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‘Doing’ Social Media is HARD work!’ Do you find it difficult to make time for this?
Do you worry about professionalism and ethics on social media? How about the blurred boundaries between professional and personal life?
Dentistry is no exception to the trend of using social media in today’s culture. Dentists are using social media to connect with their patients and create new opportunities for patient education. However, dentists face ethical challenges such as how to best communicate with patients online, and what is the best level of consent to get from patients when we post their photos and videos?
In this episode, Dr. Alessandro Devigus also suggests how to use social media as a business tool and how to keep your personal life and professional life separate.
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“React and interact with your audience how they WANT you to see” – Dr. Alessandro Devigus
Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below!
Highlights of this episode:
- 1:19 Dr. Alessandro Devigus’ Introduction
- 4:20 How Dr. Alessandro started on Social Media
- 6:30 Drawing the line between personal and professional account
- 9:41 Importance of having a social media for Dental practices
- 14:38 Dentists posting full protocol cases on social media – good or bad?
- 20:14 Spotting fake dentistry
- 24:57 Making time for social media
- 31:59 Consent from Patients for sharing their photos – how to do it?
If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy Personal Branding for Dentists, Logos, and Websites with Shaz Memon
Click below for full episode transcript:
Jaz's Introduction: You don't need me to tell you that SOCIAL MEDIA is absolutely huge in all of our lives. If you're listening to this, I'm sure you're involved in social media in some way or another.Jaz’s Introduction:
It’s NO EXCEPTION for dentistry, but this creates new problems and dilemmas, new ethical dilemmas for us dentists. How do we best communicate with patients online, and what is the best level of consent to get to patients when we are posting their photos and videos?
And where exactly do you DRAW THE LINE between PERSONAL and PROFESSIONAL? These are the burning questions we cover with Dr. Alessandro Devigus, who not only has a huge following on social media, but he’s such a level-headed guy as an extremely experienced, successful clinician. One of the topics we discussed, which you may resonate with Protruserati is HOW to MAKE TIME for SOCIAL MEDIA.
Many of you are struggling to find the opportunity throughout your busy lives to actually have a presence online. And so when I ask this to Alessandro, he had a really good answer, and it involves doing a bit of work, a bit of an audit of your time. So that’s something we cover towards the middle and end of the episode.
Hello, Protruserati. I’m Jaz Gulati. Welcome back to an Interference Cast. This is like a nonclinical interruption. If you’re new to the show, then thanks for joining. Do check out all the other episodes. Mostly a lot of ’em are clinical and they’re very geeky, and I get very excited about teeth and dentistry, and hopefully that gets passed onto you. But we talk about some varied themes. So hope you enjoy this episode with Dr. Alessandro Devigus and I’ll catch you in the outro.
Main Episode:
Alessandro. So I know this podcast we’re recording today is about social media, but we must know what is your secret to looking so youthful?
[Alessandro]
It’s my wife. I’m married for 33 years, so happy wife, happy life.
[Jaz]
Happy wife, happy life, and somehow good skin.
[Alessandro]
Yeah and it’s my Sardinian roots. So, Sardinia is known for people getting very old. So my father is now almost 90. There are a lot of people there. And I think the number one secret of getting old and looking good is reduce stress.
[Jaz]
Mm-hmm.
[Alessandro]
Stress is the one or the number one thing making you older quicker, let’s say, mentally, physically with all aspects this is from my point of view. It’s not that I’m a super healthy food eater doing sports every day. I don’t smoke. I drink alcohol, but I don’t smoke. I think smoking is one of the number one. Things all smokers always tell me, yeah, but you drink red wine and whiskey. Say, okay, but I don’t drink bottles a day.
So I think I have under control not to drink too much, and yeah, and again, having a good family, a good social network that helps you if whenever there’s an issue. I think these are the key elements creating this, and in this atmosphere or in this context. I think you show, or you look younger to the other people. Although you are not young, you know what I mean? So, it’s-
[Jaz]
Mm-hmm.
