Top 10 Dental Practice Management Articles For 2022
These articles generated the most views over the last year. To make sure you never miss a thing, subscribe to the Dental Practice Management eNewsletter at dentalproductsreport.com.
As the dental industry evolves with technology, business practices also evolve. Practice management and development have benefited from a variety of new software and products. All our most popular practice management content this year was focused on one thing: improving—whether it was how to improve relationships among staff, offer better financial solutions to patients, cut overhead costs, or even address ways to combat the opioid crisis or stay on top of infection control processes.
Here, we will take a look at the top 10 dental practice management articles for 2022.
Six Steps to Becoming an Exceptional Clinical Leader
by Hema Patel, DDS
One of the biggest challenges I hear from colleagues is that they’re unable to recruit and retain quality associates and specialists. If you’re expanding and hiring associates, what will your application pool look like? You will get many new dentists applying for a job, maybe a few seasoned dentists. Seasoned dentists will come with their own skill set and most likely will need very little mentoring. The downside, however, may be that by the time they begin to work with you, they already know their preferences and have their own treatment philosophies, which may or may not align with your own clinical vision. So how do you lead a team of associates?
Go to bit.ly/ExceptionalLeader
What Materials Should You Stock up on Before the End of the Year?
by Terri Lively
From tax considerations to inventory management strategy to supply chain concerns, we examine what to stock and why before the new year. If you are a dental practice with extra cash flow and storage room, for example, buying materials in December can be a good investment for a few reasons. First, the new year often brings price increases, and these increases might now be compounded even more than usual due to the raw materials shortages, inflation, and increased demand.
Go to bit.ly/MaterialsToStock
Closer Look: A Financial Solution Helps Patients Help Themselves
by Stan Goff
Kevin Behjat is not a dentist. He leaves that part of the business to his wife, Shiva Keshmiri, DDS. But that’s not to say Behjat isn’t all about helping patients—and the 2 practices he and his wife run—thrive. Behjat has helped a variety of businesses grow, but now he’s experiencing increased success at their 2 dental locations in Las Vegas, Nevada, which includes Sahara Dental Center. One factor for the newfound success has been the practices’ switch to Sunbit’s Smile Now, Pay-Over-Time solution. The program allows more patients to get the oral care they need but could not always afford by offering them the flexibility to pay for dental services over a period of 6, 12, 18, 24, and even up to 72 months.
Four Tips for Cutting Overhead Costs in Your Dental Practice
by Brogan Baxter, MBA, chief operating officer of Four Quadrants Advisory
Every dental practice owner—no matter the size of their practice or its accrued average revenue—has the goal to reduce overhead and increase profit and savings. The best way to reduce overhead is to become more efficient while reducing the cost of your practice. Although many expenses cannot be eliminated entirely, there are strategic ways to assess and decrease overhead costs, increase profit margins, avoid fatal cash flow problems, and put a dental practice on track for retirement savings. Here you will find tips and tricks for cutting overhead to regain thousands of lost dollars—without sacrificing efficiency or the patient experience.
Go to bit.ly/CutOverheadCosts
Changing the Script: Efforts to Curtail Overprescribing in Dental Practices
by Kristin Hohman
There is perhaps no health crisis in the past 2 decades that has come close to the current opioid epidemic. It wasn’t until the past decade that patients and prescribers began to truly understand the dangers of opioids, but the damage has already been done. As opioid-induced deaths continue to climb, it is critical for the dental community to understand its role in this crisis and develop prescribing best practices. This in-depth feature addresses the need to help curb the heavy reliance on opioids and how the dental industry must recognize the role it has played and make significant changes to its prescribing habits. It is also critical that dental prescribers follow evidence-based best practices and regulations and recommendations.
Go to bit.ly/ChangeTheScript
Expanding Your Dental Practice Opportunities
by Laura Dorr
Picture this: Business is booming at your dental practice. Your appointment calendar is full, the waiting room can’t hold any more people, and you’re so booked you’re referring out practically as many cases as you’re completing. By all accounts, your practice is a business success. But you could be doing even more. You’re losing potential revenue in new patients you’ve had to turn away because you don’t have the time. Referrals are taking your business elsewhere (and it might not be returning). Potential earnings are slipping out the door. Sounds like it’s time to expand to a second location! Or is it? Before you dive into adding more locations, there are some important things to consider.
Eight Ways to Build a Rock Star Dental Team Culture
by Lyndsay Miller
Culture is defined by the character and personality of your organization. It makes your dental practice unique and is the sum of its values, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes. What can you do to create a great culture in your office? This article features 8 things to remember and implement if they do not already exist. Highlights include focusing on vision and core values, leading by example, building strong relationships, and remembering to celebrate wins and have fun.
Replacing the Infection Prevention Coordinator
by Robert Elsenpeter
The Dentist’s Professional Pledge covers such themes as professional development, ethics, and the patient’s overall well-being. Certainly, patient safety includes protection from harm that they might encounter at the practice. Optimal infection prevention measures are clearly important, and to best deliver that care, the practice should designate a point person to coordinate and manage all those details. The infection prevention coordinator is someone who, in addition to their own duties, is responsible for ensuring the team’s ongoing training, managing documentation, and coordinating all the other housekeeping routines.
Automating the Dental Supply Chain to Reduce Waste
by Lorne Lavine, DMD
Technology is supposed to solve problems. How can technology automate your supply operations to accomplish this goal? Are we nearing the Holy Grail of eliminating manual and menial tasks, such as ordering inventory and supplies? There is a reason why supply chain optimization isn’t front and center of everyone’s mind. For most practices, the supply spend stays under 10% of gross revenue, so it is less expensive than rent and payroll. A bigger question is: How hard do you have to work to get that percentage down to 5%? How much staff time you allocate to supplies vs procedures can seem daunting.
Go to bit.ly/DentalSupplyChain
Strengthening Connections Between Dental Patients and Providers to Improve Oral Health
by Noah Levine
The oral health company quip is taking concrete steps to bridge the gap between providers and patients, starting with its purchase of the teledentistry platform Toothpic. This addition of teledentistry services represents the next step in the company’s vision of creating a network of patients who have all the tools and resources they need to work with their dentist to maintain the best oral health possible. To learn more about this vision, Dental Products Report® Editorial Director Noah Levine spoke with quip cofounder and CEO, Simon Enever.
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