The fine folks over at Gendex are currently offering US dentists an opportunity to win a free GSX-700 Digital Intraoral Sensor (Valued at $22,470) for your practice.

Gendex GXS-700 Features

If you’re not familiar with the Gendex GXS-700, here are some exciting features:

High Quality Image Capture

• Advanced CMOS sensor technology enhances image quality, elevating technical and diagnostic capabilities
• High-performance sensor captures high resolution images, providing more than 20 visible line pairs per millimeter
• Working within a wide dynamic range of x-ray exposure settings provides consistent image quality and repeatable results

Two Ergonomically Designed Sensor Sizes

• Size 1 and Size 2 accommodate children and adults
• Rounded corners and smooth edge finishes comfortably fit the anatomical shape of the oral cavity
• Durable materials and components increase the life span of the product

Direct USB Connectivity

• Ultra-portable sensors with Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity
• No need for USB controllers, adapters, or docking stations
• Low power consumption

For additional information regarding the GXS-700, visit the Gendex website.

How to Enter

Entering the Gendex GXS-700 Sweepstakes couldn’t be easier. Simply head on over to the Gendex website and fill in the Sweepstakes Entry Form. That’s it!

If you aren’t familiar with Google Places (Formerly Google Local Search), then have a look at a post I wrote not long ago which provides a good overview: Why you should be using Google Places.

Add or Claim Your Listing

Google Places provides an easy way for you to drive targeted traffic to both your website and your physical practice locations. If you haven’t already set up your Google Places’ listing(s), then set aside 15-20 minutes to do so – you’ll be glad you did.

If you need help adding or claiming your listing, check out these step-by-step instructions for doing so or view this comprehensive how-to video produced by google.

Why Ranking in Google Places is Important

Ranking in Google Places is vitally important for your practice. With a Google Places listing your practice can appear near the top of the search results in your area for terms like “dentist” and “dentist in XXXX”.

Secondly, with a Google Places listing, you can look forward to much more targeted traffic than organic (non-Google Places) search results. Search engine optimization experts will tell you that targeted traffic means higher converting traffic, and higher converting traffic means more customers for you.

Major Google Places Ranking Factors

There are a number of factors that determine where your listing will be ranked within Google Places. Here are the biggies (in no particular order):

• 100% Complete Business Profile
• Claiming your listing
• Citations

Tips Your Competition Doesn’t Know About

The following tips will help you to maximize your ranking from within Google Places in local searches (in no particular order). Naturally, the more of these tips you implement the better.

1. Complete your business profile – Make sure that your Google Places profile is completely filled out. Simply provide as much information as you possibly can.

2. Claim your listing – In some cases, Google has already created a basic listing for your business within Google Places. Google does this by pulling your business information from various business directories and websites around the web. If Google automatically generated your Google Places listing, then be sure to claim it. To do this, be sure that you’ve set up a Google Account and login to Google Places.

3.Add your business to online business directories – Add your practice’s contact information in as many local business directories as possible. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, take a look at a post I wrote a while back listing the top 10 free places to list your practice online. Start with this list and add your practice to as many additional business directories as possible for maximum effect. Just remember, consistency is key. Add your contact information exactly the same way in each listing. For example, if you spell out the word “street” in one directory, make sure you spell it out in the others as well.

4. Add Video or Pictures – Add pictures and/or videos of your practice to your profile page. Google loves this, and your customers will appreciate the transparency that only video or pictures can provide.

5. Coupons – This may or may not apply to your practice. However, if your practice offers coupons or specials – be sure to list them in the space provided.

6. Organic rankings – Your rankings in the organic (regular, non-Google Places) search results for your top keywords does appear to influence at least to some degree where you’re ranked within Google Places. However, Google Places aside, its critically important that your site is optimized for the search engines. You can do this yourself, or hire an SEO expert to do this for you.

7. Add contact details to your website – This is a no-brainer. Luckily, the vast majority of you have already done this. I’d take this a step further, however, and advise you to add your address along with your business name and phone number on every page of your site.

8. Review, Reviews, Reviews – Request that satisfied patients add reviews to your Google Places page.

9. Separate location pages – Create a separate page on your website for each location. Then link your Google Places’ listings to their appropriate location page within your website.

10. Buy Your Way to the Top – For a flat $25/month fee you can enhance your listing (include additional information other listings can’t) and potentially its ranking as well

Further Reading

- How Dentists Can Improve Google Places Listings by The Visible Dentist
- Ranking in Google Place: A Definitive Guide by Seo Factor
- 10 Quick Google Places Tips by Lucidica
- Google Places Help for Business Owners by Google
- Google Places No-No’s by Daily SEO Tip

Final Thoughts

Some of these tips can be implemented today, while others will take some time. Either way, do what you can as time permits. I can’t guarantee that these tips will enhance your listing’s ranking within the Google Places’ search results – nobody can. However, it is likely that you can expect at least some positive effect.

If you would like to add a tip to this list, or have seen positive results from the usage of these tips please share with other Dental Heroes’ readers in a comment below.

The following is a guest post by Livvie Matthews. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

Social media allows for something that’s never been available to businesses using traditional marketing in the past. Social media allows you to connect…to talk…to create…an ongoing dialogue with your target audience!

Unlike print ads and direct mail outs that are static and limited in their information or even networking events that are one time meetings…social media allows you to “talk” with your audience…24/7.

This creates incredible opportunities to be visible and responsive to your market! But if you’re not careful, social media can be very overwhelming and distracting. There’s the social platforms, the tools (applications, widgets, plugins, etc), social media etiquette, connecting and engaging with viewers, and the time involved…time can be a big factor!

One of the biggest mistakes practices make when starting in social media is they just jump in with no clear objectives or strategy. They aren’t sure about what they what to do and how they’re going to do it.

They’ll set up their social sites, Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn, and maybe even a blog, but they don’t know how to connect, how to listen, and more importantly…how to engage effectively. Then after a few posts, their sites just sit there and begin gathering virtual dust (I’ve been to many dental sites on twitter and noticed the date of their last tweet was months ago).

In using social media, to be effective in attracting and engaging quality followers, you must have these elements in place:

Know your target market and which social networks they are using the most.
Let’s put this into perspective: If you work out of 3 Treatment Rooms and your patient is seated in TR 3 and you’re seated in TR 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished, you’re not where your patient is.

So if you’re on Twitter and your target is on Facebook…see the importance? Go where the “eyeballs” are…know and be seen where your target market is.

Know and be clear about your objectives – goals – or outcome you want from social media
What are you wanting social media to accomplish? Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention? Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or website? Enhance your practice’s patient services? Maybe you want to grow your practice’s email list

What are your objectives – what is it you want to accomplish with social media?

Create an engagement plan for using social media
Once you’ve determined and joined the social network sites your target uses, you’ll need to determine how you are going to connect, engage, and communicate with your viewers. How often will you “tweet”, post, or update. What are your core messages you will deliver?

Create a social media policy for your practice
How will you and or your employees handle social media in your practice? What’s the right way and wrong way for your employees to use social media? Who is going to be responsible for managing and overseeing your overall social media marketing?

Whether handling in-house or outsourcing to a third party, you need a social media policy in place.

One last point to bring is Safety Online: Remember:
Once you’ve said it on the Internet, there’s no taking it back. A few good rules to follow:

• Never post anything you don’t want your Grandmother or children to read
• Never give out sensitive information like account numbers or social security numbers
• Never spam – you’ll be un-followed and dropped like a hot dental instrument

By creating and having your social media strategy in place first, you’ll know:

• Your social media objectives
• How you’re going to achieve your objectives
• An overall plan for implementing your social media strategy

Your Thoughts

These are the top elements needed in creating a winning social media strategy. What additional elements have you used in your strategy?

The following is a guest post by Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

You are driving on a nice vacation and need gas. You stop at a gas station and go inside to buy some snacks while you gas is being pumped. How much do you spend while in the convenience store? The national average is $5.00US (US = American Dollar).

This month Nordstrom (A major and very popular US department store) is having their Anniversary Sale. I know all the stores were mobbed. How much do you think the average shopper spent this year at the sale? The sale just ended so I am not certain about the exact number but I just read that sales this year for Nordstrom Department Stores are up 35%!

Monitor Average Patient Revenue

Have you ever taken time to monitor what the average patient spends at a dental appointment in your office? If not, then please take time to run this report in your office. Studies say that patients will spend $300-$500.00US at each dental visit the same day they are offered the treatment or product! This means that if we communicate with powerful words, patients will complete and pay for treatment and products we recommend – the same day.

What type of services do you have available for patients to buy right now?

Do you have a complete menu of services? – – And – – Do your patients know exactly what these services are? Do you have categories of various services available? Where can patients read about the services you provide? Are they written down somewhere in the office and on your website? Plan to offer these services on your social media sites. There are so many ways you can get the word out about the services your dental practice offers.

Meet With Your Team

Take time this summer to meet with your team and discuss what services you offer in these three categories: Preventive Treatments, Restorative Treatments and Cosmetic or “Elective” Treatments. Discuss, as a team, how patients currently find out about what you offer and share as a team, ways that patients may be able to read and learn about your services more easily. How can you create in patients, the desire to buy what they want not just want you tell them they need?

Here are some suggestions to discuss at the team meeting:

• How can you make your “same day” – – cosmetic (elective) services seem and feel more appealing?
• How can you create urgency for patients to begin getting impressions taken “same day” for teeth whitening, fluoride treatments, etc., instead of making an appointment?
• Do you have desensitizing agents available for patients?
• Do you recommend fluoride varnish?
• Do you recommend Xylitol products?
• Do you recommend Power toothbrushes, toothpaste(s), mouth rinses, etc.?
• Do you utilize the intraoral camera while patients are in the chair?
• Is there something more you can add to educate patients while they are in the office?(In the reception area, consult room and operatories)
• How do you educate patients about your services when they are on your website?
• What type of photographs do you use on the website to show off your valuable services?
• Do you show off before and after photos for patients to view while they are in the office? (In the reception area, the back office and consult room?)

There are so many “same day” preventive services that you can offer patients. Even “same day” cosmetic services and products can be recommended and provided to patients that day, while they are already there for an appointment. People will buy on the spot (“Impulse buying”) when you communicate with powerful words that add value to the recommended and/or diagnosed service(s) and products. People are thinking: What’s in it for me. “WIIFM”

When you meet as a team to discuss various services you provide patients, make time to discuss ways to educate and communicate these valuable services to your patients. You can now add over $100,000.00US in production to the dental practice in 2011, when you add “same day” services. Additionally, have patients leave the office with their recommended dental products and the knowledge about how to use these properly.

One easy way to guide your patients to live a longer, healthier life and build practice revenue is to ask questions during the 1st five minutes a patient is seated in the chair.

A few of these questions are:

• Do you ever notice your mouth feels dry?
• Do you feel the need to frequently sip water?
• Do you have sensitive teeth?
• Do you like the appearance of your teeth?
• Do you like the color of your teeth?

Pay Attention to Cambra

CAMBRA (Caries Management by Risk Assessment) recommends that patients be categorized into risk levels for managing decay. When patients are at moderate to extremely high risk for caries it is recommended they have a fluoride varnish treatment every 90-120 days. Patients may say: “Insurance doesn’t pay for it.” “I don’t want it if my insurance doesn’t pay for it.” Many insurance companies will pay for fluoride varnish under the CDT code D1206. (This code is used in the United States for billing purposes.) There are insurance companies paying for this service every three months. If patients don’t have insurance or if their insurance will not cover this benefit then we have a responsibility to communicate the risks, benefits and the value of this preventive treatment to the patient. (The WIIFM part) Many patients come into a dental office and spend over $1,000.00US on restorative and even cosmetic (“Elective”) treatment. Many of these patients qualify (Meaning this is a necessary preventive treatment.) under CAMBRA for a fluoride varnish every 90-120 days and they will benefit by spending just as little as $100.00US annually to prevent decay. This service is a huge savings when a patient spends maybe $100.00US annually for prevention vs. $250.00US for possibly one mandatory restoration, a few times each year.

Offer Over-The-Counter Products

What about over the counter products for preventive care? This is another area, which will benefit the patient and the practice. Research tells us that 70% of patients who leave the dental office to fill a prescription for 5% Sodium Fluoride or Peridex, etc., return to the dental office and say they did not get the prescription filled. When we have these products available to our patients, not only are we able to have them take the products home and utilize immediately, but we can have a team member in the office teach the patient how to use the new product so self-efficacy is at the highest level possible. (Yes, even someone at the front desk can be available and educated to show the patient how to use the new power toothbrush, whitening product, or fluoride, etc.)

Offer Xylitol Products

For those patients who are in the dark and refuse to see the light (The truth!) and say, “Fluoride is a poison!” they may benefit by using Xylitol products. Xylitol products need to be available for patients to purchase in your office and utilize daily. Many dental companies sell 100% high quality Xylitol. (Read labels and find out how much Xylitol is really in the product.) The patients who are at risk for caries need 5g of Xylitol daily and the dental companies that sell Xylitol have tablets, gum, mints, etc., in a form, which allows patients to monitor their daily intake and effectively prevent decay.

Did you know that over 1,000 medications cause dry mouth? Xerostomia (Dry mouth) sets up patients for cervical decay. Fluoride treatments in the office and at home can prevent patients from spending money on mandatory restorative treatment. This also adds value to the patient appointment and revenue to the practice.

Add Fluoride Varnish to the Mix

Many years ago, patients spent 4 minutes with a bulky tray in their mouth to receive a fluoride treatment. Patients were only offered a few flavors to choose from and it was an unpleasant experience. Now, we have fluoride varnish that can be applied in less than 90 seconds. You can offer patients various flavors and no tray is used. No one needs to worry about the patient swallowing fluoride varnish. No time is spent suctioning the mouth or drying teeth. This can be applied in a wet environment with the swipe of a tiny brush over the teeth. Fluoride varnish will creep into the interproximal surfaces so there is no need to attempt applying into the interproximal surfaces.

Fluoride varnish usually costs less than $2.00US per application and the patient cost is anywhere from $25.00 – $50.00.00US per treatment; 3-4 times a year. The cost benefit ratio to the patient and the practice is huge! Think about how happy 100 patients will be, this year, if you offer just this one service. Patients may now save $1,000.00US next year on restorative treatment if they prevent decay. Choose just 4 patients in your practice each day, beginning this week, who you know can benefit from a fluoride varnish treatment. If you charge $25.00US, (A very conservative fee for this treatment.) for each treatment this increases your revenue $100.00/dayUS. This is just the tip of the iceberg when adding profits to your practice and improving patients’ health.

Start Tomorrow

During your morning team meeting (“huddle”) tomorrow I challenge you to pick 4 patients who you believe can benefit from a fluoride varnish treatment. Discuss ahead of time, what the cost will be to the patient. What will you say to the patient so they can understand why this is necessary? In addition – – What will you say to communicate the benefit to them financially? How will this affect the health of their mouth and their overall health? This is the WIIFM. Think about this with regard to each patient you offer this one service to, beginning this week.

2 Tips to take away today:

1. Create a list of questions to ask patients and discover their desires, wants and needs, etc., regarding dentistry.

2. Offer “same day” treatments and products for patients to take home with them.

You’re The Expert

We are the healthcare professionals – “The Experts”. When we share, the scientific evidence and understand how to communicate effectively, patients will sit up, listen and take action. These are just a few suggestions so you to tap into same day Preventive and Cosmetic, (“Elective”) treatment, add value to the patient appointment and profits to the practice.

If you have not read the information about CAMBRA and the benefits to patients and your practice, visit dentalpracticesolutions.com and click on the Membership Center link. It is free to all of you. Once in the Membership Center click to Register. We have a lot of information about CAMBRA right there for you!

Your Thoughts

Which same-day services are you offering your patients? Which have proven to be successful in your practice?

It’s important that your dental practice has clear and fair vacation and time clock policies. A good vacation policy will improve employee morale and help with recruiting efforts. A time clock policy will clearly establish for your employees which activities are compensable and keep you on the right side of the law.

Your practice may have already established vacation and time clock policies. However, I’d urge you to take a look at the free vacation and time clock policy the Cambridge Dental Practice Consultants are offering on their website. You may find that your existing policies could benefit from a little tweaking.

Get the Free Cambridge Dental Practice Consultants Vacation & Time Clock Policy

The following is a guest post by Gary Kohler of lifecover.ca. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

Dentists always play second fiddle to doctors when it comes to pop culture references.

There is no dental equivalent of television shows like ER or Scrubs but dentists still find their way into pop culture and here are five noteworthy examples:

1) Dr. Tim Whatley from Seinfeld

Bryan Cranston played Dr. Tim Whatley on Seinfeld in the 1990s. His performance as Jerry’s dentist is hilarious and you can see how Cranston would go on to be very successful in other TV shows such as Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad. In the Seinfeld episode titled The Yada Yada, Dr. Whatley converts to Judaism, according to Jerry, just so he can tell jewish jokes.

Jerry gets more frustrated with Dr. Whatley as the episode goes on, causing Kramer to call Jerry an ‘anti-dentite.’

2) Nicholas ‘Oz’ Oseransky from The Whole Nine Yards

Matthew Perry plays Oz, the depressed and slightly neurotic American dentist living in Canada in The Whole Nine Yards. At one point in the film, Oz uses his dentistry skills to alter the teeth of a dead cop so the teeth will instead resemble those of hitman Jimmy Tudeski (played by Bruce Willis). Luckily real dentists don’t have to do this kind of work.

3) Dr. Wolfe from The Simpsons

Dr. Wolfe is the Simpsons’ family dentist. Wolfe owns a clinic named Painless Dentistry and he is the person that informs Marge that Lisa needs braces. This event happens to coincide with Mr. Burns revoking Homer’s dental plan at the nuclear power plan. Marge and Homer are forced to purchase the cheapest model of braces they can get; Dr. Wolfe bluntly describes these braces as, “predating stainless steel.” Ouch.

4) Steve Martin in Novocaine & Little Shop of Horrors

Steve Martin seems to enjoy the role of a dentist. He played a sadistic and abusive dentist in Little Shop of Horrors.

Martin also starred, along with Helena Bonham Carter and Laura Dern, in the 2001 David Atkins film Novocaine. He played Dr. Frank Sangster, a wealthy dentist with a loving fiance named Jean, who falls off track when a new client shows up with a tooth in need of a root canal.

The story turns into a dark tale of drug abuse, cheating, and violence. Why can’t Steve Martin play a nice dentist?

5. Doc Holliday

John Henry “Doc” Holliday was born in Griffin, Georgia on August 14, 1851 and died November 8, 1887 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He is the only real person on this list of pop culture dentists but he is a significant one nonetheless. Not only was Holliday a dentist but he was also a gambler and a gunfighter of the American Old West. He is often remembered for his involvement in the Gunfight at the OK Corral and for his friendship with Wyatt Earp.

Earp had this to say about his friend Doc:

“Doc was a dentist not a lawman or an assassin, whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long lean ash-blond fellow nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time the most skillful gambler and the nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun that I ever knew.”

There you go – five of the most famous dentists from pop culture. Medical doctors may still have a greater representation in television, movies, and books but we’re pretty keen on these five dentists.

Your Thoughts

Who are your favorite dentists from pop culture?

The following is a guest post by Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

Where does your practice production stand this time of the year? How are you utilizing the team to assess and connect with the practices’ patients? Many dental practices are still feeling the economic crunch but there is still time to capture six figures of production. Just making simple changes can create more than $100,000K in additional production this year. (Less than six months left in 2010 today!)

The Secret to Capturing This

If you could increase hygiene production by $500 each day or just $62.50/hour you will have an additional $62,000K in added profits for 2010. At the time I am writing this there are approximately 100 working days left this year. This is treatment sitting in patient charts (or your computer) which has been undiagnosed and/or unscheduled production. Each time I go into an office I find that there are at least 200 patients who have untreated periodontal disease. Why did this happen? There are many reasons this happens and the best thing we can do for these patients to create a longer and very healthy life is to get them into preventive treatment. It is our responsibility to share our knowledge: the science behind periodontal disease – the oral/systemic link and how this can change the way they live life!

Now imagine that if this hygienist can co-diagnose at least $2,000/week in restorative, cosmetic dentistry and even appliances, (Occlusal guards, snore guards and/or whitening) this can boost your production potential even higher. There are approximately 26 weeks left in 2010 at this point in the year so this means another by $52,000. Together, these two services provide for over $100,000 in scheduled production on the books during the next 6 months. I will honestly and very simply tell you how to get to this profitability on your appointment schedule and in 2010. There are few steps to get this done!

