Establishing a consistent social media presence for your dental practice is a key component of effective marketing and patient engagement. However, managing your profiles takes time and effort; even seemingly small tasks can create a surprising challenge, like writing dental social media captions.

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are rich sources of potential patients, but your primary focus should be connection rather than simply sales. Below, we explain all about social media captions, including best practices, useful tips, and why they’re a critical aspect of digital marketing.

How Dental Social Media Captions Fit in Your Marketing Strategy

At Dental Intelligence, our advanced dental marketing solutions include omnichannel content, including social media. We understand the importance of developing a cohesive approach that avoids the “hard sell,” focusing instead on engaging with your followers and building genuine relationships. The captions on your social media posts directly impact viewer interaction and performance, and here’s the evidence to prove it.

According to HubSpot’s Instagram Engagement Report, posts with longer captions (between 1,000 and 2,000 characters) have a 50% higher engagement rate compared to shorter captions¹. Another interesting study by Agorapulse compared the performance of Instagram posts. The posts with captions had an increase of 53.03% in likes, 28.78% in reach, and 127.5% in comments².

Clearly, adding captions to your social media posts can drive results, but making them interesting, descriptive, and attention-grabbing is easier said than done.

To give you some guidance, follow these tips for creating engaging captions.

1. Follow the Same General Outline and Steps

You can simplify the creation process by developing a formula you and your staff can refer to when writing captions. Here’s a quick example:

• Strong hook or opening line
• Entice the viewer to keep reading
• Concise summary
• Call to action
• Hashtags

Also, don’t forget to keep a copy of your dental practice’s social media policy and guidelines handy for other staff to follow when posting³.

2. Define Your Intention and Audience

Before you write a single word, determine your overall purpose of the post, its intended audience, and the emotion you want to evoke in viewers. Is it an infographic of the services and procedures you offer? Maybe a quick video bio of the new dental hygienist you hired? Once you define the intention of your post and what audience you’re targeting, it becomes easier to write a caption.

3. Keep it Short, Simple, and Persuasive

The data shows that longer dental social media captions are better than shorter captions at engaging users and typically receive more likes and comments, but that doesn’t mean you should ramble. Avoid jamming too much information into a single post. Instead, emphasize the core message and make it easily understandable.

Remember to use persuasive language that highlights the benefits and advantages of the dental services you offer.  

4. Include a Call to Action

A powerful call to action (CTA) should be at the end of every dental social media caption (but before any hashtags). CTAs should be clear, direct, and prompt the reader to perform a specific action or task, like scheduling an appointment, visiting your website, etc. Here’s an example for teeth whitening: Call us now to book an appointment and get ready to love your smile again!

5. Encourage Engagement

The primary intent of social media posts is to connect with your followers or patients. So, your captions should inspire viewers to click, share, like, comment, etc. Or, just ask them outright!

Include a line that says, “Don’t forget to like, comment, and share this post!” Another trick is including open-ended questions that will compel viewers to answer with a comment and express their opinion.

6. Add Value to Every Post and Caption

If you want to snag the attention of your followers and encourage interaction, focus on adding value to your social media posts and captions. For example, you could post an infographic explaining how to maintain excellent dental hygiene or what foods and drinks can negatively affect oral health. Another way you can add value is by promoting other local businesses and organizations in your community.

By adding value, you can establish credibility and authenticity for your followers and potential patients.

Drive Growth and Success with Dental Intelligence

Writing the ideal dental social media captions can be deceptively difficult; however, there’s no denying the benefits of investing time and effort into your practice’s social media presence. At Dental Intelligence, our dental marketing tools provide an end-to-end solution to help your practice establish a strong online presence and continue growing. Schedule a demo of our cutting-edge product.

Resources

¹ Hubspot

² Agorapulse

³ ADA

Facebook is a platform that many people either love or hate, but there's no doubt about it: Facebook is an effective dental marketing tool. A large portion of your potential patient base likely uses Facebook every day, and you can connect with them directly by using the platform as well. 

However, just like all marketing strategies, dental Facebook marketing requires careful consideration and planning to be successful. Read our five tips to craft a powerful, engaging Facebook marketing strategy for your dental practice. Then contact us to learn more about elevating dental marketing with Dental Intelligence.

1. Utilize Various Types of Facebook Ads

Facebook offers several different ad types, and including a variety in your dental Facebook marketing campaign can improve your reach. Some users simply respond better to certain types of ads than others. 

The most popular ad types include:

• Image ads
• Video ads
• Carousel ads (include up to ten photos/or videos in a slideshow)
• Instant experience ads (take up the user's entire phone screen)

While it's fun to play around with these different ad types, make sure you're being purposeful about which type you choose for each ad. Facebook ads come in different price ranges, and you don't want to waste money on a more expensive ad type for no reason. 

2. Evaluate Your Metrics Regularly

Since you're spending money on Facebook ads, you want to ensure they're doing what they're supposed to. You can easily review data about your Facebook ad performance by logging into your Facebook Ads Manager. 

You'll gain access to the following key performance indicators:

• Total impressions
• Cost-per-click
• Conversion rate
• Click-through rate

These metrics provide information about the number of users who clicked on an ad, the percentage of people who followed through with your call to action, and more. With this data in mind, you can cut ad campaigns that aren't working well and continue funding ones that are, allowing you to reap the greatest return on investment (ROI). 

3. Use A/B Testing

A/B testing is a method of determining which type of ad performs best. We highly recommend using this strategy to perfect your dental Facebook marketing campaign. 

With this test, you'll roll out two forms of a Facebook ad — Version A and Version B — that are the same except for one specific difference, such as the call to action or the photo you include. Then, you'll compare their analytics and determine which works best. 

A/B testing helps you avoid wasting money on ads that don't perform well. You can spend a week or two testing each ad type, then stop funding the version that doesn't engage your audience as well.  

4. Use Paid and Organic Strategies

Paid Facebook ads can help you engage with your target audience, but your practice can also benefit from organic social media strategies. Creating a free Facebook account and posting updates about your dental practice can personalize your brand and remind patients of your services. You can host giveaways, share casual videos of your staff, post important updates, and more. 

