 Hello everybody, Andrew Maeski here with Dental L. So what do you do when you're waiting for a check? Okay, so these are things that I do that just seems to help to lessen the obvious of you're waiting for the dentist to come in to do a check. So number one is I will always book their next appointment. Depending on if you're the one who can do that, if you know how to do that, but if you do have that capability, it's such a good idea because that will take time. Say to them, oh, you know what? Since we're waiting or you don't even have to say that, but say, oh, you know what? Let's keep it up with every four and a half months because things have improved a lot, but the gums are still bleeding. So how about we book your next appointment? Do you prefer Tuesdays or Thursdays? You know, something like that, but book their next appointment. So that way, the front desk is happy, the patient's happy, it's just taking a little bit less time. Another thing to do is if you haven't done this yet, give them their toothbrush, toothpaste, and then make a little small talk. Like, oh yeah, do you use a manual toothbrush or do you use an electric toothbrush? Or what color would you prefer? You know, pink, purple, blue? Cause I don't want you to have the same color toothbrush as somebody else cause that's the worst thing when somebody else uses your toothbrush, right? You know, make small talk, I don't know, whatever. Another thing is ask them if they want some water. Nobody does this, but maybe they're thirsty or offer to get them some magazines. If I'm working at the dental office and I know that I'll have to wait a little bit for a check, then I will go up to the front, grab a couple magazines because you never know which ones they're going to like and just say, oh, she's shirky or it's just gonna be another five more minutes so I can keep you waiting, but here's some magazines for you. Or ask them again, oh, did you have any questions about anything cause she'll just be another five more minutes but it shouldn't be too much longer at all. Things looked pretty nice today. So we're actually done early and the dentist just probably wasn't expecting that. You know, say things like that. If your patient isn't interested in making small talk, that's okay, take your notes. This is what I do to stay on time. When I'm waiting for a check, I take my notes and write in the chart so I don't have to do it later. I have the worst memory ever. Yes, I can do my charts at the end of the day but I'll probably forget something. Write down what you said to the patient, write down what you had recommended, all of that. Take your notes, it does help. If you're doing all of that and still waiting, another thing that I like to do is say, I'm just gonna grab a couple things to help the dentist cause she might need me for something or I'll just say, I'm just gonna see if she needs any help. You might not be helping them. You might be doing your own thing but that's telling the patient that you understand that they're still waiting and you want to make sure, see if you can speed things up a bit. So when I do that, I leave the room and I set up for the next patient cause I can't really help the dentist. We're probably waiting because she or he is finishing up with the patient. So what can I do to speed that along? I can't, right? But I will do other things to set up for the next patient. I'll put the instruments through, because maybe your patient doesn't wanna make small talk and there's nothing worse than sitting in the room like this while you're waiting for the dentist. The nice thing is, I have my own practice so when I go to patients' houses, I don't have to wait for the dentist cause there is no dentist. So that's kinda cool. So that's never an issue but if you're working in a dental office, obviously that's a big issue, right? But that does help so much to just let the patient know that you are aware of their time. Another thing, if waiting a long time which can happen in some offices, you might always have to wait for a check. If you have that patient that you can tell is getting annoyed, you can say to them, I apologize, it's going to be a little bit longer. Are you able to stay? Because I probably shouldn't say this out loud but if enough patients leave because they're waiting for a check, hopefully the dentist will catch on like, okay, you can't keep the patients waiting for half an hour. I don't know about you but I've been working in offices before where the dentist has just taken their time doing other things that they really don't have to be doing but they're literally just taking their time coming to you for a check. They might be checking other people who have not been waiting as long as you. They might just be taking notes in a chart that can wait, they're just being them. If I can say that. So I have no problem telling patients, sorry to keep you waiting. Are you okay to stay another five minutes? If you have to go to work, I completely understand. I will just take off the fee obviously for the exam today because you didn't have one. So I do say that. That might be a bad thing to say though you guys. So I'm not saying do that unless you're comfortable doing that but that's what I do because again, if the dentists sees that enough patients have left because they're waiting for a check then maybe they'll think a little bit harder, right? And if you're waiting half an hour for a check you're now behind you guys half an hour. So that probably means you won't have a lunch. You'll be working a lot later. You'll be home later, I can go on, right? So that's what I do. I hope that these tips helped. Let me know though if you have any questions. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.