Interview questions: 1.  What expanded duties did you do at Dr. ______'s office? 2.  What brands/kinds of cements/bonding materials are you familiar with? 3.  Per OSHA regulations how do you sterilize instruments? 4.  Explain how you handle a patient who shows signs of being afraid. 5.  What do you enjoy the most about being a DA? 6.  Are you wanting to stay a DA or eventually become an RDA? 7.  Why did you leave your old job?  8.  What are your strengths? Weaknesses?  9.  What makes you the top person for this job? 10. What made you decide to be a...

If you prefer not to discuss fees with patients when they’re in the chair, try something like this (in a kidding fashion): “You're trying to get me in trouble! I'm just kidding, but Mary at our front desk gets mad at me when I try to discuss fees. She always tells me if I stick to dentistry, she'll stick to her front desk duties. She'll take good care of you and will answer all your questions. She knows her stuff."   Kevin Tighe, Cambridge Dental Consultants, Senior Consultant, got bitten hard by the business and marketing bug during long summer days working...

A dental practice is too small of a business to afford any weak links. If you want to produce at a high level of production and efficiency, you cannot afford any weak links. Poor organization is also at the heart of patient complaints. Organization of a practice is, in essence, composed of ensuring you and your staff know how to efficiently and effectively process:  a. New Patients b. Returning Patients c. Emergency Patients Another action we take early on with new clients is to evaluate where the weak links are in handling new, returning and emergency patients and then systematically strengthen...

Some people interview well but are disasters as employees. Here are five secrets to interviewing a prospective dental office employees: 1. Engage in social conversation to make the job applicant feel at ease and to observe their ability to engage in social conversation. Are they too "serious" or nervous to do so? If so, they’ll likely be the same with patients.  2. Ask them about their job history. What did they like most about their last job? What did they like the least? Why? Get them to give you specifics about both to see if they will complain or criticize their...