Dental Practice of the Year
Taking risks pays off!

Audrey Huddleston, DDS & Timothy Stirneman, DDS

Dr. Huddleston, a native of the Algonquin area, graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Dentistry in 1993 and Dr. Stirneman graduated from Creighton University College of Dentistry in 1990. They formed their partnership in 1995 and created All Smiles Dental, located in Algonquin, Illinois. All Smiles Dental is completely committed to providing an unparalleled level of service with a personalized touch. They use strong teamwork and effective in-house systems to achieve dramatic practice growth. In their first year, they earned incredible revenue, and they attained an amazing growth of over 220 percent between 1995 and 1996. By continuing to utilize and perfect their expertise, teamwork, marketing efforts, systems and technology, All Smiles Dental has had steady growth ever since. A strong believer in community involvement, Dr. Huddleston has been a member of the Algonquin Rotary Club and was editor of the Algonquin/Lake in the Hills Chamber of Commerce newsletter. He has also served as vice president of the Algonquin Chamber of Commerce and was cofounder of a community group that built a playground for Algonquin's Towne Park. Both Dr. Huddleston and Dr. Stirneman are active members of the American Dental Association, Illinois State Dental Society and the McHenry County Dental Society. Contact All Smiles Dental at allsmiles@dls.net.

After we put the call on speakerphone, Roger Levin told us, “I've been waiting a whole year to make this call.” He told us that we had been chosen to be the first recipient of the award and that we excelled in every area of the competition. It was not just one thing we did better than everybody else. We were able to put a lot of different things together in a way that spelled success for our patients and ultimately for us. This was very gratifying, as we had been struggling to put all the pieces in place since we opened our doors three years ago.

Reflecting back to 1995, we can recall the days when we had staff who made up their own scheduling policies, spent the day telling decorating horror stories, and refused to ask patients for money. We even had one staff member who thought she had time during the day to play computer solitaire! But finally, it was taking the risk to change the way we did things that led to our growth and ultimate success.

The key to putting all the pieces together was our willingness to take risks, not only in regard to starting a practice from scratch, as many dentists do, but to risk being “out there.” By this we mean putting together a marketing plan unlike other dentists in our area, and being willing to tell patients what they really needed to achieve optimum oral health. Every speaker on the lecture circuit today will tell you that a successful practice begins with a complete exam. But unless you are willing to risk patients not liking what you have to say, you or your patients will never achieve the kind of success both of you deserve.

One of the best marketing decisions we made was to join the Futuredontics advertising program. It was a risk for us to handle the cost when we first opened, but we figured that with Futuredontics running in the background like a Windows program, we would be able to focus on getting the systems in place to run our practice well, and training the right staff to use these systems.

We went through a lot of staff to get the high quality team we have now. We had to face many patients who questioned our management skills and accused us of being difficult to work for. However, we took the risk, looked our patients in the eyes, and told them they deserved the best staff we could find. They deserved a staff that would handle their insurance and appointments correctly and a staff that could be trained to care for them during their treatment. We had to risk being short staffed many times in order to find the kind of people who shared our values. This risk has paid off as we now have a dedicated group who can take a lot of pride in the fact that they helped us become “Dental Practice of the Year.”

As we wrap up this story, it is a bright, brisk day in October. When we were awarded “Dental Practice of the Year,Ó we were not asked if we had a platform (although we do want world peace, dry cleaning for all White House interns, and will work towards ending the NBA lockout and bringing Michael Jordan back). But seriously, if we did have a platform, it would be to spread the word that anyone can have the “Dental Practice of the Year.” You just have to take some risks.