To Charge or Not to Charge. Oral Cancer Screenings.
March 13, 2017
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCcKrFxdac&w=560&h=315]
March 13, 2017
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCcKrFxdac&w=560&h=315]
January 5, 2017
Dental Patient Services System
Dr. Frank Frederickson is the Guide taking dentists through the dental jungle and offering sage advice.
Dr. Carly Carlson is a young, new dental practice owner and she is fired up, ready to rock and roll in her new dental office. Dr. Carlson’s first question to Dr. Frederickson is about growing her retirement account so that she can one day, have a good retirement. Dr. Carlson specifically asks, “How can I maximize my new dental practice so that one day I can have enough money to retire?”
Dental Practice Systemscreate wealth.
Dr. Carlson had not heard of having an 8:00 a.m. start-the-day right goal in addition to a daily goal. She did not understand the value of holding a team meeting so that everyone on the team can “close any gaps”and “be on the same page.”
Dr.Frederickson advised Dr. Carlson that this system is something that needs to be done on Monday. To have the right goals at the start-of-the day is really not too difficult and it would not take a lot of planning. You need to communicate your goal to everyone and make it happen with a lot of effort and desire.
Dr. Frederickson knows a lot about systems that create success for the dental practice and he explained to Dr. Carlson that it’s never too late to create and then start running systems.
It’s All About the Patient Care Systems
Systems create wealth. Ask Henry Ford about his production system. Ask Bill Gates about his operating system. Ask Julia Child about her recipe system. Ask Richard Branson about his entrepreneur system. All will say that their secret to creating wealth was that they created and then followed a system.
Patient Care Systems are a significant part of a $10,000 A Day Dentist’s strategic plan. They include carefully outlined the steps for every procedure performed in the practice. Each system is known and understood by the entire team. There is no creating-it on-the-fly, no winging-it, and no last-minute-planning in a “well-oiled machine” practice.
Examples of a Patient Care System would include:
1. The Dental Emergency Appointment
2. The New Patient Experience
3. The Ultimate Hygiene Patient Experience
4. The VIP Consult (which is a free second opinion consultation)
5. CMO Exam – the craniomandibular orthopedic workup.
6. The Smile Analysis – the Cosmetic Evaluation
7. Periodontal Evaluation: Oral/Systemic Health Connection and Treatment Protocol
8. Dental Implant Exam and Diagnosis Appointment with the cone beam CT scan
9. Full Mouth Reconstruction Pre-planning Appointment
10. Invisalign® Exam and Impression Appointment
Every procedure has a system and every appointment follows a system. Imagine a scenario in which you have a system to diagnose a problem and then you will treatment plan the solution. Next, imagine the business assistants activating a system to get the patient into that treatment and then the clinical assistants implementing a system to actually do that work. All of this is completed without additional time consuming input from you; the dentist.
Now imagine that being done for every procedure, every patient, and every day.
Would the stress in the office be lower, production higher and profits magnified? The answer is always, yes!
Having Patient Care Systems in place all across the practice are like everyone on the team having their own Swiss Army Knife ready to handle anything, anytime, anywhere. Our Team Training combined with the Solstice 5M Mastermind groups examine many systems in-depth within their individual practices. This consistently results in increased production within the practice.
Planning for a good retirement includes examining how you can maximize productivity in your dental practice and making wise decisions to implement the changes. It’s the same when creating Patient Care Systems that are necessary to increase value in your practice.
Dr. Carlson is off to a great start with her new practice. It’s never too late for you as a dental practice owner to travel into the dental jungle and follow your guide.
How are you doing? Are you lost in the dental jungle? Do you believe that a guide will help you create efficient systems to increase your profits in 2017?
Please comment below how you are doing in your dental practice. Which of the above systems do you have in place? How are these systems working for you?
These systems are your key to building wealth.
You may want to ask about our Mastermind Training which begins on Friday January 20, 2017.
Schedule a Call with Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS and Dr. Bill Williams
Debbie Seidel- Bittke, RDH, BS Dental Hygiene Consultant
August 21, 2015
August 13, 2013
Here is a small list to explain why dentists call to speak to me:
Dentists ask me about treatment planning and improving case acceptance.
Recently I posted this quote on Facebook. Not sure where I found it:
“Those who believe they can move mountains DO! Those who believe they can’t cannot. Belief triggers the power to do so. PERIOD.”
It is what I believe and what has come true in my life. PERIOD!
I hear dentists say “This economy…” My response to this is “Create your own economy.”
Treatment Planning Creates Your Own Economy
Let me preface this by telling you a story I recently heard about in the media.
This is a story about Oprah Winfrey. Many of you may not know who Oprah Winfrey is so let me explain briefly. Oprah Winfrey is s an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is also African American. Last year she made 77 Million! (USD) YES! That much!
