There are always some dumb decisions made by dentists in their career journey that when the dentist, or his profession looks back on them, they just simply scratch their heads, that wonder out loud:

“WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING???”

Because when we do look back and reflect on what we have just done, or have just said, then we realise that we haven’t been thinking straight and logically in the first place…

Here are three examples of “poor choices” made by dental practice owners that leave me wondering:

“Who sold them this plan?”

Dental Treatment Room Designs

I for one don’t ever understand why dental treatment rooms are designed with the dental chair, and the patient, looking straight back at the doorway?

Why is that?

To me it made more sense that the chair be positioned with the headrest closest to the door and the patient looking away from the door and not being distracted by the necessary and unnecessary comings and goings through that doorway that do need to go on.

When the chair faces the door, what that means is that the dentist and dental assistant are then locked into a position in the treatment room that if for whatever reason one or either of them does need to leave the room, then the patient sees them, and watches them do so, and that doesn’t need to be something that the patient ever really needs to be aware of.

Putting the patient in a dental chair where their feet are facing a wall or a corner makes a lot more sense than stuffing the dentist or the DA into one of the corners.

Too much dental treatment room cabinetry

Dental treatment room cabinetry and bench tops need to be functional, and not excessive.

You need one or two sinks, and couple of cupboards under the sinks, and maybe some cupboards above the sinks.

And then you need some trolleys… a mobile cabinet with drawers and a sliding top for the DAs to use, and a trolley for the dentist to have their computer on.

What I’ve seen is that dental treatment rooms tend to be overloaded with too many fixed cabinets that cost a bomb to be made and then create problems because of their bulk and size…. and all these extra cabinets seem to do is accumulate junk in them…

I’ve seen some practices where the treatment rooms are way too small and are then overloaded with way too much unnecessary cabinetry…

And the dentists have bought all these cabinets because that’s what they’ve seen other dentists buy and show off in glossy dental practice magazines…

It’s the wrong image, and its functionless…

Believe me, when it comes to cabinetry, less is more…

The front desk with the upstand attached.

Would you have one of these in your home?

What the heck are they for?

They really are an anachronistic piece of trash that has no place in the dental practices of the 2020s and beyond… If you have one, please get yourself a chainsaw and cut the upstand off it… it’s useless and offensive, and it’s a physical and metaphorical barrier that inhibits the building of care and trust inside the dental office.

The modern day alternatives are so much more attractive, and so much more conducive towards building great relationships.

And they are way more affordable.

Don’t be sold another overpriced lemon…

If you take my advice…

If you take my advice and bypass these three disaster areas of dental practice design, you’ll save yourself a tonne of money, and immediately make your dental practice look more spacious and less cramped…and that will be a major point of difference for your practice compared to the practices of other dentists in your area…

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Email me at david@theupe.com