Tuesday, December 19, 2017
There are many aspects to managing a successful dental practice. Finding the right products that can support providing the best care for your patients is among the most important, but managing the business and operations sides of the practice are also crucial.
Throughout the past year, articles focused on all of these areas of the dental industry have been posted to Dentalcompare.
While many of the most popular articles took a look at specific products or a class of products, plenty of visitors made sure to stay up to speed with industry trends, and to get tips on practice operations as well. Read on to see the Top 10 Dental Articles of 2017:
10. Is Your Dental Practice Managing its Coding Properly? – Keeping up with changes to the CDT codes is crucial if your practice wants to be reimbursed at the highest rates from your patients’ insurance companies. This article, which features advice from dental coding expert Theresa Duncan, is full of details on updated codes for 2017 and tips on how to best code for specific situations and procedures. It’s a great resource for learning a bit about avoiding costly coding mistakes, and it’s certainly a piece worth reading or rereading.
9. How to Diagnose and Care for Bruxism Patients – When patients grind their teeth, they can experience headaches, poor sleep and, of course, wear and damage to their teeth. Knowing the signs and having a ready treatment approach can make your practice that much more effective at caring for your patients. This piece is a great primer to get any practice better prepared to help those patients.
8. Review: The Ways the Solea Dental Laser Impacts my Practice and my Workflow – Dr. Andrew Spector is not new to laser dentistry, but his practice changed drastically when he adopted the Solea Dental Laser from Convergent Dental. In this first-person review of the laser system, Dr. Spector explains how having one system that is effective and efficient for just about any procedure has improved how his practice runs in terms of both patient care and operational efficiency, while also making dentistry fun and exciting.
7. Review: Estelite Sigma Quick – Sharing your experience with a dental product on Dentalcompare is quick and easy. You can contact our editorial team and write a detailed review about a product that changes your practice much like Dr. Spector did with his article on Solea. But you can also use our online review form to review anything you’re using in just a few minutes. Indonesian dentist Irvan Nur Wachid Anggawiria did just that, and his thoughts on Tokuyama’s composite ended up being one of the most seen articles on the site this past year.
6. Case Study: Anesthesia-Free Laser Gingivectomy – It’s the pictures that really tell the story for this laser case study from Dr. Joshua Weintraub. Another of the popular content featuring the Solea laser, the case study demonstrates how quickly, easily and effectively this laser can be used to treat a patient without anesthesia. The case was simple and made further treatment easy for clinician and patient.
5. Review: Seamlessly Integrating the Solea All-Tissue Dental Laser – Another review of the Solea laser that drew plenty of attention in the past year, this article from Dr. Michael Contardo focuses on how the laser changed the treatment he offers to patients without drastically impacting the way his practice operates. By using the laser for almost every clinical situation, Dr. Contardo explains the new efficiencies he’s realized and shares that the laser has helped his practice increase revenues by $140,000 in his first year using the technology.
4. The Maturing Dental Technology and Materials Landscape – Every spring, Dentalcompare’s Clinical Director Dr. Jeff Rohde puts together his thoughts on what the latest products and product trends say about the dental industry. Every year, that article finds a spot on this top 10 list. For 2017, Dr. Rohde highlighted changes and advances in both dental materials and dental technologies. The way he sees it, the year marked the refinement of the cutting edge to make these innovations more powerful, and more accessible, than ever before.
3. How to Evaluate a 3D Printer for Your Dental Lab or Practice – If there’s one technology poised to revolutionize dentistry (and a host of other industries) it’s 3D printing. These systems are already in use in many dental labs, and chairside applications continue to expand. Still, it’s a completely foreign technology to many in the dental industry. This popular article is a great first step on the journey toward 3D printing. It breaks down how the various printing technologies work with pros and cons for each of them, and helps highlight how and when these systems will make sense for various dental labs and practices.
2. The Right Operatory Design for Ergonomic and Four-Handed Dentistry – Setting up an operatory is both an art and a science. The position of the chair, delivery system, shelving and every other piece of furniture and equipment can make it a comfortable and efficient place to work, or one that gets in the way of everything. This guide to setting up a room for providing care via the four-handed dentistry model is a great resource for people designing, or redesigning, their practice, and that’s why it’s no surprise it was among the most popular articles of the past year.
1. The Cutting Edge Dental Technologies Ready to Disrupt the Industry – Every year, the Cellerant Best of Class Technology Awards honor the dental products with the potential to change the way people practice. This in-depth look at the entire line up of winning products in 2017 was by far the most viewed article on the site, despite the fact it was published far later in the year than most of the other articles on this list. The Cellerant Awards have a great track record of highlighting truly innovative and exciting technologies, materials and other products, and while some of the winners are complex gadgets with the potential to refocus and completely overhaul the way a practice does dentistry, many of the winners are deceptively simple ideas that have been realized in a way that makes practicing dentistry easier and more comfortable for both clinician and patient.