What does Oprah Winfrey have to do with treatment planning? Well…she was recently in the media because she attended Tina Turners wedding in Zurich, Switzerland. While she was in Switzerland she walked into a shop where a beautiful handbag caught her eye.
The handbag just happens to cost $40,000. When Oprah asked to see the handbag the clerk in the store told her “I am sorry but that handbag is too expensive for you.”
One more time she tried to ask the lady to see the handbag “No, really I just want to see that one.” The shop keeper told her “I don’t want to hurt your feelings” Oprah kindly and very politely told the shop keeper “You’re right, I can’t afford it.” Then she walked out of the shop.
So how does this relate to treatment planning? You may be asking “Why are you talking about this woman Oprah Winfrey?!”
My reason is because so many offices prior to working with me and/or my team, only talked to their patients about treatment they “thought” their patients could “afford”.
You may have read my story about this before. This is a fact: Many years ago I worked for a dentist (As a dental assistant) who looked out the window of one of the treatment rooms and he would check out what type of car the new patient arrived in. Then he would prepare what type of treatment plan he could present according to what type of car they were driving. Would he discuss a $200 (USD) treatment plan? Or would he present a $20,000 (USD) treatment plan? Well, I can tell you that most patients only heard about the $200 treatment plan.
This Oprah Winfrey story reminded me of this situation. AND today, I still hear dentists say “It is the economy that doesn’t allow me to present comprehensive care to my patients.”
I need to ask you:
Tell Them the Truth
Have you ever thought of NOT telling a patient about a necessary implant or veneer because you knew their insurance would not pay for it? What if you thought your patient could not afford the treatment you know needs to be completed – would you neglect telling them what they really need?
Maybe you told your patient you could do a 4 or 5 surface restoration instead of a crown thinking, “I know their insurance won’t pay for this so blah, blah, blah..”
Would you present the realy picture for a perfect smile and improved health if you knew it was your mother, your wife, your husband..? Why would you offer your patient something less?
I do hear these stories all the time!
I know some of you will answer “YES” to this question. You believe that due to this economy you must go easy on your patients.
We do have an ethical obligation to tell our patients the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
That shop keeper didn’t believe Oprah Winfrey could afford a $40,000 handbag because of her appearance.
We must provide our patients with options. As healthcare providers we have a legal and ethical obligation. Please…leave the final decision up to tyour patient.
Let them decide what they can or can’t afford.
Most long-term patients establish great trust in their dentist. This is why your patients will say “YES” to your care. This is why you must tell them what really exits in their oral cavity.
Your patients are depending on you to tell them what they really need. They deserve to hear all their options.
When they buy a car I promise you they want to know if the sun roof is included and they will decide for themself if they want to Sirus Audio System included. And many will pay extra for it!
What Can We Learn From Oprah Winfrey?
You see, this was not the first time a shop keeper turned Oprah Winfrey away. The first person many years ago flat out told her they would not sell to her because her skin was black.
In Switzerland, most people have never heard of Oprah Winfrey and the shop keeper, who told her she didn’t want to hurt her feelings but she couldn’t afford that handbag, obviously didn’t know who Oprah was!
And how do you think that shop keeper feels now knowing that the billionaire woman was refused service in her shop? There has been an official apology as well as the Swiss government apologizing.
And how many of your patients have you neglected to tell exactly what type of dentistry they needed?
Did you tell them their options for that missing tooth? Did you allow your patient to decide which is best for their pocketbook?
“Customer is king”
“Every patient deserves to know what is going on inside their mouth and the various options that can create health and even a more beautiful smile”
” People don’t care how much you know but they do want to know how much you care”
“Many patients believe the dentist will FIND something. Change this into a conversation of “co-diagnosis”. This means that your patient participates looking with you. (use a hand mirror or intra-oral camera) Show patients what you see and tell them “This is what we see in this area on your lower right area.” (Identify where you are looking in their mouth – especially when using an intra-oral camera)
“Most people do want to live a longer and healthier life!”
People Buy What They Want
Recently, I spent some time in Palm Desert, California. It is summer time and the snow birds (The retired people) have returned to their other home. This beautiful desert location was still filled with a lot of people. They temperatures were triple digits. (Temperature in Fahrenheit) There were so many families in the desert vacationing with their families. These families didn’t drive in old beat up cars but nice, big, expensive cars. The families were in the restaurants’ and shops.
I also noticed that the car dealerships were plentiful. I saw dealerships for such automobiles like: Bentley, Jaguar, Mercedes, BMW, Cadillac, etc., etc.
There were dental offices on every corner. And the dental offices I visited were very upscale.
