AADOM DISTINCTIONcast – What is Your Dental Superpower? The Hero Behind Every Beautiful Smile
Every dental team has hidden heroes who keep the practice running smoothly, the patients smiling, and the team united. In this empowering and heart-centered session, Claudia LaSmith, DAADOM, shares how to identify and strengthen your own “dental superpower.”
Through real-world insights and relatable examples, participants will learn how organization, communication, calm leadership, and compassion combine to create a thriving, resilient dental practice culture. This inspiring session celebrates the office manager’s role as the glue that holds it all together — leading with heart, skill, and authenticity.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify their individual strengths and “superpowers” that contribute to a positive, high-performing dental practice.
- Apply practical systems for organization, communication, and time management that support smoother daily operations.
- Demonstrate techniques for maintaining calm, emotional intelligence, and effective problem-solving in stressful moments.
- Enhance team culture through empathy, connection, and celebration of collective wins.
- Lead with authenticity and compassion to inspire excellence and unity within the dental team.
Sponsored by: CareCredit
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Read the Transcript Now!
Penny: Hey everybody. Welcome to the DistinctionCast. This is where AADOM showcases the best and brightest minds in the dental industry from within our Dental Management Association. I’m Penny Reed, the Executive Vice President of Membership and Events for AADOM, and we’re so excited that you’ve joined us today.
AADOM’S DistinctionCast is more than insights into dental management. We amplify the voices of our distinction holders, the leaders in the trenches of dental management who share their insights, inspiration, and real-world strategies and experience to help you thrive in your practice.
So, before I fully, introduce our guest today, Claudia LaSmith, I wanted to introduce our sponsor for today and a message from them: CareCredit
Supporting AADOM’S Distinction program is just one example of CareCredit’s ongoing commitments to providers, office management teams, and patients. CareCredit also invests in resources and technology like the CareCredit integration into 90+ percent of practice management software to make your day a little easier and help more patients get the care they want and need.
One new initiative is informing providers, teams and patients about fair financing principles and responsible lending that can be found at the link below. Be sure and check it out.
Okay, you guys are in for a treat. Claudia LaSmith is a DAADOM, which is our highest level of distinction holder, and she’s an office manager in Carrie, North Carolina. She’s been in that location for 12 years. She has over 25 years of experience
And I love, love, love her topic today about the dental superpower. So, she has also published many articles and she’s very passionate about elevating team performance and I can’t wait for you to hear her message.
So, welcome to Claudia. We’re so excited to have you today!
Claudia: Yes. I can’t wait to get into this topic with everyone. I think it’s something we can all relate to and things we do on the daily and other things that could help us out throughout the day.
What is Your Dental Superpower?
What is your dental superpower? The hero behind every beautiful smile.
Every dental practice has he roes.It could be someone who keeps the schedule booked, the patient sparkling, and the team united. That person is you. Let’s call you the glue.
The power of organization—master of controlled chaos. From managing schedules to keeping supplies stocked and paperwork perfect, the office manager brings to the busiest of days. We bring order.
Scheduling: I am a firm believer in everything being put on my schedule so I know how the day lays out. Don’t kid yourself. If you can always change, the organization is crucial. With scheduling, rather it be schedule or the offices.
Time management: Allotting time for different things all day long and that’s us. Many different things.
Tip: I start by working the hardest thing first. That way it gets over with and I can do the rest of the things throughout my day. I set up a scheduled text message and emails to coworkers, or even if we have a temp. It’s a lifesaver.
Multitasking: Communication is key. Most mistakes happen when you don’t communicate properly.
Your door will always be open in the middle of something. Just make sure to finish your thought and then take on the next concern.
The Shield of Calm
The shield of calm. Keeping calm when things are difficult. I find this so important. No matter what happens. Emergencies, cancellation. No matter what happens, emergencies, cancellations, or chaos, the office manager stays cool and collected.
Stress management: Full disclosure. Don’t be afraid to walk outside around the building or get the mail. We are all human. Take a break. Also, a good stress ball on your desk is always helpful. Just plain laughter with a coworker, this who shall pass.
Crisis handling: Don’t react immediately. Let me looking into that and getting back to you is easily said to a patient.
