February means red, romance, love and my birthday! It’s a month long reminder to focus on the ones we love, especially our patients. In case you didn’t know, February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. It is a month dedicated to raise awareness of how important it is for children to develop good oral habits. As for adults, February is also Heart Month. The CDC suggests February is the perfect time to learn about your risk for heart disease. Coincidence? I have worked with a great number of dentists over the years. While dentists are more than happy to discuss Oral Health, they don’t always (or often) explain just how huge an impact oral health has on their patients overall health and well-being. The result? Most Americans still think dentistry is an option. Why is this? Maybe a better network with medical providers would help, but what would drive them to be on your team? Maybe, as healthcare providers, we become better educators to our patients and our community.
There is a big obstacle that stands in the way of educating our patients:
TIME
https://imgur.com/gallery/3bbSzss/comment/164045217
When I talk about clinical systems with a practice, I really want to get to know their vision. What is it that keeps the heart of your practice beating? No matter how it’s boiled down, it is your patients.
According to the NADP, Americans without dental benefits report higher incidences of chronic health problems because oral health is so close to overall health. Americans without dental coverage are:
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67% more likely to have heart disease
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50% more likely to have osteoporosis
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29% more likely to have diabetes
Save the tooth or extract it? Do you present an ideal treatment plan or one with options? You are the healthcare provider. Ideal is ideal because it is the best treatment for long-term, overall health. Options cannot guarantee the best result, right? Your patients don’t know what they don’t know. Imagine if you had the time to add education as a standard component to every patient visit. Would your patient be as eager to just pull the tooth?
What can you do now to open up time? Start by improving how your practice functions outside the operatory - inventory, sterilization, room turnover and mobilizing technology. Discover areas in our practice that hold you up; prevent you from staying on time; or keep staff on the clock after hours. When you do this, you open up opportunities to grow your practice - by educating your patients. I can remember when I worked in a busy dental practice. I counted on those few minutes it took to numb up the patient in order to get caught up on sterilization, restocking operatories and ordering. I didn’t put the patient first. If I only knew then what I know now……
Here are some things you can do with the time:
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Take more photos
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***Training staff*** (my personal favorite)
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Discover more options for patients to afford the dentistry they deserve.
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No-stress; same-day conversions
If you read my blog regularly, you know that, weekly, I work with dental practices across North America improving ergonomics. By improving ergonomics, you can count on an increase in your production. Don’t find the time, create the time by improving the systems behind the scenes. I’d love to help!
So let me introduce my February as Dental Practice Ergonomics Awareness Month. A month to bring consciousness to the way you work. Working smart allows you to spread the love to those who secure your livelihood. Hallmark’s got nothing on this!
