Our guest this week is Dr. Francisco Darquea, DDS who is a graduate of Brigham Young University with a degree in Bioinformatics. He obtained a Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry. He completed an Advanced Education in General Dentistry at Idaho State University and advanced his training in oral surgery, implant placement and restoration, IV Sedation, Oral Conscious sedation, cosmetic dentistry and full mouth rehabilitation.
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Host: Ladies and gentleman, this is the Dental Up podcast, brought to you by Keating Dental Lab, a full service, award-winning dental laboratory. Each week you’ll learn tips and techniques from real world dentists. Bringing you in depth interviews, motivating stories, current events and sports. Here’s your host, Shaun Keating.
Shaun Keating: Hey everyone, Shaun here. Welcome to another episode of the Dental Up podcast. Our guest this week is a graduate from Brigham Young University with a degree in Bioinformatics. He obtained a Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Texas A&M University, Baylor College of Dentistry. He completed Advanced Education and General Dentistry at Idaho State University and advanced his training in oral surgery and placement and restoration, IV sedation, oral conscious sedation, cosmetic dentistry and full mouth rehabilitation. Practices from Colorado Springs, Colorado, please welcome Dr. Francisco Darquea. How’s it going Dr. Darquea?
Dr.Darquea: It’s going well. How did you get all that information?
Shaun Keating: Dude, we got little munchkins, man, to check out things on our people. We know more about you than I think you know about yourself, baby. We went to the dark side of the web and found everything. No, just kidding on that. That’s just part of it. You got quite the resume, man, and you’re very well to do and you’re just really freaking awesome dude. I love it that you found the time to come on the podcast with us. But, I can’t thank you enough. I know how busy you are and I thank you for sending us work here to our dental lab. And man, thanks again. Thanks again for coming on and hey you know what buddy, I always try to start off talking a little bit about sports, man. You a big Broncos fan? You got them coming up in some preseason or you like any sports out there in the Colorado?
Dr.Darquea: Not really. I am pretty boring that way. I’m not into sports or any … Yeah.
Shaun Keating: That’s not boring, that’s okay. Hey, Broncos, I’m a big Broncos fan.
Dr.Darquea: Are you?
Shaun Keating: Yeah.
Dr.Darquea: I’ve been here in Colorado for two years, so.
Shaun Keating: It’s kinda hard to breathe out there isn’t it? You guys a little higher in the air out there.
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, about seven thousand feet.
Shaun Keating: Hey, that’s funny. A little higher in the air out there, you know with Colorado being legal marijuana out there, you gotta be careful, no.
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, you do.
Shaun Keating: Nah.
Dr.Darquea: It’s all good though.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, it’s all good, man. That’s awesome dude. Well, heck then, we don’t even need to talk about sports and how great the Rams and Lakers are and all that, I’ll just kind of shut up and we’ll just get right into it and Dental Up. Doctor, why did you get into dentistry and at what point did you think, “I want to be a dentist?”
Dr.Darquea: Like you mentioned, I graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bioinformatics, and most people don’t even know what that is.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, what is that man?
Dr.Darquea: Basically, it’s computer science with biology.
Shaun Keating: Okay.
Dr.Darquea: I thought I wanted to do computer science, then I switched my major to nursing, but then I went on a humanitarian trip to El Salvador with some doctors and dentists and I just liked what I saw. I like dentists do more procedures, per se, and I thought it was cool, so that’s why I decided to switch to Bioinformatics, do the biology to go to dental school.
Shaun Keating: That’s awesome. You ever watch that TV show called AP Bio? It’s kinda my new show. It was on last year and the first seasons over. It’s pretty cool.
Dr.Darquea: No, I haven’t.
Shaun Keating: I guess it’s Advanced Placement Biology, I guess is what it is. I’m kind of a knucklehead. I never went to college, you know. I went to one of those trade schools for six months and look at me know.
Dr.Darquea: Look at you.
Shaun Keating: Yeah.
Dr.Darquea: You’re doing great.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. Thank you. So, tell me a little bit about your journey in school now. You went to Brigham Young, also Texas A&M and Baylor. My niece is going to Baylor. She’s 18, she just graduated and she’s off to Baylor. I think my sister and her husband just took her last weekend. But, tell me a little bit about that, with how it went there for you?
