Q&A with Lorne Lavine...

A young dentist opens a small office in his neighborhood. He spends a conservative amount of money on dental equipment and leaseholds, and sets aside space for future expansion. His wife works the front desk and helps to run the business. The first patients consist of friends, neighbors and employees from local businesses. In its first months, patients grow to 200. As years go by, the dental office realizes significant growth.

I have discussed many times in previous articles the need for computers in the operatories. Besides being mandatory to use high-end digital systems like intraoral cameras and digital radiography, they also allow the office to become more decentralized by permitting many functions to be completed chairside, such as scheduling and insurance submissions. The underlying assumption in these scenarios, of course, is that all of the computers are connected together. The challenge, though...

There is no doubt that the modern dental practice has changed rapidly over the past 10 years. Dentists have come to realize that with new technology, they can create a practice that is more efficient, costs less to run, and allows for decentralization of the office. Records that were primarily paper and film-based are being replaced by digital radiography, electronic records, and a move towards a paperless, or at the very least, chartless practice.

The time has come where dental offices no longer have to rely on mechanical devices that were designed forty or fifty years ago. Only until recently, dentists had limited options when communicating within their practices. One solution was hard-wired panels that used a series of lights to determine when or where someone was needed. This was a tremendous tool for practices and allowed them to run more efficiently. The biggest drawback to light panel systems was the cost. Larger practices could...

The modern dental practice continues to evolve at a raid pace. Systems that were primarily paper and film based are quickly turning towards digital solutions that allow the practice to be more efficient and effective. The area of the most rapid changes in the past few years has been digital imaging. While digital radiography has received the lion’s share of the press recently, digital cameras and intraoral cameras are still, in my opinion, the biggest bang-for-the-buck in terms of return...