Athena Consulting: Dental Practice Solutions

Reacting to current concerns about our environment and climate change, the dental community is starting to show interest in what it can do within each practice to “go green.”

Thanks to new technology, dental offices can be purged of many poisonous materials and tremendous amounts of paper.

Many earth-friendly options will present themselves when a new doctor equips an office. Discerning which equipment is necessary to the operation and success of the practice, however, remains most important – as well as staying away from expensive toys that won’t be utilized once the newness wears off.

The Bush administration has mandated that all healthcare disciplines must utilize electronic medical records by 2014. Going digital means using computer-based software that eliminates paper charts, paper insurance claims and plain film x-rays. The benefits of being “all digital” are immense: No need for extensive paperwork, no lost charts and x-rays, and insurance claims are sent electronically, reducing paper consumption. Digital x-rays, unlike traditional film x-rays, require less radiation for patients, no processing chemicals and no subsequent hazardous disposable waste. Being digital means an office’s entire cache of information – including patient records – can be carried safely and securely in a backup device smaller than a notebook.

Less radiation. More privacy. Good for the environment. The money well spent to go digital just might be worth it for the marketing value alone.

Handling dental insurance is increasingly electronic driven. An office which submits e-claims is not only kind to our environment but will find the turnaround time on receiving payment to be much less than submitting paper claims. That means more consistent cash flow.

A wide range of dental-practice software is designed to handle electronic dental records. All charting is entered into the patient’s electronic file as well as doctor notes and treatment plans. This ends the need for those costly paper charts that take up so much space. Health histories, consent forms and more all can be scanned into a patient’s electronic dental chart. The entire patient record and x-rays are right there on the computer screen; no more lost x-rays that have fallen out of the folder. Computer reports can easily identify those patients with outstanding treatment plans and be invaluable for internal marketing – all at the touch of a button.

Computers are a must in every treatment room. Compact intra-oral cameras can be moved from room to room, and connected to a USB port. Digital radiographs can be pulled up and enlarged on a chairside monitor, allowing the patient to see problem areas. That picture speaks a thousand words, and a patients’ ability to see that broken tooth or large, fractured filling will help him or her gain trust in you more quickly. That trust leads to more patient acceptance of the treatment plan presented – and builds practices more rapidly than anything else available.

What other things can be done to steer a practice to the green side?

• Wash all uniforms at the office to save petroleum by eliminating delivery of uniforms from the cleaners.

• Reduce harmful chemicals by using steam-based instrument sterilization.

• When buying a new roof for a building the practice owns, choose an eco-friendly material that does not release toxic fumes as tar and gravel do.

• Purchase as many recyclable products as possible.

• For practices that still use amalgam, stop. Whether or not you use amalgam, you should purchase a mercury-separation system that collects the mercury removed from existing fillings.

The year 2014 may seem far away, but it’s not. The time to start is now, before costs rise further. Take your practice to the next level and help our environment!