Best practices for TMJ and sleep dentists involve a comprehensive approach to diagnosing and treating temporomandibular joint disorders and sleep apnea. Key strategies include staying updated on the latest research and treatment modalities, utilizing advanced diagnostic tools, and developing personalized treatment plans tailored to each patient’s needs. Effective communication with patients about their conditions and treatment options is essential. Collaborating with other healthcare professionals enhances care coordination, while ongoing education and community outreach help build a trusted reputation and expand patient awareness of available services.
Transcription of Episode
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Hey, if you want to add more TMJ and sleep patients to your practice, I’ve got the guest that you need to hear from today. Hold on. Welcome to Marketing Chairside, and as I said, I’ve got an amazing guest on the show today. Dr. Jeffrey Haddad, how are you doing today?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
I’m great. I appreciate the amazing adjectives that you gave me, but I hope I live up to it.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Well, Jeff, I wanted to have you on the show today because I have dentists more and more these days asking: How can I add more TMJ and sleep patients to their practice? And you’ve been there. You’ve got an amazing story to tell. You started a second practice that’s just TMJ and sleep, and so that’s kind of what we want to talk about. But you also lecture about TMJ treatment and sleep apnea treatment. What are some of the most common problems you see on the TMJ side when people want to add more patients to their practice in that particular area?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Well, I think the biggest problem is that dentists just assume that because they have the skills, they’ve taken some classes, that patients are going to know what they offer. I just had a conversation last week with a dentist. He is very well versed in TMD and sleep. He is very skilled. The problem is he’s not doing more TMD and sleep. Well, why? Because patients don’t know where to find him, or they don’t even know he does it or offers it.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
So it’s all about marketing. When I say marketing, it doesn’t mean billboards and commercials. It means proper website, proper optimization, and then proper education of your present patient pool. I mean, we have gold mines in our practices, and most dentists assume they know what they do. Please do not assume. We all know what assuming does. Right? That’s the problem, is that dentists are not teaching their team and their patients what they can do. And if you educate your patients, you’re going to get more people to not only understand what you do, but say yes to this treatment.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Yeah. I mean, I would assume the same goes for sleep apnea treatment as well. The team, your systems, that all has to fall in line, but they still have to know about you, I guess. But are there other problems?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Well, I think you hit the nail on the head. It’s about screening. Right? So every patient that comes into my office, whether they are a new patient or an existing patient, goes through the same screen protocols. And let’s say hypothetically, you updated your medical history and was asking things like Epworth scale to identify say, a sleep apnea patient. Or you decided to say, “Hey, do you get migraines, or jaw pain, or vertigo, many similar TMD symptoms?” I update those intake forms for my present patients. So you’ve got to talk, you’ve got to open up the conversation because these people have no idea what you’re capable of. And by the way, you don’t realize how many patients are under your roof that you can help. So you have to treat everybody almost like they’re a brand new patient, especially if you’ve attained some new skills. Right?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
I tell all my attendees, on Monday, change your intake forms. If you have somebody who you’ve been seeing for 20 years, you give them updated medical history. And all it is: Do you get migraines? Do you get headaches? Did anybody ever tell you, you snore? Do you wake up gasping? Do you have low energy levels? You have to open up the conversation so that you can identify these patients, and then you go from there.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
So devil’s advocate though, because I kind of know the answer to this. But if someone just updates their forms on their website, and then those people start coming in, I mean, isn’t there a world where just asking the question isn’t enough, and they’re going to end up with either just wasted time and money or real problems on the backend if they don’t have some systems in place?
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Oh, well, absolutely. I mean, you have to … You can’t just talk the talk. You’ve got to walk the walk. Right? And in our courses, Jonathan, you attend a lot of ours, I’m all about team knowing not only how to talk to the patient, but how to move them from point at to say, point C. And it takes again, initially identifying and screening, having the proper conversations, and then having the next step in your systems and protocols that gets these people to the next level of understanding, so that they have the opportunity to say, “Yes. Oh, wow, doc, I do suffer from migraines and jaw pain. And wow, vertigo, that’s a TMD symptom, oh, my gosh.”
