Having a dental website, blog, newsletter, Google+ page and Facebook page are all important factors in keeping your dental practice in front of your dental patients.

Some dentists are still not convinced that Facebook is an effective Internet dental marketing tool.

Last week, Facebook started the process for its highly-publicized IPO. In anticipation, the online competitive intelligence service Hitwise just released their 10 Key Statistics about Facebook, comparing the Facebook audience with that of other social networks.

Here is what Hitwise found –

1. Facebook captures 1 in every 11 Internet visits in the United States.
2. 1 in every 5 page views occurs on Facebook.
3. The average visit time on Facebook is 20 minutes.
4. Facebook’s audience skews slightly more female than the online population as a whole.(Female is 57%, male is 43%).
5. The ages of Facebook visitors are indicative of the website’s strength in the marketplace, with relative parity in distribution of its visit share by age vs. the online population (Ages 18-24 is 18%, 25-34 is 23%, 34-44 is 21%, 45-54 is 19%, and 55+ is 20%).
6. Facebook wins 499,949,430 visits from the most affluent income group versus YouTube’s 223,732,591 visits and Twitter’s 15,166,795 visits.
7. Facebook became the #1 ranked website in the US on March 9, 2010.
8. “Facebook” is the most searched term in the US and Facebook-related terms account for 14% of the top search clicks.
9. Facebook users are highly loyal to the website; 96% of visitors to Facebook were returning visitors in January 2012.
10. Internationally, Facebook ranks in the top 2 websites in every market except China, where Sina Weibo, Baidu Zhidao and Renren are the dominant social networks.

Hitwise further states that “Facebook is the largest website in the US and a top performer in numerous international markets. The fan base of the site is loyal and spends a significant portion of their time online on the social network. Facebook’s influence is seen in the presidential elections, digital shopping habits and beyond.”

Last June Hitwise concluded in their Facebook Fan Acquisition and Analysis that 1 Facebook fan is equal to 20 additional visits to a business website over the course of a year. If you have 500 Facebook fans, this means an extra 10,000 visits to your dental website a year.

Hitwise wrote, “The figure of 1 fan = 20 extra visits to a website uses a unique methodology that combines Hitwise data with data from social media experts Techlightenment. We took the top 100 retailers ranked in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category and bench-marked visits to those websites against the number of fans those brands had on their Facebook page. We then also looked at the propensity for people to search for those retail brands after a visit to Facebook using our Search Sequence tool.”

Here at The Wealthy Dentist we firmly believe that your dental marketing plan should include a Facebook page. With dental patients spending more time online, dentists should increasingly be looking to use Facebook as a part of their dental marketing.

Facebook fans can play a role in dental patient retention and procurement by helping to drive dental website traffic, boosting dental practice awareness, demonstrating dental treatments or acting as a customer testimonial billboard.

On the other hand, 22% say it’s easy for new and current patients to find them online.

In addition, 48% of dentists say they’d like to improve their dental website search engine results placement.

All dentists want their dental website to show up at the top of the search list whenever someone searches for a dentist. A search-engine optimized dental website seeks to accomplish this goal. It involves a well-researched, geo-targeted keyword strategy for use in your dental website’s content.

The result is a more visible ranking for your dental website in the organic search results on search engines like Google, which brings more visitors to your dental website.

Here are some additional comments from dentists on their dental practice visibility online –

“It’s good, I get a lot of patients through the Internet. You can’t get complacent and must be on top of things, it’s ever-changing.” (California oral surgeon)

“I am never satisfied. It takes constant work. I am hopeful that I will get so busy so I can afford to delegate it. I do enjoy the game and play fairly well. If I was in a large market there is no way I could handle it.” (Missouri dentist)

“I’m looking at providers now because it seems more people are using the web as a means to get the things they want and need, including dentistry. Feel I need to give it a try.” (California dentist)

“We must update and change it to keep it current so we will be found.” (General dentist)

“There are only two of us in town so easy to find me!” (Texas dentist)

When local prospective dental patients search for dentists, you want them to find your dental website quickly and to understand what kind of dental treatments you offer. You want to stand out from your competition with a dental website listing that appears at the top of search engines.

