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Dental Tribune U.S. Edition | April 2013 D3CLINICAL treatment into the computer, used the Internet to verify her insurance ben- efits and make an application for her to CareCredit to help finance her portion of the fee. The front desk staff helped the patient complete our financial arrange- ment form. After numbing the patient, the staff took digital pre-op photos, and I re- turned at my next break to treat the patient. First I completed the root canal using a Brassler Endosequence NiTi sys- tem with battery-powered handpiece, performing root-length determination with a Root ZX. My EFDA-certified assistant (Expand- ed Functions Duties Auxiliary) set up our Cerec CAD/CAM scanning unit. I placed a fiber post and build-up using Unicem II. The tooth was prepped. It was noted that the patient’s other teeth had some older composite bonding. The preparation was scanned, and the crown was designed and milled using a B1 block of Empress porcelain from Ivo- clar. The EFDA assistant fitted the crown to place. I verified the fit, and the crown was etched and silanated. I bonded the crown in, again using the Unicem II. The EFDA assistant adjusted the bite and ob- tained a final polish with our Brassler porcelain polishing kit. Two hours later In total, the patient was in our office for about two hours. I spent about half an hour chairside with her as I moved back and forth with previously scheduled pa- tients. The patient was extremely happy to have her smile back and said she next wants to replace her old composite bonding with porcelain. This will enable us to better balance out the width of the centrals. We were able to help the pa- tient and add some nice bonus produc- tion to our day. A real win-win situation. By having the systems in place, technol- ogy available and a well-trained staff on hand, we were able to easily help a pa- tient and our bottom line. When opportunity knocks, is your practice ready to answer? As dentists we have opportunities every day to help our patients and contribute to improv- ing our bottom line by being ready to provide emergency cosmetic dental treatment. Working such patients into our schedule generates treatment fees at a higher-than-normal profit margin, and helps generate longer-term busi- ness. Some dentists will reserve a half hour every day for such emergencies. Because our practice has six operato- ries and a great staff, we are able to work these patients into our schedule. Emergency case For example, recently we received a frantic call from a new patient, age 32. She had fallen the day before and se- verely fractured her central incisor. She was crying and said she could not go to work looking the way she did. She also had pain from an exposed nerve. Our systems kicked in right away. At our morning huddle we had already discussed where to schedule any emer- gencies for that day. The front desk scheduled the patient and gave her a fee range to expect for treatment. The pa- tient arrived at the appointed time and filled out her forms. One of our assis- tants seated her in the treatment room and obtained a digital X-ray film, which I reviewed while treating a patient in another room. I made a preliminary di- agnosis and informed the assistant. The assistant printed the necessary consent and prescription forms from our com- puter. Relieve pain, restore smile When I had a short break, I stopped in and talked to the patient and informed her of the need for a root canal, post and a crown. She was grateful that we could care for her that same day, relieving her pain and restoring her smile. While the patient watched a CAESY Education Systems video on the pro- posed treatment, our staff entered the Systems, technology let practices deliver profitable, emergency cosmetic dentistry Well-trained staff, clear policies, right tools make success routine in emergency cosmetic cases By Craig Callen, DDS CrAiG C. CAllen, DDS, is a full-time dentist in Mansfield, Ohio. He grad- uated from Case Western Reserve School of Den- tistry at 23. He has writ- ten three books for den- tists: The Cutting Edge I, II, and III. He is associate editor for The Profitable Dentist Newsletter and has written numerous ar- ticles for national dental publications. Callen is a member of the ADA, AGD and the AACD and lec- tures internationally on clinical and management topics. Callen and his wife, Dee, have five children and raise horses, al- pacas and llamas on their farmland. You can con- tact Callen at craigcallendds@gmail.com. Fig. 1: Assistant takes X-ray and gets it to the dentist to help with initial diagnosis. Photos/ Provided by Craig Callen, DDS Fig. 2: Frantic, 32-year-old woman in pain with a fractured central incisor requests an emergency appointment because she couldn't go into work looking the way she did. Fig. 3: Thanks to office systems that anticipate such occurrences — and appropriate technolo- gies that enable response — the patient leaves two hours later, happy to have her smile back. Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3