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Yeah. Wait, what can you do to treat that? You get people engaged. And you have your team on board. And you have to have the proper protocols so that when you identify the patient, you get them to the next step of understanding it, and then getting them to say yes to that treatment.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
And at your upcoming course, in fact, I’ll just quickly show over here with Myotronics, it’s in June here coming up. Myotronics is not a sponsor of the show. And Jeff, I know you don’t get any kickbacks.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
No, I don’t.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
But in this course, it’s sponsored by Pristine and Sleep Test and Prosomnus. Can you tell us a little bit about kind of the role that those play in the practice, and especially where sleep is concerned, why that might be key to getting the whole process together? I mean, in terms of making sure that leads turn into production revenue.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Right. Well, I’ll tell you, I’ve been lecturing for almost 20 years. Obviously, I get paid to lecture. I don’t get any incentives to promote these people, including Jonathan. I don’t. The reason I include them and I promote them is because they have helped me build my business. I only teach and encourage people to consider certain vendors that I use because I’ve used some good ones and I’ve used some bad ones. Right? And I’ve gotten to the point now where I know who I can trust, and who’s going to help me do the most dentistry, what I like to call life changing dentistry, that I can.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Life changing dentistry to me is getting people out of TMJ pain, living life to the fullest, getting back to quality of life with their families without dealing with headaches and jaw pain and all that. Sleep apnea, if you are too exhausted to live your life, life is not that great. If your wife is kicking you out of your bed because you’re snoring so loud that you’re disrupting her, life is not that great. So I truly believe this, and this is my passion, but it’s real. I like to offer life changing dentistry. And that’s, in my opinion, what TMJ and sleep patients offer me.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
It’s very fulfilling. It’s just a lot more fun. It’s a lot more fulfilling to me. So these people, Pristine, who is an amazing medical billing company for sleep apnea, which in my opinion is key because the majority of patients want insurance coverage. SleepTest.com, I can’t think of a more seamless company I work with. It makes life so easy to facilitate a sleep study at home. We get the diagnosis, we can proceed. By the way, all the stuff that happens with these people, all behind the scenes, I don’t even know it happens. All I know is I get to walk in, and I get to treat my patients, whether it be a TMJ patient, a sleep patient, all that other stuff is done by experts, companies like Pristine, like Sleep Test, like you, Jonathan.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
I mean, you know what a micromanager I am with content. And for a long time, did I let you even give me your content? I really didn’t because I didn’t trust you. But you now earned my trust, I not only am so out of that loop, which most dentists are. Most dentists are not like me, and I appreciate that. God help you, I’m glad you’re not. You don’t have the time, you don’t have the energy, you don’t have the whatever, focus. It’s okay. Get people on your team that can do the heavy lifting for you, with content for your website, content for your blogs, content for your social media, which is what Jonathan does. And then you get people like Pristine, who are experts in medical billing, SleepTest.com, who are experts in facilitating a sleep study.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
That’s the name of the game. Then you can do what you’re passionate about, which is treating patients for TMD and sleep apnea. I mean, that’s really what we want to do. We want to come in and be doctors and go home and be with our families.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
That’s right.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
That’s the goal. Right?
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
That’s right. And I guess it just kind of dawned on me, is that this is a cycle. We hear about a funnel in terms of sales. But it’s really a cycle because the more that your team is in line and your processes are in line to take advantage of the leads that come in the door, the more happy patients you have, the more fuel you have for your budget because you’re actually getting your return on investment. And then it just primes the pump and it starts going around and around because we’ve worked with offices where their marketing is just kicking butt. But sleep kind of fades into the background because they don’t have all those processes together, and they just can’t make it work. And that’s why I wanted to have you on the show. And I’m going to have to have you come back because we didn’t even really get to the story about your second practice.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
That’s true.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
We’re definitely out of time. And so yeah, we’ll have to have you come back again to talk more about that. But I think I really appreciate you sharing kind of your insights on some of the things that hold dentists back, so thanks for your time today.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
No, I appreciate it. Here’s a little teaser for the next one. Right? My practice that I started from scratch, TMJ and sleep, it’s The Michigan Center for TMJ and Sleep Wellness. It kind of started like a hobby. I love it. I’m very passionate about it. But it became very busy very fast. And my vision was that it was going to become a feeder practice to my general practice. And we will cover that next time, Jonathan. That’s exactly what has happened. The amount of dentistry that I’m doing because of the trust I’ve built with my TMJ and sleep patients in that other practice, it’s unbelievable. It surpassed all of my goals. So it’s something that most dentists, if they want to just infuse their practice with these different services, it will also translate into bigger and more restorative dentistry as well.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
Yep. When we record that and put that out, I’ll put that link in the description, so if you’re watching this down the stream, or down the road, and you want to check that out, click in the description, otherwise, subscribe to the … I can’t say subscribe to the channel because on Facebook there’s no channel, really. But just follow us for more. Jeff, thanks again for being here.
Dr. Jeffrey Haddad:
Appreciate it, Jonathan. Thank you very much.
Jonathan Fashbaugh:
All right. And thanks again to you, the viewer. We hope we provided value. Our goal is to just help dentists grow their practices. We’ll see you next time.
