By Steve Diogo

Clinical excellence is the foundation of every successful dental practice. But effective communication is the archway that leads patients to your practice, sells the treatment and services you offer, and builds loyalty. And communication, like clinical skills, can be improved with technology.   

Today’s best communication tech for dental practices features three critical elements: integration, flexibility, and ease of use. From cloud-based phone and email systems that automatically fetch patient information from your practice management software, to integrated 2-way texting and teledentistry, dental teams have never had more ways to connect with their busy, on-the-go patients to improve scheduling, reduce no-shows and boost case acceptance.   

In this post, we’ll highlight the powerful, affordable tech that can empower dental teams and improve communication to drive healthy schedules and improve treatment acceptance, all while streamlining workflows and lowering overhead.  

Want to read this later? Download the Dental Tech Brief: Phone Systems to discover how the right technology can move every patient conversation toward action.  

Here’s what you can expect from the best dental practice phone systems.   

Smart phone? Try genius phone.

With all the equipment, materials and technology in your practice, you probably don’t spend too much time thinking about your phone. Pick it up, make a call. Most likely, leave a voicemail. So unless it breaks, there’s not much to think about.   

It’s time to change that. Today your phone system can give you more control over your schedule, more flexibility in your day, and more information to have more productive conversations with your patients.   

Today’s best dental phone systems are smart communication hubs that provide powerful features and deep integration with your practice management systems. This integration allows you to immediately access real-time patient information on every caller, such as upcoming and past appointments, treatment plans, personal notes, and even payment history.    

RevenueWell Phone, a phone system designed specifically for dental practices, integrates with your practice management software to automatically display patient information on your computer screen when a patient calls. Think of it as a supercharged caller ID. Having this information in front of you means you can focus on the conversation instead of searching for it while you’re talking. That ability to focus, combined with the critical information you need, means you’re much better equipped to turn that phone call into an opportunity to schedule treatment or prompt your patient for payment on her balance.

Flexibility and ease of use

You have enough complexity running your practice on a daily basis. Your phone should simplify that complexity, not compound it. Many practice teams have implemented VoIP phone systems that promise ease of use, but in fact require assistance to manage the backend software that runs them.   

RevenueWell was determined to change this when it released its new dental phone system.  RevenueWell Phone features a simple interface that allows dental teams to quickly customize outgoing messages, call routing rules, and special messages and handling for lunch times, holidays, out-of-office rules and more. All can be changed with a few mouse clicks in its intuitive software. The system’s mobile app allows dental teams to access and manage the system any time from anywhere, providing dentists and teams with unbridled flexibility.  

Finally, support is a critical issue when considering a phone system. As the lifeline of your practice, your phone system needs to work optimally. RevenueWell backs its new phone system with its industry leading white-glove support, so teams can quickly get up and running with no stress.   

RevenueWell Phone ushers in a new age of practice communication, one in which you have the information you need when you need it without having to look it up. That means you can focus on the conversation—not the keyboard—and drive more productive and profitable conversations with your patients.   

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Editor’s note: This is the eighth article in a series exploring the business aspects of the dental profession, from starting a practice and marketing to hiring staff and finances.

Dr. Deshpande

A lot of us are thinking of buying a CEREC system in our brand-new office, hoping it make things efficient. We also consider getting the fanciest massage chairs for patients to use. You know what most patients really care about? Being attended to in time and being appreciated and cared for by our staff. Read below to read about two technologies that are already in every office but may not be used to their maximum advantage.

Phones

Did you know that many phone calls get missed by an average dental office? Did you know the most common time patients call to schedule appointments? Do you know what it costs for you as a practice owner to not know the above numbers?

Many practices spend a lot of money on marketing and getting the “right patient” in the door. Most patients will first check your online presence: your website and read your bio, then they check reviews, and finally, they’ll pick up the phone call and make an appointment. What if nobody picks up the phone on the other side? What if the patient leaves a message and does not even have it returned?

Guess what, by the time you figure out what happened, that patient called up another office and has an appointment on Monday.

1. What gets tracked, gets done. Consider having a phone tree — to have phones directed to the right person in your office — so the phone isn’t tied. Insurances, emergencies or billing, are three possible categories in a phone tree. Do you know which category will have the longest call?
2. Invest in a software that allows you to record each phone conversation (check if your state allows it first), transcribe VM’s, and that helps you audit your front office member’s personality. It is so important to have someone cheerful and happy answer new patient calls.
3. Make sure there is someone manning the phone at all times. Like most of our patients, I too, frequently make appointments for my chiropractor, personal physician and dentist during my lunch hour — 12-1 pm, on a weekday!
4. Maybe you couldn’t pick up the phone. Fine. Ensure your scheduler reviews all VM’s at the start of the next day and gives everyone a call back. They should do the same for all no shows, or late cancels too.

Scheduling

1. Ever thought of your perfect day in dentistry? It actually does exist. Every dentist has a different way of doing things, and the great thing about this is that in most scheduling systems you can input your own specifications. I, for example, like to complete root canals, implants or fillings at the beginning of the day, extractions right before lunch, and new patient exams or child prophies at the end of the day. One of my pet peeves is a quadrant filling at the end of the day. Figure out what is your way of doing things and tell your front office how you’d like them to schedule for you. This is your office after all.
2. Many business gurus agree that providers shouldn’t have unnecessary breaks in the day. While I agree with this thinking, it does not have to apply to everyone. Paint your own perfect day and try to make each day amazing.
3. One of the front office managers I used to work with told me that the thing that annoys them the most is inconsistency and lack of instruction from the dentist. “Why don’t they just tell us how they like it? They only complain when it’s not done right.” Every single person in the office wants their dentist to succeed. In order for them to help you, you just need to give them more information.

