reSource Minute Videos

The reSource Minute – August/September 2026

Video Transcript:
Hi, I'm Shannon Patterson, and it's time for another reSource Minute. Today we have a very special guest with us, Dr. Michael Durbin, President of the American Association of Orthodontists. Thank you so much, Dr. Durbin, for being here today. I know we were just talking before we logged on here, and you just got back from Vancouver. How was that?

I did. Thank you, Shannon, for having me. And very exciting - we were with our Committee on Conferences and Meetings doing a site visit in Vancouver, visiting a beautiful convention center and a number of different hotels there that will be hosting our House of Delegates, our leadership, our members, and our alumni receptions. It is just a beautiful setting over the water with Whistler in the background. I've been to Vancouver before, but I forgot how beautiful it really is, so I'm really excited about our meeting next June.

That's awesome. It is a very beautiful place. I'm excited. Well, I recently got to spend some quality time with you and some of the other leadership at the annual GORP meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan. GORP is one of the largest orthodontic residents' meetings in the country, and it was great to see you and all the AAO leadership there. I kind of wanted to have a quick, fun reSource Minute just talking about our future providers and GORP. So, I would love to get your thoughts. Give us some scale - how many residents attended, and how many programs were represented?

Sure. So, there were almost 500 residents and 64 programs represented, which I think is almost every program. There was an interesting mix of residents - both residents who had been in the program for 2 or 3 weeks, as well as residents who will be graduating in a couple of months. It was great to be able to interact with them and see where their heads are at this point, because obviously, just starting in residency, you're going to be in a different place than you are when you're getting ready to graduate. For all of them, the enthusiasm that they had and their excitement about becoming orthodontists was palpable, and that was really exciting for me. Going back to Ann Arbor for GORP was a homecoming for me in a sense, because I attended GORP in 1990. That was the second GORP, produced by Jim McNamara at that time, and to see it grow from 175 residents to almost 500 residents was really great to see. So, I really enjoyed our time there.

You know, I'm so glad that you talked about the energy, because that was something that I picked up on, too. We hear so many myths about the next generation, but we're in a new generation now - Gen Z, right? So, we started graduating them last year in 2025, but this was a really fun group of residents, and they are super excited to be entering this profession. So, it was really fun.

Your calendar is absolutely relentless as the AAO president. Why does GORP make the cut for you? And I think we were talking about GORP a minute ago - it's not an official AAO event. So, give us some detail on that. Why does this make the cut for you and for the Fellow Leadership Committee?

Since I was installed on May 3rd, I've spent over 30 nights away from home for meetings. I think I'm up to 40 days of meetings associated with that, and an additional 40 to 45 meetings outside of that in the evenings and things like that - so obviously, it's a huge time commitment. We know that it's coming, we know that it's going to be there, but it does hit you in the face quite quickly.

I think we really appreciate the work of Chris Roberts and the residents at the University of Michigan, who are typically the ones putting on GORP, as well as the staff, faculty, and residents at the host universities as well. So last year it was in Kentucky - amazing meeting - this year back to Ann Arbor, and next year it's going to be at the University of Minnesota. So that will be exciting as well. I'm really thankful to them for all the work that they put into it...

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:17 The Future of Orthodontics with AAO President, Dr. Michael Durbin
0:34 Previewing Vancouver: AAO Annual Session Site Visit
01:18 Inside GORP 2026: Resident Attendance & Key Takeaways
03:03 Why Gen Z Orthodontists are Different
03:32 Why AAO Leadership Prioritizes Resident Events
06:38 How the AAO is Adapting to Employed & Associate Doctors
07:45 Gen Z Survey Insights: Shaping the AAO Strategic Plan
08:48 Advice for Senior Doctors: Recruiting Gen Z Associates & Buyers
10:35 More Female Orthodontists, Collaborative Practice Models, & Student Debt
12:36 Final Thoughts & The Power of AAO Leadership Mentorship
13:07 Closing Outro
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Connect with Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates: https://www.instagram.com/bentsoncopplepatterson https://www.facebook.com/BentsonCopplePattersonAssociates https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentsoncopplepattersonassociates/
Website: www.bcp-advisors.com

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The reSource Minute – July 2026

Video Transcript:
Hi, this is Chris Bentson, and it's time for another reSource Minute.

Today's topic is: Get out of the basement of your practice.

What does that mean? The basement is where we store things, and a lot of those things are old ideas - old things we use to decorate for holidays and things like that. But if you wanted to try something new, you wouldn't go to the basement. You'd go get something new at a store, meet a friend, or get a new idea - something like that.

