Dr. John Flucke is in private practice in Lee’s Summit, Mo. He also serves as technology editor for Dental Products Report magazine and keeps an active blog filled with thoughts and tidbits on the world of technology at blog.denticle.com.

I love technology! That probably seems like a silly thing to say; I mean, this column is called “Technology Evangelist” for crying out loud. However, even though most of you know me as the geeky type, I think my love of technology bears some explanation from time to time.

Our world is developing at breakneck speed, and a lot of it has to do with the proliferation of technologies from all walks of life. We can now process information in ways that were difficult to even conceive, let alone accomplish, just 20 years ago. Things like DNA mapping and gene sequencing allow us to begin to bend science to our will as mortal human beings. We hold the sum of all human knowledge in the palms of our hands. We can reach out to almost anyone, anywhere on the planet, within a matter of seconds.

However, one of the problems that comes with all of this horsepower, as I like to refer to it, is the aspect of time. Everyone expects things to happen almost instantaneously and when it doesn’t, stress and negativism rears its ugly head. In dentistry, we have taken tremendous steps forward since I first entered the profession. Now, things can happen so fast, especially in the diagnostic aspect of the profession, that speed can sometimes be our enemy.

I grew up professionally when the internet was born and I found my love of problem solving and fixing things went hand-in-hand with any computerization challenge that came along. In those early days, I considered myself a hacker and I was pretty proud of that title. Getting computers and peripherals to do things they were not made to do helped feed my problem-solving appetite and brought my dentistry practice to heights I didn’t even know existed.

Now, as I look at what we’ve accomplished along with the speed and efficiency of digital workflows, there isn’t a need to try and bend things in a brand new direction. We have almost an overabundance of efficiency. What I see now is not a need to hack devices, but we need to hack time.

Earlier this year, I was espousing using the downtime we all experienced during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to better organize my practice and life. It was almost too easy in the early days of the shutdown to just watch Netflix, but I hate wasting time.

Dentistry has a unique yin-yang aspect where issues of today cause an impact 6 months down the road. With that in mind, offices are now seeing that being closed 6 months ago directly impacted the hygiene schedule as the critical next appointment could not be scheduled when the office was closed. That gap in time has now come back around with a resultant negative effect.

So what do we do with this “extra time”? If our hygiene schedule is not utilizing its normal back-to-back appointments, what do you do with that to improve things for the next 6-month cycle or with office productivity in the short term? Doctors are very aware of the old adage “hygiene feeds the doctor schedule.” So let’s look at ways to take fewer hygiene appointments and hack that to make the office more productive.

The most important part of what we do is to educate our patients. Patients who understand the mouth-body connection and the concept of how the mouth operates, not as a bunch of individual teeth, but as a well-functioning machine made up of a series of important subcomponents, make much better decisions.

One of the things that our workflow efficiencies have done is to make us think that faster is better. Or the concept that if we work more efficiently in hygiene, we can squeeze one more patient into the daily hygiene schedule. While this strategy will bump numbers in the short term, it only increases the numbers by one hygiene visit fee. My personal feelings on that type of a solution are to classify it as “penny wise and pound foolish” when considering the options available.

Let’s say your office charges $150 for a continuing care appointment. Adding one more patient to the schedule easily increases your daily production but also decreases the amount of time for education that could result in a patient leaving so impressed with the practice that they schedule their entire family of 5. Education can also lead to patients understanding the need for comprehensive treatment, guiding them to improve their overall quality of life. Knowledge makes these events happen. Seldom does a patient simply walk into an office and schedule some type of reconstruction because “it might improve my overall health.”

Instead of adding one more patient to the schedule, why don’t we look at what adding education into that slot can do. The one thing we need to work into the equation in our current environment is that we were struggling for a brief time to find adequate appointment numbers, so it’s not as easy as snapping your fingers to find another appointment to add to the daily schedule.

Instead, adding education will bring much greater results.

When a patient is better informed, they make better decisions. This simple fact means that better decisions lead to more overall productivity to the doctor’s schedule.

Suppose your office features a patient monitor connected in a manner that allows the hygienist and doctor to share clinical images. In that case, there is no better time than now to take advantage of that technological capability.

