From never thinking about cosmetic dentistry at all to becoming one of Liverpool's most successful dentists. From Instagram to the dentist's chair, this is the story of Matt Parsons.
Behind the funny and likable Matt Parsons, there is a dentist who takes risks, and this is not as common as you might think. When it comes to his journey in the field of composites, it all started when his assistant showed him some composite works on Instagram, and he asked her if he wanted to do it for her, there was an affirmative response from her.
So he went to do 10 teeth between patients. Matt managed to get the composite on the teeth, but they didn't look very good and he realized that in the time he thought he could do a whole set, he only managed to put up two power plants. He knew then that he had to learn how to do this properly, he called his friend from university and told him that he was going to enroll in a compositing course and asked him if he wanted to join.
“Make a really bad set of composites before you come to class, that will be your springboard when you have to redo them.”
That was in September 2018. Immediately after that, he returned to the office and implemented everything he had learned in the course. Mini Smile Makeover with Dipesh Parmar. Then he realized that by making a bad set of composites and learning from that mistake, he was able to know exactly what he had done wrong before. “"Do a really bad set of composites before you come to class, and that will be your springboard when you have to redo them,", Dr. Parsons claims.
When he set out to fix his nurse's teeth, he did such a good job that the nurse's friend asked him to fix hers too. This led to an existing patient who wanted to whiten her teeth but suffered from sensitivity, so he settled for a set of composites. This was the first "before and after" photo he took, and the practice shared it on their dental account. Matt's brother then saw an opportunity to encourage him to have own Instagram page to present his work, and he did just that. A exploded in the first two posts!
Boom on Instagram
Matt's Instagram account has reached from zero to 5k followers with a lot of work and patience in a period of 2 years and from 5k to 40k in a week. What's interesting, especially for a guy who's camera shy, doesn't want to be on social media, and keeps to himself, is how he's managed to do this. He's stayed true to himself, watching others and improving his formula.
It's time for the competition! Tag, like and repost!
Anyone who knows Matt Parsons knows that he's not a fan of appearing on the internet, and he kept his word. He let his work and high-quality photos speak for themselves and started doing what other dentists do, a giveaway, with two significant additions: the giveaway offered aligners, whitening, and bonding, which, in other words, is a competition worth entering for a patient. He also asked patients to tag him in the post, which is where he found his own unique formula.
“"I had it say, composite smile makeover contest, you have to like this post, comment on this post tagging three friends and all those friends have to follow me for your entry to count, choose your favorite smile from my page, share it to your story and tag me, and I think the last part was the one that no one else had done.".
After realizing that this method of interacting with his followers worked, he began to see that people appreciated different styles of composite look changes. Girls in Liverpool, with curlers and large false eyelashes, appreciated the squarer, whiter composite cases, and they liked, tagged their friends and shared the competition on their pages, while others liked and shared the more natural cases. This brought him a wide variety of patients whom he began to program and make different types of composites.
The secrets have been revealed!
The new phrase Matt now tells his patients is “Like, Tag and Share!” (Like, tag, and share!) The success of the contest caused his schedule to explode. For 6 months, he was busy with consultations every day, and his receptionist almost had a heart attack!
The phone was ringing non-stop. It was about five thousand requests which he and his team began to respond to. He created an online waiting list that encouraged a steady pace of patient response. This gave him a steady stream of people on whom he could practice his skills.. The more patients he can practice with, the more perfect his techniques will be.
Practice makes perfect. Excuse the pun.
He loved the fact that his work brought him patients who wanted to be in the dentist's chair, as opposed to those who were nervous and scared to be there. He had a blast doing his job. “"When I started doing this type of work and got patients on Instagram, I had a habit of giving them what they wanted.". He realized that he had defiantly approached cases that would have been better solved with methods other than what the patient requested. For example, he had previously fixed a patient's teeth with composite when they would have been better fixed with orthodontics.
“If it’s not the right option for the patient let’s look at X, Y or Z instead. The overwhelming reaction is: Thanks for the honesty.”
He never did this to take the patient's money, he simply wanted to keep the patient happy and agree to their terms. However, with more practice, he understood that with power comes responsibility, which can be the best outcome for the patient's dental future. “"If it's not the right option for the patient, let's look at X, Y, or Z instead." He's never rubbed a patient the wrong way. The overwhelming reaction is, 'Thanks for the honesty.'".
Even if the patient doesn't agree, it's always best to suggest other methods, because patients don't usually know what they want. He knew that he must trust himself and be honest. With all these years of practicing and improving his composite techniques and knowing what is best for the patient, he offers some super useful techniques to put into practice.
It's all about technique!
Tips and tricks are nothing without technique. Mini Smile Makeover Course taught by the king of composite – Dipesh Parmar, it delves into each of the best ways to build, shape and polish composites. It's all about technique! And that's what Matt and his friend learned in the class.
Overall, technique methods are a bit like getting advice. You have to practice, practice, and practice again, and after a while, you become confident and excel in this field. After attending the two-day course, which is full of informative lectures and practical work, he had a few golden clinical advice.
Clinical advice:
• Make sure to sand before engraving as there is plaque, tartar and calculus on these teeth. Remove all of this and you will be amazed at how much cleaner the engraving looks.
• Clean through glycerin. If you leave the uncured resin in the contact points, then the patient will go away and it will stain and discolor, then you will get that interproximal staining pretty quickly.
• Keep the composite thin, the thinner you keep it, the better it looks for longer, and it is much easier to clean, you no longer have dark interproximal areas.
• In the case of a diastema, choose where you want the contact point to be. If you have two centrals and they are the same width each and you have a 2mm gap, then you want to add 1mm to the middle of each central.
These are the top tips that have helped him achieve so many wonderful composite cases. These top tips have helped educate not only him but his entire team. In dentistry there is no “I” in the team. When you go to a super qualified dentist who comes highly recommended, there will always be a team to help you and he is very passionate about it.
There is no ME in TEAM!
Before Matt moved to the practice he works at now, he worked with an amazing team and realized that work isn't always just about waking up in the morning and making money, but also about a well-run practice and caring in the workplace.
“You want them to be empowered and give feedback, I think the traditional dentist and nurse model is a bunch of crap.”
He saw how being kind to nurses and other dentists benefits you in the long run. “"You want them to be empowered and give feedback! I think the traditional dentist and nurse model is crap.".
He knows that it's super important to remember that everyone is a human being at the end of the day, and while work can get stressful, everyone works better as a team. As a boss, if you're horrible to your staff, it's going to show in the quality of everyone's work, so it's important to create positive working relationships and a happy environment.
It takes two to dance tango!
Dentists and dental nurses have a stigma of work/relationship where dentists are known to be dismissive and rude to their staff… this needs to be seen as a thing of the past. Matt works in two highly successful practices that are run with kindness and empower the workers around him.
Being a dentist is one thing, but being a successful and happy dentist, who gets along with all his staff… that's something else. He knew that to be a valuable part of his practice involves not only skill and education, but also teamwork.
A lot has happened since he got his dental assistant training and attended the Mini Smile Makeover course. He was one of the delegates who actually put what he learned on the course into practice and now works for two successful practices: The Abby in Liverpool and Ruh Dental in Manchester. We’ve come to the end of Matt Parsons’ story, but if you wanted to listen to this episode of the Dental Leaders podcast, click here!
Source: enlightensmiles.com
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