Dr.Darquea: I don’t know, I always felt that I was really lucky to get into a Texas school being a out of state student. Because Texas schools are really cheap, compared to other parts of the country. And it was great. And now I know that Texas, Baylor College of Dentistry is no longer Baylor College of Dentistry, it’s Texas A&M.
Shaun Keating: Yes.
Dr.Darquea: But it was all good. I love people in Texas and the weather was super hot, but I survived for four years, so-
Shaun Keating: That’s so awesome.
Dr.Darquea: And I’m here in Colorado now and I love it here.
Shaun Keating: Oh, that’s so cool. Colorado is so laid back. I got quite a few dentists from the area and different parts of Colorado and they’re just … It’s kind of like your own
… The state of Colorado is like a renegade state, in a way. It’s like they run and they play by their own tune and it’s kind of like Texas is too, its own little entity and it’s kind of neat. Colorado is very forward thinking and lot of young millennials and a lot of people flocking to the area, and it’s not because like I was kidding around with the marijuana passage, it’s just the whole forward thinking and it’s just beautiful, too. The seasons and the foliage, it’s a beautiful place.
Dr.Darquea: It’s the healthiest state, too. People are very outdoorsy-
Shaun Keating: Yes.
Dr.Darquea: Snowboarding, hiking, biking. I mean, there’s a lot of things to do outdoors. It’s really nice, I love it here.
Shaun Keating: Oh, absolutely. I was going to say that, yeah. Everyone’s hiking and just love and it’s kind of like a lot of hippie-like people and stuff in a way, but not really.
Dr.Darquea: Not all of them, but some, yeah.
Shaun Keating: Yeah. But I think it’s pretty cool, man. I’ve never been there. I’d like to go and visit it sometime. I had an old friend, that he was my boss when I first started off and he left the company and he started his own dental lab and he went to a place called Breckenridge and it’s a ski area, kind of.
Dr.Darquea: Yep.
Shaun Keating: And he had his lab out there for years, and he just thrived and he loved it ’cause he was a big ski-nut too. And just, they have some of the best skiing in the world out there and that’s pretty cool, man. But, so tell me a little bit about when you graduated from college and everything else, where did you go, what did you do?
Did you start off as an associate? Or did you go in and buy a practice? Tell me a little bit about that.
Dr.Darquea: So, it was actually kind of funny. I was about to buy a practice in Oregon, my wife is from Oregon. So, we were going to move there and we got the practice appraisal, put some money in there and then it just didn’t go through.
Shaun Keating: Okay.
Dr.Darquea: I was very disappointed ’cause I was about to graduate from the IAGD. So, I was really disappointed and then I just went to Dental Town and looked for an ad and I said, “You know, I always wanted to go to Colorado.” So, I was looking in Colorado and I found this ad for an associate and I applied. Five minutes later, Dr. Andrew Miller, he’s calling me and we hit it off and that Sunday of the same week, I flew over here and I like the guy, I like the practice and here I am two years later and I’m about to buy in as a partner.
Shaun Keating: Oh, those so cool. Andrew Miller, that sounds real familiar. I remember when Dr. Jason Lechefeld had a practice out there. I’m not sure if he’s still in Colorado. But, Andrew Miller, what’s his name on Dental Town? Does he go by Allen Miller? Or is it-
Dr.Darquea: I don’t think he’s post anything on Dental Town.
Shaun Keating: Oh, okay.
Dr.Darquea: Andrew Scott Miller.
Shaun Keating: Oh, okay.
Dr.Darquea: He just posted that ad, it’s not like he goes onto the forums or anything like that.
Shaun Keating: Oh, okay. No, that’s all good man.
Dr.Darquea: But he had all the systems in place, it’s a great practice and I’m just loving it here.
Shaun Keating: Oh, that’s so cool dude. Tell me a little bit about the layout of the practice. How many ops you got and hygienists? Tell me a little bit about that if you could.
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, we have 10 ops.
Shaun Keating: Oh, you’re kidding. That’s awesome.
