Is healthy eating a problem in your home?

It can be difficult to encourage your partner and kids to make healthier choices.

But, having the right attitude can make a huge difference in how your family reacts, and subsequently whether they choose to eat healthy food, or not.

Here are 5 tips for getting your family to eat healthier:

#1 Ask them what they want
Find out what foods your family enjoys or what new recipes they would like to try, and then offer these often. If the suggestions are somewhat unhealthy, simply find out how to make a healthier version.

#2 Make gradual changes
Making small changes, one step at a time, is much more effective in the long run than trying to change everything at once.

#3 Make healthy food easily accessible
If chocolate chip cookies are the only ‘easy’ food available, that’s what they’re going to choose. So, if you want your family to eat healthy food make sure they have a supply of wholesome, ready-to-eat foods, for example:

Healthy granola bars

Fresh fruit salad

Frozen fruit, such as bananas, grapes or berries

Fresh fruit smoothies

Raw veg such as carrots, celery, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and red peppers served with reduced fat hummus, or peanut butter.

Mixed, unsalted nuts

#4 Subtly add healthier ingredients
Try these suggestions:

Add cinnamon, chopped apples, and raisins to oatmeal.

Puree vegetables, finely chop, or grate them to disguise in baked goods, curries, stews, sauces etc.

Choose whole grain breads, muffins, and pasta where possible.

Try using wild rice rather than white.

Add peas, beans and lentils to soups, stews, and curries.

Serve leaner meats such as turkey, chicken, beef, and fresh fish such as salmon, mackerel, and tuna regularly.

#5 Be their role model
You can have a huge impact on your partner and kids by simply following your own advice, but be careful not to aggravate them in the process! Leading by example, is much better than preaching at them constantly.

Many people suffer from dental problems and have to spend considerably for treatment. The damage or the dental infection might be due to the climatic conditions, food habits etc. It is better stop wasting the hard earned money and go in for a dental insurance. It is one of the types of insurance particularly designed to pay the costs or expenses incurred for dental care. The insurance companies pay a portion of the bills received from the dentists or hospitals or other dental service providers for treatment of patients who have insured with it. Through dental insurance, people from less financial background can manage sudden dental expenses.

Most of the people in many countries especially with United States have a dental coverage through their employers which is a part of the health insurance. But other than this many people are covered by any of the dental insurance plans. While taking insurance it is better to go in for a plan which almost cover certain essential medical expenses and it must allow the insurer to receive some good preventive measures.

Many dental surgeon or dentists do not have interest in participating in a dental insurance plan, because of more paper work in it and less pay, as dental insurance companies have so many restrictions on their plans and also on the payment of maximum amount annually. Each and every plan has its own advantages and disadvantages. Most common types of dental insurance plans are:

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)

Dental Health Maintenance Organization (DHMO)

These two are the top most organizations which provide health insurance. But the American Dental Association states that more number of people in United States do not opt any dental insurance plan.

In discount dental insurance plans they have no annual limits or no health restrictions or no paperwork. Added to this the customers have to pay either monthly or yearly membership fees in order to get these discounts for the dental services. In many case all the dental insurance plans list their details on price or fee schedule and also the discounted dental fees in their website or in their materials circulated among members and ensure that customers receive the savings correctly.

All the discount dental insurance plans are mostly designed for the people, their families or in groups, who are looking to save money on their dental expenses. The customers must be careful enough if they have discounted dental insurance coverage, because they will be left with some liability for the payment to the insurance provider. Make sure that the payment to dental insurance has been made properly and on time to avoid unnecessary collision. Before going in for a discount dental plan it is better to make a research on that. Opt for a legitimate plan and be precautious when doing so. Thus a dental insurance serves people’s need in many aspects.

Dental Spa Cosmetics Inc. is proud to introduce its line of dental spa products specifically designed for unique and caring dental practices by a dedicated team of dentists and cosmetologists. Souriretm dental cosmetics are an exclusive collection of cosmetics uniquely selected to be compatible with the dental office and treatment procedures so as not to interrupt professional care while at the same time introducing a positive and rewarding personal experience. Used with the Sourire Stress Management System and Accessory Products, patients can not only feel better during their visit but actually look forward to their next visit with you rather than stressing for days.

