Haley and Dr. Gordon

Linda Ellerbee once said, "A good time to laugh is any time you can." Not for Haley. She hated to laugh or even smile. When her classmates caught a glimpse of her crooked teeth, they would begin to laugh...at her expense. If she did laugh, Haley shamefully covered her mouth with her hands, in an effort to spare herself from the ridicule that always seemed to follow.  

"I try not to smile or laugh very often. Once, I smiled and showed my teeth in a school picture. When everyone saw my picture, they laughed and made fun of me. Now, they call me names and write notes saying that I should get my teeth fixed," said Haley. In addition to the teasing and cruel jokes from her peers, Haley dealt with daily physical pain too.

Her teeth hurt her so much that she couldn't concentrate in school. In an effort to distract herself from the constant pain, she chewed on pencaps and clenched her teeth, but that offered little relief. Her parents desperately wanted to be able to help their daughter, but they had been unable to secure steady employment. Struggling to support Haley and her four siblings, they used what little funds they had for basic necessities like food and shelter. Needless to say, there wasn't enough money to attend to Haley's dental needs.

Michael, a Teen REACH Coordinator at her local Boys & Girls Club, could not just stand by and see this promising teen suffer such pain and humiliation in silence. He reached out to Tomorrow's SMILES® for help.    

Sponsored by the Patterson Foundation and Philips Sonicare, Tomorrow's SMILES® is a teen program of National Children's Oral Health Foundation: America's ToothFairy®(NCOHF) providing at-risk adolescents with comprehensive oral health services to help prepare them for healthy and productive futures. Through this program, caring volunteer dentists provide pro-bono restorative services for a prescreened underserved teen and have access to generously donated products from Invisalign® and Nobel Biocare™ (including Procera®).

"She is a remarkable young woman who is plagued every day by poor dental health," he said. "Her poor oral health negatively impacts her both physically and emotionally. The physical pain distracts her on a daily basis and the constant teasing from her peers erodes her self-esteem."  

He noted, "The opportunity to participate in Tomorrow's SMILES would mean the world to her, and she deserves it." Michael gave Haley the program application and she returned it to him the very next day.  

Thrilled with the possibility of having a beautiful, pain-free smile, Haley couldn't wait until the following Monday and made a special trip to the club just to turn in her application. "I would love to be able to smile and show my teeth without feeling embarrassed. I would be so much happier if my teeth didn't hurt all of the time," said Haley. "It would be a big honor if the Tomorrow's SMILES program helped me with my teeth."  

Thanks to Laurie Gordon, D.D.S. and Neil Warshawsky, D.D.S., members of Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity and volunteer Tomorrow's SMILES dentists, Haley's life is about to change. "It is a pleasure taking care of her. Thank you for the opportunity to help her through Tomorrow's SMILES," noted Dr. Laurie Gordon about her experience with the program. With their help, Haley will be able to laugh and smile without worrying about being the object of harsh jokes and nicknames.  

In return for life-changing oral health services, Haley will Pay It Forward by teaching oral health lessons to young children in her community. As Tomorrow's SMILES teens give back by serving as mentors and teachers to children, they will help break the cycle of pediatric dental disease.

To volunteer to help transform a teen's needless pain and suffering into a beautiful smile and the promise of a brighter future Click Here. 

Monday mornings are especially tough for dentists.

You come into your office and your staff is already busy retrieving all the phone messages from patients over the weekend. This patient wants to cancel, that patient wants to change their appointment. Another found your website or received your marketing postcard but can only be reached...

You get the picture. On Friday you had a pretty full calendar booked, and on Monday your staff is going through hoops just to fill in the holes. Add to that the patients who call during evenings and holidays and lunchtimes and no wonder your office manager and staff are so stressed.  

There's no doubt. Phone communications are one of the biggest challenges for dentists. For now patients expect 24/7 contact. They want to be treated with compassion and professional courtesy any time of the day or night. They get frustrated with answering machines, and prefer speaking to a live person who will ask them precise questions about what's going on.

Of course, times have changed and so have answering services. Today you have many choices available. But which one is right for you? Here are the most important questions you should ask before trusting any answering service to speak with your patients:

1. How long have they been answering calls for dentists? The longer the better! The experience required to grasp the complexity of dental communications is at least five years.
2. Is their staff specifically trained in dental terminology. If not, your patients may not receive the expertise and compassion they require when they call.
3. Are they fully compliant with HIPAA? The new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act protects you and your patients. Make sure they're 100% compliant and can prove it!
4. Can they manage appointment scheduling and confirmation? Have them visibly show you first. Be certain their technology and software can successfully integrate with your current scheduling systems.
5. Do they process messages through multiple means? Nowadays patients communicate by telephone, e-mail, voice mail, texting, and wireless devices. An answering service must be proficient in all of them!
6. Are their services customized to your precise requirements? The cookie-cutter approach doesn't work here. They should be able to verify insurance, track ad responses, while providing updates about your practice.
7. Can they promptly and correctly handle emergency situations? Rapid response is of the essence. Ask them how they route calls and dispatch crucial services with attention to detail and follow-through.
8. Are their operators based in the United States or overseas? Speaking to someone in a foreign country is not what patients expect. Be positive your answering service only uses 100% American operators.
9. Do they offer bilingual English/Spanish support? It's crucial to reach every segment of the population. Only select a service that can clearly demonstrate its fluency in the Spanish language.
10. Have they been recognized by the industry and won awards? Only two prestigious awards count here: The ATSI Award of Excellence and the Cam-X Award of Excellence. If they haven't won at least two of these in recent years, they're probably not the answering service you want.  

To maintain a thriving dental practice, nothing is more imperative than retaining patients and acquiring new ones. With more options than ever for patients seeking a dentist, you need every advantage over your competition.

Consider the right answering service as your Virtual Office, helping to grow your practice while making sure you never lose another patient due to poor communications. So select carefully. Demand the reliability that is absolutely essential for modern medicine, and for your patient's peace of mind!

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