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Being in the service-industry can be extremely tough. Not only do you have to adjust to clients with different preferences and different quirks, your relationship with them also becomes crucial. This is why although dentists have this entire reputation of being calm and collected professionals with their white lab gowns, the fact remains that they are always thinking about how to find new patients.

Because dentists are often overwhelmed with the need to find new patients, chances are that they no longer think about the quality of new patients they are getting. Successful dentists argue that it’s not the number of patients that really matter but the quality of patients. At the end of the day, if you’re stuck with patients who you cannot form long term professional relationships with, how can you expect them to be loyal to you?

Although the standard marketing strategies are still very much useful in finding new patients, here are a couple of tricks for finding the perfect patients:

What makes you different?


You want to attract new patients not because of your flashy ads and posters but because of the qualities that make your practice truly authentic. What sets you apart from other practices? Maybe it is the fact that booking appointments could not be any easier with the help of your new dental website which makes you an ideal match for working patients. Or do you make sure that appointments run on time? Regardless of what your practice’s core principles are, be sure to let prospects be aware of this. If you put premium on the same values, then your prospects will find some point of association with you right there and then, and building rapport with them will naturally follow.

Are you ready to impress?

Your new patients will feel a lot of things when first entering your clinic. Your job as a dentist is to ensure that they feel comfortable and appreciated. Keep in mind that when it comes to choosing service providers, you cannot be 100 percent logical and sensible with your new patients. Regardless of the fact that you might have the best equipment and the most experienced dentists, if your patients do not feel wanted inside your clinic, they will not hesitate to leave and step into another clinic which makes them feel more welcomed. Try to be more attentive to your patients and you’ll see how positively they’ll react in return.

In school or at work, in the mall or at parties, have you ever felt the complex of being unattractive? You must have once in a while. You may also think you were born this way, or maybe you don’t have the accessories which the others do. That’s not true; the real reason could very well be an unattractive smile.

An attractive smile can change your whole personality. It makes u look more beautiful, it expresses who you are. For an amazing smile the main ingredients are straight teeth, one has to have perfect white teeth for the “Hollywood smile” and for that you need the help of your dentist.

Take care of your teeth by brushing them regularly. You might have misaligned teeth that would lead to a crooked smile, many would recommend metal braces but metal braces are very painful and also are a reason of humiliation at school and work. Students taunt and bully children wearing braces as they are so vividly visible. Not only that, but the braces also cause a lot of discomfort as they are heavy. One also has to keep a check of what they are eating as the food gets stuck in braces and is hard to take out giving way to bacteria to cause cavities. So if metal braces solve a problem they cause another one which could lead to expensive treatments like root canals. The metal braces also take away once confidence as no one would like to be humiliated in public or in school ground, forcing one to live a life in isolation.

Why use metal braces then? But now you also have another solution to the problem and that’s Clearline Ortho’s clear braces. The clear braces are made up of clear plastic; they work more effectively and are discrete. The braces are also light weight so you don’t need to worry about being irritated or feeling uncomfortable by carrying extra weight. The clear braces are also removable so take them off while eating and keep your teeth clean. The braces thus prove to be more economical as they won’t lead to further treatments like root canals, unlike the metal braces, Being invisible would save one from humiliation and isolation and not only that might also make one popular as he’s wearing braces which are not even visible.

So now you’ll have your awe inspiring smile in no time. The clear braces thus prove to be not only economical but also a smart choice. So contact your dentist today and flaunt your amazing smile like the ones you once envied!

Hi WebDental,

As a community of dental health experts, TopDentists.com invites all of you to participate in TopDentists.com's first Dental "Experts Weigh In" panel. This is an opportunity to showcase your expertise and gain exposure for your practice. We would be thrilled if you would participate!

Participation requires a few simple things on your end:
*  Your answer to the question below in (around) 50 words.

