Dental Sleep Medicine Insider December 2016 | Page 19

DR. RICHARD DRAKE

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Last week I listened to a lecture
from a PhD in Communications
about the unintended consequences of connectivity:   internet, smartphones, tablets, Facebook, Twitter, etc.   Honestly,
what she said scared me a little.  Just a few stats for your Saturday morning coffee:

Unintended Consequences of
Treating Snoring and Sleep
Apnea in your practice:

One hundred college kids were
asked to “unplug” themselves
for 24 hours: 72% could NOT do
it.   Not for a single day. “Why
would you even sign up for social
suicide like that?” a friend asked a
participant.  

• Facilitating sleep testing for
your patients creates goodwill,
better relationships, and builds
trust

Cyber bullying resulting in teen
suicides.   High school teachers
bemoan trying to teach in a class
where half are phubbing (you
might have to look that one up).
Teens spending the equivalent of
a full work day on social media
platforms every day. These are
all negative unintended consequences.
Let’s switch gears, now that I’ve
got your blood moving a little
(social media effects is a hotly
debated topic that few agree on)
and talk about the unintended
consequences of treating snoring sleep apnea patients in your
practice.

• Screening for sleep disordered
breathing creates an atmosphere
that you care more about your
patients’ lives than you do their
teeth

• Goodwill, better relationships,
and trust, simply means that your
patients are more likely to get the
work that you recommend done
• Patients who snore less create
happy bed partners.   If that bed
partner is a patient of yours, she
likes you more. In fact, you may
be her new superhero
• Treated patients who snore
less and sleep better talk to their
neighbors, their friends, fellow
church members, to their doctors.  This leads to more new patients, and the doctor part leads
not only to a new referral source
for sleep patients but patients in
general.  

DR. RICHARD DRAKE

Co-Founder of DS3
and Dental Sleep Solutions
I never said that creating a successful dental sleep medicine
practice was easy.  It takes work,
but what most of you don’t realize is that a successful DSM arm
of your practice makes the rest
of your practice more successful,
too.   
Doing the right thing and for the
right reasons is seldom the easiest thing to do, nor the path of
least resistance. But it remains
the right thing to do.
Screen. Test. Treat. Bill.  
Saving lives, one dental device at
a time!   I’ll bet your coffee is still
warm.

Doing the right thing and for the right reasons is seldom the easiest thing
to do, nor the path of least resistance, but it remains the right thing to do.