Growing Your Practice By Incorporating Occlusal Therapy

According to the cover story of the New York Times Health Section, June 23, 2002, the top four chronic pain issues effecting women are related to occlusal interference. With so much recent media coverage, it appears the next big trend in dentistry as shown by articles in leading publications such as Time Magazine, Prevention Magazine and the longest message board thread ever on DentalTown.com, may be treating head, neck and facial pain (HNFP) as well as biomechanical dental disease caused by occlusal interference. Many of the leading independent dental educational groups, such as PAC~live, Las Vegas Institute, Rosenthal Group and the Nash Institute, which were originally focused on cosmetics, now offer extensive programs on occlusion.

The barriers to diagnosing biomechanical dental disease are several and often are cause for dentists to overlook this basic service. Here are some of the frequently cited reasons:

• These subjects are not taught in most dental schools and are only available in the form of post-graduate continuing education.
• Disagreement/debate among the experts in the field have created an environment that somewhat discourages new dentists from getting involved in the field and leaving the public in a state of confusion.
• Most patients suffering from HNFP don’t usually visit a dentist about the condition. Medical practitioners with no knowledge of the relationship between the bite and HNFP misdiagnose patients with “migraines or tension headaches” based on the patient’s symptoms. Diagnostic tools such as x-rays, CAT-scans or MRIs do not distinguish between migraines, tension headaches and muscle spasm pain caused by occlusal interference, resulting in the misdiagnosis and treatment of over 40 million people.
• Until recently, dentists and medical doctors didn’t have a simple device, such as the Best-Bite Discluder, that could assist in rapidly determining if a patient’s HNFP is caused by his/her bite.

Treating biomechanical dental disease and HNFP due to occlusal interference is already providing many dentists with the opportunity to:

• Address current patient’s pain with a new service
• Attract new patients who often need other dental treatment
• Distingish your practice as up-do-date with modern treatments
• Continual new patient referrals from helping people eliminate chronic pain

The purpose of this article is not to attempt to teach the science of occlusion to the readers. Nor is it to explore the various treatment modalities that are available to the dentists. I would rather focus on how important a correction bite can be in enabling your patients an alternative non-invasive drug-free treatment.

As revenue is one of the most important aspects of practice growth, let’s begin by taking a look at the economic impact of adding treatment for occlusion and bite problems to a practice. The data I am providing here as an example, is based on actual data obtained from three anonymous dental practices based in New York, California and Texas.

This study took place over six months. During the study, dentists created an awareness for the new treatment by target marketing. The strategy included running four ads in their local newspaper, mailing a direct mail piece as well as an ongoing survey of questions to existing patients who were in the office for unrelated treatment.

Patients were divided into two groups, either HNFP or biomechanical dental disease as their chief complaint. Biomechanical dental disease refers to any sign of tooth or gum damage, such as worn, chipped, broken, abfractured, loose, clefted, or receded gums that can be shown to be caused by tooth clenching or grinding. HNFP refers to any existing head, neck or facial symptoms regardless of prior medical diagnosis. These two groups were then sub-divided into “new” and “previously existing” patients.

Broken Tooth?

Wear From Grinding

Participating Patient Information
• Total number of patients included: 912
• New Patients: 22%
• Existing Patients: 78%

Analysis of Biomechanical Dental Disease Treatment
• Patients who needed treatment: 68% (478 existing patients, 141 new patients)
• Revenue generated from exams: $62,016 ($100 per patient)
• Accepted treatment: 23% (106 existing patients, 36 new patients)
• Treatment Revenue: $170,400 (93 @ average of $1200)
• Other Revenue from treatment acceptors: $64,340 (66 @ average $990)
• Other revenue from occlusal treatment rejecters: $282,792 (372 @ $760)
• Total related revenue: $579,5448

Analysis of Treatment For Head, Neck, and Facial Pain
• Patients who needed treatment: 19% (116 existing patients, 56 new patients)
• Revenue generated from exams: $25,950 ($150 per patient)
• Accepted treatment: 70% (90 existing patients, 31 new patients)
• Treatment Revenue: $356,950 (121 patients at average treatment $2950)
• Other revenue from treatment acceptors: $87,000 (60 @ average $1450)
• Other revenue from headache treatment rejecters: $18,460 (26 @ average $710)
• Total related revenue: $488,260.00

NOTE: All of the “new” patients are former patients of another dental office where they were not offered occlusal treatment

Analysis of this data demonstrates several key points. First, the higher acceptance of treatment among the existing patients compared to the new patients is likely to be driven by the comfort and relationship with the current dentist. This reinforces that occlusal treatment is an excellent opportunity to provide existing patients with additional value added services.

Second, since the majority of the participating new patients cited occlusion related advertising as their reason for visiting the practice, it can be concluded that this type of marketing was effective in generating above average new patient flows of 11 per month. Third, and most importantly, close to 50% of the total revenue was generated by the additional dental treatment that resulted from a visit initiated in response to concerns regarding these dysfunctions.

I would like to invite you to join me at DentalTown’s online forum devoted to TMD and Occlusion at www.dentaltown.com. Currently there are over 3037 posts in this category. DentalTown has established this forum to provide a place to discuss philosophies of occlusion, reconstruction methods, bruxism treatment and when to treat your patient’s condition with an appliance.

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Dr. Jerry Simon is an active dental practitioner with more than 30 years of experience treating bite dysfunctions, inventor of the Best-Bite‘ Discluder and founder of Best-Bite Inc. a company that provides occlusal diagnostic aids and educational resources for dentists.

He is also the author of a book, Stop Headaches Now: Take the Bite Out of Headaches (Wellness Institute, Inc.).

The book covers biomechanical dental disease and one of the most common causes of headaches-muscle spasms caused by occlusal imbalance, often referred to as temporomandibular dysfunction (TMD). The writing style, diagrams and layout of the book enable people of all educational levels including patients, non-dental medical practitioners and highly trained dentists to understand the relationship between head, neck and facial pain and occlusal interference. Chapters include: Headaches, Causes and Diagnosis of TMD, Treatment Options for TMD, Role of Stress, Biomechanical Dental Disease and Common Questions and Answers. Available for $16.95 at www.Best-Bite.com or by calling 888-865-7335.