What Dental Patients See ... And Think About

A couple of times each year we encounter a doctor that visits and enters one of our treatment rooms, looks back at the one of the high-performance over the head delivery systems and remarks "Well, I've heard all about the performance and the success that all these doctors have, but I can't use it - because it's ugly".
I'll be honest … And a little bit mean I guess ... we've always been so busy that I just blew off these offices and focused on those that I felt "got it". But here's the reality, and it is hidden in one of the fundamental aspects that made over the head delivery even possible. It’s about what magicians understand … That dentists don't.
The reality is that we must have a wide array of products and technologies out and available and then use precisely in order to be productive and the magic is having them both out AND not seen by the patient… And that's where the magicians come in. I have always treated a large population of highly apprehensive patients. After all, it's almost half of our potential patient base. So, what do they hate? Pretty much everything that we do. But the first thing that sets them off is all of the scary stuff that we put out in front of them. So, let's compare treatment rooms from their vantage point.
Early on, when I set out to solve the problem of optimized dental delivery, I hired a bevy of MIT researchers and productivity experts from worldwide manufacturing leaders … but I also hired one of the country’s best classical magicians.
Here's what we discovered, first, "You can't use what you can't reach" is simply geometry. You can't argue with geometry. This gave us the parameters from within which to work to create a pathway to productive practice. It actually winds up corroborating much of the conceptual data gathered back in the 1960s by Dr. Harold Kilpatrick. I'm the archivist of his film studies. He was the most productive dentist of his generation. Many of the instruments and techniques have changed, but the principle remains - You Can't Use What You Can't Reach!
The second principle came as a revelation from the magician but then was corroborated by the scientist's studying spaciousness for NASA. Let me try to present that here in a nutshell. It's the simple fact that when people enter a room, they only view 30 degrees to the left and then across the room is this pattern. All in a 10th of a second! That indicated to us that we could do something that had never been done - thus the subsequent patents - that would simultaneously solve you can't use what you can't reach problem and not be noticed by the patient at the same time. Here you can see the results, or rather, you can't see the results - which is the entire objective! We initially thought that the patients would at least see the technology upon departure but because they'd be leaving it wouldn't be that objectionable. To our surprise, and again validated by subsequent psychological studies, once people in any room in any activity prepare to depart, they begin to think about their NEXT action, and they stop viewing their present surroundings. What patients see as they prepare to depart our practices is their shopping list, the kid's soccer field, the traffic that they're about to encounter and all the other aspects of their life that have nothing to do with that treatment room.
So, this is really a dentist problem not a patient problem. We all like the look of a tidy room full of neat cabinets with everything in drawers and nothing out on the counters. But the reality is just this simple:
First, things that you can't see - in drawers - won't be restocked properly every day every time which is what is required for efficient dental practice. Tell me that you haven't already learned this. Whether you like the learning or not.
Second, things that you can't reach slow you down and increase the number of "go and gets" within a procedure. Even small go and gets matter. This is why the typical dentist only does physical dentistry with about 7 to 10% of his or her time. That's horrible productivity.
And Last, the result has historically been that dental set ups that look so nice in the show room no longer looks like that once you actually use it! So, for those of you that are concerned about over the head delivery from an aesthetic standpoint do ponder the scientific facts combined with the simple geometry of what it takes to get dentistry done efficiently and at least give it a consideration. Go watch it in action. Faster, more productive, and less expensive on a per room basis. More rooms in less space at a lower cost. It's a sustainable competitive advantage. That's why our users have become so loyal.
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At Design Ergonomics (www.desergo.com), we design, equip, and train the nation's most productive dental practices.
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