Once radiographs and images are captured, there is truly no better way to coach the patient than through showing clinical images on a high definition monitor and educating the patient on what those images show. In my opinion, the least utilized aspect of our hygienists’ expertise is education. These professionals are highly trained in the proper way to enlighten their patients, but the speed at which technology allows us to operate has reduced that aspect of their careers.

A picture is worth a thousand words and dental pictures may well be worth 10 thousand. That magical radiology monitor I referenced above doesn’t only allow education on radiographs, but intraoral and extraoral images as well as advanced caries detection images, too. A relatively small investment in imaging hardware can quickly repay the investment through the incredible amount of information they relay to patients.

The best part of this is that the investment is not an extreme one, so it’s easily affordable, even for practices on a tight budget.

For intraoral images, I am currently recommending MouthWatch® cameras. These USB devices provide remarkably sharp images for the price. Simply plug one into the operatory computer, update the driver, and start taking crisp, bright images. The price of $299 per camera makes them a no brainer. I have even gone so far as to keep a couple of backup MouthWatch cameras in the office just in case one breaks. I wouldn’t do that with a camera costing $3500, but MouthWatch makes backup hardware a great idea.

For extraoral pictures, I use the Shofu EyeSpecial camera. This remarkable camera is a phenomenal hybrid device that bridges the differences between affordable point and shoot cameras and their much more sophisticated sibling, the digital single-lens reflex camera.

It comes preprogrammed with multiple shot choices such as “full face” versus “retracted smile” and many others. Simply tapping the type of pictures you want to take on the large, bright touchscreen causes the software to automatically change the needed settings so your photos come out perfectly every time.

The device has changed the process of taking pictures from a time-consuming and training-intensive exercise to a literal point and shoot experience. Among its other amazing features is the simple fact it can be wiped down with various surface disinfectants, which means it can be used by staff members wearing gloves. Many doctors have told me that they don’t take extraoral photos for the simple fact that it is too tedious. The Shofu EyeSpecial stops that objection dead in its tracks.

Over the last 10 years, the profession has seen a number of devices that allow doctors to take images that show caries. They each have their positives and negatives, but the best part is that every one of them enables images of caries to be projected on a monitor.

Any office looking to provide better communication while also providing better diagnostic accuracy would be well served by exploring this category of devices. Despite current training protocols, our profession has outgrown the sharp explorer diagnosis, and our patients are much better served by using devices that find carious lesions at their earliest appearance and allow us to either monitor, attempt remineralization, or restore these areas before they progress to the point of requiring large restorations.

Showing images on a monitor that can easily and clearly provide visual information to the patient has an incredible advantage over merely trying to explain our diagnostic processes verbally. Very rarely will patients not appreciate that we have located a problem at its earliest stages, especially when you can show them other areas in their mouth where large restorations are present because they couldn’t be detected until a large amount of tooth structure had to be sacrificed.

Other devices, such as Air Techniques CamX Spectra, DEXIS CariVu™, and Acteon Sopro, all have their strengths and weaknesses but should be explored when an office wants to increase their diagnostic accuracy and patient communication.

Hacking time by increasing communication is a great way to reap the benefits of free time in your schedule. The best part of this hack is that it is something you can turn to at any time when your schedule experiences a slowdown.

I’ve been practicing for a while now, and I’ve seen scheduling challenges across the board from not enough hours in the day all the way to openings in a schedule that seem to have no basis on any economic indicators. The one thing I’ve learned through these experiences is that the best way to deal with the slow times is to spend more time educating and communicating with patients and staff.

I feel one of the best things about our profession is that we get to spend significant time with our patients, and that allows us to get to know them in ways that other professionals are not lucky enough to have. Sometimes I don’t need to focus on education per se, I just focus on getting to know my patients better. That may well be the best part of having more time than usual.Hack the time to your advantage. You’ll be glad you did.

Articles

Hacking time to your advantage by increasing education and communication is a great way to reap the benefits of free time in your dental practice’s schedule.