Step 1 – Prevent Periodontal Disease

This is my mantra and it should be yours as a dental professional. We have a lot of scientific information available to us so we can appropriately educate our patients about the importance of good oral health. Science tells us that if we treat the disease process sooner than later we can prevent future disease (Heart disease, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Arteriosclerosis, etc., etc.) If we share this information with our patients most people will sit up, listen and take action. How many patients have you met and they said “No” to living a longer and healthier life? Not many!

The fact is that if one hygienist (Working 4 days a week) enrolls just 100 of your current patients into active, non-surgical periodontal therapy and then periodontal maintenance every 3-4 months; hygiene production will increase by at least $150,000.00 in the next twelve months of these scheduled treatment plans. As a dental professional you probably understand that 80% of our adult population has some form of periodontal disease. The sooner we treat the disease the more likely it is we can halt the disease process. When patients understand this they will make this an important matter in their life. They will say “Yes” to scheduling and completing treatment.

Step 2 – Remember Restorative Dentistry Needs to come from the Hygiene Department

Please remember that the entire team needs to be educated on the doctors’ philosophy. Everyone on the team needs to understand what they are expected to do and what procedures are available to the patients in your practice. Write these things down in your office manual for all future employees. Enrolling $2,000/wk out of each hygiene operatory is a very conservative number. One secret is these patients need to schedule their treatment for these production dollars to actually show up. I recommend that you take time to always schedule the next appointment before the patient walks out the door. I recommend all hygiene appointments be scheduled in the hygiene operatory not at the front desk.

Step 3 – Financial Arrangements and Follow-up

Always have patients leave your office with a written and signed financial arrangement. If patients decline treatment they also need to sign a disclosure that they understand the risks, benefits, alternative treatment and disadvantages of not completing the treatment. This is a legal liability and if you don’t explain this it can come back to bite you in legal bills, etc., if patients lose teeth or have other problems. If you don’t have a financial arrangement form, make sure you create one this week. Most dental software programs can make this a very simple thing to do.

When patients trust you and understand it is about their total health they feel an importance to have treatment completed immediately. Patients that say “No” to treatment are many times uneducated about the oral and systemic link. Make financial arrangements clear and easy for them. Help patients understand what portion of the fee they are responsible for and when it’s due. Always follow up. If a patient declines treatment always follow up with a conversation each recare appointment. The economy is difficult for many people, and at this time in our world in can be very hard for a patient to even pay $100.00/month. It sometimes takes time to change patients’ thought pattern about oral health and disease. If a patient isn’t ready to schedule that day, then put them on your follow-up list and ask for their permission to call in 2- 3 weeks.

We are more than half way through another year. These past 3 years have been tough financially but if you know how to communicate with your patients you can see the benefits of a win-win! Your patients can save money by completing preventive care now rather than later. Your patients will be happy to know they can stop future health problems and not spend more money on their teeth. Most patients would prefer to not spend their money on endodontic treatment, implants, tooth extractions, dentures, etc. Always discuss alternative treatment if the current treatment is not accepted. Most people want to live a long and health life. Having a beautiful smile makes most people feel good about themselves. When patients understand the facts they are happy about your team and know you really care. Your dental practice and the benefits you provide for them will really pay off. When patients return for the appropriate treatment you win by increased profits.

How can you expand your practice growth next year? Sometimes offices can’t get to the next step alone. Most successful leaders also have a guide or mentor. We are here to be your guide and offer special tools to make your future profitability a reality. Many times an experienced dental consultant can get you there very – very- – quickly! Pick up the phone and ask us what we can do to make this a seamless process for you and your team. Just call and ask us how today.

Much Success to all!

Your Thoughts

Are you already employing some of these tactics in your practice? What kind of results are you seeing?

Back in April, Google officially re-branded Google Local Search as Google Places.

Why the rebrand? There are a couple of motivations as I see it: A) Google wants to dominate the local search wars, and B) Google is attempting to position their local search service to take advantage of ad revenue.

Regardless of their motivations for the name change, you need to take advantage of a number of really cool features Google introduced with Google Places.

Google Places: New Features

1) Service areas: Most dental practices won’t be interested in this feature, but if you travel to your customers for any reason, you can now list your service areas.

2) Simple Advertising: For just $25 per month, you can highlight your listing on Google.com and Google Maps with what they’re calling “Tags”. Tags are essentially yellow markers that allow you to promote important aspects of your businesses. Keep in mind that tags will not help your business listing to appear higher in the search results. However, tags do allow you to list more information about your business than those businesses who did not purchase tags.

3) Business photo shoots – In addition to uploading photos of your business, you can now sign up to have Google create a virtual photoshoot of the interior of your business. Oh, and the best part is that they’ll do this for free. This sort of transparency speaks volumes to customers – so if you live in the following cities – I’d sign up ASAP:

Atlanta, GA
Boston, MA
Chicago
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Houston, TX
Indianapolis, IN
Jersey City, NJ – Hoboken, NJ
Kansas City, KS
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles
Miami, FL
Minneapolis, MN
Nashville, TN
New York
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, OR
San Antonio, TX
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Jose, CA
Seattle, WA
St. Louis, MO
Washington D.C.

If you live in one of these cities and would like to sign up for a free photo shoot you can Sign up here.

4) Customized QR (two-dimensional) barcodes – From the Google Places dashboard, you now have the opportunity to download a QR code that’s unique to your business. QR codes can be placed on business cards or other marketing materials, and customers can scan them with certain smartphones to be taken directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for your business.

5) Favorite Places – Google is mailing window decals to 50,000 businesses around the US. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.

6) Real-time Updates – You might want to promote a sale, a special event happening today or anything else that you want customers to know right now, and this feature lets you communicate that directly to your customers. You can also provide extra incentive by adding coupons, including ones specially formatted for mobile phones.

7) Analytics – To keep track of how your business listing is performing on Google, they’re now offering a personalized dashboard within Google Places that will show you how many times people have found your business on Google, what keywords they used to find it and even what areas people traveled from to visit your business. With the dashboard, you can see how your use of any of these new features affects interest in your business and make more informed decisions about how to be found on Google and interact with your customers.

Google Places: Official Video

Final Thoughts

If you run a dental practice, then you need to take advantage of Google Place’s powerful new features. Not only does your business stand to benefit from higher visibility in Google, but you may just see an increase in the number of patients coming through your doors as well.

Get Listed in Google Places Now (Free)

Stay Tuned

This is just the first post in a series of posts we’ll be dedicating to Google Places. In upcoming posts, we’ll break down the new features and provide some tips (that your competitors aren’t using) for maximizing your visibility in Google.

Your Thoughts

Have you already listed your business in Google Places? Have you seen an increase in the number of new patients walking through your doors as a result? Share your experiences in a comment below.

Top Stories of the Week

1) Video Interview: “Social Media Marketing for Healthcare Providers” Rita Zamora on The Wellness Hour Marketing Report with Randy Alvarez Social media expert, Rita Zimora, explains the role and importance of relationship marketing in the healthcare space…

2) Digital dental benchmarking: What do the numbers say? Vijay Sikka explains how you can use some high technology and some not so high technology tools and techniques to help you uncover and recover profitability in your practice…

3) Dental professionals can be the first line of defense in eating disorder diagnosis… Emmett R. Bishop Jr., MD, CEDS, discusses the role of dentists and dental hygienists in identifying eating disorder symptoms…and directing patients for professional help…

4) Uncovering the myths of the bonus system Kevin Henry talks with Dianne Glasscoe Watterson, RDH, MBA, about bonus systems, why they often don’t work, and what can be done to correct them…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

The following is a guest post by Melinda Robertson. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

As dental professionals we’ve known for some time that there is an ‘oral-systemic’ connection. Unless we’ve graduated in the last 10 years, we weren’t taught about it in school and, sadly, often know little more than our patients.

Dentistry Has Changed

Dentistry has changed dramatically since I graduated in ’84. Over the years we went from believing disease was caused by calculus, then too much plaque, then specific plaque and today realize it’s a combination of specific plaque organisms under the influence-specific environment and host.

Oral diseases are bacterial disease – bacteria group together to form plaque. In combination with their by-products these bacteria cause decalcification and caries, left untreated leading to root canals or tooth loss. Bacterial plaque populations as they grow, change in composition, tipping the balance form good to bad, leading to gingivitis, periodontitis, halitosis. As if this isn’t bad enough we now know they have serious systemic consequences.

Bacterial populations that get out of balance initiate an immune response that results in an increased permeability of the tissues and bacteria and their by-products can then travel through out our system. Most are familiar with the association between bacteria and heart problems/valve replacements/joint replacements and the need for pre-medication prior to procedures that may result in an increased likelihood of bacteria getting into the blood stream via the sulcus(1). Remember the last time you gave blood? A recent visit to the dentist will now screen you out of being a donor – because you may be carrying oral bacteria in your blood and the costs to run additional tests on all the samples is just too costly. It’s easier to exclude these people(2).

Oral bacteria and periodontal disease has been associated with an increased instance of stroke and other coronary conditions, especially in persons with known high cholesterol(3).

Most clinicians will also be familiar with the association between low birth weight babies and premature births (4). Bacterial plaque from the oral cavity can travel to the placenta. In research earlier this year the journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology reported the first confirmed instance of oral bacteria responsible for stillbirth.

Research involving institutionalized elderly has identified a connection between oral bacteria and increased respiratory infections (5).

Periodontal patients have shown to exhibit an increased instance of a variety of cancers (6,7).

An out of balance oral bacterial population can also result in premature death (8)!

How do we combat this issue?

We need to take a more medical approach to diagnosis, prevention and treatment. This means looking at the problem not just treating the consequences (disease). We need to deal with the bacterial origin.

This is done with simple microbial screening. A BANA test is a quick, easy, affordable way to show clients/patients that ‘bad’ bacteria are present in the mouth and can be confirmed and further diagnosed with a simple microbial slide. In most instances you would perform your normal protocols, retest and if the slide results are still showing bacterial imbalance, a topical antibacterial is likely indicated.

With objective, microbiology results you can custom treat the bacterial infection with appropriate topical medication, metronidazole is often most appropriate. (Systemic medications would require a much larger dosage and the medication is delivered to every cell in the body, when in fact it’s only needed in one specific area – topicals are much more efficient and effective) The Novora system offers a rinse, topical cream and subgingival gel of varying concentrations, each geared for a different situation.

Other instances may call for antifungals, different antibiotics or other products designed to re-balance the once harmonious bacterial ecosystem. These might include chlorohexidine, chlorinedioxide, oral probiotics etc.

Because bacterial infections are transmissible – by close contact like kissing, tasting each others food – retesting is important to prevent future flare-ups of infection or the risk of transmitting the infection to a love one – infant or aging parent perhaps – who may not be as resistant to the negative effects of these bacteria.

Learn More

To learn more about oral-systemic dentistry and a more medical approach to treatment visit www.novorabiomed.com or www.novora.blogspot.com and please do follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/novorabiomed.

Sources
1. http://www.cda-adc.ca/_files/position_statements/antiobiotic_prophylaxis_joint.pdf, http://www.ada.org/sections/publicResources/pdfs/patient_75.pdf

2. http://www.blood.ca/centreapps/internet/uw_v502_mainengine.nsf/page/E_Can_I_Donate

3. http://www.novorabiomed.com/health-connection/heart-stroke/

4. Han YW, et al., Term Stillbirth Caused by Oral Fusobacterium nucleatum Obstetrics & Gynecology: 2010;115(2):442-445. http://www.novorabiomed.com/health-connection/pregnancy/

5. http://www.novorabiomed.com/health-connection/others/ Scannapieco FA, Mylotte JM Relationships between periodontal disease and bacterial pneumonia J Periodontology 1996 Oct;67(10 Suppl):1114-22. [abstract]

6. Michaud DS, et al., , Periodontal disease, tooth loss, and cancer risk in male health professionals: a prospective cohort study Lancet Oncol 2008; 9(6): 550-58. [abstract]

7. Cesar A Migliorati C, Periodontal diseases and cancer Lancet Oncol 2008; 9(6):510-512

8. J Periodontal Res. 2007 Aug;42(4):361-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17559634

Cambridge Dental Practice Consultants is currently offering you the chance to receive a no-cost general policy dental training manual valued at $95.00. There are just a few qualifications that you must meet to be eligible to receive your free manual.

You must be:
- A General or Pediatric dentist.
- The practice owner.
- Willing to participate in a fifteen minute phone survey regarding dentistry and the economy.
- Available by cell or home phone only. We do not call your office or leave messages with your front desk.

Get your free dental office manual

When dental practices take on the investment of savvy, effective marketing, rarely does the vision go beyond the goal of getting more new patients. The problem with this is if you are not prepared for the influx of new patients your marketing is going to bring, you risk those patients walking from the front door straight through the back door because your internal systems failed to reflect the external marketing you were sending out to the community.

So, how do you successfully bring these new patients into your practice and retain them in your patient family? Here are a few steps to start working on NOW to prepare for the wave of business your marketing efforts are going to bring.

1. Have an effective New Patient Experience in place

The New Patient Experience is multifold. It involves several systems in your practice: excellent telephone technique, gathering of necessary data, scheduling the new patient appointment, sending out a beautiful and accurate new patient packet, and executing a good new patient appointment and a successful case presentation. This may take hours of time, practice and preparation on the part of you and your team members. But, remember, all of this work will protect the investment you have made in your marketing. Otherwise, you risk losing your investment the moment you answer the telephone.

2. Get your schedule in order

Make sure you have a schedule that is organized and ready to take on new patients in an expedient manner. If you are offering a special on whitening, for example, make sure you have places blocked off in your schedule to hold those appointments. If a prospective patient calls in and you can’t see them for three months, chances are it doesn’t matter what you’re offering, they will look elsewhere for someone that can see them in a more convenient fashion.

3. Put an efficient follow-up system in place

In the introductory calls, make sure you gather the prospective new patient’s contact information. This way you can follow- up on a regular basis through marketing and you can also place these people on a call list when you have cancellations.

Above all, make sure your business systems are streamlined and your customer service skills are sharp so that you make a great first impression. All the marketing dollars in the world won’t get you that final goal of a patient saying yes to treatment. The YES comes when the care and the service match the image. Here’s to successful marketing – and ultimately – successful case acceptance!

Your Thoughts

What have you done within your practice to handle the aftermath of successful marketing efforts?

There probably came a time while running your practice when you felt like your practice was controlling you rather than the other way around. In fact, a fair number of you reading this probably feel this way today. Doing nothing isn’t really an option if your goal is to create or remain a successful practice. So, how can you re-establish control over your practice?

To find out, I recently interviewed a man that knows all too well the realities of losing control of his practice (and himself) – only to recover and eventually operate among the top 5% of practices nationwide. This man is renowned Master Certified Dental Coach, Dr. Ron Arndt.

Dr. Arndt practiced clinical dentistry for 20 years and spent another 5 years in various executive positions within a financial planning and investment firm. This Summer, Dr. Arndt is releasing a book entitled, “Killing the Practice Before it Kills You: How Throwing Out My Business Model Saved My Life.” In the book, Dr. Arndt will go into great detail about the strategies he used to turn around his dental practice.

So, without further ado, here’s the interview:

1. How do you know if your dental practice is killing you?

Take a moment right now and consider this checklist. Have you ever experienced any of these warning signs? Check off those that reverberate with you.

• You find it difficult to get a good night’s sleep because you are thinking or worrying about the business.
• Your attention is on home when you are at work and on work when you are at home.
• You tell your spouse they are number one in your life when silently you are more focused on the success of your business. After all, it’s who you are!
• You act happy and content on the outside. In reality, your insides are churning and you never feel in control.
• Your energy level begins to fade, and you make excuses when you know you have not been taking care of yourself. You pass it off as something else.
• You are too busy to play those “goofy” games with your kids, who are so hungry for your attention.
• You read the newspaper or business journals when your spouse is talking to you because you have so much to catch up on. Then you fall asleep after twenty minutes, because you needed “just a little nap.”
• On a weeklong vacation, it takes three to four days to unwind. You feel like a new person for one or two days, then the tension builds again, welling up uncontrollably, tightening every muscle. Sunday nights are the worst.
• If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Only you can do it, because it takes too much time to explain and delegate a task to another person.
• You hear this voice in your head: “I don’t need anyone else. I’m smart and can do it all on my own.”

If you checked off a single one consider this a “red flag”. Don’t pass it off as inconsequential. The accumulation of these signs slowly and insidiously over time can be deadly.

2. Why are developing personal core values so important to the success of a dental practice? How do they translate into working with patients and your office team? In other words, why would they care?

I found myself defining my sense of worth and value based on the success of my business. It fueled my ego and fed my belief that I was paying off bills and creating an economic future of choice for my family. That of course included a beautiful home, nice vacations, paying for parochial school tuition, saving heavily for college education, and planning for retirement. Does that sound familiar?

I found myself developing a practice where I was working for everyone else except me. I employed two administrative people, two Chairside assistants, two expanded-functions dental auxiliaries, and two hygienists. Big numbers, big production was the name of the game . . . or so I thought. After all, I was working to be the biggest, baddest, fastest, coolest, wealthiest, and most respected dentist in town. I was unaware at the time that I was learning the lesson that a manager cannot both lead the band and play all the instruments.

After my heart attack, I consciously began to shift in many ways: my outlook, my attitude. I chose to focus not on eliminating my type A behavior, but rather on replacing it with something different. I affirmed my new life direction by codifying my values in writing. I knew I had to identify my core values, the guiding principles around which I would make all of my business decisions. They would serve as the litmus test against which I identified what was “right” and “honest” for me. I knew that these core values would be the genesis of everything that I wanted to do in the transformation of my practice. I set aside several thirty- to forty-five-minute quiet-time periods, so I could work on identifying my core values.

As a basis for this process, I used the following elements: My core values are ideas that I want to publicly affirm;

- My core values are ideas that I greatly prize and have a positive influence on my life;
- My core values are ideas that I am willing to act on;
- My core values are ideas that I would repeat if given the circumstances again and again; and,
- My core values are ideas that I choose freely and with a clear understanding and recognition of the consequences of my choice.

Why would patients care or even know?

Simple, they would see and experience my commitment in the ways I behaved not only towards them but also my team members. Patients, guests want to know that you operate from a set of values that honors and respects them in all actions. In all our interactions with patients, if we have core values in writing and committed to by all team members, we get to go back to them any time we get stuck, have a tough situation, or are confused on what actions we need to take. Core values are HUGE in how we operate our business and treat those around us. Patients know a genuine and authentically caring dental home.

3. What was the significance of firing – and then re-hiring – employees? How did that help you define leadership?

It was much more than simply “firing” the team. It was a dramatic message that the old way of doing business was over. I was not leading my team successfully and the dental team was lulled into a mindset of entitlement…a deadly combination. By Killing the Practice I was burying the old and then offering up a new solution…a solution I wanted for the way I wanted my practice to operate. This was an all or none approach that was necessary to get everyones attention. The choice was entirely up to each individual employee if they wanted to re-apply for the available openings in my new practice.

After Killing the Practice I spent the next several hours detailing exactly how I was going to run the practice. I introduced them to my core values, explained what they meant, dissecting every word and sentence. I gave them the opportunity to ask questions. I did the same for my vision, clearly laying out for them where I wanted to take the practice, again reminding them that they didn’t have to own these, they didn’t have to buy into any of what I was explaining. But if they didn’t, they no longer had the opportunity to work with me or in this office.

For the first time ever, I became the real leader in my practice, a role that I should have assumed long ago. It had taken me years to realize that the ultimate responsibility of a leader was to facilitate their development as well as my own.

4. How can a dental practice raise their fees and not upset the patients?

I finally made the decision that I was going to be paid what I was worth and I expected to connect my compensation with the value, the love, care, and extra attention I brought to my patients’ dental health and life. No more of this conversation about if the insurance will or will not cover it. Or, that’s over “Usual, Customary, and Reasonable.” That old thinking had to go. My practice was not usual and customary; we were extraordinary. I declared: “We will train on our financial arrangements and how to discuss them with our patients . . . no more laissez-faire.” My expectation was to offer up financial options for our patients that were written, fair, explained in advance, and easy to understand. And of course, any patient who’d been previously quoted a case fee was grandfathered in.

The best way to overcome the “perceived” objections was to communicate and deliver “value” for the fee. Certainly there would be a small percentage of price shoppers that would be upset, yet they were not our ideal patients. I directed my administrative team to keep a yellow pad at the front desk and list those patients who were so upset that they were going to leave the practice. We never filled one full page…barely a half page. It is my belief that no matter what our fees patients will view them as “a little pricey” and I validated that with a study I did with my crown fees.