As a practicing dentist for over thirty years I have basically seen it all. I used to practice with 14 staff, 4 lab technicians and a whole bunch of stress. Today, I practice with 7 staff, three days a week, have a 7 figure income and also face far less stress each and every day thanks to the Dental Spa Environment. Let me help you create just such an environment in your office. Here are the Steps you need to follow in order to start prospering from the benefits of Dental Spa Cosmetics and Sourire.

Before you begin your dental spa journey you need to sit down with your staff and make sure that everyone is on board. Without the support of your staff, this new and exciting adventure just will never happen. When talking with your staff you need to ask yourself the following question, “How can my staff benefit from this new practice environment?”  Just to help out a bit, dentist to dentist, here are some of the answers:

·         The dental spa environment is just a better place to work. Patients that are more comfortable and less anxious are easier to treat. The person in the office that tends to bear much of the brunt of this patient anxiety is the staff. Removing even a small amount of patient stress will make your staff’s day better and more productive.

·         The more your staff knows and learns, the more productive they become. The more productive they become, the more important they are to your practice. The more important they are to your practice, the more they can and probably should earn. Just a suggestion…..

·         Dental Spa Cosmetics has a very generous Affiliate’s Program that can be shared with staff. By distributing some of the commissions to staff you can obtain their support for this new program almost instantly.

·         Applying makeup is just fun.

·         Doing something different is just fun.

Let’s Start the Sourire Experience!

Step 1.  An Attitude Change

Whenever you start something new there will be naysayers who will look at you as if you are bit nuts. Why does a dentist need to have a spa? Things have been going pretty good so far, why do we need to change? (So says your staff). Well, the answer is pretty simple. If things have been going so great that you don’t need to change, you won’t. But I’m guessing, with over thirty years of experience, that things can always be better. More pleasant days, more appreciative patients, more relaxed treatment visits, more engaged staff and maybe even more money and increased referrals. So, if you are looking to make a change you need to have an attitude adjustment.

Start thinking that this is the start of a new and exciting adventure. That today is the start of a new practice; a new Dr. (put your name in here). Start being a leader and get your staff involved in the planning. Ask for their help but make them understand that there is gold at the end of the dental spa rainbow and that they will participate in that financially and emotionally every single day.

Step 2: An Environment Change

Now this may be a bit tougher. You and your staff need to sit down and take a look at your office. Every nook and cranny; every chair, wall, floor and ceiling. You are what you look like! You do tell a book by its cover!

A whole bunch of clichés but they are clichés for a reason, they’re true! You never see a spa that looks run down, depressing and, well, like a typical dental office. They are always places to come to in order to relax and get rid of the day’s stresses. Your office needs to represent your new philosophy and appeal to your patient’s senses. It needs to look beautiful, smell good, sound relaxing, feel smooth and silky (this is a tough one) and taste, yes that’s right, taste great. We’ll get to that later on but suffice it to say that if you have a place to put out coffee and teas, you can also provide some nice tasting cookies, cakes and muffins or even better, fruit.

The first place to start making a change in your patient’s dental experience is in your reception area. First impressions do count. Spend a couple of bucks to make your office a pleasant and inviting place to visit. Normally this only involves minor changes but whatever changes are necessary will pay you back multiple times over the coming years.

Start with your reception area.

Does it look and smell like a typical dental office or is it more like a spa reception area or your very own living room at home?

Do your patients have to sit and wait in a depressing “waiting room” or are they welcomed into your home with only a minimal time waiting for their appointment?

Dental Spa Cosmetics can help make a change almost immediately, with very little cost, with our Aromatherapy products, Air Fresheners and Essential Oils.

