What's New

	Dental Web Site Insights Article by Brad J. Loos A Brief History In December 1994 there were very few dental sites on the Internet's World Wide Web. Most of these sites were maintained by non-dentists and included erroneous dental information. Given our existing dental clinic located in the heart of Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale, California) and our growing interest in information technology, it was natural for my dentist wife and me to launch a web site in September 1995. The primary objective of our site is to provide the general public with accurate dental information. Today the Internet includes a plethora of quality dental information that is often categorized into universities, organizations, clinics, hygienists, companies, products, advisories, conferences, journals, institutes, and dental specialties. Most of these sites are designed for the dental professionals. During 1997-1998, business revenues on the Internet are expected to reach $600 million according to Forrester Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Technology is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. For example, Forrester reports that 35% of young adults will be connected to the Internet by 2002. How does a service-based profession like dentistry exploit the growing Internet? It is not (yet) possible to diagnose and treat patients over the Internet. However, real-time consultations and remote patient examinations are possible using chat and virtual reality, respectively. Do I Need a Web Site? If you are implementing a dental web site, you must have a plan that includes a clearly defined objective. Do you want to attract new patients, provide information, or promote a product? What is your budget? Are you willing to invest the time required to create and maintain a useful site? How will you promote the site? A common mistake is to hastily design a site simply because your colleagues are already on-line. Register a domain name now but do not rush to launch a mediocre site. Educate Yourself Like it or not, computers are the future. You will need to understand Internet basics to communicate your plans effectively, conduct on-line research, and protect yourself from fraud. I suggest reading a book by Laura Lemay entitled "Teach Yourself Web Publishing With HTML In A Week" SAMS Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana. (1995). Even if you do not have the time or desire to complete the site yourself, this foundation is necessary to gain an understanding of how web projects are implemented. Many dentists ultimately decide to contract with an Internet Service Provider (lap) to create and maintain their site. Promote It After your site is created, you will need to let people know it exists. Visitors will not automatically locate your site unless you promote it. There are a number of services and search engines that will register your web address. Place your Uniform Resource Locator (i.e. web address) on your business cards, stationary, and mailers. Send a press release announcing your site to the local newspaper. Mark Gebbie's site at http://www.gebbieinc.com contains thousands of newspaper, radio, and television addresses. Our site has been featured in the July 1997 edition of Home Office Computing and the Fall 1997 edition of WebBound magazines. The free publicity increased interest in our site. If most people in your community do not have access to a computer it does not make sense to develop a web site to attract new patients. People will generally not travel more than 50 miles to visit a dentist. Perhaps a mailer would be more appropriate. This should be obvious; however, I have seen common sense marketing strategies evaporate when dentists accept unrealistic Internet hype- Yes, we have obtained new patients from our web site. This phenomenon is explained by two factors: 1) our clinic is located in a computer savvy community, and 2) we were lucky. One new patient, who lives just two blocks from our clinic, initially found us on the web. How many times had she driven by our office and not noticed our sign? Go figure.

			Part II Dentist Home Page

	Dental Web Site Insights - Part I	Dental Web Site Insights - Part II

	The First Electronic Endodontic Magazine
	Back to: www.endoweb.com Home Page Email: nahmiasoffice@endoweb.com