Bring Your Doctor to Work Day

Real World Insights from AADOM Authors - Yvette Medellin

Since joining AADOM in 2016, I have had the amazing opportunity to attend three AADOM Conferences. After the 2022 conference, I am happy to report that I will never miss a conference again (at least not due to my doctor denying my request). When I returned from my first AADOM Conference in 2017, I came back to the office full of energy, recharged, and ready to apply things I learned for months afterward.

My doctor was pleased and accepting of the changes I was making and even supported the idea of moving to new systems. But busy lives, a pandemic, and finances got in the way of attending any more conferences. So, when 2021 rolled around, I said, “Enough is enough! I’m going to Orlando,” and enjoyed every minute of it. AADOM 2021 was amazing, and felt as though we were all meeting for the first time.

In the interim, I became a part of the Dental Spouse Business Network. During 2020, we had a few social Zoom sessions where we met, commiserated, and enjoyed one another’s company. When I walked into pre-conference 2021, I got to hug and squeeze people I had only come to know through a screen. I became re-energized, excited, made new friends, and challenged myself to get my FAADOM designation. My reason was two-fold. The first is obvious – to better myself, grow, and develop personally and professionally. But the second was to ensure that the doctor could not say no to my request for another conference. I had to go – I was receiving my FAADOM designation, after all! The next conference was in Scottsdale, close enough to drive. My plan was for my doctor to attend as well.

You’ve probably already figured out that “my doctor” is also my husband. He’s the dentist; I’m the practice administrator. Side-by-side, pre-Covid and post, we run this business together.

At the 2021 conference, I met dentists attending with their front office staff. They wanted to learn more. They wanted to see what all the hype was about. And so it was time for my husband to do the same. Fast forward to about 2 hours into the first pre-conference session at AADOM 2022, my dear husband looked at me and said, “You have to come to this conference every year – it is not optional.”

Success!

Let me tell you – the rest of the conference went the same way. He was amazed at all the sponsors and vendors. My husband could not believe the number of invested participants. All his misconceptions about our little “dental office manager meeting” were thrown out the window. We aren’t small potatoes. We are the meat and potatoes of these dental operations all over the country. Our conference is serious business, where we learn a ton, laugh, and make friends that help us throughout the year.

Encourage your doctors to attend an AADOM conference. If they aren’t sure, give me a call, and I will put my husband on the phone with them. They will learn a lot, laugh a lot, and have a really great time. But more importantly, they will see what an amazing and valuable resource you are and all that you bring to the practice. They will see the importance of continuing education for managers and that it isn’t just a little meeting in a small conference room somewhere. It is an enormous group of people taking over an entire property to network, learn, and grow.

I hope to see each of you in Orlando in September – and I hope to meet even more doctors at the conference. They will quickly learn how amazing AADOM is and appreciate the value you bring to their office. So please – reach out and ask them to join you – they won’t regret it!

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About the Author

Headshot of Yvette Medellin

Yvette S. Medellin, FAADOM, graduated from Pepperdine University in 1998 with her MBA. Prior to her life in dentistry, she was a business consultant in the entertainment industry for more than 16 years. Yvette has spent the last eight years helping her husband, Joe, build their dental practice, OrthoGrace Dental, along with their newly minted dental lab, 4M Dental Labs. She earned her Fellowship in 2022 and is a Board Member of the DSBN AADOM Chapter. When she isn’t in the office, Yvette spends her time volunteering as an ‘Uber’ so she can cheer from the sidelines of her kids’ basketball and soccer games, tennis tournaments, and cheer competitions.

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