If you are someone who’s New Year Resolutions invariably fail in the first 2 months of the year itself, don’t fret! There’s a reason why the month of March is called that – to enable you to march towards your goal! What would be the ultimate case for every dentist? Maybe - a case of multiple grossly decayed teeth in a patient who possesses the will and the bills for treatment?
What would you do if such a patient comes to you? Let us March you step by step through this case in a short hypothetical story!
Step 1 – You will take a radiograph. After clinical examination, you will investigate the entire mouth radiographically. Should you opt for full mouth IOPAs or 1 single OPG? You need to make a choice.
Step 2 – You will extract hopeless teeth. And you will do it well. But what happens of the teeth you extracted? Do you simply throw them away or store them in a box and forget about it? Did you know there’s a sterilization & disposal protocol for extracted teeth? Or that they are being sold online? Read more about legal and ethical issues of extracted teeth through a research conducted in a premier institute in Mumbai, India.
Step 3 – You will plan implant placement. Step 1 told you the approximate good bone levels and remember the patient possesses the will and the bills for treatment? You want to give the best implant to this patient – almost life-like. Scientists are busy researching on making dental implants more natural and have now invented – Ligaplants – an implant with PDL!
Step 4 - You learn something from the patient. As it always happens during counselling the patient for implants, the patients have more to say and ask than you! Your patient mentions his American friend who’s come down for a dental vacation and says he will ask him what his dentist told him about implants too. You’ve heard of summer vacations and winter vacations. But you wonder what in the world is a ‘dental’ vacation?!
Step 5 – You work towards something more. You’ve convinced the patient for treatment, but now you want more. You are wondering if you can offer dental vacations too. But there must be a standard quality of health care practice required for being eligible to do so. Maybe for starters, you can use the Govt. approved framework through which the National Health Services improve the quality of their organization.
Step 6 - You realize who will help you upgrade. As you & your associate dentist finish appointments for the day, your assistant coordinates with the dental lab guy for pickups while the maid clears up the clinic. You see them and understand that your employees form a big part of running your practice - they are sometimes the framework you rest on and sometimes the safety net you rely on! You realize that only after you appreciate what you already have, can you hope for what you further want.
So isn’t this how an ideal day at your clinic would look like? Do let us know!
There are other activities you can take part in too - listen to our bag of surprises for 2020!