If you decide to let employees post to your Facebook page, make sure they fully understand how HIPAA relates to social media use. Consider creating a social media policy¹ that details how your employees can and cannot post to your Facebook page. For instance, you may require all employees who have access to the Facebook page to run their posts by a manager before submitting them. 

5. Humanize Your Practice

Dental Facebook marketing gives you a valuable opportunity to connect with your patient base in a personal, friendly way. You can use your Facebook ads and organic content to let your followers in on a side of your practice they may have never seen before. 

Dental anxiety is a major concern for many patients, and because of this, they may have already formed negative associations with your practice. By posting light-hearted, behind-the-scenes content about your dental staff, you can humanize your team and ease the anxieties your potential patients may experience. 

Engage More Patients with Dental Intelligence

Are you looking for ways to reach more prospective patients? Consider pairing your dental Facebook marketing strategy with our all-in-one practice performance solution. Dental Intelligence gives you access to patient engagement solutions that help you grow your business and improve patient retention. 

Schedule a demo to learn how our software can enhance your marketing strategy.

Resources

¹ ADA

Your patients have several dental practices to choose from, so why should they come to you for their cleanings, exams, and treatments? Brand building is important for attracting new patients to your office and retaining your existing patients to keep them coming back. Establishing a solid brand identity for your dental office will let current and future patients know who you are and what they can expect when they visit for their appointments.

Brand building can seem intimidating for a small dental practice. You’ll need to develop certain skills and collect data about your business and patient base, but it can be simple and effective if you follow these tips.

Why Is Brand Building Important for Dental Practices?

Developing a brand identity for your dental office that matches your workplace values and the services you provide gives potential patients and employees a curated idea of who you are. Your branding is the first impression that people will have of your business. However, branding involves much more than just a fancy logo and website.

Your chances of gaining new clients will increase greatly if your dental practice utilizes strong and unique branding. In addition, employees who feel confident in your company’s branding may have increased drive and pride in their work.

1. Determine Your Audience

One of the most important steps in building a quality marketing strategy is to know who you are marketing to. You can understand your target market by narrowing in on the type of patients in your area and whom you want to offer services to. When determining your target audience, think about their age, employment status, lifestyle, and the types of dental services you predict they’ll need. 

Once you know who you are marketing to, you can build your practice’s branding around that demographic.

For example, some dental practices work exclusively in pediatrics, so their kid-focused marketing would differ from that of an office that works mostly with adult patients.

2. Research Your Competitors

Knowing which dental practices you compete with for patients can help you build a brand that encourages those patients to choose you for dental services. You can check out the competition’s branding and decide what works well and what doesn’t. From there, you can decide which aspects may be beneficial to work into your branding in an original way.

3. Determine the Look of Your Brand

Your brand’s visual identity is one of the most important tools in enticing new clients and potential employees. The look of your branding draws people in and encourages them to look further into the services you provide. 

Keeping the visuals consistent across your website, social media, and paperwork will help you along your brand building journey. This includes your logo design and the colors, fonts, and images you associate with your brand. These choices should align with your brand’s mission and values.

4. Develop Branded Content

An important marketing strategy is to develop strongly branded content that appeals to your target market and remains consistent. This content can be as simple as your business cards and as complex as long-form blogs for your website.

It is just as important to make sure this content reaches your audience. Optimizing your content with SEO can help boost your business to the top of many online search results.

5. Use Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool. You can attract new patients by developing a strong brand and applying that branding to your social media. 

You can think of your brand’s social media presence as digital word of mouth. The benefits of social media for dentists include:

• Inexpensive marketing
• Engagement with current and future patients
• Increased traffic to your website

Social media is a low-effort method of putting your dental practice’s information in front of many eyes.

6. Be Unique

It is okay to use branding that strays a bit from the typical branding in your market. People are more inclined to interact with an advertisement or social media post that is fun or that differs from what they usually see. Those interactions have the potential to turn into dedicated clients and increase revenue.

Dental Intelligence Can Boost Your Brand

At Dental Intelligence, our mission is to help dental practices gain loyal patients and grow their businesses with digital solutions for payments, communication, marketing, and more!

Brand building can be simple with our state-of-the-art analytics and engagement systems. Schedule a demo today!

As a dental practice owner, you know that dentistry is a highly competitive industry. How many other dentists are you competing for business within your area? If you're like many practice owners, the answer is probably higher than you'd like it to be. 

Digital marketing is a valuable strategy to use to stay competitive and grow your dental practice, but where do you start?

With a few tips in mind, you can begin crafting a successful content marketing strategy. Here's what you need to know. 

What Do We Mean by Content Marketing for Dentists?

Content marketing is the strategy of creating written or visual content that promotes your business. Unless you have a videographer on hand, you'll likely want to start with the written aspect of content marketing. 

Written content can come in the form of:

• Website pages
• Blog posts
• Social media posts
• Emails
• Text messages

Your written content should be tailored to your target audience, keyword-driven, high-quality, and authoritative.

Checking all these boxes can help your content have the most powerful effect on potential patients. 

Tips for Writing Successful Content

Creating a lead-generating, patient-acquiring content marketing strategy is about more than just putting written words on a page. You need to consider factors like patient confidentiality, search engine optimization, and dental authority. 

Before you start writing, consider these tips for content marketing for dentists.

Put Your Knowledge and Authority to Use

You dedicated many years of schooling and residency to becoming a dental professional, and you put your skills to good use every day at your clinic. But you can also capitalize on your knowledge base with your content marketing strategy. 

Potential patients should view your website as an authoritative source to learn about the various aspects of dental care. You want to make sure everything you include is accurate, grammatically correct, and professional to build this reputation. 

Even if the content you include is technically true, if the writing is low-quality or riddled with errors, it will make your practice look bad. We recommend having a knowledgeable content editor review all your social media posts, blog content, and web pages before publishing them. 

Craft Social Media Posts Strategically

Social media is a direct outlet into your potential patients' daily lives. Using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn strategically can grow your organic website traffic and build your patient base. 

When posting to social media, you want to post consistently, create posts that provide value to your followers, and understand the trends of each platform before posting.

Finally, if you're going to let employees post on your dental practice's social media pages, you'll benefit from creating a social media policy. The ADA indicates a few rules of engagement for dental practice social media policies¹, including tips like:

• Don't post copyrighted content without permission. 
• Don't post any patient information without the patient's consent. 
• Give the final go-ahead for all social media posts, even if you let employees draft them. 

