The DMD Top 5 for the Week Ending March 17

1. The Most Popular Vacation Destinations for Americans: Buoyed by a strong dollar, the number of Americans who traveled internationally increased over a 10-month period in 2016, compared to the same time frame in 2015, according to Hotels.com. Europe continues to be popular. Hotel prices decreased significantly in London by 11 percent, in Milan by 15 percent and in Paris by 12 percent, making those destinations budget-stretchers.

2. How a Negative Dental Practice Review Can Lead to a HIPAA Violation: Your practice just received a patient review on the internet that you know is inaccurate or unfair. What do you do? How you respond can have major legal and professional consequences, if you take the wrong approach. Here are some tips on proper courses of action.

3. DMD Check-Up: Booze for Nervous Dental Patients: Would you ever offer patients at your practice booze to settle their nerves? The Texas legislature is weighing a bill that would ban all healthcare providers from doing so in the state. Apparently, dentists are offering patients booze elsewhere, too. Additionally, in a rather bizarre story, a Washington state-based dentist is accused of drawing a gun on a man in his practice’s parking lot.

4. Who's Handling Your Dental Practice Finances?: If you’re not certain who’s handling your dental practice finances, you’re not alone. But that doesn’t mean it’s a comfortable position to be in. Making certain that your dental practice finances are in the right hands is critical to your practice’s financial success.

5. Hinman Dental Meeting: How Dentists Can Achieve Financial Independence: The competition in the dental practice market has greatly increased. Dental school education debt is skyrocketing. Practice growth is the biggest challenge facing dentists today. Dentists should increase their fees annually, according to John K. McGill, C.P.A., who will be speaking at the upcoming Hinman Dental Meeting, which takes place in Atlanta from March 23-25.