*  The attribution you'd like us to use: your full name, credentials and practice name
 
*  A head-shot photo (in hi-res jpeg format)

*  A link to the panel (with your participation) on your site once it's been published on TopDentists.com.

Here is the question:

"Is it true that taking care of your teeth can protect you from serious illnesses like heart disease and diabetes?"  

Please send your response by END OF DAY - MAY 4th, 2012. to Alisa Vilabrea at alisa@topdentists.com

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. As soon as the panel goes live with your response, we will let you know! Looking forward to presenting your response and working together!

Alisa Vilabrea
Outreach Director
Top Dentists
alisa@topdentists.com

646.728.9830
345 Hudson Street, 16th Floor
New York, New York 10014

FOLLOW - twitter.com/topdentists
LIKE - facebook.com/topdentists.com

Everyday Health and TopDentists.com will be conducting a survey of both consumers and the dental community in order to find the Top Dentists, based on the most important criterion to patients and colleagues. This survey covers all fields of dentistry, and includes over 60,000 dentists in the U.S

We invite you to share this link:

America's Top Dentists

on your website or blog.

The survey runs until May 18th.

Should you have any questions, please email feel free to email - alisa@topdentists.com.

Optimization of a dental website is definitely very influential in allowing you the chance to attract potential clients and improve your client base. For many dental service companies there is no doubt many are looking at the E-commerce platform and seeing a very huge potential in actualizing their potential through websites, however success in E-commerce is not guaranteed by virtue of a website all be it that is the foundational step towards success. Internet marketing and increasing website visibility and traffic flow are the other important undertakings for a dental website and most importantly, optimizing the website is very important.

Basic ideas in dental website optimization

Optimizing a website and particularly a dental website take the form of different approaches, the basic one of those is actually the correct use of keywords at your title page and other parts of your website. The key words are very important in search engine ranking positions and more often than not, key word research is highly recommended in web development. Aside from that there is websites SEO through article marketing, link building and other ideas such forum posting. All this facts can be easily done by marketing professionals that have developed a specific niche for dental websites.

Key words selection for dental website optimization

Key word selection for dental websites is important because dental practice from the online platforms is fairly a unique activity. Keyword selection is done through creative keyword research in most cases the keywords selected are based on the consumer preferences. The idea of coming up with key words is tied to SEO for the website and later on article marketing strategies. Increasing SERPs for your dental website entirely lies with appropriate key word selection and that means that should be a priority in developing the site.

What do you get from a well optimized dental website?

The returns from a well optimized dental websites are self evident and in fact, the main one is attracting traffic to your website. Traffic flow is foundational on developing a good online based clientele and that will definitely translate to great income. In many cases the reason why optimization is done is to actually let potential clients know that you are online and thus they can find services there. In the current world, many people would prefer flexibility and convenience in accessing services and that is what a well optimized website will add to your business.

The importance of optimizing a dental website

Optimizing a dental website is tied the long-term objective of increasing the number of clients. Optimization in fact is one of the modern marketing tools that should be part and parcel of a dental care business. The ideas involved here will help in business expansion through limited inputs.

The first thing about communication is that there must be something to communicate. This is broadly referred to as content. It is also erroneous to believe that anything can pass off as content. To make it more accurate, an adjective needs to describe the scope of this noun. And in terms of dental websites, that adjective is “appropriate. As such, appropriate content is more apt than just content. Many webmasters, use content as filler or spam. They take content from a purely self-serving perspective and seek to force feed it to the viewer. This is among the biggest mistakes a webmaster makes. There are at least three big mistakes, and they should be avoided under all circumstances.

Generic Greetings and Content

The relationship between visitor and webmaster is that a webmaster needs eyeballs that return and visitors need useable, actionable information. It's symbiotic, not parasitic. When a webmaster uses generic information that does not answer the need of the visitor but expects to gain from the visit, that is a parasitic relationship – offering nothing in return for a visit. Parasitic relationships do not last long and pretty soon, the website is left to obscurity. Give the customer all that he seeks then point him to pages elsewhere in your site that gives him more data on something he seeks. If you give him generic information, he will leave and it’s a wasted opportunity.