So, I want you to be thinking during this reSource Minute: What is something new I could implement in my practice to make it stronger?

To do that, I'm going to look at the historical data, and I'm going to concentrate not just on production and collections, but on starts - that third category. This is from 2020 through mid-year of this year. You can read across and you can see what happened in the COVID year, the great bounce-back, and then three down years in a row. That was the first time we had three down years in a row.

And then in 2025, we were up 2%, that was last year, so, not great, but not terrible. And this year, we're up 1% in starts, again, not so great.

If you want to outperform these numbers, if you want to do above the 60-year average of 3% year-over-year start growth, what do you have to do in your practice to make that happen? You're not going to go to the basement, use an old idea, and make it happen. I think the market has fundamentally changed a little bit, and it's going to be hard to grow. You're going to have to implement some new ideas.

What are some options?

Start a retainer program. The data shows if you do that, you might improve the production of your practice by 5% - and that's just with the patients coming through the door and the starts that you already have.

Do better with insurance coding. If you can get more discrete about how you code insurance, the data shows that about $300 per patient who has insurance could probably flow to the bottom line. There are companies that can help do this.

Use a consultant. The data that we see in our shop when we value a practice shows that if you use a consultant, you outperform the market - so, they're out there to help.

Implement remote monitoring. On the technology side, we think remote monitoring answers a lot of questions for the consumer who is driving for efficiency and convenience. See people less, but stay in touch with them through remote monitoring.

Utilize indirect bonding. This is probably one of the hottest ideas in the bracket world. It's offered by all the bracket companies and the custom companies. It shows, again, maybe you don't finish patients faster, but you see them less, and that checks a big box for the consumer. It helps practices grow, and it's still a major differentiator.

Re-engage with referrals and the community. These are things that don't cost you a lot of money. We know we're not getting as many referrals today as we used to get. But instead of just not talking to those referring dentists, engage with them. And yeah, maybe they're doing some aligner cases, but maybe you get some of the more complex cases from them if you re-engage. We think that's a great idea.

So, there are a number of ideas. There's a whole lot more - that's not an exhaustive list - but the core message is to get out of the basement. You need to change.

Somebody I listened to a lot when I was young and growing up in this profession was Jim Rohn. He used to always say, “If you will change, everything will change for you."

What are you going to change in the second half of 2026? You make the decision, and I think you'll see great results.

That's the reSource Minute. We thought you'd like to know.

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
00:16 The "Basement" Mindset in Orthodontic Practice
00:49 Orthodontic Case Start Data (2020-2026)
01:43 Boost Production with a Retainer Program
01:54 Explore the Insurance Mindset
02:08 Consider Practice Management Consultants
02:17 Remote Monitoring for Efficiency & Convenience
02:29 Differentiator: Indirect Bonding:
02:45 Re-Engage Doctor & Community Referrals
03:14 Final Thoughts: Growing Your Practice in 2026
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Connect with Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates: https://www.instagram.com/bentsoncopplepatterson https://www.facebook.com/BentsonCopplePattersonAssociates https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentsoncopplepattersonassociates/
Website: www.bcp-advisors.com

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The reSource Minute – May/June 2026

Video Transcript:
Hi, I'm Shannon Patterson. Welcome to the reSource Minute. Today, we are going to talk about gas prices and case acceptance.

Don't let the gas pump fool you. We have all fortunately felt a little relief at the gas pump; however, a gallon of gas still costs almost 30% more than it did a year ago. This market shift pulls roughly $1,000 out of the average family's discretionary budget. And unfortunately, inflation just hit a three-year high.

Orthodontic treatment is a discretionary purchase, so when families feel squeezed on the essentials like food, groceries, and fuel, case acceptance gets more sensitive, and the conversation around fees and financing matters more, not less.

Looking at some of the household segments, their spending trends, and behaviors - and how it correlates to orthodontics right now - is something we thought that you would find helpful. So on this slide, on the left-hand side, I have the household income segments broken down, and on the right-hand side, I show what their shopping behaviors are right now.

If you're serving a lower-income demographic, it might be a little tough right now. The phone might not be ringing. They are definitely struggling. They're feeling this pretty hard, and they're seeking flexible, low monthly payments, so they're looking for very affordable options.

For the middle-income segment, which is really feeling the squeeze right now, shopping behaviors are in full force. They are definitely calling three or four practices and visiting at minimum two, most likely three. They're comparing their options, and they are also delaying starts - just delaying decisions. We're going to talk a little bit more on the next slide about what you can do to protect your production.

