It's your surgery

01 April 2010
Volume 26 · Issue 4

Top tips for surgery design  

Most dentists across the country spend six or seven hours a day in their surgeries. This equates to at least 1,200 hours a year and however you look at it, this accounts for a high proportion of your life. So creating a pleasant, relaxing environment in which you and your patients feel comfortable should be top of your priorities. 

However, our experience has shown people who want a complete new surgery, or a refurbishment, need to take into consideration what they want their surgery to communicate to patients and how they intend to execute the project. So here are a few key points you should think about from the very beginning.

 

Layout and space

The available space for your surgery cannot usually be changed or increased, unless you are embarking on a significant building project. However, many of the space limitations you might face can be overcome by a great design. Think about the existing position of doors, windows and services and how these work in relation to the position of the chair. ‘Walk through’ your daily routine and this will give you a clear idea as to where the most important equipment needs to be located. Think about whether the surgery will be used for a left or right handed operator – or both.

 

Chair

Choosing a chair is one of the most important decisions you will make when designing your surgery and there are hundreds of options on the market. At Henry Schein Minerva we help guide our customers through the plethora of choices so they find a chair that suits their patients and themselves. Chair styles range from the simple and functional to the bespoke and luxurious and many are designed specifically to save space and have additional features and design extras.

 

Sterilisation

HTM01-05 regulations have been an important topic over the last year. The current requirements demand a move towards ‘best practice’ which may ultimately result in the need to create a separate room in which sterilisation procedures take place. Currently however, for practices which are unable to create a separate room, the requirement is that the processing of instruments should be carried out in a designated area as far away from the chair as possible.  In such circumstances this area must incorporate a clear ‘dirty to clean’ workflow so used instruments are at the lowest risk of coming into contact with decontaminated ones. Separate sinks for hand washing and decontamination processes are also required. We can advise and guide practitioners through this process. 

 

Cabinetry

Our cabinetry division, Premier Cabinets, located in Cumbria has been designing and building dental cabinets for many years and as the most visible part of the surgery we understand the need to have a blend of colour, creative design, high quality materials and excellent workmanship. Cabinets also need to adhere to decontamination guidelines and cabinetry and work surfaces must be ‘continuous and if possible jointless’. Mobile cabinetry can provide an excellent, flexible solution for surgeries that are short of space or require joint use of certain equipment or instrumentation.

 

Budget

As with every other aspect of running your business, a new or refurbished surgery needs to be closely project-managed and be allocated a realistic budget. We have surgery solutions that can accommodate all types of budget.

By using a company like Henry Schein Minerva you can benefit from our many years’ experience in the field and from the fact you need only deal with a single supplier. We have specialist advisors and installation experts who are able to control every aspect of your project.

Contact Henry Schein Minerva on 08700 10 20 41 or visit www.henryschein.co.uk