Dental Consultant | Dental Practice Solutions

This One Thing For Dental Practice Growth

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

March 9, 2022

Dental Practice Growth. This. one thing will help get more new patients. — Growth Strategies for Dental Offices

Dentistry and technology change quickly. Dental materials, computer software, dental scanners, lasers, and the way patients whiten their teeth has improved dramatically!

To be your most profitable this year, you have so many choices and how will you choose the best of the best to bring in more new patients and keep your current patients returning to your office?

Your patients don’t know how great your clinical skills are but they do know how you make them feel when they are in your office and even when they are not in your office.

Keep reading to learn the best strategy to gain more new patients calling to schedule their first appointment. This one strategy will keep new patients returning to your dental office. It will also reduce those last minute changes in your schedule.

HOTTEST TRENDS WORLDWIDE

During the pandemic in 2020, teeth whitening and self-care become a hot topic. Zoom meetings have created a fast-growing trend for aesthetics and that includes high-end treatment such as veneers, crowns and implants and teeth whitening.
The teeth whitening market is a 6.4 billion-dollar business worldwide and it’s expected to grow to 6 percent annually by 2024.¹

Now is your time to tap into teeth whitening and upgrade the way you deliver services to your current patients. Teeth whitening combined with a “Lifetime Whitening” program has also been a popular way for dentists to grow their new patient numbers.

For the past ten years, Dental Practice Solutions has supported dental offices around the world with a Lifetime Whitening program. Dentists announce their Lifetime Whitening program on their website.

To get patients motivated to want whiter teeth we provide you with marketing materials and images to use throughout your office. We have a training, la earning center, you can log into and get access to the marketing materials as well as communication, scripts (to customize) when patients call to change their dental appointment last minute. You have Lifetime Whitening enrollment forms and a lot more at your fingertips when you partner with Dental Practice Solutions to provide teeth whitening to your patients.

To enroll patients into your Lifetime Whitening program many offices charge a small fee, some use this as one level of their in-office dental patient “smile saver program” (Similar to an in-office dental plan) and some offices include the free whitening in their new patient fee.

Once patients are enrolled in the program, when they see their hygienist every six-months, or as scheduled (No last-minute changes), they receive a whitening wand (3.0 mL pen) at no additional cost.

Dentists can feel confident this one strategy will grow their dental practice. Teeth whitening products are purchased wholesale (deep discount) from Dental Practice Solutions and you have the tools to enroll patients into not only teeth whitening but the training area (Our online web portal of information)will help you serve your patients at the highest level possible.

Asking what patients what for their smile will help you enroll patients into higher-end, aesthetic services and keep them returning to your dental office.

NEW PATIENTS IN YOUR DENTAL PRACTICE

Lifetime Teeth Whitening using the Celebrity Smiles teeth whitening technology and the marketing program not only attracts new patients to schedule their 1^st appointment in your office but they will return for scheduled appointments. Patients enrolled in Lifetime Whitening understand they can’t decide last minute that something better came up and call to “cancel” their dental appointment.

When patients keep their dental appointments they receive a free-whitening wand as a “thank you for keeping your dental appointments,” at their next hygiene appointment.

One important point about enrolling patients into the Lifetime Whitening Program is motivation to keep their dental appointments. It’s that WIIFM theory.

Whitening (pens) wands cost upwards of $25 on AMAZON and as a dental office enrolled in the Celebrity Smiles Wholesale (Reseller) Program you can purchase all the best dental-grade and sensitivity-free whitening products at wholesale prices.

Nowhere else can you go to purchase teeth whitening products for less. Our products are made with fresh ingredients and you can pick what ingredients you want inside your whitening wands.

Schedule a time to chat and we can suggest the best ingredients for your dental practice. We currently find the 35% Carbamide Peroxide with 6% Potassium Nitrate works great with the DUAL LED Light Technology but we do provide options for you.

