FYI there is a tremendous program being offered to help you better understand the Internet link for your practice. It is in Austin Texas at The Hyatt Lost Pines Resort on March 23 and 24th. It is being offered by ACE (The Academy of Comprehensive Esthetics).

Lecture & panel discussions will feature dental experts Dr. Tom Hedge, Dr. Marvin Berlin, Dr. Kent Smith, Dr. Peter Boulden, Dr. Curtis Westersund, Dr. Gerilyn Alfe, Dr. Anthony Vocaturo, Dr. Tim Hale & Dr. Peter Masci.

You’ll also have the opportunity to learn from industry experts Mr. Zach Hoffman of Dental SEO, Mr. Jim Higgins of Smile Reminder, Mr. Tim Kelley & Mr. Tim Healy of TNT Dental, Mr. Dan Scott of Roadside Multimedia, Mr. Howie Horrocks of New Patients, Inc., Dr. Bill Jackson of PlanetDDS, and Ms. Jennifer Poppers of ShopPR.

Do not miss this tremendous chance to get on board with the newest wave in attracting new clients to your practice and increasing your bottom dollar.

Here area few vital items that should be included in that Initial New Patient Telephone Contact:

• Name
• Referral Source
• Practice Descriptive Statement
• Reason For Appointment
• Home Address
• All Contact #’s for verification
• Credit Card Number to Reserve Appointment Non Refundable if no show
• Packet if Time
• Web site Address to Fill Out Forms On Line
• Info Must be at Office 48 Hrs in advance
• Initial Feeling Regarding Client
• Appointment Date & Time

This is valuable information to gather prior to scheduling a New Patient in your office. It will help you start to develop a relationship with them and help them see that you are different from the rest.

Monitor patients in the office and where they are

communicate between Team members

Check this new system out looks pretty neat. We downloaded trial version and are playing with it. I have no vested interest in this just think it looks neat.

www.Patient-Tracker.com

It is time of the year when in some practices things slow down. I have never really figured out why; maybe because of tax time or maybe it is an after the Holiday lull. There have always been things you can do, chart audits, special discount offers, email reminders of unfinished treatment plans, etc. Well here is a new one. Every existing patient who is being seen in hygiene for re-care take a shade and talk about whitening. Explain to your existing patients on their re-care visit that the “standard of care” in dentistry is changing. That you are now taking a full series of digital photos on all new patients when they enter your office. Get them into an empty chair and get photos on them. These patients of record deserve to see their mouths the same way new patients are seeing their mouths. It opens their eyes to the need to get some the dentistry they having putting off for years done. Give them the opportunity to have their comprehensive exam brought up to “the new standard of care” in your office.

A dozen long stem roses of various colors in a beautiful vase, to the client/patient who just got their smile make over. The note should be personally done. And have the gift delivered to their place of business.

Theater tickets & a gift certificate to dinner

We have done tickets and parking pass to The Cincinnati Bengals Games Or Cincinnati Reds, sports nuts love it

Movie passes (make great gifts for monthly recare card drawings)

Subscriptions to magazines you see them always pick up in the office

Gift certificates of all kinds always work well for families

Tiffany’s has a great gift catalog they will send to you

The Ritz Carlton also has a gift catalog

Something as simple as ordering cookies on line from one of the great gourmet cookie companies like www.christiecookies.com

It is the little things we do to show our appreciate that say we care. So in your busy practice assign someone the special job of the all important “Thank You” follow up.

Tony

We have purchased these overlays instead of reupholstering our dental chairs.  Much more cost effective, we don’t lose the use of our chairs, and patients LOVE them.  Tempur-pedic has a medical division and you get a discount as a dental office.  SRP is $695, but you can get it for $320 plus $20 shipping.  1-888-881-9779

 TEMPUR-PEDIC® INTRODUCES NEW DENTAL CHAIR OVERLAY

LEXINGTON, KY. (Sept.18, 2003) — Tempur-Pedic, known for its Swedish Mattresses and Neck Pillows™, recently introduced the newest addition to the company’s professional product line — the Dental Overlay. Made with the revolutionary TEMPUR® pressure-relieving material, the overlay, created specifically to fit most company dental chairs, has a bottom width of 69 x 19.5 inches and a mid-width of 16.5x 3 inches. The material, originally designed for NASA to relieve astronauts of the tremendous G-forces experienced during liftoff, provides patients with a unique, comfortable surface that can help ease the anxiety many associate with a trip to the dentist.

“Our Dental Overlay adds a new element to receiving dental treatments, and that’s comfort,” said Debi DeKrey, professional division manager. “Now that Tempur-Pedic has this product available, we make it easy for dentists to provide their patients with a more soothing and relieving experience. After all, a relaxed patient makes the dentist’s job much easier.”

