Why you should shout about a quiet success

Robust infection control procedures are an essential part of daily dental practice. However, the words ‘infection prevention and control’ rarely generate much excitement amongst staff. When carried out correctly, infection prevention is often unnoticed by patients. It's only when it falls short of expectations that patients (and the press) start to take an interest. Attention grabbing headlines such as ‘Poor hygiene dental nurse banned from working’ (12 August 2015), ‘Some 22,000 virus risk dentist patients recalled by NHS’ (12 November 2014) and ‘Dirty dentists putting patients at risk of infection’ (Daily Telegraph, 7 October 2012) are favoured by the consumer media for their ‘shock’ value. Whereas the time and effort put into infection control on a daily basis by most practices is largely ignored. But, with a little bit of creativity and effort, these procedures can be turned into an effective marketing tool for your practice and used to give you a competitive advantage. Marketing your infection control procedures is inexpensive in terms of time and money. Yet if done effectively will help to increase patient confidence in the care your practice provides, leading to retention of your current patient base and an increase in new patient referrals. It just involves recognising and taking advantage of every available opportunity to ‘shout about what you do’.