Don’t react to the reactor. It’s very easy to react when somebody is frustrated with you. Try your best not to do so. I have found the calmer I am, I usually get a call back with an apology. This has happened to me so many times, so just try to remain calm.
Problem solving: Normally the common sense answer is what solves the problem. It’s as simple as sometimes when your computer’s not acting right, you shut it down and turn it back on.
Teaming up on a problem with brainstorming can be the answer. You don’t have to do everything yourself. We office managers tend to think we are alone. You have a whole team. Just remember that.
Voice of Connection
The communicator that knows how to unite everyone. It’so important as an office manager to bring your team together. We all have different personalities and different ways of doing things, but you need to be the uniter.
Bridging patients, providers, and team, the office manager is a voice that keeps everyone connected.
Communication: Our team has a list of what each of our doctors like to do, and they present it to the doctor before they go in the room. That way everybody looks really prepared and it looks good for the patient. The patient knows you care.
Put in your patient notes what a patient tells you. For example, they may tell you their trips or a new baby that they’ve had. That way you ask them when they come for their next visit, they will be impressed that you remembered.
Leadership: Be the example, but also always understand no one is perfect, not even ourselves.
Team coordination – Examples: The handoff that occurs when the patient is in the office is so important. You make sure the patient is never left. They are always with one of the employees, and clearly at the end, taken to the treatment coordinator. Always a handoff.
It’s In the Details
Nothing passes this gaze. Insurance codes, patient records, reports—every detail matters, and the office manager sees them all.
Accuracy is so very important. Double-check and triple-check yourself. Most of our systems do that. Find the routine that best works for you.
Compliance: There are so many things we need to comply with. You don’t have to know everything. Find great resource partners that can help you.
AADOM has endless information on different businesses that are great to work with. To me, the first things that kind of stand out are OSHA and HIPAA, but there’s so many more that we have to comply with.
Financial management: Check your reports often. Always have your finger on the pulse.
Examples: production, accounts, receivables and collections. Always pay attention to those. There is many more reports. Those are just a few examples.
Knowing how to use your numbers and make them grow, shift or change is so important. Numbers don’t lie. That’s what I love about them. Tey tell the truth.
They also tell you what you are good at and what needs improvement. They also point out when team members have a talent for something.
For example, we had a hygienist that just loved getting every single patient fluoride all the time, and it showed that it showed her fluoride numbers were high.
And also take the time to just ask your doctors and team members what they like to do, assuring growth for them in their position.
The Heart of It All
Look beyond management, lead with compassion.
Customer service: Make sure teams feel supported and the patients feel welcome. Kindness is absolutely free. I think we all forget that, and I always tell my team before they walk in the office and walk through the door, “Just remember, you have to start fresh and new for the patients.”
You can always have services and things that help your office. The fact is it starts with the team in the office. So, who you pick and your team members are what are gonna represent your brand. Just remember that.
Emotional intelligence: Make sure to treat relationships empathetically. I feel like it’s very easy throughout the day to have things affect us, but we kind of have to start with a clean slate whenever talking to our team members or our patients. I always tell myself, you don’t know what that person has been through that day, which is very true. You don’t know.
Read body language: For instance, I used to be a dental assistant, and if I saw somebody holding tightly to the chair and I could see their knuckles turning white, I would tell them that it was going to be okay and reassured them. I think that’s important that we take time and are present with our patients and our team.
Team building: Be the office that celebrates birthdays, anniversaries, special dental holidays, and team wins.
One time at our office, it was the middle of summer, which in North Carolina is very hot. Our team was working really hard and we just had one of those crazy dental days where we had lots of emergencies and the schedule wasn’t quite as planned. I went and got everybody popsicles and we just celebrated, chilling out.
Just being acknowledged for hard work is so important. I think, to be present or even walk by your hygienist, your dental assistant, even your doctor, and say, “You’re doing great tonight today,” even if it’s a hard day or an easy day. Just acknowledgement. It matters to people.
The Power of Team
The office manager empowers every member of the dental team. So, I came up with some superhero names:
- The dentist: The Visionaries
- The administrative team: The Gatekeepers
- The hygienists: The Guardians of Clean
- Assistants: The Enamel Avengers
- The patients: The Smiling Citizens
The Mission
Be your authentic self, lead with your heart, organize with skill and bring beautiful smiles to the world. Take it one day at a time.