Dr.Darquea: We have four hygienists. And then the rest is opertory’s for the doctors.
Shaun Keating: Okay, is it a fee for service or do you much insurance or-
Dr.Darquea: So, we do both.
Shaun Keating: Okay.
Dr.Darquea: We have PPO’s and you know, fee for service as well.
Shaun Keating: Perfect. Now what is one of your favorite procedures in dentistry? What do you like doing? Do you like crown preps, do you like doing endo? Tell me a little bit about what you do like and what you don’t like doing.
Dr.Darquea: I like the variety that I can do as a general practitioner. So, I do a little bit of everything. But my favorite procedure will be cosmetic dentistry.
Shaun Keating: Okay.
Dr.Darquea: And those are the cases that I’m sending you ’cause I cannot do on the CEREC.
Shaun Keating: Okay.
Dr.Darquea: I guess I could without getting the same results, but-
Shaun Keating: Yeah, you can get it to where behind the lips it fits on a CEREC, but is it going to look like a hot lab like us doing it? I don’t know about that.
Dr.Darquea: Well, I guess with the CEREC if you do [crosstalk 00:09:20]. The staining technique and all that stuff, that I don’t, then I guess you can make it look decent. But when we’re talking about 10, 20 units, then I’d just rather use a lab. But those are my favorite cases and sometimes they turn out to be the most challenging as well.
Shaun Keating: Yeah.
Dr.Darquea: But, yeah a little bit of everything.
Shaun Keating: I see that with you’re crushing it on bigger cases with us and stuff and dude you’re only out a couple years but … And I see how you did some cosmetic dentistry and some full mouth rehabilitation. Where’d yo get the CE on that man? Or how’d you go where you could put the big boy pants on and started doing it or what?
Dr.Darquea: Well, yeah, actually I’m a Dental Town junkie. Like I do all the CE from there and even before graduating from dental school I was looking at it and the more you know the more you realize you don’t know. So, I’m getting really close to accomplish my 500 units of CE for the fellowship.
Shaun Keating: That’s awesome, man.
Dr.Darquea: And during residency, I did a couple full mouth rehabilitation’s and I had great mentors, great instructors. And then I just started doing it.
Shaun Keating: That’s so cool. Now, do you guys outsource anything there? I heard you’re doing a little Invisalign today and stuff like that. Were you outsourcing ortho before? Are you outsourcing oral surgeries for maybe implants and endodontics? Tell me a little bit about what you outsource if you could.
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, so we do basically everything. During my residency, I do IV Sedation as well, for extraction of wisdom teeth. And I know my limitations and when I see them, yeah, we do outsource to the oral surgeon or endodontist. Because we do have a Cone Beam, a CT scanner.
Shaun Keating: Okay.
Dr.Darquea: We can see how close we are to the nerves and just if the case is too complex then we outsource those things for oral surgery or periodontist if they’re bone defects and things like that. But most of it, we keep it in house. Lately we’ve been too busy, which is a good thing, that even the simple endo we have to refer out just because we don’t have room in the schedule to get the patients seen properly.
Shaun Keating: That’s a good thing though sometimes.
Dr.Darquea: So, it is a good problem to have.
Shaun Keating: To have such problems man, I got [inaudible 00:11:49]. They wish they got an endo in there, but to have so much work, fixed work and stuff, even removable, that hey, you know what send out that endo. Send out some of those tough surgical extractions, when you can be doing a great bread and butter and even more complex stuff that your time is better spent maybe. But, I don’t know, good for you. That’s awesome, dude.
Shaun Keating: So, what about with marketing strategy? What do you guys do there to drive patients to your practice? You doing some Facebook? You doing social media? Are you doing mailings? Tell me a little bit about how you drive patients to your practice.
Dr.Darquea: So, we do have Google Reviews, we have over 500 I believe now.
Shaun Keating: See, I can’t even make like five Google reviews. My people, I don’t know, we just feel bad. “Hey, could you review it?” I don’t know. I gotta do it more. But that’s-
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, we have the Google Reviews and like you mentioned here in Colorado, there’s a lot of millennials, they go on the website, they go online, they Google it and they see it. [crosstalk 00:12:49]. A lot of it is word of mouth as well.
