Author: Darren Kaberna

The patient experience is everything from how the staff answers the phone to how comfortable the furniture is. When you have a positive experience you are more than likely to share that experience with friends and family. It works the same with patients. With good experience comes an increase in referrals. 

Positive Experiences

Positive patient experiences won’t only bring in business, it will build trust in your team and increase case acceptance. 

To start, communication is key to building strong relationships with patients. Each and every interaction with a patient should put their needs first. On the phone patients should be greeted with a personal greeting, patients should hear a smile through the phone. If our front office is confirming appointments, encourage staff to be polite and friendly while speaking slowly and clearly. See these phone calls as opportunities to connect with patients. 

Making a point to use the patient’s name in the conversation goes a long way. It shows you care and attention to detail. Staff members should always be prepared to go above and beyond to make sure patients’ questions are heard and addressed. Complicated matters such as working with their insurance, appointment reminders, etc. No matter how insignificant it may be, if a patient voices a concern, address it with professionalism and honesty.

How office staff interact with patients is critical, but so is the visual impression of the office and team. It may seem minimal but having a dress code, uniforms, or logos for the practice can make an office look very put together. Staff should also remember to keep their work areas tidy and free from clutter. Ensure that areas where patients spend their time (waiting rooms, op rooms, or restrooms) are clean.

The atmosphere in your dental office should reflect your culture and your brand. Consider furniture and artwork that you’re decorating with. They should tasteful, matching, and up to date. Consider having a spacious layout, the more spacious your waiting room is, the more relaxed your patients will be during their visit. They won’t feel crammed into a small area with other people they don’t know. Be considerate of your patients’ comfort, the more comfortable your patients are, the more enjoyable the experience will be for them.

Preventative Dental Care and Advice

The age old saying from Benjamin Franklin, “that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is finally setting in with the general population. In other words, it’s easier to stop something from happening in the first place than to repair the damage after it has happened. Nobody wants to get a filling, a crown, or a root canal, for that matter. Over time more patients are seeing the value in preventive options and being educated on how to maintain a healthy mouth and teeth. Rather than being in pain or spending time and money fixing the problem that could have been prevented. Educate your patients and offer them the best solutions to prevent these issues; show them how much their health means to you.

If you can provide happy patient experience, it will reflect in the way your patients interact with you and your team. Keeping them happy has to become a top priority if you want to build a loyal patient base while also attracting new patients. Every interaction is different, and patients experience your brand in different ways. While for some patients the best experience might be an easy resolution to an urgent issue, others may prefer a subtle acknowledgement of their continued patronage.

In the end…the comfort, care, and feelings of our patients should always be the top priority.

A topic that keeps coming up all around the country from patients and professionals in the dental field is Holistic Dentistry.

What exactly is holistic dentistry and what makes it holistic?

We know that a diet high in sugar will ruin both your teeth and your overall nutrition.
We know that illnesses lower your immune system and increase the risk of infection.

A high level of bacteria in your mouth increases the chances that bacteria travels into your blood stream. Which can negatively affect your overall health. Shockingly, plaque in the mouth can even be an indicator of plaque in your arteries. Having an evaluation of the placement of your teeth could lead you on a path to easing chronic jaw pain and headaches. The human body is made of many unique parts that work together as a whole and in turn can affect each other greatly.

What is the difference between holistic dentistry and traditional dentistry?

The Center for Natural Dentistry says that traditional dentistry focuses only on the areas above the neck and is the practice of treating the symptoms in the teeth and gums and attempting to prevent such problems from reoccurring. While, holistic dentistry is a philosophical approach that treats the underlying problems that cause symptoms in the mouth, attempting to eliminate those problems to prevent the symptoms from reoccurring. All while ensuring the work done in the mouth does not have an adverse effect on one’s overall health.

A Holistic Dentist will not only focus on a patients mouth and teeth, but will look at their face, head, neck, digestion, and lifestyle; taking the entire body and individual habits into consideration upon examination. The word holistic actually comes from the word “whole.”

Holistic dentists are problem-solvers who want to treat overall health, nutrition, and wellbeing. In other words, they don’t only treat oral health, but it’s considered a component of health for the rest of the body.