In Conclusion
I know for sure that people are spending money. I spoke to a retired lady I know today about this. She constantly tells me she needs to watch her money. But when I asked her if she would stop spending the thousands of dollars each year on her face creams she quickly told me “Absolutely not!”
I know that if you understand how to effectively communicate with your patients and if you know when to be quiet and listen, if you understand how to build trust with your patients – You will have many more patients say “YES” to your care.
I am interested to hear how you create a treatment plan in today’s world. I want to know what type of economy you are creating for yourself.
How do you create your own economy? What are you doing during the dental patient appointment to build trust? How do you explain all the options to your patients? How do you know you don’t have an “Oprah Winfrey” sitting in your dental chair?
I would like to hear about your experience with treatment planning and how you deliver your message today. Do you discuss single tooth dentistry or comprehensive dental care options?
What you believe really is what you create. The words that come out of your mouth do become YOUR reality.
Tell me more about your world – your economy – in the comment section below.
About Debbie
Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS is founder of Dental Practice Solutions, and has successfully designed efficient dental hygiene departments that result in high performance dental teams for over 13 years. Her focus is providing optimal patient health while consistently increasing profits for the dental practice.
Debbie is an accomplished author who speaks internationally about her signature systems and services for the dental hygiene department. She utilizes the most recent science and research to prevent disease while increasing the teams’ enthusiasm and guiding the dental team to consistently increase profits.
In 1984 she graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California with a Bachelors Degree in Dental Hygiene. She is a former clinical assistant professor from USC in Los Angeles, CA. In 2000-2002 Debbie co-taught the practice management course for the dental students at USC. Debbie is also a former dental hygiene program director for a school in Portland, Oregon where she wrote the accreditation, hired the teachers, purchased equipment and managed a 2 million dollar budget.
Debbie works with dental practices throughout the world implementing her signature dental hygiene systems and is considered one of the Top Leaders in Consulting for Dentistry Today. She can be reached at: www.https://dentalpracticesolutions.com, support@dentalpracticesolutions.com or call: 888-816-1511.
July 30, 2013
1. YOUR PERCEPTION IS YOUR REALITY
“Set realistic expectations of yourself and others.”
Mostly likely, you have set very high expectations for yourself. Dentists, hygienists and the other auxiliaries tend to put pressure on themselves to get it perfect. We want to get the job done at the very best level of quality and patient satisfaction. This is just how we are!
Take time to strategize and plan out your day in the dental office. Know who needs to be where and when. How can you eliminate those bottlenecks during your day? What else can you create success and distress?
What can you do to schedule a successful and stress-free day in your dental office?
2. USE YOUR TECHNOLOGY EFFECTIVELY
“Less is more”
Many of us hygienists who were educated many years ago, didn’t receive a lot of education on the use of ultrasonic’s and/or lasers. If you were educated in an era where these technologies were not as effective as they are today, take a course to learn the latest – most up to date clinical skills to utilize these technologies and save time during your day.
Today’s dental hygiene appointments need to include 80% ultrasonic’s and 20% hand scaling. This is not only a time-saver but creates improved health for your patients.
Saving your clinical treatment time means more time for education. Maybe you need to educate your patient about the oral systemic link, or the initial diagnosis you just made. It may be possible that you patient have an outstanding treatment plan and if you can find extra time in that hygiene appointment, you can educate your patient. The end result is a happier – healthier patient, less scaling at future appointments and most likely more profits to the practice.
3. PICTURES PAINT A THOUSAND WORDS
I know I have said this before, and as a Dental Practice Management Consultant, I can not stress enough that use of the intraoral camera is one technology dentists tell me, their hygienist doesn’t use enough.
Do you use the intraoral camera but large populations of your patients do not accept your treatment plans?
Try explaining treatment options, procedures, etc., by using brochures, posters, and even CASEY or an iPad with videos.
If you do step out of the treatment room for a minute, the videos are a great time for education tools like CASEY, the iPad a beautiful photo album of past treatment doctor has completed. (Doctor’s before and after photos)
4. DOWN TO A SCIENCE DOCTOR/DENTAL HYGIENE EXAMS
The biggest stress relief I can not mention again is that doctor needs to complete the exam after the hygienist has completed his/her initial co-diagnosis.
Last week’s blog included a diagram outlining the 3 parts of the hygiene appointment.
Breakdown the dental hygiene appointment into 3 areas:
Data Collection – This includes the review of medical history, Xerostomia, Malodor assessments, blood pressure, oral cancer and antioxidant screenings, etc. Annually you will complete a six-point periodontal screening exam, radiographs and even a TMD exam.
Always, before you begin the hygiene clinical procedures, re-evaluate any previous areas of concern: CAMBRA (Caries risk) or Periodontal Areas of concern, etc.
