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Jim McKee, DDS, is a Visiting Faculty member with Piper Education and Research Center. he discusses the importance of phasing cases to increase case acceptance.

Phasing Dental Cases to Drive Case Acceptance

Jim McKee, DDS, is a dentist in private practice. He’s also a Visiting Faculty member with Piper Education and Research Center, where he teaches on subjects such as occlusion and the clinical referral process. In this video clip, he discusses the importance of phasing cases to increase case acceptance.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“I think one of the things that we need to work on as dentists is learning how to phase cases. The key to phasing cases is to figure out a way we can help patients get treatment done over a period of time. But the other side of phasing is helping patients understand what can happen if the treatment isn’t done at once. When you’re phasing cases, sometimes things can turn south. And if that’s the case, we need to make sure that the patient understands that at the beginning, so the patient understands what the problems are.”

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Jim McKee, DDS, is a dentist in private practice. He's also a Visiting Faculty member with Piper Education and Research Center, where he teaches on subjects such as occlusion and the clinical referral process. In this video clip, he discusses the importance of phasing cases to increase case acceptance.

Is growing your practice among your 2017 priorities?

	This may sound like a rhetorical question -- who wouldn’t want to grow their practice? -- but it’s actually not. Some dentists don’t want to grow their practice, and that’s OK. We have plenty of other articles for you on Dentist’s Money Digest!

Using Social Media to Retain Dental Patients

	If, however, practice growth is on your 2017 priority list, your best opportunities for low-cost promotion are probably through 

. If you are now panicking and closing your Internet browser, stick with me for just a moment. Developing a social media strategy doesn’t have to be difficult, and it certainly doesn’t have to be boring! Even if you don’t know Twitter from John Ritter, you can craft a strategy that’s right for you. Let’s take a closer look.

	Look, a terrible social media strategy can, indeed, be counterproductive. But in 2017 and every year thereafter, the worst social media strategy will be avoidance. Really, how bad could you be at developing a social media strategy? How much harm could you possibly do by being active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites? The answer may lie not in your expertise, but in your commitment and character. If you want to avoid being bad at social media …

Common Social Media Blunders for Dentists

	Every dental practice is unique, as are the individuals who make up your practice. This individuality doesn’t easily come across through your name, logo, or dental practice sign. But it can through social media. Starting a Facebook page or a Twitter account for your practice is free and deceptively easy. So is illustrating the uniqueness of your practice. Create posts that illustrate the unique personality of your team. Include willing patients (

) in pictures or on your feeds. Have a little fun with your posts.

	You don’t have to be digitally savvy yourself to capitalize on 

 on your dental staff. The person doesn’t have to be the young nerd on your team, and it doesn’t have to be a digital expert. You’re looking more for enthusiasm than expertise! Just be sure that you have strict guidelines in place that mirror the public image you want to put forth and that you periodically review any posts before they go live, if possible.

	Because social media is all about creating an experience for your patients, the more your staff is involved, the more the personality of your dental practice will shine through. That’s the low-hanging fruit of any social media endeavor; it is particularly important for dentists looking to build not only their patient base, but their community.

	Every journey starts with a few simple steps. Get out there on social media in 2017, and you may find yourself farther along next year than you could have imagined.

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Your best opportunities for low-cost promotion and consequently, practice growth, are  probably through social media.

Setting 2017 Priorities: Refine Your Practice's Social Media Presence

There are two kinds of procrastination: The kind where you know exactly what you need to do, but don’t want to do it. It can be difficult to overcome. Another kind is when you have so many things to do that you legitimately don’t know where to start. If you suffer from the first kind, I’m with you, but I don’t necessarily have a lot of fixes for that one. If you suffer from the second, let’s try this: Find one top priority, and go after that.

	Now, think about that top priority. Picture it in your mind. Is it ... paying yourself first? If not, maybe it should be. 