Check out IDA’s New Patient Marketing Machine™ that targets the specific categories of high-value new patients you want to attract to your dental website. Each IDA website is targeted at one Primary Dental Market, and optionally for up to 3 Secondary Dental Markets to help your dental practice become easily found on the Internet.

This question is being raised in the Northwest where a Washington state dental practitioner bill passed through the Senate Health Committee.  The Senate version of this legislation moves out of committee and can potentially be considered by the full Senate.

If this bill passes in the Senate, Washington will be the next U.S. state to adopt a mid-level dental provider model to create both dental hygiene practitioners and dental practitioners, who will be supervised (offsite) by a dentist.

These practitioners will be allowed to provide various levels of dental care “pursuant to a written practice plan with a dentist.”

Dental hygiene practitioners would expand the scope of practice of the state’s hygienists, who can now place fillings after a dentist has done the prep work. They would receive specialized training to do extractions, handle medical emergencies, and administer some drugs.

Dental practitioners would be permitted to do everything that hygienists can do except scaling and cleanings. They could also do restorations, administer anesthesia, and extract primary teeth as well as loose permanent teeth (+3 to +4 mobility).

Both types of practitioners could work with offsite supervision if approved by their supervising dentist, but neither could do dental crowns, bridges, or complicated procedures. (Dr Bicuspid)

The Washington Academy of General Dentistry and the Washington State Dental Association oppose this bill siting, “insufficient training for diagnosis and a lack of direct supervision.”

What are your thoughts on mid-level dentist practitioners? Are they bad for dentistry?

For more: Washington Lawmakers Mull Dental Therapist Bills

This means that a lot of the times dentists end up on the losing side of the peer review equation.

Said one dentist, “Review boards are not impartial and fair, just interested in giving money back to patients.”

One endodontist professed, “It’s far better that getting involved in the judicial system!”

These are just two of the comments dentists offered The Wealthy Dentist when surveyed about the dental peer-review process.

Click on Play to hear more from dentists on how they answered the survey question: Have you been disappointed by dental peer-review?

Mathew Broderick and Honda may be hoping so.

In 1986, director John Hughes debuted the American teen coming-of-age comedy film, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

It quickly became one of the top movies of 1986 and has since enjoyed a cult following.

This year Honda has enlisted actor Mathew Broderick for their Super Bowl XLVI commercial to promote the Honda CR-V. The Super bowl ad pokes fun at Broderick’s Ferris Bueller character by showing him faking the flu to skip work and spend the day enjoying the sites around Los Angeles.

Several classic details from the “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” movie are included in the commercial, such as the use of the song “Oh Yeah,” a valet calling for “Broderick. Broderick,” and a parking attendant taking Broderick’s Honda for a joy-ride.

Today’s Friday random video is the Super Bowl commercial, “Matthew’s Day Off“ –

What is your favorite Super Bowl commercial?

Chemists in Germany believe they have made a breakthrough in creating a better ceramic.

Glass chemist Prof. Dr. Christian Rüssel of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) and his colleagues of the Otto-Schott-Institute for Glass Chemistry were successful in producing a new nanocrystalline glass ceramic, which may be suitable for use in dentistry due to their strength and optical characteristics.

Science Daily News is reporting that the glass chemists of Jena University have recently published their ceramic research results in the online-edition of the science magazine Journal of Biomedical Materials Research.

Prof. Rüssel told SDN,”We achieve a strength five times higher than with comparable denture ceramics available today. In combination with new optical characteristics an additional field of application is opening up for these materials in dentistry. The enamel is partly translucent, which the ceramic is also supposed to be.”

