Within the second of two articles, award-winning dental hygienist Claire-Louise Berry considers the core methods for efficiently advertising a ‘sexy’ oral well being idea.
My mission is to make biofilm a ‘sexy’ matter and improve oral well being so it sparks curiosity and engagement. When sufferers perceive the importance of biofilm management and examine it as a shared objective, it transforms therapy approaches, enhancing each well being outcomes and enterprise.
Final month’s article emphasised how biofilm is usually a vital enterprise asset. Successfully managing it enhances affected person outcomes, which in flip fosters follow progress. The actual game-changer? Advertising. Revolutionary, focused promotion attracts new sufferers, retains present ones and strengthens a follow’s status.
The ‘why’
Earlier than we delve into the how, let’s discover the why. What’s the goal of hygiene therapy? Ideally, it ought to information a affected person in direction of optimum and sustainable well being.
Calculus doesn’t trigger illness; biofilm does. The biofilm lifecycle begins to reaccumulate inside minutes of its disruption, and with so many nooks and crannies to scrub round, it’s not that we don’t belief our sufferers to scrub successfully; it’s merely that quite a few areas exist the place biofilm can stagnate and result in illness, necessitating our help in managing this with them. For that reason, biofilm is useful for enterprise, not calculus.
Participating in discussions about dental hygiene doesn’t should be boring or predictable. There are quite a few inventive methods to contain sufferers of their oral well being, and plenty of clinicians are already discovering distinctive (and extremely efficient) methods.
I utilise Instagram posts and reels, weblog articles and Youtube movies to make clear biofilm, its function in oral and systemic well being, and the way prevention can shield in opposition to illness. I simplify complicated info into easy-to-understand, digestible content material for my viewers, emphasising some great benefits of early intervention and routine care.
I get pleasure from incorporating holistic messaging within the care of my sufferers, highlighting the connection between biofilm and systemic well being. This particularly resonates with health-conscious sufferers who desire a extra complete strategy to wellbeing.
In case your follow makes use of progressive expertise to handle biofilm, you must emphasise these instruments in your advertising. Sufferers are actually extra tech-savvy and sometimes drawn to dental practices with high-tech options that ship extra environment friendly and cozy care.
By positioning your follow as a pacesetter in biofilm prevention and administration and emphasising your dedication to safeguarding sufferers’ oral and systemic well being, you’ll be able to set your small business aside, entice new sufferers and domesticate a loyal affected person base that appreciates long-term, preventive care.
Subsequent, let’s discover some key areas to contemplate when harnessing biofilm as a revenue builder.
Equip and educate
Aesthetic dentistry is a extremely crowded house in dental advertising, so why not make your well being division your distinctive promoting level (USP)?
Centre your efforts on affected person consolation and experience. You might utilise intraoral pictures and scanning, discover systemic well being assessments similar to HbA1C and blood strain checks, and put money into EMS Airflow or air sharpening items that concentrate on biofilm removing and administration.
Promote persevering with training by specializing in biofilm management and preventive care to showcase your workforce’s experience and dedication to the most recent methods.
Supply curated ‘biofilm management’ kits for sufferers to buy after their appointments. These might embrace advisable electrical toothbrushes or vouchers for purchases elsewhere, interdental/interspace brushes, floss, antimicrobial or desensitising merchandise, salivary substitutes, and even postbiotics and dietary supplements as adjuncts.
Make sure the hygiene division has entry to instruments such because the Oral-B IO Check Drive, which can be utilized on sufferers within the clinic to show biofilm removing at house. Fingers-on instruction helps reinforce behaviour change and encourages sufferers to purchase these merchandise for house use.
Utilise temporary digital consultations or movies the place you focus on merchandise on-line and learn how to use them earlier than a affected person arrives for an appointment. Loom is a superb platform for this objective.
These strategies guarantee sufferers have the instruments to hit the bottom working after visiting the hygienist. You might additionally ship pre-recorded ‘how to’ movies that includes the merchandise you will have advisable.
