Page 8 - CEREC Q3|2013

6 | cerecdoctors.com | quarter 4 | 2013
CERECbecause themost important thing
you can do as a team is tell a “better-value”
story to patients. And CEREC has a huge
potential to help you do just that — it is
designed to help you overcome limits.
And that brings us to themost common
— and important — limiting factor every
dental practice faces: the patients.
Creating Momentum
for Patient Acceptance
It would be great if every patient came
to you eager to hear your diagnosis and
open to accepting whatever your recom-
mendations are. But, the reality is that
patients come with their own limits. As
soon as you identify a concern, they can
find themselves outside of their comfort
zone — they start thinking about costs,
pain, discomfort and inconvenience.
The walls go up almost as soon as the
words leave your mouth. Evenwhen you
domanage to get them to accept the idea
of the treatment you are suggesting, it
doesn’t take long for the realities to sink
in: return visits, more time off work, etc.
That’s when the doubts begin to creep
in. That’s why so many “yeses” can turn
into “I’ll think about it” in the time it
takes the patient to walk from the opera-
tory to the front desk.
It makes sense, then, that to help
patients get past those mindsets and
limits, you need to maximize every
advantage you have. And CEREC comes
with a range of advantages that are
designed to overcome themost persistent
roadblocks. The simple fact is, if you are a
CEREC owner and you are not exploring
the far reaches of what this technology
can do, you are robbing yourself, your
team and your patients of an opportunity
to discover new levels of dental care.
Often, dentists can be so set in the
traditional appointment-driven aspect
of running a practice that they miss the
CEREC opportunities that pop up every
day. What if you tell that hygiene patient
you are checking on that the issue you
have identified can be treated right now,
with no return visit necessary? There
is the emergency patient that you can
turn into a clinical appointment on the
spot. Or a new patient with foundational
issues you can get started on right away
to get the momentum going. Sure, it will
require that you become more nimble in
your scheduling, but there are strategies
for that, and the result is you develop
a reputation as a progressive dentist
who is able to respond to the fast-paced
needs of today’s consumer.
Progress in a dental practice starts
with your mindset, with embracing the
next thing that is right for you. Then
your teamhas to buy into that vision and
embrace what is right for them. It is only
when that happens that you will be able
to create an environment with enough
momentum to help patients embrace
what is right for them.
Ask yourself: where are your limits
now? Where do you feel resistance? Is it
with yourself and your skills? Your team?
Your patients? Whatever it is, if it makes
youuncomfortable, that is a sure signof an
area where you need to focus your ener-
gies and make changes. And when you
have CEREC in your arsenal, you have
more possibilities than most dentists to
create significant change quite quickly.
The 5% Solution
So, what will it take to get to this point
where you are continually poised to do
new, exciting things? The answer is:
more than what most dentists do, but
less than you would think.
Most dentists spend about $900 a
year on continuing education, and they
complete their obligations in the most
convenient way possible, dropping into
state dental meetings and picking up
credits here and there. But if you are really
determined to expand your abilities in a
systematic way — especially when you
have a resource as powerful as CEREC
— you can’t expect to accomplish all your
goals over the course of one weekend.
To go back to our original proposition,
what if you spent 95 percent of your
time focused on what you are great at?
That would still leave youwith 5 percent
of your time to devote to what you can
be great at. That’s about 10 days a year.
(Of course, many high-level dentists
do more than that, and it may well take
more of a time commitment at first to get
to the point where ten days is enough.
But every dentist should target at least
ten days a year to focused professional
improvement.)
These are the days that will get you to
the next level. This is how you get the
most out of this technology that you have
invested so much in. Ten days a year can
change the kind of dentist you are.
The same goes for your team. What
if you spend 5 percent of each week —
about an hour or two — specifically on
challenging them to venture outside
their comfort zone and find the next
level? If you make it a regular feature
of life in the practice to learn and
grow together, the prospect of change
becomes much less intimidating. In
other words, they become comfortable
with the idea of feeling uncomfortable
for a while when learning new things.
Then they become exhilarated as they
are always seeing new possibilities that
present themselves every day. This kind
of commitment to ongoing team growth
is what sets great practices apart. That’s
why I am working right now on devel-
oping a series of videos for our Digital
Suite: team-centered lessons that are
specifically designed to be ideal for a
brief “lunch-and-learn” session.
By becoming a CEREC user you have
already embraced change at a higher
level than most dentists. You have taken
the plunge. But, nobody really learns to
swim by staying near shore. And as a
recreational SCUBA diver, I can tell you:
Things really get interesting when you
start to explore the deep water.
| | | m a n j i