the conversation. Weekly prac-tice for a few weeks will greatly increase your team's confidence in talking on this topic with patients. A great resource for this is the grow course on “The Dental Team’s Guide to Effective Patient Conversations” at https://grow.jmsn.com. ᕣ Are we giving patients 7 inter-actions (passive and active) related to orthodontic treat-ment? An example of this might be as follows: A few slides on the TV in your could be presented. If not, a follow up card or letter could be sent to remind the patient of the options available. ᕤ Does one particular depart-ment need additional tools and resources to succeed? If all of your orthodontic treat-ment is being initiated by one provider or just by the doctors, there is a good chance that you would benefit by taking extra time to work with your hygiene department or front desk team to build their confidence and under-standing of the treatment being offered. Successfully implementing orthodontic treatment in your prac-tice is a full team effort. This is defi-nitely true when it comes to market-reception area with education about orthodontic treatment offered by your practice. A tabletop brochure talking about orthodontic treatment, include FAQs and before & after pictures if you have them. When the patient is seated for their hygiene appointment, they are given a smile evalua-tion that includes questions about their bite, function, appearance, etc. The hygienist or assistant might use the smile evalua-tion as a cue to talk about orthodontic treatment and how it could solve issues like incorrect bite, excessive tooth wear, food being trapped between teeth, misaligned teeth, etc. When the doctor comes in for ing. It may be tempting to try and go it alone and just power through. You may feel that it’s too much work to get everyone up-to-speed or to build time in your schedule for regular education, collaboration and skills development, or you may feel like starting on your own with a plan to bring your team into the conversation later. Doing this is planning for failure or at the very least planning for frustration for you, your team and your patients. Building a foundation in your team will take longer at first, but in the long term, you will have expo-nentially more success. If you're interested in taking your team through an in-depth internal dental marketing boot-camp, look for the Internal Market-ing Bootcamp course coming May 2-3, 2025 at the AOS Institute. Marketing Strategy Numbers; How to Grow Your Business 1. Assess your current approach to marketing orthodontic services. 2. Gather data on: ○ Number of orthodontic cases started each month. ○ Number of orthodontic cases you would like to start each month. ○ Sources of current orthodontic cases. ○ Percentage of prescribed treatment accepted. ○ Demographics of orthodontic patients. 3. Analyze the data to identify gaps and opportunities. 4. Set goals for orthodontic starts and break them down by week. 5. Address any gaps in the demographics of your orthodontic patients. 6. Identify any steps in the case presentation process where patients are exiting. 7. Evaluate your team's understanding of indications for orthodontic treatment and confidence in starting conversations with patients about orthodontic treatment. 8. Implement strategies to improve patient education, patient conversations, case presentation, financial conversations, and team education. 9. Provide team members with additional tools and resources to succeed, such as lunch and learns, dental team courses, and practice conversations. 10. Build a foundation in your team through regular education, collaboration, and skills development. the check, they could rein-force the conversation if orthodontic treatment is indi-cated. At checkout, the treatment coordinator could close the conversation and determine whether the orthodontic treat-ment is something the patient is interested in pursuing if the financial piece could be arranged in a way that is comfortable for the patient. If the patient is interested, a records appointment could be scheduled and treatment 26 Fall 2024 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Fall 2024: Page 26
