Blogs

If you have looked into the mirror and noticed little imperfections regarding your teeth and would like to know about your options, one great solution to look into is the placement of a tooth veneer. These tooth coverings are often used by high profile individuals, such as movie stars, who want to keep a beautiful smile for the public. There are a number of options for each individual where the veneer is concerned, including temporary and permanent, as well as the materials which they are made from.

You have heard it said many times that the way a person looks can make all the difference. Your smile says a lot about you. Not only can your teeth tell a person about your overall health, but the wear and tear your teeth have gone through will also give indications of your age. Heavily stained, cracked, or worn teeth will easily cause a person to look much older than what they really are.

Your teeth can develop:

1. worn edges
2. staining
3. small cracks
4. open gaps from receding gums or shifts in tooth position
5. uneven appearance

Teeth naturally wear down and crack with eating, or the unfortunate habit of teeth grinding. Cracks can also occur as a result of trying to use the teeth as a tool, such as a bottle opener. Stains develop from many food and drink choices, such as coffee, soda pop, tea, food sauces, wine, berries, and much more. The teeth and gums will gradually move throughout the lifetime of a person, leaving gaps, and uneven teeth.

These problems do not always respond best to whitening, or necessarily need corrections such as crowns, cosmetic contouring, orthodontics, or resin bonding. Veneers are the perfect solution to address these visual complaints.

Whitening is a popular method to try to remove stains from the affected teeth. These solutions are not always effective in removing the problem, because the discoloration may be deeper than where the agent can penetrate. It is also a concern that excessive use of whitening products can cause damage tot he tooth enamel, leaving the tooth susceptible to additional staining or damage.

A veneer is a thin layer that can easily be placed over a single tooth or multiple teeth. These can be used to hide stains, fill in gaps or cracks, and even protect vulnerable tooth surfaces from damage. The effects leave you with straight, white, bright, and youthful appearing teeth.

Depending upon your personal needs, a dentist will be able to cover the imperfections with a veneer. Speak with one of our professionals to find out what your options are for a more beautiful smile.

About the Author

Dr. Vu Le is the Owner of Vu Le, DDS Inc. Dr. Vu Le is an experienced Foothill Ranch Dentist, specializing in family dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, teeth capping and dental fillings. He is certified, prides himself in building strong relationships with each of his patients and has gained a reputation of excellence in the dental community. Google+

As 2012 draws to a close and 2013 is waiting on the wings, it’s time for dentists to evaluate their online marketing campaign and look at the trends which are projected to dominate this entire year:

Mobile Web

According to the latest statistics, around 75 percent of the entire global population now have access to smart phones and other mobile devices. It’s not just through personal computers that prospects and existing patients can access your dental website. So if making your dental site website friendly was not a priority in the past, then you should make this task first on your list for this year.

The lure of using mobile web is the fact that people can access the Internet even when they are on the go. And with such a hectic lifestyle most of us lead, the convenience of being able to schedule an appointment with your dentist while having lunch is something which most patients and prospects would really appreciate.

“Gamified” Services

The past year has seen the rise in creating game-designs to non-game applications. There is just something very engaging and fun about being able to play an application which wasn’t meant to be a game in the first place. If you’re thinking about making website visitors explore your dental site for a longer period of time, then it’s time to “gamify” the entire experience.

In-bound Marketing

If you’ve been extremely reliant on paid links in order to get traffic to your website, then it’s time for you to scratch that plan and start going for in-bound marketing. What in-bound marketing does is that it utilizes conversations, resources and all sorts of content in order to draw in prospects to your dental website without the need of paid marketing. Instead of purchasing links, it’s time for you to invest your money on great content and catchy website designs.

Local Marketing

If in the past, small business owners had to market to the entire world via traditional SEO, the entire thrust is local marketing. Local marketing involves improving your local search results with the help of Google Places, engaging with prospects and clients in a direct manner and then tracking this success. There are a number of websites which dentists as well as other small business owners can turn to in order for them to easily track the success of their local marketing campaign, including such websites as GetListed.

Dear Colleagues of the Dental Team,

As you all know, the 7th edition of the CAD/CAM & Digital Dentistry International Conference was held in October 2012 in Singapore. As you may expect, the event enjoyed the same success that we are all used to.

