Gen You
With busy schedules, difficult schoolwork, multiple patients, and heavy workloads, our Gen You individuals know a thing or two about productivity and practice hacks. In this issue, they share their best tips based on the current stage of their career.
Ryan Lark
Student
AAP Member since 2024
Hi there! My go-to study and organization method has always been breaking everything down into bite-sized tasks: things that are more manageable. I usually have a weekly overview whenever I have big deadlines, and I have a daily checklist for clinic, coursework, and different responsibilities. The simple task, the simple act of checking something off keeps me moving forward especially on the busy days. In terms of digital tools, I live by my Google calendar. It’s synced across my phone and laptop, and I color code everything for studying, clinic, and downtime. I also sometimes use apps like Plan that are great for whenever you have projects. Staying productive while balancing so many responsibilities really comes down to being very intentional with my time. I try to avoid multitasking and give my full attention to whatever I’m doing, whether it’s treating a patient, leading a meeting, trying to write a paper, or just literally walking my dog. If I could give one piece of advice, it is certainly to build a system that works for you. What helps me may not help someone else, and that’s okay, but don’t wait until you’re overwhelmed to get organized. Stay small, consistent, and be kind to yourself.
Dr. Maria La Torre Sanchez
First-Year Resident
AAP Member since 2024
Hola, hola! Adapting my time management and productivity strategies evolved through time. When I initially started my perio residency, going from dental school, I had a lot of what I did in dental school within me. However, it is a different kind of environment, so at the beginning it kind of took me a while to come up with a strategy and a plan.
Communication is key in perio residency. This is because your faculty is going to help you understand things that are new for you that you don’t understand. They will be able to talk to you about literature, procedures that you might not understand at the moment. It’s also very important to communicate effectively with your upper classmates and act kind of as a family where everybody helps each other because they’ve already gone through it, so they have a readily available plan. It might not be as perfect for you, but you can always change the plan. At least this can help you get a start.
That is exactly what I did. I’m in constant contact with my faculty and upper classmates for any questions that I have. They help me develop a plan where I not only have my excel sheet to work with, but we have different interfaces where we can share work or different papers and go through it together. We have a cloud where all of us input a little bit, and it helps the young students coming in to get a grasp on how things work.
Tools and habits to handle patient load and academic responsibilities will grow through time. You will develop them as the residency goes on. I use excel sheets for patient management, where I have all my patients with all their needs: when their SRP is coming, when their next re-eval is, when their next perio maintenance is, when they’re due for surgery. For academic work, I use the cloud a lot. The school provides us with one terabyte where all the residents can share their literature and the different topics that we cover, so we like to kind of brainstorm and go through these topics together. I use other interfaces like Notability to help me with taking notes. A good habit to have during residency is to have a dedicated space for research, literature, and patient care. If you’re working with your Patient Care Coordinator, have a dedicated time when you can talk to them about your patients. When it comes to academic work, have a dedicated time throughout the day – even if it’s an hour – just to go over topics you have covered throughout the week.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I know sometimes we can be afraid to be wrong or think the wrong thing, but believe me, there’s nothing wrong with that. You need to ask questions, and even if you’re wrong, that’s okay. We’re humans and we make mistakes, but we also learn a lot from them. Don’t ever let anything hold you back. Even if you made a mistake or you feel like this is the worst day, it’s not. It’s just part of the learning curve.
The most unexpected challenge for me came in 2022. Unfortunately, I lost my dad and my little brother in an unexpected turn of events back in my hometown in Colombia. During that time, I was here in the U.S. going through my transition from second year to third year. It was very challenging. Grieving is not easy. However, I had a strong support system with my family, the University of Detroit Mercy Dental, and my friends that took care of me while I was in my lowest moments. It was really hard for me to accept things that I couldn’t change, but throughout time I learned to be more resilient and strong and I was able to overcome this challenge. It took me a while but God always watches over his angels.
