In the interest of full disclosure, please note that sales generated through these links will produce a small commission for Dental Heroes. These commissions go a long way toward ensuring that Dental Heroes is able to continue providing you with great content.

Top 10 Best-Selling Dental Products by Category

Toothpaste

Colgate Total Whitening Toothpaste

- Colgate Whitening Toothpaste is helps to prevent cavities gingivitis plaque and lasting fresh breath protection.
- It has also been shown to help reduce the formation of plaque and tartar above the gumline.
- Brush twice a day and you’ll know your teeth are cleaner, whiter and your breath will be fresher around the clock.
- Each Colgate Total Formula fights plaque germs for 12 hours and helps prevent: plaque, gingivitis, tartar build-up, cavities and bad breath.

Buy Colgate Total Whitening Toothpaste Now

Mouthwashes

Listerine Antiseptic Mouthwash

- Kills germs that cause bad breath
- 24 hour protection
- The only nationally branded antimicrobial mouthwash to receive the Ada Seal of Acceptance for fighting plaque and gingivitis.
- Has over 100 years of safe use and 50 years of research, making it the most widely used and extensively researched mouthwash the U.s.
- The Ada Council on Scientific Affairs’ Acceptance of Listerine Antiseptic is based on its finding that the product is effective in helping to prevent and reduce gingivitis and plaque above the gumline, when used as directed.

Buy Listerine Antiseptic Mouthwash Now

Flossers

Glide Floss Picks

- Allows you to floss even between teeth in the back of your mouth.
- Patented tension-control design allows floss to surround the tooth surface for cleaning power.
- Silky-smooth texture slides easily between teeth.
- Effectively removes tough plaque between teeth and just below the gum line.
- Gently stimulates gums and helps prevent gingivitis

Buy Glide Floss Picks Now

Dental Night Guards

Smartguard Night Guard

- Patented Gag Free design with FDA Approved materials
- Patented design has the highest possibility to Reduce TMJ Jaw Pain of any OTC Night Guard available
- Designed by a TMJ Dentist
- Protects the teeth from the affects of teeth grinding. Also reduces clenching and ringing in the ears.
- Reduces Tension headaches 77% out of 82% of headache sufferers

Buy SmartGuard night guard Now

Powered Toothbrushes For Adults

Philips HX5351 Sonicare Toothbrush

- Soft-grip handle holds charge for up to 2 weeks, ideal for travel
- Rechargeable toothbrush cleans with ultra-high speed bristles
- Removes 80% of coffee and tobacco stains in just 28 days
- Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
- 2-minute smartimer
- Includes 1 contoured brush head, charger base, and travel case

Buy Philips Sonicare Hx5351/30 Essence Now

Powered Toothbrushes For Kids

Philips Sonicare for Kids Rechargeable Toothbrush

- KidTimer increases brushing time slowly over 90 days, building toward the dentist recommended 2 minutes.
- Kid-friendly power modes provide gentle cleaning that’s right for different ages.
- Age-appropriate brush heads specifically designed to clean and protect teeth at key developmental stages.
- Ergonomic design enables parents and kids to brush together or on their own.
- Interchangeable panels so kids can customize their toothbrush

Buy Philips Sonicare for Kids Now

Manual Toothbrushes

Colgate 360 Degree Sensitive Toothbrush

- Offers features such as textured tongue cleaner, tapered inter-dental bristles, polishing cups, cleaning tip, soft bristles and a comfort grip
- Contains soft bristles which gently massage your gum-line while giving your teeth a deep cleaning

Buy Colgate 360 Degree Sensitive Toothbrush Now

Whitestrips

Crest 3D White Whitestrips

- Professional level whitening results that last up to 12 months.
- Advanced Seal technology allows you to talk, drink water and go about your day while you whiten
- Start seeing a whiter smile after just 3 days
- Enamel safe. Same whitening ingredient dentists use
- Give yourself a smile makeover with professional level whitening results at home

Buy Crest 3D White Whitestrips Now

Waterpiks

Waterpik Ultra Water Flosser

- Water jet is clinically proven to be up to 93-percent more effective than flossing
- Advanced control delivers a water pressure of 10 to 90 PSI with 1200 pulses per minute
- Removes debris and bacteria lodged deep between teeth and below the gum-line
- Significant oral health benefit for people who wear braces, have diabetes, and gum disease
- Includes 6 color-coded tips

Buy Waterpik Ultra Water Flosser Now

Toothbrush Sanitizers

Sunbeam UV Counter Top Unit Sanitizer

- Kills 99% of E Coli, Streptococcus and Salmonella germs
- Sanitizes in just 8 minutes
- Effective UV lamp never needs replacing
- Operates with an AC adapter
- Safe enough for children to use

Buy Sunbeam UV Counter Sanitizer Now

Crest 3D White Whitestrips Benefits:

• A whiter smile after just 3 days
• Full results in 20 daysProfessional-level results at a fraction of the cost* *vs. light & laser systems
• Revolutionary Advanced Seal technology for no-slip whitening
• New improved lower strip for more whitening coverage

How to Redeem Your $7 Crest 3D Whitestrips Coupon

To redeem your Crest 3D White Whitestrips coupon, visit the Crest 3D White Whitestrips Coupon page.

When you arrive at the page, be sure to click the “Clip This Coupon” button before checking out. Upon checkout, you’ll receive your $7 discount instantly. Check out the image below to locate the “Clip this Coupon” button.

For a limited time, Crest is offering you an opportunity to receive a free sample of Crest 3D White Whitestrips and a free sample of Crest 3D White Vivid Toothpaste.

How to get your samples

All that’s needed to receive your free samples is about 20 seconds of your time. Simply fill out the Crest sample request form, and you’re samples will be on their way.

I was a dental assistant for 12 years right out of high school and I have maintained an interest in dental workforce issues ever since. After completing my bachelors and masters degrees, I worked in non-profits where I devoted my time to dental workforce issues. I am now working at a dental school and I’m a PhD candidate in the dissertation phase with a topic focused on dental workforce shortages affecting access to care. I’m interested in finding out if experience with dentistry prior to and during dental school affects how a person feels about their dental skills and abilities, and then finding out if these experiences (such as community outreach) influence practice preference. I believe the results of my study will help with dental admissions processes and with dental clinic recruitment and hiring. I’m focusing on dentists who have graduated between 2006 and 2011 to complete a short (10 minute) survey. I’ll share the results of my research with those who are interested.

Thank you, in advance, for your participation!
Mary Fusco, MA, PhD ABD

Start the Survey

Anyone interested in learning more about the research study and taking the survey please go to:

http://bit.ly/qzg6XJ

A more pleasant waiting experience

There’s a cheap and easy way to make your waiting room much more pleasant for your patients. Furnishing your waiting space with current, popular magazines can provide patients a lot of value and make their waiting considerably more pleasant. Current magazines in good condition also reflect well on your practice.

The easiest, cheapest way to keep your waiting room filled with magazines is by using a third party waiting room magazine provider.

Using a reception room subscription service helps you keep things simple by enabling you to pay one bill, and work with one provider, to get all your magazines. One bill, from one company, makes keeping magazines available for your customers much more convenient. At the same time, publishers offer discounts on subscriptions for waiting rooms.

One Company, One Bill

If you go about maintaining each subscription on your own, keeping magazines in your reception room requires remembering when you need to renew each title. Not only that, but when doing it on your own you have to deal with fluctuating prices that make it hard to budget. Using a reception room subscription service means you get one bill that covers all of your titles. This makes budgeting easy, and renewals even easier.

Save Money on Subscriptions

Publishers are willing to charge less for subscriptions they know are going into waiting rooms because every issue in a reception room is seen by many people. These discounted prices can be considerably less than you could get on your own. You could get titles like People Magazine for as much as 71% off the cover price.

The most efficient way to take advantage of this discount is to work with a reception room subscription service that can negotiate reception room rates for all of your subscriptions.

Learn More

If you’d like to know more about working with a waiting room magazine provider, visit http://www.ebscomags.com.

The Author: Tracy Bikhaus

So, what’s the book about? Here’s what Tracy had to say:

Super Blake Books are a series of children’s picture books that follow Super Blake through a variety of adventures and show kids how they can be a hero in everyday life. Our Mission at Super Blake Books is to engage young readers and provide them with fun and educational stories. The first book in the series is titled “Super Blake and the Cavity Monster”. Blake becomes a superhero by making good choices and helping others. He defeats the Cavity Monster and his evil sidekicks: Ginger Vitis and Sir Plaque by brushing and flossing.

How to Learn More

To learn more about the book, please visit the Super Blake Books website. While you’re there, don’t forget to print out the free coloring pages and stickers for your little ones.

How to Enter

Entering to win a copy of “Super Blake and the Cavity Monster” is easy. Simply like both the Dental Heroes‘ and Super Blake Books‘ Facebook pages to enter. Entries must be submitted by 11:59PM on Friday, August 26th to be eligible.

Good luck!

Today’s society is extremely litigious. Lawsuits are filed every day over seemingly unimportant things, and many of them are indeed spurious. A defendant must still pay to defend a groundless lawsuit, however, and the cost can be enough to bankrupt even the most prosperous. Dentists belong to a handful of professions that are extremely prone to lawsuits. If an unhappy patient decides a cavity was not filled correctly or that he or she experienced too much pain, a lawsuit may be the result.

A dentist malpractice insurance policy will protect a dentist from all lawsuits that allege professional negligence. A dentist who is covered by a policy will not have to pay to defend a lawsuit; nor will he or she have to pay any damages that may be awarded if the plaintiff should happen to be victorious. The only out-of-pocket expenses the dentist will have to pay are the cost of the policy and the deductible.

Many different companies offer dental malpractice insurance, and the policies vary widely in coverage and price. Both claims-made and occurrence policies are available. A claims-made policy will cover any claim made during the time the dentist was covered by the policy. An occurrence policy will cover claims whenever they are reported as long as the incident leading to the claim happened during the policy period. Claims-made policies are more common and tend to be less expensive. Dentists can also purchase prior acts coverage, which will provide coverage for acts which occurred before the policy went into effect.

The cost of a policy varies widely depending on geographic location, how many years of experience the policyholder has, the selected deductible, the coverage limits the policyholder chooses and prior claims history. Students and new graduates usually pay lower rates, as many companies will give large discounts for the first few years in order to get their business. A lower deductible and a higher coverage limit will increase premiums. Dentists who have had to file claims in the past will also have to pay more for coverage.

A dentist in the middle of his or her career can expect to pay a few thousand dollars a year for a dental malpractice policy with more than a million dollars of coverage. The price is a bargain compared to the cost of defending a lawsuit and paying for claims. All dentists should purchase a policy to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Sponsored Post:
This is a sponsored post. Dental Heroes was compensated for publishing this post. Please note that we do not accept sponsored posts without properly vetting advertisers and only consider those that are highly relevant to the dental professional.

We’re giving away 10 beta invites for Odonto.me, a brand-spanking new web application to help you effectively manage appointments, patients, doctors, even some basic patients balance information.

Odonto.me Introductory Video

Additional Benefits

• Easy to use
• No software installation needed
• No hardware to maintain
• Secure
• Multi language
• No setup needed
• Reminders
• Works on the iPad® & iPhone®

What’s this going to cost me?

For up to 500 patients, you’ll pay absolutely nothing. How’s that for cost-effective? If you plan to manage over 500 patients, the cost is still very low, just $9.99/month.

How to Learn More

To learn more about the Odonto.met web application, please visit Odonto.me

How do I enter the beta invite giveaway?

Entering the beta invite giveaway is easy. Simply comment on this post and tell us why you want to try the Odonto.me application. If you’re one of the first ten people to leave a comment, we’ll e-mail you the beta invite code.

Mydent International Supports Autism Speaks

HAUPPAUGE, NY: April 12, 2011 — Mydent International is pleased to announce its ongoing support of Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest and most effective autism science and advocacy organization. Autism Speaks is dedicated to funding global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments and cure for autism.