Make Keyword-Focused Content

You should be writing about topics relevant to the dental industry and your practice as a whole, but to narrow your topics further, make sure you're writing about keywords that your website should be ranking for. 

In short, keywords are the terms that users put into their Google search queries when they're looking for information about a specific topic. The keywords your dental practice may try to rank for include terms like:

• Dental services near {CITY}
• Dental cleaning
• Dental exam
• Schedule a dental appointment

By using keywords in your content, you tell the search engine crawlers to include your website in relevant search results. Begin by using a tool like Google Keyword Planner to identify keywords your practice should be using. Be sure to use your keywords strategically in the body content, meta title and description, and headings. 

Dental Marketing Solutions That Grow Your Business

Content marketing isn't the only strategy involved in an effective dental marketing plan. When you work with Dental Intelligence, you gain access to a full suite of dental analytics and engagement solutions ranging from Online Scheduling to 2-Way Communication.

Creating a strategy for content marketing for dentists with the help of our experts at Dental Intelligence can help you achieve your marketing goals faster and more effectively. Schedule a demo today to learn how Dental Intelligence can benefit your dental practice.

Resources

¹ ADA

As a dentist, you perform important oral healthcare services for your patients, and the profits from these services keep your business running. Certain dental procedures offer a better return on investment than others, so it helps to know the most profitable dental services. By adding these to your suite of services, and by using Dental Intelligence's tools to increase dental production per visit, you can grow your practice while ensuring high-quality patient care.

Consider Which Dental Patients You See

Which patients you see the most often depends on your practice's location and the caliber of services you provide.

For example, a dentist located in a wealthier area could focus on promoting cosmetic dentistry. Teeth whitening services, veneers, and other cosmetic procedures bring in great profits. Therefore, it would be sensible for such an office to zero in on these procedures to increase their bottom line.

On the other hand, a dental care provider located in a rural or lower income area may see more patients who need serious dental work, such as root canals. Marketing cosmetic procedures in this area may not provide a reasonable return on investment.

Although there are disparities in dental and oral care, placing your focus on the type of patient that comes into your dental practice most often can increase your profits while providing the best care for them.

The 6 Most Profitable Dental Services

Certain dental procedures bring in more profits than others, and encouraging patients to seek such work could increase your total annual surplus. Such profitable services include:

1. Teeth whitening: Teeth whitening services are highly appealing to many patients, as whiter teeth are seen as more attractive and healthier. In many cases, you can perform multiple whitening procedures on a single patient in one sitting, increasing profitability and making patients happy. 

2. Dental implants: If a patient has missing teeth or unhealthy teeth that require removal, encouraging them to consider a dental implant could improve their oral health and result in a profitable appointment. Although the initial cost may be more than other similar services, informing the patient that they could save money in the long run may help make the sale.

3. Surgical procedures: Many patients need wisdom tooth removal. These procedures can be life-changing for patients, and they bring in high profits once you invest in the necessary tools and training to perform them.

4. Root canals: Root canals can be a tough sell because many patients have preconceived notions about the pain level associated with them. However, pain reduction methods have advanced, and if you can guarantee a comfortable experience to patients, they are more likely to use your services.

5. Dental crowns: Dental crowns provide a higher return on investment than fillings alone, and they provide greater strength for the patient's tooth in the long term. Encouraging patients to seek a crown over a filling can increase profits while keeping their teeth healthier over time.

6. Invisalign or clear aligners: Many patients are also interested in Invisalign services to straighten their teeth. They are less expensive than regular braces and easier for your dental office to provide. Marketing this service is a great way to introduce potential new patients to your office. The ease of providing Invisalign makes them one of the most profitable dental services.

Other Ways to Boost Dental Practice Profits

Encouraging your patients to undergo necessary dental services that provide the best return on investment is a sure-fire way to increase your overall profits. However, there are other steps you can take to increase profits in addition to performing actual procedures.

Marketing plays a big part in how many new patients your dental office receives. Consider adding a patient referral program to your marketing plan. Offering high quality rewards and creating an easy-to-use program could turn big profits.

If possible, expanding your office to accommodate more patients at one time will help generate more revenue. Adding additional employees or more exam rooms will allow your business to work more efficiently.

Creating your own monthly payment plans for patients can also increase revenue because you will be able to accept more patients without dental insurance. Insurance companies could cut into your revenue by imposing specific prices for the treatments you offer.

We’re Here to Help with Profit-boosting Dental Solutions

Dental Intelligence can help your business navigate dental insurance and analyze your data to increase the effectiveness of your practice. With our Patient Loyalty Program, 2-Way Communication, and other features, you can increase patient engagement and grow profits. Schedule a demo today and see our tools in action.

Common hiring mistakes may lead to decreased profits, inefficient workflows, and upset patients. By knowing bad hiring decisions to avoid for important positions, such as office managers or receptionists, you can set your practice up for success.

5 Common Hiring Mistakes to Avoid

Hiring the appropriate person to fill an open position at your dental practice may seem daunting. It can take a lot of time to fully assess a potential employee, but failure to do so could lead to expensive consequences and an average of 21 weeks of wasted time before you correct the mistakes¹. 

Avoiding these common hiring mistakes can help you ensure your employees are fit for their jobs and join your team successfully.

1. A Weak Job Description

Make sure the job descriptions you post for open positions at your dental practice are as detailed as possible. You could lose out on great talent by failing to include relevant information in your job descriptions. Include information such as the:

• Expected daily tasks
• Experience an applicant should have
• Expected work schedule
• Your practice’s general location
• The position’s salary

Including the salary is crucial, as some applicants may avoid applying to positions that don’t show them how much money they could be making.

2. Rushed Applicant Reviews

Once you stop accepting applications for an open position, you should thoroughly review the applications that have come in. Looking at an applicant’s background too quickly could result in a hire that does not fit your needs.

Review certain parts of a resume in detail, such as their employment history, education, and skills. A resume with a large employment history gap or little detail could indicate that an applicant is not reliable. 

Reviewing the applicant’s history in depth will help you ensure they have the appropriate education and experience to execute the duties of your open position.

