Sandy Pardue, Consultant/Classic Practice Resources
Sandy Pardue, Consultant/Classic Practice Resources
Management and Organizational solutions for dental practices.
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Sandy Pardue
Sandy Pardue

Consultant Tip: How to Increase Hygiene Production

4/26/2015 3:05:12 PM   |   Comments: 0   |   Views: 1871
There are many things a hygienist can do to increase personal production.

I highly recommend that you generate and print a report from your software showing the procedures and production by individual code. Do this for each hygiene provider in the practice.

Look at the procedure counts for the following:

1) Adult Fluoride
2) Desensitizing
3) Sealants
4) Night Guard Impressions
5) Bleaching Impressions
6) Panorex
7) Compare the percentage of 1110 codes to 4910 and 4341 and 4342 codes. 

The results of this report may surprise you. It is always interesting to see where you are now so that once you implement a few changes you can see your progress. 

Take a look at the scheduling of hygiene patients and make sure there is no wasted time. I always recommend that the hygienist be the one to determine the amount of time needed for individual patients because it will vary depending on the patient. Make sure some patients aren't scheduled for more time than needed. Implement a solid recall system in the practice and verify that patients aren't falling in the cracks. As you know, broken appointments are a production killer, so work on controlling them better. For every open unit of time the provider is temporarily unemployed.

Many adults can benefit from fluoride, yet we don't see it used as much as it should because many insurance plans do not cover it. Practices get in the mind set that if insurance doesn't cover it, they shouldn't offer it. That should not be case if it is the best thing for the patient. Depending on the plan it could run the patient as little as $20 and as much as $40 and this does vary. When you think about protecting the investment many have made in their mouth, that is not much to pay when you look at the benefits. We know it reduces sensitivity and decay and it prolongs the life of crowns and other restorations. Change YOUR mindset and start promoting adult fluoride. 

Another added value for patients is sealants. Learn how often you are doing them for patients. Get some visual aids to show them and educate them on the benefits.

Take pictures and create a photo album for patients. Utilize a photo release form. When someone presents with perio, take out the camera and take pictures and when they return for their SRP's, take more photos. This is very helpful when telling future perio patients they need scaling and root planing. Show them the photos. 

The hygienist has many opportunities to promote services and many times the patients express interest and concerns. Make it a standard procedure to communicate all of these things discussed with the patient to the doctor in front of the patient. Promote services and "plant seeds" before the doctor comes in for the exam.

I have more resources and tools that are available at no charge for Townies.

You can download them Free Townie Resources HERE










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