We are very much thrilled by the grounds that our conferences are covering year after year. By now, all of us; organizers, sponsors, as well as speakers are very well known symbol of quality at the international level. It is our mutual cooperation that brought us to this level of professionalism. All of us put the interest of our participants as our top priority.

Though the dental CAD/CAM industry has reached quite a very high level of development and became a major trusted player in Dentistry, it continues to improve on a fast pace. Statistics tell us that by the year of 2050, more that 50% of dental services will be done through CAD/CAM technology. This serves only to highlight the importance in keeping up with this fast moving technology through such highly specialized conferences.

We will continue this unsurpassed cooperation to bring to our audience the most recent updates of technology in the CAD/CAM field with few "surprises" as well.

See you in the Dynamic City of Dubai!

CAD/CAM & Digital Dentistry International Conference, 8th Edition

02 - 03 May, 2012

JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai, UAE

www.cappmea.com/cadcam8

As technology introduces new materials and better methods into the dental field, problems that might have kept you from having the kind of smile you’ve always wanted – as well as general teeth health – become easier to solve. These days, just about any problem with broken, missing or weakened teeth can be fixed with the dental crown, or any of the other tools in the average dental practice. It’s important to understand what method works best for a specific problem, so that you can plan with your dentist and explain what you hope to accomplish.

Dental Crowns for Restoring Teeth

Also known as dental caps, the dental crown is a popular procedure done to strengthen teeth that have been weakened or compromised in some way. It consists of very strong and resilient materials bonded to the top of a decayed tooth, to protect it from further damage. Even in cases where the damage is significant, your dentist can fashion a dental crown to restore its appearance. The range of materials available is growing each year as science continues to contribute to the dentistry; gold and porcelain are two of the most common substances used.

It’s important to know a few of the differences between using gold or porcelain as a dental crown. You’ve doubtless seen plenty of gold teeth in your lifetime; because it is a soft metal that doesn’t react biologically, a gold dental crown won’t put undue pressure on the surrounding healthy teeth in your mouth. Furthermore, gold is soft but strong, and so your dentist won’t have to remove as much of the healthy parts of a damaged tooth to provide structural support. The color can be a problem for some people for cosmetic reasons, however. Porcelain crowns take care of this issue, but since the material isn’t as strong as gold, more of the tooth needs to be carved out so that thicker porcelain can be put in for support. Talk to your dentist about the pros and cons to settle on the kind of dental crown that works best for you.

Dental Bridges 

The dental bridge is a more robust extension of the dental crown. Used to replace a middle tooth that is entirely missing, the bridge consists of using your healthy, adjacent teeth as a support bridge for the new tooth your dentist places between them. The dental crown aspect comes into play when crowns are affixed to the tops of both adjacent teeth so that there will be a connecting structure. There are several different variations of the dental bridge to solve multiple varieties of missing teeth; your dentist might use ceramic, porcelain or a metallic framework.

Implants for Restoring a Broken Smile

Dental implants are the modern answer to the dentures of old, which had almost as many cons as pros for many people. While dentures are definitely meant to be a temporary, removable solution to many missing or decayed teeth, dental implants are intended to be permanent. Made to look exactly like normal teeth, they have a cosmetic appeal to most people that is hard to quantify. The fact that they are really strong, with a foundation of the biologically inert metal titanium, means that dental implants can give you a wonderful smile almost indefinitely – while eliminating the tedious removal-replacement-removal process of dentures.

About the Author

Dr. Vu Le is the Owner of Vu Le, DDS Inc. Dr. Vu Le is an experienced Foothill Ranch Dentist, specializing in family dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, teeth capping and dental fillings. He is certified, prides himself in building strong relationships with each of his patients and has gained a reputation of excellence in the dental community.

The recent economic downturn has massively curtailed the ability of any average, reasonable individual to spend. This decrease in the spending power of consumers has made it nearly impossible for them to purchase goods and services which are not deemed as essential.

