Patient Experience: Follow Up Appointments

Frequent follow-up appointments are necessary to ensure patient compliance, to measure the progress being made with the appliance and to help troubleshoot with the patient any issues or concerns that they may be experiencing. Celebrating progress-because the changes that are experienced by the patient are sometime easy to miss during your follow up visits you can review the symptoms that patient’s presented with and you can evaluate how they are doing overall with their symptoms and with their growth and development.

You can remind the patient of this when you are sending a confirmation text or email, and or when you are calling to confirm the appointment.

• Child must bring compliance trackers and the appliance to the appointment
• Appliance

• Parent must complete a new Child Sleep and Breathing Questionnaire
• Review the compliance trackers with the child
• Examine the appliance – it should look cloudy and like it has been worn. If it is still shiny, clear and looks like brand new, talk to both the child and the parent about the importance of wearing the appliance, as directed
• Examine the child. Very often you will see changes in as little as 4 weeks. If you see changes, show the parent and the child what you are seeing. Tie the changes you are seeing to the child’s good compliance
• Ask questions of both the child and the parent – what changes are they seeing? Document responses. Review the new Sleep and Breathing Questionnaire and look for changes and improvements
• Celebrate success – Give the child lots of recognition for wearing their appliance. Praise them and let them know they are doing a great job. This praise should come from the doctor and the assistant, as well as anyone else who has contact with the child. Good compliance should be a really big deal and should be celebrated. This is how you get continued good compliance
• Document changes in the patient chart
• Document compliance in the patient chart
• Give the child new compliance trackers (coloring sheets and stickers or whatever tools your office is using
• Schedule the child to return in 4-6 weeks

• Sleep and Breathing Questionnaire must be completed at every follow-up appointment.
• Complete progress photographs should be taken every 3 months. However, if you see changes, it is a good idea to take new photos more frequently to show the child and parent these changes. You do not have to take a full set of photos – just take one or two new photos that show progress
• Tip – when you see changes and take new photos, email the parent the before and after photo after the appointment. This is a great marketing strategy! Mom will show the before and after photos to other moms. By emailing them to her, she can show them on her phone, where ever she is and is a great way to get referrals
• Continue to recognize and praise good compliance at all follow-up appointments. Celebrate changes and progress
• If a child is not being compliant, address the issue. Find out what are the obstacles to them wearing their appliance. Discuss these obstacles and help them get past them. Work with both the child and the parent in order to have success moving forward. Focus on their overall health and development.

You can remind the patient of this when you are sending a confirmation text or email, and or when you are calling to confirm the appointment.

• Appliance

• Adults should be seen every 4-8 weeks, as determined by the provider
• Sleep and Breathing Questionnaire must be completed at every follow-up appointment Appliance Feedback Form must be completed at every follow-up appointment
• Monitor progress and compliance.
• Review positive changes with the patient based upon what you are observing and what they are reporting on the Sleep and Breathing Questionnaire
• Complete progress photographs should be taken every 6 months.
• However, if you see changes happening, it is a good idea to take photographs more frequently. It is not necessary to take all the photographs, just those that show the changes taking place. Be sure to show the patient the changes you are seeing in the photographs
• New Home Sleep Test should be performed every 6 months

If the patient is not wearing the appliance as directed, talk to them. Remind them of their reasons for going into treatment and what this is going to mean for their overall health. Help the to overcome obstacles. If they are wearing the appliance as directed, praise them. Tell them how great they are doing – even adults like to be praised.

Taking the time to build a relationship with the patient can make all the difference. If they feel they can trust you, then he or she is more likely to have enough confidence in you and believe that following your orders is best.

When giving instructions to the patient at the end of their visit, replace dental jargon with language the patient will understand. It can also be helpful to have the patient repeat the instructions back to you so you’re sure he or she knows what to do. You can also provide them with instructions to take home.