Production of the practice, prioritized: Diagnose the ideal treatment

Author’s note: Levin Group has reviewed and prioritized hundreds of strategies to increase practice production. Each month, we highlight a powerful idea in order of priority.

Dental practices are exceptional at the time of diagnosis, but not necessarily at the time complete diagnostic. “Comprehensive diagnosis” refers to the identification of all possible dental treatments that would benefit or interest patients. This includes both needs-based dentistry and elective services.

More “Practice Production, Prioritized”:

Diagnosing and presenting comprehensive dentistry is one of the main productive factors of the practice which can be integrated as a step-by-step system. To diagnose comprehensively, there are two groups of patients who require further referral:

New patients

New patients are often willing to learn about all possible dental options that apply directly to them. Therefore, dentists are generally more flexible in identifying comprehensive treatment for a new patient versus a current patient, simply because the new patient has not had a previous diagnosis or treatment in the office.

Current patients

Although current patients may have heard of the treatments, much of the identification of treatments can still take place during dental hygiene visits after the hygienist has received proper training. Then the dentist can confirm and discuss all the full options.

Whether patients are new or current, many of them are unaware of all the elective services that can be provided. They heard about different services more on television than in their dental office, and these services were never explained in a holistic context. Whether it starts with whitening or includes orthodontics or implants, practices should become familiar with identifying all possible treatments, present the treatment in a conversational way, and create a learning process for patients. . Even if patients do not immediately accept the full presentation, they are more likely to continue with full treatment over time.

Practices that identify comprehensive treatment often outperform average practices by 100% or more. The reason for this is that they can increase the average production per patient as well as the average production per hour in the practice. Practices have a limited number of times, chairs and appointments available. The more dentistry identified, the greater the opportunity to maximize efficiency to improve practice performance.

Almost all dentists would agree that there are many patients who have not accepted the recommended treatment in the past and others who may not accept it in the future. By offering comprehensive dentistry and becoming adept at presenting it with excellent financial options, practices will have a unique opportunity to increase production, create higher levels of value, and add more loyal patients.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the June 2022 print edition of Dental economy magazine. Dentists in North America can take advantage of a free print subscription. Register here.