You’re finally ready to advance your dentistry career, but where do you go from here? Do you want to start up your practice? Join an already existing practice? Join a dental clinic group and transition into your business startup. All of these questions are ones you should consider when considering dental practice management, as they’ll determine your choices from here on out. 

Caring for patients is just one small part of owning a dental practice. Dental practices are just like any other business – they require planning ahead, making financial decisions, and structuring your business in a way that benefits your patients and you. When you own a dental practice or want to start one, it requires some skill in dental practice management to truly make it successful. 

However, dental clinic management comes with so much to consider. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll help walk you through the factors that come with dental practice management and the key steps to running a successful dental practice. By the end of the article, we hope you’ll have a better understanding of the financial topics, marketing strategies, and other facets of business ownership so you can provide the best care for your patients. 

What Does the Business Side of Dentistry Require? 

When starting, most dentists don’t immediately start or run their own business. A general pattern of career building usually begins with many dentists choosing to work with established practices as associates within their specialty or relying on dental practice management companies to outsource administrative tasks. Both of these are valuable options when you’re building your career from the ground up, but if you believe that you have the skills to establish yourself as a business, then it’s important to know how dental patient management works. 

Dental practice management is a valuable skill you can take advantage of anywhere in your career. It’s a type of business management focused on keeping your patients happy with their care through organizing work systems and responsibilities that make businesses successful. Below are some key points for running a successful business practice, many of which will be discussed further in this guide: 

• A Great Patient Experience: If your patients are happy, your dental practice will reap the benefits. Your patients should have a warm, welcoming experience that encourages them to come back again and again.  
• Scheduling and Workflow: Workflows make sure that your appointments are organized, wait times for care are minimal, and help reduce the likelihood of missed appointments. 
• Financial Management: Managing bills, tracking expenses, and ensuring that your business maintains a good, steady cash flow are just some facts of financial management. 
• Marketing and Growth: Marketing your business online through social media campaigns, local outreach, and keeping up with trends such as SEO and website optimization are what help build your brand’s presence. 
• Team Building and Leadership: Dental practice management are built on teamwork, which includes managing dentists, hygienists, front desk receptionists, and other staff members. This also includes maintaining a healthy workplace culture and keeping retention rates high among staff members. 
• Technology and Equipment: Patients will build more trust with a practice if the practice has modern technology and equipment. These tools will also help with reducing costs and improving your patient’s care. 
• Law Requirements and Compliance: Dental practice management also requires good adherence to healthcare regulations, licensing legislatures in your local area, and keeping up with insurance policies. 

All of these background facets are what makes up quality patient care, and when these systems run efficiently, they are able to help create a welcoming environment for patients to receive their care. 

How To Set Up A Strong Dental Practice Foundation

Owning a dental practice presents many obstacles, but if done well, it can be worth the effort. If you’re ready to learn about dental practice management, let’s dive in! 

Focus On Patient Satisfaction For Quality Care

Dental care comes with its own stigmas, as many patients often have fears and anxieties visiting the dentist, and when there are no-shows, the cost of missed appointments can add up and affect the overall business. Patients should not only be satisfied with their treatments, but also be encouraged to continue their treatments long-term. The best way to do that is through creating a dental practice management environment that supports them. 

Giving your patients a great experience comes with practice – it’s a social skill set that every member of your practice team should embody and showcase to others. If your practice’s team members show care and compassion, then patients will be more likely to have a positive experience with your dental clinic. It all comes down to chairside manner, and some ways to improve these skills can include: 

• Relate To Your Patient: Take the time out to understand them as a person, and this can include learning about their personal relationship with dental care, why they want specific treatments, and refreshing previous small talk with them to form a good dentist-patient relationship. 
• Show Confidence: Give them facts about their dental treatments or conditions they have, and show confidence when diagnosing and recommending treatment.  
• Emotionally Lift Yourself Up: The mood you’re in will indirectly affect your patients’ care, and it’s the same for patients. In circumstances where you’re feeling burnout, finding ways to manage stress and decompress can help you keep a professional, positive attitude when treating patients. 
• Pique Their Loyalty: Provide your patients with reasons to come back beyond follow-up appointments. Praise them for their efforts, give them credit where credit is due, and make the treatment process an exciting one they can happily look forward to. 

