Getting to Know Our Newest Class of Save Your Tooth Month Social Media ‘Endofluencers’
Presenting the newest class of social media "endofluencers"! These 10 accounts demonstrated creativity and true Save Your Tooth Month spirit, and though Save Your Tooth Month is over, we think you should follow them all year round for inspiration! And now, we'll help you get to know the people behind these great social media "movers and shakers":
@rootcanaldocs
Account Architect: Kimberly Middlekauff
Practice: Root Canal Specialty Associates
The Other Names Behind the Profile: Drs. Martha Zinderman, Young Bin Bok, Steven Edlund, Christopher McWatters, Nicholas Pelachyk, Andrew Racek, Michael Shapiro, Jae Shin, and Dmitry Vodopyanov
"Save Your Tooth Month is about showing our dedication to advancing the field of endodontics, providing excellent patient care, and saving natural smiles!"
Best practices: "Our advice is to…
1. Make a plan. Identify your audience, their needs/challenges and create a strategy that is relevant for them.
2. Content. Identify a few themes to address consistently and leave room for spontaneous posts that could be relevant.
3. Stay consistent. Create a frequency/posting plan to keep your profile ranks high.
Our favorite platform for reaching patients is Facebook. We reach our referring audience with Instagram and Linkedin. platform. Our team dedicates time each week to schedule posts for the upcoming week. Having a plan keeps us consistent, ensures relevancy, and avoids any last-minute scrambling."
Favorite thing about Save Your Tooth Month?: "Kicking off the month with a bold reminder and a promise. "Yesterday marked the beginning of Save Your Tooth month from the @savingyourteeth. This campaign reminds us of the importance of saving natural teeth and is something we promise to practice all year to keep teeth in optimal health."
The team dons their favorite face masks!
@centrevillenedo
Account Architect: Dr. Prashant Verma
Practice: Centreville Endodontics
The Other Names Behind the Profile: Drs. Prashant Verma, Ali Nosrat, Omid Dianat, Anmar Janabi and Binait Kabir
"Save Your Tooth Month is important because it highlights the role Endodontists play in helping patients SAVE their natural teeth. Nothing can completely replace a natural tooth. It is important to create awareness so patients can make better informed decisions. A campaign like this can potentially reach and benefit millions. Awareness is the key goal and Save Your Tooth Month helps with that goal. Another important aspect of SYTM is that it gives us an opportunity to combat misinformation. Social media is great in how it allows free speech, but the downside is that it makes it so easy to perpetuate misinformation. It's confusing the audience in terms of what's reliable information or not, for instance lingering questions about the safety of root canal treatments. Professionals like us who have legitimate scientific credentials need to get online more and create a counter-narrative of reputable health information to combat all the misinformation that's out there."
Best practices: "When trying to improve Social Media presence, nothing beats consistency. Posting at a consistent schedule will provide much better results than posting sporadically. Understand your audience and try to reach them. The content you would post at a page accessible to all would be different from the content you would post to an all-dentist group page.
Our favorite social media platform is Instagram. Centreville Endodontics has an Instagram page that is maintained by Dr. Nosrat. The goal of the Instagram page is to showcase the doctors’ work and to promote overall awareness. Centreville Endodontics also has other social media pages such as the Facebook page to reach various audiences. Overall, the goal is to post consistently."
Favorite Save Your Tooth Month moment?: "When AAE posted some clever photos showing Endodontists with capes, as being “superheroes” of saving teeth. That was such a fun idea!"
Drs. Verma and Nosrat
@edgewater_endodontics
Account Architect: Robert W. Heydrich, DMD, MS, Diplomate ABE
Practice: Edgewater Endodontics
The Other Name Behind the Profile Justin T. Vice, DMD
"Save Your Tooth Month is an opportunity for endodontists to come together and educate the community at large on the value of endodontic treatment and saving your natural teeth. It is truly phenomenal to see how this public campaign continues to grow year after year. I feel Save Your Tooth Month has and will continue to shift the public perception of what our profession is and what we can do to 'save natural teeth'."
