Dental Products Report-2011-01-01

The new year brings many of us face to face with a daunting set of wish lists. We call them “resolutions” or even “goals.” We look at what we want to accomplish personally and professionally and-having written them down-proceed to ignore them and work in ways that manage to bring about somewhat opposite results. How does that happen?

You may not be a football fan, but hang in here for a minute with the analogy, because there are some important dental “plays” that you can implement when you have a change in your schedule.

The take-aways Treatment planning should involve the entire team, including the patient, lab technicians and specialists. Today, there are plenty of high-tech options to help you get your patients to the smile they want. You have more control than ever before.

Dr. Todd Babineaux New Iberia, Louisiana General dentist, LSU School of Dentistry 1987

As dentists and hygienists, we’re blessed to be in such a wonderful profession. Dentistry has an amazing track record of innovation that has improved the lives of our patients in amazing ways. The best part is we continue to innovate and find ways to make our treatment easier, more predictable, and longer lasting. Those are great benefits to our patients.

The take-aways

You may be finding it more challenging to fill both the doctor’s schedule and the hygiene schedule and keep them filled. Many patients have had financial setbacks because of our still challenging economy, and many other patients seem reluctant to spend money on anything but what they consider essential. Maybe your number of new patients has declined too? Here are some steps that self-directed appointment coordinators can take to keep the schedule full and productive and also increase the number of new patients:

01 OralDNA® Labs is relatively new to the dental industry. Can you provide a little background? The company was formed in May 2008 in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood, Tenn., by an experienced group of health care and business professionals whose specialty is in establishing and managing diagnostic laboratories. In May of 2009 OralDNA® Labs was acquired by Quest Diagnostics®.

The take-aways

The wonderful thing about the beginning of a new year is it allows us to close the door on the past and set new goals and strategies for a positive future. Let’s face it, 2010 was a tough one for most. The good news is patients continued to say “yes” and receive the dental treatment they desire and deserve, and a good number of dental offices still experienced many successes (though we had to work a little harder to achieve them).