[Alessandro]
Maybe you have seen this also with patients. Some patients they come, and they are 40 and they’re saying, oh, life is awful and blah, blah, and then they look and feel and express being much older-
[Jaz]
And tired.
[Alessandro]
Yes. And then you see 85 year old guys, not walking straight, but smiling and are being happy. And then you feel the spirit. You feel the youth coming out and they say, okay, maybe tomorrow it’s over, but I will enjoy my life. Life is too short not to enjoy it. So this is a very important point, I think.
[Jaz]
For those guys listening. Alessandro sounds great for those watching. He looks great as well. You have to take my word for it. And if you don’t already watch the episodes, you can catch him on YouTube and Instagram, whatnot. Just remind everyone, you came on the photography episode, and you talk a little bit about your roots, your interest in photography.
Today we’re talking about social media. And I mean this in the most kindest way possible, Alessandro, right? I just told you, you look great for 60. Okay. Most of the six-year-old dentists I know they steer well away from social media, yet you are blossoming on social media. What you do on social media, I don’t see many of this doing.
You are wonderful at social media. So, tell me about how you got into. Just the habits that you have on social media, your presence on social media and I mean, again, I mean this in a nice way despite your colleagues who maybe your age have probably don’t even have an Instagram account. So, tell me about that.
[Alessandro]
So basically, I restarted my social media career three years ago. So I was on social media when everything started because I’m a computer geek. So I was one of the first Twitter user. I was in immediately on Facebook, on all these channels, but then realized that I made a big mistake.
And this is something, let’s say the first important message goes out to everyone, young, old, whatever, women voice man. Don’t mix your social media and your private life. So be aware you can have a private account whereas a young girl, who show bikini photos of yourself, or as a young man pumping in the gym, that’s fine.
I’m not against this, but don’t mix these accounts with something that you want to be professional. So if you have an account for your dental office, don’t show yourself too much in your private life driving your Porsche or whatever because this creates a wrong image. Even if you have achieved something in your life, making it possible to buy a Rolex or all these gimmicks that people think, wow, if I have a Rolex, if I have a Porsche, I’m a bigger, I’m more important.
But if you feel doing this or wear expensive clothes, don’t show that to your clients. It’s like my brother, he has like four Ferraris. He would never take a Ferrari driving to a client, never. You know, then you take your normal car, you dress yourself like you have to in a business suit or in your office. So react and interact with your audience how they also want you to see and this is the number one message of how to start or how to think about starting your social media career.
[Jaz]
Alessandro, I wholeheartedly agree with you on that. What about, I’m gonna play devil’s advocate. What about the situation whereby like I, myself, I do this whereby, I post a dental stuff on my, not Protrusive Dental, but on Jazzy Gulati, I post a Teethy stuff.
But now, and again, I have family because for me, family is one of the highest values. And what I think that does is it humanizes me. So when prospective patients come say, oh, he’s a father, he’s a husband, I want to go to a family man. Do you think that’s okay? Showing your children, showing yourself not necessarily in bikini and whatnot, not necessarily luxurious, but in a family environment or, I like football, Mans Tonight, cricket. What about those things teach us about.
[Alessandro]
Yes, I think this is important to show yourself then it’s your decision in what extent you want to integrate your family. I always tell people, look, have you asked your children if they want to be on social media? Do you have the written consent of your three-year-old boy or girl jumping around, making a fool on your Instagram account?
So these are the points. I think it’s important to show people that you are a father, that you have a family. You can share these facts in short things, but don’t overdo it. Don’t overdo it. What I do is this is something important. From time to time, I do a new story. Talking about who I am. So I tell people, look for all those, for the new followers, for all people not knowing me.
My name is Alessandro Devigus. I’m a Swiss dentist with passion for digital technologies and I want to share this and this and this and that, and that and that with you. And so it’s like a refreshment on people not knowing who I am. You cannot expect that over, because social media is very short life information, so from time to time you have to repeat, and I agree with you that you can integrate your family, but your family has to agree on that.