What I have learned is that if we deliver perceived (and real) excellence combined with true patient care and outrageous service, our patients will perceive the value and not only continue to visit us, they will refer. Don’t misunderstand, this is not about gouging people, it is about being compensated for delivering remarkable human service.

5. How does cutting some benefits completely, but increasing others dramatically work?

I took a new-world view…new in that I was breaking with the typical dental management thinking of give everything and anything to retain employees. Dentistry as a profession lives in a HR bubble. In the real employment world, employees are paid for performance. Greater performance dictates greater and higher compensation and of course the opposite applies, low performance, low pay or even dismissal. In dentistry, this statement is more enigmatic: “Dr., I have been here for another year and I am entitled to a raise.” My new world view was, no more entitlements. I explained clearly that the new wage offerings would be no less than what each was currently making, however, any future increases in wages would be as a result of increased output-performance-revenues.

No more benefits of paid time off that found my team taking advantage of my generosity that cost the practice revenues and raised my stress because I was often found on Monday’s (often the busiest day of the week) short handed by 25% of my workforce because they wanted an extended weekend (67% of called in days off were on Mondays). I eliminated the eye-care benefit. I made major adjustments to my benefits package, because it was being abused. It had become expected as an entitlement and was grossly unappreciated. And my staff costs had continued to escalate because of the generosity that I had built into my staff compensation package without any real consideration to what it was costing me to provide staff services.

I was now going to track my business expenses like a real businessman and compare them to industry averages to better enable me to make better decisions. I also declared that I would no longer pay for their exotic trips to St. Thomas, the Bahamas, and Dallas. No more excursions. I expanded the continuing education credit because it encouraged their personal growth, enhanced their value, better served our patients, and was simply good business. I made people clearly aware that they would be well paid, but I was firm in my expectation: you have to show up, and produce results. Compensation would now be performance based. Then I introduced my new incentive program: a Win-Win, Pay-4-Performance arrangement. It was team-centered and fair. Did it work? You bet it did. My final 5 years in practice were my most enjoyable and profitable and my remaining team members were making more money than they had ever done in the past.

6. What does practicing meat and potato dentistry mean? Why does it work?

Meat and potato dentistry is my name for the routine, common procedure mix of services the typical patient wants. My practice was not a high end cosmetic or full-mouth rehab business. That was not what the majority of my wonderful blue-collar patients requested. While I did selective challenging cases, I brought in an oral surgeon to help me with the implant process and an orthodontist as well to help me grow my young people part of my business. We were a “family practice” and as such served moms and dads and their kids along with their grandparents and neighbors.

Nothing fancy, yet extremely personalized relationship-based care. Our patients were give full, comprehensive evaluations and treatment plans and then given full authority to determine if they wanted some, none, or all of what we recommended. We phased our care as well so that they did not feel pressured to “have to” do something. I have learned that the scar of the unchosen surgery heals slowly. We did basic, solid, caring dentistry. For those dentists who can do the big restorative and cosmetic cases, we referred our tough cases.

7. What is one tip that you would give to someone starting out their own private practice?

Start with the end in mind….a Steven Covey mindset. I’m coaching right now a young starting pediatric dentist. My first bit of coaching was to get him to dream and envision what he wants! What will make the biggest difference, and yet one of the toughest things to implant into the head and heart of a new dentist, is to identify who you are via your own Core Values. When they write out, on paper and list what they stand for they then can take the next step to write their personal AND practice Vision Statement. Armed with their Core Values and their Vision Statement, the strategic plan magically begins to unfold as any time they get stuck…the refer to their values and vision.

Above all things, this is what I want for new dentists. My fear however, after talking to Junior and Senior dental students, they won’t take the time or devote the seriousness to this process. I have seen the results with many doctors…frustration, lack of direction, financial chaos, marital issues, misplaced arrogance, and an unhappiness with their life.

Get in touch with Dr. Arndt

drarndt.com
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Your thoughts

Have you ever felt that your practice was controlling you? How did you handle the situation? What will you takeaway from Dr. Arndt and try in your practice?

The following is a guest post by Maria Rainier. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

The world of dentistry is changing everyday and in order to stay up-to-date on these advances, continuing education should be a priority. Dental advisors are now suggesting as many as 100 hours a year to maintain a firm grasp on all the latest techniques and equipment available in the dental field.

How Do I Find Qualified Continuing Education?

It can be a daunting and time consuming task, but here are a few guidelines for finding qualified programs. Whether you want to meet state licensure requirements, add a new treatment or expand your practice continuing education is available.

1. Make sure the course is ADA CERP certified

The American Dental Association Continuing Education Recognition Program was created as a guideline for dental practitioners to assist in finding the programs that are most beneficial. In order for programs to be certified they must pass 15 areas of CE program quality. Institutions and programs must go through an application and review process before being given ADA CERP recognition. The ADA is in place to protect its Dental practitioners and ensure the highest level of education.

2. Earn up to two hours a month online

The ADA offers a program called the JADA Online Continuing Education Program. In association with the University of Colorado School of Medicine licensed U.S. dentists can earn up to two credits a month. Practitioners must become a member of the ADA before being eligible for the online classes, but complete online testing and submission grading will be given.

3. Make it a team effort

We should be excited to learn the new technology being invented in our field, so why not attend together? Taking the time to attend a conference, class or program as a group, can strengthen relationships outside of the office and build team spirit. It can also save money on gas and hotels and allow for a good time.

4. Find classes in your area

Finding continuing education classes will vary state-by-state, but the best way to locate programs would be through the internet. Simply searching for “continuing education for dentists” with your zip code and state should bring up the area’s institutions and their credibility. Take the time to do some research on the program and ensure that it is ADA CERP certified. Then sign up! Here are a few resources to get started:

Search the American Dental Association’s CE Course Listings

Search Online Continuing Education Programs through an ADA CERP recognized provider.

In a world that is constantly updating itself we must ensure that we do not fall behind in
our professions, for our clients and the security of our business. If we offer the latest techniques and products then we can continually grow. Continuing education is just the first step, but it can be the most crucial.

Your Thoughts

How many hours of continuing education do you participate in each year? How valuable has continuing education been to your success in the dental field?

The following is a guest post by Debbie Seidel-Bittke. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

Prioritize Your Schedule

A full schedule translates into revenues and production only if the patients come in. If a practice loses 1 to 2 appointments/day, either on the hygienist’s schedule or on the dentist’s schedule, the lost production from this could be anywhere from $100 (minimally) to $900 per day, depending upon the procedure. These are dollar figures for clients and dental offices during the year 2009. Let’s assume you have 200 working days during the year, the annual lost production works out to $20,000 at the low end to $180,000 at the high end. Take into account that you lose even $20,000.00 over the next 5 years. This is $100,000.00 which can be used in many areas for a successful and profitable dental practice. Think about your salary being reduced by this much. This can really hurt a dental practice!

These figures are for a solo practitioner, with one full-time hygienist. The figures multiply for a multi-doctor office, or for a solo practitioner with more than one hygienist. Improving practice performance in this one area alone could significantly improve the financial status of many dental practices.

Practice success depends on the strength of a strategically planned schedule. It is important to have a systematic method for scheduling patients. On a daily basis, the entire dental team probably spends much of their day discussing and dealing with the topic of appointments: cancellations, broken appointments, and no-shows. This is a big source of endless frustration. No-shows and cancellations are the biggest single source of lost revenue.

It is helpful to be proactive, have a strategic approach and design a systematic schedule. Having a system in place will decrease the level of stress and increase revenue in your dental practice.

Stephen Covey, author of many professional management and family management planning books has said, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.”

Your first thought may be that is seems impossible to create the ideal dental practice schedule. Every dentist and most auxiliaries practice on different days, each professional may have different hours, they will provide treatment at different speeds and they will offer different services. All successful dental practices will take account for all these scheduling variables. Having a scheduling system is what creates success in all areas of the dental practice.

Effective Schedule Systems

When you have an effective scheduling system the doctor and team are now in charge of managing the patient flow. The patient flow should not manage the team.

Think of the schedule as the center of all dental practice systems. This is one system that will significantly decrease stress. When the team manages the schedule it will become efficient and predictable. This is where productivity will create increased revenues quickly.

Six tips to help you manage your practice’s scheduling

1. Use 10-minute units
Using 15 minute increments on the schedule costs the practice approximately seven days of treatment time every year. This means the doctors are working that much harder and not smarter. When you change the practice schedule to 10-minute units you are able to schedule procedures with a higher degree of accuracy. When you utilize 10-minute units of time the practice can schedule a 20-minute procedure with ease. With 15-minute units, the procedure must be scheduled either with not enough time (15 minutes) or too much (30 minutes). Ten-minute units will now offer greater flexibility and result in increased productivity.

2. Create a template for each operatory
Every 10 minute unit needs to be put into the schedule in advance. A schedule built on a 10-minute template outlines exactly how every 10-minute increment will be used for each operatory. Doctor and the auxiliaries need to take a look at the 10 minute units first. This is how they will know how each day is going to flow. This needs to be reviewed even before the team huddle begins.

3. Schedule by production
Again this allows you to take control of the schedule and the schedule will not control you. When setting up your annual schedule template decide how much production you need to stay in the black. Decide what procedure blocks will be added and at what times on the schedule. Many practices make the mistake of scheduling by reactively filling empty time slots.

3. Be proactive. First things, First
Most people during the day have more energy and as the day progresses they tend to run out of steam. For many people the time after a lunch break seems to create a decrease in energy. Try having longer, more intensive treatment options in the morning. This is the time to fill the schedule with longer procedures and high-production cases.

When you have a strong scheduling system in place you have increased productivity and profitability. When you create a schedule with production as a priority you create harmony, less stress and help the practice meet all the daily goals; production and otherwise.

4. What is a “Perfect Day”?
It doesn’t need to be a calculus equation or statistics but there needs to be a strategic mathematical formula to make certain the practice meets their goals. It is best to schedule an average daily level of production which will be equal to your annual production goal. For example, if you want to produce 1.5 million in 200 days, you need to schedule $7,500 per day. This will include the hygiene schedule and doctor’s schedule. It is not realistic to produce this same number each day. The important part is the daily average.
Having “Perfect Day” schedules and daily production goals also tend to reduce practice stress because they allow doctors and their teams to achieve a consistent day-in day-out workload.

5. Your “Perfect Day” Schedule
It will increase efficiency when you schedule the doctors, hygienists and all auxiliaries separately. If you are utilizing an assisted hygiene model the hygiene assistant should also be scheduled into the 10 minute increments.

The doctor and assistant do not always need to be in the room together. This follows true especially when using an assisted hygiene model.

It may take a few weeks and a process of time but it will significantly increase the total office productivity, decrease stress, improve patient flow and increase the annual revenue.

6. Communication is the Key to Reduced Cancellations
It is the nature of business and life in general that there will be cancellations and no-shows. When scheduling tell patients that you are “reserving” this time specifically for them. Educate all patients about the importance and leave them feeling the urgency for reserving appointments prior to leaving the office.

When the front office is speaking with patients they need to request patients give 72 hours notice if they need to change an appointment. If patients need to change their appointment on Monday it doesn’t do the office any good to cancel an appointment on Saturday. This is why you need to ask for at least 72 hours cancellation.

Take time to retrain your patients about this policy if you don’t have this in place currently. Let patients know there will be a fee for a missed appointment. The fee needs to be dependent upon the type of procedure and should be written in all policies you publish to your patients. These policies are included in the new patient package. Appointment cards need to mention there is an appropriate fee charge for cancellations outside of the 72 hours.

Quick Overview

• Schedule in 10-minute units, with a template for each operatory
• Schedule the most productive procedures first by creating ideal day schedules with ideal production goals
• Schedule longer and high end production early in the day
• Schedule doctors and assistants separately
• Build patient value for appointments to reduce no-shows and cancellations

You will create a more efficient and effective system for scheduling patients when you create your “Perfect Day” schedule. The bottom line is harmony in the office, value to the patients, improved productivity, increased revenues and reduced stress. It is a “win-win” that creates success!

Do you need guidance setting this up? Do you know how many days and hours you actually need on the schedule? Please contact us for a free assessment. Find the answers to these questions, lower your overhead and increase your revenue.

My how times change quickly in dentistry! I believe with technology and new products we have grow 100 years in the past 10.

Years ago the dental hygiene department was thought of as a loss leader. When looking at the business of dentistry in the 21st century we realize there are numerous profit centers inside the dental business. When looking at the dental hygiene department there are numerous areas in this department that bring profits to the dental business.

Four-handed dentistry has been popular for dentists and by utilizing this assisted model it is only one avenue to bring increased productivity and added revenue to the hygiene department as well. This is not to be misunderstood as accelerated hygiene but as a way to provide added value to the dental hygiene department, optimal care to the patients and in addition bring increased revenue to the dental practice.

There are many factors which play a big role in the success of this dental hygiene model for business success. This is part I of 3 articles to discuss what you need to explore to understand if this business model is correct for your dental practice.

Defining these Two Words

What do the two words assist and hygiene mean? Assist means to give support or aid. What does the word hygiene mean? According to Merriam Webster this word means the science or establishment of health.

It is important to look at the meaning of these two words. This is where we begin developing a true foundation for a successful assisted hygiene model. Specifically these two words when put together mean giving support to establish health.

The challenge to a successful assisted hygiene business model is to develop a course of action where the hygiene team can continually strive as a team to provide optimal health and preventive patient-centered care with consistency and effectiveness.

Sharing the Vision

Definition of Vision: “The Fundamental Source of Power.”

As owner of a dental practice you are considered the main leader in the success of the business. Your vision implies an understanding of the past and present. More important, it offers a road map to the future and suggests guidelines to those in a given enterprise— (The business of providing health. The business of dentistry.) how people are to act and interact to attain what they regard as desirable. As a leader your vision may be intuitive or highly structured. It is the bedrock for success in meeting the twin tests of competition and selection of what your business model(s) will look like.

Before deciding to implement an assisted hygiene model in your dental business it is important to ask yourself a few questions “Is this where I want to be?” “Do I want to expand my practice?” “Do I wish to have more employees?” “Are we ready to grow?” “Do we have the correct players on our team to move forward with this business model?”

These are some of the initial questions you need to answer. If you are not set up physically, mentally or financially this may not work. Once the primary leader or business owner feels comfortable with this business model they need to share this with the team and then the patients. If everyone on the team is not on board this new business model will not work. Once the team is on board you can share your new business model for assisted hygiene with the patients and all who enter through the door of your office.

Code of Ethics

These are the driving principles, of your business. An example of this can be seen with the code of ethics the Ritz Carlton shares with all who enter through the doors of a Ritz Carlton Hotel. (Did you know the employees keep a card of these on them at all times while on the job?) The leaders at the Ritz Carlton are responsible for stewarding an icon in the luxury market, through a constant quest for excellence, to continue its success in a changing global economy and with changing customer needs.

You can also think of your code of ethics similar to the Ten Commandments for your dental business. You may ask why have a code of ethics? Below is a list of important reasons why you need to have this, share it with everyone on the team and everyone who walks through the door of your dental office.

Why you need a code of ethics

• Sets up expected behaviors (for the team and what the patients can expect)
• Promotes high standards of practice for the dental office
• Provides a benchmark
• Establishes a framework for professional behavior and responsibilities
• Gives a specific Identity to the practice – what they can be known for
• Shows development of a systematic approach and maturity of the business

When people know why you are in the business of dentistry they are more likely to remain a life-long patient and most likely be a disciple of what you represent referring all their friends and family members.
When changes occur in the practice, for example changing to an assisted hygiene model, patients are more likely to weather the change because these are the people who understand you are all about their best well-being. They know you care by everything you do and say: written and verbal.

Critical Components

A systematic approach is the key to making this and any transition a seamless process.

Define what assessments are to be completed during the hygiene appointment and which auxiliary(ies) can perform these assessments. The hygiene team in particular needs to meet and write down what screenings will be completed and at what intervals. An example may be: “At each preventive appointment patients will receive the medical history review and an oral cancer screening. The patient will also receive a caries risk assessment form and this will be reviewed by an auxiliary. The auxiliary will ask about xerostomia (dry mouth) and give oral hygiene instructions (or a review of) before the patient leaves the operatory.”

“Annually each patient seen for preventive treatments will receive a full mouth periodontal screening exam, a blood pressure screening and smile analysis.” This is just an example so you may want to meet and decide what is in the best interest of the patients and your practice model.

Once you meet with the team and create this model you will nurture and create an atmosphere of optimal preventive patient-centered care.

It is very important that you develop a customized and written protocol so each member of the assisted hygiene team and even future members of the assisted hygiene team can acknowledge, accept their role and responsibility within this new business model. The written protocol will include the daily goal(s) for production and may even include how many referrals you ask for from current patients. The written protocol will include challenges and how they will be handled, when to implement new technologies, budgets for new equipment and treatment adjuncts to continue improving the quality of patient care.

Cross-training the hygiene department and having the operatories set up the same in a systematic manner will promote a system of effectiveness. The hygienist and assistant must acknowledge the benefit of sharing duties which overlap their scopes of practice and contribute to the success of the assisted hygiene program.

Scheduling is very important and the various patient treatments (procedures) need to be categorized into low, medium or high production. Having specific blocks of time pre-scheduled in the appointment book will also help keep the assisted hygiene program on track for not only a preventive patient centered practice of optimal care but will help the team meet production goals.

Determine your expectations and each person’s perceptions. Be open to listening to your patients’ perceptions about this change. This awareness will help you and the team to proceed with clarity for success and to progress towards peak performance with a patient centered preventive program.

Journey through Peaks & Valleys

These are just a few guidelines to begin your journey for patient centered hygiene care. Possibly you already use the assisted hygiene business model. There will always be peaks and valleys in anything we do in life.

Even if you have already implemented this program of assisted hygiene you may consider the expertise of a hygiene coach or consultant as they are the experts who will provide the team with powerful solutions to bring the valleys up to peak performance.
When you become clear about your values and understand everyone’s perception not only will you exceed your expectations but those of your patients.

Happy Patient = Continued Success!

Stay Tuned

Stay tuned for part II of Debra Bittke’s series on The Assisted Hygiene Business Model…

Let’s face it – smoking sucks. Quitting comes in a close second on the suck meter. You’ve probably tried every gimmicky method known to man in order to quit smoking. Let me guess, nothing has worked? You’re not alone.

One of the newest products on the market, Nicorette White Ice Mint Gum combines a smoking cessation aid with a tooth whitening ability.

It’s the first smoking cessation aid to offer this combo. To encourage you to give Nicorette White Ice Mint Gum a try, Nicorette is currently offering a $7 coupon for this product.

Get your $7 coupon

We recommend purchasing Nicorette White Ice Mint Gumfrom Amazon.com for the lowest price

Creating a Web site is the single most important marketing tool you could and should have for your practice. It is no longer if you should have a Web site, but rather what you should put on your site. Web sites validate you as a “real” business.

Practices without Web sites are missing out on numerous opportunities to attract patients surfing on the Web in an effort to find a dentist. In addition, referrals from existing patients will often fall flat if the prospective patient goes to the Internet to find you and you are missing.

Now that you are moving forward and developing a practice Web site, here are 10 things we at Jameson believe you should consider when building your site:

10 Powerful Tips

1. Make the text “you” focused and action oriented instead of doctor oriented.

2. Use testimonials and photos of your own patients in lieu of stock photography.

3. Use non-retracted smile and portrait photos of your work.

4. Put your contact information on every page in an easy to find place.

5. Put photos of patients on the home page.

6. Place the doctor and team photos on the “Meet Your Team” page.

7. Showcase your practice with a photographic tour of your office. Create it so you can update it frequently.

8. Have a map to your location.

9. Develop the site so that it can be search engine optimized.

10. Have a tracking mechanism tied to your site so you can see the actual success of it.

Build, market, and track a great site so that you can take your practice to the next level! First focus on getting the site you want and need. Building an amazing site is an exciting experience and so rewarding when your patients rave about it. It will be even more rewarding when you see your new patient numbers and case acceptance rise because you have created the right message that you carry through your entire practice!

The following is a guest post by Jim Stratton. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

Welcome to 2010. Direct Mail, Newspaper Ads, and other traditional forms of advertising are continually becoming less effective. Gone are the ways of the past – consumers now have unlimited content available to them right at their fingertips, online.

A recent study found that 70% of internet users now search for local businesses online. So what are you doing to cash in on this rapidly increasing trend? Here is a quick guide on how to blow away your competition with local search, and tap into this all-important revenue stream.

You Need a Converting Website

The key to any powerful internet marketing campaign is having a website that turns online visitors into paying customers. The biggest trap most practice owners’ fall into is having a website that is nothing more than a digital practice brochure. It may be pretty to look at – have lots of content – but it fails to deliver a steady stream of high quality patients.

