Before a patient reaches the dental chair, there are a number of steps that must be taken by the dental professional to help them get there. These include reaching out to the patient, and reminding them of their need to visit for a check-up or a routine scale and polish.
Taking this first step to help patients is essential. The latest Adult Oral Health Survey from the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities[i] found that, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 63% of people attended regular check-ups, and 18% of people only did when they had problems with their mouth, teeth or dentures. 4% of people said they had never been to a dentist. This means there is a large proportion of the public that should be encouraged to keep more dental regular routines – with effective marketing and direct patient communication, there is the opportunity to begin the process of returning (or taking their first steps) to the dental chair.
The task of reaching patients has many different solutions. It’s fundamental that the dental practice knows about the methods available to them, and how to utilise them effectively.
Keep it social
The use of social media is perhaps one of the most important ways for practices to reach current and prospective patients. The successful use of social media marketing will not only see posts collect likes, comments and follows, but also ensure individuals attend in-person appointments.
Patients have previously reported that their interactions with dental practice social media posts significantly influenced their decision to change dental provider. Around 41.1% of all patients will make use of such apps to research a dental practice, whether it be a new one or their current oral care provider.[ii] It’s widely recognised that successful practitioners in healthcare spaces, including dentistry, will also use a social media reputation to establish and expand their patient basis.[iii] Practices that are active online can also have an impact on the supply and demand for specific procedures, such as aesthetic dentistry, for example.iii
It’s important to have a target audience in mind when working with social media marketing. Each platform would not only require different approaches to a post – LinkedIn could be just text, whereas Instagram needs strong imagery and TikTok requires videos – but could reach different demographics entirely.
Facebook sees a higher daily reach to those aged 55+ compared to 15-24 year-olds (62% compared to 49%), which may change the design and language used in a post.[iv] For Instagram, however, the daily reach to the younger demographic is more than double that of the 55+ age group (53% to 23%). When TikTok comes into question, the daily reach to young adults is almost eight times that of the older demographic (35% daily reach compared to 5%).iv Patients of each age group may have different oral health priorities, and look for different things from their dental practice, which creates opportunities to tailor your marketing to each platform.
Some social media sites are specifically designed for individuals to visit with certain types of content in mind. LinkedIn users, for example, would typically be scrolling through the site looking for professional insights; instead of reaching patients directly, you could be aiming to speak to dental professionals that would refer patients to your service.
Traditional messaging
Alongside the very modern approach of social media, it is important that a practice doesn’t forget the most traditional forms of patient communication – direct to their front door and, with mobile phone becoming a staple of our pockets, into their hands.
Whether you send physical letters, emails or text messages, the practice should be well equipped to reach out to individual patients. This could be a useful way to remind them that months have passed since their last check up, or a notice that they have an appointment in the coming days, in the effort to reduce the chance of a no show.
Clinicians looking to improve how they reach out to patients should discover a dental practice management software solution like Sensei Cloud from Sensei, the practice and patient management brand of Carestream Dental, with the upgrade to Patient Bridge, a Sensei product, adding reminder and recall messages directly to your patients via their preferred contact methods. These can be helpful to prompt individuals to book appointments online, and can even allow forms to be completed and signed this way too – including medical history, treatment plans, consent and FP17 – to save time in the dental chair. This gets more patients in the practice, and gives them more time to receive exceptional care.
To increase the amount of people regularly attending the dental practice, it’s often the responsibility of the clinical team to get the ball rolling. With effective communication, through both online marketing and direct messaging, patients will be reminded of their need to book an appointment in no time.
For more information on Sensei Cloud visit https://gosensei.co.uk/
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @carestreamdental.uk
[i] Office for Health Improvement & Disparities, (2024). Adult oral health survey 2021: service use and barriers to accessing care. GOV.UK. (Online) Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/adult-oral-health-survey-2021/adult-oral-health-survey-2021-service-use-and-barriers-to-accessing-care [Accessed November 2024]
[ii] Freire, Y., Sánchez, M. G., Suárez, A., Joves, G., Nowak, M., & Díaz-Flores García, V. (2023). Influence of the use of social media on patients changing dental practice: a web-based questionnaire study. BMC Oral Health, 23(1), 365.
[iii] Abbasi, M. S., Lal, A., Das, G., Salman, F., Akram, A., Ahmed, A. R., … & Ahmed, N. (2022, October). Impact of social media on aesthetic dentistry: General practitioners’ perspectives. In Healthcare (Vol. 10, No. 10, p. 2055). MDPI.
[iv] UKOM, (2023). Social media use by age. (Online) Available at: https://ukom.uk.net/snapshots/269-social-media-use-by-age.php [Accessed November 2024]