Being Friendly

Being thorough is an important aspect of website content. Being friendly is not. A person's visit to a website is not with the intention to make friends with the site, it is to seek answers. Being friendly, indirect and pretty much a waste of time, will serve no other purpose than to leave and never comeback. This is a mistake many people make in planning a website, they focus too much on the tone, and being friendly rather than on the content and being accurate. The website will be a lot more productive to have wall to wall facts and being straight to the point.

Incomplete Thoughts

In a dental website, it is unwise to leave the patient or reader, hanging. Do not use a title to promise the world, use the introduction to hype the content, only to carry the reader to the end of the article or post only to end it abruptly. The promise of a title and the promise of a sound introduction sets up a person to process the information that is expected. Beginning with one thought, framing it in a certain way then disappointing the reader with a totally different direction, is not acceptable. They are not visiting your site to read Mystery Theater.

These three issues must be avoided at all times, especially in professional websites. A medical website is a site where a person is not looking for a friend but for straight answers. It must answer issues the viewer seeks and it must be done in a way that inspires confidence. Never seek to shove information down someone rather seek to answer their need.

The need for website visibility by leading dental websites has been the foundation behind dental SEO services. The reality of Dental SEO  however is that that it not just any other SEO service but actually specific to the dental sector.  The reason why this point is very important is because in any case if you are looking for optimization for your dental website, there is a need to consult specific SEO experts that have great experience in working with dental establishments online.  The basic ideas needed to get best SEO strategies for dental websites are easy to follow indeed.

 Why Dental SEO is imperative for marketing success

Search engine Optimization or SEO  is the main tool that is used for internet marketing and this is one of the basic imperatives if at all marketing success in a dental establishment will be realized. The ideas involved in SEO have an added advantage in pulling potential clients to the service and the convenience created by accessing dental services online is influential towards increased revenues. Marketing online has to involve SEO given the primary role it plays in promoting the flow of traffic and improving search engine ranking positions.

Some ideas involved in Dental SEO

Dental SEO involves quite a number of approaches. The ideas however are designed to promote website visibility which will definitely be critical in attracting potential clients. The basic rationale however that is used in SEO marketing is based on keywords and tags and in most cases, SEO professionals will have  a unique way to make sure that your dental website becomes a vibrant entity of your dental care clinic.

What to consider while looking for dental SEO services

The basic consideration when looking for SEO services for dental websites is actually the marketing budget you have. The price variation in SEO service providers will definitely help you pick experts that fit to your budget. All the same, the need to get professional SEO services should drive you towards experts in the sector. The good thing is that there is an established niche of dental SEO experts who have concentrated on specific approaches that are fundamental in the dental sector. Either way, a good SEO marketing approach should be able to get you immediate results while at the same time remain affordable and inline with your dental services budget.

Impact of dental SEO on revenues for dental websites

The impact of effective SEO marketing for dental websites on the revenues is nothing short of positive. The fact remains that SEO is the best approach to attract client through increasing website visibility. Considering that the interest has millions of potential clients, the potential of website earning great revenues from increased visibility is huge and in most cases, SEO for dental websites have earned dental websistes this success.

Did you know it costs less to reactivate a lapsed dental patient than it does to acquire a new one?

If you are not currently engaging in a plan to reactivate lapsed patients, you might be losing valuable billings. There are many reasons patients may stop visiting the dentist, but most just need a simple reminder from you to start coming back!

Now, you’re probably thinking of your lapsed patient files and wondering where to start.

As a general rule, for patients you haven’t seen in:

 8-24 months – Send Reactivation Cards quarterly

 Longer than 24 months – Send Reactivation Cards every six months

But, sending attention-getting Reactivation Cards is only the first step in the process. Be sure to follow up on your mailed communication with a phone call, text or e-mail.

