practice management
feature
The Ultimate Handover
in Your
Dental Office
by David Moffet, BDS, FPFA
I
If I do nothing else with your time
today, I want to share with you what I have
learned over the years: specifically, how to
create perfect protocols that increase treat-
ment acceptance and reduce no-shows,
reschedules and cancellations, all through
better patient handovers.
There is a spectrum of dental belief,
for lack of a better word, that our dental
patients fall into. And it’s not an evenly
distributed spectrum—nor do we want it
to be so. Imagine this spectrum as a line.
At one end of the line, all the way on
the left side, we have patients who leave
our offices with little or no idea of why
they have to come back, what they’re hav-
ing done when they do come back, and
66 JANUARY 2016 // dentaltown.com
what will happen to them and their teeth
if they do not act immediately and return
when we tell them to.
These patients are confused. Or worse
still, they’re not sold on the program. They
don’t believe us, they don’t understand
what we’re going to be doing for them, or
they don’t have the knowledge and under-
standing of what will happen should they
chose to avoid or delay their treatment.
After all, it’s not even hurting at the
moment, they say.
At the other end of the spectrum, on
the right-hand end of the line, are our won-
derful, loyal patients. These are the people
who do understand the reason and purpose
of their next visit. They know exactly what

they will be having done, they know why
they’re having it done, they know what
will happen if they delay or avoid their
treatment, and they would like to come in
earlier to have their treatment done sooner
if a time in our schedule becomes available.
Ideally we’d like a practice overflowing
with patients at the understanding end of
the spectrum—at the right-hand end of
the line. And it should be possible.
Every decision we make in our office
moves the patient either to the left or to
the right on this spectrum. The aim of our
office should be to ensure that all of the
patients we see complete all of the dental
treatment that is presented to them.
Truth be told, we all know that there
are people walking around out there in the
big wide world with huge dental liabilities
that they know about. These liabilities
are getting worse by the minute. Most
of them know the specific nature of their
dental issues because their dentists have
told them, yet they’ve still not taken any
action. These patients have shifted to the
left side of the spectrum.
And they’ve done so because they do
not understand exactly what they need to
have done, and why it needs to be done.
These patients don’t have what I call “a
clear next step.”
Clear next step
It’s not hurting, so why should they
get it fixed now? Why can’t they wait until
later? Or wait until it starts to hurt? The real
question is, why does this confusion exist in
the minds of our patients? After all, we’re
dentists. We’ve told them what needs to be
done. Don’t they understand us?
The problem is, the reason our patients
leave confused is because we’ve failed to
check off on all of the essential things that
we should have told them.
And most of the time, we’ve been so
brief with them that if they’ve heard us
telling them what needs to be done, they’ve
not heard it thoroughly enough for the
information to truly have meaning to them,
or they haven’t heard it enough times.
That’s why I’m an advocate for the
patient experiencing multiple handovers
throughout his or her visits. The patient
needs to be handed over by the dentist to
his or her dental assistant. The dental assis-
tant needs then to hand over the patient
perfectly to the front office person, who
then also needs to clear everything up with
the patient again.
The handover
And of course, in each of these han-
dovers, the patient must be included. This
is because every time the patient hears the
information passed on in the handover, a
practice management
feature
little more sinks in to his or her mind. In
general, I find that dental-office handovers
are not long enough and do not involve
enough people.
This brevity creates confusion for
the patient. How often do we see that
the front-desk handovers can be so brief
they’re almost curt? For example, “We
need a one-hour appointment for a crown
on 12.”
Sadly, this is what I often hear at the
back as well. The dentist will simply tell
his or her assistant what he needs next.
The patient isn’t included in the exchange.
And so we have a patient with little or no
commitment to the continuation of his or
her treatment.
There is no clear next step—and yet,
it only takes a minute more to convey a
clearer message.
So here’s what should happen.
First, the dentist should be commu-
nicating with the patient throughout the
appointment about what he or she is doing
and how things are progressing. At the end
of the appointment, as the chair returns to
the seated position, the dentist must take
command.
He or she needs to come around in
front of the chair, connect with the patient
visually and in person, and take the follow-
ing 10 steps.
1. Outline exactly what treatment the
patient received, including the num-
ber of teeth restored, the number of
surfaces, and the depths and severities
of each and every tooth restored.
2. Let the patient know what he or she
should expect to feel following the
appointment, including any possible
discomfort and the reasons why.
3. Communicate a clear message of
exactly what the patient is having
done at the next appointment. This is
not meant to be a laundry list; rather,
it should cover exactly which teeth
will be addressed next time, and the
reasons why.
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 practice management
feature

The aim of our office should be to

ensure that all of the patients
we see complete all of the
dental treatment that
is presented to them.

4. Let the patient know exactly when
he or she should be seen next. It
is the dentist’s responsibility to
create a sense of urgency for the next
appointment. If he does not, then it is
difficult for the person who schedules
your appointments to create that
urgency.
5. Inform the patient clearly exactly
what will happen if he or she does
not proceed with the treatment as
planned. The patient needs to know
what the consequences will be when
the next appointment is delayed or
ignored.
The final steps
These are the five clinical stages of
the dental-patient handover. The dentist
must now personalize the handover to
maintain connection with the patient.
It is this connection that solidifies the
relationship with the patient. Without
it, there is only transaction and trade.
Trade is what we do with commodities.
Our dentistry should never be treated as
a commodity. The last five steps ensure
that this is never the case.
6. Sincerely thank the patient for his or
her time today.
7. Thank the patient for being a great
patient today.
8. Farewell the patient with genuine
wishes of good health and well-being.
9. Connect, if you can, with some
wishes about any personal informa-
tion, some positive occurrence or
event in the patient’s future.
10. Look for a way to go above and
beyond the patient’s expectations for
the day.
This information may have been
something the patient mentioned to you,
or it may have been something the patient
shared with another team member, that
has now been passed onto you. Patients
love to feel that they are being treated as a
person—not simply as a set of teeth.
Always look for a way to exceed a
patient’s expectations. And this is not
difficult, because it’s likely that no other
dental offices in the area are doing this.
Conclusion
When you follow this simple 10-point
plan for creating the ultimate dental han-
dover, and you make it your office protocol
for all handovers, including hygienist han-
dovers and dental assistant handovers to
the front office, you then create a simple,
watertight system that works perfectly. It
will strengthen your relationships with
your clients and patients, and move them
toward that right side of your spectrum.
They will have much more of a con-
nection with you and your team, as well as
much more clarity about the importance
of their treatment plan. And if every
patient leaves with connection and clarity,
our appointment schedules will be all the
more full, and ultimately, our patients will
receive better care. ■

Questions for the author? Comment on this article at Dentaltown.com/magazine.aspx.

Author Bio
Dr. David Moffet is a dentist from Sydney, Australia, and the author of How to Build the Dental Practice of Your Dreams: (Without Killing Yourself!)
in Less Than 60 Days. He is the inventor of The Ultimate Patient Experience, a patient-retention system he used to build and sell his dental
office. Moffet now spends his time writing and lecturing, as well as coaching private dental clients in the United States, Great Britain, Australia
and New Zealand. His focus is on helping dentists improve their practices by focusing on customer service and patient retention. He can be
contacted at david@theUPE.com

68 JANUARY 2016 // dentaltown.com