No one referring patient! Dental Practice Management

Good morning. This is Dr. Allen. And this morning I had a email from a dentist, a specialist actually, in Los Angeles, who is an oral maxillofacial surgeon. He runs his own practice, limited practice to oral surgery, dental implants and so forth. And he was telling me that the business is way down because of all the lockdown going on, the state of California, everything that is happening. And even before that, he was having very minimal referrals. So what he could do. So I like to answer this question publicly. And this is one of the things that. And really, this video, I think, is mostly for the associates and for dental specialists. I think this is a very important message that you need to learn and you need to listen to. So one of the problems I have seen in dentistry is that especially the associates and the specialists who get referrals from general practitioners, they take it for granted that, you know, they have this big ego, that because they're the dentist, because they're the specialists, you know, they get these patients come to them, they don't realize what happens behind the scene.

With all the marketing that happens, all the management and processes that are in place to create that flow of new patients coming in. And many of these specialists, during the good times, they really do not take care of their general practitioners in a way they should. In terms of when they get a referral, maybe they just call them, say thank you. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they send maybe a gift every once in a while for a holiday or something like this. And at this point, you realize that when we go through global recessions or global chaos such as this or such as the one I went through in 2008, you start realizing that how important it is for you to have a high skill level, not just in dentistry. That's without saying you have to be a good dentist, you have to be a good, competent dentist, but also in sales, in marketing, in communication, so you can withstand these forces on your own and you can handle the storms of life that are thrown at you. Okay, so this goes back to the basis of what I keep talking about, is training yourself.

Your staff and everyone around you, not just in clinical skills, but in the softest skills required. Because if you are a good specialist, and there's not a single specialist that I can talk to, and they say, no, we are bad specialists, everybody obviously says they're good, then you should not have any problem finding patients on your own. Do your own marketing, be able to learn how to communicate well with patients so you can close more cases and so forth. So I think this is a wake up call for a lot of you guys out there that all of a sudden you find yourself either without patients or without referrals, or maybe you're.

A general practice associate, that you have been blessed by just getting a ton of patients coming into the practice, but now you realize all of a sudden the water flow has been discontinued. Okay, so there's not enough patients coming in and what are you going to do? This is where you have to sharpen your saw to really learn about the softest skills, about communication, about how to run a great dental practice, that you're not dependent on anyone.

If you're good at that, you can stand alone and you can do stuff on your own. No, I'm not saying suggesting that you should jump ship if you're good at that. As a matter of fact, it's very good to be part of an organization. But you want to have those skills because it certainly will help you to grow further and achieve higher level of incomes and so forth. My name is Dr. Allen. If I can help you in any way, we have number of training and classes and coaching programs. And if you feel find value in this video, please hit the like button and share it. Thank you so much.