	What is paying yourself first? It’s the simple concept that paying your future self is as important as any of your current bills or expenditures. It means that saving and investing for your future isn’t an extra or an add-on: it becomes one of your key expenses. Because retirement may seem far off in the distance, the need to put aside money now may seem less urgent than paying your mortgage, your car payment, and your credit card bills. It may seem that way now, but it won’t seem that way as you get closer to retirement.

	And here’s a simple truth: your retirement day is closer today than it was yesterday, and it will be even closer tomorrow. If you follow the concept of paying yourself first, and if you set retirement goals and strategies accordingly, you’re much more likely to have enough money on which to retire comfortably.

	Too many retirement “strategies” involve paying all of your current bills and day-to-day expenses, and then taking the “leftover” amounts every pay period or every month and perhaps socking some of that away for future use. This can be a particular challenge for a dentist who owns or shares a practice, because there is always the question of how much to include as earnings for yourself and what to reinvest in the business. 

	This can also be a challenge for dentists because of lifestyle creep, which is the tendency to spend more as we earn more. Lifestyle creep is a very real phenomenon and one that isn’t all bad. But one of the potential problems it raises is that even as your income improves, the “extra” funds you have at the end of each period may not increase. That means you could spend your years of prime earning setting aside only the bare minimum for your retirement years.

	Paying yourself first means setting aside retirement investments as if they have as much urgency and utility as any of your current bills. As much as you may want to reinvest earnings from the practice back into the practice, you should strongly consider doing so only after you have paid both your current and future selves. 

	One way to do that is to have part of your paycheck deposited directly into a separate account -- either a retirement plan or your own savings account. This is especially true if you have a spike in revenue from the business or a raise if you work in a group dental practice. Or, say, if you pay off a car or finish paying off a student loan. Simply continue that payment, but to a separate bank account or investment vehicle. If you’re getting by just fine now with your current bills, any income you start to earn over and above that can painlessly be redirected to your future self. 

	There are many more strategies for paying yourself first that we’ll cover in future articles. The key concept is deceptively simple: You are as important as any of those other debtors. 

What is paying yourself first? It's the simple concept that paying your future self is as important as any of your current bills or expenditures.

Setting 2017 Priorities: Pay Yourself First

Investors of all shapes and sizes make mistakes. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, experienced or naïve, too risky or too risk-averse. There are potholes in every road. Young investors in particular, including dentists just entering medical practice, tend to make similar kinds of mistakes. Let’s tackle a few of them here, and give a remedy for each.

Dentists frequently begin their careers carrying a heavy load of debt. This can be a big obstacle, both in actual dollars and in terms of the mental toll that debt brings. Potential investors often consider holding off on their retirement savings strategy until they are out of debt. This is generally a bad idea; the sooner you start saving for retirement, the better off you’ll ultimately be.

Address your debt as swiftly and directly as you can, but not at the expense of future planning. Differentiate between long-term, “good” debt, and high-interest rate “bad debt;” the latter should be paid off as quickly as possible, whereas the former can be managed alongside a solid investing strategy. In the meantime, make sure you aren’t accumulating new debt, as it will completely counter your strategy.

Mistake: Failing to Plan for Contingencies

A bad budget may have an allocation for “miscellaneous expenses,” but it might underestimate the amount and frequency of these expenses. This is dangerous for many reasons, but among them is the fact that funneling a portion of your investment income into a contingency fund has a positive overall impact on longer-term savings. If a situation does arise, you can tap your contingency fund instead of siphoning off other investment income.

Keep a portion of your investments in liquid holdings, such as a savings or money market account. Even relatively less liquid investments such as certificates of deposit give you more options than investing in only long-term corporate bonds or hedge funds. Your contingency fund doesn’t have to yield explosive growth or even have growth potential. What matters is that the investment is safe and relatively easy to get to on short notice. Having that money set aside frees up your other investments to take advantage of the inverse relationship between risk and reward, as well as the benefits of compound interest that build up over time.

Every endeavor entails a certain degree of risk. Do you know how many people slip and fall in the shower each morning? We accept a degree or risk in all walks of life, but in thinking about our retirement, often the concept seems difficult to grasp. Who wants to “risk” their future happiness? But the simple truth is that because of the longer time window for your investments to grow, you can 

 than those who are closer to retirement.