With autism rates estimated as high as 1 in 91 children, Mydent feels compelled to take action. As a result, a portion of the profits from every DEFEND product sold will
go to Autism Speaks, with a $10,000 minimum annual commitment. Gary Mahr, Mydent’s Director of Operations, said: “As the parent of an autistic child, it is particularly gratifying to me that Mydent has chosen to support an outstanding organization such as Autism Speaks. It’s nice to know that a percentage of what we do every day is going to help improve the lives of people like my daughter.”

Mydent is proud to play a small part in helping Autism Speaks to change the future for all who struggle with autism spectrum disorders. We urge you to learn more at www.autismspeaks.org.

Mydent International is dedicated to fully maintaining its brand promise: “To provide the healthcare professional with the highest quality infection control products,
disposables, preventatives and impression material systems at affordable prices, supported by superior service and 100% Customer Satisfaction.” DEFEND. Works Better. Lasts Longer. Costs Less. For more information on Mydent International and the DEFEND brand of products, call 800-275-0020, or visit www.defend.com.

Enter the Dental Heroes/Mydent Giveaway

defend

To enter to win these great products, simply follow @dentalheroes on Twitter and “like” Mydent on Facebook. When you’ve done both, let me know in a comment under this post. A winner will be picked at random on Friday, May 20, 2011. The announcement will be posted right here on DentalHeroes.com. Stay tuned, and good luck!

To win a free year’s supply along with a $200 gift card, you simply need to “Like” Aquafresh on Facebook. Additionally, for each friend who registers, you’ll be granted an additional chance to win.

Aquafresh will also be giving away six weekly prizes of all three varieties of Aquafresh iso-active toothpaste as well.

Like Aquafresh Now

Claim Process

The 3-step process to claim your free handpiece is as follows:

Step 1) Purchase three 500-count boxes of Denticator Prophy Angles (contact your authorized dental dealer to do so)

Step 2) Select the handpiece of your choice: Wild Thing Green, Classic Silver and Prophy Pink.

Step 3) Send your invoice to Denticator for your FREE ProphyPal!

Detailed Instructions

To receive your FREE ProphyPal, send a copy of your authorized Dental Dealer invoice to Denticator, Attn: D-Q111-PPAL, PO Box 7924, Algonquin, IL 60102 or FAX (847) 458-0063. Please indicate color of ProphyPal on invoice. If no color is given, a ProphyPal will be chosen for you. Limit of 2 ProphyPals per office. Offer only valid 2/1/11 through 3/15/11.Request(s) must be received by 3/31/11. Please allow 6-8 weeks for free goods. Qualifying purchases must be on one invoice. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer(s).Questions on free goods? Please call (866) 753-4392 or email denticatorfulfillment@ydnt.com. Free goods offer subject to change.

Who’s Eligible to Enter

To be eligible to win, you must be (i) a licensed dentist, (ii) a dental hygienist, (iii) a dental assistant, or (iv) an office manager that has been employed at a licensed dental office during the entire six (6) months immediately prior to entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, third-party partners, advertising, promotion, and fulfillment agencies, their immediate family members and persons living in their same household, are not eligible to participate in the Giveaway. Void where prohibited or where registration or bonding required. Federal, state, and local laws and regulations apply.

For a full listing of the official rules, check out the sweepstakes rules page.

How to Enter

To enter, simply fill out the sweepstakes entry forms. Registration is FREE and only takes a few minutes. Good Luck!

P.S. Don’t forget to follow DentalProductShopper.com on Twitter (@DentalProducts).

What do you think?

Should you win, what would your practice do with the cash?

1) Using Facebook ads for Dental Marketing Jason Lipscomb, DDS, discusses the “why” and “how” of using Facebook Ads for marketing your practice…

2) The #1 Killer In a Dental Practice: Indifference Yin Chew believes indifference is the best way to destroy your dental practice – bottom line: caring matters…

3) Cool New Dental Office in Germany Wow, this is one dental office that you’ll just have to see for yourself…

4) Selling With Integrity for Dentistry Ed O’Keefe discusses where the true value lies in the “selling” side of dentistry…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

1) Your Practice Needs an Office Manager Kevin Henry points out how a business manager can free up dentists to spend more time establishing and nurturing the all-important relationship with patients…

2) Issue your office a citation Jason Lipscomb discusses the importance of acquiring “citations” (something we talked about some time ago in our post How to Increase your Practice’s Ranking in Google Places) online to help boost your local search engine rankings…

3) 4 Traits of Highly Successful Case Acceptance Ed O’Keefe discusses 4 critical traits he believes are linked to highly successful case acceptance…

4) Raise your production and lower your stress Raising your productivity while lowering your stress sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Roger P. Levin, DDS, explains how it can be done…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

System Highlights

• Direct USB Connectivity
• PerfectSize™ Sensor
• TrueComfort™ Design
• WiseAngle™ Cable Exit
• PureImage™ Technology
• ScatterGuard™ Protection
• Custom-fit Holders
• Durable Components
• Easy-to-use Software

Check out the DEXIS website for more information regarding the DEXIS Digital X-ray System.

How to Enter

Simply visit the official DEXIS contest page and fill out the short entry form.

To receive your free sample end of the year insurance letter, simply visit the Cambridge Practice Consultant website and request your copy.

What is Yelp?

In this post, we’re going to provide some quick tips for doing the same with another major player in the local search market, Yelp. If you’re not familiar, Yelp is similar to the online version of the Yellow Pages. However, it takes things a step further by allowing visitors to post reviews about local businesses. Businesses are encouraged to post photos, detailed business descriptions, company histories, specialties, upcoming events, etc. to provide an in-depth look at your business to potential customers.

With nearly 38 million visitors a month, you can see why Yelp is a great opportunity for you to take advantage of.

Yelp’s Features for business owners

• Communicate with your customers– privately and publicly
• Track how many people view your business page
• Add photos, a detailed business description, up-to-date information, history, and specialties
• Announce special offers and upcoming events
• Recommend other businesses

How to unlock your business page

Unlocking your business page on Yelp is easy. Watch the following video to claim your Yelp business page:

What to do once your business page is unlocked

Now that your practice page is unlocked, you have access to the business owner dashboard. Here you can update your business information, post announcements and upcoming events, communicate with your patients and more.

yelp-dashboard

Tips for making the most of Yelp

1. Let people know you’re on Yelp – Instead of soliciting reviews, simply let people know you’re on Yelp. As the reviews mount, you may very well notice that your Yelp profile is climbing in the search engines as a result.

2. Add your website URL – If you have a website make sure to include your url with your listing. This allows prospective patients to learn more about you than your Yelp page can provide.

3. Don’t skip the “Specialties” or “Business History” sections – These sections are often overlooked, but present you with a great opportunity to provide keyword-rich and compelling content for the search engines.

4. Show off – Trust is a critical component of the dentist-patient relationship. You can start to establish this trust by displaying professional and inviting photos of your practice for potential patients to see. Sometimes a photo alone is all it takes to bring a new patient through the door.

5. Advertise – If you live in a highly-competitive area, you may want to consider one of Yelp’s advertising options to appear higher in Yelps’ listings in your locale.

6. Handle negative reviews appropriately – Luther Lowe, Business Outreach Manager at Yelp provides some valuable tips for handling negative reviews in a professional manner in the following audio interview:

Handling Negative Reviews

Get started

You’re now armed with a handful of great tips for making the most out of Yelp. If done properly, you should start to see your Yelp profile rank higher in the search engines and a few new faces walking through the door.

Your Tips

What have your experiences been with Yelp? Do you have any tips for optimizing your business listing? Please share then in a comment below.

After all, answering these questions, and what you do after you answer these questions could very well save your life! If you think I’m kidding, just ask Dr. Ron Arndt (The Dental Coach), DDS, MBA, MAGD.

Dr. Ron, a successful dentist, almost didn’t survive long enough to ask himself these questions. He nearly died 20 years ago after suffering a massive heart attack attributed to work-related stress. Dr. Ron’s recently released book, “Killing the Practice Before it Kills You,” details his frightening ordeal and the pivotal steps he took to turn around both his personal and professional lives.

What sets this book apart from other business books?

I appreciate that “Killing the Practice Before it Kills You” is so focused. It’s not chock-full of fluff like many business books these days. Instead, it provides you with pointed, actionable steps that you can begin implementing today to begin the process of re-centering your life and building a high-performance dental practice.

Highlights

• Discover “red flags” that may indicate that your business is killing you
• Understand how you got to where you are both personally and professionally
• Understand how to step (or jump) off the “gerbil wheel”
• Learn how to establish your personal and professional “core values”
• Learn how to then “kill your practice” and conduct a practice makeover

Final Thoughts

If your life is stress-free and hunky-dory, then you probably have no need for this book. But, for the rest of you, do yourself a favor and purchase a copy of this book. If you’re ready to get off the gerbil wheel, shift your mindest, makeover your practice and de-stress your life, then you’ll find this book an invaluable tool moving forward.

How do I purchase “Killing the Practice Before it Kills You”

You can pick up a copy of “Killing the Practice Before it Kills You” at Dr. Ron’s website, killingthepractice.com.

Special Gift

Dr. Ron is gracious enough to offer Dental Heroes’ readers a special gift with the purchase of his book. If you purchase through the link above, you’ll receive a free copy of his special report, “9 Hiring Mistakes Dentists Make.”

In the digital world that we now live in it’s more important than ever that your practice has an online presence. Without a website you’re missing out on a vital opportunity to attract new patients. Why? Because patients often search online for new dentists. This is true even when they’ve been referred to you by a friend or family member. Bottom line, if a potential patient can’t find you on the web, you probably won’t get their business.

But, websites are costly and difficult to maintain, right?

They can be, sure. But, they don’t have to be. Just ask the folks at GreatDentalWebsites.com. These guys just get it. They understand that the average dentist DOESN’T WANT or need a $10,000 website. They do, however, understand that dentists DO WANT modern features that will help them be found in the search engines and they DO WANT tools that help them connect with their patients on social networks.

Unfortunately, when GreatDentalWebsites.com was founded three years ago, there were no good options that could accomplish this. So, what did they do? They created their own website solution for dentists that is affordable and can provide you with a working website in minutes, not weeks or months.

Features

You may be wondering if this is one of those gimmicky, cookie-cutter website solutions you’ve seen elsewhere. Nope. In fact, here’s just a few of the features GreatDentalWebsites.com has available to you:

• Before & After Smile Gallery
• List of your services & procedures
• Contact form / Appointment Scheduler
• Office picture gallery
• Dentist & Staff profiles
• Automatically add Google Maps
• Update Twitter automatically
• Customize & Update your website for free anytime, day or night
• Multi Language Support
• Seemless integration of your FAQs, Services,and Smile Gallery

smile-gallery-example-2

Smile Gallery Example

Optionally, you can add search engine optimization and/or website analytics integration.

Who is a GreatDentalWebsites.com website intended for?

Any dentist on a budget, new dentists, established dentists, dental consultants, etc.

Why work with GreatDentalWebsites.com

We like GreatDentalWebsites.com for a number of reasons, including:

• They’re affordable
• Free hosting included
• No setup fees
• Their feature set is designed to attract patients
• You’ll get new features rolled in to your sites free-of-charge for life
• You retain ownership of your website content
• They offer customization services

Pricing

Standard pricing is $49 per month with no setup fees. This is more affordable than competing sites. If you are a new dentist just launching your practice this price is cut in half. Additional services such as SEO and analytics integration are extra.