Services such as PracticeMojo™ link to your dental practice management system data and enable you to automatically send postcards, e-mails and text messages to your lapsed and current patients. Automating the dental recall and reactivation process makes reactivating lapsed patients a breeze. In all your practice can save over two weeks every year of valuable time by turning over your recall and reactivation efforts to PracticeMojo.

PracticeMojo also has automated programs for dental recall, acquisition, birthday, welcome, promotions and many more. Visit their site to learn more or to start automating your dental recall system today!

 Keys to Successful Dental Patient Reactivation:

1. Choose a different Reactivation Card design and alternate your reactivation message for each mailing to achieve maximum impact.

2. When lapsed patients return to your practice, be sure to ask them for referrals by giving them Referral Cards or Slips to pass along to friends and family.

3. Welcome patients back with Welcome Cards. They will appreciate the gesture and may even refer friends or family.

4. After each reactivation mailing update your list to exclude those who called to schedule an appointment, or who have indicated they are being treated by another dentist.

A little bit of time and effort focusing on bringing back lapsed dental patients will have surprising results on your practice’s bottom line. Get started today!

Jonathan

Marketing Specialist

SmartPractice

Dental practices must realize that the best source of new business is actually their database of not just current but also past patients. Finding a new patient is not just time consuming but also extremely expensive especially since chances are that you need to lure them by offering discounts or running expensive ads. If you could get more patients to opt for treatment without you having to cold call, send out direct mail or purchase leads, wouldn’t you be extremely eager to get started with this campaign? Chances are that you most definitely would.

Simply taking the time to reach out to your past and current patients will help your practice grow immensely. Not only are you strengthening your relationship with them and paving the road to patient loyalty, but you can also increase referrals to qualified prospects and build a list of leads.

But all of this is better said than done. Chances are that you’re already complaining mentally with how keeping in touch with past patients takes too much time and costs money. But when you factor in the return on investment, then you would think otherwise. The important part of keeping in touch with previous patients is to find a way which is time efficient as well as inexpensive and still effective.

According to studies, you should keep in touch with your patients at least fourteen times for each year in order for them to continue to remember you. You can touch base either through email, phone, snail mail or in-person meeting. Snail mail may include sending a postcard, holiday and anything else in between for that matter. All of these methods are useful in communicating with your patients.

But among those methods mentioned, which one is the most effective and successful? According to studies, there is no specific method to communicate with patients. On the other hand, the most successful “method” makes use of a couple of communication formats.

It’s easy to send out 14 emails annually, or make 14 phone calls or send out 14 postcards. But a constructive campaign makes use of a combination of these formats. You can probably send out four postcards for each year and then send six emails and then throw on two snail mail letters. Cap the year off with one phone call. Make sure though that you communicate with your clients approximately once for every three weeks throughout the entire year.

Dentists take on multiple roles. They are not just the ones who are in charge of taking care of people’s teeth. They are also the ones who are in charge coming up with and running marketing campaigns. On top of that, they’re also managers, leaders and motivators. Although dentists have a number of roles to fill, they aren’t exactly experts when it comes to advertising and marketing. They can try to learn the ropes but it can be extremely difficult to compete with the experts in the field. Here are a few things which dentists should take note of.

Most of the time dentists think that effective marketing consists of ads which sing their practice’s praises and nothing more. But the startling reality of things is that patients do not care about you or your practice. On the other hand, what they do care about are their selves. The reason for why they opt for treatment and consequently seek your services is because they want to feel or look better. Either they feel a throbbing pain or are unconfident about their appearance. For this reason, you need to reconsider your marketing campaigns.

This is where branding comes in. What successful branding does is it allows people to easily recognize your practice as soon as they hear your practice’s name. But what most dentists unknowingly think is that their name is synonymous to their practice’s name. This should be the case. When the owners of Coca-Cola decided to move forward with branding their products, they didn’t use their names. Instead, they came up with a catchy brand name which they can subsequently use for their external marketing campaigns.

