Dentists Need to get Creative to Retain Patients in a World of Marketplaces and Little Loyalty

My friend tells me she went to the Dentist the other day in New York City. She grew up in Michigan and typically goes to her family dentist when she's home visiting her family, but she was feeling like she needed a cleaning so she went on ZocDoc.com and within a few clicks she was booked for a cleaning at a dental practice just a few blocks from her apartment.

Owning a dental practice is not easy.

As a dentist, you’re a dedicated professional committed to your patients’ oral health. But patient retention is also important for the growth of your business.

So what can you do in a world of marketplaces and little loyalty? Here are 4 creative ways you can leave lasting impressions and improve your retention rates.

1) Ditch the White Coat

The white coat is a symbol of authority -- one attained only by countless sleepless nights and grueling board exams. Many dental school students dream of walking into an exam room in their white coats to heal the sick.

But the white coat (and gloves) also creates a sense of hierarchy, making some patients feel intimidated in the presence of a doctor.

White coats can also spread bacteria. One study found that doctors’ white coats were contaminated with all kinds of bacteria, including Staphylococci resistant to Penicillin, Erythromycin, and Clindamycin.

Here’s a solution -- You can simply ditch the white coat. Make your practice more welcoming and “cool” by getting rid of the barrier between you and your patients. If you need pockets, an alternative, such as a sleeveless neoprene vest, serves all the functions of a white coat without causing your patients additional stress.

2) Engage Your Patients with Unique Giveaways

When it comes to growing your practice, you don’t need to hire expensive marketing firms. That’s because nothing beats word-of-mouth referrals, even in this digital world.

But you need to be proactive in asking for referrals.

Set your practice apart with promotional giveaways for your patients, and they’ll do all the marketing for you.

The key to giveaways is choosing promotional items that are both functional and convenient.

Here’s a unique giveaway idea: tongue scrapers. Educate your patients on the use and benefits of tongue scrapers, and be sure to include some as a part of a gift for their loyalty. These functional gifts will strike up conversations wherever your patients go, which could lead to referrals to your practice.

ScrapeYourTongue.com offers wholesale Tongue Scrapers to dental / medical offices at a rate of $25 for a 100-pack: ScrapeYourTongue.com/100Pack

3) Redesign Your Office For Instagram

Does your office lobby make patients say “Wow”?

We live in a world where a picture of a salad can get thousands of “likes.” This means that in order to survive, businesses, including medical offices, need to rethink their office design to attract customers. And with more than 500 million daily active users, Instagram is the place to show off your artistic side.

So how can your office become one of the “Most Instagrammable Places” in your city?

Instead of displaying your diplomas throughout your office, take a page out of retail stores’ playbooks and go for a more photo-friendly setup, like unique art or furniture. Unique live plants are also sure to be a hit on Instagram.

While adding unique elements to your office, don’t forget that lighting is important to take great photography. Not only does soft, natural light relieve stress for patients, it can also result in some breathtaking photos.

4) Prioritize Patient Comfort and Stress Relief

The bone-chilling whir of a dentist’s drill can make anyone squirm uncomfortably. It’s little wonder why dentists are one of the most hated professions.

Some discomfort may be unavoidable, but there are things you can do to maximize your patients’ comfort.

For example, you can provide headphones with soothing music to drown out the sound of drills. Some dentists also have TVs with Netflix in each exam room so that patients could watch their favorite shows or movies during their procedures.

If TVs in exam rooms aren’t your thing, unique plants or interesting artwork/photographs may also work to take the patient’s focus away from the procedure.

Small things like artwork and goodie bags may seem trivial, but they can go a long way in getting people to talk about your dental practice. A dental visit strikes stress and anxiety in millions of people, but by engaging your patients and staying on top of social trends, you may soon have a long list of loyal patients.

The day I stopped wearing a watch and started scraping my tongue

People are starting to take advantage of preventative health measures, while cutting out useless accessories in their lives. Studies show that people spend 5 hours / day on their smart phones and look at their phone on average 50 times / day. Why in the world would anyone need a watch when they are looking at a screen that has a clock almost all the time.