Six of the perfect advertising methods
Digital advertising: we will all recognise {that a} user-friendly web site is important for affected person bookings. Think about outstanding search key phrases in oral well being and collaborate along with your hygienist to make sure the content material aligns along with your in-practice messaging, steering away from frequent errors made by non-dental entrepreneurs
Social media advertising: use Instagram, Fb and Youtube to showcase earlier than and after photos, share oral care suggestions, and introduce your workforce. Concentrate on the hyperlink between biofilm and total well being to inspire sufferers to prioritise oral hygiene
Neighborhood outreach: organise or sponsor dental well being occasions at colleges, GP practices, or group centres to boost your visibility and promote preventive care
Referral programmes: set up partnerships with different healthcare suppliers to advertise progress by means of word-of-mouth referrals, whereas emphasising the significance of collaboration and shared look after sustaining an optimally wholesome affected person base
Visible aids: utilise diagrams, digital shows, and take-home supplies to teach sufferers about biofilm and its connection to systemic well being. Showcase movies in ready areas to have interaction curiosity and put together sufferers for discussions
Biofilm instruments and testing: take into account salivary diagnostics or biofilm and bleeding scoring instruments to offer sufferers with a transparent understanding of their oral well being, reinforce each day hygiene habits, and monitor enhancements over time.
Thoughts your language
Be certain that your entire follow maintains constant messaging. Keep away from phrases similar to ‘clean’, ‘deep clean’, or ‘scale and polish’, as this language downplays what the hygiene division gives.
Bear in mind, if you wish to improve your hygiene division, therapy ought to concentrate on getting sufferers to optimum well being, with low bleeding scores, wholesome endpoints and illness elimination, slightly than merely ‘cleaning’ for calculus and stain removing. As a substitute, we might use terminology like ‘oral health assessment’ or ‘oral health optimisation’.
Referring to the hygienist as an ‘expert in oral health’ clarifies to sufferers that they’re finest certified to deal with preventive care. Practice the workforce to successfully clarify biofilm, its dangers, and prevention methods. Present ongoing training on biofilm analysis and administration methods, enabling employees to tell sufferers confidently.
Empower your hygiene workforce members to embrace their function as biofilm specialists and take into account incorporating biofilm-focused language into your clinic’s tagline and advertising supplies.
Empower sufferers
After conducting medical assessments, present sufferers with personalised oral well being stories that element their biofilm ranges, threat areas and advisable remedies. If intraoral cameras are used to seize photographs, share these with the affected person to empower them to handle their situation.
Retaining this info solely inside our techniques implies that the illness is our accountability. By giving sufferers entry to those knowledge factors, we shift the possession of the illness again to them, encouraging accountability.
This strategy makes sufferers really feel extra engaged of their care and will increase their chance of following your suggestions.
Contemplate a multi-channel advertising strategy
Create a weblog or Youtube collection centered on biofilm training, addressing subjects similar to the next:
The function of biofilm in caries and periodontitis
House care suggestions for lowering biofilm
New biofilm-related remedies out there at your follow.
Share concise content material on social media that explains biofilm, utilising visuals, temporary movies and affected person success tales to stress the significance of biofilm management.
Distribute academic brochures, handouts and emails detailing biofilm, and embrace them as a part of a post-visit follow-up after the affected person’s first appointment. This demonstrates that the oral well being journey shouldn’t be an ‘in the moment’ therapy however slightly requires effort and time. It additionally emphasises that reaching well being could take a couple of appointments earlier than it transitions to upkeep.
Accomplice with influencers
If you wish to increase your small business and acquire new sufferers who worth oral well being optimisation, take into account partnering with native or on-line influencers specialising in well being and wellness.
Influencer advertising can increase consciousness in regards to the significance of biofilm administration whereas highlighting the remedies and merchandise your clinic supplies. Moreover, collaborating with close by well being and wellness companies, similar to gyms or well being spas, can reinforce your message on total wellness.
Partnering with native medical doctors, nutritionists or wellness centres may also profit mutual promotion. For instance, you might co-host a webinar or occasion with one other well being or wellness supplier, discussing the oral-systemic well being connection and emphasising biofilm prevention as important to complete well being. This may increase your follow’s standing inside a broader healthcare community.
Keep up-to-date with the analysis
Sustain with present biofilm analysis and coverings to offer your sufferers with cutting-edge care. This will embody new merchandise, applied sciences or strategies for successfully managing biofilm. Frequently inform your sufferers and share updates on the most recent biofilm-related analysis or merchandise to boost their oral well being. This may be achieved by means of newsletters, weblog posts or consultations, positioning your clinic as a pacesetter in innovation.
By making biofilm training a central part of your follow, you identify your clinic as an progressive chief in trendy dentistry, improve affected person outcomes and foster belief and long-term loyalty amongst your sufferers.
Learn half one among ‘The enterprise of biofilm’ right here.
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