Dentistry 2000, The 21st Century Practice, The Million Dollar Practice, The Top 5%!

All buzz phrases for one thing: the selling of high technology to dentists.

Dentistry has never had such an onslaught of progressive changes as it faced over the last five years. Think about it. Ten years ago, there was barely a handful of practitioners who knew anything about dentin bonding and glass ceramic restorations. And veneers to enhance and change a persons smile were even less known.

Implants, which are now commonplace, were rarely mentioned as treatment options to patients with missing teeth. Dentures were the standard of care for the edentulous patient. We’ve come so far in our clinical development.

Unfortunately, for those of us who have taken advantage of these newer, better treatment modalities, the management side of the informational superhighway has us on a detour!

In our office we have practice management software and scheduling, a cosmetic imager, and an intraoral camera. Unfortunately, when this package was sold to us it was supposed to be completely integrated. Though images can be imported and exported, there has been difficulty with respect to true integration.

Cost is a real concern for most practices as well. We have yet to purchase a digital radiography system. Though we would love the convenience, it just doesn’t fit in. We are now considering cad-cam technology, yet this is another stand-alone system taking up space in our already crowded operatory.

While it is true that we have the option of leasing the equipment and paying over a period of time to help things become more affordable, by the time the lease is paid, our computers have become obsolete. Too bad, by this point we’ve got so much invested we have no choice but to stick with what we’ve got.

We do love the technology that we’ve incorporated into our office and so do our patients. But there is an incredible amount of room for improvement. We need integrated streamlined systems that work as hard as we do!