Oh my, where do I even begin? Many years ago, I lectured on digital imaging and radiography. Trying to help practices understand the benefits of this technology was difficult back then, and now it’s the norm for most practices. However, how many offices still use analog radiographs today? With the constant changes in dental technology, it’s not healthy to embrace the status quo.
Most of you have heard the phrase, “change or die”. We hear that phrase in business classes or seminars, yet I don’t think that is entirely correct. There are many techniques and materials I learned about in dentistry thirty years ago that can still be effectively used today. But are they the best dentistry has to offer? Are their better choices for our patients when it comes to products and procedures? Have we discovered what those technological advancements are? What holds us back from engaging with new knowledge?
Often times it’s simply a monetary decision. Technology isn’t cheap. However, we find that the main reason dentists and their teams do not want to learn and engage new knowledge and equipment is because they are happy with the way things are, and they just don’t want to change.
No one likes change, I get that. But what if that “change” could bring you thousands of dollars each and every month in additional revenue? What if that “change” could significantly improve patient care, make your job easier, and especially make your teams jobs easier and more fulfilling?
It’s difficult to break the “status-quo” in our practices, but we need to look hard and fast at opportunities that can lead to practice and patient care improvements in addition to intrinsic financial gains. Simply staying in our comfort zones can easily lead to inadequate patient care and negative financial rewards.
One example is the number of dentists who DO NOT offer their patients bone preservation when tooth extraction is needed. They just don’t feel the patient will pay for such services as they are somewhat expensive. Yet this procedure is one of the most significant services we can provide, as we all know once the bone is gone, it’s not coming back. And patients are happy to pay for things when they understand “why” it is needed. Yet why are there less than 20% of dentists out there offering this procedure? It’s simple: status-quo.
We all become comfortable doing things the way we’ve always done them. The status-quo is so much easier than learning how to be proficient at CAD/CAM restorations, reading cone beam computed tomography, or learning the Clinical Business of Dentistry from My Practice My Business. Let us help you increase revenue with need-based dentistry, regardless of your patient being insured or not.
Don’t allow the “status-quo” to control your revenues and retirement just because you don’t know what you don’t know. Dentistry can be fun again, and rewarding. It’s always more fun to do dentistry when we are profitable on all procedures, and that’s what we simply do for practices like yours.
Rob Thorup, DDS