Products for an efficient dental practice and enhanced patient experience [VIDEO]

The team at River Bluff Dental is committed to providing a comfortable, efficient practice for their patients, as well as the best cosmetic dentistry possible. Here’s how Patterson Dental and products like Eaglesoft, CAESY, RevenueWell and CEREC have helped them make that goal a reality for the last 17 years.

Patients know exactly what to expect when they make an appointment at River Bluff Dental.

Dr. Walter Palmer and the team at this Bloomington, Minnesota-based practice are known for the high level of personalized patient care they offer, and for their comfortable, high-tech office-an office that was designed to improve the patient experience.

Dr. Palmer worked with a home builder to design the cosmetics-focused practice 17 years ago, and made sure it didn’t have the clinical feel so many patients associate with a dental practice. Large windows let in natural light, and cherry wood gives the practice a homey feel.

Patients truly can relax, whether it’s with a bottle of water while they wait for their appointment or under a warm blanket as they watch a movie in one of the exam rooms.

Patients know they’ll be comfortable while visiting River Bluff Dental, and they also know they’ll receive the best possible care. As a cosmetic dentist, Dr. Palmer mostly sees patients who want to turn a smile they’re embarrassed about into a beautiful smile they can’t wait to show off. When patients walk into his office, they already have a problem they want to discuss and are eager to hear what he can do.

“I present what I think is the best treatment plan to all my patients,” he said. “I know not all of my patients can achieve oral health immediately, but we present a plan we think is the best, most comprehensive plan, but it also has a cosmetic emphasis. That’s huge in this practice. Usually patient acceptance, over a period of time, is 100 percent. Our plan is to present oral health with cosmetic dentistry. That’s the best you can have.”

That’s why investing in technology is so important to Dr. Palmer. You can’t provide the level of care he offers without it. When he built his new office, he knew he’d need a space that could evolve with technology.

With the help of Patterson Dental, he recently updated the practice’s interior with new cabinets to create a better space for the technology he uses and to improve patient flow. Dr. Palmer also knows the right technology and products help make a practice more efficient- and that’s very important to the River Bluff Dental team.

Dr. Palmer and his team strive to make the practice as efficient as possible, and the high-tech products they use every day, from Eaglesoft Practice Management Software to CAESY Patient Education Systems to RevenueWell Patient Communications Suite, are vital to making that happen.

Efficient practice management

In a high-tech practice like River Bluff Dental, integration is important. Patterson’s Eaglesoft works together with technologies like CEREC, Galileos, RevenueWell and CAESY. Eaglesoft also helps improve team communication.

“By using the technology we have available to us, we have evolved into using six-handed dentistry,” he said. “I’m able to dictate notes, design CEREC, and find out what’s going on in the other treatment areas. I practice out of seven treatment areas. I can be messaged and know what’s going on in each one. I can use hygienists and assistants to their full capacity.”

A comprehensive scheduling system makes it possible for everyone to know what is happening with every patient, from the time they walk in until they leave, and that helps make this cross-trained team more efficient.

Eaglesoft also has enabled the practice to go paperless. They no longer have paper charts and are able to scan everything they need into Eaglesoft, including 3D scans they take at the office and scans that come from specialists.

Enhanced education

Patient education is important at River Bluff Dental, and the technology Dr. Palmer has available to him makes educating his patients easy and effective.

He can use digital x-rays and images from intraoral cameras to explain what’s going on in their mouth and why he’s recommending certain treatment, and he can instantly pull them up via Eaglesoft. He can pull photos stored in Eaglesoft into Patterson Dental’s CAESY Patient Education Systems. Everything is integrated and designed to work together, making it easy to give patients the information they need to make the right decisions about their oral health care.

“CAESY is a great educational tool,” Dr. Palmer said. “It starts the education process so patients understand what you’re presenting. It helps give patients a visual of our goals, and it’s something they can take home to further look at. CAESY can help answer questions that a dentist or technician can’t always answer.”

It also makes treatment presentation easier. After watching CAESY, patients have a basic understanding of the proposed treatment; Dr. Palmer then fills in the details. This helps improve case acceptance-in fact many patients have already decided to go forward with treatment before he’s presented the plan.

Better communication

If you’re going to have an efficient practice, you have to find a way to efficiently communicate with your patients. That’s what Dr. Palmer and his team get from RevenueWell.

RevenueWell makes it easy to communicate with patients the way they want to be reached, via email or text. It has cut down on last-minute cancellations and no shows. It integrates with Eaglesoft and automatically updates the schedule as appointments are confirmed or rescheduled, freeing up team members to tackle other tasks. The system also makes it easy to collect online reviews, request referrals and conduct post-treatment follow-up.

“Dentists who want to run a practice efficiently need help from software to contact patients and remind patients about appointments, because you’re seeing quite a number of patients per unit of time,” he said. “You have to take advantage of this technology to keep patients running on time and prevent last-minute cancellations.”

The technology

Dr. Palmer takes pride in the fact that he was one of the first in his area to use Sirona Dental’s CEREC 3 technology in 1999. He has used CEREC to complete more than 60,000 restorations.

Dr. Palmer also uses Sirona Dental’s Galileos for guided implant placement, and describes it as a technology that is changing the way dentists diagnose and treatment plan. He also uses Sirona’s Schick sensors for sharp radiographs that offer greater detail. To get the most out of the imaging software, Eaglesoft 17 tells you if you are not using the optimum exposure on your Schick 33 digital images.

Patients know to expect these type of technologies at River Bluff Dental, but are still wowed by what they see. Appointments don’t take as long as at other practices, and patients are more comfortable during their appointments.

A true partner

Dr. Palmer has worked with Patterson Dental since 1996, and couldn’t be happier with the products and service they provide. They keep him up to date on the latest developments and even give him samples so he can make sure a product is right for his practice.

“Other companies don’t have the service that Patterson does,” he said. “I work out of seven treatment areas. I need them all. If ever a problem comes up, they are here to fix it.”

Dr. Palmer is a leader in cosmetic dentistry and loves the technology and science behind what he does. He loves creating beautiful, confident smiles. The products he uses from Patterson Dental help him do that efficiently.