Almost all dentists use the same materials and tools for dental procedures. However, the organization of these materials and tools can be the difference between an efficient dentist, and one that makes errors. Below are three tips for how you can make sure your dental procedure room is optimized for performance.
Organize Your Instruments
The key to being a productive dentist is keeping all instruments neatly organized, as they will be used on each patient. One way to do this is by using instrument cassettes. One cassette can hold all of the instruments needed for a particular procedure. So, the best practice is to get a cassette for each procedure your practice offers, and have all of the instruments ready in the corresponding cassette. This is beneficial because the time spent on locating, sterilizing, and setting up a particular instrument is greatly reduced. It is also a much safer option, because the sharp ends of certain instruments are covered by the cassette—preventing the possibility of an accident.
Organize Materials
Now that your instruments are organized, don’t think you can leave your materials as they were. These need to be organized as well. The best way to do this is by getting tubs for each procedure your practice offers, and having all of the materials for a specific procedure in a corresponding tub. It is best to keep the tubs covered for sanitary reasons. Professionals, like Donald Snyder, DDS, know that the procedure room should be big enough to have a rack up against one of the walls so that all of the tubs can be stored on them—out of the way, but easily available for each procedure. After these two tips, you can easily grab one cassette and one tub for each procedure, instead of scrambling to get everything together. Color code the tubs to make locating the necessary materials even easier.
Carefully Maintain Inventory
Once everything is organized, it’s important to keep track of inventory. Nothing can cause organization problems more than running out of the necessary equipment. The best option is to use a computerized inventory tracking system, and these can easily be located online. By using one of these, when you input that you performed a certain procedure into the billing system, the inventory system will automatically deduct the appropriate materials from the inventory. You can even set it to automatically reorder things so you never fall behind.
Following these three tips can easily improve your efficiency as a dentist. Just by placing instruments in cassettes and materials in tubs, you’ll be creating a more efficient and safe practice. Following this up with an inventory tracking system will ensure things stay organized over time.
About the Author:
Rachelle Wilber is a freelance writer living in the San Diego, California Area. She graduated from San Diego State University with her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Media Studies.