The wider dental team

The evolution of digital dentistry and the digital dental team.

The importance of communication between members of the dental team.

On arrival at the dental surgery, the daughter requested the receptionist to inform the dentist and dental assistant that her mother was currently taking anti-coagulant drugs. Unfortunately the receptionist omitted to convey this message and neither did the patient when she entered the surgery. The daughter remained in the waiting room. The dentist extracted four teeth under local anesthesia an...

Building the dental dream team: behavioral styles in the practice.

There are four different behavioral styles evident in a dental team and in patients. The styles are based on observable behaviors relating to degrees of "assertiveness" and "responsiveness." The Behavioral Style model helps to clarify why some people relate positively with each other and why others may conflict. Using finely tuned observational skills and an understanding of these styles, inter...

The past and future evolution of the dental workforce team.

This article looks at changes in the number and mix of providers in the dental workforce over the past sixty years. First, enrollment trends in dental education programs are investigated. These educational programs feed directly into the dental workforce. Then, the changes in the dental workforce are examined. The focus of this investigation is the composition of the dental workforce and how th...

Growth maturation aging: how the dental team enhances facial and dental esthetics for a lifetime.

As the body of research regarding facial esthetics increases, dentists are gaining a deeper understanding of their broadening roles in defining facial characteristics. Dentists are required to advance their repertoire of diagnostic skills in order to meet patients' esthetic needs and demands. The focus has been shifting from treatment plans being based entirely on the occlusal relationships to ...