4Blocks: Assistants
4Block Roles
Assistants 4Blocks: Overview
Sense of humor is a common trait of great chairside assistants, but their Four Block Roles are STF2: Support, Treatment, Financials, and Face-to-face.
ST: Support and Treatment Support
Support
The ability to anticipate what the dentist needs is seamless in experienced assistants. Treatment
Treatment is not just the doctor’s job. An assistant’s preparation and training are mission-critical.
F2: Financial and Face-to-face
Financial
A great assistant is 100% in touch with looking after the patient financially, facilitating discussions about payment and benefit status. All of these relationship-driven financial communications are a key element of the value the chairside assistant brings.
Face-to-face
The Face-to-face opportunity unique to the assistant is inherent in the sheer amount of time that assistants spend with each patient. Monitoring, anticipating and managing the patient’s emotions is a spectacularly valuable part of what an assistant does.
Supporting the dentist, ensuring the highest quality of treatment, facilitating financial conversations, and keeping a personal and emotional pulse on each patient are the four key elements of the responsibilities of a chairside assistant.
4Blocks for Assistants - STF2
You handle a lot of tasks, duties, and situations working as an assistant each day, but you know you’re doing your part to help patients and the whole team when you:
1) Assist the team as multitalented support staff, using your exposure to all parts of the practice to enhance your understanding of the process of patient care,
2) Perform treatment tasks with an eye toward the full-team process of patient care and a commitment to excellence and patient comfort,
3) Maintain an understanding of the financial aspects of patient care and assist in the plain-language delivery of treatment and payment plans
4) Help develop and maintain patient trust and positive expectations toward diagnosis, treatment and overall experience, while maintaining warm, open communication with patients and teammates.
S=Support
You contribute to the success of the whole team and the practice as a business by supporting the process of patient care in a number of ways, from assisting in treatment with doctors to helping the hygiene department with instruments.
To help you master your role, you will be given Effective Actions (EAs) to focus on from time to time. To give some examples in no particular order, here are some 4Block tasks centered around S=Support that you will master working as an Assistant:
Multitasking
Four-handed dentistry
Room setup and cleanup
Using downtime to help hygiene department
Working with other doctor teams
Sterilizing instruments for your team and others
Sample Effective Actions:
1) Any time you flip a room for a bonus patient
2) Any time you flip a room back-to-back and have the patient leave on time
3) Any time you do instruments for another doc or hygienist
4) Any time you assist another doctor with a patient
5) Any time you facilitate a complete anesthetic setup in a hygiene room
6) Any time you coordinate and book treatment for a patient in a hygiene or doctor room, on the spot, swipe.
T=Treatment
In addition to the treatment you assist in, the treatment tasks you perform on your own are an important way that you care for patients, support the team, and contribute to the success of the whole practice.
To help you master your role, you will be given Effective Actions to focus on from time to time. To give some examples in no particular order, here are some 4Block tasks centered around T=Treatment that you will master working as an Assistant:
Taking radiographs
Intraoral photos
Computer input
Taking impressions
Pouring models
Sample Effective Actions:
1) Any time you take an impression for a night guard, sports guard, or whitening that was not pre-booked
2) Any time you take and explain an intraoral photograph to a patient during treatment
3) Any time topical is placed prior to the doctor entering the room
4) Any time you tell a patient to expect an after-care follow-up call
F= Financial
You contribute to patient care and the success of the practice as a business with your understanding of the financial aspects of treatment, which allow you to build on the trust you develop during the time you spend with patients to assist in plain language with the presentation of diagnosis, and treatment and payment plans.
To help you master your role, you will be given Effective Actions (EAs) to focus on from time to time. To give some examples in no particular order, here are some 4Block tasks centered around F=Financial that you will master working as an Assistant:
Completing preauths
Discussing insurance coverage
Payment and financing knowledge
Understanding patients’ financial perspective
Creating treatment and payment plans
Sample Effective Actions
1) Every time you discover a coverage restriction prior to treatment completion
2) Every time you discuss and coordinate the patient’s personal obligation for treatment
3) Every time you book an emergency patient for a follow-up new patient exam
4) Every time you comment to a new patient that they will love the treating doctor, prior to meeting them
F=Face to Face
Everyone in the practice needs to practice good Face-to-face. If we connect warmly on a human level to establish trust and open communication, we can give exceptional care to patients and support each other as a team.
