 Hello, everybody. Andrea Terewski here with Dental L Tutoring. Let's talk about how to find patients for clinic when you're in dental hygiene school or dental assisting school. And I'll tell you exactly what I did, but you are all so lucky, okay? Because now you have the internet. You have Facebook. You have all kinds of things that when I was a student, we didn't have. We had Facebook, but this was like, I don't know, like 13 years ago, so Facebook wasn't really popular. In fact, I don't even know if we had Facebook 13 years ago. We had email. I know that much, but like things were just starting to come about. So finding patients was a lot harder. When I was looking for patients, I literally posted flyers like at the bus stop, the subway station, which is kind of dangerous too because anybody can call you. Anybody can email you and then anybody can show up, right? So is that really the best thing to do? Not really, but I didn't have a choice. Where I went to school for dental hygiene, my family lived two hours away, so they weren't going to come and be my patients. They pretty much said, we want to help you, but we're not going to come for your patients. So yeah, so that was kind of hard for me. So all my friends and family lived two hours away, so they just weren't options. When I was a dental assistant though, a dental assistant student, I went to school in town. So that was a lot easier for me. We needed 10 patients. That was it. And I just literally asked all of my friends and family and they said, sure. So that was a lot easier to find. And for dental assisting, you don't have as many appointments. So it was just easier, but so if you're a dental assisting student watching this, it will be a lot easier for you to find patients because you don't do as much and people don't mind sitting there for an hour or two for maybe two appointments. Whereas for dental hygiene, it's like six or seven appointments to start. But it's kind of how you spin things. So well, so first I'll tell you guys how to find patients. So the obvious is friends and family. Ask them. But now that you have social media to your advantage, post in Facebook groups. Which whichever town you live in, there's usually something called like, let's say you live in Toronto. Look up a Facebook group, Toronto Moms or Toronto, new to Toronto, Toronto People. Usually something like Toronto Moms or Toronto Buy and Sell, you know, things like that. Then that way you can advertise your services. So that will help you find people, honestly. Especially, like I said, the ones where it says like Toronto Moms, if you live in London, Ontario. London, Ontario Moms, you know, because Moms, they know other people, right? Like they talk to people through their kids' school, through the daycare. Their neighbors, they all like to get together so they know people. So even if that person doesn't want to come in to have their teeth cleaned, they might know somebody who does because you have to stress the point that you are a student and you need help. But also, they will have the best treatment possible because they have to do every little thing and be perfect at it. So there's no room for, you know, error, right? And most importantly for people, it costs so much less because there are people out there who don't have insurance. There are people out there who just simply don't have the money to go to the dentist. They want to go but they don't have the money. So stress the point that it is going to be so much less for them. When I was a student, what I did was now some people in my class actually paid for people to have their teeth cleaned. So they would advertise that they are offering teeth cleaning for free. As long as they can commit to all of the appointments, they actually show up for all of them because if you don't show up or if your patient does not show up for all of the appointments, they fail. Literally, they fail that patient so they have to get another one. So that's what happens to you too, right? So it's so important to find people who will commit to coming to all appointments. If you're talking to somebody and they're like, oh, well, I might be able to come to two of them. I have a really busy schedule. I don't know if it's going to work. Don't see them because if they come for one, great, that's nice. If they come for two, great, that's nice. But if they don't come for all of them, that patient likely will not count depending on the program you have. So look for people who are reliable. But as I said before, I did have some classmates offer cleanings to people for free. I didn't have the money to pay for everybody's cleaning. Like at my school, I think a full cleaning was $40, maybe $60. I'm sorry. I can't remember, but obviously not a lot where in the real world, a full cleaning is like $200, $300, right? So you save a ton of money, but I didn't have the money to pay for people. So what I did was I had offered them a nice little sample package. So I thought outside the box. So I would give them, I would actually pay for all of the supplies, but I would give them like toothbrush, floss, toothpaste. I even contacted a whitening company. So a tooth whitening company. And I can't think of the company now. And I said, like, I am a student. I am looking for samples to give to my patients. And they sent me a ton. So I could also offer my patients free whitening. So I thought outside the box here, and that helped people come to me. So I found all of my patients because at the time I would advertise, I advertise on something called Kijiji. And I said, I am offering. I can't think of exactly what I said, but I said, like, I am a student giving teeth cleanings for a much reduced cost. I am happy to see anyone included is free whitening and a free sample package. And people loved that. And then the patients who I saw, I would ask them and say, Hey, can you recommend somebody else to come to me because I need as many patients as I can get. So that's how I found patients. If you need help, let me know. But I'm telling you, you guys, social media is your friend. Post on social media. Don't be afraid, okay, to post on your personal Facebook page asking people to come see you. Tell them you are helping them out. And people love to help people out like I would help them out. But apparently there's no hygiene or dental assisting schools and Kitchener that I know of. So I can't really help out people, right? But it's so nice. Plus another thing that I just thought about, there are dental assisting groups and dental hygiene on Facebook, ask somebody to help you out because they had all gone through school so they know how hard it is. Ask people to help you out. So good luck. I hope you can find lots of patients and you will be done school soon. Yay. Have fun in clinic, you guys. Bye.