 Hello, everybody. Andrew Majeski here with Dental L Mobile Hygiene. So let's talk about commonly asked questions that people have for me about my mobile hygiene business. So this is specific to dental professionals, I want to say. So not patients necessarily, but dental professionals. I have a list of questions here just so I don't forget. So I'm going to be looking at my notes on my cell phone a couple of times. But what people ask me first and foremost is, do you make any money? Is it worth it to leave your dental practice where you were working for somebody else? You didn't have a business concerns, business worries to work for yourself? Because yes, everybody thinks it's going to be amazing. You can be flexible, do your own things, but it's your own business. You have to think about the money now. You have to think about the finances. You have to think about ordering. You can't just order whatever you want like you might have at another office where you used to work. You have to think, do I have the budget for this? I have to be more conscious of it. Yes, absolutely. It is completely worth it. I would not work for somebody else in a heartbeat. Not even if they paid me five times as much as I was making before. Why not? Because, and it's not just about the money. It's because I like to be flexible. I like to make my own hours. Sorry guys, I think the mail is here again. Let me just pause this and I'll be right back. There you guys, I apologize. Literally, I tried to do a video three times and the mail keeps on coming. So I'm just going to pause it when the mail comes again and keep on going. This is what happens when you work from home. So yes, it is absolutely worth it. And it's not just about the money. It's because you get to make your own schedule. You get to do what you want within parameters with your patients. You don't have to think, oh, I have to bill this amount because this is what the dentist is telling me to. This is going to take me two hours to clean their teeth, but I'm only allotted 45 minutes. That's the best part of it. But what everybody asks is, do you make enough money? Yes, absolutely. When I first started out, I was probably seeing one or two patients a week because I did still work at a dental office. That's another question is, do you still work at another dental office when you are starting out? Yes, I did because I didn't know if I could do it full time right away. And I wanted to make sure that there was still money coming in. It took me about, I want to say a year before I fully just said, okay, I'm going to give this a solid shot. I'm busy enough. I can do it myself and just focus on my own business. But I would have left sooner, but it was around the time where I was moving cities and mortgage stuff. You can't just leave your place of employment. You need to stay there until you move into your own home. So I probably could have left six months into it, but I decided to wait and stick it out. And I am so happy that I did. Because once you do fully focus on your own business, you can advertise more. You have the time to do paperwork. You have the time to return patient phone calls, that kind of thing. So it's a lot easier and I do strongly feel that if you do have your own business and that's it, it kind of lights a fire under you basically so that you pretty much say, okay, I have to make this work. Because this is my only job. I don't have somewhere else that I'm working in case this doesn't work out. I have to make this work. So that's a very common question. Other questions that people ask me are, who are your primary clients? So are they seniors, adults, children? I see mainly large families. So families coming to me saying they have three kids, the mom, the dad, they need their teeth cleaned. It's been several years, but they just simply don't have the time to make it out of the house. They want to book everybody in at the same time, but the dental office only has the one hygienist, let's say. So it would literally take them six hours to go. Yes, I go to people's homes. So families love that. I can see everybody at the same time. Another question is, do you direct bill? People love that. I did it right away. It was a cash only, and then they would submit it to their insurance companies afterwards. As soon as I decided to offer direct billing, I had gotten a lot more patients like it was instantaneous. As soon as I had advertised and I'm now accepting direct billing, meaning I submit everything to the insurance and patients pay me the difference not covered afterwards. And I take it a step further. I submit everything to their insurance first. I wait to hear back from the insurance. It could be that day or it could take two weeks. And then I ask for the difference afterwards. Patients love that because most people can't afford dental treatment right away. They want to get things done, but they simply can't afford it right away. If a dental office isn't offering direct billing, they might not be able to go there or that's why they don't book their appointments every six months because they're like, well, I can't afford it right now. Christmas is coming up. I'll just do it next time. And then, oh, summer's here. We're going camping. Oh, I'll just wait till next year. You know, that's what happens. So just to make things as easy as possible. Yes, another question is, do I offer direct billing? Of course I do, as I had just mentioned. It's not difficult to set up. I had purchased a dental hygiene software right away. Dome track, which I can leave the link for you guys on the bottom. It's a dental hygiene software, but it does service. Excuse me. Dentists and denturists as well, but it's very cost effective. There are a lot of dental softwares out there that allow you to do paperwork, to upload photos, send claims electronically, print claims, print invoices, do the scheduling, all of that. But it can be 20,000 plus dollars. I'm a one woman show here, so I didn't really want to pay that. I don't remember how much dome track was. I want to say 3,000, it could be 4,000, but that's it. I pay for that, I don't have to pay more. If you want the updates and the service, which I do have, which is once a year, it's about $800 per year, totally worth it. But it's not $20,000, you guys, totally worth it. I was doing it on paper, all of that initially. It took way too much time. Oh my God, I wanted to