DentaltownUK May 2018 - 6

howard speaks
column

The Importance of Same-Day Dentistry
Keep your practice productive and your patients happy
If you were doing a cleaning and discovered that
a patient needed two fillings, the response in almost
every U.S. dental office would be:
"OK, let's go up front and see if we
can get you scheduled for treatment
sometime in the future." I find that
bizarre.
We know from data that only
38 percent of diagnosed cavities
ever get treated. People are busy,
they've got a lot going on-jobs,
families, pets, sleep, etc. If
you send patients up front to
schedule a future appointment
to treat something that's not
"want" dentistry (like bleaching, bonding or veneers), they
might not ever come back. If
they're not in pain, they might
cancel their appointment.
One of the greatest ways you
can increase your case presentation
is getting your whole office operating in the
mindset of, "Let's do it right now." You need to be ready
for same-day dentistry.

Same-day dentistry is everything
The No. 1 cost of dentistry is accepting PPOs. (I
count Delta Dental in there, too, because the company
gives you a fee schedule, just like a PPO.) The average
PPO effects a 42 percent reduction in price. That's your
top overhead cost-42 percent. (Your
other overhead costs should be, in order:
labor, which should be 25 percent; lab

fees, which should be 8-10 percent; and supplies, 4-6
percent; and rent, about 5 percent.)
Why can't you do sameday dentistry? Don't say you
can't afford the extra space and
chair-by the time you put in a
dental operatory, for as long as
a chair lasts, it costs you about
a can of soda per hour.
And don't say you don't have
the time. When new prospects
call you on the phone, they've
searched "dentist near me" and
probably found a hundred
dentists nearby. Your team
needs to say, "Instead of talking about your toothache over
the phone, let's get you down
here right now." It doesn't matter
if you don't have an "emergency
room," or if you have a root
canal and a crown scheduled at
the same time. Do you know if those scheduled
patients will even show up?
Anyone in your office should be able to seat that
new patient. Maybe your hygienist has a cancellation,
and she can put on her dental assistant hat and take the
X-rays and the exam. Or she can assist you during a root
canal filling or a crown. (If she won't, I'd say dismiss
her and replace her with someone who will.)

Time is of the essence
If the patient at his 4 p.m. hygiene check needs
a crown, but the office usually closes at 5, your team

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by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

6

MAY 2018 // dentaltownuk.com
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DentaltownUK May 2018
