Solutions that will make your dental office a fun, easy, and productive place to work.
A major aspect of the working relationship between Design Ergonomics and Perfect Smiles is the opportunity to test new equipment designs in a working dental environment.
Have you ever been seated in a large restaurant with your back to the space and your face to the wall? It doesn’t feel great. That’s why restaurants commonly have four person tables set against the wall with patrons on either side so that no one person is forced to have their back to the main body of the space. On the other hand, further to the center of this dining room are circular tables with patrons facing in all directions, and these are not at all problematic. Clearly, placement in a room matters.
The reality is clear. We are very upset by staffing shortages. But over 90% of the dental workforce remains. They are not hostages … and neither are you. They have a choice of where to work. Your goal is to have them choose you. If you want the best team, become the best office with the highest customer satisfaction and the highest productivity.
“I knew that in order to compete with billion-dollar companies, I was going to have to be leaner, faster, and smarter in everything that we did,” Dr. David Ahearn, DDS says. “But I also felt that there was a bigger issue at hand, which was that if we were going to create jobs in our community, I wanted to do everything I could to make them be the best jobs possible.”
Our industry made up the name “Steri-Center” and sold a bunch of cabinet conglomerations by convincing people that they were borderline magical. Depending on your type of practice and goals, we’ll show you choices from super cheap and…
When Dr. Peter Kics started Westgate Dental Care in Arlington Heights, IL he was by himself in a 1,500 square foot space with four operatories. “At the time, I wanted to be able to do as much dentistry as I could for my patients, to…
One of my biggest worries for dental practices is dental assistant burnout. While many offices are facing a range of staffing issues, I think we’re only just beginning to feel the full depth of this particular employment threat. Much…
When Dr. Katie Post acquired Northwest Dental Group in Rochester, MN in 2008, the business was struggling. Overall profit and the number of patients were both declining every year. “When I joined the practice in 2003, I had one or two…
“I’ve known Dave since we were kids and we’ve been friends our entire lives,” Ed Carey, Head Engineer at Design Ergonomics says of his friend Dr. David Ahearn, founder, and CEO of the company. “When we were growing up, we used to hang…
I’m sure that most of us have seen the selective attention video of counting basketball passes and the gorilla. If you haven’t, why don’t you try it on your team at the dental office. Our brains constantly shorthand data. So what does…
In mid-May 2022, Sala Family Dentistry in Reno, NV had its biggest week in more than three decades in business. Then, the 2022 Best of Reno Awards were announced at a ceremony at the Reno Sparks Convention Center. With more than…
So, the first, and perhaps obvious answer to this question is that the dollar amount that your new dental office will cost is likely more than you want to hear! And worse than that, more expensive tomorrow than it was yesterday! But…
As dentists, we’re visual. We have a picture in our minds of what we want our dental office to look like. Or a dream of what we hope that someday it could be. But working on the dream part is actually not the way to start the process…
Chrissy Cambra, Research & Development Manager at Design Ergonomics, has enjoyed an eclectic career, which makes her an ideal person to wrangle the people, products, systems, and client needs to coordinate the development of the…
I began my study of dental office design over 25 years ago when I realized one fundamental thing … that most dentists think that they are the machine that makes a dental office go. Call me a slow learner, but I realized that after 10…
A major theme we’re hearing again and again is how many dental practices are at capacity with ops fully booked every single day. While being super busy is seemingly a good thing for a dental practice, for most being at capacity means…
The Team Training Institute’s Champions of Dentistry Summit The Design Ergonomics team attended The Team Training Institute’s 17th annual Champions of Dentistry Summit on April 29-30 in San Diego, CA. We joined hundreds of dentists…
Can we all agree that systems are critical to the success of any business? Systems represent the core of any organization. They’re in place to keep your machine running. There are three core systems to any dental practice: Schedule…
Prior to coming to work at Design Ergonomics, Mike Grace, who is currently Factory Manager at the company, worked in a restaurant kitchen and when not working, he enjoyed playing his bass guitar. What might seem an unusual background…
Spoiler alert: Step One is not a dental office Floor Plan. For your dental office to attract customers at a tremendous rate, it needs the look and feel of a spa, but at the same time it has to function as a highly-efficient, dentistry…
Dr. David Ahearn with David Meerman Scott and the No Fun Guitar… This is Dr. David Ahearn of Design Ergonomics. I just wanted to make a quick introduction to my friend, David Meerman Scott (or DMS, as we affectionately refer to him…
What procedures do you perform 90% of the time? Although you’ve probably never really thought about this question, it shouldn’t take you long to answer. The fact is, there are probably a small number of procedures that you do 90% of…
Hiring, hiring, and hiring. How can you possibly think about dental practice growth when you don’t have enough employees? While patients are returning to dental practices at the highest rate since the start of Covid-19, much of your…
As procedures and capabilities in practice have become more complex, practitioners have found a greater need for much better organization clinically. Those that manage to control complexity best have a much easier time integrating new…
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