Optimize Your Dental Practice: What Every Dental Practice Owner Must Know!

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

September 10, 2024

The 1st Step to Optimize Your Dental Practice

One of the most important responsibilities you have as a practice owner is to hire a top-notch leader to administer the processes in your dental business. AKA: an office administrator.

Maybe you are thinking, “I don’t want anyone to create friction or animosity with my employees!” Even if you have a smaller dental office, your office administrator might oversee various systems such as the patient schedule, insurance payments, case acceptance, unscheduled hygiene patients, employee time-off, employee challenges, etc., etc.

As your practice grows, your office administrator will delegate these various tasks by hiring and training competent employees for these positions such as a treatment coordinator and/or insurance biller. However, hiring or appointing an office administrator isn’t enough—your role as the owner is to create leaders in your office and be the leader of the office administrator and the team.

Being a leader does not mean you do the work! It does not mean that you solve all the challenges that will occur. It means that you empower your employees and when there is a challenge you know you can check in with your office administrator to resolve any issues.You are the inspector and should be able to check in with your office administrator to inspect that your expectations are met.

This process works well for our clients who have been through proper holistic-hygiene department- team training using the resources offered by Dental Practice Solutions.

The primary responsibility of the practice owner is to develop leaders and empower that one-employee to be a competent office administrator who can efficiently oversee the various systems and be sure the various systems in your dental office are running smoothly and your dental practice is highly profitable.1

Why is it crucial to create leaders and have a competent office administrator?

Consider this: as the owner and doctor, your most valuable contribution is the time you spend with patients in your treatment room. When you’re occupied with patient care most of the day, who’s overseeing the various areas of your dental business? It can’t be you—yet the business still needs to be run effectively.

This is where it becomes imperative that you have a competent office administrator.

Learn how to optimize your dental practice which is something every dental practice owner must know.

Develop Systems and Provide Clear Expectations

While the office administrator’s job includes overseeing the office systems and enforcing the practice’s policies, inspecting what you expect is where you play an important role.

As a team, everyone works together and achieves more.

T E A M = Together Everyone Achieves More

Team members should be invited to suggest various policies needed for your success. You must have your expectations written and routinely, you need to check in with your office administrator to be certain that expectations are met and without resistance.

Many dental practice owners feel overwhelmed by the idea of writing policies and creating systems for the various areas of the dental office.

Start now by writing one or two policies a week and make a list of the various areas of your dental office that need a system. These areas will include: patient schedule, new patient appointments, patient hand-offs, case acceptance, hygiene – doctor – patient exams, hygiene patient reactivation, outstanding insurance claims, etc., etc.

Each system will have a set of competencies. Competencies are written examples that indicate the employees success according to what is expected and what will elevate patient care.

Create a comprehensive set of guidelines with systems for your employees to follow. Begin with the areas of your practice that are causing the most challenges. If you feel this is a daunting task, it may be time to reach out to a dental expert, such as Dental Practice Solutions.

Your Dental Practice Vision

As the owner of the dental office, you are the leader. You get to set the tone and steer the ship in the direction you desire. This is your business and you should have the most significant impact on its vision and success plans for the future. It’s essential to, 1) have a clear vision and future plans and, 2) communicate these to your executive team and other employees.

Crafting Your Vision: The vision for your practice goes beyond a vision and mission statement; it’s about clearly defining what your practice does, what it creates, and how it differentiates itself from others. This may include the type of dentistry you practice, what type of patient care you aim to provide such as sleep apnea, oral myofunctional therapy, implants, double column hygiene, or single column, one hour hygiene appointments, Invisalign, in-office and take home whitening systems, etc.

Consider and plan how many days each year you wish to see patients. When you begin a new year, your patient schedule should be blocked for the correct number of days you plan to see patients during that year. Most dental offices are open a minimum of 200 days.

Next, you will reverse engineer how many appointment blocks you need each day for new patients. Do you know an approximate number of new patients you should see each month so your goals become a reality? Do you wish to treat “Complete Patients Health?” Or is single tooth dentistry, the bread and butter of what you enjoy?

Why Vision Matters: Never assume that your employees know the practice goals. This is particularly important if you hire someone who has worked in a different type of dental practice before. If your new office administrator previously worked in a bread and butter type of dental office and you have a vision to implement “comprehensive health dentistry,” you may have a lot of challenges ahead of you as you onboard your new office administrator.

If your vision isn’t clearly communicated, your employees will most likely default to what they have done in the previous offices they worked in. Now you have employees who do not align with your dental practice goals. This is how you get into a bad situation with consistently searching for new employees to replace ones who just never seem to be a fit for your dental practice.

Could this be a current situation many offices are facing today?

Why do you think there is so much turn-over in dental offices happening today?

Share your vision with your employees, communicate the long-term plans for your dental business. Share your practice growth goals, communicate effectively and thoroughly with everyone your hire. Be sure you communicate the types of services you offer patients, share your expectations about new patient appointments; how and when they are seen, the length of time for a new patient appointment and which clinician will see the new patient first: the hygienist or the doctor?

How do you follow up with new patients after they leave their 1st appointment?

Do you know if the new patient had a great experience? If you don’t ask, you’ll never know!

How do you communicate with patients of record who have gone MIA?

Do you send text messages, or an email? At what time in the day do you make calls to these former patients who are now MIA?

Do you send them a letter to know if they plan to return?

Maybe they moved out of the area and at what point do you inactivate these patients?

Take time to think about what’s important to you, write these things down. Ask your employees to think about what’s important to them. Everyone comes to your team meetings with their ideas and you have an agenda that everyone is invited to add their input to.

Plan to meet annually, usually in November or December, and plan out the upcoming year. This is a great time to plan a fun lunch and then spend two – four hours sharing your vision and what you want to accomplish over the next year. Allow time for your employees to express their thoughts and opinions. Ask you employees what they need and want for the dental business.

Align Your Team: Outline your vision to ensure that the employees are on the same page and working toward the same goals. This alignment is crucial for the success of your dental business and team harmony inside your dental office.

If everyone is rowing in a different direction, chaos and challenges arise. When everyone understands what’s expected and when everyone works toward the same goals, your dental practice will run smoothly and you’ll see sustainable success sooner than later, year after year.

Manage and Support Your Office Administrator

Your office administrator must oversee the daily operations of your dental practice, while your role is to empower your team, inspect what you expect, and routinely check in with your office administrator to be sure you are status quo and on track to achieve your goals.

Stay Involved: This doesn’t mean micromanaging or hovering over your office administrators’ every move. The dental practice owners role is to offer the necessary support, and advise if training is necessary to help the team excel in their role.

