Office Life
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May 15, 2023
There are plenty of preventative measures you can take to avoid letting mental stress get away from you; without implementing at least a few, the stress forms a kind of mental plaque.
You have to learn maintenance techniques that will keep your emotions in check, so the plaques don’t turn into something much worse.
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April 12, 2023
Should leadership be taught in dental school curriculums?
Absolutely! The dentist running a practice must be the ‘scientist’ in dental sciences and deliver quality care. Also, the dentist has to be a ‘business’ savvy individual to ensure the practice’s financial health. What else does the dentist need to be … the team ‘coach’.
It is either the dentist’s role or if the office has an office manager, it may fall upon the manager. Nonetheless, it’s a reality that hand-in-hand with being a practice owner comes leadership. So where does a practice owner ‘learn’ leadership?
It would be fantastic along with DENT 3055 there would be a Leadership 101 course that teaches the practice owner how to navigate the various dynamics of a team to develop and strengthen that team.
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April 11, 2023
July 1976 at the American Legion Convention at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Legionnaires was named and identified as the cause of an outbreak of severe pneumonia with 200 cases and 29 deaths (3) (5). The outbreak was linked to the inhalation of aerosolized contaminated water (3)(5). A milder infection caused by the same type of Legionella bacteria is called Pontiac fever. Rewinding in time, in 1968 in Pontiac Michigan, Pontiac Fever was named and identified as an outbreak of influenza-like illness, identified by people who worked at & visited the city’s health department and had inhaled aerosols from contaminated water (3). Legionnaires' disease is an acute bacterial disease, causing death in 5% to 30% of cases (4). The Government of Canada’s Legionella site, states the following:
“Cases of Legionnaire’s disease may be difficult to detect because very few of the people exposed to the bacteria get infecte
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April 10, 2023
Spring signifies a time of change where colors are plentiful, and every breath delivers fresh air. Dental professionals should use the energy of seasonal change for their own refueling and restructuring.
It goes without saying, dental offices are busy places and the day-to-day operations do not leave much time in anyone’s schedule to re-organize physical spaces in the office as well as the mental compartments of our process of care circuits when treating clients.
What does physical space re-organizing look like? This would be going around the office and removing ALL clutter. The best way to ‘SEE’ if your office and operatories look cluttered is to take a picture. Play an ‘eye-spy’ game with the picture. What do you see that should not be in the picture?
An Untidy Work Area Equates Uncleanliness
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April 07, 2023
Risk Management in a Dental Office
In many provinces, the pivotal moment for IPAC was before the pandemic, in 2017, when public health units and regulatory bodies took a closer look at the practice of IPAC in dentistry to ensure compliance with ‘routine practice’. Before the pandemic, many offices had already swept through their IPAC policies and made enhancements to strengthen their IPAC procedures, decreasing the risk level and satisfying the elements of routine practice. Although in 2017 reading the fine print and deciphering through the grey areas of written standards seemed like a pain in the neck, I look back and say thank you, 2017, for shaking our IPAC world ahead of time.
In this shake-up, dental professionals became more knowledgeable in the theory of IPAC and started initiating structure to IPAC. Again, not that we did not follow IPAC prior, but we did
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March 20, 2023World Oral Health Day is a great time for dental offices to take meaningful action to promote good oral health practices and help end the neglect of oral health. We have gathered some easy ways that dental offices can help spread awareness and conversation around World Oral Health Day.
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March 05, 2023
Suppose you ask dental-phobic patients for the main reasons that the thought of dental visit elicits such fear and loathing.
In that case, most will probably respond with feelings related to the potential for anxiety or pain.
This anxiety can stem from genuine unpleasant past dental experiences or unknown potential for pain.
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March 05, 2023Quiet quitting is about setting healthy barriers to well-defined job descriptions with supportive leadership from management. A ‘good leader’ that takes care of their team has already put quiet quitting elements into practice way before it was called quiet quitting. A ‘good leader’ offers strategies for their team to have a work-life because they want ...
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March 05, 2023
A recent study showed that over 90% of dental professionals were feeling stressed. Those who work in the dental industry are probably not surprised to hear this. Working in dentistry has always been identified as a highly stressful profession.
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March 01, 2023Dental Assistants Recognition Week is about showing appreciation to assistants in the dental industry for all their hard work and dedication that has improved the lives of their patients and improved the dental sector overall. DAWR is also a great tie for dental assistants to reflect on their career accomplishments and goals.