So this is an important point. Just don’t, just take your smartphone, shoot the videos and post them. And then after that, your wife might say, ‘Hey, come on. What the hell are you doing?’ You know. So I think this is important that it’s in agreement. And again, be also aware that your children might in some years say, ‘Hey, Dad what the heck did you catch me when I was falling down the clip? And now it’s there and my colleagues are sharing this video, showing me this video of me failing.’ So be careful. Be aware of all these facts. But again, I agree. Show your audience. Show your clients. Show your patients that you are married, that you have children.
[Jaz]
That you’re human.
[Alessandro]
Yes. That you’re a human. Yeah, absolutely. But don’t overdo it. Do it on a regular base, but not every day. So let’s say 5%. 5% or max 10% should be personal stuff and the rest should be professional stuff.
[Jaz]
And that’s different to your other personal account, which you may have, which could be private, for example. And that’s where you could just do expression of yourself as an individual rather than you, the dentist who’s now speaking to patients all along which is great advice, I think. And that’s really good. Let’s switch gears a little bit to the main first question I wanted to ask on this episode, which, and we kind of touched on it already, is that we are at a stage now where I would say 99% of general practices have got some sort of a website.
Not all of them are good. Yeah, I know some practices who don’t even have a website at the moment, still to this day. Okay. And then fine, but most of them do. But a lesser percentage has social media. Now, one thing I truly believe in over the last year or so is like with Protrusive Dental, social media. I don’t do much on Twitter.
Okay. And actually, I’m thinking that I’m not gonna do much on Twitter because it is just, I don’t resonate with it as much. And I truly believe now that if you’re gonna have a social media, then do it properly. There’s no point in having a social media and doing one post a year on that account, because someone else might come on and check the Twitter and be like, oh, this isn’t very active, this isn’t very good.
And then be like, oh, this is not representation of that brand. So one mantra I follow is that if you’re gonna commit to having a Twitter, do it properly. If you’re gonna commit to having Instagram, do it properly rather than just having it for the sake of having it. So where do you see social media for practices who have websites and then maybe for them to get to a social media presence now is too much of a big step. What would you say to that dentist listening now who hasn’t embraced social media yet?
[Alessandro]
Basically there, there’s some research and dentists are also visual. Let’s say visual people. So what we are doing, what we are communicating is our patients want to look better. So they want to change something. They have problems we solve.
So it’s a visual thing. So Twitter for sure is not the right channel to interact with your patients. Then we have like in Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, there are others like Snapchat and WhatsApp. WhatsApp is almost an underrated social media tool that you can integrate also in your marketing campaign interacting with patient.
But be careful with communicating with your patient on all these channels. Watch out for the legal issues. So I tell dentist, don’t share too much information via smartphone with your patients. There you should use safe channel. Safer channels. So a patient might send you an image of a broken tooth, that’s okay, because he sent it, it’s his information.
If I took a pic, if I take a picture of myself and share it, it’s my problem. But you as a dentist, you cannot just take pictures or receive images and share them with others without asking the permission of the patient doing so. So this is the side effect coming back, I would say today, you should focus on Instagram.
If you are a younger generation dentist who wants to fool yourself a little bit and you have a young team that also wants to dance, TikTok might be an alternative. I’m not so much into TikTok. I tried doing so, and I found that what works on Instagram doesn’t really work on TikTok, so my main focus is on Instagram because what I found out, Facebook still is the largest community.
But not really engaging. So you easily , I call it and we discussed it already for me. Facebook is the happy birthday platform. If somebody says, oh, it’s my birthday today, then you get wow, hundreds of comments. If you post some valuable content, nobody interacts.
So this is the situation. Facebook is great if you want to promote your office with advertisment because you have 2.5 billion people. It’s easy. And it’s interesting if we have done some research, there are more dentists having a Facebook page than having an Instagram account or other social media.
So in the dental community, if you ask them, number one is I have a Facebook account because at the end it’s also mandatory to have one if you want to have an Instagram account. But still the dental community or the medical community is still number one on Facebook not being really active. This reflects also the average age.
