Louis Malcmacher DDS MAGD Printer Friendly Version

The Complete Examination

Generally when dentists read a title about a complete examination, like the one above, they start thinking along the lines of a comprehensive examination, oral cancer screening, two bitewings, a full mouth series or panorex, diagnostic casts, articulators, periodontal charting, complete medical history and temporomandibular joint examination. Truth be told, if I read another article like the one I just described about telling me how to do a complete examination on a patient, I think I’m going to be sick. I’ve sat through full-day courses on doing a complete examination that taught me nothing more than I learned in dental school.

I am going to talk about a different kind of complete examination. This complete examination occurs every minute of every day in your dental office. I am talking about the complete examination that patients give you every second that they are in your office. Doctor, you and your staff are being examined completely by pairs of eyes and you are being scrutinized by the people who pay you. This is the complete examination that you have to pass in order to have a successful dental office.

What are your patients looking for when they are performing their complete examination of you? It goes without saying that they are looking for quality dentistry in a safe, sterile environment. (I have seen, by the way, that line in many dental offices as a mission statement. Don’t you think that most patients take safe and sterile for granted? I am sure that patients are not looking for a dirty dental office that reuses its anesthetic needles.) The question is, then, what are patients looking for beyond the basic dental office and what are they judging you on?

The number one thing patients are examining is how you are going to treat THEM. They want to know that you are going to treat them as individuals, not as just mouths. When you come to the office, are you more concerned about you or the patients? If the answer is you, then you fail the patients’ examination and immediately. The dental office should be about the patient, not about you. In this day and age, when estimates range that 50% of dentistry is elective esthetic treatment, if you are giving every patient that walks in the door a cookie-cutter, full-mouth reconstruction worth $60,000, they figure out that it is not about them.

There is a second part of the examination that you must pass as well. Is your office a state-of-the-art dental office? Tomorrow you could go to a dental show like the Chicago Midwinter Meeting and spend a million dollars on everything from the latest in digital radiography to an in-office CT scan—things that may represent the state of the art to you but not necessarily to your patients. To them, state-of-the-art dentistry means that you have techniques or technology that will give them what they want: minimally invasive, relatively painless, injection-free (when possible) dentistry.

Patients determine the state-of-the-art by what they read and see in consumer magazine. The three most popular state-of-the-art techniques patients know about now are one-hour whitening, lasers and minimally invasive porcelain veneers called Lumineers.

From a practice management and a clinical point of view, it is time to get a Waterlase MD dental laser into your offices. More than any other piece of technology we have ever invested in, the laser impresses patients. When they go to the dermatologist, she/he is using a laser. When they go to the ophthalmologist, she/he is using a laser. When they walk into a dental office using a high speed drill that patients remember from their youth, they perceive you as an old-fashioned dentist. People see lasers everywhere, so if they see a laser in your office, too, in their eyes you become a state-of-the-art dentist and pass their complete examination.

Are you able to provide dental treatment faster, easier and better than ever before? Using the fastest carbide burs, like Alpen burs by Coltene Whaledent, will help patients get in and out of your dental chair in record time. Patients know who the slow dentists are and they don’t like sitting for treatment any longer than necessary. Alpen Speedster burs give you more control and induce fewer traumas with their sharpness and ability to cut teeth faster with less heat. Because the use of new, fast carbide burs directly reduces post-operative sensitivity, patients also judge you more favorably after their appointments.

Thanks to the very successful marketing by the Den-Mat Corporation, people these days ask for Lumineers by name, not for porcelain veneers, because they require no or minimal preparation and are relatively painless. If patients come in and ask for Lumineers and you don’t offer them, then in their eyes you are just another dentist that hurts people. When patients who don’t want veneers see that you offer Lumineers, even they immediately recognize the name because of its successful branding. Offering this product communicates that you are committed to minimally invasive dentistry and that you really care about patients.

(There are prominent esthetic lecturers who say that patients don’t care about the aggressive preparations as long as they get the desired result. I have found that given the choice between aggressive preparations and minimal or no preparation, people will opt for minimally invasive dentistry every single time.)

Patients surveyed by The Crown Council expressed that their main desire from their dentists was more information about oral cancer. Are you performing oral cancer examinations on patients? Have you instituted oral cancer screening like Vizilite Plus with Tblue in your offices? The mortality rate for oral cancer has not gone down in 40 years, so dentists need to raise awareness. I suggest going to www.oralcancerselfexam.com and learn to teach your patients how to do their own self-exams for oral cancer.

Finally, people also want nearly painless financial arrangements. That is where CareCredit financing comes in. Patients really appreciate the effort we put in to make sure they can finance their dental treatment.

Patients are looking at you and constantly evaluating you, your team and the entirety of your office to see if it is where they want to get their dental treatment. State-of-the-art techniques that patients care about like those mentioned above will help you get an A+ on your next exam. Good luck!

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.

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