What to Do With All That Time

Lisa Newburger, a master's level social worker supervisor, helps audiences find humor in talking about tough topics. Her "in-your-face" style of presentations and writing will make you smile or just shock you into taking some action. Either way, she is very effective at empowering others to reach their goals and feel better about themselves. Her entertaining workshops are available for national and international audiences. Writing for the dental industry since 2010, she uses an alterego (Diana Directive) to illustrate her points in a sarcastic but effective way. Presentations can be scheduled by contacting Lisa at www.discussdirectives.com/dental.html.

Is this our new “normal”? Is this really it? To me, that definition means we have some ability to predict the future. Before, everything was up in the air. Now, dental practices are open. Schools are learning how to teach online or in person during a pandemic. Businesses are reopening—or unfortunately closing. And basically, people are trying to figure out their next steps.

® does not ask me to write articles based on my predictions because I do not have a degree in magic ball forecasting. But I am going to do it anyway.

Below are my predictions for what lies ahead:

that the medical profession will respect that dental practices are essential

. I do not think we have to worry about being shut down again. We have proven that we practice the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines quite successfully. I believe this because there are no reports of infection being spread from a dental practice

. Additionally, while dentistry is considered one of the professions with the highest risk of contracting and spreading an airborne virus such as the coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), new research published by The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) finds fewer than 1% of dentists in the US have been infected with COVID-19.1The key though, is to just keep moving forward and to not get lax with following the recommendations. Yes, it is more work, but it’s also keeping our doors open and keeping all of us safe.

I forecast the weather will be a big problem

. Here in Ohio, as the weather gets colder, fewer people are journeying outside. They will probably go inside restaurants, health clubs, and shopping malls. This is a big problem. Taking off your mask to eat or drink is putting your family and friends at risk. This is an extremely complicated issue. Restaurants cannot survive on takeout food purchases alone. Expect to see more closures. Whether the governors’ step in or the owners decide to close, it is heartbreaking but probably going to happen.

I speculate that people will take more risks.

 I am sick of this new normal. I want my life back. When is that going to happen? I know some of us are tired of being home. One woman said she is quarantining in a bubble with her children and grandchildren. Yet, she is on a hiking trip with her girlfriends in California per her Facebook page. Explain that one to me. Does the bubble includes airplane rides? Restaurants? Pictures arm-in-arm with friends? I just don’t get it. I am trying not to be judgmental, but at times it is not easy. 

I anticipate people you know may still get coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

 More and more people are getting ill in my suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Denial is not working. Some people feel entitled and think this illness will not touch them. Guess again. I am watching entire families come down with COVID-19. One 23-year-old whose entire family is ill said, “…it wasn’t a big deal.” He just has been blessed not to need a hospital or a ventilator for himself or his family. Do we have to wait until our loved one suffers before we wake up and realize how serious this is as a society?

I predict mental health issues will continue increasing at an alarming rate.

 Some people are struggling right now. Alcohol use is up. Domestic violence is as well. People are losing their jobs. And depression and anxiety coming from this roller coaster of emotions is taking some of us over the edge.

Am I all gloom and doom? Yes and no. Yes, we have a lot of problems now. But do not forget there can be silver linings in nightmares.

For me, those silver linings include the following:

Things have slowed down, so we now have time to spend on the people who mean the most to us. I now see my son and nephew in New York at our weekly virtual family Sunday dinners. We have had these dinners since I was a child but never included the out-of-town family.

I have prioritized what is important to me. 

Some of us have helped our communities by sharing personal protective equipment, sharing resources and information, and working as a team because, quite frankly, we must. I do not know about you, but some of my frivolous spending has changed because I am not spending the way I used to. It just is not important to have more stuff. Maybe we are growing up as a society.

 Many of us hate change. I mean really HATE change. It can be overwhelming. These changes came quickly. Things shut down. I did not know what to do first. But I survived. I learned a lot—I had to. But it is not over yet. Look at the innovative things that have been going on during this pandemic. Entire companies went virtual. The NBA figured out how to have a safe season. School teachers learned how to adjust teaching styles overnight. As stressful as this has been, look at the bigger picture. Some of us have thrived.