Many aspects of a holistic dentist, may feel familiar, but are significantly different. Here are a few areas that are very different from the traditional dentist.

• Usually holistic dentists don’t use of mercury in fillings.
• Don’t always support the use of topical fluoride
• Test biocompatibility of materials used in the mouth
• Don’t recommend root canals, because of the chemicals used for sterilization.

Most dentists have a realization of the adverse effects dental problems can have a person’s overall health. Holistic dentistry is an alternative approach that focuses on using non-toxic restorative materials. It is not just a procedure, it is looking at the entire perspective.

When people are looking for a dentist, it is important that they find a dentist whose philosophies match their own.

What is your philosophy and how do you portray your perspective to your patients?

Building leaders out of the women in your dental practice! Proven to maximize team camaraderie, decrease stress in the dental practice and increase case acceptance.

As we know it, most front office team members are women. Most hygienist are women. Most assistants are woman. While there are certainly more male dentist, more and more female dentist are stepping into that role year after year.

Considering the fact women are so incredibly relevant in dentistry today (as they have been for years) there is a continued struggle with a positive work dynamic. A positive work dynamic means healthy relationships among co-workers. An environment is sometimes forgotten and destroyed by women tearing each other down.

This is a huge challenge when there is not a strong since of leadership in the practice.

There are of course offices where this culture does not exist and let’s not forget that men are guilty of it too.

In offices where women do have a toxic culture, what can you do to help change? Who in the practice, wants to step up and be a leader in an office that is lacking that role?

Break this culture by collaborating, sharing, and mentoring team members. Leaders reciprocate, leaders have open courageous conversations that include honesty. Lastly leaders are open to truly listening and making changes in their own behaviors as a result of a courageous conversation.

If you are a woman that has less competitive tendencies, are open to bridging the gap between employees that create a culture where gossip is the norm. You can stand up and make a change at any time.

An office where this culture does not exist is such a nice place to be. Decrease the distraction and increase the support while being challenged. You can even drive each other to be better versions of themselves.

Jeffery Cole, President fo the ADA addressed the House of Delegates on Oct 22^nd challenging the dental industry. Asking, “What difference will you make?” Cole feels that the future of dentistry is bright, but also acknowledges the many changes that our profession is facing.

Cole explains:

“…That the business and practice of dentistry is changing dramatically, from advances in science to increased technology, from economic pressure to professional uncertainty, from outside influences to what has been referred to as not only the commoditization of dentistry but really all of health care,”

Jeffrey Cole went on to discuss changes to Kodak and Blockbuster and their inability to adapt, stating “[These companies] send an ominous warning to those of us concerned with advancing an organization, and perhaps an even more dire message for those of us concerned with advancing a profession: adapt to disruption, or risk losing everything…We cannot pretend that disruptors don’t exist, if we intend on advancing our profession in the most positive manner…We cannot delay uncomfortable but necessary discussions about how to address these forces.”

His reminder about change/disruption, bringing opportunity and motivation resonated. As we often coach our AMP clients on how to be open and accepting to change. Essentially how to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. While change can be scary it is also often the catalyst to reaching a new level in life you never envisioned possible.

Change brings with it many hurdles at times but if you are willing to play full out and get through the hurdles then with that comes transformation. That transformation is accompanied with an astounding level of peace and hope. This is our wish for all our clients and it is a privilege to be part of that process as a dental coach.

Not only in your dental practice, but in your personal life. What difference will you make? Will you teach your children perseverance and grit? The next time you step into an exam with a patient think your self “What difference will I make?” Jeffrey Cole is ready to do what it takes to advance dentistry, are you?

“Together we can deliver not only what our members and our patients need today, but also what they can’t even imagine they will need tomorrow. We can all take pride in charting a positive future of our profession. Together we will advance dentistry”

The topic of growth has come into play many times recently with our offices. Specifically growth as it relates to different levels of success. This has driven passionate conversation from many perspectives, hence a chance to talk about it here.

