What Are Some Tips In Clinical Dental Practice?
Dental Practice Clinic Here is a list of 10 top tips for clinical dental practice from a dentist with more than 20 years’ experience in both hospital and general dentistry.
Enjoying Your Work You must enjoy your work above everything else. If you don't enjoy your work, either do something else or try to find something within dentistry that you do enjoy. There is no way you should be about to practice in dentistry if you don't enjoy it. Once you enjoy your work in dentistry then you'll never feel you have done a day's work in your life.
Niche You must find a niche within dentistry that you want to become really good at and master. The niche could be treating nervous patients or it could be becoming an expert at carrying out difficult cases. This will separate you from a general Dental practitioner.
Owning Your Own Practice Buying your own practice enables you to carry out these top tips that I have mentioned, otherwise you are always at the whim of your principal and you cannot steer the ship in the correct direction.
Saving Earnings Save 10% of your earnings after you have paid your taxes. The 10% that you save should be invested so that every 10 years the amount doubles. This is not unrealistic and you can work out yourself what will happen after 20 years.
Marketing Continually market yourself and market your practice. You have to market yourself so you are a dentist that patients want to come and visit. You also want to market your practice so that it can differentiate itself from those around you.
Learning Efficiency Learn to carry out treatments efficiently. This means that if you normally take 1-hour for a crown preparation, you should try to accomplish the same quality in half of the time. This is better for you and it is better for your patients. Always remember that patients want the benefit of dentistry but they don't like sitting in the dental chair while you carry this out. Therefore making it easier on your patients.
Go Back To The Basics Always go back to the basics if something is not working. If you are having problems such as sensitivity with your posterior composite fillings, go back to doing the basics such as working on extracted or models of teeth. Read papers and books on the basics of composite fillings in posterior teeth. You will often find that going back to the basics solves your problems.
Appointment Management Manage your appointment diary. Your appointment diary will make the difference if you are able to settle for retirement early or not. If you have 2 x 15 minute gaps in between a morning and another two 15-minute gaps each afternoon, that equates to 1-hour a day wasted. In one week that's 5 hours, in a month that's 20 hours. These figures are shocking because it means that in one year you could be throwing an extra £12,000 away or it means that you could have had an extra 4 weeks holiday in the year.
Loyal Patients Identify your most loyal patients and take care of them. It is your loyal patients who stay with you through thick and thin. Typically these will be 20 to 30% of all your patients. With your loyal patients, always do something extra for them at each dental visit.
Referring Yourself Build your existing practice by asking your loyal patients to refer you to other potential patients. Even if you make 1 new patient every day, in one year that is more than 300 extra patients.