I've wanted to write this for a while, but things are coming to a head in a significant way especially in United Kingdom dentistry.
One of the things that you'll hear repeated through the industry and the companies that support dentistry is that they feel there is not enough capacity for the provision of dentistry in the United Kingdom (and other parts of the world too). There are many factors that seem to be causing this, more women in dentistry who are taking career breaks to have children, younger people in dentistry who do not want to work the same hours as their peers who are in older generations, older generations who want to cut back now who’ve had enough of either regulation or just the general treadmill of providing dentistry 5 days per week. And so, the companies themselves are desperate to find a solution to the problem, so that more patients can be seen, and they can sell more things and they've also created a narrative around this. Which you may or may not believe (because it seems to line their pockets), but certainly has to have some root in the truth. One of the things that dentistry really needs to get grips with is productivity.
Dentistry is a one person, one patient business.
It's impossible for a dentist to see more than one patient at exactly the same time, therefore limiting their production capacity. Consider software as a different business model. Write one good software package and you can sell it on almost unlimited amount of times.
Be a great dentist, and you can only see one patient at a time.
You are, by definition, limited.
That though is not to say that you cannot increase your capacity and the capacity of your business or the business that you work in by working both more efficiently and more effectively.
Take the example of the intraoral scanner these products now have developed so far into the mainstream in the past 10 years. That many people can't even consider the possibility of taking a standard old-fashioned impression.
They're fast, they're clean, they're quick, and at the press of a button, it's with the laboratory. Ten years ago, this would have been almost unthinkable. Now, it's almost entirely accepted.
But how do we go further from here?
How do we make it better?
How can we make our working life better, our patients experience’s better, and our team's careers better?
This is where tech and production capacity come in.
Once you realize that it's straightforward to take an intraoral scan in almost every patient, you realize that that can be a job for one of your team. You can train your team to take all the scans, and then you can try to figure out a way to use the capacity that you've created to see patients of a greater value.
One of the best ways of doing this is putting a scanner in a different room (even your X-ray room), where the nurse can take patients to that area and scan people, while you (under scheduled conditions) can see someone else.
In our practice, the diagnostic part of dental implant treatment is almost always carried out by the nursing team, sometimes at a separate appointment. This ties in with the technology of our practice management system, our customer relationship management system, and our booking system.
I can see a patient for a consultation, provide them with a full treatment plan. Have that emailed to them, have them followed up by one of our brilliant TCOs. And if the patient says they're happy and wish to proceed with treatment, they can return back to the practice for a full explanation, question session and diagnostic appointment with one of our nurse team.
This can be an hour-long appointment with the patient, and they feel that this is a fabulous high value due to the time spent and the kindness received. But it is chargeable at the highest level for digital study models, a diagnostic wax up, a surgical guide, a CBCT, clinical photographs. And this means that the nurse who is providing the diagnostic appointment is now working in (a non-dental surgery environment) grossing more money than most of the associates in the practice.
This is just one of the hundreds of possibilities that we now have with technology and dental practice, to allow us to become more effective, more efficient, and to inspire our teams to greater levels.
The use of AI and note taking will be something which frees up an enormous amount of time. The use of AI in X-ray diagnosis will do the same.
Again, in CBCT reporting and diagnosis, it will add similar.
Use of AI in dental marketing, financial management and insight preparation will also drive things forward in an extraordinary way. This will allow us to be more effective and more efficient. But what will we do with the time?
Many people are figuring out that if they can cut their workload down by 20% and keep their income at the same level, they might just have a Friday off. If they can cut it by 40%, that's a Thursday and a Friday.
The companies don't like that too much, but that is the way of the world. Not everyone wants the most money they can get.
Some people are also looking for a life, and that's also one of the things that the tech can give you.
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