In today’s economy, many dentists across the United States are simply trying to keep their practices afloat as demand for cosmetic dentistry has waned in recent years. Of course, dentistry is about much more than money, but it’s hard to do well for others when you yourself are struggling. What you might not know, though, is that now is the perfect time to make some serious changes in your practice that will make you a successful contender in your local healthcare community. I know, because I have one of the most successful practices in the St. Louis area.
More and more studies are showing linkages between oral health and overall health, and that information is not exclusive to the scientific community. The truth about the oral-systemic linkages to heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and other serious conditions is all over the place thanks to news outlets and social media. By implementing an oral systemic approach in your practice, you will not only help your patients live longer, healthier lives but also expand your practice in three ways: patient retention, case acceptance, and new patient recruiting.
Patient Retention
Patient retention is, obviously, the backbone to any successful dental practice. When your hygiene schedule is booked solid, you stay busy and have constant income. But staying consistently booked is easier said than done when nearly 10% of Americans are unemployed and put dentistry on a back burner when it comes to their healthcare.
When patients value their oral health as a major part of their overall health, however, I’ve found that they approach what you can do for them in a whole new light. Instead of becoming inactive with their dental care, they see oral-systemic dentistry for what it truly is: a way to maintain their good health and reduce future healthcare costs.
Case Acceptance
When your patients come to you and you find a problem, getting them to agree to a treatment plan can be tough. They find dental procedures to be scary, painful, and costly, so they put them off—or worse, just stop going to the dentist. What you need to make your patients see is that failure to treat periodontal disease and tooth decay can lead to serious systemic health problems that are not only expensive to treat but also life threatening.
After successfully integrating oral systemic health into my practice, 90% of my patients follow through with the treatments and procedures I recommend. Thanks to the approach I take in my practice, my patients now realize the impact of good oral health and see me as one of their primary health care providers—not just their dentist.
New Patient Recruiting
I’m sure you’ll agree that traditional marketing for dentistry is one of the most tedious and ineffective things we do as dentists. It costs an arm and a leg, and the return on investment is minimal at best. But what else can you do?
When you take an oral systemic health approach in your practice, new patients will find you because you will be offering comprehensive dental care that can’t be obtained just anywhere. More importantly, however, when you establish yourself as a community leader in oral systemic health, you will get referrals from cardiologists, sleep specialists, and other physicians that send their patients to you for improved care.
In these troubled economic times, if you’re looking for new ways to improve your patients’ lives while achieving financial success in your practice, oral systemic health is a solution that will put your practice at the forefront of what is becoming the biggest revolution the field of dentistry has seen in 50 years.