Many people of course have difference ideas and/or definitions of what success means to them; however, whatever your idea and/or definition of success is there is one thread common in reaching different levels of success. The need to change your routine along with your path to create what is needed to drive you to get to where you want to be.

There are lots of examples of this. For example an athlete, there are routines and a series of events that allows someone to get to a monumental win or personal best.

What will get them to their next monumental win or personal best?

Will it be the exact same routine or will they have to challenge themselves to think differently and act differently?

Will they think differently about internal motivation, changes that will positively influence the body/mind and what altercations need to be made to a training routine to be even more fit, strong and healthy?

These are just examples of a few things that need to change to continue to grow and reach different levels of success for an athlete.

If you have reached your first, second or third level of success in dentistry there is always room for more, you just need to challenge your routine and talk to your coach about how to achieve what’s next in your mind.

Rapid Growth is waiting for every business. Especially the dental industry. 

Just as there is a pattern in the seasons with winter, spring, summer, and fall the same can be seen in your business. When does the winter season come into your business and how do you plan to deal with it? What about spring when there is crazy rapid growth? The real key to long term business success is anticipation; how can you anticipate what is coming and have a plan around it? The key is in the ability to recognize your season in business, forecast the next one coming, and become more systematic in anticipating them in order to be prepared.

One such season is known as crazy rapid growth which can be a great outcome from increased productivity yet it also brings its own set of challenges. Are you prepared? Do you know which pattern to prepare for? Since there is no such thing as a perfect system, crazy rapid growth can be similar to playing a game of whack a mole leaving you looking for the next bottle neck in the system. While that growth is excellent from an owner’s perspective it can also be challenging in putting strain on your practice and employees.

Fortunately, AMP specializes in predicting these patterns and preparing for the next mole that comes up needing to be whacked. We want to ensure you sleep well at night when the different seasons occur and can ride the wave instead of drowning in it. One area that we commonly help our clients create a plan for is with the different seasons of cash flow. For instance, when looking at crazy rapid grow one pattern that occurs is a large influx of cash flow.

While it may be tempting to take that large influx and pay off huge debt, fund retirement, etc. it can then create the same problem of being cash poor again which then costs you good sleep at night! As we believe cash is king we work with our clients in strategic management of paying bills, getting out of debt and never getting back into it, funding retirement, etc. Reach out to your coach to ensure you recognize every season in your practice and have a plan in place to anticipate any crazy rapid changes that take place.

Here at AMP we have found a lot of value in understanding our team members and have found the DISC assessment to be a very powerful tool. DISC helps us understand the dynamics and relationships of people within dental practices.  At first a lot of team members may think “Am I taking a test to test my general knowledge in a certain area? Am I taking a test that will determine my skill level in a certain area? Am I taking a test that will calculate some metric that I don’t even understand?” 

The answer to all of those things is No.

The DISC assessment was designed to strengthen working relationships and support professional growth by helping people understand their co-workers better. We’ve found it as a beneficial way to not only learn about your co-workers; however, a excellent way to learn more about yourself. Understanding the strengths and challenges of your behavioral style and what kind of written and informal conversation styles work best for you can be beneficial not only at home but in your professional space as well. At AMP we talk a lot about what makes us each successful as individuals and we have found that being self aware of how we each communicate is critical in helping us understand what makes us each successful. Not only does this allow you to see what drives you; however, it also helps you see what is possibly holding you back from success.

What is DISC?

If you are wondering what the D, I, S and C stand for here is a quick review.  The assessment examines how you rank in different areas of behavior; for example, Dominance, Inducement, Submission and Compliance.  Also, the assessment will show us if we are people focused (people that have traits of Inducement and Submission), passive (people that have traits of compliance and submission), active (people with traits of dominance and inducement) or task focused (people with traits of dominance and compliance). 

The DISC assessment has helped people all over the world understand what their weaknesses are and have encouraged them to be addressed. This process is not necessarily an easy process to go thought yet it has certainly helped people grow in not only professional relationships but also personal relationships.

“If there is a rare quality in life, it’s self-awareness. Self-awareness of the difference between you and your patterns and the impact of your patterns on those around you” – Tony Robbins

Take the assessment yourself!