Risk and return naturally go hand in hand in your investments. Generally speaking, the bigger the risk of an investment, the bigger the potential return. Because low-risk investments earn only modest returns, inflation can erode the purchasing power of the funds invested. Your investment 

Don’t think of your investments in terms of avoiding risks. Instead, think about how to manage that risk and use it to your advantage in your investments. Here are a few ways to do that. Set and stick to your investment goals, understand the relationship between risk and time, and diversify and adjust your portfolio depending on those goals and your time window until retirement.

One final word: even experienced investors make mistakes. If you can relate to any of the mistakes listed above, don’t beat yourself up. Work with your advisor, adjust your strategy, refine your budget, and get back on track. A clean slate is just a few days away.

Young investors in particular, including dentists just entering medical practice, tend to make similar kinds of mistakes.

Setting 2017 Priorities: Getting Started as an Investor

Every now and again, someone will come out with a financial study with a shocking click-bait lead: “Millions of Americans have $0 in Retirement Savings!” Even when the research such headlines emerge from is statistically accurate, it can be entirely misleading. For just one example, take a look at this 

Still, it’s pretty clear that Americans need to save more for retirement. For one, people are living longer, which means many will live in retirement for as long as four decades. That will require a lot of savings! Second, depending on the number of years you have until you retire, Social Security’s future as a supplement to retirement income is very much in doubt.

One of the key obstacles to many in their savings effort is the instant gratification trap. That is, spending is easy. Saving is harder. Investing may be hardest of all, because it’s not just squirreling money away, it’s actively learning how to make it work for you. That involves some time and effort now that won’t pay off until the distant future.

Investing for retirement is a decidedly long-term goal. Once you’ve established your investing goals, implemented your strategy, and set the money aside, the next steps are to stick to that plan and ...wait. Zzzzzzzzzzz.

Here, then, are a few ways to make the waiting seem a little less mundane.

 Years ago, Fidelity ran an advertising campaign that depicted people walking around, hauling huge numbers like $2,000,000. The idea behind the campaign was to “find your retirement number,” which wasn’t a bad concept. The ads were quickly discontinued, though, due in part to the idea that the people hauling those numbers around looked like they were dealing with an albatross. Thinking about a huge end number of multiple millions can make the day-to-day investment seem pointless and the long-term goal overwhelming. Break it down into smaller increments. Instead of resolving to be a billionaire on your retirement day, resolve to max out your retirement investments this year.  

 Saving for retirement yields promising evidence as the value of your investments begins to creep up. But many of us receive our retirement statements, glance at them to make sure nothing catastrophic has happened, and move on with our day. Take a closer look, and you may find those incremental rewards that will help you keep on track.

 Rebalancing your portfolio is an often forgotten but necessary step for all investors. Investments change all the time with market swings, stock values, bond values, and the like — which can shift the value and allocation of your portfolio. Getting things back in line is important, but it can also give you something active to do while you’re waiting for your savings to add up.

Long-term goals are notoriously difficult to achieve. The key is providing rewards along the way and breaking the goal into shorter, more easily measurable increments. 

Short-term goals take the sting out of long-term malaise.

The Importance of an Incremental Strategy

he discusses a useful approach for communicating your treatment plan to patients.

Communicating with Dental Patients: Put Yourself in Their Shoes

Jim McKee, DDS, is a dentist in private practice. He’s also a Visiting Faculty member with Piper Education and Research Center, where he teaches on subjects such as occlusion and the clinical referral process. In this video clip, he discusses a useful approach for communicating your treatment plan to patients.

“Communication is key. I really think that if you think about it from a patient’s perspective, it’s a big deal to come into the dental office. There’s a lot of work that may need to be done in some cases. Sometimes, patients have been embarrassed by the condition of their mouth. My job is not to judge patients, but my job is to help them move toward the best level of health they want to get to. What that really comes down to is helping patients understand what the problems are, understand what the solutions are, and then finding a time in their life when it will work for them as well as making sure the financial part will work for them. I’ve learned over the years that I think if we can be open and honest with patients about what the options are for treatment, it’s going to allow them to be able to accept more treatment plans.”

