It's Time To STOP The Glorification Of Busy In your Dental Practice!

There’s a myth in the dental practice that if you want to be successful, you have to see every single patient that calls you – on their terms. 

Consider this -

Patient A – takes the morning off of work for an appointment with you, prepays their dentistry,  and is committed to you and their treatment.

Patient B – No-showed his last re-care appointment. Has not followed through with dentistry that was diagnosed last year. Broke a tooth and wants to be seen today.

How do you know whether or not to ‘fit in’ Patient B?  Well, if you would feel perfectly confident in explaining to Patient A why you will be leaving them for a bit to tend to Patient B, then go for it.

Most of the time, we would feel like an idiot if we were completely transparent with our loyal patients as to why we leave them waiting, but then fall all over ourselves to accommodate those who do not value your time, or your vision.

You see, we succumb to all kinds of pressure when it comes to scheduling -  pressure from the patients to schedule them when they want to come in, pressure from the doctor to schedule productively, pressure from the team to get out for lunch and at the end of the day on time, and then there’s the self-induced pressure to please everyone.

There are times where it makes sense to provide treatment that was unscheduled – but that should be the exception, not the rule.  If you’re constantly living day to day with your schedule wondering where your production will come from,  it’s an indicator of poor (or complete lack of) systems.  Instead of focusing solely on how you’re going to fill the white space in today’s schedule, focus on a plan –

• Who has potential for treatment? 
• Who will we take photos on today? 
• What planning appointment opportunities do you see within the patients right in front of you today?

It’s not about seeing more patients – if you’re looking at things through that set of glasses, you’ll never have enough.  It’s about the proper mix of treatment and giving ALL patients the opportunity to have long term care.  

Here’s a quick way to determine whether or not 'busyness' is getting in the way of profitability – Calculate your  your $ per patient visit for your doctor.  

$200-400 – Busy is all you know.   Busy is comfortable.  ‘The more bodies, the better’ is your mantra.  You are treating pathology only and operating as an emergency clinic, getting anyone in whenever they’d like.  Photos and planning appointments (as they were intended) are likely non-existent.  Crisis dentistry is your theme. It's extremely rare to treat more than one tooth at a time.  Chair side diagnosis is the norm. You haven’t had a full hour lunch since 2004 and often leave the office later in the evening than you’d like. You can’t quite seem to catch up… with anything.  You pray for emergencies because they are your main sources of revenue. Reactive is your mode of operation. 

$400-$600 – You’re still busy most of the time, but some days are better than others.  The tendency to chair-side diagnose and do unscheduled treatment is still there.   Photos and planning appointments exist, but are not consistent, and they look more like 'consultations' where the doctor is still presenting treatment rather than allowing the patient to be in charge.  You are likely undercharging, contracted with several PPO's, or doing dentistry that's not profitable.  You might have a taste now and then of a great day – where you only see a few patients, probably have a big case, and stress is not an issue.  Not everyone is on the same page, which is why your cycle feels like a roller coaster.  No two days are the same. 

$600-$800 – You’re getting it!  You are less ‘busy’ and more profitable. Photos are taken on all new patients, and we’re beginning to understand the value of photos and long-term dialogue with existing patients.  We still have a sense of comfort with the low-hanging fruit, but when you take time to sharpen the saw and get back to basics, you see more consistent success.   The practice accomplishes some quadrant dentistry, and even the occasional large case ($15K or above). You are more proactive than reactive – foregoing the short term gain (production for an unscheduled crown prep) for the long-term gain (planning appointments resulting in scheduling all 4 teeth that can benefit from long term dentistry rather than just the ‘worst’ one). 

$800-1200 – You refuse to be busy! You don't allow the schedule to rule you – Every conversation with every patient (existing, too) starts with open-ended questions re: their expectations/goals/motivation/foreseen objections.  You don’t say things like ‘What we do on all new patients…’ or ‘What we recommend…’ or ‘You need…’   You have at least one planning appointment/day, but likely more.  A good portion of your planning appointments are existing patients. Single unit dentistry is the exception.  The majority are 'medium' sized cases, not necessarily relying on the big case to 'make' the cycle. Although, larger cases do happen more frequently.  Majority of diagnosis is through planning appointments, and existing patients make up a large part of those. Your morning blocks are full most of the time with ideal treatment that allows you to meet 80-100% of your goal during the first half of the day.  There’s no conversation such as ‘while your numb today working on that one tooth, why don’t we do the one next to it’ because that was already addressed in the planning appointment.  You focus on saving patients time and money by helping them with a comprehensive plan that represents most of the dentistry they’ll need over their lifetime.  You have lunch (if you plan to) and you get out on time. 

$1200 and beyond – You’ve got it going on!  You understand that it’s not about living from one big case to the next, but you still have a good number of multi-unit cases, mixed in with the quadrant/medium-sized cases.  Chair side diagnose is not  a part of your operation. All systems are patient-centered from the hygiene visit to financial arrangements. 

(SPECIALTY PRACTICES - Prosth and Perio - $1800-2000 Endo  - $1500)

Here's the GREAT news - as a Brady Group member, your scoreboard already calculates the $ per patient visit. You don't even have to do the math! If you'd like some guidance, contact your personal coach.