Weekly Meetings: At a minimum, you should sit down with your office administrator each week. We recommend that you actually schedule this time in your practice management software. Mark out time even if it’s 15 minutes. Add this in your practice management software so your team knows not to schedule you to see a patient at this time. This dedicated time means No patients, no interruptions during this short time together.

There must be a time each day before you begin your day seeing patients, during lunch, or before you leave for the day, when you get talk to your administrator for 10-15 minutes. It’s a few minutes and this effective communication brings a huge return for your small investment of time.

Use this time to review the practice’s KPI’s (production, collections, A/R, outstanding insurance payments, hygiene department profitability, unscheduled restorative and overdue hygiene patients, etc.). All you do as the owner, is listen to the successes and/or challenges and opportunities. If there is a challenge or conflict it works best to resolve it quickly, sooner than later.

If you find it difficult to focus during the doctor – administrator 10-15 minute meeting, plan to have lunch or coffee outside the office. The point here is to schedule focused time so you can accomplish minor tasks and overcome challenges quickly.

Daily Check-Ins: Consider a quick check-in before the morning team meeting, maybe a quick update over lunch, or a chat before you leave the office to review your end-of-day report, etc. This allows you and your office administrator to coordinate any important tasks, or address any challenges that may have occurred in the past 12 hours.

Know Your Numbers

Financial Responsibility: As the practice owner, it’s crucial to have control over your key performance indicators (KPI’s). While your office administrator can handle day-to-day tasks and be accountable that you are on track to achieve if not exceed your production and collection goals, the financial health literally rests in your hands.

Understanding Profitability: Stay informed about your revenue, production, collections, insurance contracts, various office expenses, marketing, employee salaries and equipment, etc, etc. Major financial decisions, like approving large purchases or paying employee bonuses, should be decided upon only when you know they are in alignment with your financial goals and that you are on track to achieve or exceed your practice goals set for the year.

Strategic Oversight: Consistently review your financial statements and make informed decisions about resource allocation. If you do not work with a dental CPA be sure you check out the Academy of Dental CPAs (see https://adcpa.org/). These are CPAs who thoroughly understand the dental professions KPIs and standard operating procedures/appropriate expenses and a lot more. This level of oversight is key to ensuring your practice remains profitable and financially sound. Make sure you work with a CPA that 100% – completely – understands dental office KPI’s.

Any Accountant will/can understand how to look at the financials of a brake shop or non-profit organization but they will not be able to properly guide you to experience y0ur highest level of success as owner of a dental office. Make sure you have the best financial advise. One day when you decide to retire you will be very happy that you had expert advice of a dental CPA to oversee your financials.

Track and Evaluate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Know Your Numbers Daily: It’s essential to stay on top of your practice’s KPI’s and to meet, even exceed your goals but you must look at these specific metrics daily. And once again, the owner, doctor does not need to take time to do this alone.

There is an easy way for your team to view the office production, collections, insurance payments (or lack of), hygiene department production, hygiene patient reactivation, outstanding restorative, and new patient numbers, and the list can go on. Each team member is assigned “opportunities” inside the KPI dashboard and they look at these opportunities and report how they will achieve their opportunity goals, etc.

This type of process sets up employees who feel empowered, the are more than “punching a clock” and become leaders in your dental office. No one needs to be a financial guru to look at these KPI’s in our world of technology today. Dental Intel has made it super simple for anyone with two eyes and a brain to view and report on the KPI’s. If you can use a mobile device or computer you can easily use Dental Intel.

Our clients use www.dentalintel.com to view their KPIs. Dental Intel is a simplified way to view your important KPI’s by logging into a dashboard and viewing the important metrics.

When you’re planning a trip across the US, do you know if you have enough gas to get there when you 1st get in your car and start driving?

Do you know the speed you’re driving while on the road?

Do you know if a lightbulb needs to be replaced?

What is the most direct route to take when driving to your office?

If there is an accident along the road can you find a detour so you’re not late to the office?

Dental Intel is the same type of dashboard however, it works for your team and the dental office to make it through the day in cruise control. You will learn (see in the Dental Intel dashboard) quickly if there is a road block. There will not be any accidents.

Best of all is that your employees sit in the drivers seat. Your job is to have the employees report their goals, any opportunities and how as a team you can achieve your goal.

NOTE. We have access to a free Dental Intel trial so you can measure your KPI’s and experience the smooth ride to your next level of success. As an associate of Dental Intel, when you use Dental Intel, we waive any set-up fees and get the biggest discounts on this robust dashboard.

Book a quick call to learn more about it.

Daily Awareness: Staying informed about your daily KPIs helps you to be proactive not reactive. This is where a 10-minute team huddle becomes imperative if you are serious about achieving your goals and you want to STOP working so hard! The Dental Intel dashboard is one tool that every team member can easily view and then review their “opportunities” for the day with the team. This is where their score cards are implemented. Score cards are an accountability measure. The employees sit in the drivers seat and become accountable their “opportunities” which dictate the success of your dental business.

Conclusion

As the owner of a dental business your responsibility goes beyond providing patient care; it’s about leading a successful dental business. By concentrating on these essential areas—creating and collaborating with a top-notch office administrator, and overseeing your key performance indicators, you set up a strong foundation for your dental practice’s success.

Master these fundamentals, and you are on the path to building a thriving practice that achieves your goals, delivers exceptional patient care and creates a great life for you, your employees and patients as well.

Discover how to optimize your dental hygiene department with a holistic approach that will achieve and exceed your dental practice goals.

BOOK AN OPPORTUNITY CALL TODAY.

We’re here to walk alongside you every step of the way to your next level of success.

References.

The book. Get a Grip by Gino Wickman

*Most of our clients and their team members read and learn how to be a cohesive team, working in harmony by reading this book together. It’s an easy read. Team members find it fun to read and relatable.

Boosting Dental Practice Success: Cut Out The PPOs

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

July 12, 2023

In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of cutting out PPOs and highlight the proven effectiveness of the Celebrity Smiles Club Patient Loyalty-rewards program in fostering patient loyalty and practice growth.

The PPO Predicament: For years, dental practices have been forced to navigate the complexities of PPO contracts, which often lead to reduced reimbursement rates and increased administrative burdens. While participating in PPO networks can attract new patients, the financial impact and limited autonomy can undermine the profitability and long-term sustainability of a dental practice.

This has prompted a growing number of dentists to reassess their relationship with PPOs and explore alternative strategies to retain patients while ensuring practice growth.

