Bob Conte For years specialists have spent countless hours and resources courting General Dentists with the hopes of generating a pipeline of referrals. I have had countless dinners, rounds of golf and “lunch and learns” with my local oral surgeons, periodontists and endodontists over the years. These tactics are the norm for our specialist colleagues. If these efforts are worth their time and resources why don’t more General Dentists follow their lead?
Over the last few years I have contacted all of my local specialists to see if they were interested in a lunch and learn for their office to showcase our CEREC technology. The response was universally positive as these offices have never had a lowly General Dentist as a presenter. The subject matter was geared towards the specialty, but the theme was the same. High Tech Dentistry. A fairly brief Keynote followed by a demo with the Omnicam consistently blew every office away. Free food for the staff didn’t hurt either.
Everyone was very impressed with the Cerec system and the possibility of same day crown and bridge. The surgeons were very interested in custom implant abutments and crowns. Along the way a very interesting thing happened. The staff of these specialists had their eyes opened to the future. They were so impressed by the services we offered that many of them became new patients in our practice. We set ourselves apart from all of the referring General Dentists these offices were working with and when a patient asked for a referral, our practice is the one they would recommend.
Take the CEREC show on the road. It won’t cost you more than a few sandwiches or pizza and a little bit of your time. You will quickly become THE practice your specialists will refer to for their patients. More importantly you will impress the staff. These assistants, hygienists and administrative folks will be in contact with hundreds of patients yearly in need of a quality general dentist. It should be you!
