Doing good work in your community provides plenty of inherent rewards, and the large population of children not receiving regular dental care provides abundant opportunities for dentists to use their professional skills to do that work.
These efforts obviously benefit the children receiving care, and hopefully are activities a clinician can be proud of as well. Media savvy clinicians can even turn such charitable efforts into positive PR for their practices.
As a journalist, I’ve spent far more of my career than I’d have preferred covering news that was somewhat to completely depressing. Opportunities to profile someone doing good things for the community are less common than they should be and are always met with excitement. The coverage creates a bright spot among the less positive content that tends to fill newspapers, websites and broadcasts. And it’s not bad for the clinicians either.
Being viewed as a dentist who goes out of his or her way to help others certainly aids efforts to attract new patients. Just as importantly, it gives existing patients one more reason to feel great about their choice in dental practitioners. But not every clinician has the media skills to effectively spread the word.
L to R: Allison Farey, President of Wells Fargo Practice Finance; Dr. Gordon Christensen, Founder & Director of Practical Clinical Courses, NCOHF Board Member and Dentist of Distinction Program Chair; Fern Ingber, NCOHF President and CEO
So, as I journalist, I was excited to learn about the Dentist of Distinction program recently launched by the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation: America’s ToothFairy (NCOHF). The program which is sponsored by Wells Fargo Practice Finance and chaired by NCOHF Board Member Dr. Gordon Christensen is designed to encourage dentists to help the children in their communities, and to make sure they’re recognized for those efforts.
The program provides participating dentists with a turnkey package of promotional resources including news releases, videos, and material for newsletters and social media, along with an oral health education kit for use in the community outreach efforts. Dentists of Distinction also have their name published on the NCOHF website with an option to link that back to the practice website.
To earn recognition as a Dentist of Distinction, clinicians can either make an annual contribution to NCOHF to help support delivery of oral health services for at-risk children, or they can donate their own professional services for at-risk youth in their communities. More information on the program can be found here.
The dentists choosing that second option are the ones who will have the compelling stories to share both in their communities and with their friends and colleagues. Dentalcompare also wants to become a platform to help spread those stories.
If you choose to take part in the Dentist of Distinction program and want to share a story about the work you’re doing in your community, send me a note. I’d be thrilled to publish an article about your efforts as a Dentist of Distinction on Dentalcompare.