 Hello everybody, Andrew Majeski here with Dental L. So for every new patient that I see, child, adult, senior, it doesn't matter, I do a new patient exam. If you're in Ontario, we have to, I mean we have to. We are told it's mandatory however you want to put it to do a new patient exam on every new patient because they say the CDHL, they in Ontario say if we're not doing a full new patient exam, we might be missing something. We're not doing a full assessment. If we're just simply doing a re-care exam or a recall exam, a specific exam, we're not doing everything we should be doing. So talking to other hygienists who own their own business, they kind of say well I feel bad charging that $97 for a new patient exam when sometimes it's covered by insurance, sometimes it's not. If they're paying me cash, they don't want to see me for $97. So they just charge a re-care exam which could be $30, $40, whatever they charge for it. You can sort of charge what you like. But I charge that full new patient exam. I'm not worried about if the dental office did it, excuse me, if the dental office did it a year ago and it's not going to be covered. If this, that I charge for it because I do do a full new patient exam. I do a full assessment, everything. So I am going to charge for my time. If I do a full assessment for this, that is the best treatment for them. I charge the full price. So what do I do? So I will see the patient go over the medical dental history. If there is any medications they are taking, I take the time to actually save them. I take the medication here just so you know it could make the gums red swollen. This one here you're pretty good with. It doesn't cause any dental concerns. You know, so I will actually do the research on every medication they are on. I write them out so that that way I can show the patient. It just makes you sound as knowledgeable as possible, right? So I take the time to do that. The patients might not be seeing their doctor on a regular basis, especially if they're not taking any medications. It's probably because they haven't seen their doctor in 10 years, five years, whatever. So I will take the time to talk to them and say, oh, you know, well, you had mentioned you get a migraine once a week. Well, let's talk about that. Why do you think that that might be happening? Because they might not be interested in seeing a doctor, so just sort of helping them get through things might help them, right? But what I also do is I will ask them, do you have any questions? Do you have any dental concerns, any concerns? Let me know. This is a new patient exam. Talk to me about everything. I have the time. I will sit back. I will listen. If it takes two hours, I will listen to them, you know, because it is their new patient exam. I am charging them $97 for this for an adult. That type of thing, right? So I don't book patients back to back. I book actually every three hours so that I can sit and listen if they need somebody to talk to about whatever, right? The next thing that I do is I take intraoral photos of every single tooth inside the mouth and then I will sit them up to show them everything and talk to them about everything I see. If I see thin enamel, if I see stain, if I see plaque, tartar, if I see wear on the teeth, if I see nothing, if things look great, I will tell them that. I will show them like this tooth here looks amazing. This is perfect. See this tooth here? There's a little bit of stain but nothing to worry about. So I will take those intraoral photos to explain everything to them. The next thing I do is a full charting. So if they have any composites, amalgams, class 1, class 2, if there's any spaces, if there's any thinning enamel, if there's any wear, if there's any attrition, if there's any of that. So I will actually chart. Since I don't have an assistant, I actually record it on my Apple Watch. Thank you, Apple Watch. So they can actually hear what I'm saying. I am aware of what I'm saying too. So I might be saying, okay, the 1-6 has an M-O-D-V-L composite. There's no shadowing. There's no wear around the composite. It looks good. The 1-5 has an M-O amalgam. Possible leakage around the amalgam. It looks like an older amalgam might need to be repaired by a dentist within the year or two. So I will actually say things out loud so they can hear me. I do a full gum assessment, probing all of that. I say it out loud so they can hear me. I sit them up afterwards and I will show them the numbers in my dental software so they can see, okay, 4 is red, 5 is red. Okay, let's have a look at those areas here. That is this tooth up here. You see that? I will show them teaching models to actually show them where they stand and where they can end up, you know, that type of thing. I will even say to them, okay, so you are here. If they are, you are here. Okay. If you come every year, you will lose that tooth. You need to be coming every three months so that I can clean all of this away for you to get that gum healthier again. The bone will still be lost. You know, you see how the bone level is very, very low. White is bone. Pink is your gum tissue. See how that's low? It should actually be up high like this one. So I will take the time to explain to them. I will tell them, do you have any questions? I will show them how to brush. So you get the idea, right, you guys? I don't just do a cleaning and an exam. I talk to them. I show them. I spend, or sorry, I charge them accordingly. I do. It has happened where I know because a patient told me that they had their full exam by the dentist six months ago, but they want to be seen by a dental hygienist because they didn't have a good experience or whatever. I suspect they did do a new patient exam or a comprehensive at that time. When I bill my new patient exam, it might not be covered. I let the patient know this might not be covered, but you know what? It's needed. Sometimes I don't even feel that I have to tell them, well, it might not be covered because that's not up to me. I am a third party. They should know their policy if they don't. Well, I don't know what else to say, right? I'm here for their dental health, not their insurance coverage, okay? But you need to be confident. You need to show that you're the expert. If you say things like, oh, okay, so I'm charging you $97 today. I know it's expensive, but I have to because that's what my association wants. We did do a lot of work though. If you sound like that, they're not going to be confident in you. Don't talk like that. Don't say, okay, I'm charging you $97. People will say, okay, the new patient exam fee today is $97. We did a polish. We did a scale. That will be however much, how would you like to pay today? That simple. Show authority, it works, okay? Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope this helped. Please bill those new patient exams because you were a card you deserve to be paid for, okay? A lot of hygienists will do a new patient exam, put the code through, but then only charge $30 because they're hesitant to charge the $97. Do it all, you guys. If you lose patience because of that, you probably don't want those patients anyway. Am I right? Because those patients that are, oh, I just want to pay the $30 exam, they're always going to be looking for a discount. They're always going to be looking for a deal. So take my word for it. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. Click like if you guys liked the video and make sure to click subscribe so that way I know people are watching. Thank you guys so much for listening and watching.