COLLABORATION
IS KEY
The bottom line is this. You must
learn to collaborate with the physicians in your community if you
are going to succeed in treating
patients who have sleep-disordered breathing. Let’s talk about
a few things to help make you
more successful.
DR. RICHARD DRAKE
Co-Founder of DS3
and Dental Sleep Solutions
I asked as one of the cardiologists
sheepishly said, “I’m sorry, but
I don’t know what AHI means. I
think you have assumed that we
know more about this than we
do.” So walk the line between
talking the talk and not patronizing someone, but understand
that you know a lot more about
this than you think you do and
you need to start acting like it.
Put yourself in front of doctors
and start talking about how you
can help patients. You’ve got to
get out of your comfort zone and
start spreading the word.
1. GET OUT OF YOUR
COMFORT ZONE:
2. WRITE MORE
LETTERS:
We lecture to thousands of dentists across the country, and it
still amazes me that dentists
think they know less than physicians. You have to remember
that physicians, outside of those
who are board certified in sleep,
get little, if any education about
sleep medicine. There is more information packed into DS3 than
most Physicians get in their lifetime about sleep. Just yesterday
I did a lunch and learn for three
cardiologists. I started my PowerPoint presentation and started
talking “The Talk.” I was getting a
bit of that deer-in-the-headlights
look. “What’s up, guys?”
Correspondence is how physicians communicate. Most dentists only write a few letters a
year, and that’s not enough to
help you succeed in dental sleep
medicine. Letter writing is hard
and it’s time consuming. DS3 has
tried to make this as automatic
as we can but it still takes time.
But it is time well spent. The best
marketing tool besides meeting
someone face-to-face is writing
letters about the mutual patients
that you share with physicians. I
just checked my performance report in DS3 and it tells me that in
the first three months of 2016 my
office produced more than 1,000
letters! Dentists ask me all the
time “How do you get so many
referrals?” Well, there is your
answer..
The best marketing tool besides meeting someone face-to-face is writing
letters about the mutual patients
that you share with physicians.
3. ENGAGE YOUR TEAM:
Many of them have their own
physicians, and most of them are
married to someone who snores.
We all have people at arm’s length
who have snoring or sleep issues.
Make dental devices for them
and for their spouses. Get them
to believe in what you do. That
all starts with you as the leader of
the team. You have to believe in
what you’re doing, and you have
to feel comfortable about the fee
that you charge. Remember that
there are hundreds of questions
asked in a dental office every single day, but very few of them are
asked directly to the dentist. The
more knowledge your staff has
the better they can answer questions about snoring and sleep
and the more patients you will
start seeing and the more devices
you will start making.
It’s really that simple.