As far as advertising goes, dentists should always consider the people who they are promoting their services to. What do your patients expect every time they walk into your dental clinic? You need to know exactly what they want from you in order for you to serve them better. And then you can start building your campaign based on what you know your patients want to hear. For instance, you can talk about how your treatments are minimally invasive appealing to patients who you know are scared of the dentist.

In order for you to seal the deal, you need to facilitate proper interaction. Dentists often lose a considerable number of prospects because they were not converted properly during phone calls. Lastly, dentists should also work hard at motivating their patients to give referrals.

It takes three simple steps to create the most complex website any designer could contrive. Just three simple guidelines that will allow the most ambitions dental website and portal to communicate with its target audience in an effective and comprehensive way. The three steps are also designed to be contemplated and derived from the vision of the principle's mind. This step is best done by the dentist himself or the owner of the practice.

Understand the Targeted Customer
It is advisable to begin with the presumption that your prospective customer or patient is going to be someone that will be inspired by confidence and that is the issue your site design should seek to address. People judge what they see with their mind's eye and the pass judgment in mere moments based on sets of prejudice. All of us have those. There is nothing wrong with it. Once you understand those prejudices you can either task them in your favor or avoid them completely. Here is an example of a prejudice. In most parts of China, the color black is associated with mourning and death. If you are a medical practitioner in the Chinese heartland and have a black website, the chances of you procuring a customer is slim. The same principle applies around the world. In the western world, the color white gives an immediate notion of being clean. You can use that to your advantage in design.

Differentiate The Customer
If you happen to provide two very different services then it may be necessary to target two separate customer demographics. For instance, if you cater to children who frequently need braces and to seniors who frequently look for dentures then your market is significantly different. As such, while you have only one site, you need to bring each customer in through a different door – or what is called a different landing page. So amongst the wealth of information throughout your website, there will be two different pages that optimize differently for dentures and another for braces.

Test The Site With Relevant Focus Groups
The thing to remember is that the dental website you build serves only one purpose. It is the nexus between what you have to offer and what a customer is in need off. A person who negates a focus group is essentially force-feeding the information to a person he hopes will be his customer. Its the wrong way to go about it. The best way to attract ants is with honey not vinegar. When a site is tested with a focus group, the words and layouts used can be tested with how a person reacts to it. Then tweaked to have the best possible impact.

With these three guidelines, any site is possible, every circumstance surmountable and every target, reachable. The clear path between the dentist and a patient’s loyalty is to give them what they want from the very first visit to the practice's website.

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If interested email wilsonm@nortonfire.com rather than the comcast email address

Thank you

Do you really want to avoid cavities in your teeth and preserve a beautiful smile? Try massaging them with a high-fluoride toothpaste after lunch. "Rubbing toothpaste onto your teeth increases the fluoride protection by 400%," says Anna Nordström, dentist, PhD and researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Eight years ago a new brand of toothpaste was launched in Sweden with more than three times as much fluoride as standard toothpaste. Available without prescription, it is aimed primarily at those with high caries risk.

First scientific evaluation

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy have now performed the first scientific evaluation of the effect of this so called "high-fluoride toothpaste." The study has resulted in a new method that quadruples the level of protection from fluoride.

Four times better protection

In the study, 16 volunteers tested a variety of brushing techniques, using either high-fluoride or standard toothpaste, and brushing either two or three times a day.

"The study revealed that those who used a high-fluoride toothpaste three times a day had four times better fluoride protection in the mouth than those who used standard toothpaste twice a day," says researcher Anna Nordström from the Institute of Odontology at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

Rub your teeth after lunch

Also tested was a new method developed in collaboration with professor Dowen Birkhed, which involves rubbing toothpaste onto your teeth with a finger.