3. Poor-Quality Interviews

Quick interviews are one of the most common hiring mistakes. The interview process gives you the opportunity to meet potential applicants and see how they behave. 

Speaking to applicants on phone calls prior to in-person interviews is highly recommended. In the interview, ask the most relevant questions to applicants, such as their salary expectations and why they feel they are the best fit for the role. Through conversation, you may learn that the applicant is not willing or is incapable of meeting your needs.

4. Poorly Delegating Work to New Employees

There is a fine line between giving a new employee too much work and too little work. Assigning too much to them before they have a complete understanding of the company’s processes could lead to bad work. However, giving them too little work or too little oversight could give them the expectation that the job is easier than it is.

It could be beneficial to speak with other team members in similar roles about what went right and what went wrong when they were first hired. Then, you can apply that information to the new hire’s workload.

5. Biased Hiring Practices

It is important to hire new staff members based on their work experience and ability to do the job. Choosing not to offer someone a position based on an unconscious bias could be a loss for your dental practice at large.

Give New Hires a Good Start

Once you have gone through the hiring process and chosen a quality employee to add to your team, it is important to make sure they begin the new position with the best possible chance for success.

Making sure your new hire feels like a part of the team can help them succeed, so introduce them to the people they’ll be working with. This also benefits your established team members, as it gives them an idea of the new hire’s experience and how that person will impact the overall work environment.

Dental Intelligence Can Help

At Dental Intelligence, we understand the importance of setting up your new hires for success. Our state-of-the-art communication solutions can help you avoid common hiring mistakes and welcome new team members in a way that benefits them as well as your current employees. Schedule a demo to learn more.

Resources

¹ PR Newswire

When done well, a morning huddle is the most important 15 minutes of your day. That’s right — spending just 15 minutes with your team during a morning huddle can directly impact crucial Key Performance Indicators for your practice and make a great day even better. Many practices using Dental Intelligence regularly report scheduling over $1,000 of same-day treatment thanks to Morning Huddle.

Start Your Day Off Right

Get your team excited for the day with a comprehensive morning huddle. No need to show up early and run multiple reports manually — Dental Intelligence has already built a Morning Huddle for your entire team before the first person walks in the door. Our Morning Huddle takes your raw data and turns it into a path forward for your day, focused on your unique practice goals.

Working to grow your practice? With our Morning Huddle, you can discover opportunities to help increase the number of appointments on your schedule.

You can easily find patients with unscheduled family members, unscheduled treatment, and unscheduled hygiene. You can also use our suggested patients list to fill last minute holes in your schedule. Let’s break down each of these options and how to best review them during your morning huddle, so you can increase your number of appointments.

Unscheduled Family Members

One of the easiest ways to get more appointments is by scheduling your patients’ family members. There are two ways to go about this.

First, you can go over the unscheduled family members list. This will show you a list of patients on the schedule for today with family members that need to be scheduled. You could then assign a team member to reach out to them prior to their appointment and see if they could also bring in that family member during their appointment.

When your front desk is ready to call them, have them say something to the effect of: “Hi, Mrs. Dent. I see you’re scheduled to come in today. We just had a spot open in our schedule and it looks like your son, Arthur, is overdue for cleaning. Would you like to bring him in so we can take care of both of you at once?”

A better option might be to take a look at your schedule and look for open slots in green. Then see if the patient before or after that open slot has a family member that needs to be scheduled. You can prioritize these patients from the list of unscheduled family members, that way you can best fill your schedule.

Unscheduled Treatment & Unscheduled Hygiene

For patients with unscheduled treatment or unscheduled hygiene, Dental Intelligence also has a ready-to-use list. These lists show the patient’s name and the unscheduled procedures on their treatment plan or past-due hygiene.

Consider looking for holes in your schedule, then check the patients before or after the open time and see if they have unscheduled treatment or unscheduled hygiene. If they do, reach out to them immediately, and fill those empty times with patients who are already scheduled today.

Our Morning Huddle also lets you print the day’s schedule. Try printing it out and giving it to each of your providers. Then, invite them to ask any patient on their schedule that has unscheduled treatment or unscheduled hygiene about completing it during their appointment or scheduling it before they leave.

Suggested Patients

Maybe you don’t have many patients coming in today that are on any of the above lists, but you still have holes in your schedule you would like to fill. With our unique algorithm, the suggested patients list shows you the best patients to fill a last-minute opening.

Prior to providing you with these suggested patients, we analyze every unscheduled active patient in your practice management system. Our list considers patients’ show rates, AR balances, treatment acceptance percentage, and many other factors.

We don't want you to just schedule any patient. We want you to schedule the best patient. Our list will show you patients that are more likely to say yes, pay, show up, and generate more production for your practice.

Plan for a Better Tomorrow

Once you’ve gone through and prioritized your patients on the schedule for today, begin to prepare for tomorrow. Our Morning Huddle allows you to look ahead at the schedule as well as the unscheduled lists for patients on the schedule tomorrow. That way, you can fill your next day’s schedule using the same strategies.

The Most Important 15 Minutes

An effective morning huddle can take an ambiguous wish to be busier and turn it into a step-by-step plan to achieve your goals. 

Many practices have found success using the techniques above. Some practices even make it their goal to end every day with more patients on the schedule than they started with. This way, they get the most out of each day, prevent patient attrition, and save their patients’ time.

Looking for more ways to get the most out of your morning huddle? Check out our free eBook "The Battle for the Morning Huddle" to learn how you can also use your morning huddle to increase production per visit, improve collections, and more. Schedule a demo today to see the Morning Huddle and other features in action.

Answering tough dental questions with accurate information is essential for optimizing patient compliance and treatment. If your patients develop sensitive teeth or bad breath, they may ask for quick solutions to alleviate pain or embarrassment. You can enhance their in-office experience by providing effective communication during every interaction.

Tools like our 2-Way Communication can help you respond to all your patients’ concerns, but it’s important to first understand what those concerns are. Consider four of the most common dental questions your patients may ask.

How Much Money Will This Treatment Cost?

In today’s world, many patients struggle with financial anxiety. Some neglect routine examinations because they worry it may cost them too much. Hence, you may need to discuss service prices before scheduling them for an appointment.

