Using ethical upselling to drive growth 

Dr Wayne Hirschowitz, co-founder at Active Aligners UK discusses the role clear aligners can have in ethical upselling.

The financial success of your practice rises and falls based on the ability of you and your team to deliver revenue. Just maintaining levels of sales is not sufficient as costs continue to rise, eroding your margins. 

Practice growth

Finding ways to grow is critical to the financial success of your practice. In a typical dental practice, it is significantly more expensive to acquire a new patient than it is to retain an existing one. The majority of patients prefer to have most of their treatments in house and not to be referred elsewhere, so it makes financial sense to keep specialisms in the practice. This has the knock-on effect of increased high value, word of mouth referrals. And the most cost-effective new patient is one who has been referred to the practice by word of mouth through a happy, existing patient.

The essentials of all medical treatments is a healthy baseline. Dentistry is no different. To gain a positive treatment outcome, it is imperative that primary dental disease is addressed first. Then more advanced treatments can commence with the knowledge that the patients’ best interests are respected. This approach will impress patients and is morally and ethically responsible. It is also financially beneficial to the practice. 

Patient selection

Patients with orthodontic crowding can have significantly more tooth wear, fractures, periodontal / decay issues as well as unaesthetic teeth than patients with a well aligned dentition. It is important to see the continuum of any care pathway and all its financial implications from the stabilisation of primary dental disease, through to aligner therapy and finally cosmetic improvement. Therefore, the cost of aligner treatment is only part of the care pathway. This must be relayed to the patient at the start of their journey so as to be transparent with costs and treatments and to ensure expectations can be realised. 

Initiate clear aligners

The use of aligner therapies today has improved beyond belief due to the advancement of materials and indeed knowledge. Active Aligners enable you to deliver clinician driven care at a price that will surprise your patients. 

Introducing Active Aligners into the practice brings the opportunity to:

• Initiate treatment with a strong margin.
• Increase staff utilisation and motivation.
• Attract more patients to the practice. 
• Improve affordability by facilitating payment in installments using split packaging.
• Manage practice visits using an accessories kit to help minimise chairtime. 

Once a practitioner has achieved a level of experience, a whole new world of aligner therapy becomes evident. Complex cases can be taken on with confidence including a combined fixed orthodontic / aligner approach as well as creating space or improving tooth angulation for implant placement etc. The opportunities are endless. 

It is common knowledge in dental businesses that premium treatments are where the financial rewards truly are. The benefits to the practice include securing the loyalty of happy patients that will need ongoing maintenance through to the referral of likeminded people looking to achieve their own vision of a great smile.

To start your Active Aligners journey today and drive increased revenue in your practice, visit www.activealigners.co.uk or call one of the team on 0207 307 5959.