The only purpose of your website should be to get your visitor to schedule an appointment or request more information. One of the most effective methods for this is including a compelling, valuable offer that visitors can sign up for right on the spot – perhaps a “Free Consultation” or “Complimentary Exam”. Here is a great article with tips on how to create and promote a powerful offer: Lead Conversion

Making PPC Marketing Work

Pay-Per-Click marketing is a tricky area for many dental practices – some have tried and failed, others have just heard too many bad things, and many more simply have never heard of it or don’t know enough about it. What almost all of these practices have in common is that they are not aware they could be killing their online competition, instead of missing out on this golden opportunity.

For all of the internet users that now search for local business online, over 70% prefer using Google. If there is one search engine that you need to master when it comes to PPC, this is the one. If you do a search on Google for ‘(Your City) Dentist’, on the results page you will see a group of ‘Sponsored Links’ in yellow at the top, and another group of ‘Sponsored Links’ along the right. These links are PPC ads, and represent some of the first listings consumers find when searching for a new dentist online.

In order to run PPC ads for your practice on Google, you first need to make a Google AdWords account: Google Adwords

When first getting started, it is important to:

• Determine radius you want to geographically target (campaign settings)
• Identify relevant keywords to your practice (i.e. ‘Chicago Dentist’, or ‘Chicago Teeth Whitening’)
• Create well-organized structure with groupings for your keywords
• Create ads that tie in theme of their ad group’s keywords
• Install conversion tracking to track performance

This article has some more specific info for getting started and AdWords tips: Insanely Effective Adwords in Three Easy Steps

Tracking the performance of your AdWords account (with conversion tracking) is absolutely critical to being successful, and is where many practices fail to turn PPC into a profitable marketing channel. With conversion tracking, you have the ability to determine specific areas (goals) of your website that have a “perceived value” to your practice each time they are reached.

These values are so critical because they tie directly into the financial math of customer acquisition for your practice. For example – if you know your average patient is worth approximately $1,500 in lifetime value, and one of every five people that request a free consultation become a paying patient, then you can start to realize the value of these incoming online leads ($1,500 / 5 = $300). Now obviously there are a multitude of other factors that affect profitability (supplies, overhead expenses, etc.), but the key is to try to grasp the understanding of how much you can spend to profitably bring in a new patient. Armed with this information, you can optimize your PPC account to maximize profitability by slowing down or pausing parts of your account that are not working well, and spending more on areas of your account that have a great ROI and could use more volume.

Tying in Google Local Business Listings

The final step to dominating Google Local Search for your area is having a well-ranked Local Business Listing. These are the listings that show up on the results page for the same search as before (‘Your Area’ Dentist), next to the map with the pushpins in it. These listings are 100% free to create, and more importantly 100% free for clicks received. If you do not already have one for your practice, you can create it here: Google Local.

Just having a map listing is one thing, but the truly effective ones are those that rank well for the relevant terms in your area. There are quite a few factors that go into the ranking of these listings. Here are some great resources for the known factors, which can help you get to the top for all relevant listings:

Improve Google local listings through local SEO

Local search ranking factors

Final Thoughts

Dental practices are not immune to customer attrition. As with any localized business, people eventually move out of their area and can no longer be your patients. For some this is a harsh truth – but for others it presents an amazing opportunity, because there is also an ongoing flow of new potential patients moving into the area. By dominating Google local search now, you can move ahead your competition in the race to acquire these new patients, and cash in on the goldmine.

The following is a guest post by Debbie Seidel-Bittke. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

What an exciting time we live in! We are living in a time where we are discovering new technologies. We have social media marketing strategies, everyone has a website and we are just a Google search away from one another. If you want to be on the leading edge you are looking for ways to set your practice apart from the rest.

We must pay close attention to increasing profitability, efficiency and our overhead while providing a high level of quality, attention and detail to our patient care. These are exciting times in dentistry as we explore and implement new strategies to enhance and improve our current dental practice business strategies.

Over the years, dentistry has evolved into realizing that we must carry out a patient-centered, prevention-oriented health care practice that is prosperous. It is imperative to employ sound business principles and expect our practice to be an environment in which our team has an opportunity to build a rewarding career and our patients receive extraordinary care and service. One thing that may change for our patients is a re-adjustment of their priorities as it relates to their treatment plan.

The goal of helping our patients has now progressed from treating infection and disease to good overall health. One thing that hasn’t changed is the cost of doing the business of dentistry. It is important that the team understand the cost of running a business in dentistry and a hygiene department. It is when the team understands these financial aspects of the business that members of the dental team are committed to excellence.

Working as a Team

When we work as a team we can make a difference. Everyone on the team needs to understand what systems are in place. Cross-training the team can create a harmonious playing field. When your entire team is enrolled in communicating patient education, delivering home care instructions and increasing the patient’s dental IQ we now provide a rich environment for enthusiastic teamwork, enhanced level of communication and a committed effort to improving the overall health and wellness of your patients. With a team fully engaged, your patients begin to connect and establish trust with your entire team and view the team as an invaluable resource for their total health. Working as a cohesive team provides an immediate and lasting impression for your patients. This is a cost effective marketing plan which we all know as internal marketing.

When reading about productivity in the hygiene department you may think of coming in early, working through lunch and staying late. Maybe you think the office has a prophy mill. Does this make you feel like you are running on a treadmill or riding a roller coaster? When you take time to add assessments such as a periodontal screening exam, CAMBRA, smile analysis and xerostomia, etc., you will begin to treat the total patient, work more efficiently and higher end treatment will begin to take place. Patients now have a reason to say “Yes” to treatment needs when they understand the science and importance of oral health related to their total systemic health. The assessments initiate communication for the necessary treatment and when patients understand the importance a “Yes” to treatment most likely means you are more likely to complete higher end treatment plans. This means your revenue will increase.

Another avenue to increase patient oral and systemic health is by recommending home care products. Home care products can also increase revenue and become another profit center. Can you imagine patients coming by the office even when they don’t have an appointment? They do when they purchase home care products from you. These products can be a great gift for patients to share with other friends and family members when there is a special occasion or holiday. This gives patients a reason to stop by the office frequently.

Offering home care products is just one more opportunity to add a personal touch, top of the line preventive services and exposure to your patients without marketing. When you offer products to support patients who request natural products, support your cosmetic dentistry, offer products for caries prevention and treatment of xerostomia, just to name a few. Adding home care products to what you currently offer your patients will not take time out of your schedule and will not add more patients to your schedule. It adds simple revenue with little effort on the part of the dental team.

Every time you prepare a crown or place an implant you are paying a lab bill. When you sell home care products you will not have a high overhead but many of the products you will have your patient purchase have a 70% return on investment. (ROI) This is called passive income. It is an easy way to add value to what your patients receive and it also increases your bottom line in the dental practice.

Providing a patient centered prevention – oriented atmosphere in your practice will bring out the vision, values and quality of your practice. It will set your practice up to harness to ride the big waves depending upon whatever the economic climate may be.

Creating a cohesive team and a dental practice based on excellence and the extraordinary, realizing the potential of the dental hygiene department and the entire team is essential to building the dental practice you have always dreamed of. This assures long-term relationships along side your success.

Your team members are all very important assets to the health, profitability and success of the dental practice. Your patients and the team are priceless!

The following is a guest post by Millenium Dental. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

There are many different factors that come into play when determining the success level of a dental practice, but one of the most important qualities that any practice should possess is excellent client service.

Clients expect more than mere technical knowledge from their healthcare professionals; they also want a dentist who is friendly, attentive and will put their minds at ease. Keeping clients as satisfied as possible will guarantee return visits – and referrals for new business.

Here are five ways to improve client service at your dental practice:

1. Provide various financial options to clients.

In these difficult financial times, many clients are finding it challenging to fit a trip to the dentist into their budgets. Your job should be to make the process as easy on them as possible. Consider granting discounts when patients pay cash upfront, creating a referral program that offers patients discounts for referring friends or relatives to your practice, and working out payment plans for patients with extenuating financial circumstances. Accepting credit card payments is another way to increase the number of payment options available to clients.

2. Expand the range of services you offer.

For example, cosmetic dentistry is a rapidly growing segment of the industry, and clients will appreciate only having to visit one practice for all of their dental needs. Popular cosmetic procedures include teeth whitening, dental implants and veneers. Another way to stimulate business is to offer spa amenities like massages or facials, which will give your practice a more relaxed, indulgent atmosphere.

3. Focus on giving each client personal attention.

Always send thank you cards after a client’s first visit to your practice, as well as to those clients who have completed extensive or costly procedures. Periodic postcard mailings are another way to stay in touch; try reminding patients that they’re due for a checkup, or offer a discount on special services like teeth whitening. Holiday cards are another way to show clients that you care. Finally, providing patients with surveys at the end of each appointment is a great way to solicit feedback and demonstrate the importance of their opinions.

4. Maintain a clean, comfortable facility.

People want to visit a dentist with a spotless office and up-to-date tools and equipment. In addition, relaxing music and television programs are mainstays of every well-equipped practice, as they put clients at ease and provide them with pleasant distractions.

5. Streamline and improve your scheduling system in order to reduce client wait times.

Nothing makes a client feel less valuable to a medical professional than having to sit in the waiting area for an hour or more. Try to schedule appointments so that clients never have to wait longer than fifteen minutes to see the dentist.

Optimize your client service with these tips and your practice is bound to see an increase in business.

The following is a guest post by Henri Asseily, of Telnic. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

It will come as no surprise to dental professionals that people who have a good experience with a product or service will want to tell their friends and colleagues about it.

Word of Mouth is Critical

Word of mouth is a critical driver in generating new business, and the traditional methods of enabling this in the offline world are much slower than in the online world. The key is how to employ it in a way that can get the biggest bang for the buck.

A blend of social media and search engine optimization using free resources linked to your central online presence can work together to generate buzz, as well as drive curious or interested potential patients back to a central place where they can find out more and take action.

Twitter Works

During the first week of March, the word ‘dentist’ was tweeted on Twitter, the short-form blogging platform where people share everyday experiences and recommendations (or negative comments), nearly 4,000 times, according to Topsy. In the past month, the word ‘dentist’ was mentioned nearly 21,000 times. There’s something about going to the dentist that brings out the emotion in people! Twitter can be an incredible resource to both search for new patients and reach out to them cost-effectively, and also a brilliant platform to get existing clients to tweet about their experience, post pictures and engage with their peers. Ask your patients whether they’re on Twitter, get on there yourself, and don’t forget to research potential customers thinking about whether or not to make a visit in your area.

Other Social Media Tools to Consider…

In addition to Twitter, other social media tools such as Facebook fan pages (which now come with analytics tools), free listings in social recommendation sites such as Yelp and free blogging platforms that can be updated by email or text messaging (such as Posterous) can provide your practice with multiple cost-effective sources to get your messages out and crucially engage with your patients, even if they change home addresses or telephone numbers. Updating this content provides good material for search engines to index, and therefore drive results in search – the number one entry point for Americans on the Web.

Link it up with a .tel page

Optimizing search results can be achieved by simply cross-linking all of these places to one simple-to-manage domain that you own. Previously, this may have been tricky and time-consuming. But with the new .tel domain, you can have a simple presence online that links to all of the above resources, and enable people to quickly access information about your practice on the Web. Perhaps more importantly, the .tel page is optimized for use on smartphones, so new and existing patients can direct dial or email your office to book an appointment wherever they are. There’s no coding or Web site building involved, and it can be managed from an iPhone and costs from around $20 per year all-in.

As busy professionals, investing your teams’ time in the above will help you engage with clients without having to commit to time-consuming and costly ventures. Let your service do the talking through your patients.

Your thoughts?

Which online marketing tools have you seen results with? Do you have a .tel page?

Everybody loves saving money right? With that spirit in mind, I’ve put together a list of dental product coupons that are available now. If you’ve tried any of these products, please share your thoughts with the rest of us in a comment at the bottom of this post. Thanks.

Dental Product Coupons

1. Oral-B – $10 rebate on any Oral-B ProfessionalCare or Pulsonic

2. Aquafresh – $7 off Aquafresh White Trays

3. Aquafresh – $1 off Aquafresh Gel Flex or Deep Action toothbrush

4. Aquafresh – $1 off any aquafresh extreme clean

5. Aquafresh – $1 off Advanced 2x Whitening toothpaste

6. Aquafresh – $1 off New Advanced Enamelock Formula

7. Aquafresh – Aquafresh Iso-Active Whitening

8. Aquafresh – $.50 off extreme clean whitening action

9. Smart Mouth – $2 off SmartMouth mouthwash or toothpaste

10. Listerine – $1 off any Listerine antiseptic mouthwash 500mL or larger (registration required)

11. Listerine – $1 off any Listerine Total Care AntiCavity mouthwash 500mL or larger (registration required)

12. Listerine – $1 off any Listerine AntiCavity Fluoride mouthwash 1.0L or larger (registration required)

13. Colgate 75¢ off one NEW Colgate® 360°® ActiFlex Manual Toothbrush

14. Waterpik – $5 off the Waterpik WP-100 Ultra Dental Water Jet

15. Crest – $3.00 off any Spinbrush® SONIC

16. Crest – $2 off Crest Pro Series Spinbrush®

17. Dentek – $1 off Floss Picks

18. Dentek – $5 off Complete White

19. Sensodyne – $1 off Iso-Active toothpaste

20. Sensodyne $1 off ProNamel toothpaste

The Health Reform Bill signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, is sure to change the face of healthcare in America – for better or worse. The bill represented one of the most contentious legislative battles in recent memory. So contentious, in fact, that the final vote split down party lines. Within the dental industry, the story was no different. Many industry groups hold opposing stances with regards to the bill. Some groups even neglected to take an official stance due to the highly-politicized nature of the bill. What we can all agree on, however, is that the Health Reform Bill will produce a number of changes to the way dental care is administered, promoted and payed for.

16 Ways Dental Care is affected by the Health Reform Bill

Sadly, not much has been said in the mainstream media about the specific ways the Health Reform Bill will affect those of us in the dentistry field. In fact, that’s the inspiration behind this post. Below, you will find a list of the ways this bill will affect you – the dental professional – minus the politics. The Health Reform Bill will:

1. Require insurance plans to include pediatric oral health services for children up to 21 years of age

2. Establish an oral health prevention program and fund states to develop oral health leadership

3. Enhance oral health data systems

4. Implement dental sealants, water fluoridation and preventive programs

5. Establish a five-year national, public education campaign focused on oral health care prevention and education and targeted to certain populations, including children, the elderly, and pregnant women

6. Require essential health benefits package to include oral care among other things

7. Award demonstration grants in consultation with professional oral health organizations to eligible entities to demonstrate the effectiveness of research-based dental caries disease management activities

8. Authorize the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) to review payments for dental services in Medicaid and CHIP

9. Establish a process for updating payments to dental health professionals

10. Reaffirm that dentists will be members of the Commission

11. Establish a separate dental section and funding line of $30 million for training in general, pediatric, and public health dentistry

12. Increase eligibility for new grant programs in the Title VII Health Professions Programs to train dental and allied dental health professionals

13. Make dental schools eligible for federal grants for pre-doctoral training, faculty development, dental faculty loan repayment, and academic administrative units, grants currently available only to medical schools

14. Modify current law to allow hospitals to count dental and medical resident time spent in didactic (scholarly) activities toward Indirect Medical Education (IME) costs in hospital settings and toward Direct Graduate Medical Education (D-GME) in non-hospital settings (dental school clinics)

15. Authorize grants to establish training programs for alternative dental health care providers to increase access to dental health care services in rural, tribal, and underserved communities

16. Exempt dental coverage from the premium amounts subject to excise tax on high cost insurance plans

The takeaway? Both the patients being served and the way dental care is delivered will look quite different in the coming years. Only time will tell if these measures will represent a positive or negative change for dentistry. What are your thoughts?

Your Thoughts

I know you guys have opinions about the measures set forth in the Health Reform Bill that specifically relate to dentistry – let’s hear them. Leave a comment below and let the discussion begin!

Additional Resources

As you can see, I just scratched the surface with the list above. Take a look at some of these additional resources from the ADA, ADHA and ADEA for more in-depth information related to dental care’s place in the Health Reform Bill.

• ADHA: Key Oral Health Provisions Contained in the Final Health Reform Bill
• ADA: Health Care Reform: Improving Oral Health in America
• ADA: Health Care Reform Legislation: Side-by-Side Comparison
• ADEA Applauds Passage of Health Care Reform Legislation

Alex, our friend over at Worldental.org is running a contest that he wants bloggers to be a part of. The contest, appropriately dubbed the “Dental Health is Important” contest is designed to raise awareness and promote the benefits of good oral hygiene. In light of several years of mounting evidence that dental health has a great impact on overall health, we think this contest is a great way to spread the word.

Who Can Enter?

Any bloggers who care about their health and the health of their friends and family
*Please no adult content, no new blogs (less than 10 posts) or incomplete blogs.

What can I win?

The first place winner will win $300 cash or $600 worth of free advertising on Worldental.org. Runners-up are eligible to receive an electric toothbrush, a teeth whitening kit, childcare dental products, an UV sanitizer, a flosser, and more! Oh, and all accepted participants will receive a dofollow link from the contest page.

Learn More

To learn how you can participate in the Dental Health is Important blogger contest, head on over to the contest page on Worldental.org. The contest ends March 31, 2010, so get writing. Good Luck!

Top Stories of the Week

1) Nine things you should never do on Facebook Kevin Henry points out some great tips to remember when using Facebook – especially if you’re using it for business…

2) How your body language affects referrals Rita Zimora provides 5 quick-n-easy tips that you use in your practice TODAY to increase referrals…

3) Turning Patients into Missionaries Dr. James Kincaid discusses a number of ways you can turn your patients into missionaries and receive a steady stream of the types of referrals that are best for your practice…

4) Dental practice marketing campaigns This Wealthy Dentist video blog explores the various marketing campaigns dentists are conducting and having success with…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Dental Product Shopper is at it again. This time they’re offering you the opportunity to enter a contest they call the “Remodel, Relearn, Relax Sweepstakes”. If you’ll remember, the estimated value of the prizes in their last contest was around $290,000. However, this time, entrants can score over $323,000! To learn more about the prize packages you’re eligible to win, visit the prize page.

Who’s Eligible to Enter

To be eligible to win, you must be (i) a licensed dentist, (ii) a dental hygienist, (iii) a dental assistant, or (iv) an office manager that has been employed at a licensed dental office during the entire six (6) months immediately prior to entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, third-party partners, advertising, promotion, and fulfillment agencies, their immediate family members and persons living in their same household, are not eligible to participate in the Giveaway. Void where prohibited. Federal, state, and local laws and regulations apply. Prizes will be awarded to the entrant’s dental office, as identified by the entrant in his or her entry (the “Winner”).

For a full listing of the official rules, check out the sweepstakes rules page.

How to Enter

To enter, simply fill out the sweepstakes entry forms. Registration is FREE and only takes a few minutes. Good Luck!

P.S. Don’t forget to follow DentalProductShopper.com on Twitter (@DentalProducts).

What do you think?

What gear in the Grand Prize Package would you like to have in your practice?

Recently, WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, partnered with Colgate-Palmolive to launch Heartwarming Smiles, an initiative to help educate women throughout the U.S. about the impact proper oral care can have on their heart health.

Heartwarming Smiles will focus on empowering women by providing the knowledge and tools needed to make positive lifestyle changes to help reduce their risk of heart disease. The campaign’s online resource, www.womenheart.org/ourPartners/heartwarmingsmiles.cfm, is specifically designed to encourage women to talk with their physician to discuss their overall health and the simple changes they can make to help reduce the risk of heart disease and improve their oral care.

So, what inspired the Heartwarming Smiles Campaign? If you’re a dentist or physician, you know that poor oral health, specifically gum disease, may impact heart health. More and more research is suggesting a link between the two. However, the general public is largely unaware of this connection. It’s no surprise that this is the case, as evidenced by a recent national survey that found:

• More than half (53%) of Americans with primary care physicians report that they never discuss their oral health during appointments with them.
• More than one in three (35%) Americans visiting dentists regularly say that they never discuss any non-dental medical issues during their dentist visits.

“Since heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans, it is increasingly important that patients take the initiative to establish open lines of communication with their doctors and dentists,” said Elizabeth Klodas, M.D., F.A.C.C., President, Preventive Cardiology Consultants (Edina, Minnesota). “Patients need to inform their physicians and dentists of any major oral health issues or heart conditions they may have to ensure optimal care. Patients should ask about measures available that may help improve their overall health, like using Colgate Total, an antibacterial toothpaste that fights plaque and gingivitis, an early form of gum disease.”

