Would you like your toenails polished with your dental check-up?
I’ve noticed some strange things going on in dentistry lately – namely, the proliferation of dental clinics that offer not only the standard services of dental care, but extras, all the way from massages to pedicures to aromatherapy to hand-waxing treatments.
Hand-wax treatments?
In the name of growing their revenue stream, I would have to assume, it appears some dentists’ clinics are offering a vast menu of spa-type treatments along with check-ups, veneers, whitening and the services patients expect when they walk into a dentist’s office for oral care. Why not style their hair at the same time?
I believe this is multi-tasking gone wild.
Some may say that the non-dental service of administering Botox that my clinic offers might fall into the “multitasking” category, like getting your cuticles trimmed. I would disagree. Botox administration is a medical procedure, conducted under the most sterile conditions by a professional trained in the musculature of the face and in the injection of this product, as I am. To me, it is logical to have a dentist, who knows facial anatomy – like the back of his hand – administer Botox. But the offering of spa services seems irrelevant to the dental experience.
I am all for patients being relaxed, and perhaps not inhaling medicinal smells that have characterized dental clinics in the past. At my clinic, we do our utmost to make sure patients are comfortable.
We do this by offering the highest quality of professional care, friendly staff, music, televisions, changing window décor to reflect the seasons, and dental-health related takeaways from the office, such air-travel sized bags filled with a toothbrush, paste, floss and lip balm. We build relationships with our patients so they trust us and our skills. We don’t feel we need to give them a mani-pedi to build that trust.
I think patients are sophisticated enough to know that paraffin-waxed hands and glossed nails are not the types of things that will make them choose one clinic over another. In my experience, patients evaluate things like the expertise and qualifications of the dental practitioner, the kindness and courtesy of the front-office staff and the overall physical surroundings. They want to walk into a clinic that evokes the feeling their dental needs will be looked after in the most professional way.
Spa services are nice, but I am not convinced that they belong in a dentist’s office. Would love to hear your thoughts.