Dentrix Clarity Meets SOP Power: How MyDentalSOP Helps You Standardize, Train, and Protect Your Practice

Laura Johnston is the founder of My Dental SOP, the software solution that helps dental practices create operational clarity, consistency, and confident teams through proven systems. She specializes in turning everyday chaos into streamlined workflows so practices don’t just run, they thrive.

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I love anything that makes life easier inside a dental practice, and that’s exactly why I was excited to sit down with Laura Johnston, the founder of MyDentalSOP. We met at a CE on the Beach event in Grand Cayman, and the more I learned about her platform, the more I thought, yep… this solves a real problem for real teams.

If you’ve been following along with my “clarity” theme lately, you already know why this matters. When teams don’t have clear instructions, everyone does things their own way. That might feel flexible, but it creates chaos, missed steps, inconsistent patient experiences, compliance risks, and a ton of wasted time.

What an SOP actually is (in real life terms)

SOP stands for standard operating procedure, but Laura explained it in a way that every team member can understand: it’s basically a recipe.

If I’m winging a stir fry, it’s different every time. But if I’m baking my favorite chocolate cake and I want it to turn out the same way every time, I follow a recipe. SOPs do the same thing in your practice. They give your team a step-by-step path so the outcome is consistent, no matter who’s doing the task.

What should you build SOPs for?

Honestly, everything. But don’t panic, this doesn’t mean you sit down and document the entire practice in one weekend.

Start with the high-impact stuff:

• Answering the phone and scheduling new patients

• Posting payments and handling insurance workflows

• Unscheduled treatment follow-up

• Hygiene re-care systems

• Clinical handoffs and patient communication

• Safety and compliance protocols (yes, including the scary stuff like exposure incidents)

Laura made a point I see constantly: dentistry is notorious for throwing people “to the wolves” and calling it onboarding. SOPs stop that. They create a training pathway so your team isn’t guessing, interrupting each other all day, or repeating the same questions forever.

Why digitizing SOPs changes everything

I’ve walked into offices with thick binders of manuals. And I’ll give credit where it’s due at least the info exists. But here’s the problem: binders aren’t searchable, they’re rarely updated, and nobody uses them when they’re in the middle of a busy day.

MyDentalSOP takes all that “tribal knowledge” living in someone’s head (or in dusty binders) and turns it into a searchable, organized system. Laura said they can even scan existing binders and build role-based training paths, which is huge for onboarding and cross-training.

The part I really love is the “don’t let perfection slow you down” approach. If you train someone on something and it takes five minutes, record it on your phone and upload it. Now it’s documented. Now it’s reusable. Now it becomes part of the practice instead of something that disappears when that team member quits.

SOPs aren’t just efficiency. They’re protection.

This isn’t about running your practice like a fast-food chain. This is about consistency, compliance, and protecting your team and your doctor.

If you want a strong reminder of how Dentrix documentation ties directly to risk management, read my post on How Dentrix software can help protect your doctor’s license . The short version: your documentation matters, and your systems are either protecting you or exposing you.

And if you’re thinking, “We don’t even have time to train,” you need to read Kicking Off 2025 with Claire Dickinson: The Importance of Team Training in Dental Practices  because training isn’t optional if you want consistency. It’s the only way to stop the constant rework, miscommunication, and burnout.

Where to start (without overwhelming your team)

Laura’s advice is solid: pick your top 5 pain points, build those SOPs first, and involve the team members who are already good at those tasks. Don’t try to do it alone, and don’t try to document 500 things before you start seeing results.

Clarity comes first. Consistency comes next. And when your team has both, your practice becomes calmer, safer, and way more scalable.

If you want to check out MyDentalSOP and their getting-started resources, go to mydentalsop.com/resource-library.