And then for the higher-income segment, there's still a very steady demand for adult treatment and a premium experience.

Let's talk about some ways that you can protect your production while budgets are tight.

First, follow up with pending patients. Treatment coordinators should re-engage with every single shopper. The middle segment is especially comparing and delaying, so starts come from the follow-up in the pending bucket.

Number two, consider value-tiered options. Give budget-conscious families a clear path to "yes" without discounting your fees. Practices doing well right now aren't competing on price; they're not discounting their fees by $500 or $1,000. They're competing on how they present the investment of treatment to families.

Number three, lead with the monthly payment. Here's the most important thing to remember: for most families, it's not about the total fee. It's about the monthly payment. A parent rarely decides whether they can afford a $6,500 case. They decide whether they can fit one more number into a monthly budget, right there alongside their car payment and their groceries. So, lead with the monthly payment.

Present treatment as a monthly investment, not a lump sum. Offer a genuine range of down payments and terms and let families self-select the option that fits their reality. Extending payment plans keeps the monthly payment more approachable and provides a better opportunity for them to say yes.

Upsell and add on services where it fits. Retainer insurance, accelerated treatment options, virtual visits, and remote monitoring continue to capture the steady, higher-income demographic. They are seeking a premium experience.

The takeaway of this reSource Minute: a dip at the pump doesn't mean the pressure's off. Watch your case acceptance trends, lead with the monthly payment, and meet families where their budgets are.

That's your reSource Minute. We thought you'd like to know.

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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:16 Gas Prices & Case Acceptance
00:30 Effect on Discretionary Budgets
01:04 Lower-Income Demographics & Shopping Behaviors
01:41 Middle-Income Squeeze & Comparing Options
02:04 Higher-Income & Premium Demand
02:12 Strategy 1: Follow Up with Pending Patients
02:31 Strategy 2: Value-Tiered Options
02:54 Strategy 3: Leading with the Monthly Payment
03:39 Strategy 4: Upselling & Premium Add-On Services
04:12 Closing Outro
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Connect with Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates: https://www.instagram.com/bentsoncopplepatterson https://www.facebook.com/BentsonCopplePattersonAssociates https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentsoncopplepattersonassociates/
Website: bcp-advisors.com

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The reSource Minute – March/April 2026

Video Transcript:
Hi, this is Chris Bentson, and it’s time for another reSource Minute.

Today’s topic is financial risk and future reward. And to talk about that, I want to talk about the risk of educational debt. We came across the following chart that shows the average educational debt for dental specialists and some of the specialties in medicine - and you can see that orthodontics is the most expensive.

There are some reasons for that, and we could talk about that in another reSource Minute, but we’re coming out with a lot of educational debt. We’ve known that for a long time. It’s driving some decisions, but what I want to look at is what the expected clinical incomes can be for each of these lines as well.

We did some research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and what we find is the following data for all these dental specialties and medical specialties. This is the clinical income you can expect to make inside those specialties.

What that doesn't include is profit from the risk of ownership. As you know, we really encourage independent practice ownership or small group practice ownership because you can make so much more. As an example, if you had what the JCO (Journal of Clinical Orthodontics) describes as the average, single-doctor, independently owned practice, that practice is doing about $1.8 million in collections at 60% overhead; and that means your total income is about 40% of every dollar collected, or $720,000.

So, you can make a great financial living being an orthodontist. You can do much better being an owner than you can an employee doctor, and that’s what this number represents. This is information we thought you’d find interesting.

That’s the reSource Minute. We thought you’d like to know.

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:16 Financial Risk vs. Future Reward
0:30 Dental & Medical Specialty Educational Debt
0:56 Anticipated Clinical Annual Income
1:20 The Financial Advantage of Practice Ownership
1:29 Potential ROI: Independent Owned Practice
2:07 Closing Outro
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Connect with Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates: https://www.instagram.com/bentsoncopplepatterson https://www.facebook.com/BentsonCopplePattersonAssociates https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentsoncopplepattersonassociates/
Website: bcp-advisors.com

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The reSource Minute – February 2026

Video Transcript:
Hello, this is Doug Copple, and it's time for another reSource Minute. This time, we're going to look back at the valuations we prepared in the calendar year 2025.

Every year, we prepare an annual review of the valuation metrics we've completed during the previous year, and many practice owners have told us they find this data useful to benchmark their individual practice. It’s also beneficial for young doctors to understand the market when they’re considering buying a practice.

