Rapid setup

Let’s talk about a scenario that we’ve all faced as dentists: A patient is booked in because they have a toothache. The front desk has given us 30 minutes to fix the problem.

Until you examine the patient you don’t know what’s needed. Maybe they need an extraction, maybe a filling, maybe some antibiotics or maybe a root filling.

When you examine them you find that they have irreversible pulpitis and that the tooth can be fixed with a root filling. You discuss it and the patient agrees to go ahead.

You’ve already used 10 minutes of your allotted time up to this point. Now that you know the procedure, how many minutes does it take for your staff to set up so that you’re ready to go?

I’ve actually timed how long it takes to set up for a root filling in 12 practices. The quickest was 2 minutes, the slowest was 16 minutes and the average was 10 minutes.

That means, depending on the practice, the dentist will have a maximum of 18 minutes or a minimum of 4 minutes to get the root filling done! In the average practice the dentist must sit and spin their wheels for 10 minutes while the DA gets instruments and materials out of the cupboards and drawers.

A 10-minute set-up time virtually guarantees that the dentist will run late for their next patient. You can’t waste that much time in a full schedule without getting behind. In the practice with the 16-minute set-up I watched the nurse collect instruments one at a time from drawer after drawer in the sterilisation area.

Wouldn’t it be better if the set-up could be done in 3 seconds? Well, it can be.

You need to do is create boxes for all your common procedures. Put everything that you need in them ready to go. Then, setting up becomes a 3-second process: Get the box out of the cupboard, open the box. Done.

Or, even better yet, hand the local anaesthetic to the dentist and do the 3-second set-up as they administer it. That way you waste no time at all, not even 3 seconds.