17 Daily Habits of The Most Successful Dentists – Dental Practice Management
You can spend years and invest millions to be a successful dentist, but that cannot guarantee you a successful career as a dentist. What really matters are the habits that you have in your day to day dental practice.
We are discussing 17 daily habits of successful dentists. Going forward to next 4 points.
5. Do not have the thinking to be a quick millionaire
Every dentist in this world wants to be rich. Money is a great motivator. That makes the dentist stay updated and constantly improve their dental practice to provide better services to the patients.
But this is also very essential that the dentist does not get wrapped up in this notion of getting rich as fast as possible. That creates a huge amount of pressure which sooner or latter will end up affecting your performance as a dentist.
Dr. Douglas Carlsen has said in his study in DentalTown – “Track your spending, at least for your weak areas. Think “frugal” for the first few years out of school and don’t buy the huge house until you have all your other personal and practice debt paid off.”
The key point is to think frugal & control the expenditure. Keep a very close watch on the finances of your dental clinic and personal expenditures. Spend within your limits. You have to understand this is essential for putting a strong financial foundation for your dental practice for the future.
6. Always be alert for Medical Emergencies in your Dental Practice
It does not happen every day in your dental practice. But that does not mean you should not be prepared for it. In a dental practice, you are dealing with invasive procedures like extraction, periodontal surgeries etc.
Dr. Vinita Sishodia says in her post: Be ready to manage any medical emergency, always, while you are in the clinic. Every morning before starting, check your emergency tray.
So always be alert. Do proper investigation to know about any past medical or dental history. Be careful in cases where the patient underlying medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension etc. Keep all the emergency kit tools ready.
7. Have an Entrepreneurial Mindset
Owning and managing a dental practice is similar to managing an enterprise. So, a dentist needs to have an entrepreneurial thinking. What makes an entrepreneurial thinking?
What makes an entrepreneurial thinking for a dentist?
Source: Emerald
- A dentist is the CEO of his/her dental practice and must have a control on all the aspects of the dental practice.
- A close watch on the financial aspects (expenditure and revenue) of your dental practice.
- Always on the look out for creating more opportunities for your dental practice.
- The aptitude to build a great team. An efficient team can make any dental practice a great success with time.
- Being friendly to everyone working at your dental practice.
- Having a mindset to provide the best possible service to your patients. A good customer service is a pillar for every successful enterprise. This is true for a dental practice too.
- Always eager to learn and apply newer trends in the dental practice.
Dr. Bill Dorfman, owner of million dollars Discuss Dental & one of the most successful and celebrity dentists in the USA says in an interview with DentistryIQ: Number One: Never stop learning. Dentistry is not static. It’s always moving. It’s always changing. They need to continue to learn and grow as dentistry grows.
Number Three: Don’t wait for opportunities. Create them. If you are just waiting around and waiting for people to knock on your door, you’re gonna go broke. You need to create opportunities and when you get those opportunities, you need to really take advantage of them.
8. Build patience, be a listener and have a caring persona
As a dentist you are going to deal with real persons and each person/patient that you interact with will have a different personality. Different types patient personalities you will come across:
- Anxious & Nervous patients
- Over excited patients.
- Over expecting patients.
- Children and over-worried parents.
- Senior people expecting extra care.
But one point will be common in every type of patient: All will be expecting a dentist to be caring and most importantly to listen to him/her.
So, as a dentist do not get impatient. Do not appear to be in a hurry so that you can start working on the next patient. Do not interrupt the patient when he/she is explaining the dental problem for the first time.
Never lose your cool and appear condescending to the patient.
Listen and then respond with caring & assuring words.
Dr. John Fenn, a very experienced dentist from Australia, states these facts very beautifully in Quora: I think if you want to be a successful clinician it would help if you actually cared about people. If you care mainly about the money, your patients will know that and stay away. If you can balance both of those attributes you can be a successful Dentist and a successful person.