The dental community is getting older and Instagram is like, oh, I have an Instagram account, but I don’t know where to start. So the thing that I felt browsing over the last two, three years, many dental accounts is. I would say 90% have no plan.
[Jaz]
I agree Alessandro and one observation I’ve made, and something I spoke about in a little mini webinar that the BDA did recently to young dentists about social media is, and please tell me if you agree or disagree with me, is that I want dentists to decide who their account is for.
Is it for dentists or is it for patients? Because a lot of the time dentists are posting up shots that only a dentist would appreciate and labeling perikymata, et cetera. Whereas a patient would be like, what the hell’s going on? Whereas patients wanna see full faces and other types of videos, which the dental community may not engage with as much.
Basically, they still would. So would you agree that, you know, as a dentist or dentist office, you need to first cite, okay, are you actually making content purpose-built for patients and the public or other dentists and you wanna show them your line angles, et cetera. Would you agree with that?
[Alessandro]
Absolutely. And this is one big mistake a lot are doing. They want to do both on one account and this doesn’t work.
[Jaz]
And some do, but there’s they’re few and far between. And you alienate the one or the other sometimes.
[Alessandro]
But if you look at the successful accounts, they’re not really showing. Nobody shows blood images because patients don’t want to see any blood, any that a dentist might even like, but the patients don’t. But what, I also must say this before and after, before and after, before and after thing gets a little bit tiring. Some patients might jump on this, but you see also on this more successful account that they’re mixing more and more personal stuff with this.
So they do less before and after. And show more behind the scenes what services they are offering, showing up themselves. So this is the thing, because I had an interesting discussion in life with Miguel Ortiz, dentist from Boston about all the fake dentistry we are seeing on social media.
And nobody cares. Nobody cares. Not even the dental community. They give likes to photoshopped images and it’s amazing. It’s amazing how uncritical the audience is towards the information posted on social media. But again, I agree and this is an important information and message to the dentist out there.
You have to decide, is my account for my patients and potential new clients, or do I want to share how cool I am or not even how cool I am. I think I have to share my knowledge with the community but then please share the knowledge before and after is not sharing any knowledge and what I have experienced over the last three years. I have posted thousands of comments asking, can you please share more details on this case? You don’t get any answers. What does this mean? They know that they’re a fake.
[Jaz]
Okay. I mean, I think it’s a platform issue as well.
[Alessandro]
Or is it an arrogance? I don’t know because it’s called social media for a reason, and I see that especially the dental community is missing out being social on social media. If you post, then you have to be ready to answer questions. Otherwise, turn off the comments. You can turn off comments in your post. So then if I look at the picture and I seek, there’s no way to post a comment. So the person who posted this image or this video doesn’t want any interaction.
But if you post and anybody is able to post a comment, then please, please, and this is a message and I want to everybody to listen to this. If I ask you a question, I want an answer. I tell people, if you don’t ask questions, you will never get answers, but I have to modify this. If you ask questions on social media, it’s most likely that you don’t get an answer.
And this is sad for me. This is really sad. If we don’t communicate, if we don’t talk to each other, we will not grow. I don’t learn from a cool before and after a while I say, wow, I will never be able doing this. I want to learn. And if I ask a question, you can answer, I don’t answer this question, but please give me an answer. And I always ask in a polite way, you know.
[Jaz]
I have seen that and I can vouch for that and I think I personally think Alessandro, while we’re talking about it, could be a difference, innate difference between Instagram and Facebook. So firstly, I agree with you that the reach is different when I share a video.
I did share a video the other week about this cool suction tool about cleaning crowns. It got 1700 views on Instagram and 201 on Facebook. So I definitely agree with you in terms of how content and media is consumed and reached on the different platforms. But there may be a difference. So when, sometimes when I share full protocol cases, A) Instagram only limits me to 10 images and I can’t individually caption each image. Whereas on Facebook, I can post the entire series of 125 step by step, and under each image I can write a caption.