Dr. Cassandra McKenzie
Clinician
AAP Member since 2021
In private practice, it is essential to utilize systems. We must create a way to have as much black and white as possible to deal with the inevitable gray. In our office, we have a shared spreadsheet that clearly defines each team member’s role and the timeline in which they are expected to perform their tasks and responsibilities. For any additional items, we will often add those to a task list on an app called Connect Teams. This is a fantastic app if you haven’t heard of it. We use this app as our time plug (or log), we also use it to request time off, and there are even options for rewarding team members with tokens which they can then redeem for gift cards of their own choice. Another strategy that has worked well for us is to have a monthly meeting with a theme of start, stop, continue. We have a giant posterboard that we’re consistently adding to for this meeting. It’s essentially a living document that lives in the breakroom. We start out with things that we should start or continue to start—maybe there’s a new product that we want to implement or a different way of managing phone calls, things like that. We continue on with things that we should stop. Perhaps there are systems in place that just don’t make any sense anymore, so we don’t need to do those. Then we end the meeting on a celebratory note with the continues. These are the things that are going well and it’s a good opportunity to praise each other and just be happy that we’re in it together. Creating a culture of humility and solidarity has been essential to the success of my team. We take responsibility for our mistakes, we learn from them, and we help each other. We don’t play the blame game, we try very, very hard to not use shame with each other, and especially not with our patients. One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” If we can live by that and practice that way, we’re all going to have a good time.
Dr. Max J. Perlitsh
Clinician and Educator
AAP Member since 1964
Productivity in the clinical practice of Periodontics is dependent on the development of a referral base of general dentists who value your special skills. I learned very early to educate my office staff on the fundamental differences between primary and secondary trauma from occlusion. Dental hygienists and dental assistants knew the importance of monitoring progressive pathologic tooth mobility over time and its relationship to radiographic bone loss reflecting varying degrees of osteo-malacia, osteopenia, and osteoporotic bone changes. They understood the need to dry tooth surfaces in order to record clinical evidence of enamel tooth wear and fremitus of maxillary and mandibular molar and anterior teeth. They also noted visible gingival recession and learned to suspect anatomic defects such as dehiscences and fenestrations.
The ultimate goal of all periodontal treatment of severely compromised periodontal teeth is to treat to a target that fine tunes the NLRP3 Occlusasome to enable angiogenesis, osteogenesis and neurogenesis to restore H-cell capillaries and alveolar bone homeostasis to attain total inflammatory resolution.
With busy schedules, difficult schoolwork, multiple patients, and heavy workloads, our Gen You individuals know a thing or two about productivity and practice hacks. In this issue, they share their best tips based on the current stage of their career.
Ryan Lark
Student
AAP Member since 2024
Hi there! My go-to study and organization method has always been breaking everything down into bite-sized tasks: things that are more manageable. I usually have a weekly overview whenever I have big deadlines, and I have a daily checklist for clinic, coursework, and different responsibilities. The simple task, the simple act of checking something off keeps me moving forward especially on the busy days. In terms of digital tools, I live by my Google calendar. It’s synced across my phone and laptop, and I color code everything for studying, clinic, and downtime. I also sometimes use apps like Plan that are great for whenever you have projects. Staying productive while balancing so many responsibilities really comes down to being very intentional with my time. I try to avoid multitasking and give my full attention to whatever I’m doing, whether it’s treating a patient, leading a meeting, trying to write a paper, or just literally walking my dog. If I could give one piece of advice, it is certainly to build a system that works for you. What helps me may not help someone else, and that’s okay, but don’t wait until you’re overwhelmed to get organized. Stay small, consistent, and be kind to yourself.
Dr. Maria La Torre Sanchez
First-Year Resident
AAP Member since 2024
Hola, hola! Adapting my time management and productivity strategies evolved through time. When I initially started my perio residency, going from dental school, I had a lot of what I did in dental school within me. However, it is a different kind of environment, so at the beginning it kind of took me a while to come up with a strategy and a plan.
Communication is key in perio residency. This is because your faculty is going to help you understand things that are new for you that you don’t understand. They will be able to talk to you about literature, procedures that you might not understand at the moment. It’s also very important to communicate effectively with your upper classmates and act kind of as a family where everybody helps each other because they’ve already gone through it, so they have a readily available plan. It might not be as perfect for you, but you can always change the plan. At least this can help you get a start.
That is exactly what I did. I’m in constant contact with my faculty and upper classmates for any questions that I have. They help me develop a plan where I not only have my excel sheet to work with, but we have different interfaces where we can share work or different papers and go through it together. We have a cloud where all of us input a little bit, and it helps the young students coming in to get a grasp on how things work.
