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. The drill is required for many dental procedures. It is impossible to do a root canal or place a filling without a drill. The drill makes a loud, high-pitched sound that can damage your hearing.

The bad part about the drills is that wearing ear protection will not really help. Yes, you can plug your ears all you want, but the fact is that the loud drilling noise does not take its toll through your ear canal; it creates sound and vibrations in your jaw bones which then go all the way up to your ears. The damage to your ears comes from within your head and not the outside.

So, wearing earplugs won't do you any good here. The best recommendation that we can give is to tell your dentist to drill in short bursts instead of in a prolonged style. This will minimize the damage caused to your cochlea; it's not perfect, but it is better than the alternative. The drilling does not cause tinnitus but it can make symptoms worse.

Fillings and Tinnitus

There is a connection between tinnitus, and those unsightly fillings that dentists use to remove 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. If you have more than two fillings in your mouth, this can be the cause of your tinnitus symptoms. It has been shown that people with multiple mercury fillings in their mouths absorb on average more mercury per day than the World Health Organization deems acceptable.

These fillings, due to the high levels of mercury in your blood, can cause tinnitus, or worsen existing symptoms. We won't get into the science, but we can say that mercury-based fillings may cause tinnitus. Ask for composite resin fillings. We would recommend this regardless of whether you have 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

Other dental procedures can also cause or worsen the symptoms of tinnitus.

• Ultrasonic plaque removal

• Removal of impacted wisdom teeth

• TMJ

• Abscesses of the mouth

Dentists and Tinnitus

Not surprisingly, it is shown that a ridiculously high number of dentists in the word suffer from some kind of hearing loss in conjunction with tinnitus. This is related to what we discussed above about the dental drill. High-speed dental drills have been shown to cause or worsen tinnitus symptoms in an overwhelming majority of dentists who use them daily.

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. Dentique Dental Spa It is said that having your head next to a gas-powered lawnmower while using a dental drill is the same as working all day.

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 estimated to be valued PS5.73 billion a year. In the UK, there 49, 350 dental care professionals and another 32,900 who are working in the general practice sector.

As a dentist, your most valuable assets are your patients. It's not just about bringing in new dental patients. It is important to understand the value each patient brings to your practice before you launch a dental marketing campaign. The total profit, delivered over time by those patients is what can break or make your dentistry business. If you want to keep a steady number of patients and grow your business, you need to know what makes them happy.

Many Irish people now choose to have their cosmetic dental treatment abroad in countries like Turkey, Spain and Portugal. Some of these countries offer their patients discounts of up to 70 percent on what Dublin can offer. Perhaps these countries add more value to their dental patients, underlying the significance of why your practice needs to re-evaluate its marketing strategies.

Value of a new dental patient

Most dental practices allocate a portion of their marketing budgets towards acquiring and locating potential new patients. The amount of money that should be spent on attracting new patients varies from one dental practice to another. It is a given that marketing dollars spent to attract a new patient should not exceed the lifetime value of that patient to the dental practice.

Calculating the value of new patients is therefore a crucial component when determining how to allocate your marketing budget. Marketing experts have different estimates when it comes to the long-term value of a new customer. Some experts have estimated the value at a few hundred dollars while others put it well above $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. Generally, the estimated value of new patients given by the respondents was in the range of $200 to $3,000, with per dental patient average of between $900 and $1,200.

Determining Patient Lifetime Value

You need to know the lifetime value of each patient in order to build meaningful relationships with them. This way, you can structure and market your practice strategically with the goal of maximizing revenue and taking your business to the next level. 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.

Customer Lifetime Value is a vital marketing tool for any business. It is especially important for businesses that are relationship driven, like dentistry. Among the factors to consider in estimating CLV for your particular clinic includes:

• Lifelong Relationship: Total duration that an average patient spends at your dentistry.

• Average Annual Value (Average annual revenue): The amount of revenue generated annually by 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

Importance of Patient Lifetime Value Calculation

You can make more informed decisions about advertising and marketing once you have a lifetime value estimate for a new patient. 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 you invest $5000 into a patient postcard campaign and you believe the new customer will be worth $500, then you need to bring in at least 10 new patients to consider your campaign successful.

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, for example, be willing to receive less than $400? In all probability, you would ask for more.

Many times, dental patients seeking services during an emergency tend to go back to the dentist they see regularly. When calculating the value of a patient, you should consider how to convert an emergency patient into one who is a regular. Your dental office will be more successful and valuable if you can increase the lifetime value of your patients.

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 helps you in assessing the profitability of specific marketing and promotional efforts. It guides in highlighting which promotional efforts should be abandoned or kept. If you can increase the lifetime value of every dental patient, then your practice will see steady profits over time.