Communicating Dental Technology Advancements to Your Patients

Communicating Dental Technology Advancements to Your Patients

Communicating Dental Technology Advancements to Your Patients

It is common for staff at dental offices to hear patients commenting that “You have acquired another toy!” when they see a new piece of dental technology in the office. Such comments highlight how important it is for dental practices to communicate effectively with their patients about the technological advancements which have been obtained. That communication will not only improve your bottom line but it can also lead to dental practice growth due to a better appreciation of the effort and the resources you are investing in order to provide better patient care. The following are some of the avenues your dental practice can use to communicate dental technology advancements to your patients.

Call-Waiting Messages

How many existing and possible patients call your dental office each day? Those phone calls give you a big opportunity to communicate and showcase the latest technological advancements that you have acquired.

For example, if you have just installed an IRIS HD Camera, design recorded informational messages that can be played when a caller hasn’t been put through to one of your staff at the office. That message should pique the interest of the patient in the new technology and prompt him or her to ask for additional information about that technology when he or she visits the dental practice.

In this way, you can upsell that technology and increase the rates at which patients ask for the new technology to be used when they are being attended to. Consequently, the technology will quickly pay for itself when patients welcome it after hearing the message played as they wait to talk to someone at the dental office.

Email Blasts

The contact information of all your present and past clients can be harnessed to educate those individuals about the technological advancements you have made at the dental practice.

MailChimp and Constant Contact are some of the tools that you can use to design those email blasts so that you can get the word out about the latest technology which you have installed.

Remember to avoid being salesy in those email blasts. Otherwise, the patients may send the message to the spam folder. Just make the emails educational so that the patients are left feeling that it is up to them to decide whether such technology should be used during their next dental visit or not. Chances are that more and more of the patients who get those emails will want to try out the latest tool, such as an intraoral camera, available in the dental office.

In-Office Marketing

You can also do a lot to communicate dental technology advancements to your patients within the dental office. The dental office provides the best setting for the messages to hit home since the patient will rarely be distracted by other things, such as their work.

Prepare leaflets and flyers on the salient points about the new dental technology you have acquired. The key features of the technology and how the patient stands to benefit when that technology is used can be emphasized in the leaflets and flyers. Hand these materials to the patients and ask them to scan that information as they wait to see a professional (hygienist, dentist, etc.).

Educational videos can also be shown on the screen in your waiting room. The videos can show a practical application of technological advancements, such as the latest IRIS HD Camera so that patients see how useful the technology is. For example, the video can show how a hidden defect was detected using the technology.

Use Social Media

It is a good marketing practice to know where your existing patients and those you wish to target as future patients are spending their time so that you communicate to them about the technological advancements made by your dental practice. Social media is one of the places where you can convey your messaging.

Facebook Live is one feature you can exploit to reach your target audience. You can also engage the patients using your Facebook page so that vital information about the new technology can be shared. Any concerns that patients may have can be addressed before those patients visit your office for a routine or scheduled procedure.

Now may also be the time for you to get a YouTube channel that you can use to communicate dental technology advancements to your patients. Video communicates more effectively than the written word can so harness this mode of communication for better results at your dental practice.

Don’t acquire new technology and fail to make information about that technology available to your patients. Use the suggestions above as inspiration when selecting the most cost-effective ways through which you can communicate dental technology advancements, such as the acquisition of an IRIS HD intraoral camera, to your patients so that the dental practice can grow as a result of its fast uptake of technological advancements.

Best Intraoral Camera 2018

Lum Intraoral Camera

IRIS Intraoral Camera Wins 2018 Product Award

Dental Advisor submitted the IRIS Intraoral Camera to nine dentistry consultants and asked them to subject the camera to a clinical evaluation over a period of four months. Their verdict? IRIS was given a 96 percent clinical rating overall by that team of consultants. Read on and learn about this camera and what that 2018 evaluation entailed.

Overview of the IRIS Intraoral Dental Camera

The IRIS intraoral camera is a user-friendly dental camera which has a five-point focus wheel. A dentist can use this focus wheel to determine how large or how small the area captured in the image should be. Eight positions are available for the user to hone in on the type of image to be captured, such as clear images of the arch, entire smile, the full face and so many other areas of interest.

The IRIS intraoral camera comes with a cable which is 15-feet long so that the user isn’t constrained when moving about to capture a variety of images when a patient is in the operatory.

The camera comes with two capture buttons to suit operators who are either left-handed or right-handed. This has the added benefit of easing the capture of images even when the camera is being turned around in the mouth of the patient.

Sony’s hi-resolution CCD and eight-point LED lighting makes the camera capture clear and sharp images with true colors.

The IRIS intraoral camera requires 1GB RAM, a 2.0 USB interface and at least 2.0 GHz as its computer system requirements. IRIS now makes a version for MAC computers as well. The camera is charged via the USB port on any PC.

Other Reasons why more Dentist’s Choose IRIS 

HD intraoral camera

  • High Definition 720p resolution
  • Motion activated auto On/Off
  • 8-point true white LED array
  • One-piece slim design soft tip
  • Dual capture buttons for left or right hand use
  • One-touch 5-position electronic focus for a macro to infinite viewing with OSD
  • High performance impact and chemical resistant seamless body
  • USB 3.0 connector that fits standard delivery units

 

What the Consultants Said

The Stainless Steel Wand. The consultants agreed that the sleek, stainless steel wand is ideal for a clinical setting since this material is easy to maintain at the high standards of hygiene expected in a hospital setting. The stainless steel can also stand up to the harshness of some of the cleaning products commonly used in dental offices and hospitals. This is unlike plastic wands that soon wear due to the impact of the cleaning products typically used in a dental office or hospital setting.

Camera Software. IRIS also received kudos because the software upon which it operates was found to be easy to integrate into most of the commonly used patient management systems in dental offices.

The Lens. The 90° lens makes positioning the camera to capture images easy and intuitive. The images captured will, therefore, be sharp and clear due to the natural orientation of the lens.

The Barrier Sheath. Not many cameras can work satisfactorily when a barrier sheath is in place. Some models don’t even allow a barrier sheath to be installed. The IRIS intraoral camera is one of those few dental cameras whose image quality isn’t affected even with a barrier sheath in place.

The Lighting. The LED lights were found to be more than adequate to illuminate the field as images are taken. Those lights could also be turned off as a user is capturing images that have been backlit by x-rays.

The Consultants’ Conclusions

11% of the consultants who evaluated the IRIS Intraoral Camera said that it was similar to other intraoral cameras available. However, the majority of the consultants were of the view that the IRIS intraoral camera was superior to the other products on the market. All the consultants were in agreement that they would recommend the IRIS Intraoral Camera to any dental practice which needed equipment. They also recommended that dental practices using the IRIS camera should install a cable kit in all the operatories where they expect to use the IRIS intraoral camera so that moving the camera from one operatory to another is seamless. All in all, Dental Advisor relied on the report of the consultants to award IRIS Intraoral Camera the 2018 Product Award.