Author Archive
Dental Practice Wellness
Posted by: | CommentsWhile I was on a phone call the other day, Dr. Schuster placed a document on my desk that he had written. He told me later he got the idea from his chiropractor and modified it to fit our dental patients. I read the “Four Steps to Wellness” and immediately began to see how this fit with our Center Students as well. Here it is…
Step One: STOP THE DISEASE PROCESS
First, you must acknowledge when disease exists. If your practice isn’t healthy, you begin to feel the negative effects but you may not know exactly what is going on. Your practice analyst helped you to see where some of the problems may be. Then you attended Retreat 1 of the Management Program at The Schuster Center and that began to help you see more clearly. You began to sort it all out. You looked at each of the engines that drive the practice and produced step-by-step policies and systems to begin the change process toward health. You started to look at what health is relative to your dental practice. You decided to stop doing things the way they have always been done and start reflecting on a better way to practice.
Step Two: THE HEALING STAGE
This is where Policies and Systems are put into place and the implementation begins. The dental practice embarks on a journey of healing. This healing process in most cases will require the entire management year and sometimes beyond that year. Healing requires change.
Step Three: THE CORRECTIVE STAGE
Once healing has occurred, the stress level in the dental practice will be reduced and the team can now begin to focus on the goals set forth for the future of the practice. This requires the commitment to continue working on your practice even after the management year is complete. It is important to continually review your Policies and Systems and make revisions as you change and grow. The statistical data collected monthly can be utilized to determine where change is needed. Corrections are made based on objective data.
Step Four: THE MAINTENANCE STAGE
It is far easier to maintain a healthy practice than to correct one in the disease process. Once the doctor and team have created the practice they desire and are reaching their goals, the ability to maintain them is dependent upon their commitment to the doctor’s vision of the practice. Continuing education through advanced development will assure the practice maintains growth. Maintaining health takes the effort of all involved.
Practice wellness takes life-long dedication just as your patient’s dental health and wellness requires commitment for a lifetime.
Happy New Year to everyone!
–The Schuster Center offers top practice management education for the dental industry. For more information, go to www.SchusterCenter.com
Simplicity and Harmony this Holiday
Posted by: | CommentsOn the wall in our coaching department hangs a quote from Einstein–
Three Rules of Work:
Out of clutter, find simplicity
From discord, find harmony
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
I pass by it every day many times, but today I stopped to read it. I was waiting to speak with Dr. Schuster while he was taking time for discussion with someone else. The wait caused me to stop and look up and there was this sign on the wall that I see every day. Today it jumped out at me. It said, “Read me!” so I did. More than that, it begged me to take heed so I am. I am trying.
It is always this time of year as the holidays approach that life can get hectic, and schedules can fall apart, and ahhhh…stress enters the once calm life! How does that happen? Is it the clutter of life? How can I find simplicity? Am I in discord? How can I find harmony? Will my difficulty really bring opportunity?
The holiday season should bring joy and celebration. Yet instead it brings frazzled nerves and crazy emotions. There are three areas that trigger this holiday stress: Finances, Relationships, and Physical Demands. Relationship stress has a way of boiling over during the holidays as our expectations succumb to disappointment. The cost of travel, entertainment, and gift giving leads to overextending the budget. The commitment to all of the holiday events along with the guilt of eating all those holiday sweets surely taxes our physical well-being.
All this stress doesn’t have to rob you of your joy this holiday season. Prepare yourself spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically before the stress arrives so you will be able to ward it off ahead of time. When it comes to relationships, you are only in control of yourself. Come into relationships with no expectation from the other person. Give your family and loved ones some slack and if you are feeling down, talk with a trusted friend. Get counseling to find some strategies to help you cope. Take your finances seriously and plan for the holidays in your budget. Set monetary limits on gift giving and consider giving to charity in someone’s honor as an alternative gift. To maintain your physical well-being, keep your exercise routine or start one if you haven’t had one recently. Eat those holiday sweets in moderation and get outside for some fresh air. Remind yourself that it is okay to say “no” sometimes so that you are not over-committed.
Recharge your inner spiritual batteries. Take the time to read, pray, meditate, listen to music or just take a power nap. Remember the “Reason for the Season!” And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) Put the Lord first this Christmas. You will find this is the best “de-stressor” of all time.
Barb Stackhouse
(Special thanks to Family Life Radio for their Inspirational Messages)
Blooming Flowers at the Schuster Office
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As I pulled into the parking lot today, I noticed the flowers blooming on our shrubs outside The Schuster Center. I am reminded of the beauty that surrounds me on a daily basis and how sometimes I miss the beauty because of being too busy. I love the outdoors and I love planting and growing things. I guess you can never take the farmer out of the girl from Indiana.
The garden in my backyard is growing and I will soon have vegetables for some healthy meals. While the rest of the country is preparing for winter and gathering their final crops, here I am planting a new garden and waiting for the harvest. In this part of Arizona we have a spring garden and a fall garden. The summer is too hot for the garden and everything dies off.
Just like our lives and perhaps your dental practice, in order for new life to spring forth, a period of dieing off must happen. We have to be willing to end the “old way” to make room for the new. Have you gathered the harvest and begun the planting process for the new to come? If you are seeking change, a plan for transition is needed. Happy gardening and Happy creating!
Barb Stackhouse, RDH, M.Ed.
Practice Development Coach and Faculty Member
The Schuster Center
The Architecture of Life and Practice
Posted by: | CommentsA power point presentation called “The Dash” has been circulating on the internet. You may have come across it recently. I had heard the term before from a friend who was giving a eulogy and referred to the dates of birth and death with life being “the dash” in the middle.
