Dentist in Victoria Park

Dental Drills and Tinnitus

The drill is one of the biggest problems that tinnitus patients face when it comes time to have dental work done. Many procedures in dentistry require the drill to be used. There is no way to put in a filling or doing a root canal without the drill. The drill makes a loud, high-pitched sound that can damage your hearing.

Wearing ear protection won't help much with the drills. You can plug your ear all you want. But the loud drilling noise doesn't really affect your ears through your ear canal. It creates sound and vibrates your jaw bones, which then travel up to your ears. The damage to your ears comes from within your head and not the outside.

Wearing earplugs will not help you in this situation. We recommend that you tell your dentist to use short bursts of drilling instead of a prolonged technique. This will minimize the damage caused to your cochlea; it's not perfect, but it is better than the alternative. The drilling doesn't cause tinnitus, but it can make existing symptoms much worse.

Fillings and Tinnitus

There is also a link between tinnitus and fillings - those ugly things which dentists put in your teeth to get rid of cavities. We are referring to amalgam fillings which are made from silver and mercury. You might think amalgam fillings are mostly made of silver. In fact, they contain more mercury than silver.

The obvious problem here is the mercury, something which is shown to cause neurological issues, mercury poisoning, and of course death. A filling or two is usually not a big deal, but if you have more than that in your mouth, it can be a legitimate cause of your worsening tinnitus symptoms. Multiple mercury fillings have been shown to cause people to absorb more mercury each day than what the World Health Organization considers acceptable.

In other words, these fillings can cause tinnitus or just make existing symptoms worse, which is due to the high level of mercury in your body. We won't get into the science, but we can say that mercury-based fillings may cause tinnitus. Your best bet is to ask for composite resin fillings, something which we would recommend regardless of tinnitus.

Jaw Clenching

The technical term given to jaw clenching is bruxism, and it is yet another thing that can cause tinnitus symptoms and cause existing symptoms to increase in severity. The clenching of the jaw can have serious effects on your nerves.

Seeing as everything in your head is connected in one way or another, constantly clenching your jaw can affect the nerves in your ears. This is one of the less serious things, because the causes of clenching usually have pretty simple solutions. At the same time, there are special treatments, such as a simple mouth guard, which can reduce the severity and occurrence of your clenching.

Tinnitus and Dentistry - Other Causes

There are some other dental procedures which can cause or worsen tinnitus symptoms.

• Ultrasonic plaque removal

• Removal of impacted wisdom teeth

• TMJ

• Abscesses of the mouth

Dentists and Tinnitus

It is not surprising that a high percentage of dentists suffer from tinnitus and hearing loss. This is related to what we discussed above about the dental drill. The use of high-speed dental tools has been shown to worsen or cause tinnitus in a majority of dentists.

One small study showed that dental practitioners suffer from tinnitus more than twice as much as normal medical practitioners. A very high percentage of dental professionals, between 30% and 100%, suffer from or will suffer from tinnitus at some point in their career. It is said that working with a dental drill all day is the equivalent of having your head beside a running gas-powered lawnmower.

The bottom line is that musicians and people who operate heavy machinery are not the only ones who are at risk of developing tinnitus due to their occupation. Most dental schools require that students wear ear protection while using dental drills.

Conclusion

When it comes to dentistry and tinnitus, things are a little tricky. On one hand, dental work can make the problem worse, but on the other hand, dental work is usually a necessary thing.

Over the recent years, the UK dentistry market has seen significant growth, with the market value rising by around 90% between 1999 and 2010. The market is valued at PS5.73 billion per year. In the UK there are 49,350 dental care professionals, and another 32.900 in general practice.

Your patients are your most valuable asset as a dentist. It's not just about bringing in new dental patients. To successfully start a dental marketing campaign, it is important to know the value of each patient to your practice. Your dentistry business can be made or broken by the total profit delivered over time by these patients. If you are to retain a steady and growing number of patients, you must also now what keeps them happy.

Many Irish people now choose to have their cosmetic dental treatment abroad in countries like Turkey, Spain and Portugal. Dental clinics in some of these countries offering their patients savings of up to 70% on what Dublin has to offer. These countries may offer more value to their patients, which is why your practice should re-evaluate marketing strategies.

Value of a New Dental Patient

The majority of dentistry practices channel a part of their overall marketing budgets to acquiring and locating new patients. The amount that should go towards attracting new patients will, of course, vary substantially from one dental clinic to another. It goes without saying that the dollars going into marketing efforts geared to attracting a new patient must not exceed that patient's lifetime value to the practice.

Calculating the value of new patients is therefore a crucial component when determining how to allocate your marketing budget. However, marketing experts, have a widely ranging estimate when it comes to a new client's long-term value. Some have placed the estimates at just a couple of hundred dollars, while others place it well over $10,000.

A Wealthy Dentist survey that revealed that out of the 68 dentistry survey respondents, only a quarter had ever tried estimating the value of a new dental patient. The respondents estimated the value of new dental patients in the range $200-$3,000. The average per dental patient was between $900 and $1,000.

Calculating Patient Lifetime Value

To build meaningful dentist-patient relationships, you need to have an estimate of the lifetime value each dental patient brings. You can then structure and market your practice in a strategic way to maximize revenue and take your business to the next stage. The concept of Customer Lifetime Value or CLV is an estimation of the total value of a customer to a business during the entire period you have an engagement.

For any business, Customer Lifetime Value is an indispensable marketing measurement tool. It is especially important for businesses that are relationship driven, like dentistry. Consider the following factors when estimating your clinic's CLV:

• Lifelong relationship: Average time spent by a patient at your dental office.

• Average Annual Value: Revenue made annually from each patient.

• Client Referral Value: Patients referred by your average client.

In calculating the lifetime value of an average patient, the following formula is useful:

Lifetime Patient Value = Average Annual Value x Lifelong Relationship + Client Referral Value

The importance of patient lifetime value calculation

Once you have an estimate of a new dental patient's lifetime value, it becomes possible to make decisions that are more informed in regard to advertising and marketing. You won't want to spend more money on acquiring new dental patients than they will bring to your practice over their lifetime.

You can also set a client target that you need to exceed when you know the current value of each new patient. If, for example, you think the new customer is worth $500 and you have invested $5000 in a patient postcard campaign, then, for you to consider your campaign a success, you will need to bring over 10 new patients.

Alternative valuation method

Another method of estimating the worth of a new dental patient is by asking yourself the amount of money you would be ready to receive from another dentist were you "selling" one of your patients. Would you accept, for instance, less than $400 as payment? You would most likely ask for more.

Often, dental patients who need emergency services tend to return to their regular dentist. When calculating the value of a patient, you should consider how to convert an emergency patient into one who is a regular. Improve the lifetime worth of your dental patients and Dentique Dental Spa your dentistry office will become more valuable and successful.

Conclusion

Armed with how to calculate the value of your new dental patients and why you need to do the estimation, your dentistry practice will be in a position of making marketing decisions that are more informed leading to higher Return-On-Investment. The Customer Lifetime value measurement methodology will help you assess the profitability of marketing and promotional campaigns. It helps you decide which promotional efforts to keep or abandon. If you can increase the lifetime value of every dental patient, then your practice will see steady profits over time.