Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Roger P Levin.
Values are a powerful tool that can be quantified. Once you know your four to six business values, you can strengthen your practice and build a high-powered team. Once you have completed this exercise, you may want to repeat the process for your personal values. It can be insightful and fun.
Dental phobias stem from various sources and can lead to strongly conditioned fear responses. The following are the most common origins of dental fear: Previously painful or negative experiences during visits to a dentist's office. A severe discomfort with feeling vulnerable and/or out of control in a dental situation. A sense of embarrassment from dental neglect and fear of ridicule and/or belittlement. Scary anecdotes of negative dental experiences from family and friends. Negative, menacing portrayals of dentists in movies, television, newspapers, and magazines. A sense of depersonalization in the dental process, intensified by today's necessity for the use of barrier precautions, such as masks, latex gloves, and shields. A general fear of the unknown. Once you recognize the possible sources of your patients' fears, you will be in a much better position to help them identify and overcome their particular brand of dental phobia.
Dentists have many opportunities to expand the role of dental hygienists and provide patients with better oral health care, while increasing production and profits. But the proper business systems and verbal skills need to be incorporated. You must train hygienists to do all they can do for every patient. Begin with one service and add others, as the hygienists becomes familiar with each one. Set a goal of a 15% increase in production per year for the hygiene department. Clinicians using these strategies have experienced as much as a 100% to 200% increase in hygiene revenue during the first year of incorporating these services. An added benefit is that these dentists often see a substantial increase in dental treatment diagnosis and case acceptance. An effective and efficient hygiene department will often identify and help secure more than 50% of a doctor's production.
You do not always need to purchase the very best technology for every situation. Dentists spend a great deal of time trying to find out from gurus and experts which technology is the best. I personally believe that it is far more important to acquire technologies that will integrate into your office properly, provide you with a solid return on investment, and make you productive and profitable rather than simply acquiring the best technologies available. The best method for achieving this objective is the development and implementation of a well-thought out and properly researched technology plan.
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Dentures may be boring, but they are a major part of dentistry, and will be for the foreseeable future. While implants are growing in popularity, there will always be patients who opt for dentures. It is your duty to inform patients of the need to have their dentures remade periodically, to ensure excellent oral care. Be sure to manage patient expectation and to create an effective system for prompt payment. This will enable you to help patients achieve good oral health, while maximizing your profit.
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The Levin Group Management Pyramid can act as your guide in understanding the future direction of your practice. Keep in mind that you cannot move from one level to the next until you have addressed all aspects of the level you are in. In many cases, dentists attempt to move up the pyramid without completing each level, leaving incomplete management in other areas. That is why I will not provide you with the details of each level at the same time. It is better to present one level at a time and master it before presenting the next level. Trying to master all of the levels simultaneously will ultimately result in stress, increased overhead, staff turnover and the other issues that will keep you from achieving your ultimate goals.
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Dentures provide an excellent opportunity for patient expectation management. While the dentists and staff should always be caring and supportive, they also should be honest and clear about the potential results. Benefits and deficits of any treatment option must be communicated.
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Mastering basic management systems is the first of six levels in the Dental Management Pyramid that determines the future direction of your practice. It is important to avoid the temptation to move from one level to the next until you have addressed all aspects of the current level. All too often, dentists attempt to move up the pyramid without completing each level, leaving incomplete management in other areas. Business systems allow for the highest level of profitability, the lowest stress, and the most enjoyment for you and your team members. They serve as the very foundation on which you build your successful dental practice. In the next installment of this series, leadership skills and team development will be discussed.
Developing a dental practice niche for patients with specific medical conditions can provide a tremendous benefit to this patient population while enhancing practice productivity and profits. Capitalizing on this opportunity requires development of comprehensive, customized patient management systems. To remain profitable, practice fees must be adjusted to account for the additional time and effort invested in serving these unique patients.
Before you become adept at persuasion and influence in case presentation, you must give people a reason to trust you and like you. One way to ensure success in this area is to be attentive and listen to your patients, recognize their concerns and point of view, and then respond appropriately.
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Mastering the second layer of the Management Pyramid demands the dentist take on an active leadership role, clarify the practice vision, outline specific goals for the team to achieve then proceed to motivate each team member. Leadership affords the dentist the opportunity to ensure all actions and decisions work in unison to move the practice toward his goals.
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Building a practice by adding new services is an extremely intelligent approach to practice expansion. The key is to select services that are profitable, manageable, relatively easy to implement, and, most importantly, desirable to patients. Dentin hypersensitivity is a good example of a situation requiring simple services that are easily implemented. The easiest part of implementing the service will be case acceptance. Fortunately, these patients are already comfortable with the practice and are very likely to perceive the value of the service. Offering new services to existing patients will almost certainly increase practice production. Therefore, the only question a dentist must ask is which new services will be added to the practice.