Case Presentation – This is the “co-diagnosis.” The exact time the dental hygienist sits their patient up in the chair to discuss and communicate with the patient, what they see in their mouth during the data collection stage of the hygiene appointment.
At this point in time – approximately 24 minutes into the hygiene appointment, doctor should be able to enter and complete the patient exam.
Clinical Patient Care – At this point in the dental hygiene appointment you will proceed with your clinical care which may also include homecare/post-op instructions.
You have approximately 36 minutes remaining for the patient’s clinical care. During this period of time and not more than 15 minutes before the end of the patient’s appointment (the doctor should enter to complete the exam between 36 and 45 minutes into the hygiene appointment.
5. SMOOTH OPERATOR
When doctor does enter to begin the patient exam, the dental hygienist will be seated in their chair and should be providing patient care. The hygienist will move from her/his chair and over to the other side of the patient to interact with doctor during the exam.
There are numerous suggestions for saving time during the dental hygiene appointment as well as other services in the dental office performed daily.
Does your day in the dental office run smoothly or do you hit bumps in the road? I hope you will share your answers below in the comments section.
If you want to take a deeper dive into any of these topics please consider participating in our 30 Day Dental Hygiene Profits Program. This is 30 Days of dental hygiene department services, systems and distressing to create more time in your day, harmony in your working and personal relationships. This turn-key program is increasing dental hygiene department profits by 25-37% over the next 6-12 months. The more you implement from the program, the greater your results will be!
Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS, is founder of Dental Practice Solutions and for over 20 years she has been committed to creating a dental hygiene department that works enthusiastically, creating a high performance teams, improving patients’ total health and consistent profits to the dental practice.
She is an author for journals such as Dentistry Today, HygieneTown and RDH. Debbie speaks internationally about systems and services in the dental hygiene department to create a team that works like a well-oiled machine, improving the total health of patients’, utilizing the most recent science to prevent disease and consistently increase profits.
In 1984 she graduated from USC in Los Angeles in with a Bachelors Degree in Dental Hygiene. She is a former clinical assistant professor from USC. In 2000-2002 Debbie co-taught the practice management course for the dental students. Debbie is also a former dental hygiene program director for a school in Portland, Oregon where she wrote the accreditation, hired the instructors, purchased all the equipment, worked with project managers on the building of the school while managing a 2 million dollar budget.
Debbie works with dental practices throughout the world and is considered a leader in creating consistent profits to a dental practice through services and systems in the dental hygiene department.
July 24, 2013
Let’s face it, working in a dental office and managing to stay on time for your patients can be a stressful event!
The dental office team members need to take charge and manage the daily schedule.
How can your dental team take charge and reduce the potential threat of stress of “Staying on Time”?
The dental hygiene appointment can be stress-free is you follow these 7 tips.
Break down your goals according the each department, and each treatment room in your dental office. For example, a typical dental hygiene appointment should provide profits to the dental practice not a loss leader.
If you plan accordingly the profit potential can happen with the feeling of stress. Waiting for doctor to examine the patient is often a huge stressor. Even patients become anxious waiting for doctor to arrive. Have you had patients who had to wait for the doctor exam and they became impatient? Read on for some more tips to stay on time.
I am almost positive that you have a good idea how long each procedure will take. Time your procedures; doctor / hygiene exams, assistant time, fluoride treatments, sealants, even doctor prep time, on and on. Write down a list of services you provide patients. Write them down, include the treatment room available for the procedure (Maybe you can move a patient who needs impressions, etc., after the routine hygiene procedures) write down available rooms, which can additionally provide this service. (Within their scope of practice) This will help you gather a lot of information about how to schedule more productively and with less stress.
Have you taken time to “time” your procedures? If you have not done so, schedule a monthly team “timing meeting.” Your timing can become easily disrupting with various factors. Some of these factors are employee turnover, what to do in the case of a late patient, how do you make up for time if patient anesthesia is a challenge, etc? There are so many more topics regarding timing so sit down and create a success plan around this topic.
Break down each appointment into primary, secondary or doctor/assistant time. When you schedule around the primary providers time, your practice will drive a health level of revenue.
I want to ask that you write down and share what type of dental procedures you enjoy providing. Include the entire team: dental hygienists and assistants as well. As a dental hygienist, I have enjoyed treating the periodontal patients. Many of my dental practice management clients have a hygienist that prefers to see the periodontal patients. In many offices one hygienist will see a large majority of the pediatric patients or the new patients. Another hygienist is best at treating the more difficult patients; stressed out patients and more difficult periodontal cases. Discover which services each provider enjoys most and then schedule in “special” times for these types of services in each provider’s schedule.
Block your schedule in 10-minute increments. If you choose 15 minutes, you will lose thousands of dollars over a year of appointments. It just doesn’t round up when you have 15 minute increments of time in your daily schedule.
