As states prepare to open back up, you may be ready to open your brand new dental or orthodontic practice. The problem is, though, that we are still in the middle of a pandemic, so restrictions and current policies mean that opening a new business is incredibly challenging right now. In this article, we will offer some tips on things to consider as you embark on this phase of your dental career.

Take Advantage of Financial Relief Packages

The government’s financial relief packages are exactly what dentists, as small business owners, need right now. Although this is new territory, it’s a learning experience for both new and established dentists who plan to open a practice.

Implement A Pre-Launch Marketing Campaign

Our affiliate marketing agency, INFINI Marketing, praises the idea of a pre-opening campaign as an effective way to generate awareness about your new dental practice. Whether this is the very first practice you're opening or if you have done this before, a launch campaign complete with dental website design and advertising will help you book appointments before you actually open. This means that once you open your doors, your practice can start earning revenue immediately and you won’t be a complete stranger in the community.

Embrace The Latest Technology In Dentistry, Including OrthoPhotoApp

If possible, it’s a great idea to consider new technologies to introduce when you open or a little further down the line. Some new technologies you should consider include practice management software that automates billing, helps manage every team member’s schedule, and keeps your team more organized. You may also want to automate appointment reminders and confirmations via text message.

Orthodontists–and general dentists that also offer dental braces–may also benefit from OrthoPhoto App, our mobile application that allows dentists to take their patients’ clinical images throughout the course of their braces treatment right on their smartphone. In addition to being able to use your smartphone as a braces camera, OrthoPhoto automatically places the images into a predetermined template with the correct image sizing and order and allocates each filled template to the corresponding patient’s file. OrthoPhoto App has over 1,000 subscribers who have felt a significant improvement in their dental record-keeping, quality of life, and patient experience. 

You can download OrthoPhoto App for iPhone from the App Store and for Android on Google Play.

Follow Above-Average Sterilization And Cleaning Procedures

This is something most dentists (and other healthcare providers) already do at their practice, but COVID-19 has made business owners and patients much more cautious of germs and cleanliness. Don’t fall short here; this time has changed some patients’ expectations and they will only go where they feel safest.

Don’t Let COVID-19 Stop You From Opening A New Orthodontic Practice

Many established and new businesses have greatly suffered during this time, but they don't have to. These tips are great if you want to succeed in opening and maintaining your new orthodontic practice during the pandemic and long after it.

If you want to keep patients coming on a regular basis so your dental or orthodontic practice remains busy, then you need to focus on providing the best patient experience you possibly can. In this article, we will discuss a few simple ways to improve your patient experience so that your established patients remain happy and the word gets out that new patients should visit your practice.

Offer Online Booking And Send Automated Reminders

COVID-19 has forced some dentists to introduce this option to their patients, but making it a permanent part of how you operate your practice is a fantastic way to improve your current patients’ experiences while also encouraging new patient visits at the same time.

We especially recommend this because even if your patients visit you for their hygiene and exam and book their next appointment as they leave, they might still forget by the time the next 6 months roll around. Further, sometimes patients will call to book an appointment only for the line to be busy. Let’s face it: your patients are busy. If you can’t answer their phone call right away, then when you call them back, they might be busy again and you’ll be engulfed in a long game of phone tag. Online booking, as well as automated text reminders, offer more convenience that encourages your patients to visit you on a regular basis and cultivates a better experience for both you and your patients. 

Send Surveys After A Patient’s Visit

Like with any business, customers/patients appreciate knowing that their opinion is valued because it means you care about catering to their needs as best as you possibly can. With that said, don’t send out surveys simply because you can. If you are going to send out surveys, please make sure to take the time to read your feedback and use it to continuously improve your practice operations.

Optimize Appointment Duration With OrthoPhoto

If you offer dental braces as one of your dental services, then you will see those patients far more often, which means you should make the most out of their visits with you during each adjustment appointment. OrthoPhoto is one of the many dental apps available, but it is specifically designed for orthodontists and dentists that offer braces. 

Rather than spending excessive time after-hours sorting through braces progress images, OrthoPhoto streamlines the process and automatically places photos you take on your smartphone into a pre-determined template that will be uploaded to designated patient files. Not only does this save you time, but it can also make your patient’s visit shorter and more pleasant. Here’s a bonus tip: if you regularly blog on your website, be sure to blog about how OrthoPhoto helps you practice better dentistry!

