dental benefits and unscheduled treatment sitting right in front of you. In this episode of the High Performing Dental Team Podcast, Dayna Johnson shares a practical year-end strategy for finding patients with unscheduled dental treatment and remaining insurance benefits. She explains how your entire dental team can create appropriate urgency around treatment, while your admin team uses the Dentrix Treatment Manager and Office Journal to build a consistent follow-up workflow. The goal isn't just to fill the schedule. It's to help patients maximize the benefits they've already paid for, improve case acceptance, and help your dental practice finish the year strong. ✅ Key Takeaways Why September is the ideal time to begin year-end dental insurance benefit conversations. How hygienists can review outstanding treatment during continuing care visits and educate patients about benefits that may expire. How dental assistants can reinforce treatment recommendations with existing and new patients. Why Dayna calls the Dentrix Treatment Manager "mining for gold." How to use Treatment Manager to identify recently diagnosed, unscheduled treatment that is still fresh in the patient's mind. How to filter Treatment Manager by remaining dental insurance benefits, including patients with a specific amount of benefits remaining. Why Dayna recommends focusing administrative follow-up on treatment diagnosed roughly two weeks to five months ago. How exporting Treatment Manager data to Excel may support additional email or text outreach workflows. How third-party patient communication software may help you create a year-end benefits campaign. Why the Dentrix Office Journal should be the centralized hub for documenting treatment follow-up. How Office Journal reminders can create a daily follow-up list for treatment coordinators and other admin team members. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions How do I find patients with unscheduled treatment in Dentrix? Dayna recommends using the Dentrix Treatment Manager to identify patients with recently diagnosed treatment who left without scheduling. For treatment follow-up, she typically focuses on cases diagnosed approximately two weeks to five months ago. Can Dentrix identify patients who still have insurance benefits remaining? Yes. Treatment Manager can be filtered by remaining benefits. For example, your team could look for patients with at least $500 in benefits remaining who also have unscheduled treatment. Where should we document treatment follow-up in Dentrix? Use the Office Journal as your centralized location for treatment follow-up notes. You can also create Office Journal reminders for future calls or texts, helping your team maintain a consistent follow-up workflow. Don't Wait Until December Year-end dental insurance campaigns work better when you give patients enough time to actually get scheduled. Bring this topic into your next morning huddle and get the entire team involved. Your hygienists, dental assistants, treatment coordinators, and front office team can all help patients understand their treatment needs and make informed decisions before the end-of-year rush. Want to Optimize Your Dentrix Systems? If you want help improving your Dentrix workflows, treatment follow-up systems, case acceptance, or dental practice management protocols, schedule a free discovery call with Dayna. Book a discovery call with Dayna: https://calendly.com/dayna-johnson/discovery-call Learn more about Novonee and Dentrix training: https://www.novonee.com Subscribe to the High Performing Dental Team YouTube channel for more Dentrix tips, dental practice management strategies, workflow improvements, and practical systems you can implement with your team.

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  The High Performing Dental Team

  #223 Scheduling Lists Best Practices

  Sep 7, 202616 min

  If your Dentrix Unscheduled List or Continuing Care List is so cluttered that your team has stopped using it, patients may already be falling through the cracks. In this episode of the High Performing Dental Team Podcast, Dayna Johnson shares what she has been seeing repeatedly during Dentrix practice assessments: messy scheduling lists, outdated appointments, unnecessary customized lists, and inaccurate Continuing Care data. She walks through practical ways to clean up your Dentrix Unscheduled List and Continuing Care List so your team can fill openings, improve patient retention, and create more reliable scheduling workflows. Your Dentrix practice management software should be your team's central source of accurate, current patient information. When the data is clean, these lists become powerful tools for keeping your schedule full and preventing patients from getting lost in the system. ✅ Key Takeaways Understand exactly what belongs on the Dentrix Unscheduled List, including broken, no-show, canceled, and Wait/Will Call appointments. Document the reason for a broken appointment in the Office Journal so the next team member has the full story. Avoid letting appointments sit on the Unscheduled List indefinitely. Dayna recommends approximately three months for most appointments, with reasonable exceptions. Clean up old customized scheduling lists created by former team members or providers. Simplify your workflow by using the main Unscheduled List and filtering by provider instead of maintaining numerous separate lists. Create useful Continuing Care Lists for overdue hygiene patients, rather than relying on Dentrix default lists for patients who are not yet overdue. Focus your Continuing Care workflow on prophy and periodontal maintenance patients who need to be reactivated. Remove broken or canceled appointments from the Appointment Book so Dentrix and your automated patient communication system don't mistakenly think the patient is still scheduled. Watch for patients incorrectly assigned to both prophy and periodontal maintenance Continuing Care types. Learn what the plus sign in the Continuing Care appointment column can tell you about a patient's existing appointment. Keep your Dentrix data clean so third-party patient engagement and reporting tools are also working from accurate information. Who This Episode Is For This episode is especially helpful for dental office managers, scheduling coordinators, hygiene coordinators, front office teams, Dentrix users, practice owners, and dental teams struggling with overdue patients, broken appointments, hygiene reactivation, patient retention, or schedule openings. ❓ Frequently Asked Questions What is the Dentrix Unscheduled List used for? The Unscheduled List acts as a holding place for patients who had a broken or canceled appointment or who need an appointment but are not ready to schedule yet. Used correctly, it becomes an important tool for filling openings and preventing appointments from falling through the cracks. How long should an appointment stay on the Dentrix Unscheduled List? Dayna recommends keeping most appointments on the list for no more than about three months. After several documented follow-up attempts, the team can remove the appointment rather than allowing the list to become unmanageable. Book a discovery call with Dayna: https://calendly.com/dayna-johnson/discovery-call Learn more about Novonee and Dentrix training: https://www.novonee.com If this episode was helpful, subscribe to the High Performing Dental Team YouTube channel and share it with your office manager, scheduling coordinator, or dental team. A cleaner Dentrix database can lead to better workflows, better follow-up, and fewer patients falling through the cracks.