As evident, I am not a Pollyanna. I do see the real world—the unemployment, the racial tensions, and the election we may be talking about for the rest of our lives. But I believe that we are learning from this and growing both individually and as a society. My heart goes out to those who have suffered from this illness and to their families. But I must have hope. You must have hope. If you do not believe it is going to get better, then it will not. Believe in change. Believe that things can get better. They will.

So stay the course and follow CDC guidelines. Have a virtual Thanksgiving so that you do not infect your loved ones. And don’t give up hope. If you need help, talk to someone. We are here to help each other get through this.

 and share what you think might happen next.

Estrich, C. G., MPH, PhD; Mikkelsen, M., MA; Morrissey, R., MA; Geisinger, M.L., DDS, MS; Ioannidou, E., DDS, MDS; Vujicic, M., PhD; Araujo, M. W.B., DDS, MS, PhD; Estimating COVID-19 prevalence and infection control practices among US dentists; ADA.org, Accessed Oct. 28, 2020.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ 

https://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Publications/ADA%20News/Files/ADAJ_1930.pdf​ 

Uncertainty during the pandemic can add to everyone’s stress, but we must stay the course and remain positive.

What Will Happen Next?

For close to two decades Keating Dental Arts has been one of the top dental labs in the country and this week they’ve announced a name change, to Keating Dental Lab. In addition to changing the name, the California dental laboratory has also announced an accompanying tagline: “You Can Count on Keating.”

Shaun Keating, CDT, President and Founder of Keating Dental Lab says the new name and tagline represent the consistent and friendly service that the Keating lab is well known for delivering.

“At Keating, we strive to continually evolve with the times and with that, our branding has evolved as well,” Keating says in a press release. “As dental technologies, processes and procedures change for the better, Keating has always been at the forefront of innovation. Our new look is representative of that philosophy—a graphic and verbal expression of the consistent, predictable outcomes that create lasting relationships with our clients.”

Established in 2002, Keating Dental Lab aims to be a natural extension of its clients’ practices and success. Keating Dental Lab bases their business on the “Keating Difference”, valuing personalized relationships, detailed dental laboratory work, on-time delivery and unwavering care practices, states Nick Azar, Director of Sales and Marketing.

Located in Orange County, California, Keating Dental Lab is a full-service laboratory that provides end-to-end solutions for dental practices.Keating aims to continuously improve the dental profession by guiding the latest developments in materials and processes, combining the latest in CAD/CAM technology with skilled craftsmanship to deliver products that meet dentists’ exact specifications. For more information, visit 


New name, logo and tagline designed to convey lab’s consistent results, and friendly, dependable service.


Keating Dental Lab is the New Name for Keating Dental Arts

Dental patients with Guardian Life's PPO insurance plan will have access to teledentistry care thanks to a new partnership between the insurer and Virtudent.

The partnership will provide approximately 7 million patients with teledentistry access 24/7 via both an online portal or by calling 800-506-8305. The teledental appointments are designed to help patients with pre-screening emergency situations, prescribing medications, and obtaining advice from dental professionals.

"Our research shows members are more likely to use teledentistry if it's covered by their dental provider," says 

Dr. Randi S. Tillman, chief cental officer at Guardian Life in a press release.

 "As a result, we are making it a priority to raise awareness for this new service with the goal of providing a safe method for members who need immediate access to high-quality dental care."

Teledentistry Partnership Connects Vitrudent and Guardian Life

A recently published Cochrane Systematic Review found that adults may not need oral healthcare checkups every 6 months. The review determined that, while checkups are important in identifying dental issues before the problem escalates, these checkups may lead to unnecessary appointments for some patients.

The goal of the review was to determine the optimal recall interval of dental checkups in a primary care setting. The review included 2 studies with data from 1736 participants; one study was conducted in Norway and involved participants under 20 years of age who regularly attended dental appointments; the other study was conducted in the United Kingdom, and looked at adults who attended regularly scheduled appointments at a general dental practice, which was defined as having visited the dentist at least once in the past 2 years.

The Norway study compared 12-month with 24-month recall intervals and measured outcomes at 2 years. The UK study compared the effects of 6-month, 24-month, and risk-based recall intervals, and measured outcomes at 4 years. Cochrane looked at several main outcomes including caries, gingival bleeding, and oral health-related quality of life. Neither of the studies measured other potential adverse effects.

