How a barber could teach dentists to be more productive

Often, when I have a haircut it, takes 20 to 30 minutes but recently I went to a new barber. He did the job in ten minutes and the result was perfect. I was impressed.

What’s this have to do with dentistry? Plenty! Please let me tell you why.

One of dentistry’s benchmark procedures is a crown. Typically dentists take 90 minutes for the preparation appointment, some speedy dentists do it in 60 minutes and a few “ultrafast” ones do it in 45 minutes.

Yet, I’ve seen dentists do crown preparations in 20 minutes or even less. When I tell slower dentists about this they often don’t believe me. They think that the quality of the work must be poor but that’s not the case.

The fastest dentist I’ve ever seen was in the USA and he produced immaculate, textbook perfect crown preparations in 15 minutes start to finish.

So, what are the secrets to doing crown preparations quickly and well?

There are 3 things that you must do to work fast and also with high, quality.

1. Plan your work flow.

   The barber moved from one step to the next without stopping even for a moment. So many dentists stop and think what to do next. Or, they have to stop because the staff do not have the next thing ready.

2. Keep the bur on the tooth.

   The barber’s kept the clippers on the hair. Many dentists stop frequently to admire your work. Know what you’re doing and keep going.

3. Cut the tooth decisively.

   The barber used purposeful strokes. Dentists should go around the tooth once, if possible, not dozens of times as many do. By the way, cutting decisively is kinder on the pulp. Speedy dentists seldom need to do root canal treatment after a crown preparation and the reason is that they haven’t cooked the pulp with endless drilling.

These three things all sound straight forward, and they are, provided that you put in some serious thought and effort and get your systems right. The benefits are massive time savings and greatly reduced stress and fatigue.