Shaun Keating: That’s good. No, that’s so cool.
Dr.Darquea: And we do Facebook too. We do Facebook, we do promotions on Zoom or just a bunch of things.
Shaun Keating: That’s awesome, dude. What about you doing any funny videos where you’re dancing? ‘Cause I’m looking at your picture, you’re a handsome young man there, buddy. You should do some of those Drake videos and get on in there and shake your butt a little bit, baby. Get some viral videos going out of Dr. Darquea.
Dr.Darquea: You know, my assistant told me that I should. Shaun Keating: You should. I’m looking at you dude.
Dr.Darquea: I’m from Latin America and we have the moves. We really do.
Shaun Keating: You do. You look like some-
Dr.Darquea: But I haven’t made any funny videos.
Shaun Keating: You look like some model/movie star from Brazil or somewhere man. That’s awesome.
Dr.Darquea: Well, thank you.
Shaun Keating: I’m not hitting on you, I’m just saying.
Dr.Darquea: I am married, I am taken.
Shaun Keating: Hey, me too. 35 years almost. That’s crazy. But, no that’s awesome. I love hearing that. So, what’s the latest piece of equipment you’ve purchased for your practice?
Dr.Darquea: We have the Cone Beam, we have the CareStream 8100 and the scanner, the CareStream 3600. We recently updated our CEREC to the latest version, a 4.5.
Shaun Keating: Rad.
Dr.Darquea: And we’re planning to buy a 3D printer with the surgical guides.
Shaun Keating: Beautiful. You’re cutting edge, baby. That’s awesome.
Dr.Darquea: We’re trying to stay on top of the game and it does help that I have a computer science background because of all this technology, you definitely need to have some knowledge of how computers work.
Shaun Keating: Dude, I got an IT department that, it’s so cra- I can’t even turn on a computer. I’m like, old analog guy and if I didn’t have them … Now they got this stuff out there in the dark web and guys trying to hack you just for the heck of it, I mean, since we got on Facebook, you know, and it kind of goes out a little bit everywhere, people try to get into your systems and try to freaking mess with you, man. And I’m like, “What the heck?!” So, now I got the latest things, oh this is 1800 bucks a month for them just to kind of watch out for you. It’s like, I just spent a hundred grand on this other stuff and then now I gotta do two grand a month for a freaking just to have a … I don’t even know what you’re going to do, but yeah. They assured me-
Dr.Darquea: I do like that you guys have that portal, that’s the first lab that I work with that you can actually see the things that you guys received and when things are shipped and all that stuff. I think it’s really neat to have that dentist portal.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, we’re trying to get cutting edge like that. And it’s important, they can pay their bill, they can track it through the lab, where they’re at. It’s really neat.
We’re going to have 24 … Not 24-7 but we’ll have live webcam going on the main lab floor, just like from six in the morning to six at night. Just to see it. Kind of like, you know at Huntington Beach or Disneyland, they have it on the news and I just think that’s cool. We’re digital, too, here a lot and we’re doing so much more digital scans. And it’s just so amazing and just all my people, I got like four people looking at me doing this podcast and different people and they’re all young kids, man, it’s like, “What the heck?”
Dr.Darquea: Yeah.
Shaun Keating: But they’re the ones who know how to put this stuff together. Man, I’m looking at an iPad, clicking away on the time going, “Shaun, keep going. Shut up and let the doctor talk now.” But-
Dr.Darquea: No, just keep going. I love it.
Shaun Keating: So, tell me, do you attend any dental conventions or gatherings? Tell me a little bit about that.
Dr.Darquea: Well, yeah, with all the CE that I’m doing I certainly do. I’m going to Salt Lake City, sometime in October. I don’t remember now.
Shaun Keating: Okay.
Dr.Darquea: And I’m going to the Sirona World, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, that’s huge.
Dr.Darquea: It’s going to be in Florida.
Shaun Keating: It’s in Florida this year? Okay.
Dr.Darquea: This year, yeah. And I’m going also to the ADA in Hawaii. I’m just going there ’cause it’s in Hawaii.
