Dentaltown November 2020 - 44

office
visit

is a monitor showing digital photographs of
the patient we're working on. The milled
E.max is finished in the Ivoclar Programat
Oven and the restoration is cleaned with
the Reliable Corp. 5000CD Dental Lab
Steam Cleaner.
All of this is just steps away from the
treatment room and just outside my personal
office. If I have a chance to work on charting
or reading radiographs or CBCT while
crowns are in the oven, I can readily hear
the oven cycle finishing. We also house our
3D printer in this same "clean lab" space.

Walk us through an average
day at your practice.
We start with a team meeting where the
clinical team briefs me on each appointment's
goals. What treatment are we accomplishing
and why? What is the next appointment
for that patient? What else is going on
with that patient or his/her family? What
celebrations do we have? What potential
concerns or conflicts do we have with the
schedule? The team meeting helps me get
a feel for the day, gives me an opportunity
to address further questions that I might
have or point out additional areas of focus.
It can also give me a lot of confidence in
my team when they can demonstrate their
level of understanding about what we plan
to accomplish.
I typically see very few patients a day in
my restorative schedule; four to six patients
a day is typical, and two or three is not
uncommon. I have diagnosed and treatmentplanned comprehensively for most of my
time in practice, so I most often treat a
quadrant at a time. I do longer procedures
such as E.max Cerec crowns and Bioclear
restorations.
I start patient care at 8 a.m., break for
lunch at 1 p.m. and finish patient care at 5.
I really like having the longer morning to be
extra-productive with long appointments.

44

Your husband is your practice
manager. Do you find it easy to
separate work from your home life?
My husband has always been involved
in the practice, but in 2013 he started
working there full time. It isn't the career
he would have chosen for himself, but
he does enjoy dentistry. He was there all
through dental school, too, so he really
understands what he calls "the process of
becoming professionalized." He makes the
technology possible, because he's who we
always turn to to make things work! He
dealt with the challenges of 3D printing
and now I can't imagine doing dentistry
without our 3D printer.
I don't usually work directly with him
at the office, so it's not unusual for me to
barely see him during the day. I am, however,
a failure at separating work from home!
Even our daughter is pretty aware of what
goes on at the office and she has a gift for
understanding people and situations, so I
trust her instincts.

What do you do to enhance
the new patient experience?
We enjoy that our new patient experience
is just that-an experience. It is rewarding

to exceed patient expectations as we share
findings they've never heard from their
dentist before. We bring our new patients
into an area that is removed from the flow
of patients we are actively treating. The
room has a nonclinical feel to it and there
are large fingerprints on the windows to the
adjoining hallway as a reminder that each
patient is a unique individual, which guides
our treatment planning. As we have adopted
3D-printed models, the fingerprint whorl
also reminds me of the surface appearance
of the printed models.
A new patient visit is most frequently
two hours long, and it doesn't involve a
prophy or any treatment. We know this is
extreme, but whenever we've tried to shortcut
this visit and just get on with diagnosed
care, we've found our patients to be much
less likely to follow through with the care
we've recommended and they require a lot
more time down the road, when it can be
disruptive to the schedule and not give them
the best experience.
We enjoy taking the time to get to know
our patients and discovering their oral health
goals, educating them and helping them in
the decision-making process. Because this is
often overwhelming for patients, it's helpful

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Dentaltown November 2020

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