Success Story
Scaling Growth Across 38 Practices Starts With Doctor Development
Discover how one DSO created a scalable development system that improved production, retention, and clinical alignment.
The Problem
As DSOs scale across multiple locations, many organizations face the same challenge: helping early-career clinicians become productive and consistent quickly enough to meet production goals and sustain long-term growth.
As Select Dental Management expanded across 38 practices in the Northeast, maintaining a consistent clinical standard became more difficult. Dr. Traci Portnoff, Director of Doctor Development, saw talented clinicians working hard without a shared system for mentorship, clinical standards, or long-term growth.
For DSOs without a structured development system, the risks compound quickly:
- Clinical inconsistency across locations erodes patient trust and quality benchmarks
- Production variability makes forecasting and growth planning unreliable
- Retention suffers when associates see no path for mentorship or advancement
- “Doctor development cannot depend on geography or individual offices,” Dr. Portnoff says. “It has to be intentional and scalable.”
“Doctor development cannot depend on geography or individual offices, it has to be intentional and scalable.”
— Dr. Traci Portnoff
Select Dental Management had to align standards across its locations to develop more productive clinicians.
The Solution: Spear for Structured Development at Scale
Select Dental Management partnered with Spear to launch a pilot program for 10 doctors focused on associate onboarding, continuing education, and leadership development. Instead of relying on office-by-office mentorship, Spear helped build a shared clinical framework that aligned treatment planning, restorative standards, and patient care across practices.
Spear supported the organization in two key ways:
Clinical Alignment: Spear’s Facially Generated Treatment Planning aligned with the organization’s Clinical Advisory Board, creating a shared framework for diagnosis, communication, and quality expectations.
Operational Scalability: Spear Online helped doctors track their CE progress, prepare for procedures, and build skills without relying entirely on senior clinicians.
The organization also partnered closely with Spear’s Practice Growth Partners to tailor learning pathways covering occlusion to reinforce engagement and maintain momentum across practices.
To strengthen collaboration and accountability, Dr. Portnoff launched an internal Spear Study Club where clinicians could discuss cases, share insights, and reinforce a common standard of care.
The program quickly became a recruiting and retention advantage, attracting new graduates while re-engaging experienced clinicians through mentorship and collaboration.
The Result
Three years into implementation, Select Dental Management achieved measurable clinical and operational growth.
Repeat cohort doctors increased production per day by approximately 20%.
New cohort doctors achieved an average 12% increase in daily production within three months, equating to roughly $1,000 more per doctor per day.
Doctors now diagnose with more confidence, communicate more consistently, and align around a shared standard of patient care.
The organization also strengthened retention by creating a culture of clinical growth and professional support.
“When doctors grow inside a consistent system, the entire organization becomes stronger”
— Dr. Traci Portnoff
Instead of clinicians developing in isolation, Select Dental Management built a shared system that drove stronger production, improved retention, and delivered more consistent care across all 38 practices. For Dr. Portnoff, the lesson is clear: scalable growth requires scalable clinician development.
