Dental Practice Management - Importance of Appointments

Dental Practice management is a broad topic that includes setting up a dental clinic, hiring of adequate number of staffs that are well versed with the work they are supposed to do in an efficient manner and in perfect harmony to increase the net revenue of the clinic, materials supply management, patients' record management, patients' appointment management, cashflow management and many more. Let's discuss about the importance of appointments for better efficiency and maximizing the revenue in least possible chairside time.

Not every dentist is well acquainted with the managerial skills that is necessary to run a dental clinic. Some acquire it naturally on the go after establishing a dental clinic and some struggle for years due to lack of the skill and experience too many patients in some particular days and not a single patient some unfortunate day. More often than not, once a dental clinic is well-established and with good track record of providing good dental care, there will be problem of having too many patients rather than having too few patients. This is where the one aspect of dental practice management - Appointment system becomes of paramount importance. 

Though, it seems cumbersome to keep records of appointment time and follow that strictly, it has infinite perks. Some advantages of keeping strict patient appointments are:

A. You can give enough time to each patient. You need not hurry that there are too many patients at  a particular time. Your workload is relatively constant at a pace you have set for yourself. The inter-patient time gap is minimized and patients examined/treated per unit time rises several folds. 

B. You can set different time hours for different types (age groups/profession)   of patients and prepare your instruments for the same. Charging a bit more for treatment provided during off-hours for employed patients who cannot take a leave is not unethical at all. You provide a great value of service and get increased return for yourself. 

C. You can reduce the number of staffs and Dental Chairs required as per the workload and minimize unnecessary expenditure. False indication of patient overload and temptation to add another dental chair and dentist is also avoided. Adding up dental chairs and dentists without actually having sufficient patients all the time would be hazardous to your practice and sometimes you have to sell the equipments at a great loss or downsize on staffs.

D. Better Patient Care: Each patient feels that he is important for you because you have set a separate time for him. Your dedication to him and meticulous clinical care will make you a trustworthy clinician for him.

E. You can actually reduce the clinic opening hours. When you figure out the number of patients coming everyday, you can set your opening hours as per the requirement. 

MCQs on Carbohydrate Metabolism - Biochemistry MCQs

# The rate of absorption of sugars by the small intestine is highest for:
A. Pentoses
B. Disaccharides
C. Polysaccharides
D. Hexoses

# Which one of the following enzymes use NADP as conenzyme?
A. Glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate dehydrogenase
B. Lactate dehydrogenase
C. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase
D. Beta hydroxy acyl coA dehydrogenase

Photographs in Orthodontics - Dental Photography

Photographs in dentistry are of great importance because they tell a lot about the patient's dental conditions at once. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words", that holds true in dentistry. Some advantages of photographic record in dentistry are:


i) For diagnosis and treatment planning
ii) To keep records of patients
iii) To compare pre treatment and post treatment results
iv) To communicate with dentists all over the world
v) In preparing case studies and reports

Mastering photography in dentistry is a time consuming skill that develops over years. But few perspectives and views that provide a great detail and are useful in dental diagnosis (Orthodontics in particular) are listed below.

1. Profile view - to evaluate skeletal abnormalities and concavity/convexity  of face
2. Frontal view at rest - to evaluate face form, facial asymmetry, lower facial height, lip competency
3. Frontal view Smiling - to evaluate smile, midline shift, diastema
4. Maxillary occlusal view - to evaluate the line of occlusion, caries in need of restoration
5. Mandibular occlusal view - to evaluate the line of occlusion, caries in need of restoration
6. Intraoral Right - to evaluate molar relation , overjet
7. Intraoral Front - Overbite, midline shift, diastema
8. Intraoral Left - to evaluate molar relation, overjet

MCQs on Temporomandibular Joint and Maxillary Sinus - Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery MCQs

NOTE: It has been proved that you will retain more of what you study if you study first and then test yourself immediately. For that, First Watch this Video and Study all the MCQs, and then Test yourself by taking the Quiz below.

# Early movement for surgery following ankylosis is:
A. Unimportant
B. Indicated only when ankylosis is one sided
C. Desirable
D. Harmful

# All of the following are approaches to TMJ EXCEPT:
A. Gillie's temporal approach
B. Alkayat-Bramley periauricular incision
C. Hind's retromandibular approach
D. Endaural approach