Many dentists will tell you dental consulting works. If dental practice management firms had no worth or benefit they could not stand up to harsh economic realities for long. What a veteran dental consultant brings to the table are systems and protocols successfully implemented in other practices that have been improved and tweaked over many years. Top dental consultants talk and network with each other. They pay attention to what works and what doesn't work across all dental practices. Key systems dental consultants implement:

1. New Patient Phone Call

2. Insurance Processing

3. New Patient Experience and Patient Education

4. Financial Arrangements

5. Scheduling

6. Confirmation

7. Unscheduled Treatment Followup

8. Reactivation

9. Huddle

10. Stat Monitoring

11. Daily and Weekly Checklists

12. General Policy Manual 

Questions You Should Ask

1. Do you and/or your staff have to travel or does the consultant come to you?

2. Is the program mostly one on one consulting versus seminars or courses with multiple clients in attendance? There are advantages to both.

3. If the dental consulting is one on one who will actually deliver the consulting? I recommend knowing who your specific dental consultant will be prior to signing on the dotted line.

4. Is program based on a specific dental practice management system? You want to avoid cookie-cutter programs. Ensure the program will be tailor-made to fit your practice's specific needs.

5. The cost (including travel expenses and downtime) is certainly not the only factor, everything else being equal, it is still a major factor to consider. It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little.

If you do a little homework it should be fairly easy to pick a reputable consultant that is a good fit for you and your practice. 

Reviews 

My dental practice is a rural solo provider practice.  The practice has always been successful but something was always lacking.   I did not manage the practice by the numbers and its shortfalls were overcome by sheer determination and hard work for both myself and the staff.ur consultant was instrumental in educating each staff member in what expectations are and how performance for each position is measured.   Staff members became more aware of their part in the overall success of the practice and doing their part.  Ultimately this led to a less stressful and more productive average day which decreased management stress and headaches and allowed life to be enjoyed just a little bit more with a little more time. We have had many changes in the practice after our initial integration over the last 1 ½ years.  Cambridge has been helpful in navigating those planned and unplanned changes.  My only regret is I had not called Cambridge sooner.

Kristin Rushing

I used Cambridge as well, it gave me a good foundation for employees to know what was expected of them as well as very detailed job descriptions that could be used to train new employees if I needed to replace a staff member. Mike also is good about coaching you so that you are knowledgeable about what your numbers and percentages should be but also things to look for when they are off. Everyone is accountable for their numbers and communicate better as a team. We all want to be more productive and time was spent looking into my specific concerns as well as reviewing all facets of the business. Everything was reviewed including input from staff on ways to improve the office. I feel the morale in my office has changed and we are overall headed in a much better direction. As a side note, I've used a different consultants previously and their moto was simply to increase production. Patients felt pressured and we still had communication issues among the staff.

Jeremy Johnson

I'm extremely happy with my decision to utilize Cambridge’s services. My consultant, Mike, has been awesome! I love that I can call or email him whenever and always get a quick response. He even calls and checks in if he hasn't heard from me for a bit. My production increased immediately after the first in-office visit and has continued to climb. The initial investment was recouped in increased production about seven weeks after our first meeting. My average per day production for the first four months I worked with Cambrudge has been 20-25% higher than the prior two years. In fact, all of the four months have had higher average per day production than ANY month in the two years prior to working with Mike.

Last month I produced more than I ever have in one month since starting my practice. On top of that is the fact that my staff is driving all of this growth! They tell me which op to go to and when, then they get all excited when we exceed our goals! These four months have been the best months of my career!

That's a lot of exclamation points! This is all to suggest that you give Cambridge a call.

Andrea Mulholland

I have been the owner of a general dental practice for ten years now. I work four days a week and have an associate who is with me for three days.

The practice has always done well but I knew there were many aspects of it that needed improvement but I didn't know how to proceed. I researched several practice management companies but decided to go with Cambridge because of their good reputation and because I didn't feel pressured.

Mike is the consultant that I have worked with for the past year and a half and he has helped my practice tremendously. He really knows the ins and outs of a practice but I appreciated that he didn't use a cookie-cutter approach. He really treated my practice like the individual practice that it is and I didn't feel pressured to follow any suggestions that I wasn't comfortable with.

I know there are a lot of management companies out there. I just really feel like Cambridge is one of the best and was the best for me and my practice.

Jeffrey D. Weaver

We have been using Cambridge we are really just getting started, but so far everything has been great. They really have given us the tools to quickly get our team focussed, and have created systems and measurable statistics for each area. YTD compared to last year, our production is up 12% (over $20,000).

Our office felt "stuck", like we simply did not know what we should be doing to get better. We knew the potential was there, but did not know the next steps to take. What we liked from the start is that Cambridge has been in every type of office and seen every type of problem/issue there is. Their ideas are proven and, so far, we have been very happy with the results. Our team is really pleased with the direction we are going.

We built our office and, had we known, would have started with Cambridge much sooner. Good luck with your decision. I think you will be very pleased with Cambridge.