Testimonials

You already know that we’re impressed by the GreatDentalWebsites.com website services. If that’s not enough, here’s what a few of their customers have to say:

So amazingly easy to work with! I was up and running in no time. The staff is extremely knowledgeable and helpful through the whole process. Very professional! – Dr. Corina Atanase (AtanaseSmiles.com)

Six new patients from the website yesterday. Thanks! …two weeks later… Got another new patient today from the website. Sure beats the heck out of the yellow pages. They (yellow pages) called last week. I laughed. – Dr. Joseph Gwiazdowski DDS (NorthEastDentist.com)

We are really pleased with the SEO progress to this point. I have to say, we have been really impressed with the customer service and attention we have been given by your company. We are looking forward to updating our site with photos, forms, and more information that will make the site stand out to those who come across it on the web. Let anyone who asks know that they can contact us for a testimonial regarding your services! – Dr. Jordan Stirneman
(Bellairefamilydentistry.com)

Free 30-Day Trial

Are you ready to get your new website started? GreatDentalWebsites.com is so confident that you’ll love your new website that they’re giving you an opportunity to test their services for a full 30 days free of charge. To start your 30-day trial head on over to their signup page.

From September 1 through November 30, Oral-B is offering you a 50% savings on a number of their more popular electric toothbrushes, including the:

• ProfessionalCare 5000 with SmartGuide
• ProfessionalCare 4000
• ProfessionalCare 3000
• ProfessionalCare 1000
• Pulsonic

Bonus

Your purchase will be matched with a donation to help improve America’s oral health.

Important Details

The 50% savings on the models above is only valid at participating retailers including: Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Drugstore.com and Amazon.com. After purchase, the retailer will provide you with a printable rebate form to redeem 50% of the purchase price. Note that this incredible offer ends on November 30, 2010. Also be sure that you’ve mailed your rebate form to Oral-B by February 7, 2011 along with proof of purchase and your original receipt for an Oral-B Professional Care Premium Electric Toothbrush (1000, 3000, 4000, 5000 or Oral-B Pulsonic) to:

Dept. Y
PO Box 470828
El Paso, TX 88547-0828

Introducing: Zapi Pop Hi-Ya Toothbrush Sanitizer (Aff).

Here’s a quick ninja-style rundown:

– The “Hi-Ya” Zapi uses germicidal ultraviolet light to kill 99.9% of germs on your toothbrush in just minutes.
– Simply insert your favorite toothbrush, press the button, and Hi-Ya goes to work, turning off automatically.
– Your toothbrush is germ free and safely stored inside Zapi ready for the next time you brush.

Ninja toothbrush Sanitizer

Zapi Pop Toothbrush Ninja

How to get one for yourself

To pick up one of these lean, mean bacteria-fighting machines for yourself, visit Amazon.com (Aff).

Gendex GXS-700 Features

If you’re not familiar with the Gendex GXS-700, here are some exciting features:

High Quality Image Capture

• Advanced CMOS sensor technology enhances image quality, elevating technical and diagnostic capabilities
• High-performance sensor captures high resolution images, providing more than 20 visible line pairs per millimeter
• Working within a wide dynamic range of x-ray exposure settings provides consistent image quality and repeatable results

Two Ergonomically Designed Sensor Sizes

• Size 1 and Size 2 accommodate children and adults
• Rounded corners and smooth edge finishes comfortably fit the anatomical shape of the oral cavity
• Durable materials and components increase the life span of the product

Direct USB Connectivity

• Ultra-portable sensors with Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity
• No need for USB controllers, adapters, or docking stations
• Low power consumption

For additional information regarding the GXS-700, visit the Gendex website.

How to Enter

Entering the Gendex GXS-700 Sweepstakes couldn’t be easier. Simply head on over to the Gendex website and fill in the Sweepstakes Entry Form. That’s it!

Add or Claim Your Listing

Google Places provides an easy way for you to drive targeted traffic to both your website and your physical practice locations. If you haven’t already set up your Google Places’ listing(s), then set aside 15-20 minutes to do so – you’ll be glad you did.

If you need help adding or claiming your listing, check out these step-by-step instructions for doing so or view this comprehensive how-to video produced by google.

Why Ranking in Google Places is Important

Ranking in Google Places is vitally important for your practice. With a Google Places listing your practice can appear near the top of the search results in your area for terms like “dentist” and “dentist in XXXX”.

Secondly, with a Google Places listing, you can look forward to much more targeted traffic than organic (non-Google Places) search results. Search engine optimization experts will tell you that targeted traffic means higher converting traffic, and higher converting traffic means more customers for you.

Major Google Places Ranking Factors

There are a number of factors that determine where your listing will be ranked within Google Places. Here are the biggies (in no particular order):

• 100% Complete Business Profile
• Claiming your listing
• Citations

Tips Your Competition Doesn’t Know About

The following tips will help you to maximize your ranking from within Google Places in local searches (in no particular order). Naturally, the more of these tips you implement the better.

1. Complete your business profile – Make sure that your Google Places profile is completely filled out. Simply provide as much information as you possibly can.

2. Claim your listing – In some cases, Google has already created a basic listing for your business within Google Places. Google does this by pulling your business information from various business directories and websites around the web. If Google automatically generated your Google Places listing, then be sure to claim it. To do this, be sure that you’ve set up a Google Account and login to Google Places.

3.Add your business to online business directories – Add your practice’s contact information in as many local business directories as possible. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, take a look at a post I wrote a while back listing the top 10 free places to list your practice online. Start with this list and add your practice to as many additional business directories as possible for maximum effect. Just remember, consistency is key. Add your contact information exactly the same way in each listing. For example, if you spell out the word “street” in one directory, make sure you spell it out in the others as well.

4. Add Video or Pictures – Add pictures and/or videos of your practice to your profile page. Google loves this, and your customers will appreciate the transparency that only video or pictures can provide.

5. Coupons – This may or may not apply to your practice. However, if your practice offers coupons or specials – be sure to list them in the space provided.

6. Organic rankings – Your rankings in the organic (regular, non-Google Places) search results for your top keywords does appear to influence at least to some degree where you’re ranked within Google Places. However, Google Places aside, its critically important that your site is optimized for the search engines. You can do this yourself, or hire an SEO expert to do this for you.

7. Add contact details to your website – This is a no-brainer. Luckily, the vast majority of you have already done this. I’d take this a step further, however, and advise you to add your address along with your business name and phone number on every page of your site.

8. Review, Reviews, Reviews – Request that satisfied patients add reviews to your Google Places page.

9. Separate location pages – Create a separate page on your website for each location. Then link your Google Places’ listings to their appropriate location page within your website.

10. Buy Your Way to the Top – For a flat $25/month fee you can enhance your listing (include additional information other listings can’t) and potentially its ranking as well

Further Reading

- How Dentists Can Improve Google Places Listings by The Visible Dentist
- Ranking in Google Place: A Definitive Guide by Seo Factor
- 10 Quick Google Places Tips by Lucidica
- Google Places Help for Business Owners by Google
- Google Places No-No’s by Daily SEO Tip

Final Thoughts

Some of these tips can be implemented today, while others will take some time. Either way, do what you can as time permits. I can’t guarantee that these tips will enhance your listing’s ranking within the Google Places’ search results – nobody can. However, it is likely that you can expect at least some positive effect.

If you would like to add a tip to this list, or have seen positive results from the usage of these tips please share with other Dental Heroes’ readers in a comment below.

Social media allows for something that’s never been available to businesses using traditional marketing in the past. Social media allows you to connect…to talk…to create…an ongoing dialogue with your target audience!

Unlike print ads and direct mail outs that are static and limited in their information or even networking events that are one time meetings…social media allows you to “talk” with your audience…24/7.

This creates incredible opportunities to be visible and responsive to your market! But if you’re not careful, social media can be very overwhelming and distracting. There’s the social platforms, the tools (applications, widgets, plugins, etc), social media etiquette, connecting and engaging with viewers, and the time involved…time can be a big factor!

One of the biggest mistakes practices make when starting in social media is they just jump in with no clear objectives or strategy. They aren’t sure about what they what to do and how they’re going to do it.

They’ll set up their social sites, Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn, and maybe even a blog, but they don’t know how to connect, how to listen, and more importantly…how to engage effectively. Then after a few posts, their sites just sit there and begin gathering virtual dust (I’ve been to many dental sites on twitter and noticed the date of their last tweet was months ago).

In using social media, to be effective in attracting and engaging quality followers, you must have these elements in place:

Know your target market and which social networks they are using the most.
Let’s put this into perspective: If you work out of 3 Treatment Rooms and your patient is seated in TR 3 and you’re seated in TR 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished, you’re not where your patient is.

So if you’re on Twitter and your target is on Facebook…see the importance? Go where the “eyeballs” are…know and be seen where your target market is.

Know and be clear about your objectives – goals – or outcome you want from social media
What are you wanting social media to accomplish? Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention? Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or website? Enhance your practice’s patient services? Maybe you want to grow your practice’s email list

What are your objectives – what is it you want to accomplish with social media?

Create an engagement plan for using social media
Once you’ve determined and joined the social network sites your target uses, you’ll need to determine how you are going to connect, engage, and communicate with your viewers. How often will you “tweet”, post, or update. What are your core messages you will deliver?

Create a social media policy for your practice
How will you and or your employees handle social media in your practice? What’s the right way and wrong way for your employees to use social media? Who is going to be responsible for managing and overseeing your overall social media marketing?

Whether handling in-house or outsourcing to a third party, you need a social media policy in place.

One last point to bring is Safety Online: Remember:
Once you’ve said it on the Internet, there’s no taking it back. A few good rules to follow:

• Never post anything you don’t want your Grandmother or children to read
• Never give out sensitive information like account numbers or social security numbers
• Never spam – you’ll be un-followed and dropped like a hot dental instrument

By creating and having your social media strategy in place first, you’ll know:

• Your social media objectives
• How you’re going to achieve your objectives
• An overall plan for implementing your social media strategy

Your Thoughts

These are the top elements needed in creating a winning social media strategy. What additional elements have you used in your strategy?

It’s important that your dental practice has clear and fair vacation and time clock policies. A good vacation policy will improve employee morale and help with recruiting efforts. A time clock policy will clearly establish for your employees which activities are compensable and keep you on the right side of the law.

Your practice may have already established vacation and time clock policies. However, I’d urge you to take a look at the free vacation and time clock policy the Cambridge Dental Practice Consultants are offering on their website. You may find that your existing policies could benefit from a little tweaking.

Why the rebrand? There are a couple of motivations as I see it: A) Google wants to dominate the local search wars, and B) Google is attempting to position their local search service to take advantage of ad revenue.

Regardless of their motivations for the name change, you need to take advantage of a number of really cool features Google introduced with Google Places.

Google Places: New Features

1) Service areas: Most dental practices won’t be interested in this feature, but if you travel to your customers for any reason, you can now list your service areas.

2) Simple Advertising: For just $25 per month, you can highlight your listing on Google.com and Google Maps with what they’re calling “Tags”. Tags are essentially yellow markers that allow you to promote important aspects of your businesses. Keep in mind that tags will not help your business listing to appear higher in the search results. However, tags do allow you to list more information about your business than those businesses who did not purchase tags.

3) Business photo shoots – In addition to uploading photos of your business, you can now sign up to have Google create a virtual photoshoot of the interior of your business. Oh, and the best part is that they’ll do this for free. This sort of transparency speaks volumes to customers – so if you live in the following cities – I’d sign up ASAP:

Atlanta, GA
Boston, MA
Chicago
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Houston, TX
Indianapolis, IN
Jersey City, NJ – Hoboken, NJ
Kansas City, KS
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles
Miami, FL
Minneapolis, MN
Nashville, TN
New York
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, OR
San Antonio, TX
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Jose, CA
Seattle, WA
St. Louis, MO
Washington D.C.

If you live in one of these cities and would like to sign up for a free photo shoot you can Sign up here.

4) Customized QR (two-dimensional) barcodes – From the Google Places dashboard, you now have the opportunity to download a QR code that’s unique to your business. QR codes can be placed on business cards or other marketing materials, and customers can scan them with certain smartphones to be taken directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for your business.

