Holy Hygiene

Actually, I meant holey hygiene.  I hear more and more dentists and staff members wondering aloud about where this economy is going to take us.  And they're right to wonder.  What's not right is sitting around waiting for it to happen to you or your practice.  Like I said in my last post, What are you waiting for?  Don't wait for the tides of fate to wash in and drag your hard earned success away, meet it head on and swim with it, don't drown because of it.  And don't let it wash away any of your team members, either.  Team members; don't sit around waiting to be rescued, you can take these tips back to your offices and get things moving yourself.

The way I see it, people are responding to high gas prices, high food prices, lay-offs and the terrible housing market buy cutting costs.  They are looking for things that they think are not that important and putting them off.  For some reason, bi-annual recall visits seem to be falling into that category.  I do notice that the same person will not dream of pushing her hair appointment back a week though.  That's because so much of how we think others perceive us is all about how we look.  They don't realize that good, timely dental care can preserve a youthful, healthy appearance and ward off gum disease and tooth deterioration.  The first thing I did when I noticed some holes in our hygiene schedule was to use that time to our advantage.  I lengthened appointments so that the hygienists could take extra time educating their patients and answering their questions.  A hygienist who has a good manner while educating patients can be an awesome marketing tool. They can make the patient understand that pushing off hygiene appointments can end up costing the patient more in the long run than it saves for the moment.

Next, I looked at it from the patient's point of view.  What can we do to help them and to help them save money.  Not every patient needs to be examined by the dentist at every 6 month interval if they have been decay free, have a low plaque score and keep regular appointments.  So, on these individuals, if the hygienist does not see any problems and the patient asks to skip the exam, we do, but he will examine at the next appointment and he will review any x-rays that were taken.  It's better for someone to see them, than to lose them for the prophy, too.  For others, who seem to have endless decay and breaking down teeth, we try to help them prioritize and work with them to get the work done by using an in-office payment plan or a lending company like Capitol One or Care Credit. 

We also developed a few very individualized appointment types.  We noticed that a lot of our patients in braces were not doing such a great job with their home care.  We offer an oral hygiene instruction appointment with the hygienist.  She will demonstrate floss threading, proxabrushing, proper brushing and flossing technique, give a fluoride treatment and talk to the Mom about products that can help.  It's a 20 minute appointment that gets the child's and parent's notice.  We usually see improvement when they return.

We offer a caries control/xerostomia control appointment for our older patients.  We have them come in three months after their regular prophy and do a prophy cup polish, proxabrushing, fluoride treatment, and again go over homecare and products that can help.  We give them a Collis Curve toothbrush if it will help or a battery-operated spinbrush if that seems better suited to them, depending on dexterity.  We also give a very nice sample of Biotene, that we receive free for the asking from Biotene. 

We/ve just added a sensitivity control appointment.  With so many patients bleaching their teeth these days, we noticed that many are dealing with sensitivity.  At this appointment the hygienist will do a fluoride treatment and apply desensitizer.  She will also go over some Omni products that we carry that can help with sensitivity.  We've had a great response with Soothe Rx.  Patients have told us that it's the first thing that's really worked for them.

When times are challenging, it's time to think outside of the box.  You can't keep doing what you've always done, because it just won't work anymore.  Respond with win-win ideas and the patients, the staff and the practice will benefit.

Comments

[Renee]

Great ideas Linda!
We did something similar in our office...a large percentage of our patient base are younger children & teenagers. We laminated the ADA journal write-up (February 2008)about dental sealants & talk with the parents about the benefits. Since most insurances will cover sealants as a preventive measure, the parents don't have an additional amount out of pocket, but the value of the hygiene appointment increases significantly. We've also found that some plans are covering sealants for adults (w/out age limitation) & will cover for molars & bicuspids. Even when a plan doesn't cover sealants for adults, we've had parents request the sealants for themselves & they are willing to pay for them out of pocket.
We feel that this continues to add value for our patients, and goes a long way toward keeping our patient's trust with our office & that we are focused on their continued dental health.

[Linda Zdanowicz]

Hi Renee, another thing to remind parents about is that the cost of one restoration is often not much more than the cost of sealing all the child's molars. Better to spend the money on prevention, than on fixing something that could have been avoided.
Linda

[Dental Implants India]

Thanks for this great post.

And regarding Soothe Rx its a truly what makes all feel the best and one thing that generally works for all my clients too.

Greetings

[Alena]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Alena

http://dogfurniture.info

[Emergency Dentists Chandler]

Prevention should be the best. Whatever happened to "visit your dentist" at least twice a year?

[valswhiteteeth]

With appearance being such a priority in our society you would think people would realize that having healthy teeth is crucial to having that winning smile. People can use at home teeth whitening products and brush and floss as much as they want, but it's just not the same as a good dental cleaning. I mean let's face it people, we only get one set of adult teeth, let's do what we can to keep them!

[los angeles dental]

Hygiene is a very important part of dental care. There are many ways to take care of your teeth at home but sometimes, it is not enough to do that. So we should take an expert advice about how to take care of our dental health and necessary treatment should be taken before it will get worse.