It’s a good idea to create a transparent pricing policy for your dental practice. This way, you can refer to specific information when patients ask.

For example, suppose a patient asks how much they should expect to pay for a cavity filling. The answer may not be straightforward, depending on the fillings you offer. Silver amalgam fillings typically cost between $50 to $150, while white composites can cost up to $250. Offering your patients multiple options corresponding to their budget limitations may encourage them to commit to a treatment.

Patients without insurance may ask about financing options. In this case, it may be a good idea to provide a link to recommendations via email. This method allows your patients to review options and choose a suitable solution at their own pace.

What’s Wrong with My Teeth?

Many patients struggle to maintain adequate oral health routines. Consequently, tooth decay and gum disease can develop over time. When a patient asks what’s wrong with their teeth, you should be ready to deliver bad news.

It’s important to maintain professionalism when discussing one’s oral condition. Passing judgment can lead to unhappy patients and may hurt your business. Sometimes, this behavior may even result in negative reviews online.

Discuss their lifestyle habits and help them identify issues that may have contributed to tooth decay. Common problems typically include poor diet and improper tooth brushing techniques. 

Offer to schedule them for practical treatments as soon as possible, like cavity fillings or veneers. 

What Should I Do if My Child Has Cavities?

Parents should schedule dental examinations for their children as soon as they develop their first adult teeth. Failure to do so can result in early tooth decay.

Still, genetics can cause some children to develop cavities, despite maintaining proper oral hygiene. It might be challenging to calm down worried parents when they ask dental questions like, “Does my child need a tooth filling?” However, a confident response will encourage parents to act quickly and ensure that their child gets the care they need.

Provide a comprehensive Treatment Plan so they know what to expect during their child’s appointment. You can review anesthetic options, X-rays, and other essential information for the best results.

Also, learn how to communicate with younger patients effectively. They may not understand every detail of the procedure, but they still deserve your time and attention when they have concerns.

Why Do My Gums Hurt?

Gingivitis affects millions of Americans every year. Side effects include soreness, bleeding, and receding gums. Despite this highly treatable condition being common, it may surprise many of your patients when they receive a positive diagnosis.

Let your patients know that ignoring gingivitis for too long can result in tooth loss and painful infections. Craft an email detailing at-home treatments they can use to reverse gingivitis before it causes too much damage. For example, you could create infographics demonstrating the proper brushing and flossing techniques. 

Help Your Patients Understand Treatment with Digital Communication Tools

Taking the time to answer every dental question may feel like a drain on your office resources, depending on how many patients you serve. Deploying tools to streamline your efforts will eliminate the stress. 

At Dental Intelligence, we make delivering outstanding dental customer service easy with our digital office-management products. Integrate your over-the-phone and online outreach strategies with our 2-Way Communication solutions. These tools allow your staff to answer patient questions in real-time, reducing service delays, and improving patient satisfaction. Schedule a demo today to see how we can help you intelligently shape the future of your practice.

Modern dentistry undergoes frequent changes, including the development of new technology, remote resources, and treatment. Introducing these new services to patients can be a struggle for your staff if they already manage a busy schedule. Fortunately, certain tools and strategies can help you update patients anywhere at any time.

Investing in our Mass Communication is just one example of how you can streamline patient outreach. Explore other ways your practice can introduce new dental services and grow your leads.

What Are the Most Common Ways for a Dental Practice to Introduce New Technology or Services?

Most dental practices rely on mass email campaigns to deliver information to their patients. However, you should not expect all your patients to use this resource. Preparing alternative solutions will ensure that your audience gets the information they need to improve their oral health and schedule regular appointments.

Meet with your front and back office dental team to discuss a practical communication strategy. These discussions will help your team identify patient pain points, behavior, and preferred methods of communication, which you can use during your outreach campaign.

Once you have established a budget and directed staff toward their appropriate roles, start putting pen to paper. More specifically, create a phone script.

Phone scripts help you introduce key features of your new dental service when patients call. You can create multiple templates in case your patients have questions. For example, if you are pitching a new dental emergency service plan over the phone, you should also prepare to answer questions about insurance or pricing. 

Consider writing quarterly newsletters for your email subscribers. This method will keep your patients engaged with your practice’s developments, allowing them to seek further resources on their own time.

How Can a Combined Approach Maximize Outreach?

Physical advertisements, such as magazine ads and billboards, are also useful for communicating new information about your dental practice. These mediums can emphasize the most important details of your service and encourage actionability.

For example, suppose your dental practice just invested in a new state-of-the-art digital radiography machine. In this case, your advertisement could look something like this:

We now offer the best X-ray technology in the industry! Call us at [PHONE NUMBER] to schedule with our dental care experts today.

Notice how the language above is not too specific. Most patients know what an X-ray machine is, but the term digital radiology machine may not mean much to everyone. 

Never underestimate the power of in-person sales. Try explaining your new services to patients before or after their examinations. This method is a great way to communicate information while tying your services into the patient’s specific dental coverage plans. 

What Dental Practice Management Resources Can You Deploy for Better Results?

Preparing mass emails and advertisements can be time-consuming. For instance, it could take weeks to A/B test email headers to achieve high open rates for your service announcement. Additionally, designing graphics for a physical poster requires an artist, someone to distribute the advertisement, and more.

It may be worth hiring a dental practice coach to review your current outreach strategy. Coaches will recommend improvements to your content that will increase trust between your patients and your practice. They will also monitor your communications for several days and assess your deployment strategy to ensure that your patients receive correct information about their dental plans and preventative care.

Streamline Your Dental Practice Sales with Industry-Proven Resources

Your communication strategy may look different from other practices across town. Find the best solution by partnering with Dental Intelligence. We help hundreds of dental care providers like you manage their patient outreach strategies with convenient and intuitive tools. 

Invest in features like Team Chat, 2-Way Communication, and more. Dental Intelligence is ready to help. Schedule a demo today!

You already know how important customer service, quality of care, and patient experience are to the success of your dental practice, but what about reputation management and collecting reviews? When people need to find a local dentist, the first thing they do is visit their preferred search engine and type in “the best dentist near me” or something similar. Once those search results pop up, they’re scrolling through the top-rated dentists and reading reviews from past patients.

