Practice Management

By now most of us realize the dental laboratory industry has dramatically changed and will never return to what it was five -to-six-years ago. In addition to technology and our stubborn economy, we are faced with two other important factors that are changing the face of our industry. First, the amount of laboratory work that’s being outsourced has increased at a higher rate than many industry leaders first predicted. This has obviously reduced a considerable amount of market share available to U.S. laboratories.

When deciding to enter the world of marketing, it’s essential for dentists to start not only with an idea of what they’d personally like to accomplish, but also what experts agree are the most urgent and important marketing strategies. This approach enables dental practices to create a more measured and organized marketing plan based on what works in the real world, rather than simply focusing on what might subjectively feel “important” in the moment.

When clinicians at Carmel Plaza Dental needed to line the practice’s compressed air system, they looked to Nu Flow for help.

  Value Defined We all want and deserve to receive value for our investment. Value can mean different things to different people. One might value getting his or her website up and running quickly, while another might be more exacting and patient. One practice might value appearance more highly than function. Still another might prefer quantity over quality of website visitors.

If someone were to tell you they knew about a powerful practice building tool that involves no selling, costs little (or nothing) to implement, enhances patient loyalty, encourages referrals, attracts new patients, builds team morale, makes a positive difference for those in need, is repeatable, and lots of fun, would you want to learn more?

Wayne Gretsky once said, “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you do not take.” Rather than avoid new technology altogether, it is critical to think strategically about costs and benefits so that when you do purchase that next piece of equipment, you’re sure to score on at least some of your ROI goals. Can I expect a return of three to 10 times the cost of my purchase? Will me and my team be more efficient or balanced in our work?

Twenty years of managing people and dealing with HR issues for number of large IT organizations prepared me surprisingly well for my first-hand work in the front end of a two-doctor dental office. The lessons learned carry over to address some of the challenges of running a successful practice. Prime among these challenges is the never-ending quest to fill vacant office positions. Complicating this issue is the increasing reliance on part-time and temporary help, and the difficulty in identifying truly qualified candidates.

The A-dec LED Dental Operatory Light delivers a combination of color temperature accuracy and high color rendering index value that reportedly give the truest illumination on the new dental product market. It also features a thin profile, passive thermal management, and easy positioning.

  Example of direct mail campaign tracking program There are many elements to a marketing plan you can track with TTN (tracking telephone numbers). Here’s a sample marketing plan and how you can track the results.

The Dual Accelerated, Tri-Barrel Hydremide Peroxide technology results in a reduction of in-office time by 50% and significantly lowers costs, while providing the same intense whitening results. Evolve offers whitening systems for every situation and type of patient from at-home-only whitening to combination in-office and at-home whitening, from average patients to geriatric patients and even tetracycline-stained patients.

Technological advancements have improved virtually every aspect of dentistry in recent decades, from implants to digital x-rays, from orthodontics to bone grafting. The way most of us communicate with our patients, however, has remained essentially unchanged throughout the better part of the last century. Yet patient communication is a significant business driver for our practices-it’s at least as important, arguably more so, than the high-tech procedures we all perform on a daily basis. Generic isn’t good enough

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:

Most dentists I talk to have an image in their heads of the ideal new patient. Not only does this person come in to the practice needing extensive care, he or she also understands the value of dentistry and has therefore budgeted the money to start comprehensive treatment right away. On the surface, this seems to make sense-after all, patients with high need and a high dental IQ offer the best opportunity for revenue, right? Not quite.

Successful case acceptance-especially among new patients-begins long before case presentation. When a new patient enters your office, his antenna is finely tuned for all messages-spoken and unspoken-that will help him form an impression of your practice. When that impression is positive, it increases your chances of treatment acceptance.

our goal is to be totally paperless by 2012, and to get that accomplished we knew we needed to convert to digital x-rays. XLDent was able to provide the digital x-rays and other things we needed to benefit our practice. They’ve been wonderful in helping us get to where we want to be. We’re not 100% paperless yet as we still use paper charts on a minimal basis, but otherwise we’re pretty much all the way there.

It never fails to amaze me how many dentists have purchased “stuff” for their practice, only to have an important piece of “must-have” technology gathering dust several weeks (or months) later for lack of use. Even in this challenging economy technology purchases are still being made, although many dentists and teams appear much more cynical when it comes to silver bullet promises or fairy tale hopes for results.

The history of the public's perception of dentistry may be viewed as consisting of three waves. I like to describe the first wave with the term "Feel Well Dentistry."  During this wave, dentists were perceived as first and foremost who to call to get you out of tooth pain. 

January 2010 | Dental Products Report 10 questions: Rich Hirschland Q +A: Rich Hirschland President, Dental Systems Group for Carestream Health Inc.   Photo: President Dental Systems Group for Carestream Health Inc. 01 What sets PracticeWorks, a division of Carestream Health, apart from the rest of the industry?

With the economic prosperity of the eighties, and advances in esthetic dentistry and technology, many dentists became of the opinion that treating new patient emergencies was a waste of the dentist’s and team’s time. Symptomatic of this is what one heard when calling such a dental practice after hours: “If you are a patient of record with an extreme dental emergency you may call xxx-yyy-zzzz.” New patients were deliberately discouraged from calling.

Pulling teeth by day and devising inventions by night.

Information provided by Patterson With a focus on increasing everyday efficiency, Eaglesoft 16 Practice Management Software was created based on customer feedback and is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, giving each member of the dental team the power to do more in less time. Patterson Dental’s latest version of its integrated dental software comes with a new look, greater functionality and enhanced adaptability.

Amy Morgan is CEO of the Pride Institute. With Pride since 1993, she is a sought-after educator who still consults one-on-one with practices.

Small-headed handpieces are nothing new. I’m guessing most of us have owned one at some point in our careers. We’ve been enamored by their compact size but underwhelmed by their ability to cut tooth structure.

There may be a “cool factor” that gets some people excited about new technologies, but CAD/CAM systems are business tools designed to make dental labs more efficient and productive. Taking something once done physically and moving it into a virtual environment can offer practical benefits to many labs. But if you aren’t marketing around your new capabilities and efficiencies, you’re not going to be maximizing your investment.

2009 was a year filled with opportunity and challenge (more of the latter than some may have preferred).  As the pace of change continues to accelerate, we should expect no shortage of challenge and opportunity in 2010. Much of this opportunity for growth will continue to be found online, specifically, in the area of reputation management. The challenge will lay largely in trying to keep up without being distracted from what you find fulfilling and profitable.

It seems as though just a few years ago, business banking was pretty simple and straightforward. The typical dental practice had checking and savings accounts, and patients paid by cash, check or insurance. Then along came a dizzying array of bank offerings – credit products, online banking, cash sweeps and a myriad of other services.

Ina Pockrass, Co-Founder of the Eco-Dentistry Association, will join the Whole Tooth blog radio show on March 20 to discuss how dentists can make their dental practices green.   Click here for more information.

The dental profession certainly knows what goodwill is and what the general understanding of its value means to the dental practice and its owner. Most experts allocate high percentages of the value of the dental practice as a whole to goodwill, compared to equipment, supplies and other items in the sales agreement or valuation report. Goodwill is a method of choice for allocation when a seller looks at tax implications from his or her sale compared to other sources of designation of assets or service and administrative charges for their sale.

Whatever role you play in your practice-doctor, front desk team member, the assistant, the hygienist, or another valuable job within the practice-your communication and interaction with the patients directly impacts their relationship with the practice. In order for the patient to feel they are receiving individualized care, it becomes essential for all team members to be aware of each patient’s needs. Each team member is critical to setting and managing the patients’ expectations for care and service.