Stay Engaged: Teledentistry for your existing patients

Part 2: Capitalize Teledentistry In Your Office

In the second part of our series, Capitalizing Teledentistry In Your Office, OralEye discusses how Teledentistry can be effective in keeping in touch with your existing patients.

To learn about how to reach new patients using teledentistry, check out the first article in this series Open New Doors: Finding new patients with teledentistry.

One of the most valuable uses of teledentistry is in engaging your existing patients. Teledentistry can be used to increase production, make your practice more efficient, and keep your patients interested in what you have to offer. There are a number of areas where teledentistry can be particularly effective here.

Recall

If you want to improve your recall rates, offering teledental consults between your patients’ regular in-office checkups can keep them engaged and ensure they’re more likely to book their next appointment and keep it.

Simple Follow Ups

Simple follow-ups, such as post-extraction and during Invisalign treatment, are one of the least efficient uses of chair time. Turning a room around for a brief follow-up is an enormous waste of resources and is time-consuming for patients, as well. Offering these simple follow-ups through teledentistry can free up valuable chair time and raise patient satisfaction. If the teledental consult suggests the patient needs to come in, you can quickly arrange an appointment.

Chair Planning

Another efficiency-improving use of teledentistry. Getting a patient to submit a case in advance of their appointment allows you to triage them before they come in. You can then schedule more time for procedures to undertake on the day. Letting the patient know this in advance of their appointment can manage their expectations and make them more likely to approve higher value procedures when they come in for their appointment.

Treatment Acceptance

Store-and-forward teledentistry can be used to capture patient photos while your patient is in the chair and leave them with essential treatment information as they walk out the door. If patients have visual feedback to take home with them, they’re further motivated to adopt the treatment plan you’ve suggested.

Communicating with patients

Many dentists enjoy using teledentistry simply to communicate with patients and offer them a new way to make contact, whether when out of the office or in an emergency.

Insurance reimbursement

The new teledentistry CDT codes are highly exciting for the future of in-office teledentistry. Many states have enacted legislation for parity between teledental and in-office reimbursement. We look forward to seeing how this develops as more teledentists submit teledental codes for reimbursement.

Your Dentist In Your Pocket

Teledentistry on a smartphone

“My dad is a dentist, and while working late one night, I was
concerned about a gap I’d noticed in my lower gum, so I called him
to ask what I should do. Of course, he couldn’t help over the phone
but suggested I send him a photo. On doing so, he called straight
back with a diagnosis and recommendation and mentioned how
the quality of the photo was as good as those taken by professional
dental cameras. That’s when I realized how much technology could
help dentists and patients. The original Toothpic was born.”
Mark Moore (Toothpic CEO)

What is Toothpic?
With Toothpic, patients take 1–6 photos of their mouth, teeth, and gums on their smartphone. Along with some dental history and habit questions, this is sent to a Toothpic Network dentist licensed in their state. The dentist annotates the patient’s photos, and this is returned to the patient as a dental report in the Toothpic app.

How can I get involved in the dental network?
Toothpic has a dental network across the United States and often experiences demand for new dentists in certain states. Signup at www.oraleye.com/join and one of our representatives will be in touch or reach out to the Network Manager on network@toothpic.com to express your interest.

Did you find this piece useful? What more would you like to know? Let us know in the comments how your experience has been with social media and get in touch with us if you need any more advice.