Shaun Keating: Exactly. The ADA switches every year and the last ADA I went, I mean I did the one in San Francisco I think awhile back and then the one I really love is the one they did in Philadelphia and just the history, it’s just amazing. And I’m a big foodie. I like wherever I go, I try to find the best restaurants or, not even the best just the best reviewed from people that are locals and then I’ll do the ritzy stuff or whatever, but I just love different places. And Philly man, those people are kind of tough there, but such a history. And you know our forefathers and this nation, it’s just a trip looking at-
Dr.Darquea: I’ve never been there. I’ll have to go and check it out.
Shaun Keating: Oh, yeah. They got some mean fans for those Philadelphia Eagles. They’re tough man, they don’t mess around there in Philly. But hey, they’re world champions now aren’t they? In football. That’s a trip.
Shaun Keating: But all right, what are some of the more rewarding experiences in the dental profession in your short career you got, what really stands out in some of the most rewarding experiences that you’ve had? Patient in a chair maybe, full rehab, or 6 through 11 or 4 through 13 or something. Tell me something that’s-
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, the ones that recently happened, I had one that, I think it was only the maxillary arch but it made such a difference ’cause this patient had baby teeth and so the permanent teeth were missing so she looked like a child trying to be an adult.
Shaun Keating: Oh, okay.
Dr.Darquea: And when we delivered the finals and my assistant was crying. And sometimes that is just rewarding, you know, you spend a couple hours fixing teeth but then you really change someones life. I know it sounds cheesy but it is true.
Shaun Keating: Oh, it is so true.
Dr.Darquea: You know for pictures and how they communicate with other people and how they look at themselves, so.
Shaun Keating: I tell you, no that is so true. I’m a crybaby too when it comes to that and I see friends, I’ve done so many of my friends and they’re out there that their teeth
are just bad be it from natural dentition just orthodontically they had to have stuff pulled in and we had to work on them after that or just teeth that just need … So many people with their self esteem and their confidence and you see them talking with their hand over their mouth. And you know you can be fat, tall, ugly and everything else, but if you have a beautiful smile, it just goes away in my mind. It doesn’t matter, I just think a smile goes so far and … You know, your smile and your eyes. It’s so rewarding when you get someone that … Sure we do a lot of onesie-twosies in the back of the mouth posteriorly, you know, people need that to eat and all that. That’s great.
Shaun Keating: It’s a service for sure that is much needed and getting them out of pain but cosmetically when we come around the horn a little bit and just fill out a lip and have things to where it changes their lives and it’s just such a confidence builder and it’s so easy and it’s so quick. And I’ve given away so many teeth that, you know, it’s just crazy that it’s so rewarding to me and I just love … For years, my tagline was, “Creating Smiles Everyday,” and we kinda do. We kinda work seven days a week here, man, and it’s day and night ’cause we have different crews that come in and you know, we’re just like a star football team here that comes in and we’re working it baby, and we’re working it like three days and it’s out the door and it’s just what we do.
Shaun Keating: So, it’s something. I just love the field that I’m in and I’ve done a lot of smiles in my life and it does change people’s lives and-
Dr.Darquea: It does. I recently received a case from your lab, it was 6 through 11 and a bridge from 22 to 27, so just all the interiors.
Shaun Keating: Okay.
Dr.Darquea: And it was for a dad, that he wanted to be able to smile at his daughter’s wedding. And everybody loves him when he comes and everybody was happy to be able to see him smile.
Shaun Keating: How did it go to place? Did it go to place like five minutes each crown? They just drop into place or what?
Dr.Darquea: We fixed some misalignment that he had on number seven, and we didn’t extract number seven, he had a second opinion that they wanted to extract number seven. But we made it work and it looks great.
Shaun Keating: That’s so cool, dude.
Dr.Darquea: And sometimes on those, on the sheet that we get like for feedback, I just say, “Thank you to the technician,” or you know, who was in charge of that case [crosstalk 00:21:47]. They do a lot of work.