Here are a few examples:
Scaling and Root Planing (SRP) – 2 quadrants. This may take only 90 minutes. There will be 3 – ten minute increments of time left after this block of time.
A patient who is at moderate to extremely high risk for caries will be returning to your office every three to four months for about 10= 20 minutes of time. (CAMBRA – CARIES MANAGEMENT BY RISK ASSESSMENT guidelines)
If you have a 90-minute block of time for two quadrants of SRP, the block of time after this service is a great time to schedule an appointment for a patient at moderate to high risk for caries. (Fluoride Varnish, homcare instructions, etc.)
Possibly a small child can be seen for a prophy/fluoride appointment. Sealants or impressions for night guards or bleach trays can fit in these thirty minutes of time as well. When you strategize and look over the doctor’s schedule, you may have the prep of a crown scheduled for 80 minutes. The doctor’s time should be blocked off during the exact time he/she must be in the room. (Examples: anesthesia time, preparing the crown, seat time, etc.)
Think outside the box of purely blocking patient dental hygiene appointments for exactly 60 minutes for a hygiene appointment. Block out the assistant time as well in this situation.
Many offices are implementing assisted hygiene, (Not to be confused with Accelerated Hygiene!) and I enjoy guiding teams through the process of creating a stress-free, success schedule of time with assisted hygiene. Always block for doctor, assistant time and hygienist time.
Once you have established your daily production goal for each treatment room, work with your team to create and visually layout a best schedule to create quality dentistry, delivering impeccable care and that personal touch.
Do you prefer to see your high-end aesthetic cases in the morning? Do you want children in the office early morning? Block out these times exactly when you want them to be in your schedule.
I always requested that my patient appointments for scaling and root-planing be scheduled in the morning. Occasionally, I would have one after lunch but I definitely enjoyed seeing the more difficult cases in the mornings when I was fresh.
The success of a full schedule really has a lot to do with the clinical team. If you have a couple of administrative team members at the front desk, you may want to have one of them in charge of scheduling doctors’ appointments.
The hygienist (or someone on the hygiene team) is the very best person to schedule future hygiene appointments. I have found over the years as a clinical hygienist and working with my clients, that the hygienist is in a good position to educate patients about their need for specific types of appointments and the necessary intervals to maintain optimal health. This is in line with how communication works best. It also eliminates patients going to the front desk with any confusion about why they need a next visit for “x, y, or z.”
The one time it is not efficient for the hygienist (or someone on the hygiene team) is when the patient needs multiple appointments scheduled. An example of this is a patient who was diagnosed today for four quadrants of scaling and root planing and will need to return for 4 appointments plus a perio maintenance appointment, four to six weeks later.
It can be a good idea to have one person at the front desk also is in charge of the hygiene schedule. This is one person who can make follow up calls to overdue hygiene patients as well as schedule these multiple appointments as necessary.
It works best for everyone, (patient, doctor and team members) if doctor enters the hygiene treatment room to complete the exam after the hygienist has completed her/his assessments and before the last 10 minutes of the hygiene appointment. I will share a diagram at the top of this blog and below is an explanation of how this should flow.
**See the photo at the top of this blog for a break-down and science of time management. Doctor should come into the hygiene room to complete the patient exam after 2nd interval – (See the time management pie chart) which is the hygienist’s initial case presentation. The hygienist completes his/her assessments and then presents his/her findings in an initial case presentation. This is a couple of minutes to explain what the hygienist and patient saw in the patient’s mouth. Doctor should not enter the hygiene room to begin the exam later than 15 minutes before the hygiene appointment is supposed to end.
Many offices today use radio devices, communication lights in the treatment room, or instant messaging on their computer software to communicate if a patient has arrived to the office.
Many sports teams have a high level of communication skills, moving from one play to another. This is the same level of communication you will want to have in your dental office.
One More Stress relief Management Tool
Imagine your time management skills as rewarding and stress free.
Understanding the value of your time, how it can be used and a commitment to effective communication are your keys to manifesting your goals and increasing profits in your practice!
Do you have a time stressor during your day in the dental office? What might that be? I would enjoy hearing about your time stressor.
Maybe it will be another topic here for another week’s blog. It is possible that I have a solution. If you write it in the comment below, you never know, someone else may have a great solution.
Looking forward to supporting you!
Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS, is founder of Dental Practice Solutions and for over 20 years she has been committed to creating a dental hygiene department that works enthusiastically, creating a high performance teams, improving patients’ total health and consistent profits to the dental practice.
She is an author for journals such as Dentistry Today, Hygiene Town and RDH. Debbie speaks internationally about systems and services in the dental hygiene department to create a team that works like a well-oiled machine, improving the total health of patients’, utilizing the most recent science to prevent disease and consistently increase profits.