I would just like to say thank you to everyone. I wanna say thank you to the dental professionals. What you do every day is appreciated and so important. Please remember that. Thank you for all you do.
Developing a Shield of Calm in Dental Office Leadership
Penny: Yeah. Claudia, this is awesome. I definitely have some questions. And first of all, I would like to make a comment.
I admire your shield of calm. It’s a comment, and then I have some follow up questions.
I used to always say, and I think this started from my Walmart days, that I was good in a crisis because I did react. But that’s also bad.
So, I want to learn from you, more from you on this, and I would like for our audience to learn more about this too.
So, first of all, would you say that this shield of calm trait—Is it something that you have felt comes naturally to you? And or did you have a mentor, you know what I’m saying, like a leader or a mentor that you have tried to model?
Claudia: I think those are all wonderful questions. I think what makes me calm, I can tell you a story I had at the very beginning of my dental career.
I put my hand up and said, “I will go up front. I will do administrative work.” And boy, I didn’t know what was coming. And that’s just me being honest.
We learned best kind of when we’re put in a situation and we just have to learn, right?
And I think one of the first patients I ever had started crying over a bill and hollering at me. And that first time, yeah, I reacted because that’s natural. You don’t know until, you know, this is different ways people are gonna react to you upfront when you’re asking for money.
And so I kind of learned just I am one of those thinkers before I just respond. So I think that does help me in this case.
But I learned over time that the kinder I was and the more they were maybe reacting, that they learned that, “Gosh, I shouldn’t react that way. I should maybe like not be like that.”
And they always called me back and apologized. And I guess I see if you meet fire with fire, per se, you’re gonna get a reaction, right?
And I knew that I couldn’t be disrespectful because I was representing the doctor. So, I think my kind of counting to 10 just has helped me.
Claudia: Yeah, I really like that. And the personality.
Penny: Well, I love that. And I think it makes you a safe person for them, right? Whether it’s a team member or a patient as you mentioned.
Have you—what do you look for when you are interviewing as far as someone having the ability to either naturally have that calmness about them or to flex the calm muscle?
Why Communication Style Matters When Building a Dental Team
Claudia: You know, I often, one of the things that I do think shows a lot is when you ask somebody how they interact with another employee that may be frustrated with them.
I think that’s a really important question to ask because I should say, because you see how they then react. And if it’s like, “Well, I’m gonna get up in her face,” or “I’m just gonna ignore it and I’m never going to address it,” I think you have to have open communication, like I said before, because if you don’t communicate, get to know each other, you can’t work through things.
And if you’re somebody that doesn’t wanna do that, then our office is probably not the right fit for you, to be honest with you, because we are a team and that’s how we accomplish all of our goals.
Penny: Yeah. I think that’s great.
Practical Time Management Strategies for the Busy Dental Office
So, one of the things on the time management piece, shifting gears a little bit, because one of, one area that I have observed over the past several decades is that while technology has made things, some things easier to access, the number of things flying at the dental office manager and the dentist has not decreased.
It’s, I feel like it’s exponentially increased. So, I would love to hear a little more about your personal experiences in the office with managing. You know, there’s the firefighting piece that we all have to do on a daily basis because things come up and we work with people not only on the team, but patients coming in.
The tips for keeping up with the details when there are so many details. We would just love to know a little more about your time management strategies and how you, while I know nobody can do it perfectly, you know, if how you were mentoring knew office managers, what would you tell them?
Claudia: I try to organize as much as I can. That being said, there is so much that comes at you.
I think if you have a large portion of it organized, the randomness that comes at you won’t be as crazy. Some of the things that I do, obviously I use my calendar. I love, like when somebody sends me something and you can accept it, add it to your calendar. I love that ’cause I can see that.
We also, like, I use Asana, which is a checklist. So, my team can put things on that and it shows up. And the funniest part that I enjoy most is it will give you, like unicorns and different animals as you complete task.
Penny: We use Asana. We love it. Like, there’s one sort of, it’s like the abominable snowman.
Claudia: It is. It is. And it’s kind of a little bit of a cheerleader as you complete your list. So I love like those two things doing, and then just, even when it comes to the dental schedule, you know, making sure you block for new patients. That’s an example for dental schedule wise.
