Dentaltown January 2023 - 46

Office Visit
Dr. DiBona's Top Products
coordinator could check out as
many patients as possible and
answer any lingering questions
about treatment.
* Another subtle feature is that we
have no thresholds on the floor when
you go from room to room, which
allows for carts (like the intraoral
scanner cart) to be moved without
going over any bumps. It's subtle,
but it makes a difference.
What other big changes
did you make that you'd
recommend for other docs?
We're getting ready to drop our conVatech
CBCT scanner (above).
We've had a CT scanner in
the office since 2009, and we
purchased the new Vatech unit
last year. I can't imagine placing
dental implants without it.
My endodontist uses this on
every root canal case as well,
so it gets a lot of mileage. The
software is easy to use and their
support is great.
Versah implant drills. I have these
set up for most of my implant
cases. They help condense bone,
as well as do minimally invasive
sinus lifts. This is one of the
most exciting new techniques/
instruments I have in my practice!
I sat through the Versah lecture
in Chicago thinking, " This makes
so much sense. Why didn't
someone think of a product like
this sooner? "
OptraGate Retractor. I put these
in almost everyone's mouth.
It retracts the lips/cheeks well,
and almost opens things up
like a curtain for great visibility
and accessibility.
Q-Optics Loupes (above).
Prismatic/expanded field and
headlight. I love that I can see an
entire arch with these loupes,
plus I have 3.5 magnification.
MouthWatch intraoral camera.
We have one in every operatory.
They're extremely easy to
use, very affordable, and do
a great job showing patients
one tooth at a time. They help
with case comprehension and
case acceptance.
tract with Delta Dental and become an
unrestricted provider. I started considering
this for two reasons. Firstly, they were
just becoming so difficult to work with.
And the pandemic and inflation had been
causing our overhead to spike. Every day,
I reviewed the insurance write-offs and
thought, " There's no way we can survive
like this. "
When I started digging deeper, and
listening to Gary Takacs' The Less Insurance
Dependence Podcast, I realized how much
sense it would make for a practice like mine
to drop all insurance plans and become a
fee-for-service practice.
I heard a popular practice consultant
mention that when dental insurance first
came on the scene in the 1970s, it provided
patients with $1,000 of benefits, and
crowns cost about $150. Fast-forward to
today and ... well, do the math.
Patients were mad at us-not the
insurance corporations-for how little their
plans covered, and I thought, " I'm going to
break my body trying to do high-volume
dentistry or I'm going to have to leave the
insurance-driven practice philosophy and
become a patient-driven practice. "
We made a six-month plan and began
informing as many patients as possible,
face to face, about why we'd made this
decision and how they could remain at our
practice. In the past few months, we've
lost about 2% of Delta Dental patients so
far, and I'm betting that many of them
44 JANUARY 2023 // dentaltown.com
http://www.dentaltown.com
Dentaltown January 2023

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