The Age of the Dental Therapist

7 responses to “The Age of the Dental Therapist”

1. 
   Amit Koshal 16 May 2009 at 8:04 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Dear Chris,
   Hope you’re well. Loving your work at the mo, your blogs made me realise i’m not the only one up at 5.30 and driving around the country on caffeine!!
   I read your article on the age od the dental therapist with much interest. I’ve been lucky enough to have employed a great therapist to undertake a lot of my routine work allowing me to concentrate on treatments to mo my skill set. Its been great. Recently, i’ve moved my strategy to other things and I do not want to lose the therapist or have her sitting around, i’ve let the associates send her work. Problem I’m having (which i hoped you could help with) is how do we remunerate the associate for work carried out. The current set up was that the associates get 100% of the UDA gross but pay 100% of the therapists costs e.g if it takes the therapist 1 hour to do 6 UDAs the associates pay £34/hour but get 6 UDAs gross. ( that wil be for 3 band 2 patients, the 3 UDAs for checks are paid at 50%).
   Problem is as they use the therapist more than more, my profitability goes down a lot!! What would you suggest?

   Appreciate your help on this….and thanks for the great forum!!

   Amit

   1. 
      Chris 19 May 2009 at 7:04 am | Permalink | Reply

      Morning Amit
      Forgive me – but I don’t see why the therapist should not be treated in the same way as a lab bill?
      cb

2. 
   Amit Koshal 24 May 2009 at 11:03 am | Permalink | Reply

   Hi Chris,

   I agree. If I extrapolated the amount of time associates would utilise her as a proportion (currently its me the most), then it’d affect the bottom line tremendously. The current system was used initially when 1 associate used the therapist an hour a week, and on recommendation by some colleagues and practice valuers suggesting that this is the only way. Do you have any alternative suggestions?

   Thanks
   Amit

   1. 
      Chris 25 May 2009 at 7:17 am | Permalink | Reply

      The system that appears to be most effective is “hygiene/therapy led assessment”. The patient attends for a 30-minute maintenance visit every 3 or 6 months (depending on perio condition) and the hygienist/therapist conducts the “meeting” in their surgery, with dentist appearing for a 10-minute case presentation and discussion.

      Any dental treatment is then discussed, agreed and booked in separately.

      That’s a simplification but I’ve seen it work fantastically well.

3. 
   Amit Koshal 2 June 2009 at 7:41 am | Permalink | Reply

   Hi Chris,

   In terms of remuneration what would you suggest? personally, I dont think associates should get anything as their time is being freed up to get on with more complex work. However, associates have been getting some bad advice from the BDA (I know as I tried to get some!!)

   Thanks
   Amit

   1. 
      Chris 2 June 2009 at 3:24 pm | Permalink | Reply

      Amit

      The therapist should be paid as an associate would be – a hygienist should be charged out the same as a lab fee – assumption there is a therapist who is doing basic maintenance.

4. 
   A.Patel 10 June 2010 at 11:30 am | Permalink | Reply

   Hi, I have read this blog with great intrest.
   I am currently due to begin to study dental hygiene/therapy
   I was wondering if i could get some help/feed back from you (amit & chris)
   I have been accepted to study Dip in dental hygiene and therapy at Bart SMD (queen mary) and Dip in Dental hygiene (only) at the reputable Eastmans dental institute. I need to make a decision which I am finding considerably hard to make.
   Until yesterday, I ‘made my mind up’ to accept the offer from eastmans as its an excellent school for training and qualification gained from them is awarded by the royal college of suregeons as compared to the qualification gained from barts is awarded by the university of east london.
   n Also, I am aware that therapy is important as it being a new upcoming area within dentistry. However, I am not sure of how much therapy work i will be doing, and if many dentists want there work to be ‘taken over’ by therapists.
   It will be great if you guys could give me some feed back!
   thank you.
   A.Patel

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