Wonderful DVDs of the Great Barrier Reef (Coral Sea Dreaming) are also a cost effective way to spice up a boring treatment room. If you have a TV in your reception room why show depressing scenes from CNN when you can run a beautiful, calming video. You can also add baked goods from The Sourire Bakery as well. They smell and taste great and will be a wonderful addition to your new spa practice.

Treatment Room Decor

Once they leave your reception room do you have a comfortable place for the patient to sit prior to the start of treatment? Is the room private? Can you recreate a spa type feel while maintaining the true treatment requirements? This can even be a treatment room but some minor changes may be required to make it look more like a spa room that an “operatory”.

Start using Spa Music throughout your office space to appeal to your patient’s sense of hearing. We’ll talk later about introducing Souriretm Stress Management but for now replace the elevator music with simple spa music. Of course, you can get the kind of CDs were talking about online at our website, http://www.dentalspacosmetics.com.

Step 3: Introduction of Spa Services

Ok, you’ve had an attitude change, your office is looking and feeling like a spa and you’ve started to appeal to your patient’s five senses. That’s right. It’s now time to think about the actual treatment process. The Spa Concept will only work if you can work as you normally would….sounds simple but introducing this kind of practice change needs to fit into the daily functioning of your office. You need to continue to practice in an efficient manner while at the same time making your patient’s feel like they are in a totally different world…the spa world.

Souriretm Cosmetics and Stress Management was designed to be used efficiently during a typical patient’s visit. I would, therefore, like to break this introduction of Souriretm Spa Services into three separate steps. You can start by introducing Spa Services into just one of these aspects of dental treatment and then, when you and your staff are comfortable and patients are begging for more, introduce the remainder.

1.    Avant Traitment (Before Treatment)

a.      The spa feeling started in your reception room with fresh coffee and tea, homemade cookies and cakes from the Sourire Bakery, comfortable seating, wonderful sounds from Sourire Music Selections and beautiful visions from Coral Sea Dreaming each appealing to one of the five senses. Or something like that to start. Remember to start slow and don’t burden yourself or your staff with too much at one time. All good things will come in time so be patient and start slow. It’s real easy to make small changes such as adding fresh coffee and tea and then progressing to fresh flowers, homemade (don’t really have to be homemade, just look homemade) cookies and cakes, fresh fruit and the like.

b.      Think like a patient. They are sitting drinking their coffee or trying to read a magazine and they hear their name. The adrenalin starts to flow and the hair on the back of their neck rises. They envision some bizarre kind of dental torture akin to the vivid scenes in Marathon Man or The Dentist. Let’s change their minds once and for all! Start thinking like a patient and they will respond by treating you as a person and not just another dentist or dental office. Be concerned about their fears and concerns and make every effort to divert their attention away from the things they fear and towards things they want and need. Remember, to your patient the actual dentistry is probably the least important part of the visit…..

c.       Instead of seating your patient on time, take them in 15 minutes early and seat them in a treatment room (or another Spa room if available) and begin the Souriretm Experience. This unique process involves as much or as little as you feel comfortable delivering. Let’s give you an idea of what we mean:

                                                              i.      As your patient is seated make sure that the room doesn’t smell like a dental office. Use Sourire Aromatherapy or Essential Oils to mask the odor and set the stage for a more spa like experience.

                                                            ii.      Give your patient the option of either a Stress Reducing Biofeedback Experience with our Stress Eraser or Sourire Meditation.

1.      Biofeedback has been used for years to assist people in learning how to relax, fall asleep more easily or just provide a moment of reduced anxiety. It is a learned experience and a technique that can be taught and learned by almost anyone. The benefits are enormous and go way beyond the dental visit. At this time, if your patient has chosen biofeedback, instruct them on the use of the Stress Eraser provided by Dental Spa Cosmetics. (Another shameless plug I know) and watch relaxation occur before your eyes. You can even provide a take home device (either on loan or as a sale item) to your patient to extend the treatment at home.