Some of these inessential services include elective dental procedure like cosmetic dental procedures. And while the American Dental Association has stressed time and time again that patients should see their dentist once every six months for routine cleaning, the majority of individuals are still bypassing these regular visits unless something has started to really hurt or if some sort of bleeding has begun.

All of these reasons, no matter how practical and seemingly sound they may be for prospects, are hurting the dental industry as a whole. So how can dentists work around these conditions and still keep their business afloat? 

 These tricks of the trade just might work.

Discounts?

The majority of dentists go for the most obvious solution to their sluggish productivity problems – reducing rates of services in the form of discounts. But while this definitely makes sense in that people want to get services for the lowest price, marketing experts also have a couple of problems with this tactic. For one, discounts are inorganic methods of getting more consumers and the problem with these artificial solutions is that the increase in productivity stops once you pull the plug on this gimmick. And for how long can you continue to give discounts without being in the red?

Value Added Services

Another problem with discounts is that they seemingly cheapen the service which you are peddling. The reason for why cosmetic and oral surgery procedures are normally priced higher is because patients might get the impression that they are going to an unsafe and inferior procedure. In order to escape that sort of impression yet still lure patients in, dentists go for the concept of value added services. Basically, dentists charge their patients the same rate but they get to avail of another service on top of the one that they are paying for, free of charge.

Offer Financing Options

Sometimes, a patient can afford a certain procedure, but that patient just cannot pay for everything at one go. How many patients do you know have enough cash to pay for orthodontic braces right on the spot? Not a whole lot, I bet. So instead of turning away patients, try offering  financing options or offer treatments in phases to make your services more affordable to interested prospects.

If you think that the pinnacle of your online success is getting your dental website to the very top of the search engine results pages, then think again. Your entire goal of being online is so that you can get prospects online and then convert them into paying patients with the help of your dental website.

What is conversion?

The entire process of conversion begins the moment that someone visits your dental website up to a point when he or she calls your dental office, inquires about your services, schedules an appointment and finally drops in for the first meeting.

If you want to make actual money from your online marketing campaign, you need to be able to pass through that seemingly high barrier and get a visitor to come into your brick-and-mortal dental clinic as a paying patient. But how do you start converting visitors?

The window period.

If you want to convert visitors, then you have to make your move from the very moment that someone lands into your website and make sure that before they click the “home” button, you have already convinced them or at least made them interested in calling you and asking about your services. And sometimes, that entire plan is easier said than done. Here are some of the bumps that you can have along the way:

High bounce rates. When your dental website has high bounce rates, this means that visitors are leaving your website as fast as they get to it. Even though your dental website may rank higher in the search engine results pages, if it also has a high bounce rate, all of your search engine optimization efforts are in vain.

Some of the factors for why you may have high bounce rates include not having compelling enough content, having an amateurish looking website or maybe your website is just downright misleading. You need to address all these factors if you want visitors to stay long enough on your website for you to convince them on calling your office up.

If your dental website does not offer enough information about your services or the whereabouts of your clinic, then visitors may want to look for a different dental website which can deliver on those counts. At the same time, if your site looks like it was built by a third grader and not commissioned by a reputable and competent dentist, then that could be another turn off.

You’ve heard that blogging is a great way to get your marketing message across. Moreover, blogging will help your dental website shoot up in the search engine results pages. But who has the time to blog? If you’re an average dentist who has to work 8-to-5 shits all the time, then I’m sure you’re racking your brains thinking how you can squeeze in the time to write blog posts.

Most dentists who employ the “I don’t have time” argument against blogging are the ones who haven’t realized the extent that blogging can elevate their practice. Before you whine again about how you have so much to do than blog, here are some of the things that blogging can do for your business:

1. Blogs allow you to update your various social media accounts.

Whenever you update your dental blog, it’s possible for your social networking website accounts to be automatically updated as well. For instance, if you publish an advice post on your blog, then a snippet of that article could pop up on your practice’s Facebook page. At the same time, portions of the same post can also be automatically tweeted on your Twitter page alerting your subscribers that you have published new content on your dental blog.

