The end of 2017 is wrapping up a solid year of incredible dental blogs from our talented Pankey contributors. Our posts featured everything from techniques for occlusion and orthodontics to practice management and leadership.

There are tons of useful tips and plenty of information for dentists at every stage of their career on the Pankey Gram. Here, we’re compiling five pieces of sound advice from blogs in 2017 that are sure to get you excited for another year of practicing dentistry your way.

As Pankey dentists, we continue to strive for greater learning and growth in our professional and personal lives. Revitalize your hunger for education with these thought-provoking tips:

5 Clinical Tips From 2017 Pankey Blogs

1. Consider physiologic changes that occur over a lifetime when planning restorative dentistry.

In his blog on ‘Adult Growth of the Dental Arch,’ Dr. Roger Solow explored the slow craniofacial growth that can affect dentistry throughout a patient’s life.

2. Set splint therapy fees in such a way that you can actually make money off them.

In his blog, ‘How to Set Splint Therapy Fees,’ Dr. James Otten described how to individualize splint therapy fees and more accurately estimate therapeutic time.

3. Think like an orthodontist when advising patients on post-ortho care.

In her blog, ‘How Long Should Patients Wear Their Retainers Post-Ortho?’, Dr. Lee Ann Brady laid out important considerations for dealing with questions about retainers.

4. Recognize when patients are in denial and practice empathy toward them.

In her blog on communication, ‘From Denial to Acceptance and Action,’ Mary Osborne RDH enlightened with a description of patient denial in dentistry.

5. Improve you protocol for restorations by adding another dental assistant.

In his blog, ‘6-Handed Bonding,’ Dr. Mike Crete made his case for why an extra dental assistant can benefit dentists dealing with adhesive dentistry and tricky restorations.

And there you have it folks. Best wishes for 2018! 

Making better business decisions for your dental practice comes down to four key goals: (1) doing more dentistry patients need, (2) helping patients have healthier mouths, (3) making more money and (4) stressing less.

Improving your success in any one of these areas will affect the others, which is why you should think of these various elements comprehensively rather than separately.

How to Do More Dentistry

If you feel that you’re not making enough or treating enough patients, the problem likely isn’t economic downturn. The truth is, if you have a strong system in place, external economic factors shouldn’t have a huge effect on how many patients return for basic treatments such as hygiene.

One of the most common issues practices face is the efficacy of their systems. You may be seeing plenty of patients but without a clear system for setting new appointments, you may not have a full schedule.

Retention is all about measurements. What this means is that when you track or record data, you’re more likely to pay attention to it. A great way to increase the number of hygiene appointments you have is to track how many your are scheduling and how many patients are showing up for.

Simply by measuring this information, you will be more likely to ensure appointments are made. The same goes for your staff who actually carry out scheduling and encourage patients to return. This will also help you better understand what appointment scheduling methods you should offer. Different people like to be reminded differently. Some prefer an email, some prefer a text, some prefer the date and time written on a piece of paper, and some prefer a call.

The lesson of retention illustrates a thought process that can be applied to all areas of your business. Essentially, remember that one size does not fit all and simply paying more attention can improve your success.

What do you think is the hardest part of running a dental practice? 

Splint therapy can be one of the best services we offer our patients, but plan poorly and your headaches will greatly increase as you decrease your patient’s.

We all want to provide our best stuff for our patients, yet sometimes we can find ourselves in a quagmire of complexity and not getting reimbursed for our efforts.

Through the years I’ve seen this scenario play out in my own practice and many others because we lack structure around our fees for splint therapy. If ever there was an example of the failure of unit fees to provide appropriate care and reimbursement, the one size (fee) fits all approach in splint therapy will leave you clenching and grinding.

How to Individualize Splint Therapy Fees

To be equitable for patient and practice, fees for splint therapy must be individualized. To do this, you’ll need to have a good idea of what your production per hour goals are and utilize that as a basis for your fee.

For example, if I have an anterior deprogrammer that requires very little follow up to simply protect the dentition and calm muscle, the fee would consist of a lab fee (I charge this fee even if I make it in house), the time for insert, and the amount of time for follow up, usually one or two short appointments.

For more complex TMD therapy I like to look at it this way: take the same basic fee structure illustrated above and add time for insertion (allow yourself enough time, knowing mandibular/condylar position is likely to change as you adjust), then add for follow up appointments based on your diagnosis and complexity.

Estimating Therapeutic Time

Here are some of the factors I consider when estimating the “therapeutic time.” I’ll routinely add time and/or appointments based on whether it involves:

1) an occluso-muscle disorder

2) an intracapsular disorder

3) the amount of degenerative change in the condyle disc assembly

4) the chronic or acute nature of the problem (acute problems I feel are generally harder to manage)

5) the presence of pain, both quantitative and qualitative

6) the duration of pain and complexity of pain pattern (pain emanating from multiple sources)

7) the behavioral and psychological dynamics involved with the patient

In closing, I’d remember to under-promise and over-deliver in direct proportion to the complexity of the problem. Evaluate, diagnose, and treat wisely and you’ll achieve pain reduction and stability for both you and your patient!

How do you structure fees for splint therapy in your practice? We’d love to hear from you in the comments! 

Do you feel daunted when thinking about how to achieve financial freedom?

I admit I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I’ve had some success with easing my financial burdens thanks to a couple of habits I’ve implemented over the years.

Paying Your Mortgage Twice a Month

One habit is paying my mortgage twice a month. If your first thought is, “holy cats I can’t do that,” I understand, but it may not be as difficult as you assume. I’m not suggesting that you pay double, I’m suggesting that you pay ½ a month ahead.

Instead of paying $2,000 on the 15^th, you would pay $1,000 on the 1^st and $1,000 on the 15^th and then repeat the next month. Why is this a good idea? Because mortgages are calculated over a long span of time and a large portion is comprised of interest. By paying twice a month, a larger percentage goes to the principal.

Habit Development to Reach Financial Freedom

So how do you get into this habit?

It’s pretty easy if you are beginning a new loan because you have about a 45-60 day grace period after closing before the first payment is due. You can make your first ½ payment 15 days before the due date.

If you have an existing mortgage and like most of us don’t have the money on hand to make an additional ½ payment, then you can start by saving toward the ½ payment until you have enough to make it for the first time, which then reduces your next monthly payment. That may take you a few months.

This same idea can be applied to your car payment. For both your mortgage and your car, make sure your loans don’t carry a penalty for early payoff.

Financial freedom is one step closer.

What steps do you take to better manage your finances? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!