Ask Us Anything: Coronavirus Edition (DHP289)
We’ve all got questions about what’s going on in the world. And the Dental Hacks have answers! We don’t guarantee that they’re good answers, but they are answers. Jason and Al answer questions from the Dental Hacks Nation talking about what’s happening in our offices, new PPE, cartoons of our youth and who is better at spelling (spoiler: it’s Al).
Some things we discussed:
- Do you really think dental offices will ever return to what they were B(efore) C(orona)?
- Is it hard to stay true to your values and avoid moderating the Facebook group?
- Who looks better with a mullet?
- Ninja turtles, power rangers and Fox Spider-Man and X-men cartoons were pretty important in my childhood..ok and Star Trek. What about you boomers? (I keed I keed I know you’re not boomers)
- Will patients still respect me when they catch me moonlighting as a bartender to make ends meet these next 12 months?
- How can I run a leaner & meaner practice when the world stops coming to an end? I’ve been at this a while & looking at auto bill stuff & adding things up I see a lot of $$$ going out on crap I could probably do without. A re-centering of my practice & tips to consider.
- Who is considering dropping insurance to improve reimbursement? Who will charge a ppe fee? Who will give in to all the staff requests for ppe regardless of what’s required?
- What’s been your favorite recipe over the past few weeks?
- How do you imagine the role of your dental assistants changing? What if a hygienist were moving as needed (on a case by case basis) throughout the day instead of working out of a particular op?
- Who would win a spelling contest?
- What’s the best thing you’ve learned from this lockdown (non-dentistry)?
Some links from the show:
Battle of the Planets
Spiderman and his Amazing Friends
Silverhawks
Go Hack Yourself:
Jason: Bellus 3D face app
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It seems like everyone is talking about aerosols. The Coronavirus crisis has focused our attention on the possible spread of the virus in dental offices and specifically what we can do to reduce it and keep our patients and teams safer. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we do know that suction evacuation and rubber dam is a sure way to reduce dental aerosols. Our friends at Zirc have been producing some of the best products in these areas for a lot of years. If you aren’t familiar with the Zirc family of isolation products, they want you to take a look. You can get the Zirc “Protection Pack +” trial kit for only $9! The protection pack includes their amazing Mr. Thirsty One step (1 Pedo/small and 1 Medium/large) size. It’s the bite block high volume suction evacuator all in one that doesn’t need any complicated hardware. Just plug it directly into your high volume suction and you’re ready to go! The Protection Pack + also includes three “pink petals” which turns any saliva ejector into a hands free suction machine! And finally you get two of Zirc’s amazing Insti-Dam! The Insti-Dam is a nonlatex dental dam and frame all in one! Pre-punched for that emergency endo that shows up in your office tomorrow! Go check out the Protection Pack + at dentalhacks.com/protection and try one out for the low price of $9!
We know this has been an incredibly trying few weeks for really everyone, our dental friends and their patients. Many dental teams are just scratching their heads wondering, what should we be doing? Monitoring the regulations on a daily basis thinking, when are we going to get back to normal? What do we do with our appointments? You aren’t alone. There’s no book on this stuff, well not yet at least, but you know what? We have some advice for you, and it’s coming from our friends at YAPI. All of you that know of or use YAPI are likely familiar that one of their founders is Dr. Gina Dorfman, a practice owner herself. Dr. Gina and YAPI’s marketing team are going to help you stay productive and stay positive during this time. Whether you are closed altogether, treating emergency patients only, we’re going to be sharing a variety of different resources that will help you stay on top of this issue and how to stay engaged with your patients and make sure you don’t miss any opportunities that come your way. As COVID-19 survivor Tom Hanks once said, There’s no crying in baseball, YAPI says there’s no downtime in dentistry! Check the Hacks Facebook page regularly for your downtime checklists, webinars on teledentistry, shareable posts to keep you connected with your patients, advice on patient re-scheduling, and more.Go check them out at dentalhacks.com/YAPI.
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