In 1984 she graduated from USC in Los Angeles in with a Bachelors Degree in Dental Hygiene. She is a former clinical assistant professor from USC. In 2000-2002 Debbie co-taught the practice management course for the dental students. Debbie is also a former dental hygiene program director for a school in Portland, Oregon where she wrote the accreditation, hired the instructors, purchased all the equipment, worked with project managers on the building of the school while managing a 2 million dollar budget.
Debbie works with dental practices throughout the world and is considered a leader in creating consistent profits to a dental practice through services and systems in the dental hygiene department.
Check out her new program for 30 Days of information to increase profits in your dental hygiene department: 30 Days of Profit to Your Dental Hygiene Department
June 10, 2013
With every year that passes, as a dental practice management consultant, I see more and more dentists enrolling in clinical aesthetic courses. When I return to their office I see the new technology they have spent thousands of dollars on this past year.
It is exciting to know that dentists all over the world are seeking out the latest dental technology and products to improve their patients smile.
Once you have completed your CE course, your next step (and also an important goal) needs to be a system to introduce these new services to your patients. How do you know if the service you just spent a few thousand dollars educating yourself to provide your patients is something they are willing to pay for?
Of course one simple answer can possibly be to ask your patients if they want this treatment for themselves.
My question to you is “Have you ever or do you consistently ask your patients what types of services they desire?” have you asked them “What does that mean for you if we can change the appearance of your smile?”
It is the summer and many of your patients probably want to look good for their son or daughters graduation, a wedding or reunion. They may be thinking that they can’t afford to change the way their smile looks. Your patients probably assume it is not possible for their smile to improve due to money, time or even how old they “think” they are.
If you never ask, the answer will always be a “NO.”
At Dental Practice Solutions, we educate your client offices to annually inquire about their patients smile. We call this a smile evaluation. It’s a simple, one page survey, given to the patient upon check in at the front desk. The patient completes these questions in about 60 seconds and then when the hygienist is reviewing the patient medical history she or he will smoothly transition into the smile evaluation. While the patient is seated in the treatment room, the hygienist reviews the patients answers and together, they look at the patients teeth in a mirror. This is not meant to be time consuming but can efficiently be completed with some simple training.
What I see NOT What I have Found
After the hygienist has reviewed the smile evaluation with their patient, they should tour the patient’s mouth with the intra-oral camera. This allows you to show the patient the following:
When talking to patients about what you see, be sure not to say for example:
“Mrs. Dalton, I have found…” This seems to leave a negative feeling with patients who think “My dentist always finds something!”
Instead, when looking at the patients teeth and gums say words phrases like “do you see ____?” or “Mrs. Dalton today we saw ________.”
Always keep the door to improving every patients smile. It works best for everyone if you don’t presume or prejudge a patient’s values or pocket book.
If you don’t ask “the answer will be NO” so keep the open door policy and begin to ask every patient “If there is one thing they could change about their smile what would that be?”
One Simple Tweak in What You Say
There are so many twists on this simple question and if you will take time to annually update each patients smile, it will go a long way to making patients leave feeling very happy about the services you have provided them and your will see an increase in your profits.
Continuing education courses can do a lot to support a successful dental practice. The important piece here is to have a goal to use this. Decide how you will begin to offer this new service to your patients and write the date on your calendar, when you will begin asking patients what they want to change about their smile.
Now you can reap the benefits of that expensive aesthetic course and new technology you just paid a lot of money for! One small shift in what you say to patients can increase dental practice profits by thousands each year.
ABOUT DEBBIE AND DENTAL PRACTICE SOLUTIONS
Are you looking to improve profits in your dental hygiene department? Debbie has an innovative and successful way to educate you and your team to create the small tweaks mentioned in this blog. Many dentists today request a 1 or 2 day workshop or find it valuable to participate in the online membership program offered by Dental Practice Solutions. This can mean your highest ROI for this year when you get everyone on the team to that next level of success. Check our her services section on the website to find one that meets your needs. Consider getting your team involved in her 12 week Case Acceptance Program. You won’t need to stop your day of work at the office or pay for a consultant to travel to your office. The program is at your fingertips 24/7 indefinitely.
Debbie writes for many of the major dental conferences in the world. She is recognized for the past 8 years as “One of Dentistry Today’s Top Consultants.”
Many of her clients span from not only the United States but Brazil, Australia, India and the UK, just to mention a few.
January 4, 2013
I recently spoke at a dental conference and asked the audience “What is one thing that your patients want more than any other procedure?” 100% of the attendees answered in harmony “WHITER TEETH!”
You may be offering patients something they never knew they really wanted so here is how to open up the conversation.