5) Favorite Places – Google is mailing window decals to 50,000 businesses around the US. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.

6) Real-time Updates – You might want to promote a sale, a special event happening today or anything else that you want customers to know right now, and this feature lets you communicate that directly to your customers. You can also provide extra incentive by adding coupons, including ones specially formatted for mobile phones.

7) Analytics – To keep track of how your business listing is performing on Google, they’re now offering a personalized dashboard within Google Places that will show you how many times people have found your business on Google, what keywords they used to find it and even what areas people traveled from to visit your business. With the dashboard, you can see how your use of any of these new features affects interest in your business and make more informed decisions about how to be found on Google and interact with your customers.

Google Places: Official Video

Final Thoughts

If you run a dental practice, then you need to take advantage of Google Place’s powerful new features. Not only does your business stand to benefit from higher visibility in Google, but you may just see an increase in the number of patients coming through your doors as well.

Get Listed in Google Places Now (Free)

Stay Tuned

This is just the first post in a series of posts we’ll be dedicating to Google Places. In upcoming posts, we’ll break down the new features and provide some tips (that your competitors aren’t using) for maximizing your visibility in Google.

Your Thoughts

Have you already listed your business in Google Places? Have you seen an increase in the number of new patients walking through your doors as a result? Share your experiences in a comment below.

1) Video Interview: “Social Media Marketing for Healthcare Providers” Rita Zamora on The Wellness Hour Marketing Report with Randy Alvarez Social media expert, Rita Zimora, explains the role and importance of relationship marketing in the healthcare space…

2) Digital dental benchmarking: What do the numbers say? Vijay Sikka explains how you can use some high technology and some not so high technology tools and techniques to help you uncover and recover profitability in your practice…

3) Dental professionals can be the first line of defense in eating disorder diagnosis… Emmett R. Bishop Jr., MD, CEDS, discusses the role of dentists and dental hygienists in identifying eating disorder symptoms…and directing patients for professional help…

4) Uncovering the myths of the bonus system Kevin Henry talks with Dianne Glasscoe Watterson, RDH, MBA, about bonus systems, why they often don’t work, and what can be done to correct them…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

To find out, I recently interviewed a man that knows all too well the realities of losing control of his practice (and himself) – only to recover and eventually operate among the top 5% of practices nationwide. This man is renowned Master Certified Dental Coach, Dr. Ron Arndt.

Dr. Arndt practiced clinical dentistry for 20 years and spent another 5 years in various executive positions within a financial planning and investment firm. This Summer, Dr. Arndt is releasing a book entitled, “Killing the Practice Before it Kills You: How Throwing Out My Business Model Saved My Life.” In the book, Dr. Arndt will go into great detail about the strategies he used to turn around his dental practice.

So, without further ado, here’s the interview:

1. How do you know if your dental practice is killing you?

Take a moment right now and consider this checklist. Have you ever experienced any of these warning signs? Check off those that reverberate with you.

• You find it difficult to get a good night’s sleep because you are thinking or worrying about the business.
• Your attention is on home when you are at work and on work when you are at home.
• You tell your spouse they are number one in your life when silently you are more focused on the success of your business. After all, it’s who you are!
• You act happy and content on the outside. In reality, your insides are churning and you never feel in control.
• Your energy level begins to fade, and you make excuses when you know you have not been taking care of yourself. You pass it off as something else.
• You are too busy to play those “goofy” games with your kids, who are so hungry for your attention.
• You read the newspaper or business journals when your spouse is talking to you because you have so much to catch up on. Then you fall asleep after twenty minutes, because you needed “just a little nap.”
• On a weeklong vacation, it takes three to four days to unwind. You feel like a new person for one or two days, then the tension builds again, welling up uncontrollably, tightening every muscle. Sunday nights are the worst.
• If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Only you can do it, because it takes too much time to explain and delegate a task to another person.
• You hear this voice in your head: “I don’t need anyone else. I’m smart and can do it all on my own.”

If you checked off a single one consider this a “red flag”. Don’t pass it off as inconsequential. The accumulation of these signs slowly and insidiously over time can be deadly.

2. Why are developing personal core values so important to the success of a dental practice? How do they translate into working with patients and your office team? In other words, why would they care?

I found myself defining my sense of worth and value based on the success of my business. It fueled my ego and fed my belief that I was paying off bills and creating an economic future of choice for my family. That of course included a beautiful home, nice vacations, paying for parochial school tuition, saving heavily for college education, and planning for retirement. Does that sound familiar?

I found myself developing a practice where I was working for everyone else except me. I employed two administrative people, two Chairside assistants, two expanded-functions dental auxiliaries, and two hygienists. Big numbers, big production was the name of the game . . . or so I thought. After all, I was working to be the biggest, baddest, fastest, coolest, wealthiest, and most respected dentist in town. I was unaware at the time that I was learning the lesson that a manager cannot both lead the band and play all the instruments.

After my heart attack, I consciously began to shift in many ways: my outlook, my attitude. I chose to focus not on eliminating my type A behavior, but rather on replacing it with something different. I affirmed my new life direction by codifying my values in writing. I knew I had to identify my core values, the guiding principles around which I would make all of my business decisions. They would serve as the litmus test against which I identified what was “right” and “honest” for me. I knew that these core values would be the genesis of everything that I wanted to do in the transformation of my practice. I set aside several thirty- to forty-five-minute quiet-time periods, so I could work on identifying my core values.

As a basis for this process, I used the following elements: My core values are ideas that I want to publicly affirm;

- My core values are ideas that I greatly prize and have a positive influence on my life;
- My core values are ideas that I am willing to act on;
- My core values are ideas that I would repeat if given the circumstances again and again; and,
- My core values are ideas that I choose freely and with a clear understanding and recognition of the consequences of my choice.

Why would patients care or even know?

Simple, they would see and experience my commitment in the ways I behaved not only towards them but also my team members. Patients, guests want to know that you operate from a set of values that honors and respects them in all actions. In all our interactions with patients, if we have core values in writing and committed to by all team members, we get to go back to them any time we get stuck, have a tough situation, or are confused on what actions we need to take. Core values are HUGE in how we operate our business and treat those around us. Patients know a genuine and authentically caring dental home.

3. What was the significance of firing – and then re-hiring – employees? How did that help you define leadership?

It was much more than simply “firing” the team. It was a dramatic message that the old way of doing business was over. I was not leading my team successfully and the dental team was lulled into a mindset of entitlement…a deadly combination. By Killing the Practice I was burying the old and then offering up a new solution…a solution I wanted for the way I wanted my practice to operate. This was an all or none approach that was necessary to get everyones attention. The choice was entirely up to each individual employee if they wanted to re-apply for the available openings in my new practice.

After Killing the Practice I spent the next several hours detailing exactly how I was going to run the practice. I introduced them to my core values, explained what they meant, dissecting every word and sentence. I gave them the opportunity to ask questions. I did the same for my vision, clearly laying out for them where I wanted to take the practice, again reminding them that they didn’t have to own these, they didn’t have to buy into any of what I was explaining. But if they didn’t, they no longer had the opportunity to work with me or in this office.

For the first time ever, I became the real leader in my practice, a role that I should have assumed long ago. It had taken me years to realize that the ultimate responsibility of a leader was to facilitate their development as well as my own.

4. How can a dental practice raise their fees and not upset the patients?

I finally made the decision that I was going to be paid what I was worth and I expected to connect my compensation with the value, the love, care, and extra attention I brought to my patients’ dental health and life. No more of this conversation about if the insurance will or will not cover it. Or, that’s over “Usual, Customary, and Reasonable.” That old thinking had to go. My practice was not usual and customary; we were extraordinary. I declared: “We will train on our financial arrangements and how to discuss them with our patients . . . no more laissez-faire.” My expectation was to offer up financial options for our patients that were written, fair, explained in advance, and easy to understand. And of course, any patient who’d been previously quoted a case fee was grandfathered in.

The best way to overcome the “perceived” objections was to communicate and deliver “value” for the fee. Certainly there would be a small percentage of price shoppers that would be upset, yet they were not our ideal patients. I directed my administrative team to keep a yellow pad at the front desk and list those patients who were so upset that they were going to leave the practice. We never filled one full page…barely a half page. It is my belief that no matter what our fees patients will view them as “a little pricey” and I validated that with a study I did with my crown fees.

What I have learned is that if we deliver perceived (and real) excellence combined with true patient care and outrageous service, our patients will perceive the value and not only continue to visit us, they will refer. Don’t misunderstand, this is not about gouging people, it is about being compensated for delivering remarkable human service.

5. How does cutting some benefits completely, but increasing others dramatically work?

I took a new-world view…new in that I was breaking with the typical dental management thinking of give everything and anything to retain employees. Dentistry as a profession lives in a HR bubble. In the real employment world, employees are paid for performance. Greater performance dictates greater and higher compensation and of course the opposite applies, low performance, low pay or even dismissal. In dentistry, this statement is more enigmatic: “Dr., I have been here for another year and I am entitled to a raise.” My new world view was, no more entitlements. I explained clearly that the new wage offerings would be no less than what each was currently making, however, any future increases in wages would be as a result of increased output-performance-revenues.

No more benefits of paid time off that found my team taking advantage of my generosity that cost the practice revenues and raised my stress because I was often found on Monday’s (often the busiest day of the week) short handed by 25% of my workforce because they wanted an extended weekend (67% of called in days off were on Mondays). I eliminated the eye-care benefit. I made major adjustments to my benefits package, because it was being abused. It had become expected as an entitlement and was grossly unappreciated. And my staff costs had continued to escalate because of the generosity that I had built into my staff compensation package without any real consideration to what it was costing me to provide staff services.

I was now going to track my business expenses like a real businessman and compare them to industry averages to better enable me to make better decisions. I also declared that I would no longer pay for their exotic trips to St. Thomas, the Bahamas, and Dallas. No more excursions. I expanded the continuing education credit because it encouraged their personal growth, enhanced their value, better served our patients, and was simply good business. I made people clearly aware that they would be well paid, but I was firm in my expectation: you have to show up, and produce results. Compensation would now be performance based. Then I introduced my new incentive program: a Win-Win, Pay-4-Performance arrangement. It was team-centered and fair. Did it work? You bet it did. My final 5 years in practice were my most enjoyable and profitable and my remaining team members were making more money than they had ever done in the past.

6. What does practicing meat and potato dentistry mean? Why does it work?

Meat and potato dentistry is my name for the routine, common procedure mix of services the typical patient wants. My practice was not a high end cosmetic or full-mouth rehab business. That was not what the majority of my wonderful blue-collar patients requested. While I did selective challenging cases, I brought in an oral surgeon to help me with the implant process and an orthodontist as well to help me grow my young people part of my business. We were a “family practice” and as such served moms and dads and their kids along with their grandparents and neighbors.

Nothing fancy, yet extremely personalized relationship-based care. Our patients were give full, comprehensive evaluations and treatment plans and then given full authority to determine if they wanted some, none, or all of what we recommended. We phased our care as well so that they did not feel pressured to “have to” do something. I have learned that the scar of the unchosen surgery heals slowly. We did basic, solid, caring dentistry. For those dentists who can do the big restorative and cosmetic cases, we referred our tough cases.

7. What is one tip that you would give to someone starting out their own private practice?

Start with the end in mind….a Steven Covey mindset. I’m coaching right now a young starting pediatric dentist. My first bit of coaching was to get him to dream and envision what he wants! What will make the biggest difference, and yet one of the toughest things to implant into the head and heart of a new dentist, is to identify who you are via your own Core Values. When they write out, on paper and list what they stand for they then can take the next step to write their personal AND practice Vision Statement. Armed with their Core Values and their Vision Statement, the strategic plan magically begins to unfold as any time they get stuck…the refer to their values and vision.

