KeystoneExplorer | Fall 2023 19 dentistry issues Q CLOSING COMMENTS AND TAKE AWAYS The purpose of this article is to increase the predictability of endodontic success, positive patient experience, and to validate the power of collaborative general dentist/ endodontist communication from a more comprehensive interdisciplinary context. Patients win, dentist wins, specialist wins, and dentistry wins. My report may at times seem harsh but that is not the case. It is my purpose that this endodontic/restorative exchange will be a reference and foundation for dentists to have a frank and transparent dialog with your dental specialists and particularly your endodontist who is the focus of this article. I invite each of you who have read the article this far to meet with your endodontist and become ONE expert for your patient’s delivery of predictable endodontics. Interview each other and ask each other what each of you will GIVE in this relationship and what each of you expects to GET. Use the goal of the best treatment for the patient because this is every dentist’s pledge. You have my permission to forward your endodontist this article to help pave your way for honest communication always focusing on what is best for your patient. This article is not the end of the general dentist/endodontist exchange. Instead, I see this article as the end of the beginning. What is best for our patients is known by you… not insurance companies, not government, and not a Big Boss. An accurate diagnosis and treatment plan and its sequencing is every dentist’s responsibility and cannot be delegated and should not be dictated. Dentistry will remain, free or not. In many aspects of medicine, the patient has become a procedure or an insurance code. In dentistry, we still have real people as patients, we still have real dentists as dentists, and we still can look our patients in the eye and listen to what they want. We still can hear them. A nurtured culture of better interdisciplinary dentistry through better communication is a critical tenant in offering our patients, “What is possible” vs. “I have to wait until next year for my insurance to cover a crown.” The dentist of the future and the future of dentistry will be by default or by design. You choose. This article was reprinted with permission from the author and the Washington Academy of General Dentistry. attempt to fill the endodontic needs of the practice, group, or larger dental company. The goal is to make them the “in house” endodontic dentist. But not so fast! • Upgrading the new dentist’s skills is the right thing to do but you must remember that the “in house” endodontic dentist is NOT an in-house endodontist. They are held to the standards of an endodontist and a certain liability is especially present in today’s litigious society. 9. PAYING FOR YOUR MISTAKE • Do not feel guilty. It is too often that you offer to pay for our treatment. This is simply guilt or you feel bad. This is understandable but you did the best you can, and you should be paid for your effort. • IF you want to eliminate YOUR fee, that is up to you, but do not offer to pay our fee. First, we are not going to do that and second, it puts us in the awkward position of potentially spending a couple of hours to fix the problem with no payment. This creates hard feelings. 10. MAKING YOU LOOK GOOD • Certainly, I encourage the endodontist to do whatever is necessary to make you look good and that you did all the right things. We do whatever is needed to bail you out. This is one of our jobs and we take it seriously. • I encourage you to have a conversation with your endodontist that you should feel comfortable asking whatever you need in support of your patient. • Interview your endodontist and let them interview you. Tell each other the conditions of satisfaction required for the two of you to collaboratively treat patients. Schedule time to diagnose and treatment plan patients together especially in your early relationship. Make no assumptions. Discuss the best way to enroll your patient in your practice. For example, it is not uncommon that we see a new patient with a toothache and the patient has not even met you! A patient called your receptionist saying they have a toothache, your receptionist gives them several endodontist names, they choose us and here they are. They are NOT a toothache. They are a human being, they have feelings and concerns, and they represent a patient for a lifetime. I invite you to think this way.
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