Jim McKee, DDS, is a dentist in private practice. He's also a Visiting Faculty member with Piper Education and Research Center, where he teaches on subjects such as occlusion and the clinical referral process. In this video clip, he discusses a useful approach for communicating your treatment plan to patients.

Many retirement savers focus on the big things, and rightfully so. Building and following a budget, no matter your income level, is a big thing. So is establishing financial goals that make sense, along with an investing strategy that helps you reach those goals. 

	Where many of us lose our way is with what may seem like little things; but it’s those little things that can kill either your budget or your overall financial strategy. Why? Because retirement planning isn’t a short-term endeavor, nor is it a simple process. Successfully putting all the pieces together means monitoring a lot of moving parts, over a long period of time. The more moving parts, the higher the chance some of them will fail.

	Here, then, are some areas that should receive particular attention as part of your maintenance plans.

Little thing: Investments that underperform.

 If you are a devoted retirement saver, you’re off to a great start. Time is your friend, and because of compounding interest, you’re likely to be able to secure a much more stable retirement the earlier you start. But sometimes the peace of mind that comes with starting early can make us complacent. It’s easy to just assume that everything is growing.

 Look at your statements regularly to make sure they’re performing as expected. The end of the year is a great time to start. This is where working with an advisor can be beneficial, because you want to look not just at how your investments are performing, but at how they’re performing relative to similar investments. If you have some clunkers, consider other vehicles that may perform better.

Little thing: Lack of a contingency fund or a miscellaneous expense category.

 Oh, those once-in-a-lifetime auto repairs! That water heater that had the bad luck to putter out. That new roof that you knew you needed, you just didn’t know you needed it this soon! If only (insert calamity here) hadn’t happened, your budget and/or retirement plan would be back on track!

 You can’t anticipate the unexpected, can you? That’s why it’s the unexpected! True. But, you know that 

 is going to come up … because it always does. And if you don’t have a contingency fund or some amount budgeted each year for those unexpected expenses, they might derail your financial plan. Don’t let that happen.

Little thing(s): Commissions, fees, and penalties.

 Unless you’re making hundreds of trades a year and going crazy with multiple variable annuity products, chances are that the amount of money you spend each year on broker’s commissions or transaction fees doesn’t 

 high. But, again, when you’re thinking long-term, you start to realize that over the course of your retirement investments, those fees are going to add up. And because of compounding interest (again), the loss of income from those costs will be magnified over time.

 Know exactly what you’re paying for, what the industry standard is for that fee, and how frequently you’ll be charged. Make sure any advisors you work with spell out very clearly what you’re paying and why. And always factor in expenses and fees — and any possible penalties – when selecting an investment vehicle. 

Retirement planning isn't a short-term endeavor, nor is it a simple process. Successfully putting all the pieces together means monitoring a lot of moving parts, over a long period of time.

Don't Let the Little Things Derail Your Retirement Plan

n this video clip, he discusses his approach to presenting treatment options to patients, and how that can translate to case acceptance.

Presenting Dental Treatment Options to Patients

Jim McKee, DDS, is a dentist in private practice. He’s also a Visiting Faculty member with Piper Education and Research Center, where he teaches on subjects such as occlusion and the clinical referral process. In this video clip, he discusses his approach to presenting treatment options to patients, and how that can translate to case acceptance.

“By the end of the initial consultation in the beginning of the clinical exam, I really have an idea of what the patient values and how I’m going to fit into what treatment they’re going to need. And I’ll have an idea of how to present that treatment as well. I’m going to learn if a case needs to be phased. I’ll learn if it’s ready for full case acceptance. So many times, I think dentists present treatment plans that are technically correct, but the reality is it doesn’t either fit the patient’s time constraints, financial constraints, or the patients simply don’t understand the treatment. It gives me an idea of how to present to patients in a way that I can present at their level and then help them move toward the best dental health they can.”