Step One
While patients are seated in the treatment room and as you are reviewing the patient medical history, ask a few simple questions. One of the questions can be something such as: “Mrs. Jones, if there is one thing you could change about your smile, what would that be?” Wait for her to answer. This is not a yes or no answer but allow the patient to think of their own answer. It must be answer that doesn’t require a “yes” or “no” but their honest opinion about their teeth. Most of us have at least one thing we would like to change about our smile or how we can look better! We are our own best and worst critic!
Another question you may want to ask is “Mr. Holmes, If I could wave a magic wand and create any wish about your teeth or smile, what would you wish for?” Now that can be a powerful question, as well as get a smile from most people you ask this question!
Asking one of these two questions or developing your own simple questions about how a patient would like to change their smile, can open the door for more cosmetic procedures. Most will want teeth whitening, Invisalign®, Six-Month Smiles®, Veneers, Ortho or even implants. Give it a try for the next month and keep account of the additional services that can come out of your dental hygiene appointments and of course new patient appointments!
Ask a few simple questions to your patients about their smile and you will create a consistent profit stream to your dental practice.
Changing Lives One Smile at a Time
As a dental professional you and your team are changing lives. You are able to truly change the way people feel every day about themselves.
“White teeth is one of the first things people notice about a persons appearance. You have the valuable expertise to not only change how long and healthy your patients live but also how beautiful their smile is. A smile can affect their day to day life in a positive way!”
Men and women of all ages throughout the world are now opting for teeth whitening to improve their smile.
Many patients today are still clueless about the variety of various products and this is why it is very important to educate your patients on the variety of whitening products and procedures you have available to patients in your office.
Keep Them Coming Back for More
For several years, dental offices have seen a decline in New Patient numbers. I see advertisements through social living sites and Google Ads; dentists are spending thousands of dollars in advertising for new patients.
I would never say not to advertise to increase New Patient numbers, but I know there are two ways to get production numbers up as well as New Patient numbers.
If you advertise for New Patients, I suggest that you include teeth whitening in the New Patient fee. (YES! At no charge) You can easily and cost-effectively offer free whitening in your dental office and every six months when the patient returns offer them a free whitening syringe. There is a simple way to deliver this without losing money but gaining patient loyalty and also referrals from your patients. You will gain more attention with your ad if you include the whitening in the New Patient appointment.
The thought here is “give patients something they really want” and use whitening as an incentive for keeping their regularly scheduled hygiene appointments.
There are many patient loyalty programs available to dental practices but they have a hefty monthly fee to participate. Forever White™ is a Premium Patient Incentive Program that has no monthly enrollment fee for the dental practice. Forever White™ is a system for dentists to use and create other income streams.
Forever White™ is a premium patient incentive program dentists can market and brand as their own. View it as a private label program that the dentist can offer their patients, that they can’t get just anywhere. The office will be using the same quality premium whitening gel but at half the price. This means the dentist keeps their patients and more money stays in the dental practice.
It also can used to reactivate those overdue patients and helps to gain patient loyalty. A series of calls and letters are sent to the patients explaining the premium whitening program. The best part of this type of program is that whitening only costs the dentist a few dollars (Pounds, EURO) to use because of the special pricing offered to dentists worldwide.
Why Does This Concept Work Well?
One of the reasons this concept works so well is because patients feel like a VIP when they are given the special treatment. Patients will respond kindly when you give them what they want. People feel much better about themselves when they see a beautiful smile. This is what will give you a competitive edge over other dental offices down the street or even a few miles away.
This is also a fantastic tool to get a “YES!” from patients to continue with further restorative needs. The whitening is only the tip of the iceberg.
Not only do your patients have a reason to smile, they have a great reason to continue returning to your office and you will also smile when your bank account grows over your 2012 balance!
Need more information about how to order? Send us an email: support@dentalpracticesolutions.com or call us: 503-970-1122
Toll-free: 888-816-1511
Please note:
* There is no monthly membership charge. You are only charged the wholesale price for the whitening gel. We provide the materials at no additional cost to you so you can reactivate, retrain your patients why their hygiene appointment is so important and your will retain your patients for life! We coach and guide you to utilize whitening most successfully.
Our product has a 100% guarantee! If you are not satisfied send it back. We’ll return your money paid for the product. That is how confident we are you will love Forever White™!
September 22, 2012
We know from reading the research that optimal oral health is essential for not only a beautiful smile but living a longer, healthier life!
A Common Myth
One major dental myth we need to debunk is the idea that if a person has their teeth cleaned once a year, this is enough to maintain healthy teeth and gums. This myth has caused many people to develop periodontal problems due to their thought that brushing and infrequent dental hygiene appointments are enough. This will create un-necessary expense at future dental appointments.
Continue reading “The All American RAGE! It’s More than Just Keeping Your Teeth” »
July 27, 2012
We are half way through 2012! Hard to believe I know! Are you on track with your financial goals for this year?
