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Scan, send, seat. Dr. Dan Isaacson and his staff provide fast, same-week results.
Like many dentists, Dr. Dan Isaacson was initially apprehensive about digital dentistry.
“You’re thinking, ‘What’s this going to be like to start?’ But then, it’s so convenient and easy. And you go, ‘Why didn’t I do this earlier?’”
For his practice, going digital started about 15 years ago, with the switch to paperless charts. Today, his digital dentistry portfolio is expansive, and the benefits have proven to be just as extensive. Read on to see what digital dentistry looks like for the Isaacson Gentle Dentistry team and their patients.
Kiali Wong Orlowski: You have been a dentist for 25 years now, and it’s clear that you’re not just sitting on the sidelines when it comes to digital dentistry. Instead, you and your team are avid users of digital tools. How has the way you use digital dental technology changed during your career?
Dr. Dan Isaacson: Well, if you said 25 years ago that we would be taking a digital scan and sending it to the laboratory before the patient even gets out of the chair, I would have said you’re crazy. So having a scanner has sped up procedures, and the process is more fun. You can show the images to patients, and that’s more helpful than an X-ray or an impression. With digital images, they’re understanding what you’re doing, why and how.
KO: How else do you use digital dental technology for patient education?
DI: We use all types of technology: digital X-rays, digital cameras and of course the scanner — we use the iTero® scanner, which I really like (Align Technology, Inc.; San Jose, Calif.). So during a new patient exam, for instance, we’ll take a scan of the patient’s entire mouth and look at the bite. We can educate the patient on how the teeth function together and discuss what we can do to make the patient’s bite more optimal and the teeth healthier. I think that’s ultimately what everybody wants.
And now we have a baseline digital scan of the mouth, a digital record that we can always go back to. If there have been some changes in the patient’s bite, we can use the technology to map out how the teeth have worn or shifted in a given period of time.
KO: What does your digital strategy look like in terms of specific dental services?
DI: As far as digital scans, we do those for all different types of restorative procedures, not just single crowns & bridges. We use digital scans to provide Invisalign® treatment (Align Technology, Inc.), full-mouth reconstructions and implant dentistry. And I like the way that using the iTero scanner is seamless with Glidewell. I can do a digital scan at my office, send it to Glidewell and get the restoration back in three days. I prep a tooth on Monday, and I seat it on Thursday. Anytime you can make dentistry faster like that, easier and more of a “wow” for patients — and get more accurate results — really, it’s a no-brainer.
KO: What about your staff? How do you lead them in engaging with the latest technology in digital dentistry?
DI: I let my staff do everything that they can do based on their licensure. My assistants are usually taking the digital scans for diagnostic purposes. My hygienists also take scans. And I review and sign off, of course. I feel that they get more job satisfaction out of their responsibilities, because they’re proud of what they do. They’re part of the digital workflow, and their involvement makes them more connected to patients. They have established relationships with patients. Some of them have been seeing the same patients for 10, 15 or 20 years.
KO: Wow, that’s amazing.
DI: Yeah, my team is the reason we have a great practice. We have been open for 20 years, and two of my staff members have been with me longer than that. They previously worked with me at another practice. Some of my other employees have been with my practice for six, 14 and 16 years.
What I have learned through being a dentist for 25 years is that team members want to take on responsibilities. They don’t want to just be cleaning up the room and using the suction system. They like to be able to get to know the patients and do the scans. So the more that they can be involved — in the digital scanning process, the treatment planning process, the restorative phase and post-op care — the more they get out of it.
KO: That’s fantastic. In terms of your community, your practice is in White Bear Lake, a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. Is that where you grew up?
DI: Yes, I live in the same community where I grew up. I went to high school about 15 minutes from where my practice is, and I went to dental school at the University of Minnesota, which is here in Minneapolis. Having grown up in the area, I've known many of my patients for 20 or 30 years, either through the dental practice or from prior to my career.
KO: Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about the biggest thing affecting dentistry right now: COVID-19. How did you and your team manage the challenges of the pandemic back in the spring?
DI: We closed in late March and opened again in mid-May. So we were closed for two solid months there, only providing emergency dental treatment. I was alternating days with Dr. Mike Weisbrod, the other dentist at my practice.
KO: What else did you prioritize during that time?
DI: I really spent a lot of time researching. I probably listened to two webinars a day about the coronavirus and its effects on dentistry. So even though I was not working in the office, I was spending hours and hours a day learning and planning for when we could reopen. That included stocking up on PPE, of course. And we ordered hospital-grade, HEPA filtration systems for each treatment room.
Outside our office, we designated 10 parking spots with individual numbers. So when patients come to appointments, they can park and let us know what parking spot they’re in. And then we can go out to screen them. That’s in addition to having screened them over the phone a couple days in advance.
And we designed different patient flow patterns for our seven treatment rooms and the office. Patients come in the front door, walk straight to the treatment room for their appointment, and then leave through a rear door. So patients aren’t bumping into other patients going in and out of the front door. And the team members use a third door. We all enter through the basement, where we take our temperatures, and change into scrubs and our PPE.
To me, the No. 1 thing in dentistry right now, by far, is being able to provide a safe environment. Our priority is to keep our patients and staff safe.
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