dental management

Dental Hygienists Among the Fastest Growing Occupations in the U.S.

November 8, 2011 By Catherine Hughes 2 Comments

Occupational Outlook: Dental Hygienists Among the Fastest Growing Occupations in the U.S. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook for 2008-2018, employment among dental assistants is expected to grow by 36 percent during the 10-year period, which is much faster than the average for all occupations.

Of the 20 fastest growing occupations in the US economy, half are related to healthcare.

Healthcare is experiencing rapid growth, due in large part to the aging of the baby-boom generation, which will require more medical care. As healthcare costs continue to rise, work is increasingly being delegated to lower paid workers in order to cut costs.

For example, tasks that were previously performed by dentists are now beginning to be performed by dental hygienists and dental assistants.

As dentists‘ workloads continue to increase from treating the aging boomer population, it is expected that the demand to hire more hygienists to perform preventive dental care will grow as dentists will want to spend more time working on more complex dental procedures.

There is also the growing situation of not enough dentists to provide adequate care in rural areas where hygienists are needed to fill in the gap. According to the Center for Rural Affairs, in 2007, approximately 15 percent of rural residents were 65 years of age or older, 25 percent greater than in the nation as a whole.

The U.S. population of those 65 or older is predicted to double by 2030, reaching 20 percent of the U.S. total population, and the fastest group age living in rural America are residents 85 and older.

The average median wage for dental hygienists is $32.81 hourly, $68,250 annually with the best employment opportunities following the population size of states. New York, Texas, California, Michigan and Florida employ the most dental hygienists.

See: Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition — Dental Hygienists

Filed Under: Dental Hygiene, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: dental hygienist, dental hygienists, dental management, dental practice, dentist, dentist shortage, dentistry, dentists, economy, salaries

Dentists Are Being Pinched by the Current Economic Climate

October 11, 2011 By Catherine Hughes Leave a Comment

Dentists Are Being Pinched By the Current Economic Climate According to Forbes.com dentists are definitely feeling some pain from the recession.

In a report by Sageworks, a leader in the financial analysis of privately-held companies, privately-held dentist offices have seen sales in 2011 decline about 3 percent after posting ongoing-though-shrinking gains in their top lines throughout the recent recession.

Sales growth rates for dentists in 2008 and 2009 were 5 percent and 15 percent, respectively, but dipped to 1 percent growth in 2010 before this year’s decrease.

Forbes.com reports that profit growth, too, has weakened.

Dentists have worked to keep costs and overhead down which has helped them maintain one of the highest net profit margins of private industries over the last 12 months, according to Sageworks data. Dentist offices had a 13.84 percent net profit margin in the 12 months ending Sept. 3, 2010, compared to the net profit margin of 14.15 percent in 2010.

The “2011 Survey of Dental Care Affordability and Accessibility” reported that 77% of the US are without dental care and put off visits to the dentist because of the cost of that care.

As the economy continues to crawl, more people may further opt to skip regular check-ups with their dentist because of increasing out-of-pocket expenses. Dentists will continue to struggle to maintain their profit margins, while trying to attract new dental patients.

It’s a vicious cycle that doesn’t look like it will be ending anytime soon.

For more on the Sageworks report see U.S. Recession Effects Gnaw at Dentists’ Business.

Filed Under: Practice Management, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: dental management, dental practice, dental practice management, dentist, dentistry, dentists, economy, recession dentistry

Dental Management: Dentists Worry About The Security of Going Paperless

October 4, 2011 By Catherine Hughes 2 Comments

Security of going paperless While a few pioneering dental practices are completely automated, the paperless dental office still has a ways to go before it is universally embraced by dentists.

In this survey, 29% of dentists said their dental practice is completely paperless, another 17% are mostly paperless, while 27% are making some progress, and the remaining 32% haven’t even tried.

When it comes to fully automating a dental practice, some of the things that worry doctors include legal ramifications of electronic patient notes, concerns about security, training costs, and the time it takes to implement.

“I still worry about the legal ramifications of electronic patient notes if in a court of law where the judge is more than a little skeptical about the tamper-proof quality of computers,” said one dentist.

Here are some comments we got when we asked dentists, “Do you have a “paperless” dental office?”