"This 'massage' method proved to be at least as effective as a third brushing in increasing the amount of fluoride in the mouth," Anna Nordström explains. "Rubbing the front of your teeth with toothpaste can be an easy way of giving your teeth a third "shot" of fluoride during the day, after lunch for example. But this should not replace brushing with a fluoride toothpaste morning and evening -- it's an extra."

Daily use is essential

Brushing with fluoride toothpaste has played -- and continues to play -- a major role in combating tooth decay, and there is strong scientific evidence that daily use of fluoride toothpaste has a pronounced preventive effect.

The study Effect of a third application of toothpaste (1450 and 5000 ppm F), including a "massage" method, on fluoride retention and pH drop in plaque was published in Acta Odontologica Scandinavia.

THE RESEARCHER´S TOP TIPS • Use toothpaste at least twice a day, after breakfast and before going to bed. • If necessary, brush a third time or rub on some toothpaste instead. • If you have problems with cavities, choose a toothpaste with a higher fluoride content. • Avoid rinsing out the toothpaste with water.

Cary Feuerman,DMD

PERIODONTAL ASSOCIATES

SOURCE:  Science Daily

Journal Reference:

1. Anna Nordström, Dowen Birkhed. Effect of a third application of toothpastes (1450 and 5000 ppm F), including a ‘massage' method on fluoride retention and pH drop in plaque. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, 2012; : 1 DOI: 10.3109/00016357.2011.654238

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to invite you to the 6th CAD/CAM & Computerized Dentistry Int'l Conference, which will take place in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, DIFC, in Dubai, UAE!

Renowned high-end speakers from Germany, UK and The Netherlands in a combination with hands-on interactive workshops will definitely be an exciting experience for all industry professionals. After completion of the programme participants will receive certificates for upto 20 CME hours (Health Authority Abu Dhabi).

Detailed agenda

Speaker profiles

I am looking forward to seeing to there!

Best regards,

Dr. Mollova

Marketing is the discipline of communicating a business and its offerings to its target customers. This communication includes the facts of the product or service, how appealing its seems, how it's priced and were to find it. In dental office terms, the same parameters apply. It is necessary to communicate with the target audience exactly what is being offered. How zealous that communication is, is another matter all together, but one thing is for certain, neglect a loud and clear voice in any marketing campaign and face the consequence of being relegated to obscurity.

Dental office marketing needs to be conducted with the most professional communication. Dentists are a subset of the health care industry and as such, second rate promotions have no place in this campaign. For a person to even consider the dental service, the first impression must be that of sincerity wrapped in professionalism.

The marketing campaigns must include, additionally, print media and souvenirs to give existing patents. There must be an extensive data base of all customers where automatic email reminders are sent out to highlight check-up dates and cleaning schedules. All these efforts to bring back and existing customer are very much part of the marketing effort.

Existing Customer

An existing customer is more valuable than a new customer. This is so because, the cost to acquire that customer has already been spent and any change of heart of that customer who has already experienced the service, points to a deeper issue. Each customer, in monetary terms, is to be valued not just by the price of one visit. Each patient is the sum of all his visits over the course of one's life. That makes each customer very valuable. A rough estimate of the math that should be used in determining the value of a customer is the present value of every single visit between now and the last visit and includes the different services the person would need over that time.

New Customer

A new customer is valued in a slightly different manner. A new customer is someone who either is migrating from a competing service or from out of town. The conversion could be for various reasons and as such the focus should remain on keeping the customer. The value of a new customer is also the sum of all future visits with the exception that new customer and old customers have a deferent disengagement profile. Old customers are more likely to stay where as new customers have higher chances of leaving.

In any case, developing a dental office marketing campaign is a simple exercise is understanding its strength and weakness then deploying the right strategy to advance the strengths and bolster the weaknesses.

There exists a large array of choices dental practices may choose from when it comes to structuring the internet presence and brand message. The tools are plenty but they all fall subservient to superior plans and strategies. It is not necessary that the highest and most expensive technologies are employed, rather it is crucial that the landscape is efficiently assessed and the strategy keenly planned. The internet and its other technologies are merely tools of execution.

