The US dental system is not likely to see major expansions in dental care use in the foreseeable future. The rise of dental care utilization among low-income children as well as wealthy seniors did not offset flat dental utilization among adults since the Great Recession. Similarly in Spain, the increase in the number of dental practitioners surpasses the rate of population growth. Hence, in order to remain economically viable in this competitive market, one important aspect for every dental office is to retain patients besides attracting new ones. Patients may be lost to follow-up due to a number of factors, including a lack of attention from the dental practice or a lack of trust in the provider. The “7/12" patient touch point strategy of marketing builds consumer loyalty as a result of a strong patient–provider relationship. Furthermore, this method aims to facilitate the patient’s decision to visit their dentist when it is time for preventative treatments. The purpose of this study was to measure the efficacy of a “7/12” patient touch point strategy when compared to the traditional annual recall with respect to number of active patients, percentage of word-of-mouth-recommended patients, and overall number of first-visit patients. We executed the relationship marketing concept through a novel “7/12” patient touch point approach, in which the patient was exposed to seven separate exposures in a period of 12 months. The efficacy of the “7/12” patient touch point was analyzed for 48 months across 10 clinics (24 months before and 24 months after the “7/12” strategy implementation). The “7/12” patient touch point strategy resources consisted of online and printed materials with a focus on oral health knowledge. fter analyzing the efficacy of the “7/12” patient touch point, we found an average increase of 86.91% in the number of active patients, 24.12% in the number of word-of-mouth-recommended patients, and 38.05% in the number of first visits across all clinics. This novel “7/12” patient touch point approach may be successful in increasing the retention of existing patients and generating new patients. Furthermore, this method promotes preventative care and oral health maintanance for patients and economic progress for the dental clinic.

在可预见的将来，美国的牙科系统不太可能在牙科护理用途上出现重大扩展。自大萧条以来，低收入儿童以及富裕老年人中牙科保健使用率的上升并不能抵消成年人中牙科保健使用率的下降。同样在西班牙，牙科医生人数的增长超过了人口增长率。因此，为了在这个竞争激烈的市场中保持经济上的可行性，每个牙科诊所的一个重要方面是除了吸引新病人之外还留住病人。患者可能会由于多种因素而失去随访，包括缺乏牙科实践的关注或对提供者的信任。强大的患者与提供者之间的关系使“ 7/12”患者接触点营销策略建立了消费者忠诚度。这种方法旨在帮助患者在需要进行预防性治疗时决定去看牙医。这项研究的目的是衡量与传统的年度召回率相比，“ 7/12”患者接触点策略在活动患者数量，口碑推荐患者百分比和总人数方面的功效初访患者的比例。我们通过一种新颖的“ 7/12”患者接触点方法来执行关系营销概念，其中患者在12个月内分别接受了7次暴露。在10个诊所中分析了“ 7/12”患者接触点的疗效48个月（“ 7/12”策略实施之前的24个月和之后的24个月）。“ 7/12”患者接触点策略资源包括在线和印刷材料，重点在于口腔健康知识。在分析“ 7/12”患者接触点的功效后，我们发现活跃患者的平均数量增加了86.91％，推荐的口碑患者的平均增加了24.12％，而口碑推荐患者的平均增加了38.05％所有诊所的初诊次数。这种新颖的“ 7/12”患者接触点方法可能会成功地增加现有患者的保留率并吸引新患者。此外，这种方法促进了患者的预防保健和口腔健康维护，并促进了牙科诊所的经济发展。在所有诊所中，口碑推荐患者的数量为12％，首次就诊的数量为38.05％。这种新颖的“ 7/12”患者接触点方法可能会成功地增加现有患者的保留率并吸引新患者。此外，该方法促进了患者的预防保健和口腔健康维护，并促进了牙科诊所的经济发展。在所有诊所中，口碑推荐患者的比例为12％，首次就诊的比例为38.05％。这种新颖的“ 7/12”患者接触点方法可能会成功地增加现有患者的保留率并吸引新患者。此外，这种方法促进了患者的预防保健和口腔健康维护，并促进了牙科诊所的经济发展。