Make no mistake — your practice’s ratings and reputation are critical. Reviews give individuals an insight into previous patients' experiences and give them a better idea of how effective treatment will be. Studies have shown that good reviews hold more weight than finding a dentist with a close location, a top ranking in search results, affordable prices, or a good-looking website. Clearly, negative reviews have a serious impact on your dental practice and its continued success.

At Dental Intelligence, our Online Reviews make it easier than ever to receive feedback from patients. You can send automated, manual, or Swell-integrated review requests via email, text, or push notification, and we support up to five review sites. Read on to learn essential information about managing your reputation.

The Top Online Review Sites for Dentists

The biggest and most well-known online review sites are Google, Facebook, and Yelp. You should use these platforms to connect with your patients, respond to their reviews, and manage your reputation.  

The Growing Problem of Fake Reviews

The World Economic Forum estimates that around 4% of global online reviews are fake. For all dentists and healthcare professionals, fake customer reviews can have tangible consequences. While slanderous and negative feedback is harmful, misleading endorsements and false five-star reviews are just as bad, if not worse. Fortunately, the FTC has joined forces¹ with several states and filed lawsuits on behalf of consumers to fight back against the problem of fake online reviews.

If you see fake online reviews about your dental practice, take a screenshot as evidence. You can also report or flag the comment based on the particular platform’s terms of service. The best way to protect your practice against this issue is to address it as early as possible by remaining vigilant and monitoring online review sites and platforms.  

Online Review Sites for Dentists: The Final Word

The reputation of your dental practice is one of the biggest factors patients consider before they book an appointment. That’s why it’s so essential to monitor online review sites and respond promptly to patient feedback. At Dental Intelligence, we make it easy and simple to manage the reputation of your dental practice and improve patient experience without relying on gimmicks like fake customer reviews. Schedule a demo today to see our Online Reviews and other features.

Resources

¹ Pew Trusts

Online reviews are essential for the growth of your dental practice. However, without adequate staffing or resources, it can be challenging to respond to every comment on your Google profile. Creating a review response template can save you time during outreach.

Tools like our Swell Integration can streamline your reputation management strategy. This digital solution allows you to personalize and deploy responses corresponding to the feedback your practice receives. 

Crafting a well-written review response template is an excellent way to show your patients that you value their feedback. Learn how to write a professional response without stress.

Why Should Your Dental Practice Respond to Online Reviews?

Most dental patients expect their doctors to respond to online reviews within a couple of days. Taking the time to share testimonials and respond to reviews can improve your dental practice’s reputation and encourage long-term leads. 

You can also improve your SEO standing with Google by keeping up with commenters. Even replying to negative feedback can yield benefits. For example, you may be able to convince former patients to return to your practice by offering service or procedure updates in the response. 

Review sites like Yelp and Facebook are popular among those seeking dental services. Responding to reviews on these high-traffic channels could put a friendly face to your business. It may also boost your practice’s online visibility to potential patients.

How Should You Build Your Review Response Template?

Understand that your practice may need to create several review response templates for the best results. Creating one response for every review may come off as insincere to users.

For instance, suppose that you receive positive feedback from one user and negative feedback from another. Using the response, "Thank you! We are happy you took the time to give us your feedback" for both reviews may not be appropriate.

It’s also important to understand that not every comment you receive may be real. In fact, many businesses struggle with fake reviews¹. If you suspect that your dental practice received a fake review, report it to Google and avoid interaction.

How Can You Respond to Good Reviews?

Suppose you received a five-star review from a patient praising your dentists for their excellent communication skills and flexible scheduling. It’s important to thank them for their response and reinforce their positive experience with a promise. Here is an example of a great response:

Hi [Insert Username],

We are happy to hear that your experience with us was satisfactory. We strive to provide the best experience for all our patients and will continue to meet your expectations during every visit.

This response is short and to the point. 

You can use the same response for generally favorable reviews as well. For example, suppose someone left a three-star review on your website commending your front desk staff for their friendliness. However, they were disappointed about their wait time.

Consider using the same template above but personalizing your response to address their concerns. For example:

Hi [Insert Username],

Thank you for your feedback. We take your concerns seriously and strive to provide the best experience for all our patients. Our team will use this feedback to better meet your expectations in the future.

What Should You Say if Your Dental Practice Receives a Bad Review?

You may receive a negative review for several reasons, despite providing your best service. Don’t worry; you can use these reviews to your advantage by responding professionally and offering solutions.

Ask yourself how you would respond to the following review:

I would not recommend this dentist to anyone. They are slow, and my gums hurt after my examination.

It may be tempting to defend your dentists when you receive comments like this. Take a breath and reply with a cool head. Try this approach when crafting review response templates for negative feedback:

[Insert Username],

We apologize for any poor experience you had with our team. We work tirelessly to ensure that our dental practice provides ethical, communicative, and safe treatments for all our patients. Please call us at [PHONE NUMBER] to discuss any concerns you may have.

Notice how this response did not criticize the patient for leaving a negative review or dismiss their claim.

Manage Your Responses with Digital Solutions

Nobody wants to receive bad customer reviews. However, it’s vital to have a professional response ready. At Dental Intelligence, we offer practice management products like 2-Way Communication and Online Reviews to help you keep up with feedback. Schedule a demo today to see how we can help you intelligently shape the future of your practice.

Resources

¹ Pew Trusts

Everybody dreads conflict in the workplace.

Excessive conflict can decrease morale and increase inefficiency. If it’s not resolved, then people may take more days off — or leave the company altogether.

If you own a dental practice, then you need to know the causes of conflict on dental teams in order to address them. We’ve compiled a list of some of the most common causes — and how to reduce conflict in general.

What Causes Conflict at Work?

Many things can cause conflict. While conflict can spring from almost anywhere — from personality clashes to job incompatibilities — there are a few more likely sources.

Poor Communication

One of the biggest causes of conflict in the workplace is poor communication.

Say that you’re planning to roll out new scheduling software. Some people know about it, but not others. This can result in a lot of confusion and frustration as team members try to figure out what to do.

And it’s not just a management problem. If team members don’t talk to each other, then it could result in frustration building between them.

