Comparison of Dental Delivery System Layouts
Determining your delivery system layout is one of the first steps to improving the overall health and performance of your clinical practice. A general practitioner may only use handpieces 10% of the time, but handpiece placement shapes the remaining room layout.
Too often practitioners focus on handpiece placement and compromise more significant aspects of overall practice success.
Choose a layout below to view the pros and cons of four distinct handpiece placement choices, and consider how careful productivity planning might change the way you look at dental delivery.
Over the Patient Delivery
PROS:
- Smaller room size
- Inexpensive to equip
- Space available for specialty equip
- Handpieces at fingertips from the 12 o'clock position
CONS:
- Disinfection/Cleaning of treatment space is labor intensive
- Dr. and assistant must work with >180° range of motion
- Assistant trapped in room during procedure
- Dental equipment intrusive to patients visual/personal space
- Room must be heavily stocked
- R/L convertibility fair to poor depending on unit selected
- Dr. or assistant cannot reach all supplies
- Inefficient from the 7 o'clock position
Side Delivery
PROS:
- Smaller room size
- Patients less threatened by handpieces than with O.T.P delivery
CONS:
- Disinfection/Cleaning of treatment space is labor intensive
- Dr. and assistant must work with >180° range of motion
- Assistant trapped in room
- Room must be heavily stocked
- R/L convertibility poor
- Dr. or assistant cannot reach all supplies
- Specialty equipment cannot be mobily deployed
Rear Delivery
PROS:
- Assistant free to circulate
- Space available for specialty equipment
- Patients NOT threatened by the sight of handpieces
- Good for dentistry from 7 o'clock position, O.K. from 11 o'clock position
- Good R/L convertibility is possible
CONS:
- Disinfection/Cleaning of treatment space is labor intensive
- Dr. and assistant must work with >180° range of motion
- Room must be heavily stocked
- Dr. or assistant cannot reach all supplies
Over the Head Delivery
PROS:
- Smaller room size
- Inexpensive to equip
- Space available for specialty equip
- Handpieces at fingertips from the 12 o'clock position
- Assistant free to circulate
- Great for dentistry from 7 o'clock and 12 o'clock positions
- Doctor and assistant's range of motion <90°
- Patients NOT threatened by the sight of hand-pieces
- Right/Left convertibility is excellent
CONS:
- Handpieces at doctor's non-dominant hand
- Height may conflict with existing x-ray heads
The sooner you start the process, the faster your dream becomes a reality.
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