Above all things, this is what I want for new dentists. My fear however, after talking to Junior and Senior dental students, they won’t take the time or devote the seriousness to this process. I have seen the results with many doctors…frustration, lack of direction, financial chaos, marital issues, misplaced arrogance, and an unhappiness with their life.

Get in touch with Dr. Arndt

drarndt.com
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Your thoughts

Have you ever felt that your practice was controlling you? How did you handle the situation? What will you takeaway from Dr. Arndt and try in your practice?

One of the newest products on the market, Nicorette White Ice Mint Gum combines a smoking cessation aid with a tooth whitening ability.

It’s the first smoking cessation aid to offer this combo. To encourage you to give Nicorette White Ice Mint Gum a try, Nicorette is currently offering a $7 coupon for this product.

Dental Product Coupons

1. Oral-B – $10 rebate on any Oral-B ProfessionalCare or Pulsonic

2. Aquafresh – $7 off Aquafresh White Trays

3. Aquafresh – $1 off Aquafresh Gel Flex or Deep Action toothbrush

4. Aquafresh – $1 off any aquafresh extreme clean

5. Aquafresh – $1 off Advanced 2x Whitening toothpaste

6. Aquafresh – $1 off New Advanced Enamelock Formula

7. Aquafresh – Aquafresh Iso-Active Whitening

8. Aquafresh – $.50 off extreme clean whitening action

9. Smart Mouth – $2 off SmartMouth mouthwash or toothpaste

10. Listerine – $1 off any Listerine antiseptic mouthwash 500mL or larger (registration required)

11. Listerine – $1 off any Listerine Total Care AntiCavity mouthwash 500mL or larger (registration required)

12. Listerine – $1 off any Listerine AntiCavity Fluoride mouthwash 1.0L or larger (registration required)

13. Colgate 75¢ off one NEW Colgate® 360°® ActiFlex Manual Toothbrush

14. Waterpik – $5 off the Waterpik WP-100 Ultra Dental Water Jet

15. Crest – $3.00 off any Spinbrush® SONIC

16. Crest – $2 off Crest Pro Series Spinbrush®

17. Dentek – $1 off Floss Picks

18. Dentek – $5 off Complete White

19. Sensodyne – $1 off Iso-Active toothpaste

20. Sensodyne $1 off ProNamel toothpaste

16 Ways Dental Care is affected by the Health Reform Bill

Sadly, not much has been said in the mainstream media about the specific ways the Health Reform Bill will affect those of us in the dentistry field. In fact, that’s the inspiration behind this post. Below, you will find a list of the ways this bill will affect you – the dental professional – minus the politics. The Health Reform Bill will:

1. Require insurance plans to include pediatric oral health services for children up to 21 years of age

2. Establish an oral health prevention program and fund states to develop oral health leadership

3. Enhance oral health data systems

4. Implement dental sealants, water fluoridation and preventive programs

5. Establish a five-year national, public education campaign focused on oral health care prevention and education and targeted to certain populations, including children, the elderly, and pregnant women

6. Require essential health benefits package to include oral care among other things

7. Award demonstration grants in consultation with professional oral health organizations to eligible entities to demonstrate the effectiveness of research-based dental caries disease management activities

8. Authorize the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) to review payments for dental services in Medicaid and CHIP

9. Establish a process for updating payments to dental health professionals

10. Reaffirm that dentists will be members of the Commission

11. Establish a separate dental section and funding line of $30 million for training in general, pediatric, and public health dentistry

12. Increase eligibility for new grant programs in the Title VII Health Professions Programs to train dental and allied dental health professionals

13. Make dental schools eligible for federal grants for pre-doctoral training, faculty development, dental faculty loan repayment, and academic administrative units, grants currently available only to medical schools

14. Modify current law to allow hospitals to count dental and medical resident time spent in didactic (scholarly) activities toward Indirect Medical Education (IME) costs in hospital settings and toward Direct Graduate Medical Education (D-GME) in non-hospital settings (dental school clinics)

15. Authorize grants to establish training programs for alternative dental health care providers to increase access to dental health care services in rural, tribal, and underserved communities

16. Exempt dental coverage from the premium amounts subject to excise tax on high cost insurance plans

The takeaway? Both the patients being served and the way dental care is delivered will look quite different in the coming years. Only time will tell if these measures will represent a positive or negative change for dentistry. What are your thoughts?

Your Thoughts

I know you guys have opinions about the measures set forth in the Health Reform Bill that specifically relate to dentistry – let’s hear them. Leave a comment below and let the discussion begin!

Additional Resources

As you can see, I just scratched the surface with the list above. Take a look at some of these additional resources from the ADA, ADHA and ADEA for more in-depth information related to dental care’s place in the Health Reform Bill.

• ADHA: Key Oral Health Provisions Contained in the Final Health Reform Bill
• ADA: Health Care Reform: Improving Oral Health in America
• ADA: Health Care Reform Legislation: Side-by-Side Comparison
• ADEA Applauds Passage of Health Care Reform Legislation

Who Can Enter?

Any bloggers who care about their health and the health of their friends and family
*Please no adult content, no new blogs (less than 10 posts) or incomplete blogs.

What can I win?

The first place winner will win $300 cash or $600 worth of free advertising on Worldental.org. Runners-up are eligible to receive an electric toothbrush, a teeth whitening kit, childcare dental products, an UV sanitizer, a flosser, and more! Oh, and all accepted participants will receive a dofollow link from the contest page.

Learn More

To learn how you can participate in the Dental Health is Important blogger contest, head on over to the contest page on Worldental.org. The contest ends March 31, 2010, so get writing. Good Luck!

1) Nine things you should never do on Facebook Kevin Henry points out some great tips to remember when using Facebook – especially if you’re using it for business…

2) How your body language affects referrals Rita Zimora provides 5 quick-n-easy tips that you use in your practice TODAY to increase referrals…

3) Turning Patients into Missionaries Dr. James Kincaid discusses a number of ways you can turn your patients into missionaries and receive a steady stream of the types of referrals that are best for your practice…

4) Dental practice marketing campaigns This Wealthy Dentist video blog explores the various marketing campaigns dentists are conducting and having success with…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Who’s Eligible to Enter

To be eligible to win, you must be (i) a licensed dentist, (ii) a dental hygienist, (iii) a dental assistant, or (iv) an office manager that has been employed at a licensed dental office during the entire six (6) months immediately prior to entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, third-party partners, advertising, promotion, and fulfillment agencies, their immediate family members and persons living in their same household, are not eligible to participate in the Giveaway. Void where prohibited. Federal, state, and local laws and regulations apply. Prizes will be awarded to the entrant’s dental office, as identified by the entrant in his or her entry (the “Winner”).

For a full listing of the official rules, check out the sweepstakes rules page.

How to Enter

To enter, simply fill out the sweepstakes entry forms. Registration is FREE and only takes a few minutes. Good Luck!

P.S. Don’t forget to follow DentalProductShopper.com on Twitter (@DentalProducts).

What do you think?

What gear in the Grand Prize Package would you like to have in your practice?

Heartwarming Smiles will focus on empowering women by providing the knowledge and tools needed to make positive lifestyle changes to help reduce their risk of heart disease. The campaign’s online resource, www.womenheart.org/ourPartners/heartwarmingsmiles.cfm, is specifically designed to encourage women to talk with their physician to discuss their overall health and the simple changes they can make to help reduce the risk of heart disease and improve their oral care.

So, what inspired the Heartwarming Smiles Campaign? If you’re a dentist or physician, you know that poor oral health, specifically gum disease, may impact heart health. More and more research is suggesting a link between the two. However, the general public is largely unaware of this connection. It’s no surprise that this is the case, as evidenced by a recent national survey that found:

• More than half (53%) of Americans with primary care physicians report that they never discuss their oral health during appointments with them.
• More than one in three (35%) Americans visiting dentists regularly say that they never discuss any non-dental medical issues during their dentist visits.

“Since heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans, it is increasingly important that patients take the initiative to establish open lines of communication with their doctors and dentists,” said Elizabeth Klodas, M.D., F.A.C.C., President, Preventive Cardiology Consultants (Edina, Minnesota). “Patients need to inform their physicians and dentists of any major oral health issues or heart conditions they may have to ensure optimal care. Patients should ask about measures available that may help improve their overall health, like using Colgate Total, an antibacterial toothpaste that fights plaque and gingivitis, an early form of gum disease.”

So, what’s the takeaway here for dentists and primary care physicians? Talk to your patients. If your a dentist don’t take the approach that medical issues unrelated to your patients oral hygiene is not your concern. The same goes for physicians – don’t neglect to talk with your patients about oral hygiene issues. This information can only help you to perform your job better and better serve your patients.

For more information about the Heartwarming Smiles Campaign, or to access tools to educate your female patients about the oral hygiene/heart health link, visit womenheart.org.

1) Best Practices for Dental Patient Records Barry F. Levin, Esq. and Philip M. Bogart, Esq. discuss the importance of everything from correcting mistakes to documenting refusal of treatment in dental patient records…

2) Grow Your Dental Practice Jay Grier discusses three ways to start doubling your growth right now even if you hit a plateau…

3) Bad Reviews…What Can I do? Jason T. Lipscomb discusses a number of good methods for dealing with negative reviews online. Every dentist NEEDS to know this information…

4) Sheep Herding? Dental practice management expert, Linda Zdanowicz, describes the management phenomenon she calls “sheep herding” and how you will have to “ride herd” over many employees for a period of time …

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

To enter the sweepstakes, simply fill out the Sweepstakes Entry Form and check the box below the form that reads “Yes! I’d like to enter for a chance to win $500 and a complete P&G oral care prize package.”

Be sure to fill out the form before April 29, 2010. The prize drawing will be on May 3, 2010. For full sweepstakes rules, please visit Crest.com.

Enter Sweepstakes

The ‘Circle of Confidence’ program was founded following a Fixodent survey to find out how women dentures feel about themselves compared to women without dentures. The survey, “Fixodent Beauty & Aging,” found that denture wearers place more importance on their smile than the average woman over 40. They believe this is the first thing others notice about them, and the idea of getting dentures was a source of anxiety for most wearers before they got dentures.

Fixodent Survey Results

• Two in ten (19%) women age 40+ have full or partial dentures
• Nearly two-thirds (63%) of female denture wearers say they felt some anxiety right before they got their
  dentures.
• Nearly half (40%) said they feared that their dentures would slip or not fit well.
• A third of women feared that their dentures would be painful.
• Women in the 40+ age group are most likely to say their smile is the first physical feature that people notice
  about them.
• Most female denture wearers (67%) say they smile more often since getting dentures.
• The biggest fear for these women is if they had to get dentures, 61 percent say it would ease their
  worries to know their dentures would stay in place. About half (51 percent) say it would lessen their
  conerns to know they could eat almost all the foods they now enjoy.
• Roughly 20 million women age 40+ wear full or partial dentures and more than three million women are living
  their lives in fear of doing something as simple as eating out.
• Women age 40+ who wear dentures and those who don’t wear dentures agree on at least one thing – denture experts are the most helpful online resource for getting information about dentures.

To help ease this anxiety, Fixodent has joined forces with dental expert/prosthodontist Dr. Lawrence Brecht; lifestyle/nutrition expert Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.; and beauty expert Lois Joy Johnson, to provide women with insights to help them feel confident with their new smiles.

To ease the anxiety of your new denture-wearing patients, send them to the Fixodent Circle of Confidence website, which is available on dentureliving.com. This powerful website helps restore confidence in new denture wearers through information that helps them educate and empower themselves to experience life, not dentures.

Circle of Confidence Overview

Your Thoughts

Does your experience with denture wearers over 40 mirror the findings in this Fixodent study? Do you believe your patients would find the ‘Circle of Confidence’ to be helpful in restoring their confidence?

The winner of the free copy is Joe F. Congratulations Joe. I hope you enjoy your prize.

We have a number of exciting contests coming up in the near future for some great prizes – so stay tuned.