Continued poor communication can lead to conflict because of just how inefficient and frustrating it can make things. At Dental Intelligence, we can help improve dental office communication with Team Chat. This can make it easier for cross-communication between you and your team, helping to resolve workplace conflict before it starts.

Poor Management

Poor communication isn’t the only cause of workplace conflict; poor management strategies can create potential problems, too.

Sometimes, managers may have too much involvement with the team, resulting in micromanagement. Other times, managers may not have enough involvement, leaving them disconnected from their employees and their concerns.

Make sure to strike a good balance between the two, checking in with your team when needed but not hovering so much as to be overbearing.

Work Ethic

Not everyone will always pull their weight. Sometimes, team members may not do as much as they should, leaving difficult tasks to fall to their coworkers. Other times, while they might be doing enough, there are coworkers who might not perceive it that way. Either case can lead to problems, so make sure you’re keeping up with how your employees are doing and if there are any grievances.

Gossip

Gossip can be an insidious thing. It’s natural for team members to talk about their days, but problems start when they begin gossiping about coworkers. This can lead to harmful rumors, increased workplace tension, and a potentially unsafe environment.

Sometimes rumors will sort themselves out. Other times, they might lead to escalating conflicts — which means you might need to intervene.

Limited Resources

Do you not have enough tools for everyone to do their jobs properly? If so, then this could easily end up leading to conflict.

Avoid problems by making sure that everyone has what they need to do their jobs properly. Pay attention to workplace concerns and listen to your employees to ensure you’re getting the supplies you need.

How Do You Deal with Conflict Effectively?

Some sort of conflict is inevitable whenever you work with others. Knowing how to deal with it effectively can help you avoid potential problems.

If you want to reduce conflict, then consider doing the following:

• Build strong relationships with your team. If your employees feel safe and comfortable around you — and their coworkers — they’re more likely to speak to you to try and work out problems peacefully.
• Make sure roles and guidelines are clearly defined. By making sure that everyone understands their roles, you can reduce miscommunications and workplace tension.
• Consider scheduling monthly meetings. As much as you might want to keep up with everyone, it can be hard when you all have jobs to do. Scheduling regular meetings can give you a chance to hear about any concerns your employees have. This, in turn, will give you the opportunity to address them.
• Respect all individuals involved in a conflict. Sometimes, you simply can’t avoid conflict. If disputes arise, take the involved workers aside and talk to them individually. Gather all the facts and treat them with respect to try and smooth out a conflict.

Prevent Conflict with the Right Tools

There are many causes of conflict in the workplace. Identifying them can help you mitigate issues and make for a better work environment.

Check out our blog for more communication tips. At Dental Intelligence, we have tools to help improve communication amongst team members. Schedule a demo today to see our software in action.

When should a medical history form be updated? The answer is: it varies. That's probably not the hard and fast rule you hoped for, but the good news is that there are a few rules of thumb and things you can keep in the back of your mind that will help you know when to update your patients' medical history forms. 

The Importance of Updating Medical History Forms

Up-to-date medical history forms are vital for your dental practice's safety and for your patient's health. 

If you are not confident that your records are up to date, the answer to the question, "When should a medical history form be updated?" is: Right now. 

Patients can request their medical history from your practice at any time. Without up-to-date medical history forms, dangerous gaps in knowledge, such as incomplete drug histories or unreported preexisting medical conditions, can complicate dental care, jeopardize patients' oral health, and increase your risk of liability. 

No matter how you do it, the most important thing to do is gather up-to-date medical history forms.

What Kind of Records Should I Keep for My Dental Practice?

Every time a patient comes in for an appointment, whether for a cleaning or oral surgery, you should review their medical history form to ensure it's complete. The specific information relating to your type of practice or facility will dictate some of what you record, but there are common items that belong on every medical history form. Here are some things you should include on your medical history forms:

• The patient's health conditions and illnesses
• Contact information for the patient's primary care doctor and any specialists they are seeing
• The reason the patient is seeking dental care
• Space to write in any new information the patient volunteers during his or her visit. 

Gathering this information can help you craft better courses of treatment, improve your patients' experiences, and insulate you from legal risks related to malpractice. 

Gathering and Storing Medical History Forms

So, when should a medical history form be updated?

As a rule of thumb, best practice dictates that medical history forms in dentistry should be updated at least once per year. You should also update them any time there is a change in the patient's health status or a new drug is introduced to their current medication regimen.

If you want to be extra safe, you can have every patient update their medical history form at each visit or you can walk back the frequency from there if you so choose. The patient's age and health status determine the urgency to keep their medical records up to date. Generally, updating medical history forms once a year is sufficient if a patient is in good health. 

If you're looking for maximum ease of use, accuracy, and frequency, you can have your patients update their medical history via an online patient portal like the Dental Intelligence Patient Portal. This takes the hassle of filing, administering, and refiling medical history forms off your plate permanently. With a digital patient portal, every record is just a click away.

Once you've got the right information in your hands, you have to decide how your practice will process it at volume. The old method of using paper and a forest of filing cabinets in your backroom introduces unnecessary risk. Theft, unauthorized access, natural disaster, fire, and other catastrophic events can destroy or compromise your records in a heartbeat, leaving you with the headache of cleaning up the mess.

Digitizing your records reduces that risk significantly and saves floor space in your practice. Putting your records in the care of a trustworthy, decentralized third party that follows HIPAA practices for patient data storage gives you an added measure of security against the worst-case scenario.

The Bottom Line

For dental practices, keeping up-to-date medical history records for their patients is a crucial discipline with a lot of weight riding on it. 

When should a medical history form be updated? The only way to prevent the pitfalls that come from poor medical history form management is to review and follow dental documentation guidelines. Getting the right information from patients in a timely manner and filing it in a secure, easy-to-access location is the best way to make sure your protocols are setting you up for success.

If you want to know more about how Dental Intelligence can help you make medical history form management a breeze, contact us today to schedule a demo to see features like our Digital Forms and more.

Building long-lasting patient relationships ensures that you’ll continue to have patients for years to come. In addition, the more loyal a patient is, the more likely they are to recommend your practice to other people, which means that you’re more likely to get more patients.

There are many factors affecting customer loyalty for dental practices, and you need to know how best to take advantage of them to improve your relationships with patients and keep your patients happy and coming back for all their dentistry needs.

