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CAD/CAM - international magazine of digital dentistry

24 I I practice management _ world wide web alargefactor.Manyindividualsstayedwithahealth- care professional for their entire lives and that was the end of it. Once again, the Internet has played a part in upsetting the status quo and changing the way that people view healthcare. Websites like WebMD.com and the online directories of health- care professionals in different areas have opened up the possibility of competition where one did not exist before. Dentists and other health-care pro- fessionals are starting to have to change the way that they do things in order to compete in this new marketplace. One of the most important things that dentists do in their practice is selling. Now, this is not the way things have been done in the past. Many dentists still operate under the belief that patients come to them for health care, not to be sold to. However, let’s look at some of a dentist’s vocabulary in sales terms and see what happens: _diagnosis: which product will work best for the patient _caseoptions: pitching _caseacceptance: making the sale _treatment: delivery of product. Are you still as convinced that sales do not exist inthedentalindustry?TheInternetisresponsiblefor ahugenumberofchangesinthedentalindustryand as a result health-care professionals are constantly having to be innovative in order to survive in a more competitive and dynamic workplace. I stumbled across this cool article recently that talks about innovation in the workplace, a fascinat- ing read and very applicable to the dental industry! This is one area where dentists are currently lacking. It is so easy to fall into a set routine and not think aboutnewordifferentwaystodothings.Imean,why bother? Your practice is making money. Why do you need to be innovative? Emily Ford, The Sunday Times, recently wrote an article on that very topic. Innovation is a huge new part of the dynamic connected world. People are constantly collaborating to come up with more and more innovative solutions to problems and it is important to keep up with this changing environ- ment. Ford suggested a few tips for innovating at work, which have been given a dental twist to make them especially applicable to your practice. Makeinnovationapriority Always look for new ways you can do things, new products you can use and new ways of interacting with your staff and patients. Not only will it make your days new and exciting, it will benefit your prac- tice in the long run too! Takerisksandembracefailure Ifyoubuyanewinstrumentanditdoesnotwork, what did you lose? A little bit of time and money? What would have happened if it worked? You may have saved a ton of time, made the quality of treat- ment increase and made a patient’s ordeal less painful.Doyouthinkthatitisworthit?Idefinitelydo! By embracing failure, you can learn new things quickly, learn what works and what does not in your practice,andultimatelyhelpyourpracticetosucceed with the increased knowledge that you will have. CAD/CAM 3_2011