Dental Practice Made Simple: Complete diagnosis

Dental Practice Made Simple is a video series from DrBicuspid.com and Levin Group. Tune in every Wednesday for a quick tip from Dr. Roger P. Levin to learn how to build high-powered, proven systems that lead to practice success.

You can't do more production if you're not fully diagnosing a patient, Levin said in the latest episode of Dental Practice Made Simple. To reach your daily production goal, he advised doing a complete diagnosis of everything a patient may need.

"We dentists have said for years, 'Let's watch that,' " he noted. "What exactly are we watching? I've never seen a tooth heal itself."

Levin recommends letting patients know everything about the status of their mouth and treatments they may need, whether that's fillings, periodontal treatment, or even whitening or implants. The focus should be on education, rather than getting to a "yes."

"Educate patients," Levin said. "Don't worry about whether they say yes or no."

One of the best places to start is with periodontal disease diagnosis, he said. That's because studies have shown periodontal disease is the most common untreated condition in regular dental patients.

"Periodontal disease often doesn't hurt," Levin said. "The patient isn't asking you about it, which makes it harder to convince them that they should go through all this treatment."

Watch the video below to learn more about performing a complete diagnosis.

Dr. Roger P. Levin is CEO of Levin Group, a leading practice management and marketing consulting firm. To contact him or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit LevinGroup.com or email [email protected].

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