What dental offices do every year to stay competitive and compliant
Jacob Sigmon
At the beginning of every year, I receive calls from offices that are wanting to schedule their OSHA training so that they can be compliant for the year. Those calls prompted me to create a list of items that dental offices will want to complete yearly to stay competitive and compliant. Without further adieu, lets begin:
Osha training
Depending on your state, OSHA training is required yearly for dental offices. Bloodborne Pathogen Standard 1910.1030(g)(2)(i) says “The employer shall train each employee with occupational exposure in accordance with the requirements of this section. Such training must be provided at no cost to the employee and during working hours. The employer shall institute a training program and ensure employee participation in the program.” Additionally, “employers shall provide additional training when changes such as modification of tasks or procedures or institution of new tasks or procedures affect the employee's occupational exposure.”
At Atlanta Dental, our Territory Managers are trained and ready to provide that training for your office. If you would like to schedule OSHA training for your office, you may do so below.
What happens if an OSHA inspector were to walk in today to your office? Here’s a great read from a real life scenario when that happened. Click Here.
Insurance Participation assessment & fee reviews
If you take insurance, you know how vital it is to make sure that your insurance reimbursement is profitable. Over the past 10 years, Dentists have been experiencing a squeeze. A squeeze is when costs go up due to inflation, unforeseen matters such as COVID, etc., yet your insurance reimbursement does not match the rise of costs. At Atlanta Dental, we have a resource that helps dentists with creating a profitable practice while being in network with PPO’s. If you would like to check out some case studies for some offices, click HERE.
If you want to know more about our PracticeLife partner, Dental Advocacy Group, you can click on the button below. Once on their website, you can take a free assessment to see if your practice is a good candidate for their services. A dentist said to me…
“Every Dentist should know about Dental Advocacy Group. I can’t believe I waited so long before believing in them. ”
Review your cONTINUING EDUCATION (CE) needs
As you already know, you are required to participate and complete live CE’s. For example, below are the requirements for the state of Georgia:
Dentists - 40 CE's for relicensure. 20 CE's can be home study.
Registered Dental Hygienists - 22 CE's for relicensure. 11 CE's can be home study.
Per Statute 150-3.09(4c), only 12 hours of credit will be accepted per calendar day.
Licenses must be renewed every 2 years.
At Atlanta Dental, we have many opportunities for you to obtain the necessary CE’s. Below are some options that are currently on my website.
Check curing lights
Offices might not remember to check their curing lights. However, it’s one of the most important pieces of equipment in the dental office. There are a lot of problems that can develop if you are using a curing light that is not curing properly or not to manufacturer specifications.
If you would like your Atlanta Dental representative to come in to check your curing lights, you can request that free service by clicking below.
preventive maintenance Checks
There are some pieces of equipment in your office that bring life to your practice. If any of these items are not functioning, your dental office stops. Those items are located in your mechanical room. One is an air compressor and the other is a vacuum pump. It is always good to have a service technician do an annual check for those pieces of equipment. In addition, it’s always good for a service technician to perform an annual preventative maintenance check throughout the office. Our service technicians will look at all pieces of your equipment in the office to proactively maintain them before it becomes something that you have to react to when it possibly stops working.
Below is a link to a checklist that you can use in your office. It provides the things that you should do daily, weekly, monthly, and annually for the equipment in your office. It’s a great reference tool.
Shock waterlines
When I give OSHA training, dental teams are sometimes surprised to hear about a hidden issue lurking in their dental waterlines. The ADA wants your CFU (colony forming units) count to be less than 500. Below is a video that discusses the potential consequences of not maintaining your water lines.
There are a couple of ways to help protect your waterlines.
Shock every month and use tablets to maintain between shocks
Shock once a year and use a “straw” to maintain between yearly shocks
The straws have a lifespan of about 1 year depending on the volume of flow that runs through the lines. Below is a video that I recorded that goes over the straw method. In general, no matter which method you use, it’s very important to make sure that you test your water, shock, and maintain your dental water lines.
individual team member and salary review
Your team members are the lifeblood of your practice. They are critical to the success of your practice. An annual review will help identify the areas of improvement and/or evaluation for each individual.
When considering a new team member, think of the long-term success that person might have in the practice, not just trying to fill the gap. It’s also important that you meet both your financial objectives and their individual needs. If you are interested, you can obtain this year’s dentist report which shows each position’s hourly rates and annual salaries for each state. If you would like to obtain this report, click on the button below.
Plan your equipment needs
Has it happened to you? A piece of equipment you knew was going to stop working soon finally stopped for good. Maybe even after doing an estimate of repair, the costs were almost as expensive as buying a new one.
When we look at the life of dental equipment in an office, we must look at the ROI it should produce. Most likely, there are items in your dental office that might need to be replaced because of visual or functional reasons.
We offer a free equipment evaluation service that inspects your dental equipment. We have a form that we fill out which helps inventory your equipment, but also spotlights equipment that might need to be replaced in the near future. It prioritizes the equipment that you might want to start saving for before it stops working for you.
Check your dental supply plan and storage for efficiency
Very often, I walk into dental offices and find the storage closet in disarray. Items have no specific place; often times are hoarded in rooms by the dental team. There’s also the dentist that tries to do everything themselves which include ordering to save a couple grand throughout the year. And why would they not, it’s the one thing that is somewhat controllable. You can see the savings when you click on one item vs. another and it makes that dentist feel good. I get it!
However, the big picture is almost never considered. Can we agree that DSO’s might be good at running a business? You might not agree with their direction, but they typically are good with numbers. Do you know that almost all DSO’s use full service distributors? They value the technical service they receive as well as the competitive pricing.
There are things you don’t see in the background that a rep can help with and help you improve efficiencies. Too many times, I see an office have an all-star team member that controls their ordering. When that all-star team member leaves for various reasons, the dental office scrambles to find another person of the same caliber to fulfill the role. A dental rep can help set up protocols and systems within the office that is transferable no matter who is employed in the office. Having a system in place is vital in flourishing no matter if that all-star team member is there or decides to leave. One such system is pictured. We like to use tip-out bins so that what needs to be ordered is quickly visible to the team member. We also have labels ready for scanning on their phone or scanner. It creates a system that is quick so they can spend the other time being productive in the office. If you would like to know more, click below.
Turning in your dental scrap
Most offices have that container in a drawer that contains dental scrap. It contains valuable metals that you can turn in to refine. Below is a video of the refinery process. We partner with a couple different companies to help you get the most out of those containers. Many times, the money you receive from the containers can help pay for office holiday parties or part of the equipment that you might need in the office.
Some offices turn their containers into the “cash guy”. They will typically pay only on weight. Your dental scrap is worth much more than just the weight of the container. It’s recommended to have the material analyzed so you can know its true value!
Below is a video that explains the refining process…
