After spending years studying hard and training to be a dentist, many people assume the difficult part is over but that’s unfortunately not the case.
Running a dental practice isn’t just about how skilled you are at dental procedures. There are countless factors you need to account for to ensure your practice’s success. But being young and inexperienced, you’re likely to run into some major problems.
Here are a few common mistakes new dentists make after owning a practice.
Being Judgemental Towards Patients
As a dentist, you need to realize that many of your first-time patients will have dental anxiety, and being judgemental of their current dental state is surely not going to help them overcome their fear. Many dentists resort to shaming or even scolding their patients, making them uncomfortable. This leads to horrible ratings and bad reviews of their practice online.
Other dentists might not care about their patients even slightly, thinking of them only as a set of teeth. This typically results in awkward sessions and patients never coming back. Although it can be difficult, building a charming and accepting reputation will likely make patients come back to you for their dental care.
Not Investing in Proper Staff Training
It doesn’t matter how good of a dentist you are if your staff doesn’t know the first thing about dental care. Without providing the right budget and time to train your staff for general dentistry procedures, you can’t expect them to assist you when you actually need their help.
Investing in your staff’s education and training will help you create a team equipped with the skills and knowledge of the latest technologies in dentistry, to help you provide the best service to your patients.
Not Following Up with Patients
Being in the healthcare industry, you can’t always depend on new patients to walk into the door. Developing a trusting relationship with the patients you already have is crucial if you want to succeed.
One of the best ways to keep customers coming back and following up with them is by giving them a call or sending an email. If you’re too busy dealing with patients, have your assistant ring up a patient after their initial appointment to schedule their next visit.
Not Putting Effort into Marketing
Many dentists fall into the illusion that all they need to do to be successful is perform good dental procedures, but that’s far from the truth. It’s easy to forget that their practice is also a small business that needs to be marketed.
Most people these days search on the internet for whatever they need, so if your practice doesn’t have a professional-looking website and a social media presence, you’ll be missing out on hundreds of potential customers. Failing to promote your dental practice online and in the real world will probably put you out of a job.
Trying to Handle Tasks Outside Your Expertise
In an effort to impress patients, dentists sometimes try to handle problems that are not in their expertise. Specialists exist solely for this reason and you must learn to admit that for the sake of your patients. For instance, if a patient has a dental issue like crowding, they’ll need the expertise of an orthodontist.
There’s no reason to worry about losing customers if you refer to a specialist. The best solution for this is to create a network of trusted specialists who all work together and provide effective dental care for your patients.