The link between diabetes and oral health is clearer than ever. In fact, it is generally accepted that diabetes sufferers are prone to tooth decay, periodontal disease, xerostomia and salivary gland dysfunction and infection. However, more research exposing this link is required, and dental professionals need to learn how to properly educate their diabetic patients about their unique oral care needs.

Online Community Explores Link

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JPEC Dental Care Center Highlights

Additionally, the JPEC Dental Care Center offers dental professionals the opportunity to:

• Earn continuing education credits (CDE, CE or CME)
• Participate in case discussions monitored by Joslin clinical experts
• Interact with colleagues: Exchange ideas and participate in patient case discussions with colleagues from around the country on the dedicated Dental Discussion Board, monitored by Joslin clinical experts.

The Dental Care Center will go live with “Diabetes, Oral Health, and Nutrition: Interrelationships, Innovations, and Interventions,” JPEC’s web-based educational program designed to help primary care providers and dentists understand the connection between periodontal disease and diabetes and develop practical screening strategies for their practices.

If you would like more information or would like to register with the JPEC Dental Care Center, please visit the official JPEC website.

The Prize

Dr. Austin was gracious enough to allow me to give away one copy of her new book to one lucky Dental Heroes reader.

How to Enter

• Leave a comment below about Dental Heroes (e.g. a general comment about what you enjoy most about Dental Heroes)
• Follow Dental Heroes on Twitter @dentalheroes and tweet this message to your followers, “Win a Copy of Dr. Catrise Austin’s new book, “5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile” on the Dental Heroes Blog. http://bit.ly/8WAqy2

Rules

• One entry per person. Duplicate comments will be voided and deleted.
• Winner will be selected at random on Friday, January 8, 2010.

Top Stories of the Week

1) Seven New Year’s resolutions for technology in your practice Medix Dental put together a helpful list of seven technology resolutions to be achieve in your practice this coming year…

2) Profitability and Peace of Mind in a Down Economy Vijay Sikka discusses how to use some high technology and some not so high technology tools and techniques to help uncover and recover profitability in your practice…

3) Oral cancer could be killing your younger patients Renee Knight discusses the changing nature of oral cancer. Both the causes of the disease and the demographics of those getting the disease have shifted…

4) Is gingivitis really reversible? Richard H. Nagelberg, DDS, claims that “preventing the progression of gingivitis to periodontitis is the single most important thing we can do for our patients as dental providers.” See why…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Why? Because signage requires very little overhead. You determine the optimal signage placement around your building, design the sign(s), have the sign(s) constructed, install the signs and your done. Not only are signs largely a one-off expense, but they can effortlessly bring in new patients if done correctly. You can’t say that about most of the other things you’re doing to bring in new patients.

I thought it would be fun to show you some examples of the creative dental signage designs for your inspiration.

So, without further ado…here are the signs…

5 Inspirational Examples of Dental Practice Signage

1. Victoria Square Dental

Source: brandingblog.com

2. Ed Montgomery Dental Surgery

Source: danthonia.com.au

3. Beech Lake Pediatric Dentistry

Source: springvalleydesigns.com

4. Deerfield Family Dentistry

Source: springvalleydesigns.com

5. Big Smile Dental

Source: bigsmiledental.com

Your Favorite?

Which of these do you like best? Do you know of other inspirational examples of dental signage that we should know about? Point us to a photo if you can in a comment below.

Thankfully, there are a number of quick and simple ways to monitor what people are saying about your practice online. I’ll get to those a little later in the post. Let’s first talk about why it’s important to manage your reputation online.

Why Online Reputation Management Matters

Good reputations are not built overnight. Chances are it took you a number of years and a lot of money to establish your dental practice’s good name. The frightening reality is that it’s comparatively simple for someone to destroy your reputation permanently online. Just one comment or bad review on a blog or website by a disgruntled former employee, ex-patient, or competitor can be enough to drive your reputation into a ditch.

So, if your online reputation matters to you(and it should), then you need to actively engage in the marketing practice commonly referred to as, Online Reputation Management (ORM).

What is Online Reputation Management (ORM)

The relatively new marketing construct know as Online Reputation Management (ORM) is, in simple terms, monitoring the status of your brand (or name), evaluating the online conversation about your brand, and taking deliberate steps to mitigate potential damage to your brand. You can think of ORM as a three-step process:

1. Monitor – Maintain an ongoing system for researching and keeping track of public perception.
2. Analyze – Consider individual feedback, as well as the source, outlet, reach and timing, to come to a decision about the risk.
3. Influence – Comment, rebut, draft a formal response or simply ignore what has been said, based on your evaluation (Alyssa Gregory, Sitepoint.com)

5 Tips for Effective Online Reputation Management

1. Assume that everything will find its way online – Don’t assume that anything you say or do will be kept private. Simply assume that it will be published somewhere online and potentially available to billions of people. ORM expert, Andy Beal, says that “the message you share behind closed doors should match the one you share with employees, customers, and investors.”

2. Set up Automatic Alerts – Set up automatic alerts to notify you when your practice is mentioned on a review site, social network, blog, etc. Google Alerts is my favorite FREE tool for this purpose. Google Alerts will e-mail you (at a frequency determined by you) anytime your practice is mentioned online. I personally use Google Alerts and highly recommend it. Sign up for Google Alerts FREE. Duct Tape Marketing has a nice list of 34 monitoring tools that you may find useful as well.

3. Maximize positive references to your practice online – The idea here is simple. The more positive references to your practice online, the more insignificant the negative references will become. A few examples of how you might increase your positive references online include: Engaging with patients and potential patients on social networks, submitting press releases, running contests, working with charities, etc. Doing any of these things will naturally create new positive references to you online.

4. Respond to positive & negative feedback – Whenever possible, and wherever it makes sense, make it a point to respond to both negative and positive feedback online. The goal in doing this is to show your commitment to patient satisfaction. However, be particularly careful when responding to negative feedback. Do evaluate the situation before responding, but be prompt when the situation warrants it. Remain calm, be honest and always take the high ground in all interactions with the offender. This should help you to diffuse the situation before it gets out of hand. Check out Yelp! for more tips on responding to positive and negative feedback online.

5. Don’t Mix Business and Personal profiles – Avoid mixing personal and practice profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Social networking sites like these are great for building relationships with people. However, relationships can sour, and you don’t want to run the risk that someone will maliciously attack your practice’s reputation, when their beef is really just with you.

Set Up an ORM Plan

Establishing an ORM plan is critically important. Like anything else, not having a plan is a plan for disaster. So, where should you start? Elixir Interactive provides a number of helpful hints for crafting your own ORM plan:

A well-planned brand reputation management program requires the identification of communities that have the largest and most vocal membership, ongoing monitoring, and active participation in these communities in order to promote a positive brand image and suppress negative sentiment. The following questions should be addressed during the planning session:

1. What is the purpose of the program? Are you looking to gather feedback? Promote a new service? Educate customers about a product’s functionality? Address customer questions and concerns?

2. Where are we going to focus our efforts? You need to identify the blogs, forums, newsgroups and websites that are most relevant to the brand, have the largest and most engaged audience and are seen as “authorities” by the search engines.

3. How often will we be monitoring? Depending on the purpose of the program, the amount of time spent monitoring, posting comments, creating content, answering questions and linking could require multiple resources.

4. Who is going to manage the program? Brand reputation management is not something to be assigned to the “intern that knows how to Google.” Depending on the objective of the program (i.e. feedback solicitation, customer service, awareness) the intensity of the effort will vary and require resources that are qualified to respond in an appropriate manner (Elixir Interactive).

Further Reading

1. Ten Tactics That Could Save Your Online Reputation
2. Fighting a Bad Online Reputation and Keeping a Good One
3. The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation… (Paperback)
4. Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online (Paperback)

Recommended Reputation Management Service

Your Thoughts

Does your practice have an established Online Reputation Management Plan? If not, are you considering it? Why, or why not?

The $15 rebate applies to each of the following:

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Claim your $15 mail-in-rebate

To claim your $15 mail-in-rebate for any of the Oral-B ProfessionalCare® Electric Toothbrushes simply visit the Oral-B mail-in-rebate page. Don’t forget to send in the mail-in-rebate by 12/31/09 to receive the offer.

Top Stories of the Week

1) H1N1 (Swine Flu) Information for Dental Offices and Dental Patients Shawn Watson of the About.com Dentistry Blog, shares the CDC’s guidelines for minimizing the transmission of H1N1 in your dental office…

2) Dental Tourism Now Covered by US Dental Insurance Plans! The Wealthy Dentist reported in this post that a US dental insurance company is now offering an international dental treatment option. As insurance companies continue to cut costs and increase competition, this is likely to turn into a trend…

3) A plea for early detection Dr. Larry Hamburg discusses his battle with oral cancer and why early detection is so important…

4) The dark side of whitening Noah Levine, Senior Editor, DentalProductsReport.com, looks inside the dark world of online tooth whitening product scams…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

The 8 jaw-dropping dental logos below stand out from the crowd and create a favorable first impression.

1. Country Living Dentistry

2. Robin Rutherford, DDS

3. Innovative Family Dental Health

4. Creative Dental Care, P.A.

5. City Dental

6. Huzur Oral & Dental Health Center

7. Garden City Dental

8. Dental Edge

Add to the List

Are you aware of any other jaw-dropping dental logos that should be added to the list? Let us know where we can see it in a comment below.

Top Stories of the Week

1) Dentists: Is Your Waiting Room Ready for H1N1? Jim Du Molin & The Wealthy Dentist Blog discussed some of the changes dentists are making within their practices to combat the spread of H1N1…Are you making any efforts to reduce the spread of H1N1 in your practice?

2) Ten Tips for Year-End Dental Tax Planning If you’re not actively engaged in your tax planning, you should be. Tim Lott, CPA, CVA, discusses 10 important tax planning considerations to be thinking about before the end of the year…

3) Is a mouthguard helping New Orleans win football games?If you watched Monday Night Football a week ago today, you may remember the commentators highly touting the mouthguards worn by New Orleans Saints players. Makers of the mouthguard, Makkar Athletics Group, claim that the mouthguard helps Saints players “jump higher and play better”. Read more about the Pure Power mouthguards in this article by Kevin Henry of Dental Economics…

4) The New Role of Today’s Dental Team Linda Miles, founder of Linda Miles and Associates, discusses the importance of consistently displaying high energy levels within your practice in everything that you do to create a great patient experience…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Don’t Employ the “Wait & See” Approach

Most dentists take the “wait-and-see” approach. That is, they develop a website, publish it to the web, and wait…and wait…and wait for new patients to line up outside their doors. Sadly, new patients never come. Why? Because your website is nowhere to be found in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

Thankfully, there are many techniques that you can employ to increase your position in the SERPS, and be found by patients seeking a new dentist.

Local Business Directories Are Effective

One highly effective technique for generating traffic, and the focus of this post, is submitting your dental practice website to local business directories. Submitting your site to local business directories requires very little time, but has significant upside potential.

Why? Because many of the local business directories that I’ve listed below appear on the first page of the SERPS for local searches.

Here’s Proof

To see what I mean, give this a try: go to Google.com. Once there, search using the following query: “saint louis dentists”(minus quotes). You’ll notice on the first page of the SERPS that several business directories came up, such as: Google local business, Superpages and Citysearch. You can see how a listing in any of these directories would improve your visibility with potential new patients.

I compiled a list below of my 10 favorite FREE local business directories that you should submit your site to in order to increase your online visibility and capture new patients. Without further ado, here’s the list…

Top 3

1. Google Local Business Center

Listing your website in the Google Local Business Center is a must. Your local business listing can include: your business address, website url, maps, location photos, business description, directions, business categories, etc. Your local search listing appears before regular(organic) search listings in the SERPS.