Tools and habits to handle patient load and academic responsibilities will grow through time. You will develop them as the residency goes on. I use excel sheets for patient management, where I have all my patients with all their needs: when their SRP is coming, when their next re-eval is, when their next perio maintenance is, when they’re due for surgery. For academic work, I use the cloud a lot. The school provides us with one terabyte where all the residents can share their literature and the different topics that we cover, so we like to kind of brainstorm and go through these topics together. I use other interfaces like Notability to help me with taking notes. A good habit to have during residency is to have a dedicated space for research, literature, and patient care. If you’re working with your Patient Care Coordinator, have a dedicated time when you can talk to them about your patients. When it comes to academic work, have a dedicated time throughout the day – even if it’s an hour – just to go over topics you have covered throughout the week.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I know sometimes we can be afraid to be wrong or think the wrong thing, but believe me, there’s nothing wrong with that. You need to ask questions, and even if you’re wrong, that’s okay. We’re humans and we make mistakes, but we also learn a lot from them. Don’t ever let anything hold you back. Even if you made a mistake or you feel like this is the worst day, it’s not. It’s just part of the learning curve.
The most unexpected challenge for me came in 2022. Unfortunately, I lost my dad and my little brother in an unexpected turn of events back in my hometown in Colombia. During that time, I was here in the U.S. going through my transition from second year to third year. It was very challenging. Grieving is not easy. However, I had a strong support system with my family, the University of Detroit Mercy Dental, and my friends that took care of me while I was in my lowest moments. It was really hard for me to accept things that I couldn’t change, but throughout time I learned to be more resilient and strong and I was able to overcome this challenge. It took me a while but God always watches over his angels.
Dr. Cassandra McKenzie
Clinician
AAP Member since 2021
In private practice, it is essential to utilize systems. We must create a way to have as much black and white as possible to deal with the inevitable gray. In our office, we have a shared spreadsheet that clearly defines each team member’s role and the timeline in which they are expected to perform their tasks and responsibilities. For any additional items, we will often add those to a task list on an app called Connect Teams. This is a fantastic app if you haven’t heard of it. We use this app as our time plug (or log), we also use it to request time off, and there are even options for rewarding team members with tokens which they can then redeem for gift cards of their own choice. Another strategy that has worked well for us is to have a monthly meeting with a theme of start, stop, continue. We have a giant posterboard that we’re consistently adding to for this meeting. It’s essentially a living document that lives in the breakroom. We start out with things that we should start or continue to start—maybe there’s a new product that we want to implement or a different way of managing phone calls, things like that. We continue on with things that we should stop. Perhaps there are systems in place that just don’t make any sense anymore, so we don’t need to do those. Then we end the meeting on a celebratory note with the continues. These are the things that are going well and it’s a good opportunity to praise each other and just be happy that we’re in it together. Creating a culture of humility and solidarity has been essential to the success of my team. We take responsibility for our mistakes, we learn from them, and we help each other. We don’t play the blame game, we try very, very hard to not use shame with each other, and especially not with our patients. One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” If we can live by that and practice that way, we’re all going to have a good time.
Dr. Max J. Perlitsh
Clinician and Educator
AAP Member since 1964
Productivity in the clinical practice of Periodontics is dependent on the development of a referral base of general dentists who value your special skills. I learned very early to educate my office staff on the fundamental differences between primary and secondary trauma from occlusion. Dental hygienists and dental assistants knew the importance of monitoring progressive pathologic tooth mobility over time and its relationship to radiographic bone loss reflecting varying degrees of osteo-malacia, osteopenia, and osteoporotic bone changes. They understood the need to dry tooth surfaces in order to record clinical evidence of enamel tooth wear and fremitus of maxillary and mandibular molar and anterior teeth. They also noted visible gingival recession and learned to suspect anatomic defects such as dehiscences and fenestrations.
The ultimate goal of all periodontal treatment of severely compromised periodontal teeth is to treat to a target that fine tunes the NLRP3 Occlusasome to enable angiogenesis, osteogenesis and neurogenesis to restore H-cell capillaries and alveolar bone homeostasis to attain total inflammatory resolution.