Websites

Websites are the basic part of the strategy. All other strategies need to be rooted in the site since it is the platform visitors will come to once they have heard the name or experienced any of the promotions that have been meted out. But it is crucial to note, that a great dental website alone will not pull traffic.

Blogs

Blogs are a personal touch to any business. It publishes musings and arguments for and against and is a very effective meter to understand the temperature of the market. It’s an opportunity to receive feedback and to provide explanations and create awareness and understanding.

Mobile Platforms

These platforms are the anchor when pursing the mobile market. Mobile computing has become a significant part of the main stream and this is beneficial to those who take advantage of this early. Think of it as the ability to call on a person to sell him your goods at any point in time without being obtrusive.

Direct Mail

Every dental marketing campaign must seriously consider including direct mailings. It is an opportunity to provide a tangible item the recent can touch and feel. It is a tried and trusted method of communication.

Emailer

In the wake of a successful email harvest campaign, a large email database, will serve to provide direct access to people who check their mails everyday and is an important part of staying in touch. It is a good way to ask people already connected to introduce another email. Emails are a good way to send out e-books about dental hygiene or invite them with a link to the website.

GPS Marketing

This targets people who are not customers. These are newbies who happen to be in the area and a message is sent to their phone. A free gift, wither a product or a service, can be given in exchange for a simple registration form where emails are harvested.

These are some of the basic tools that can be used in a multitude of combinations, priorities and variations. It is a good way to drive traffic to the website, blog and the store front.

Once upon a time, there was a Dental Hygienist named Goldi-Smart. One morning she went for a walk in her dental office. Pretty soon, she came upon a dental supply closet. She knocked and knocked, but no one answered, so she walked right in.

Goldi-Smart needed to find a pair of gloves to wear for her next appointment. She looked up high and down low; the closet was full of interesting dental supplies. She spied three boxes of gloves on a faraway shelf.

She tried on the gloves in the first box. She pulled and pulled as hard as she could, until they finally snapped onto her hands. "This glove is too stiff and uncomfortable,” she exclaimed.
She ripped the gloves off and moved on to the next box. Her hand slid into the next glove with no effort whatsoever. "This glove is loose and has too much material at my fingertips, it just doesn’t fit," she said sadly.

Finally, she tried on the gloves in the last box. It slipped perfectly over hand, like it was made just for her. It was not too tight, not too loose, and felt soft, stretchy and comfortable. Plus she could tell she’d be able to hold and use her instruments with ease. “Ahhh, this glove is just right," she said happily. Then she left the supply closet to begin her next oral hygiene appointment.

What can we learn from the tale of Goldi-Smart?

You might not think about it too often, but the issues that may arise from using the wrong gloves can be more detrimental than you think.

The first thing you want to determine is whether or not your gloves fit your hands properly. The wrong size glove can cause many problems, including hand fatigue and pain. Take a second and to learn how to measure your hand properly and become the office “glove expert.”

To get started, measure your hand using our Glove Solutions Chart. ‘Click Here’ for a direct link. Follow the instructions and find out which glove size is right for you.

Now that you have your size, let's talk about the difference between fitted and standard gloves. Look at the picture on the left. These are the forms used to make exam gloves. Which one looks right? Does your hand look like a mannequin? Put your arm at your side and notice the shape of your relaxed hand. It's more like the form on the left. This is the form used to make left-right fitted exam gloves at SmartPractice. It creates a more natural fit like the picture of the hand on the right, which

reduces stress, hand pain and fatigue. Remember, although it may not bother you after just a few hours of use, repeated stress and hand fatigue leads to more serious problems including: Compression Neuropathies, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOC), and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS).

Now let's talk about other glove solutions.

