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A Comprehensive Dental Hygiene Practice
In the master dental practice, it is the dental hygienist’s responsibility to make sure that the hygiene departmental systems are organized, efficient and profitable. The dental hygienist should be as committed as the dentist is to reach numerical production and collection goals. The hygiene department is considered the “hub” or “pulse” of the practice, and if that department is failing or weak, the rest of the practice will suffer.
It is essential that sound business strategies be applied to the hygiene department as well as to the other areas of the practice. Many hygienists are not familiar with the national statistics that are established for the comprehensive dental hygiene practice. What follows are the main national “vital” statistics so crucial to dental hygiene practice success.
One hundred percent of patients should pre-appoint for their continuing care appointments -- no excuses. The hygienist pre-appoints directly into the computer or enters the patient’s next appointment in an appointment book in the operatory.
The patient is informed that they will receive a confirmation card in the mail two weeks before the scheduled appointment, and if they need to change the appointment, they are told to contact the hygienist to change the time. Otherwise, as a benefit to the patient, the office will confirm the appointment two days before, allowing for short notice change of schedules. The patient should receive a brightly colored confirmation card that “stands out.”
Less than 10 percent loss through cancellations or broken appointments monthly. The dental hygiene team is responsible for monitoring this statistic; however, the hygienist is responsible to empower the patient so they come to their appointments and will be less likely to cancel their hygiene appointment. The patient understands the value of dentistry through the effective education of the hygienist.
Up to 75 percent of patients can or could be referred to a more frequent recare return. Studies have shown that only about 50 percent of patients show high compliance to their oral hygiene instruction. In fact, poor oral hygiene, along with lifestyle and systemic changes, equal more and more periodontal changes in our patients. In most adult patients, their dentitions do much better coming back for recares at intervals of 3-4 months instead of six.
If not for any other reason, a patient who is on a three-month recare interval and skips out to 5-6 months is going to look better that a patient put on a six-month recare interval and who skips out, not returning for 8-9 months.
Up to 50 percent of patients can be referred to some level of a periodontal program. Ninety-eight percent of consumers have gum disease. If this is so, then why does the average general dental practice have less than 10 percent of their patients in some level of a periodontal program? Ask yourself, is infection being corrected at recare visits? If the answer is “no,” then the hygiene team must sit down to write a periodontal philosophy as well as the programs protocol.
Forty to eighty percent of doctor treatment should come out of the hygiene recare chairs monthly. The dental hygienist is the main educator of better dentistry, if not for any other reason but they spend so much time with the patient. A sincere level of trust has been built between the hygienist and the patient, added with the use of the new technology and commitment to being extremely compassionate; this is the right ticket to gaining patient acceptance of dentistry.
Retention of 90 percent of patients annually should come through the hygiene department. If the patient loves you, they will stay with you. This also applies to the hygienist. The dental hygiene team is responsible for monitoring each month the patients who have left the practice and why they have decided to move to another practice.
Complete an exit interview with each patient who has left and keep the lists so that reports can be made during the team meeting. At the end of the year, consider attempting to “reactivate” by mailing marketing letters or personal letters that say something like, “If the next dental practice you become a part of does not provide the quality of care you were used to here with us, our door is always open.”
The hygienist should produce between $800.00 and $1,200.00 per day ($125.00 to $150.00 per hour). Using the primary block scheduling format, along with a very efficient periodontal program, will give any hygienist a very productive day. A daily hygiene goal of $1,000.00 absolutely cannot be reached only by seeing “routine recalls.” The schedule must have at least one, if not two, periodontal cases each day.
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