2.      If your patient prefers a meditation experience you can instruct them that you will be providing a calming meditation experience that will relax them and remove any anxiety that may be present. Place a headset on their ears (hopefully acoustic in nature to block out all extraneous noise) and insert the Sourire Serena’s Garden CD provided by Dental Spa Cosmetics. This CD starts with 10 minutes of meditation instruction and then provides an additional 50 minutes of pleasing and relaxing music.

3.      Last but not all least is the application of soothing, good smelling and skin appealing cosmetics to both women and even men. There is nothing more calming that the application of moisturizers and masks such as Sourire’s Spearmint Energizing Mask or our Mandarin Balancing Toner while sitting and listening to soothing, calming music. Is this a dental visit or am I sitting at a spa? Get the idea….

                                                          iii.      All of the above should be applied by staff and definitely not take away from treatment time. This is a Before Treatment experience designed to de-program your patient from the events that transpired prior to their arrival at your office (traffic, kids screaming, boss ranting and raving) and their preconceived notions of what they believe to be a normal dental experience and instead create a new paradigm, one of comfort and relaxation. The patient should enter the treatment part of the visit with a different attitude and a different level of expectation. It’s now time for you and your staff to meet those expectations by providing the next Step in the Sourire Experience.

2.    Traitment - During Treatment

a.      During treatment the Sourire Experience continues. Your patient can still listen to the music they were enjoying during their Before Treatment Experience and additionally have other types of Sourire Cosmetics applied to make this part of the visit more appealing sensually. Possibly Sourire’s Shiitake Green Tea Eye Gel or Gotu Kola Calming Gel, both designed to enhance the dental experience. You can also place our Gourmet Lip Balm instead of that yucky Vaseline used so often in most offices. After all, you’re not just one of those offices anymore!

3.    Après Traitment – Post Treatment

a.      OK. The visit is about over. You’ve drilled and filled and the patient has been listening to soothing music, smelling the wonderful fragrances of Sourire Cosmetics and they are ready to leave. It’s time now to let them leave with a Smile.

b.      Take a moment to apply either a moisturizer such as Grape Leaf Liposome Moisturizer or our Licorice Root Moisturizer. Take a moment to apply Mandarin Balancing Toner to provide a soothing and rewarding end to a great dental visit.

c.       As your patient is leaving, offer them a sample of our Lip Plumper. Every woman today wants fuller lips and what better place to find that then their dentist’s office?

d.      Now for both patient and staff, and even yourself, treat your hands to Nourishing Hand Crème to reduce the abuse caused by the drying of gloves and multiple hand washing.

e.      Provide your patients with a beautiful Sourire Gift bag with samples of the cosmetics used during their visit and possibly other products you feel they would enjoy instead of a typical calendar, pen with your name or a bobble head doll with your face on it. Ask yourself, which would you prefer and how would you react to such a gift. Would you talk about it at home with your family? Would you mention it to you business associates or friends at lunch or at a meeting?

f.        As they leave allow they to “spritz” themselves with one of our Sourire Fragrances for both Men and Women or apply one of our Smile Enhancing Lipsticks which were designed to enhance the tooth whitening process.

Step 4: Practice Benefits

 I would imagine that by now you can see the amazing benefits that will accrue to you, your staff and your practice by introducing the Sourire Spa Experience to your practice. Changing the way patients think about their dentist, their dental visit and their dental treatment will:

·         Increase referrals of patients looking for something better than what they have had in the past.

·         Reduce stress in your practice and your life making each day a bit better than the last and allowing for a more effective and efficient treatment visit

·         Reduce cancellations and disappointments dues to fear and anxiety

·         Create a more pleasant environment for staff which will increase productivity

·         Incentivize staff to promote spa products which can then provide passive income to the practice.

·         Send your patient home with a Sourire Gift bag so that they can become your Missionary, telling their friends, family and business associates about their amazing Sourire Spa Experience.

We hope you will find this brief step by step introduction of the Sourire Experience to be helpful as you start this new and exciting adventure into exceptional patient relations. Please feel free to call upon us at any time should you have any questions or suggestions.