by How dental leaders can foster confidence in their organization
Sponsored Content: Philips
As a leader within the dental industry, it is important to continue educating yourself on the latest industry trends and offerings so that your practice can provide the best possible patient care.
To work toward the best patient care, dentists should begin by fostering strong relationships within the workplace with other dentists, hygienists, and staff in their organization. Not only is this beneficial to increase trust within an organization but it will also assist in making patients feel comfortable and cared for during a visit.
Dental leaders should additionally be confident in their recommendations for treatment (Perio) and their at-home tools, including Philips Oral Healthcare products when assisting patients, so that the rest of the dental team can trust dental leaders and their product choices and follow suit when providing care.
Staying Up to Date on Industry Offerings and Trends
When providing exceptional patient care, dental leaders should create an access point for DSO providers to highlight the latest industry trends and CE course learnings from the field and vendor partners. For example, Dr. Sarah Balaster, DMD, Dental Care Alliance, and her team utilize social media channels at their practice to amplify materials.
Dr. Balaster strives to advance the practice of dentistry by partnering with and supporting dental professionals to create a lifetime of healthy smiles in her practice.
DSOs vary in size, and so Dr. Balaster recommends that providers seek out resources and communicate newly acquired information so that each team member knows how their roles are advancing and what they can contribute to the workplace. Materials should be in an easily accessible place and consist of a blend to support different learning styles, e.g., videos, written articles, and hands-on training sessions to best cater to everyone’s learning needs.
Fostering Strong Relationships
When fostering interpersonal relationships within dental practices, share all information with each member of the team. Providers should create a common language within DSO practice groups to help foster relationships, instead of separating each staff member into isolated roles. To do this, dental leaders should use standard phrases to describe jobs, such as scaling and rooting, deep cleaning, and SMRP. These terms will allow each staff member to have a better sense of what treatments are being discussed.
Providers should aim to create learning experiences for everyone and not simplify presentations for non-dentists. This way, all office staff (including hygienists and front office staff) can understand the common language of dentistry. As a dental leader, do not be afraid to bring the entire office staff together and provide them access to the same materials, as this will ensure that everyone can participate in workplace conversations.
Confidence in Treatment Recommendations
Treatment recommendation language should follow a similar approach, with dentists using common phrases across the office to describe the patient experience. When discussing a product or company to work with, teams should come together and review industry insights, product solutions, and company mission statements and align those decisions with the goals of their respective practice.
Philips’ mission is to empower patients with innovative and evidence-based solutions that meet their care needs, and so at Dental Care Alliance, Dr. Balaster has chosen to work with Philips due to her similarity in values and confidence in their product portfolio. Products including Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart and Philips Sonicare Power Flosser are clinically proven to help patients improve their oral health at home between visits. Her practice’s values of focusing on innovative solutions, accessibility to care, and a deeper connection to Periodontitis treatments, make Philips Oral Healthcare a preferred solution for her patients.