Shaun Keating: Well, you know we read those every day and all those go back to the technician and they actually get bonused on them and stuff. It’s a great thing. They really love it because they’re striving for perfection everyday. Every case is a new case and I always tell them and it’s like, it’s going to go on Dental Town, it’s going to go on the inter web and just make sure that it’s … A million people are going to see it or it’s going in your moms mouth or your family’s mouth and when you work that way after awhile, you just do your best in every case and on that case with the buccal corridor on 4, 5 and 12 and 13, how was that? Was it prominent enough? ‘Cause a lot of times, 6 and 11 man, I almost like to buccal veneer a 4 and 5 and 12 and 13 just almost even no prep if it’s inside a little bit where I want to build out that buccal corridor, did it look okay with that? Did the smile align and everything?
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, it look okay and sometimes the major thing is also finances. We want to do all this stuff and just finances get in the way. But-
Shaun Keating: Hey, you know if you ever have it to where finances is a problem, it’s going to take you about a half an hour more to grind and do those other four teeth, hey I’ll throw those in their for you every once in a while just to help or you know you got certain patients … It’s real easy for me and I got an old friend Howard Fran man, he got me on that way back and he offered 6 through 11 for this-
Dr.Darquea: I will get back to you on that one and soon. I have lots of patients.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, take it easy on me, D. Don’t mess with that. No, but that’s so true. 6 to 11 is great, but 4 to 13 man, it just builds it out. When you got a wide smile line from a side profile, man, you can see 4 and 5 there a lot of times, before 6 and I just hate to have this Rolls Royce at 6 through 11 and you got that Honda Accord or Toyota Corolla at 4 and 5 and 12 and 13 baby, I want it all looking good so, yeah, let me know on that. 22 through 27 usually you don’t have to worry about. 20 and 21 or 23 and 24 ’cause that’s a lower lip line, you’re not going to see those side profiles but buccal corridors on the upper is kind of a mandatory just when you’re seeing that smile, especially those big gummy patients that are pulling that lip way back, man, you got to throw that in then.
Shaun Keating: You don’t need to grind that whole thing down, we could just do … Cover that buccal cusp and I’ll just build out that facial and just do a buccal veneer on those things, man.
Dr.Darquea: Buccal veneer, yeah that’s right.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, it’s real easy, real easy and we do it all the time. But, yeah, just know that.
I remember Howard’s big thing was, “It’s 59.95 for eight crowns, I’m only charging for six,” or you know, actually 10 crowns, you know, ’cause they were throwing four extra in. And he goes, his chair would be filled twice a week with it in the old ways, 6 through 11 but when he went 4 through 13 and added those extra four in, his chair was filled with 20 people a week. And it’s a little bit
of money, it’s like four or five hundred dollars more on a lab bill or whatever and it’s a little bit of your time, a little bit of your cement and it’s just not a lot.
Shaun Keating: But certain people, you do that. You tell them, “Hey, keep that on the low down baby.” You know so that they’re getting that special deal and it just really makes the case. But don’t get me wrong, 6 through 11 happens and it works so good for so many people but sometimes, to bring it around horn a little bit, it’s a little bit better.
Dr.Darquea: Oh, yeah. I’m with you.
Shaun Keating: So, hey, so you know, I always ask, what kind of advice can you give some of our newer dentists just starting off? You’re pretty new but man, you got it together, man. ‘Cause I’ve seen your work and you really are crushing it dude. But what kind of advice can you give some of the younger guys that are starting off?
Some of the dos and don’ts maybe, starting off as an associateship or starting your own practice. What do you think you can give me some advice on that for some of our newer people out there?
Dr.Darquea: I’ll say, what really helped me to know … ‘Cause once you graduate from dental school you feel that you can do everything. But I did go to an AEGD and I think that really opened my eye to see how many things I didn’t know. And feeling comfortable with normal class twos or just the single crown, but then with more aesthetic cases where you’re worried about crown lengthening or the gingival hides, or the buccal corridor or implants.
Shaun Keating: Yep.
Dr.Darquea: If you have that type of personality where you like learning and you’re not afraid of trying new things, I think like doing a good AEGD is the way to go. I went to Baylor and Baylor prepares you really, really well. You do a lot of procedures compared to other schools and I felt really comfortable doing the single tooth dentistry and I just didn’t know what I didn’t know, you know what I mean?
