The Word of Mouth Podcast

The dental industry is splitting. Routine care is facing an insurance squeeze, while the high-value digital dentistry market is exploding. If you want to stay ahead of the curve and grow a profitable practice, you need to know what’s actually happening in the market. Welcome to The Word of Mouth Podcast—your weekly newsdesk and strategy playbook for the modern dental practice owner. Hosted by Jeffrey and Sarah (with occasional drop-ins from Troy), we cut through the noise of the dental internet to bring you the business, tech, and macro-economic trends shaping clinical practice today. You don't have time to read every trade journal, so we do the heavy lifting for you. What to Expect: The Weekly Breakdown: Rapid-fire analysis of current events, ADA policy updates, shifting labor models, and the dental economy. The Tech & Trends: Deep dives into the clinical innovations driving practice growth, from AI diagnostics and 3D printing

The Word of Mouth Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Opkie, with 19 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Opkie hosts The Word of Mouth Podcast, a business show with 19 episodes published.

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  The Word of Mouth Podcast

  More Patients Won't Save Your Practice: The Numbers Behind Successful Marketing | WOM 025

  Aug 13, 202619 min

  Most dentists chase new patient count. But that number won't tell you why your take-home pay keeps shrinking. Jeff and Troy break down the marketing metrics that actually matter: what your insurance write-offs are really costing you, how to measure patient lifetime value by segment, and why a single well-run specialty campaign can outperform years of volume-focused marketing. Plus: the one number every practice owner should be optimizing for, and it isn't new patients. Book a free practice market analysis at https://opkie.link/Word-Of-Mouth

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  Episode #24

  Dental Insurance and In-House Plans | WOM 024

  Aug 6, 202626 min

  Dental insurance annual maximums haven't moved in 50 years. Premiums keep climbing. And every write-off you accept to stay on an insurance panel is quietly functioning as a repeat marketing cost, one you pay again on every single patient visit. In this episode, Jeff and Troy break down why in-house dental membership plans are one of the most underbuilt tools in a practice's marketing strategy, and how to design one that works for both the patient and the practice. What you'll learn: Why the insurance model is your most expensive form of patient acquisition How to structure a membership plan that targets the patients you actually want Why cookie-cutter plans underperform and what to design instead The real math: a patient paying less out of pocket while you earn more per visit Want to talk through what this looks like for your specific market? Book a call here: https://opkie.link/Word-Of-Mouth

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  Episode #23

  Google Ads are the New Yellow Pages for Dentists | WOM 023

  Jul 31, 202628 min

  Most dentists know Google Ads aren't working the way they used to. Costs are up, patient quality is down, and their agency keeps saying the same thing: refine the keywords, spend more. Jeff and Troy have heard this from every dentist they've talked to. And they've heard it before, just with a different channel. That's the Yellow Pages story, and it ends the same way. In this episode: why the Google Ads model is following the same collapse arc as Yellow Pages, how the "sameness trap" makes every practice look identical online, and what the practices that are actually growing are doing instead: relationship-driven, non-scalable strategies that compound over time instead of stopping the moment you pause the campaign. One practice. One patient. Twenty-three referrals. All staying long-term. That's the model. Want to talk through what this looks like for your practice? Book a free market analysis at https://opkie.link/Word-Of-Mouth

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  Episode #22

  Cut the Insurance Headache: A Win-Win for Patients and Dentists | WOM 022

  Jul 22, 202626 min

  Dental insurance works nothing like medical insurance, and most patients don't find out until they are already in the chair. Dr. Mike Musso has practiced dentistry for 36 years and worked inside the insurance system for over 30 of them. In this episode, he breaks down what practice owners and patients actually need to know: yearly maximums frozen near $1,500 since 1994, waiting periods that block urgent care, and downgrades that quietly shift cost onto patients. Then he makes the case for in-house membership plans: no deductibles, no hidden fees, no surprises. You will hear a real patient story, a 20-something who got full-arch implants, landed a job interview 10 days into her temporaries, and got the job. And Jeff shares how his own family saved $120 a year by dropping their dental insurance for a membership plan. Ready to think differently about your practice? Book a free market analysis at https://opkie.link/Word-Of-Mouth

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  Episode #21

  Why Digital Marketing Is Failing Most Dental Practices (And What Comes Next) | WOM 021

  Jul 16, 202630 min

  Most dental practices are doubling down on digital marketing right when it's starting to break down. In this episode, Jeff and Troy walk through the Inside Out Framework, a four-pillar system for sustainable practice growth that starts where digital can't compete: with patients you already have. You'll learn: How to reactivate drifted patients and why they're worth more than cold leads Where revenue is leaking right now through phone conversion, no-shows, and missed treatment presentations How targeting higher-value services lifts your entire patient mix What it actually takes to build a word of mouth system that compounds month after month If your current marketing feels like a treadmill, this one's for you. Book a free practice market analysis at https://opkie.link/Word-Of-Mouth

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