Month: June 2011

This week, I had the unique experience of driving across Florida from Panama City to Jacksonville. I have to say it was much prettier than I expected and the people I’ve encountered have been wonderful.

Today I’m with another amazing client doing their private training workshop. But more than anything I’ve experienced this week, I’ve been so impressed with these two teams.  It takes a lot of courage and commitment to be willing to step out of your day-to-day comfort zone in order to take care to the next level.

One of my favorite quotes is “Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone”.  And these dentists, hygienists, assistants and office administrators have taken the first step to breathe some life into their careers and the care they offer their patients. And often we need a REAL good reason to even make some small tweaks to the way we do things every day.

So here you go! This study shocked me when a colleague sent it to me.  Could bone loss create a 4-fold increase in head and neck cancer? This is a REAL good reason to take perio seriously. Click here and check it out.

Stay Inspired,

Rachel

Join us for our June Hygiene Profits Mastermind Call on June 16:

“How to Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk…Motivating Clients to Say YES” with Guest Stacy McCauley, RDH, MS

Dentistry is a well-balanced profession; combining both your clinical skills with your communication skills. The clinical skill comes easy for most of us – it was taught to us in school and we refine it every day. Communication skills, on the other hand, aren’t typically taught in school and for many clinicians, it’s a lifetime source of frustration. You might have grumbled, “Why is this client opting out of treatment? I know I’ve explained this tooth’s dire prognosis time and time again!” Clients may not always truly understand us when it comes to disease diagnosis, case presentation, or financial arrangements. This course will walk attendees through key skill sets necessary for elevating your ability to connect with clients and ultimately get patients to say YES to treatment. On this call, Stacy will share:

1. How, when and what to say throughout the dental and dental hygiene process of care
2. Language and questions for getting the real information you need from a patient
3. Examples for how to finally get your patients to understand the value of the dentistry available in your practice

I hope you’ll join us.  If you’re not a member of our Hygiene Profits Mastermind, try it FREE for 2 months.  Go to HygieneMastermind.com for all of the details and to sign up.

Stay Inspired,

Rachel

This week I had the pleasure of doing a private hygiene training workshop for one of my wonderful new clients. One of the things I love doing most as a hygiene coach is looking at the setup of their operatory and how I can help them better manage their time by creating better flow during treatment.

What I found in this hygiene op was the tiniest thing but it made the biggest difference in staying on time while delivering outstanding care.

The hygiene team was struggling with implementing perio charting in the computer. Their keyboard was on the counter but it wasn’t positioned where they could easily turn and enter the pocket depth numbers. The cool thing was…the keyboard was wireless. So i just picked it up and put it right to the left of the instrument tray and voila! They could now easily access the keyboard and enter their perio charting whether they had an assistant or not. They were amazed at how easy the solution was.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Really, Rachel? Why didn’t they think of that themselves? I have to admit, I’ve had things in my business that drive me nuts and it’s taken someone else looking with an objective eye to help me shift one tiny thing and it’s made all the difference.

When you’re in the thick of it. When you’re ‘in the weeds’ as they say in the restaurant world, you can’t see the forest for the trees. You’re just trying to make it through your day and do the best you can for your patients. As a hygiene consultant, I see this almost daily.

So what are some of those ‘little things’ that you can change today that will make a difference? Here are a few:

-create shortcut buttons on your practice software for treatment planning so you don’t have to sift through all the codes every time

-pull the intraoral camera out of the lab and keep it in the operatories at all times

-use the quad buttons on your treatment planning screen so when you click on SRP you can then click all the quads you need at one time instead of entering treatment 4 times

-put xray holders in each op so you don’t have to go to the lab each time you need them

-use the ‘Lock’ button found on some perio charting software (EagleSoft has it) when you’re charting bleeding-saves a ton of time

-store instruments in your room so you don’t have to go to sterilization between patients

-keep a bur block and handpiece in each hygiene op so you don’t have to go digging when a patient needs an adjustment during a doc exam