The Dental Overlay comes with a 2-year warranty. The non-slip backing and PU wet-safe cover make it easy to use and clean. Along with the overlay, Tempur-Pedic markets a variety of products to those in the dental field. The Dental Chair Head Cushion, which is 7 x 7 x 4 inches, fits most standard size dental chair head rests. The Swedish Neck Pillows are also recommended for patients suffering from TMJ.

Tempur-Pedic® manufactures and distributes products made from TEMPUR® pressure-relieving material, a revolutionary, viscoelastic material that conforms to the body to provide support and help alleviate pressure points. World headquarters for Tempur-Pedic are on Jaggie Fox Way in Lexington, Kentucky. For more information, email professionals@tempurpedic.com or call 888-881-9779.

I can see the evolution of this device. It will have Blue tooth and WiFi, so when in range of a connection, it will be able to access the internet, make internet based free phone calls to anywhere in the world. (phone companies are in trouble), print to a WiFi or Blue tooth enabled printer, send images, take picture with a digital camera, and receive emails. It will serve as a phone with a blue tooth earpiece. You can keep it in your pocket while making calls. It will connect with your car via Bluetooth and play your iTunes songs. It will display content on your car’s LCD screen amd turn over key controls to your cars interface. It will track it’s location through GPS and transfer this information to your car. It will use a local network harddrive as it’s harddrive via a WiFi connection. This will enable huge storage. It will act as a RF and IR remote for devices in your home. It will act as a key to start your car. I suspect it may even pick up digital television signals and enable you to watch television on it. I just saw a USB television tuner that will allow a laptop to get a television signal. This will be released in Europe this fall. Can’t wait!

This from PC Magazine:  The review is on the previous version and his concerns were addressed with the new Deluxe Viewer Edition.  Something about the word “Deluxe” that bugs me.

By M. David Stone

The original Epson PictureMate impressed us enough to earn the Editors’ Choice for dedicated photo printers, and it has held on to that position against all comers. The PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition ($249.99 direct) maintains all the features we liked in the first PictureMate (from true photo-quality output to a low cost per print) and adds still more, most notably a color LCD to let you preview prints. That makes it a shoo-in as our new Editors’ Choice. Like the original, the new PictureMate is designed for portability, but even more so. Both measure 6 by 10 by 6 inches (HWD), weigh 5.5 pounds, and have a handle and a shape that make them look like a mini boom box. But the Deluxe Viewer Edition also has a battery option ($69 direct) with enough juice for a claimed 60 to 80 prints (approximately two hours of continuous printing, according to Epson), so you can take it with you to print photos on the spot, even if there’s no place to plug in a power cord. Epson PictureMate Setup is just as easy as with the original. Simply slide the single six-color ink cartridge—with cyan, yellow, magenta, black, red, and blue inks—into the slot in the back, load the photo paper, connect the power cord, and you’re ready to print from a camera, external CD or ZIP drive, a USB memory key, or any type of memory card, although you’ll need an adapter for miniSD cards and some Memory Stick formats. To print from your computer, the only additional steps are to connect by USB cable and run the automated install program. You can also add Epson’s optional Bluetooth adapter ($69 direct) for wireless printing. The most obvious difference from the original model is the color LCD and a slightly different set of menu control buttons. We found the menus easy to understand and use, and the LCD bright and easy to read. The menu choices are well thought out, with options, for example, to mark individual photos or print everything. You can also set the defaults to match the settings you use most often. And you’ll find options to crop and resize photos, adjust brightness, add frames, and more. The preview images were a little blurred, but once you realize that the output won’t also be blurred, it’s easy enough to ignore that. The Deluxe Viewer Edition also improves on the original’s performance. We timed it at 1 minute 19 seconds to 1:45 for each photo, whether printed from a computer, memory card, or Canon PowerShot S60 camera. That’s roughly a 45-second improvement in speed. Even better, the image quality is just as good, which makes it a match for film-based photos. Both models use the same ink and paper, which means the photos for the Deluxe Viewer Edition are also waterproof and smear-proof even immediately after printing, and they cost only 29 cents per print. That’s a big saving compared to thermal-dye printers, which can cost more than twice as much—or a 30-dollar difference for every 100 photos you print. When we reviewed the original PictureMate, we said that we’d like it even better if it had a color LCD for previewing images, but that was the only important trick it missed. The PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition adds that missing color LCD, as well as faster printing and a few more tricks. And, indeed, we like it even better.

Computers, digital cameras, and photographic quality printers are all in the main stream of consumer purchases. Consumers are also accustomed to watching and learning via a television or computer monitor.

Our patients are these consumers.

These same consumers come into our dental offices and presentations utilizing these digital media are very well received. There is another advantage to using these media in that they remove the potential confrontation from the treatment plan. Seeing is believing!