So I do feel as though that these are fundamental differences and it becomes more difficult. However, I do agree that when someone asks a question, it’s good for engagement. It’s good to grow our community of practice by answering questions, and I do feel that Facebook sometimes does this better, and I think that’s something for us to learn and grow from. I think overall, taking a step back, I have learned so much from social media in terms of dentistry.
It’s actually amazing, I think. Are you used to say more from Facebook than Instagram, but nowadays, I think from Instagram as well. I think there’s so much to learn, but you’re right, we should maybe be a little bit more critical of the stuff we see and too fair. I don’t even consider. When I see photos on Instagram, is it been Photoshop or not maybe it’s just me being rose tinted glasses or whatever. Any ideas on how to spot a fake?
[Alessandro]
I think if you are a decent dentist, you immediately see that papillas cannot grow, that something looks too perfect than nature.
And I have to tell you. Maybe you can see some veneer cases that have done that really look like nature. But if you go close, then there are only a few things that are really perfect and the larger the things get, the more you see that it’s not nature. But the thing is that most people don’t want to see it.
It’s like going to Cirque du Soleil, you know that you are in a Dream World and for two hours you go and watch the show and dream on, let your mind flow. And I think too much people are consuming social media that way. Again, they’re not critical. They’re giving likes for things. I sometimes also scroll the feed and then double tap, and then I go back and say, no, no, I don’t like this. I don’t like this. So then I remove my like, you know what I mean? And people-
[Jaz]
Because the algorithm responds, it’ll show you more of what you like in the future, which is-
[Alessandro]
Or people tagging you and then you feel like forced giving a comment. And now I’m really starting to sometimes also being critical, but again, always in a polite way to start interaction.
And what I get sometimes that I get a direct message telling me, why are you so critical? Why are you posting negative comments? Say, no, this was not a negative comment. If I ask you a question, why have you selected this material? This is far off by being negative.
[Jaz]
It’s gonna help to, for everyone to grow and learn and share.
[Alessandro]
I want to start the discussion, and again, a lot of people are afraid of starting discussions on social media.
[Jaz]
Again, I do think Facebook lends itself better to discussion. That’s how I feel.
[Alessandro]
Yes. And that’s also why you see a lot of Instagram accounts of dental Instagram accounts are still private.
[Jaz]
Mm-hmm.
[Alessandro]
They are still hiding themselves because two reasons. They don’t have a strategy, so they look at other feeds and see, ‘Oh, my feed looks strange.’ Or don’t know what’s wrong. So they keep it private or they are afraid of entering the discussion. So these are the two points, and I always tell people, ‘Hey, come on, show yourself.’ I want to see what you’re posting. I cannot follow everybody who is private, just to see what’s behind the account. If it’s just a private account, showing family picture or is it, and this is coming back, the importance also of how you show, how you present your account on Instagram. The importance of the, of your profile page, of your bio that you write there, who you are, what you’re doing, what your goals are, and then try to be consistent in your feet.
And so I’ve personally, for example, also started reposting pictures of others dental photography. So, reposting artistic photographers, especially from people from South America that they’re great in doing all this artwork. I don’t know where they find all the time to do so. And then I say, okay, if I just repost clinical images or let’s say artistic images or try doing artistic images myself, I’m one of a million. You know what I mean?
[Jaz]
Mm-hmm.
[Alessandro]
So it’s nothing special. So then I started, okay, why not share my knowledge with the audience? And this is then finding this is then the topic, finding your niche. So what you want to share, what you like sharing with others. And I think this is the way to go on your social media if you want to show yourself as a dentist, as a private person, so on.
And again, coming back this is then one, one thing, and the other thing is showing your office, showing what you are doing, showing what you are, offering your services, et cetera. Two, be like the window, the showcase of your office attracting potential clients.