Cut Out The PPOs

By choosing to cut out PPOs, dentists can regain control over their practice and focus on providing exceptional care without the constraints imposed by insurance providers.

Compelling Reasons Why this Approach is Gaining Popularity:

Enhanced Revenue: Without PPO restrictions.
- Dentists have the freedom to set their fees based on the value they provide.
- This allows for fair and transparent pricing, leading to improved profitability and a sustainable practice.
Streamlined Administrative Efforts.
- PPO contracts often necessitate additional administrative tasks, such as pre-authorizations and claim submissions.
- By eliminating PPOs, dental practices can reduce the administrative burden, freeing up time to concentrate on patient care and practice growth.
Improved Patient Experience.
- Removing PPO limitations will allow dentists to focus on personalized care tailored to the specific needs and preferences of their patients.
- This patient-centered approach fosters trust, satisfaction, and loyalty, which are crucial factors in attracting and retaining patients.

Celebrity Smiles Club Patient Loyalty-Rewards Program

One effective strategy proven to cultivate patient loyalty and encourage returning visits. The Celebrity Smiles Club innovative patient loyalty program offers a range of benefits that are proven to enhance patient satisfaction and practice success:

Exclusive Benefits: The Celebrity Smiles Club provides your dental patients with exclusive perks and rewards, such as discounts on whitening products, and a free whitening pen at pre-scheduled hygiene appointments.
- When patients enroll they understand more clearly what’s expected when they need to “change” an appointment. “Think about this loyalty program to REDUCE CANCELLATIONS!”
- Patient incentives create a sense of appreciation and exclusivity, making patients more likely to choose and recommend your dental practice.
Engaging Patient Communications: With the Celebrity Smiles Club, dental practices can engage patients through regular communications, including newsletters, email updates, and social media interactions. Tell all your patients about this loyalty-patient rewards system you have.
- Effective patient interactions foster a sense of belonging and keep patients informed about the latest advancements in dental care, further strengthening their connection to the practice.
- Celebrity Smiles Club teeth whitening products are exclusive to dental offices. Patients can’t buy on the internet or in retail stores.
New Patient Referrals: Satisfied patients are more likely to refer their friends and family to your dental practice.
- The Celebrity Smiles Club Loyalty Program motivates patients to spread the word about their dental office and generates more new patients to your dental practice.
Data-Driven Decision Making: A patient loyalty-rewards program provides valuable insights into patient behavior, preferences, and treatment history.
- By leveraging this data, dental practices can make informed decisions about their marketing strategies, service offerings, and patient engagement initiatives.

Conclusion.

Dental practices are increasingly recognizing the benefits of cutting out PPOs to regain control, enhance profitability, and provide exceptional patient care. Alongside this strategy, implementing a patient loyalty-rewards program like Celebrity Smiles Club offers a proven pathway to cultivate patient loyalty and keeps patients on your schedule indefinitely.

Celebrity Smiles Club currently offers free patient loyalty resources to you at no-cost.

Grab them here today because they will not be offered free for long.

These resources are immediately available to every dental practice who uses the Celebrity Smiles Club “wholesale” – dental grade teeth whitening products.

Not sure about implementing this?
Click our calendar link and schedule a quick call to learn more.

Creating Dental Patient Loyalty

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

May 3, 2023

Dental practices can begin by evaluating their current patient retention and new patient acquisition strategies and identify areas for improvement. From here you will develop a patient loyalty program that aligns with your practice goals and values as well as the needs and preferences of your patient base.

How to Design a Patient Loyalty Program May Include:

Rewards: What rewards or incentives will be offered to patients for their loyalty and engagement with your dental practice? How will these rewards be communicated and distributed to your patients?
Eligibility: Which patients will be eligible to participate in your patient loyalty program? Will it be open to all patients, or will certain criteria need to be met (For example: Pre-scheduling routine dental hygiene appointments, calling 24+ hours ahead to change a dental appointment, referring new patients)?
Communication: How will the loyalty program be communicated to patients? Will it be promoted through email newsletters, social media, or in-office signage? How will patients be reminded of their rewards and encouraged to schedule appointments?
Tracking and Reporting: How will the practice track and report on the success of a loyalty program? What metrics will be used to evaluate its effectiveness (For example: patient retention rates, referral rates, new patient, and revenue growth)?

By taking these factors into account and designing a patient loyalty program that meets the needs of both the dental practice and its patients, dental practices can improve patient retention, attract new patients, and ultimately grow their dental practice.

Get More Patients to Ask for Your Care

Ask your patients this one question, “What is one thing we can do for you today that will create your most beautiful smile, what would that be?”

Most patients will respond by saying, “I want whiter teeth!”

Yes, some patients will report they want straight teeth and many patients will have a variety of other answers. Start asking this question of your patients and see for yourself how your patients respond.

The worst thing that can happen is that you may have more patients enroll into Invisalign, veneers and even more teeth whitening services.

Rewards to Your Dental Office & Patients

The latest data shows that only 17% of dental offices actively offer teeth whitening services to their patients. Why is that?

Are we too busy cleaning teeth and trying to get patients to schedule their next dental appointment? What’s wrong with this picture?!

One simple system that will not only keep your schedule full but this patient reward system called Celebrity Smiles Club. The club has proven for many years to get more new patients call your office and schedule a New Patient Appointment.

The Celebrity Smiles Club is similar to offering your patients a membership program such as a COSTCO or NETFLIX membership. When patients are part of “The Club” they know what is expected to reap their reward, i.e., One Free Teeth Whitening Pen. Your patients enroll in the Celebrity Smiles Club and they understand the expectation to get their reward.

These expectations are:

Enroll in The Club
Pre-schedule routine dental hygiene appointments,
Call (X days) in advance to change an appointment.

When patients keep their dental appointment they are rewarded at their dental hygiene appointment with a free whitening pen.

Most patients will buy another one or two pens which adds huge net production to your revenue.
You buy your whitening products at wholesale prices and in return you offer patients a free pen and a discount to buy other whitening products. Think of a patient paying $15-$20 for one whitening pen and you paid a wholesale price of $4.50 per pen.

Celebrity Smiles Whitening System means no more messy impressions, no models to pour up, trays to make and patients returning to get their whitening trays.

Your patients never need to sit for an hour under a blue light to whiten their teeth. You can still provide ZOOM teeth whitening but for touch-ups you have your patients return for a whitening tray. Using Celebrity Smiles System means you send your patients home with their whitening kit.

Teeth whitening is a six-billion-dollar business in North American and why should your patients buy their teeth whitening products at AMAZON or WALMART, etc.?

