Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

I have always attended CPD courses ever since I qualified as a hygienist. I often worked as the only hygienist in a team and enjoyed the interaction with my peers initially, using it as a reunion with my college buddies. Clinically I felt it refreshed my basic skills, added new thinking and research into my work ethos and allowed me to attempt to keep my patient care at a consist- ently good standard. Recently, I have been looking at trying to improve my customer care and business sense to help with my practice life and my role as direc- tor at CPD for DCPs. I have just attended my first totally non-clinical dental confer- ence. Run by the uniquely named Marketing Pirates of Dentistry; I was privileged enough to be one of their guest speakers. This was with the promise, by me, of not going all clinical. That was a lot tougher than I thought. To name but a few there was a blend of speakers; the brilliant and “not vanilla” Tony Gedge on the marketing strategy used in dental practice; Paul Howe on selling, which was extremely useful, and a superb motiva- tional speaker called Clive Gott. I was sad to miss hearing Nadim Majid talking on website devel- opment for the dental practice. But, being technically minded, he has recorded it so I can watch it at my leisure. From this event, I have a full mind that keeps throwing up ideas, about 12 pages of notes to write up, and a very new perspec- tive on the business of dentistry. I am still mainly a clinician in my job, and was trained to do just that. I then spent a lot of years at- tending lectures and courses on how to develop and hone those clinical skills. Now I can see the importance of the team under- standing the business of dentist- ry, understanding the forecasts and targets and knowing what a HNW patient is and how to rec- ognise one. (High Net Worth, it is like our abbreviations, they wouldn’t know what a BPE was so don’t worry). Most of my customer service skills come from being a waitress when I was at school back home in Troon a few years ago now! By working in different environ- ments I have tried to learn from the things that work and also the things that don’t. Being self-em- ployed I am used to having to jus- tify costs and am coming to terms with ROI and its importance. (That is return on investment and it is ok if you didn’t know that). What impressed me most was the number of teams that were attending this event. There were only two principals that had at- tended on their own. I can un- derstand how they feel. As prin- cipal and sole owner, they feel the running of the business is down to them. And in a way it is. It is how I felt for a long time about my little training busi- ness. But if the team can’t see what your vision is how can they begin to implement the changes you want? Also, after attending a busy one or two-day event do you feel you can pass on the in- formation in a suitable way to your team? Could you have taught someone to drive after one driv- ing lesson? I remember saying in a column last January that we needed to work together to keep our businesses fresh at the be- ginning of 2010. Well 2011 will be another year of finding solutions and building service to keep your businesses improving and succeeding. It could be really beneficial for teams to define their roles, do a swot analysis and make a train- ing plan purely based on their business skills. Once you have decided who needs to improve what then you can implement a training programme with a defi- nite “done by” date. There are two routes you could go down that I can see, or use a blend of the two perhaps. Route one is to take the team through coaching and support of a well known and proven busi- ness advisor in dentistry, such as Chris Barrow, Kevin Rose and of course Tony Gedge and his pirates. The really important bit of this is that the principal is the leader and instigator of this; as experience has shown me, you can take the horse to the wa- ter but they have to be thirsty. There is no doubt in my mind that this will give the best re- sult. In this situation the princi- pal is instigating the change and development in the team and therefore you are part of some- thing ready to action change. Route two is you feel that you would like more business training and your principal may not be see- ing the value just at this moment. There are many courses you can attend independently and perhaps your principal will see the ben- efit of a work based qualification, such as an NVQ. If you grow your skills independently, with- out the support of your principal then this is commendable.This will also almost certainly lead to you moving on if the circumstanc- es do not change. I am learning slowly that work satisfaction has to be a team experience. So get out there and develop your skills. A great toe in the water so- lution would be to sign up to the dentistry show in Birming- ham on March 4th and 5th. They have two whole days of business speakers that the whole team can attend. And, best of all, it is free to attend most speakers sessions. To register you and your team visit www.thedentistry- show.co.uk I look forward to seeing all those with their finger on the pulse of modern dentistry there; I will be the one in the front row making notes furiously. DT It is not all about mouths you know Mhari Coxon discusses a new perspective to consider on the business of dentistry About the author Mhari Coxon is a dental hygienist practising in Cen- tral London. She is chairman of the London British So- ciety of Dental Hy- giene and Therapy (BSDHT) regional group and is on the publications com- mittee of its jour- nal, Dental Health. She is also clinical director of CPD- forDCP, which provides CPD courses for all DCPs. To contact her, email mhari.coxon@cpdfordcp.co.uk ‘Now I can see the importance of the team understanding the business of dentistry, un- derstanding the forecasts and targets and knowing what a HNW patient is and how to recognise one’ February14-20, 2011United Kingdom Edition CAD/CAM SYSTEMS | INSTRUMENTS | HYGIENE SYSTEMS TREATMENT CENTRES | IMAGING SYSTEMS Relaxed patients. Easy treatment. Improved post-operative healing. Is this all just wishful thinking? Actually, it’s stress-free – and at your fingertips. Both the SIROLaser Advance and the upgrade-ready SIROLaser Xtend offer you all the benefits of modern laser denitistry. For periodontology, endodontics, surgery … the list goes on! Enjoy every day. With Sirona. 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