As an assistant, you contribute to the positive impression patients have of the the hygienist, doctor, and the practice as a whole, and set the stage to build trust and loyalty.
To help you master your role, you will be given Effective Actions to focus on from time to time. To give some examples in no particular order, here are some 4Block tasks centered around F=Face-to-face that you will master working as an Assistant:
Preemptive positive comments about Doc’s and hygienist’s care
Explaining procedures
Patient transfers
Assistant-to-hygiene transfers
Making follow-up calls to patients
Sample Effective Actions:
1) Every time you reference a purple personal note in patient conversation
2) Every time the patient laughs
3) Every time make a purple personal note
4) Every time you make a positive comment about an associate dentist
5) Every time you make a positive comment about the weather
6) Every time you include an observing child in the treatment process
Tips and Tricks: Patients With Baggage
Patients come into the office with baggage. They have old and new anxieties and fears, on top of whatever stress in their life their appointment is interrupting. That’s their baggage. As they enter the practice, assistants help patients with their baggage.
Assistants are the first interface the patient has with the clinical staff. You welcome them into our home. Unlike a doctor’s office, we don't just leave patients alone to wait and worry. You begin the process of helping the patient relax by connecting with them, starting small. Ask simple questions about their comfort and concerns, and allow your questions to become more open-ended once the patient begins to open up and the back and forth becomes more solid.
You can see that as an assistant you have the key task of making that first connection with the patient, relaxing them and opening the lines of communication for everyone else on the team.
Tips and Tricks Face to Face: Professional, Not Personal
First things first. If you're working here, we like your personality and you have demonstrated the capacity for good Face-to-face. When you're asked to take a look at how to improve F2F, your personality is not being criticized. Your personality is your personality. F2F is how you connect with patients. We're never asking you to change your personality. Rather, we are asking you to consider how to take what works for you and figure out how to apply it methodically and predictably. Taking your natural F2F and analyzing and organizing your approach will help you naturally and comfortably interact with more types of personalities and people. It will expand your repertoire and help you keep the distinction between the personal and the professional comfortable and clear.
You, Doing Your Best To Connect
The two most common reservations about working on F2F are:
1) discomfort about being intentional with your communication, and
2) feeling you are somehow "not being myself."
First, we all intentionally seek to communicate effectively. We want to understand and be understood, and we learn how to do this efficiently because it's important for everything in life.
Second, you are always "being yourself.” F2F is you, being yourself, making an intentional effort to connect with a patient in order to care for them. It's a courtesy, it's a kindness, it's professional, and it makes all the difference in the world.
Remember What Works
As you know, it can take a few different areas of questions before you find one that engages the patient: weather, holidays, vacations, jobs and hobbies, current events, pop culture, etc. It's good to be organized about your conversation starters so you can cycle through them until you find what works. You probably wouldn't make a list of all the greetings and conversation starters you use with your family and friends, but doing just that is exactly the kind of thing that helps you use F2F as a tool in your dental skill set. You don't necessarily need to make a list on paper, but taking inventory will help you look at F2F as a skill rather than an aspect of your personality. Making that distinction will free you from any concerns about your ongoing effort to perfect your F2F and adapt to new types of patients, personalities, and people.
Be Yourself, Relating to Someone Different From Yourself
Sometimes a quiet patient is just nervous, but whatever the case, you aren't working against your nature to notice someone's communication style and match it in order to make a connection. Matching how fast or slow the patient speaks, how many words they use, and their overall energy level has the same effect as speaking someone else's language. It helps patients understand you and gives them confidence that you can understand them. It's a fair deal: if you meet the patient on this level, the conversation will flow more naturally, both of you can have a more pleasant interaction, and the patient will be much more comfortable and easy to work with.
Face-to-Face Tips and Tricks: Nonverbals, Body Language, and Posture
Never underestimate the importance of your body language. Nonverbal communication is the key to creating a clearly positive first impression to set the stage for the rest of your F2F. On the other hand, you can unknowingly put off negative signals if you’re not paying attention to your posture and facial expression. People automatically make a snap judgement about others based on their posture and facial expression, so it’s important to put some thought into these aspects of your presentation to be sure you’re “saying” what you mean to say with your body language.
