Do you feel like your practice is doing ok, but that you are stuck at a level you know you could do better than?
Or is your team constantly feeling overworked and exhausted but you aren’t sure what position you need to hire for?
Do you feel if you could just lighten the load of work for yourself or one of your employees then you could spend more time on marketing and growing the practice?
When running a dental practice it is hard to know what exactly your hiring needs are. This post gives you a quick breakdown of all the positions in a dental practice and what they could do to make your practice thrive.
These questions are designed to find out what position you need to hire. Enjoy!
Does your back office team struggle to keep up with the basic house cleaning duties like flipping rooms and sterilizing because they are too busy assisting you?
Hire a sterilization tech!
This is usually a dental assistant right out of school or someone looking to break into dentistry but hasn’t completed a program to get all their certifications.
This person is there to sterilize, flip and prepare treatment rooms and assist the hygienists if needed.
Do you feel like you are diagnosing a lot of treatment but your acceptance rate is low?
Hire a Treatment Coordinator!
The right treatment coordinator can do wonders for your production. They are usually outgoing individuals who can quickly connect with your patients, get them to understand why they need treatment and don’t fear discussions about money.
This person is there to accurately estimate costs, explain, and get your patients to accept and schedule treatment.
Does your hygienist have a lot of holes in their schedule? Or have you cut back on a hygiene day due to people not scheduling cleanings?
Hire a Hygiene Coordinator!
This person is responsible for keeping your hygiene columns full. They do this by making recare calls, scheduling everyone accordingly upon check out and confirming all appointments early and often.
This person should also act as your dental receptionist which would include checking-in and checking-out patients.
Do you feel like you are too busy and struggling to keep up with production? But not busy enough to bring on an Associate Dentist?
Hire a Registered Dental Assistant Expanded Functions 2 (RDAEF2).
RDAEF2’s can perform:
- Patient assessment (Preliminary exam)
- Cord retraction
- Size and fit Gutta Percha (place & cement)
- Take secondary impressions for all permanent indirect restorations (including inlays/onlays)
- Take final impressions for “partial” dentures
- Polish and contour existing amalgam restorations
- Place, contour, finish and adjust all permanent fillings
- Adjust and cement all permanent indirect restorations including crowns, bridges, & veneers
Meaning you can give them their own column and take a lot off of your plate.
Do you feel like you are referring out a lot of work to one specific specialty, like an Endodontist or Periodontist?
Hire a Specialist!
Hire a specialist to come in once a month or every other week to treat your patients and keep that production in house!
Do you feel like your front office staff is having a hard time prioritizing their work? Are you stepping in more than you should need to or taking on a lot of the front office duties yourself?
Then it is time to hire an office manager (or get a new one).
Office managers are the dentist’s right hand and the really good ones make it so all the dentist has to worry about is practicing dentistry.
Office managers should manage your schedule, handle all personnel issues, make sure collections are kept recent and jumping in anytime something in the practice needs to be handled.
Feel like your practice is just stuck in a rut? Not sure how to bring in new patients, or to maximize your current process to increase production and collections?
Hire a consultant!
Bringing a consultant into your practice to help roll out new initiatives is a great way to shake things up. They come with the skills and know-how to review your current processes and then work closely with you and your team to improve them.
Is it getting close to the end of the year and suddenly all your patients are trying to get in for their cleanings and treatment?
Hire a dental temp!
You can hire temporary dental assistants, hygienists, front office staff and even temp dentists to come in and make sure all your procrastinating patients’ needs are taken care of. You only pay your temps for the time they work in your practice, and when the temp job is complete they part willingly.
We hope this post helps you with what you might need for your hiring needs. You can search for and find qualified dental professionals for all of the dental positions and more on DirectDental.com. Our new search process is now easier than ever!