2. Blogs drastically improve your dental website’s visibility.

The ease of which your prospects can find your dental website online is something which you have to look into in order for you to leverage the maximum power of the internet. To begin with, if your dental website is so difficult for your prospects to locate, then why even bother having a website to begin with? Google and various other search engines love blogs in that they make it easier for blogs to rank high in online searches. What you can do to funnel traffic from your blogs to your dental websites, where you can convert prospects, is by creating links to your dental site on your blog. These links will serve as online referrals to your dental website which will elevate its standing in the online searches.

3. Blogs make it easier for you to interact with prospects.

The comment box at the bottom of blog posts actually help in stirring conversation not just among your prospects but also you with them. End your blogs with a question in order to initiate responses and you can get your prospects to engage with you a nice and healthy online conversation. 

The buzz surrounding blogging has died down a bit with so many other social media platforms emerging. You have Facebook and then the microblogging website, Twitter. And then other websites such as Pinterest and Tumblr are also earning massive viewership. But while various marketing experts have harped about the benefits of using  social media as an advertising and marketing tool, only one platform could really give your business a huge lift and that would be blogs.

The SEO Aspect of Blogs

The primary reason for why blogs are immensely helpful in online marketing has to do with the fact that Google and other search engines seem to take very well to blogs. In fact, blog posts are seen as news by the search engine giant making it easier for these posts to rank in search engine results pages. If you develop a blog with wide readership and recognized online authority with the help of Google, then you can easily create links from that dental blog to your dental website. These links will serve as online referrals that can lead Google into thinking that your dental website is a good site with the help of the high quality links that it has garnered from your blog,

The Interactive Side of Blogs

Aside from the fact that you could publish lengthy content in a very convenient manner through blogs, you can actually initiate interesting conversation among your readers with the help of the comment box at the bottom of the posts. This allows you to market not just vertically by engaging with your prospects directly but also promote horizontal marketing because your prospects are free to talk with each other on your site. And especially in this digital world where referrals and reviews of services are done through websites and blogs, a satisfied patient could sing your online praises to prospects who are still deciding whether to call you for an appointment or not.

The Informative Angle of Blogs

Prospects who are searching for dental websites are more likely to contact a practice whose dental site looks “alive” and up-to-date. An easy way to give your dental website a “lived in” look is by maintaining a dental blog that’s linked to your main site. This way, your prospects can easily browse through your blog and find out that it’s still active and so is your dental website. This will save your prospects a lot of time thinking whether or not your practice still exists. 

Dental Anxiety - Abnormal fear or dread of visiting the dentist for preventive care or follow up treatment and extreme anxiety over dental procedures.

Let’s face it, not many people truly enjoy going to the dentist. There are plenty who do, but most do not. We know it is good for our dental and overall health, so we go for that reason. For

Dental Anxiety Can Be Overcome!

some, an irrational fear takes over, leaving them paralyzed with fear, and without the dental care they need to enjoy their lives fully.  According to a 2009 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) almost 50% of adults skip dental visits due to dental anxiety.

Psychology of Dental Anxiety

Many dental related fears are developed when you are young and impressionable. Sometimes the dental fear is transferred from parents to their children. When a parent is highly anxious, they oftentimes elaborate on pain, needles, drilling, and tooth removal, causing the child to believe that this will happen to them also. For some, a bad dental experience can traumatize them for the future. Feeling pain, gagging, losing control, not knowing what is going on, or having unexpected procedure you were not prepared for can be very difficult to get over. Prior to modern dentistry, dentists and their instruments were given a bad reputation in real life, movies and TV shows . The instruments and techniques used to mask discomfort were less than ideal. In modern dentistry, the dentist is more in tune to patients dental anxiety and dental fears. These dental anxieties can be overcome with a concerted effort by the patient, loved ones, and dentist.

How to Overcome Dental Anxiety

Overcoming dental anxiety can take as little as one visit, or it can take months to years. It all depends on the level of anxiety or phobia a patient might have. The following are some tips to help overcome dental anxiety:

1) Find the “right” dentist. Not all dentists have the same educational training, techniques, or patience when it comes to patients with dental anxiety. Do your research, use the Internet or ask friends and loved ones for recommendations. A good dentist is one, who is able to communicate effectively with you, and put you at ease. Most patients feel better when they know whats going on and how its going to happen. Understanding what will happen in the appointment, and having a signal to stop whenever you need to, gives back control to the patient and takes the surprise out of the situation. You and your dentist will figure out what specific things elevate your dental anxiety, and find ways to work around them. Ask your dentist their policy on emergencies after hours. Many dentists do not return calls after hours while others personally answer calls after hours and even open the office if the situation is necessary.