Using the Celebrity Smiles Club reward system will not only gain more new patients but will keep your schedule full. When patients enroll in your rewards program they are less likely to call last minute and change their dental appointment.

Think of using The Celebrity Smiles Club as a “Carrot”. It’s that adage, WIIFM that works very well to keep your practice highly profitable with patients showing up for their dental appointments!

Once you partner and implement the Celebrity Smiles Club, you gain access to a web portal of information (No added cost to you!) that will reduce cancellations, provide scripts to keep patients on the schedule when they do call to cancel, how to enroll your patients into the club, a smile evaluation and how to get patients to want more than JUST a clean, plus a lot more.

Check out everything included in Celebrity Smiles Club here.

Ready to get started offering The Club? Send me an email (debbie@dentalpracticesolutions.com) and in the subject line write, “The Smile Club.”

In the body of your email provide your office name and I will respond with the order form and information about The Club.

Not sure if this is right for your dental office?

Schedule a quick demo and learn more about how to grow your new patient numbers, reduce cancellations and keep patients returning to your dental office using Celebrity Smiles Club teeth whitening system.

Schedule a Call

Creating Dental Patient Loyalty

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

March 17, 2023

Dental practices can begin by evaluating their current patient retention and new patient acquisition strategies and by identifying areas for improvement. From here, you will develop a patient loyalty program that aligns with your practice goals and values as well as the needs and preferences of your patient base.

Some key considerations when designing a patient loyalty program may include:

Rewards: What rewards or incentives will be offered to patients for their loyalty and engagement with your dental practice? How will these rewards be communicated and distributed to your patients?
Eligibility: Which patients will be eligible to participate in your patient loyalty program? Will it be open to all patients, or will certain criteria need to be met (for example: Pre-scheduling routine dental hygiene appointments, calling 24+ hours ahead to change a dental appointment, referring new patients)?
Communication: How will the loyalty program be communicated to patients? Will it be promoted through email newsletters, social media, or in-office signage? How will patients be reminded of their rewards and encouraged to schedule appointments?
Tracking and Reporting: How will the practice track and report on the success of the loyalty program? What metrics will be used to evaluate its effectiveness (for example: patient retention rates, referral rates, new patient and revenue growth)?

Ask your patients this one question, “What is one thing we can do for you today that will create your most beautiful smile?”

Most patients will respond by saying, “I want whiter teeth!”

Yes, some will report that they want straight teeth, and many patients will have a variety of other answers. Start asking this question of your patients and see for yourself how your patients respond.

The worst thing that can happen is you may have more patients enroll into Invisalign, veneers and even more teeth whitening.

The latest data shows that only 17% of dental offices actively offer teeth whitening services to their patients. Why is that?

Are we too busy cleaning teeth and trying to get patients to schedule their next dental appointment?

Celebrity Smiles Club is a simple system that will not only keep your schedule full but also this patient reward system has proven to have more new patients call an office and schedule an appointment.

The Celebrity Smiles Club is similar to offering your patients a membership program similar to a COSTCO or NETFLIX membership. When patients are part of “the Club,” they know what is expected to reap their reward: free teeth whitening. Your patients enroll in the Celebrity Smiles Club and know the expectations such as pre-scheduling routine dental hygiene appointments and calling in advance when they need to change an appointment.

When they keep their dental appointments, they are rewarded at their dental hygiene appointments with a free teeth whitening pen!

Teeth whitening is a six-billion-dollar business. Why should your patients buy their teeth whitening products at AMAZON or WALMART?

Using the Celebrity Smiles Club reward system will not only gain more new patients but will keep your schedule full, and when patients enroll in your whitening program, they are less likely to call last minute to change their dental appointment.

Think of using Celebrity Smiles Club as a “Carrot.” It’s that old adage, What’s In It For Me? (WIIFM) that works very well to keep your practice highly profitable!

SCHEDULE HERE

Sustainability Within the Dental Practice

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

July 16, 2022

                                     SUSTAINABLE

The arrival of summer brings with it new hope for sustainability and greener pastures. As more people become aware of the rising threat of global warming, we can see more improvements in the way businesses — large and small — continue operations.

Sustainable practices have been around for quite some time. This movement encourages people to choose less wasteful methods and products for use in their daily lives. And while the biggest target of the sustainability movement is the bigger corporations, dental practices, too, are now using sustainability in business.

Have you implemented green policies in your dental practice? If not, here are seven ideas you can use right now in your business.

Choose to Go Paperless

Going paperless is a great way to optimize your dental practice workflow. It can make setting appointments more convenient for clients. Plus, automated forms are much more reliable than paper, since paperwork can easily be misplaced. There are over a dozen available software for clinics to buy and download.

A few examples are:

Doodle
Calendly
Arrangr
SimplyBook
Appointlet
Woven
CalendarHero
HoneBook
- There are many other applications and software you can try besides the ones mentioned on this list. Take the time to look research them online to find the perfect app that fits your needs.

Partner With Sustainable Businesses

Partnering with other sustainable businesses can help bring your sustainability goals to fruition. Green businesses use environmentally friendly production processes in their operations, reducing their environmental impact and improving carbon emissions. By partnering with these companies, you — in turn — reduce your energy consumption and as a result decrease your carbon footprint.

Consider switching to a green bank that uses sustainable practices during transactions. You can also transfer to green utilities and energy providers, like Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, and Southern Company — among others. Lastly, consider stocking all-natural oral care products from toothpaste to dental floss.

Use Organic or Eco-Friendly Scrubs

Organic or ethical scrubs are now available in most medical practices — including dental practices. Besides reducing your carbon footprint, one of the best things about these products is that they enhance blood circulation and help increase tissue oxygenation. As a result, your body maintains consistent optimal body temperatures, even while you’re hard at work.

There are plenty of brands that now offer ethical scrubs. A few that come highly recommended are Barco One, Bella Organics Medical, Mediclo, Figs and Skechers. Ethical scrubs can cost anywhere between $30 to $70 on up — so they aren’t inexpensive. However, with the right care, they can last you a long time and are incredibly good for the environment and your health.

Say Goodbye to Single-Use Plastics

The thing that most people don’t know about single-use plastics is that they don’t biodegrade. They just break down into microscopic particles that poison our environment. These microplastics end up in our water sources and food, ultimately entering our bodies later in the process.

Human exposure to microplastics is believed to cause oxidative stress in the body, according to researchers. It can also cause DNA damage and inflammation, among many other health conditions.

For dentists, surface barriers, plastic cups, and patient giveaway bags can all be substituted with more eco-friendly and reusable options.

