What happens in Vegas…
Every great superhero has an origin story. A meaningful personal experience, a significant loss, or a wrong that needed to be made right. Whatever that thing is, it’s what puts the superhero into the trajectory of making the world a better, safer place.
And while we’re not claiming superhero status, we do have our own origin story. Oddly enough, it starts with a movie.
Have you ever seen The Hangover?
It’s a wild bachelor party romp through Las Vegas with plenty of jokes and surprise guest stars, but here’s what caught our founder, Gary Kadi’s attention:
Dr. Stuart Price, DDS.
Played by Ed Helms, Dr. Price is a mild-mannered, henpecked dentist who is repeatedly told throughout the movie that he’s not a “real” doctor.
And while that joke is nothing new (According to drbicuspid.com, dentists have appeared in more than 130 movies since the beginning of film, with the vast majority being represented as sadistic or incompetent), that running gag–you’re not a doctor, you’re a dentist–struck a chord.
You see, Gary had already been working with dentists in a variety of settings, and he had been struck with their courage, their devotion to their patient’s health, and their entrepreneurial spirit–all polar opposites to the way that dentists are portrayed on the big screen.
As the front line of preventative healthcare workers (dentists see their patients at least twice a year, with the idea of prevention as a goal), dentists are arguably the doctors that patients see the most. Add to that the newly discovered oral-systemic health connection and dentists’ ability to help patients treat and avoid diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart attack, stroke, cancer, premature births, rheumatoid arthritis, sleep apnea, and more, and Gary realized something life-changing.
Underneath their PPE, dentists have the ability to make the world a better, safer, healthier place.
Dentists are real-life superheroes.
From working with dentists, Gary had learned that while most of them had impeccable clinical skills, they lacked the essential training they needed to run a business. Because that’s what a private practice is–a small business. Unfortunately, dental school did not adequately prepare their students for entrepreneurship.
Gary realized that if he could teach dentists how to become CEOs of their practice, giving them the leadership skills, unified teams, and understanding of building a business using benchmarks and KPIs, they could actually focus more on what they cared about–helping their patients achieve better health. And not only would patients benefit, but the team members would have more longevity and satisfaction, practices would achieve their earning potential, and the dentist would get the compensation in time and money that they actually deserve.
Add to that business knowledge the oral-systemic connection, and complete health dentistry was born.
So Gary set out to create a dental coaching service that looked nothing like the dental consultants that were already in the market. Instead of waltzing into a practice for a few days and leaving the dentist a binder of methodology that they’d never be able to implement (and a long list of who to fire), Gary created a foundation of education and support. Gathering a team of coaches with real-world dental experience, they created a business model and educational framework that focused on teaching dental teams about their hidden superpower, and how helping patients embrace their complete health would both improve patient lives and the practice’s bottom line.
And it has worked! Since its creation, NextLevel Practice has helped more than 6,000 practice owners gift millions of patients better health AND generate more than a billion dollars in collections. With our customized approach to coaching, we help dentists shed the punchline and take their rightful place as dignified, successful healthcare leaders.