Overcome Dental Anxiety for the Entire Family!

2) Distraction. Oftentimes, redirecting your mind can set you at ease. Meditation can be taught to you by your dentist. Music can help if the noises of dentistry affect you, bring your ipod or mp3 player with your favorite music and listen during the treatment to distract your mind and relieve your dental anxiety. A soft “squeezy ball” can help, and give that comforting feeling of squeezing someones hand.

3) Take Breaks when Needed. This goes back to communication. Take the time out during procedures to compose yourself as needed. Have a predetermined hand signal to stop the procedure as often as needed. Some patients with dental anxiety feel claustrophobic after awhile and may need to walk around a bit, catch their breath, ask a question, etc. before finishing the dental procedure.

4) Be Open and Honest. Tell your dentist what bothers you most about the dental experience, or past problems that have increased your dental anxiety. For some, the loud pitched noises may be very difficult, for others it might be the smells of the dental office, and for others it might be a past painful experience. These issues can be addressed in order to make your experience more acceptable. In dentistry today, there are many techniques to deliver a more comfortable and comforting experience.

5) Consider Medication. For some of us with more extreme dental anxiety, a mild form of sedation may be necessary to get you through. Taking a medication such as Valium prior to your appointment can help you sleep the night before, and allow for you to actually get to your appointment. Generally, such medications relax your entire body, decreasing the sweats, heart racing, and panic attacks that might otherwise disable you. This is a wonderful way to acclimate yourself to your new dentist, and the dental experience. Over time, the dosage can be reduced as you gain confidence in your dentist and your own coping abilities.  Plenty of patients, with time, can learn the techniques necessary to have dental treatment without medication.

Dental Anxiety Conclusion

Dental anxiety can be truly crippling. What we have to remember is, that if we want good health, dental treatment is necessary.  Recent studies have shown definite links between our dental health and our general health. This means it makes our dental health doubly important for us to lead healthy, happy lives. Dental anxiety CAN be overcome and defeated with a concerted effort by dentist and patient. If you are suffering from dental anxiety, take that first step, and make an appointment to meet with a dentist well versed in treating dental anxiety and dental phobia.

© 2012, Marielaina Perrone DDS. All rights reserved. Las Vegas Dental Phobia

Dental implants have changed the face of dentistry over the last 20 years. They have been nothing less than a miracle in the replacement of teeth whether it be a single tooth,

Teeth In A Day – All On 4 Dental Implants

multiple teeth, or as an anchor for a denture. As the technology matures, new advancements and techniques come into play. One of those newer techniques is calledAll On 4 Dental Implants. This technique allows for the placement of four dental implants (hence the name all on 4 dental implants), and the restoration to be placed on the same day. Patients leave the office with teeth. For this reason all on 4 dental implants are also called “new teeth in a day“.

Who Wants All On 4 Dental Implants?

The patients who choose all on four, do so for many reasons including, poor fitting existing dentures, terrible trauma causingtooth loss, decay or periodontal disease causing progressive tooth loss. The most common patients to choose all on four, are not denture wearers. They are patients who have been fighting an uphill battle for a while and know that they are losing their teeth. These individuals have been trying to hold on as long as possible because they do not want to have any time in their life without teeth, and the thought of a removable denture is not an option.

What are All On 4 Dental Implants

The All on 4 Dental Implants procedure was developed in the mid 1990′s. The all on 4 dental implants system has allowed for a variety of patients who, for various reasons, were not considered good candidates for traditional dental implants to now become candidates.

All On 4 Dental Implants for a New Smile!

