When we talk about the growth of our dental practice, one of the most important things that we have to consider is to deal with our patients the right way! And this is something we focus specifically at our dental practice growth website. In this article, Wendy Briggs will talk about how she, along with her dental team, deal with their patients every day in the office… and eventually get them to pay, stay and refer, which promotes the growth of their dental practice.
Here’s how she spends the day in the office:
Often, I’m asked “Wendy, what is it that you do everyday in the office?”, “What do you say to your patients?”, and “How does it go when you try to introduce your patients to the doctor and the hygiene assistant?”. So, what I tell the patients is that when the doctor comes in, he’s going to talk about any treatment that they need in three categories: Mandatory, Elective or Cosmetic Categories; and we explain each of these categories to them. Mandatory Category refers to anything that is broken, infected or has a cavity. Elective Category refers to anything that by taking care of it now, it can probably save the patients from future problems and can save them money down the road if such concerns are taken care of immediately. Cosmetic Category is anything that could cosmetically enhance their teeth or their smile. So for example, if the patient needs to have braces done; we first tell them that they need the braces, and ask them what area in their mouth bothers them, and then ask them “Is that something that you might like to talk about a solution for?” So, in this case, we tell them that we have a great option called Invisalign, or the clear braces we call “clear aligners”, which are good substitute for the traditional metal braces. We tell them that they just have to wear it at night and that these clear aligners are such a great option for relapse (this is what we call when the patient had braces before but the teeth kind of shifted back and moved). And we tell them that Invisalign is such a great option/solution for relapse is because it is usually very quick, and they can use it around 8-12 months, and they’re right back where they were when the patients got their braces off. And if they’d like the solution, then we can talk to the doctor if the patient is a good candidate for Invisalign. And we also give our patients a “tour” where they can see what’s inside of their mouth (so that they can see it as we see it). With the help of dental technologies, we will be able to let the patient look at what we identify as dark areas in their teeth, discolored areas in their tooth fillings, etc. So we give the patients whatever their Elective and Mandatory options are for the problems that we both see in their mouth. And then we’ll let them choose the options/solutions that they want to have. So following these steps that we do can really help in increasing the number of patients in your practice, and thus promote the growth of your dental practice.
In addition, teamwork is also necessary in the business. You should have a reliable staff that can help you in the X-rays, probing depths, etc. Having a good level of teamwork (with two hygienists and one assistant in our case) can help really help you in gaining more money in a day in your practice. The beautiful thing is when you work hard enough on the systems and develop these systems, ultimately down the road you can just plug the right people in. And although it may seem challenging revising what you’re doing, switching to a different level of hygiene; just hang in there… because I think it’s definitely worth it for the growth of your dental practice. Just keep working hard and good things will just happen!
Log on to our dental practice growth website, www.DentistProfits.com and get a free CD and Book titled, “How To Predictably Grow Your Practice 25-35% Every Year While Enjoying More Control, Time Off, And Bottom-Line Net Profits!“.
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