Social media-fuelled MLM schemes are misleading patients with unsafe whitening products. Dentists must educate patients, market professionally, and counteract this with trusted chairside solutions.
Suppose you’re a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram user. In that case, you likely have a ‘friend’ or ‘follower’ who has jumped aboard the MLM (multi-level marketing) wagon – also referred to as a pyramid scheme or network marketing. With the rise of social media networking over the last 15 years, such organisations have been rebranded for the digital age and digital platforms are fuelling their comeback.
An industry dominated by a new generation of young entrepreneurs looking for a ‘get rich quick’ solution by selling a manufacturer’s health-related products on their behalf often has little or no understanding of the effectiveness of the tooth whitening kits they are marketing.
These teams of MLMs are coming together in their thousands, hounding your patients on social media and enticing them to buy from them when they should be asking your practice about professional whitening. To fight back you should:
- Educate your patients on the benefits of professional chairside whitening. Clever marketing and social pressures shouldn’t outweigh patient education. At routine visits, ask patients if they have used any whitening products purchased online. Questioning their effectiveness is a great way to inform patients about your whitening treatments.
- Market whitening in your practice. With the rise of MLMs, embrace this opportunity to invest in increased social media promotion. Ask your whitening manufacturer if they can provide your practice with free, customisable marketing and education materials templates, and use these to target patients as effectively as possible. Someone in your practice is social media savvy and can help you get started online.
- Promote an established, well-recognised tooth whitening kit. Brand recognition is important to the millions of Generation Ys and Zs, so you must reassure them that the profession establishes and approves the whitening manufacturer you use. For example, chairside whitening treatment with products such as SDI’s Pola Rapid uses a highly concentrated whitening gel containing 6% hydrogen peroxide and built-in desensitisers. The gel can be applied to the teeth in one or several increments in one appointment and removed to reveal immediate, visible results.
Whitening is a relatively simple service to sell within a dental practice, often selling itself thanks to the coverage it receives across the media. However, charities like the Oral Health Foundation recognise online enticements. They are working hard to combat consumers’ serious risks by purchasing potentially unsafe whitening home kits or pastes over the internet. The dental professional’s role now is to support them by educating patients and emulating the MLMs.