Often, a person’s perception is heavily influenced by what they hear. How would you describe your practice or the services that you provide? Are you underselling what you offer? When patients come to you, they trust you because they know you will be open, honest, and able to explain the state of their oral health in a way that they will understand. The language you choose should be carefully chosen to convey your message. Find out more about how you can improve your dental communication by reading the following tips.

A “Comprehensive Examination” or “Check-Up”

To most people, “check-ups” sound like a useless and menial procedure. When dental care is referred to in this manner, the quality of the care is diminished. Consider it similar to taking your car in for an annual tune-up. Use the more professional-sounding “comprehensive examination.” This emphasizes that you and your team are doing a lot more than just looking at the teeth. While performing a thorough cleaning and looking for signs of decay or oral cancer, you are also providing recommendations for additional treatment. This goes far beyond a routine checkup.

“It’s just a…”

This is a phrase you shouldn’t use when leading to a diagnosis. By saying, ‘it’s just a cavity or ‘it’s just a little inflammation, you are minimizing the importance of taking action in the first place. Your patients might interpret this as an approval to put off treatment until later. Many people are unaware of the importance of their oral health, and how oral diseases may spread, worsen, and result in other painful and expensive problems. Your diagnosis should be crystal clear to your patients, but never suggest that they can wait or that the diagnosis is unimportant.

“Whitening” is Not the Same as “Bleaching”

When speaking with patients about whitening treatments, use the word “whitening” rather than “bleaching”. For some patients, this is an indication that the whitening process involves the use of bleach. Additionally, it sounds a lot more painful than “whitening.” The use of the term “bleaching” implies that harsh chemicals are involved. Using the term whitening is a great term to use since it accurately describes what the treatment is about: whitening the smile of the patient.

Choosing the right terminology is very important. Your patients rely on your communication skills to learn about their oral health. You should always be clear, concise, and honest with them. In general, the public does not always view dental professionals in a positive light. Transparency in communication is one of the best ways to bridge the gap between your team and your patients. By describing your services in strong and descriptive terms, you can help to demonstrate your value to your patients and avoid undermining the importance of your work.

To obtain more information, or to schedule a consultation, please do not hesitate to contact Victory Dental Management.

Are you feeling tired, stressed, and overwhelmed at the moment, which has affected your productivity? If so, you’re not alone, and we can help you through it. There is no reason to feel discouraged or alone if you or your team experience burnout as a dentist or as a member of the team. Everyone experiences burnout from time to time. To prevent burnout from negatively affecting your practice, you need to learn how to identify it and manage it.

How to Identify Burnout

When you are tired, unfocused, or bored, you may experience burnout. Does your team lack the same enthusiasm as before? It is important to look into these clues and behaviors as soon as you recognize them. As you have built relationships with the patients who truly depend on you and your team throughout your career in dentistry, you have invested countless hours into gaining their trust. It is important not to let a temporary period of burnout affect your confidence in your work. Instead, it’s time to re-energize your approach and focus on the things that matter to you. 

Identifying Areas of Concern

When production numbers start to slip, look at what is affecting them and pay attention to the relationships and rapport in your office. Morale can suffer when a department’s numbers drop, which can hurt the office as a whole. As soon as the problem area has been identified, your team can begin implementing a solution. In our experience, the best way to handle this situation is to have a team huddle and come up with an action plan together.

Explore New Areas

Burnout may be an indication that the time has come to learn a new skill. By giving your team the chance to learn new skills it creates a sense of accomplishment and growth. It is a good idea to enroll in a continuing education course or workshop on a new or intriguing topic. A great way to boost your appointment numbers if they are dwindling is by increasing the number of services that you provide. What additional training do you need for your staff? Perhaps you should decide on a course that everyone can attend together. Furthermore, you will improve your relationships with each other as well as the morale of your team as a whole.

There is no doubt that even the most talented dental team can suffer from burnout. Once you start to notice the signs of burnout, don’t wait for them to disappear on their own. Rather, take action as soon as you notice them and identify what needs to be improved.

Our consulting team is here to help. Contact Victory Dental Management today!

Time is your most valuable resource. Time management can be challenging on certain days, but it can also be impossible. Examine your current methods of organizing your schedule. Is there any other tool you could be using to keep your practice’s most valuable asset intact? Consider these three solutions.

1. Review Your Management Techniques

Without spending a dime, you can buy time. Implement a new method of monitoring practice productivity. In a quick email, have your team document their activities for the day. A quantitative listing of duties for each staff member allows the easy reference in the future. Using this technique, you don’t have to micromanage your staff by asking them, “What are you doing today?”.” A full day of appointments makes it hard to implement managerial tasks.

By keeping track of what each team member contributes, you can cut down on daily meetings. Keeping track of the tasks completed at the end of the day helps everyone at your practice be aware of who must take responsibility for what.

2. Optimize your productivity with apps

“Time lost cannot be regained.” How can you make use of this information in your daily tasks? Keeping track of your practice can be made more accessible by utilizing various services and applications available on your mobile device. Such applications can be beneficial to your practice. Modern technology allows businesses to manage all aspects of their operations without relying on manual processes.

Using scheduling software and apps is beneficial. Rather than sending emails in real-time, you can schedule them to remind patients to book their next appointment at your office. It can be a valuable tool for patient retention because it keeps you in constant contact with your patients. You can save time by using apps such as these and keeping track of how your practice is doing. 

3. Take advantage of a faster check-in

The time that slips through your fingers is not always your team’s fault. It only takes one late patient to throw the entire day off. Be sure to make registering your patients as simple as possible. Prepare complaint forms online so that patients can fill them out before attending the office. It will help run your practice smoothly if your patients can fill out forms in advance. Work with your patients to ensure a smoother and faster registration process, so you do not earn a reputation for being behind schedule. This will prevent patients from completing redundant forms. If possible, rework any documents or forms so that your patients do not have to fill out the same information more than once.

Time management is a skill that successful business leaders possess. Make sure strategies are in place to measure productivity with factual data. With technology, you can assist your patients, make your life easier, and save time. Be proactive and rethink your time management strategies rather than watching sand fall through the timer.

Contact us with any questions you may have. We look forward to hearing from you.

Can you imagine what the dental profession will look like in 10 years? What action plan will you and your team use to prepare for success in the future? 

Having a big picture in mind is a trait that dentists have. As an oral health professional, you face this responsibility every day, as your patients rely on your experience and expertise to sustain their oral health throughout their lifetime. But are you putting strategies in place to maintain your company in the long run?

Change is taking place in dentistry. An ever-changing range of technology creates entirely new procedures every day, which can benefit your business by creating a new market of prospective patients. Additionally, the business landscape of the profession is changing. A field primarily dominated by independently owned companies has increasingly become corporate-dominated. Determine how your business model fits into the landscape of different business strategies used in dentistry.

The future will continue to bring changes in dentistry, that is certain. Did you ever imagine using technology to order supplies or recruit patients when you opened your dental practice? There will be developed technologies to bridge the gap between dentist and patient in terms of education and communication in the future.

Building trusting, loyal relationships will remain the key to success. Your marketing messages need to emphasize the differences between your practice and your competitors. Your practice’s rebranding can attract your ideal new patients and freshen its appeal to its community.

Despite the changes in the world around us, many things remain the same. It should not be a surprise or cause for concern that the dental profession will change in the future. Stay optimistic, and create an action plan. 

Get in touch with our office today. We can begin the process of planning for the future.