LATEST TRENDS IN DENTAL OFFICE TEETH WHITENING PRODUCTS

The latest whitening trends include an LED Dual (Blue + Red LED) Light Wireless Mouthpiece.

This eliminates impressions, pouring models and making a whitening tray. The time for your employee to take impressions, prepare whitening trays, and then have patients return to pick up their trays, costs your more money than providing a patient with the Celebrity Smiles teeth whitening kit when they are enrolled in your Lifetime Whitening Program.

Dental Practice Solutions has a line of teeth whitening products that include (your choice) Carbamide Peroxide and 6% Potassium Nitrate. Dentists have the choice to customize their whitening serum to include Hydrogen Peroxide, Carbamide Peroxide, No Potassium Nitrate Fluoride or Potassium Nitrate Fluoride or BioMin Fluoride.

The patient kit includes 3 whitening wands, COOL Light Technology wireless mouthpiece, USB charger, How to Use Guide and Shade guide, all inside a beautiful box.

Dental Office with new patients. — Dental Office

BENEFITS OF TEETH WHITENING IN THE DENTAL OFFICE

Your patients are currently on AMAZON shopping daily. Why not have them purchase their whitening from you; their dentist?

The prices on AMAZON for whitening kits are a lot more money than buying at your office. You buy wholesale and offer your patients (one whitening wand for no-cost at their hygiene appointment) whitening products for less money.

The Lifetime Whitening program motivates New Patients to schedule at your office and current patients are less likely to call and “cancel” their dental appointment last mninute.

Patients respect their dentist for the opportunity to discuss enamel-safe and sensitivity-free teeth whitening options.

We believe a smile evaluation compliments your new patient and dental hygiene appointments. It takes less than 60 seconds to find out how patients want their smile to look. You must be the advocate who asks your patients the motivational and open-ended questions.

If you ask your patients how they want their teeth to look, now your patients will tell you what they want.

We show you how to more easily ask these questions so patients end up feeling more confident about their smile.

The problem is that most clinicians think they are too busy during patient appointments to ask one simple, open-ended question that will open the door to not only tooth whitening but veneers, implants, Invisalign, etc.

Innovative aesthetic services create an environment where you will do more high-end dentistry and create numerous raving fans who refer all their friends and family.

Add the latest technology in teeth whitening and you create an atmosphere where people want to be.

Dental Practice Solutions allows you to easily transform your operatory into a Celebrity Smile Space where patients look forward to visiting.

Dental Practice Solutions offers Celebrity Smiles Teeth Whitening products to dental offices which provides fast results without more time in the dental chair for patients or employee time preparing whitening trays. It is 10-minutes to a whiter, brighter smile and without causing tooth sensitivity.

When your dental office offers Lifetime Whitening you encourage patients to schedule a new patient exam and then continually, these patients want to return for preventive care (and adjunctive services) at your dental office.

By choosing the best products for whiter teeth, you will make professional teeth whitening an enjoyable experience and your patients will want to return to your dental practice.

The COOL LIGHT Technology Dual (blue & red)LED Light mouthpiece allows patients to quickly whiten 2-6 shades in as little as ten minutes. After patients initially whiten their teeth, they can do a touch-up weekly or as needed. 10- minutes later they have white teeth again! Wha-La, A whiter, brighter smile!

The Celebrity Smiles Whitening Technology Differentiates You from other dental offices in your community. Promoting Celebrity Smiles Teeth Whitening in your dental practice gives patients confidence in their dentist who creates beautiful smiles.

When your patients feel you are the best of the best, they will refer their friends and family to your office. You will be a destination hot spot in your community for the hottest trend today; teeth whitening.

Dental Practice Solutions is dedicated to creating a healthy mouth and body which gives people something big to smile about. What the world needs now are more smiles.

We believe that sharing a confident smile can change our world.

Will you join us and create more beautiful, confident smiles?!

To learn more about how you can implement the Lifetime Smiles using Celebrity Smiles Teeth Whitening Products email us at: debbie@dentalpracticesolutions.com or complete the wholesale application and we can help you get started.