[Jaz]
Absolutely. It should be an extension of you. It should be a projection of you and your values. I totally agree that. I remember being in a lecture in 2014 of some dental marketing expert, but there’s a group of dentists in the audience. So this was like eight years ago. And I remember the biggest objection that my colleagues, which are, who are mostly my senior at that stage, of my career, were saying that, where do you find the time?
I don’t have time, you know, amongst children, clinical dentistry, life, and everything that happens. Where do you find the time to post? So what would you say to that dentist who has this as their number one objection? How can they magically find the time?
[Alessandro]
Just check, start checking your agenda. And then it’s like, uh, if if somebody tells me I don’t have time, then I ask him, okay, for one week, write down what you’re doing when. So when are you getting up? What’s the first thing you’re doing? What’s the second thing? And just write down how your days are going, and then you might see, ah, in the morning, I’m just sitting 30 minutes on the toilet. Maybe if you take that much on the toilet, use this time to do something.
You spend 30 minutes drinking coffee. Or whatever, or in my dental office, I have the routines. Most of the dentists then say, okay, from eight to five I’m totally blocked, and after that I have some time. But if you then after analyzing your schedule, still realize that you don’t have time, then it’s mandatory to look for professional support in the sense, look for a coach, for a social media manager that helps you.
If you still want to present yourself or your dental office. And this makes totally sense because if you then calculate, you should cut off two hours a day from your dental schedule to become a social media manager yourself. This doesn’t make sense, and this is way, way too expensive.
Your fee, or at least the loss of working hours over the whole year is worth thousands of pounds or dollars or Swiss Francs or whatever. And if you calculate this, I agree, and this is why, I don’t know why not more dentists are coming to me. I’m offering these services.
I have some people behind me helping me with producing content or giving me ideas. There are some tools you can use. By the way, I’m now setting up like a mini course that will be free, how to start with all this, but it ends up-
[Jaz]
Amazing.
[Alessandro]
It ends up with a decision, okay, I have the time to do it myself or with some members of my team, or I don’t have the time, and then don’t wait too long. Then get in touch with me or other people who are offering services, coaching services.
So I have some dental practices I’m coaching, and we have a coach, a call once a week to discuss what are the next steps, what can be improved. And then you find so many small things that are not working. And at the end it’s slowly the engine starts running and then you’ll get happy and don’t spend, don’t do anything that you don’t like to do. So if you feel forced being a content creator on social media, then stop doing this and look for professional help.
[Jaz]
I think that’s great advice and I’m glad you mentioned about how to get more help. Ie reach out to you. Is it @dentist.Camera that you wanted them to reach out or where is the best way?
[Alessandro]
Best way is my Instagram account and maybe I’m allowed to do a small advertisement at this stage.
[Jaz]
Please. No, please. I insist you’ve helped me so much. Please do. And reach out to Alessandro and learn more about this and his website’s wonderful. He’s all, everything he set up is just wonderful.
I know he’s got a team behind him and actually I’ve got a team behind me as well. So a lot of people me messaging me saying ‘Jaz, how do you find the time?’ Leverage, you know, I needed a team. I want to be a father; I want to be a dentist. I can’t spend my whole life in front of a screen. So you have to then get other people involved in your team.
[Alessandro]
Absolutely. So, we are now launching on September, The Dental TV. So this is like an initial naming, but maybe we will rebrand it because it started as the idea of having a dental photography conference. Then we had to postpone that we had to cancel.
Then we thought about going on an online conference that was saying, okay, we have so many online conferences. This would be just another one. So, I started inviting more people. So now we have over 30 speakers. And what I have decided, because I’m also now collaborating with Sony and Vimeo, that I will start my own Vimeo OTT channel.
So basically, this is like Netflix for dentists. So, I will have an own video channel and we are now setting it up with an app for iPhone and Android so you can watch and consume and subscribe from all platforms. That’s pretty cool. And you will have then there all the content and we have four pillars, photography, video, communication, and social media.
And I’m reaching out to experts in all these fields, giving you and let’s say the dental community a platform where they can learn all about these topics. And this is the goal to really create something, to build up a community there. And I’m pretty confident that this will be something successful.
