Boring but necessary

An interesting story came up this week.

A practice I know has a large brick wall covered by creeper adjacent their car park. Over a period of years they allowed the creeper to overgrow to the extent it became so heavy that it detached from the wall, fell and blocked the car park.

Big disaster. Big cost. And, regrowing this formerly beautiful creeper will take years.

As dentists, what would we say to a patient who had a hole in their tooth and chose to delay treatment? Imagine if they left it so long that simple hole turned into a root filling and crown.

We'd say they were being foolish. We'd say that if they had spent $300 on the filling they could have avoided the $4,000 cost of the crown and root filling.

In my practice the standards of maintenance were always pristine. Two reasons.

Firstly, patients judge you by your office. If it's a mess or run down then they will think your dentistry is bad.

Secondly, proper maintenance saves money in the long term. Waiting for something to collapse is bad policy.

Yet, many offices I go into have equipment that's held together with wire and duct tape. They have air turbines that are running at half speed. They have curing lights with the bulbs nearly burnt out that barely even set the composite. They have computers that are 6 or 7 years old. They have a suction system that is clogged up.

How are you maintaining your office?