The Development System Behind Double-Digit Growth

The Problem

For many dental service organizations, the period between a new associate’s first day and their first consistently productive quarter is one of the most expensive and least optimized stages of the clinician lifecycle.

Organizations that shorten associate ramp time create a significant competitive advantage. For one DSO, having structured onboarding led to stronger case acceptance, improved workflow efficiency, and double-digit production growth among early-career clinicians like Dr. Allison Besse.

Select Dental Management recognized that recruiting talented dentists was only the first step. Sustained growth required a scalable way to develop clinicians after they joined the organization.

Early-career clinicians often enter practice with limited experience, so translating clinical skills into efficient workflows, comprehensive treatment planning, and higher-value patient care was challenging.

“Communication skills, leadership, and the business side of dentistry are huge areas you’re still learning once you’re actually practicing.”

— Dr. Allison Besse

Without a structured development system, those gaps lead to inconsistent patient experiences, slower production ramp-up, lower treatment acceptance, workflow inefficiencies, and greater operational variability across practices. Dr. Besse experienced those challenges firsthand shortly after joining Select Dental Management, following her residency at Yale and her move to the Vermont practice.

The Solution: Scalable Clinician Development Through Spear

Through its partnership with Spear, Select Dental Management implemented a scalable clinician development system to accelerate clinician productivity and improve operational performance.

For Dr. Besse, that meant building confidence in treatment planning, identifying opportunities for comprehensive care earlier, and strengthening patient conversations, which led to higher case acceptance.

Dr. Besse gained access to Spear’s:

One of the biggest turning points came after attending Spear’s Restorative Design workshop, where Dr. Besse began approaching treatment planning more comprehensively to identify broader restorative opportunities earlier.

“Day one back from Arizona, I was already implementing concepts that opened up better long- term treatment options for patients,” she said.

Select Dental Management could replicate this development process across clinicians, creating a more consistent path to productivity and patient care across locations. Spear’s integrated educational framework also strengthened team alignment and created a more unified approach to patient care. “The patient isn’t hearing one thing and then a different thing,” Dr. Besse explained.

The Result

As Select Dental Management invested in clinician growth and performance development, measurable operational improvements followed in Dr. Besse’s practice.

Clinical and Operational Results:

“My overall case acceptance has definitely increased,” Dr. Besse said. “Patients who were hesitant before are now saying, ‘When can we get started?” Patients became more likely to move forward with comprehensive treatment as care conversations became clearer and more consistent.

For Select Dental Management, clinician development became a scalable growth strategy. By helping clinicians become productive more quickly, the organization strengthened patient experience, improved consistency across locations, and supported long-term growth.

For DSO leaders, the takeaway is clear: investing in clinician development can accelerate doctor ramp-up, increase production, strengthen retention, and create a more consistent patient experience across practices.