rip my hair out. So getting a dental hygiene software was the best decision I ever made. I highly suggest getting one. You're probably thinking, I don't know if I'm going to be busy, I'm just going to do paper at first. I thought the same thing, but I quickly became busy and thanked my lucky stars as soon as I got that dental software. But they actually helped me get everything sort of going electronically because when I was talking to them at dome track to sign up, they kind of said, are you sending things electronically? I said, no, I've heard it's really difficult to do. I just send it all by mail. They kind of said, oh no, it's the easiest thing. Let me send you the links on how to get started, done. They were amazing. So they helped me set everything up. There is a process to go through, but it's the easiest thing ever, you will be amazed. And you can even sign up direct deposit too. So you don't always get checks. You get the payments sent to your bank, however you want to do it. There are still some insurance companies that send checks only, that's fine, but there are a lot of them that can direct deposit. So that's pretty good. Just checking out those questions again, you guys. Let's see. Oh, people always ask me, do I have a dentist where I send referrals to? So if I see patients and they kind of say, I don't have a dentist, what do I do? I don't have any specific dentists. And I kind of feel like that's a conflict of interest too. So I do always tell my patients, you do need a dentist, have a look, find one that's close to your home, however you want to do it, ask your friends, family, who they see and go from there. If you need help, I'm happy to help you, but it's as simple as doing a search online. I tell all of my patients, you should still see a dentist at least once a year for a dental checkup and x-rays. You might not need the x-rays every year, but let them make that decision. Cause I'm not a dentist, I clean teeth. They still need to go to their dental checkup cause I can't see everything. I can't diagnose things. So that's where dentists come into play. Is PPE more costly because of COVID? Yes, it is. I used to buy a 300 box of gloves for $9.99. Now it's $39.99, you know? So yes, things are more expensive. I, you know, depending on where you live, I need to wear the gown. I need to wear the face shield. I need to wear the N95 mask. Safety glasses, which I've always done. Gloves, I've always done. Hair cap, we need to wear that now too. So yes, things are more expensive, but you guys, it's a business expense. Don't even think about it. Order it. That's what you need to do to run your business. It is what it is. I'm just happy to be working. I haven't complained once. I probably complained initially cause I'm like, okay, now I'm like literally spending thousands more a month sometimes, but it is what it is. What else? Let's see. How many patients do I see in a day? That depends. I like to see two households a day at the most. It could have one patient per household or it could have four patients per household. That really depends. If I know I'm seeing a family of five, then my next appointment of the day, say that afternoon, would likely be a two-year-old dental hygiene checkup. They probably don't need a cleaning, but I get a lot of parents messaging me saying, can you just check my two-year-old's teeth, three-year-old if you see any problems? I see this little black spot. I don't know what to do. What do you think? When I get appointments like that, I save those for when I'm seeing a big family of five and then my next appointment will be something simple. I don't typically book, let's say, two households of five people each in one day, because that would be 10 people, which may seem very, very easy to you, but I do mobile dental hygiene, so I'm lugging all of that stuff in and out. I'm tired after lugging it in the house, honestly, not as tired as I used to be because I'm more used to it now, but I'm tired. So me having to do that twice and then see five people is just a lot for me. You learn what works for you. When I first started, I told myself, okay, I'm gonna see three households a day, two patients each, minimum. I told people I don't go to a household with one person. I do, but there will be more of a fee. There will be more of a mobile fee. So if you have two people, it's actually less of a mobile fee. So that's what I did, but I've since changed that. I'm perfectly happy seeing one household a day, two households at the most. So it really depends on what I'm doing, who I'm seeing. Do I charge a mobile fee? Yes, I do. I didn't use to, but it just makes sense that I do because it's a specialty service. That is like my time that I'm taking to lug everything in and out, whereas it'd be so much easier for me if people just came to me in my own office, which is behind here. But I still obviously love doing mobile. So yes, I do charge a fee. I charged a lot more initially, actually. It was about $25 a person, but I've since changed that. So in town, I might charge $10. If it's half an hour away, I might charge $15. But it truly depends. If I'm seeing a family of five, I might say, well, you know what, I'm not gonna charge a mobile fee. But then I might anyway, because it's still a lot of work. So I'm still kind of deciding that. But yes, I do charge a fee. Next question. How far do I go? I go up to one and a half hours away, only because places like Toronto, their traffic scares me. So I won't go to Toronto, you know, things like that. I don't mind going to little towns. Even if it's two hours away, I probably wouldn't mind coming to you as long as it's not Toronto or some busy place, just because that makes me uncomfortable. I like driving, but I also don't like driving. So crazy Toronto traffic, no, thank you. Do I use barriers? I hate barriers. Yes, I said it, I'm sorry, I hate them. What a waste of things to throw away. So no, I do not. What I do is I use a sheet over my patient chair as an example, and that's one per household. So I will launder that after every household. I disinfect everything. Everything that can't be sterilized, I disinfect. What I do is I spray everything and those things that can be disinfected like your air water syringe, your saliva ejector holder, that kind of thing. So I do spray everything first. I do wait about five minutes, sometimes 10 minutes as I'm like packing up