Money – Page 3

Happy Earth Day to my instrument drawer

April 22, 2011 By Trish Walraven 1 Comment

This Good Friday is quite the contemplative one, blending the best of tree-hugging and cross-hugging in one wonderful day off of work for most of us.

So when I got a notice in my email box from Hu-Friedy in celebration of Earth Day today, I immediately made the phone call to get our practice started up on the Environdent program. Heaven knows our junk drawer is hard to open, with all the broken cavitron scaler inserts, bladeless curettes, explorers with gnarled tips, bald probes and scratched-up mouth mirrors. It’s a vast nubby world in there, but the hoarder in me just wouldn’t let any of it go, just in case American Pickers made a visit to our office.

Now that I’m signed up, Hu-Friedy’s going to send a bunch of boxes so that I can make our junk drawer look more nice and neat, like the one in their line drawing below. <!>

This is how the Environdent program works:

And HA! I’m going to get a pretty good deal for all that hoarding. For every 12 instruments that we send them to be recycled, we’ll earn one free Hu-Friedy instrument of our choice. When you look at our drawer, that means we’ll be able to get enough explorers to last about ten years.

You too? Well then give them a call next week (they were nice and let everyone go home early so don’t call today) and get your office set up on the Environdent program. For over 15 years Hu-Friedy has been recycling over three tons of surgical steel every year. Request your free Environdent kit at 1-800-HU-FRIEDY (1-800-483-7433), and feel good this Earth Day for keeping stuff out of the landfills, for justifying your obsessions, or for simply being a tightwad.

Didja Know? Hu-Friedy was founded by Austrian immigrant Hugo Friedman in 1908, whose grandson still owns the company today. So Happy Passover to everyone as well!

Hygienists v. Dentists: choose your weapons

March 22, 2011 By Trish Walraven 9 Comments

by Eva Watson

It’s a frustrating time to be a Dental Hygienist nowadays, from an RDH point of view. The lack of job opportunities, discourse over the creation of the Advanced Dental Hygiene Practitioner, and the selling-of-dentistry creed that owners want hygienists to adopt has produced enormous conflicts between dentists and hygienists. And it seems to be getting worse.

The issue appears to be about two things: money and control. That’s my opinion. If others in each field happen to agree with these views, let’s explore further.

As dental health professionals, what can we do to ease the burden of these two issues? How can we find common ground and move beyond the derision and animosity? I respectfully suggest:

NERF Dart Tag NDTL Strikefire Value Pack/ Fight-To-The-Death Match!

Hygienists: Talk about fire power! Well, I mean, they’re darts, but, oh! What foamy NERF fire power!
Dentists: It’s a VALUE pack. You will benefit from this monetarily… if your hygienist doesn’t dart the crud out of you first. Whee!

Mandatory Overtime Marshmallow Blaster Operatory Raids

Soft, sweet, and fat-free, hygienists and dentists may find the shooting of squishy, cylindrically-shaped goodies a much needed physical and mental release from the constant day-to-day fight for control, respect, and reduced overhead. Thank you, thinkgeek.com. I’m forever in awe of your geekdom.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels (Wii) for Ultimate Dental Supremacy

Dentists: you automatically have to be the villain, but don’t worry. You can choose General Grievous, Count Dooku, or Anakin Skywalker. I would select General Grievous myself just because he was so very bad and evil.

Hygienists: I expect you to choose Yoda because he packed much wallop, was very wise, and had lots of experience behind him. The choice is yours, of course.
There are many ways in which to find balance between dentists and hygienists. I’m certain one day we will all work together in harmony.

A big bowl of warm soup for Allcare Dental

January 15, 2011 By Eva Watson 1 Comment

It’s cold out there, isn’t it? Well, here. Seek refuge from the frigid entrails of winter and sit your bottom down. Try to relax. There. Doesn’t that feel better? Of course, it does. I made a big pot of my split-pea soup. It is good, isn’t it? I’m glad you like it. Now… WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE MONEY?!

Did it just float away somewhere into the abyss of dental folly? Was it poorly managed by a pack of flying wombats? Or, worse yet, was it engulfed by a colossal kettle of tiny nuns as they were shouting, “Sweet nectar of the gods! Give us more!”

Patients trusted you. Now they have to find another dentist, pay more money for uncompleted treatment, and take unpaid days off from their jobs to finish major dental work. Some of these patients may have to take out additional loans just to see a new dentist.

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Shatner negotiates dental fees

May 17, 2010 By Trish Walraven 1 Comment

Actually, William Shatner has nothing to do with dentistry. And that’s a good thing.

The familiarity with Priceline’s marketing is a good place to start, though. Mix in a few thousand medical and dental professionals who are willing to try a similar technique to improve their new patient flow and you’ve got a website called PriceDoc.

For an average of about $50 per month for a spot on the PriceDoc website, you can give percentage discounts, allow patients to negotiate for prices, or simply state your fee for specific procedures. Like a porcelain crown. Can you imagine someone on the internet seeing that your crown fee is less than the other dentist down the street, and then coming to you instead, and paying cash?

Or if you put the shoe on the other foot, have you tried shopping for that gall bladder surgery that you’ve been needing for a while?

PriceDoc went national about six months ago, and has yet to post any impressive procedure price wars between healthcare providers. There’s also no way to know if a dentist is as good as they say they are on their advertisement, so it’s difficult to predict whether or not this type of marketing will appeal to those dentists who value quality care over production quotas. Currently the only requirement for setting up a provider account is a credit card.

It’s a great idea in concept, especially for patients without insurance and dentists that prefer consumer-driven care instead of insurance-dictated treatment. If enough healers are ready to take a leap of faith, PriceDoc may become a force that changes healthcare forever.

__________

In the meantime, consumers already have the ability to price out the average cost of many common dental procedures without having to compare dentists’ fees directly. The website Healthcare Blue Book offers suggestions based on a patient’s zip code, and even recommends taking a printout of the “fair cash price” to your office when an estimate is presented for anticipated dental work. Blue Book prices are generally above standard insurance contract rates, and considered fair compensation for cash-paying patients.

Patients should probably be glad, though, that dentists can’t use the Blue Book in reverse to judge the condition of a person’s mouth beforehand.

Ready for Windows 7?

October 8, 2009 By DentalBuzz Staff Leave a Comment

Are the computers in your practice ready for Windows 7? You are most likely still running Windows XP because your practice management and digital radiography software/hardware was not compatible with Vista.

Now is a good time to look at some computer upgrades and prepare yourself for Windows 7. A good way to start this process is to look at refurbished equipment. While many of the top manufactures offer refurbished equipment none do it better than Dell. To help you get started we are including a few links and couple of newly minted coupon codes, but you better hurry the deals and codes won’t last forever.

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