The Caesy system is a video-based patient education system that can be played either on multiple computers using its own proprietary “enterprise” system, or on individual DVD player/DVD computer units.
Caesy was one of the first systems on the market to give multiple, individualized explanations of various dental procedures. It continues to be state of the art, as Caesy (now distributed by Patterson Dental) has regularly updated its software and hardware.
Prior to Caesy, there were no audiovisual comprehensive systems for patient education, only primitive animation sequences. What Caesy has done most effectively is to combine live action patient sequences with animation.
The productions are top notch and convey, within several minutes, almost every dental procedure accomplished by general dentists. Using a menu format, with submenus that follow, one can go from esthetic dentistry, to before and after pictures, to the individual procedures—such as bleaching, veneers, etc. After each sequence, the operator can go back to a core menu and make another selection. Every sequence has optional subtitles in English and Spanish.
Caesy can act as a marketing tool, as well as an educational one; continuous video sequences can play, with or without sound, both in the treatment rooms and in the waiting room. A dental office can use continuously playing clips of esthetic procedures in the background, for example.
Another recent addition to the Caesy family is the ability to print out custom brochures and instructions for the various procedures shown on video, to hand out to patients. Caesy, in summary, can now act as a comprehensive tutorial, an instructional video for before and after treatment procedures, a consent tool, and a follow-up literature generator.
One of the disadvantages of Caesy is its high initial cost, ranging anywhere from $2,000 to $7,000 (and up) for a complete office-wide system. However, the updates are provided at a much more reasonable cost.
If you have the type of office that offers multiple, comprehensive procedures that require a knowledgeable patient, particularly one that enjoys a co-diagnosis opportunity with the patient, then few products rival Caesy in its professional, complete format. While there are other competitors, generally speaking, they offer explanations that are either too long or too cartoonish for an effective presentation.
Another big advantage with Caesy is that during a sales presentation, Casey can do much of the talking, allowing you to observe the patient. This is an invaluable opportunity to discover what the patient is interested in and what might motivate them to accept treatment. An astute office can use Caesy to help bring about greater acceptance of treatment in surprising ways.
