Oral health is critical to a patient’s overall health but is only 4% of the total income of a practice, according to Financial and Productivity Pulsepoints: Vital Statistics for Your Veterinary Practice.

One way to boost that number is to add a recommended dental cleaning message at the bottom of client receipts.

An example of such a message would be: “Oral health is critical to your pet’s overall health. Dental check-ups insure that.” You can also customize the message based on specific patients' needs, such as by adding, “Your pet’s next dental check-up is due on _____" and insert the date. 

Other ways to boost oral health visits is to be sure your veterinarians are checking pets’ teeth at every examination, and are using the same grading for dental disease. You can also designate one month a year for “pet dental health” month and use that time to educate clients and boost compliance, note the authors of Financial and Productivity Pulsepoints: Vital Statistics for Your Veterinary Practice.

Financial and Productivity Pulsepoints: Vital Statistics for Your Veterinary Practice provides strategies like this, along with data about what other practices in your geographic and demographic area are doing so you can insure you’re competitive. Pricing charts are prefaced with a definition, analysis, and next steps for boosting your practice’s profitability.

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