2. Yahoo Local

Submitting your site to Yahoo Local is also very important. Your listing options with Yahoo Local are similar to those in the Google Local Business Center. You shouldn’t expect as much traffic from Yahoo Local as with the Google Local Business Center, but it can be substantial nonetheless.

3. Bing Local Listing Center

Rounding out my top 3 recommendations is the Bing Local Listing Center. Although the Bing Local Listing Center is still in its infancy, people are already receiving significant traffic from it.

Also Recommended

4. Superpages.com

5. YellowPages.com

6. YellowBook.com

7. Yelp

8. Localeze

9. Local.com

10. Hotfrog.com

Stay tuned for future posts highlighting additional powerful tips for positioning your website in the search engines to capture new patients.

Add to the List

Have you found a great free business directory that’s not in my list? Please leave it in a comment below for everyone’s benefit

Top Stories of the Week

1) Why block scheduling is important Watch as Dr. Michael Schuster of The Schuster Center explains the importance of block scheduling to Kevin Henry, editor of Dental Assisting Digest and Assistant Editor of Dental Economics Magazine.

2) Missed Appointments Waste 10% of Dentists’ Time The Wealthy Dentist Blog recently explored the impact of missed appointments on a dental practice. The finding: missed appointments waste 10% of dentists’ time. Read dentist reactions and discover tips for dealing with patients who miss appointments…

3) Does marketing make you feel dirty? It’s no secret, most dentists hate marketing. Most dentists want to focus on what they do best – practice dentistry. If you’re in this camp, and marketing makes you feel “dirty” read on to learn why it shouldn’t…

4) How To PERK Up in a Down Economy
The Dental Coach©, Ronald F. Arndt, explains his “PERK” approach to dental practice management in not only a down economy, but any economy…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

1. Closeup Flavalicious Chocolate Toothpaste

Image source: Chodka

This sounds both incredibly good and incredibly awful at the same time. I think I’d be tempted to frost a cake with this stuff rather than brush my teeth with it. However, the idea isn’t entirely without merit. Back in 1997, a researcher at Tulane University determined that the cocoa powder found in this toothpaste is an “effective natural alternative to fluoride in toothpaste”. That being said, I don’t see this product catching on any time soon.

2. Bacon Floss

Image Source: mcphee.com

MMM…Nothing spells fresh breath like…B-A-C-O-N…or something like that. To be fair, this product is sold as a novelty item, but I found it fitting to be included in this list nonetheless.

3. Jawels Removable Tooth Jewelry

Image source: Jawels.com

When that giant piece of lettuce stuck between your teeth isn’t getting you noticed enough, try Jawels. Before you know it, you’ll be the talk of the office!

4. Teeth & Hair As Jewelry

Image Source: Coolhunting.com

It’s hard to fault someone for being resourceful, but this is taking it too far. The designer of these disturbing pieces, Polly van der Glas, gladly accepts hair and teeth donations from family members to perfect her craft. Something tells me, we won’t be seeing celebrities wearing these pieces down the red carpet anytime soon.

5. The Kami Kami Sensor

Image source: ubergizmo.com

This modern-day torture device is an electronic bite sensor. It beeps after 30 chews to train children to chew their food well before swallowing. I don’t know about you, but there’s no way your going to get me to smile like the kid in the picture with that contraption on my head.

Any Others?

Have you seen a product that belongs on this list? Give us a heads up in a comment below for everyone to enjoy.

Top Stories of the Week

1) U.S. House passes ADA-backed Red Flags exemption legislation The U.S. House of Representatives Oct. 20 approved by a 400-0 vote legislation to exempt most dental offices from the Federal Trade Commission’s Red Flags Rule. Read more about the vote here…

2) Dental Insurance: Few Fans Among Dentists In a survey recently completed by TheWealthyDentist.com, It was determined that 90% of dentists consider dental insurance as “the enemy.” Watch Jim Du Molin & Julie Frey as they comment on the survey results in this video recap…

3) 7 Effective Ways To Market Your Practice in the 21st Century The marketplace is constantly evolving. Your marketing activities must evolve with the market. Ron Zeisler, CEO of Welcometomypractice.com, lays out 7 important pieces to an effective marketing strategy in today’s marketplace…

4) Results of the 2009 DAD salary survey The 2009 Dental Assisting Digest™ salary survey found that dental assistants salaries are on par with those in 2008…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

20 More Great Dental Pros I Follow on Twitter

1. WealthyDentist
2. DentistIdentity
3. VisibleDentist
4. Madowgroup
5. GetDentistJobs
6. DentalOffice
7. DentalCPAS
8. DLPlive
9. ADANews
10. JoeNeedsDental
11. Etukee
12. Top3dentists
13. DentalTools
14. AAOrthodontists
15. Twentist
16. Dental_News
17. dentistsos
18. Sherryblues
19. DDSBrand
20. edokeefe_2009
31. Oh yeah, don’t forget to follow Dental Heroes as well. dentalheroes

Add to the List

I know there are many more dental pros out there using Twitter. Please leave the Twitter username of any dental pros not on this list in a comment below.

Interestingly, in the national survey of 1,000 Americans, those with a lower income (less then $35,000) were more likely to have had a dental emergency in the past 12 months (vs. 14 percent of those who make $100,000 or more).

Of those who had a dental emergency, 23 percent involved a loose crown or cap, 10 percent involved a lost filling, while 72 percent said their dental emergency involved something else.

Among those who had a dental emergency involving a loose crown/cap or a lost filling, 67 percent immediately went to a dentist, and 14 percent looked for a temporary solution to purchase, while 19 percent did nothing at the time.

“You keep medical supplies on hand for cuts and bruises, but what about your teeth? It’s important to be prepared for a dental emergency in case one happens, especially if the emergency occurs on a weekend when your dentist just isn’t available or you are on the road and cannot seek immediate dental care,” according to Brian Gold, D.D.S., who practices in Monticello, NY.

Dental emergencies can range from a dislodged cap/crown or lost filling to a knocked out tooth to pain or a cracked denture. Majestic Drug Company explains some common dental emergencies and suggestions for treatment.

• Knocked out tooth – If a permanent tooth is dislodged from the socket, try gently replacing it into the tooth socket. Do not scrub the tooth clean—you can damage the fibers needed for reattachment. If that doesn’t work, place the tooth in a glass of milk to keep it moist. Get to a dentist immediately.
• Mouth pain – A throbbing pain from a toothache may indicate an infection and a dentist should be consulted as soon as possible. Tooth sensitivity can be combated by the use of desensitizing toothpaste such as Sensodyne. Irritation from mouth sores can be alleviated by the use of specialized oral pain relief products such as Orajel.
• Lost filling – Rinse out the cavity with warm water. Apply a temporary filling product such as Dentemp® O.S. which can be made into a ball and pressed firmly into the cavity
• Cracked or broken denture – According to Dr. Gold, all denture wearers should have a spare pair to use until the other is repaired. If not, it is good to keep on hand an emergency denture repair kit such as D.O.C. Emergency Denture Repair Kit, available at your local pharmacy.
• Dislodged cap/crown – Apply a temporary dental holding product such as Dentemp® O.S. and gently replace the cap onto the tooth. Make sure you get a proper fit
• Irritation from Braces – Sharp wires can be coated with special dental wax available at your local pharmacy

Remember, temporary dental solutions are just that—they are temporary. Make sure to seek professional assistance from your dentist as soon as possible.

For additional information, please go to MajesticDrug.com or search Dentemp® O.S. on Facebook.

Top Stories of the Week

1) Lares introduces minimally invasive laser periodontal disease treatment Lares recently announced the release of the Lares Powerlase® AT, a laser that utilizes the Nd:YAG and Er:YAG wavelengths to treat both sides of the perio pocket.

2) The Two Most Common Dental Coding Errors Dental Assisting Digest editor Kevin Henry speaks with coding expert Teresa Duncan about the two most common dental coding errors. Are you making these errors in your practice?

3) Removing the money barrier Gary Kadi discusses 3 necessary actions for “future-proofing” your practice.

4) Direct Mail Dental Marketing for Only Half of Dentists (Video) Jim Du Molin & Julie Frey report the results of a recent study that asked dentists about their usage of direct mail marketing.

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

However, the game has changed dramatically since then – in terms of consumer demands, web technologies, and search engine algorithms. No longer can you launch a website and simply hope for the best. You need to constantly evolve your web offering with the changing consumer demands, web technologies and search algorithms to beat out your competition.

Certainly we can’t cover everything that you need to know about dominating your competition online, but I thought it would be a good idea to start with a post highlighting 5 quick, yet powerful tips for improving your existing website.

So, lets get to the tips, shall we?

1. Install Google Analytics

Do you have a counter at the bottom of your website pages? Get rid of it. Sure, it counts the number of visitors to your site. However, this is rarely a good thing. Not only are counters an eyesore, but often the numbers on the counter are embarrassingly low. How do you think that looks to your potential customers? Not good.

So, I recommend installing Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a very powerful and stealthy(unseen to visitors) web-based analytics package that tracks the number of unique visitors to your site, search terms visitors used to find your site, how long they were on your site, and much much more. Best of all, Google Analytics is FREE. If you’re only going to act on one of these tips today, make it this one.

Sign up for Google Analytics

2. Ditch The Flash Intros

If your website greets visitors with a Flash intro, get rid of it.

On its face, I can see why dentists like flash intros. After all, if done well, they can be stylish and captivating. Unfortunately, they’re also expensive, highly irritating, slow loading and scare visitors away. Just get rid of it.

3. Include a Contact Form on your “Contact” Page

Include a contact form on your contact page. The idea here is to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to contact you – accessibility is key. If you’re simply posting your e-mail address and forcing your visitors to e-mail you in order to make contact, you’re probably losing potential patients. Make it easy with a contact form.

There are many places on the web to find contact form scripts. I really like the contact forms available at Woofoo.com. They’re highly customizable, brandable, stylish, and easy to integrate into your site (simple cut n’ paste).

4. Feature Contact Information Prominently

Also important for accessibility is featuring your contact information prominently. I recommend posting your address and phone number(s) both at the top and bottom of each page. This ensures that no matter what part of a particular page your visitor is viewing, they’ll be able to see your contact information. Prominent contact information is also a good idea because it enhances your trust value in the eyes of your visitors.

5. Check for Broken Links

This may seem like a no-brainer, but many people neglect to check their site for broken links. Broken links are bad for a number of reasons – they leave your visitors frustrated and they’re frowned upon by search engines.

Thankfully, you don’t have to click through each link on your site to clean up your broken links. Instead, I use a free program called Xenu’s Link Sleuth. The program crawls your site looking for broken links. Once this process is complete, you will be given a report listing all of the broken links that the program encountered. You can then run down the list and fix or remove the broken links on your site.

Final Thoughts

These tips are by no means comprehensive. However, they’re quick, they’re actionable, and they’re powerful. Do you have disagree with any of my tips? Are you already doing these things on your site? Let us know in a comment below.

Top Stories of the Week

1) When to Fire a Patient DentalProductsReport.com Senior Editor, Renee Knight, discusses ways to prevent problem patients from plaguing your practice. Instead, she focuses on preventative measures you can employ within your practice to avoid firing difficult patients.

2) Dental School Doesn’t Adequately Prepare Dentists 4 out of 5 dentists don’t believe that dental schools are adequately preparing dental students for the real-world practice, according to a recent Wealthy Dentist survey. Watch this video recap to discover why the stakes are higher now than ever.

3) Colgate launches new Colgate Oral Health Advisor program for dental hygienists Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals recently launched an Oral Health Advisor program that aims to provide dental hygienists with powerful tools to help them educate their patients. Read on to Learn more about the program, and how dental hygienists can get involved in this program.

