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As a dental assistant and current team member of the sales and marketing department at Zirc Dental Products Inc, I spend a fair amount of time reviewing dental related ads and articles. In fact, I recently read an article reviewing new must-have products for group practices. I couldn’t help but notice that the trend in many of the new products featured were focused on either patient perception, efficiency, time and money savings, safety, or compliance. Zirc not only designs and manufactures products that fall in to every one of those categories, but we have an entire kit wrapped up in one box that will help make dental practices more efficient, save time and money, prevent injuries, and stay compliant with regulations, all while offering a stress free and positive experience for patients and team members alike! Does this system sounds too good to be true? What if I told you that this system could help one practitioner produce on average an additional $72,000 per year! It’s true, read on and I will explain. But first, we have to understand what is going on in a typical group practice.
Let’s face it, dental offices can be quite hectic and stressful. The day is run by busy schedules and watching the clock. Even the best planned day can go sideways quickly by added emergencies, late patients, or a procedure taking longer than anticipated. Dental teams are juggling crazy schedules, keeping up with room turnovers, sterilization, lab work, charting, and trying to give the patient the time and attention they deserve, all while attempting to stay on schedule. Typically, the fall-out from all of this chaos results in materials and instruments being stored in too many places, excessive and expired inventory, time consuming room turnover and instrument reprocessing, and way too much clutter. Imagine training a new team member in this kind of atmosphere. Even the most experienced dental assistant finds that the greatest difficulty in starting at a new clinic is learning what the dentist needs for each procedure and where to find it.
Do you ever monitor how many times a day someone has to leave the treatment room during a procedure to find a missing material or instrument? Not only is it a time killer, but it looks unprofessional to the patient, it makes the dental practitioner flustered and puts them behind schedule. Dr Cappy Sinclair, who practices in Virginia Beach, VA says, “One of my biggest pet peeves as a dentist was getting up mid-procedure to look for something that should have been there.”
What about expired materials? I have to be honest, every time the Dr. I worked for went on vacation, I would go through all of the drawers and cabinets to re-organize. As much as I hate to admit it, I bet during my many years in clinical practice, I threw out thousands of dollars in expired and unused materials.
So, what is the solution? The short answer is, The Color Method ™! Let me explain. Zirc is an innovative company manufacturing products that help dental teams become happier and more efficient. We have done extensive research in the area of managing dental materials and instrumentation and created a simple “Color Method” to increase productivity while decreasing stress. By identifying each procedure by its own color, and incorporating Zirc’s color-code instrument cassettes, trays and procedure tubs, etc., your group practices will be able to easily identify all of the instrumentation and materials needed for each procedure. On average, the time savings is about 5-8 minutes for each procedure when you consider the time it takes for room turn-over and Instrument reprocessing. That’s nearly an hour each day! Plus, the chance of missing materials and instruments at chairside will be eliminated.
Remember the kit I mentioned earlier that is wrapped up in one box that will help dental practitioners streamline their practice to create the ultimate work environment and earn an additional $72,000 per year? That kit is called ZOBE, Zirc’s Organizational Box of Efficiency. ZOBE is a complimentary resource that provides all of the tools needed to implement The Color Method™. It contains a step by step guide and over 30 color-code, organizational products for a hands-on experience to help the practitioner determine which products will work best for each of their procedures. Your group practice will also have access to their own personal, consultant that will answer questions, provide product suggestions, and offer advice on setting up the treatment rooms, sterilization and storage areas.
Look what Dr. Marianne Lesh had to say when she discovered ZOBE. “I have never worked at a clinic that had a good method for organizing and sterilizing dental instruments. I feel like I have found the Holy Grail when I found ZOBE! I have been researching the internet for almost a year trying to put together a system that made sense. This system seems to have it all, and the prices are all reasonable!”
Before the practice receives ZOBE they will have a quick conversation with one of the Color Method consultants (with over 40 years of combined experience in the dental field) at Zirc to review the Color Method™ and learn how the color- code products can be utilized. When group practices receive ZOBE, they are encouraged to have a hands-on experience with the products. They can check out the variety of sizes of cassettes and bur holders to see first-hand how they will fit in the autoclave or instrument washer. Using the procedure tubs with the multitude of tub organizers, they will be able to see exactly what is needed to best organize the dental materials for each of their procedures. This really takes the guess work out of making product selections. What a great way to shop! Zirc will provide a pre-paid return shipping label so at that at the end of the two-week trial period, the products are simply packed back into the same box, apply the label, and send it with the UPS driver to return to Zirc.
Now, how is this going to improve patient perception, efficiency, time and money savings, safety, compliance and earn an additional $72,000 per year? By utilizing cassettes, the time consuming task of sorting a pile of dirty instruments into each procedure is eliminated. Having the cassettes stored on the same color covered tray keeps instrument set-ups together and easily identified, avoiding missing or incorrect instruments. The tray with locking cover also safely carries dirty instruments back into the sterilization area to keep dental professionals compliant with OSHA and the CDC. The matching colored procedure tub becomes a portable drawer to house all of the procedure specific materials. This makes it fast and easy to re-stock, keeps the materials organized, and everything easily accessible. Rather than having to stock two or three treatment rooms with all the same materials, you now only need to stock one tub (per practitioner) for each procedure. Imagine how nice the matching, colorful, organized instrument and material set-ups look at chair-side for the patient. By utilizing the cassettes, trays, and tubs, the time spent in room turnover, set-up, and sterilization processes will be reduced. 
There are so many benefits for implementing The Color Method into Group Practices. Obviously the time and money savings, but also consider training new team members or temporary help. If you had all of your offices in your Group Practice set up identically, it would add a whole new dimension to training, team flexibility, and inventory control. You can even match your procedure colors with your schedule, if your dental software allows. You need to set-up for a restorative procedure? Simply go to the central sterilization area, get the blue tray and blue tub, for example, and bring it to the treatment room. Everything you need is ready to go! All of this can start with that one little kit that we call ZOBE.
Written by Kay Hickey, LDA
Product Specialist, Zirc Dental Products
www.zirc.com
email:kay@zirc.com
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