By Tom Rich, MBA, GG12 Senior Practice Analyst
Prior to a Gems Family Member’s acceptance into the GG12 Dental Practice Transformation Coaching Program, we conduct an interview and full practice analysis. During the practice analysis, it’s common to see a dentist with roughly the same number of active adult patients as they have adult prophies (For example, one of the recent GG12 applicants had 1,373 active patients and had conducted 1,422 adult prophies over the past 12 months). Unfortunately, I see this in the majority of practices I evaluate. "The more hygiene your practice does, the more dentistry you will do, and the better care your patients will receive, which leads to more production and profit." From a health standpoint, every adult needs to be seen — at the very least — twice a year. From a simple “numbers” perspective, that means, in the example above with 1,373 active adult patients, there should be no fewer than 2,746 adult prophies. But, more often than not, it’s nowhere near the “ideal” of twice per patient (never mind the 29 classifications of patients who MUST be on 3-month recall). In the example above, the Doctor explained the reason for his low prophy count was that “hygiene capacity was limited.” It’s important to note, his practice was only open 3.5 days per week, which means there were 3.5 days where his office was sitting empty, and that’s assuming he only kept his 9-to-5 schedule (capacity dramatically increases as you expand your hours of operation, e.g. open early, close late, etc.). Because of his flawed perception of limited capacity, he felt he shouldn’t push his team to get patients to come back more frequently. That decision was negatively impacting his patients, his practice, and his bottom line, which begs the question, “Why do we allow this to happen?” • It’s easier to let the patient dictate the frequency and level of care. • It’s easier to not reach out to the patient. • It’s easier to let all the “automated processes” try to do the heavy lifting to get patients back. • It’s easier to sit back and hope that patients care enough about their oral hygiene and health to make frequent visits a priority. The answer is:
Here’s a real shocker: People don’t like going to the Dentist.
Your patients will actively seek out excuses or other “more pleasant” alternatives (praying for an IRS audit, begging to be condemned to die in a third-world prison, engaging in public speaking, going used car shopping — even when they don’t need to) … anything to get out of visiting the Dentist.
In other words, because visiting the Dentist is not a priority for, or even actively avoided by, your patients, helping them get into your office needs
to be a priority for you. That’s where follow-up needs to become your No. 1 priority … and it all starts with hygiene. The more hygiene your practice does, the more dentistry you will do, and the better care your patients will receive, which leads to more production and profit. This is where it becomes perfectly clear that the “easy” way won’t work.
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Is it more work to call your patients who should be coming in? Yes.
• Is it more work to increase the frequency of human contact and follow-up? Of course.
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Is it worth the extra effort? You better believe it.
Isn’t it time to stop letting opportunity go down the drain? You will only ever be as busy as you are willing to be.
"Because of his flawed perception of limited capacity, he felt he shouldn’t push his team to get patients to come back more frequently."
To discover how much potential you’re letting rot on the vine, call your Gems Concierge to schedule your own one-on-one RoadMap to Success practice analysis. For more information and resources on how to improve your hygiene recall, visit InsidersCircle.com SITE MAP GOLDMINE UNDERGROUND TEAM TRAINING TOOLKIT EPISODE 009 “How to Double Hygiene Recall.”
4 InsidersCircle.com | 1-888-880-GEMS (4367)
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