March 2010 Newsletter Articles on Facebook!

EnviroMed is now archiving many of our articles on Facebook. Become a fan and you will be the first to read them as we publish them!

Click on the title of this post and be redirected to Dr. Frank Angus's Office of the Month article and Paul Homoly's article for March of 2010.

The Case For Going Green In Dentistry

The webinar was a success! It was so full of great information. Thank you so much Ina for taking the time out to share your knowledge for an evening!

If any of you missed it or would like to hear it again, please click on the title of this post to watch the archived version. You will have to sign up to hear it. But that should be quick.

This webinar is an hour long.

Thank you for watching!

Archives Page Update

Hello to all!

We have uploaded our past newsletter articles. We are still working on the past teleseminars and hope to have them posted soon.

Newsletter Archive- The Case For Green Dentistry

The Case for Green Dentistry
by Ina Pockrass with The Eco-Dentistry Association

In 2003, long before "An Inconvenient Truth" launched a national conversation about the urgent need to mediate our impact on the Earth, the Transcendentist® office, a single doctor, scratch dental practice in Berkeley, California set out to create a model for eco-friendly dental practice. The dynamic team of Dr. Fred Pockrass, DDS and his wife Ina Pockrass, eco-entrepreneur and green consumer expert, believed that green dentistry was not only good for the planet, but a powerful market differentiator, a magnet for high-quality patients, and a boost for the bottom line. They were right. Today, their Berkeley practice is buzzing with loyal patients, seeing an average of thirty new clients a month with virtually no traditional marketing, and producing revenue in the top 5% of dental practices.
In birthing the award-winning Transcendentist® office, the Pockrass' examined every choice with an environmental and wellness lens. The result was the model for green dentistry, which they have tested and refined in real time in a real dental practice. While Berkeley seemed a natural location for such a practice, as the Pockrass team expected, in the last two years, green dentistry has been catching on worldwide. And the dental industry has responded with a plethora of new green dental products, like LED operatory lights that use less energy and give dentists truer color shade readings, waterless vacuum systems that save practices as much as 360 gallons of water a day, and compostable suction tips.
With an Advisory Board of highly-respected members across the profession, the Pockrass' moved beyond their own office and recently co-founded The Eco-Dentistry Association (www.ecodentistry.org) to provide a consistent set of green dentistry standards, best practices and resources for dentists and the industry, and to educate consumers about the benefits of eco-friendly choices for their dental health. The EDA defines green dentistry as: (1) reducing waste and pollution, (2) conserving water, energy and money, (3) integrating a wellness approach, and (4) incorporating high-tech solutions. The EDA has since created a simple checklist and comprehensive certification program, called GreenDOC, which guides dentists in taking their eco-friendly measures beyond recycled paper and fluorescent bulbs to realizing all of the benefits of operating a truly green practice.
Benefits? Yes, benefits! Contrary to popular perception, eco-friendly choices are more beneficial to the bottom line than wasteful and polluting alternatives. The EDA commissioned a study by Natural Logic Sustainability Consulting Group that concluded that going green can actually improve the practice bottom line by $50,000 a year, a significant sum in any economic climate. Simple choices like switching to re-usable cloth infection control methods instead of disposables alone account for savings of over $2300 per year, enough to finance a nice vacation for the doctor. One EDA member reports a 30% reduction in dental supply expenses over last year, and attributes this savings to his transition from consumables to re-usables like stainless steel impression trays.
And overhead savings are just the beginning. Green dental offices are tapping into a growing market of consumers, nearly 100 million in the US, who seek businesses and service providers that share their eco-friendly values. When it comes to dentistry, these patients often struggle to find an eco-friendly choice. By reaching out to this powerful market of consumers, green dentists all across the country are tapping into a ready stream of new patients who both value preventive health and love to refer their family and friends. According to Ina Pockrass, magnetizing the green dental consumer is the secret to recession-proofing a practice. Not only has the Transcendentist® office enjoyed a steady growth in revenues every year, but in the economically dismal first quarter of 2009, the office increased revenue by 15% over the same quarter in 2008. Other EDA members report a similar uptick in revenue.
While only established a year ago, the EDA already has close to 400 members in 42 states and 11 countries. The organization provides everything practitioners need to go green without re-inventing the wheel, from educational resources to accessible green dentistry standards. In fact, many high-tech and cosmetic practices, which use digital imaging and patient charting, are already greener they think. So whether you are looking to increase new patient flow, enhance your bottom line, or stand out from the crowd, authentically positioning yourself as a green dental practice can yield outstanding rewards.

To learn more about how green dentistry can benefit your practice, please join Ina Pockrass, co-creator of the green dentistry model and co-founder of The Eco-Dentistry Association on January 14th at 6:00 pm CST, when she presents "The Case for Green Dentistry". Click Here to Sign up Today!