“Consents are the only thing lacking. We have purchased Dentforms, but have not implemented as of today.” (Georgia dentist)

“I don’t know how an office can be totally paperless. I can see how they can be chartless.” (California dentist)

“I opened my practice in 2003 paperless from the get-go. I can’t imagine doing it any other way. Digital everything is great! It certainly is more efficient and it’s wonderful not having to use up valuable office space with stacks and rows of paper patient files!” (Ohio prosthodontist)

“We are not completely paperless we still do some scan and shred. Paperless plus digital saves at least one employee. Some offices use new “things” and maintain the old ways. Some use old “things” and old ways. A few create new ways to work and look for the easiest most cost effective way to make it happen. Is you office designed for paperless? What is the next frontier?” (Missouri dentist)

“A better term would be chartless. We still have paper statements, invoices, etc.” (California dentist)

“Paperless is the best thing that ever happened to us!” (Florida hygienist)

“I have heard from other practitioners that it is very time consuming and she spends a lot of time correcting staff entries. I’m afraid that I’ll miss something and also don’t want to take all the extra time to do templates and correct entries.” (California dentist)

“I see no immediate need and I have some concerns about security.” (Texas dentist)

“We have digital x-ray and online clinical notes. The only things remaining in the chart are signed papers, referral slips and EOBs that aren’t available electronically. At this point going completely paperless seems like more trouble than it’s worth. We don’t see any point in spending money to go paperless with the rest of it right now. We have greatly limited the amount of times we are actually touching a paper chart.” (Minnesota dentist)

“Try it you’ll like it. At first you might slow down. Later the benefits will be self-evident. It is a big cultural shift for the practice though.” (California prosthodontist)

“We scan everything but still keep the paper copies. This adds work but saves us time later.” (California orthodontist)

“5 years and no looking back. We are chartless — not actually paperless. This makes much more sense to us and to our patients. No huge wall of charts, no misplaced charts, easy to treatment plan, track, and follow up. Much much cleaner for staff. Lots of time savings. 1 front desk employee for 3 dentists and 2 hygienists at busy office … efficiency starts with chartless!” (Illinois dentist)

Filed Under: Dental Surveys Tagged With: dental, dental management, dental practice, dental practice management, dental survey, dental surveys, dentist, dentists

Dental Practice Burnout: 5 Symptoms and 5 Remedies

October 4, 2011 By Catherine Hughes 2 Comments

Dental Practice Burnout: 5 Symptoms and 5 Remedies According to the University of California, Irvine Department of Medicine, the health professionals most at risk for burnout are physicians, nurses, social workers, dentists, care providers in oncology and AIDS-patient care personnel, among others.

In many of The Wealthy Dentist surveys dentists have complained of career burnout.

Burnout is considered either emotional or physical exhaustion, usually caused by stress at work. It was initially described in the 1950s by Hans Selye as ‘the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it and discouragement in the work setting’.

According to the U.C. Irvine report, burnout is viewed also as a complex of psychological responses (strain) to the particular stress of constant interaction with people who are in need. Differing from other interactional symptoms related to job stress is the effect on others seen as a depersonalization of clients.

Symptoms of Burnout -

1. Negative Feelings.
Feelings of disillusionment and being ‘stretched too thin’. Feeling that you aren’t making a ‘difference’ in your approach to lifelong goals. Other feelings of burnout are the feeling of being ‘run down’, easily frustrated and feeling that you are unable to concentrate.

2. Interpersonal Problems.
Your tolerance level drops as the burnout grows and you find yourself increasingly unable to handle social interactions. You begin to dehumanize your relationships by thinking of your dental patients not as people but as objects.

3. Physical Manifestations.
Burnout shows up physically as exhaustion, muscle pain, headaches, insomnia, respiratory illnesses, gastrointestinal disorders, depression, and hypertension.

4. Substance Abuse.
Often people suffering from burn-out will self-medicate their anxiety, depression and insomnia with drugs or alcohol.

5. Inefficiency at Work.
Burnout causes productivity to wane as you become less effective overall, either by hiding in your office or staying away from work more often.

Remedies for Burnout -

1. Take a Two Week Vacation.
Quite often by distancing yourself from your work you will be able to make some decisions on things you can do differently to alleviate stress when you return to your dental practice.

2. Cut Back Your Work Hours.
Sometimes burnout appears from an unwillingness to delegate job duties. Consider cutting back on your work load by delegating tasks you don’t enjoy and consider cutting back your dental practice hours if you can.

