Is Your Dental Practice Making People Smile!?

How often do you cause people to smile in your dental practice? Is it a daily goal for the team to make the dental experience a pleasant one for your patients? Do you work with vengeance to help your patients overcome their fears of the dental experience, office, procedures, or any other obstacle that may be clouding their view of who you are and how you can significantly impact their life and overall health?

It is truly amazing how some people can rise from adversity and make such a beautiful life for themselves. Take the 6 year old little boy who lost both his father, and shortly thereafter, his mother at this young age. The story aired on NBC news demonstrating how powerful a smile can be and how this darling little child’s greatest wish is put a smile on a perfect stranger’s face. He chose to pursue his dream by purchasing adorable little stuffed animals and various toys to give randomly to people he would decide to meet. The smiles he created with people from all walks of life was ever so gratifying for him and helped him to deal with the grief of the loss of his parents.

Let’s look at the transformations of those who are well-known and perhaps famous by the beautiful smiles you have created as dentists. A few who come to mind are Celine Dion, Fifty Cent, Nicholas Cage and Zach Affron all who wear big beautiful transformational smiles each and every day of their lives created by the talented and highly skilled dentist and their team.

Nicholas Cage

How often do you spend the time to uncover how a patient feels about their teeth and smile?

All too often we rush to the existing decay and entertain what insurance benefits a patients may have before discussing treatment.

My challenge to you in the coming months is to target potential “Smile Make Over” patients who would benefit greatly both clinically and from the standpoint of their self-esteem, by giving themselves this gift. Create a list in your staff lounge area on a white board. During the new patient interview, or at future appointments, remember to ask the questions such as, “Mrs. Smith, as you look at your teeth and smile in this hand mirror, what if anything would you like to change?” “How would you rate your dental smile on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest?” Listen intently to what your patient is saying and be willing to take them to new places with their dental designs for their smile.

Creating a staff incentive around the number of new smiles created will make this a boat load of fun! Be certain to celebrate with your patients with many before and after photos, videos to post to your Facebook page and web site.