Making personal connections with your patients by evaluating their persona has been shown to increase treatment plan acceptance and follow through with treatment. Appealing to their individual persona will help them see value in necessary treatment and lend to an experience that many patients have never had in a dental practice.
Full Answer
How to 'close the deal' on dental treatment plans?
Practice Management: Successfully Presenting Treatment Plans & Fees
- Effectively communicating treatment. Patients need to know the details about recommended treatment, including the advantages, reasons, and consequences of not completing treatment, before they will make a commitment to proceed.
- Offering patients payment opportunities. ...
- Preparing for the presentation. ...
What to expect after dental treatment?
- Severe pain or pressure lasting more than a few days
- Visible swelling inside or outside your mouth
- An allergic reaction to medication (rash, hives or itching)
- Your bite feels uneven
- The temporary crown or filling, if one was put in place, comes out (losing a thin layer is normal)
- Symptoms you experienced prior to treatment return
Do you use dental planning?
Some dental insurance plans encourage you or your dentist to submit a treatment proposal to the plan administrator before starting. The administrator may determine your eligibility, the eligibility period, services covered, your co-payment, and the maximum limitation. Some plans require predetermination for treatment over a specified dollar amount.
Do I need a dental plan?
These plans are ideal for patients who are putting off dental care due to cost or who need to undertake a major dental procedure. The best dental plans with no waiting period have low monthly premiums, high annual coverage limits, and a comprehensive network of dentists to choose from.
What is treatment planning in dentistry?
Your dental treatment plan outlines exactly what dental services your dentist recommends, in what timeframe, and how much they will cost after insurance, if applicable. It is a comprehensive, big-picture approach to oral care and is designed to prevent small issues from getting bigger and more expensive.
How can we improve dentistry?
The Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Overall Dental HealthBrush your teeth three times a day. ... Choose your toothbrush wisely, and replace it often. ... Floss regularly. ... Give your tongue some attention. ... Stop smoking. ... Limit your coffee intake. ... Eat a nutritious diet. ... Decrease sugar intake.More items...•
Why are dental treatment plans important?
Dental treatment plans are important because they help dental professionals gather complete information, arrive at a diagnosis, and discriminate between pertinent and non-pertinent information.
How do treatment plans increase acceptance?
Here are four ways to increase your acceptance rate for treatment plans:Get to know your patients. Getting a patient to accept a treatment plan is much easier when you create one based on their dental goals. ... Educate your patients on the treatments proposed. ... Focus on the benefits of treatment. ... Be sure to follow up!
How can you improve access to oral health care?
Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Vulnerable and Underserved PopulationsIntegrating oral health into overall health care.Promoting legislation that supports access to care.Improving education and training for dental professionals.Reducing barriers to care.Promoting research.More items...
How do you increase production in a dental office?
5 Ways to Increase Productivity in a Dental OfficeKeep a Full Dental Hygiene Schedule. ... Bring Inactive Patients Back to the Nest. ... Provide Expert Follow-Up on Pending Treatment. ... Promote Elective Dentistry Like a Pro. ... Help Patients Make the Most of Their Insurance.
What are the four components of the treatment plan?
There are four necessary steps to creating an appropriate substance abuse treatment plan: identifying the problem statements, creating goals, defining objectives to reach those goals, and establishing interventions.
What is treatment planning?
Treatment planning is a process in which the therapist tailors, to the greatest extent possible, the application of available treatment resources to each client's individual goals and needs. A thorough multidimensional assessment is essential to individualized treatment planning.
What should happen before the dental treatment plan is implemented?
Preclinical exam—Before the examination begins, it is important that the dentist or team member conducts a preclinical exam to understand why the patient is there, past experiences, desired changes, any problems occurring, and more.
What is treatment acceptance?
Treatment acceptance starts by creating relationships with patients that encourage them to be open and receptive to dental care and then providing patients with the information they need – in the way they need it — to understand how the dentistry benefits them.
What is case acceptance percentage?
Calculating Your Case Acceptance Percentage The simplest way to calculate your case acceptance is to divide the amount of dentistry accepted into the amount of dentistry treatment planned for a given period, let's say for the last 90 days. Once you have a baseline percentage, monitor on a monthly basis.
What is the four step treatment planning process?
Predictable success with the treatment planning process is as easy as applying the four-step protocol taught by The Dawson Academy. This process can be applied to every patient, regardless of case complexity, and provides quality control throughout the process.
Why is it important to gather all the necessary records for a dental exam?
Gathering all the necessary records is crucial for dentists to properly diagnose instability within the masticatory system, as well as predictably treat any case and provide clear steps to improve the patient’s oral health. The following are the elements of a complete exam as outlined by The Dawson Academy: 1.
What is Dawson Academy treatment planning?
The treatment planning protocols taught by The Dawson Academy include an easy-to-use checklist. This process can be applied to every patient, regardless of case complexity, and provides quality control throughout the process. First, the dentist will complete a two-dimensional functional-esthetic analysis checklist.
Why do dentists do a complete exam?
The complete exam provides an elevated level of comfort between the patient and the dentist. It is also an educational opportunity where the dentist talks through (and shows) what is “normal” versus what is “not normal,” leading to codiagnosing. This occurs throughout the complete exam and is key to case acceptance. Gathering all the necessary records is crucial for dentists to properly diagnose instability within the masticatory system, as well as predictably treat any case and provide clear steps to improve the patient’s oral health.
