Why the Traditional Method of Running an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Practice is no Longer Effective and Competitive When it Comes to Dental Implant Services

Another application of this step for implant dentistry would be organizing surgical room and surgical tray in a certain standard way every single time for every doctor. This is so that whenever the doctor needs a tool, it does not matter what dental assistant is there, they are on the same page just as if any other assistant was there. Organizing like this could mean color-coordination, alphabetical organization on top of the color-coding, and keeping different categories of things on different levels of shelves and/or shadow boards.

Another example is setting a standard protocol for all surgeries so that oral surgeons always know how to do things the way that practice calls for it to be done. This way if another surgeon is covering for the designated surgeon to continue the care of that particular patient can know exactly what to expect and what needs to be done next.

Finally, in case of a full service implant practice, as long as there is no conflict and limitations with healing process all of the doctors visits (surgeon and restorative dentist) could also be coordinated in a way that the patient sees both clinicians in the exact same visit rather than all the non-value adding activities involved with the patient having to set up two or three separate appointments. The time and resources wasted during that visit ultimately could have been used on seeing another patient. In conclusion, money that could have been earned without these non-value adding activities is lost for good.

Porsche Consulting and the American Institute of Implant Dentistry Have Identified Seven Different Types of Non-value Adding Activities in an Implant Practice:

Unnecessary waiting time: a) Patient is waiting for clinician, staff member, diagnosis and treatment plan being presented or treatment time is overextended because older and conventional two-stage protocol is being used b) Clinician waits for imaging results, prosthetic treatment plan from restorative dentist, supplies, surgical room to be ready c) Rooms are not being turn around in a timely manner

Redoing steps due to poor procedures: a) Redoing poorly planned and executed surgical procedures b) Removing perfectly osseintegrated implant because of bad angulation or location c) Mistakes in billing and insurance forms

Inventory management: a) Excessive quantities of implants and implant related products b) No standardization of the supplies and ordering c) Unnecessary equipment or purchasing equipment which do not provide ROI

Poor space Utilization: a) Constant search for supplies and equipment due to lack of centralization and being stored too far from surgical room b) Floor plan does not provide an efficient patient in patient out as well as inefficient accessibility of doctor to office staff

Less than optimized transportation: a) Patient is moving between offices due to lack of digital workflow implementation b) Instead of performing all of the services by different clinicians in the same treatment room patient is being moved from one room to another to be seen by different clinicians.

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