Bad reputation on the street?

Hey you know what else has a bad rap on the streets – Root canals !! Fortunately for those of you who have heard the word on the street, or for the ones who happened to be scared by your friends, coworkers and even your family – finally there is a place to turn to with blind faith in dentistry. Turn to Ident your solace in root canal treatment only to discover all the things you heard was wrong and it was not bad after all. Tell those cowards it is not at all bad and you were able to handle it easily.

Dental Blog by
Ident Specialists
Endodontist
Dr. Sathya Kallur

R comes before I

Does it really ? Yes ! at i-dent. Your place for all your dental specialty needs With our concept of coordinated speciality dental care all under one roof some times R comes before I and when we think it is not the right thing for you then the I comes before R. Yes you guessed it right rootcanals and Implants. Our specialist in endodontics(rootcanals) is dually qualified in rootcanals and implant dentistry to assess and deliver the best treatment for you and knows when to save the tooth and when not to.

Dental Blog by
Ident Specialists
Endodontist
Dr. Sathya Kallur

"When you tell me, I forget; when you show me, I remember; when you involve me, I understand." (International Association for Public Participation - IAP2). Our dental specialist consultation policy defines a consultation as "the dialogue that precedes decision-making". This does not mean that the decision will be delegated to those being consulted. Most often, the views expressed during consultation form part of the information council uses to make a decision. The success of any specialist consultation depends on how well the patient and doctor communicate with each other. There is now firm evidence linking the quality of this communication to clinical outcomes.

Dental Blog by
Ident Specialists
Oral Surgeon, DMD
Dr. Mark Niznikiewicz

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

Feng Shui: If you use the search “Feng Shui and Dentistry”, your search will yield numerous articles about your dental office décor, your waiting room, and who you need to hire as your interior decorator. OK, try something different, how about Feng Shui and clinical dentistry? Let’s start with a definition; Feng Shui is defined as a complex body of knowledge that shows how the energies of any given space is balanced to assure the good fortune and health for the people occupying that space. The literal translation is very interesting as it applies to the space of most concern to dentists; the mouth. Feng translates to “wind” while shui means “water”. So what describes the environment in the mouth? Humid air (breath) and wet (saliva) for starters. So as a prosthodontist, my aim is to establish order and balance to that environment. Establishing a proper bite, along with a functional prosthesis that is in harmony with its environment with a sense of esthetics is the goal of any restorative treatment. As a student, my professors kept emphasizing “form follows function”, i.e. if you design your restoration properly as regards to function, the form, or esthetic, component will naturally be present. So by applying the philosophy of feng shui to our treatment of our patients, we will naturally be appropriate in our delivery of care.

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

80/20 rule: Otherwise known as Pareto’s rule –Vilfredo Pareto developed a mathematical formula to describe the distribution of wealth in early 20th century Italy. The formula basically states that 20% of the population controls 80% of the wealth. Although this is the original intent, the phenomenon has been described in many other areas. Distilled down to the most common effect, you know that only 20% of what you do in a day will produce 80% of the total desired results. So how do we find this effect in dentistry? Obvious answers jump to mind; from 20% of our patients produce 80% of our incomes, to 20% of our patients create 80% of our aggravations. Other possibilities range from procedure profit to staff issues. So where is our challenge? For starters, we need to pay more attention to that neglected 80%. If only 20% of a dentists’ patients are contributing 80% to his practice, what makes that 20% different? First of all, some might say that they constitute the 20% highest wealth, as they are able to pay for procedures others may not. Another view may be that they are the 20% with the most needs, i.e. the more work, the more income. Both views would be wrong. In any population, the top 20% would be that population that has the highest degree of education and appreciation for their dental health. That is where the challenge is, educating our patients about their dental health and, the services that we can make available to them to obtain, maintain and even enhance their oral condition. In order to accomplish this, we need to improve our communication skills.

It can be conjectured that in any dentally related conversation between dentist and patient, only 20% of what the dentist says is actually understood by the patient. That 20% is usually limited to the three things that really interest someone; how much is this going to cost me, how much is this going to hurt me, and, how much of my time is this going to take. How the dentist plans to get there is either disguised by the dentist in techno-speak or totally garbled by the dentist (have you ever heard the Peanuts cartoon when an adult speaks?). Ultimately, it is about the dentist and patient not really understanding each others communication needs. This may directly be laid at the dentists’ feet as we are the ones guiding the conversation, and it is up to us to read our patient and interpret the patients responses ( Most of the time, patients will try to feign understanding and avoid the glazed over eyes and slack jaw ). Another 80/20 rule could be that, of the time a patient spends in the dental office; only 20% of that time would be directed at their education, either as to home oral care or their dental health needs. (OK, maybe 20% is generous, but you get the idea).

Dental Blog by
Dr. Jon Ackerman
Prosthodontist
Ident Specialists

The interdisciplinary approach is the highest level of practicing dentistry. Dentistry is an extremely diverse field of health care. Dentists do everything from fixing cavities, replacing missing teeth, and treating oral diseases to correcting cleft palates, and facial trauma. Furthermore, while the American Dental Association sets guidelines with regard to the standard of care about everything that dentists do, each dentist brings his or her unique clinical background to a patients care. This is because all surgical fields of health care, dentistry included, are in essence apprenticeships. Thus each school or hospital or residency program brings its own unique philosophy to the clinical care of its patients and its training philosophy for honing the skills of future dentists.

When a patient is under the care of multiple dentists the patient can only benefit. This is of course contingent on the fact that the dentists collaborate with each other. Multiple opinions, meeting of minds, diagnosing and treatment planning are all enhanced when clinicians of different backgrounds and training bring their unique expertise to oral health of their patients.

Amir Ahmadi DDS Diplomae, American Board of Periodontology