Hannah Burrow looks at how incorporating technology can benefit a practice.
Creating a positive working environment is valuable for boosting the morale of the dental team, ensuring their wellbeing, and improving retention. Aim to create a dental practice environment that runs smoothly, and which your dental team feel proud to work in. Ensure that the team has the tools they need to complete their work to a high standard, and efficiently for boosted productivity.
Digital dentistry is key here, with the ability to simplify administrative and treatment processes in the dental practice. When equipment is outdated, tasks which should be fast, or even automatic with digital upgrades, may take much longer. Efficient digital tools allow you to maximise the time spent with patients and increase the number of patients seen each day without working extra hours.
Creating a positive environment for the dental team
Within the dental practice, there are a number of factors which could have the potential to put stress on the dental team. For example, a new dentist joining a busy practice may feel pressured to meet expectations, follow guidelines, and achieve their personal career goals – while also needing to see many patients very quickly, without letting standards slip. In a practice which is ill-equipped and doesn’t support the dental team, this pressure can build very quickly. A lack of support and poor access to resources in practice can make the workload feel even larger, with more obstacles to contend with. This makes it incredibly important to ensure that the dental team feel supported and has a clear understanding of the guidelines they must follow. It is also crucial that the dental practice is well equipped so that the team are able to carry out their work efficiently and confidently.
Meeting patients’ needs
A well-equipped practice with a competent workforce will drive patient satisfaction and encourage excellent rates of patient retention. If you are able to create a workflow to provide patients with excellent dental care and shorter waiting times, they are far more likely to return for further treatment in the future. In addition, when time is saved and processes run smoothly, patients are likely to notice that the dental team is happy, and they’ll have the opportunity to build a good relationship with them. Because of this, patients will have a more pleasant experience, and build trust with the dental team.
Across all areas of dentistry, digital solutions are becoming more widespread. These have been developed to meet the increasing demands of patients who require faster, more efficient, and more accurate dental treatment. Digital tools, whether used in clinical or non-clinical tasks, have been shown to boost efficiency in dental practices. By adopting digital resources in practice, you open the door to new possibilities for more efficient, high-quality dental care.
Benefits of new technology
New dental technology has applications across a range of clinical and non-clinical scenarios – from imaging, diagnostic and treatment assistance, to software, and practice management. Implementing digital solutions can improve productivity in practice, and streamline workflows. Digital dentistry brings with it the benefits of automation.
The use of smart, digital dental solutions in practice drastically reduces the risk of human error, maximises predictability, and saves time and money as processes are faster, and less likely to need to be repeated.
Automated digital solutions can also offer higher levels of precision, excellent quality and less labour-intensive processes. This equipment might include automated positioning features as part of in-practice imaging equipment, automated patient recall messages in practice management software, and equipment which facilitates automated infection control procedures. The incorporation of highly efficient technologies like these can save the dental team significant amounts of time.
Note-taking, in particular, is a notoriously time-consuming task, but digital innovations can help you save time here too. Kiroku, the innovative digital note-taking platform, helps you maximise the number of patients you are able to see per day. Kiroku enables you to take high-quality clinical notes 60 per cent faster by using dynamic templates which prompt you to include any information relevant in each case, removing the worry that you have missed out on important details.
The ability to incorporate digital solutions to reduce the stress felt by the dental team and improve efficiency will ultimately result in higher levels of patient satisfaction. This ability to improve working conditions in your practice has positive effects on the team and business and will result in saving money, time and increasing revenue for the practice. Plus, a dental team who are happy in their work will feel less stress and will have more confidence to offer excellent standards of care.
References available on request.