Your dental practice doesn’t depend just on the services you provide. Your entire team plays a significant role in how your patients see your business, in the quality of care you’re able to offer, and in whether patient retention issues arise.
Knowing how to grow a dental practice team is just as important as understanding how to expand your patient base, and one strategy to consider is encouraging additional training for your staff. You can unlock dental practice growth with one specific type of training: orthodontic assistant training.
Here are five ways this training can transform your business, helping it run more efficiently than ever before.
1. Increases Clinical Efficiency
When team members take orthodontic training courses, they are better able to perform a variety of additional tasks. Instead of having to do these tasks on your own, you’ll have more time to take on new cases, focus on diagnostics and complex treatments, and even work fewer hours without your business suffering revenue loss.
All of this makes a difference in patient satisfaction, too. If patients are content with the level and speed of care you provide, they are more likely to return for future treatments and recommend your practice to others.
2. Expands Your Service Capacity
Orthodontic assistant training transforms your team into one that can handle the added challenges of orthodontic services. Offering orthodontic services to patients is one of the best ways of growing your practice, but it is not a feasible option if you don’t have a team that can take on the added responsibilities of this type of care.
Orthodontic assistant courses prepare your team to tackle these new care options so that you don’t have to extend your work hours. They will be better able to undertake many of the chairside tasks you would otherwise have to find time for.
3. Improves Patient Experience
Having experienced and confident assistants means patients can receive faster care that doesn’t compromise on quality. Instead of having appointments where they need to wait or where they notice significant confusion among team members, patients will see and experience competent care.Â
Additionally, patient education is always important, especially when providing complex orthodontic services that could require months of treatment. Trained team members can offer clear information that allows patients to make informed decisions about their care.
Without trained assistants, providing this education would be up to you, adding to your workload. The more informed and confident patients are during their appointments, the more at ease and in control they will feel during and after receiving treatments.
4. Promotes Team Confidence and Retention
Offering orthodontics education to your staff shows that you’re investing in your team. Your employees will feel like their work is important and that the practice would not run as well as it does without them. This is important for retaining your staff.
Staff retention issues affect all healthcare providers because there is always the risk of burnout. That’s more likely to happen if employees don’t feel like they matter. You can show them just how important what they do is by encouraging further training.
Higher job satisfaction inherently translates into lower turnover. That saves you time as well as a significant amount of money. It also offers better results for your patients because you’re not having to spend time recruiting and training new staff every few months. Treatment delays can be kept to a minimum.
5. Drives Practice Revenue Worth
The more efficient the services you offer are, the less time you’ll lose with patients. You can harness that efficiency and see more patients every day. Being able to increase the number of people you can schedule in a time block can result in higher revenue for your practice.
Having trained orthodontic assistants also allows you to treat cases in-house that you would otherwise have to refer elsewhere. This can help you retain a significant amount of revenue by offering a greater range of services under one roof.
Discover Orthodontics Training Programs at the American Orthodontic Society
Your dental practice can benefit from orthodontic services, but it all starts with making an investment in training your staff. You cannot take on the additional work that providing these treatments will require if you don’t have a qualified team to help you.
The solution is to equip your staff with the right training. At the American Orthodontic Society, we offer orthodontic assistant training programs, along with a variety of other courses that you and your employees can benefit from.Â
If you’re ready to take your practice to the next level, we can help set you up for success. Enroll your staff in our orthodontic assistant training program to jumpstart long-term growth today.
To learn more about our popular orthodontics courses for pediatric and general dentists, check out one of the upcoming events below.