Modern Hygienist | Professional Center

Mind reader

How can you ensure that employers think you’re valuable? By getting in their heads!

by Lisa Wadsworth, RDH

When it comes to understanding the thought process of your employer, sometimes you might feel like calling in a professional psychic (or an exorcist). This doesn’t have to be the case! While every dentist is different, here are some clues to help you understand his or her needs as a manager, not just a clinician.

DON’T FIGHT THE FRONT

Often focused on the hours spent toiling in the clinical trenches, dental hygienists may not be aware of the challenges facing the administrative staff in the front of the practice. While our job descriptions differ drastically, we share the same goal: patient care. With that in mind, we must take steps to ensure that those behind the front desk are friends, not foes.

Rather than asking your employer to “make” the front staff understand your limits when it comes to scheduling and flow, take the first step and offer to spend some time observing and assisting up front. Hearing the calls your office manager has to make and take throughout the day can give you a fresh perspective as to what he or she faces day-to-day. You can help with filing, pulling charts, scheduling patients, and even offer your own advice on who should get a re-care call or who is likely to come in sooner rather than later.

By making the effort to understand how your schedule comes into existence, you build a rapport with those involved. You then can switch gears and offer them insight into your own workflow. As the two sides come to appreciate one another’s roles, the practice can only benefit.

THE RULE OF RE-CARE

If your manager could share one thing about re-care, it would be that it’s everyone’s responsibility. You can help prevent patients from becoming dormant by playing your part in pre-appointing people on your schedule. Rather than ask if they want to reschedule, offer to schedule their next appointment now.

To go a step further in “selling” the pre-appointment, have an idea of what you’d like to cover in the next re-care visit, focusing not only on periodontal needs, but having an idea of other restorative or cosmetic treatment that might be needed. This will be a huge help to your dentist as he or she sits down to make their case for future visits.

DON’T PASS THE BUCK, COLLECT IT

Unless you are involved with treatment planning for your practice, you may not be expected to present or collect fees for dental services. However, if you think clinicians want to keep you in the dark when it comes to fees for services, you’re wrong. There should be a healthy balance.

As a dental hygienist, you should feel confident to quote fees for services such as bleaching and other cosmetic options, scaling and root planing, or locally applied antibiotics. When the time comes, you also should feel comfortable collecting payment for these services or a completed maintenance visit. Becoming comfortable and assertive with this aspect of the job will not only create more value for the service, but will surely impress your employer.

MARKETING STARTS WITH YOU

I recently had a colleague from another dental practice share a story with me in which a long-standing patient of record had been absent for over a year. When the administrative team followed up with her, the patient gladly scheduled a maintenance appointment. The day the hygienist found the patient in her chair, she was shocked to see eight beautiful veneers across the patient’s maxillary arch. Looking through the chart to see when they had been placed, there was no record of this significant procedure. When asked, the patient explained that she had the veneers done elsewhere by a cosmetic specialist, unaware that her “general” dentist at this practice was capable of providing the service.

In cases such as this, the whole team is responsible for losing the patient’s business. It is crucial that you are aware of the services your dentist and team can provide and take the opportunities to present those options to patients, before they ask. Even if they say no the first time, if they ever think about bleaching, veneers, or other treatments in the future, they’ll know that you can be a practice that meets all their needs.

Understanding your employer doesn’t have to be like navigating a maze. If you work for the best interest of the patient and the best interest of the practice—and yes, the two can go together—then you’re surely headed in the right direction. And if all else fails, just ask how you can help!

Lisa Wadsworth, RDH, is a former contributing editor for Modern Hygienist.