Do you have dry hands from washing them a lot? Does wearing gloves make your hands perspire? Do you have allergic reactions or irritated hands? SmartPractice carries the widest selection of gloves developed for those with sensitivities. Choose from a wide variety of latex free, accelerator free, carbamide free, powder free and more. We also carry Nitrile Decontamination Utility gloves for handling contaminated instruments or harsh chemicals. They are puncture- resistant and have a long 13” cuff for extra protection.

Finding the right exam glove is essential. That's why our customer care team is backed by the expertise of  Dr. Curt Hamann, CEO and Medical Director of SmartPractice. Considered an authority on latex and rubber-based allergies, as well as a pioneer in the creation and usage of left/right fitted gloves for dental procedures, Dr. Hamann is the driving force behind our continued commitment to provide comfortable, effective, affordable glove options for health care professionals in all disciplines.

Now that you’ve learned about how to fit gloves correctly and all the different glove options available, make sure everyone else in your office is as comfortable as you and Goldi-Smart!

To learn even more visit www.smartpractice.com/glovesolutions

Although Children’s Dental Health Month is nearly over, there are still many ways you can attract children and their families to your practice throughout the year. To start send children their own pediatric themed postcard orlaser card. These are a great way to encourage kids to look forward to their next office visit, they even help reminder mom and dad! Parents should also get dental recall cards of their own reminding them or instructing them of the benefits of proper care.

Once families begin coming to your practice make the process as easy as possible with easy to read sign-in and history forms, as well as staying organized. The reception waiting area is a particularly uneventful area. traditional magazines are great, but patient brochures and patient education materials, help to increase case acceptance and make the patient feel like the appointment is half over by the time they get taken back.

Once kids have completed their appointment be sure and reward them with toys and games, candy, or even a supply bag of their own. Be sure patients also take home additional cosmetic procedure information and patient education materials to help them in evaluating the benefits of effective cosmetic procedures.

Creating a seamless, fun, fast and informative office visit makes patients feel more comfortable with your office, value proper dental care, and loyal patients for life.

For more information on effective dental marketing strategies visit SmartPractice.com

A novel bacterium, thought to be a common inhabitant of the oral cavity, has the potential to cause serious disease if it enters the bloodstream, according to a study in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. Its identification will allow scientists to work out how it causes disease and evaluate the risk that it poses.

The bacterium was identified by researchers at the Institute of Medical Microbiology of the University of Zurich and has been named Streptococcus tigurinus after the region of Zurich where it was first recognised. S. tigurinus was isolated from blood of patients suffering from endocarditis, meningitis and spondylodiscitis (inflammation of the spine). It bears a close resemblance to other Streptococcus strains that colonise the mouth. Bleeding gums represent a possible route of entry for oral bacteria into the bloodstream.

The similarity of S. tigurinus to other related bacteria has meant that it has existed up until now without being identified. Its recent identification is clinically important, explained Dr Andrea Zbinden who led the study. "Accurate identification of this bacterium is essential to be able to track its spread. Further research must now be done to understand the strategies S. tigurinus uses to successfully cause disease. This will allow infected patients to be treated quickly and with the right drug."

Dr Zbinden said that while the discovery of the bacterium is no cause for alarm, it is important that it is recognised and the risk is quantified. "This bacterium seems to have a natural potential to cause severe disease and so it's important that clinicians and microbiologists are aware of it," she said. "The next step is to work out exactly how common this bacterium is in the oral cavity and what risk it poses. Immunosuppression, abnormal heart valves, dental surgeries or chronic diseases are common predisposing factors for blood infections by this group of bacteria. However, the specific risk factors for S. tigurinus remain to be determined."

Source: Science Daily

Journal Reference:

1. A. Zbinden, N. J. Mueller, P. E. Tarr, C. Sproer, P. M. Keller, G. V. Bloemberg. Streptococcus tigurinus sp. nov., isolated from blood of patients with endocarditis, meningitis and spondylodiscitis. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 2012; DOI: 10.1099/ijs.0.038299-0