So, what’s the takeaway here for dentists and primary care physicians? Talk to your patients. If your a dentist don’t take the approach that medical issues unrelated to your patients oral hygiene is not your concern. The same goes for physicians – don’t neglect to talk with your patients about oral hygiene issues. This information can only help you to perform your job better and better serve your patients.

For more information about the Heartwarming Smiles Campaign, or to access tools to educate your female patients about the oral hygiene/heart health link, visit womenheart.org.

The following is a guest post by Debbie Seidel-Bittke. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

When you see the words “the business of dental hygiene” what do you imagine? Perhaps you see a treadmill where high volume and financial reward are the main focus of the dental hygiene department? Or do you see a hygiene department where quality patient care and profitability are congruent, operating with systems and protocols that would not allow one to compromise the other?

A Paradigm Shift

During the past ten+ years the goal of helping our patients has now progressed from treating infection and disease into good overall health. One thing that hasn’t changed is the cost of doing the business of dental hygiene. It is important that the team understand the cost of running a business and a hygiene department. It is when the team understands these financial aspects of the business that the members of the dental team will be committed to excellence. It is important to have team meetings that educate every team member of the cost associated with the daily operations of running the business of dentistry and dental hygiene.

The Facts

The fact is, the hygiene department is the second largest profit center in the dental practice and provides support for the practice as a whole. Within the hygiene department are several other areas of profitability for the dental practice.

Most of your patients spend one hour–two to four times a year with the dental hygienist(s) and because of this ongoing relationship patients are more likely to remain in your practice, accept treatment recommendations and refer patients to the dental office. This makes your hygiene department a business within a business and it makes the executive in this department held accountable for his/her success. When the dental hygienist is held accountable for the department success and when he/she understands the vision and principles of the dental practice, success will follow. You will find the team working in harmony when they understand the vision for the practice share the same code of patient ethics and take ownership for the way patients are treated.

When every team member takes ownership of their role the patients are sure to experience a caring attitude, an ultimate dental experience, the highest level of care and the profits are sure to follow. This provides a win-win situation.

One of the most important aspects of the dental hygiene treatment that is often overlooked is the list of assessments. Dental hygienists feel as if they are on a treadmill but when the team plans the day effectively these assessments can really make the day run smoothly, allow patients to feel they received the highest level of care and now allows for a more comprehensive treatment plan to occur. The treatment plan now moves to a higher level of care.

New Treatment Heights

There is a list of 10 assessments and patient procedures that stimulate profitability in the dental hygiene department. These ten are all important aspects of the patients’ oral and total health. Not all offices participate in this list of 10 and
If you take a look at the list below and notice a missing piece choose to just implement 1 or 2 within the next month. Make an appointment this month to discuss with your team how to implement these ten successfully into the hygiene patient appointment time. Be patient with these changes and take time to discuss how to effectively implement these with full participation from the entire team.

The most overlooked assessments are the annual full-mouth periodontal screening exam. Still in the 21st century many hygienists who see a patient every six months, neglect to pick up a periodontal probe prior to picking up a curette. Most dental offices have approximately 15% of their adult patients with untreated periodontal disease. If each of these patients continues down this path we know that the research states this disease process will continue and the patient will at some point experience tooth mobility and possible tooth loss.

What will this cost the dental business? Take into account that most non-surgical periodontal treatment plans are approximately $1,000.00 for four quadrants of just scaling and root planing not taking into account the use of antimicrobials or laser therapy. Now take into account the frequency of the periodontal
maintenance appointments that follow about every 90 days. Once a periodontal patient, always a periodontal patient. It is the same as a patient with diabetes or high blood pressure. These patients are seen frequently and always at risk for future disease after the disease have been halted. We are not talking about money lost but improved health!

Another new area of treatment that is overlooked at this time is the pediatric patient – first visit. CAMBRA is a new evidence-based protocol for assessing caries. It is now the standard of care for the pediatric patient to have their first visit when the first primary tooth erupts. This appointment can be done in a consult room with the child seated on the mothers lap. This is an appointment to assess the tooth structure, biofilm and any suspicious areas of the child’s oral cavity. If you are concerned about receiving payment the CDT codes have you covered.

How many patients qualify for this preventive measure? How will this benefit your patients and your bottom line?

When the hygienist and team all understand the need to prevent and intervene at an early stage vs. wait and watch; not only does the patient gain an improved level of health but the dental hygiene production will increase. Establish periodontal and the various preventive protocols today. Now is the time to cease treating the periodontal patient with a prophy appointment and begin to utilize the
preventive measures according to the new CAMBRA guidelines.

Another area in dentistry that has changed in the past decade or more is selling home care products. Many decades ago we wrote a prescription or sent our patients to a pharmacy with names of products written on a piece of paper. Our knowledge and research over the past few decades states that 70% of these patients returned to our dental office and never took time to get the prescription filled. Patients seldom took that piece of paper with them to purchase the specific product recommended. When patients have the toothbrush they are to use and shown in the dental office how to use that new power toothbrush they are more likely to use the brush effectively.

This is the one area of your dental practice that has a net profit of about a 70%. You can spend hours preparing a crown or bridge and you have lab fees to pay at the end. The ROI (return on investment) for home care products sold in the dental office is about 70%. We want patients to buy their home care products from the experts, the people who know which toothpaste, toothbrush, mouth rinse, etc. is appropriate for the individual patient to use at home. The sales person at the local drug store and even the pharmacist is not the person to educate a patient about xylitol and its benefits let alone what type of silica is appropriate to use on the expensive restorations the dental patient just paid for.

By engaging and empowering the entire team your dental business is certain to excel. You will create a cohesive team and a dental practice based on excellence and the extraordinary. Realizing the potential of the dental hygiene team and creating a thriving profit center inside this valuable department of your business is essential to building the dental practice you have always dreamed of. This assures you long-term relationships along side your success.

Your team and the dental hygiene department are all very important assets to the health, profitability and success of the dental practice.

10 Profitability Centers in the Dental Hygiene Department

1. Perform oral health care assessments that include the review of patients’ health history, dental charting, oral cancer screening, periodontal assessments, biofilm assessment, saliva pH test, smile analysis, xerostomia, etc.

2. Expose and interpret dental radiographs (x-rays); co-diagnose

3. Non-surgical periodontal procedures, antimicrobial agents, laser therapy, etc

4. CAMBRA

5. Apply cavity-preventive agents such as fluorides varnish and sealants to the teeth

6. Administer local anesthetic and / or nitrous oxide analgesia

7. Educate patients on proper oral hygiene techniques to maintain healthy teeth and gums and recommend home care products

8. Discuss whitening treatment and take impressions when applicable

9. Administer smoking cessation programs

10. Counsel patients on the importance of good nutrition for maintaining good oral hygiene

Your Take

Which of these profitability centers currently exist in your practice. Do you plan to introduce any of the others listed here? Would you add any to the list?

Top Stories of the Week

1) Best Practices for Dental Patient Records Barry F. Levin, Esq. and Philip M. Bogart, Esq. discuss the importance of everything from correcting mistakes to documenting refusal of treatment in dental patient records…

2) Grow Your Dental Practice Jay Grier discusses three ways to start doubling your growth right now even if you hit a plateau…

3) Bad Reviews…What Can I do? Jason T. Lipscomb discusses a number of good methods for dealing with negative reviews online. Every dentist NEEDS to know this information…

4) Sheep Herding? Dental practice management expert, Linda Zdanowicz, describes the management phenomenon she calls “sheep herding” and how you will have to “ride herd” over many employees for a period of time …

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Crest is currently offering you a chance to win a $500 bank gift card and an oral care prize pack (exact contents of oral care prize pack determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion).

To enter the sweepstakes, simply fill out the Sweepstakes Entry Form and check the box below the form that reads “Yes! I’d like to enter for a chance to win $500 and a complete P&G oral care prize package.”

Be sure to fill out the form before April 29, 2010. The prize drawing will be on May 3, 2010. For full sweepstakes rules, please visit Crest.com.

Enter Sweepstakes

Recently, Proctor & Gamble, makers of Fixodent, the number one dentist recommended brand of denture adhesive, announced the launch of the “Circle of Confidence,” a unique network of experts created to provide confidence and give denture wearers a team to confide in as a person, not a patient.

The ‘Circle of Confidence’ program was founded following a Fixodent survey to find out how women dentures feel about themselves compared to women without dentures. The survey, “Fixodent Beauty & Aging,” found that denture wearers place more importance on their smile than the average woman over 40. They believe this is the first thing others notice about them, and the idea of getting dentures was a source of anxiety for most wearers before they got dentures.

Fixodent Survey Results

• Two in ten (19%) women age 40+ have full or partial dentures
• Nearly two-thirds (63%) of female denture wearers say they felt some anxiety right before they got their
  dentures.
• Nearly half (40%) said they feared that their dentures would slip or not fit well.
• A third of women feared that their dentures would be painful.
• Women in the 40+ age group are most likely to say their smile is the first physical feature that people notice
  about them.
• Most female denture wearers (67%) say they smile more often since getting dentures.
• The biggest fear for these women is if they had to get dentures, 61 percent say it would ease their
  worries to know their dentures would stay in place. About half (51 percent) say it would lessen their
  conerns to know they could eat almost all the foods they now enjoy.
• Roughly 20 million women age 40+ wear full or partial dentures and more than three million women are living
  their lives in fear of doing something as simple as eating out.
• Women age 40+ who wear dentures and those who don’t wear dentures agree on at least one thing – denture experts are the most helpful online resource for getting information about dentures.

To help ease this anxiety, Fixodent has joined forces with dental expert/prosthodontist Dr. Lawrence Brecht; lifestyle/nutrition expert Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.; and beauty expert Lois Joy Johnson, to provide women with insights to help them feel confident with their new smiles.

To ease the anxiety of your new denture-wearing patients, send them to the Fixodent Circle of Confidence website, which is available on dentureliving.com. This powerful website helps restore confidence in new denture wearers through information that helps them educate and empower themselves to experience life, not dentures.

Circle of Confidence Overview

Your Thoughts

Does your experience with denture wearers over 40 mirror the findings in this Fixodent study? Do you believe your patients would find the ‘Circle of Confidence’ to be helpful in restoring their confidence?

Get off the treadmill

Each day is a fast, frenetic ride on the practice racetrack. As hygienists we say “Treadmill”. Daily stresses morph into emergencies. You and the team dash from one procedure, patient, or task to the next and each are more critical than the last. At the end of the day you promise yourself you’re going to make changes and try to get things under control. But the fact is, it’s a rush. You’re living on chewing gum and caffeine and gulping at the fountain of adrenaline addiction, and with every near crisis averted, a sudden emergency addressed, and an urgent situation managed you do take a moment to give the team a quick high-five and congratulate yourself.

But that momentary thrill is creating long-term problems. Living in a constant state of crisis management typically means there is little happening in the way of real system management. The team is constantly reacting and scurrying in one direction one day and another the next day depending on what seemingly random course your so-called urgent priorities happen to take. Your crisis addiction, urgency addiction, adrenaline addiction – whatever you want to call it – is being satisfied at a price.

We work hard, not smart

The days are long and exhausting. What was once an exciting thrill is starting to feel a lot like burnout. The worst part, for all of your running, panting, and dashing to handle the latest and most urgent issue, practice productivity is teetering precariously between the “sorely lacking” and “barely good enough.” The problem is everyone is working hard but no one’s working smart. The focus is on dealing with whatever problem has to be managed right now and not on addressing what caused that problem and what can be done to prevent it in the future.

Turning your practice around

Had enough of life and work on the run? A mere 24 hours over the next year could transform a practice locked in a seemingly perpetual state of crisis management or lackluster success into one of superior efficiency and productivity. It also could go along way in weaning both doctor and team from an inefficiency addiction that is costing you thousands in productivity and an untold amount in long-term professional satisfaction.
It begins with a simple two hour meeting each month and a genuine commitment to making a change. This is dedicated, uninterrupted time in which doctor and all team members commit to continuously improve the practice.

Follow this 12-step plan to practice efficiency and increase profitability.

1. Create an agenda with input from the entire team. (Go to: http://dentalpracticesolutions.com/members-center/ for a copy of agenda to use.)

2. The agenda will be specific for the type of meeting you are holding. In our Tuesday Tooth Pick January 18, 2010, we listed various meetings you need to schedule during each year. For example one meeting you need to report on frequently are all areas of your dental office that impact the profitability and the success of the practice, such as: numbers of new patients, recare patients, non-surgical periodontal procedures, home-care products sold, unscheduled time units for doctor and hygiene, unscheduled patients for treatment and hygiene appointments which are not scheduled, treatment acceptance, collections, production, accounts receivables, uncollected insurance revenues over 60 days, overhead, etc.

3. Post a list of comments in one area of the office (Preferably a room where the team meets each am for the team huddle) for each team member to contribute their important thoughts and ideas on the topic for the monthly meeting.

4. Distribute the agenda at least two days in advance of the meeting.

5. Assign a different ring master (Leader of the meeting) each month who will lead the meeting and keep team members on task.

6. Assign each member of the team to report on the area for which she/he is responsible. For example, the Scheduling Coordinator reports on the monthly production as compared to the goal, the number of unscheduled time units for the Doctor, and the Doctor’s daily average production. . (Go to: http://dentalpracticesolutions.com/members-center/ for a copy of each person’s role.)

7. Designate the amount of time you will spend discussing each issue and avoid getting bogged down on unrelated topics. Discuss only what’s on the agenda.

8. Eliminate outside interruptions, and when possible hold team meetings off-site in a conference room. Many local libraries, community colleges, hospitals and other public facilities have public meeting rooms available for use. This is especially important when you are holding your annual strategic planning session. It is recommended the strategic planning meeting be held during an 8 hour period of time somewhere relaxing and fun for the team.

9. Encourage team members to come prepared to participate in the discussion. For example, if there are more unscheduled time units than desired the team can discuss strategies for addressing the openings. Seek input from everyone.

10. Delegate responsibilities and establish deadlines for completing tasks identified during the staff meetings. (See the agenda sample at http://dentalpracticesolutions.com/members-center/)

11. Share ideas during team meetings for improving the work environment, the patient experience, and the efficiency of the practice. Seek consensus from the team as to the best time to hold team meetings; meetings scheduled outside normal work hours should be considered paid time.

12. Hold meetings at least once per month, more frequently if you are implementing several changes. Before long you’ll be amazed at your cravings for stability and predictable outcomes. You’ll also be very likely to find you and your team all but addicted to the very real and measurable strides you are making in practice productivity and efficiency.

Have fun with your new addiction to efficiency! It may just increase your bottom line.

Your thoughts

Have you utilized any similar ideas within your practice? What were your results? Do you have additional tips for increasing practice efficiency?

The following is a guest post by Millennium Dental. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

For medical and dental professionals, new patients are the lifeblood that keeps their practice running smoothly. Returning patients are, of course, a tremendous asset as well, but without a steady flow of new patients, most practices can’t afford to stay afloat – especially in today’s competitive and frequently oversaturated marketplace. The solution lies in generating referrals.

But what are the best practices for generating effective referrals without compromising your marketing budget? For most dental professionals, the best way to generate referrals and bolster business for any practice is through positive word of mouth. The hope is that if your patients are happy with your services, they will recommend you to their friends, loved ones, coworkers and acquaintances – but it’s not always that simple. You can’t afford to just sit back and wait for word of mouth recommendations to pick up! Here are a few simple techniques for generating referrals that really work:

1. Send Handwritten postcards, greeting cards or thank you notes

Show patients you care by sending handwritten postcards, greeting cards or thank you notes. Coming from their dental professional, this level of personal commitment may take many people by surprise – and that’s a good thing! Try sending these personalized notes to new patients after their first visit, as well as patients who have just started or finished a significant treatment or procedure. You may also want to get into the habit of reaching out to all of your patients during the holidays, to thank them for their loyalty. Keep your notes short, and always send them as quickly as possible after an appointment or meeting.

2. Establish a referral program

Establish a referral program for your practice. Print small flyers or brochures and display them in your waiting area, and be sure to mention specific incentives that patients could stand to receive if they send referrals your way. These incentives could take the form of anything from a discount on dental services to an unrelated “fun” item, like a gift certificate to a local restaurant.

3. Ask for referrals

Ask for referrals. Even if you follow the previous tips to a T, many of your patients may not “take the hint” and start referring people to your practice. Be proactive and train your staff to ask every patient if they have anyone they would like to refer to your practice. Make sure they leave with one of the aforementioned flyers or brochures, and give them the option of filling out a referral card in the office. Emphasize that their referrals won’t be required to buy anything or make an appointment – you’ll simply be reaching out.

4. Include referral cards with all mailings

Always include referral cards with any direct mail marketing materials you do send out. For example, if you mail a brochure or a newsletter to patients or area residents, include several tear-out referral cards inside.

5. Give away freebies

Give away freebies, such as pens, toothbrushes or magnets, with the name, street address, phone number and web address of your practice printed on them. These items can usually be printed in bulk at an affordable rate, and they can be a surprisingly effective way to generate new interest in your services.

6. Include a referral link on your website

Include a referral link on your website, where visitors can simply type in the names and contact information of individuals who may be interested in your services. Remember, the easier you make the referral process, the more likely your patients are to participate! Don’t forget to mention any incentives you may offer via your referral program.

7. Respond to inquiries quickly

Finally, respond to any inquiries you receive from interested parties as quickly as possible. People will appreciate the personal care and attention, and it may make them inclined to start referring their friends and family immediately – perhaps even before their first appointment has been scheduled!

With these tips in mind, generating referrals can be one of the easiest ways to revitalize your practice without spending a fortune on advertising.

Your Thoughts

Are you utilizing some of these ideas in your practice? Which do you find to be particularly successful? Do you have any tips to add to this list?

The following is a guest post by William D. Esteb. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

Do you care too much?

If you have a voracious appetite for new patients, you don’t enjoy the repeat visits, and patient referrals you think you deserve, it may be because you care too much.

As a professional caregiver, being a dentist requires that you care—but not care too much.

This often comes as a surprise by many in dentistry who boast about how much they care on their website and other marketing overtures. Turns out, few patients are specifically looking for a dentist who cares! They simply assume that dentists and doctors of all types, care.

Find the “Sweet Spot”

As a healing arts professional, setting appropriate boundaries around being emotionally engaged in what patients do and don’t do is a key responsibility. Care too little and your emotional distance and mechanical detachment prevents appropriate patient bonding. Care too much and patients feel an obligation or a “duty” that can actually work against you. When you find the sweet spot between these two extremes, notice improved patient retention and an uptick in new patient referrals.

As a dentist, you probably don’t realize that searching out a new dentist is an unpleasant task. They contemplate the dreadful paperwork, the new practice environment, new procedures, new personalities and not to mention the general fear of the unknown of finding someone new. In fact, changing dentists is so distasteful, their old dentist (you) would have to inflict a lot of psychological pain to prompt them to start over with a new one.

By caring too much, you impose a type of obligation to follow through with certain home care procedures designed to improve their dental hygiene. Which is the point, right? However, to patients it often comes off as “this is what good patients do.” Even if you see it as merely a reminder about regular flossing, some patients interpret their subsequent failure to live up to your recommendations as, well, failure. Rather than face you and your disappointment, they seek care in another dentist’s office.

Of course, each patient, not you, determines if your recommendations are an obligation, or merely a friendly reminder. It may have nothing to do with what you actually say, but the tone of your voice and countless other subtle cues.

That’s why it’s critical that you care, but not to care too much.

One way to make sure your spoken recommendations are not perceived as a burdensome duty is to move from the first person, as in, “It’s my opinion that you…” or “I think you should…” or “If it were me, I’d…” to the third person: “Many of our patients find…” or “Over the years patients have reported…” Patients are likely to see this as less threatening and obligatory than first person recommendations.

Do you care too much? One way to know if patients perceive that you’ve crossed this invisible line is to take an inventory of how many patients in typical month are first timers as a ratio to total patient visits. The higher the number, the more likely you are of making this common mistake.

Your Thoughts

Do you agree with Mr. Esteb? Can you care too much?

The following is a guest post by Debbie Seidel-Bittke. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

As a dental consultant/coach, I have the opportunity to talk with dental practice owners every day. I also review and analyze dental practices on a weekly basis using my extensive dental knowledge to educate practitioners on how they can improve their practice bottom line.

What I hear consistently are dental practices which on average, see 30 new patients each month. Most dental practices have an average of 2,500 active patients. Most of our clients have been in practice for a minimum of 12 years and examine about 30 new patients every month. You may wonder why most of these practices have a mere active patient base of only 2,500 patients.

