What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read "habitude"? Is it a habit, is it attitude or is it something else?

Habit hab·it/ˈhabət/
noun
1. a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

Definitions from Oxford Languages

Now, start spitting out all of your habits. Think you don't have any? How about-

• Getting up in the morning on the same side of the bed?
• Brushing your teeth the same way every day
• Putting your pants on your right leg first
• Stopping for coffee
• Getting in your car, the same way every time

Created habits are usually kept. Until someone somewhere introduces something done in a new way. Tried anew the first time seems awkward, off-kilter, and possibly uncomfortable. Some master this to success, most give up.

When was the last time you tried something new?

How long did you persevere when you did try that new thing? Did the newness feel strange?

Attitude at·ti·tude/ˈadəˌt(y)o͞od/
noun
1. a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior.

Definitions from Oxford Languages

What constitutes a good attitude? You know those people. They see the glass half full, offer solutions to challenges, they don't get too ruffled when things go south. They lead with empowerment. How do these folks do this? They are usually spotted in a crowd or office environment quickly. Here are some attributes of a great attitude-

• A well-rested individual
• One who is willing to try change, and maybe, persevere through it until mattered
• A self-creative
• A well-balanced performer
• Someone you want on your team!

How many employers out there wish you had employees with great attitudes, habits, and habitudes? They are out there, you just have to be willing to lead and guide them. At Accelerate My Practice, our coaches unveil many diamonds in the rough and polish up the moderate performers to great habituders. Most times, it is adding leadership and direction to one's plate.

Boundaries and accountability happen next. So often we hear doctors and business owners say they just want to "drill teeth" and not bother with all this other stuff.

Turn your team into a team full of habitude, by shining up those diamonds in the rough.

UNTIL the Dental Patient Knows How Much You Care!

Recently one of our coaches was in an office listening to the doctor present a case to a very backed-up individual. Shockingly, the patient did not accept treatment.

Here is the story.

A snowbird dental patient visiting the warm weathered community called this office for an appointment with this, “I am calling to make an appointment. My periodontist said I need three fillings.” The appointment was made. This patient entered the office disturbed, taking her sharp comments to the front desk person. This person made an immediate negative opinion and translated this to the back.

The clinical person began the radiograph process. After taking image #15, the patient said, “that was 15 x-rays, how many more are you going to take?” The dental assistant replied, just three more. Both the front office person and the dental assistant relayed a negative opinion to the doctor just before his diagnosis.

This negativism imbeds in the doctor immediately as his blood pressure raised. He proceeded to provide his diagnosis through a twenty-minute long, very dental, clinical word-driven diagnosis while the patient was cross-armed and not listening.

This diagnosis disallowed the patient’s involvement as only the doctor spoke. If you are the doctor, what are you thinking right now?

1. Maybe, I would have done the same.
2. I probably would have kicked the chair, the desk, yelled out curse words, then saw the patient?
3. I would have tabled my diagnosis, asking the dental patient directional questions.

Were you between 1 and 2? Most are. As humans, we tend to react with a READY FIRE AIM attitude. When, if we master the art and skill of understanding people, the people we treat, and the why of their behavior, we will succeed in keeping a friendly two-way didactic and productive conversation with the patient. And, we may have the ability to turn around a very unhappy patient to an accepted treatment plan.

Here is what the AMP coach provided.

1. Ask questions before any treatment discussion.
2. The more topical the question, the more topical the answer, dig.
3. Be curious. This is the easiest, yet one of the hardest skills to master.

Dentists are highly trained scientists, mostly wanting to share what they know so the patient will understand. NOT. Patients want to know first how much you care NOT how much you know. Once they have a sense of your caring attitude, doors open wide to treatment acceptance. Ask questions!

This is the first task. Use your skill to calm the patient to begin to understand. Steven Covey said it beautifully, seek first to understand, then be understood. The second task is to share this skill and technique with your team.

Need help with this? We master this teaching. Contact us!

The cold, rainy, snowy, ugly dreary dental months happen every year. The days are shorter, the nights are longer and many of us just yearn for this to reverse. We're waiting for that daylight savings day.

How many of you feel like your dental practice lives in these dreary months year-round?

Dentists are highly trained scientists, performing the standard of care of dental medicine to patients using a variety of methods allowing flexibility in the process, however, clinging tightly to a code of morals and ethics. Seems so simple to the outsider looking in, doesn't it? Is this your reality? Or are you the insider looking out? Is there chaos, do you choose tolerance over confrontation, do you long for a well-oiled dental machine in your day to do?

Believe it or not, there is an answer to the chaos. Here's how to tame the chaos;

• Admit the challenges you are unwilling to address
• Believe this can be changed
• Reach out for help
• Try something new, perhaps something you have always wanted to try but didn't know how to start.

If you find yourself to be in a cycle of; failed, try to change, change, retreat to old habits, this is normal UNTIL you hire a company that holds your hand, guides you as an owner on the how-to in dealing with your team, and finishing the race (your day to day) feeling accomplished.

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Overcome the dental dreary months.

The video here is of a doctor in Spokane, WA who was visited on the fly a year after coaching with us.

