Using Your Competitive Drive Productively

Medical professionals are often driven by a competitive urge to succeed. It takes a lot of motivation to make it through dental education and to build a successful practice. Tapping into your innate competitiveness can help you continue to grow your dental practice.

It’s essential to focus your competitiveness in productive ways. If you don’t, you can find yourself facing excessive pressure and eventual burnout. These paths can provide the proper focus to make the most of your competitive edge in healthy ways.

1. Continue to expand your treatment options.

You don’t want to be unable to provide care when a patient comes into your general or pediatric practice with more complex or specific dental issues than what you usually treat. There are always cases that call for referral to a specialist, but expanding your treatment options lets you handle more cases yourself.

You can grow your dental practice and make it more competitive by taking advantage of continuing education in various specializations. Acquiring the skills and experience to handle different types of orthodontic, cosmetic, and restorative treatments makes for a more resilient practice with a wider patient base.

Orthodontics, in particular, is an area where continuing education lets general and pediatric dentists expand their practices. With the right hands-on orthodontic courses, you can develop the practical skills and technical knowledge you need to treat most cases that come through your door.

You can develop the skills needed to provide straight wire treatment, which encompasses the majority of orthodontic cases. Further education can help you develop your ability to offer early orthodontic treatment and advanced procedures for complex issues.

2. Strengthen your team.

One of the best ways to grow your dental practice is to develop your team. You don’t run your practice alone but instead rely on assistants and dental hygienists to provide care and manage everyday operations.

Investing in their skills and development helps make your practice more competitive. Hands-on orthodontic courses are available to provide your team members with the practical and administrative skills necessary to support your practice’s orthodontic treatment options.

Ensuring that your team has that foundation lets you provide better care for your patients. Efficiency within your team maximizes the impact of your new treatment options.

Professional development also helps improve morale. Your team members will appreciate your practice investing in their career development, and they are more likely to stay with your team when they feel that you value their sense of progress and fulfillment.

Continuing education is an important area of focus when developing your team, but it’s not the only one. When hiring your next team member, take the time to carefully evaluate how they fit into your practice’s culture. Having the right fit from the start lets you build a strong team that will help grow your dental practice.

3. Let patients know why they should choose your practice.

Taking advantage of hands-on orthodontic courses and other continuing education opportunities to expand your treatment options is an important step in growing your practice. However, it won’t do much good if you don’t market those options.

You need existing and potential patients to know about your treatment options and ensure they recognize your practice’s advantages from the competition. Implementing effective marketing is vital to growing your dental practice.

First, make sure that existing patients know about your treatment options. Place literature in your office and tell patients when they come in for routine visits that those options are available.

Make the most of your website, social media accounts, and other platforms to spread the word about your treatment options. When choosing a practice to handle their family’s needs, patients will value the comprehensive care that you can offer.

Feature your orthodontic treatment options prominently on your website. They should have content, just like you would publish for any other treatment, detailing what you offer and what patients can expect.

Make sure that your Google Business Profile reflects your new treatment options. You can also ask patients to whom you’ve provided orthodontic treatment to leave online reviews detailing their experiences and results. That will help spread the word and attract new patients.

Bonus: Distinguish your practice with orthodontic treatment.

One of the best ways to make your practice more competitive is to offer orthodontic treatment options. Patients love having access to comprehensive care under one roof. More treatment options make your practice attractive to both existing and new patients.

Hands-on orthodontic courses from the American Orthodontic Society can prepare you and your team to offer orthodontic treatment. See our available courses to find the perfect opportunities to hone your practice’s competitive edge.