A few examples include:

Metal or autoclavable plastic
Aluminum foil
Biodegradable bags
Fluoride varnish
Autoclave cassettes in reusable cloth
Reusable fabric bags
Bamboo toothbrushes
Biodegradable floss

Minimize Hazardous and Chemical Wastes

Most dental facilities are already required to use amalgam separators due to the quantity of mercury they contribute to wastewater. Another thing you may do to help is to think about greener alternatives to amalgam restorations. Another technique to make a real impact is to use digital photographs rather than traditional film X-rays.

Order in Bulk

This could be the easiest method for your practice to leave a positive impression on the environment. Bundling orders result in less packaging and lower vehicular emissions.

When you buy in bulk, less vehicles are used to deliver a larger variety of dental office supplies. If you have your supplies delivered in larger quantities, larger packaging allows the delivery truck to be packed more efficiently. By using more efficient transportation, you’re also helping to save the environment by lowering CO2 emissions.

Switch to LED Lighting

LED lamps can last up to 20 times longer than conventional lighting. This not only helps the environment but also saves you money on electricity costs. Some LED bulbs have a lifespan of two to three years — or even decades.

Consider the long-term environmental benefits if everyone made this little change, e.g., less landfill waste, less production of new lights, and reduced shipping and packaging—three major criteria used to evaluate environmental problems.

Final Thoughts

Sustainability is not something that anyone can easily achieve in a year. It will take quite some time before you make any noticeable changes to your dental practice. The important thing is that you start as soon as you can. Your efforts will compound and eventually create a larger impact on the environment. Take time to read through the seven ideas we shared today. Try to apply them to your dental practice and see how far it takes you.

Thank you to our Guest Author Kartreena Sarmiento.

LED Red Light & Dental Lasers Used for Canker Sores

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

April 8, 2022

Laser for Canker Sores. Soft Tissue laser to prevent canker sores. Dental Office Treatment of Canker Sores. — Dental Office Treatment of Cancer Sores.

Cold sores are not pretty to look at.

They are uncomfortable, painful, embarrassing, and hard to get rid of.

There are ways to help our dental patients alleviate these unsightly sores and prevent the pain from cancer sores.

Let’s take a deeper look at the cause of these ugly mouth sores and how dental professionals can be an advocate for treatment and prevention.

What is a Canker Sore?

Canker sores are a common viral infection

A cold sore is a group of tiny, painful blisters caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV). They’re also called fever blisters or herpes simplex labialis.

Up to 90% of people around the world experience at least one form of HSV.Dental professionals and especially dental hygienists are great advocates for their patients.

Patients see their dental hygienist routinely and dental professionals review medical histories. We are great messengers to educate or patients in prevention of canker sores and a lot more!

What causes Canker Sores?

Below is a list of triggers for these awful outbreaks:

Stress
Fatigue.
Overexposure to the sun
Exposure to cold temperatures
Upper respiratory infections and fever
Dental services: gum treatment, fillings, etc.
HPV
Hormonal changes
Compromised immune system
Certain foods: acidic foods, certain fruit, and chocolate

Prevention

When we see a medical history and the patient documents frequent cold sores, canker sores and herpetic lesions, we can now advise our patient about ways to help prevent these ugly, painful, mouth sores.

Below is a list of recommendations we can make for our patients who do suffer from canker sores:

Antiviral medications such as valacyclovir (Valtrex) or acyclovir (Zovirax).

Lysine, an essential amino acid is found in protein. It isn’t produced in your body, so you must consume it through an oral supplement or diet.

Common foods rich in lysine include:

beef
chicken
turkey
pork
codfish
sardines
eggs
yogurt
parmesan cheese
spirulina
soybeans

Lysine is essential for our health; it helps with calcium absorption and collagen formation. Many people many not consume enough lysine in their diet. Athletes and/ or vegans may need to consume more.

Lemon Lip Balm for Prevention of Canker Sores. How to prevent canker sores. — Lemon Lip Balm for Prevention of Canker Sores.

Lemon Balm

The antiviral properties of lemon balm, also known as Melissa officinalis, may help reduce the redness or discoloration and swelling associated with a blister, or protect against future infections — at least according to a 1994 study.

Use a lip balm with at least 1 percent lemon balm. Or, as an alternative, a compress made of a lemon balm infusion (tea) may provide similar benefits.

Avoid acidic foods such as citrus fruits and even an abundance or frequent chocolate
Red LED Light Therapy

Hint: Celebrity Smiles LED Red Light can be helpful! Keep reading to discover how. You can help your patients with this simple preventive technology.

Wash your hands often and don’t rub your eyes
Replace your toothbrush often
Don’t kiss someone who has a cold sore or use that person’s utensils, towels, or razors
Apply sunscreen to your face and lips before prolonged exposure to the sun
Replace your lipstick or lip balm often
How to Recognize a Cold Sore Outbreak

If your patient had chicken pox, a herpes virus, or anything similar, they are always at risk for these unsightly sores.

Let’s help our patients recognize the stages of a cold sore and help them put a halt to the progression of these unsightly sores.

Below is a list of what to look for when a cold sore is beginning:

Tingling

Tingling is the first sign of a cold sore and we can educate our patients that this is the most important time to do all that they can to prevent the unsightly sore.

This is the best time for your patients to call your office and on that day they come to your office for a very short appointment and doctor or a laser certified hygienist can use a soft-tissue, diode laser to ZAP the early stages of this canker sore.

Many offices when introducing the soft-tissue laser for prevention of a full-blown-ugly cancer sore educate their patients to call immediate and come in that day for a quick appointment to ZAP the red area that will soon be a canker sore.

You will find that doing this (in the beginning) at no-cost to your patients is a great practice builder!

If you do decide to charge for the ZAP of a cancer sore, the soft-tissue, diode laser does need to be completed at the first signs of a cancer sore and it takes maybe 15 minutes in your office to ZAP the canker sore.

The charge will be minimal and it’s recommended you charge less than $60. Many offices charge approximately $20-30 for a quick ZAP.

It truly is a great marketing tool and helps your patients out in a big say!

Also, recommend your patient use an anti-viral cream such as Abreva. This cream will need to be reapplied frequently and will cost almost as much as the laser treatment at a dental office.

The ZAP of your laser plus the addition of an anti-viral cream makes a big difference in the beginning stages of a canker sore outbreak.

People with Crohns Disease, auto-immune diseases, patients undergoing chemotherapy are known to constantly deal with cold sores so let all your patients know you can easily help them at the first sign of a canker sore.

Your patients will be your raving fans!

