Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Throughout the year we publish a range of articles on Dentalcompare. Some of these articles are product or practice experiences from your dental colleagues, others are advice from experts on topics ranging from clinical to practice management, and some of our content is industry analysis provided by our Clinical Director Dr. Jeff Rohde.
Regardless of the format, these articles take, they all are published with the same goal—to help you and your practice succeed. We hope our content helps you learn about the types of products and technologies available to you, and helps you understand which innovations and systems are the best tools to drive your practice forward.
With that in mind, here’s our look back at the Top 10 Dental Articles published by Dentalcompare in 2015.*
10. Using Dental Technology to Overcome Patient Fears – In this article Dr. Joshua Weintraub explains how his practice is adopting technology to overcome one of the biggest patient objections to dental treatment—fear. He explains that patients are afraid of anesthesia needles and the sound of a dental handpiece, and this keeps many patients away. To get beyond this, his practice adopted the Solea Dental Laser, which eliminates the need for most anesthesia and allows him to use an almost silent laser instead of a whirring handpiece.
9. Ditching the Drill: How Laser Dentistry Provides a 5-Star Patient Experience and Drives Referrals – Another popular article focused on the benefits of the Solea laser platform, this piece by Dr. Jerry Wender explores the ways a dental laser changes the patient experience and helps drive word of mouth to build a practice organically. Dr. Wender focuses on the ways innovative technologies change every aspect of a dental visit and gets patients excited to tell friends and family about those differences.
8. CEREC 30: New Standards for CAD/CAM and Dental Events – In his review of Sirona’s CEREC 30th Anniversary Celebration, Dr. Rohde explained how the company combined a user meeting, an educational tradeshow, a new product launch presentation and a huge party into a single invigorating weekend. While covering the latest products and technologies from the dental CAD/CAM standard bearer, Dr. Rohde explained why the event format made for a more focused and enjoyable attendee experience.
7. 9 Steps to Reaching Patients Who Don’t Know Your Dental Practice Exists – In this article from marketing expert Kelly Matsudaira, readers learned how to make sure their practice gets noticed by patients seeking care. There’s little doubt her way of breaking this complex subject down to 9 easy to understand steps helped make this a very popular article in 2015.
6. 7 Signs Your Dental Practice Technology is Outdated – Another popular article that breaks down a complex topic into simple parts, this piece from practice management expert Denise Ciardello explains the signs of a practice that is behind the times. This piece was likely a popular read because it not only explained these signs, but also the impact of working with inefficient, older technology, and some simple upgrades that can improve practice efficiency.
5. How Dental Technology Instantly Impacts Your Practice Value – In this piece Dr. Ronald Plotka explains how he evaluates new technologies for his practice. The article shows that to see the true return on an investment you need to look at more than just the cost of the technology and the revenue from the cases on which it will be used. The actual return can be found in time savings, purchases that the new technology makes obsolete and how the technology can increase the overall valuation of the practice itself.
4. Top 5 Dental Marketing Predictions for 2015 – In this article Matsudaira offered up her thoughts on what marketing trends would impact the dental industry this year. She pegged online appointment booking, patient reviews, visual content, storytelling and mobile marketing as the stand out marketing strategies and techniques for the year. Did she get it right?
3. What the Latest Technology Innovations Mean for Dentistry Today and In the Future – Expanding on his usual post-tradeshow new product round up article format, Dr. Rohde used this piece to provide some insight into what the latest innovations actually mean for the industry and individual dental practitioners. Touching on key emerging technologies such as digital impressions, 3D printing and lasers, as well as enhancements to established technologies such as implants and intraoral cameras, Dr. Rohde’s insights proved to be popular.
2. The Dentist’s Guide to Instagram – The headline really tells the story of this article from Matsudaira. Our second most-read article of 2015 breaks down what this popular photo sharing website is, how to use it and how your dental practice can take advantage of it to improve marketing efforts.
1. What’s Next – The Dental Trends to Watch in 2015 – Every year Dr. Rohde predicts which technologies and clinical trends will have the biggest impact on the dental industry, and just about every year that article makes this list. In 2015 his predictions proved to be the most popular article of the year. This year Dr. Rohde said the industry and the public would pay more attention to the oral-systemic connection, clinical technologies would gain wider adoption and integration with each other, these technologies would enhance pediatric care in a big way, and PPOs would continue to make an impact on how practices are run. This article continues to draw an audience as the year comes to a close. Do you think Dr. Rohde nailed his predictions?
*The 2015 Top 10 lists are based on Dentalcompare traffic measured during the 13 month period from November 1, 2014 – November 30, 2015.