Dental Sleep Medicine Insider January DSM Insider 2018 | Page 6

ERIN ELLIOTT, DDS
CONNECT THE DOTS
D ental Sleep Medicine
(DSM) is hard….as hard as
connecting the dots.
Navigating the patient jour-
ney through DSM is really
just laying out the dots and
then connecting them for
patients.
First, generate awareness
among your patients by
placing posters and bro-
chures in your waiting
room and operatories. It’s
subliminal marketing. More
importantly, customize your
health history paperwork by
Including questions about
sleep health in your health
history questionnaire. This
creates awareness and
generates questions. Your
patient is interested. Now
what?
We inform our patients
that dentists are in a per-
fect position to identify &
often times treat snoring
and sleep apnea. I tell them
that snoring can be a sign
of something serious called
sleep apnea which is when
someone stops breathing
and that it is related to a lot
of negative health issues.
Fortunately, we can get the
patient tested at home, get
an easy to wear dental de-
vice if they qualify, get MED-
ICAL not dental insurance
to pay so they enjoy better
health and quieter sleep.
And a happy bed partner.
Note that I haven’t inundat-
ed them with a multitude of
clinical jargon. We’ve com-
municated on their level
and removed two major
hurdles that most patients
INTERESTED?
JOIN ME AT THE
NADSM SYMPOSIUM.
REGISTER NOW
ERIN ELLIOTT, DDS
Post Falls
Family Dental
Dr. Erin Elliott is a prac-
ticing dentist in Post
Falls, ID and is consid-
ered a national expert
in this growing field of
dentistry. She has lec-
tured extensively, ed-
ucating dentists on the
benefits of incorporat-
ing dental sleep med-
icine and short-term
orthodontics into their
practices.