AADOM Member Stories: Erin Silva
Erin Silva, Office Manager at Chesterfield Family Dentistry in Chesterfield, Missouri!
🎧 Prefer to listen? Tune into Erin’s story HERE.
Building a Practice, a Partnership, and a Life in Dentistry
For Erin Silva, a career in dentistry has never been about simply showing up and doing a job. It has been about growing, serving patients, strengthening teams, and continually becoming a better leader.
With decades of experience spanning both the practice and sales sides of dentistry, Erin brings a unique perspective to dental management. Today, she and her husband own and operate a growing practice just outside of St. Louis. After purchasing a 12,000-square-foot building, they expanded to 11 operatories, approximately 23 team members, and a six-person leadership team, with plans to continue growing.
But as Erin has learned, growing a practice isn’t simply about adding more space, team members, or patients. It’s about building the leadership, partnerships, and community needed to support that growth.
Building the Foundation for Growth
The decision to expand their practice was years in the making. Rather than opening multiple locations, Erin and her husband chose to invest in one larger practice where they could maintain the culture, quality, and standards that mattered most to them.
As the practice grew, so did the need for stronger leadership.
One of Erin’s biggest lessons was the importance of developing a leadership team sooner rather than later. Having nearly 20 people reporting directly to them wasn’t sustainable, and establishing a leadership team allowed them to distribute responsibilities, better hear their team members’ ideas, and create more opportunities for individual growth.
“If there was anything I could tell others in our position, it is to build a leadership team faster than we did.”
Erin credits both industry mentors and AADOM with providing guidance and support as she and her husband continue growing as leaders.
Finding Her Community in AADOM
Erin’s introduction to AADOM came almost immediately after joining the practice full-time. Her husband was already a Lifetime AADOM Member and introduced her to the organization.
Despite her many years in dentistry, Erin had never heard of AADOM. Once she discovered it, she immediately began looking for ways to get involved locally.
While the educational resources were valuable, the relationships quickly became one of the most important parts of membership for her. Erin compared it to attending a great training or meeting: sometimes the conversations afterward with peers are what truly bring the lessons home.
“There’s no one you meet at AADOM who isn’t willing to help you.”
Finding Support as a Dental Spouse
One of the first AADOM communities Erin connected with was the dental spouses group (DSBN).
As both a practice leader and the spouse of a dentist, she was balancing a unique combination of responsibilities. She was involved in the day-to-day operations of the practice, managing the back end of the business, navigating the purchase of a 12,000-square-foot building, and still spending time doing what she loves most: helping patients understand complex treatment and make the best decisions for themselves.
Connecting with others who understood those overlapping responsibilities gave Erin a place to ask questions, share experiences, and find support.
As she became more involved, she also began exploring AADOM’s educational resources and Distinctions program. She has attended three AADOM Conferences, is currently a FAADOM, working toward her next Distinction, and doesn’t see herself missing a future conference.
Making Dental Management a Career
Erin’s involvement eventually grew beyond her own professional development. Today, she serves as president of her local AADOM DPLN, helping create a community where dental professionals can learn from and support one another.
For Erin, the strength of that community isn’t measured by how many people are in the room. It’s about what each person brings to it.
Her DPLN regularly hosts roundtables and open discussions where members share their own experiences and expertise. During one conversation about SOPs, approximately 25 to 30 people exchanged ideas about everything from writing procedures to using AI and deciding where those documents should live. Everyone walked away with something new.
“It’s about the contribution of each member.”
One member may understand compliance, another may excel in treatment planning, and someone else may bring years of leadership experience. Sharing those strengths is what Erin believes helps turn dental management into a career rather than simply a job.
Growing a Practice and a Partnership
Working alongside her husband has also taught Erin the importance of defining roles, understanding one another’s strengths, and continually working on communication.
Their practice has more than tripled over the past five years, but Erin doesn’t attribute that growth to one person doing something dramatically different. Instead, she describes it as being able to spread out the work so her husband could focus more heavily on patients and clinical care while she took on additional responsibilities within the business.
Her husband serves as the visionary and leads the clinical side of the practice, while Erin’s role encompasses many of the operational and business responsibilities. They continue refining those roles as the practice evolves.
At the center of their partnership is one thing:
“Communication is everything.”
Erin encourages practice managers and dentists to understand not only their own strengths but how their strengths complement each other. She and her husband have used tools such as CliftonStrengths to better understand how they work individually and together.
Strong Leaders Don’t Have to Have Every Answer
Even after years in dentistry and tremendous practice growth, Erin continues to lean on the AADOM community.
Every dental practice faces challenges, regardless of its size or success. Having people to bounce ideas off of, learn from, and turn to when you don’t have the answer can make all the difference.
For Erin, leadership isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about continuing to learn and surrounding yourself with people who bring different strengths and experiences to the table.
That philosophy carries into her practice, too. As Erin and her team like to say:
“Version one is better than version none.”
Looking Toward What’s Next
Erin and her husband still have plenty of ideas for what’s ahead. Eventually, they hope to create a learning center where dental professionals can develop their skills, and Erin envisions the possibility of a dental assisting school.
She is also passionate about helping private-practice dentists strengthen the business side of dentistry. She wants to help dentists better understand their finances, empower the people within their practices, and build sustainable businesses without feeling like they have to sacrifice the quality and control they’ve worked so hard to establish.
It’s another example of Erin’s belief that growth isn’t something you accomplish once. It’s something you continually work toward.
Invest in Yourself
After years in dentistry, significant practice growth, and increasing involvement within the AADOM community, Erin’s message to other dental professionals is simple: get involved.
For dentists, that means investing in the team members they rely on and giving them opportunities to develop.
For practice managers, dental spouses, and aspiring leaders, it means recognizing that your own professional growth is worth investing in, too.
“If you’re in dentistry, if your dentist doesn’t invest in you, invest in yourself, because it’s some of the best money that you’ll spend.”
Erin’s story is a reminder that building a successful practice isn’t only about growing the business. It’s about growing the people behind it, strengthening the partnerships that keep it moving forward, and finding a community that helps you continue becoming the leader your practice needs.
Erin Silva:
Having spent more than half her life in the dental industry, Erin proudly calls herself a dental nerd. Her passion for dentistry started at just 15, working in a small-town dental office before moving to St. Louis in 2003. There, she managed day-to-day operations and front desk responsibilities for a local practice while earning her B.A. in Communications. Erin later transitioned into dental sales, representing leading companies like Planmeca and Henry Schein and managing a team of sales professionals.
Her path eventually crossed with Dr. Jon Silva’s – sparking both a shared professional vision and a personal partnership. Several years and two children later, Erin traded in corporate travel for a new role in the practice, where she now brings her business expertise and love for patient care together every day. Together, they have more than tripled their practice revenue and enjoy bringing excellence dental care and experiences to their local community.
Not an AADOM Member Yet?
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