Common Sense in Contemporary Office Design

Abstract

Work simplification techniques are no longer being properly applied in dentistry. This is in part due to competition among manufacturers and partly to the stubborn individualism of dentists. A workshop or a dental clearing house for sound improvements is necessary. It is wise to keep in mind that manufacturers will listen. If properly applied, changes in dental office design and furnishings could be dramatic, but the dentist must be aware of his true objectives and of the best method by which they can be obtained. For example: Appropriate use of ancillary personnel does not mean designating to them a variety of inefficient methods; using multiple operatories does not mean getting more patients in chairs so that the dentist can work harder to produce more. Efficiency would call for the study of the practice as a whole as well as of the details. This would probably result in several chairs serviced from one central area with attached instruments available from a boom. The intraoral lighting would be automatically controlled, and the patient's chair would be designed to facilitate sit-down dentistry. The entire operatory would be designed to make the assistant efficient, thereby making the dentist efficient. If you wish to use a cuspidor, and you wish to practice “sit-down” dentistry, then you must have a fast, power back chair. In fact, this is probably the single best compromise between work simplification and patient convenience. The above design, however, assumes a cuspidor which moves vertically, at least, and a thin back to the chair. The true test of efficiency is whether a procedure lightens the task. Defining the task is the first, and perhaps most difficult, step in work simplification.