Shaun Keating: Exactly. It’s so true.
Dr.Darquea: So, pursuing more education, doing continued education ’cause if you’re not constantly learning new things then you’re just stuck in the same place. And you don’t know how much better you could be doing.
Shaun Keating: Absolutely. Nah, it is. Education, education, education especially when you’re starting off. First 10, 15, 20 years, you can do everything you can, those next 10, 20 years, I mean, you’re just going to be on autopilot. And I say that to my kids too, bust your butt while you’re young, man, and just put your dues in and things will be good when you hit your 40s and 50s. Nothing’s free, man, you gotta work for it and you gotta work hard.
Dr.Darquea: Things are good right now for me and I’m 33. Well, yeah, I’m 33. I’m like, “Wait, how old am I?”
Shaun Keating: I got a son, I’m looking across the table at 33, and it’s like, “You’ll be 34 coming up and on 9/11.” But it’s a trip, dude. It’s amazing.
Dr.Darquea: Yeah. And dentistry can be stressful as well so make sure you have a way to decompress or think about other things besides dentistry.
Shaun Keating: Absolutely. What do you do in your off time to kind of … Are you out there jogging and hiking? What do you do for fun out of work?
Dr.Darquea: I have four kids.
Shaun Keating: Oh, yeah, 33, baby. You’re not messing around. That’s awesome.
Dr.Darquea: I have three boys and one baby girl.
Shaun Keating: Oh, congratulations, man.
Dr.Darquea: So, I hike like crazy everywhere. We go do our bikes, we snowboard. Recently I got a drone.
Shaun Keating: Oh, yeah. I got one of those too. The Magic-something. Mavic.
Dr.Darquea: Mavic, yeah. I have the Mavic Air. And I’ve been using it for work as well. Shaun Keating: Yeah. That’s so cool.
Dr.Darquea: It’s just keeping busy and not wasting time and enjoying life and trying to learn to be a better dentist, help people. It’s good. I love what I do.
Shaun Keating: Oh, that’s so cool. You gotta keep it all in perspective. You’ve just got to really balance is all ’cause dentists, it can wear on you, and especially if-
Dr.Darquea: Oh, yeah.
Shaun Keating: And it’s all with the people you surround yourself with. Most dental practices, a lot of the successful one that have worked with me for many, many years, they’ve got the same people working for them, man, and it’s like a family. You take care of them, you pay them above and beyond what they’re worth, don’t penny-pinch, these people are trying to live, too. And spread the love with them. And they’re going to keep working hard and they’re going to come to work and it’s like having the A-Team. And other staffs and certain offices that they’re just go through them left and right because they’re not putting a value on those people or maybe they haven’t found the right people, but it’s
important, you know. You’re only as good as your people with any business that you do.
Shaun Keating: And you find those people, you take care of them and everything just falls into place, man. It really does. You don’t think about the money, you don’t think about growth, growth, growth. You just do what you’re doing to the best of your ability, treat people good and treat your employees good and good things will happen. More so than not. And I just found it true with myself and our company and with the doctors that I work with. I’ve been doing this 33 years now, since 1984, going on 34.
Dr.Darquea: Oh, wow.
Shaun Keating: And I love it. And it’s just very rewarding.
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, I spend so much time here at the practice, they’re like my second family.
We have 16 employees and 2 doctors.
Shaun Keating: That’s so cool.
Dr.Darquea: So, we’re really close, we have a great office manager, we have great assistants. ‘Cause all that dentistry that you see is thanks to the assistants, the doctors and then your [inaudible 00:30:33], that that make all this possible. So, you need a great team.
Shaun Keating: Yeah, it’s so amazing, it really is and it just stands out when you have star people that want to do a good job. That’s why you guys are so busy, ’cause you do. You guys care and you’re doing great work and look at you, you’re rocking and rolling, baby, at freaking quite a young career.
Dr.Darquea: Thank you.
Shaun Keating: No, hats off to you. So, our lab’s doing pretty good for you, huh? Would you recommend our lab to other doctors out there if they’re listening?
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, absolutely.
Shaun Keating: That’s so cool.
