The Business of Dentistry Podcast

Chris shares his perspective on setting goals and trying to reach them in terms of sailing. He discusses the effect of external factors and the need to adapt to them. He also explains the value of setting the goal in the first place.

What you’ll hear:

• The impact that external factors can have on you and your plans
• The importance of reassessing your goals on a regular basis
• How changing course doesn’t mean you won’t reach your goal.

Who should listen:

• Practice owners and managers with a long-term plan in place
• Team members who want to progress in their role
• Anyone who sets goals in their personal life.

Nick talks through the important things you need to consider when you’re working with a designer in order to ensure you have the best experience and achieve the desired result with your marketing material.

What you’ll hear:

• What to consider before you begin the design process with a designer
• Some ‘must do’s’ to make the process as smooth as possible
• Things to avoid when working with a designer.

Who should listen:

• Practice owners or managers who want new marketing materials
• Team members involved with marketing your practice
• Anyone considering a practice rebrand.

Before he joined Practice Plan and as a Regional Support Manager, Matt Hadman was a practice Manager. Today he shares his experiences of life in practice and his tips for helping you achieve a more profitable business.

What you’ll hear:

• The importance of looking at the numbers
• The benefits of measuring team performance
• Why you should consider the ‘ideal patient’ profile.

Who should listen:

• Practice owners and managers who want to improve the way their practice performs.

Practice director, Lesley Morgan Barlow discusses the role of therapists and hygienists. She touches on how those roles have changed, how patients perceive them and where they will fit into the dental team of the future.

What you’ll hear:

• How the roles of therapist and hygienist have changed over time
• What practices can do to ensure they’re maximising value from the therapist/hygienist
• The role therapist and hygienists will take in practices in future.

Bethany Rushworth and Rory O'Connor discuss mental health within dentistry in light of the recent Dentistry Confidence Monitor results. 84% of dentists who took part in the 2019 survey said their current role is having a negative effect on their mental health.

What you’ll hear:

• How more people are now acknowledging the impact of stress
• The importance of saying no
• Steps dentists can take to help improve their own mental health.

Who should listen:

• All dental professionals.

Chris Barrow and Les Jones discuss the increasing evidence that the conversion rate for new patients from traditional and modern forms of advertising is reducing, whilst the acquisition costs of those new patients by this method is going up!

What you'll hear:

• How print media and digital advertising isn’t working like it used to
• That there is an alternative
• How internal human-interest marketing is the solution

Mark Oborn shares his expert advice on how to use social media to help you attract and retain patients. He discusses the benefits of ongoing engagement between appointments and shares examples of the things to share.

What you’ll hear:

• How social media can be used to help your practice grab the attention of potential patients
• How social media can build relationships with patients between appointments
• Examples of the types of posts that work well on social media.

Who should listen:

• Practice owners and managers considering creating a social media presence
• Team members who would be responsible for a social media page.

Eddie Crouch shares his thoughts on the results of the survey and discusses what they mean for the profession going forward.

What you’ll hear:

• Eddie’s thoughts on the headline statistics
• Why the results are important and what can be learned from them
• The effect the uncertainty about contract reform is having on the profession
• The role that flexible commissioning might play in the near future.

Who should listen:

• All dental professionals.

Header: Expert advice from Lesley Morgan-Barlow

Title: How to handle complaints in your practice

Lesley talks about the different types of complaints you might receive in practice. She discusses the ways in which you can deal with them to stop them escalating and benefit your practice in the long term.

What you’ll hear:

• The benefit of changing the way we think about complaints
• Identifying different types of complaints and complainers and how to deal with them
• How to use a complaint to build patient loyalty.

Who should listen:

• Practice managers and owners
• All team members who interact with patients
• Reception teams.

Marcos White explains how he increased his revenue by over a third by committing to digital intraoral scanning. He also shares the other positive impacts it has had on both his team and patients.

What you’ll hear:

How embracing digital dentistry has:

• Helped create a better consultation process: patients see their problems on screen
• Lead to a greater acceptance of care and more comprehensive treatment plans
• Upskilled the team: pre-clinical consultants.