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When we cut out wearing watches we are consciously making a decision to not buy into excessive societal norms. With that comes a better understanding of our health and well being. We are more likely to be health conscious and look into preventive health measures. One important measure is tongue scraping.




via GIPHY


Small groups have been tongue scraping for hundreds of years, but only today is it becoming mainstream to be health conscious and take on preventative health measures. Scraping the nasty bacteria on your tongue prevents sore throats, sinus infections, and heart disease. A great tongue scraper can be found at www.ScrapeYourTongue.com.


If you're someone that is dropping the watch and picking up a tongue scraper then you're really on the right track to a healthy and successful life.

The 15 things You Didn't Know About Your Tongue

1) The longest tongue on record is 3.86 inches

2) The widest tongue was 3.1 inches at it's widest point

3) Women have shorter tongues than men. The longest female tongue was 2.76 inches

4) Thomas Blackstone holds the world record for the strongest tongue. He lifted a 24 lb 3oz. weight that was hooked through his tongue.

5) The Blue Whale has the largest tongue in the Animal Kingdom. It is the size of an elephant and weighs 5,400 lbs.



6) The 5 known tastes detected by taste buds are: Bitter, Sour, Salty, Sweet, and Umami

7) Tongue cleaning with a tongue scraper is proven to help prevent heat attacks, pneumonia, premature births, diabetes, osteoporosis, and infertility in men.

8) The saying "cat got your tongue" originated 2,500 years ago in ancient Assyria where conquered soldiers and criminals had their tongues cut out and fed to the king's cat.

9) because it comes in different shapes and can have a variable number of taste buds, the human tongue imprint is as unique as a fingerprint.

10) The hardest tongue twister in the English language is "The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick."



11) It takes 25,000 more molecules to determine the taste of something than it does to smell it.

12) Taste buds only react to chemicals that dissolve in water. This is why we get salty tastes first because salt dissolves rapidly.

13) There are more than 600 different types of bacteria in the mouth and a milliliter of saliva contains 1,000,000 of them.

14) The average person has 10,000 taste buds, with 2,000 of those under the tongue, inside the cheeks, on the roof of the mouth, and on the lips.

15) A single taste bud contains 50-100 taste cells. While one cell can have multiple types of sensors for taste, no single cell can identify both sweet and biter.

16) Contrary to popular belief, tests on identical twins have proven that the ability to roll one's tongue into a tube shape is not a genetic trait.  

And now you know. So keep that tongue clean by scraping daily. Lean more at www.scrapeyourtongue.com 

Larry David's take on Tongue Scraping

Larry once said that the only thing he ultimately got out of his failed marriage was that Sheryl taught him about tongue scraping:


(Season 8 Episode 2) 


Larry also said. "The other thing was, I'm obsessed with oral hygiene. I floss constantly and she was really getting quite tired of it. I would floss in front of her and she'd be like, 'Don't floss in front of me anymore.' I was like, 'Oh, OK.' And I'm like, 'Tongue scraping, would that be OK?' Then we went out for dinner, she went to the bathroom and I tried to sneak a floss in. She caught me mid-floss. And that was it."

I have learned a surprising amount about Dental hygiene from Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. Tongue scraping is awesome. 

Head to ScrapeYourTongue where you can find the best tongue scraper on the market. Add this important step to your daily hygiene efforts and you won't regret it!

Cure hangovers with this simple trick

We've all been there. Drink all night and regret all of our decisions in the morning because of the pain and lack of motivation to do anything. It's fine sometimes, but other times we actually have stuff to do and can't let that hangover sit. Let me introduce you to the Tongue Scraper from ScrapeYourTongue.com

All that alcohol and other bad decisions (late night food & licking strangers) builds up some awful bacteria on your tongue. This bacteria can cause bad breath, sore throats, and even sinus infections. 

Using a Tongue Scraper, like the one that ScrapeYourTongue.com offers, is an easy way to scrape that nasty stuff off of your tongue and potentially cure your hangover entirely. Try it out - it's only $1

* Drink Responsibly!*