What questions should a dentist ask?
Throughout the examination process, the dentist should ask leading questions as signs of disease or instability are noticed. Leading questions might be phrased in the following ways: 1 Has anyone ever told you why this tooth fractured? 2 Has anyone explained to you that your issues are caused by how your teeth function? 3 Has anyone shared the consequences of not treating this issue?
Why is a preclinical exam important?
Preclinical exam— Before the examination begins, it is important that the dentist or team member conducts a preclinical exam to understand why the patient is there, past experiences, desired changes, any problems occurring, and more. 2.
How to treat dental problems?
The key to successfully treating these general problems is having time to do a thorough tooth-by-tooth examination, looking at a full set of properly taken x-rays, and probing six points around each tooth. Optimal oral health includes creating a mouth that is healthy to maintain. That means patients should be able to clean every surface of every tooth, and they should know how to properly clean those teeth. To that end, we must address any pockets 4 mm and larger, carious lesions, open margins on crowns or fillings, as well as plaque that is not adequately removed by our patients.
What is an advanced record appointment?
The breakthrough for many doctors is the creation of an “advanced records appointment.” This is an appointment created for a patient with issues that go beyond what is usual and customary. For example, if a patient is being seen for a routine dental evaluation (general dental problems) and the team discovers that the patient wants to explore another level of dentistry involving esthetics, occlusal disease, implant dentistry, or the resolution of a TMJ/facial pain problem, it is time to schedule an advanced records appointment. If a new patient calls the practice and can be identified as a person with one of these problems, schedule the patient for an advanced records appointment right from the start.
What is dental treatment plan?
A dental treatment plan is like a very carefully considered protocol for dental offices. Each office is different and would have different protocols to deal with and address different types of oral health issues. However, most dental treatment plans would be customized based on each patient and their needs. In short, it is a comprehensive, overall look into what oral health issues are present, how they will be treated and what procedures are needed to fix these issues.
What is the goal of dental treatment?
The main goal of a dental treatment plan is so that oral health issues can be treated promptly. Another goal of this type of treatment plan is to make sure the patients become aware of their oral health situation so that they can take charge of making sure that optimal oral health is reached by each patient.
1. Educate your staff members extensively
Patient education can benefit immensely from more people within your practice knowing about the procedures you offer and being available to pass that knowledge on.
2. Offer online patient education resources
Today’s customers like to educate themselves independently. Dental patients are no different and, as such, you should offer them plenty of informational materials to support this self-guided learning style so they can make their own well-informed choices about treatment plans.
3. Create a great waiting room experience
While on-demand online patient education resources are an important part of the overall experience of informing your patients, video content has more applications within your practice.
4. Augment chairside education with technology
While chairside is the No. 1 place to give patient education — with the dentist or hygienist and the patient face to face — your practice might have room for improvement at this critical juncture.
What is the importance of investing in technology in dental office?
In today’s competitive environment it is vital that dentists invest proportionally more of their office development costs into revenue or referral-generating technology that will distinguish the treatment room from that of traditional dental office designs.
What is the look and feel of a dental office?
Considerations regarding the look and feel of a dental office are ideally handled by a dental architect or designer. However the dental treatment room is the most critical and vital as it can and will determine not only your treatment efficacy and productivity but can be detrimental to your ergonomic well being as well as the single biggest determinant of your patient experience. So clearly considering and setting design goals for your treatment rooms should take the most priority and can depend on the type of practice you are setting up. Design goals should be tailored for specialty practices as an Endodontic, Orthodontic, Pediatric or Oral Surgery 0peratory setup will vary.
Why is a relaxed practice method important?
A more relaxed practice method is vital for extended treatments, improves the mental focus of the team and can enhance patient perception during the procedure.
Is orthodontic treatment room non-privacy?
Although it is highly cost effective, the non-privacy aspect doesn’t permit wide use and is usually found in orthodontic type practices. Single Entry – This type of treatment room is separated by walls to divide operatories and provides the most patient privacy due to only one entry into the room.
What is the biggest hurdle for dental treatment acceptance?
Money, money, money. This stage of case presentation is often the biggest hurdle for dental treatment acceptance. Fixing teeth is pricey, and most of us would prefer not to talk about money. Yet, when it comes to reviewing fees with a patient, most of the time it is an issue with the method of presentation more than anything else. One trap for dentists is, again, defaulting to technical terminology or jargon in an attempt to minimize the severity of the patient’s issues while they reviewing fees. The problem, though, is that if patients are told they have just a “small cavity” or “a little bit of bleeding,” but then are shown a big bill of course they’re going to push back and object to the treatment plan.
How does jargon affect dental practice?
Hearing technical terminology or dental jargon affects the patient’s understanding os what’s going on with their mouth.
How to kill your chance that the patient accepts treatment recommendations?
Surprises are a great way to kill your chance that the patient accepts treatment recommendations. …. 4. Respond to Objections. When patients begin to object to a treatment plan or fees, dentists often react in two ways: agreement or arguments. Both reactions often create issues for dental case acceptance.
What does it mean when a patient's explanation is too long?
An explanation that’s too long or too detailed often means that the patient just tunes out, making later steps of the case presentation much more difficult. Be succinct and compassionate, and ensure that the patient understands what you are telling them by checking in often.
