Carrying On—and Enhancing—a Dental Dynasty

A son with dentistry in his blood takes his father’s practice to the next level by going digital

Dr. Spencer Joseph has a proud heritage of dentistry. His mother and father graduated from dental school together: She became a general practitioner; he went on to become an orthodontist. So, growing up there was no question as to what Dr. Joseph would do for his career: “I always knew I was going to follow the dental path,” he said. After graduating dental school at Marymount University and a one-year residency at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Fort Green, NY, Dr. Spencer served for nearly four years as the officer-in-charge in the Army Dental Corp as a general dentist. He then followed even more closely in his father’s footsteps, completing a two-year orthodontic residency at Howard University before finally returning to Michigan in 2018 to join his father’s practice.

Dr. Spencer’s first impressions of the practice were positive; he was pleasantly surprised to find the waiting room packed. “Wow, he’s so busy all the time,” he thought. However, once Dr. Joseph started working as a provider, it didn’t take long to realize that it wasn’t that his father was busy it was that patient flow needed to be managed more efficiently. That started a quest for Dr. Joseph to find the most efficient digital practice management system for his family’s orthodontic office.

Dr. Joseph knew making the switch from a traditional paper office to a digital practice wouldn’t be a matter of simply implementing a digital version of what was already in place. The new management system needed to offer 24/7 afterhours access to the practice; be easy to implement; and could be picked up by the team on Day One. Most importantly, it needed to work seamlessly with digital radiographs, CBCT files and 3D scans from an intraoral scanner.

Ultimately, Dr. Joseph’s practice chose Sensei Cloud by Sensei, the practice and patient management solutions brand from Carestream Dental. It’s a true-cloud solution that checked all the boxes for the practice, and more.

• Free up the front desk: Dental assistants now schedule appointments chairside on Microsoft Surface Pro tablets, which means no more crowding the front desk.
• Reduce wait times for patients: Thanks to Patient Manager, a Sensei product, a patient engagement module for Sensei Cloud, patients fill out digital forms ahead of the appointment; check-in from their car upon arrival; schedule their next appointment chairside and then walk out the office door, which saves roughly 40 minutes in wait times.
• See more patients: Color-coded standardized templates for appointments let the team see at a glance who’s in the office; how long they’ll be in the chair; and when to bring the next patient back. That means Dr. Joseph can see more patients in a day without running over schedule; he’s even been able to increase new patient starts because of his seamless schedule.
• Save on expenses: With the cloud, it’s simply an internet connection and tablet, so there’s no additional costs for IT services or more expensive desktops. Most set-up is handled by Dr. Joseph, not an IT company.
• Consolidate practice management with patient care: Imaging is integrated with the Sensei Cloud platform so a CBCT scan from Dr. Joseph’s Carestream Dental system can easily be pulled up no matter where he’s working.
• Work from anywhere: A cloud-based solution like Sensei Cloud lets Dr. Joseph manage the practice from anywhere, such as conducting emergency virtual consults or handling light digital aligner work—even when on vacation or out of the country.

Today, the practice is no less busy, but the waiting room is a lot more “Zen,” according to Dr. Joseph. Sensei Cloud has made things so efficient that patients are confident they can show up right on time and the office is ready for them—as it should be. They’re happy knowing their time is respected, and the practice is running more smoothly with fewer delays and missed appointments, but with more patients and increased revenue. That leaves Dr. Joseph—all the Drs. Joseph—with more family time.

About Dr. Spencer Joseph

Dr. Spencer Joseph was born and raised in the Detroit Metropolitan area before leaving to obtain his bachelor’s degree and Doctorate of Dental Surgery in Nashville Tenn., at the Tennessee State University and the Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry. Upon graduation, Dr Joseph completed a general practice residency at The Brooklyn Hospital Center in Fort Greene., NY. Dr. Joseph then proudly and honorably served four years in the US Army providing dental care for our troops. 

After completing his service, Dr. Joseph began his orthodontic training in Washington, D.C. at the illustrious Howard University College of Dentistry. Upon graduating Dr. Joseph began working side by side with his father, Dr. Wayne Joseph.