Blisters

One stage of cold sores is the blistering stage.

Blisters occur from day two to four of the canker sore outbreak.

These blisters can fill with fluids to make the skin around it swollen and red. Blisters can occur inside the cheeks, nose, and lips, as well as the soft tissues inside your mouth and even your tongue.

The reason for blisters occur is because the immune system is working hard to heal the virus. During this stage, you want to continue using an anti-viral topical cream.

Educate your patients to now squeeze these blisters. Touching and squeezing the blisters will cause transmission of the virus, it will exacerbate the sores and can slow down the healing time.

Oozing

Oozing occurs about day 4-5 of the canker sore outbreak.

This is when the cold sore is most contagious and painful. The blister can burst during this stage.

This can lead to a red round area of inflammation around the affected area.

Scabbing

Scabbing happens around days 5-8, This is when the canker sore dries out and a scab will form. The scabs can feel itchy, they can crack open and shrink.

Cracking will lead to the cold sore bleeding. Other symptoms that may occur include burning and itching.

Healing

Healing starts between days 8 to 10.

The time it takes to heal a canker sore depends on how bad the outbreak is and if you’re your patient began early preventive measures to halt the cold sore.

Canker Sores are Contagious

Oner reason a family of patients all experience cold sores is because they are contagious.

Parents who experience cold sores and kiss their babies are literally transferring the virus to their child.

It is also possible for the cold sore to spread if someone touches the cold sore and then touches another mucous membrane such as the mouth, eyes, or nose.

Cross contamination of the virus can occur when two people share some personal bathroom items, like a toothbrush, a razor or drinking from the same glass. These are all things that when shared with a person who has a cold sore they will spread the virus to another person.

LED Red Light For Prevention of Canker Sores

Conclusion

As dental professionals we are advocates for our patients. Prevention is key and as dental professionals we are armed with the tools to heal and even prevent these unsightly canker sores that many of our patient’s experience.

Dental Practice Solutions offers a Blue/Red LED Light to dental offices that not only helps BOOST whiter teeth but the red LED light has shown great results for people who have various mouth sores.

If patients wear the Red LED light mouthpiece for ten minutes, 2-3 times a week, they are less likely to experience mouth sores from canker sores, that are caused by a virus, chemotherapy, and auto-immune diseases.

Using a diode, soft-tissue laser to ZAP these ugly sores works well and your patients can leave with an LED Red Light to continue preventing a full outbreak of this ugly sore.

Studies have shown that phototherapy, either by LASER and/or LED, is an effective therapeutic modality to promote healing of skin wounds.

Check out our reseller page to order this wholesale LED Light and help your patients prevent canker sores. This RED LED light helps heal oral inflammation, soreness after dental treatment, dental sores, etc. The LED Light mouthpiece can also BOOST whiter teeth.

Find out how to use this in your dental office here.

Take your hygiene department to the next level. Enroll in our course.

Does Your Dental Hygiene Schedule Include a Black Hole?

By: admin

June 20, 2019

Holes in the dental appointment schedule are a huge challenge in today’s world of dentistry.

How much does one hole in your schedule each day cost your dental practice over the next year?

The truth is that is costs your dental practice hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars over a year, if you have just one hole in your schedule.

Does your dental hygiene schedule include a black hole?

Does your dental hygiene appointment include a black hole?

How many times does a dental patient call your office to change their appointment and they tell you they will “Call you back when they have more time?”

In the video I share today, you may think, “this is not our office!.” Your’e saying to yourself we never let patients leave or change an appointment without scheduling their next appointment!

We hear this statement all the time.

THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE

Our team of consultants and dental coaches currently evaluates dental practice key performance indicators (important measurements of success in a dental practice) and I can tell you that it is all too common that we see a huge, long list of patients who left the office without scheduling a next appointment.

Until you look at your numbers, it may appear that you are scheduling every patient with a next dental appointment.

The administrative team is responsible for most of the patient schedule. It’s important that every team member who will schedule a patient appointment understands the dental practice system for scheduling patients.

Working together as a team to have strategic systems and protocols are a key component of every successful dental practice.

The best way a dental hygienist can help reduce the holes in your dental practice schedule is to create value around what is completed at a dental hygiene appointment.

● What does your scheduling system look like?

● Does your team know what is included in your scheduling system?

● What do you say when a patient does need to change their dental appointment?

● How can you reduce the number of patients who call to change a dental appointment?

Much of this relies on your verbal skills, the words you use to add value to the dental services your provide.

Words like “teeth cleaning,” scaling and root planing and even the word decay,” do not add the same value as words such as, “preventive care appointment, gum therapy or gum treatment and cavities or hole in your tooth.” Try using Portland Pothole or just the word “Pothole” next time you see a cavity.

Patients can relate to these words.

One important point to make is this, until your patients say, “Do NOT call me anymore,” continue to follow-up.

Let your patients know you miss them, that you care about them and that a healthy mouth more likely means a healthy body.

No one I know has ever complained because I told them I cared about them.

I must ask, what is your scheduling and change of appointment system?

Does a dental hygiene appointment ever go into a black hole?!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEBBIE SEDIEL-BITTKE, RDH, BS

Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS is founder and CEO of Dental Practice Solutions. Debbie is also a former dental hygiene program director. Her expertise is optimizing the hygiene department by taking a total team approach; including the doctor as the leader.

Check out the Dental Practice University intended for dentists and the entire team.

The university has training video modules, forms and scripts for each department in your dental practice.

The video modules are created for doctor(s) and include information to create a culture to bring in new patients, keep your dental team (employees) the life-time of your dental practice, as well as re-create or create your vision and mission. Doctors receive a 90-Day goal setting journal.

The hygienists have their own training video modules that cover time management, caries risk, treating the gingivitis and perio-patient.

The front office has video modules on phone calls, new patient calls, we provide job descriptions and a lot of information for hiring and keeping employees long-term.

You receive 24 AGD CE Credits. Try the University for FREE the first 2 weeks. Then you pay $97.00 a month indefinitely. You are locked in at $97/month!

The training includes 24 AGD CE Credits over a 12 month time for one person. You can use the training for your entire team but for individual log-ins and the additional AGD CE Credits you pay $20/month for each additional employee.

Learn more about the Dental Practice University here.

Dental Practice Transition How Do You Create A Saleable Practice?

By: admin

June 12, 2019

You cannot have a dental practice transition unless you have a practice that someone else wants to buy. It is critical that you have many factors working in your favor to sell your practice.

There are both physical and esthetic attributes, along with sound business metrics and positive staffing considerations.

