How to convince patients that a profesional teeth cleaning is a MUST?

The necesity of oral health and how to reflect that to your patients.

One of the main problems hygienists are still facing is that patients cancel their teeth cleaning or don’t realize the necessity to come in on a regular basis. This leads to tooth decay and more invasive treatments. Here some tips to convince your patients of the necessity of this type of cleanings.

Appointments to maintain dental hygiene not only help maintain the oral health of the patient, but also directly influence a healthy relationship between the patient and the clinic. Without these routine and usual visits, your patients could lose contact with you, become inactive and even consider going to another dentist if they had a problem in the future.

However, despite its importance, many patients still think that teeth cleaning appointments are not that important. Unfortunately, a good part of the staff of the clinics reinforces this misunderstanding by also using the term “cleaning” to refer to these visits. To ensure that your patients begin to value appointments more to maintain their dental hygiene, follow these recommendations:

1) “Clean” your vocabulary. If at times you, your dental hygienist, your appointment coordinator or other staff call these dental hygiene appointments “cleanings”, you should stop doing so. By using this terminology, they lower their value and make their patients believe that, deep down, they are not so important. Use a new and more appropriate term, such as “appointment for maintenance of oral health” or “continuous examination of periodontal care and prevention of oral cancer.”

2) Educate your patients not only in dental care from home, but also in the services offered during the appointment. The average patient only has a vague idea of ​​the services offered by the dental hygienist. Encourage your hygienist to briefly comment on what he or she does in each step, and why.

3) Consider using a hygiene checklist for patients. Design a simple document with boxes and blank spaces for comments that the dental hygienist can complete and offer to patients at the end of their appointment. This “report” will help patients understand and appreciate dental hygiene services.

4) Add value to your services by offering dental hygiene products. Make it easy for your patients to purchase oral health products that both you and your hygienist recommend as dental professionals. If you offer them directly in the clinic, you will strengthen your relationship with the patient and emphasize the importance of arranging regular appointments to maintain dental hygiene.

5) Train your receptionist to make sure all patients have scheduled appointments. When patients reject the next appointment, cancel an appointment without arranging another or simply do not appear, a coordinator with a good training is able to “apply pressure” in a subtle but efficient way, in order to achieve, in many cases, the patient to change opinion.

Use these and other techniques to convince patients that appointments to maintain dental hygiene are much more than “cleanings.” This way your patients will see the benefits … and the clinic as well.

This month is debridement (profylaxis) and periodontal maintenance month at Ancar. Take a look at our dental treatment centers and contact your nearest Ancar dealer for more information.