Dental hygiene is the second (and in many cases, only other) production center in the practice. Every practice should hold as a priority to increase production every year. If doctor production is increasing and dental hygiene production is stagnant, then it may be more challenging to achieve this objective.
Sometimes the solutions to a challenge are very simple. So how do we increase dental hygiene production easily without extending the time of dental hygiene appointments? Below are three suggestions that can help you meet your goals.
Follow up with patients on unaccepted treatment
Dr. Roger P. Levin.
Dental practices have hundreds of thousands of dollars of proposed treatment built up over the years that patients have either not completed or not even started. Case presentation should not only be thought of in the moment in which the case is first presented.
Follow-up is often needed, and the hygiene visit is an ideal way to formalize a follow-up protocol with patients who have not yet accepted a past treatment recommendation. Some practices have a follow-up plan involving a phone call or text message triggered by the front desk staff. After that, many practices forget about it. However, patients return to hygiene over and over, frequently without ever hearing about the incomplete or not accepted treatment that was proposed in the past.
Part of the role of the dental hygienist is to discuss previously proposed treatment with every patient briefly at every hygiene visit. Simply bringing it up a second, third, or fourth time is all it takes as a reminder for some patients to decide that it is the right time to have that treatment done.
In general, patients forget about proposed treatment that has not been acted on from the past. But if you remind them gently at hygiene visits, you will be surprised how many patients decide to have treatment one, three, or even five years later.
There are many factors in patient decision-making for case acceptance, ranging from financial challenges to scheduling concerns. However, over time, patients become more comfortable, circumstances change, and simply hearing it several times reinforces the importance of having that proposed treatment performed.
Get caught up on ancillary hygiene services
Dental hygienists, despite the best of intentions, often fall behind on x-rays, fluoride, and other ancillary hygiene services for patients.
It is not that difficult to find tens of thousands of dollars of production per year simply by catching up on the basic ancillary hygiene services. One way to approach this is to review each scheduled patient every day in the morning meeting and determine which patients are due or overdue for ancillary services such as x-rays, fluoride, and other basic hygiene services.
Patients are more than willing to accept these services and are happy to pay for them if they understand the reason and benefit to their oral health. It is more a matter of the practice simply not recognizing that the patients are due for specific services and six months, a year, or even more can go by before the practice recognizes that it has fallen behind on these ancillary services for those patients.
Assess patients for periodontal disease
And the most financially impactful way for hygienists to help increase practice production revolves around periodontal disease and treatment. According to basic research, approximately 65% or more of patients in general practices have gingival or periodontal disease.
This is not a criticism, but it reveals a great opportunity. Periodontal disease is an epidemic, and every hygienist and dentist would agree that it should be treated.
Unfortunately, periodontal disease goes undiagnosed until later stages. By diagnosing early, the practice can increase hygiene production by as much as 400% per patient and offer early treatment to patients, helping them avoid more severe circumstances later.
Every practice should develop a simple process of probing annually to identify any presence of gingival or periodontal disease. Treatment ranges from initial therapy in four quadrants to antibiotic therapy to other services, depending on the philosophy of the practice and severity of the case.
Practices that develop a culture of hygiene identifying any periodontal disease often increase dental hygiene production in the range of 20%. Hygienists can also play a role in educating every patient about periodontal disease whether it is directly applicable to that patient or not. The more people who know about it, the more they may be open to treatment if and when it is diagnosed and necessary.
Dental hygiene is the second and often only other production center for dental practices. It is imperative from a production standpoint that both doctor production and hygiene production are maximized using leading-edge practice management strategies. The three strategies laid out above can increase hygiene production almost instantly and keep it at a higher level permanently. This will help every practice to achieve the objective of increasing practice production every year.
Dr. Roger P. Levin is CEO of Levin Group, a leading practice management and marketing consulting firm. To contact him or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit LevinGroup.com or email [email protected].
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