If all of these patients continued to return to the office the dental practice should have an active patient base of at approximately 3,500 patients. I am accounting for some attrition and being very forgiving with the accounting of these patient numbers.

In the United States, 78% of general dentists are solo practitioners. Why is there only enough work to keep one dentist busy? The answer is simple, dentists are losing more patients out the back door than are coming in the front door. Most practices I review have only 6 days of hygiene patients each week. With this point arises the question: why are these practices only seeing 6 days of hygiene patients each week?

First of all, I want to address the reason behind why patients may not be coming back to your office. The lack of a “personal relationship” with your patients could be to blame. By building a personal relationship with each patient, you will establish trust and give them a reason to choose your office over another one down the street.

One of the most common questions that I hear on a daily basis is, “why do we need to change? We have always done things this way.” This statement signals a major breakdown and is a silent killer for any dental practice. Dental practitioners should also keep in mind that the field of dentistry changes constantly and dental management skills that worked five to ten years ago probably do not work in today’s world.
There are many reasons why a practice might lose patients.

The “New Patient”

Your first impression is a lasting impression. I always ask doctors to periodically call their own office so they will understand how the phone is being answered. The dental practice owner and all team members need to be aware of how a client may feel when calling in to make an appointment. Do you get the feeling that the phone is answered with someone who has a smile on their face?

Offer good “Customer Service”

How long does your new patient need to wait until they are able to get an appointment in your office? If you have blocked times for new patients you are more likely to successfully accommodate them in a timely manner. If you heard something good about someone and are anxious to meet them, do you want to wait a month to meet them? Neither do your patients!

I have called many offices and an answer machine let me know the office staff was busy with another patient and was not able to answer my call. If I were a new patient calling to schedule my first appointment and I was greeted by a recorded message. I would be discouraged by this not so warm welcome.

What types of information do you send your patients home with? Do they have written oral hygiene instructions or post op instructions? Do you send out a new patient package prior to the first appointment? This can easily be done if you have a website that patients can download information from. If it is not possible to distribute the information through your website, think about emailing a package of information to save the cost of postage.

Do you make post – op calls? Do you call even after the scaling and root planning appointments? If you have a difficult or a fearful patient, think about the impact you would make if you called after hours to make certain they were feeling okay about their dental appointment that day. My niece just had her 3rd molars extracted and it was so comforting when the oral surgeon called to check on her much later that night.

How long does it take you to return patient calls? Do your patients leave with a written treatment plan for any future treatment? Are they able to send emails to confirm their appointments? What type of payment plans do you offer? These are only a few questions you should take into consideration when trying to improve upon your dental practice.

Team Hiring and Training

How do you know what type of personality fits into your practice? There are various models for testing temperaments. You need to know what type of personality fits each job description in your dental practice. You need to know if hiring another person with a strong personality will interfere with any other strong personalities that currently work in the office now.

Your Thoughts

Are you already implementing some of Debbie’s suggestions in your practice? What have been your results?

Thanks to everyone who participated in our recent ‘5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile’ contest. Thanks also to Dr. Catrise Austin for providing us with a free copy of her new book to give away to one lucky Dental Heroes reader.

The winner of the free copy is Joe F. Congratulations Joe. I hope you enjoy your prize.

We have a number of exciting contests coming up in the near future for some great prizes – so stay tuned.

Diabeters & Oral Health Link

The link between diabetes and oral health is clearer than ever. In fact, it is generally accepted that diabetes sufferers are prone to tooth decay, periodontal disease, xerostomia and salivary gland dysfunction and infection. However, more research exposing this link is required, and dental professionals need to learn how to properly educate their diabetic patients about their unique oral care needs.

Online Community Explores Link

Thankfully, the importance of the diabetes and oral health link is not going unnoticed. In fact, today marks the launch of the Joslin Professional Education Continuum(JPEC) Dental Care Center. The JPEC Dental Care Center in their own words is a “unique community of dentists, hygienists, and primary care providers who want to collaborate to improve their care of patients with diabetes using the expertise, tools, and resources of the Joslin Diabetes Center, the world leader in diabetes research, education, and care. JPEC offers the most up-to-date and clinically relevant educational resources for improved patient outcomes (jpec.joslin.org).”

JPEC Dental Care Center Highlights

Additionally, the JPEC Dental Care Center offers dental professionals the opportunity to:

• Earn continuing education credits (CDE, CE or CME)
• Participate in case discussions monitored by Joslin clinical experts
• Interact with colleagues: Exchange ideas and participate in patient case discussions with colleagues from around the country on the dedicated Dental Discussion Board, monitored by Joslin clinical experts.

The Dental Care Center will go live with “Diabetes, Oral Health, and Nutrition: Interrelationships, Innovations, and Interventions,” JPEC’s web-based educational program designed to help primary care providers and dentists understand the connection between periodontal disease and diabetes and develop practical screening strategies for their practices.

If you would like more information or would like to register with the JPEC Dental Care Center, please visit the official JPEC website.

Three weeks ago, Dr. Catrise Austin wrote a post for Dental Heroes entitled,
Is Your Smile on the A-List or D-List? In that post, Dr. Austin announced her new book, “5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile: How the Stars Get That Perfect Smile & How You Can Too”. If you haven’t read her post, I would encourage you to do so.

The Prize

Dr. Austin was gracious enough to allow me to give away one copy of her new book to one lucky Dental Heroes reader.

How to Enter

• Leave a comment below about Dental Heroes (e.g. a general comment about what you enjoy most about Dental Heroes)
• Follow Dental Heroes on Twitter @dentalheroes and tweet this message to your followers, “Win a Copy of Dr. Catrise Austin’s new book, “5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile” on the Dental Heroes Blog. http://bit.ly/8WAqy2

Rules

• One entry per person. Duplicate comments will be voided and deleted.
• Winner will be selected at random on Friday, January 8, 2010.

If you missed our last review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (November 9-23, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of December 21-25, 2009.

Top Stories of the Week

1) Seven New Year’s resolutions for technology in your practice Medix Dental put together a helpful list of seven technology resolutions to be achieve in your practice this coming year…

2) Profitability and Peace of Mind in a Down Economy Vijay Sikka discusses how to use some high technology and some not so high technology tools and techniques to help uncover and recover profitability in your practice…

3) Oral cancer could be killing your younger patients Renee Knight discusses the changing nature of oral cancer. Both the causes of the disease and the demographics of those getting the disease have shifted…

4) Is gingivitis really reversible? Richard H. Nagelberg, DDS, claims that “preventing the progression of gingivitis to periodontitis is the single most important thing we can do for our patients as dental providers.” See why…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Most businesses that don’t have a plan fail to become successful. Don’t enter into a new decade blindly…make sure you have a plan.

Have you ever heard the saying “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”? Well this holds true for your dental business as well. You can not start a business and proceed blindly and just expect that everything will work out and you will achieve great success. It rarely will happen that way. At the very beginning of each year you need to sit down outside the regular dental office atmosphere and make a plan. This plan needs to include the entire team. It starts your practice off on the “right tooth”. Well, it is one way to keep you in the black.

Don’t set yourself up for failure

Without a plan you won’t know which way to progress, you won’t know what you need to do or where you should be when the day begins; let alone another year ends. The entire team will be confused about what you are working towards. What happens next? What happens in most cases is a loss of focus on the interest of the business of dentistry and loss of motivation to get where you need to go.

Would you take a journey somewhere you’ve never traveled without a road map? Of course you wouldn’t. Not if you want to successfully reach your destination. In the year 2010 you most likely have a sophisticated device such as a GPS to guide you directly to your destination.

Considering this, do you think you could successfully reach the goal in your dental business without a strategic plan?

If you are going to put your time and money into something, you don’t want to set yourself up for failure; rather you want to ensure your success.

Have an annual plan to ensure your success

When you have a plan, you will create direction for yourself and the entire team who follows your lead. You will now understand what you need to accomplish your tasks and move to the next step.

You don’t have to do this on your own. As the year ends many consulting/business firms are offering discounts to guide you to plan effectively, to travel in the right direction and end at the pot of gold.

Once you have a plan in place, you won’t have to guess what you should do next, as you will already know. You won’t spend your time wondering and waiting for success to come, only to be disappointed and clueless as to where you went wrong. I’m not saying that just any business strategic plan is going to ensure you success, but having a plan in place will significantly improve your chances!

Be prepared

This is your business…your lively hood. Having a well thought out business plan will also reduce your stress as you move along.

If you’ve ever been a parent or a babysitter of a young infant or toddler, you will know that if you go on an outing with a carefully packed diaper bag, you will feel a lot less stressed than if you just threw some things together right before you left. What if you forgot something? What if you forgot something important like diapers, bottles for formula, or the baby food?

While you are away trying to enjoy yourself your mind may constantly be stressed, trying to think if you have forgotten anything. Not a good way to run an outing at the park… or your business. Find yourself some business plan opportunities and get started!

Have all your cards in place and you will give yourself the best chance possible to be successful.

January is almost here and if you don’t have your annual strategic planning meeting on the calendar, now is the time to schedule that for you and the entire team. I want to suggest that it be held outside of your office. Make it a fun event for the entire team. There needs to be an organized agenda but make it fun, be concise and yet directive about what needs to be accomplished. Be sure to address what has been accomplished in the past year and decade as well. (Remember we begin a new decade on January 1, 2010!!) At this important meeting make it known to the team when you plan to have the office closed in 2010, holidays for the office, vacation requests and annual review dates for each team member need to be set or suggested at the least. This is just a short list to get you started on the “right tooth” when 2010 begins.

“If you don’t know where you are going; any road can take you there. Be sure to have your map in hand as you begin 2010!”

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

May you have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010!

Author Bio

Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS, is founder of Dental Practice Solutions, is a national coaching, full-service consulting, speaking and writing business focused on increased profitability in the dental office without increasing days of work in the office or more stress.

Debbie began Dental Practice Solutions in 2000. Her career has focused on all aspects of dentistry since 1975. Most recently she is known for increasing profitability in the dental office be driving the production in the dental hygiene department. Debbie has 4 specific ways to drive profits in your dental hygiene department.

You can reach Dental Practice Solutions by calling: 503-970-1122. Please visit the website for more free valuable resources: weekly newsletter, webinars and the membership center.

Your Thoughts

Does your practice have a strategic plan in place – annual or otherwise? Please share in a comment below.

What’s the easiest way to bring in new patients? Referrals? Nope. Direct marketing? Nope. Believe it or not, the easiest way to bring in new patients is signage.

Why? Because signage requires very little overhead. You determine the optimal signage placement around your building, design the sign(s), have the sign(s) constructed, install the signs and your done. Not only are signs largely a one-off expense, but they can effortlessly bring in new patients if done correctly. You can’t say that about most of the other things you’re doing to bring in new patients.

I thought it would be fun to show you some examples of the creative dental signage designs for your inspiration.

So, without further ado…here are the signs…

5 Inspirational Examples of Dental Practice Signage

1. Victoria Square Dental

Source: brandingblog.com

2. Ed Montgomery Dental Surgery

Source: danthonia.com.au

3. Beech Lake Pediatric Dentistry

Source: springvalleydesigns.com

4. Deerfield Family Dentistry

Source: springvalleydesigns.com

5. Big Smile Dental

Source: bigsmiledental.com

Your Favorite?

Which of these do you like best? Do you know of other inspirational examples of dental signage that we should know about? Point us to a photo if you can in a comment below.

The following is a guest post by Dr. Catrise Austin. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, sign up here.

Have you been thinking about changing your smile for a while and just haven’t had the guts to take that step? Perhaps you’ve been a bit nervous about making the change. Maybe you’re a bit apprehensive about coming to the dentist and your fears are keeping you from making a change. Maybe you want to make a change and just don’t know what options are available to help improve your smile. Or maybe, just maybe you need a smile makeover and don’t even know it!

My New Book

Well I’m here to help. I’m Dr. Catrise Austin, “Dentist to the Stars” and author of a new book called “5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile: How the stars get that perfect smile and how you can too!” I wrote this book for those of you who may feel like it’s finally time to address your smile needs and are ready to take the journey to achieving a new smile and a new you.

My Personal Story

If you feel like you’re alone, don’t worry because I’ve been there. What started out as a routine visit to the dentist for me at the age of 15 literally changed my life and my future. You see, growing up, I never felt confident about my teeth. I never liked the look of my smile. I thought that I would be stuck forever, hiding behind a smile that didn’t make me feel pretty or confident. I thought that I was simply going to have to live life with the smile that I was given.

However, during a routine dental visit, my dentist urged my mom to invest in those ugly metal braces for me. As ugly as they were back then, I was so excited. I wore braces for a year and when the braces came off, I felt like Miss America or America’s Next Top Model or something! Changing my smile literally changed my life forever. My dental experience even led me to become a dentist to help you. I was lucky because after being teased all of my life, I knew that I needed a change. But some of you may not be so sure. How do you know if your smile is on the A-List or D-List? The first step in my book “5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile” is to assess your smile.

Should you alter your smile?

Many of my patients are surprised at how much work is involved in making the decision to alter their smile. But I don’t want anyone making hasty decisions; I tell everyone that is considering a change that it’s important to come face-to face with their smile, find out their needs, and then discover how these needs relate to what might work– or not work – for them. So in my book, I take you through several exercises to help you decide if a change is needed. Today I’m going to share a few of these exercises with you.

The Mirror Test

The first test is called “The Mirror Test”. The purpose of this test is to see for yourself exactly what your smile looks like; this way you can begin to rate it more accurately and be better prepared to face what’s going to be needed to make the change in your smile.

Here are the five steps to The Mirror Test:

1) Look in the mirror: Seems like a no-brainer, sure, but have you ever really looked into the mirror? Sure, we glance at it from time to time throughout the day, usually as we pass by,
but it’s the rare person indeed who actually looks deep into the mirror and sticks around for what comes next. Even when we comb our hair or apply our makeup or fix our ties, we are often
merely spot-checking a very specific area of our head, face or neck; we don’t really soak in the whole picture. So the first step of The Mirror Test is to stand in front of a well-lighted mirror
and look, really look, at yourself.

2) Smile: Okay, now look at yourself and – smile. That’s it; just smile. Smile like you normally would; not too wide, not too thin. Smile like you mean it, hold it and look at it. That’s all; just smile.

3) Close your eyes: Now close your eyes; that’s right – smile and then close your eyes. Think about what you just saw; think about your smile.

4) Smile again: Now open your eyes and smile again. Repeat Step 2, from above, and this time really, really concentrate on not just how your smile looks but how it makes you feel. Check
your gut reaction to tell whether you are pleased, disappointed, shocked, relieved – or a combination of all four.

5) Write down your first impression: Be quick, be bold, be brave and, most of all, be HONEST.

Now the next step is to gauge your current smile by using the “Hollywood Smile Quiz” that can be found in my book or you can jump right to the good part and rate your smile using my Hollywood Ratings System. Hollywood is a place where everybody wants to be ranked on a list of some sort be it, “Best-Dressed”, “World’s Sexiest”, or “Most Powerful”. But what if you could rate your smile? Well now you can by using my simple Hollywood Ratings System. While looking in the mirror still, try ranking your smile.

Which List Are You On?

Here are the 4 ratings—A-List, B-List, C-List, or D-List.

The “A-List” Smile (4 Stars – ****): People with A-List smiles know it – and are not afraid to share with the world how confident and beautiful they feel. It’s the smile worthy of the red carpet; this smile is marked by a wide range of positive characteristics, including:

• No visible cavities or fillings
• Clean teeth (no evidence of plaque or tartar)
• Straight teeth
• Teeth in proportion to your mouth (not too big or too small; not too short or too long)
• Healthy gums (pink in color)
• White teeth with lack of discoloration (yellow, brown, gray or black)
• Fresh, pleasant breath
• Even, uniform and proportioned gum line and not “too gummy”

The “B-List” Smile (3 Stars – ***): The B-List Smile has the same basic characteristics as the A-List Smile, only certain changes are starting to develop causing it to lose some of its natural luster and shape. These include:

• Moderately clean teeth (slightly visible evidence of bacterial plaque or tartar)
• Mild yellowing (or other discoloration of teeth, such as brown, gray or black)
• Mild rotations, spaces or other misalignments
• Hesitance or reluctance to smile
• Minor flaws (chips; worn enamel)
• No visible cavities or fillings
• Fresh, pleasant breath

The “C-List” Smile (2 Stars – **): Signs of the C-List Smile include:

• Visible cavities (brown or black spots/discolorations)
• Visible old fillings or crowns
• Moderate buildup of plaque and tartar that is visible when you smile
• Moderate yellowing or other discolorations (brown, grey or black)
• Moderate flaws in alignments (moderately crooked; moderate spacing or gaps)
• More noticeable flaws (sizable chips, moderately worn enamel)
• Red, swollen gums
• An uneven gum line (or a “gummy” smile)

The “D-List” Smile (1 Star – *):

• Obvious neglect due to infrequent dental visits, accompanied by very little to no smiling
• Large, noticeable cavities
• Visible old fillings or crowns
• Severe tartar buildup that is noticeably visible
• Severe yellowing or other discoloration
• Severe flaws in alignment
• Red, swollen gums
• Loose teeth
• Uneven gum line
• Accompanied by bad breath from lack of dental care

How did you do

So, how did you do? A-List, B-List, C-List or D-List Smile? Congratulations if your smile made the A-List! If you rated yourself and came up short of your expectations don’t worry; there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. All you have to do now is figure out what you want out of your smile and go for it! Maybe you’re a businessman who realizes his current smile is affecting sales (and not in a good way). Perhaps you’re a student who sits in the back of the class and covers her face when she is called upon because you’re so insecure about your smile. Maybe you’re an actor, singer, or model who wants to complete your look and impress the masses with that A-List Smile. Maybe you’re a busy mom or housewife who simply needs a new and exciting reason to smile. With this information you can change your world forever.

Maintenance or Makeover

Perhaps this process helped you realize that it won’t take that much to get that A-List Smile; on the contrary perhaps you came to the realization that it’s going to be harder than you thought. Either way, now you KNOW; and knowledge is power. It’s up to you now to decide if your smile just needs basic maintenance or a makeover. All that I ask of you is to simply take charge of your dental health and the appearance of your smile today. If you’ve been guilty of putting off your next dental exam and professional cleaning, or addressing the appearance of your smile for whatever reasons, consider visiting your dentist to maintain a healthy and dazzling smile. For more smile tips, options for enhancing your smile, and for your VIP pass to dental resources, pick up my new book or click to order “5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile: How the stars get that perfect smile and how you can too!” today.

About the Author:

Dr. Catrise Austin owes her A-List career to a love of belly laughs. As a new dentist, Dr. Austin enjoyed many nights at the comedy clubs of New York City where she met up and coming comedians such as Chris Rock, Tracey Morgan, Mike Epps, and Dave Chappelle. Before you could say, “Brush after every meal” Dr. Austin was known as the “Dentist to the Stars”.

But Dr. Austin, who originally became a dentist because of how she felt as a young girl with a less-than-perfect smile, knew that great smiles weren’t just for Hollywood. So she wrote 5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile (Dr. Austin’s Website ) a primer of everything you need to know about having a great smile including:

- Rating your smile
- Dictionary of dental services
- Finding affordable dental services
- Steps you can take at home to create a great smile

Win a copy of: 5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile

Dr. Austin graciously provided a copy of her new book for one lucky Dental Heroes reader! To win a copy, simply follow Dental Heroes on Twitter and tweet the following message to your list: “Win a Copy of Dr. Catrise Austin’s new book, “5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile,” on the Dental Heroes Blog. http://bit.ly/4Mvb2X”

Do you know what your patients are saying about your dental practice online? How about ex-employees or your competitors? Are they singing your praises or running your name through the mud? Either way, you probably want to know, right?

Thankfully, there are a number of quick and simple ways to monitor what people are saying about your practice online. I’ll get to those a little later in the post. Let’s first talk about why it’s important to manage your reputation online.

Why Online Reputation Management Matters

Good reputations are not built overnight. Chances are it took you a number of years and a lot of money to establish your dental practice’s good name. The frightening reality is that it’s comparatively simple for someone to destroy your reputation permanently online. Just one comment or bad review on a blog or website by a disgruntled former employee, ex-patient, or competitor can be enough to drive your reputation into a ditch.

So, if your online reputation matters to you(and it should), then you need to actively engage in the marketing practice commonly referred to as, Online Reputation Management (ORM).

