https://youtu.be/YKCatslzGRQ?si=bWpe2Tjj81Ok1DKC

This transcript with our Jameson Files host Carrie Webber has been lightly edited for flow. To enjoy the audio, you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Jameson Hygiene Coaches Discuss Pain Points in Your Practice

Carrie:

Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Webber, and I am so excited today because I have more members of the Jameson team as guests with me. I have Becky Spear and April Welker. Both are Jameson advisors, both business and clinical advisors for the Jameson team. And so, thank you ladies for being with me.

Becky and April:

Thank You.

Carrie:

Absolutely. We are here together at the Jameson offices doing work on our own personal skills and development, just like we do with all of our clients, helping you to be better and better every day. We do the same thing. So we gather together, and we meet, and we work through areas that we can improve so that we're bringing our very best to our clients across the country. 

And the cool thing about Becky and April is, like I said, they're business and clinical advisors. So these ladies are both hygienists that have worked clinical and dental practices. April's actually still a working hygienist out in the world. And so they bring to the table in their work with our clients, not only the perspective of those business systems that are so important, but the clinical systems and how to truly have a high performing clinical team and hygiene team in your practices. So what I really wanted to talk about today is from your perspective in the work that you do with practices across the country and what you're seeing in the industry as a whole, what are the trends in hygiene specifically, what are the pain points that you feel like practices are struggling with, and where are those opportunities that practices need to perhaps put some attention on that could really help improve their practices from that perspective?

The New Periodontal Classification System Helps Patients Understand the Value of Care

Becky:

Right now, I think one of the big things that we are teaching in many of the practices that we go to is staging and grading, which is the new periodontal classification system. It's not a new periodontal classification system, but we are finally starting to get that into our practices, getting the documentation to be correct, because we know how important documentation is. And it also is a system that is creating some urgency, and it's more understandable, I think, for the patients, and I think that's why they came up with this. 

Carrie:

I like that. So it really plays a role in educating patients on the need for treatment and that focus on their ongoing health.

Becky:

Right. You know, we could say stage one to four in the past, you know, you’re stage one, stage two, or I shouldn't say stage, it was class, class one to class four, but now when you tell somebody stage 1, 2, 3 or four, we're used to hearing stages in the medical world. And so I think that's what they've done by bringing the staging and grading into dentistry. Now people who are already familiar with that terminology are hearing that in the dental office as well.

Carrie:

Such a great point. And any opportunity to help patients see the urgency of the need for treatment and the disease that's happening in their mouths is helpful. Do you find that when you're practicing, does it make a difference in terms of patient education? 

April:

Absolutely. I think that's a great point, Becky, too. And I think anytime a patient hears they have a stage of any type of disease, they're listening more. They want to hear what's going on. They are ready to sometimes accept it or not accept it, but they're more likely ready to hear what the treatment is going to be and move forward with getting that care that they need.

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