And just blocking for periodontal maintenances. I know everybody’s practice is different. We’re a general practice, but those are kind of things that help us.
So we’re prepared when different calls come in and we have something booked for those patients who may not schedule ahead of time.
Also, we have something really wonderful that we started using, which was— in Dentrix, they have a hub—the engagement hub. And you can make a whole list of what dates patients want without them scheduling.
So that there’s just, there’s a lot of technology that will help you with all of the things that randomly come at you.
Building a Collaborative Team Culture That Reduces Stress
Penny: Tell me about, a little bit about your, how you as a team work. So, you have your bit of being organized. How do you work together as a team to stay organized so that other people are able to, you know, practice the calm and do things with intention versus being reactionary?
Claudia: I feel like in our office we hire employees to be team members. And when I was younger, and I played softball when I was younger, long time ago, I had a shirt that said, Team to Team: Together Everyone Achieves More.
That’s right. I think that’s right. It stuck with me. It stuck with me because it is true. You can’t do anything without the person to the left or the right of you. And if you do, you’re just making yourself and your job harder. It just makes it more difficult.
So, in our office, we know we can rely upon each other. Say an appointment goes past, we know we have other clinical team members. I would even jump in to help somebody; our doctor would.
So we don’t—a lot of offices like to say, “I’m in this one lane when you have a job and I’m not going outside of this lane.”
We weave all in and out of lanes at our office because we’re a team. So, I think that’s what gets us through even hard days or running behind on appointments because we know somebody else will come help us if we need it.
Penny: I love that. And my first business partner, when I was a consultant was and still is a practicing dentist. And he was one that led by example, not only in our business, especially in his practice because that’s what he did full-time.
And if they had stayed late and they were hustling to get out the door, he said, “You know what?”
I would look and if all of my things were done and everyone else was still doing things, he said I’d go get the vacuum cleaner. He said, that’s one of the things, and his dad used to own a grocery store and actually his first practice, he bought that building and opened it in a little grocery store.
Celebrating Team Strength and Superpowers in Dental Office Leadership
So I think knowing that, right, and it’s that safety, the trust. And it sounds like you have an amazing team and I’m so excited that you spent some time with us today and that you put this message together because, if there—and there are superheroes, of course, I know that are in the movies. And in the workplace, I definitely think there’s a lot of superpowers in the dental practice that have to be exercised. So love your message.
Claudia: Thank you.
Penny: Yeah. Hey, thank you for being with us today.
So, we will have another message here from our sponsor. We definitely want to thank our sponsor.
Supporting AADOM’s Distinction program is just one example of CareCredit’s ongoing commitments to providers, office management teams, and patients.
CareCredit also invest in resources and technology, like the CareCredit integration into 90+ percent of practice management software to make your day a little easier and help more patients get the care they want and need.
One new initiative is informing providers, teams, and patients about fair financing principles and responsible lending that can be found at the link below. Be sure and check it out.
Once again, I wanna thank Claudia for being with us. And for those of you that are distinction holders and have not done a DistinctionCast, we would love to hear your message in your voice as well.
So, once again, Claudia, thank you not only for your time, for being an example, for being a distinction holder, and for sharing your expertise with our AADOM tribe.
And for those that are in dental office management throughout the dental community. And thank you for partnering with us to educate other dental managers and leaders
To those that are watching or listening, be sure to follow AADOM on all of our social channels so that you’re aware of other educational opportunities. And thank you again, Claudia, for being with us.
Claudia: Thank you.
Ready to see the rest of this DISTINCTIONcast and elevate your skills?
Join AADOM now to access the full content and a world of resources. Your next big step is just a click away!
Learn About Our Presenter:
Claudia LaSmith, DAADOM
With 25 years of dental experience, Claudia began her career as a Dental Assistant and has grown into her current role as Office Manager. Claudia is honored to serve as Vice President and Treasurer of the NC Triangle Dental Professional Learning Network and to have earned her DAADOM designation in 2021 as part of the first-ever class.
For the past 12 years, she has proudly managed Bell Family Dentistry alongside Dr. Tara Bell, fostering a supportive and efficient environment for both patients and team members.
Recognized as one of the Faces of AADOM 2025 and a published author of industry articles, Claudia is passionate about leadership, team development, and advancing excellence in dental practice management.
