Dr. Andrés F. Guzmán D.
October 2019
A multidisciplinary dental clinic is a dental clinic that serves all areas of dentistry under a concept of integrality. This means dental care performed exclusively by specialists but with an intimate interaction between them to achieve comprehensive patient care. Thus, each patient is reviewed by each of the specialists but the treatment plan is one.
Modern dentistry must be based on the principle of total quality. To achieve total quality dental care must be personalized and predictable over time. Personalized attention means individualizing dental treatment for each patient, each individual is a unique world with a specific oral situation, individual needs and personal oral conditions. Dental treatments cannot be generalized as mass production care where the patient adapts to treatment options or where a specific dental treatment is applied to all patients. Predictable care means that dental treatment is designed for a patient and should last as long as possible. Predictability involves designing treatments based on proven scientific studies in many patients and in different global care centers and not treatments based on personal experiences or worse, even based on products imposed by commercial companies.
To achieve high quality care, a dental clinic that follows the same quality guidelines is required. A high quality dental clinic must be based on three fundamental pillars: a team of specialists and suitable assistants, a cutting-edge dental technology, and an adequate and exclusive infrastructure.
The team of specialist dentists of a clinic is essential to achieve successful and lasting treatments over time. Specialists should remain in constant education and updating in their areas of expertise and ideally under some academic affiliation to an accredited university. Dentistry is an art based on scientific principles; therefore the operator who attends to the patient is the most relevant factor in the success of the treatment. The experience obtained through patients treated over time under scientific parameters is essential to develop an adequate and predictable ability.
That is why a dental clinic must invest its maximum economic and operational capabilities in forming a team of dentists with high clinical experience, with an exquisite manual talent and with a maximum scientific capacity. This is what is considered an ideal multidisciplinary dental team. Massive low-cost dental clinics in which dentists do not have a sense of belonging, or with a high turnover they will never reach the quality we are talking about.
The auxiliary staff of a dental clinic is also directly proportional to the quality of care; they are responsible for the daily management of the patient, the fluidity of the treatments and the patient dentist communication. The auxiliary staff is often the face of the clinic to patients; they must also be part of the appropriate team and be sheltered under the concept of total quality.
The technology of a dental clinic is very important because in modern dentistry there is technology developed to guarantee more lasting and aesthetic treatments. Dental aesthetics is today one of the most sought-after requirements by both patients and dentists, and this is largely achieved with the use of high precision materials and machines, which are only present in cutting-edge technologies. One of the modern technologies is the CAD CAM robotic computerized technology. Through this technology, crowns, bridges and veneers are manufactured in a computerized manner based on an intra-oral scan, a digital design and a machined milling from a block of the material to be used. Additionally, there are other technological advances that are relevant in the quality of dental care such as: the use of microscopy for root canal treatments, digital radiography using radio visiography, brace-less orthodontics using transparent sequential aligners, etc.
A very important factor in the technology of a dental clinic is the fact that the clinic has its own dental laboratory or in-house laboratory. A dental clinic that has a dental laboratory will offer great advantages for its patients. Having your own laboratory allows you to perform the treatments more accurately and in less time. In addition to the speed in the manufacture of works, there is also the possibility of personalizing better, repeating if necessary and controlling more all the factors external to the treatment of the patient. The dental laboratory is the indispensable complement of a modern dental clinic.
The infrastructure of a dental clinic is a relevant factor in the final result of dental treatment. Clinics with comfortable and modern facilities generate confidence and tranquility in the patient during the entire dental process. Dental treatments are per se stressful procedures, not pleasant, but if these are performed in a comfortable, modern and harmonious environment, these become more tolerable procedures. The moment of dental care is a time of great intimacy, therefore a clinic of having exclusive and private spaces in which the patient dentist relationship is achieved in maximum confidence and harmony. The trust between the patient and his dentist is one of the bases of the success of the oral treatments.
In conclusion, a dental clinic should be a space prepared for a high-precision activity that requires a highly trained and experienced operator, a technology of maximum development and an environment that generates trust, harmony and privacy.