Develop Schedules and Workflow For Efficiency

Right now, most workflows and scheduling systems are streamlined through online dental platforms. Many third-party companies today provide ways to automate many business-related aspects of managing patient data, processing payments, and keeping up with heavily demanding schedules to keep the backend of your dental practice management in smooth operation. 

While there are many resources out there that offer excellent services for improving workflows and scheduling systems, here are some dental practice management tips to look for when thinking about these services: 

• Real-Time Availability: In your chosen system, your team should be able to see available time slots in advance so they can easily communicate with upcoming patients. This also includes adding buffer time slots for missed appointments. 
• Appointment Categories: Make sure to organize your scheduling system into categories so your schedule will flow more smoothly. 
• Plan For Emergencies: In cases where you offer emergency treatments, it’s best to dedicate specific time slots for emergencies so that they don’t interfere with your patient flow. 
• Automate Reminders: No matter your chosen workflow system, automating reminders for appointments will help patients attend appointments and reschedule them when needed.

Invest In Financial Management Tools 

One problem faced with dental practice management is the overhead costs, or the costs that don’t directly relate to a business’s goods or services. Some examples of overhead costs include staffing costs, utility upkeep, equipment costs, and even insurance premiums. Financial stability can seem almost impossible, but establishing a good foundation for handling these costs is what will help your business float in the long run. 

The best way to begin financial management is by understanding your budget. Taking the time out to learn where money goes, where money is spent or saved, and how to handle influxes of demand can be a lifesaver in dire moments when finances feel impossible to manage. Some tips for managing your business finances include:

• Use Accounting Software: The best way to accommodate large influxes of money going through your practice is to track it with accounting software. Look for cloud-based software options that offer features such as invoicing, financial reporting, time tracking, and even HIPAA compliance so you have all your information in an accessible place.  
• Flexible Payment Plans: Patients experience financial struggles, too, and with how insurance claims are processed, it’s important in today’s economy to provide patients with flexible payment plans that work within their finances and budget. 
• Document Extensively: For insurance claims, research every known healthcare provider you believe you’ll be engaging with, and throughout the process, document your patient’s health history, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment in fine detail to help smooth out the claims process.
• Allocate Money Wisely: Make sure that when you’re budgeting your finances, you invest in tools that will provide long-term benefits. Some suggestions include tech developments in diagnostics, telehealth services, or selecting dental brands that have years of scientific experience behind them to help improve the overall treatment of your patients. 

Grow Your Practice With Dental Practice Management Strategies

For all your hard work, your practice will be more likely to struggle long-term if you don’t focus on marketing. Marketing is a valuable way of attracting new patients as it helps bring more attention to your brand. Today’s marketing almost entirely exists online, and through advancements in social media and analyzing internet search patterns, many dental practice management experts will likely tell you that having a strong marketing plan is the best way to keep your practice growing and help more patients find you. 

In marketing, your potential patients should have a clear idea of who you are and what services you provide and focus on building trust. Some marketing strategies we recommend include: 

• Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, uses keywords generated by thousands of searches on the internet to help business websites gain traction. When developing a marketing plan, look into SEO strategies to improve your overall appearance and online content. 
• Beautiful Website Design: Your practice’s website is your business portfolio, and today represents the best way to put your brand forward. If you have a website, make sure to optimize it to be easy to read, fast-loading, and mobile-friendly for better engagement with new patients. 
• Social Media & Content: In marketing, the content you provide helps people develop perceptions about your business. Online content, such as blog posts, social media posts, and advertisements, should be engaging and appeal to your patient’s interests. 
• Curate Patient Reviews: Today’s web searches also include patient reviews of businesses, and testimonials are often a huge determining factor in how patients make decisions about their care. For better appeal, curate any positive opinions and reviews you have from your patients to help build a trustworthy image online for your audience. 