The All on 4 Dental Implants procedure uses fourdental implants per arch (upper or lower).  The dental implants in the back are placed on an angle to take maximum advantage of the existing bone structure. Special dental implants were developed that could support the immediate fitting of replacement teeth. This treatment is attractive to those with loose dentures or those in need of full upper and/or lower restorations. With the All-on-4 dental implants procedure, qualified patients receive just four dental implants and a full set of new upper or lower replacement teeth in just one appointment. This usually able to be done without dental bone grafts.  The real attraction to the all on 4 dental implants procedure is how quickly permanent dental implants can be placed. This allows patients the ability to leave the same day with a denture that is fixed in place and stabilized by the dental implants.

Traditionally, the  approach to restoring a full arch of teeth (either upper or lower) usually involved dental bone grafts, six or more dental implants, and as much as 18 months of treatment. In that time, the patient would be wearing an interim denture while the dental bone grafts and dental implants heal and integrate into the bone. This can be very expensive, time consuming, and uncomfortable for a patient to continuously go back for treatment.

What Appointments are Needed for All On 4 Dental Implants?

The All on 4 Dental Implants procedure consists of the following visits:

Initial Visit(s) – The initial visit(s) for the all on 4 dental implants procedure is necessary for the dentist to do a proper treatment plan for you. These visits will include gathering pertinent medical history, needed X-rays, dental impressions, photos, and a CAT Scan. The dentist will then be able to review all the information with the patient and develop the proper course of treatment.

Actual All On 4 Dental Implants Procedure Visit – At this visit the patient will undergo the procedure for placement of the 4 dental implants. Following placement of

All On 4 Dental Implants Can Transform Your Smile!

the dental implants, the dentist will place the denture in and the patient will leave in the afternoon with a beautiful set of fixed, functional teeth.

Follow-up Appointments - The patient will need to return to the dentist for occasional dental examinations over the next several days, weeks, and months to ensure comfort and fit. In about 6 months, the patient will return for a final set of dentures. The reason for the 6 month wait is to give the tissues in the mouth time to heal properly, correct anything the patient wishes to change, and to allow the implants to properly integrate into the bone.

Conclusion on All on 4 Dental Implants

More than 100 million people in the United States alone are missing between 11 and 15 of their permanent adult teeth. By the age of 60, almost 70% of these people are completely without teeth and in desperate need of complete oral rehabilitation. This is where the all on 4 dental implants procedure comes in and is able to restore people’s teeth and change their outlook on life.

© 2012, Marielaina Perrone DDS. All rights reserved. Henderson Dental Implants

Reasons to hire a dental virtual assistant as an adjunct to your practice:

1) Dental virtual assistants are independent contractors who are NOT on your payroll.  They work from their own location using their own phones, computers and faxes to get your job done.
2) Dental virtual assistants (DVA's) can answer phones when you are opened or closed.

3) DVA's schedule appontiments and keep your schedule full.
4) DVA's work on recalls and outstanding treatment plans.

5) DVA's verify dental insurance for your practices.
6) DVA's work on outstanding insurance claims that are over 30 days old.
7) DVA's figure out copays for your patients.

8) DVA's submit claims electronically with all necessary attachments and narratives.                                                             

9) DVA's post insurance payments to your account and do any necessary PPO adjustments.

10) DVA's deposit your insurance checks for you directly into your account using a remote capture deposit scanner.  Your money is available to you the very next day.

11) DVA's send out billing statements and work on collections for your practice.

12) DVA's write newsletters and blogs for your practice.  In addition to regular blogs, VA's represent your office by doing video blogs for your practice.
 

13) DVA's post and manage all of your social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+.  These things give your practice better visiblilty on the internet.

Only 7 Days Left!

Closing date for all entries: 20th December, 2012

As one innovative step in the Middle East the Aesthetic Dentistry MENA Awards 2012 aim to focus the public attention on the quality and the level of dentistry in the region for the well - being of the patients.

Submit your clinical case and be the Winner!

Be a part of this Premier Event for Professionals!

Website: http://www.cappmea.com/awards2012/

Online Case Submission: http://www.cappmea.com/awards2012/online.html

Dental marketing near the end of the year slows down for most dentists. This gives many of you time to look back on the year and evaluate your practice as well as prepare for 2013. As you get ready to close down your practice for the holidays and the year take time to evaluate these top business metrics. These key dental metrics are critical measures of not just the amount of money coming in, but the sustainability and longevity of your practice.

