Dental Waiting Room TV: The Best Content For Your Patients

The key to a great dental waiting room TV is the content. Whether it’s patient education videos, or content that’s more homey, it’s the quality that counts. This article highlights some of the “Shoulds,” and “Should NOTs,” to consider when choosing the best content for your patients.

Dental Waiting Room TV: “The Shoulds”

1.) Your TV Should be there for your Patients’ Comfort: First and foremost, you want your patients to feel comfortable in your waiting room. Compared to other practices, dental offices tend to stand out as the most-stressful, and most anxiety-inducing; across all ages. The last thing you want is the TV making things worse. Put something on the TV that your patients will enjoy.

2.) Your TV’s Content Should be Entertaining AND Educational: As a dentist, getting your message across is important. Whether that message is promoting the importance of brushing twice daily, or reminding patients to schedule routine-cleanings; equally as important is balancing those messages with content that visitors will find personally enjoyable. Which, in the end, is proven to help the educational messages go down easier.

3.) Your TV Should Communicate with your Patients: Videos that feature your office, staff, or community, are a great and friendly way to connect with your patients. Having a TV gives you the power to communicate. Use this power to greet patients-in-waiting, create a more welcoming environment, or even get more followers on social media!

Dental Waiting Room TV: “The Should NOT’s”

1.) Your TV’s Content Should NOT be Strictly Dental-Related: Content that is medical-related is only good in small doses. Unless you’re a dentist, you really don’t find dental-related things very interesting. This idea that dentist offices must have dental, or tooth-related things playing on the TV is a dangerous mindset. It can be a big put off for patients.

Dental TV services that provide only dental-related videos are experts at spinning them in a positive light- and, as dentists, it’s easy to get excited about it. However, your patients are NOT as enthusiastic about seeing teeth, technology, and dental procedures as you are. Many visitors will be turned off, or even anxious about the prospect of being trapped in a room with a TV telling them that they might have cavities, or gingivitis.

2.) Your TV’s Content Should NOT be Gross or Unsettling: However well-intentioned your videos of rotting teeth, bloody gums, or bad breath are- they’re simply not doing your office any favors. Patient comfort comes first; leave the gross, graphic, and nightmare-fueled imagery to the voluntarily-read pamphlets and brochures and online videos. People that are interested enough will search out the gory details. But you can spare the rest of your patients the displeasure.

3.) Your TV’s Content Should NOT be a Looping Playlist: Looping playlists are just a bad idea in general. Nothing says “I’ve been waiting forever” like knowing which video is coming up next. A lot of times providers utilize playlists because they simply don’t have a large enough library of content. Quality is important, but so is quantity when it comes to not seeing the same thing over and over again.

The Best Dental Waiting Room TV: Where to Start Looking

Knowing the Shoulds and Should NOT’s of dental TV is a good start in terms of “what” to look for in a TV solution; “where” to find the right provider is the next step. A simple google search is one’s best friend, however you’ll have to sift through the riff-raff of dental-only services for the needle in the haystack.

For the best in quality content that patients truly enjoy watching, start your search with It’s Relevant TV. It’s Relevant features one of the world’s largest libraries of short-form licensed content; no playlists. It’s a cost-effective, easy-to-use TV service that dentists- big and small, are using to improve patient experience, promote their brands, and connect more with their visitors.