A Day in the Life of an Orthodontist with Dr. Jono

6:20 AM

Hey guys, it’s Dr. Jono from Gluck Orthodontics in Nashville, Tennessee.

It’s about 6:20 in the morning here with Noah and Joey we’re out for our usual morning stroll. I like to get the day started with a little bit of fresh air. This is a day in the life of an orthodontist.

7:15 AM

Okay, so it’s about 7:15. I’m on my way into the office, usually I get there between 7:15 and 7:30. At 7:30 we have a small meeting with a few people from the team and then again at 7:40 with everybody on the staff and we’ll go over the schedule for the day. We’ll talk about yesterday, we’ll recognize people who did something awesome or who took great care of a patient yesterday and then we’ll start seeing patients at 8:00.

The day is full of decisions, but the first one of the day is always where to park and so for me in the summer, it’s definitely first level of the garage, keep it nice and shaded. Protect your car from the elements that way leather seats aren’t 400 degrees when I get back at the end of the day. So, let’s have a good one.

Okay, it’s 7:15, I just arrived at the office. Our day starts at 8:00 seeing patients but we always get together once at 7:30 with some of the people on our team to go over a few things from yesterday and then again with the whole team at 7:40. We go over the schedule for the day, we talked about things that happened yesterday, we acknowledge the team members from yesterday that did a great job taking care of patients and then we wrap it up by 7:55 so we can get everything set up and seat the patients when they come in a eight.

7:20 AM

Okay, it’s about 7:20 I’m in our private office. A lot of orthodontic businesses are family businesses and so I actually share this office with my Dad (Dr. Gluck) who sits over there. He’s started to practice 35 years ago. And my mom, she sits back there. She does our payroll and our books and helps out with all the financial stuff, so we all share a small office. I usually get in a little bit early. I’ll look at the schedule for the day, look through things from yesterday, check my email make sure that there’s nothing that requires my attention and then like I said 7:30 we’ll get together with the rest of the team.

7:39 AM

All right so it’s 7:39 we’ve just had our first meeting of the morning with about four or five of the team members. Now we’re going to go in and meet together as a whole group.

Okay, so now the 7:40 meeting is over, we’re getting ready to see the patients now on there’s Dr. G back there. “Hey, that’s right, calm before the storm!” So, we have I think 65 patients on the schedule today. Some orthodontists will see upwards of 90 or 100. I would say at our busiest will get up close to 80 but 65 is a good number that we can see everybody on time, deliver great service, and still get all the stuff done that we need to do. So let’s get to it!

9:30 AM

Okay, so it’s like 9:30. We’ve seen a couple of patients, now we’re gonna go ahead and put on the set of braces. So, Lauren has greeted the patient, she’s cleaned the teeth off, she’s gotten pretty much everything ready and then once we’re ready to put the braces on she’ll call me over. I’ll go over and put them on, talk to the patient, talk to the parent. This process takes about 15 minutes

All right, so just finished putting on the set of braces now we’re going to go see a new patient and this is someone who hasn’t been in our office before, is here for consultation, so our treatment coordinators have met with them and going over their concerns then they’ll come in and talk with me or Dr. Gluck about what exactly is going on. We’ll go and examine the patient, talk with them about any recommended treatment options and then go from there.

Okay, hey guys, so just finished seeing that patient. Really super fun, country music singer, lived in LA, lived in New York, got a couple of things in common. Usually I’ll spend about 10 or 12 minutes sometimes a little bit more if we have more to talk about or we’re just having fun connection but about 10 or 12 minutes with a new patient and then they’ll stay in there with their treatment coordinators, go over the rest of the information. It’s back seeing patients.

1:00 PM

All right so it’s almost 1 o’clock which means it’s time for lunch, so we always schedule an hour for lunch. I’m kind of like that Snickers commercial where I don’t do very well when I’m hungry.

It was a good morning, busy end in the morning, let’s see we saw a couple new patients, put on 2 or 3 sets of braces, took off a couple sets of braces, did some Invisalign attachments, all at the same time of mixing in the 20 or 30 minute wire change appointments. We always shut things down for an hour give the staff some time to rest and recover and then that gives Dr. G a nice time to have something to eat and they’ll be back to work, ”I don’t know, don’t work it man!” He’s still working but I will be back at 2:00.

2:02 PM

It’s a few minutes after 2:00, lunch is over and we’re about to get back and see patience for the afternoon. I’m gonna go ahead and change the music. That’s always kind of a fun, little argument is he’s gonna choose what song, but for me two o’clock means Africa by Toto.

So what do we do when there’s downtime so we’re not sitting down at the chair? It’s all day every day, so when there is downtime I’m usually standing here by this computer doing things like looking at Invisalign treatment plans, looking over at X-rays or pictures, checking the schedule to see who’s going to come in tomorrow or sometime next week and just filling in the time before we jump over to see some other patients.

One of the other great things about this job is that we accept visitors of all ages, so it’s great, I mean, my wife came by, she brought the baby and the way that he brings joy wherever he goes.

5:30 PM

All right so it’s about 5:30, end of the day, we wrapped it up we’re done with patients. Really busy afternoon and one of the things that I’ve just been thinking about is how varied the day was and how we did all sorts of different things, so I actually wrote down a list of everything that we did this afternoon. This is literally from 2:00 until just a couple minutes ago…

• So, we smoothed off some top teeth where the patient didn’t like the uneven edges
• I had a long conversation with a parent and a young teenager about the position of his upper and lower jaw
• Put some braces on
• Put an expander on
• We check some retainers
• Changed some wires
• We checked a Herbst appliance
• We checked some patients who were coming in that are going to get their braces off next time
• We saw four new patients
• We checked a bunch of patients who are in in the middle of their Invisalign
• Sent letters to some dentists
• Called some parents of patients
• Called some other dentists to talk about patients
• Put together a couple social media posts
• My dad and I chatted for a few minutes when we had some downtime about practice stuff
• We checked a patient’s head gear
• We did a little what we call IPR, polishing between some of the teeth
• And at the end of the day my nephew Brooks is here and we did a scavenger hunt with him.
• And my wife brought Noah our son over and so we hung out with them for a little bit. All within the last three and a half hours!

So, end of the day I’m usually sending some emails, typing into the last couple of notes before I head home go home, family time and then we usually finish the day with the thought, the final last couple things of work and then we’re done, I’m tired!

8:52PM

All right, so it’s 8:52 just finished cleaning up after dinner, came home after work, played with the dog, played with the baby, put him to bed and now I’m gonna settle in do about an hour, hour and a half of work, look at some Invisalign client checks, some treatment plans, see who’s coming into the office tomorrow.

So with this job there’s always something else to do whether it’s things like that or you’re thinking about the business or thinking about marketing or I’m all sorts of stuff doing correspondence, sending out emails, so I like to get a little bit done at night, get a head start on the next day. So that’s it, signing off, hope you guys have enjoyed this, it’s been a day in the life of an orthodontist, take care. – Dr. Jono.

A Day in the Life of an Orthodontist with Dr. Jono – Gluck Orthodontics

joelgluck

Dr. Joel Gluck has practiced orthodontics since 1983 when he opened his own office in Nashville. He earned his undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis, and his dental degree at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Gluck then completed an orthodontic specialty residency at the University of Michigan, one of the top five orthodontic training residencies in the country. He also wrote an original thesis and received a Master of Science degree.