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  The High Performing Dental Team

  Dental Insurance EFTs & ERAs: Get Paid Faster and Save Hours | Interview with Colleen Huff

  Aug 31, 202632 min

  Dental insurance payments don’t have to be confusing, time-consuming, or difficult to reconcile. If your dental practice is still relying heavily on paper checks and EOBs, understanding EFTs and ERAs could dramatically streamline your insurance workflow and improve cash flow. In this episode of the High Performing Dental Team Podcast, Dayna Johnson sits down with dental insurance expert Colleen Huff to break down EFTs (Electronic Funds Transfers), ERAs (Electronic Remittance Advice), insurance payment reconciliation, and Dentrix insurance workflows. Colleen explains why dental practices are moving toward electronic insurance payments, how to create checks and balances, and how tools like Dentrix Insurance Eligibility Pro can improve efficiency. They also discuss why dental insurance isn't just an administrative responsibility. From accurate clinical notes and diagnostic images to treatment estimates and collections, every member of the dental team plays a role in helping the practice get paid correctly. ✅ Key Takeaways Understand the difference between an EFT and ERA and why your practice may want both. Learn how ERAs can flow directly into Dentrix and reduce manual insurance payment posting. Discover why Colleen recommends a separate bank account for dental insurance EFT deposits to make reconciliation easier. Create a checks-and-balances process so your team verifies that EFT deposits actually reached the bank before posting payments. Learn why ERAs and EFTs can save significant administrative time and help improve dental practice cash flow. Understand how electronic EOB information can be stored within the patient's Dentrix Document Center. Learn why accurate insurance breakdowns directly affect treatment estimates, patient portions, collections, and patient trust. Hear Colleen's experience using Dentrix Insurance Eligibility Pro to sync insurance information and reduce manual data entry. Discover why your entire dental team, including the clinical team, has a role in successful insurance claims and reimbursement. Learn why dental practices need to continually update their insurance workflows as payer requirements and technology change. Who This Episode Is For This episode is especially valuable for dental practice owners, office managers, insurance coordinators, financial coordinators, dental billers, front office teams, Dentrix users, and anyone responsible for dental insurance payments, claims, EOBs, EFT reconciliation, accounts receivable, or insurance verification. Learn More From Colleen Huff Colleen offers training and resources to help dental teams understand EFTs, ERAs, insurance workflows, and the rapidly changing dental insurance environment. Learn more about Colleen's training: https://colleenhuff.com/ Ready to Improve Your Dental Practice Systems? If inefficient insurance processes, Dentrix workflows, or outdated systems are costing your team time and money, Dayna can help identify the gaps and create more efficient workflows. Book a discovery call with Dayna: https://calendly.com/dayna-johnson/discovery-call Learn more about Novonee: www.novonee.com Subscribe to the High Performing Dental Team channel for practical strategies on Dentrix, dental practice management, insurance workflows, accounts receivable, treatment planning, and building a more efficient dental team.

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  The High Performing Dental Team

