Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

‘Once we have established the rhythm of our appointments it can be difficult to add to or change our clinical behaviour’ 21DCPsApril 23-29, 2012United Kingdom Edition SPECIAL OFFER ThermoKlenz The First Choice Washer Disinfector Dryer The safe, economical and guidance compliant handpiece and instrument cleaning solution. £500£500£500£500£500£500£500£500 £500£500£500£500£500£500£500£500 Treat yourself! Receive £500 worth of Amazon Vouchers when you buy a ThermoKlenz Washer Disinfector Dryer. W&H (UK) Ltd 6 Stroud Wood Business Centre, Park Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL2 2NJ, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0) 1727 874990 Fax: +44 (0)1727 874628 Email: o ce.uk@wh.com www.wh.com Terms and conditions apply E&OE. W&H the ECOnomical Solution Contact W&H (UK) on 01727 874990 or our national decontamination partner, Wright Cottrell on 0870 1858555, for details. O er valid from 1st April – 30th June 2012. This o er is not to be used in conjunction with any other o er. Vouchers are not transferable and a cash alternative is not available. O ers valid for dental professionals residing in the United Kingdom only. I t is so easy to get caught up in new innovation and technology. I love shiny things and am drawn to them. And, innovation makes ours and our patients lives much easier. But the mistake we often make is to start to drop the basic staple fundamentals of prevention. This can lead to our patients becoming un- healthy again and, in worst case scenario, have active dental disease. When we have been work- ing in the same practice for a long time, it can be hard to change or add to your clinical work, as patients have become familiar with how it works just now. Once we have estab- lished the rhythm of our ap- pointments it can be difficult to add to or change our clini- cal behaviour. Bringing it back to basics I lectured recently at Dentist- ry Show 2012 and talked about implementing change in your clinical day. One of the exam- ples I used was re-introducing disclosing patients to bet- ter assess their oral hygiene. Periodontists hardly ever use it as a tool and so can often forget to reinforce its impor- tance in general practice. Many of us found this bor- ing and messy and if enough patients complained, and we forgot the benefit of it; we tended to drop it as a tool pretty quickly after qualifying. The trouble is if it has been a few years without this basic, how do you explain to patients that you are reintroducing it and that their oral hygiene needs to be better? What do you say when they ask why you haven’t ever done this before? Blame someone else and prepare the patient for the change This makes it so much easier on both you and the patient. So...blame CQC and their new patient centred lifelong care plans. Or...blame the Depart- ment of Health and their De- livering better oral health Mhari Coxon discusses technology and innovation Back to basics – keep it simple works....but technology is nice too page 22DTà