Get Focused on Preventing Oral Cancer in Your Dental Practice

Today we discuss Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich. To be clear, when Napoleon Hill discusses being rich, he is more often referring to the riches of life (happiness, great relationship, successful professions). All of these things of course added up to financial success. I didn't want anyone who hasn't read the book to assume it was all financial success only. It is far deeper and profound in thought than just making more money!!

One of the first principles discussed is having a "definiteness of purpose". I think this applies perfectly to dental practice success. Too many offices don't really have a purpose outside of seeing patients and restoring decay. The most successful ones, by contrast, really seem to have a greater purpose in what they do and why they do it.

Napoleon Hill suggest that you "look beyond the surface" at what is important to you. What really motivates you? What is the underlying emotion that drives you everyday? The same can be said regarding the dental specific topic we discussed today, Oral Cancer. Everyone looks on the surface for oral cancer, from a screening perspective. Personally, I would like my dentist to look deeper so he can diagnose it earlier if I have it. The survival rates are much much higher when caught earlier. On the show we discuss very specifically the survival rates of oral cancer in various areas of the mouth. Bottom line, catch it very early if you want the patient to have a positive outcome!!

If you would like to have a "definiteness of purpose" in your practice, perhaps start with, we will screen very aggressively for oral cancer to prevent any of our patients from dying of it.

What can you do to support this stated goal? Present screening very passionately to every patient every day! We role played one example of how you can present the need for this important process. The outcome of this can be some economic growth for the practice and could be that you save a life. If you have 2000 patients in your practice and you do this one time per year and charge $20, it would add up to $40K. What a classic example of the "Win Win" circumstance. Over your career, you will save at least one person's life, which you cannot put a price on. In addition, you will add value to your practice. I personally love being a part of these circumstances!