Dental Marketing Checklist for 2012

#1 Patient Loyalty

# 2 Recall -

# 3 Communication

# 4 Online Reviews

#5 Campaigns

Call to learn more or get started 800.556.2580

In this economy, loyalty is something which is extremely invaluable Marketing your practice. to new prospects can cost you thousands of dollars and you’re not even very sure about the payoff with the lowered consumer spending. You may be able to gather a lot of people who are interested in your services but they may not have enough resources to schedule an appointment. In this case, all of the money which you’ve funneled into your advertising campaign will be all for naught. For this reason, it is wiser to rely on repeat patients. Here are some ways to continue to capture the hearts of your patients:

A smile brightens everything.

People keep going back to businesses which treat them nicely. Naturally, your patients will not be very forthcoming to your front office worker who always sounds cranky on the phone and seems very intimidating in person. On the other hand, if your staff is very accommodating, helpful and warm, this will do a lot in keeping your existing patients.

Goody bags for adults.

You certainly do not have to purchase a very expensive gift in order to appease your patients. A simple loot bag containing a toothbrush and dental floss will go a long way in putting a smile on your patients’ faces. It’s above and beyond the items they receive. Cliché as it may seem, it’s the thought that actually counts.

Set a friendly atmosphere for your patients when they’re in the chair.

Your patients aren’t actually feeling so comfortable when they are in the chair and they have to open their mouths while you stick sharp, metal objects in your mouth. If the thought of pain is not enough to make them feel uneasy, hygienists talking about their boss rudely behind his or her back or dentists complaining about their work load won’t make things any easier.

Be more intuitive.

In an effort to make your patients more comfortable, it helps to take note of their physical cues. When you’re doing a routine dental procedure to something more complicated like oral surgery, your patients won’t be able to signal that easily that they need to gargle or drink water. And if you aren’t attentive enough, a simple procedure could become excruciating for a patient. For this reason, it pays to be intuitive and take note of your patients’ gestures especially when they are in a compromised position to ensure your patient’s convenience.

You know that your  dental website is an excellent tool for marketing your practice. But do you know exactly how it does that? The problem with most dentists is that they join the entire dental website bandwagon solely because they know a friend who swears that having internet visibility turned his business upside down.

 Searching Locally

According to a recent study, the majority of internet users makes use of the World Wide Web in order to scour the cyberspace for businesses which are found within their community. This is a trend is very unlikely to die especially with search engine giants like Google giving a lot of incentive for local businesses to have a Google Places listing and, furthermore, making it easy for searchers to find local businesses simply by inserting a place modifier in their queries. Since you’re a local business, then you need to tap into this right away.

How to Get Connected With Prospects

There are a number of ways that you can ensure that your dental website is getting to your local prospects. Here are just a few of the ways:

1. Get a Google Places listing.

If you’ve ever made a search which included a specific name of a place, then you’re familiar with the links that show up on top of the organic search results and next to the map with corresponding flags. Those are listings for Google Places. Owing to the fact that they show up before traditional results, having a Places listing will help you land on the first page of the search engine results pages minus all that much work involved with traditional searches. In order to activate your Google Places listing though, Google may have to call your office phone but the entire process is rather straightforward.

2. Have a Facebook page for your practice,

One thing which social media websites are known for is their ability to connect users. This is exactly the reason for why old friends and long lost family members are able to connect with each other through this platform. So why not leverage the power of social media in order to promote your practice to people living within your community? Not only will it be very easy for you to find prospects and existing patients through Facebook, you can post insightful and helpful daily tips which can help filter traffic from this social networking site to your actual dental website. 

Why Are My Teeth So Sensitive?
Sensitive teeth is one of the most common complaints by dental patients. Exposed dentin is the likely reason that your teeth are overly sensitive. Dentin is the tissue that makes up the core of each tooth. Dentin is covered by a protective coating of enamel. When this enamel wears away or decays, the dentin becomes exposed and receptive to sensations, including pain. Dentin exposure and sensitivity also occur when roots are exposed due to gum recession.

To read more about sensitive teeth you can find the complete article here: Why Are My Teeth So Sensitive?

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