  #221 Most replayed moment from last year: Where to Make Notes in Dentrix

  Aug 24, 202629 min

  Where Should You Make Notes in Dentrix? A Complete Guide to Dental Practice Documentation If a patient calls your dental office and says, “Someone called me yesterday, but I don’t know why,” could anyone on your team quickly find the answer? If not, you may have a Dentrix documentation problem. In this episode of the High Performing Dental Team Podcast, Dayna Johnson breaks down the many places you can make notes in Dentrix and, more importantly, explains which note belongs where. With roughly a dozen different documentation options available, having a consistent system can make a huge difference in dental practice efficiency, patient communication, onboarding, and team workflows. Consider this a mini Dentrix training session you can bookmark and share with your entire dental team. ✅ Key Takeaways Learn when to use the Appointment Book daily note for morning huddles, team reminders, goals, and information specific to that day. Use appointment notes for information related to a specific visit, including patient copays, scheduling preferences, new insurance, or ASAP List details. Understand how Appointment Book events can communicate team meetings, lunches, operatory assignments, and other scheduling information. Use the Patient Note for relationship-building information such as hobbies, family, pets, and other details that help personalize patient conversations. Document insurance plan frequencies, limitations, and plan provisions in the Insurance Plan Note, not patient-specific eligibility information. Learn the difference between the Account Note and Billing Statement Note in the patient ledger. Add notes to adjustments and payments to clearly document why financial transactions were made. Understand the difference between Progress Notes, Procedure Notes, and Clinical Notes. Use procedure notes to document treatment details that can help treatment coordinators answer patient questions and support treatment follow-up. Remember Dayna's two essential questions for clinical notes: What happened today, and what's next? Use the Office Journal as the centralized location for non-clinical patient contacts, including calls about unscheduled treatment, overdue recare, and other follow-up conversations. Use Patient Alerts strategically for important information that team members need to see immediately. Understand where information belongs in the Health History Module and how health history pop-ups work. Document insurance follow-up details in the Claim Status Notes, including who you spoke with, claim status updates, and additional information requested by the insurance company. Get the Dentrix Notes Tip Sheet Dayna created a downloadable Dentrix Notes Tip Sheet to accompany this episode. Use it as a quick-reference guide for your current team or include it in your new team member onboarding process. Download the tip sheet: https://novoneecommunity.mykajabi.com/notes_and_documentation Want Help Optimizing Your Dentrix Workflows? If your team is struggling with inconsistent documentation, inefficient workflows, or simply isn't sure where information belongs in Dentrix, let's take a closer look at your systems. Book a discovery call with Dayna: https://calendly.com/dayna-johnson/discovery-call Find more Dentrix training and resources: www.novonee.com Subscribe to the High Performing Dental Team YouTube channel for more Dentrix tips, dental practice management strategies, workflow training, and practical systems you can implement with your team.

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  The High Performing Dental Team

  #220 Before You Switch Dental Software, Fix This First

  Aug 17, 202616 min

  Is Your Dentrix Software Really the Problem, or Do Your Systems Need a Cleanup? Thinking about switching from Dentrix Core to Dentrix Ascend because your software feels messy, outdated, or overloaded with bad data? Before you make the leap, there’s an important question to ask: Will changing dental software actually solve the problem? In this episode of the High Performing Dental Team Podcast, Dayna Johnson shares a conversation with a dentist who was considering leaving Dentrix Core after 28 years because of messy patient ledgers, duplicate insurance plans, excessive adjustment types, and years of accumulated data. While Dentrix Ascend could provide a clean slate, Dayna explains why switching dental practice management software without fixing the underlying workflows and team habits could eventually recreate the exact same problems. Whether you stay with Dentrix Core, move to Dentrix Ascend, or consider another dental practice management system, the real goal is to build better systems, stronger SOPs, cleaner data, and consistent team workflows. ✅ Key Takeaways Don’t switch dental software just to get a clean slate. First identify what is actually creating the problems in your current system. Your workflows matter more than the software. Duplicate insurance plans, inaccurate ledgers, unnecessary adjustment types, and other data problems often come from inconsistent processes. Clean up patient ledger allocations daily. Correct allocations help ensure payments are applied to the appropriate patient and provider in Dentrix Core. Create clear rules for adding insurance plans. Dayna recommends searching by group number, group plan name, and employer before creating a new insurance plan. Limit security rights. Not every dental team member needs permission to add providers, insurance plans, payment types, billing types, or adjustment types. Build standard operating procedures before changing software. Without consistent SOPs, the same problems can follow your practice into a new system. Create recurring Dentrix cleanup workflows. Maintaining clean practice data should be an ongoing process, not a once-a-year project. Optimize the software you already have. Before investing the time and money into a software conversion, determine whether better training and systems could solve your current challenges. Who This Episode Is For This episode is especially helpful for: Dentists and dental practice owners Dental office managers Dentrix Core users Practices considering Dentrix Ascend Dental teams considering a practice management software conversion Insurance and billing coordinators Dental practices struggling with messy patient ledgers Teams dealing with duplicate insurance plans or inconsistent Dentrix data Anyone responsible for dental practice management systems, workflows, SOPs, or team training Get More Dentrix Tips & Resources Want to clean up your Dentrix workflows and create systems your entire dental team can follow? Download the Novonee app and visit the Toolbox for free Dentrix tip sheets, including resources for ledger allocations and team onboarding. Dayna specifically recommends these resources for practices working to improve their Dentrix systems. Learn more: www.novonee.com Want personalized help optimizing your systems and software? Book a discovery call with Dayna: https://calendly.com/dayna-johnson/discovery-call

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