Single Entry – The Future of Dentistry?
One of our most asked questions is why we believe in Single Entry? In today’s blog post we want to answer this question.
The average dental office in the US has been working with dual entry or open bay concepts for more than 20 years. You are used to this workflow and when building a new office this is what you know and what you ask for. For us coming from Europe, we are used to Single Entry Operatories as most European countries work that way. So, we analyzed why the workflow is different here in the US.
We went back into history and realized that 30 years ago Dental Offices in the US DID work with Single Entry. So why did it change? The answer is much simpler than we might think. Dentists struggled with one issue: The Assistant had to leave the room during procedures and wasn’t able to get out. She was trapped in the room since the door was on the doctor’s side and in between the patient on the chair and the rear delivery unit. In order for the Assistant to leave the room, the procedure had to be interrupted.
Here is where the second door got implemented. To give Assistants a way to get in and out of the room. Makes sense, right? It does. But only at a first glance. Because all what was done, is find an escape. We didn’t solve the core issue of the problem. WHY does the assistant have to leave the room in the first place? Because something is missing that is needed for the procedure. And this is our core issue: The workflow of the office. The preparation of instruments, the storage area and how to set up rooms.
And this is exactly what we at KAPPLER believe in solving. We provide a system and workflows to solve issues that make you less efficient and productive. We provide a system that helps you work more ergonomic. We don’t believe in short cuts to avoid issues by simply escaping them.
Planning a Dental Office is more than Design or closing a door, it’s a system for your entire office that connects patients, staff and instrument workflow in the most efficient, safe and ergonomic way.
Single entry alone won’t fix your workflow. The way your entire office is setup will.