4) Rapid HIV testing in the dental office The oral cavity is one of several places where signs of HIV infection are found. Previously, dentists who recognized these signs in a patient could only refer them to their primary care physician for testing, diagnosis, and treatment. Catrise Austin, DDS, discusses new methods for HIV testing in the dental office…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below

Children Don’t See Dentist Early Enough

The survey of 914 primary caregivers revealed that the average age children first visited a family dentist was 2.6 years of age. Furthermore, the study found that 34% of those sampled had children under the age of 11 that had never been to the dentist!

Common Excuses

Those surveyed commonly responded that their children were “too young,” or “didn’t have enough teeth” to visit the dentist. A number of others cited a lack of dental insurance as the reason they delayed their child’s dental visit.

According to Jed J. Jacobson, DDS, MS, MPH, chief science officer and senior V.P. at Delta Dental:

“Many Americans don’t understand how important their children’s baby teeth are to lifelong oral health. There’s a continuing need for more education to teach practices that will ensure lifelong oral health. And, since people overwhelmingly prefer the dentist and dental hygienist as their primary oral health information sources, dental benefits that encourage visits to the dentist are crucial.”

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentists (AAPD) recommends that a child go to the dentist by age 1 or within six months after the first tooth erupts.

Baby Teeth Matter

The AAPD also states that proper care of baby teeth are critically important for the following reasons:

• Help children chew properly to maintain good nutrition.
• Are involved in speech development.
• Help save space for permanent teeth.
• Promote a healthy smile that helps children feel good about the way they look.

Proper Care

Furthermore, the AAPD advises caregivers to gently wipe the baby’s gums with a soft, wet cloth after each feeding. When primary teeth begin to appear, they should be cleaned with a soft, child-sized toothbrush and a pea-sized dab of children’s toothpaste, twice a day.

Additional Information

For additional pediatric dental care tips, Delta Dental has a number of educational videos that caregivers of small children shouldn’t miss.

Your Thoughts

Were you aware of these guidelines recommended by the AARP? What are your thoughts?

The following are 5 mistakes dentists should avoid on Twitter:

1. Doing Nothing

Sounds obvious, right? Well, not to everyone. In fact, an estimated 20% of Twitter accounts held by dentists or other dental professionals are empty. This is clearly the most damaging mistake you can make if you want to use Twitter successfully. Beyond that, consider how this looks to your patients or potential patients. An empty Twitter account says to them, we’re lazy, uncommitted and unfocused. In short, if you’re not going to use Twitter, don’t sign up. Similarly, if you signed up already, and don’t tweet on a regular basis, you’re better off calling it quits and deleting your account.

2. Too Much Self-Promotion

A little self-promotion can go a long way. In fact, nothing will get you un-followed faster than constant self-promotion. Frankly, I don’t want to hear about your low pricing in every one of your tweets. I get it, you have good pricing. Now, tell me something I don’t know.

That’s the secret. If you truly want build a steady stream of new followers, focus on providing value. Engage with your followers by connecting with them on a personal level and providing them with information that can impact their lives in a positive way. Do this consistently, and you’re followers will return the favor many times over.

3. Failing to Connect with People

Many dentists perform a monologue instead of engaging in a dialogue with their followers. Get to know your followers. Show that you’re interested in what they have to say. Asking questions and utilizing the retweet function are great ways to do this.

4. Using One Twitter Account for Both Personal & Business Use

Do you want your friends and family to know when you’re brushing your teeth or bathing the dog? If so, then who am I to tell you to stop? But, do your patients or potential patients want to know about this? Probably not – wait, definitely not. I recommend creating separate Twitter accounts – one for personal use and one for business use.

5. Tweeting Too Much

Most dentists don’t have this problem, but enough do that it warrants mention. Tweeting too much, even if you’re following the above recommendations is not a good thing. Not only does too much tweeting dilute your message, but it’s downright annoying for your followers to see your avatar every time they sign into Twitter. Like most things in life, moderation is key.

Your Thoughts

Do you agree with these tips? What would you add to the list?

Top 5 Stories of the Week

1) Paperless vs. chartless and the Red Flags Rules Kevin Henry discusses some of the newest electronic issues with Banta Consulting’s Laci Phillips.

2) 12 Green Products/Companies You Should Know I’m no Al Gore (thankfully), but I’m of the belief that being “green” is a good thing. If you do as well, check out this post which highlights 12 products and companies that can help your practice “go green”.

3) BPA Safety in Dental Sealants Worries Some Dentists The Wealthy Dentist discusses in this video post a recent survey of dental professionals found that one dentist in four reports being very concerned about the issue of bisphenol-A (the problem chemical in water bottles and baby bottles).

4) American Dental Association Launches Podcast Program for Public The ADA launched a new video podcast series focused on providing oral health care information to the public. Read more about the podcast in this post…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below

Step 1: Submit Video

To enter the “My Smile Bites!” contest, 1-800-Dentist asks that you submit a 2 minute video of yourself discussing what you like about your smile, and what you don’t like about our smile. Additionally, you should discuss how your smile affects your self-image and interaction with others. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to smile!

Step 2: Promote Your Video

Once you have received confirmation that your video has been received successfully, it’s time to start promoting your video. Each contestant will have their own video page complete with a short bio. Have your friends and family visit your personal page and cast their vote each day beginning at noon on 11/10/09 until noon PST on 12/01/09.

How Judging Works

Be prepared to win over the hearts of your fellow Americans because they’re going to determine your fate. Once the top contestants have been selected, 1-800-Dentist will select the winner of the $30,000 smile makeover on December 15, 2009 at noon PST. “As the winner, you must be willing to have your smile makeover process captured on film, including dental visits and before and after experiences(1800dentist.com).

Enter Now

Ready to enter? Visit the My Smile Bites! $30,000 Smile Makeover Contest Page on 1800dentist.com to review official contest rules and submit your entry.

Top 5 Stories of the Week

1) Five Steps You Need to Follow To Protect Your Practice From a Network Disaster Technology fanatic, Lorne Lavine, DMD, discusses in this post three primary reasons dentists do not back up their data, and five simple steps for hopping aboard the backup train.

2) I dated a patient Renee Knight, Senior Editor of DentalProductsReport.com, explores in this steamy post the right way to date a patient. Yes, apparently there is a right way…

3) Linda Miles & Dr. Rhonda Savage on Dental Benefit Plans This informative post over at Dentalblogs.com explores the frustration that both staff and doctors share with regards to dental benefit plans. However, the authors also provide a template for minimizing some of this frustration when dealing with insurance patients.

4) Dentists Want a Dental License That’s National The Wealthy Dentist Blog reports in this post that 86% of survey respondents indicated that they are in favor of “universal licensure” for dentists. Read on to see what respondents cited as their reasons for promoting a national dental license…

5) Understanding “Return on Investment” The Azimuth Dental Blog tackles the confusion surrounding the acronym, ROI, or Return on Investment. Think you know exactly what that means, read this post to make sure…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

5 Websites with Free Sample Offers

1. Efficient Dental Technologies™

Efficient Dental Technologies™ is offering a number of free product samples to dental professionals, including: EZ-CROWN™ & NU-CROWN™ temporary crown kits, NU-CORE™ crown build-ups, NU-BLOCK™ U-shaped mouth props, TEMP TRAY™ impression trays and the TrioDent™ composite restoration system.

To order complimentary samples, fill in the Efficient Dental Technologies™ sample request form.

2. AXIS Dental Corporation

AXIS Dental Corporation currently offers 4 free product samples to licensed dental practitioners. This includes: UltraGloss™ composite polisher, Diamond-Zyme™ cleaning solution, NTI® Turbo Diamonds and QwikStrip™ Serrated Strips.

To order complimentary samples, fill in the AXIS Dental Corporation sample request form.

3. AllPro, Inc

AllPro, Inc., offers dental professionals the opportunity to request a large number of samples – 18 in all. The extensive selection includes: instrument cleaners, prophy paste, prophy brushes, disposable protective eyewear and much more…

To order complimentary samples, fill in the AllPro, Inc. sample request form.

4. Water Pik, Inc.

Water Pik, Inc. is currently offering licensed dental care practitioners a free trial pack of Waterpik™ UltraThin 5% Sodium Fluoride Varnish.

To order a complimentary trial pack, fill in the Water Pik, Inc. sample request form.

5. Dux Dental

DUX Dental offers a number of free product samples including: PeelVue+ sterilization pouches, Lubricoat lip and skin emollient,
Lubricoat, Identic Fast-Set Alginate and several other quality products.

To order complimentary samples, fill in the Dux Dental sample request form.

Any others?

Do you know of other companies currently offering samples to dental professionals? Please share in a comment below.

What do these numbers mean?

The numbers above mean that Dental Heroes is good, but not great. To make it great, I need your help. I developed a short survey to discover what you want to see in the next version of the Dental Heroes Blog. Your responses will play a big role in shaping Dental Heroes for the future – so don’t hold back. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to help out the Dental Heroes Community.

Start the Survey

Thanks so much for your help!

Top 5 Stories of the Week

1) Dentists Ready for a Dental Union The Wealthy Dentist Blog recently surveyed a number of dentists to determine whether now is the right time to form a dental union. You may be surprised that 49% of respondents said, “Yes”. Watch the video recap for an analysis of the results.

2) Dentistry’s new magic wand With amazing resolution and applications for almost every facet of dentistry, optical coherence tomography imaging could be a technology that changes everything…

3) Curve Dental Wants to Change Dental Software In this post, dental technology guru, John Flucke, explains how Curve Dental plans to revolutionize the dental software market with web-based software solutions…

4) Gratitude as a Marketing Tool Joseph J. Portale, DMD, MAGD, discusses a number of tips for establishing lasting, loyal relationships with your patients. Robotic dentists are out,. Real, personable, relationship-minded dentists are in…

5) Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Performs First MOOKP Procedure in USA Sharron “Kay” Thornton has just regained her sight in first-in-the-U.S. procedure known as Modified Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (MOOKP). Put simply, the procedure involved implanting the woman’s eyetooth in her eye as a base for a prosthetic lens. Read more in this recent DentalBlogs.com post…

…and there you have it. There’s a look at the top stories coming out of the Dental Blog Community this week. Look for a brand new list next week!

Are we missing anything?

Did you read an interesting dental-related blog post this past week? I certainly can’t hit on them all, so please share what you found in a comment below.

Ultimate Office Sweepstakes

The Dental Product Shopper’s latest sweepstakes is what they’re appropriately calling the “Ultimate Office Sweepstakes”. As the name suggests, Dental Product Shopper is trying to hook up your dental practice with great dental gear. The collective estimated value of the Grand Prize, Second Prize and Third Prize is $293,500!. Click on the links below to view the prize packages that you can win:

1) Grand Prize Package – estimated value ($280,000)
2) Second Prize Package – estimated value ($10,000)
3) Third Prize Package – estimated value ($3,500)

Who’s Eligible to Enter

Before you take the time to enter, keep in mind that “you must be a (i) licensed dentist, (ii) dental hygienist, (iii) dental assistant, or (iv) an office manager that has been employed at a licensed dental office during the entire six (6) months immediately prior to entry(dentalproductshopper.com)” to enter. For a full listing of the official rules, check out the sweepstakes rules page.

How to Enter

Dental Product Shopper has made entering the “Ultimate Office Sweepstakes” real easy. Oh, and did I mention that it’s free to enter? No? Well, it’s FREE TO ENTER. Simply fill out the official sweepstakes entry form to be eligible for almost $294,000 in prizes.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow DentalProductShopper.com on Twitter (@DentalProducts).

What do you think?

What do you think of the prize packages? Which product(s) do you currently use in your practice?

However, the coolest Wisp feature is the “freshening bead” planted in the center of the toothbrush. Upon contact, the bead releases a fresh liquid that freshens your breath – all without the need for water.

Let’s Get Creative

In the following parody, you’ll learn about a number of creative uses for the new Colgate Wisp. Who knew that watermelon sculpting could be so easy?

What do you think?

Have a creative use of your own for the Colgate Wisp? Share your ideas with other Dental Heroes readers in a comment below. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some tires to detail…