Jim McKee, DDS, is a dentist in private practice. He's also a Visiting Faculty member with Piper Education and Research Center, where he teaches on subjects such as occlusion and the clinical referral process. In this video clip, he discusses his approach to presenting treatment options to patients, and how that can translate to case acceptance.

If you’re like me, you have trouble planning beyond the next 10 minutes, much less the next 10 days. The idea of taking your planning out 10 years may seem, at best, overwhelming. But this type of projection is particularly important if you’re entering the later stages of your dental career, because the decisions you make now will have a big impact on how and when you retire.

Why are these 10 years so crucial? For one, if you’re like most dentists, the 10 years before retirement are likely to be among the 10 highest-earning years you have. That fact, coupled with increased maximum savings amounts allowed as you approach retirement, mean a greater possibility for building that nest egg.

Let’s take a look at a quick checklist you can use as your 10-year planning guide.

 Now is the time to max out on your individual retirement accounts and consider supplemental accounts such as Roth IRAs. Although the 2017 limits for individual retirement accounts will not increase from 2016 levels, if you’re over the age of 50, you can put an additional $6,000 away. 

. Your children are unlikely to be so lucky, but if you’re planning to retire within the next 10 years, chances are very good that Social Security will still be solvent and an important contributor to your retirement income. The key when considering Social Security benefits, however, is to make sure you’re not relying on it as the sole—or even primary&mdash;provider of retirement income. Those days will never return.

· On that note, now is a great time to look at the 

 and see how they fit into your overall retirement picture. Although it’s unlikely for most, you may have a pension that will still be around. Has your home, which you once considered a primary source of income, appreciated or depreciated in value? Has that inheritance you were counting on evaporated? Have your health care costs suddenly begun to take a bigger-than-expected bite out of your savings? Work with your advisor to consider the bigger picture.

As you near retirement, there are certain government requirements you need to be aware of, such as required minimum distributions and the age at which you will be eligible to receive full Social Security benefits. Those key dates should be part of your larger plan. Also, if you work for a large employer such as a health system, consider whether your company might offer incentives for early retirement. This could play a large role in your decision to retire sooner than expected, but you can only do that if you start thinking and planning ahead.

and have the necessary conversations with your partner or family about what that may look like. Now is the perfect time to think through what you expect out of your retirement and how much income you’ll likely need to make that image a reality. If you don’t have enough saved to be able to do everything you’ve always wanted to do, you’ll have to consider difficult choices, such as which activities you’ll be willing to forego, or whether you’d be willing to work longer than expected.

 Even the best-laid plans sometimes go awry. As meticulous as your planning may be, if it all goes according to that plan, you’ve missed out on your true calling: fortune teller. Have some idea what action you’d take if something unexpected bit you.

Income in retirement is essential, but it isn’t everything. Make sure you’ve fully thought through issues such as staying active, establishing a new community of friends, where you’ll live and why, and how you’ll adjust to not caring for patients on a regular basis. Sometimes, the most difficult adjustments to retirement aren’t financial in nature at all.

Not every item on this checklist needs to be fully solved for prior to entering the final stages of your retirement planning. But you’ll want to have at least considered all of them, particularly while you are still working and can more easily make adjustments to the plan. Time is still on your side.

The short answer is, yes, you do. Here's a check list you can follow to start getting your 10-year plan in order.

Do You Need a 10-Year Plan?

Derek Pearson is the VP of Business Development at Banyan, a company dedicated to improving social media performance for dentists. 

The True Objective of Using Social Media in Dentistry

Derek Pearson is the VP of Business Development at Banyan, a company dedicated to improving social media performance for dentists. Here, he explains the primary objective of social media’s use in dentistry: building relationships with patients.  

“It’s about being personal. Everybody knows dentistry is about relationships. To build relationships, you have to be personal. Facebook, Instagram, all of these social media tools are a relationship play, and that’s the way people stay connected now.”

Derek Pearson is the VP of Business Development at Banyan, a company dedicated to improving social media performance for dentists. Here, he explains the primary objective of social media's use in dentistry: building relationships with patients.