Collapsing the Gap: How Dental Teams Lean Into Alignment

Over the last 4.5 years in my coaching role, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside dental teams at many different stages, from practices that feel well-oiled to teams that are newly formed and still getting to know one another.

What I’ve seen time and time again is this: when challenges arise, they are rarely rooted in a lack of skill, effort, or care. In fact, the opposite is usually true. Most gaps emerge when priorities differ, roles aren’t clearly understood, and communication begins to break down between departments.

This gap isn’t a failure. It’s a signal.

Collapsing it doesn’t require working longer days or pushing harder. It requires intentional alignment, by helping every team member see how their role connects to the bigger, how everyone has the capacity to contribute to the overall sucess of the practice, team culture, and patient experience. 

Here’s what I’ve seen and experienced first hand when this signal is addressed. 

1. Start With Shared Awareness

Each role naturally zooms in on their part of the day. Admin teams are focused on keeping schedules full and flowing. Dental hygienists are immersed in patient care needs rooted in prevention and partnership. Dentists are often assessing treatment needs through varying levels of urgency, as well as comprehensiveness.  

When these perspectives stay isolated, teams unintentionally create gaps and a feeling of siloed workflows increase. 

What helps: Creating visibility across roles.

What this looks like in practice: 

Calling attention to how one role directly supports another.

Using real moments to tell the story of team-based care.

Sharing wins of how one role has supported another, during team meetings.

Example: 

When admin takes a paitent call requesting to move or cancel appointment, and they pause to review last hygiene clinical note, they're now able to review the why, and reinforce urgency of the timing with confidence and care, supporting the patient’s health, not just the schedule. 

What changes: Teams begin to respect the why behind each role, not just the task itself.

2. Align on One Common Goal

What I see: Teams are busy and productive, but not always moving in the same direction.

What helps: Defining success together. Reviewing practice mission and values. 
In practices that feel more aligned, I often see one clear team goal, such as:
Every patient leaves understanding their periodontal health status. For exmaple, Active vs Stable disease linked to periodontal oral health state.
That goal is revisited regularly! 

What changes: The focus shifts from my operatory or my schedule to our patient experience, and overall patient care priorities. 

3. Celebrate the Small Moments That Matter

What often gets missed: Collaboration is happening, it’s just not always recognized.

What helps: Calling out micro-moments of teamwork.

Examples I see making an impact:

An assistant, dentist or admin reinforcing a hygiene frequency during a patient conversation.

A dentist acknowledging a hygienist’s assessment and or delivery of a co-diagnosis in front of the patient. 

Hygienist steps in to help another hygienist or assistant that's running behind with instruments, radiographs or a scan. 

What changes: Teams feel valued. Momentum builds. Collaboration becomes contagious.

4. Lead by Showing, Not Just Saying

What I’ve learned: Culture follows behavior.

What helps: Modeling curiosity, humility, and collaboration daily. 

This might look like: 

Openly sharing when you’re learning from another role.

Asking for input across the team, and ensuring all team members feel part of the "team approach.'

Normalizing growth as something everyone participates in and is something that never ends. 

What changes: The practice shifts from siloed roles to shared ownership.

In Closing

What I’m seeing right now is this:

Dental teams need to assess where they are and where they want to go, this year, and beyond. 

When teams intentionally build awareness, stay curious, align on shared goals, and recognize one another’s contributions, the gap starts to close naturally.

Not because people are working harder but because they finally feel like they’re working together.

In your role, what is one way you could help another team member better understand how your work supports the patient journey?

We collapse the gap not by changing who’s on the team — but by changing how the team connects.

Awareness → Curiosity → Alignment → Recognition → Modeling.