Advice: "Find something that strikes you as interesting, inspiring or funny as it relates to endodontics or your practice and create a post. If that’s not in your wheelhouse, find someone within your practice that is tech savvy to take the lead or outsource to a social media marketing group."
Favorite platform: "Instagram. Allows you to post simultaneously to Facebook and Twitter."
Finding time: "It's not always easy, however there is a lot you can do right from your phone or tablet. Posting from your smartphone or tablet is the easiest way to post content. There are many apps that can help you create content and look like a pro."
Favorite Save Your Tooth Month social media moment?: "It is hard to cite just one, but it is really great to see our colleagues and the [AAE] organization advancing this cause with some very insightful and interesting content. One "WOW" social media moment that sticks out in my mind came on Black Friday 2021 when AAE placed a graphic on an electronic Times Square billboard on the busiest shopping day of the year in the busiest city in the world. Although not exactly during SYTM, it did capture the essence of the campaign and was a nice reminder to prioritize oral health in the coming year. This was definitely a proud moment for all endodontists. Hat tip to our association!"
@riverstreetendodontics
Account Architect: Sara Markovic
Practice: River Street Endodontics
"Save Your Tooth Month highlights our specialty's efforts to preserve oral and health and function in a fun and creative way. A great campaign that challenges root canal myths and shows how diverse and dynamic our profession really is!"
Advice: "Instagram is the easiest and most accessible platform to use and also syncs with your Facebook account. I would start by creating an account and create simple posts that are heavy on visual images (photographs and videos) highlighting your office culture and some cases you feel referring dentists or patients would want to see. You can have you staff help you if they are more computer savvy but always verify the content mirrors your brand. Try to keep colors, filters, and logos consistent."
Favorite social media moment from SYTM? "I really enjoy the SYTM posts from May 4th. They are some really fun Star Wars references and as a nerd I find these hilarious."
@aftonendodontics
Account Architect: Kathryn T. Watts, DMD, MS
Practice: Afton Endodontics
The Other Names Behind the Profile: Gregory C. Gell, DDS, MS, PA; Katelyn Rios (PRD & Social Media Manager)
"Save Your Tooth Month is an awesome way to engage referring offices, as well as patients. For #SYTM2022 we held a giveaway encouraging dentists to actively educate and inform patients on the importance of saving natural teeth. Not only is it a fun time to interact with each other, but it also gives us the opportunity to challenge some of the negative stigmas about root canals!"
How to up your social media game: "The best way to up your social media game, and marketing in general is to hire someone who is designated for that role. Offices can get busy, and sometimes social media can get put on the back burner. If your goal is to grow your social media, make sure there is always a creative keeping an eye it! Our favorite platform has been Instagram, because that is where we receive the most interaction. We love posting story polls and reels! We have also ventured out onto TikTok and Facebook."
Favorite social media moment from Save Your Tooth Month: "Our favorite moment was announcing the winner of our #SYTM2022 Giveaway! So many offices engaged and entered to win by posting a video or photo about the importance of saving natural teeth. The winning office was drawn at random and won a catered lunch for the entire office. Everyone enjoyed Save Your Tooth Month!"
@advancedendodonticcare
Account Architect: Dr. Steve Hansen
Practice: Advanced Endodontic Care
The Other Names Behind the Profile: Rolf Wuerch, D.D.S.;
Jeremiah Hawkins, D.M.D.; Adriel Schulz, social media manager
"As oral health care providers 'Save Your Tooth Month' is an opportunity to draw attention and awareness to the importance of preserving natural dentition. A person’s emotional confidence as well as their overall health and well-being are directly related to the beauty and function of their teeth. Modern Endodontic techniques and knowledge have made root canal therapy more predictable then ever before. What would be lost in the past can now be predictably saved through proper training and expertise. We are happy to celebrate a month of saving teeth for our patients!"
Advice to other endodontists: "It is helpful to create a mission for your social media that identifies who your target audience is, and what message you would like to portray about your practice.
Our favorite social medial platform is Instagram, however your success will depend on what platform your target audience uses the most.