How can we help you overcome the challenges and leave you like this and many more of our doctors?

These months come and go, but it is your decision on how long they last.

Reach out to us, we're here to listen, plan and overcome.

Let's talk insurance and tools to use to get past the general feeling about it. Here is an exercise that I do with dental offices all around the country. We sit in a group, and we play a word association game.  I will say a word, and then you immediately say the first word that comes to mind.  Let’s try it.

I have no idea what you said for the first few words, but I’ll bet I can predict what you said for INSURANCE. You probably said something like “sucks” or “write off” or “thieves” or another negative word.  Was I right?  If so, read on.

This is what I call the Insurance Paradox.  Many of us as dentists have decided to voluntarily join up with certain PPO insurance plans. We are aware in advance that this will involve a contract with very specific terms. Primarily, we will have to abide by a fee that is often significantly lower than our standard fee. Will have to be aware of maximums, frequencies, waiting periods, and many other contractual obligations.   We enter these contracts with our eyes open, knowing the negatives, and understanding the positives. And then we turn around and moan and groan and complain about it while voluntarily re-signing that contract every year.

My first suggestion, of course, is to grow your practice to a point where you can reduce or even eliminate your dependency on network Insurance. However, many dentists live in areas or have practices where they are simply unable to do that. In San Diego there were several huge employers, all of whom seem to carry Delta PPO.

This is where my thinking seems to diverge from many dentists. I decided long ago not to be Mister negative about insurance. Not to constantly complain about it. And certainly not to transmit to patients that insurance was bad, evil, sucks, etc. Instead, I came with a positive view of insurance. The fact that it could significantly reduce patients costs was a good thing for me because I like my patients. I was their cheerleader in this.

There is a video in our library where we talk all about how to see and portray Insurance in a positive light. You will be shocked how this simple mindset change can increase your production.

If you find that being an in-network provider for dental insurance is increasing your blood pressure and decreasing your bottom line, I'd love to chat with you.  Let’s fix it!

At AMP, one of our primary roles is to identify areas of opportunity at dental practices. It's no secret that in most practices there is a lot of treatment that is recommended but goes undone. Sometimes, the amount of this is shocking. I have seen practices with literally millions of dollars of treatment that was recommended and never done.  

But the word “treatment” can encompass many things. It could be an x-ray, a cleaning, or a crown. Or something bigger. I'll bet that your case acceptance rate on cleanings is pretty high.  It's those bigger treatment plans that most often go undone.   A dental implant is a good example of this.  When a patient has a missing tooth and is asymptomatic, an implant just doesn't seem to be that important.   Until the patient realizes the importance of replacing that missing tooth or teeth, he or she will be very price sensitive. And it's not comparing your fees to other dentists’… It's comparing your fee to items they want more, like that new flat-screen TV or iPhone.

One of my primary functions as a coach is to help doctors and their staff explain things better to help build value to the patient. We never recommend aggressive treatment plans or over-treating. We help you to better address those items that you normally would treatment plan. And we don't recommend a hard sell or special techniques and tricks to bully the patients.   Instead, we work on honest narratives that the doctor can have with the patient to gain understanding, build value, and therefore increase case acceptance.

When a treatment plan consists of, for example, three fillings and a dental implant, it is common to hear the patient say “I'll do the three fillings, but I need to think about the implant.”  Do you hear this a lot? To do more of the implants you recommend, we have to figure out how to get past this barrier.

If you need help with your narratives, please let me know. You might find that some simple changes can do two great things: help your patients return their mouths to a state of dental health, and help your business grow. Isn't it wonderful when you can do both at the same time?  That is a true win-win situation.

AMP is often in offices coaching team members that are consistently ‘too busy.’ These folks are usually too busy to get ordering done properly. Too busy to get things done on time, to do their clinical notes while the patient is still seated in the chair, to call unscheduled treatments. They are just too busy!

How busy are you?

Do you leave your day ‘undone?’ Does your ‘busy’ never go away? Perhaps a call to us. We can help you un-busy yourself and your team and return to a fulfilled day!

Someone said to me once, if you tell me you are too busy, you just took the time telling me you are too busy and could have taken that time to get the task done! Think about that. How many times in an office is a question asked only by the last word of the sentence did the asker answer their own inquiry? Talk about wasted time. Or, how about the confirmed crown delivery patient that must be cancelled because ‘we didn’t have time to order the proper cement.’

Here are some things to try to undo some of that busyness!

• Make reminder calls to your patients at least TWO days out. This minimizes stress, giving the caller 24+ hours to fill the schedule.
• Ask the patient to call back to confirm the time they blocked for their appointment. If they don’t, fill the spot with someone else!
• Enter all clinical notes while ‘the butt is still in the chair.’ When the patient leaves, you are done! The patient does not mind sitting there while you do this.
• Ask for all patient portions before the treatment is done. This eliminates chasing the patient for payment, and one more thing to eliminate in your day to day.

These are just a few things we do onsite while coaching a dental team. One of our biggest goals is to create team empowerment by ‘un-busying’ the day to day. It works! Give us a shout! Be glad to get you and your team from too busy to fulfillment!