3. Schedule Time For You During the Day.
Make sure you always take a lunch break. Make it at least an hour and a half three days a week and schedule some light exercise for the last half hour like a brisk walk around the block or a yoga class.

4. Put Your Health First.
Go to bed at the same time every night and work on getting enough sleep. Look at your diet and see where you can cut out high sugar foods, and make time to relax with good friends on weekends.

5. Write Your Thoughts Down.
Some people find that keeping a journal at home and expressing your feelings of frustration on paper can go a long ways towards helping you deal with burnout. Commenting anonymously on this blog might even help too.

The most critical thing about burnout is to recognize it’s a shout out from your exhausted self. Try changing things up a bit in your life to break out of your routine. Come into the office thirty minutes later, drive a different route to work, learn a new hobby, or work on something you love. Take a break and list all the reasons you chose dentistry as your profession in the first place.

Have you ever suffered from burnout? What advice would you give dentists for dealing with burnout?

Filed Under: Practice Management, The Wealthy Dentist Tagged With: burnout, dental, dental management, dental practice, dental practice management, Dental Practices, dentist, dentistry, dentists, economy, recession

Dental Marketing: Negative Online Review Appears as a Facebook Page

September 27, 2011 By Catherine Hughes 6 Comments

In the past The Wealthy Dentist has written about negative online reviews in such articles as “Appeals Court Says Yes to Dentist Lawsuit Against Patient for Online Review“ and “When a Dentist’s Relationship Goes Bad on the Internet“ — both stories about harmful dental critiques posted on review sites like Yelp and Angie’s List.

But in August of this year, Chris Cook of Bakersfield, CA, pushed negative online reviews to a new level.

It was reported in dental news site DrBicuspid.com that Mr. Cook took his 5-year-old son to see Bakersfield pediatric dentist Edward Dove, DDS, for a tooth extraction. Mr. Cook claims Dr. Dove mistreated his son during that visit by extracting a tooth before the child was adequately sedated.

According to DrBiCuspid.com, Cook stated that his son vomited up most of the sedative, screamed, and urinated on himself while allegedly being held down by three dental assistants during the procedure. Allegations Dr. Dove vehemently denies.

Chris Cook decided to take matters into his own hands and created the “I Hate Dr. Dove of Bakersfield” page on Facebook, attracting more than 200 members in its first 48 hours.

Luckily for Dr. Dove, Facebook does have a policy for pages with the word “hate” and considers them in strict violation of their terms of service. They swiftly moved to shut down the dental hate page.

Cook was undaunted by the Facebook boot, turned around and created a second Facebook group page, “Bakersfield dentist DOES NOT ROCK!!!!!!!!!” which is still up and active.

Dr. Dove has handled the situation by defending his treatment in the press and pointing to his 23 years in practice without a single disciplinary action. He has chosen not to engage with Chris Cook on his Facebook page, and was quoted in Dr Bicuspid as saying, “I think my reputation will be hurt a little bit, but right now I just want to calm down,” Dr. Dove said, “This guy is going ballistic, he’s trying to smear me, and I’m getting bullied.”

But should Dr. Dove be more concerned?

Just how significant are bad reviews for the future of your dental practice?

A new survey by market analysis firm Cone, Inc., found that four out of five consumers have reversed purchase decisions based on negative reviews found on the Internet. Another survey by Ratepoint found that 40 percent of consumers indicated they are more likely to consider a local business when they respond to a negative online review.

In the case of a Facebook page being dedicated to hating a dental practice, a dentist has little recourse since the unhappy page creator would have to allow the dentist to join the group page in order to issue a response.

Dentists have had little luck in defamation lawsuits when it comes to negative online reviews since the courts tend to look upon unhappy reviews as free speech. In a recent defamation case in California, a dentist has been ordered to pay $80,000 in attorney fees to the parents who posted a negative online review.

So how do you combat something like a negative Facebook page?

By making sure your dental practice has more than one website that appears on the top pages of Google when your business (and personal) name is searched online. Also have your own Facebook page, or pages for each type of treatment you offer. Have a Twitter page and make sure your practice is listed in as many dental directories as you can find. The idea is to control what appears on the first page of Google about your dental practice. Regular press releases help with this too.

For solutions to multiple name search and directory listing go to: www.InternetDentalAlliance.com.

For more on this story see: Facebook Pulls Plug on Angry Dad’s Antidentist Page