Most dental professionals I talk to mention the feeling of overwhelm.

Dentists ask me to forgive them for being ADD and all  over the place.

So, how do you master the business of dentistry?

Working as a hygiene consultant I have have spent most of my consulting career developing systems to help dentists, hygienists and the entire team, to be masters in this business called dentistry.

I have dedicated the last three blogs to sharing pieces of information I provided during my keynote speech at the Academy of Dental CPA’s on August 3rd in Kauai, Hawaii.

Today, I will talk about mastering the business of dentistry by overcoming overwhelm and learning how to manage your patient time.

DOWN TO A SCIENCE TIME MANAGEMENT

This was a topic I shared because our clients  who mastered time management, mastered the business of dentistry. This means they are now able to create a very high-level of patient care and greatly increased their production. The time management is what helped them to stop the overwhelm and they feel like their don’t work as hard!

Break it down into bite-sized pieces

Time your hygiene patient, necessary services, into bite-sized pieces of time.

For example, the first 90 seconds is all about sitting with your patient eye-to-eye and knee-to-knee. No patient bib but both patient and hygienist sitting to “catch-up” or if it is a new patient or first time meeting the patient, this is a time to build rapport.

The next five to ten minutes will be data collection. What exams need to be completed at what interval?

For example:

• do you need to use the oral cancer screening technology at each hygiene appointment?
• do you need to take x-rays at each hygiene appointment?
• does doctor need to do an exam at every hygiene appointment?
• do you need to take blood pressure at every hygiene appointment?
• AND who else can provide these services besides the dental hygienist?

Once you outline exactly what needs to be completed and at what interval of time and how much time you need, you will be able to provide the highest level of care for your patients. This will also take you out of the feeling of overwhelm.

This is one example of what I shared with the attendees at the Academy of Dental CPA’s Hawaii meeting.

At the end of my keynote, many dentists told me time is a #1 challenge for their hygienists.

Is time management a challenge in your office?

Let me know in the comments below how I can help overcome this challenge.

I have created a program that outlines this down-to-a-science philosophy and you can grab this today for only $45! DOWNLOAD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE DENTAL HYGIENE DEPARTMENT TRAINING PROGRAM NOW  This is a Summer Special!

Hygiene Department Program: The 4 D’s of Treating the Dental Hygiene Patient  DOWNLOAD THIS HERE NOW

ABOUT DEBBIE SEIDEL-BITTKE, RDH, BS

In 2000, Debbie founded Dental Practice Solutions, a dental practice management business focused on creating profitable dental hygiene departments, as well as improving the total bottom line of the dental practice. She has been named as one of Dentistry Today’s Top Consultants for 10 years in  row!

Debbie is a former clinical assistant professor from the University of Southern California where she taught the senior dental hygiene students skills to treat periodontal patients. She also co-taught the practice management course  at USC from 200o-2002. (Until the school start PBL – Problem Based Learning) Debbie also wrote the accreditation for a new dental hygiene program in Portland, Oregon and is a former dental hygiene program director.

Debbie has a team of experts to guide teams throughout the world to provide quality, patient centered practices that sustain profits for the life of their dental practice.