What is Online Reputation Management (ORM)

The relatively new marketing construct know as Online Reputation Management (ORM) is, in simple terms, monitoring the status of your brand (or name), evaluating the online conversation about your brand, and taking deliberate steps to mitigate potential damage to your brand. You can think of ORM as a three-step process:

1. Monitor – Maintain an ongoing system for researching and keeping track of public perception.
2. Analyze – Consider individual feedback, as well as the source, outlet, reach and timing, to come to a decision about the risk.
3. Influence – Comment, rebut, draft a formal response or simply ignore what has been said, based on your evaluation (Alyssa Gregory, Sitepoint.com)

5 Tips for Effective Online Reputation Management

1. Assume that everything will find its way online – Don’t assume that anything you say or do will be kept private. Simply assume that it will be published somewhere online and potentially available to billions of people. ORM expert, Andy Beal, says that “the message you share behind closed doors should match the one you share with employees, customers, and investors.”

2. Set up Automatic Alerts – Set up automatic alerts to notify you when your practice is mentioned on a review site, social network, blog, etc. Google Alerts is my favorite FREE tool for this purpose. Google Alerts will e-mail you (at a frequency determined by you) anytime your practice is mentioned online. I personally use Google Alerts and highly recommend it. Sign up for Google Alerts FREE. Duct Tape Marketing has a nice list of 34 monitoring tools that you may find useful as well.

3. Maximize positive references to your practice online – The idea here is simple. The more positive references to your practice online, the more insignificant the negative references will become. A few examples of how you might increase your positive references online include: Engaging with patients and potential patients on social networks, submitting press releases, running contests, working with charities, etc. Doing any of these things will naturally create new positive references to you online.

4. Respond to positive & negative feedback – Whenever possible, and wherever it makes sense, make it a point to respond to both negative and positive feedback online. The goal in doing this is to show your commitment to patient satisfaction. However, be particularly careful when responding to negative feedback. Do evaluate the situation before responding, but be prompt when the situation warrants it. Remain calm, be honest and always take the high ground in all interactions with the offender. This should help you to diffuse the situation before it gets out of hand. Check out Yelp! for more tips on responding to positive and negative feedback online.

5. Don’t Mix Business and Personal profiles – Avoid mixing personal and practice profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Social networking sites like these are great for building relationships with people. However, relationships can sour, and you don’t want to run the risk that someone will maliciously attack your practice’s reputation, when their beef is really just with you.

Set Up an ORM Plan

Establishing an ORM plan is critically important. Like anything else, not having a plan is a plan for disaster. So, where should you start? Elixir Interactive provides a number of helpful hints for crafting your own ORM plan:

A well-planned brand reputation management program requires the identification of communities that have the largest and most vocal membership, ongoing monitoring, and active participation in these communities in order to promote a positive brand image and suppress negative sentiment. The following questions should be addressed during the planning session:

1. What is the purpose of the program? Are you looking to gather feedback? Promote a new service? Educate customers about a product’s functionality? Address customer questions and concerns?

2. Where are we going to focus our efforts? You need to identify the blogs, forums, newsgroups and websites that are most relevant to the brand, have the largest and most engaged audience and are seen as “authorities” by the search engines.

3. How often will we be monitoring? Depending on the purpose of the program, the amount of time spent monitoring, posting comments, creating content, answering questions and linking could require multiple resources.

4. Who is going to manage the program? Brand reputation management is not something to be assigned to the “intern that knows how to Google.” Depending on the objective of the program (i.e. feedback solicitation, customer service, awareness) the intensity of the effort will vary and require resources that are qualified to respond in an appropriate manner (Elixir Interactive).

Further Reading

1. Ten Tactics That Could Save Your Online Reputation
2. Fighting a Bad Online Reputation and Keeping a Good One
3. The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation… (Paperback)
4. Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online (Paperback)

Recommended Reputation Management Service

Your Thoughts

Does your practice have an established Online Reputation Management Plan? If not, are you considering it? Why, or why not?

Oral-B is once again in the giving mood this holiday season because they’re offering a $15 mail-in-rebate for each of their Oral-B ProfessionalCare electric toothbrushes. These toothbrushes make great Christmas gifts!

The $15 rebate applies to each of the following:

1. Oral-B Pulsonic Toothbrush

• 27,000 pulsations per minute
• Thin Precision bristles
• Professional timer
• Two customized brushing modes: clean & precision
• Custom brush head design
• Rechargeable
• Limited warranty

Additional Information

Purchase the Oral-B Pulsonic Toothbrush now.

2. Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 4000

• 40,000 pulsations per minute
• Indicator® bristles – reminds you to replace brush head every 3 months
• Professional timer
• Replace brush head alert
• Pressure sensor
• Digital timer
• 4 customized brushing modes
• Base station toothbrush holder
• Travel toothbrush case
• Rechargeable
• Charge-level display
• 2-year limited warranty

Additional Information

Purchase the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 4000 now.

3. Oral-B ProfessionalCare 1000/7400

• 40,000 pulsations per minute
• Professional timer
• Pressure sensor
• 1 customized brushing mode: Daily Clean
• Rechargeable
• Full- and low-charge indicators
• 2-Year Limited Warranty

Additional Information

Purchase the Oral-B ProfessionalCare 1000/7400 now.

4. Oral-B ProfessionalCare 3000/8850

• 40,000 pulsations per minute
• Indicator® bristles – reminds you to replace brush head every 3 months
• 3 customized brushing modes: Daily Clean, Sensitive, Polish
• Comes with up to four dentist-inspired attachments
• Professional timer
• Pressure sensor
• Rechargeable
• Full- and low-charge indicators
• 2-Year Limited Warranty

Additional Information

Purchase the Oral-B ProfessionalCare 3000/8850 now.

Claim your $15 mail-in-rebate

To claim your $15 mail-in-rebate for any of the Oral-B ProfessionalCare® Electric Toothbrushes simply visit the Oral-B mail-in-rebate page. Don’t forget to send in the mail-in-rebate by 12/31/09 to receive the offer.

I’ll have what she’s having

Imagine if you could create an experience that turns a patient into a raving fan, and the people she refers to the practice ask for the same experience. Now, you are creating a culture. The beauty of creating a culture of raving fans is that it is completely in your control, and for the most part – FREE!

Earn the Referral

I’ve always been kind of curious about the sign in dental offices that says something like, “We appreciate referrals.” I often wonder if a patient feels a disconnect between the sign and the experience. I’m usually asking myself, “What does this office do to earn the referral?” People typically are not out raving about their visit to the dentist over lunch with girlfriends, and if they are, it’s probably not positive. People are more
likely to complain than they are to brag. You may have heard that people don’t like going to the dentist, so to earn a patient referral, you have to be amazing.

Create Promoters

I did a little research into customer loyalty and a customer’s willingness to refer people to your practice. I found out about Net Promoter Scores (NPS) from Harvard Business Review. To get an NPS number for your office you would ask your patients one simple question, “From 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this office to your friends and family?” NPS measures the difference between the percentage of customers who give high responses (“promoters”) and those who give low ones (“detractors”). Promoters are defined as customers who give the company 9 or 10, while detractors hand out “0″ through 6. Customers who log 7 or 8 are deemed “passively satisfied” and aren’t calculated in the final score.

More Promoters = More Revenue

For most of you, I would expect the majority of your patients to be in the 7-8 group. The article suggested there is a major connection between a company’s NPS score and revenue growth. A follow-up article debunks the hype around NPS because of people’s passiveness to brag or rave. Believers in the system argue there is a direct link. Once they started focusing on the scores, revenue grew. Why? It wasn’t the scores they were focused on; it was the customer. If they got anything less than a 9 on the review, they wanted to know why. Revenues grew because customer interaction improved, systems improved, and services were added. It was a new personal touch that made the difference.

How it’s Done

The big question is, how can we do this? I’ve spent some time on my blog talking about the first phone call. It’s critical to note that every member of your team has an impact on the culture of your practice, but it begins with you. I think creating a culture of raving fans starts with a mission statement, and a vision statement. To come up with these statements, think about who you are, and what you want to be. Once you are clear on your vision for the practice, focus on the patient’s experience. Make sure that these two parts are always in sync and up to date. If you are always looking for ways to get your 7′s and 8′s up to 9′s and 10′s, you will have a culture of raving fans.

Bonus: 5 points if you know what movie the title is from.

Your Thoughts

Are you creating a culture of raving fans within your dental practice? If yes, please elaborate in a comment below. Thanks.

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (November 2-6, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of November 9-13, 2009.

Top Stories of the Week

1) H1N1 (Swine Flu) Information for Dental Offices and Dental Patients Shawn Watson of the About.com Dentistry Blog, shares the CDC’s guidelines for minimizing the transmission of H1N1 in your dental office…

2) Dental Tourism Now Covered by US Dental Insurance Plans! The Wealthy Dentist reported in this post that a US dental insurance company is now offering an international dental treatment option. As insurance companies continue to cut costs and increase competition, this is likely to turn into a trend…

3) A plea for early detection Dr. Larry Hamburg discusses his battle with oral cancer and why early detection is so important…

4) The dark side of whitening Noah Levine, Senior Editor, DentalProductsReport.com, looks inside the dark world of online tooth whitening product scams…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

An important component to any effective branding campaign is a great logo. You’ve probably noticed that most dental logos look alike – creating little or no differentiation from one practice to the next. Sure, the logo is only one way you can differentiate yourself from the competition. However, you have to consider that potential patients are likely to see your logo before they ever make contact with you. First impressions are everything. Don’t blow your opportunity to bring in new patients because your logo sucks.

The 8 jaw-dropping dental logos below stand out from the crowd and create a favorable first impression.

1. Country Living Dentistry

2. Robin Rutherford, DDS

3. Innovative Family Dental Health

4. Creative Dental Care, P.A.

5. City Dental

6. Huzur Oral & Dental Health Center

7. Garden City Dental

8. Dental Edge

Add to the List

Are you aware of any other jaw-dropping dental logos that should be added to the list? Let us know where we can see it in a comment below.

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (October 26 – October 30, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of November 2-6, 2009.

Top Stories of the Week

1) Dentists: Is Your Waiting Room Ready for H1N1? Jim Du Molin & The Wealthy Dentist Blog discussed some of the changes dentists are making within their practices to combat the spread of H1N1…Are you making any efforts to reduce the spread of H1N1 in your practice?

2) Ten Tips for Year-End Dental Tax Planning If you’re not actively engaged in your tax planning, you should be. Tim Lott, CPA, CVA, discusses 10 important tax planning considerations to be thinking about before the end of the year…

3) Is a mouthguard helping New Orleans win football games?If you watched Monday Night Football a week ago today, you may remember the commentators highly touting the mouthguards worn by New Orleans Saints players. Makers of the mouthguard, Makkar Athletics Group, claim that the mouthguard helps Saints players “jump higher and play better”. Read more about the Pure Power mouthguards in this article by Kevin Henry of Dental Economics…

4) The New Role of Today’s Dental Team Linda Miles, founder of Linda Miles and Associates, discusses the importance of consistently displaying high energy levels within your practice in everything that you do to create a great patient experience…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

It’s no secret that the internet represents a great opportunity for dentists to capture new patients. As internet usage continues to increase, this opportunity will become even more lucrative. However, most dentists are unaware of how to properly position their website to capture these new patients.

Don’t Employ the “Wait & See” Approach

Most dentists take the “wait-and-see” approach. That is, they develop a website, publish it to the web, and wait…and wait…and wait for new patients to line up outside their doors. Sadly, new patients never come. Why? Because your website is nowhere to be found in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

Thankfully, there are many techniques that you can employ to increase your position in the SERPS, and be found by patients seeking a new dentist.

Local Business Directories Are Effective

One highly effective technique for generating traffic, and the focus of this post, is submitting your dental practice website to local business directories. Submitting your site to local business directories requires very little time, but has significant upside potential.

Why? Because many of the local business directories that I’ve listed below appear on the first page of the SERPS for local searches.

Here’s Proof

To see what I mean, give this a try: go to Google.com. Once there, search using the following query: “saint louis dentists”(minus quotes). You’ll notice on the first page of the SERPS that several business directories came up, such as: Google local business, Superpages and Citysearch. You can see how a listing in any of these directories would improve your visibility with potential new patients.

I compiled a list below of my 10 favorite FREE local business directories that you should submit your site to in order to increase your online visibility and capture new patients. Without further ado, here’s the list…

Top 3

1. Google Local Business Center

Listing your website in the Google Local Business Center is a must. Your local business listing can include: your business address, website url, maps, location photos, business description, directions, business categories, etc. Your local search listing appears before regular(organic) search listings in the SERPS.

2. Yahoo Local

Submitting your site to Yahoo Local is also very important. Your listing options with Yahoo Local are similar to those in the Google Local Business Center. You shouldn’t expect as much traffic from Yahoo Local as with the Google Local Business Center, but it can be substantial nonetheless.

3. Bing Local Listing Center

Rounding out my top 3 recommendations is the Bing Local Listing Center. Although the Bing Local Listing Center is still in its infancy, people are already receiving significant traffic from it.

Also Recommended

4. Superpages.com

5. YellowPages.com

6. YellowBook.com

7. Yelp

8. Localeze

9. Local.com

10. Hotfrog.com

Stay tuned for future posts highlighting additional powerful tips for positioning your website in the search engines to capture new patients.

Add to the List

Have you found a great free business directory that’s not in my list? Please leave it in a comment below for everyone’s benefit

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (October 19 – October 23, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of October 26 through October 30, 2009.

Top Stories of the Week

1) Why block scheduling is important Watch as Dr. Michael Schuster of The Schuster Center explains the importance of block scheduling to Kevin Henry, editor of Dental Assisting Digest and Assistant Editor of Dental Economics Magazine.

2) Missed Appointments Waste 10% of Dentists’ Time The Wealthy Dentist Blog recently explored the impact of missed appointments on a dental practice. The finding: missed appointments waste 10% of dentists’ time. Read dentist reactions and discover tips for dealing with patients who miss appointments…

3) Does marketing make you feel dirty? It’s no secret, most dentists hate marketing. Most dentists want to focus on what they do best – practice dentistry. If you’re in this camp, and marketing makes you feel “dirty” read on to learn why it shouldn’t…

4) How To PERK Up in a Down Economy
The Dental Coach©, Ronald F. Arndt, explains his “PERK” approach to dental practice management in not only a down economy, but any economy…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

For every well-conceived product out in the market, there are hundreds that make you shake your head in disbelief. I thought it would be fun to collect some dental products that shouldn’t have ever seen the light of day. However, most of them did. See what I mean below…

1. Closeup Flavalicious Chocolate Toothpaste

Image source: Chodka

This sounds both incredibly good and incredibly awful at the same time. I think I’d be tempted to frost a cake with this stuff rather than brush my teeth with it. However, the idea isn’t entirely without merit. Back in 1997, a researcher at Tulane University determined that the cocoa powder found in this toothpaste is an “effective natural alternative to fluoride in toothpaste”. That being said, I don’t see this product catching on any time soon.

2. Bacon Floss

Image Source: mcphee.com

MMM…Nothing spells fresh breath like…B-A-C-O-N…or something like that. To be fair, this product is sold as a novelty item, but I found it fitting to be included in this list nonetheless.

3. Jawels Removable Tooth Jewelry

Image source: Jawels.com

When that giant piece of lettuce stuck between your teeth isn’t getting you noticed enough, try Jawels. Before you know it, you’ll be the talk of the office!

4. Teeth & Hair As Jewelry

Image Source: Coolhunting.com

It’s hard to fault someone for being resourceful, but this is taking it too far. The designer of these disturbing pieces, Polly van der Glas, gladly accepts hair and teeth donations from family members to perfect her craft. Something tells me, we won’t be seeing celebrities wearing these pieces down the red carpet anytime soon.

5. The Kami Kami Sensor

Image source: ubergizmo.com

This modern-day torture device is an electronic bite sensor. It beeps after 30 chews to train children to chew their food well before swallowing. I don’t know about you, but there’s no way your going to get me to smile like the kid in the picture with that contraption on my head.

Any Others?

Have you seen a product that belongs on this list? Give us a heads up in a comment below for everyone to enjoy.

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (October 12 – October 16, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of October 19 through October 23, 2009.

Top Stories of the Week

1) U.S. House passes ADA-backed Red Flags exemption legislation The U.S. House of Representatives Oct. 20 approved by a 400-0 vote legislation to exempt most dental offices from the Federal Trade Commission’s Red Flags Rule. Read more about the vote here…

2) Dental Insurance: Few Fans Among Dentists In a survey recently completed by TheWealthyDentist.com, It was determined that 90% of dentists consider dental insurance as “the enemy.” Watch Jim Du Molin & Julie Frey as they comment on the survey results in this video recap…

3) 7 Effective Ways To Market Your Practice in the 21st Century The marketplace is constantly evolving. Your marketing activities must evolve with the market. Ron Zeisler, CEO of Welcometomypractice.com, lays out 7 important pieces to an effective marketing strategy in today’s marketplace…

4) Results of the 2009 DAD salary survey The 2009 Dental Assisting Digest™ salary survey found that dental assistants salaries are on par with those in 2008…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Back in early September I put together a list of 30 dental pros I follow on Twitter (Part I). I’ve found following and interacting with these wonderful dental minds to be quite fruitful, and hope that you’ve had a chance to develop a relationship with some of them as well. Since I released that post, I’ve had the pleasure of discovering a number of additional dental folks that you should consider following on Twitter.

20 More Great Dental Pros I Follow on Twitter

1. WealthyDentist
2. DentistIdentity
3. VisibleDentist
4. Madowgroup
5. GetDentistJobs
6. DentalOffice
7. DentalCPAS
8. DLPlive
9. ADANews
10. JoeNeedsDental
11. Etukee
12. Top3dentists
13. DentalTools
14. AAOrthodontists
15. Twentist
16. Dental_News
17. dentistsos
18. Sherryblues
19. DDSBrand
20. edokeefe_2009
31. Oh yeah, don’t forget to follow Dental Heroes as well. dentalheroes

Add to the List

I know there are many more dental pros out there using Twitter. Please leave the Twitter username of any dental pros not on this list in a comment below.

This is a guest post by blogger, Mary Ward. If you’re interested in gaining exposure for yourself or your company by writing for Dental Heroes, sign up here.

We all know about the many foods that are bad for our teeth, but you may not be aware that there are actually several foods that keep your teeth healthy. Eating foods that are high in sugar or carbohydrates can produce nasty bacteria that feed on the bits of food that are left behind. As these bacteria feed, they produce an acid that causes your teeth to decay.

However, a number of different foods that you eat can help you fight off the bacteria. Specific foods are effective in preventing these harmful little critters from producing acid. Once you are able to suppress the acid production in your mouth, you will be able to smile brightly with pretty, healthy teeth.

Here is a list of the top ten foods that can help you keep your teeth healthy:

1. Celery

Celery is an effective weapon against the bacteria inside your mouth. In addition to the obvious health benefits of eating celery, it also causes you to chew more, producing additional saliva. As you generate saliva, it kills the bad bacteria present in the mouth. Celery may not taste as good, but is a healthy alternative to plaque-producing potato chips. The extra water contained in celery is a good way to clean your teeth, sort of like naturally brushing your teeth.

2. Onions

You may not think so, but eating onions is a great way to eliminate harmful bacteria inside the mouth. When you eat an uncooked onion, the substances in the onion work to destroy the bacteria that are eating away at your teeth. You may be concerned about stinky breath, but the benefits are worth it. Simply follow up with some sugar free gum and you are good to go.

3. Shitake Mushrooms

Shitake Mushrooms work similar to onions in destroying the harmful bacteria, but they also prevent the buildup of plaque, which can turn into cavities if you do not take care of your teeth properly.

4. Cheese

A tasty option for keeping your teeth looking great, cheese contains elements that are good for keeping your teeth healthy. Cheese makes you produce additional saliva, which destroys the harmful bacteria inside your mouth. In addition, cheese also works to prevent discoloration of your teeth.

5. Strawberries

Strawberries are a great natural way to whiten your teeth. Brush your teeth daily with strawberries as a healthy alternative to potentially harmful whitening gels.

6. Oranges

Like strawberries, oranges are also fantastic tooth whiteners. Rub a little of the skin of an orange rind on your teeth after brushing to take advantage to the benefits.

7. Milk

Milk is a tasty way to keep your teeth healthy. The calcium in dairy products is effective in keeping the teeth strong. In addition, the Vitamin D helps the calcium to be absorbed more efficiently.

8. Meat

Meat, fish and eggs are an excellent source of phosphorus that is needed for tooth enamel formation.

9. Bananas

Bananas are high in magnesium, which is also needed to help the enamel of the teeth form properly. Whole grain foods and spinach are also good sources of magnesium.

