Dental Tribune Untited Kingdom Edition

OsseoSpeed™ TX Profile – anatomically designed implants for sloped ridges Imagine being able to achieve 360° bone preservation around the implant, even in cases with sloped ridges. Now you can. With OsseoSpeed™ TX Profile – a uniquely shaped, patented implant, specifically designed for sloped ridge situations – you no longer have to choose between buccal and lingual marginal bone preservation and aesthetics, you can have it all – 360° around the implant. As with all Astra Tech implants, OsseoSpeed™ TX Profile is based on the documented key features and benefits of the Astra Tech BioManagement Complex™. Used in combination with patient-specific Atlantis™ abutments, you and your patients can look forward to long-term function and aesthetics. For more information, please visit www.astratechdental.co.uk 79436-GB-1103©2011AstraTech Astra Tech, Brunel Way, Stonehouse, Glos. GL10 3SX. Tel: 0845 450 0586. Fax: 01453 791001, www.astratechdental.co.uk Adapting with nature 11FeatureMarch 5-11, 2012United Kingdom Edition T he goal with every pa- tient in our care is surely clinical success? The Concise Oxford Dictionary de- fines success as ‘accomplishing one’s purpose’ – so it follows that the purpose of our clini- cal practice is to help patients achieve oral health. The defi- nition of oral health adopted by the English Department of Health is: ‘A standard of health of the oral and related tissues, which enables an individual to eat, speak and socialise without active disease, discomfort or embarrassment and which con- tributes to general wellbeing.’ From this it’s clear there are fundamentally two aspects to assessing oral health success: • The patient’s perceptions of comfort, function and appear- ance • Professional judgements about disease activity Our ethics, our desire for job satisfaction and even a desire for long term financial success will drive our ambition to be clinically successful. Yet how of- ten, in a busy practising life, do we have the luxury to stop and consider exactly what clinical success is? What is clinical success? On a day-to-day basis, practices will provide various different treatments and advice designed to help patients towards the pri- mary goal of oral health. In 2006 the Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) of The Royal Col- lege of Surgeons of England published ‘Standards in Dentist- ry’, edited by Eaton (SIDs). 17 different clinical treatment ar- eas have defined standards pub- lished in detail. These standards support us in determining the success of the different types of care we provide. This document also sets out two fundamental aspects to assessing the success of dental care: • The patient’s perceptions of outcome particularly in respect of comfort, function and appear- ance • Professional assessment of out- come against clinical standards informed by expert opinion Both Zimmerman (1988) and Golletz et al (1995) have found that oral health outcomes, and therefore clinical success, are re- lated to general patient satisfac- tion with the service provided. An integral part of clinical success is, therefore, to provide a good over- all patient experience. It may be summarised as follows: Clinical success is achieved with a patient who is comforta- ble, can eat an unrestricted diet, is happy with their dental ap- pearance, is disease free and, if they have had any dental treat- ment, the outcome meets cur- rent professional standards. The patient experience of any care and treatment should be ‘ideal’. Applying management princi- ples to achieve clinical success The three pillars of manage- ment suggested in Figure 1 summarise universal principles running through management teaching. They are similar to Managing clinical success Dr Mike Busby discusses how to hone business management principles to ensure on-going clinical success page 12DTà