At the 2-year follow-up, the Cochrane review determined that it is unclear if there is an important distinction in caries experience when comparing the 12- and 24-month recalls. The mean difference (MD) in DMFs (decay, missing, and filled tooth surface) increment was 0.90 for the 58 participants who were 3- to 5-years old with primary teeth. For 16- to 20-year olds with permanent teeth, the MD in DMFs increment was 0.86 among the 127 participants.

The Cochrane review found high-certainty evidence from 1 trial of adults that there is little to no difference between risk-based and 6-month recall intervals with a 4-year follow-up. In this study, the number of tooth surfaces with any caries (ICDAS 1 to 6; MD 0.15, 95% CI −0.77 to 1.08; 1478 participants); proportion of sites with gingival bleeding (MD 0.78%, 95% CI −1.17% to 2.73%; 1472 participants); oral‐health‐related quality of life (MD in OHIP‐14 scores −0.35, 95% CI −1.02 to 0.32; 1551 participants). There is probably little to no difference in the prevalence of moderate extensive caries between the groups, the review found.

In the 24-month recall versus the 6-month recall with a 4-year follow-up, Cochrane found moderate-certainty, evidence that there is little difference between the 2 in 1 study of adults. And when comparing the risk-based recall with the 24-month recall with a 4-year follow-up, the review found moderate-certainty evidence from 1 trial of adults that there is probably little difference between these 2 intervals.

The review concludes that there is little to no difference between risk-based and 6-month recall intervals in the number of tooth surfaces with any caries, gingival bleeding, and oral health-related quality of life over a 4-year period. Recall strategies have little to no impact on the prevalence of moderate to extensive caries.

There is moderate- to high-certainty evidence that there is little to no difference in the number of tooth surfaces with any caries, gingival bleeding, and oral health-related quality of life over a 4-year period when comparing the 24-month interval with either the 6-month or risk-based intervals for adults.

The review did state that the available evidence on recall intervals for children and adolescents is uncertain.

Cochrane is an international non-profit organization that aims to organize medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health for medical professionals, patients, and policymakers. For more information, visit 

The Cochrane Systematic Review pulled data from 2 European studies for its review of recall intervals among adults.

New review determines 6-month checkups may not be necessary 

Digital x-ray sensors are constantly in use, moved between operatories, and in and out of patients’ mouths, providing ample opportunities for them to break

Sensor warranties often provide limited coverage when sensors are damaged during regular use, leaving practices with the expense of purchasing a brand new replacement sensor.

In 2011, Sodium Dental invented and made available to dentists the ability to have any model of sensor repaired

Sensor repair requests start with a simple form, and sensors can be sent in for free estimates

Sodium Dental repairs sensors using custom manufactured components to replace failed parts, which can actually improve the sensor’s durability

Sodium Dental offers a 70% repair success rate, and customers only pay for successful repairs

The post-repair quality control process includes capturing 18 x-rays with the sensor and reviewing the images for quality and consistency

The average repair turnaround is just 4 days

Sodium Dental follows up on all repairs to ensure ongoing success and offers ongoing unlimited warranty options

When digital intraoral sensors break and product warranties don’t cover the damage, Sodium Dental sensor repair services can get them working again.

Solve My Problem: Repair Service Reduces the Need for Digital Sensor Replacement

There is only so much that can be done while a dental patient is in the operatory. A patient’s dental health and success of treatment often rely on a home care routine and adherence to follow-up instructions.

Enforcing this remains a challenge, and making sure the patient is using the right home care products is often difficult. Some practices keep an inventory of these products to sell (or sometimes give) to patients, but this model is not a fit for every practice, either due to a lack of inventory space, reluctance to sell products from the practice, or other reasons.

In response to such issues, Colgate recently launched Colgate Professional Direct (CPD), an online resource for clinicians and patients. The service allows dental professionals to recommend Colgate products to patients. The patients are notified of the recommendation by email and text, and may purchase the product from the CPD website at a discount. The practice then collects 10% of that sales price.

