Dr Phillip Palmer, Simon Palmer, November 2011 - Getting a high percentage of a patient base to come in for regular visits is a common challenge for a practice and a limiting factor in practice growth for many. Strategies for working on this challenge usually include reappointment scripts for the front desk on the way out of the practice, looking at different ways of wording letters to the patient every six months asking them to come in, and “reactivation strategies” for patients that haven’t come in for a while.
While these strategies may help alleviate the issue to a certain extent, it is important to realise that they are addressing the problem once the horse has bolted. The real reason most patients don’t come in on a regular basis is not that they have forgotten and need a reminder. It is a perceived lack of value. Too many patients view the dentist as a place to go for dental pain management, cosmetic work or a good cleaning. This has to change if you want a high number of repeat regular visits from your patients.
Below are listed three reasons for visiting a dentist that if communicated effectively (by the dentist?) may influence their attendance record:
1. The potential effects that untreated gum disease can have on their overall health. There is no longer any question in the general medical world over the direct links between periodontal disease and systemic health problems such as strokes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, low birth weight children, etc. Good oral hygiene and regular checkups is not just about oral hygiene. It is about the patient’s overall health and well-being.
2. Avoiding a dental emergency. Every dentist will be aware of many cases when a patient has come in to see them for a regular check-up and they have been able to fix a small problem that was about to get much worse. Indeed research conducted at Prime Practice with dentists from all around Australia, New Zealand and the US has repeatedly shown that practices with high rates of patient participation in regular check-ups and maintenance have low rates of emergency treatments.
3. Early detection of oral-cancers Over 640,000 new cases of oral cancer are diagnosed every year worldwide. This serious disease which pertains to the mouth, lips or throat can have a relatively good prognosis if diagnosed and treated in the early stages and dentists are the most likely people to first notice oral cancers.
Unfortunately the mortality rate for this disease is particularly high not because it is hard to discover or diagnose, but due to the cancer being routinely discovered late in its development. People are generally diligent about the relevant cancer screenings and health checks appropriate for their age, gender and lifestyle like glaucoma screenings, prostate screenings, pap smears, mammograms, HIV testing, skin cancer checks, etc. Why isn’t visiting a dentist seen as a crucial health cancer prevention check-up like this? Many dentists aren’t consistently doing oral cancer screenings and if/when they do, they aren’t communicating to the patient about it effectively. It is as if they are embarrassed that they are screening their patients, and feel it would be alarmist to the patient if they mentioned they are doing a cancer screening. It is important that both private individuals, and members of the dental community, realize that a visit to the dentist is no longer just about a filling, a crown, or a postpone-able cleaning, but can actually be a matter of life and death. Dental examinations, when properly done and which include a screening for oral-cancer, will save lives.
When practices are quiet, the knee-jerk reaction they often have is to either invest money in expensive marketing campaigns or invest more time and effort with reminders and re-activation in order to increase their busy-ness. A more cost efficient and effective approach may be to increase the perceived value of regular visits while the patient is in the chair. Your patients will return to your practice for regular visits if they know they are preventing far worse consequences. Listed above are three concrete reasons why patients should be visiting you on a regular basis. If your patients are not reappointing, is it possible that they don’t understand the reasons why they should?