Part 2: 6 principles of building a professional dental dream team

- Team DentalReach

Abstract

The principles of the formation of teams of different dental specializations are considered. These principles are based on the context of modern technologies and competition. Six principles of building a team of dental professionals are explained.

Let us emphasize: we are talking about a creative ensemble of high-class specialists. This, as they say, is piece goods in commercial medicine!

1. The principle of voluntary participation in a team.

Voluntary participation presupposes specific motivation, that is the doctor is driven by:

• his/her professional interest
• the desire to obtain the best end results
• the desire to maximize his/her knowledge and skills in an ensemble of top-class professionals.

A volunteer in a team is a specialist who gets satisfaction from achieving a synergistic effect, that is, by adding up the professional efforts of all team members.

2. The principle of congeniality in team selection.

Congeniality (from Latin conj - with, together and genius - spirit) - means similarity in spirit, abilities, giftedness, way of thinking.

Doctors unite on the basis of similarities and even coincidences of spiritual values, way of thinking or talents. Only under this condition there is a value-orientational unity of a small team, as well as a resource of positive mental energy, which has a beneficial effect on team members and patients.

A multidisciplinary team based on the congenial principle must meet the following criteria:

• Everyone is a master of his craft, a specialist with a capital letter. If even one turns out to be a mediocre doctor, the patient will easily discover the flaw - the “law of contrast” will work, and the authority of the team will be in question.
• Everyone is fascinated by the idea of ​​cooperation with colleagues of a high professional level, where collegial creativity and the achievement of a new, higher quality of the final product due to a synergistic effect becomes possible.

This is an ensemble of like-minded people who are united by general and specific principles of diagnostics, treatment planning and preventive measures.

These are people who are close in moral values, for whom the quality of treatment and the patient's well-being are higher than material interests and personal ambitions. These are specialists who are ready to jointly form the patient's ideas about the quality of services and manage these ideas. These are psychologically compatible partners who are able to support each other, and not assert themselves.

These are specialists who trust each other, who know how to reckon with each other's opinions, make concessions, and are ready to delegate the functions of a leader to someone from the team members. This leader will coordinate the team's actions, evaluate the quality of work of colleagues, explain to the patient the meaning of events, close the main the volume of communication at the clinical and postclinical stages of interaction with the patient.

These are doctors who are ready to sacrifice their interests for the sake of the patient - to make additional efforts, spend more time on communication, provide discounts, and reasonably increase guarantees.

It should be noted with great regret that in some clinics "teams" of specialists are being created, in which congeniality - the unity of spirit, the way of thinking - is turned not in favor of the patients, but is aimed at achieving commercial success.

Case example: A large system of dental clinics advertises: “Get prosthetics in 1 day. Complete restoration of all teeth in one day! The denture will not slip or shift in the mouth! Does not affect taste. Service life 15 years".

In all likelihood, in such an attractive form, implant supported dentures are being advertised. However, the advertising hides the "subtleties" of the approach to prosthetics, creating the illusion of a fabulous solution to the patient's problem.

But here’s why this is an example of bright minds doing dark things. This ad, put together by a team of dental doctors, poses certain questions:

• Will the participation of several narrow specialists be required to make diagnosis?
• Is it not necessary to first treat the preserved teeth or eliminate periodontal problems?
• Is there a need for preliminary preparation of the oral cavity, bone grafting surgery (lifting the maxillary sinus floor, bone ridge augmentation)?
• Are there any absolute contraindications for implantation (chronic blood diseases, age under 18, pregnancy)?
• Are there any relative contraindications (diabetes mellitus, heart defects, pathology of the immune system, cardiovascular diseases, AIDS, cancer, blood clotting disorders)?
• Don't you need hygienic cleaning obligatory before any dental procedure?
• Is it not necessary to make sure that the implants have osseointegrated before installing the prosthetic structure?
• Are follow-up examinations scheduled after their installation?
• What does 15 years of service of prostheses mean - does the term depend on the age, general health of the patient, clinical situation in the oral cavity, or do these factors play no role? Or will the design be changed during the specified period whenever something is wrong?
• Is there evidence of long-term effectiveness of one-day prosthetics and patient responses?

The problem: It is possible to place four implants and a prosthetic structure in a day with the risk of obtaining a small percentage of satisfactory long-term results, but it is entirely case dependant. As you can see, the announced advertisement ignores all the prerequisites for an individual approach and cancels the protocols that ensure the effectiveness of dental implants. It seems that the setting of a denture is easier than putting on contact lenses!

During consultations, the experienced and responsible specialists will talk differently : “Yes, in certain clinical conditions it is possible to put implants and prostheses in a day. But in your case, it is necessary to conduct a complete general and dental examination in order to identify the presence of contraindications, the need for sanitation of the oral cavity, professional teeth cleaning. It is necessary to conduct a study of bone tissue based on the study of an X-ray and CT scans. This is necessary both for assessing the state of the jaw bone tissue and for choosing the right implant. The matter will not be limited to one day. You have to pay for this and for that ... "