Are you enjoying some great destination CE these days? How about tapping into the great online CE currently available? Either way, it doesn't do you much good to learn better dentistry and business if you aren't sharing it and doing it regularly! Right? Spread the word about what you and your team are doing so that your patients can grow in their confidence about you, referrals to you and long time loyalty. You'll also likely attract some new patients along the way!

So, here are five steps you can take to take your continuing education and turn it into public relations!

1. Internal verbal skills.  Make sure your team is aware of the course you completed and the benefits your patients will receive.  Have your team (including you) mention it in conversation to your patients during your visit.  For example, if the patient asks how you are doing, reply by saying, "Great.  We are so excited that Dr. Jameson attended a course on whitening techniques.  You know, she is always researching to find the best methods of whitening to offer you."
2. Press release. Write a press release with factual information on the course.  Many times the course will offer a pre-written press release into which you can insert your own information.  Send this press release to local newspapers and publications.  You can even include it in the hygiene bags for your patients to read, mail with statements, or include in a separate mailing.
3. Update your Web site. Add the new course to your Web site.  The home page should have a mention of it with a link to learn more about CE event.  This page should contain program details, the press release, benefits to the patient, logo (if relevant - i.e. Invisalign logo), and photos.
4. Email.  Formulate an email to send to your patient base.  The email should state the new benefits of the course that the patients and/or the practice will receive.  The email should include a link to your Web site for more information.  Be sure to invite your patient to call the office for more information or to utilize the new service.
5. Social media.  Mention the course before, during and after the event on your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Do you have a flip camera?  If so, use the flip camera to take video during the event.  Or you can film yourself or a team member giving props to the course after the event.  Post that footage on your social media sites and to your Web site.

If your continuing education is in regards to a new piece of equipment, place signage around the office with the announcement.  You can even have a "limited time only" special promoting the new technique or equipment.  A great example is for CEREC.  If you have just started using CEREC, post signs that introduce the new equipment and list a special for moving forward with treatment.  The offer can be "Receive a complimentary Sonicare toothbrush when you have a CEREC crown placed--limited time only."

The goal of continuing education is to bring more service offerings to your patients and to enhance what you do so that you are giving the best care possible.  Why not let your patients know what you are doing for them?  They will appreciate you for it and may even send more patients your way!

Have you ever driven the same route to work so many times you arrive at your office without even remembering the drive there?  Ever sat in a seminar or team meeting and found your mind wandering?

Our ability to go on "auto pilot" when a situation becomes routine is a function of the part of our brain called RAS - the Reticular Activation System.  Located at the base, it is the part of our brain that keeps us sane... well, mostly sane, anyway.  Without our RAS, everything we smelled, heard, saw, felt, and noticed in any given moment would come into the brain with equal importance... in essence, driving us crazy!   The RAS works as a filter for all of the stimuli we receive through our senses and drives to the forefront of our awareness only the things it deems important for us to know now.  All other information is kept in the background.

It's the RAS that tells us we can daydream and it will let us know if anything occurs that needs our immediate attention.  So when, on our drive to work, a car runs the stoplight at an intersection... the RAS notices in a millisecond and jerks us back into the present... keeping us on our toes.  And when, at the monthly staff meeting, your teammates file into the reception area or team lounge like ants in line at a picnic and you announce that you'll be meeting outside in the courtyard or down at the park or at local business or the top floor of the nearest high-rise... the RAS sense something different and puts them on full alert!

It's Springtime - a time of renewal and newness.  If you are tired of bored faces and wandering minds at your meetings, shake up their RAS and head outside, to a local winery or a unique location for a whole new perspective!