Dental industry news, trends and information from Patterson Dental.
Automated patient reminders can reduce no-shows by 34% or more. In addition to the cost on a patient’s health for not following up on necessary treatment, the tangible costs of no-shows can have a severe impact on health care in general and your bottom line specifically. See how automated patient reminders can improve the continuum of care while increasing office and staff efficiency.
Now that most dental offices are fully open again, it is even more important for dental practice owners to have a plan for reducing cancelations and no-shows. We asked David R. Rice, DDS, founder of igniteDDS to share some steps dental practices can take to reduce cancellations and no-shows.
Infection control and adherence to strict regulations are critical components in the success of a dental practice. It is up to dental office leaders to create and sustain a culture of safety involving the entire dental team.
As dental care in the age of COVID-19 starts to feel routine again, many practice owners are looking for new ways to cut costs and run their offices more efficiently. In a new webinar series, you’ll learn how marketing and communication software solutions like Solutionreach and OperaDDS can help you kickstart your schedule and boost your patients’ return appointments with convenient, automated and measurable patient outreach tools.
Safety is a critical part of every dental patient’s experience. They want to feel comfortable about the care you and your team provide, and that includes the steps you take to ensure they’re safe from infection. What patients see in your waiting room and operatories is only part of the story. Would they still feel good about your practice if they looked into your sterilization room or could inspect your dental unit waterlines?
Keeping high-touch personal items and PPE clean can provide additional safeguards against the spread of COVID-19. One solution for sanitizing high-touch personal items is the new PurLite™ Clean UV-C Cleaner. PurLite is a sanitizer that uses advanced, medical grade UV-C technology to provide a fast and effective way to ensure patients and employees feel safe and protected while in your office.
Pam McDonald has spent more than three decades getting to know her patients, but even with strong internal dental processes the team built in place, change inevitably knocked on the door.
When Jeffrey S. Butts, DDS, decided to expand his services to offer oral surgery, implants, IV sedation and same-day dentistry, he turned to Patterson Dental to help with finding a new location, designing the office layout and nearly every other aspect of his new practice.
Undeniably, COVID-19 has forever changed the way we practice dentistry and manage infection control. Every area of your practice has been impacted, from how patients are scheduled and checked in, to how office staff don and doff all the new PPE.
When dental offices reopened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some practice owners saw an increase in costs associated with PPE, coupled with a loss in revenue from scheduling fewer patients. Learn how Mark Ligocki, DDS, surpassed pre-COVID production and collections by performing new procedures and doing more same-day dentistry with the Solea all-tissue laser.
Learn how to set priorities and create processes to construct a workplace culture by design. By following the steps outlined in this article featuring Steven J. Anderson, you’ll be able to identify the key points your practice should follow in establishing and maintaining a successful and resilient work culture.
Making sure patients are well informed of the importance of oral health before they even book their hygiene appointment can help curb anxiety or other barriers that may be preventing them from coming into the dental office. And with staff training on how to communicate key oral health messages with patients, the oral hygiene appointment can be the perfect way to build relationships and trust with patients.
After holding down the roles of lead singer, songwriter and guitarist in two rock bands, Jeffrey S. Butts, DDS, is now the owner of a thriving dental office in Atlanta. So, how did Butts go from a touring rock star to owning his own practice?
In part two of its series “Implementing Routine Quality Assurance of Infection Prevention Policies and Procedures,” OSAP continues its close look at instrument reprocessing. Specifically, part two in this series outlines one approach to performing routine quality assurance related to packaging instruments during reprocessing.
The WHO recently recommended the delay of routine dental care in certain situations due to COVID-19. In a written response, the ADA said it “respectfully yet strongly disagrees” with the WHO’s recommendation. Roger P. Levin, DDS, shared a video outlining a scripted response dental practices can use to address patient concerns. Dr. Levin also offers three signs that may signal patients are opting out of routine dental care due to this news.
As dentists and hygienists question the use of ultrasonic instruments during the COVID-19 pandemic, they may also be looking for ways to eliminate or at least control aerosols and splatter. Young Innovations recently introduced the Splatter Guard® prophy angle, which nearly eliminates airborne particles during prophylaxis polishing. Whitney Howerton, MDH, RDH, gives Splatter Guard a test run.
Musculoskeletal injuries can be difficult to overcome for dental professionals. What preventive steps can you take to protect yourself from repetitive and large movement injuries? Start with some education and self-awareness, then integrate tools that will support your musculoskeletal health.
As dental practices get comfortable operating in the “new normal,” the burden of wearing—and storing—extra PPE and time spent disinfecting operatories between patients continues to be a challenge. To meet these challenges, dentists are looking for new ways to save valuable chair time and streamline inventory management.
Oral healthcare is essential at any age, but for children, maintaining a healthy mouth holds special importance. Dental caries is the most common chronic childhood infectious disease. As of 2015, approximately 573 million children worldwide had at least one untreated cavity.
A recent global health pandemic has brought personal protective equipment (PPE) to the public’s attention, but dental professionals have long been familiar with the concept of PPE. Despite this, many workers fail to adhere to PPE requirements because they find equipment cumbersome, uncomfortable or disruptive to performing tasks and communicating with patients and personnel. To remove these barriers, dental offices must supply PPE that maximizes ease of use, comfort and performance.
The current recommendation for when to replace a scaler is when 20% of the instrument blade width or length is reduced or no longer the original design. But how long it takes for each instrument to reach this threshold is dependent on several factors. Deb (Hume) Brown, RDH, shares some of these factors and how a failure to replace instruments can affect the clinician and the patient.
What if you could restore teeth by regrowing dentin and enamel? Although that technology remains the province of science fiction for now, bioactive restorative materials that do more than just take up space already do exist, and have for more than 40 years.
When COVID-19 limited dental care in the midwestern state to emergencies only, Megan Beuckens, DDS, knew she had to find new ways to extend her skills beyond the reach of her operatory.
As dental practices continue to examine infection control guidelines to meet the demands of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it’s important to consider how patients will feel as they walk into your office. A-dec has many solutions to not only improve the safety of your office, but also to visually show patients you’re keeping their health at the forefront.
Michael Cruz and Dee Dee Meevasin, DMD, were running critical business operations at full sprint when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Las Vegas, threatening to stop them in their tracks. The technology-forward dental practice found ways to remain operational when faced with taking emergency appointments only. Teledentistry from OperaDDS allowed for virtual consults, triaging and as a general screening and communication tool.
As states have relaxed stay-at-home orders and dental practices have started seeing patients for routine care again, teledentistry may still be top of mind for dental practices looking to give patients more ways to connect between visits. If you’ve been considering implementing teledentistry at your practice, how do you know if you’re ready? How do you know if teledentistry is right for your practice? How can you gauge its true impact on your business?
As dental practices continue to evaluate office policies and procedures during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, infection control will continue to be an important area of focus. To that end, the current issue of Infection Control in Practice by OSAP dives into creating an effective infection prevention and control program for your practice.
Keeping patients updated with paperwork, reminders for their appointments and a list of what to expect when they get to the office will help ensure they keep their appointment. Here are three steps to create a positive patient experience and help make sure your schedule stays full and breaking appointments is a rarity.
As part of its webinar series on supporting a new digital patient journey, Solutionreach recently shared some of the key areas of focus when communicating with patients during COVID-19. As patients look for a variety of up-to-date information, their healthcare provider could likely be their best source of trusted information.
Social distancing massively effects the dental industry, forcing us to change what our standard procedures are. In this new reality, we can’t just go paperless, we must go touchless. Continue reading for steps dental practices can take to provide a touch-free dental experience.