Emme Sanders on Why Dental Hygiene Departments Run at Half Their Potential,

What happens when a dental hygienist with 30 years of chairside experience starts walking into practices across the country and notices the same pattern everywhere she looks — hygienists who have never been given permission to tell patients what they actually see, perio percentages hovering between zero and five percent when they should be thirty to thirty-five, fee schedules sitting in the fortieth percentile when the practice could be in the eightieth, and full schedules that look productive but aren't generating anywhere close to what they should? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Emme Sanders, RDH, one of the most sought-after dental hygiene coaches in the country, about what co-diagnosis actually means and why it is the single biggest unlocked opportunity inside most dental practices, why fifty percent of the adult population has some form of periodontal disease but most hygiene departments bill periodontal codes on less than ten percent of their patients, and why a full hygiene schedule and a productive one are two completely different things. Emme explains the trifecta framework that guides all of her coaching — if it's good for the patient, good for the provider, and good for the practice, it's probably the right thing to do — and walks through a real case in Georgia where she restructured hygienist compensation, elevated the services being offered, and had both the hygienists and the dentist making more money within three months. They also discuss why toxic employees almost never need to be fired if you change the direction of the practice clearly and let each person choose whether they want to get on board, why financial conversations are actually a clinical responsibility of the hygienist, what an AgreePact is and why it is the first thing Emme does with every team she coaches, how hygienists can unlock their identity as healthcare providers instead of just cleaners, and what it actually looks like when a dentist has truly unlocked their hygiene department six months after coaching ends. Emme Sanders is a registered dental hygienist, dental hygiene coach, and author of Welcome to Work: Inspiring Positive Change in the Workplace. Connect with Emme Sanders: emmysandersrdh.com Book a 30-minute consult: Calendly via her website Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Emme Sanders RDH 00:44 Hygiene departments running at half their potential — where that claim came from 01:13 Why hygienists haven't been given permission to co-diagnose with the dentist 02:10 What co-diagnosis actually looks like chairside — and why the trifecta framework matters 03:06 The first thing Emme looks at when walking into any practice — the perio percentage 04:01 What periodontal disease actually is and why most practices are massively undercoding it 06:04 How much production is actually being left on the table per year 07:25 Why a full schedule is not the same as a productive schedule 08:10 A real story — the Georgia dentist with overpaid underproducing hygienists and how it resolved 09:34 The number one clinically acceptable but missed opportunity in the hygiene chair 10:23 Why diagnosed restorative treatment never gets scheduled — time, fear, and money 11:09 The benchmarks every dentist should actually be tracking — perio percentage, compensation ratio, and open time 12:06 What to say to the dentist who thinks their practice is doing just fine 00:01 What a truly activated hygienist looks and sounds like versus one who is just punching in 01:17 Welcome to Work — the book and the AgreePact framework explained 02:24 AgreeDrift and AgreeShift — what happens when teams fall off track 02:50 Why the mindshift from cleaner to healthcare provider is so hard for hygienists and dentists alike 04:22 Structuring compensation so hygienists feel some sense of ownership in outcomes 05:43 How to identify a toxic employee — and why changing the practice direction is better than firing 08:28 Rapid fire — one word for her coaching style, fly fishing, biggest mistake dentists make with new hires 10:01 The underrated skill no dental school teaches — business acumen and communication 10:25 Why financial conversations are a clinical responsibility of the hygienist 11:18 What a high-performing hygiene appointment looks like from start to finish 12:21 What a solo practitioner with two hygienists can typically expect from coaching 14:35 The national fee database by zip code and why most practices are in the fortieth percentile 15:12 What the custom coaching process actually looks like from first call to workshop day 17:33 Single location versus multi-location — what changes and what stays the same 18:22 What the dentist who has truly unlocked their hygiene department looks like six months later 19:02 What Emmy Sanders RDH looks like five years from now #EmmeSanders #DentalHygieneCoach #TrustcastShow #DentalPracticeGrowth #HygieneProduction #PerioDentist #DentalCoaching #WelcomeToWork #DentalHygienist #PracticeManagement