Patients react best to an open expression with warm, natural eye contact and a smile.
For posture that radiates (and inspires) confidence, hold your back straight, your head high, your arms open (not crossed) and your shoulders back. These are subtle but effective communication cues, and they can be learned, practiced, and improved.
Developing awareness of how you present nonverbally will help you get the best reaction possible from patients. This will help you build rapport, open the lines communication, and ultimately, take better care of your patients.
Kids and Parents
Engaging with very young children creates bond between you and the parents as much as with the child. Smile! It’s simple, but it bears repeating: Smile! it’s contagious
How to Radiate Positivity
One way to get in the headspace for positive interaction as you prepare for your day is to consider that, because people will react to how you present yourself, you can make a choice about how the day is going to go just by deciding to focus on projecting positivity through your nonverbal communication and the perspective you take on the day. If you decide to project a positive attitude, you will not only do your part to nurture a positive environment in the office, but you will feel better, too. Use the fact that a positive attitude will help your day go more smoothly to help you “fake it ‘til you make it.”
T=Treatment:Tips and Tricks:
Efficiency, Thy Name is Assistant
From setup and organization to visual access, Assistants are the hingepoint for efficiency in the operatory. We love to collect and share tips and tricks. Here are some tips and tricks to help you be more efficient and inspire you to find your own efficiencies. Be sure to share yours with your teammates.
Mapping the Territory
Don't underestimate the boost you get from preparing for your day. Look at the schedule and plan ahead. Who's working? Do you know these patients? What can you plan on just by looking at what is booked where, when, and while what else is going on?
Passing
The Doc and the assistant always keep their hands clear of each other. To help compensate for the small range of vision caused by the loupe, when tools are passed to the doctor, hit their hand with the tool assertively as you pass it so the doctor can grab it without fumbling.
Visual Access
Visual access is all about two suctions: Saliva Jector and hi-vac. Saliva Jector for tongue retraction and in the back of the throat, and hi-vac. Visual access also involves using the air/water as much as possible.
Topical
Give the topical plenty of time to work. Start early, on dry tissue.
Someone to Watch Over Me
Stay with the patient while the topical is working. This is an anxious, vulnerable moment for them. Stay with the patient and talk with them. Help them get their mind off their teeth.
Don't Be Camera-Shy
Have your intraoral camera ready and take plenty of pictures. Not only will these be useful for insurance purposes, but these pictures are extremely impactful for patients as before and afters and to let them see what is being discussed.
F=Financial Tips and Tricks:
Make it Easy To Pay
Patients need to know that we will do everything we can, from maximizing their insurance to arranging payment plans. Money is an uncomfortable topic for many people, so we can't wait for patients to bring it up. Let them know we understand that affordability is a factor, and one we can accommodate.
Rule of Thumb When Discussing Treatment and Coverage
Patients don't understand every detail of their insurance, and they don't really want to. They do want to know if they can get the treatment they want done pain-free, in a timely manner, and how much of the expense, if any, will be their responsibility, and how we can help with that.
Unexpected Copays
If there's a glitch and there's an unexpected copay, tell the patient, "Don't worry about that. The doctor will take care of that."
Courtesy Treatment Is For Patient, Not For Us
It's important to understand where the patient's insurance is before they come in. Being able to do treatment as a courtesy is one of the great capabilities of a growing and profitable office. It all the more requires us to be aware of where each patient is in their coverage. Charity and courtesy treatments are done to help a patient, not to make up for our lack of preparation.