Maybe you are questioning, what financial goals?! And maybe you answered “Yes, I have already reviewed my numbers and I know exactly how I compare to last year!” Or maybe you answered, “How can I be expected to review financial goals when I am at the office all day and working on patients?!”
No matter how you responded to this question, you will appreciate the sensible steps about how to improve your financials and proven steps to success.
No matter which of the above listed groups you fall into, I have outlined a few steps for you to hit your financial goals this year. In fact why not plan to add an increase to your numbers without adding more stress or time to your day?!
There are many ways to increase your income. Some dentists will increase fees although during this economic climate this can create more challenges and you may lose many patients. Other dentists will choose to lower employee salaries or cut back hygiene hours and days.
If you want your revenue to improve you need to look at all the details of your profit and loss statement. It is not as easy as increasing fees nor cutting salaries and days of hygiene. Many dental practices have numerous cancellations but are making more money seeing fewer patients and working less days. One way to identify increased production is to provide more preventive services. Many of the clients of Dental Practice Solutions have implemented the preventive services through valuable communication skills. This has benefited the patients overall health and the financial health of the practice’s although an economic decline occurs in our world today.
Here are the steps to take:
Run your profit and loss report which will provide an overview of your current financial picture. This is where you can compare employee salaries, leases, equipment, etc., etc. This provides a black and white report providing a true financial picture YTD. Run this statement From Jan 1, 2011 – June 30, 2011 and compare to Jan 1, 2012 – June 30, 2012. When you look at these two years and compare, now you have a better idea of where your last half of year goals truly need to be to accomplish your Year End goals.
Many of Dental Practice Solutions clients use DENTRIX software. If you use Dentrix you will go to Office Manager and select Practice Analysis. Now you can run a detailed production report for each provider in your practice. This will allow you to analyze the procedures, who has provided the various procedures, how many and the amount of production from these procedures they have provided for the practice. Once you have this information you can analyze the trends and discuss with the team at the team meeting you have scheduled at half year meeting and again at the end of year team meeting. This is a great time to discover how many of the procedures you most desire providing patients, have been completed. If you enjoy providing veneers or implants, now is a great time to assess how many you have provided and what you may need to change (Are you communication skills effective? Or do you need to review other third party payer information for patients to use and easily pay for treatment?)
Be sure to use these benchmarks: Collections should be at 98% or >, Employee expenses 22-33%, Lab expenses 8-12%, Marketing 1-3%, Facility expenses 4-8%, Minor expenses 6-10%, General expenses 6-10%. The total expenses should be no higher than 75%.
Once you have a spreadsheet (Excel) designed with these expenses listed out, total the amounts spent and compare to your total collections. This is how you will calculate the % you have spent for each of these areas to run your dental practice. Now you can use your P&L to discover if you are on track to accomplish your financial goals. Which areas do you need to adjust and prepare a system to improve these areas that need adjustment?
In reviewing one of our clients (Became our clients Jan 2012) financials mid-year we discovered that her employee salaries are 50% higher than one year ago. It is now time to sit down to discuss why this happened and how to get on track to accomplish the year end goals. Possibly, you have moved to a new location or you have taken out a loan in the past year. If you lease expense (Facility expense) is now 10% instead of 8%, you will need to adjust your goals for the year end and discuss a way to close the gap for the year end goal to be met. Maybe your collections are down this year. It is time to create a new system to increase collections. If insurance payments are behind you may want to discuss using the collection services of Trojan Professional Dental Services.
We teach our clients how to implement preventive and same day services. These have proven to be great ways to improve patients’ health, add value to your services, WOW patients and improve the financial health of your practice.
Our offices have also implemented team bonuses based upon the bonus system. This provides improved team collaboration and definitely improved team spirit!
As a team these changes will be much easier to implement. Plan a half day or even full day, off-site and have everyone on the team come with ideas to create change. Have a time for them to express their challenges and concerns. Ask everyone to provide ideas for success.
At the end of year, it is a great time to not only have a Holiday Party but a time to go outside of the office for a Success Celebration and also a time to plan out the next year’s success. Each year plan to have 2 major team meetings. These need to be at least 4 hours in length and it can be a great idea to add some fun to a meeting which can be thought of as boring or monotonous
Plan a time in November and December to sit down as a team and plan for a great year in 2013. What do you need to change or continue for added success in 2013? This is a great time to CELEBRATE your success in 2012!
At the end of year in 2012 and every year to come, run these reports and repeat the steps outlined above. This is how you will run a financially success dental practice. Two times each year you will follow these steps and sit down as a team to collaborate your plan for success. If you do not take time to plan than you have planned to fail. There is no other way to put it so plan now for your future success!