Most people have some degree of confrontational tolerance. Some will avoid confrontation at all costs. Others welcome confrontation.
Dentists have been shown via numerous studies to be introverts. The numbers approach 75%.

Dentists that have a low level of confrontational tolerance (most of us) will not present a full and complete treatment plan in order to avoid confrontation.

What could be the confrontational answers?

“My old dentist, Charlie, who I played golf with once a week, said I was in great shape six months ago.”

“I’ll think about it.” In your mind this means – “ Gimme a break. You must have a kid going to college.”

“My gums have always bled. It’s normal for me.”

“I’m sure my insurance will cover those veneers.” You think – “She’ll flip when she finds out insurance covers nothing.

Let me present a new scenario for the new patient exam to eliminate the confrontational tolerance factor and present dentistry in a consumer friendly manner. This is the way we have been doing the new patient exam in my office for the last six months. Case acceptance has skyrocketed.

The entire process is centered on the new patient coordinator. The process starts with the new patient phone call. The call is not handled by the front desk person who is checking out patients, answering the phone and greeting patients. There are too many interruptions. The front desk person takes the call and transfers it to the new patient coordinator. The new patient coordinator has the uninterrupted time to establish the relationship. The new patient is invited to visit our web site, which reinforces what our practice is all about.

At the appointed time the NP coordinator is waiting for the NP. We can be pretty sure that the unfamiliar person walking in ten minutes before the appointment time is our new patient. Our NP coordinator starts off with something like – “ Hi, my name is Corine. You must be Sue Smith. Welcome to the practice. Let me give you a tour, and then we’ll sit down and talk in our conference room.”

After a “get to know you and what can we do for you” conversation, Corine will come down to my office and we will review her findings.

I will talk with the patient for about five minutes and we will start the digital photographic exam. The first shots I take are portraits in our studio. I use umbrellas and a hair light to get a professional quality portrait. I tell the patient that this shot is all about teeth. I want a big toothy smile. This lets the patient immediately know that we are different and professionals.

We then go into an operatory and take 14 intraoral shots. The patient is then introduced to my clinical assistant for radiographs. Corine and I then go into my office and discuss a treat plan while we review the photos. It is amazing how much more you see with excellent photographs versus a visual exam.

Corine then meets the patient in our conference room and reviews the images. She points out items of interest and allows patients to ask questions about their teeth. The patient sees their teeth like they never have before. They end up asking for dentistry so you don’t have to sell it! Corine presents a treatment plan based on their discussion and discusses finances and time frames. The patient is then told that the doctor will now do a clinical exam to confirm the findings and things may change a bit. My clinical exam rarely varies from the digital exam.

Periodontal conditions are assessed following this examination by our hygienist.

I have decreased my involvement in the new patient experience and substituted it with someone on my staff that has now created a relationship.

This gets back to the confrontational tolerance issue. The doctor will be more reluctant than a staff member to present the COMPLETE treatment plan. The staff member must believe in the doctor and should have a testimonial story to validate the message.

The doctor probably will not say that they do the most beautiful cosmetic cases, or that he is incredibly gentle. The devoted staff member can say this. If you toot your own horn, it will not come off as well as if a staff member did this.

http://www.ehealthcareceu.com/dynacat.htm?23

A practice doing $500,000 per year can get two free airline tickets per year just by paying the lab bill with a credit card. Lab is at 10%. That is $50,000. That will get you 50,000 miles which is good for 2 round trip domestic tickets. I use a rule of thumb that a ticket must be at least $350 to turn in the miles. Otherwise I buy it. Some tickets in peak times can be very expensive. I live in Cincinnati, which has an expensive airport to fly from.

The dental supply bill at six per cent adds another $30,000 or 30,000 miles, or another free trip, and then some.

Gas and electric bill, marketing expenses, etc. can add to this.

You must pay your bills on time to make this work. Interest fee’s are outrageous.

I like the American Express Platinum Card the best. You have no limit on how many points can be accumulated per month. You can use it to get into airline premium clubs at the airport. You can use the points for reward gifts, vacations, cruises, golf clubs, camera’s, you name it. The point price on these gifts is steep. I always use them for Delta tickets, but you can use the points on most airlines. 1-800-525-3355.

Until 9/30/2005 there are specials being offered.  Mention the Dentistry Today code ORI-DT.

www.Oraqix.com

If you have an oportunity to join a national campaign, like the LVI branding campaign, you should hop on the chance. www.lvidocs.com. Invisalign, DeVinci Veneers, Lumineers, Mac Veneers, Denturewearers.com, Britesmile, and Zoom II all have national consumer campaigns. If you perform these procedures, you need to get onboard with their marketing.