Can you think of another important aspect of a practice? Team appreciation, bonus structures and outsourcing are other key elements. Join our New Dentist Business Club meetings where we go into detail in all of those. To join, email us at New.Dentist.Business@gmail.com.

Dr. Sampada Deshpande is a general dentist based in San Francisco. A foreign trained dentist from India, Sampada earned her DDS from the University of Washington in 2018 and is a 2020-2021 UW-LEND fellow. Outside of clinical dentistry, she enjoys teaching at the New Dentist Business Club and improving access to technology in healthcare via her involvement in Samsotech. You can reach her directly at @dr.deshpande on Instagram or visit her website www.sampadadeshpandedds.com for more information.

Editor’s note: We know that finding the right practice can be overwhelming and time consuming. That’s why the ADA created ADA Practice Transitions (ADAPT), a service that matches you with practices that fit your practice approach and lifestyle. We provide customized resources to ensure you feel confident in your decisions and an ADA Advisor supports you during each step of the journey. Learn more at ADAPracticeTransitions.com.

During his 20-year general dentistry career, Ryan Henrichsen, DDS, MAGD, saw hundreds of patients who were suffering from issues that had more to do with the structure of their mouths and throats than dental problems. “I was doing a lot of bite splints and guards because the dentists I was practicing with didn’t know how to manage bruxism and temporomandibular joint disorders [TMD],” he recalls. “I really started helping people by just doing what I was taught by the masters I learned from.”

As a partner at Gentling Dental Care in Rochester, Minn., Henrichsen found himself building many mandibular advancement devices, treating TMD and focusing more on the airway component of these conditions. When dental professionals began to take advantage of computed tomography (CT) scanning technologies to assess patients’ airways, “I knew that things were changing big time,” he says.

After mulling over the idea of opening a stand-alone office that focused exclusively on airway, snoring and TMJ issues for about seven years, Henrichsen opened Respira – Airway, Snoring, & TMJ in January 2021.

Cutting-edge treatment modalities

Before joining Henrichsen in the practice, associate Matt Merfeld, DDS, saw so many crowded and misplaced teeth that he decided to complete a two-year course in orthodontics. When he started working with Henrichsen, he took additional airway training. Merfeld became a Breathe Institute Ambassador and began treating tethered oral tissues (TOT), which contribute to upper airway resistance. He and Henrichsen then took hands-on training for Convergent Dental’s Solea Sleep CO2 laser so they can treat upper airway resistance and obstructive sleep apnea.

Merfeld says that one in ten infants and children are affected by TOT. If the condition isn’t addressed, adults compensate or “maladapt.” “We’re seeing a lot of neck pain and shoulder pain,” Merfeld says. “And just general tension. Those with the condition use the floor of their mouth and their neck muscles to compensate so they can breathe normally. There is this deep connective tissue attaching to the tongue muscles; it’s not just this little frenum that you can see visually.”

The condition can lead to other associated tongue position issues. “For instance, in adults, if the back of the tongue can’t go up to the roof of the mouth, we’re going to see breathing problems,” Merfeld adds. “What’s the airway component of the tongue? It’s not just swallowing and speaking, it’s breathing.”

“We use Solea for soft- and hard-tissue procedures,” Merfeld says. “For surgeries, we use the soft-tissue function, which has a wavelength that vaporizes the tissue. It coagulates the blood cells, but it’s not burning or cauterizing them, so we see much gentler healing.”

We use Solea for soft- and hard-tissue procedures. For surgeries, we use the soft-tissue function, which has a wavelength that vaporizes the tissue. It coagulates the blood cells, but it’s not burning or cauterizing them, so we see much gentler healing.

– MATT MERFELD, DDS

Unlike other lasers, Solea is noncontact. “When you’re applying the beam, the tissue looks like it just starts to disappear,” Merfeld says. “We can do surgeries in infants in about 10 to 15 seconds with minimal to no bleeding. Healing happens rapidly, so within two weeks, the tissues look like we did nothing. It’s very interesting technology. And the benefit for a general dentist is using it for other functions: cutting hard tissues, extracting impacted molars, and prepping teeth. It’s very precise and can focus the beam down to the width of a human hair.”

“The same laser has an attachment we can use as a snoring treatment component,” Henrichsen adds. “It requires no anesthetic and takes 10 minutes or less. We just zap the soft palate tissue and the uvula area, and it shrinks the tissue. The treatment alleviates snoring for about a year to a year and a half.”

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, about 45% of adults snore sometimes and 25% snore regularly. Of the population of people who snore, Henrichsen says that roughly two-thirds have sleep apnea. “So one-third we could treat with the Solea Sleep application,” he explains. “It’s pretty amazing and we’ve had some good results with it.”

Merfeld adds that a benefit of the Solea laser is that it doesn’t have as many settings as other lasers. “It’s operated more like a general handpiece. It has a traditional rheostat, and we control the energy of the beam as we’re cutting. You start off at very low power and bring it up to the energy level you need. Solea is very user-friendly and versatile.”

Switching to the Solea Sleep function requires only changing out a small handpiece. The software identifies what they’re using, what function they need and what the light pattern should be.

Henrichsen offers several devices to treat snoring. The Vivos (or the DNA appliance) is custom designed for patients by a proprietary diagnostic algorithm after measuring and analyzing the oral cavity and airway with cone beam computed tomography.

The practice’s protocol also includes having a myofunctional therapist work with patients, focusing on muscle therapy, tongue position, range of motion and other elements both before and after surgery.

Since the practice opened in January, Minneapolis-area dentists have started referring patients and going to the clinic themselves.