“It’s super-convenient for both professionals and patients,” says Colgate Professional Direct Brand Manager Flávia Palone Aldarvis Bacarin. “Our goal was to expand and really become the No. 1 partner of professionals to recommend oral care products.”

The CPD site was created based on research Colgate conducted with dental professionals. The research identified key issues related to product recommendations, including lack of accountability from patients, the challenges of selling products from a practice, and the difficulty some patients experience in finding recommended products in a store, Bacarin says.

Every part of the new service was designed for convenience, Bacarin says. The site features simple navigation. Clinicians, including dentists, hygienists and dental assistants, may set up a free account and begin sending recommendations to patients in minutes. Practices may choose how they want to receive the sales commissions, and if the dental professional doesn’t want to receive the commission in their bank account, Colgate will direct the funds to Colgate Bright Smiles Bright Futures program, Bacarin adds.

Helping improve communication regarding product recommendations is another goal of the site. The site includes information that can help improve patient understanding of how home care products work and why they are important. Additionally, the CPD site tracks when patients purchase a recommended product through a clinician dashboard.

“Home care products are super-important as part of the patient’s treatment,” Bacarin says. “It’s very important as a complement to the professional in-office treatment. It’s proven that good oral care not only helps to avoid oral health problems, but also prevents systemic problems. This is also a good way for (professionals) to make sure the patient gets what they recommend.”

Patients have responded positively to the CPD service, Bacarin says. When they receive a recommendation, clicking through to the website automatically places the recommended product in their shopping cart with the discount applied. Bacarin says the discounts average 20%, and although anyone may access the site to browse and even to purchase products directly from Colgate, the discounts are only available through a recommendation from a dental professional.

“If a patient wants (to) go to our site, they can buy anything they want, but they will pay the full price,” Bacarin says. “The discounted price is just through the professional recommendation.”

Purchases made through the site are shipped directly to patients, which makes it even more convenient for patients to follow clinical recommendations. According to Bacarin, feedback from early adopters shows that patients like this convenience because it saves them time shopping for the products. Combined with the discounts, she says, that is a big advantage.

The site currently features most Colgate products available through direct-to-consumer sales. Bacarin says Colgate is working to make prescription-strength home care products available through the site as well.

Bacarin adds that current offerings are likely just the beginning, with Colgate listening to feedback from site users. The site allows one discounted purchase and one commission based on a recommendation, but users are asking for standing recommendations for products patients likely will need to order more than once. Bacarin says Colgate is working to allow recommendations that will not expire, which will expand patient access to discounted products and commission opportunities for the practices recommending the products.

“We are looking for feedback from early adopters to make improvements in the platform,” Bacarin says.

Dental professionals interested in recommending products via the CPD website may register at 

Colgate Professional Direct is a new online service that allows clinicians to recommend dental products to patients, who receive discounts.

Helping Dentists Connect Patients to Improved Home Care

Purchasing products and maintaining a practice’s inventory is both time consuming and complicated

With multiple vendors offering the same products at different prices, finding the best deals and maintaining optimal inventories means regularly checking with multiple sellers.

Method’s cloud-based procurement platform is specifically engineered for dental practices

Provides increased visibility of purchasing habits for better insights into practice operations

Streamlined, systemic quoting process helps practices stay competitive and, when appropriate, purchase in volume for better pricing

The interface displays pricing comparisons in real-time for informed purchasing decisions

Intuitive interface makes it simple to use, and the system can be aligned to a practice’s budget priorities to ensure spending aligns with the practice’s plans

Supports multilocation practices with formularies and standardized or individual budgets

Provides reporting on purchasing data at the supplier, manufacturer, product, and category level

Can be used to manage inventory across multiple locations with barcoding to automate processes

Uses a 3-way match system to identify billing inaccuracies

Method’s cloud-based procurement platform offers a single system to manage all aspects of purchasing products for a practice. 

