Success in Dental Sleep Medicine: Making the Right Call

READY! …BLUE 42!… BLUE 42!…SET… HUT! HUT! HUT!

It’s a bright, crisp morning on the field and your teammates are lined up to give it their best. Everyone present has competition in their eyes and fire in their belly. As the quarterback, it’s up to you to set the tone and call the first play. Success is your responsibility. What is going on in their minds as they prepare to execute the proper strategy? Have they run the checklist of essential equipment? Did they study their playbook? Do they know their role?

Picking Your Team

The human race is composed of many personality types. Knowing the personality type of each member on your team is crucial to the success of your dental sleep practice. Everyone has their part to play; knowing which person is best in each position is key to a cohesive and effective team. Blending everyone’s personality into a team is crucial to success on the field. Pairing a outgoing, exuberant team member with a shy, quiet patient is not going to deliver the results you want. At N3Sleep, we see this kind of situation often. We have developed protocols that help our offices assemble teams to get the best results.

X’s and O’s of Formations and Audibles

You have done everything you can to screen and test a patient, but they fail to follow through on their end. How often has this happened to you? We see it everyday. Most offices really don’t have the right system in place to ensure every at-risk patient gets tested. These patients often fall into the callback stack, where they languish and the opportunity becomes stale. We can help your practice put multiple systems into place to break the cycle and move your patients through the treatment process. N3Sleep can train your team on the dental sleep medicine system and the 5 ways to move a patient forward to testing. We’ve studied this process and have the playbook to guide your team through the opposition.

Scoring Touchdowns in the Sleep Practice: The Consult

The Consult is the culmination of all your efforts. The patient has tested at-risk and is a candidate for an oral appliance. You need to connect with the patient so they understand the need to move forward, regardless of the cost. N3Sleep uses the acronym REAR: Relate > Educate > Agreement > Reward. Find common ground with the patient at the start of consult: Relate. Inform the patient that their condition will only get worse: Educate. Most practices never make it this far; they fall short of the goal line. When the patient acknowledges they have a problem: Agreement. Your team presents the solution, Oral Appliance Therapy: Reward. A cohesive team, with a tested formation, good communication and everyone playing their part: this is the game plan for a successful drive to the end zone.

Brett Brocki is CEO of N3Sleep, a national sleep consulting and training firm. If you need help getting your whole team on board screening for OSA, contact N3Sleep for in-office training for your entire staff.

Originally published in Dental Sleep Insider Magazine, November 2016