Tip 1: Be Thankful...Purposefully
Thanking your staff/assistants in the room in front of the patient is a double win—it is an extremely effective morale booster and even enhances patient loyalty. Better yet, it costs you nothing so what are you waiting for? Acknowledging others is always a good decision, takes nothing away from you as the team leader (because that is what you are as the practitioner), and even raises your stock in the eyes of your patients. Get on it and take it a step further by complimenting your staff for their skill set. Easy win!
Dr Adam Friedman
Washington, DC
Tip 2: Reducing Pain of Anesthesia
I use normal saline for many tangential biopsies, or at least inject it before lidocaine. This makes for painless numbing, because benzyl alcohol in saline is an anesthetic. The effects don’t last long, so be sure to hurry up. Also, if you do a little shave with only saline, the aluminum chloride will sting a little.
Dr Jo Herzog
Birmingham, AL
Tip 3: Transparency With Cosmetic Treatments
It is a good idea to record botulinum toxin and filler treatment sessions on a two-part, no carbon diagram form printed with red ink (so you can see your pen marks more easily). Show this to the patient while you discuss the proposed treatment. They can see the treatment and the price. Prominently have spots in the botulinum toxin and filler summary columns that note that “to maintain the benefits of treatment, another session will be needed in about [month].” Patients appreciate the transparency and clarity. Tear off the second copy and give it to them to take home.
Dr Kevin C. Smith
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