We have found for social media to be effective it needs to be consistent, it is helpful to have one trusted staff member that is responsible for creating content and posting it. A schedule is key, and find a staff member that enjoys this process, and if possible involve other team members as collaborative ideas are always useful."
Favorite Save Your Tooth Month social media moment: "We enjoyed seeing other offices highlight how they celebrated SYTM, and creating new ways to highlight the importance of SYTM ourselves."
@innovativeendodontics
Account Architect: Dr. Monica Estes
Practice: Innovative Endodontics
The Other Names Behind the Profile: Lisa Joy, Professional Relations Director; our amazing office team:
Jessica, Kristle, Emily, Sara, Alicia, Stephanie; and Boss Marketing Group - BMG - is a digital marketing solutions provider that specializes in SEO, PPC and Social Media. They are known for their uncommon execution but extraordinary results. BMG has supported Innovative Endodontics since 2020.
"Our office mission is to 'change the reputation of the root canal' and we do this every day by educating patients about the true endo process. Our 5-star patient service experience is complete with warm blankets, hot towels, a comfort menu, lattes and refreshments, a true red carpet experience for every single patient we have the pleasure of seeing. Patient's leave with a small gift after completing their treatment, along with a card directing them to leave a review. With over 750 5-star reviews, our team is always looking for an opportunity to take a photo and ask for a review to help other patients learn that having a root canal can be a painless and pleasant experience. Delivering this experience and the opportunity to help patients understand the benefits of saving their natural tooth truly gives us purpose, and is why Save Your Tooth Month is so important to us. The satisfaction of every completed root canal is a victory for our team in our efforts to save the world one tooth at a time!"
Advice and best practices: "Patients want to know and trust the people working on their teeth, and the best way to help them feel comfortable and familiar is by sharing behind the scenes content. Highlight your team members - birthdays, anniversaries, pictures of pets and exciting milestones. Having a team lunch or training meeting? Take photos during these special times. Delivering gifts to your referring offices? Ask to get a photo with their group and offer to tag them with a social media write up. It's all about engagement and showing your connection to the community.
Walk through the office from the eyes of a patient and photograph what you see - front office team smiling taking phone calls. clinical team 'gearing up' for surgery, and always be dancing, laughing and having fun. This not only provides wonderful social media content, but in time, builds the type of environment that patients and team members will enjoy and can be felt across the practice.
Social media success takes planning! Think about the month ahead, fun holidays, noteworthy events in the community, or even just highlighting positive reviews. There are some great apps available to help schedule and manage social media posts as well. We find the use of an Excel spreadsheet with the dates for the upcoming month is a great tool. Schedule time each week to add to this calendar, staying a month ahead is the aim of the game!
Remember the golden rule of social media posting - 60% personal, 40% educational/informational. Blog posts and articles educating about services are great, however your personal content is what will make your office shine online. Aim for a minimum of 2-3 personal posts per week. Consider hiring a Professional Relations Director, Marketing Manager, or a Social Media Management group to help oversee the process, inspire the team, and to keep your Facebook/Instagram pages full of real content."
Favorite social media moment from Save Your Tooth Month: "We were able to provide some great educational content during SYTM! We started with the 6 common myths about having a root canal and were pleased to see these posts generating a lot of engagement and far reach. Educating patients is what it is all about!"
@aeorlando
Account Architect: Dr. Peter S. Chen
Practice: Advanced Endodontics
The Other Names Behind the Profile: Drs. Peter Chen, Luis Alcalde, Ryan Brennan, Neha Pandya, Tina Ren, Tej Vaidya, and Bonnie Yang. Special thanks to the team at Beyond The Strategy.
"For everyone at Advanced Endodontics, Save Your Tooth Month is about raising the public's awareness and understanding on the role of the endodontist, the importance of maintaining oral health, and why having a lifetime of natural teeth is better than the alternatives."
Social media advice: "Realize the social media landscape is constantly changing. What worked today won’t work tomorrow. So make sure to stay current and have an agile social media strategy. Consider having someone dedicated to managing your social media in-house or hiring a third-party digital agency. Instagram and Linkedin are our top choices and what we post can be different for each social channel. In order to be consistent and relevant, we dedicate time early in the month to "bulk" create a month or two's worth of content."
