Dental Practice Solutions

Optimize your dental hygiene department by taking an integrated, team approach

  • Do you feel like you are working hard and your production is not increasing?
  • Do you feel like your hygiene department is under performing?
  • Is your hygiene department producing 25-30% of your total production?
  • Are hygienists in your office treating bloody prophys?
  • Does your hygiene department help enroll implant cases and high-end treatment?
  • Do you have one or more holes in your schedule daily?

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Dental Practice Solutions - Debbie Bittke

Case Acceptance Life to Your Practice and Profits

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

September 29, 2012

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Through many years of surveying dental practices we have learned that 20-25% of your patients schedule their necessary treatment. We also know that if dental professionals are educated in effective communication and learn how to talk about value and benefits to patients, their case acceptance rate will jump to 70%.

One huge factor that will affect case acceptance is trust from your patients. Where does this trust begin? You guessed it! It begins before a patient even walks into your dental office. Right now, as you are reading this, millions of people are also on the internet. This is how most people will find a dentist in today’s world. That being said, people will find your office via your website.

Your Social Edge

Yes, you know that most people spend hours on the internet each day and most people find their dentist via their website. Now I need to ask you: “What does your website say about you?” I also want to ask “Do you show off photos of your beautiful dentistry and do you have photos of your employees with a bio of everyone who works in the office?” Do you offer Invisalign® or Six Month Smiles®? Show off your expertise on your website and begin the relationship here.

Yes! Get personal. Be real! Let people learn as much as possible before they even pick up the phone to make their first inquiry about your office. This is where you begin to build trust!

Mindset

Is your mindset” Insurance” or is it “Fee-for-service”? Is your practice philosophy all about what is best for your patient? Whether you answered yes or no, how can you educate your patients about insurance dictation and insurance provdership? The delivery mechanism in your office can’t be driven by what the insurance company will pay. 80% of all dental offices only offer patients “what their insurance will pay.”

What you say to your patient in approximately 4 minutes will build patients trust. This begins in the hygiene treatment room.

We are the experts. We know that without optimal oral health the overall body can’t be 100% healthy.

Try sitting your patient upright in the chair and communicate the true value of preventive care. Share the science and research when asked for this. Patients usually find a way to live a healthy and longer life. They will also pay for exactly what they want. Tell them they can have a beautiful smile, live longer and be healthier and the majority of people will find a way to pay for this! Who doesn’t want to look their best PLUS live a longer life when they are healthy!

Hygiene Tips

  1. Hire a hygienist!

    Many dentists today are trying to save their way to prosperity by doing the soft tissue management and preventive services themselves. Build your hygiene department so you can free up your time for restorative procedures and explain treatment plans with your patients to increase case acceptance.

    When the dentist is free to spend valuable time providing cosmetic and restorative dentistry, the hygienist can focus on patient retention and continuing care. This helps to stop chasing after patients to schedule their hygiene appointments when you pre-schedule at least 98% of all hygiene appointments.

  2. FMX every 5 yrs. (at least) This is one more profit Center for your practice and patients need it
    1. Schedule more time either in the hygiene appointment of with your assistant
    2. Schedule time for a comprehensive exam –allowing time to diagnose more dentistry
  3. Repeat the findings before the patient leave the treatment room
    1. Use the intraoral camera
    2. Bring patients up to YOUR Level

         i. Don’t dumb it down

         ii. Educate your patients to be at your level

         iii. Show them the bleeding gums and tell them “This can cause irreversible damage to your gum and the bone that supports them.”

            1. “Gum recession and these areas of abfractions, in your mouth here (Show them on their intraoral photos) can decay so we recommend that each night you use a sodium fluoride and each hygiene appointment I will brush on a fluoride varnish.”

         iv. Open new doors, avenues for cosmetic and restorative dentistry to be provided

    Conclusion

    • It’s time to give patients what they really need not only what their insurance will pay for!
    • Always educate your patients regarding your services, your hygiene preventive services and products available in your office to prevent disease
    • Deepen your relationships with your current patients of record.

    Every one of us has the ability to be a leader. Lead your patients in the right direction to complete the necessary treatment. They are worth knowing what is the very best for them!

     

    “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves. “

    Stephen Covey, the 8th habit

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