10. Carrots

Carrots and other orange-colored vegetables and fruit are great sources of beta-carotene, which is turned into Vitamin A by the body for strong teeth and bones.

Your Thoughts

Are there any foods that you would add to this list? Please leave them in a comment below.

New York, NY (October 16, 2009) Although 72 percent of Americans have fillings, caps or crowns and one in six had a dental emergency during the past 12 months, most are not prepared to deal with a dental emergency, according to a recent survey conducted by Majestic Drug Company, a leading provider of oral care products.

Interestingly, in the national survey of 1,000 Americans, those with a lower income (less then $35,000) were more likely to have had a dental emergency in the past 12 months (vs. 14 percent of those who make $100,000 or more).

Of those who had a dental emergency, 23 percent involved a loose crown or cap, 10 percent involved a lost filling, while 72 percent said their dental emergency involved something else.

Among those who had a dental emergency involving a loose crown/cap or a lost filling, 67 percent immediately went to a dentist, and 14 percent looked for a temporary solution to purchase, while 19 percent did nothing at the time.

“You keep medical supplies on hand for cuts and bruises, but what about your teeth? It’s important to be prepared for a dental emergency in case one happens, especially if the emergency occurs on a weekend when your dentist just isn’t available or you are on the road and cannot seek immediate dental care,” according to Brian Gold, D.D.S., who practices in Monticello, NY.

Dental emergencies can range from a dislodged cap/crown or lost filling to a knocked out tooth to pain or a cracked denture. Majestic Drug Company explains some common dental emergencies and suggestions for treatment.

• Knocked out tooth – If a permanent tooth is dislodged from the socket, try gently replacing it into the tooth socket. Do not scrub the tooth clean—you can damage the fibers needed for reattachment. If that doesn’t work, place the tooth in a glass of milk to keep it moist. Get to a dentist immediately.
• Mouth pain – A throbbing pain from a toothache may indicate an infection and a dentist should be consulted as soon as possible. Tooth sensitivity can be combated by the use of desensitizing toothpaste such as Sensodyne. Irritation from mouth sores can be alleviated by the use of specialized oral pain relief products such as Orajel.
• Lost filling – Rinse out the cavity with warm water. Apply a temporary filling product such as Dentemp® O.S. which can be made into a ball and pressed firmly into the cavity
• Cracked or broken denture – According to Dr. Gold, all denture wearers should have a spare pair to use until the other is repaired. If not, it is good to keep on hand an emergency denture repair kit such as D.O.C. Emergency Denture Repair Kit, available at your local pharmacy.
• Dislodged cap/crown – Apply a temporary dental holding product such as Dentemp® O.S. and gently replace the cap onto the tooth. Make sure you get a proper fit
• Irritation from Braces – Sharp wires can be coated with special dental wax available at your local pharmacy

Remember, temporary dental solutions are just that—they are temporary. Make sure to seek professional assistance from your dentist as soon as possible.

For additional information, please go to MajesticDrug.com or search Dentemp® O.S. on Facebook.

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (October 5 – October 9, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of October 12 through October 16, 2009.

Top Stories of the Week

1) Lares introduces minimally invasive laser periodontal disease treatment Lares recently announced the release of the Lares Powerlase® AT, a laser that utilizes the Nd:YAG and Er:YAG wavelengths to treat both sides of the perio pocket.

2) The Two Most Common Dental Coding Errors Dental Assisting Digest editor Kevin Henry speaks with coding expert Teresa Duncan about the two most common dental coding errors. Are you making these errors in your practice?

3) Removing the money barrier Gary Kadi discusses 3 necessary actions for “future-proofing” your practice.

4) Direct Mail Dental Marketing for Only Half of Dentists (Video) Jim Du Molin & Julie Frey report the results of a recent study that asked dentists about their usage of direct mail marketing.

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

With over 5 years of experience as a web designer/developer, I’ve developed an intimate knowledge of web site “best practices”. Over the years, the most common mistake I see people make is thinking that simply having a web presence is enough. They take the “if you build it they will come” approach. Back in the 90′s that may have worked.

However, the game has changed dramatically since then – in terms of consumer demands, web technologies, and search engine algorithms. No longer can you launch a website and simply hope for the best. You need to constantly evolve your web offering with the changing consumer demands, web technologies and search algorithms to beat out your competition.

Certainly we can’t cover everything that you need to know about dominating your competition online, but I thought it would be a good idea to start with a post highlighting 5 quick, yet powerful tips for improving your existing website.

So, lets get to the tips, shall we?

1. Install Google Analytics

Do you have a counter at the bottom of your website pages? Get rid of it. Sure, it counts the number of visitors to your site. However, this is rarely a good thing. Not only are counters an eyesore, but often the numbers on the counter are embarrassingly low. How do you think that looks to your potential customers? Not good.

So, I recommend installing Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a very powerful and stealthy(unseen to visitors) web-based analytics package that tracks the number of unique visitors to your site, search terms visitors used to find your site, how long they were on your site, and much much more. Best of all, Google Analytics is FREE. If you’re only going to act on one of these tips today, make it this one.

Sign up for Google Analytics

2. Ditch The Flash Intros

If your website greets visitors with a Flash intro, get rid of it.

On its face, I can see why dentists like flash intros. After all, if done well, they can be stylish and captivating. Unfortunately, they’re also expensive, highly irritating, slow loading and scare visitors away. Just get rid of it.

3. Include a Contact Form on your “Contact” Page

Include a contact form on your contact page. The idea here is to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to contact you – accessibility is key. If you’re simply posting your e-mail address and forcing your visitors to e-mail you in order to make contact, you’re probably losing potential patients. Make it easy with a contact form.

There are many places on the web to find contact form scripts. I really like the contact forms available at Woofoo.com. They’re highly customizable, brandable, stylish, and easy to integrate into your site (simple cut n’ paste).

4. Feature Contact Information Prominently

Also important for accessibility is featuring your contact information prominently. I recommend posting your address and phone number(s) both at the top and bottom of each page. This ensures that no matter what part of a particular page your visitor is viewing, they’ll be able to see your contact information. Prominent contact information is also a good idea because it enhances your trust value in the eyes of your visitors.

5. Check for Broken Links

This may seem like a no-brainer, but many people neglect to check their site for broken links. Broken links are bad for a number of reasons – they leave your visitors frustrated and they’re frowned upon by search engines.

Thankfully, you don’t have to click through each link on your site to clean up your broken links. Instead, I use a free program called Xenu’s Link Sleuth. The program crawls your site looking for broken links. Once this process is complete, you will be given a report listing all of the broken links that the program encountered. You can then run down the list and fix or remove the broken links on your site.

Final Thoughts

These tips are by no means comprehensive. However, they’re quick, they’re actionable, and they’re powerful. Do you have disagree with any of my tips? Are you already doing these things on your site? Let us know in a comment below.

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (September 28 – October 2, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of October 5 through October 9, 2009.

Top Stories of the Week

1) When to Fire a Patient DentalProductsReport.com Senior Editor, Renee Knight, discusses ways to prevent problem patients from plaguing your practice. Instead, she focuses on preventative measures you can employ within your practice to avoid firing difficult patients.

2) Dental School Doesn’t Adequately Prepare Dentists 4 out of 5 dentists don’t believe that dental schools are adequately preparing dental students for the real-world practice, according to a recent Wealthy Dentist survey. Watch this video recap to discover why the stakes are higher now than ever.

3) Colgate launches new Colgate Oral Health Advisor program for dental hygienists Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals recently launched an Oral Health Advisor program that aims to provide dental hygienists with powerful tools to help them educate their patients. Read on to Learn more about the program, and how dental hygienists can get involved in this program.

4) Rapid HIV testing in the dental office The oral cavity is one of several places where signs of HIV infection are found. Previously, dentists who recognized these signs in a patient could only refer them to their primary care physician for testing, diagnosis, and treatment. Catrise Austin, DDS, discusses new methods for HIV testing in the dental office…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below

A recent study conducted by the nation’s leading dental benefits provider, Delta Dental Plans Association, found that most American children don’t see their family dentist until they’re well over 2 years old, far later than recommended by most dental professionals.

Children Don’t See Dentist Early Enough

The survey of 914 primary caregivers revealed that the average age children first visited a family dentist was 2.6 years of age. Furthermore, the study found that 34% of those sampled had children under the age of 11 that had never been to the dentist!

Common Excuses

Those surveyed commonly responded that their children were “too young,” or “didn’t have enough teeth” to visit the dentist. A number of others cited a lack of dental insurance as the reason they delayed their child’s dental visit.

According to Jed J. Jacobson, DDS, MS, MPH, chief science officer and senior V.P. at Delta Dental:

“Many Americans don’t understand how important their children’s baby teeth are to lifelong oral health. There’s a continuing need for more education to teach practices that will ensure lifelong oral health. And, since people overwhelmingly prefer the dentist and dental hygienist as their primary oral health information sources, dental benefits that encourage visits to the dentist are crucial.”

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentists (AAPD) recommends that a child go to the dentist by age 1 or within six months after the first tooth erupts.

Baby Teeth Matter

The AAPD also states that proper care of baby teeth are critically important for the following reasons:

• Help children chew properly to maintain good nutrition.
• Are involved in speech development.
• Help save space for permanent teeth.
• Promote a healthy smile that helps children feel good about the way they look.

Proper Care

Furthermore, the AAPD advises caregivers to gently wipe the baby’s gums with a soft, wet cloth after each feeding. When primary teeth begin to appear, they should be cleaned with a soft, child-sized toothbrush and a pea-sized dab of children’s toothpaste, twice a day.

Additional Information

For additional pediatric dental care tips, Delta Dental has a number of educational videos that caregivers of small children shouldn’t miss.

Your Thoughts

Were you aware of these guidelines recommended by the AARP? What are your thoughts?

As a progressive dental professional, you need to take advantage of the communication and networking powers of Twitter. If you’re reading this post, chances are you know this already. What you might not know, however, is that there are a number of mistakes you may be making right now that are preventing your practice from realizing the benefits of Twitter .

The following are 5 mistakes dentists should avoid on Twitter:

1. Doing Nothing

Sounds obvious, right? Well, not to everyone. In fact, an estimated 20% of Twitter accounts held by dentists or other dental professionals are empty. This is clearly the most damaging mistake you can make if you want to use Twitter successfully. Beyond that, consider how this looks to your patients or potential patients. An empty Twitter account says to them, we’re lazy, uncommitted and unfocused. In short, if you’re not going to use Twitter, don’t sign up. Similarly, if you signed up already, and don’t tweet on a regular basis, you’re better off calling it quits and deleting your account.

2. Too Much Self-Promotion

A little self-promotion can go a long way. In fact, nothing will get you un-followed faster than constant self-promotion. Frankly, I don’t want to hear about your low pricing in every one of your tweets. I get it, you have good pricing. Now, tell me something I don’t know.

That’s the secret. If you truly want build a steady stream of new followers, focus on providing value. Engage with your followers by connecting with them on a personal level and providing them with information that can impact their lives in a positive way. Do this consistently, and you’re followers will return the favor many times over.

3. Failing to Connect with People

Many dentists perform a monologue instead of engaging in a dialogue with their followers. Get to know your followers. Show that you’re interested in what they have to say. Asking questions and utilizing the retweet function are great ways to do this.

4. Using One Twitter Account for Both Personal & Business Use

Do you want your friends and family to know when you’re brushing your teeth or bathing the dog? If so, then who am I to tell you to stop? But, do your patients or potential patients want to know about this? Probably not – wait, definitely not. I recommend creating separate Twitter accounts – one for personal use and one for business use.

5. Tweeting Too Much

Most dentists don’t have this problem, but enough do that it warrants mention. Tweeting too much, even if you’re following the above recommendations is not a good thing. Not only does too much tweeting dilute your message, but it’s downright annoying for your followers to see your avatar every time they sign into Twitter. Like most things in life, moderation is key.

Your Thoughts

Do you agree with these tips? What would you add to the list?

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (September 21-25, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of September 28 through October 2, 2009.

Top 5 Stories of the Week

1) Paperless vs. chartless and the Red Flags Rules Kevin Henry discusses some of the newest electronic issues with Banta Consulting’s Laci Phillips.

2) 12 Green Products/Companies You Should Know I’m no Al Gore (thankfully), but I’m of the belief that being “green” is a good thing. If you do as well, check out this post which highlights 12 products and companies that can help your practice “go green”.

3) BPA Safety in Dental Sealants Worries Some Dentists The Wealthy Dentist discusses in this video post a recent survey of dental professionals found that one dentist in four reports being very concerned about the issue of bisphenol-A (the problem chemical in water bottles and baby bottles).

4) American Dental Association Launches Podcast Program for Public The ADA launched a new video podcast series focused on providing oral health care information to the public. Read more about the podcast in this post…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below

Do your teeth make you self-conscious? Do you avoid conversations with others because you’re embarrassed to smile? 1-800-Dentist wants to help. The popular dentist-matching service recently launched the My Smile Bites! $30,000 Smile Makeover Contest. One lucky winner will receive a winning smile that they can’t help but show off!

Step 1: Submit Video

To enter the “My Smile Bites!” contest, 1-800-Dentist asks that you submit a 2 minute video of yourself discussing what you like about your smile, and what you don’t like about our smile. Additionally, you should discuss how your smile affects your self-image and interaction with others. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to smile!

Step 2: Promote Your Video

Once you have received confirmation that your video has been received successfully, it’s time to start promoting your video. Each contestant will have their own video page complete with a short bio. Have your friends and family visit your personal page and cast their vote each day beginning at noon on 11/10/09 until noon PST on 12/01/09.

How Judging Works

Be prepared to win over the hearts of your fellow Americans because they’re going to determine your fate. Once the top contestants have been selected, 1-800-Dentist will select the winner of the $30,000 smile makeover on December 15, 2009 at noon PST. “As the winner, you must be willing to have your smile makeover process captured on film, including dental visits and before and after experiences(1800dentist.com).

Enter Now

Ready to enter? Visit the My Smile Bites! $30,000 Smile Makeover Contest Page on 1800dentist.com to review official contest rules and submit your entry.

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (September 14-18, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of September 21-25, 2009.

Top 5 Stories of the Week

1) Five Steps You Need to Follow To Protect Your Practice From a Network Disaster Technology fanatic, Lorne Lavine, DMD, discusses in this post three primary reasons dentists do not back up their data, and five simple steps for hopping aboard the backup train.

2) I dated a patient Renee Knight, Senior Editor of DentalProductsReport.com, explores in this steamy post the right way to date a patient. Yes, apparently there is a right way…

3) Linda Miles & Dr. Rhonda Savage on Dental Benefit Plans This informative post over at Dentalblogs.com explores the frustration that both staff and doctors share with regards to dental benefit plans. However, the authors also provide a template for minimizing some of this frustration when dealing with insurance patients.

4) Dentists Want a Dental License That’s National The Wealthy Dentist Blog reports in this post that 86% of survey respondents indicated that they are in favor of “universal licensure” for dentists. Read on to see what respondents cited as their reasons for promoting a national dental license…

5) Understanding “Return on Investment” The Azimuth Dental Blog tackles the confusion surrounding the acronym, ROI, or Return on Investment. Think you know exactly what that means, read this post to make sure…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

If you’re anything like me, you like to try products before you buy. This is especially important within the context of your dental practice. You want to know that the products you use on a regular basis are of high quality and safe for your patients, right? Beyond that, it’s just plain fun to play with new products, especially when they’re free! For these reasons I put together a list of five websites where you can request free dental product samples – available only to dental professionals.

5 Websites with Free Sample Offers

1. Efficient Dental Technologies™

Efficient Dental Technologies™ is offering a number of free product samples to dental professionals, including: EZ-CROWN™ & NU-CROWN™ temporary crown kits, NU-CORE™ crown build-ups, NU-BLOCK™ U-shaped mouth props, TEMP TRAY™ impression trays and the TrioDent™ composite restoration system.

To order complimentary samples, fill in the Efficient Dental Technologies™ sample request form.

2. AXIS Dental Corporation

AXIS Dental Corporation currently offers 4 free product samples to licensed dental practitioners. This includes: UltraGloss™ composite polisher, Diamond-Zyme™ cleaning solution, NTI® Turbo Diamonds and QwikStrip™ Serrated Strips.

To order complimentary samples, fill in the AXIS Dental Corporation sample request form.

3. AllPro, Inc

AllPro, Inc., offers dental professionals the opportunity to request a large number of samples – 18 in all. The extensive selection includes: instrument cleaners, prophy paste, prophy brushes, disposable protective eyewear and much more…

To order complimentary samples, fill in the AllPro, Inc. sample request form.

4. Water Pik, Inc.

Water Pik, Inc. is currently offering licensed dental care practitioners a free trial pack of Waterpik™ UltraThin 5% Sodium Fluoride Varnish.

To order a complimentary trial pack, fill in the Water Pik, Inc. sample request form.

5. Dux Dental

DUX Dental offers a number of free product samples including: PeelVue+ sterilization pouches, Lubricoat lip and skin emollient,
Lubricoat, Identic Fast-Set Alginate and several other quality products.

To order complimentary samples, fill in the Dux Dental sample request form.

Any others?

Do you know of other companies currently offering samples to dental professionals? Please share in a comment below.

You may remember a poll we ran several weeks ago asking Dental Heroes readers if they like the current website redesign. Nearly 60% of you said that you indeed do like the current DentalHeroes.com Blog design. However, 31% of you say the design is just “OK,” and 11% simply don’t like it.

What do these numbers mean?

The numbers above mean that Dental Heroes is good, but not great. To make it great, I need your help. I developed a short survey to discover what you want to see in the next version of the Dental Heroes Blog. Your responses will play a big role in shaping Dental Heroes for the future – so don’t hold back. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to help out the Dental Heroes Community.

Start the Survey

Thanks so much for your help!

If you missed last weeks review post, you can view it here: Dental Blogs: The Week in Review (September 7-11, 2009). Without further ado, here’s the weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from around the Dental Blog Community for the week of September 14-18, 2009.

Top 5 Stories of the Week

1) Dentists Ready for a Dental Union The Wealthy Dentist Blog recently surveyed a number of dentists to determine whether now is the right time to form a dental union. You may be surprised that 49% of respondents said, “Yes”. Watch the video recap for an analysis of the results.

2) Dentistry’s new magic wand With amazing resolution and applications for almost every facet of dentistry, optical coherence tomography imaging could be a technology that changes everything…

3) Curve Dental Wants to Change Dental Software In this post, dental technology guru, John Flucke, explains how Curve Dental plans to revolutionize the dental software market with web-based software solutions…

4) Gratitude as a Marketing Tool Joseph J. Portale, DMD, MAGD, discusses a number of tips for establishing lasting, loyal relationships with your patients. Robotic dentists are out,. Real, personable, relationship-minded dentists are in…

5) Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Performs First MOOKP Procedure in USA Sharron “Kay” Thornton has just regained her sight in first-in-the-U.S. procedure known as Modified Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (MOOKP). Put simply, the procedure involved implanting the woman’s eyetooth in her eye as a base for a prosthetic lens. Read more in this recent DentalBlogs.com post…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Most of you know the Dental Product Shopper as a wonderfully helpful dental product review and information resource for the dental professional. What many of your probably don’t know, however, is that they also know how to run a kick-butt sweepstakes.

Ultimate Office Sweepstakes

The Dental Product Shopper’s latest sweepstakes is what they’re appropriately calling the “Ultimate Office Sweepstakes”. As the name suggests, Dental Product Shopper is trying to hook up your dental practice with great dental gear. The collective estimated value of the Grand Prize, Second Prize and Third Prize is $293,500!. Click on the links below to view the prize packages that you can win:

1) Grand Prize Package – estimated value ($280,000)
2) Second Prize Package – estimated value ($10,000)
3) Third Prize Package – estimated value ($3,500)

Who’s Eligible to Enter

Before you take the time to enter, keep in mind that “you must be a (i) licensed dentist, (ii) dental hygienist, (iii) dental assistant, or (iv) an office manager that has been employed at a licensed dental office during the entire six (6) months immediately prior to entry(dentalproductshopper.com)” to enter. For a full listing of the official rules, check out the sweepstakes rules page.

How to Enter

Dental Product Shopper has made entering the “Ultimate Office Sweepstakes” real easy. Oh, and did I mention that it’s free to enter? No? Well, it’s FREE TO ENTER. Simply fill out the official sweepstakes entry form to be eligible for almost $294,000 in prizes.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow DentalProductShopper.com on Twitter (@DentalProducts).

What do you think?

What do you think of the prize packages? Which product(s) do you currently use in your practice?