Practice Management Toolkit How to Develop a Presentation David Schwab, Ph.D An effective and professional way to educate potential patients in your area about dentistry is to develop and present a short speech to community groups. Here are sometips: Start with a Catchy Title. The speech may be about "good oral hygiene," but that phrase is not an attention-grabber. An example of a snappy title is "Ten Myths about Dentistry." One myth is that losing one's teeth is a natural part of the aging process. You can cover the topic of oral hygiene, but the title itself needs to get people interested, so they will sit up in their seats and pay attention. What are the other nine myths? From your professional training and personal experience in your practice, you already know common misperceptions that many patients have about dentistry. Address each one as a myth, and explain why it is not true. Market the Presentation to Groups, not Individuals. If you try to arrange a public seminar for individuals to attend, you will need to select a date, place, and time and then work very hard to attract an audience. A less labor intensive approach is to look in your local Yellow Pages under headings such as Associations, Athletic Organizations, Clubs, Fraternal Organizations, Social Service Organizations, and Veterans and Military Organizations. Your local Chamber of Commerce can also supply a list of community organizations. Groups are always looking for educational programs for their members. Write to each of these groups, offering to present free of charge an engaging, educational program at their next meeting using your topic and an interesting title. Follow up the letters with a telephone call, and explain that you are looking for opportunities to get your message across to the community about the benefits of modern dentistry. You will definitely start getting bookings. Keep it Short. Dental professionals frequently attend full-day seminars. Your community audience, however, who are used to channel surfing with the television remote control, will want something very short and to the point. A good rule is to develop a presentation that you can comfortably deliver in twenty minutes. If time allows, you can take questions for a few minutes afterward. Keep it Moving. Don't waste time in a twenty minute speech on a five minute introduction. Step up to the microphone, start with something interesting and keep the presentation moving. Example: "Good morning. Today I'm going take just twenty minutes of your time to tell you about modern dentistry. You may be happily surprised by the information I want to share with you. For example, let me see a show of hands. How many people think that if you live to be very old, you are inevitably going to lose some of your teeth as a natural part of the aging process?" This approach does three things:
Use Slides Sparingly. In a clinical presentation to a professional audience, you may use a large number of slides. In a short speech to a community group, however, slides should be used as visual punctuation marks, to underscore certain points. Having ten or twenty slides to add visual interest to your presentation is a good idea, as long as the slides do not become the presentation itself. If you are merely the narrator of a slide show, then your presentation will not hold the audience's attention. As the speaker and the expert, you are the star of the show, the main attraction. By using slides sparingly, your presentation will be more effective. Show only Pleasant Pictures. Patients do not want to see intraoral slides that feature rampant tooth decay, advanced periodontitis, or blood. On the other hand, full-face photos of people smiling, before and after treatment, can be very effective, because seeing the person's face and smile makes the photograph less harsh. Be sure to secure written permission from patients before you incorporate their photographs into your slide presentation Save the clinical intraoral photos for the next dental meeting. Encourage Questions at the Conclusion of Your Presentation. If you merely say, "Does anyone have any questions?"—and suggest from your body language that you just want to get off the stage as quickly as possible—then you run the risk that no one will ask a question. It will appear that the audience was not very interested—which may not be true. Instead, tell the audience at the outset to be thinking of questions because you will allow time at the end to discuss whatever is on their minds. When you finish speaking, say something like, "Now it's time for some give-and-take communication. I want to encourage you to ask me some questions. Just raise your hand." If no hands go up, prod the audience gently. "Someone must have a question or a comment." Pause and wait a few seconds for that first hand to go up. If the audience remains quiet, come up with a question yourself. "Let me tell you one question that I am often asked"—and then proceed to raise a question and answer it. Then you can say, "But let's move on to your questions or comments." Usually by that time, the audience will know that you really do want to take a few questions, and a few hands will go up. By answering questions, you give the audience a chance for a dialog with you, and you help reinforce your expertise. Distribute Patient Education Information. In a short presentation, the handout should come at the end, not at the beginning of the speech. If you distribute materials at the beginning, people will be reading the material instead of listening to you. Another problem is that you could give away all your points in advance. If you give the audience a list of the ten myths at the outset, they may find it tedious to wait for you to work your way through the entire list. By giving the audience your handout at the end, you reinforce your points with a tangible reminder of your presentation that they can take home with them. Make Sure They Know Your Name. If your host agrees in advance, the handout you pass out to the audience at the end of the speech should include your name and office telephone number, and a message that you welcome new patients. Some organizations will give you a list of the names and addresses of the attendees. You should use this list to follow-up with a letter thanking them again for their attention and letting them know that you would be pleased to see them or their friends or family in your office to take care of their dental needs. If the organization will not give you a list of attendees, ask if you can pass a sign up sheet through the audience because you want to send additional patient information to the attendees after the speech. By making presentations to community groups, you allow potential patients to meet you and learn from you as part of an audience of their friends or colleagues. These presentations can go a long way toward "getting your name out" in the community. 
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