We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danny Hall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danny below.

Danny, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

Idea: I recognized in dental school that, while in the pediatric clinic, I was seeing child after child who not only received dental treatment, but bounced out of the chair with an increased pep in their step. Watching kids succeed was uniquely fulfilling for me.

Vision: After dental school, I experienced a highly varied clinical foundation, providing care for numerous pediatric populations in different settings. A consistent theme emerged as I consistently cultivated confidence within children. I noticed that this behavioral aspect of working with children fascinated me.
I experienced unique fulfillment as I saw children emerge from their dental appointments, not only successful with the appointment goals, but with newfound confidence. I strive to be a champion of childrens confidence and firmly believe they carry this with them out the door and it ripples into other areas of their lives.  It was exciting as the plan to build a practice of my own developed. This process began in 2019.

Reality: Having opened mid-2021, Sunray Pediatric Dentistry in Torrey Highlands of San Diego now stands as the place where children can overcome obstacles, successfully accomplish treatment, and cultivate confidence. The team is like-minded in their mission to be a ray of light in the community, spark enthusiasm for oral health, and facilitate success for kids. It has been a blast to connect with families in the community I actually grew up in and graduated high school from.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

For me, pediatric dentistry is about more than quality comprehensive dental care for children. It’s about overcoming or eliminating obstacles and barriers. This means that our practice is particularly and just as dedicated to connecting with that mom who has had disappointment after disappointment because no dental offices seem to be capable of interacting successfully with her child with autism, as we are to finding patients who have had negative past experiences and want a fresh start toward confident care.

As I facilitate kids emerge from their dental appointment not only successful with the appointment goals, but with newfound confidence, I know that they carry this with them out the door and it ripples into other areas of their lives. Excitement grew as the plan to build a practice of his own developed. I even believe this can impact their attitude and growing confidence for the rest of their life. Pediatric care is about orientation– helping kids get pointed in the best direction, according to their families’ goals, so that through their years of growth and development they are on the right track. It’s easy to be “off” the right path a little bit, and over years’ time, this small difference can turn into a big difference.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I graduated from dental school in 2014, having devoted unbelievable amounts of time toward work and preparation to achieve career goals that were unfortunately not realized after dental school. I pursued what I thought would help me continue to prepare further toward my end goal as a specialized dentist in pediatric care and located a dentist position providing care for children. I continued on this path for a few years and challenges abounded. Truth be told, it is difficult to be doctor, but not the boss, in the practice. The doctor makes many decisions affecting patient care, yet others without similar training, and still others not present in the practice on a day-to-day basis, made significant decisions that also affected patient care. Sometimes these decisions were at odds with each other, but the doctor still must operate within the framework established, unable to “fix” something they see “broken” or that could improve and help patients. So, after enough struggle, I decided to undertake a different struggle– that of building my own practice in my home community. So I did, and on the steps I had little to no experience on (most of them), I figured out the best way I could and proceeded. And here we are, one year in, steadily growing and engaging with the best community!

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Identify the goals your team members have and endeavor to facilitate them. I have a “get to know you” form I ask new hires to fill out, and when I review these I get a sense of their interests, gifts they appreciate, how they learn, the type of feedback they value, and more. I implement these things and try to create a space they can look forward to being present in, day after day. After all, we spend more waking hours with our work family than our family at home.
For example– one team member I hired less than 6 months ago shared she valued a verbal praise and more responsibility, rather than public acknowledgement, a card, or a break. So, I regularly give her those exact things, and she remarks that she appreciates the feedback. How many work settings have you been in, where you received either no feedback, or only negative feedback?
Another example– a team member shared how her previous workplace promised her a raise after 90 days, but it never happened. Instead, she received more work, and the work hardly fit in her designated work hours– it was bleeding over into her personal life. I promised her a raise after 30 days of training and competence, and gave it to her. That seemed to win her trust and renew her sense of contentment at work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sunraypediatricdentistry.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunraysmiles/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunraysmiles/
• Other: GOOGLE PROFILE https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sunray+Pediatric+Dentistry/@32.963656,-117.1529747,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dbf93d1aa5d365:0xbbe5b9a49d394ea3!8m2!3d32.963656!4d-117.150786

Image Credits
IG @ashleyhardyphotography