I heard a terrible story the other day about how a dentist began a vicious negative spiral when his well-loved dental office manager retired.

When his office manager retired, he hired someone who had slightly less experience to take over. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to grow into the position, and the dentist had to start getting more and more involved in the business side of the practice. Now, instead of just practicing dentistry, he was dealing with insurance and collections and other management issues.

Although clinically, he is an excellent dentist, he will tell you that he is not a great businessperson. He didn't like dealing with the business side of dentistry, and he just wasn't very good at it.

Not long after, he started to experience a sense of burnout. Now, even the clinical side of dentistry wasn't fun anymore, so he decided to sell his practice. Two offers came to the table — one offer that met his asking price but couldn't get financing and another offer that was $100,000 less but credit wasn't a problem. Who wants to give away $100,000? So, he accepted the first offer and signed a purchase agreement giving the new owners up to two years to get the financing while they took over the practice right away.

Here's where the story gets crazy.

Since his practice has new ownership, all official mail is sent to the new owners, even though his name is still on everything — the practice and the building. He goes to work in another practice as an employee, hoping to avoid the stress of management and waits for this deal to go through.

Suddenly, he is receiving phone calls from creditors saying that they haven't been paid in 10 months, and the lawsuits start to pop up. Foreclosure from the bank. Court judgments for dental supply bills. Garnishment notices. He had no idea the new owners quit paying rent and all the bills.

Now, he's left holding the responsibility for the new owners' mistakes. And, his best-case scenario is where he starts his own lawsuit against the new owners for breach of contract. Meanwhile, his attorney tells him he better get back to work in his original practice if he wants to show it as a viable practice and try to sell it to someone else.

The bank is breathing down his neck, and he is extremely stressed out. Plus, he has to quit working for the new practice where he has established a nice relationship with the staff and he has been successful.

All this downhill slide for lack of a good office manager.

If you are feeling miserable handling the business side of your practice because you feel your dental office manager just doesn't have the knowledge or experience you need, perhaps it's time to create a training plan. This will help her get up to speed so she can support you properly — and help you to learn how to manage her and establish an end-of-month review so you maintain solid control and understanding of your practice.

Don't let the business of dentistry drive you away from the work you love.