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Practice Management Myths in Dentistry

Last month I shared with you some of the most common clinical dental myths I encounter as I lecture around the country. This month, I want to uncover some of the most common practice management myths and misinformation that I hear and hopefully debunk them for you.

Referral services don’t work. Referral services do work when you are using a reputable company that is really dedicated to your success. Also, you need to be able to work with your referral service as opposed to just signing up and waiting for the referrals to come in. This is probably the most common mistake that dentists make—signing up for a program and then never evaluating the results or working to optimize the them. I have successfully belonged to the following services and have been very pleased with the results:

1-800-DENTIST is the best in the business for patients looking for a dentist. They can really help you and your front desk develop a system for making sure that referrals feel welcome; they also help you through their various programs for developing a referral into a genuinely long-term patient. 1-800-DENTIST offers the Patient Activator System, which keeps you in touch with your current patients who are the source of most of your income. Many times we only focus on new patients, forgetting how important our current patients are to the productivity of our practice. Check out their new website on marketing—www.goaskfred.com—where Fred Joyal, CEO answers marketing questions based on his years of experience marketing to millions of consumers every year.

The Lumineers Smile Discovery Program is a specialty system for patients looking for minimally invasive veneers. The program includes referrals, in-office materials and scripts to strongly motivate patients to evaluate their smiles and accept treatment. No company in the history of dentistry has done a better job than Denmat in branding the name Lumineers to consumers. Your office should tie into that national campaign and branding. The patients referred by the Lumineer Smile Discovery Program typically have done their homework already; they know what Lumineers are and are highly motivated to do some esthetic treatment. This program is more than a referral service—it provides your office with both internal and external marketing methods and materials for getting new patients as well as motivating your existing patients to explore what non-invasive Lumineers can do for their smile. Lumineers is probably the hottest dental topic to consumers right now, which is why this program has worked so well.

High accounts receivables are a sign of a healthy practice. I hear this often from dentists and this completely blows my mind. If you have high accounts receivables, you have a significant problem on your hands. You want low accounts receivables and you want that money in the bank when you produce it. In-office financing is a losing proposition for any dental office. You are trying to be a bank and you are doing a very poor job of being a bank. If your local bank had the accounts receivables that your office may have, it would be out of business in short order. You are losing valuable personnel time in making collection calls, which costs you money and makes patients hate you and your office (and likely never to refer to you again). Learn how to use financing in your office. We have used CareCredit successfully for years, as have thousands of dental offices. The patient applies online in your office and you get an answer in literally seconds! Your office collects the money for treatment and the patient gets no-interest financing for up to 18 months. If need be, they can even stretch out the payments longer than that. This is a huge win-win for everybody involved and will significantly increase your cash flow immediately.

A 60% overhead is just fine. With the national average for dental office overhead at 70%, I guess 60% is ok, but it certainly can be a lot better. Because your dental office is a business, one of your goals should be to be as profitable as possible. The way to do this is to achieve the lowest overhead possible. Although fixed costs will remain a constant until such time that they are renegotiated, your variable costs can decrease significantly if you understand that your selection of products and techniques in your office can change. Aim for an overhead of 50% or less, which should be attainable for most dental offices.

Let’s try to break through the barriers that we ourselves have created in our minds and expand our practices past some of these clinical and practice management myths that I have presented. Many times the only thing holding us back from success in our offices is what we see in the mirror.

Dr. Louis Malcmacher is a practicing general dentist in Bay Village, Ohio, an internationally known lecturer, dental consultant and author, and consultant to the Council on Dental Practice of the ADA. Interested in knowing more about how to truly enjoy dentistry? Click here.

Interested in having Dr. Malcmacher speak to your dental society or study club? Click here.

To reach Dr. Malcmacher, email him at DrMalcmacher@thedentistsnetwork.net or call 1.800.952.0521.