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Eight Essential Elements of an Ideal Dental Office Design by David J. Ahearn, DDS

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One of the most valuable and lasting improvements any dentist can contribute to a successful practice is an investment in great office design. Whether remodeling an existing office or creating a brand new facility from scratch, there are several essential elements to focus on in designing an office that will help create a more productive, comfortable, quiet and userfriendly practice. Clearly, dental office design is an individual matter based on one’s needs and budget. Nevertheless, the following key issues are common to any office: aesthetics; the empowerment of key personnel; controlling noise; and creating rapid access to key equipment and materials. Here are eight elements essential to your success that will provide you with what you need to know – from creating a sense of excitement to the effortless integration of high-tech equipment into your practice.

1. Size Your Practice

The new office should be large enough to comfortably accommodate the needs of your personnel and patients. This statement seems quite obvious, but many dentists hire consultants for office designs that, upon evaluation of the practice and its future, reveal plans that are significantly under or oversized. A careful assessment of the practice numbers including a procedure analysis will provide a good indicator of the appropriate targets. The goal is to create a patient flow that allows high efficiency while preventing system bottlenecks.

2. Centralize Sterilization and Resupply

Sterilization and resupply are the clinical hub of your production terminal. Make sure this area is central and fully equipped to both sterilize and restock the entire facility. If you are creating a facility with fewer than 10 treatment areas, don’t even consider multiple sterilization locations – centralize. Also, don’t waste money on a pre-made so-called “sterilization center.” They are too compact for most offices and do not provide a good cost-to-benefit ratio. The design details of your sterilization area are crucial. Frequently doctors are sold sterilizing equipment that is faster and therefore supposedly more efficient. Simply stated, an entire process will flow no more quickly than its slowest step will allow. Proper layout, ease of use and durability should be the key to purchasing decisions here (Fig. 1).

3. Make Inventory Easy

Centralize all of your storage, not just your bulk purchases. Consolidate your active storage for rapid room resupply as well. Far too many offices are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars of supplies scattered throughout the office, making control of purchasing and rotation of stock impossible, thus inhibiting the adoption of new generations of products and allowing product outdates to occur. Your resupply system should be hidden from patient view yet immediately accessible to clinical staff for both rapid access and ease of just-in-time inventory control. Products should not be hidden to the staff. Products should not be allowed to remain in their bulky promotional containers and should not, when possible, be stacked vertically (Fig. 2).

4. Control Costs

Have you ever heard of a construction project where the final price was less than the contractor’s initial estimate? I didn’t think so! Whether it’s new construction or remodeling, once you have committed to your objectives in writing, prioritize them into must-haves, really-wants, and hope-fors. In the enthusiasm of creating a new future for your practice, don’t lose sight of the written goals. Although an office should be a comfortable place to enjoy one’s work, it ultimately must serve as a profit center. The military estimates that as much as 60 percent of a structure’s cost results from long-term maintenance – not the original construction costs. Your plan must include ease of maintenance. An office is not a monument, art project or the world’s greatest real estate investment. The building of any new office should be grounded on a sound dental business opportunity.

5. Create Compact Treatment Rooms

Save money in the purchase of your core equipment so that you’ll be able to spend your dollars on the high-technology products that you need – and patients want – for the future. Relentlessly pursue the consolidation of treatment rooms. Efficient room organization and three-dimensional planning for true ergonomic function allows comfortable, efficient and attractive treatment room pairs in as little as 16 feet of width including wall space. Consolidated spacing leads to a proportional decrease in plumbing and electrical costs per room. With efficient treatment room layouts, sterilization becomes truly centralized and hygienists are not wandering the corridors in search of a doctor. Often, these space and cost savings are great enough to fit in and fully pay for an additional treatment room (Fig. 3).

6. Embed Technology

While patients are impressed by care, concern, privacy, and yes, even technology, their emotional support for the practice can be easily eroded by cluttered, cabinet-filled, claustrophobic treatment areas that offer little privacy. Design your office for simple and inexpensive equipping. Embed core technology within your delivery system, don’t purchase equipment that forces you to “patch on” the tools that you use every day.

Additionally, it does not make economic sense to save a small amount of money on design and construction that results in the need to lease or purchase expensive cabinet room dividers and head walls. Even if you rent your office space, the tax savings gained by leasing a $1,000 cabinet will never exceed the economy and privacy of simple and inexpensive solid-wall room dividers, which, in addition to their economy, are far more easily maintained by the reapplication of paint or wallpaper as your years of practice progress.

7. Mobilize High Technology

After you have embedded your basic technology such as curing lights and computers, put your single-unit specialty equipment such as air abrasion, electrosurgery and high-tech endo on wheels, not walls. Later, when today’s expensive technology becomes more affordable, embed these specialty products directly into your delivery system. A classic example of this is the transition of light curing units. A decade ago, these were shuttled from operatory to operatory. Now, that the technology and price have stabilized, they have become an integrated part of the modern armamentarium (Fig. 4).

8. You’ve Got to Have “Wow”!

Last, but certainly not least, the new office should make a definite statement. New patients in particular are forming immediate and lasting impressions of you as they consider placing an extreme amount of trust in your clinical and aesthetics skills. Your office doesn’t have to make a bold or glitzy statement, but an appropriate level of quality must be apparent from the instant patients reach your door (Fig. 5).

  Author's Bio
Dr. David Ahearn is a full-time practicing dentist. Although located in a rural location town, his office ranks among the nation’s most productive practices. Trained in prosthetics at the University of Michigan, Dr. Ahearn, like many of us, struggled to reconcile the desire for the utmost quality with the requirements for practice success. His discovery and application of the principles of the Toyota Production System to dentistry in the early ‘90s began a quality and productivity revolution that is at the heart of his design work.

He is the founder of Design/Ergonomics, the nation’s largest independent dental office design firm. The company works with doctors across North America in designing comfortable, productive and yet highly cost-effective practices. He has held faculty positions at both the University of Michigan and NYU’s College of Dentistry. He is also a founding member of the ADA’s Ergonomics Subcommittee and a contributor to numerous dental publications.
Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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