Dentists, Here’s How to Build a Successful Sleep Apnea Practice

By Peter Blais, RPSGT

Pounding the pavement to get in front of doctors and sleep labs is the key for a dental office trying to build a successful sleep apnea practice, according to Pittsburgh dentist Nicole Chenet, DDS, DABSM.

“There is no magic potion or silver bullet,” says Chenet of Sleep Apnea Dental Center. “You have to pick up the phone. Go visit the doctors offices and sleep labs. They have to learn about you, and you have to learn about them.”

In addition to doing in-service training for sleep lab technologists at their places of employment, Chenet has also posted videos on her practice’s website that are useful for sleep technologists.

“They can watch me making adjustments to oral devices and other techniques I would use to titrate a patient,” she explains. “I had a technologist do one of the videos with me. The key is establishing open communication with the lab techs. That way you get better results with both the techs and the patients.

“When I do an in-service training, I always reassure the staff they can reach me on my cell phone while preparing the patient in the evening. This is important because many times a patient will return for a sleep study for oral appliance titration and possibly miscommunicate my wishes for what should occur during the study.”

Chenet says she is fortunate to work with many exceptional sleep medicine physicians in the Pittsburgh area. “I call them when I have a difficult case. The best are always readily available and easy to talk to. As a result, I see a lot of their patients and they see a lot of mine. You feel much better making a call when you are treated with grace and diplomacy. Dentists should treat doctors that way and doctors treat dentists the same.”

Chenet has additional techniques to build long-standing relationships and earn the trust of physicians:

• Speaking at events, locally and on the state level. “It takes a lot of time and preparation but it is important to be on the cusp of the latest research and how it pertains to our field. Keeping up with the latest research provides better outcomes and promotes informed discussions with our sleep physicians,” she says.
• In her own practice protocols, every physician that treats a patient receives a letter at the beginning of therapy and also when patients return to their physician to schedule a follow-up sleep study. “This is very important in building relationships,” she says.

Successful dental sleep apnea practices don’t just fall out of the sky, she advises. “Just because you go to a weekend sleep apnea conference the business is not going to suddenly be there when you show up at work Monday morning,” she says. “You have to give and receive feedback. Pick up the phone and answer doctors’ and sleep tech questions as quickly as you can. That’s the way you get patients and build a practice.

“Medical doctors are willing to work with me because I have made a point of letting them know I am available. You have to do the work to lift the barriers people think are there. An exciting aspect of being in dental sleep medicine is that we have broken the barriers that used to exist between dentistry and medicine. Successful outcomes are a result of excellent communication between the two fields.”