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Professional Courtesy: A Treatment Plan for Your Practice by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine

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A Treatment Plan for Your Practice

by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine
We are always told to plan any project with the end in mind. In fact, dental treatment plans require us to mentally arrive at our end point before we define the steps that will lead us there. The wish list featured in this issue is deliberately timed to encourage you to start 2014 with the end in mind. What equipment or services do you want to purchase for the practice this year? What other improvements to your operation will be needed? Perhaps you just purchased a new piece of equipment at the end of 2013 and now you want to know what to do next. Stay tuned.

The first place to start is to make a determination of what you need in your practice. What are your pain points on a daily or weekly basis? Are you a dentist who has always wished for digital X-rays but you don't have computers in the operatory? If so, you now have the end in mind and from here you develop your treatment plan. Hire an IT professional to extend your computer network to the treatment rooms, consult your equipment sales rep for suggestions on how and where the computers can be integrated into your operatory, purchase computers that meet or exceed your practice management software needs as there will always be updates, discuss your decision to purchase digital X-rays with your equipment sales rep, IT professional (if they have dental experience) and practice management software company and once you have systems to consider make a purchase and have them installed.

The critical friction point after the purchase of new technology is the process often referred to as integration. In the example above, you might think once the digital X-ray system is installed, you can just go back to taking images except now with a computer. In reality, any new piece of equipment, no matter how high-tech, must be fully understood to be utilized to its full potential. This means at a minimum, you or a key staff member should fully digest the user manual and when appropriate, get as many team members involved in any live training that is offered. There are far too many stories out there where a dental practice failed in this critical step and the new technology sits in the corner as a sad reminder of a failed "investment" in the practice. There are just as many people who never fully educated themselves on the new purchase, choosing to teach themselves, and in the end, never appreciated all of the benefits they purchased.

One topic that always dominates the discussion of technology and equipment decision making is calculating the return on investment. This is simply a nice way to say, "Is it really worth the money?" While this is an important issue to consider as part of the bigger picture, I have put it last because I think it is least important. In other words, if you don't have a burning desire to improve your practice and a plan for implementation, there isn't an ROI that will fill that void. Let's face it, when you want something bad enough, you will manipulate the calculation of ROI to justify the purchase. Once again, I cannot overemphasize your approach to implementation because more than anything, your success with that step will provide the largest ROI possible.

We hope you find this month's issue of Dentaltown Magazine a sufficient motivation to sit down and make a treatment plan for your practice so 2014 can be a turning point for your business and professional success. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free that share them on the digital copy of this article online or reach out to me on Twitter @ddsTom. As always, you can reach me via e-mail: tom@dentaltown.com.

Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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