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The Best & Worst Things To Show On Dentist TVs

Television is a significant part of a dental office’s waiting room. It not only offers aesthetically-pleasing benefits but also keeps the patients engaged as they wait for their appointments.

While dentist TVs are brilliant ideas, not all types of content suit patients. To help you choose the best content, here are the best and worst things to show on dentist TVs.

Are TVs In Dental Waiting Rooms Important?

There has been a long-standing argument about if TVs deserve a place in health centers such as dental offices. After all, patients visit these centers for pressing health needs, and there is little that TVs can contribute to their experience as they achieve those needs, right?

Wrong.

Like many other businesses, dental services revolve around providing the ultimate customer experience and satisfying clients who visit your establishment. While this revolves around your ability to offer high-quality services in an equally highly conducive environment, it also involves paying attention to minute details like client entertainment.

Years ago, patient entertainment in dental waiting rooms was nothing more than magazines that displayed helpful information about oral health and the importance of superior oral hygiene. While this was a great way to keep patients engaged as they waited to be attended to, it quickly wore off over the years as technology improved and the years changed.

Today, dental practices and establishments have adopted high-tech solutions. While this means better dental procedures, it also means a technological upgrade in several parts of the establishment, such as the waiting room and waiting room entertainment.

To escape looking outdated, many dental establishments have jumped on the train of implementing several technological types of equipment on their premises. This ranges from self-interacting kiosks to automated systems and television sets.

Waiting rooms are a peak center of any establishment. It is where a patient’s first impression of the dental office will be made. This is mainly why it is essential to ensure the room does not look outdated and boring.

The advent of technology means almost every family has at least one television set in their home. In fact, statistics show that there were an estimated 1.72 billion TV households worldwide in 2021.

Watching TV has become a significant part of many people’s routines, a way for them to settle down, relax, and be entertained. It is, therefore, not surprising that compared to health posters, leaflets, and magazines, many people will pick TV sets as their choice of content consumption.

This is why seeing a TV set in a dental office waiting room has become a commonplace act of keeping clients engaged.

So, do TVs in dental waiting rooms matter?

The short answer is yes.

Just like digital signage offers benefits in medical waiting rooms, installing digital signage offers benefits in dentist establishments. However, installing a TV in your dental establishment is not enough. It is equally essential, for various reasons, to a patient’s or client’s experience.

Some of these reasons include the following:

Reduce Perceived Waiting Time

Customer waiting time is one of the many business elements that impact a client’s experience. The longer patients are made to wait at dental clinics, the more on-edge and impatient they become.

These feelings can negatively impact the patient’s perception of your dental clinic, giving them a bad impression of the experience that leaves them dissatisfied with your services.

Showing exciting content on your dental office TV is an effective way of taking a waiting client’s mind off how long they are required to wait or have been waiting for, helping them relax instead.

It impacts their perceived time so that they do not realize how long they have been kept waiting. In essence, a TV showing exciting content can make a patient feel like they have been waiting for ten minutes instead of twenty.

Ease Patient Anxiety

Many people experience anxiety when they visit health centers, including dental offices. Bad past experiences in dental establishments or a general phobia of health centers may cause this anxiety. Regardless of what causes this anxiety, it worsens the longer patients must wait before a dentist can attend them.

Showing interesting content on the dental waiting room’s television is a great way to subtly ease the patient’s mind off the negative feelings and be more relaxed.

Edge Over Competition

“My dentist has a TV. Does yours?”

Technology, in whatever form, is a great way to set your dental establishment apart from the competition. It is somewhat surprising- or not- that something that seems as trivial as a television will be a winning card against competitive dental establishments. However, it is.

Having a television (or several ones, for that matter) in your dental establishment can be creatively used as a yardstick to separate your brand from the competition. Displaying interesting content can be used as an even better way to maximize the edge you have over the competition.

Create Happy Clients

Satisfied clients are happy clients. Happy clients have a higher chance of returning to the establishment as returning clients. Returning clients equals a successful business.

Although it might not seem like it, dental room TVs play significant roles in the success of a dental establishment. The content of these TVs can determine the success of your dental establishment and can make or break your business.

Best Things To Show On Dentist TVs

Not every content is fit for consumption, especially in waiting rooms. Like in the hospital (check out the best and worst things to show on hospital waiting room TV), there are some contents that should be shown on dental TVs and some that should never be.

Have you installed TVs in your dental establishments? Let us help you choose the best content to display.

When it comes to offering premium entertainment, not just any kind of content will do. Only high-quality entertainment from Loop TV will keep your patients entertained as they enjoy your services.

Loop TV is a business TV solution that offers digital signage services and more than 200 entertainment channels. These channels vary from music videos to news, short funny videos, relaxing drone footage and more. The digital signage services are equally sophisticated and high-end, suitable for creating top-tier custom digital signs.