How quickly that brings reflection about my purpose here. How quickly life can pass us by, and how quickly we get lost in society. Most of the time, it is when we are faced with a crisis or life altering experience that we think about these things. Even then, it is often only for a short time and we resume living out our life as it happens. Unless you are willing to give some time to the purpose and plan for your life, it will continue to pass you by.
Our society is full of cookie-cutter houses with cookie-cutter people living in a sea of conformity. Yet we hunger for personal expression and to live a life of purpose. This hungering gets lost in the ho-hum rhythm of our days.
According to an article I read recently in the az-net news, whether we live simple or complex lives, they are made up of three primary components: work, personal, and social. Each of these components must get an equal share of our time in order to maintain balance. When we expend more time and energy in any one area, we have less time and energy for the other two. This leads to imbalance. For example, if work becomes our primary focus, we may be lacking in personal or social time. Only when the whole equalizes can we experience peace.
Work tends to get most of our attention and we readily recall and give attributes based on a person’s vocation in life. We tend to remember people based on their accomplishments in their lifework. We are fascinated with stories of impossible odds that were overcome or creative approaches the person took to get to where they are. It is the architecture of the human spirit that moved them from one room of life to another that peaks our interest.
We are social creatures and tend to identify with others based on their relationships with friends, family, and colleagues. This is where we find commonality and place ourselves in concert with another based on our similar experiences. It is through our social abilities that we strive to fit into society.
Carving out time for personal or spiritual growth is paramount to the expectation of a balanced life. This tends to be the one area we set aside or give up in order to focus on the other two, not realizing the impact it has on our personal achievements. Think of this as creating a sturdy foundation to the building of your life.
If you were created as a building, what sort of structure would you be? Would you blend in with other buildings around you? Would you stand tall or would you be spread out over a large piece of land? How do you personally fit into the culture around you? If you think about it, we build our lives just like a building, one brick or one piece of lumber at a time. The question is, do you have a plan, or a blueprint that incorporates these three primary areas? Are you following your blueprint and striving for balance? Are the rooms in your house / life connected? You are the architect of your life. I challenge you to fill your rooms and hallways with friendships and love.
“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.” — Louisa May Alcott
“Truest SUCCESS is but the development of self.” — Charles Atlas
The Schuster Center is a business school for dentists where development of the dental practice aligns with the development of self. It is a lifelong network of like-minded professionals in community and spirit.
Levels of Dental Hygiene Care
Posted by: | CommentsIs it possible for the hygienist to practice at a different level of dental care than the dentist within one office? What if the dentist and hygienist do not share the same philosophy of dentistry? It is important to be sure that you are working together as a team and that everyone in the office shares the same vision, values, and goals for the practice.
Dental hygienists do not all practice dental hygiene care at the same level just as different dentists provide different levels of dental care. You may have your thoughts in regard to these different levels but I think you will agree that not all hygienists provide care in the same manner.
•LEVEL 1 Dental Hygiene Care – Managed Neglect
Level I hygienists are practicing managed neglect. Every 6 months they scale away at the same teeth that had calculus the last visit. They feel there is no hope for a change in patient behavior so why bother. The attitude of the hygienist is ‘I just do my job and go home.’ Most of these hygienists are not probing or if they are there is no protocol for active disease so the periodontal exam has little meaning. The cause of disease and true prevention are non-existent with no regard for the future health of the patient. This type of practice pushes patients through the hygiene department as fast as possible. You might call this a prophy mill. The hygienist must see as many patients as possible so as to increase the production numbers. The patients in this type of hygiene department have little or no value for their dental health. They rely on the hygienist to “clean” their teeth every 6 months with not much thought of care in between appointments.
•LEVEL II Dental Hygiene Care – Body Parts Care
Level II hygienists have some higher technical training and are interested in providing higher levels of care that will generate more production dollars in the practice. The focus is more on advising patients of treatment options based on ‘what the insurance will cover’ rather than a comprehensive treatment plan. Success is measured based on production. The periodontal exam does have meaning for this level of hygienist to the extent that patients agree to the treatment presented. The patient’s future dental health, and general overall health are not the focus in this practice. This level of hygiene treatment may provide care that will slow the disease process but it doesn’t address the cause of the problem. Instead of looking at the entire system, this level treats only one aspect of the body, the gums and supporting structures. Patients in this type of hygiene department may end up with a host of dental problems in the mid to later adult life despite having visited the dentist regularly their entire life. We wonder, “How can that happen?” yet we observe it and watch it happen right before our eyes.
•LEVEL III Health Centered Dental Hygiene Care – Cause of Disease Care
The level III hygiene department has moved to be ‘health-centered’ and strives to treat the patient as an entire system. Everyone in the practice understands the ideal of dental health and realizes the importance of conveying that message to their patients. The examination process is engaging for the patient, comprehensive, and includes the protocol necessary to restore health to the highest level for the patient. The patient is a true partner in health as we create together long-range goals for dental and overall health. The hygienist is motivated to life-long learning while growing and developing their technical and communication skills. They understand that to behave differently, they must think differently. The cause of disease is the primary concern so that true healing can occur. The patients are motivated to care for themselves because they understand the consequences of neglect. It is hard work to become a level III hygienist but the rewards are high as service to others becomes the top priority.
•LEVEL IV Health Centered Dental Hygiene Care – Systemic / Total Body Wellness
The Level IV hygiene department has everything described in level III and has now moved to include protocols that provide systemic care. Nutritional counseling related to overall health and testing procedures to identify precursors to disease are implemented. A high level of trust exists between the patient and the hygienist. Level IV hygienists are highly educated in the link between systemic diseases and oral health and continue to educate themselves as new information becomes available. Level III and Level IV hygienists are concerned about the health of themselves as well as their patients thus serving as a model to those around them.
Barb Stackhouse, RDH, M.Ed.
