An Ideal Day

What does your ideal day at the laboratory look like?

Is it a well-oiled machine of perfect margins, perfect castings, glass so beautiful you can’t tell tooth from crown? Is everybody  pulling together toward excellence in an efficient and timely manner while knowing exactly what to do and having fun doing it?

Are the phones ringing with appreciative doctors thanking you profusely for the gorgeous work you do? Are they offering even higher fees for it while telling you how much the patient appreciated your work?  Are dentists telling you that you are the real reason for cosmetic dentistry and extreme makeover popularity?

When you phone the doctor, does he drop what he’s doing and rush to make sure he personally answers the phone because he knows his work will be delayed if you don’t get to talk to him?

Are there no rush cases and you can move the work through in a comfortable, efficient system?

Are the lab prescriptions detailed with color mapping and accurate descriptions of what is desired accompanied by full arch impressions, diagnostic wax-ups, pre-treatment casts and photographs?

Are there no accounts more than 30 days old and all accounts gladly pay and are appreciative?

Do employers, employees, coworkers and doctors who appreciate what you do surround you?

Now let’s get real!

First some background. I am a dentist, a prosthodontist.  The majority of my day at the Carolina Center for Restorative Dentistry is clinical dentistry. Also, I am a registered dental technician, have a laboratory – Dental Innovations Laboratory – and am a member of the South Carolina Dental Laboratory Association as well as the South Carolina Dental Association. We have two technicians who stay busy with mostly in-house work although we do take in some outside cases.

So, although I have a passion for dental technology and the relationship between doctor and laboratory technicians, I still do not know it the way you do.  What I can tell you is mostly from the doctor side. And what I can share with you today is intended to get you closer to that ideal day at the laboratory.

I will cover three major areas: communication, the laboratory as teacher, and some thoughts on the future of dentistry and dental technology.

Hopefully, something will stick with you and take you that much closer to the ideal day.

Communication is the key to it all. The freer the exchange of information back and forth between technician and doctor, the smoother the process will go. It is a simple thought for our complex minds. Let’s not make it harder than has to be.  Even if business as usual has been “crown A2” or “make me a nice one” and you can make it, deliver it to the dentist and then never hear another word about it, it’s not too late to open up the communication a bit further. Perhaps a three-shade map with a target shade or a digital photo would make the result even better. Suggest a pre-treatment conference when the doctor anticipates an unusual treatment. Try a follow-up phone call to the doctor and not the front desk gatekeeper after delivering the case. It would be a pleasant surprise, I’m sure, and would open the door for further communication.

How many of you get phone calls when things don’t go according to plan for the dentist?

How many get a call when things go smoothly and everyone is thrilled with the result?

I think if you sincerely show an interest in the final result with a follow-up phone call or even better an offer to be in the office when the case is delivered, the doctor/technician communication begins to build even stronger ties.

How many of you wonder what the final result looked like in the mouth? It is one of the greatest complaints technicians have about their work. It is frustrating to work hard to achieve a result and then not see the end result. Going into the office on delivery day or even getting a digital photo will give you an idea of the final result.

We spend so much time, according to the Pareto Principle, 80 percent on the 20 percent of things that cause us stress and 20 percent of the time on 80 percent of the things that go without a hitch. We should be catching each other doing things right more often. We need to let each other know when the preparation and impression are excellent and when the crown falls right into place in the mouth. If we spend more time on the positive communication we will find we less time on the negative communication.

Sometimes, it’s a lack of knowledge that disrupts the communication. More and more dental schools are not requiring laboratory procedures to be done by dental students. As these dentists become a larger and larger portion of the profession, it will be necessary for the dental laboratory technicians to become teachers. You will be the experts and that is an awesome responsibility. I contend it will move the laboratory industry into a profession. A huge problem exists, however, in lack of training and decline of training programs for dental technology. 

So in the future who will take the lead and fill this void? Probably manufactures who will have the resources and the dental laboratories with teaching facilities. It is somewhat unsettling to know that there is a potential drop in corporate knowledge at the same time offshore outsourcing gains in popularity. This is where the dental laboratory profession has a tremendous opportunity to take the lead in dental technology education.

Offer courses to dentists, other technicians and office staff. Provide in-house schools. If you are smaller laboratory share your knowledge at meetings and with other colleagues. There is a great future for the laboratory profession as the leader in dental technology education. To entice good talent to teach we will have to pay. Then we will have to raise our fees. But the only way to compete with the offshore outsourcing is to separate up and away from it and not compete on price. Let’s take the lead role in education so new dentists can learn to distinguish different levels of quality work and fill the information void dental schools are leaving. 

The future is great for dentistry. Dentistry and dental technology are fairly stable regardless of the economy. They don’t have wild swings like the high tech sector. With the increase in ceramic technology and the focus on makeovers there is a growing public desire for smile enhancements. The future for the partnership between dentist and technologist is great as well. This past year the American College of Prosthodontists annual session featured the dentist/technician partnership. More and more European and American laboratories are moving toward the same high-end atmosphere as the dental office. It will be this distinction that separates us from the offshore labs – the ability to deliver to the dentist a higher and higher level of excellence because we can and because the patients are asking for it. And because the dentist is asking for it. 

In conclusion, the perfect day does not exist on this planet. However, we can get close to it by opening up the communication lines, becoming a teacher of dental technology and keeping our passion for dentistry alive.