Feel free to call our office with questions or to get started: 888-816-1511

Reference.

https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/teeth-whitening-market

https://www.celebritysmilesclub.com/

Steps to Crack the Cancellation Code

By: admin

December 11, 2018

The holidays are here, and your patients have a lot of tasks, parties and Christmas shopping to do before December 25^th.

The last thing they have on their mind is a dental appointment.

Cancellations are at all time high; call it a pandemic!

In a normal day at your office, how many patients call to change their dental appointment?
How many patients are calling on the day of their dental appointment to let you know they can’t be there?
How many of your patients flat out, don’t show for their dental appointment?

The holes in your schedule are costing you thousands of dollars each week and these dollars add up to hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars annually. The lost revenue equals millions of dollars. during the lifetime of your dental practice.

Solutions

When you register for this 5-Day Free training you will view short videos of information you can implement right away.

Some of the important parts of reducing cancellations are:

Letting your dental patients know what you expect
Have a cancellation procedure in place
Procedure for voicemail messages
A system around value and benefits to your dental patients
What to say when patients DO call to “change their dental appointment

There is a wealth of information you can implement immediately when you do register for this free training.

You can’t lose. You only eliminate the holes in your dental schedule and lost revenue when you enroll now in the free training and implement what you learn over the next week.

Register for the Free 5-Day Training Here.

ABOUT DEBBIE SEIDEL-BITTKE, RDH, BS

CEO: Dental Practice Solutions

Debbie Seidel-Bittke is not only the CEO and founder of Dental Practice Solutions but she has been known for the past fifteen years as one of Dentistry Today’s Top Dental Consultants. She is the only consultant with expertise in growing the dental practice by implementing systems and processes to grow a dental hygiene department by Dentistry Today.

She has a background in academia as well as a former dental hygiene program director.

You will read many of her articles published in dental journals and she has spoken at most of the national dental conferences. She works with dental practices on a global level. Read more about her here.

Important Points to Understand and Increase Your Net Production

By: admin

October 20, 2012

Most Dentists today tell me their primary concern is to increase New Patient numbers. Do you know how much it costs you to market and then capture a new patient? What is the cost to you if you can reactivate a current patient of record?

Many dental offices are eager to spend money on external marketing efforts to capture new patients when in fact they are cutting back on dollars spent on building patient loyalty and getting patients back to the office. What makes you think that a new patient will be better than a patient you have not seen in the past year?

If you have limited dollars in your practice today, the best way to spend any money to raise patient numbers is spend any money available on your existing patient base. How much does it cost you to lose an employee? This is the same when you lose a patient of record. A lot of time and money is lost!

Benefits of Retaining Patients

Increasing your patient retention numbers will boost your profits and minimize other costs such as marketing for new patients.

Not only does retaining your current patients boost your profits just by having then visit the hygienist on a regular basis but imagine the dollars the current patients will spend when you offer various services such as:

Oral Cancer Screening technology/tests
CAMBRA (Caries Management by Risk Assessment)
Non-surgical periodontal services, adjuncts, lasers, etc.
Same-day services (Such as Whitening, fluoride, night guards, etc.)
Home-care products
Cosmetic dentistry
Implants
Six-month Smiles, Invisalign
Etc.

Your long term patients most likely have a great rapport with you and the team. Their trust factor is high. They are most likely to accept your treatment recommendations.

Do you know the average money spent from your current patients per visit? The longer the history for the patient of record the more comfortable they will be spending money in your office.

Statistics tell us that in dentistry we have a 70% chance that our patients will accept treatment but only 20-25% of patients schedule an appointment to complete treatment and pay for this.

The average dental practice loses 10-15% of their patient base annually due to patients moving, dying or just because they changed insurance providers. This means that if you have an active patient base of 1500 patients you will lose 150-180 patients annually. During this current economic climate case acceptance in general is low and with many practices gaining less than 20 New Patients per month, your revenue is very low!

