Where will your dental practice be in five years? Ten? Fifteen?

Based on today's trends, your prospective patients are already searching for you on the Internet. They're using Google to find your practice and reading Yelp reviews to decide which doctors should get their business. Although it may seem strange to imagine yourself judged like a reality TV contestant, the truth is that the provision of health care is a service industry, and service industries thrive on word-of-mouth and, increasingly, online outreach.

Don't let yourself get left behind! Dr. Andrew Frangella, with his sisters Tina and Laura — dentists, all — has compiled his experiences using the Internet to boost their communications efforts into the book you see before you. With Social Media for Dentists, you will soon understand the importance of developing your social media strategy and learn valuable tips about making your website and your digital presence more effective and and influential. You'll get “do's and don'ts” for interacting via social media platforms and a quick history of the disruptive effect new online gathering places have had on the practice of dentistry and the world at large.

Social media has the potential to change the way you treat, diagnose, and communicate with patients. By reading Social Media for Dentists, you can seize this unique historical moment and take advantage of the opportunities this technological advance will bring.

Laura Frangella