It’s basically a lot of YouTuber go over then to this Vimeo OTT or other platforms because you have better control. You can monetize better because then I will like create, like for Netflix, it will be subscription based. There will be some free stuff you can host online events. I will post there my webinars.
There’s so many things and the industry are also interested in participating, for example, posting information about their latest software they have or whatever. So, this will be a good mix for the dental community for sure. So, thank you for giving me the time to explain.
[Jaz]
No, no, please. I think this will be great. I look forward to you to be part of it. I look forward to joining Dentist TV. I think it’s a great idea. We’re having something similar with the Protrusive App, but it’s in a different way. So, I think we need more of these channels to be creative. And you are prolific content creator, Alessandro, and you need to have a dedicated channel.
So, I’m so glad you’re doing this. So well done. My last question for the day now, and I’m gonna sort of tease everyone the out intro for this question. This is another pain area. So we discussed about the time issue and you covered that beautifully ie to revision. Guys, if you’re having issue with time, you need to audit your day.
And then once you’ve audited your day and you can’t find any time and you don’t wanna be a social media manager, then get some external help and reach out for coaching with Alessandro, @dentist.camera. Now my last question is consent. Dentists worry, and rightfully so about getting the right level of consent before posting a video or photo of their patient, or their smile, their teeth, or of their step-by-step photos. How do you gain consent in 2022 from your patients to post their mouth online?
[Alessandro]
That’s an important question then for us, it’s like a multi-step procedure. Step one, when a new patient comes in, they have to fill out their anamnesis
[Jaz] Fine. Like a medical history form.
[Alessandro]
The questionnaire. Do you have any diseases and whatever you call that anyway-
[Jaz]
Medical history. Yep, absolutely.
[Alessandro]
So, and at the end of this, they have to sign it anyway, and there’s a point where they can cross, they can mark this. I agree that my information is shared with other dentist. Because I have to share it with other dentists if I’m doing consultations or I need support. I work closely with the University of Zurich. In more complex cases that we exchange information and that pictures taken can be used for publications, lectures, and on social media.
[Jaz]
Okay.
[Alessandro]
So this is number one. But then if somebody signed that-
[Jaz]
But is that like a tick box or is that there by default? Do they have to tick it?
[Alessandro]
They have to tick it so it’s something active, so they have to do it actively. Second thing, if I have a case that I think I want to post it or use it for a lecture, so it starts most that I use it for a lecture or a presentation or a publication.
Then you go again to the patient and say, look, I recorded this case. And I would like to use it for educational reasons so other dentists or the community will see it. Do you agree? And then you put it in your medical history, say, okay. I ask the patient if she or he agrees that I can use the pictures and then they say, I had only one patient disagreeing. And then I say, okay-
[Jaz]
And just to clarify. The first one was written. It was a tick box. The second time from the same patient you ask verbally.
[Alessandro]
Yes.
[Jaz]
Okay.
[Alessandro]
But I write it down in my medical history. So you have like the thing open and you record everything that you’re doing with your patient, and then I take a note and say, okay.
I ask the patient if it’s okay to use these images for an article and then write the patient agreed. So there’s no need to sign again or whatever, but it’s important that you ask the patient and you get this agreement or this okay from the patient. And again, I think if you ask politely, most of the patients agree.
[Jaz]
In my own experience, yes. I mean, if you just say, look, I would love to use the images to show other patients, or I would love to share this with other dentists because I think there’s a lot to learn here. A lot to share here. Yeah. Maybe had zero or maybe one I can think of that said no ever in the last, you know, nine years. So I agree with you.
Patients are usually very happy for this. And then sometimes the odd one will say yes, but don’t show my face. And that’s totally cool. You need to respect that. But yeah, very rarely will they say it an outright no.
[Alessandro]
I have many patients asking. For their portrait pictures. So when I shoot my portraits, there’s a lot of patient asking if they can use them for their social media so-
[Jaz]
Yes, I had a male model actually. I took some portrait photos and then he actually now use it as part of his portfolio for his modeling. Why not?
