Episode 722: Integrating Laser: Can You? Should You?

 Britt and Tiff discuss integrating laser bacteria reduction and other services into your practice. They touch on what to know beforehand (like is it permissible in your state), the importance of knowing the theories behind laser, and more.

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

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0:00:05.8 Kiera Dent: Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices, coaching teams. Yep. We don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:00:51.5 Kiera Dent: Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and you guys, I'm so excited for Consultant Takeover. Guys, that was me attempting to sing into this microphone for you, and I hope you loved it. Today, Consultant Takeover, grab your pens, grab your notebooks, bringing in the heat today. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

0:01:09.9 Speaker 2: Hey, Brit, how are you today? I'm so excited you're here. I love your smiling face, you're always so happy to be here, and I love it.

0:01:16.3 Brit: It's always fun, right? Podcasting, it was an adjustment for me, but I love it now.

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0:01:21.0 Speaker 2: It really was. I agree, you have stepped into it just with a smile on your face now, and I remember telling you to talk to yourself in the mirror, so I hope you did that, because secretly, it's really fun to think about that in my head. And I'm just so happy you're here today, so thank you. I have an idea. We've been on a hygiene kick, because you're one of my favorite hygienists of all time and I thought it would be fun to talk about some adjunct hygiene procedures. But specifically, I want to just review a little bit about laser. And I want your opinions, this doesn't have to be super crazy tactical, but I want your opinions on adding laser into a practice. I have a lot of practices that I consult that are constantly like, "How do we increase our hygiene dollar per hour for sure, for our appointments? But really, how do we increase what we can do within the hygiene department for our patients?" And I personally think laser's a great space, but what do you think? What are your opinions? How does this work?

0:02:23.6 Brit: I'm a laser fan, for the results that I get with laser and for that adjunct procedure, right? I'm always gonna add things that I know are gonna be beneficial for my patients, and this is gonna age me a little bit. [chuckle] I learned how to use laser, because Arizona, we can use it. I think it was all the way back in 2007 when I started using it, so...

0:02:42.7 Speaker 2: Awesome, I love it.

0:02:44.5 Brit: Had some good experience with it for quite a while and I loved the results that I got from it. So, for those States that hygienists are allowed to incorporate laser, I think it's a huge benefit adding that into your periodontal therapy to help manage the bacteria load and get really good results.

0:03:01.3 Speaker 2: Cool.

0:03:01.7 Brit: And of course, charge for what you do, right? What you do has value, so make sure you are charging for it and it can definitely help to increase that revenue for hygiene as well.

0:03:11.0 Speaker 2: For sure. I love that, I love that. What do you think is the best way that an office, a team, can integrate laser into their practice if they're not currently using it?

0:03:22.6 Brit: Yeah, so... And here's the thing that's cool. I think back in the day, I was just using it with periodontal therapy, and then as it evolved, we started using it more. So even in kind of a preventive way or proactive way with laser bacterial reduction, which I'm like, awesome, why not? We know the bacterial is there, it helps with periodontal therapy, I can see the results. Why not use it for the inflammation that we see on pretty much almost everybody that sits down in our chair? So... [chuckle]

0:03:49.9 Speaker 2: That's the truth.

0:03:52.3 Brit: So laser [0:03:52.8] ____ are gonna be definitely with your periodontal therapy, and there's some different theories behind how to do it. Always doing it along with your scaling and root planing. There's some theories behind timing wise, so definitely take your courses, review, decide what's gonna be best for your practice, that is gonna be easy to implement and get the results that you want. But definitely with periodontal therapy and then with patients as like an adjunct procedure, if there's inflammation, you better believe it's gonna help to go in and reduce that bacteria with a laser. So, offer it up just like I do fluoride, that it's an addition to their cleaning that's available.

0:04:25.9 Speaker 2: I love that. I love that you said that, because I truly do. I've. I'm not a hygienist, I've never been a hygienist, but I'm such a believer in the laser because I just don't understand why if you have that tool... If you have the information, you have the tool, you have the help for your patient, keeping them from getting to a point where they need aggressive therapy, if I as a hygienist can keep them where they are and keep them healthier, I'm gonna do everything I can to do that. So I can't imagine any of our listeners think any differently, so I'm so glad that you said that. I think it's a simple tool. And I think, like you said, consider laser. So, can you do that in your state? So what does that look like? State by state, things can be different. We don't have all the answers to all of the states. We know Arizona, [chuckle] and you probably know DC area. But those are... That's all we've got.

0:05:19.5 Brit: [0:05:19.5] ____ we can, Arizona, and last I checked, so...

0:05:22.1 Speaker 2: Last we checked.

0:05:23.1 Brit: I will double check.

0:05:25.6 Speaker 2: Exactly. [chuckle] So check to see, is that something that you can do? Read up on it, you guys. Get the information, figure out why it would be important and what it would do for your patient base. I know that I have practices that say... I've got one in Pennsylvania that might look at me and say, "Tough, we are a college town, how is this even going to help us?" Read up on it and see it, because I truly do think that it will help you. And then... So consider laser, can you do it? Take the courses that you need to take and then create a protocol and create those expectations because I would hate for you to try to implement something and then your hygiene team not understand what the ultimate goal is, and consider it with perio therapy, SRP, things like that. So, those are your actions. You guys consider it, look into it, get the data, get behind it. If you're behind it, if you're not, that's okay, take this with a grain of salt as well. But get behind it, see what you can do, take the courses that you need to and make sure that you never, ever, ever implement anything without a protocol and some good expectations for whatever team will be using it. So Brit, is there anything you feel like I missed there in our action items?

0:06:31.6 Brit: Nope. I think those are the big pieces. Check it out. I'm a believer. Do the research, make sure you're behind it. Don't be afraid to try it out and check out new things that can help your patients.

0:06:40.5 Speaker 2: Awesome. I love it, I love it. Thank you guys for being here. As always, we look forward to hearing from you. You can leave us a five star review below, with information if you loved it, if you hated it, if you liked the information that you gathered later. And reach out to us at [email protected] for anything else. Thanks, guys.

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0:06:58.8 Kiera Dent: And that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

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