Download OrthoPhoto for Android and for iOS and enjoy improving the quality of your life while also reaping the benefits of additional patients!

Dentists and orthodontists often focus more on their work than on marketing their practice–and for good reason! Doing both by yourself is time-consuming and everyone wants to put most of their energy into what they’re best at. In this article, we will offer advice on how to easily blog like a pro as part of your dental practice marketing strategy.

First Things First: Is Your Website Set Up For SEO Success?

The purpose of blogging and generating fresh content for your business’s online presence is to improve your ranking on search engines so that you can be on the first page of search engines like Google. However, in order to achieve this, your website needs to be up to par. Our affiliate marketing agency, INFINI Marketing, offers a professional dental website for $249 per month complete with custom-written webpages for all of your services, perfect function and visibility on all devices, and optional upgrades to make your marketing strategy all the more effective. If you need a brand new website for your dental or orthodontic practice, then please contact INFINI Marketing to inquire about their Dental Website Package. 

Incorporating OrthoPhoto In Your Dental Blog

Once your dental website is up and running, upload your orthodontic photography and turn to blogging so you can reach a wider audience and strengthen your credibility as a dental healthcare professional. Blogs only have to be about 350 words long and can be about anything relating to your available treatments and what makes you different from other dentists as a way to encourage new patients to visit you instead of your competitors. 

For example, if you offer metal braces, Invisalign, or ceramic braces and use our mobile application, OrthoPhoto App, then you should regularly write blogs about braces and how OrthoPhoto helps you and your patients throughout the entire duration of their dental braces treatment. By constantly stating that this revolutionary mobile application shortens your patients' appointment duration and streamlines tracking dental braces progress, taking clinical images, and dental record-keeping, you will encourage more website visitors to convert into your newest patients thanks to the fact that you are a well-equipped dentist/orthodontist who values their time. 

Market Your Dental Practice To Regularly Welcome New Patients

If you have yet to download OrthoPhoto in order to improve the quality of your dental braces treatments, then please download it here for iOS and here for Android. Blogging about what you know is a great way to strengthen your brand, grow your practice, and boost your dental marketing strategy, affordably!

A dental practice must be efficient, and the beauty of efficiency is that it can always be improved upon! By being intentional in your practice’s efficient workflow, you will see vast improvements in your team as well as in your patient experience. In this article, we will discuss some warning signs to look out for that indicate your practice could use some improvement in its day-to-day efficiency.

Scrambling Between Appointments

How your team times their different tasks at your office directly affects their individual efficiency and productivity, as well as everyone else’s. If you find that you’re scrambling between patients, we recommend combining treatments when possible. For example, you could consider combining crown prep with another treatment. If you have to do fillings and a crown, starting with the fillings will allow you to complete the crown prep in a more timely manner. If there is any downtime during another treatment, use that downtime to work on something else.

Paper Clutter

Clutter is one of the best ways to impede efficiency. Paperwork is obviously important, but if anyone on your team spends more time sifting through it than working with patients, then this is a clear warning sign that it’s time to reconsider your orthodontic or dental office’s workflow. Going completely paperless takes a long time, but making a little progress every day makes a big difference until, eventually, your office is completely paperless and spends only seconds pulling up important documents. 

Mobile Technology, Like OrthoPhoto

Going paperless can begin by improving your paperless dental record-keeping process, so it is completed in an instant. There are many mobile apps for orthodontists, including OrthoPhoto App, which boasts over 1,000 subscribers because many orthodontists and general dentists who offer dental braces are realizing how much this app has streamlined their job. 

OrthoPhoto App is our HIPAA compliant orthodontic application that dentists utilize in order to take clinical images of their patients’ dental braces progress. Using your smartphone, take pictures of your patients’ teeth throughout their braces progress. The application automatically places the images into a predetermined template that organizes them in the proper format, and you can assign each document to individual patient folders with ease.

Dentists and orthodontists no longer need to dedicate extra hours after the office is closed to handle a mountain of clinical images that document different phases in braces progress. Download it today on the App Store and on Google Play so you can also practice better dentistry!