Dear DrBicuspid Member,
With the first full workweek of June in the books, more and more states have now allowed dental practices to churn back to life with larger patient loads. That's excellent news for our industry, and I know it also is for many of you who are reading this newsletter as well.
We saw some of that positive news unveiled recently when the ADA Health Policy Institute reported that a whopping 65% of dental practices had reopened as of May 18 and patient volumes have risen, indicating that the industry is recovering from shutdowns due to COVID-19. The new data findings are certainly reason to smile and be hopeful about what is to come for dentistry.
As the data are showing, when it comes to COVID-19 and the dental practice, dentists and team members are moving away from "What is happening?" to "What is coming next?" That's where recovery strategies and thought processes being shared throughout the entire team make such a difference. Dr. Roger P. Levin shared his thoughts this week on what recovery strategies you should be doing now and in the days ahead.
This week, Dr. Emily Letran also shared the 3 Rs that she believes are so important for a practice to successfully recover after a crisis. Reset, restructure, and return on investment (ROI) are key for every practice that has been through tough times, and that includes the COVID-19 disruption.
While your dental practice has been affected in recent weeks by life-changing events, your patients' lives have likely been upended as well. Along those lines, it's no secret that striking a balance between work and home has always been a challenge for parents. COVID-19 has raised the stakes, with about 60% of workers in a new survey reporting that they have had no outside help in caring for and educating their children during the pandemic. These are your patients, your team members, and perhaps even you. When communicating with others, this stress and its impact could be good information to have in the back of your mind.
Finally, on the clinical side, cone-beam CT helped identify a rare case of a dental implant moving into a man's right ethmoidal sinus in a recently published case report. An anatomical variant likely prevented him from showing signs of sinusitis related to the dislocated implant.
Thank you, as always, for reading DrBicuspid.com. We continue to wish you and your loved ones nothing but health, wellness, and safety.
