Exceeding Dental Patient Expectations

A Practice of Exceeding Dental Patient Expectation

By: Timothy Anderson, DDS
This topic originally appeared on ConvergentDental.com. Dr. Anderson granted permission for igniteDDS to share with our readers.

Patient-Centered, Technology-Driven Culture

A few years ago, I did the crazy thing of starting a dental practice from scratch. Naturally, there were some hurdles and struggles, specifically doing my own hygiene for a year. It also came with a lot of benefits, one of which was having the freedom and the ability to create a unique culture around the vision and mission of my practice.

I started looking at my patients for reasons why they visit the dentist. What drives them? What do they value? We soon found out that technology allowed us to address a lot of my patients’ main concerns.

With a focus on becoming a technology-driven office, our goal was to improve the quality of care and provide a better patient experience. In my practice, we currently have almost every kind of dental technology you can think of, from 3D printers to CAD/CAM software, milling machines to an office 3D imaging cone beam. But one of the most pivotal moments for my practice was implementing the Solea All-Tissue Laser. This is the one piece of technology that has impacted my patients more than any.

Solea enables the majority of cavity preps to be performed anesthesia-free, delivering a superior patient experience. Solea also enables soft tissue procedures that are blood-free and suture-free with minimal post-op discomfort and remarkably rapid healing.

No Needle Dentistry

Solea represents my vision of providing a service patients prefer. When I started looking at why my patients were reluctant to come to see me again, a lot of that was tied to fear of the needle, fear of being numb, and having to take too much time away from work for multiple appointments. We started looking at how we could address that, and in dentistry, there really wasn’t anything that could truly remedy this fear until I was introduced to Solea.

I was sold on the concept of anesthesia-free dentistry and like many, I had a hard time getting over the fact Solea could accomplish this. I would always joke and say to myself; “You know, what if I could implement a piece of technology that allows me to do 50% of my fillings anesthetic-free? That would be beautiful. It would pay for itself!”Little did I know that Solea allows me to do way more than 50%. It actually allows me to do the majority of my cavity preps with no anesthesia needed.

More Procedures

Although my patients like the anesthetic-free treatments, the true value I see is that the Solea Laser equips me to do so many more procedures that I wasn’t doing before. When it came to soft tissue surgeries, I just wasn’t doing enough of them. But when utilizing this ground-breaking technology, it reduced the barriers for me to say no! Solea allowed me to start implementing crown lengthening, gingiva reduction, frenectomies, and more.

With multiple treatment options at my disposal, I can retain AND attract new patients while recommending procedures they would have never considered in the first place.

Exceeding Patient Expectations

The icing on the cake is that my patients are just wowed. There are very few times in dentistry where you can do a procedure like a filling and the patient sits up and is actually excited about the procedure. It’s gotten to the point where this type of positive patient feedback has become part of who we are and what we represent.

There are many times in dentistry that the opportunity to exceed patient expectations is there, but without the right tools and technology, it’s close to impossible to achieve. Solea truly reinvented how clinicians view dentistry and how patients perceive it. Once patients start communicating the features and benefits of Solea to their friends and family, it spreads like wildfire, and there’s nothing better than receiving internal referrals.

Patients value technology just as much as we value it, and there are very few things that I can recommend more highly than Solea.

Dr. Timothy Anderson, DDS

Dr. Timothy Anderson, DDS

Dr. Tim Anderson founded Missouri River Dental as a startup private practice in Bismarck, ND. After receiving his Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, he completed his general practice residency at Hennepin County Medical Center (Level 1 Trauma Center). His practice and philosophy are grounded in the belief that technology helps dentists to work smarter, have more fun, and ignite their passion for their business, all while improving the patient experience and achieving better clinical outcomes. He leverages CAD/CAM, CBCT, 3D printing, and CO2 laser technology to deliver comprehensive, quality oral health care that is patient-centered. In addition to clinical dentistry, Dr. Anderson maintains a leadership role within the dental profession and lectures on various dental technology topics around the country. He is a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) in the areas of dental lasers and 3D Printing. He invests his time and knowledge as a faculty member at 3D Dentists to help other dental professionals nationally discover what digital technology can do for their practice.