Dentists have long been known to be keen into gadgets. Much of this can be attributed to their personalities. Other parts of this can be attributed to ways that they can improve and streamline their practices.
One of the biggest technologies to come along recently is digital and paperless charting. This streamlines the patient experience, makes it more efficient and, thus, makes your practice more efficient. This is also the same for digital impressions. It makes the patient more comfortable and lowers overhead.
Technology can also increase your patient interaction, or engagement, with you and your practice. One good example of this would be intraoral cameras. You can take a photograph of the problem at hand and the patient can see what is going on for right before their very own eyes. This gives kind of a “proof is in the pudding” effect when treatment planning, versus just telling the patient that they have a problem.
With the appropriate technology, this can also result in procedures not being reproduced. An example of this would be digital dental impressions. If you have had them already completed, there is no need to do additional.
With the latest and greatest in diagnostic procedure technology, this will also have a tendency to reduce the time of the diagnostic portion of your treatment. A great example of this would be new products in dental radiograph technology. With these new x-ray tech solutions, you will be able to get the “whole picture” with less imaging. This leads to a faster, and therefore a more efficient, diagnostic procedure time. This, then, leads to a shorter overall treatment time.
A very key factor to all of this is that if you have up-to-date technology, your patients will trend toward being happier. With patients that are trending toward a better mentality, they will be more likely to follow through with treatment.
If you have more patients accepting treatment, this will lead to an increase in profits for your practice. Not that this should be the end all be all for your practice, but it is a good indicator of whether or not your practice is accepting of the new technologies that you have brought into your practice.
The bottom line is that if you have happy patients, you will have a happy practice. Dentistry has always been that way. If patients are hearing what their friends are getting at other offices and you don’t offer it in your practice, they will be quick to jump ship. This principle is greed. It is a basic principle of gaining impulse in marketing. However in this situation it could work against you if you don’t have the latest and greatest. You must utilize technology, not let it get you down.