Solve My Problem: Smoothing Out Inefficiencies With Dental Product and Supply Purchasing

Paul Intlekofer is President of SFP Capital, a VC firm, and CEO of MMG Fusion, LLC, a software company helping dentists manage, market and grow their practice. He holds a BA in economics from Johns Hopkins and a JD/MBA from Maryland. Paul has helped start-ups, emerging companies, and public companies create innovative products and achieve significant growth. Paul was also a founding member of an internet/technology start-up, rdental, LLC, which was ultimately acquired by WebMD, and became WebDDS. Paul started out as an attorney with Venable, LLP.

MMG Fusion has designed an online system to better market, manage, and grow dental practices. The system is designed to attract new patients, improve their experience, and facilitate daily tasks.

MMG Fusion was developed based on analysis and understanding of dentistry compared with large consumer product or retail businesses.

Motivating someone to choose one business over the competition

Making it easy for someone to decide to buy or schedule

Creating a positive experience and repeat business

Making people willing to share positive reviews

Most of a dentist’s work involves specialized clinical care, with limited time for management.

Dental office employees are not marketing experts.

Dentists cannot access resources of larger public companies.

Practices can achieve the marketing and operational success of larger companies via automated software technology with machine learning. MMG Fusion’s products are customized for the dental profession and designed to work as one system that understands the dental market, patient behavior, staff, and office workflow.

The MMG Fusion system was designed with input from dental opinion leaders, office owners, experienced executives, and software engineers. The company’s chief product officer (and lead software engineer) owns four dental offices. This allowed MMG to test and refine products in multiple locations with different dynamics to create an optimized system easy for staff to use and implement.

MMG’s Market Suite helps practices to be visible online, to be chosen from among competitors, and to easily make new patient appointments. The principles applicable to large companies with big marketing budgets also work in growing a dental practice, and now the resources to do so are available in one place. Those principles and matching MMG tools include:

Search engine optimization (SEO) and directories help a practice get noticed because 85% of patients look online for a new dentist.

MMG offers levels of websites that provide value and results for any type of practice, because it is important for a website to make a positive first impression.

MMG manages SEO and Pay-Per-Click advertising for any size practice, because digital ads using Facebook or Google AdWords are important.

MMG’s ChairFill automatically creates personalized ads and targeted marketing campaigns.

MMG’s Reputation Management makes sure a first impression is the best it can be, because positive reviews are important.

MMG’s Call Analysis/Call Conversion tool helps ensure that staff members are converting calls.

MMG’s system makes it easy to schedule an appointment online.

MMG’s Marketing Tracker allows practices to make more informed decisions, so advertising money is spent on what works.

Each component of the Market Suite builds from the next. MMG Fusion’s integrated system amplifies practice results, so 1 + 1 + 1 does not necessarily equal 3, but possibly 4 or 5.

Attracting new patients is crucial, as is keeping them and giving them a great experience. The first step in that process is the patient’s selection of a dental practice. When it comes to making this decision, 86% of potential patients read reviews before selecting a dentist.

MMG Fusion’s reputation management tool monitors 13 review sites in its dashboard and offers weekly and monthly reports for download or distribution via email. Patients automatically receive review requests via text, email, or a combination, which is based on best practices.

Practices can segment which patients receive review requests based on prior interactions and appointment type. This allows a dentist to delay sending that request until after the treatment plan is complete. The platform offers methods to improve patient response and consistently increase review quality and quantity.

MMG’s reputation management tool also collects patient feedback through customizable internal surveys. Practices can use this as a benchmarking tool and to measure net promoter score, a core key performance indicator for many clients.

If the option exists, 85% of patients would set up an appointment online. Ease and convenience of scheduling an appointment are crucial. On average, patients scheduling with the MMG Fusion tool can find and choose an opening and confirm their selection in less than 60 seconds.

Online scheduling should be available on a dental website. Through MMG, links can be generated to schedule anywhere there is a digital presence, including email, text messages, social media, or local directories. The goal is for a patient never to be more than one click from scheduling. Seventy-five percent of online appointments are booked between 5 PM and 8 AM. Without the option to schedule online, many potential patients will choose a different dentist.


Having a streamlined enrollment process for new patients creates a great experience. MMG’s Patient Portal is a paperless system that saves time with new patient registration. Patients may e-sign a consent form, complete and update their dental and health history and use online scheduling, check insurance eligibility, make payments online, and get Uber rides. Such convenience leads to patient satisfaction and retention.

