How To Sell Fixed Roundhouse Restorations

Hi, I’m Dr. Todd Shatkin and welcome to this Monday Morning Minute. I hope everyone is healthy and safe and you’re all getting the vaccine because it is so important to get that vaccine to protect yourself, your loved ones, your staff and your patients. I’ve gotten my second dose, and I had almost no symptoms whatsoever other than a sore shoulder for a day. I highly encourage you to go ahead and get that vaccine.

Wear the N 95 five masks at work. I’m requiring it. I’m mandating it in my office that every employee wears an N 95 mask all day long while they’re here at the office. I suggest that to you as well. And we have millions of N 95 masks available if you need some, and we’re happy to get them to you at a very good price, $2 a piece.

We lowered the price just because we want every dentist out there to have access to N 95 masks. So if you need some masks, call and order your N 95 mask today. Today I want to talk to you about a very important aspect of dentistry, how to sell. And how to sell, especially how to sell the roundhouse fixed restorations that we offer our patients. Now, when a patient comes in my chair and they have a full denture, and they’re not happy with them, because most people, let’s face it, are not happy with full dentures.

Upper or lower? Mostly lower is bothersome, but the upper also. What I say to them is first, I say, I introduce myself. I’m Dr. Todd Shatkin how can I help you? What brings you in today? And they’ll usually say, I’m having a tough time with my dentures, or I don’t wear my dentures. Yesterday I had a man who said, I don’t wear my dentures. I can’t wear them.

I’ve had them for years, but I can’t wear them. I don’t wear them at all. So I say to them, are you looking for something that’s removable or permanent? That’s the first thing I say to them, because I know the answer is always going to be permanent. If I can afford it, that’s usually the answer.

Permanent if I can afford it. Because people have already had experience wearing removable dentures, and they would like the idea of something that stays in their mouth that they don’t have to take out. So I show them the options, and we have to have the models available to show them the options. So I do start out with the option of a detachable bridge detachable denture that snaps onto the mini implants. We can cut the pallet out and it’ll feel much better than their existing denture, and that snaps on and off.

They do have to take this out to clean it after meals. And I tell them that you’re going to have to take this out to clean it after meals. Then you can snap it back in. You can keep it in at night while you sleep. And they like that idea.

So I’m kind of building up to the ultimate, which is a fixed bridge, which is what I want them to accept. Okay? But I’m showing them an option to take either their existing dentures or new dentures and snap them into place. The next option I show them is the fixed detachable bridge, which is our fix on six option. And I go through this first and then I give them the pricing.

Fix on six option is a porcelain solution with no plastic whatsoever and nothing on the roof of their mouth. It is detachable in the dental office, not by the patient. And I explain that to them. The reason this one is a little less expensive than the permanent cemented bridge is we need fewer implants. We can get away with six to eight implants for a detachable fix on six restoration.

But the drawback of this is it’s a little bit thicker and bulkier than the cemented bridge because we have to have room in the bridge for the housings. Okay. And we now offer this I don’t tell the patient, but we now offer this in a couple of versions which is inclusive of the Zantex bridge. You don’t want to give patients too many options and too much information to think about. I keep it very simple. Three options. You can go with the removable, the semi-removable or the permanent. Okay.

Now the permanent bridge is what I call our Cadillac. It’s the best option we can provide for a patient. We put a series of mini implants in and we cement the teeth in. It feels just like their own teeth again. They never have to remove it.

They don’t have to have it taken out at the dental office. All they need to do is brush and clean their teeth and use the water pick just like they would with regular teeth brush. Electric toothbrush, electric water pick. Brush their teeth and rinse and they’re going to be fine as long as they stay away from things like popcorn and nuts that can get stuck underneath. If they do that, they’re going to have a great result.

So this is the ultimate and I tell them the price and sometimes they want to fall out of the chair because they can’t afford it. So what do we say? Well, we offer financing up to seven years. You can pay two years no interest or 3456 or seven years with low interest. And they say, well, that might work.

And the next thing you say is, how is your credit? If they say they have really good credit, then you immediately say, how much do you want to put down for the restoration? They can put 1000 down, 5000 down, nothing down, I don’t care. Whatever they say is fine. Then once they give me a number I’ve already got, I’ve told them it’s, you know, it’s $18,000 for a full round house bridge.

How much would you like to put down? I’ll put down $2,000. Okay, we can finance $16,000. I immediately turn to the computer and go to my finance page to finance the dental work for them. I log in and I go to the calculator.

If they want to finance $16,000, I type $16,000 in. I say, if you want to do 60 months, it will be 339 a month. Or we could do two years with no interest at 667 a month. Which would you prefer? And let them pick, or if they want something else, there’s multiple options here.

They pick the one they want. Then we go right to the application process and do the application right here with them in front of me. And within a minute or two, I have either an approval or a rejection. If I get a rejection from one finance company, I go to the next one. We have four.

Or I ask them, do you have credit problems? But he already told me he had good credit. So if they have good credit, we go right to the next application. Because sometimes one company won’t approve it. And this is an example yesterday. I tried care credit first. They approved the patient for $1,300. I went to Health Credit services. They approved them for $995.

I thought I was done. I wasn’t going to get approval, but I didn’t give up. I went to Patient Lending Club and they approved the patient for $10,000. You just don’t know which company will approve. And that’s why it’s so important to have four different options.

We have care, credit, health credit services. The ally which is part of ally. We have patient lending Club and we have GreenSky. We have all four. And now we’re adding patient five, which is another one.

We’re in the process of getting trained on that. You don’t know which company will approve the patient. But once they get approved, especially if they got denied from one or two before, all of a sudden they get an approval. They’re like, yes, I want to go forward. So to summarize, we give them three options. Always three options. Detachable denture that they take in and out. A detachable. Bridget gets taken out at the dental office or the cemented permanent restoration that never comes out in my office. For an upper denture, this is approximately $10,000.

With the denture and the implants, this one is approximately $15,000. For the detachable roundhouse restoration, it’s actually about 15, eight. And this one is about $18,000 for the cemented one. There really isn’t that much difference in cost between this one and this one. That’s why most patients will go ahead and choose the permanent restoration. I hope this was beneficial to you on this Monday morning minute.