The company New Patients, Inc. did a study in 2003 and found that the lifetime value of a patient is $1,502.27. When you adjust the rate of inflation you have a lifetime value of at least $2,000.00, as of 2011.

You can estimate the loss of value with the inactive patients by multiplying the total number of inactive patients by $2,000.00 –the current lifetime value of your patient.

Imagine that if you lose just 150 patients in 2012, your lost revenues will equal $300,000.00. Now that can hurt!

But let’s get to the bottom of this challenge and create solutions.

1. Count the active patients in the practice
a. This is the # of patients who have been to the office in the past 12 months
b. Not a surprise when you see this # is different that the number of patients in your database
c. Review these numbers each month at the team meeting and
d. Create systems to grow your patient post

2. Survey your patients
a. Ask patients about their recent visit
b. Did you meet their expectations?
i. Did they enjoy their experience?
ii. Did they have to wait?
iii. Do they feel comfortable referring their friends and family?
iv. Do they have frustrations? Any challenges?
v. Are there services they wish to have but you did not offer?
c. You can use www.surveymonkey and email to those patients who informed you that it is ok to contact them by email.
d. Offer a gift, something of value from your office, in return for their response
e. Once you have 75-100 responses discuss these at your next team meeting
i. Any frustrated patients or needs you have not met, be sure to correct these and let the patients know you have addressed their frustration or need

3. Create a WOW experience. One like no other office in your area!
Many patients will come to your office because of your fees but there will be many who come to your office because of the team, their personal relationship and the specific culture of your dental office.

Each patient is different. Their needs vary and so do their personalities. Make sure that everyone on the team is able to effectively communicate with the various personality types. You can go here to update your skills and assessment of personality types: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Treat your patients with honesty. If you say you will call them back, call them back at the time promised. If the fees change explain why and show them where this was projected to change. Be sincere in everything you do, say and stand for.

This is how you will continue to keep their trust and remain credible.

When you know your patients expectations and over deliver you will have them at WOW and create raving fans!

Meet with you team and discuss one thing that you can do now to create more fans and WOW them even more.

4. Communicate
a. Your website is a great place to communicate with current and New Patients
b. Does your website have an area to submit questions?
c. Do you use social media to keep patients up-to-date with happenings in your office?
d. How will you communicate special offers to your patients?
i. And/or New Services?
e. Email patients and/or post on social media about courses you and the team are completing
f. Post and communicate about any changes in the office
i. New employees
ii. New equipment, chairs, services, etc
iii. Tell them interesting health facts
g. Find various communication methods to keep patients in the loop between their dental appointments
i. Social media
ii.Newsletters
iii. Email
iv. Educate, educate, educate
v. Etc.

5. Reactivation tips
a. Call patients who cancel an appointment and don’t reschedule within the next 48 hrs
i. Ask when they cancel and don’t reschedule if you can call them to reschedule at X date at Y time
ii.Make a point to call and reschedule at this scheduled time!
b. Plan to have a reactivation system in place and use this every 3 months to send post cards, various letters at specific times, etc.
i. Just like collections: the longer the person owes money, the less likely you will receive payment
* Same thing with reactivating patients – don’t delay the process!
ii. Run reports to reactivate overdue patients every month and send the various letters approximately every 90 days
iii. Add the date of last appointment
iv. Make the letter directly from the doctor showing concern
v. Follow up with a live phone call from the team when there is no response to the letter
* Goal of call is to schedule the patient

The key factor to the success of every dental practice is reactivating patients. If your patients can experience a sense of loyalty you will experience higher profits and practice growth. You need to implement a strong reactivation system to prevent the loss of 10% or higher in your patient base.

Reactivation of patients can be complex but in the long run this will cost you less money than finding a new patient to replace a lost patient. Imgaine if you can cut back to losing 50 patients this year vs. 150 patients. This is worth it’s weight in gold!