Dr.Darquea: Prices might be a little bit higher than, let’s say, Glidewell, but it really pays off when you’re sitting and you don’t have to redo it or-
Shaun Keating: Yeah, I hear you. We’re not a whole lot higher but that’s like going to 7-11 to get a hamburger or going to In-N-Out to get a hamburger. They’re both hamburgers, but ones a lot better than the other and it’s just a little bit more but it is what it is.
Dr.Darquea: That’s true.
Shaun Keating: When doctors do try us and work with us, chair time is money, time is money, and also accolades from patients and peers in the industry when you’re doing great dentistry and they’re talking about the teeth, you know and just telling other people, it’s a big thing out there that you almost don’t need the marketing and stuff like that. It’s just word of mouth and you grow. And that’s where we’ve been. We do a little bit of marketing but it’s kind of gorilla marketing. We don’t have the big budget, but what little we do we get a pretty good impact.
Shaun Keating: It’s kind of like fishing, you’re out there fishing and you don’t call it catching, you know. It’s just something. And the same thing with us, we go through some doctors that come and try us and it’s just sometimes they’re just bouncing around lab to lab and looking for price and this and that. And then some just want to find a good lab that can make their life easy and then make them look good because a dentist is only as good as his lab and believe it or not at the end of the day and it’s five, six, seven percent of your overhead, of your company, but it’s 90 percent of your headache and 95 percent of your gratitude from your people and your patients because we can make or break a dentist and more so than not, man, we make them look good, and we do things really fast here.
Dr.Darquea: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.
Shaun Keating: We want to get that patient back in that chair faster than you guys do because teeth like to move and everything else and I want those temps out of their mouths and the finals in, stabilizing everything up and it’s just good to go, baby. But hey, man, I gotta run here. I can’t thank you enough for this interview, man. What a great podcast and for such a young gun man, you’re just freaking knocking it out of the park, dude. I can’t thank you enough. Thank you so much.
Dr.Darquea: Thank you for having me over, I guess.
Shaun Keating: Let me know when you get that 6 through 11, we’ll of 4 to 13 on you baby. We’ll take care of it, just let me know. We’ll hook you up for sure.
Dr.Darquea: All right, I will. I will take you up on it.
Shaun Keating: All right. Well, hey, thanks again for coming on our podcast and if you ever need anything just ask for me here, like you do, and just say, “Hey Shaun, give me a call.” If you got a lab script or something, just write, “Attention: Shaun, call me,” or you know, “Shaun, I’m not sure on this,” feel free to do that man, anytime. A lot of doctors do that and I’m sitting here on my desk, I work every day here.
Shaun Keating: So, I look forward to it and love to help you out in any way and love to help grow your practice man. We got a marketing department here and some guys in social media, we can help you out in other ways too. ‘Cause the more I can make you look good and the more I can help you grow your practice, that’s just
better for me. And that’s why it’s in my best, our best interest here at the lab to help these dental offices across the nation as much as we can because it’s beneficial to us because the busier you are, the busier I am and it’s just win-win for everything.
Shaun Keating: Not even if you’re not busier, it’s just if we can do the quality work that we need to do to make your life easy and to make you look good and feel good, it just goes far. It goes real far and you know, we’ve been doing it a long time, we’re excited every day doing this and every day is a new day, man, you can’t … Every day is like we’re in the playoffs man, it’s just important. It’s important that we treat it that way ’cause every patient is new and every crown is new and you’re only as good as your last one and we remember that.
Shaun Keating: Thank you so much, doctor, for coming on board. I appreciate it. Dr.Darquea: Not a problem. Thank you so much.
Shaun Keating: All right, sir, we’ll talk to you real soon. Dr.Darquea: Okay, ta e care.
Shaun Keating: All right, bye-bye.
Dr.Darquea: Bye-bye.
Host: Thanks for joining us on the Dental Up podcast show this week. Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or search the Dental Up podcast on iTunes, for our weekly feed. Don’t forget to visit keatingdentallab.com/promo for exclusive offers. Keating Dental Lab is a full service dental laboratory and we’re nationwide. We’d love for you to send us a case so we can show you the Keating difference. If you dig what you heard, please leave a review on iTunes and we’ll be back next week.
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