Episode #240: The Keys to Letting Go As A Dentist with Dr. John Cranham - a podcast by ACT Dental

I think for a lot of us, the COVID pause had us all thinking about what is, what sort of matters most and, and, you know, got us to think about where we are.
05:06This is maybe a bit of an announcement to the dental world, but I always envisioned that I would simply gradually stop practicing and primarily just teach. I figured at 60, I would probably not have the energy to do both anymore because doing dentistry is hard work and the grind of the road and teaching while it's very, very exciting, it is taxing. And so I, I really thought that I would devote all my time to teaching, and just to continue to be the clinical director at the Dawson Academy. And when the COVID thing hit, I just started to realize that as my daughter was leaving dental school, that I was going to have this window of time to practice with her and teaching 60 or 70 days a year took me out of the practice and off a lot. So knowing that I couldn't do both things anymore, at once I thought about it, and again, it is inherent to the values of the Dawson Academy and of what Dr. Dawson taught us. There really wasn't much to think about. It was time for me to step down as clinical director, still staying involved with the Academy, still going to be teaching some of the seminar classes. I know the Academy is going to be announcing shortly who the new clinical director is that I'm very excited for. And I'll definitely be sort of co-clinical director for this year during this transition.
06:44So that is a huge decision for me, but I think that it's important that as you evolve as a dentist, and it may even be as simple as letting go of certain procedures that you're doing as you hone what it is you do and want to do. And Kirk, you've driven this home over and over and over that as a dentist,
07:06we really get to choose just about everything. You know, who's with us when we work, you know, if you're a morning person, you can be there at 6 o'clock. If you're an evening person, you can be there until 10 o'clock. But I think that this was a humongous decision for me, but now I'm probably two months into it.
07:29Caitlin started with me August 1st. And it's emotional for me to, to talk about what it's like to have her here with me. And as I look at it, my most important student of my life as having her and making sure that I can spend this time with her, a lot of you have heard the story of my son.
07:52That's going to be our next podcast, Kirk talking about the book. That's going to be released soon in regards to him. But you know, he's in the practice, he's doing a lot of the digital mounting, and a lot of the lab stuff for us. So it has become quite a family affair, but yeah, but maybe we start there and talk about how we make some of those decisions, then maybe we can kick around, you know, what's my practice like now, because what's fun is like, I'm just a dentist again. You know, it sounds kind of crazy, but for so long, I pretty much just focused on large things and teaching, which sounds amazing. And it is to some degree, but it's also, it's also challenging from the standpoint of it being, taxing. Now I'm doing some fillings again and molar root canals and doing just a general dentist again. Today we're going to get to get inside the mind of a great restorative dentist.
08:52Kirk: And I got a lot of questions I want to ask you, but let's speak to the obvious, you know, you spend a whole life of in what you and Pete taught me was just the predictability. You spend a whole life trying to get things predictable, be in control. And let's just face it dentists that are really good about their business and dentistry they're control freaks. And so now you're kind of swimming upstream of this control issue and letting go, and you're in a good phase. That's a huge shift for you to step down from Dawson, you know, and step away from that. But you got your daughter coming in. It's gotta be hard to let go of control a little bit.
09:52Dr....

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