The latest news in dentistry free of charge.

There are many challenges facing the modern dentist today. It does not really matter if you are a dentist just beginning your career or a senior practitioner with a network of clinics. These challenges all boil down to a few simple commonalities: we all have to keep our patients happy, and we all have to keep them coming back.

The acquisition of new patients is just as important as keeping them loyal to you. Considering the growing number of dentists and aggressive marketing, it is becoming critical to look beyond your CV and skill set and provide a great service to patients, who are also smart consumers.

If you were the only person in your neighbourhood serving coffee, then you could get away with terrible service, but nowadays, every business offers coffee, above and beyond your local coffee shop. I can get a decent latte when buying sneakers. Therefore, all of the amenities and additional products or services associated with the coffee, such as free Wi-Fi or very comfortable sofas, will also attract clients. If you create a comfortable environment and experience for your patients, it is absolutely certain that they will come back.

As the co-founder of Slow Dentistry, a non-profit foundation based in Switzerland whose four cornerstones focus on patient safety and comfort—room disinfection, informed consent, proper anaesthesia, and dental dams—I have been acutely aware of products that can improve and enhance the patient experience and make life easier for the dentist as well.

Fig. 2: The Happynecks headrest offers complete comfort and relaxation during treatment. (Image: Nurcan Yilmaz-Vukkink)

Behind the Slow Dentistry movement is the simple fact that time is often overlooked when communicating treatment. Most clinics will explain in detail the procedure and the costs but not the length of the treatment. If time is money, then what better way to cut costs than by having faster appointments? For example, consider a dental hygiene appointment that costs US$100 (€95) at Clinic A and US$30 at Clinic B. At face value, they look exactly the same, but in fact, Clinic A takes 1 hour to do the hygiene, whereas Clinic B only takes 20 minutes. This demonstrates the core motivation behind the Slow Dentistry movement: overall quality. You could even argue that slowing down and seeing fewer patients in a day improves the mental health of the dental team and creates a good mood for everyone, as the time between patients is much longer and there is much less stress in the day-to-day activities. It could be argued that you make less money at the end of the day, but I think that we should leave that up to the business managers and practice owners, and as dentists who have at the core the Hippocratic oath of do no harm. We owe it to our patients to always do the right thing and take the appropriate amount of time to provide care. A few years ago, I created the following formula: EXPERIENCE + MATERIALS + TIME = SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT.

It is easy to understand that a young dentist with less experience should add more time to his or her treatments to have an optimal outcome. A dentist who is working without the appropriate materials should also have either more experience or more time. If you have a great deal of experience and the best materials in the world, then you do not need as much time to achieve an optimal outcome.

With that said, about a year ago, Happynecks, a very cool company set up by Peter van Dijk and Jerry Jansen, came up with one simple proposition: to help start every single treatment with a smile. Peter and Jerry are not dentists. They have a background in marketing and physiotherapy, respectively. They realised that there was a missing link in patient comfort that had everything to do with the ergonomics of neck positioning and thus developed the Happynecks headrest. The Happynecks headrest then compensates for all the different positions. The unique shape supports the connection of the neck and upper back and thus offers maximum comfort and stability (Fig. 1). This improves the patient’s positioning and well-being instantly, leaving the patient more comfortable and relaxed during longer, horizontal treatments (Fig. 2). Make sure to position the chair’s headrest as flat as possible with the backrest.

The Happynecks products are handmade sustainably in the Netherlands from the best-quality materials. The products have been embraced by the dental community and are sold in over 40 countries. Key opinion leaders have expressed their appreciation for the product, and they use it in their day-to-day practice.

In the current environment and after more than two years of a pandemic, dentistry has become more challenging than ever, there is so much stress we have to deal with every day, and for our patients as well, coming to the dentist can be even more stressful than before the pandemic. Therefore, it was an amazing time in history for such a simple, affordable product to lighten up our treatment rooms.

Happynecks was immediately adopted by my entire team, and none of us can imagine life without it. Every single patient actually does say that treatment is much more comfortable now than before. That is what it is all about: making dentistry something positive for all.

Moreover, Happynecks has become a sponsor of the Slow Dentistry global network. The company is supporting our foundation by helping us bring on board clinicians who use its headrest, and for that reason, I think it is important that every single clinic in the world has one of these headrests, to improve their patient experience and to make sure that every single treatment starts with a smile.

If you consider how much most clinics spend on digital marketing, then this is a no-brainer, being very low cost and generating an immediate wow factor—the best marketing you can get! This is something that will be useful for a very long time and for a fraction of the cost.

I have always said that what keeps patients coming back is their experience, not just their treatment! What will you do today to improve dentistry for yourself, your team and your patients to make sure that every single treatment starts with a smile?

More information can be found at www.happynecks.com.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Born in Lebanon, Prof. Nadim Z. Baba moved to Canada and completed a DMD at the University of Montreal. He received his certificate in advanced graduate ...

GOTHENBURG, Sweden: Though its causes can be unclear and multiform, the effects of dental anxiety in patients are well understood. As it increases, patients...

Too often, dental students have to rely on textbook examples or only receive limited practical training when it comes to improving their oral hygiene ...

Dental professionals should be empowered to instruct and motivate their patients to maintain proper oral hygiene. ITOP, short for individually trained oral ...

COLOGNE, Germany: The 38th International Dental Show (IDS) will take place from 12 to 16 March 2019 in Cologne. As the top event for the dental industry ...

The recent ADA FDI World Dental Congress 2019, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from Sept. 4–8, saw the conclusion of Dr. Kathryn Kell’s ...

COLOGNE, Germany: Your practice revolves around your dental chair, with every patient sitting there whether for a check-up or an implant. If your dental ...

Since Dr. Thomas F. Schneider Jr. grew up in a family of dentists, dentistry is to him like a family business, in which each member of the family passes ...

LEIPZIG, Germany: Breaking through the barrier between dentistry and medicine could be a crucial step towards better all-round health. Since the practice of...

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands: As a result of the digitalisation of our everyday lives, telemedicine is becoming an increasingly more interesting topic for both ...

LOWELL, Mass., U.S.: Crushed or pulverized eggshells have many practical uses. They can be used as a natural calcium supplement, a coffee sweetener, a ...

GOTHENBURG, Sweden: Osstell, the global leader in dental implant stability measurement and osseointegration progress monitoring, has announced that it ...

OPORTO, Portugal: Align Technology has announced a new collaboration with the European Aligner Society (EAS) at the society’s summer meeting that is ...

KOBLACH, Austria: Amann Girrbach has expanded its Ceramill Full Denture System (FDS) to include the validated Ivotion materials from Ivoclar and has ...

© 2022 - All rights reserved - Dental Tribune International