By: Ronda Holman
Hi dear reader, my name is Ronda Holman and I have been sitting across from a dentist for a living for the last 25 years.
I thought it might be time to make some written confessions as to what I have been guilty of over the years and how my dentist was able to effectively mold me into their dream dental assistant.
My Experience with an Eye Sore of Dental Equipment
Once upon a time, my dentist purchased a gently used KCP-1000 whisperjet Air Abrasion Unit.
Dual Abrasive Chambers with Patented Electronic Powder Injection System. Built-in compressor for easy mobility from operatory to operatory.
This unit was heavy and an eye sore. We had to keep it stored at the end of a long hallway so that anyone could use it and find it instead of searching different treatment rooms for it.
Now remember I’m old, so this was in 2005, and my dentist was tickled pink to have this machine. Oh, and he wanted to use it on every restorative patient.
Did I mention he had 3 dental assistants who had restorative patients going at the same time? That’s right so at any given time this unit was needed in 3 separate rooms within one hour.
Our Main Complaints: Listed in Order of Severity
1. The Machine was Big and Heavy
Yes, it had rollers, but we had carpet with door frames that led into each operatory. We always had to drag it into our room and lift it so that the wheels didn’t get stuck while securing the wand so that it didn’t fall to the floor. (the not-so-gently used part of our particular unit was the broken docking station for the attachments to sit when not in use)
2. Our Gently Used “Whisper” Part of the Jet Was So Loud!
The unit added to our already noise-polluted room. On a positive note, the dental assistants never had to question if someone was currently using the unit. 😂
3. Excess Alpha Alumnia
There was so much excess Alpha Alumina on the tooth, in the mouth, around the patient’s face, in the patient’s hair, around the working field of the mouth, and on our gloves.
4. An Added Step for Room Turn Over
Every time we used the unit we had to run solution through the suction lines to reduce/prevent damage to them. Adding one more step when turning the room over for the next patient waiting.
What Did We Dental Assistants Do? Complain…
So we did what any set of dental assistants would naturally do in this situation… complained.
We whined about having to use it, we “accidentally” forgot to bring it into our room and plug it in. We would hope our dentist would go back to autopilot and forget we even had it.
But he didn’t.
You see we never took the time to tell our dentist exactly why we didn’t like the machine so he had no idea that we weren’t just complaining about change.
Communication is Key: Change vs. Inconvenience
Change is hard, especially if the whole team hasn’t bought into why we are changing. Our doctor knew how useful abrasion was in the application of dentistry and simply felt that his dental assistants didn’t prioritize best practices.
He simply thought that we didn’t want to use the machine because we didn’t take the time to tell him why we didn’t want to use the machine.
It took four months for us to have a staff meeting and list our chief complaints about the machine.
That was the only time our dentist understood that we weren’t complaining about change and we were complaining about inconvenience! One more thing to make our jobs harder.
Don’t Just Complain, Come with a Solution
This is around the same time that I learned in order to highlight a problem, it’s best to come prepared with a solution, maybe not a viable solution, but have some solution mapped out.
My idea was to schedule all the patients that the doctor truly wanted to use the machine on in one room.
So we started brainstorming what procedures were priority. It worked!
- Schedule Change: We were able to schedule patients in one treatment room where the machine was able to live. This prevented the transportation complaint.
- Prep Change: We also pitched in preparing the suction solution at the end of each visit. Whenever any of us had free time so it wasn’t the sole burden of the dental assistant working in that treatment room.
- Stock Change: We then stocked that room with towels to place around the patient’s face when using the unit to collect a majority of the excess material.
Benefits of Talking It Out with Our Dental Team
This story could’ve had two different endings.
- Scenario number one – the dental assistants continued to complain until the doctor stopped using the machine.
- Scenario number two – the doctor insisted on using the machine without any change and the assistants resent him or quit.
Both of those scenarios only could have come to fruition if that team meeting hadn’t taken place.
At the end of the day, communication is key when someone on the team complains, especially the dental assistant. There are typically layers to their why that we don’t know about unless we communicate.
The moral to the story is to make the best of a bad situation. Dentistry is expensive so whether your the dentist or the DA utilize what you can when you can, especially if it’s for the betterment of the patient. Now I’ll leave you with this.
“Tolerance, compromise, understanding, acceptance, patience – I want those all to be very sharp tools in my shed.”
CeeLo Green