Here’s a summary of the key metrics of the valuations we performed last year. First, please note that these are private doctor-to-doctor transactions. DSO and OSO transactions are completely different based upon EBITDA, and typically, they’re valued higher, but the terms are very different. If you look at this chart, the average orthodontic practice we reviewed last year had average collections of $2.65 million. The adjusted overhead rate is just under 57% - that’s the adjusted overhead rate, meaning that we have removed discretionary or non-operating expenses from the overhead, such as family payrolls and similar items. The average value as a percentage of collections is just under 85%.

I want to point out that the majority of these practices - about 60% - were actually sold at these values, or a contract has been entered into for someone to purchase all or a portion of the practice at the valued amount. So we think these percentages are fairly representative of the orthodontic space. These values are affected by many different things. Again, we’re looking at averages, but factors include the individual characteristics of the practices, primarily the profitability of the practice (which is why we talk about overhead here), growth trends, the condition of the office and equipment, location, and total contracts and accounts receivable. These are just some of the items we evaluate.

As always, we pull 25 practices as a representative sample of all the valuations we completed to give you an idea of the ranges. This list includes 25 of the practices we reviewed. You’ll see in the second column from the left the net collections for these practices. There’s a huge range - the smallest is $750,000, and the largest is number 15, with nearly $6.5 million. Actually, the largest practice we worked with last year was over $8 million.

You’ll see the overhead rates in the middle column. There’s a wide range there as well. The highest overhead practice is at 80%. On the other end of the spectrum, the most profitable practice we worked with had overhead under 39%, meaning that for every dollar collected, over 60 cents was going to the owner doctors. Again, this reflects a 41.5 percentage point difference between the highest and lowest overhead rates - wide ranges.

Also this year, those two practices - the ones with the highest and lowest overhead rates - were valued at the lowest and highest amounts, respectively. One practice was valued at 45% of collections, and the other at 120% of collections. This demonstrates just how wide the range can be. That’s why we say don’t rely on a rule of thumb like “it should be 80 or 85% of collections.” You hear that a lot.

The reality is that many factors can greatly affect the value of a practice. Just because someone is asking 70% of collections doesn’t mean it’s a great deal. And if a practice is valued at over 100%, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad deal - often, it’s justified. In fact, the practice valued at nearly 120% of collections is being sold at that amount, or a pathway to partnership is being established.

As we have in previous years, we also track the number of office locations for each practice valued. About half of the practices we valued last year were single-location practices. As shown in this chart, practices with multiple locations produce more on average and are more profitable, with lower overhead. Again, these are averages.

We've had multiple one location practices producing over three and even four million dollars last year. But the main point is just don't assume that adding another location will increase your overhead. As in prior years, it typically increases both the top line and the profitability percentage of those practices.

The final chart here is a list of the last 15 years, the practice values that we've published...

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:17 2025 Orthodontic Practice Valuation Overview
0:41 2025 Orthodontic Market Averages
1:39 Key Drivers of Practice Value
2:03 Understanding Valuation Ranges
3:50 Single vs. Multi Location Performance
4:26 15 Year Orthodontic Valuation Trends
5:11 Closing Outro
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Connect with Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates: https://www.instagram.com/bentsoncopplepatterson https://www.facebook.com/BentsonCopplePattersonAssociates https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentsoncopplepattersonassociates/
Website: bcp-advisors.com

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The reSource Minute – January 2026

Video Transcript:

Hi, this is Chris Bentson, and it's time for another reSource Minute - a rather special one, in our opinion. This is our 100th episode since we started doing this, so it's been eight and a half years.

Today's topic is what's happened in the last episodes. In looking at the primary statistic that we want to focus on today, I want to focus on what our company, Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates, is really all about - which is understanding not only what you collect, but how you spend it and determining your overhead after you take all the goodies out.

So, what's happened over the last eight and a half years is that overhead has incrementally increased two or three percentage points, from, say, 57% to around 60% right now. This graph on the left reflects how you spend money today.

Why did it increase? Really on the backs of technology, and that was largely around Invisalign and now other aligner companies, and then some of the other technology you've implemented in your office.

Where do we think it's going to go over the next 100 episodes? Well, we think it's going to look something like this as you drip deeper and deeper into the digital space, both clinically and on the business side.

To take a little closer look at that, we think staff expense is actually going to go down. It's been your highest expense for the last 100 years that we've been tracking this, basically. And it's going to go down by about five points in the next eight and a half years.

Why? Because your digital expenses on the clinical side are going to go up - and so the ability to titrate staff expense with lab expenses is going to be a key business idea for you to focus on. That's what we think is going to happen.