Patient Transfer
F2F establishes, builds, and maintains the connection required for the trusting relationship necessary to a good patient experience. That trust can be harmed or completely destroyed if we aren't careful when we transfer the patient from one team member to another. The final transfer from the operatory to the front desk is especially crucial. Think about it from their perspective: they have been sitting in an unnatural position for an hour or more. They may be anesthetized, uncomfortable, and a little disoriented. In a word, they are vulnerable. It's important that this vulnerability is understood, anticipated, and handled with care. It is unacceptable to send a patient down the hall to stand in line to pay unescorted, or hurriedly ushered and abandoned. Under no circumstances should the patient be unsure of whether they're in the right place or not, or be left to ask for themselves what to do next. When the patient transfer is handled correctly, it solidifies the all the warm connections the patient has made throughout their visit. If it is handled incorrectly, it will overshadow the positive aspects of their visit, and the patient may not return. The patient should experience a single unbroken chain of warm, supportive interaction. Walk with the patient back to the front desk. Make warm conversation. When you get to the front desk, bid your warm farewell. The front desk, will have noticed the approach of the patient already, and will initiate their part of the transfer.
By remembering how important the final patient transfer is, you preserve and build on the warm, trusting relationship each team member has worked together to build with each patient, and you ensure that our patients have a memorably pleasant experience each time they come to us for care.
F2F Tips and Tricks: Problem Patients
The difference between you and the run-of-the-mill dental professional is that you will never have a problem patient.
That’s because you have everything you need to handle any situation, and, really, a “problem patient” is just someone you don’t know how to handle. It isn’t much of a problem, if you know what to do.
Try to understand their situation. Put yourself in their shoes. Are they actually unpleasant, or are they just nervous? Are they going through a rough time in their life? Just relating to the patient can help here. Stop and talk about it. There won’t be any good care done while the patient is in a bad mood anyway. If it takes the whole visit to talk through their problem, that’s fine. If someone comes at you negatively, as a professional you have the ability to change the energy in the interaction. Treat them with more kindness than they give you. Be patient. Be unflappable if they seem to be trying to provoke you. Joke about not liking you, "I always give my hygienist a hard time, too."
If you respond to a difficult patient by trying to understand without judgement that underneath it all, they’re just nervous, uncomfortable, lonely, or whatever the case may be, these misunderstood patients often become the most loyal ones, once they are understood.
F2F Tips and Tricks: Talking about the Team
There are many opportunities to talk about how great the people you work with are, and patients love to hear it. From the patient's perspective, It's unpleasant to think that they lucked out when they got you or the checking dentist because everyone else is second-best. Even if it's only relative, there's nothing good about causing a patient to think about a bad dental experience while they're here. Instead, reinforce with the patient how competent and caring everyone on the team is.
There are opportunities when you transfer the patient, when someone pops in to ask a question, when you're informing the patient about what's happening next, or in the course of telling a story. "Doctor X is so great, they do my kids' teeth." "That's Susan, she's a great assistant. Her patients just love her."
Talking up your teammates is a small thing that makes a huge difference for the patient, you, and the atmosphere in the practice. We all work hard to make sure that everyone treats to the same high standard here. The more you talk about how great everyone on the team is, the more the patient gets a positive impression of the behind-the-scenes reality of the team. This gives them confidence that they will receive the best possible care, no matter who their next appointment is with.
Keeping in mind that the patient only knows what they see and hear, you can see why just a little bit of attention paid to answering their unspoken questions like "Did I get a good one? Will they hurt me? Who can I trust here?" are a powerful way to help a patient feel confident and comfortable.
EXAMPLES
Seeing a new dentist in hygiene
1. "Dr. Habib will be coming in for your checkup. He has been with us for number of years and is great. Patients really like him. He has been trained by Dr. Bob and provides excellent care. Sometimes we make fun of him because he looks so young, but he is very experienced.
2. Dr. Dave is our new dentist and is a great addition to the team. He was well trained by Dr. Bob and his team, and he is eager to provide you with the same level of excellence. Patients really like him. You are in great hands with Dr. Dave.
Seeing a new hygienist
Hi Mary. I know you saw Donna for many years. [The new hygienist] has been working with Dr. Bob and alongside Donna for the past 10 years and will take very good care of you. She is well experienced and very gentle. You are in good hands, please let me know if there is anything we can help you with.
New Patient
This is your first time to our office? Wow, welcome! We have a wonderful group of dentists, hygienists and other staff who will provide you with excellent care. Before we begin, what is your main concern or priority today? What can we do to make this appointment a comfortable one? Are you more concerned about your smile or just the cleaning? Are you in any pain?