It is not too early to start planning for the last quarter of your Annual Plan, which truly feels like the last several miles of a marathon race. You have to make sure your long distance runners (aka, your team) have a workable strategy to cross the finish line at record pace, with an eye … Read more
Back to school for kids is always a nervous and exciting time for children and parents alike. What teacher will they get? Will their friends be in the in class with them? One often overlooked item is school lunch and their associated snacks. Most schools these days have certain policies of trying to be more … Read more
How do you rank? After decades of coaching thousands of dental practices in North America to be their best, via patient retention, new patient growth and case acceptance, I have created the following list of characteristics that patients value most, in order of importance, about their dental experience. These characteristics are essential for patient loyalty, … Read more
This past week I met with several dental teams and asked them about the “3 Ds” which now characterize their patient caseloads: Do you have diabetic patients? Do you have patients on diuretics? Do you have patients with a dry mouth? In all meetings, there was instant agreement that many patients have one or more … Read more
1 in 5 low-income kids go without needed dental care; Pennsylvania receives a “D” for how it’s addressing this need (worse than 41 other states) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMYXaTZOkTo&list=UUsyy8lzxdKTUwK_CMs3dN7g Philadelphia, PA – Philadelphia Gentle Dental offices and their tooth mascot, Sir Floss A Lot, hit the streets to raise awareness about children’s dental health risks and the importance of … Read more
Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have recently discovered a way to predict the aggressiveness of oral cancer tumors in mice which is an important step towards doing the same with cancer tumors in humans to guide treatment. “All patients with advanced head and neck cancer get similar treatments,” according … Read more
Technology around the world has grown exponentially over the past century. From the invention of the automobile, to ATMs, and the World Wide Web, technology has made our lives more efficient and has made the information we need extremely accessible. In the dental industry, we’ve seen our own technology grow by leaps and bounds. Instead … Read more
The Canadian Lung Association reports that 10% of Canadians have lung disease or COPD. Half of these 3 million Canadians have a formal diagnosis, the others simply struggle on with difficulty breathing. A growing number of studies have connected oral health to lung function. But only recently has there been a prospective controlled study to … Read more
A recent article in the New York Times cautioned about the sugar content in those nutritional drinks taken by older Canadians. These drinks have the brands such as Boost and Ensure and are called by some geriatricians “liquid candy with vitamins.” As reported, one version of Boost contains 28 grams of sugar in an 8 … Read more
Nutrition is vital to a person’s oral health — and therefore to their overall health. Collaboration between registered dietitian nutritionists, dietetic technicians, registered and oral health-care professionals is recommended for health promotion, disease prevention and intervention, according to a new practice paper published by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The practice paper “Oral Health … Read more
Flossing is often overlooked by most people. However, it is an essential part of maintaining good dental hygiene and dental health. Below are the top reasons why you should floss your teeth every day… –Flossing Helps Avoid Periodontal Disease. Flossing is the important hygiene technique we can do to prevent development of periodontal disease. Food … Read more
A few months ago, I spoke with an advisor to the Sjogren’s Society of Canada about Prevora and the remarkable results from our 2 randomized, double blinded, placebo controlled, multi-centred trials which were conducted with FDA protocols. This advisor said she thought green tea was the answer to controlling caries in a Sjogren’s patient. So, … Read more
We are working with a Partner in Prevention in a community with lots of economic challenges. Recently, yet another factory closed its doors and so the patients are nervous about spending their own dollars on any kind of new service, including more dental prevention. This Partner is walking many of her patients who have a … Read more
Part II of III In my previous writings about the patient experience, I talked about how to “wow” a patient from their perspective, not just the dental offices. We all know that most people don’t want to be getting dental work done, but we forget because we are so wrapped up in what we are … Read more
ONLY Fourteen (14 %) of North American patients report knowledge or awareness of their dental office performing an Oral Cancer Screening. Oral cancer is considered one of the most preventable of all cancers and if detected early has an 80% success rate…! For more information please visit: www.transitionsonline.com.
Partners in Complete Health today announced its film “Say Ahh,” the world’s first documentary on oral health, is now available to the public, including non-dental and non-medical communities. Featuring doctors, patients and a few minor miracles, “Say Ahh” takes an informative, patient-friendly approach to explaining the oral-systemic connection and its impact on the health and … Read more
From my ongoing meetings with Canadian employers and benefit consultants, there is one overriding theme: healthcare benefits (primarily the drug plan and the dental plan) need further containment, particularly as the workforce ages and new biological drugs become available. One common strategy to contain costs for the employer, of course, is to make the employee … Read more
A recent study in the Journal of the American Dental Association linked a significant decline in word fluency and concentration to loss of teeth. This is not the first study to do so, but we aare not yet sure if there is a bidirectional association between number of teeth and cognitive function. In other words, … Read more
What makes your day great? Here it is, put simply: What does a day at work look like that has you pulling out of the parking lot saying “What an amazing day!” I’m fortunate to say I grew up in dental. During my nine years with Dr. Nick Johnson, an Orthodontist, I graduated high school … Read more
Periodontitis is a troublesome infection of the gums. When the infection causes the bone adjacent to teeth to break down, the teeth come loose. Mandibular bone can also be damaged by cancer, infections and accidents. With the aid of artificial, foam-rubber-shaped scaffolding, the body can be helped to repair the damage by itself. A new … Read more