I had the honor of going to one of the last road lectures by L. D. Pankey at Northwestern University in the late 1970s which has been a compass for me in my professional career. As many of you know, the LD Pankey Institute in Key Biscayne, Fla., a premier facility in postgraduate dental education, was named in his honor. Dr Pankey began his lecture by talking about philosophy, and he mentioned one of his publications, which was titled “A philosophy of dental practice” which many have since termed “The Pankey Philosophy.” He was very quick to discuss that his paper talked about “A” philosophy and not “The”philosophy, because in all things in our lifetimes, we are bound to make decisions and choices, and there will always be multiple solutions to the same problems. There are so many variables and circumstances that color a problem that the correct solution has to be tempered with the perception and reality of the individuals’ total circumstances at that one specific period of time. The same thing holds true when it comes to dental operatory design and equipment. That is why when you go to a trade show, you see hundreds of different ways to configure the way you can equip your clinical work environment.
So for our topic of the modern dental operatory, we set out with our Dentalcompare video crews at this year’s ADA meeting in San Francisco, to visit several different companies who manufacture dental operatories and three major software companies who provide the clinical solutions for dental practices, to give you a visual glance at some of the choices you have when you are looking to build your next dental operatory. The reason we included the Dental Practice Management Software applications is that in today’s environment the clinical software is as critical in the operatory as the Dental Laboratory Handpieces and Motors. The most important part of treating a patient is not the actual procedure, but the proper diagnosis and the appropriate treatment. As we continue towards “evidence-based dentistry” we have to organize and document the process of addressing the chief concerns of our patients with the appropriate diagnostic applications and provide them with acceptable options and deliver proper care. When we look at it this way, having Intraoral Digital Cameras, Digital X-ray Software, Dental Patient Education Systems all take on a whole different level of importance for meeting and exceeding the changing standard of care.
In this series we visit with, DentalEZ and PracticeWorks, which are some of the larger and familiar names in operatory equipment that offer configurations to meet any preference in delivery design as well as Design Ergonomics, a very small independent manufacturer with a singular approach to delivery systems. We also included a look at MagnaVu Scope, which is not an operatory design but a piece of equipment that complements your operatory set up and replaces several traditional components into a single system. We also visit with Kodak, Eaglesoft and Dentrix for Dental Practice Software.
I have to apologize in advance that there are so many more options out there than what you will see here, this is a sampling of some of the systems out there; we did not have the time to add the many other viable options by other manufacturers. It is our intention to continue to bring you future video footage of the many systems out there as we continue our mission to become your online resource for all your practice needs.