Archives Page Introduction

Hello! We are finally up and going with our archives page! Please bear with us as we begin to add all of the information to the page. We have added a search button at the top of the page so that you may search for subject matter that you are interested in. You are welcome to post comments about the material and forward information to your friends and colleagues that you find of value.

This is our official first post... but the archives will be posted according to their original air dates.

We hope you are able to enjoy this information as much as we have!

Teleseminar- Linda Garber

4 Ways to Monitor & Manage Your Dental Practice in 2010

"Taking Hold of Your Dental Practice (Again)"

FREE Tele-Seminar with Lynn Garber of Lynn Garber Consulting

Original Air DATE: Friday, November 13, 2009

In today's ever - changing economic environment you must constantly monitor and manage your practice. We will look at your practice from the inside out:

1. Numbers that must be monitored daily
2. Staff and patient communication
3. Treatment acceptance and patient retention
4. Internal marketing

We spent about 10 minutes on each subject (40 minutes) and then opened it up for questions.

Through her personalized, in-office consulting services for 25 years, Lynn has helped hundreds of dentists like yourself:

- Improve financial security
- Effectively manage stress
- Increase profits and productivity
- Train personnel and build teams
- Enhance business management skills

Learn how she does this by clicking play to listen.

Newsletter Archive- Positive Action Brings Positive Results

Positive Action Brings Positive Results

By Lynn Garber

TIMES ARE TOUGH!!! Aren’t you tired of hearing that? I am! I believe times are only as tough as you allow them to be. If your practice is sending a negative message to your patient about tough times, they will believe it. As a result, you’ll find yourselves with diminishing profits, openings in your schedules and treatment not being accepted.

You may be ready for change, ask yourself:

1. Is your office presenting itself as a support to a persons total health and appearance?

2. Are you listening to what your patients want? What a person wants is often different than what you as a professionals sees as a need.

3. Are you and your staff having regular meetings about listening to patients and providing them with what
they are asking for?

4. Do you offer resources that support anti aging and total health for your patients? Is your reception room a window of opportunity?

5. Are your patients being rewarded for their commitment and loyality to your practice?

6. Is your staff communicating the benefits of your practice to Patients? Is the staff being rewarded for their efforts?

Over the years, dentistry has evolved clinically at a fast pace. However, we have not seen a comparable movement towards making changes in our dental practice management. We, as dental professionals, have been slow to proactively incorporate changes in how the practice in being marketed to our patients. It’s time that we incorporate some major changes in the way our dental practices offer services to patients and rewards to our staff.

Here are some suggestions to easily and quickly get your practice on a positive track:

1. Develop your reception room as a “window of possibilities”:

Have a video playing with services and products you offer along with resources you suggest for support
(i.e., health clubs, massages, aesthetics, etc.)

Fill a display cabinet with products you offer (i.e., teeth whitening, toothbrushes, anti aging, etc.).

Furnish the area with magazines and pamphlets about health, wellness, anti aging; not sports and
entertainment.

2. Offer patient rewards for commitment to their own well being and your practice; I’ve recently come across a site online that will get a cost effective program in place for this. Check out www.mydentalrewards.com, Letting patients know they are appreciated with tangible rewards is a sure fire way of keeping them loyal to your practice.

3.Propose an opportunity for your staff to earn more dollars and without increasing your salary overhead percentage; staff incentices can be structured as ongoing or with a time limit:

Offer products available for purchase and allow the staff to “own” this department. You’ve probably never done this before but it is necessary and ethical. There are quality products on the market today only available through a third party and provide a fair profit. Chose products that support you dental philosophy and a patients overall health.

Bonus dollars for specifics: a full hygiene schedule, daily production goals met,etc. and also for patients they bring back to the practice; i.e. patients past due for hygiene for more than one year or patients who never scheduled for recommended treatment.

Don’t decrease your profit margin by taking on more insurance plans. Seek to streamline your patient and staff communication and management. Benefits will come to you much faster working from the inside out. External marketing can be expensive with no guaranteed results. Before spending money on external fixes, make sure you closely examine your practice for simple internal changes you can make.

Benefits will come to you much faster working from the inside out.
Lynn Garber is a well known leader in the dental profession. As a consultant she continues to provide support to doctor and staff increasing their comm-unication skills and putting systems in places that insure favorable growth.

Lynn is a sought after guest lecturer to various dental meetings; i.e. Greater New York Dental Meeting, Florida National Dental Congress, Yankee Dental Meeting, Valley Forge Dental Meeting, etc. She provides continuing education programs a the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Tufts University, etc.; as well as programs for local dental societies. Her programs offer solutions that can be easily implemented into a dental practice resulting in growth.

As owner of LYNN GARBER CONSULTANTS since 1982 she continues to build successful practices throughout the United States. She is a member of the American Academy of Dental Practice Administration and a contributing author to many well know dental publications.