1. Your Relationship with Your Patient

Case studies have shown that there’s a positive correlation between good patient relationships and loyalty. Relationship marketing can really help your patients feel appreciated and make them more likely to return for additional services.

If you want to build strong relationships with your patients then:

• Listen carefully to their needs and address any concerns
• Take note of any details they tell you about their life and ask about them later
• Follow up with your patients after appointments
• Offer friendly service

The best case scenario is to wow your patient at their bi-annual cleaning so that they tell their family and friends about your outstanding service and even come back for more dental services, like crowns, veneers, or whatever they need.

2. Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are excellent ways to improve customer retention long term. These programs reward patients for sticking with your practice. The longer they’re a patient, the better the rewards.

Rewards can include a range of things, such as free cleanings, discounts, or even branded merchandise. Deciding on and advertising rewards can help you attract more patients — and keep them coming back.

At Dental Intelligence, we can help you set up your Patient Loyalty Program and build your practice. Patients can build up reward points for doing various things — for example, filling out their paperwork — which they can then cash in for prizes in one convenient platform.

3. The Convenience of Your Service

Even if a patient loves your service, they might not stick around if it isn’t convenient. People already have a lot to worry about in their days; they don’t want to also be worrying about how to set up a dental appointment or schedule a payment.

The more convenient your services are, the more likely patients are to stick with your practice. Consider doing the following:

• Setting up an online payment system that’s easy to access such as Dental Intelligence Payments
• Setting up Virtual Check-In to streamline the process
• Creating an easy-to-use online scheduling system like Dental Intelligence Online Scheduling

4. The Quality of Your Dental Services

You could have a fantastic loyalty program, incredibly convenient appointment times, and a great bedside manner — but it won’t matter if you don’t have good service.

Solid patient care is probably one of the number one factors affecting customer loyalty. If your patients know that you’ll do good work and take care of their oral health, then they’re more likely to keep coming back.

Focus on providing the best dental care possible. Make sure you use up-to-date equipment, pay close attention to your work, and do what you can to alleviate anxieties.

5. Patient Engagement

Patients want to know that you hear their concerns. Engaging with patients outside of your office can be an excellent way to reassure them that you understand and will address their needs. In addition, you can use the opportunity to build a friendly rapport with them.

Using social media is one of the best ways to engage with your patients. Respond to any comments that people leave, either thanking them or letting them know that you hear their concerns. In addition, encourage engagement by creating posts that ask for them to share stories about their experiences.

Increase Customer Loyalty with Digital Solutions for Dentists

Having loyal patients means you can worry less about the state of your business. By building patient loyalty, you’ll have a much easier time attracting and retaining new patients. Make sure you offer good service, amazing loyalty rewards, and listen to your patients.

At Dental Intelligence, we have a thorough understanding of the factors affecting customer loyalty. Our goal is to help you improve patient retention and grow your practice. Schedule a demo to see our Patient Loyalty Program and other features in action.

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An HR manager can help resolve any complaints an employee might have. Choosing the right professional is helpful, but it’s best to avoid these problems to begin with. Many dental offices end up running into easily avoidable mistakes — and oftentimes, that’s just because they don’t know what to look for.

At Dental Intelligence, we’re here to help. We’ve compiled a list of five common dental office human resources mistakes and how to avoid them. In addition, our Team Chat can help with office communication for dental practices and more to help smooth conflicts before they arise.

1. Make Sure You Handle All Payments Properly

Proper payment can be a huge point of contention. If someone is putting in a lot of hours at work, then they’ll expect proper payment.

This is especially true if someone’s working overtime.

You’re required to pay an employee overtime when they work more than 40 hours a week. You’ll need to keep careful track of how much your employees work in order to both pay them on time and ensure they get any overtime pay. Otherwise, you could end up falling into unexpected pitfalls.

2. Hiring Temporary Employees Instead of Permanent Ones

You need to consider a lot during the hiring process. You won’t just need to make sure you have up-to-date job descriptions; you’ll also need to make sure you hire the right person for the job. A lot of potential employers worry about the consequences of hiring the wrong person and may take questionable measures to avoid the issue.

Sometimes, people may hire temporary employees instead of permanent ones to try and avoid employment issues. Unfortunately, this isn’t a solution. Even temporary employees are still considered employees under the law, so it’s better to search for someone you’d like to hire permanently instead.

3. Provide Regular Performance Reviews

Performance reviews are vital to a dental practice. Performance reviews look at an employee’s overall performance and can justify disciplinary action or termination. As such, it can be an issue if you don’t have records of them.

Create a schedule for performance reviews and stick to it. This will not only help your employees know when you’ll review them but also help you keep on top of things.

Keep thorough records of any reviews. This way, should problems arise, you’ll have the information to back up your decisions.

4. Encourage Employees to Take Breaks

Dental work can be stressful. Without breaks, your team members could end up overworked, unsatisfied, and unable to perform to the best of their ability.

That’s not the only reason to encourage breaks, however. All employees need to have a lunch break and short breaks during the workday, according to the law. As such, if employees don’t take advantage of this time, you could find yourself in legal trouble.

Many dental employees may decide to work through their lunch or break. Work days in a dental office can get busy, after all, and they may have a lot to do. It’s important to pay attention to who hasn’t gone on break yet and encourage them to take theirs. Try to foster an environment where no one feels pressured to skip their breaks, and you can avoid one of the most common dental office human resources mistakes.

5. Have Strong Harassment and Discrimination Policies

Workplace harassment and discrimination are serious issues. They can result in employees feeling unsafe at work — and result in potentially serious issues down the line.

Make sure that you take the time to create solid harassment and discrimination policies. Read them over thoroughly and run them by other members of your team to catch any potential issues. Once you’ve implemented them, make sure that your employees have access to them; this way, they’ll know when and how to approach the HR manager if they need to.

In addition, you won’t want to just leave the policy untouched once you create it. You’ll want to review your policies regularly and make updates as needed. This way, you can make sure that you address any employee concerns.

Avoid Common Mistakes and Create a Better Work Environment

At Dental Intelligence, we’re here to help you. Learn how to become a great leader, avoid common dental office human resources mistakes, and more on our blog. Schedule a demo today to see our Team Chat and other features in action.