Favorite thing about Save Your Tooth Month: "Enjoy seeing how the entire endodontic community band together to share content in fun and creative ways. It goes to show endodontists are not just excellent clinicians but can be artists, creators, and entertainers."
@northtexasendoassoc
Account Architect: Kelsie Nicholson
Practice: North Texas Endodontics
The Other Names Behind the Profile: Drs. David E. Witherspoon, John D. Regan, Antonio Berto and Esther C. Tam
"Save Your Tooth Month is important to me because educating patients on their dental health and needs is very interesting and something I am passionate about."
Favorite part of Save Your Tooth Month: "My favorite part of save your tooth month is the 'Demand the Dam' because I feel its very important in order for a healthy and clean root canal."
@drwcb_endoqueen
Account Architect: Dr. Caithlin Williams-Beecher
Practice: Emirates Facial and Dental Implant Center
The Other Names Behind the Profile: I'd like to say a special thanks to Humbird Media (@humbirdmediaja) for bringing my thought processes to life and generating the awesome posts that were done, and also my husband, Christopher Beecher (@christopher.beecher625) who pushed me to up my social media game and also helped me conceptualize ideas for my posts.
"As endodontists we talk everyday about the importance of saving teeth however, it is nice to have a month dedicated solely to saving your teeth just as we would have oral health month. I believe it brings an increased sense of importance to the topic as more concentrate information and posts seem to go out at this time. Even persons who may not necessarily be active on social media per se make the effort to be a little more outgoing in Save Your Tooth Month. I enjoy seeing the creativity of the various individuals and practices as they put forward their take on saving one's teeth."
Social media advice: "As someone who has really started dabbling in putting out social media posts, I hired the help of a business who specializes in social media. They really helped me in bringing my ideas to life. I find it overwhelming sometimes to think of content, find time to create the posts and then remember to actually post them. I'm a new endodontist with a full plate of being a wife and a mom as well. Having the help of a third party made my social media life simpler. I share my ideas and they generate the posts; once I approve them, then they schedule when each post will be released so I don't have to worry about remembering to make a post. I would recommend this route to those trying to up their game especially if they are not very tech savvy or are extremely busy. For those of you who do your posts yourself and are able to keep up, kudos to you! I want to be like you someday.
For the most part I use Facebook and Instagram. Little by little I'm getting into LinkedIn."
Favorite moment during Save Your Tooth Month?: "I didn't have a particular social media moment, but one thing that stuck with me was seeing the notifications that the AAE liked my posts. That was an awesome feeling."
AAE Member Dr. Ronald C. Taylor Provides Donated Care and Raises Awareness about Oral Health
We also would like to highlight one of last year's class of winners, who did more extraordinary work this year with their annual Save a Smile Day!:
AAE Integrated Communications Specialist Michael Dobrow recently connected with Ronald C. Taylor, D.D.S., M.S.D., to learn more about his annual donated care event known as “Save a Smile Day”, which happens during AAE’s Save Your Tooth Month, and to talk saving teeth.
Dr. Ronald Taylor is the founder of RCT Endodontics in Maryland, and he was also recognized as an AAE Mover and Shaker, Class of 2021. Dr. Taylor attended the University of Maryland for Dental School (1996) and completed his Endodontic Program at Case Western (1999).
Dobrow: Thank you for taking some time to connect again! Can you tell me how “Save a Smile Day” came to be and how many years you have been organizing it?
Dr. Taylor: Our team started "Save a Smile Day" (SAS) about four years ago. We recognized a void regarding endodontic treatment's role in community outreach dentistry. I wanted to do something to create some outreach in our community. I wanted to help people who simply could not afford or access endodontic treatment.
When patients seek community outreach dentistry, it is usually for fillings and extractions. There seems to be very little high-quality root canal work performed. Such treatment options may also be limited because it is difficult to bring specialized equipment to a remote area or an area where donated medical and dental services are being provided. Many of the patients we treated had experienced pain for months and had just dealt with it because they could not get access care.