MMG’s Patient Portal gets patients more involved in managing their oral health by using a personalized oral health score which puts open treatment plans front and center. The sliding scoring system makes it fun and engaging for patients and keeps them focused on coming back for treatment and increasing their score.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) and 3D imagery, patients can see completed work and what treatment plans are still open. By educating patients with visual cues and engaging them through personalized information in their Oral Health Score, patients achieve better outcomes.

MMG Fusion’s Patient Engagement tool, integrated with practice management software, allows practices to communicate with patients via email, text, or voice calls to send appointment reminder and confirmation requests.

In addition to reminders, confirmation requests, and recall messaging, this tool generates one-time campaigns offering practices the potential for enormous return on investment (ROI). Year-end benefit reminder campaigns, new service announcements, and more can be customized with the assistance of a dedicated account manager. HTML files can be uploaded to the content library, with those messages being scheduled for distribution.

Nearly every MMG client used this tool to stay connected with patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, to communicate practice status updates and to share new check-in and check-out procedures.

In today’s digital marketing environment, the ability to target and customize marketing allows businesses and offices to think in new ways. Targeted, customized marketing is used effectively by large companies. MMG’s “Grow Suite” includes ChairFill and Marketing Tracker. These give a small dental practice the capability to search for specific patients with unfinished treatment and to deliver customized emails, texts, videos, and promotions in order to optimize schedules and maximize growth.

STEP 3: Machine learning With Virtual Office Assistant, Ava

MMG’s Manage Suite was designed to help automate practices and increase productivity. It starts with Ava, a virtual office assistant. The customized MMG Unified Communication system allows for easier communication, including a patient screen pop and every conceivable phone system feature. It allows robust, intuitive collaboration among staff. A Task Management function assigns responsibilities and measures completeness.

The foundation of the MMG Unified Communications is a tool connecting the staff, allowing them to engage in conversations via text, email, or webchat to obtain and share important information and further enhance patient experience. Email and SMS messages are sent and captured from the patient’s profile page, creating an electronic paper trail, and staff can attach files and forms to send to patients to review.

Similar to an interoffice communication tool like Slack, team members can also collaborate and share internal messages on a patient’s profile, whether to ask for support or update a on a completed task. These messages are color-coded and only visible by practice team members and the hierarchy of users within the enterprise.

Using screen pops to alert users of new messages, staff can be notified within the MMG Fusion dashboard or on their desktop. The screen pops add to the efficiency of the Unified Communications platform by reducing the number of clicks needed to get to the reply, making it easy for staff to access the communication history.

With webchat enabled, messages from potential and existing patients also pop up in the dashboard and responses can be sent back from the same screen. If there aren’t any team members available to reply, Ava’s AI webchat tool requests contact information from the visitor and creates a follow up task for a member of the team. This information is populated into the patient profile allowing the team member to plan ahead.

MMG uses Ava’s AI to assume and assign office responsibilities. Ava detects outstanding tasks and tries to perform those tasks automatically. If Ava can’t, Ava creates a task for the right staff member, and then tracks the task to completion. For example, Ava can create a task for staff to call a patient to reschedule when a patient cancels an appointment and doesn’t use the online schedule tool to rebook. As tasks are assigned, they’re added to the performance reports for each staff member so ongoing training can be effectively provided, as necessary.

Ava provides dentists and their staff with all the tools needed to manage any practice, lower overhead, motivate staff, and improve patient experience. Ava works with staff, and with the practice’s other software tools, to allow dentists to focus on treatment and care. Ava helps turn the Monday morning huddle into a shorter, more productive meeting. MMG’s Market Suite, Manage (Ava) Suite and Growth Suite (ChairFill) does it all for a practice.

MMG Fusion built a system for making office growth automatic and staff more productive. 

Automating Practice Tasks Aims to Improve Productivity, Bottom Line

Last Minute Dental-Themed Halloween Costume Ideas for 2020

Like just about everything else, Halloween 2020 will be different than a normal year. If you don't have a costume picked out, but find yourself needing one, here's some last-minute costume ideas for dental professionals that seem appropriate for 2020.