Build Teams That Work Together

Even if you are the face of your dental practice, your team members make up a significant portion of your patient’s overall experience. In any successful dental practice management, staff members should feel happy, motivated, and even excited to work with you, and it’s important to care for your environment so that everyone has a positive work experience. Some ways to build up a strong dentist management team include: 

• Ongoing Staff Training: In these environments, staff members should be able to problem-solve and have a good chairside-manner, but also be willing to learn and grow with your practice. One way to help create good teams is by scheduling training sessions with your teams to help keep them up to date and set the tone for your standard of care. 
• Set Goals and Incentives: During your time managing your practice, one of the best dental practice management tips out there is to set achievable, quantifiable goals for you and your team. Think about incentives for your employees, merit raises, and other goals they may have to create a steady, positive reputation culture in your practice. 
• Show Appreciation: The best way to create positive experiences for your team members is by showing appreciation, and while this can be done through your goals and incentives, it can also be fun and exciting. Appreciation social media posts, work parties for celebrating milestones, and even bonuses can be provided to help your team members feel more welcomed at your practice. 
• Delegate Responsibly: If you are the head of your business, then one key facet to take in is to delegate tasks and responsibilities to those you know have the appropriate skills to do them. By delegating, you can learn about your team member’s strong points and use them more effectively moving forward. 

Stay Up-To-Date On Your Industry’s Tech Trends 

In dentistry, new technologies are developing constantly and are always changing how practices are regulated as a result. On the other hand, patients looking for treatments for specific conditions will often gravitate towards dental practices that invest in the latest treatments. Technology provides security for dental practices looking to keep up with today’s demands and, most of all, helps build trust with patients seeking care. 

If you’re trying to keep your practice up-to-date, then it’s important to consider these dental practice management tips when it comes to adding technology and equipment to your practice: 

• Follow Industry News: A great way to keep up with technology trends is by following trusted dental journals such as the JADA, Sage Journals, and ADEA. These news organizations help publish studies and provide educational resources on various topics, which can help you make decisions about what technology you want in your practice. 
• Train Your Staff: If you add a new technology to your practice’s workflow, train your staff members so that they are competent and well-versed in how the equipment works when treating patients. 
• Be Selective About Your Tech: Do not try to invest in every new development out there. Instead, focus on areas of your practice you want to improve on, such as diagnostics, cosmetic dental treatment, or composite material options and do your research before purchasing. 
• Consider Brand Partnerships: Many reliable dental brands such as 3M, Darby Dental Supply, and Henry Schien will have multitudes of products and tech equipment that you can take advantage of. You can also consider partnering with these brand names for better access to resources and networking opportunities. 

Be Diligent With Compliance and Law

In managing a dental practice, the industry has strict regulations in place to help practices operate legally and safely. Beyond State dental boards for licensing, many regulations such as the Dental Practice Act, OSHA, HIPAA, and the CDC will have standards and procedures outlined that need to be followed. For startup dental practices, it’s important to know these laws ahead of time to prevent legal troubles that can lead to the loss of your practice. 

While working to follow the legal guidelines of your industry’s standards, here are some tips that can help make following through on compliance easier: 

• Conduct Periodic Audits: When assessing your finances and budget, use your time to perform a periodic audit on your records. You can use this audit to assess where you meet compliance with specific legislations and conduct these audits regularly to prevent issues early on. 
• Keep Accurate Records: Keep all of your patient records accurate, especially as these are required for HIPAA compliance. These records, especially when managed online, can help make sure that their data is private and secure.
• Attend Education Conferences: One way to keep up with regulation changes is by attending conferences held by organizations such as the ADA. These organizations regularly host conferences and training sessions for dentists to help educate and provide resources so they can keep up with compliance. 
• Hire a Compliance Expert: If you find yourself struggling, you can hire a compliance expert. These experts can help review policies and activities within your practice and act as advisors in managing compliance. 

Create A Successful Online Marketing Strategy With Optimized360

At Optimized360, we handle the marketing side of dental practice management and work to make caring for your business easier for you. Our teams specialize in optimizing and designing dental websites, curating content with SEO strategies, and tracking metrics so you can grow your business to new heights.  If you want to gain the most out of your business’s marketing strategy, we’re here to help. Contact Optimized360 today for expert healthcare SEO strategies that show successful results!