[Alessandro]
Yeah. Yeah, why not? No, no. But again, important, ask your patients for the permission before doing so, not just post it. And then you get like the letter from the lawyer saying, okay, dear, your doctor, what have you done? So, the problem is if you have posted something, it’s almost impossible to delete it.
[Jaz]
Yep. And also, when you post it, it now becomes property of Instagram or property or Facebook. So, you need to respect that. The social media then owns it. So, it’s really important to get that level of consent, I think.
[Alessandro]
Yeah. This is also an interesting question. I have to ask someday the editors of books and journals. Because many authors publish them, they’re pictures of books out or articles on social media, and basically, they would not be allowed to do so because the property is on the editor of the book or the article.
So, if you publish articles, the copyright goes in most cases to the editor and you agree with that in this small letter text that nobody reads.
[Jaz]
Yeah. It’s true. But the scary thing though is, and something, the reason why we take it seriously is that there’s nothing stopping anyone. Like you post up a video of your patient and then someone can just download that video, put it on TikTok, and make and perverse the meaning of that, you see? So this is a little bit of scary time, so we just have to proceed with caution. I think that’s important not to forget this.
Alessandro, you’ve been absolutely brilliant today. We’ve talked about photography before. We talked about social media. Are there any closing remarks that you want to give to dentist before we send this out to the big, wide world? And hopefully lots of people join you on your Dentist TV. I look forward to that. Please give us your closing thoughts on the topic of social media and dentistry.
[Alessandro]
Basically it’s social media in general. So number one, be social on social media. So this is my number one thing I want to spread out. Second thing is think about if you really want and have the time to start a social media career or a social media journey, look for professional help if needed. So don’t say, ah, this guy is doing better than myself.
Ask these people, what are they doing? Being consistent is one of the fact, let’s say in the dental office, I would highlight the words love and passion. So you have to be passionate about what you’re doing. You have to love what you do on social media, it’s a little bit passion, a little bit love, but the most important thing is consistency.
You see a lot of burnouts on social media that you don’t see in the dental office in that extent. So social media is something that can be really demanding, taking a lot of energy from you. So there again, try to be consistent and if you feel like running out of ideas, not knowing what to do, not having any goal or plan again, look for professional help. So these are the key elements on being happy and social on social media.
Jaz’s Outro:
Guys, enjoy social media. Have a presence for your practice. Have a presence for yourself if you think that’s the right thing for you. I think what social media has become is, yes, there’s bad points about social media. We kind of touched on a little bit.
It’s always important never to compare yourself to someone else. I think Alessandro just mentioned that. And don’t compare your uncut life to someone’s highlight reel. Right. That’s like number one pathway to depression stuff. So remember that everyone’s always projecting the best and sadly Photoshop stuff as well.
But, have a presence. Enjoy, have fun with it, and if you’re not having fun with it, get some help. I think that’s that’s a message there. Well, there we have it guys. Hopefully you feel a little bit better about your interactions on social media, but also how to portray yourself on social media. It can be a dangerous place.
It can be a minefield. So some of the guidelines that Alessandro presented to us, I think are really helpful. Although this episode wasn’t eligible for notes, this is eligible for CPD because ultimately social media is a form of communication. So if you’re on the Protrusive App, scroll down below, answer a few questions and get your CPD.
You’ve come all this way after all, and as ever, I thank you so much for listening all the way to the end. If you wanted to join our community, there’s one on Facebook called Protrusive Dental Community, and it’s just got the loveliest people with a self-selecting bunch who listen to podcasts, and it’s absolute pleasure to read the discussions we have.
Please do join us, but if you’ve been trying to join, I’m not accepting you. It’s because you haven’t convinced me enough that you’re a dentist, so you kind of have to message me on Instagram or something to convince me that you are a dentist. And sometimes you might ask for proof and whatnot, but it’s only because you wanna create a safe environment for our community. Thanks again, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.