The fundamental materials are melted at approximately 1.500 °C, then cooled before being finely cut up. The material is then melted and cooled a second time. Finally, the nanocrystals are produced by controlled heating to about 1,000 °C, which determines the crystallisation crucial for the strength of the product.

According to Rüssel, the ceramic ends up looking translucent, like a natural tooth.

This is good news for dentists, denture patients and those seeking dental implants who want the look and strength of regular teeth.

Read more: Nanocrystals Make Dentures Shine

It doesn’t to Maryland Superior Court Judge Richard Moses, who is scheduled to sentence former dentist Michael Clair on one count of tampering with evidence, one count of witness intimidation, two counts of assault and battery, three counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances, three counts of larceny, and five counts of Medicaid fraud.

Sounds like the legal system is having a good time working Dr. Clair over. But was it deserved . . . absolutely!

Dr. Michael Clair fraudulently billed Medicaid for $130,000 between August 2003 and June 2005. At that time he was licensed to practice dentistry, but had been prohibited from doing work on Medicaid patients. Investigators allege Clair performed the work and then had other dentists in the practice submit bills to Medicaid.

The investigation also charged that Clair twice used paper clips rather than the more expensive stainless steel posts to strengthen teeth given a root canal. Investigators also charged Clair with prescribing Hydrocodone, Combunox and Percocet to staff members, who in turn gave some of the medicine back to him.

Clair has admitted guilty to all the charges.

Read more: Fall River dentist who used paper clips pleads guilty before trial

Uninsured Americans are turning to emergency rooms nationwide to manage the pain from dental problems, according to a 2010 Health Resources and Services Administration report.

The same report reveals that dental emergencies make up between 1.3 percent and 2.7 percent of all ER visits.

USAToday reports the reason is a lack of dental coverage for under-insured and uninsured patients as emergency rooms are treating toothaches, tooth abscesses and other dental care emergencies.

Although that number might seem like only a small percentage, Alan Sorkey, a Louisiana emergency physician, pointed out to USAToday that he treated 226 of the 6,336 patients for toothaches last year.

These dental care-related ER visits create higher costs for taxpayers because many of these dental patients return to the ER two or more times per dental problem to manage their symptoms, according to the ADA. And, while the Affordable Care Act addresses dental care for children on Medicaid, the requirement doesn’t exist for adults, ADA spokesman Robert Raible told USAToday.

The ADA is currently working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to devise an approach to get “broader and deeper numbers and look at key indicators for solutions,” ADA President William Calnon said.

What are your thoughts on this growing dental insurance issue?

For more: Lack of dental coverage sends patients to ER for pain

People quickly assumed the problem was with foreign dental labs, particularly those in China.

The Wealthy Dentist conducted a survey asking dentists a number of questions about foreign dental labs.

One dentist said,  “Patients have been systematically kept in the dark when it comes to dental procedures.  Patients should be given informed consent when choosing materials.”

Another dentist complained, “Too many dentists are accommodating low insurance payment schedules by buying materials and fabrications that are too cheap.  It doesn’t seem to matter that it compromises the health of the patient.”

Click on Play to hear more of what dentists have to say about foreign dental labs –

What has been your experience with dental labs?

In the video below you will witness a dog swimming the Gulf of Mexico to be rescued by a fishing kayaker. The kayaker (just so happens) to be filming his fishing trip, which captures the moment.

The kayaker uses a ShamWow to dry the dog and comfort him. He says, “ShamWow” on this (now viral) video — one of the few words you hear from him as he cares for the dog. Talk about accidental product placement!

The dog is scared and traumatized.

This viral video becomes its own short film as the kayaker tries to figure out how to help the dog.

Watch to the right in the water and see if you can spot the dog in the distance before the kayacker sees that a dog is swimming to him –

ABC news reports that the dog ran from a scene where its owner was hit by a car while taking him for a walk.  The dog ran to the ocean and started swimming. Luckily, this fisherman was there to rescue him.

Read more: 53-year-old woman killed in Sarasota DUI crash, according to FHP