Dentaltown April 2018 - 12

howard speaks
column

The Importance of Same-Day Dentistry
Keep your practice productive and your patients happy
If you were doing a cleaning and discovered that
a patient needed two fillings, the response in almost
every U.S. dental office would be: "OK, let's go up front
and see if we can get you scheduled for
treatment sometime in the future." I
find that bizarre.
We know from data that only
38 percent of diagnosed cavities ever
get treated. People are busy, they've
got a lot going on-jobs, families, pets, sleep, etc. If you send
patients up front to schedule a
future appointment to treat
something that's not "want"
dentistry (like bleaching,
bonding or veneers), they
might not ever come back. If
they're not in pain, they might
cancel their appointment.
One of the greatest ways you
can increase your case presentation
is getting your whole office operating
in the mindset of, "Let's do it right now."
You need to be ready for same-day dentistry.

Same-day dentistry is everything
The No. 1 cost of dentistry is accepting PPOs. (I
count Delta Dental in there, too, because the company
gives you a fee schedule, just like a PPO.) The average
PPO effects a 42 percent reduction in price. That's your
top overhead cost-42 percent. (Your other overhead
costs should be, in order: labor, which should be 25
percent; lab fees, which should be
8-10 percent; and supplies, 4-6
percent; and rent, about 5 percent.)

Why can't you do same-day dentistry? Don't say
you can't afford the extra space and chair-by the time
you put in a dental operatory, for as long as a chair lasts,
it costs you about a can of soda per hour.
And don't say you don't have the time. When new
prospects call you on the phone, they've searched
"dentist near me" and probably found a hundred
dentists nearby. Your team needs to
say, "Instead of talking about your
toothache over the phone, let's
get you down here right now."
It doesn't matter if you don't
have an "emergency room," or
if you have a root canal and a
crown scheduled at the same
time. Do you know if those
scheduled patients will even
show up?
A nyone in your off ice
should be able to seat that new
patient. Maybe your hygienist has
a cancellation, and she can put on her
dental assistant hat and take the X-rays and
the exam. Or she can assist you during a root canal
filling or a crown. (If she won't, I'd say dismiss her and
replace her with someone who will.)

Time is of the essence
If the patient at his 4 p.m. hygiene check needs
a crown, but the office usually closes at 5, your team
should work until 5:30 or 6 if that's what it takes to
make goal, because there's nothing you can do at the
end of the month to make up for all the days when you
didn't work in these "little emergencies."
If someone calls at 11:30 a.m., your team should say,

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by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

12

APRIL 2018 // dentaltown.com
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown April 2018