The question when considering a dental practice transition is, How do you create a saleable practice?

PHYSICAL AND ESTHETIC ATTRIBUTES

Location is always an important factor in any business or real estate deal. How much traffic goes past your office will help drive up new patients.

● How easy it is to enter and exit your office will help get new patients?
● Are you close to a school or a shopping center?
● Are you in a new or growing part of town or are you in a tired area that is not showing growth?

Next you have to consider the appearance from the road and what the interior of your office is like. Make sure trim is painted and not peeling. Is the landscaping inviting? Is the upholstery on your furniture torn and dirty or bright and comfortable.

● Do you have a physical barrier between the reception area and the receptionist?
● Is the carpet or tile in good shape?

Buyers look at all these things and it will affect their attitude about buying the office.

● Is your dental equipment modern or antique?

Both will sell, but the old stuff will bring a lower price. You will need to calculate what buying new equipment will cost against what the buyer is willing to pay for the old equipment.

Also you need to consider whether you can recoup the cost of replacement against just reducing the price to offset buying new equipment.

● Are you digital?

Any more the standard in any modern office is to have computer records and digital x-rays at the very least. A digital Panorex is prevalent in most offices also. If this is not the case, you will need to consider buying the digital upgrades or recognize that this is a big liability when selling.

BUSINESS METRICS AND STAFFING

If someone is going to buy a business, they have one of two approaches. The first is to buy an office that is profitable with good systems in place. They expect to pay a reasonable price.

The second type is looking for a bargain basement sale. If you are not making a good profit, if your production and collections are not high, if you are not seeing many new patients or have a sizeable group of patients of record, you are not going to get a good offer.

A few years before I sold my practice, I approached an older doctor who was going to close his office without selling it. He had run it down to nearly nothing and the physical plant was old and dated. I bought his phone number and his charts for $5000. I could not activate all his patients of record because they had left because of the state of the practice, but I did activate enough of his clients to more that pay for the cost to buy out the practice and not have another doctor come into our community in his office space.

You have two choices if you do not have good metrics:

1. Sell for less or improve your metrics.

When I sold my office, I had above average numbers, but I wanted to get the maximum return on my 40+ years of practice.

2. Hire an expert to boost your performance and profitability.

I hired consultants to help me improve all the key performance indicators that create success.

This is what you need to make the practice very attractive to the buyers.

I had long-term employees that had good relationships with our patients. This makes a buyer feel better about patient retention after you are gone. We had put in place many systems so that the team knew how to run the office without me micromanaging each and every thing going on in the office. I had many long-time patients that created the base for a smooth transition. The result of these efforts was to increase the sale price by about 30%.

The choice is yours:

Create a great, saleable practice, or bail out of the practice with less return on investment than you could have realized.

If you need help with your transition, give me a call for a free thirty- minute consultation, or engage us for coaching you all the way through your TRANSITION. Also you can get my free E-BOOK at our website, https://dentalpracticesolutions.com/resources

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAVID BLACK, DDS, FICD, FACD

Dr. Black is an associate coach for Dental Practice Solutions. He is “The go-to-expert for all dentists who are thinking about transitioning into retirement or buying their 1st dental practice.

Dr. Black owned his own dental practice for over 30 yrs. There he developed an understanding of the critical importance in development of the owner-doctor’s leadership abilities, in addition to having great clinical skills. Once he built a high-level of productivity in his dental practice, he was able to sell to a group practice; and the rest of his career as a dental practice owner is history.

In 2015, Dr. Black decided to share his knowledge to help other dentists duplicate his level of success, so he became a leadership coach and practice management consultant. His niche is treatment planning and case presentation.

Dr. Black is currently an associate coach and consultant, for Dental Practice Solutions, one of the leading consulting firms for nearly twenty years. As a seasoned practitioner, Dr. Black adds to the proven hygiene profitability coaching that Dental Practice Solutions is well-known for providing, to dental practices around the world.

Dr. Black’s expertise as an EQ and DISC trainer, makes him the best person to help more patients to say “YES!” to your patient care, as well as to enjoy working together as a team and loving what you do for your patients!

Want to have Dr. David Black speak to your study club or dental association?

Click to know more about Dr. David Black’s courses: Speaker Packet

Thinking about taking your dental practice to the next level?

We are looking for a few dental offices to beta-test our Dental Practice University training.

The training has video modules for the doctor, front office, dental hygienists and the entire team. There are scripts, forms and written processes.

You get information about Creating your culture, vision, team huddles that creat big productivity, hygiene video trainings on time management, treating the gingivitis and periodontal patient, CAMBRA, Lasers, phone skills, time management for the front office, handling cancellation calls, reactivating overdue patients, treatment planning, case acceptance, presenting financial arrangements, etc, etc.

There is a lot of training you receive over the next year. There will be hundreds of training video modules. You will also receive 24 AGD CE Credits for participating.

As a beta-tester, you pay nothing. We do ask that you provide feedback and give your opinion and ways to improve the University trainings.

To learn more about the University and to see if your dental team qualifies to be a beta-tester please TEXT: DPU to: 949-351-8741. Please text us: your name, your office name, your best email address and phone number. We will schedule 15 minutes to share more and let you know what we need from you and your team should you be chosen as beta-testers.

RETIREMENT DONE RIGHT: YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN

By: admin

May 30, 2019

I retired from private practice four years ago. I had a successful 40+ year run doing general restorative and cosmetic dentistry. The dental practice had dentist-associates, while I worked as a solo practitioner.

In the end, a couple of young entrepreneurs, new grad dentists, bought my dental practice and I worked as an associate for four years before stepping away from the chair.

Retirment, done right.

It is not just the act of stepping away from clinical dentistry. There are many things that need to be considered before leaving your dental practice.

Can I get full value at the sale?
Can I even sell the practice?
Do I have adequate funds to be able to live well for the next 20-30 years?
What will I do in retirement?

Let’s continue this discussion of retirement done right and your retirement plan.

Can I get full value at the time of the sale?

This is also tied to the question, do you have enough saved to retire? I worked with practice management consultants about ten years before I sold to analyze my situation. I discovered I needed to increase the value of the practice by increasing the production and collections in the practice.

Most dental practice sales are based on one of several evaluations, but mostly a three- year average of your collections. What that meant for me was the need to get another practice management consultant to help me improve my systems, train my staff to be more productive, and save a large portion of my increases.

Values and production have changed in the ten years since I did this, but back then the magic number was to get production/collections above one million dollars. I am sure the ideal number is higher than that now. The proposition is that you have to create an asset that someone finds valuable.

