The next revolution in dentistry: facial injectables

AfterWhy are dentists the best choice of all health-care professionals as facial injectors? Simple — of all health-care professionals, no one is better trained in injection techniques. As part of our dental training, we were taught — that’s right, taught — to inject. Who is better trained at giving pain-free injections? Who knows better the shape and volumetric proportions of the facial structures? Who knows better the anatomy, blood vessels, muscles, bones, nerves of the face, etc.? Who better understands the relationship of the anatomic structures — the eyes, cheeks, nose, lips, teeth, etc. — and more importantly, how they relate esthetically to one another? In addition to having the skill, no other health-care professional gives as many injections in the facial area on a daily basis as a dentist. This is what a dentist does day in and day out. When dentists go into an operatory to perform a procedure such as a crown preparation or implant surgery, they don’t realize it but they are actually performing two procedures: They are the anesthesiologist and the dentist. They are unaware that they have performed an entire second procedure, because they do it so automatically. They give this anesthesia profoundly and relatively painlessly. They do this so routinely and so well that they are not even cognizant of how good they are with a needle. Their patients know how good they are and they have less fear and more confidence in their own dentist approaching their face with a needle than they would with any other health professional. The reason a dentist would be the patient’s first choice when deciding to have facial cosmetic injectables is that dentists can offer their patients something most other health-care professionals cannot — dental anesthetic to reduce discomfort during the procedure. Most practitioners are not comfortable injecting intraorally and will only give patients a topical anesthetic. For us dentists, injecting intraorallly is second nature. In training health-care providers to inject, one of the things they most frequently ask me is how to give a dental block so that patients do not feel any pain. As you become a more advanced injector, I can train you, as I have trained others, to place many of the facial fillers intraorally using a specialized technique that further reduces pain and virtually eliminates swelling and bruising. Again, it is of little wonder to me why anyone would question the fact that dentists should be the primary “go-to” for facial cosmetic injectables.Now, let’s talk economics. Imagine earning $1,000 per hour net as a beginner injector, and then imagine earning $2,000 per hour net as an experienced injector. With facial injectables, you can have a source of income in which there is no billing, no accounts receivable, no insurance companies, and no laboratories to deal with. Patients pay for the service they just received, in full, prior to leaving your office. To help you understand the magnitude the addition of facial injectables can make to your economic growth, let’s look at some actual procedures and numbers. An average patient will require three areas of BOTOX/Dysport in the upper third portion of the face and two syringes of filler, one in each of the nasolabial folds. Based on an average product cost factor of $250 for the Botox for these three areas and a procedure cost of $700, and a cost factor of $250 per syringe for filler and a procedure cost of $600/syringe, a net profit of $1,150 will result (total product cost was $750; total procedure cost was $1,900). These procedures should take a beginner injector approximately one hour to complete. An experienced injector could complete these procedures in half an hour.