Patient education is an important element of dentistry, both in and out of the office. By using some strategic patient education your practice can both help improve patients’ oral health and improve retention rates. While nothing will replace in-person education during an appointment, dental education as a part of your marketing strategy can lead to more frequent appointments.
The Information to Share for Patient Education
While there are many topics in dentistry you could share as patient education, there are a few to emphasize. You can share why regular visits are important, which isn’t necessarily subtle, but also valid and important!
You can also share the types of health screenings that take place during appointments, and how that varies between pediatric and adult appointments. Because many people put off the dentist, and that’s not bound to change in the near future, highlighting different warning signs is also important.
By doing so, patients can have reliable information of what certain pain or other symptom may be signaling, and come in for an appointment.
Types of Patient Engagement Digital Materials
When considering how to implement patient education, there are a number of factors to consider, namely the types of materials. Blog posts and emails are a relatively affordable option, especially if one of your staff members are in charge of creating it. (As opposed to outsourcing the work.)
Another engaging option is video marketing, though that also requires more resources. Videos receive higher engagement than blog posts or images, especially when shared on social media.
Where to Share Patient Education Materials
These blog posts and videos are the perfect types of content for social media. The focus isn’t on selling your services; it’s to help your patients have the best oral health possible. These are also relatively “evergreen” pieces of content, which means you can continue to share them long after you initially post it.
If you’ve chosen the email marketing route for your dental practice, lead with educational content. Patient education should be your focus, instead of selling your services. By sharing this important information about dental health, you can put a proverbial bug in their ear about the importance of regular dental appointments.
We know patient education is important, though it can be hard to continue once the patient leaves the office. Social media and other marketing practices, however, give us a great opportunity to help patients better understand oral health while increasing the frequency of their visits.
