"I just knew things could be better.

"And then one day a Sterling videotape showed up. And frankly, I'm not sure if I had sent for it or one of my staff had asked for it, but it showed up one day. I hadn't really heard of Sterling, and hadn't really considered hiring a consultant. But I saw the tape and it really hit home.

"I had worked with an accountant and with a financial planner but never had the idea that one single group or person could really help my whole situation. But that is what happened.

"Even when I went to Glendale for my training, I had my hesitations," says Dr. Lavine. "I didn't know much about the Hubbard management system but I decided I should come into it with an open mind.

"The first place on course where I really saw nuts and bolts on application was on the Management By Statistics course. I had wanted specifics and I was afraid I was going to get something generic. Management By Statistics gave me what I wanted and by the time I was done, there was no doubt in my mind that I had made a good investment.

"The other thing I really liked was the emotional tone scale. I could see this was something I could really utilize. In truth, it took me a while to see that I could use this every day. For me, it was a way of developing a shared reality between you and someone else. In a dental practice I can come to the level of a patient and get them to realize that I really do understand them. Then I can get them to come up and accept treatment that I know they need.

"So when I got back, I sat down with the staff and went over most of what I learned. I immediately got everyone onto graphs and told them about the emotional tone scale.

"On top of that, I was lucky because the next two-day seminar for staff was in New York and was about two weeks after I got back, so I could get the staff up to speed.

"So on the one hand, by graphing everything, I could apply the necessary steps to handle whatever condition – good or bad – an area of production was in.

"With the emotional tone scale, I learned how to deal with patients."

The results?

"My practice dramatically increased in a month and a half!" says Lavine.

"I counted it up, and it took me 42 days to increase my production enough to make back my initial investment with Sterling.

"Production and collections both doubled; numbers of new patients was up, but I hadn't needed to double it because I was more able to get treatment acceptance from the patients I was treating.

"I was more confident to present treatment that they had indicated earlier they would not accept. For instance, someone would have said they would have no surgery, but if I felt that was best, I was not afraid to confront them and say, 'OK, it's your mouth but I should tell you that these are your options.'

"Meanwhile, I only had two staff at the time, and they were very open people, so I was able to get them to get the management tech a shot. At the end of the first month and a half, they had seen for themselves what happened, and there's no arguing with that kind of growth. And as I said, they got to go to a Sterling seminar in a couple weeks, and that made it much easier.

"If I were going to promote Sterling to a colleague," says Lavine, "I would more or less tell them exactly what happened to me. I was suffering from the same thing many dentists are suffering from: a lack of efficiency. And since I joined up with Sterling I have never regretted it!"