In short, I felt that my team and I could positively impact our community and make a change – help people by performing the critical work to save their teeth and relieve their pain.
Dobrow: That is noble! I cannot imagine all the planning that must go into something like this. Can you tell me more about how you organized your event?
Dr. Taylor: I reached out to a colleague with a connection to Catholic Charities in the Washington D.C. area, and they were thrilled to partner with us. They helped connect us with patients in need - who would come to one of our locations to receive endodontic care on a specific day. We tried to help as many people as possible! Our doctors, support staff and everyone involved did a fantastic job organizing this day and volunteering their services. Major kudos to everyone who helped plan the first day of donated endodontic services. It was a major success and eventually evolved into an annual event.
Now, we make it a team-building day for our office and a much larger community family-focused event with games and food trucks. We try to make it a fun experience! We even had a DJ at this year's event. It is gratifying. We get to help quite a few patients, increase awareness about root canal treatment's benefits, and maintain good oral health. The people who come to these events really don’t want to lose their teeth. They want to save them and just need a little help. The event also helps alleviate patients fears or misconceptions about root canals because we mix it up a bit. We make it a fun day!
Dobrow: It sounds like quite an experience! Can you tell me more about how you promote this important event? Can you also tell me more about the patient experience: how they come to you, what sort of pre-screen or intake process they undergo, etc.?
Dr. Taylor: Great questions! We learned throughout the years that we must be diligent and organized. We needed to come up with a well-designed criteria for case selection. Catholic Charities prescreens the patients based on the criteria we developed to help us maximize the number of patients we can treat in a day.
For example, we limited the treatments to exclude third molars, calcified canals, retreatments, or going through crowns. We reference the and try to treat simple cases. By doing this, we can help more people in a day.
We use social media platforms promoting this event, like Facebook and Instagram. We use an email platform to help us spread awareness. We also use Public Service Announcements (PSAs), and the PSAs seem to help! Catholic Charities also has a team to help spread awareness. They use similar tools and press releases and also work internally to help connect the populations they serve with our office. We get great patient and doctor turn out and it is quite a fun day!
Dobrow: Can you tell me more about how many doctors and staff are typically involved? Also, can you tell me how many patients you treated at your latest event?
Dr. Taylor: I believe we treated 22 patients this year and saved 25 teeth! Some patients needed multiple teeth treated. This year was a great success, and it was very well organized. It bears repeating kudos to the team! They have this down like a well-oiled machine.
From the time the patient walks through the door to check in to the time they walk out, there is someone who has contact with the patient every step of the way. Our staff gets them ready and prepped with X-rays. Then, the doctor comes in and provides consultation and treatment!
After treatment, the doctors from Catholic Charities see the patients in another operatory down the hall and restore the teeth right on the spot. The patients are relieved and very happy after we have seen them! If there is any additional restorative treatment required post service, the patients connect with Catholic Charities to help coordinate.
Dobrow: From patient in take to check out, how many dental professionals are on the ground with you for SAS?
Dr. Taylor: We have an entire team when we do this! We have a crew of about 30 to 35 people. On a typical SAS day, we may have five or six endodontists, ten dental assistants, and teams for sterilization, setting up, and breaking down operatories. We have a group of people focused on patient registration. We also have a crew for checking patients out and 3-4 dentists on the restorative side with their dental assistants. There are a lot of great people involved and our valued donation for this year was about $41,000! This may have been our highest year. It was a very successful!
Dobrow: That is amazing! The work you and your team perform is genuinely remarkable. We have connected in the past on ways AAE members can get more involved within the endodontic community and AAE’s Save Your Tooth Month --- Do you have any tips for how they can do something like this in their area too?
Dr. Taylor: The first step is to find a local charity or group in their area and inquire with them! They may need specialized endodontic services and patients who may not otherwise have access to this vital care. I would recommend partnering up with a group. Another option would be working with referring doctors to set something up. I believe there are opportunities for endodontic groups to do something like this across the country.