Loop TV offers numerous content options. Some of the best content suitable for your dental TV include:

1. News

Watching the news on television is more than a routine for many people. It has become so ingrained into their life that it is now more of a lifestyle and less of a chore.

In 2020, the average number of TVs tuned into morning network news programming on significant networks was estimated to be between two and four million. These networks included ABC, NBC, and CBS. The evening network news also brought in an average evening audience of over seven million.

Although technology has made it so that it is easier to get news online now, many people still prefer to watch the news on television. It is a way for them to keep up with the world around them while also relaxing. This is why it makes sense to show news to patients who visit dentists.

The News is one of the many contents embraced across all age groups. Although adults aged between 18 and 34 years old are the least likely to use cable TV networks (a survey in 2022 discovered only 12 percent watch cable news compared to 32 percent of those aged 65 and above), they still love to consume news via other media, primarily through the internet.

With News showing on your dental TV screen, you can keep your patients engaged as they wait to be attended to.

2. Music Videos

Music is a global phenomenon that has a powerful effect on humans, elevating mood, reducing stress, and helping with pain management. Music videos are an entertaining way to keep patients in good spirits while they wait for their appointments.

Loop offers professionally curated, fully licensed music channels, perfect for any business! There are even children's music channels for pediatric dental practices to play.

3. Sports Channels

Many people are invested in sports. It doesn't matter if they are watching it live or on screens, people are passionate about sports.

From football to basketball, baseball, and more, sports are a great way to keep people engaged in dental waiting rooms. People find sports entertaining for various reasons, including the skills involved, rivalry, escaping reality, and the element of unpredictability involved. Regardless of the reason, many people will agree that watching sports is an excellent way to pass the time quickly.

Since the average wait time in dental clinics is about 20 to 30 minutes, it is not ideal to play live sports sessions on the TVs. Instead, you can use Loop TV to display entertaining sports highlights.

4. Movie Trailers

Although showing movies on dental office TVs is an excellent idea, there is always a problem of how these movies often stretch on for more than an hour at a time. While it also makes sense to display short shows instead, this might also not be very ideal as the show chosen might not be to everyone’s taste or can be extremely distracting to the staff and certain patients.

So, what do you do instead? The next best thing is showing movie trailers. Movie trailers are short entertaining movie clips that are almost as gripping as watching the movies itself. They are fun and engaging, an awesome way of keeping your patients talking as they wait.

Movie trailers also give patients something to look forward to when they leave the establishment. Ultimately, there is no losing with movie trailers showing on your TV.

5. Customized Content

Using digital signage, dental clinics can create customized content that will be displayed on their TV screens.

Displaying customized content on dentist TVs is a great way to show your patients the unique side of your brand. This content may be made from videos, images, texts, background colors, and many different elements.

Dental customized TV content can be informative, entertaining, or a little bit of both. It can include content such as dental staff profiles to introduce patients to the doctors, animated dental tips, and other family-friendly unique content.

Worst Things To Show On Dentist TVs

While there is certain content that belongs on dental office TVs, some content has no business being shown there. Some of these include:

1. Adult Content

Kids make up a significant percentage of patients that visit the dentist. This means having adult content displayed on your TV is an immediate ‘no’.

Exposing kids to adult content can cause trauma and damage their moral compass. It can cause misinformation, distorting their social and even interpersonal development.

It is also quite offensive to their parents, who will feel disrespected because the dentist they chose didn't care about them or their kids enough to filter the content being shown on TV. This is a surefire way of losing clients fast.

Instead of showing adult content, focus on showing general-viewing-friendly content. Take time to go through the content ratings before displaying the shows. You can also maximize your Loop TV playlist option so you can curate a playlist of safe, child-friendly shows.

2. Religious Shows

Religion is an excellent part of society, but not when it is being forced down people’s throats.

The world is filled with a blend of different religious practices, opinions, and even preferences. Although religion can be the connecting factor in the right situations, it can be a major stressor in atmospheres where people have different religious views.

To avoid a clash of beliefs, it is essential to keep religious content off TVs in dental offices. This will sustain peaceful and tension-free environments.

3. Gory/Horror Movies

The last thing your patients need to see before they are taken in for their procedures or check-ups is blood and gore. Many patients are already squeamish at the thought of bleeding while being attended to, and seeing more blood on the TV screen might be triggering.

Display The Best Content With Loop TV

Knowing which contents to display on your dental TV is the secret to optimizing the benefits of high-quality entertainment. With the right content, you can help your patients have an amazing experience at your clinic.

Loop TV offers you the opportunity to help your patients enjoy high-quality content spanning over 200 free exciting channels. From news to music videos, sports highlights, and even kids’ channels, you never run out of entertaining, family-friendly options for your patients at no extra price.