To get top dollar, you must create something that is something of value, but also something the buyer sees as having growth potential. This sometimes means improving the physical plant or doing cosmetic things to increase value. The biggest thing you have to do is increase the total collections.

Can I even sell the dental practice?

I bought the records of a practice for $5000 when the aging doctor decided to retire. Unfortunately, he had ridden the practice down to next to nothing. His physical plant was old and the equipment was ancient.

I have seen several doctors just walk away from their dental practice. For that reason, I intentionally positioned myself to sell at the peak of production and I made my office attractive and functional.

Some small rural areas may have the same problem as this dentist I bought out because it is hard to find doctors who want to live in the area. You can discuss what you have with a broker or a consultant that helps with transitions to see if you have a problem practice you want to sell.

Do you have adequate funds to be able to live well for the next 20-30 years?

We are living longer. My financial planner told me we have to plan to survive until age 93. The good news is that we are enjoying a longer life.

The bad news is that we need more money and other assets to support us for more years. This is something I did not have the skill to project, so I found another dental expert to help me plan. Hopefully you will have a paid-for home and other cash producing assets in addition to your retirement funds to help.

You also have to figure what your standard of living is and how much it will cost you to have a lasting income. The answer to this is to start early, defer as much gratification as you possibly can, so that you can survive your extra years in comfort.

My reality was that I did not have enough and I wasn’t on the correct financial trajectory at first, but with planning and execution, I finally made it. At the rate I am going, I should spend my last dollar at age 93.

What will I do when I retire?

Some people are lucky enough to feel good just laying back, resting, playing golf every day and generally just taking it easy.

Unfortunately, I was not wired that way. I wanted to do something that fulfilled my need to create a legacy and create more income to do extra things around the house or for my family.

I work part-time in an FQHC clinic, teach, coach and consult, along with lecturing and writing. I call that being “REPURPOSED”, not retired. That is me.

What about YOU? As long as you have a plan that makes you feel good and cares for whatever your needs are, go for it.

All of us will retire or die first. The sad news is that our bodies cannot continue to do the hard work of dentistry forever.

Plan, Save, Enjoy!

If I can help you in your Retirement planning, contact me at www.https://dentalpracticesolutions.com and grab my e-book, “Transition Now!”

ABOUT DAVID BLACK, DDS,FICD, FACD

Dr. Black is currently an associate dental coach and consultant, for Dental Practice Solutions, one of the leading consulting firms for nearly twenty years. As a seasoned dental practitioner, Dr. Black adds to the proven dental hygiene profitability coaching that Dental Practice Solutions is well-known for providing, to dental practices around the world.

You can contact him for a FREE Coffee Chat HERE.

Overcoming Overwhelm In The Dental Office

By: admin

May 21, 2019

Do you feel like you have too much to do and so little time to do it?

If you said YES, to this question, you are not alone.

I am hearing dental professionals around the world say they feel overwhelmed and they say they can’t complete it all!

I decided to attack this complaint head-on. I am on a mission to help you do more in less time.

Let’s strategize ways to overcoming overwhelm in the dental office.

24 Hours in a Day

We all have the same 24 hours in a day. This is something that we can’t change.

What we can change is how we look at MORE.

There will always be more.

There will be more holes in your schedule.

OUCH!

More holes in your schedule is NOT a good type of more.

There will always be more insurance claims to submit.

There will be more calculus to remove on people’s teeth.

Instead of looking at more as a negative, let’s flip this and look at more as a good thing.

More new patients. That is good; right?!

More calculus to scale?

Another good thing; right?

This means you have a J O B.

How many emails do you have to read each day?

How many voice messages did you listen to today?

How many text messages will you read today?

It feels a bit stressful to look down at your cell phone and see ten text messages and then we have those voice messages! This adds to more time away from doing something else you probably enjoy MORE of.

There is something MORE you would rather do than these type of tasks.

BTW: I decided to not delete my voice messages last week because I felt overwhelmed with all the messages. I thought, if this is an important call, this person can text or email me.

And yes, one person could not leave an important message because my voice mailbox was full. So guess what?!

This person emailed me. Then when I had a few minutes, I emailed them back.

180 Degree Shift

Let’s shift this negativity around MORE into MORE as a good thing.

How about if we now focus on:

More money.

More friends.

More hours of work because this means more production.

More production means a great chance of paying the bills for the dental practice, more money to share with the team, more money to buy new equipment.

The Plan To Overcome Overwhelm

Feel Gratitude

Each day take just three to five minutes and write three things that you are grateful for.
Write down the first three things that come to mind.
After you start to do this daily, your gratitude will come very easily.

I write silly things down that I am grateful for. Things like my electric toothbrush, my sweet dog and loving cat.

When you focus on the positive and especially before you go to bed, there is a shift in your thoughts.

Negative thoughts more easily turn to positive thoughts.

Every 90 Days, Write A List Of What You Have Accomplished

Look back ninety days and think about what you have accomplished since that day ninety days ago.

If you can’t think back that far then get your calendar and go to ninety days from today. Mark today’s date on the calendar ninety days away.

Now when you get to that date on your calendar you can think back to today and know how much you have accomplished.

You have come a long way in ninety days. This is turning LESS into MORE.

There is always MORE to be grateful for.

Volunteer, Give Back

Now this may sound counter-intuitive but when you have the opportunity to help people who don’t have as much as you, there is a natural shift into what you feel grateful for.

If you are able to read this, I know that you are in the top 10% of the population in this world!

I would love to know if this has helped you to overcome the overwhelm.

I get it!

I understand how much we have to do in a dental office and in life, in general.

Let’s create solutions to overcome the overwhelm.

Let me know by commenting below, if this has helped you to overcome the overwhelm.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEBBIE SEDIEL-BITTKE, RDH, BS

Debbie founded Dental Practice Solutions in 2000. She speaks at dental conferences throughout the world and also coaches and consults with dental practices worldwide.

The team at Dental Practice Solutions takes a holistic approach working with each dental practice. Debbie understands how to quickly tap into productivity of the dental hygiene department to optimize systems with the entire team, showing everyone how to work smarter and not work so hard.

Thinking about taking your dental practice to the next level?

We are looking for a few dental offices to beta-test our Dental Practice University training.

The training has video modules for the doctor, front office, dental hygienists and the entire team. There are scripts, forms and written processes.

There is a lot of training you receive over the next year. There will be hundreds of training video modules. You will also receive 24 AGD CE Credits for participating.

As a beta-tester, you pay nothing. We do ask that you provide feedback and give your opinion and ways to improve the University trainings.