things and then I will wipe everything. So I'm kind of disinfecting twice. I don't like barriers. You don't have to use them. It's recommended unless they tell me differently, I won't be using them because it's so bad for the environment in my opinion and it's a waste. So no, I don't use barriers. Let's see, do I have loops? Do I have a light? Yes, I do. So I have loops. I have had them for, I can't even remember, 12 years now. They help me see because they're magnifiers. I have a light on my loop. It's the best investment ever. Do not buy loops without a light. You're wasting your money. Just pay the extra to get the light. It's amazing how much better you can see and a better hygienist you are when you can have the light wherever you're looking. Think the overhead light. You have to move it. It's annoying. I'm mobile. So I don't want to bring in another light. So it's just easier for me to have a light on the end of my loops. Oh, good question. Somebody asked me what takes out most of your time in your business? Is it marketing? Is it calling patients back? This answer might surprise you. It's actually charting. Yes. So I don't take notes when I'm there with the patient. I have a recorder where I record everything. I let the patient know I'm turning this on while I'm counting tooth numbers, while I'm explaining your gingival condition, while I'm doing the perioproving. And it's kind of nice for them to hear too. So they will hear me say things like thin enamel everywhere, generalized 3 millimeter gum recession. There's a suspected cavity here and here, heavy tartar, moderate bleeding. They will hear me say this. So I can do my notes when I get home. But you know what that means? After a long day, I get home and I have to take my notes. Is the mail here again? No. After a long day, I need to come home and take my notes. That's the last thing I want to do, to be honest. I have sometimes waited until the next day, but oh my God, I'm exhausted and I'll forget the next day. Yes, I have my recordings, but you don't record everything. You just, you know, you think of certain things, you know, like I'm not going to say out loud, this patient's annoying and doesn't want to take the recommended toothpaste and they have a mouthful of cavities and I think they're going to get more. You know, I would never say that out loud. So things like that, I will write in the chart in a professional manner, of course, but things like that you just might not remember. So I try to do it at the end of the day, the same day that takes up the majority of my time. For new patients, you do the odontogram, you do all of that, you do the charting. That takes time, right? Right, you guys? When you see a new patient examine cleaning in your dental practice, it's probably at least 90 minutes, right? So when I go home, I'm pretty much spending 90 minutes per patient just doing notes, the medical history, uploading documents, sending to the insurance. Yeah, that takes up most of my time, but I love it and I'm not complaining. Great questions for you guys, thank you. Let's see, what else? Do I see kids and adults? Yes, of course. I see everybody. I tell every single patient that they should still see a dentist. If they have it within the year, I tell them as soon as possible, absolutely. Even if I don't suspect there's anything of concern which hardly ever happens. Just simply because everybody has something. It could be gingivitis, it could be perio, it could be suspected decay. It could be any of that. Another question, do I use silver diamine fluoride? Yes, I do. If you don't know what that is, look it up right now. It is genius. It's amazing. I use it multiple times a day in my practice. I use it on my own teeth. Basically, if there are suspected areas of decay, I put the silver diamine liquid over those areas and that will help to arrest the decay. It's great for children, think two-year-olds. They won't be able to sit down to have a filling, put the silver diamine fluoride on there. It takes half a second, literally, maybe a full second, but then hopefully that decay is arrested. Any other questions? Oh, did I take out a business loan? Yes, I did. It was about $25,000. People ask me, why didn't you take out a personal loan? Why did you take out a business loan? I did that because it was just less interest at the time. I fully intended to pay it off within that year, so I worked really hard to pay it off, but I did need the business loan. The expensive items were the Statham sterilizer. You do not need one in your own home. If you know of a dental office, that will let you use one, but I wanted one in my own home because I knew that I would be seeing many patients. That was the idea and all of that, so I'm so happy that I got one, but that's about $10,000. I needed the compressor unit that houses the air, the water, the suction, the high-speed handpiece and the slow-speed handpiece. I'm a restorative dental hygienist, so I can use the high-speed handpiece to place, polish, finish, temporary restorations, among other things, so that's why I did want the high-speed hookup. That was about, I want to say $6,000 for the compressor, but don't call me. Then, of course, you need the mask, the gloves, the bibs, the saliva ejectors. You need instruments. You need, like, polishing pays, you know, like everything. So, yes, I took out a $25,000 loan. I paid it off within that year, not because I made that much with my patients, but because I was saving every penny. I took extra hours at work where I did at the dental office. I worked really hard, but, you guys, I'm a saver. I'm not a spender, so I don't like taking out loans. So, when I did, I knew that I wanted to pay it off ASAP. What else? Mobile hygiene. If you guys think of any questions, comment below and I will definitely answer them while I'm thinking about it, you guys. I do try to get to my YouTube comments once a week. I apologize if it's longer sometimes. I get a lot of comments, which is wonderful, but sometimes I just don't have the time to answer them, so I apologize. But please do comment and I will get to you when I can. I hope this helped. I do teach a course for mobile dental hygienists who want to start their own mobile hygiene practice. I will leave the link for you guys there on the bottom. I go through everything in detail a lot more. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you, guys.