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How would you like 7% of your community blazing a path to your front door? With 20+ million diabetics in the United States, this means one in fourteen people, or about 7% of your community has diabetes. The question is: Who is their dentist? Or more precisely: Who should be their dentist? Diabetics have special dental needs and usually have more dental problems to correct. As a group they have more dental decay, missing teeth, and periodontal disease – all conditions most dentists are very eager to see walk through their front door! People with diabetes face a tough uphill battle with their health. It is an expensive and life-threatening condition – often referred to as a “slow death!” They are therefore very focused on health and lifestyle matters related to this disease. The good news is that it can be managed with proper treatment and tight lifestyle control, making it possible for diabetics to generally lead very normal lives! Emerging science over the past few years has confirmed the important role that oral health plays in diabetes. We’ve discovered that it is a double-ended arrow: Poor glycemic control can create oral health complications, as well as periodontal disease can make it The addition of the dentist to the “Diabetic Team” has elevated the role of the dentist to an important place in the life of every diabetic patient. The science is demanding that every diabetic patient have regular dental and periodontal care. Some savvy and proactive dentists are gaining the necessary skills to treat this population and are positioning themselves to be the preferred provider of dental services in their general and medical community. The unique thing about this specific patient population is that it is a rather tightly identified sub-niche of the population. Diabetics are very well informed about how they must eat, live, and take care of themselves – just to survive! Dentistry now finds itself squarely in the middle of this equation, yet it has generally failed to prepare individual dentists on the unique needs they have. Therefore most dentists don’t even understand these needs or that there is anything special about the care they must render to diabetics. “Oral Health for Diabetics” is a dental practice marketing program that will help you to become the recognized ‘expert’ in your community for this unique patient population. It is “niche” or “target” marketing at its finest. Savvy dentists who want to help diabetics and benefit themselves from so doing can therefore “define” the conversation in their favor by positioning their message and practice to meet the real and perceived needs of this target group of patients.
The “riches in niches” concept is about understanding how to identify a small tight niche in the population, discover their specific felt needs, and position your practice correctly to give them what they need and want; and then drive (dive) deeply into that niche!
As treating physicians, podiatrists, optometrists, endocrinologists, diabetic educators, pharmacists, diabetic support groups, dietitians, diabetic learning centers, and diabetic patients themselves become aware of your presence and expertise in this area, you will quickly become the preferred dental health provider – precisely because you have become the knowledgeable dental expert in this area. Just like a Lexus or Mercedes owner takes their car to a mechanic who knows how to maintain their special car, so likewise does a diabetic take their condition to “experts” who know how to best maintain their health. There is little “wiggle-room” in this health equation because the consequences are so stark!
Just as you would take your special car to a special mechanic, a diabetic patient is far more likely to take their special needs to a “special dentist” who truly understands their condition and how to help them avoid such oral complications and catastrophes such as “mouth amputation!” In fact, few diabetics would sit still if they knew that their sick mouth was the source of the very risk factors that complicate diabetic control and create heart disease! The question begging for an answer is “how do you become that special dentist?” When you become an “Oral Health for Diabetics” dentist, it elevates and positions you in your community to be the “go-to” dental office for diabetics. You are not “just any dentist” anymore! You don’t and won’t just do “cleanings” for diabetic patients. You won’t watch and observe these patients with special needs. You really will become the “Diabetic’s Dentist!” Sadly, few general dentists truly understand all the special problems and nuances of diabetes and how it reflects upon oral health and vice versa. But within this sad fact lies opportunity for those who would want to differentiate themselves and stand apart from the crowd. Those who make the effort to understand diabetes (or who are diabetic themselves) have an opportunity to “relate” to this unique niche in remarkable and profitable ways. People with diabetes already know that this disease can harm their eyes, nerves, feet, kidneys, and heart. Now they are discovering the oral complications of diabetes and are in need of uniquely qualified and knowledgeable dentists who know how to help them specifically. Seven percent of your city’s population is in need of a dentist who will step up to help them. “Oral Health for Diabetics” can be just the ticket to help you package and present yourself to both the public and the medical community. |
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difficult to achieve good glycemic control. It is now deemed essential to reduce oxidative stress and systemic inflammation, something that is now “front and center” on dentistry’s stage. 
Similarly, when other health professionals on the “Diabetic Team” become aware of the invaluable contribution you can make to their patients, they will recognize you and endorse your dental practice to their patients.
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