Five reasons you should incorporate same-day dentistry into your practice.
Updated 6/30/20
Dentistry is changing! What patients want is different today than in years past. The most successful in our profession are those who are adapting to these changes and are making adjustments to their practices to become more convenient for patients.
There are many reasons to do more same-day dentistry (which we define as dentistry that is not on your schedule at the beginning of the day.) We will share five of them with you here.
- Patient Convenience. According to Dentistry IQ, “Today’s busy patients demand convenience and accessibility. Extended office hours during the week are important to 57 percent of those surveyed. Nearly half of patients look for dentists offering weekend hours.”
- Full Schedules. Offering treatment today eliminates future broken appointments and cancellations. Keeping the schedule full and productive is a real challenge for many practices.
- Improved Production. Same-day dentistry makes unproductive time productive! We have seen one dentist that was scheduled to have a $4,000 day, offer same-day service and end up having a $16,000 day. This is just one example of making unproductive time very productive!
- Increased Profitability. Doing more today dramatically increases productivity without raising overhead very much. When you are able to add additional procedures into your day, your profitability is impacted in a powerful way.
- New Opportunities. Changes in the perspective of the team: every broken appointment or cancellation is an opportunity! It’s an opportunity to increase production by offering a higher level of service to the patients that are already scheduled.
Practices that have systems in place to offer same day restorative and do it well often see between 30-50 percent in additional production that wasn’t on their books at the beginning of the day. What we love about same-day dentistry is that with our changing society, we are able to be hyper-convenient for our patients, and help fuel practice growth at the same time.
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By Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs
Dr. John Meis is a practicing dentist and a partner in more than 89 successful dental practices employing over 900 team members in the United States. He knows from first-hand experience how to manage and inspire a dental team. He is also a top producer. His tremendous systems, which drive productivity and effectiveness in the dental practice, increased production in his own practice by more than 40 percent. Dr. Meis has mentored hundreds of dentists across the country through The Team Training Institute, a consulting and training organization he co-founded with Wendy Briggs, RDH.
Wendy Briggs is president and CEO of Hygiene Diamonds, a worldwide practice management consulting firm which excels in increasing entire practice profitability and improving oral hygiene systems. Her trademarked Whitening for Lifeâ„¢ program has proven successful in more than 21 countries. Wendy is also a partner with Dr. John Meis in The Team Training Institute, a consulting and training organization that has helped more than 1,200 practices worldwide achieve their goals. Wendy lectures internationally, she is a contributing educator for the Dawson Academy, and she works as a recommended hygiene consultant for Henry Schein.
Published as part of a collection of key takeaways from the 2014 Business of Dentistry Conference, along with:
- Stress-Free Claims and Collections
- Create a Dream Team and Win More Patients Over
- Schedule for Productivity, Profitability, and Stress Control
- Managing by the Numbers
- Increasing Treatment and Getting Paid
Originally published in Dentrix Magazine, Winter 2014
