Zooming leads to Zooming?



 Many of my patients have been attending numerous Zoom session that show continuous closeup videos of their face. Unfortunately, some of my patients are not happy with what they see.  More and more, they are asking me about what are their options at improving the appearance of their smiles. The simplest  fix often involve the whitening of their teeth followed by some simple bonding procedures.  Many of these patients had been offered the option to bleach their teeth  prior to the Covid 19 pandemic but were uninterested. Now things may be different since  they have been forced to observe their darkened anterior teeth, often on a daily basis. 

More than a few returning patients have expressed interest in exploring their options for whitening. After a short discussion ,  most select a chairside Zoom whitening session to start. This may be followed by the fabrication of custom whitening trays to continue the whitening process or for easily achieved "bleaching touch ups"  afterwards , if desired.

Since I have been a long time  proponent of teeth bleaching ( I started advocating teeth whitening in the middle eighties) most of my patients have been offered this service multiple times and I thought , incorrectly, that there was little pent up demand for whitening services. I guess I didn't forsee the consequences of the virtual work place in 2020.  Given our present circumstances, it seems  that even those who had been previously disinterested, may now be more receptive to whitening , either through chairside whitening or using products designed to be used at home. For dentists it may be a subject worth discussing with patients during their recare visits.  

When Mcdonald's cashiers ask "Would you like fries with your order? ,"it is a lesson in marketing . Why not ask our patients about whether they have interest in hearing about options for whitening their teeth during their dental examinations?  Nothing ventured, nothing gained and after all, what's there to be afraid of, except maybe fear itself?




from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2020/09/zooming-leads-to-zooming.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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