Thanks for listening for the last 100 episodes. We look forward to the next 100. That's the reSource Minute. We thought you'd like to know.

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
00:16 100th Episode: What 8.5 Years of Orthodontic Data Reveals
00:32 The #1 Metric Orthodontists Should Track: Practice Overhead
00:49 How Orthodontic Overhead Has Changed
01:04 Why Technology Is Driving Higher Costs
01:16 What Overhead Will Look Like in the Future
01:30 Digital Costs vs. Staff Expense: The New Tradeoff
2:06 Closing Outro
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Connect with Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates: https://www.instagram.com/bentsoncopplepatterson https://www.facebook.com/BentsonCopplePattersonAssociates https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentsoncopplepattersonassociates/
Website: bcp-advisors.com

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The reSource Minute – November 2025

Video Transcript:
Hello, this is Chris Bentson, and it's time for another reSource Minute.

Today's topic is Your Why = Their Why. Let's talk about your "why" first. Every year, we do a resident survey, and we ask the question, “When choosing a career in orthodontics, which factors are most important?”

The last time we did this, these were the top five factors: workload, flexibility and predictability, financial/earning potential, passion for orthodontics, positively impacting people's lives and skill set were the reasons you decided you want to go to school as a specialist, take on some debt, and become an orthodontist.’’

When you think about why your patients are coming to you, I want to suggest that their "why" matches very closely with yours. Patients want flexibility in scheduling. They want affordable ways to pay. They want to be seen by a specialist, not a general dentist. They want to improve their self-image, and they want to make sure they have a competent doctor.

There are all kinds of ways to express this, - but are you expressing these "whys" on your social media, on your website, in your patient exams, and so forth? We think it's a great idea, and it's congruent with why you wanted to become an orthodontist as well.

That's the reSource Minute. We thought you'd like to know.

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:17 Your Why = Their Why
0:27 Top Five Factors for Choosing Orthodontics
0:53 Understanding Why Patients Choose an Orthodontist
01:14 Are You Communicating These Why's?
01:32 Closing Outro
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Connect with Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates: https://www.instagram.com/bentsoncopplepatterson https://www.facebook.com/BentsonCopplePattersonAssociates https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentsoncopplepattersonassociates/
Website: bcp-advisors.com

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The reSource Minute – October 2025

Video Transcript:
Hello, this is Chris Bentson, and it's time for another reSource Minute. Today's topic is Preventing Divorce. Don't worry, we're not talking about your marriage, but we are talking about orthodontic partnerships.

These are scary things that you hear bad stories about when you go to meetings. What are the results in orthodontic partnerships from our shop?

Like any good business marriage or personal marriage, they really are determined by good communication and a lot of flexibility. Not every party gets everything they want, but they get most of what they want. And what are the results in the partnerships that we've put together?

Over many years, we've put together 230 partnerships where we've represented the seller. We've been involved in many more where we're representing the buyer and someone else put together the partnership. In fact, over 30% of our business is involved with partnerships, so we do this every day.

What have the results been? Well, of those 230 that we put together, 26 times, they never made it to the altar. Don't think of this as a bad thing - this is not a partnership that went awry -this is a partnership that never happened. It's very good for both parties to figure this out before you get married business-wise, then afterwards.

Why didn't they happen? Maybe the practice wasn't big enough. Maybe we found a compatibility problem early, or we couldn't agree on terms - that's not a bad thing. Have we had some that didn't work out? In fact, 14 times that we know of, we've had partnerships that we have put together, that we've signed the documents, and then over a period of time, they didn't work out, so they failed or those parties got divorced. That's only 8% of that 230, so it's a very low number. It's not as scary as you might seem. With the right planning, you can have a lot of security.

If you need help putting together a partnership, or if you need help buying into a partnership - we think you need some coaching, or if you'll allow me, some counseling to get through that process to ensure its success. We're a good resource for that. Please give us a call if you're considering it.

That's the reSource Minute. We thought you'd like to know.

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Chapters:
0:16 Introduction
0:38 The Key to Successful Orthodontic Partnerships
0:51 Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates’ Orthodontic Partnership Experience
1:11 Why Some Orthodontic Partnerships Don’t Happen - Success and Failure Rates
2:01 Get Expert Help Building Your Orthodontic Partnership
2:20 Closing Outro
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Connect with Bentson Copple Patterson & Associates: https://www.instagram.com/bentsoncopplepatterson https://www.facebook.com/BentsonCopplePattersonAssociates https://www.linkedin.com/company/bentsoncopplepattersonassociates/
Website: bcp-advisors.com

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