Dental practice management

Today I learned that dental practice management can be rather difficult. At the office, a crown that came from lab was fitting poorly at the margins, the occlusion was high, and internal fit was not proper. Dr. Dorfman taught us that it is unacceptable to give the patient such work. In fact, he took two more tooth impressions and sent one to the original lab and one to a new lab. This way, he would be able to see which lab did a better job with the crown and would create more of an incentive for the original lab to improve. I learned that it is important to stay on top of the lab that you work with and to create high standards of care, especially since the lab receives a large amount of money for the top notch work that they are supposed to do. The patient was not entirely happy that he did not receive his crown, but also appreciated that the dentist was honest and looked out for the quality more than the time it takes to finish the work.

A.L., New York University College of Dentistry, Observation 1

Categorised in: Dental Student Experiences

This post was written by Interns