By Roger P. Levin, DDS

Leaders by nature love to share knowledge, information, and expertise. In fact, one of the hallmarks of a great leader is that they always spend time educating and teaching others. That is why you so often see retired fortune 500 CEOs take part-time teaching positions after they complete their business career. In a sense, successful CEOs always have to be teachers.

Orthodontists that create a culture of ongoing education and information dissemination will build better teams, and better teams build better practices. The challenge for orthodontists is that they are so busy with patient treatment that they lack time for teaching or taking advantage of “teachable moments.” This is one of the reasons that many orthodontic teams stagnate, and when a crisis such as COVID-19 emerges, they don’t have the ability to pivot in new directions to help the practice stay at high levels of productivity.

Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, leadership, COVID-19, recovery, education

By Roger P. Levin, DDS

The orthodontic team that you worked with pre-COVID-19 is not the same team that you have now. They may look the same from the outside, but everyone has changed somewhat on the inside. Some team members that have decided not to come back. Others have to change their work schedules due to family issues. Even if you’re fortunate enough to have your entire team back, they may have safety and personal concerns that affect them at work.

Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, trust, team building, COVID-19, recovery, compassion, transparency

By Roger P. Levin, DDS

It’s no surprise that orthodontic fees have always been a factor in parent or patient decision making. However, Levin Group is projecting that fees will become even more important from a competitive standpoint. To aid parents and patients in their decisions, it will be necessary for orthodontic practices to create a highly specific system for communicating value within the new patient experience. Most orthodontic practices feel they already communicate value to the potential new patient, but they now must raise their communications to a higher level. This can only happen if an effective system is designed and unfailingly followed.

Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, COVID-19, recovery, strategic planning, competition, orthodontic fees, value

By Roger P. Levin, DDS

The COVID-19 crisis has changed orthodontics and dentistry permanently. One of the biggest effects of the crisis is that dentistry has probably advanced five years in about ten weeks. This means that certain inevitabilities, trends, and market positions have already changed even if supporting data is unavailable and the trends are not yet obvious. As a result, it will never be business as usual again.

Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, COVID-19, recovery, strategic planning, data analysis, competition

By Roger P. Levin, DDS

In the new reality we are now living in, getting back up to speed is challenging. With little time to prepare, most practices were forced to shut down. As we reopen, new regulations and infection control processes have decreased patient volume, and some patients are hesitant to return due to safety and financial concerns. All of this has the potential to seriously disrupt orthodontic practice production. It may seem like a time to sit back and wait and see what happens, but speed counts in a recovery. And the key to minimizing and mitigating lost production and revenue is to take action–NOW!

Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, infection control, practice production, COVID-19, recovery, revenue

By Roger P. Levin, DDS

COVID-19 has been a game changer. Practices have had to shut down, use new technologies such as teledentistry, and reopen with new regulations, anxious team members, and concerned patients. As many people have observed, we have officially moved into a new normal.

The good news is that the business model for a successful orthodontic practice remains both unchanged and uncomplicated. Orthodontic practices that have enough people calling for potential consults, making appointments after the consult, and accepting treatment to be successful. It’s really just simple math. Leads + Consults = Starts.

Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, COVID-19, consults, starts, recovery, leads

By Joseph Ross, President Ross Orthodontic

Every day headlines report we are nearing the peak of this pandemic; normalcy will return soon. Until that happens, your equipment is sitting doing nothing. Since all offices have been shut down and seeing only emergency cases, the backup of current and existing patient appointments is only building. You don’t want to start seeing patients and immediately have to stop to make repairs due to equipment inactivity. The old adage ‘use it, or lose it’ applies here. Not using your equipment on a daily basis can cause minor problems when you start up again. Be proactive, be prepared, and be ready.

Topics: sterilization, orthodontics, orthodontic equipment, orthodontic tools, maintenance, repairs, COVID-19

One of the greatest qualities we can possess in life is a thirst for knowledge. Learning and education have always been important to me, and I realized after graduating college my excitement for learning didn’t stop. I love learning new things, finding more efficient ways to do my job, and finding ways to refresh my creative flow. Luckily, I work for a great employer who values education just as much as I do. Ortho2 offers each employee an education budget each year to attend classes to learn new skills, purchase books to learn new developments in our field, and attend conferences.

Topics: orthodontic education, Ortho2, orthodontics, Social Media, UGM, users group meeting, networking, team building

Communication is the key to any relationship. And today, there are so many different ways people can communicate with each other. While one patient may call to make a
payment, another prefers to make that same payment online. Edge Cloud offers a wide range of opportunities for your patients and parents to interact with your office. Below are just a few of the current and new features you can find in your cloud practice management system.

Topics: orthodontic practice management, Communication, Ortho2, orthodontics, Patient Communication, online forms, practice management software, edge cloud, Financial Slider, Edge Proposal, Online Scheduling, website access

By Roger P. Levin, DDS

When something isn't right in your practice you can usually tell. Even if you haven’t gotten a chance to crunch the numbers, more free time in your schedule or less people in the waiting room usually means there’s a dip in production. So what do you do when you begin to sense that your orthodontic practice isn’t performing well? Don’t wait; take action immediately by looking at these three things:

Topics: Marketing, orthodontics, Roger Levin, treatment coordinator, practice production