Benevis is helping to prepare dentists for successful careers working in underserved communities through its mentorship program.
Benevis launched its Dentist Mentorship Program in 2008, but recently updated the program to expand it and add structure after seeing a greater need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The DSO has welcomed 37 dental school graduates to its practices this year to provide general dentistry, orthodontics and oral and maxillofacial surgery in underserved communities throughout the U.S.
Through the program, members gain hands-on experience, personalized mentorship and networking opportunities to build confidence in patient care.
Benevis CEO Bryan Carey recently spoke with Becker's to discuss the program's growth and accomplishments.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: How has your mentorship program evolved since its launch?
Bryan Carey: One is it's just much larger. This year already, there have been 37 new grads that have joined Benevis and become part of the mentor program. In previous years, that might have been 12 to 15. We've also included more practice management, so patient management, patient experience and various things around, not just the hands-on, clinical training, but how to make sure it's a really solid patient experience. So it's a more comprehensive program.
In some ways, in the current configuration, [we're] modeling it almost as Teach For America, where we are looking for people who are not just looking for training and mentoring, but who really relate to the mission. I think we've spent more time on campus to have people understand that mission so that, in addition to all the other reasons they're coming, they're coming because they, much like when people join Teach for America, are looking to not just improve the experience in the community, but improve how that experience actually is conducted.
[In organizations like] Teach For America and Peace Corps, the students bring a lot. They're getting a lot, but they're also bringing a lot, and I think that's one of the things we're seeing in the current configuration. The current students have exposure to newer technology, artificial intelligence and implant technology, so it really is sort of a two-way street. They're bringing things to Benevis in addition to what they're getting in terms of their training, support and mentoring.
Q: Is this program only focused on dental school graduates?
BC: Mostly. We do make it available if there's a general dentist who's maybe been in a more traditional family practice and not doing as much [with] pediatric underserved communities. So we will have a handful of licensed dentists, as we refer to them, who will also be in the mentorship program, but it's primarily for new grads.
Q: What is critical for dental providers to learn before beginning to work in underserved communities?
BC: A lot of it is the patient experience, so how to deal with the patient and the parent or caregiver from the clinical education, nutritional and dental home aspects. The second is, we have what we call an assisted hygiene model. We have the hygienists and dental assistants who are assisting in the care and it's sort of like the equivalent of extenders in the physician world, [so] training them to make sure they're doing that effectively so they can really focus on providing care. And then third is they oftentimes, particularly during Covid, have had a limited amount of hands-on experience, so a lot of just direct dentist-to-dentist, chair side experience.
Q: How different is it for a provider to go from something like general dentistry at a private practice to then work in an underserved community?
BC: I'd say it's significantly different in terms of just the assisted hygiene model [and] working much more in a team. In many cases, [there is] much more of a pediatric focus. It's a lot around working with the other team members, and in terms of treating the child, but also communicating with the parent or caregiver.
Q: Is there anything in particular that you are proud of in terms of what the program has accomplished so far?
BC: I would say it's beginning to have a network effect. Now when we go back to campus, there are dentists who have joined us last year or two years ago who often will speak to some of their colleagues about their experience and that's what's different. Two years ago, even though the program had been around, it wasn't something that we had put a lot of structure around or we had necessarily talked about on campus, so really having that content to help people understand it.
Q: Do you have any goals for the program going forward?
BC: Our overarching goal at Benevis is to go from treating a little over 600,000 kids a year to treating a million over the next two years, and this is one of our most significant ways of doing that.